The next day, when Qin Ziwen woke up, his left hand touched something cold.
He picked it up instinctively. It felt like an iron rod.
He rolled over and sat up, and his right hand touched a piece of paper.
He walked over to the windowsill and pulled open the curtains.
In the dim morning light, he got a clear look at the objects in his hands.
"Is this... a magnesium fire starter? Why would a fire starter suddenly appear on my bed? Wait a minute."
Qin Ziwen's mind raced. He thought back to the voice he'd heard in his dream last night. It was strange; he couldn't remember any other details from the dream after waking up, but a cold, mechanical prompt was etched in his memory.
The objects in his hand seemed to correspond with that strange prompt.
'Daily settlement... Normally, the cutoff should be midnight.'
'I'll stay up late tonight. If I make it to midnight, I should be able to confirm things.'
He went to his younger brother's room. Young people really were deep sleepers; his brother's snores were as loud as thunder.
He first looked around the bed—nothing extra was there. Then, he checked the living room and the other rooms in the house. Once he was sure he hadn't missed anything, he shook his brother awake. "Did you hear anything last night?"
"Huh? What? Did the bats come back?"
The sleep was scared right out of Qin Ziwu, and he instinctively looked toward the window.
"No, they're not here. Did you hear anything last night? Like a voice in your dreams, maybe?"
Qin Ziwu shook his head, looking lost. "Nope."
Qin Ziwen paused thoughtfully. "It's nothing, then."
He walked over to the balcony and spread out the paper he'd found. It was a diagram for building a snare trap. The edges were ragged, as if it had been torn directly from a book.
The diagram's detailed illustrations and text explained how to make a trip-snare, a type of trap capable of catching small mammals and reptiles.
Qin Ziwu leaned in for a closer look. "This trap doesn't look too difficult. It just needs wood and rope. Do we have any rope at home?"
"We do."
Qin Ziwen looked up at the curtain cord above his head.
He found a stool, climbed up, and took down the pull cord for the curtains. He gripped it with both hands and gave it a tug; it felt quite sturdy. The cord was a little long, so he used a kitchen knife to cut it into two pieces.
He also grabbed a small handful of mulberries from the balcony.
Then, he and his brother took the rope and left the Gated Community together.
As the two of them headed out, other residents were already trickling out of the Gated Community. He even saw a few people fishing by the river.
The few people fishing were all positioned high up on the rocks along the bank, where the crocodiles couldn't reach them immediately even if they came ashore.
"Bro, where are we setting the traps?"
"Let me think." Qin Ziwen frowned. 'If we set them too close, people from the Gated Community will find them, and any prey we catch will likely be taken.'
'But if we set them too far away, it's dangerous. The round trip would be too risky.'
'So we need to find a relatively hidden spot near the Gated Community, and we also have to make sure it's a place where animals pass through. After all, the whole point of setting a trap is to catch prey.'
'First, I'll rule out the area near the river. Second, I'll avoid open spaces. Finally, I can't pick anywhere with overgrown vegetation or near rock piles.' Qin Ziwen remembered the massive snake he'd seen from his apartment building yesterday.
In the end, Qin Ziwen set up two snare traps, using the mulberries as bait. He placed one in the bushes along the northern wall of the Gated Community and the other under a tree more than eighty meters to the northwest.
"Bro, check this out. What do you think?"
Qin Ziwu had snapped off a branch from somewhere that was as thick as a baby's arm.
It was long, straight, about two meters in length, and had a bit of flex to it.
Qin Ziwen took it and gave it a couple of test swings. It had a good feel. "Yeah, this is good. If we tie something sharp to the tip, we can use it as a spear."
"SKREEE—"
A sudden shriek echoed from the sky.
High in the sky, a dark shadow was closing in at an unbelievable speed.
It grew closer and closer, the shadow expanding in size.
Qin Ziwen quickly grabbed his brother and pulled him under a large tree.
"Something's in the sky!" someone in the distance yelled, but it was too late.
In an open area, a young man who couldn't dodge in time was snagged by the shoulder and hoisted high into the air.
The giant bird was incredibly fast. From a distance, the teen it had caught looked like a small lamb, struggling for his life.
After climbing several dozen meters into the air, the giant bird opened its talons, and the person plummeted downward like a meteor.
THUD!
A heavy thud echoed from the distance.
The giant bird circled once before landing, grabbed the figure with its talons again, and flew off toward the northern mountain range.
This time, however, the figure in its talons had stopped struggling.
Qin Ziwen's heart sank.
Judging by the bird's size relative to a person, its wingspan had to be at least six or seven meters.
'It feels like humanity's place on the food chain here is dropping lower and lower.'
'He had witnessed so many dangers near the Gated Community in just the past two days, to say nothing of the ones he hadn't seen.'
"Bro, where do we go now?"
Qin Ziwen said, "Let's go check by the river. Stick close to the trees and stay out of the open spaces."
Qin Ziwu nodded, showing he understood.
In the shade of a tree up ahead, a round-faced woman wearing glasses asked an older woman who was squatting and digging at something, "Ma'am, are those wild vegetables?"
The older woman quickly shook her head. "I dunno, I'm just diggin'."
"That's not very neighborly of you. We're all from the same community, what's the big deal with telling me?"
The older woman got angry. "How dare you speak to me like that, young lady? If you want some, go dig your own. Stop bothering me."
As she spoke, the older woman put the plant she had just dug up—stems, leaves, and all—into a cloth bag and quickly covered the top with a flap of fabric.
The round-faced woman reached out to grab the cloth and uncover it.
The older woman quickly clutched the bag, jumping to her feet and shouting, "Have you no shame! A grown woman like you, messing with other people's things! Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"