Chapter 48: Chang Street Slaughterhouse
Having obtained the “meat,” and with nightfall approaching, the remaining passengers soon left the place.
Wei Ling walked beside Lu Jinzhao and suddenly said, “If I find the meat ticket with the snake pattern tomorrow and kill him, will I be safe?”
After figuring out the truth of the platform mission, her thoughts had changed.
On this street, inside this slaughterhouse, it was impossible to find a complete Twelve Zodiac Animals, and when the “animal” proposed by the butcher was something difficult to find in reality, those who reacted would turn their gaze to the person with the corresponding zodiac sign.
Earlier they had sent in the rat, but the slaughter did not end immediately, and when that Rat Zodiac passenger walked in, meat was soon produced.
This meant that while the real rat was also the correct answer, it was not the butcher’s favorite answer.
What the butcher wanted more was a person.
“When the person with the corresponding zodiac sign dies, the butcher will lose interest in that animal too, right?” Wei Ling looked at Lu Jinzhao.
Lu Jinzhao nodded: “Most likely.”
This was the simplest yet extremely cruel truth of this platform.
How are humans not animals?
As long as the zodiac signs matched, the twelve passengers sent in would be the twelve most correct animals.
And the “animal” in the Twelve Zodiac Animals that simply did not exist in reality would cause irreconcilable conflicts among the passengers, and under the premise that bloodshed and sacrifice were inevitable, what would the passengers do to seek self-preservation?
Was the butcher really just that ghost restricted by the rules, existing in the main building?
“.Fortunately, there are rats and a calf in the slaughterhouse.” Wei Ling sighed.
This meant that at least the two of them did not need to kill to complete the mission.
The two agreed on a meeting place for the next day and each returned “home.”
As soon as she reached the doorstep, before opening the door, Lu Jinzhao’s finger on the door handle paused subtly for a moment.
Upon touching the door handle, she felt a bone-chilling chill.
This was not due to the temperature of the door handle itself; even if the iron handle was ever so cold, it would never be this cold, like needles pricking the skin upon touch.
It was like a warning in a horror film that terror was about to come, or that there was a ghost behind the door.
But even though Lu Jinzhao understood this warning, she had to enter.
As soon as the door opened, the smell of decay mixed with stench rushed into her nostrils.
Inside the door, the old man’s shrill, sharp yet feeble voice entered her ears.
“Meat, has my meat come back?”
For a moment, Lu Jinzhao could not tell if the old man was asking if she had brought meat back, or if she was the meat in the old man’s mouth.
“Meat,” the old man kept asking, his tone becoming more urgent.
Seeing this, Lu Jinzhao hurriedly replied: “Brought it back.”
The old man’s voice suddenly disappeared.
Lu Jinzhao did not dare delay and walked toward the room holding the meat.
The bedroom door had clearly been closed when she left, but now it was opened a crack.
In the crevice, a fresh red, protruding eye was staring at her greedily.
Lu Jinzhao was startled by this gaze but approached the door calmly, and after gently pushing open the bedroom door, that ferocious and desirous gaze disappeared.
In its place was the old man still lying on the bed, seemingly unable to move.
Lu Jinzhao approached the bed with the meat; before she could ask the old man anything, the paralyzed old man on the bed suddenly jerked up her upper body like a convulsion, her withered fingers fiercely grabbing the bloody flesh in front of her with such force that Lu Jinzhao almost stumbled.
Then, a scene absolutely unseen in civilized society unfolded before Lu Jinzhao.
The old man’s dry, claw-like hands tightly gripped this large piece of raw meat, her supposedly toothless mouth now tearing into the raw meat like a wild beast’s fangs, blood foam and minced meat splattering on the bed, clothes, and the old man’s wrinkled face.
As the flesh and blood were continuously consumed, the maniacal old man gradually regained a human appearance.
When all the meat was eaten, her ferocious expression returned to calmness.
Covered in bloodstains, she lay back on the bed again, looking at Lu Jinzhao like a kind grandmother: “Good child, you’ve done well. Tomorrow, bring me fresh meat again.”
Lu Jinzhao finally understood what had polluted the dim room’s rotten stench and the filthy quilt.
She closed the door and left the bedroom.
The old man’s words undoubtedly further confirmed her guess, and the butcher’s broadcast the next day completely verified Lu Jinzhao’s speculation.
[Damn poisonous snake! Killed my pet!]
[Today, I want to eat snake meat!]
After hearing the broadcast, Lu Jinzhao’s expression subtly changed for a moment.
“The order is not according to the Twelve Zodiac Animals sequence, but according to the event process?”
The butcher’s broadcast immediately made Lu Jinzhao think that yesterday, it was the Snake Zodiac Wei Ling who first walked in and offered the rat.
And it was a rat caught in the slaughterhouse.
“.The pets aren’t those rats, are they?”
If this guess was true, then next, whoever offered an animal from inside the slaughterhouse would become the target the following day.
Yesterday was the first time, so the ghost set the target on the first one to enter, Wei Ling.
Wei Ling was Snake Zodiac, a secret known only to her and Lu Jinzhao; others would probably still need to figure out why the target today was snake.
For Wei Ling and Lu Jinzhao today, the most important thing was self-preservation.
Even though there were sheep in the slaughterhouse, Lu Jinzhao absolutely could not reveal to others that she was sheep for self-preservation.
Once others knew that the animals given to the butcher were from inside the slaughterhouse, they would become the next target, even if they openly revealed their own zodiac was available in the slaughterhouse.
The only thing they could do now was to maintain the bound relationship between her and Wei Ling, confuse their zodiac signs and targets, so others could never figure out their real targets and zodiac signs, and if dealing with them, it had to be both together.
Wei Ling obviously realized this too; even though today’s butcher target was herself, she did not show any panic.
However, when meeting Lu Jinzhao, she still probed Lu Jinzhao’s attitude a bit, and after getting a clear assurance of no betrayal, she clearly relaxed.
Verbal promises from others were just empty words to her, but Lu Jinzhao was different; she really followed through and had saved her from that terrifying platform.
So only Lu Jinzhao’s verbal promise would she believe.
It was just human nature that made her confirm repeatedly to gain more sense of security.
“Alright, we can’t go too late, or it will arouse suspicion.”
Once everyone understood the rules, those who delayed going to the slaughterhouse would become the object of everyone’s suspicion.
You, aren’t you today’s “target”?
That’s why you dare not come in.
