When they found Zhou Haimi, even Xu An was startled by the scene before her.
"Xiao An..."
Xu An looked at the little girl still engrossed in devouring within the corpses, her face devoid of excessive emotion. She simply said calmly,
"After this is resolved, we'll... kill her."
Wang Mang's eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the unrecognizable face, pitted and with its expression indiscernible, his heart filled with grief.
He stepped forward and kicked away the girl, whose body was covered in blood and flesh.
Grabbing the deceased's only remaining hand, he looked up at the sky and cried out in anguish.
"Big Brother!"
Xu An could understand Wang Mang's grief. It was far more severe than she had imagined.
She had initially thought that this mother and daughter duo were merely using this black inn to scavenge supplies from passing travelers.
She never expected it to escalate to this point.
After confirming the birthmark on his left hand, Wang Mang stopped crying. His eyes, still crimson, were filled with madness.
He quickly walked up to the child, who still had a naive look on her face, and with both hands, tightly gripped the girl's slender neck, as if to snap it.
The little girl's mouth and the gaps between her teeth were still adorned with nauseating strands of fresh red flesh. She bared her teeth and smiled at the man.
"This person wasn't tasty at all. The meat was too tough, too old. The sister over there looked tastier."
Whether it was a provocation or a genuine observation, she even looked at Xu An and Zhou Haimi with the expression of someone appraising a meal.
Her eyes seemed to convey, "Delicious!"
Xu An looked at this child, and the flicker of compassion she had suppressed within her heart vanished without a trace.
"You already have supplies, why are you still doing this?" Xu An asked, her voice rapid and urgent, as if enraged.
Her tone was a mixture of heartbreak and utter loathing.
The girl's young face showed no sign of acknowledging her actions as wrong. She even looked at Xu An and the others with excitement.
"You want to eat too? Here? I'll leave the rest for you. Would you like to eat it?"
"Can you give me a piece of thigh meat, miss? Your meat is the most delicious. I've shared with you all, so you should share with me..."
Gradually, she could no longer speak, as Wang Mang was fiercely choking her. Her small face turned a dark purplish-red, and she could no longer utter a sound.
Xu An's sorrow welled up. In the apocalypse, the most despair-inducing thing was not the endless natural disasters, but the human heart.
"Let go of her."
Wang Mang seemed incredulous at Xu An's words, but his movements slowed. This allowed the girl a moment of respite.
However, in the next second, Wang Mang tightened his grip.
"This can no longer be considered human. Don't tell me you want to let her go. I'm telling you, this little bastard killed my elder brother. I must kill her to avenge him!"
Xu An remained silent. She directly intervened, using the butt of her knife to pry open the man's hands.
Before Wang Mang could react in anger, she drew her pistol from her waist and shot the girl, ending her life.
"Don't worry, I'm not a naive do-gooder. It's just that for people like this, there's no need to dirty one's hands."
With that, Xu An turned and walked towards the dimly lit small house ahead without looking back.
"Follow me. Your supplies should be in here."
The man looked at the girl's corpse before him, hesitated for a moment, and then followed Xu An toward the small house.
"You say you're not a do-gooder, yet you gave that girl a quick death. Xu An, I've never met a more contradictory human being than you."
Ze Yuan's voice suddenly echoed in Xu An's mind, as if mocking her.
"Shut up!"
"Xu An, haven't you been reborn once? Why can't you still bring yourself to be ruthless?"
Xu An did not argue this time, only offering a wry smile.
"Perhaps because I'm human after all."
Xu An led the way, kicking open the trembling wooden door. A smell of rot and decay wafted from the room.
Even though Xu An had been mentally prepared, she was momentarily stunned by the sight of the piled corpses.
Wang Mang, who had followed closely behind, saw the scene and immediately vomited.
Zhou Haimi, unable to bear it, ran outside.
Countless travelers who had stayed here had met their end, their bones dismembered and consumed by the devilish mother and daughter.
This room was like a purgatory, piled high with mountains of bones.
Xu An's eyesight was too keen; she could even see wriggling insects amidst the white bones.
There was even a skeleton as large as an infant.
She could hardly imagine how many people the mother and daughter had consumed in over a year.
Suppressing her nausea, she scanned the room.
"Your supplies are over there."
Beside a pile of bones, some gray bundles, worn smooth, were stacked.
Wang Mang squinted and pulled at a backpack, then quickly rushed outside.
He dared not even open his eyes to examine everything in the room.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but admire this woman even more.
Before the apocalypse, he was a mercenary, not unaccustomed to killing. Moreover, in the post-apocalyptic world, killing was a daily occurrence.
Yet, faced with such a gruesome and terrifying scene, he still couldn't help but feel like vomiting.
But this woman before him, from beginning to end, other than a slight change in her complexion, showed no outward reaction.
Upon exiting, Xu An glanced back at the house and asked the two behind her, "Do you have a light?"
"What do you need a light for?" Zhou Haimi frowned, seemingly confused. She was still unsettled by the scene, her breathing somewhat ragged.
"To burn this place."
Wang Mang's voice came from behind, "I do."
As he spoke, he pulled out a military-grade fire starter from his pocket. "But can this place even burn? There's no accelerant."
"It can."
Because of the thick fog, Zhou Haimi and Wang Mang couldn't see, but Xu An could clearly tell that the structure was made of thatched reeds.
The houses were not built with brick walls but were constructed from bamboo.
Not to mention, there were so many inside...
The body oil was the best accelerant.
Just before lighting the fire, Xu An glanced towards the now cold corpses of the little girl and Wang Mang's companion.
"What do you plan to do with your friend's body?"
In the apocalypse, there were too many deaths, but many people would flee immediately after killing, never thinking to dispose of the bodies.
But now, it was different.
Now that the existence of this mother and daughter was known, it was hard to guarantee that there wouldn't be similar individuals in the vicinity.
Leaving the bodies here now was like preparing "rations" for others.
Wang Mang clearly understood the meaning behind Xu An's words.
"Let's bury them here."