Chapter Forty-One: Li Douniu

Zhao Family Tower Village had only a little over a hundred residents, yet compared with its sparse population, the village was disproportionately large, with a similarly disproportionate number of roads.

Although it had only one main road running from north to south, there were countless turning alleys and branching lanes on either side. The layout was intricate yet orderly, and the buildings—especially the roads—had all been constructed with remarkable care and precision.

Those bluestone paths left a deep impression on me. Walking along them always gave me the sense of an arrangement that was both varied and harmonious, delicate yet neat. The stone surfaces were smooth and clean. Though they had been used for many years, their edges and sharpness had been completely worn away, yet they remained sturdy and durable—a testament to the care taken by the craftsmen who had laid them.

As I walked along the broad, comfortable flagstone road, a question arose in my mind, and I asked Li Douniu beside me, “The village is so big. Why are there only a hundred or so people living here?”

Li Douniu had probably been frightened witless. It was only after I asked him twice that he came back to himself and answered simply, “There used to be lots of people from the Zhao family. Now… they’re all gone.”

I nodded, quickly filling in the meaning behind his words.

After large numbers of Zhao family descendants had left Zhao Family Tower, what remained was this enormous “empty shell.” Their departure had caused the village to decline rapidly. Its former glory was gone, and so was its cultural foundation.

Today, it had lost the “intellectual lineage” that had once sustained it, existing in a state that was practically dying.

In short, this was a fallen corner of the world, saturated everywhere with the sorrow of the Zhao family’s ruin.

All of this inevitably made one wonder what chain of disasters had befallen the Zhao family in those years, forcing them to abandon this ancestral land, protected by their forebears for hundreds of years, and flee in all directions…

Carrying these thoughts with me, I followed Li Douniu’s directions and soon arrived at his front door.

“It’s here…” the cowardly Li Douniu pointed at the door panel, his voice trembling.

I raised my head and stared at the door of his house, utterly unable to believe what I was seeing.

The door was spattered with blood that had sprayed from Li Douniu’s forehead. Moss grew across the brown wooden panels, which were battered and dilapidated. The door stood half ajar, and the darkness inside concealed everything beyond it.

I fixed my attention on the scattered bloodstains and muttered inwardly.

I had experienced the strength of our former squad leader’s reanimated corpse myself. That kind of violence truly inspired dread.

With no other choice, I crouched down and peered through the crack in the door, hoping to assess the situation inside.

Through the gap, I could make out three low earthen houses in the moonlight.

The houses were crude and badly ruined. The windows were pitch-black as well, and there was no way to tell what might be inside.

Confronted with the unknown, unease rose involuntarily within me once more.

In truth, I knew perfectly well that rather than recklessly venturing in alone, I could simply wait here or find some way to contact Xian Hongye and the others. Once there were more of us, it would not be too late to act.

But if I did that… I would not be able to bear it psychologically.

After all, according to Li Douniu, there were still two living people inside that room.

I was no saint, but I genuinely despised Li Douniu’s cowardice. I had even less regard for his selfishness.

That bastard had abandoned his own wife and child just to save his own skin. Could someone like that even be called a man? What a beast! And how had such a creature ever deserved to have a wife and child?

Whenever I thought of it, anger and sorrow welled up from the depths of my heart. I felt indignant on behalf of his wife and child.

So I wanted to rescue those two unfortunate women who had been abandoned—whether they were alive or dead.

With that, I raised the folding chair I carried for protection and called to Li Douniu behind me, “We’re going in together!”

That bastard Li Douniu rolled his eyes once, then actually dared to answer, “I don’t dare… I’ll wait outside for you, all right?”

His words infuriated me.

In anger, I struck him hard on the head several times and snarled, “Your son is in there! Think carefully! Do you even count as a human being?”

My words made Li Douniu tremble all over. Though my words had stirred something on his blood-covered face, fear was clearly still greater than his concern for his son.

Good grief! Looking at his despicable appearance, I once again complained inwardly about the unfairness of heaven. A bastard like him could have a son, while an honest man like me could not even find a partner?

What kind of world was this?

As I lamented helplessly, as though to echo my sorrow, a baby’s wail suddenly rang out from the pitch-black house of the Li family.

“Waaah…”

The baby’s crying was fierce and abnormal. Its hoarse, piercing sound made both Li Douniu and me shudder from head to toe, our necks stiffening as we stared ahead.

At that moment, Li Douniu seemed finally to remember his responsibility as a father.

His eyes vacant, he murmured, “My son,” then seized my hand and pleaded, “Please save my son!”

I considered him expressionlessly for a moment, then handed him the folding chair I had been using for protection.

“Your son. You deal with him yourself, then. Coward.”

My words were meant to mock him, but they were also meant to encourage him. I hoped they would have the latter effect.

At my words, another flicker of fear passed through Li Douniu’s eyes. But the sound of his son crying clearly tore at his heart.

So he still tremblingly accepted the chair I held out to him.

“Could you go in with me…?” Li Douniu asked anxiously.

“Don’t worry.” I patted him on the shoulder. “I have a conscience, unlike you!”

Faced with my ridicule, Li Douniu gave an awkward laugh, then turned and pushed open the gate to his home.

We entered one after the other.

The Li family courtyard was overgrown with weeds and steeped in poverty, displaying all the classic signs of a household fallen into ruin.

Well, given his character, it was hardly surprising that he had ended up living like this.

Yet in sharp contrast to its general dilapidation, the courtyard itself was extremely spacious. The houses were aligned precisely along the north-south axis, while the foundations and brick walls had been laid with exceptional order and care, giving the place the air of a grand ancestral compound.

As I looked at everything in the courtyard, I suddenly realized that it had clearly been left behind by the Zhao family. Though it had fallen into complete disrepair, it still preserved traces of its former splendor, recounting the glory of its past masters.

Amid that interweaving of honor and ruin, I advanced with uneasy steps. Before long, I crossed the courtyard and reached the middle one of the three earthen houses built on stone foundations.

Li Douniu’s son was still crying. The sobs came and went, faint yet unmistakably clear. The sound was coming from the central room of the three houses.

The thought of facing my former squad leader’s reanimated corpse once again made me tense.

At that moment, Li Douniu and I stood one after the other, but neither of us immediately went inside. I knew that my former squad leader’s corpse possessed immense strength at present, and subduing it would be extremely difficult.

With no alternative, I summoned my courage and once again peered through the door of the Li family home, hoping to get a clearer idea of the situation first.

After I had watched for a while, Li Douniu asked softly, “Do you see my son?”

I nodded. Sweat broke out across my forehead as I answered, “Your son… why is he in the cooking pot?”