After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Tang Li's eyes were covered by the boy's hand, intentionally to prevent her from seeing the route they were taking.

The next moment, Tang Li's heart pounded violently. She felt as if she were flying, and her ears were filled with the whistling sound of the wind.

The boy was carrying her as they ran.

Tang Li could imagine the street scene rushing past her. The soft sound of boots hitting the tiles continued, and after a few leaps, she landed lightly. Tang Li could then imagine the boy rising and falling between the eaves like a swallow.

The boy's surname was Han, and Tang Li heard someone call him "Instructor Han".

At only ten years old, he seemed to have already become an "official" in this assassin sect, and he was indeed very skilled.

They heard footsteps, some light and some heavy, behind them. Tang Li guessed that the flower girl and the porter were catching up. But no one could catch up with the boy, and no one dared to make him stop and wait. Tang Li thought that perhaps this boy was the leader of this group of assassins.

"What's your name?" the boy suddenly asked.

Despite traveling for so long, his voice remained steady, and his breathing was perfectly normal.

"Tang Li," Tang Li blurted out, not bothering to hide her real name.

Taking advantage of her young age, which made her less likely to offend anyone, she confidently retorted to the boy, "And you?"

"My surname is Han, Han Zhou." Tang Li's attitude amused the boy, so he answered frankly, "Do you know King Zhou? You mean that 'Zhou'?"

What a whimsical name. Tang Li thought to herself, it makes one feel that the person is unpredictable and moody.

"Have you ever seen a dead person, little Tang Li?" Han Zhou still smiled as he whispered in her ear, "Listen carefully, we at 'Jie Bailing' have a rule—"

The boy's voice carried a melodious tone, like reciting poetry or a short incantation: "The newcomer enters, and the first thing he sees is the dead."

The newcomer enters the house and sees a dead body first.

Tang Li felt a pang of anxiety, but wasn't too surprised.

Having been through the bizarre dungeon before, she was already mentally prepared.

The little girl said in a clear voice, "Of course I've seen it."

"I've seen the old man next door, with his white hair, who insisted on working in the fields and died from exhaustion; I've seen the aunt who gave birth to seven children in six years and died in bed while heavily pregnant; I've seen the girl by the roadside who died of either freezing or starvation."

The ethereal voices of four- or five-year-old children are devoid of sorrow or joy, so those with kind hearts hear pity, while those with malicious hearts hear indifference.

Han Zhou chuckled, but Tang Li couldn't quite grasp the meaning behind his laughter. Then, someone with sharp ears couldn't help but chime in, "That little brat's never seen the world! What's the difference? They weren't killed."

Tang Li fell silent, shrinking further into Han Zhou's arms as if in fear.

Only Han Zhou heard her whisper, "What's the difference? We both died tragically."

A greedy official who plundered the people's wealth killed him, and a cruel and ungrateful husband who would do anything for the sake of "official rites" killed her.

What's the difference? Those with clean hands commit the same sins as you.

King Zhou of Han let out several unrestrained laughs.

This little girl is so interesting. You might say she's naive, but she sees things much more clearly than those bunch of good-for-nothings behind her. Yet, if you say she's precocious, she also exudes a kind of indignant naiveté.

"I will personally take her in," Han Zhou ordered matter-of-factly, "and you are not to interfere."

No one wanted to interfere. Only the man who had just spoken realized that Han Zhou had mocked him, and muttered resentfully, "Let's wait until she's inside before we talk."

Enter the door.

Han Zhou finally put down Tang Li, tossing her aside carelessly, not caring whether the four or five-year-old girl could stagger and stand still.

Tang Li's vision was restored at the same time.

But it is the sense of smell that brings an ominous sign even before sight.

A month later, Tang Li smelled the familiar stench of blood, so strong that it almost filled the air with a red mist.

Before her stood a tall and heavy courtyard gate. Han Zhou gently pushed it open, and the left half of the gate swung open, revealing the scene inside the courtyard to Tang Li.

It wasn't a mountain of corpses or a sea of ​​blood; seven or eight bodies were piled together, exposed to the sun in broad daylight.

In terms of the sheer horror and eeriness of the scene, it pales in comparison to the giant, mangled insects I saw inside the cricket fighting basin.

But this only made Tang Li feel even more chilled.

—Because it's true.

The giant, dismembered worm from before was something far removed from reality; it was like a nightmare from which you could never wake. But what you see before you now, you know, needs no trace of the bizarre or supernatural.

A few ruthless ordinary people can make all of this happen.

Han Zhou then noticed a hint of fear in the strange girl's eyes. With interest, he pushed her forward: "Come on, see the fresh, warm corpse. This is all thanks to your senior brother Cai."

"Listen carefully," Han Zhou announced the test question cheerfully in Tang Li's ear, "After killing someone, the forgetful Xiao Cai discovered that he had accidentally lost his token."

"Where's the token?" the boy asked with a smile. "The person was incredibly mad before they died."

"Xiao Cai's token was pulled off. It's possible it's in their hands, hidden in their sleeve, or even... bitten in their mouth?"

"Your task is to find the token."

Tang Li thought.

They wanted me to search through the bodies one by one.

One by one, they wanted me to turn over the sleeves of the dead and reach into their clothes to feel around; they wanted me to pry open the hands of the dead who were clenched in pain and fear; they wanted me to put my fingers into the mouths of the dead who were clenched in their teeth.

Tang Li thought, amidst the bone-chilling cold, she almost felt a sense of irony. It was truly absurd; every time she gradually let her guard down, the bizarre instance would stab her in the back, teaching her to see reality clearly.

So he put away that light-hearted, beating heart.

The spoiled nature she had developed over the past month back in her original world faded away like a thin mist, and Tang Li returned to being the fearless and eccentric dungeon streamer she always was.

She didn't refuse at all, and her face showed almost no panic. Under everyone's gaze, the four or five-year-old girl slowly took steps and walked towards the corpse in the courtyard.

Suppressing the unease and horrification surging in her heart, Tang Li examined each of the corpses, trying to discern some clues.