The night didn't bring any coolness to the village of Huangling; it only brought a different kind of suffocating heat. Inside Liu Er’s hut, the air was thick with the smell of unwashed bodies and the lingering, sour stench of the meat they had consumed. Liu Er had reinforced the door with a heavy wooden beam and stuffed rags into the larger gaps in the walls, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away. It felt like the very mud of the walls had grown eyes.
Tie Dan, Er Gou, and Da Mao were huddled together on a single large mat in the center of the room. They had stopped talking hours ago. The sight of Er Gou’s sister standing in the moonlight had drained the last of their bravado. Now, they just lay there, their eyes wide and staring, jumping at every pop and c***k of the cooling roo
