I was astonished by what those words meant, but Pan Ma quickly explained the whole situation. After just a few sentences, I felt a chill run through me as I realized the source of the smell of death. However, this matter was simply too terrifying and far beyond my expectations. After hearing it, my first feeling was not confusion, but disgust.

I could hardly imagine that such a thing could happen, nor could I understand his intentions at the time, let alone imagine what the hearts of the people involved must have been like. If what Pan Ma said was true, then what he bore was not a secret, but a tremendous sin.

The sequence of events was exactly as Pan Ma described, but the key issue lay in what he said about the time he went into the mountains and found the archaeological team had disappeared.

Pan Ma lied; during that trip into the mountains, the archaeological team did not vanish, and he did not go in alone. He brought four of his brothers to help carry supplies, so they could also hunt when they returned. After delivering the food, they did not leave because staying in the camp until evening meant they could enjoy a meal of white rice, which was like a royal feast for them. However, the archaeological team did not allow them to stay inside the camp, so they spent their time outside, chatting and waiting for dinner.

During this time, one of the four brothers, seeing the military supplies of the archaeological team, suddenly had a malicious thought.

At that time, the poverty in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains was unimaginable to people today. Years of border conflicts had driven wild animals deep into the mountains, and children had no meat to eat, only rice husks and wild vegetables, resulting in stunted growth. White rice was treated like candy. The military supplies were a tremendous temptation for them; those few bags of rice could feed them for a year.

Since asking villagers to help transport supplies would definitely result in some being pilfered along the way, the military had to weigh the rice. If they found any missing, there would be no consequences immediately, but they would have to change the transporters in the future. That brother was calculating that once they had weighed the rice and the soldiers went to sleep at night, they could sneak in and take a few bowls without losing their jobs, allowing their families to enjoy some benefits.

This was originally a very simple matter, but Pan Ma disagreed. His skills were good, and his family was relatively well-off; they were not at the point of starving children. However, the other four were tempted.

Pan Ma reluctantly let them go while he waited outside, not expecting that something would go wrong once those four entered. They scooped three bowls of rice from each bag, and as they were coming out, they happened to run into a soldier who was checking the tents. At that time, the military was on high alert, and everyone was on edge. The soldier immediately raised his gun, but he didn’t see that there was another person hiding behind him. In a moment of desperation, the person in the back quickly subdued the soldier, and the four of them smothered him to death with the rice bags.

After killing the soldier, the four were terrified. The crime of murder, especially that of a soldier, meant that if discovered, they would surely be executed on the spot. They escaped and told Pan Ma what had happened, and he immediately thought, “This is bad.”

No matter what, he could not distance himself from this incident because the archaeological team had hired him, and the brothers were brought in to help at his request. He could not escape any responsibility, and at such a sensitive time, no one would believe he hadn’t participated.

He immediately thought of a way to deal with the situation: they had to drag the soldier’s body out from inside and make it seem like he was missing; otherwise, they would definitely be investigated. They sneaked back, returned all the rice, and dragged the soldier’s body out of the tent. However, they hadn’t gone far before the lookout spotted them. The lookout rushed over and asked what they were doing. In their moment of panic, the body was seen, and the sentinel immediately raised his gun. But the guy who had suggested stealing was already prepared and quickly slit the man’s throat.

Without much thought, they went into a frenzy and killed two people. Pan Ma felt that things had gone horribly wrong and suggested they run away, but the brother who had done the killing was blinded by rage, saying that having already killed two, it was the same whether they killed two more or wiped them all out. If they let the others return to report to the military, they would have to hide in the mountains for the rest of their lives. Rather than that, they should kill everyone and say they went missing; others would surely think it was the Vietnamese who did it.

In a bizarre atmosphere, this sudden impulse took over them. The archaeological team was small, and most of them were deep in sleep at that time. Thinking of the rice, submachine guns, and what was to come, Pan Ma found himself unable to suppress his wicked thoughts.

The subsequent events were disgusting. They armed themselves with submachine guns and daggers, sneaking into one tent after another, killing everyone inside. After the killings, they threw the bodies, guns, ammunition, and supplies into the lake, secretly carrying the rice and food back to the village, hiding them under their beds. Some everyday items they could use but couldn’t carry were also hidden away, to be retrieved later when things calmed down. Several of them agreed never to mention this incident again.

Pan Ma felt guilty at the time, pondering over it all, and began to spread rumors in the village about the mysterious disappearance of the archaeological team, hoping to lay the groundwork for future events. At that time, there were frequent border conflicts, and when teams went missing near the Vietnamese border, it was generally assumed to be the work of Vietnamese agents.

A few of them believed they were foolproof, but no one anticipated that this would be the beginning of their nightmare.

Three days later, Pan Ma returned to the mountains, back to the lakeside, wanting to rummage through the items and take back anything valuable. The madness of that night still haunted him, so he first observed from a distance. To his horror, he saw that another camp had appeared by the lake, and there were people moving around.

Were there other troops? Had the bodies been discovered? He was terrified and took a long time to regain his composure. When he finally mustered the courage to sneak closer to observe, he was astounded to find that the previous archaeological team had reappeared right in front of him.

Pan Ma was completely bewildered, unsure of what was happening. Looking at the busy people in the camp, it felt like he was in a dream. Those people seemed completely unaware of what had happened before and greeted him warmly.

He thought he was dreaming and pinched himself several times before realizing it was all real. Although the faces were unfamiliar, they were all people he had seen in the archaeological team, and he even saw a few of the ones he had personally strangled, chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened.

He hurried back to the village in a panic, feeling lost and desperate. He quickly shared what had happened with the others, and when they went to check, they found it to be true. They were all terrified and puzzled over what could have happened. Could it be that the lake was a magical one that could bring the dead back to life? But those people were very much alive and did not resemble zombies at all.

Pan Ma was baffled. The villagers were superstitious and believed that it must be the work of the mountain god or lake spirit, which left them frightened and in shock. After pondering for a long time, Pan Ma mustered his courage and returned to the lakeside to bring them food, tentatively asking about what had happened that day. However, everyone responded that nothing was wrong, and their expressions showed no signs of anything unusual.

It seemed as if a day had simply passed, with the gods having erased all memories of that day’s events. Or perhaps those who committed the crime had all shared the same dream that day, and they had never actually gone out to kill anyone.

Pan Ma was not someone who would easily resign to fate. He did not believe he had merely dreamed it, but he couldn’t make sense of it either. He kept a close watch on that group of people, wanting to know whether they were human or ghostly apparitions. However, no matter how he looked, he could find no flaws in their behavior.

The only thing that struck him as odd was that he detected a strange smell on that group of people, something that had not been there before.