Chapter 213: A Midnight Knock at the Door

I asked him, “Why did you even bring a bowl along?”

He Yu snorted, clearly dissatisfied with my line of questioning. “I asked the guesthouse for it yesterday. Can’t you try to eat with a little more class? When you’re out in the field, how can you work if you don’t eat well? It seems I’m the only one worrying about our basic needs. You? You’re unreliable.”

Muttering to himself, he poured a packet of soup base from a vacuum-sealed bag into the bowl and added some snow water he had collected on the mountain earlier. Once it was steaming over the fire, he told us to hold out our disposable bowls and ladled it out for us one by one.

Being able to drink hot soup in this weather was incredibly comforting. I was moved nearly to tears. After the soup, He Yu opened a tin of meat and grilled it for us. I ate until I was literally burping.

Old Qian held his grease-slicked bowl and gave He Yu a thumbs-up. “Young Master He, I truly admire your culinary skills. Some other day, come over to my place and we’ll have a drink. I’ll be your kitchen hand.”

With everyone full and satisfied, we left He Yu to watch the first half of the night. The three of us crawled into our sleeping bags, listening to the agonizing howl of the cold wind outside. Qian Deli had a great deal of trust in us; he fell fast asleep the moment his head hit the ground. I’ve always been a bit of a light sleeper in strange beds, so I lay there staring at the ceiling, exhausted but unable to drift off.

The gale roared outside, and the snow hissed against the wooden walls. In such an unfamiliar environment, sleep was elusive. He Yu sat with his back to us by the fire, smoking one cigarette after another to stay alert. Seeing him there gave me a certain sense of security.

I pulled my blanket tighter and rolled over, preparing to close my eyes. But the moment I did, the image of that herd of deer kept flickering through my mind.

I suddenly recalled something from my primary school nature classes. Generally speaking, skittish animals like deer don’t actively provoke humans. Yet what we had just seen was a herd standing there in formation, their eyes fixed intently on us. That wasn’t how normal deer behaved. Where had they come from? And why were they standing there watching us?

The more I thought about it, the stranger and more frightening it became. My mind was a mess, and the wind outside continued its lonely whistling, sounding exactly like the background noise from a horror story I’d seen as a kid.

Just as I was considering getting up to take over the shift for He Yu, Lu Ayao spoke up. His voice was very soft, blending with the rustle of the wind outside. “Go to sleep. Stop thinking about it.”

His words made me feel like I’d been caught red-handed. I wondered if the man had eyes in the back of his head. I pulled the sleeping bag away from my eyes and saw Lu Ayao with his back turned to me. A bit piqued, I covered my face again, rolled over, and finally drifted off.

Eventually, I must have forgotten whatever nonsense I was worrying about and fell asleep. Near midnight, I vaguely heard some movement nearby, likely He Yu and Lu Ayao switching shifts. I caught a snippet of it but didn’t pay attention; I was too tired and went right back to sleep.

I don’t know how much time passed, but I felt someone gently shaking my sleeping bag. Annoyed that my dreams were being interrupted, I instinctively pushed the hand away and huddled deeper into the bag. But the person reached out and shook me again, waking me up instantly.

I opened my eyes to total darkness.

Why is the fire out? I wondered, feeling a surge of confusion.

I rubbed my eyes, my vision still blurry, and saw Lu Ayao crouching beside me, shaking me awake. For a moment, I couldn’t grasp the situation. I looked around; He Yu was still snoring beside me, and Old Qian was curled up like a mouse, fast asleep.

“What’s wrong?” I sat up and pulled on the down jacket Lu Ayao handed me.

Lu Ayao made a gesture for silence and pointed toward the door. He looked extremely alert, already clutching his whip and Kukri in his hands. I was very familiar with this state of his, and it jolted me halfway to full wakefulness. I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and crouched down beside him.

I could understand most of his hand signals, but what he was indicating now seemed strange. Was he saying someone had been following us and was finally moving in now that we’d stopped?

Furthermore, Lu Ayao had only woken me, leaving He Yu and Old Qian asleep. This had never happened before. I guessed our current situation was still relatively safe; if it were a dire emergency, Lu Ayao wouldn’t have woken only me.

I followed Lu Ayao, put on my shoes, and walked over to the extinguished fire. “What is it?” I whispered. “Did you hear something?”

He scanned the boarded-up wooden windows, then looked at me seriously. “I heard some unusual movements. It felt strange, so I put out the fire first. But I was afraid I might be overthinking it, so I decided to tell you first.”

Anything that made Lu Ayao this serious was never ordinary. This matter had to be complicated for him to be so conflicted.

I didn’t speak, signaling for him to continue.

“I heard someone tapping on the windows,” Lu Ayao said.

His words sent a chill down my spine. He paused, then added, “They tapped on the side windows a few times first. Less than ten minutes later, they went to the door.”

At first, I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t uncommon for local villagers to go up the mountain to hunt. But after two seconds of processing, the hair on my arms stood on end.

We were deep in the heart of the forest. This was the middle of nowhere, with no houses for miles in any direction. What kind of hunter would choose a night with a blizzard like this to go up the mountain? And then knock on a door? Were they just bored and looking for something to do?

I relaxed my muscles and asked, “Did you respond?”

“No. It felt too wrong. There were only two knocks, and then it went silent,” Lu Ayao said.

Just then, a rustling sound came from the doorway of the cabin. It was the sound of footsteps on snow. Immediately after, the knocker on the door was gently rattled.

Tap, tap.

Inside the room, Lu Ayao and I quickly swapped positions. He whipped out his lash and blade while I scrambled over to He Yu to wake him. He was sleeping soundly, and just as I shook him awake and he prepared to launch into a tirade, I clamped my hand over his mouth. I signaled him with my eyes, pointing toward the door.

Once He Yu was fully awake, I moved over to shake Old Qian awake as well.

By now, the light tapping on the door ring had turned into a steady pounding on the wooden panels, rhythmic and intermittent.

Thud, thud, thud. Thud, thud, thud.

He Yu grabbed Qian Deli, looking ready to thrash him. He hissed under his breath, “Well played, Old Qian! We haven’t treated you half bad, and this is how you repay us? Sending word to the Gan Clan? They found us this fast? You’ve been hiding your true colors well, haven’t you?”

“Don’t hit me, please don’t hit me! Young Master He, I’m being framed, I swear! Ever since I came here with you all, I haven’t had any contact with the people back in the Central Plains. If I’ve betrayed you, may lightning strike me dead! I really wasn’t the one who sent word!” Qian Deli looked like he was about to drop to his knees before He Yu.

I hurriedly grabbed He Yu and told them both to shut up.

“We’ve been together these past few days. We know exactly how many times he’s used his phone. Don’t talk nonsense,” I said, keeping my voice low.

He Yu pointed at me. “You’re being naive, Xiao Yao. If he really wanted to tip them off, he certainly wouldn’t do it under our noses. There’s no telling when he might have slipped the message out.”

“Young Master, please believe me! I didn’t do it, I really didn’t!”

I forced myself to calm down and shook my head. Something felt very wrong about this. The knocking at the cabin door continued. I raised my voice to a normal volume and asked, “Who is it?”

The knocking didn’t stop. At the same time, no one outside offered a reply.

He Yu asked me, “Maybe it really is the Gan Clan. Should we open it?”

Lu Ayao also turned around to look at me.

I stared at the door and said decisively, “No, we can’t open it. Who would be out here in the middle of nowhere? Even if someone did tip them off, they shouldn’t have caught up this quickly.”

“What if it’s one of Gan Rong’s top lieutenants? Given the time, it’s not impossible, right?” He Yu asked.

The persistent knocking was making me feel exceptionally agitated.

Qian Deli edged a few steps toward me from the corner and spoke up weakly, “Uh, I have a humble suggestion, though I don’t know if it’s my place to speak…”

I walked toward him. “Old Qian, you’ve seen a lot. If you have an idea, out with it.”

Old Qian opened his mouth, trembling. The very next second, the knocking abruptly stopped, making his subsequent words ring out with eerie clarity.

“What if… whatever is knocking out there isn’t human?”