Chapter 8 third chapter

When I told my mother that I would go to Sakura Hill with everyone on Sunday, she was very happy. "I really made you suffer." The mother murmured, "I should have come here sooner, and I should have broken up with that person earlier. It's all my mother's fault. If my mother acted sooner..." "Mom, don't blame yourself so much. Besides, the matter is over!" "Yes!" My sister nodded again and again. "Don't take it to heart, don't take it to heart!" "Si...thank you." Mom narrowed her eyes, gave an unnatural smile, and went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

"Brother, I'm going to play too!" My sister reported, "I'm going shopping with everyone tomorrow." "Be careful on the road." "I'll pay attention to the traffic lights." "I'm not talking about that." "Don't worry, everyone is fine." "You trust them?" I think she is too naive. "Don't be so wary! Brother." "Who knows what's going to happen? Don't be careless." "Brother, you too." My sister held my hand. The short and warm fingers are intertwined.

At 9:30 am on September 12, we gathered in front of the station.All the members of the second group arrived. Although Yan Jian complained a lot, he seemed to have made up his mind, and his hands and feet were more agile than anyone else.We took the electric train to Mubata, then took a bus at Mubata, and headed south to Sakura Hill. Sakura Hill is a small town. ...without color. I had this feeling immediately. The town I live in now is the same, I don't feel the color. It is not because of superficial reasons such as the ground is covered with concrete and buildings are everywhere; what I use the word "color" to express is not a material meaning, but a more flesh-and-blood feeling.

Such as attachment. Like relationships. Such as line of sight. Like rumors. There are none of these things in this town. Just...to be alive. Live for the sake of living and live each day that this sentence best describes. Waking up in the morning, going to school, reading, playing with friends, coming home, playing, doing homework, watching TV, brushing teeth, going to bed—like a skilled actor, living a life that is exactly the same. The villages on Kyushu Island are not like this. People wafting body odor and bad breath, moving with dynamism; always watching or being watched, everything good or dirty is on display, and everyone knows what happened to who and where.

The aggregate of these relationships is life. But here... Kobe is different. Everyone faithfully abides by the cow's work model, but they can't see the real side at all, as if they are trying to hide something, which makes me feel very caring. "Fake it!" The friend in the head seems to think the same. "It looks sinister on the contrary, doesn't it?" Yin coffin hidden in hypocrisy. This is several times, dozens of times worse than the insidiousness directly exposed, and the attack power is also stronger.Rather than hiding the needle in the bread, it's much less painful to put it directly in the mouth...

"Hey, you're in a daze again." Shiomi patted my back. "Are you listening?" "Sorry, I didn't hear that at all." "You're really dumb!" He said rudely. "We are talking, Sakura Hill is very big, should we divide the army into two groups?" "oh, I see!" "Do you have a cell phone?" "No." Cell phones never came in handy. "Machii and Yokoyama are there. You and Shibata are on the same team as Machii, and I'm on the same team as Yao and Yokoyama. Then, if... I mean 'if', if you find Niu Nan, contact us immediately. Set your phone to vibrate, Never forget it!"

"If you haven't found it by four o'clock, you'll be determined to turn back." Heng...continued: "The meeting point is set at this bus stop sign, no problem, right? Well, let's try to find the bully man!" So the Machii Group and the Yokoyama Group moved in opposite directions. Machii, who was leading the way, was in a good mood, humming a casually made-up cowboy song. "Do you want to see Niu Nan so much? I think you are gearing up." I am not as persistent and curious as she is. "Of course! I heard that he has a bull's head, a big kitchen knife in his hand, and a panda doll in his backpack. He splashes paint after killing people. It's amazing! Of course I want to see it!"

"Si, indeed..." "I don't care about Niu Nan's appearance," Shibata said. "But I'm interested in his toughness." "Strong?" "Niu Nan is very strong. He killed six people in half a year. Not only did he kill in a cruel way, but he also decorated the corpse in an exaggerated way. He is very strong, very strong." "Oh, yes!" "I want to see a bull man, such a powerful bull man." He said nonchalantly. "No way! Shibata, this is a foul! And it's dangerous." Machii turned his head. "However, he is really strong. Killing people like hemp but not being caught, so powerful, so cool!"

"Machii also worships this kind of person?" "It's not worship...you can destroy it if you want, it's very enviable." "This girl named Ding Jing seems to have the same idea as you." friends pointed out. That's true, but I think it's a common human mindset. Desire to destroy others. Thirst for the power to destroy. Everyone has this kind of idea, has this kind of dream. "But your thoughts are quite specific." Friends send words directly into my brain. "You want to destroy and you want to be destroyed, don't you?"

Yeah? Maybe it is! I am afraid to listen to the words of my friends, to turn my consciousness outward. We searched for Sakura Hill, but of course the cow boy didn't show up so easily.After noon, we limited our search to the suburbs after filling our stomachs at a nearby fast food restaurant.Buildings and people disappear from the surroundings, replaced by fields and woods.If you want to kill people, this kind of place is the most suitable place!No matter how tough the bull man is, he still has to avoid people's eyes and ears. "Hey, hey, what kind of place is Kyushu Island?"

Machii asked while looking around the field. "... nothing special. Kobe is more developed, much better." "But, but, have you always lived there? Isn't it sad to leave your hometown? If it were me, I would cry every day." "No big deal, it's happier here." I replaced "good life" with "happy". "Really? I moved here from Himeji when I was in second grade, and I cried so hard back then!" "That's because you really like your hometown, but I don't, I don't like my hometown very much." I replaced "not at all" with "not at all". "Why? Why? Usually it doesn't happen like this!" "Probably because I or my hometown is different from the general situation!" "Stop chatting." Shibata stopped in his tracks. "Did you hear anything?" "what sound?" "Screams." "Wretched... miserable screams?" "The screams of a woman." "Please, don't make trouble in the factory." My back suddenly felt cold. "This kind of... this kind of joke is not funny." "It's not a joke, I really heard it." "Where did the voice you heard come from?" Machii asked seriously. Shibata pointed to the woods. "Go and have a look!" Machii ran away. We followed suit. A group of people entered the woods and moved forward vigorously. We found bright reds that didn't go well with the green woods. It's paint. And the pungent smell of blood. Red paint spreads across the ground... There is an object in the center. corpse. But why?I don't think it looks like a corpse. The reason was immediately apparent to me. Because there is no head. "I got it right." Shibata murmured, "Machii got it right again." "is that a lie?" Machii covered his mouth. ...that is to say! I came here for fun, and I only thought Machii's accuracy rate was exaggerated, but I didn't expect to find a dead body.Impossible, this is just a joke, it's too ridiculous.The smell of blood and paint gave me a headache, and the incredible situation made me unable to move. After we looked at the headless body with the paint splashed on it for a while, Shibata came back to his senses and asked Machii to call quickly.Machii took out his mobile phone with trembling hands and contacted Yokoyama; after the call ended, there was silence, along with the headless corpse. "Think carefully" Shibata looked at the corpse eagerly. "After I heard the screams, I searched the woods, and then found the body; this means that this is a body that has just been killed, in other words—" "in other words?" "The cow man is nearby." The air suddenly became heavy. We turned our eyes to the dense forest, but we didn't see any deformed figures.However, we have used our imagination to the maximum: whether it is a sharp branch, a huge stone or the shadow of a tree, we can find the phantom of the cow man. "Hate!" Machii seemed to be crushed by concrete imagination and grabbed my arm unbearably. All plants and trees are soldiers. Besieged on all sides. His heart was beating more violently, and his face was covered with sticky, greasy sweat.The headless corpse that was splashed with paint seems to be coming forward, saying "You will be the ones who will become this kind of virtue next time": I feel the pain that oppresses my heart, and my vision turns red. "You two watch carefully!" Shibata said. "Watch...observe?" "That's a corpse, and we're still alive, so don't confuse them. Now is not the time to be deluded by idle imagination. Find the bully man, or we might really die." It's not clear whether he's speaking out of intimidation or to calm us down: to me, it's the latter.I expelled the phantom of the ox man from my mind and searched for the real ox man; however, there was no sign of people or animals around.We are the only living beings in this woods—even though I judge so, the fear toxin that sprouted in my body has not diminished in the slightest. Grass picking and human voices suddenly appeared.Niu Nan... No, it was Hengshan's voice.Yokoyama, Shiomi, and Yamao walked quickly, but were speechless after seeing the headless corpse.Yokoyama was pale, Shiomi was crying, and Hachio was staring at the corpse. "...Where's the bull man?" Eight tails asked. "It doesn't seem to be there." Shibata replied: "Damn it, it's just a little bit away..." "Hey... Hey! What happened? There is really a corpse... What happened? What... What's going on?" "Machii has the ability to predict Niu Nan's actions, that's how it is." "Precognition? What are you talking about? Shibata!" "Isn't the evidence there?" Shibata pointed at the headless corpse with his chin. "vomit!" Machii covered her mouth and sat down, her big eyes filled with tears: her shoulders spasmed in pain whenever her throat was busy moving up and down.Finally, unable to bear the pain and oppression, she pressed her arms to the ground and began to vomit. Yokoyama hurried to Machii, stroking her back.Machii vomited again and again, trying to speak, but unable to speak because of the stuff in her stomach: it seemed to cause her more pain than vomiting, and she kept crying.The smell of vomit mixed with the smell of blood and paint made my headache worse. "Machii, are you okay?" Hengshan said to her, "What's the matter? Are you scared? Don't worry, it's okay, Niu Nan is not here. Well, let's leave this place as soon as possible! Hurry up!" "No..." Machii dripped with tears and vomit. "No, I don't want this to happen! It's a lie..."