Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 432 Unfounded Suspicion

The group of people pulled the man in the gray jacket down the mountain path.

The man in the gray jacket left two crooked tracks on the ground with his feet, the soles of his shoes scraping against the gravel with a harsh sound. He kept his head down, so his expression was not visible.

Blue Moon stood beside the tent, hands on her hips, watching the group disappear into the distance, and let out a long sigh.

Xu Xiaoyan walked up from behind, put her phone in her pocket, and stood beside her. Neither of them spoke; they simply watched side by side as the group descending the mountain slowly disappeared around the bend in the mountain path.

A rustling sound came from behind me, mixed with the muffled sound of soil being turned over and the sound of plastic bags rubbing together.

The two turned around and saw that the four owners were squatting on the ground, frantically picking up their scattered belongings from the mud.

Zhou Xiaojuan picked up a bag of crushed cookies, wiped the mud off with her sleeve, and looked both distressed and angry.

The other two young women each picked up a bag of salt, tore open a small hole to look inside, and saw that most of the salt had been mixed with the mud and water and dissolved. The two women looked at each other, their eyes reddening.

Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue exchanged a glance, seemingly realizing something, and turned around simultaneously, preparing to head down the mountain.

Their tents were also in this area, but the atmosphere was really not suitable for them to stay any longer. The victims were in a fit of anger and saw everyone as a thief, so there was no point in them staying any longer.

She hadn't taken more than a few steps when a hurried voice came from behind her, "Little girl, wait a minute!"

It was Zhou Xiaojuan, a woman in her forties. She was clutching half a bag of dried meat that hadn't been trampled, and she caught up with him in a few quick steps. Her expression changed from anger to anxiety, and then to a scrutiny that was hard to define.

She stopped in front of the two of them, took a breath, and asked, "I lost more than just these things. There are only a few items on the ground, but all my compressed biscuits are gone, and two bags of dried meat aren't all here either. Do you know where he put them?"

Lan Yue suddenly stopped in her tracks, her brows furrowing.

She turned around, looked Zhou Xiaojuan up and down, her tone not exactly harsh, but certainly not gentle:

"How would I know? My sleeping bag was stolen a couple of days ago, and when I came back today, I saw someone going through your tents. I was furious and went straight to fight them. That's the whole story."

She paused, looking directly into Zhou Xiaojuan's eyes, her voice lowered, carrying a coldness that only came after being offended, "What? You suspect I stole something from you?"

These words were quite blunt, and a fleeting hint of embarrassment crossed Zhou Xiaojuan's face. She quickly waved her hand, and her voice softened:

"It's nothing, nothing at all... I just asked casually, don't overthink it. The young lady helped us catch the thief, we're more than grateful, why would we suspect you?"

She said she "didn't doubt it," but her evasive eyes and slightly hurried tone betrayed the unfounded suspicion in her heart.

Two other owners of the lost items came over, holding the loose items they had picked up. Their expressions were exactly the same as Zhou Xiaojuan's—a mixture of gratitude and awkwardness.

After all, there were a lot of compressed biscuits among the lost items. It's unsettling to think that something weighing over ten kilograms could just disappear into thin air.

Xu Xiaoyan stood silently to the side, her hat pulled low and her mask covering most of her face, revealing only a pair of calm eyes.

She glanced at the faces of the victims, then spoke slowly and deliberately, her tone indifferent, as if stating something utterly obvious:

"Instead of suspecting each other here, why don't you just ask the person involved? When he was taken away just now, wasn't he carrying a backpack? The one that was bulging."

A single word awakens one from a dream.

Zhou Xiaojuan paused for a moment, then slapped her thigh. "That's right! I saw it! He definitely had a backpack behind him, stuffed full!"

A young woman nearby chimed in, "That's right! I was wondering why that bag was so bulging; it turns out it contained our things!"

The other owner had already turned and run downhill, shouting back as he ran, "Let's go, let's catch up and find out!"

Zhou Xiaojuan didn't have time to say anything more. She quickly nodded to the two of them and ran away.

The group of people chased each other down the mountain, their footsteps fast and hurried, making a thud on the gravel path. Mud and water had already splashed all over their trouser legs, but none of them looked down to look.

In an instant, they overtook Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue, who were standing still, leaving them far behind.

Lan Yue's chest heaved, and her complexion was not good.

She stared in the direction where the victims had disappeared, her lips pressed tightly together. After a long pause, she finally managed to utter, "What kind of people are they... how dare they doubt me!"

She kicked a small pebble hard at her feet, and the pebble flew out and hit a pine tree trunk with a crisp thud.

Xu Xiaoyan did not respond.

She stood there, pulled her mask down a bit, revealing the lower half of her face, which was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

She turned her gaze away from the dirt road leading down the mountain, glanced at Lan Yue, and without saying anything to comfort her, simply reached out and gently patted Lan Yue's shoulder twice.

"Let's go," Xu Xiaoyan said, pulling her mask up again and pulling her hat brim down. "Let them be. Let's go back to the tent and pack up. I didn't get much sleep last night, so let's go back and catch up on some rest."

The two quickly returned to their tents, took off their backpacks, put them in a corner, zipped them up, and went to sleep.

In a daze, Xu Xiaoyan heard a series of noisy voices outside. They weren't the usual conversations in the camp, but rather a discussion filled with excitement and restlessness.

Some people were cursing, some were laughing, some were shouting and describing something, and a few people seemed to be arguing, their voices getting louder and louder, each refusing to give in.

She forced her eyes open, propped herself up, touched her watch, and glanced at it. Only two hours had passed.

She rubbed her eyes, unzipped the tent, and poked her head out.

The atmosphere in the camp was completely different from before she went to sleep. People were gathered in twos and threes in the open space between the tents. Some were standing, some were squatting, and some were simply sitting on fallen tree trunks, talking as they spoke, their facial expressions as rich as a drama.

Blue Moon was not asleep. She sat on a moisture-proof mat at the entrance of the tent, leaning against a pine tree as thick as a bowl.

He had already taken off his scarf and draped it over his knees. He was holding a cup of hot water that he didn't know where he got it from, and he was tilting his head, listening with great interest to two middle-aged women next to him talking animatedly.