The Truth Hidden in the Mysterious Cave

We looked at the sky and sighed deeply. Then, we went home in sadness.

I slipped into the house, took off Joseph's clothes, put them in their original positions, and opened the door.

Unexpectedly, a figure was sitting straight in the room, and her dark eyes made her look particularly terrifying.

I was startled. When I turned on the light and found it was my mom, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where did you go in the middle of the night?"

"I... I'm going to the bathroom."

My mother's eyes were wide and sunken, her face contorted with anger, and her voice rose sharply, fueled by rage.

"Don't go out in the middle of the night in the future, remember?"

I was a little unconvinced, so I retorted in a low voice,

"But Joseph goes out every night."

Unexpectedly, these words seemed to have touched my mother's sore spot. She grabbed my collar tightly, her nose almost touching mine, and her face began to look ferocious.

"He... he's a man!"

I felt wronged and couldn't help crying.

"Why? Men are also human! Why can he go out, but I can't."

Seeing that I was crying, she was at a loss. After thinking for a long time, she clumsily hugged me, gently wiped my tears with her sleeve, and said softly,

"Wait a little longer. It'll be done soon..."

I didn't understand what my mother meant, and she didn't explain. Instead, she persisted in gently touching my back, which was shaking uncontrollably from tears.

Mom returned to her usual calm and dignified self at dawn and instructed me to return to work.

When Joseph saw me carrying a hoe, the corners of his mouth curled into a mocking arc.

"The offspring of an enslaved person is indeed a little enslaved person. If you don't finish cultivating these three acres of land today, you won't get any food."

I gritted my teeth and cursed in my heart. "Why doesn't he need to do farm work? Why does he have to wander around the village with his friends every day?"

Speak of the devil. David hooked his arm around Joseph's shoulder and ignored me.

"After you left yesterday, I sneaked in... It's cool to be alone."

Upon hearing this, Joseph looked nervously at the cave by the entrance of the village and spoke again,

"Nothing will happen? After all, that's..."

David smiled freely.

"What are you afraid of? You've been hanging out here. You should have been afraid long ago."

"But Randy and Bob..."

"That's because they were unlucky. Look, I'm fine."

Joseph seemed to have been persuaded by his words and agreed to go with him tonight.

But before night fell, they received the news of the death of Randy and Bob.

Randy and Bob's bodies were found in the river. When we arrived, we only saw their wrapped bodies. We couldn't see anything inside.

Sophie crouched down and squeezed through the crowd to find me. She put one hand to my ear and whispered,

"When they were first pulled out, I saw that Randy and Bob's bodies were covered with dense brownish-red hair, and their bodies had become particularly swollen. They were... unsightly."

I was surprised. "Brownish-red hair? Long?"

Sophie swallowed her saliva and seemed to be a little scared.

"I saw them with my own eyes. At that time, Cherry wanted to hold him in her arms and cry, but when she saw this miserable situation, she shrank back and did not dare to go forward."

"Some men who fished them out tried to pull off the hair, but they couldn't! Just like... they grew up on their own."

Despite stubbornly suppressing my fear, I couldn't resist grasping Sophie's hand. Her hand was ice-cold, just like mine.

Wilson ordered a few young men to carry their bodies away and put them in the ancestral hall for the time being.

There was something fishy about their deaths. Cherry was unwilling to bury Randy, saying that she could only bury him after finding out the truth.

Unexpectedly, Wilson, who was usually gentle and considerate, burned their bodies this time. Cherry had already taken Randy's ashes when she heard the news.

I was also a little suspicious. "Do people grow brownish-red hair?"

"Wilson burned their bodies anxiously. What was he trying to hide?"