Chapter 1499: Aodaili

Late at night, the darkness was tumultuous.

Following behind the children, Lin An struggled to squeeze through the factory building that resembled a maze.

Sewage flowed everywhere; relying on the faint moonlight, the few of them, like rats in a sewer, passed through one narrow passage after another.

Everywhere reeked of cheap perfume and gasoline, occasionally a sour stench wafted by.

The smell here was like a corpse fermenting in perfume.

Lin An instinctively looked up.

Vaguely, he could see some firelight.

It was gasoline or plastic burning together, bringing some warmth to the cold night.

Although Lin An always felt that perhaps the person tending the fire might be choked to death.

Those puffs of black smoke rising up were like the chimney of a crematorium, puffing out ash.

Like a market, the area behind this factory, originally meant for employee dormitories, had been turned into something resembling a shantytown. Haphazardly built tin shacks and tents, like parasites, entwined between the three buildings.

If a fire broke out anywhere, this place would likely instantly become a purgatory.

But it was obvious that the people living here no longer cared about these things.

"Ah~~ah ah!!"

"Ho... ah ah ah!!"

The piercing women's screams mixed with men's panting.

As they went deeper into the area, Lin An frowned slightly; he felt as if the place had rotted, and every 'room' echoed with the sound of bodies colliding.

Various messy underwear hung randomly on ropes and poles. In the corridor, naked women with blank expressions could occasionally be seen standing outside, washing themselves.

"Sir... just ahead..."

"Aodaili... she lives in this employee dormitory."

The voice carried guilt and unease; Anduyin nervously clutched the jar in his arms, gesturing for Lin An to look up at the nearest large building.

"Employee dormitory?"

Lin An couldn't help but glance around, silently repeating to himself.

This place didn't look like a dormitory; instead, it looked more like...

Sensing Lin An's strange gaze, Anduyin hastily waved his hands and began to explain softly:

"Sir, this really is the employee dormitory! It's where the factory workers live!"

"And if you're not a skilled worker, you can't live here otherwise!"

After he finished speaking, Lin An nodded thoughtfully.

Indeed, although this place still resembled a rotting dump, compared to where Anduyin and the others lived, it could be considered a mansion.

Seeing many women along the way, Lin An could guess this was some kind of 'preferential treatment'.

Not long after walking.

Going up the stairs covered in sticky mud, they seemed to have reached the floor where Aodaili lived.

Seeing Anduyin seeming somewhat excited, he didn't bother with the last few steps, clutching the jar as he ran to a room.

"Aodaili! Open the door! It's me!"

"Look what I brought! That person... I also brought them!"

"Bang bang bang!"

He pounded on the door hard, but there seemed to be no response from inside.

Standing behind Anduyin, Lin An flashed a hint of curiosity. Even though they were here, he could still hear women's screams. Occasionally, a man rushing out of a hallway room would clutch his pants, drop a bite of food, and dash downstairs.

However, in just those few seconds, Lin An saw many women waving at him.

In such a chaotic place, what surprised him most was that several children seemed already accustomed to it.

Could she be Anduyin's little lover?

Perhaps because no one answered the knocking, Anduyin suddenly panicked, handed the metal can to a child, and quickly scrambled up to the window on the door to check.

Watching Anduyin so anxious, Lin An easily imagined some deformed 'love' story.

"Prostitute, youth, Apocalypse, grave illness."

He didn't mean to blame anything; children of the Apocalypse often mature quickly.

The next second, as Lin An faintly felt something was off, Anduyin, who had climbed onto the small window, suddenly shouted, jumped down with a bang, and then kicked the door frantically as if gone mad.

"Aodaili!! Aodaili!!"

"Stop! Quickly stop!!"

"Bang!"

The already rust-streaked simple iron door was kicked open violently.

Seeing the door kicked open, Anduyin scrambled in, shouting as he rushed inside.

Inside was dim.

Realizing there might be some special circumstance, Lin An also hurriedly followed to look.

In an instant, aided by the faint light, after seeing the room clearly, Lin An froze.

In the damp room with only a small bed, a little girl who looked even younger than Anduyin was tightly choking an infant's neck.

Her hands were slender like hemp stalks, yet they gripped with the force of steel rebar.

Her numb eyes stared fixedly at the child she was about to choke to death, utterly oblivious to the infant's face turning purplish, its tiny hands feebly struggling.

"Aodaili! Let go quickly! Let go!!"

"Sister, don't! Let go! You'll choke him to death!"

The children swarmed forward; Anduyin's face turned deathly pale as he forced the girl's hands apart, then gasped heavily, still shaken, staring at Aodaili, whom he had pulled away.

Seeing the girl act so wildly, Anduyin felt both anger and sorrow; his lips twitched twice, and only after a long time did he, as if begging, have the children bring the things he had bought.

「Aodaili, I beg you, I beg you, don't do this. 」

The voice choked.

The children nearby also crowded over, flustered, they began to look after the baby.

Standing behind the children, Lin An keenly realized that this kind of crazy act might not be the first time.

Aodaili? Killing infants?