Chapter 824: I Want Revenge

He Yuzhu looked at Ivan and asked, "Those people killed your village; if you run into them, what do you want to do?"

He asked this to see if Ivan had any mettle. If not, he would help him find his family and send him away once there was a result. If he had mettle, he would take him along to practice his skills.

"Uncle He, after finding my family, please take me away; I want to take revenge on the enemies myself."

As Ivan said this, he prepared to walk straight into the village.

He Yuzhu grabbed him: "We don't know what happened in the village; let's sneak in after dark."

Ivan nodded heavily.

He Yuzhu took canned food, drinking water, a large loaf of bread, and sausages out of his backpack and handed them over.

Ivan was already famished; he took them and began to wolf the food down.

After the two finished eating, they dozed for a while. Not until the moon hung high in the sky did they quietly sneak into the village.

Just as they reached the village entrance, a thick, bloody stench rushed toward them.

Most of the houses in the village had been burned; the blackened, broken walls stood under the moonlight, looking very frightening.

"Ah—" Ivan suddenly let out a cry of shock.

He Yuzhu looked back and saw a corpse lying across the ground; it had already decayed terribly, with almost nothing left but white bones.

"This is big Luobu!" Ivan's body was trembling, but tears couldn't stop streaming down.

He Yuzhu walked to his side and patted his shoulder: "Ivan, stay strong. You should have known about these results long ago."

One, two, three... It wasn't until Ivan counted to thirty-four with a hoarse voice that he reached his own doorstep.

He ran into the house like a madman, rummaging everywhere, like a lunatic who had lost his reason.

He checked the rooms, the water well, and the cellar, but still found nothing.

Finally, he sat slumped on the ground, crying wailingly like a child.

He Yuzhu's expression turned cold, and he said: "Check and see if there are any bloodstains in the house."

In fact, He Yuzhu had long since discovered blood in his living room—dried bloodstains.

However, he did not want to point this out himself; he wanted to let Ivan discover it on his own.

Only then did Ivan pick up a flashlight to check carefully, and finally, he discovered the bloodstains.

He Yuzhu asked: "How many people were in your family in total?"

"My parents, and a 14-year-old sister, Sofia."

"The bloodstains belong to two people; someone took the bodies away. Is it possible that one of the three is still alive? Do you know of any other hiding places?"

Ivan thought for a long time: "There is a mountain near our village, and there is a Cave halfway up the mountain. Uncle He, you, you are like a Detective; why didn't I think of that?"

"Let's go, let's take a look," He Yuzhu said.

The two walked out of the village; the surroundings were deathly quiet, and there wasn't a single shadow of a person.

Ivan walked in a hurry, his footsteps chaotic, and he kept asking: "Uncle He, even if someone in my family is still alive, up on the mountain, so much time has passed, they couldn't have survived..."

"Don't be impatient. Wait a while, and you'll know," He Yuzhu said.

Ivan suddenly began to sob: "It's all my fault... I originally wanted to come back to see them last year, but I was busy with work, so I didn't come back..."

The two climbed the mountain for another few minutes.

Ivan felt more and more panicked, his face covered in sweat.

Suddenly, he stopped—on the hillside not far away, two irregular stones stood, with his parents' names written on them in crooked charcoal.

In that instant, Ivan's legs went weak.

He stumbled over, squatted down, and looked at the characters one by one, as if he wanted to carve those two lines of charcoal marks into his eyes.

Afterward, he hugged the stones and finally burst into tears.

He Yuzhu didn't speak; he just stood straight and bowed deeply three times toward the two stones that could hardly be called tombstones.

The wind blew down from the mountain, and he suddenly got something in his eye.

He Yuzhu walked over and helped Ivan up: "Ivan, your sister is still alive; let's go find your sister first. Finding someone who is still alive is more important than anything right now."

Ivan jerked his head up, tears still hanging in his eyes, but they suddenly lit up: "Right, right, she is still alive!"

He Yuzhu nodded.

Ivan stood up with a jerk and wiped his eyes with his sleeve: "Let's go! There is a small Cave on the mountain; my sister knows that place."

The two headed straight for the Cave.

Just as they reached the entrance of the cave, He Yuzhu discovered a large number of footprints nearby, some of which were still quite fresh.

Ivan took a deep breath, his voice trembling: "Sofia, are you still alive? It's me, Ivan! I'm back, don't be afraid!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a girl suddenly ran out of the cave—her hair disheveled, her clothes in tatters, and she was as thin as a sheet of paper.

Ivan recognized at a glance that it was his sister.

Sofia also recognized Ivan; she ran a few steps quickly and threw herself into his arms, her thin, small body shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Ivan hugged her tightly, his voice choked with sobs: "Sofia... what happened... to Mom and Dad?"

Sofia said intermittently in the local language: "A group of bastards... rushed into the village and killed everyone they saw. I was on the mountain at the time because Mom and Dad said they wanted to eat wild ferns... By the time I finished picking them and wanted to go home, I saw them killing people... I, I didn't dare to go down the mountain... Two days later, when I went down, everyone in the village was dead..."

When she said this, her whole body trembled violently.

"So you were the one who buried Mom and Dad on the mountain?"

"Yes, at first, I didn't dare to go down the mountain, but later I was too hungry. I went back home... I carried them to the mountain and buried them."

After a while, He Yuzhu asked softly in English: "Ivan, didn't you have an older sister? What happened to her?"

Only then did Sofia lift her head and glance at He Yuzhu.

Ivan hurriedly said: "This is the father of my best friend; don't be afraid, he came to help us."

"Brother... the village where Sister and the others lived was also slaughtered. Sister, brother-in-law, nephew... they all died."

She paused, as if she had used up all her strength to say the last sentence:

"I had no way to carry her here... so I put their whole family in the cellar."

After hearing these words, Ivan stopped crying instead.

He clenched his fists, his voice sounding as deep as if it were coming from beneath the earth: "Sofia, tell me, where did the people who killed our parents go?"

Sofia shook her head desperately: "They shouldn't have gone far yet; they are still killing people. This is a Serbs settlement area, and they are determined to wipe everyone out... I tried to persuade Mom and Dad to go find you, but they wouldn't listen; they didn't want to leave, and as a result, they ended up like this..."

He Yuzhu said in a low voice: "Ivan, let your sister have a good meal first. Look at how thin she is."

He rummaged through his bag and took out canned food, sausages, bread, and butter, laying them out on the ground one by one.

Sofia stared blankly at the food, as if she couldn't believe it was real.

She had been living on this mountain for over a month; at first, when she was hungry, she would go to the village to find food, but later, when that ran out, she caught snakes and gathered wild ferns, and when she was thirsty, she would go to the mountain spring to drink a few mouthfuls of cold water. By now, her body was extremely weak.

Ivan looked at her, his Adam's apple bobbing hard.

He didn't look at the food, but instead stared at He Yuzhu and said word by word: "Uncle He, I want to take revenge."

He Yuzhu did not hesitate and nodded: "Since I came here with you, I will help you with this."