According to what her mother said, only when the white stone turns black will it be completely safe.

The girl’s desire to go outside immediately stalled.

“Grace, it’s daylight outside now, it’s fine, you can come out.”

That voice sounded again.

“Don’t worry, with the light out there, those things won’t dare come in. Mommy’s here, you can come out.”

The little girl calculated the time. Usually, by this time, her mother should be back.

Every time she hid in this small space, after a nap, she would come out and see her mother.

This time, it should be the same.

As for the white stone embedded in the wall, it was probably just that too much time had passed, and during the day, the white stone was still white.

The little girl thought for a moment. She looked up again, peering out through the mud ventilation hole.

She found that there really was a faint white light outside.

It really was daylight.

Now, she finally felt at ease.

“Coming!”

She answered.

“Mom, I’m coming.”

She started to move, her small hands reaching up to push at the mud board above her head.

Very soon, she pushed the board open, and with difficulty poked her head out of the small space, returning to under the bed.

Then she looked outside.

“!!??”

Outside.

It was still pitch black.

Wasn’t it supposed to be daylight?

The little girl’s scalp tingled instantly.

She knew something was wrong, gritted her teeth, and quickly crouched down, trying to shrink back into the small space.

Plop.

Plop.

Suddenly, a pair of pale feet in her mother’s cloth shoes walked up to the edge of the bed and stopped.

“Grace... my good daughter, where are you?” The gentle and familiar voice sounded again.

The little girl didn’t dare make a sound, tightly covering her mouth, tears streaming down her cheeks.

But she didn’t dare move. At such a close distance, any movement would make a slight sound in the silence and she would be discovered.

Suddenly, she remembered—her mother would never not know about the small space under the bed.

So her mother couldn’t possibly be asking where she was.

Only now did she realize she might have been tricked...

Plop.

Plop.

Very soon, without getting a response—or maybe because the girl’s reply in the small space was too quiet to be heard—the feet slowly left the bedside, calmly walking away to somewhere else.

The person walked very slowly, making little noise, and soon, with a faint sound of a door closing, disappeared.

Everything returned to silence.

The little girl kept holding back, holding back.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. Only after she heard nothing for a long while did she slowly exhale, relax, and shrink back down.

The long tension made her body go limp, a faint buzzing in her ears, and her eyes blurred.

Now she couldn’t hold on any longer, leaning against the inner wall of the small space, gasping for breath.

Finding the danger gone, the little girl waited a while longer, making sure there really wasn’t a sound, before she finally crawled out of the small space with difficulty, inching her way out from under the bed.

Thud.

Suddenly.

Her shoulder bumped into something.

The little girl froze, a sense of dread welling up inside her.

Slowly, she raised her head, looking up to the right.

A long-haired woman in a tattered white dress was sitting quietly on her wooden bed, her left leg hanging down, resting on the girl’s right shoulder.

The woman’s long hair covered her face, her head lowered, staring at the girl. Through a sliver of moonlight, the girl could see her pale lips, marked with signs of decay.

Whoosh!!

The woman’s decayed face suddenly rushed close, magnified.

*

*

*

“This time she didn’t die.”

In the darkness, a blurry voice sounded.

It seemed to be a woman.

“She’s still alive, hmm, just injured, her body is very weak. I’m telling you, you’re always bringing people back from the woods, and we barely have enough to eat here. Now you have to feed a sick person too,” the woman said.

“It’s... it’s... okay, Mom... Mom... told me...” At this moment, another young female voice, stuttering badly, sounded.

“Don’t talk about your mother. Just listening to you is exhausting. Alright, I’ve stitched up the wound for you. Be careful not to get it wet, don’t let it get infected. I’m leaving now.” The woman seemed to be packing up her things.

“Th-th-thank you...” The stuttering girl let out a silly, gasping laugh.

“No need to thank me. If it really doesn’t work out, remember to drag him outside and leave him at the door. He probably won’t last the night.” The woman said helplessly.

“Thank... only you... help...” the stuttering girl said gratefully.

“That’s just how the world is now. Everyone’s struggling to survive. No one has the energy to care for others. Only you—anyone else would have thrown him back into the wild long ago.” The woman said.

Henry Clark slowly gathered his strength, trying hard to open his eyes in the darkness.

He saw a short, dirty girl with messy black hair talking to a middle-aged, yellow-skinned woman.

The yellow-skinned woman wore glasses and a grayish-white long-sleeved robe, stained with all kinds of marks and filth.