Pale

Xi Cui carried him back to the thatched hut, then returned to the large locust tree.
Everyone had taken up torches and finished organizing.
Early that morning, someone had been sent into the city to gather information, saying that a Zhejiang merchant would be passing through.
The scout reported that the Zhejiang merchant had hired some ruffians for escort along the way and was heading in their direction, estimated to arrive in about two *ke* (an ancient unit of time, roughly 30 minutes).
Xi Cui had always been a law-abiding citizen, never participating in this group of robbers. As she followed them out, she felt a little anxious and uneasy.
Taking advantage of the cover of night, they ambushed on both sides of the mountain path.
In the evening, there were many mosquitoes in the bushes. Her body now carried a heavy scent of sour sweat, which particularly attracted mosquitoes. Just swatting mosquitoes took up a good deal of her attention. When she heard a shout ring out in her ear, Lu Jin Chuan had already taken the lead and leaped out.
Xi Cui endured the itch, tiptoeing behind.
The battle ended very quickly, almost in the blink of an eye. The merchant trembled and knelt, his face pale with fear.
“Is that all?” Lu Shen still had a hint of a smile on his face. But under the torchlight, the smile on his face resembled a fierce tiger baring its fangs.
The middle-aged merchant trembled like chaff, his teeth chattering: “Only… only that.”
Lu Shen didn't waste words with him, gently patted the monkey on his shoulder: “Go.”
The monkey heard the command and leaped out, jumping onto the merchant, scratching and sniffing wildly. In just a moment, it pulled out banknotes hidden in his socks.
“Do you know what I hate most?” The monkey jumped back onto his shoulder. Lu Shen paused, then smiled: “I hate it most when others lie to me.”
This time, the harvest of food was relatively abundant. As for the Zhejiang merchant and his ruffians, Lu Shen ordered them all killed, telling his men to carry and throw them into the mountain valley. Soon, tigers and wolves would clean them up, ensuring no one could recognize them.
Xi Cui was assigned to carry a corpse with Lu Jin Chuan.
The corpse she carried was a middle-aged man, very strong and bearded.
When he was alive, he was a majestic strongman; now that he was dead, he could only be tossed into the mountains for wild beasts to eat.
His head was half severed, his expression still frozen in his last moment, eyes wide and vacant as if staring at her.
Something reddish-white flowed from his face directly onto her hand, wet and slippery, making Xi Cui nauseous.
Lu Jin Chuan was still cursing over there, wondering who had chopped this guy, his head half-severed and disgusting.
After she and Lu Jin Chuan calmly disposed of the corpse, she returned and scrubbed her hands with water for over half a day, but bringing them to her nose, she could still smell a faint metallic odor.
In the hot summer days, Xi Cui tossed and turned in bed for a long time, unable to sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes, she felt as if she could see that face, eyes wide open in death.
She had watched many zombie movies, but watching them on a screen was always different from what she saw with her own eyes.
Unable to sleep, Xi Cui simply rolled out of bed, picked up the short, pinky-finger-sized candle by the bed, and carefully made her way out of the room, stopping before the thatched hut.
By the faint candlelight, Xi Cui saw Wei Dan Sheng through the window. He had his back to her, curled up as if sleeping, yet not quite.
Seeing Wei Dan Sheng, Xi Cui regained her composure.
Wei Dan Sheng’s existence reminded her that this was, after all, a world in a book. Biao Er Mountain and the bandits, no matter how brutal, were all predetermined by the author.
She felt her act of squatting by the window was a bit perverted.
A dark-faced strongman secretly peeking at a sleeping boy in the middle of the night.
Xi Cui comforted herself, she was, after all, cultivating feelings with Wei Dan Sheng.
Their return seemed to have woken him. Although the bandits were all asleep now, the boy still couldn't fall back asleep.
He sat up, seemed to sense something, then turned his head, facing a face outside the window.
Horror stories were just like this.
Xi Cui clearly saw that the moment their eyes met, the boy’s face turned pale.