Chapter 613: 613

Chapter 613 Unfriendly Town

After two days, Zhang Heng and Wendy finally reached their destination .

Gazing at the small town from a distance, Zhang Heng said, “Did your father tell you that he came here to talk business?”

“Yes, he said that before he left . ” Wendy nodded, hesitating before she continued, “Do you think he lied?”

“It’s unlikely . Didn’t you send a telegram to the sheriff here? He did say your father had left . ”

“Okay . ”

“At least it tells us that he has something to do with all this . Let’s head to the town to check it out . ”

As Zhang Heng and Wendy rode on, they passed a crop field that wasn’t growing very well . It seemed the weather was not the only reason that caused the plantation to fail . All the crops were wilting, and the strangest thing was that there was not one farmer around .

Zhang Heng asked Wendy to wait . As for him, he got off his horse, walked towards a house, and knocked on the door . Nobody answered it, and after a couple of times trying, Zhang Heng drew the revolver from his waist, opened the door, and quickly dashed to the side . He waited for a few seconds, but no one came out of the house .

Zhang Heng raised his head, took a quick look at the house, then put away the revolver .

“How is it?” Wendy asked from behind .

“Safe . There is no one in the house,” Zhang Heng said . Unlike the uninhabited town he passed by at the start of this quest, there was no sign of evacuation here . Zhang Heng even saw a half-flipped book placed upside down on the table .

Wooden toys were also strewn all over the ground .

At that time, Wendy had dismounted the horse and walked into the house, “Where has everyone gone to?”

“I don’t know,” Zhang Heng said . He walked around the house but saw no blood, nor was there anything else suspicious .

“Let’s leave . ”

The two then left the farmhouse and closed the door .

Wendy glanced at the nearby fields again and muttered, “How did the crops grow so badly? Perhaps nobody looked after them? I wonder what the annual harvest looks like?”

“I’m afraid not . ” Zhang Heng said, “Have you noticed, other plants along the way are not growing well too . ”

“How did that happen?”

Zhang Heng turned and looked at the well next to him . Scooping a bucket of water from it, he found the water to be muddier than the ordinary well water, and it tasted salty as well .

One sip was all it took for Zhang Heng to pour the rest away . “The water here is polluted . That’s why the plants are not growing well . ” “Do people cause it, or is it natural?”

“For now, I’ve no idea, but the townsfolk should have an explanation . ” Zhang Heng mounted Radish again . “Let’s go . I see smoke coming from the town . I think there should be someone we can talk to . ”

Wendy and Zhang Heng entered the town about a quarter of an hour later . The small town named Bliss looked no different from any other western hamlet of the era .

Although somewhat deserted, there were at least some people living here . Zhang Heng went to the hotel and booked two rooms first . He left his luggage and miscellaneous items too inconvenient to be brought to the room at the lobby . This time, he didn’t let Wendy go alone to ask for more information about the place .

The latter stood at the window and looked at the street below .

“Am I seeing it, right? I feel everyone we’ve met along the way has been all but very hostile

to us . ”

“Really, I’m Chinese . People are very hostile to me no matter where I go,” Zhang Heng said, counting the bullets in his bag at the same time . Meanwhile, Wendy was trying her hardest, convincing him to teach her the right way to fire a gun . In the end, Zhang Heng succumbed to Wendy’s persuasion, finally teaching her everything about shooting, pistols, and rifles . He had to admit, Wendy was indeed quite a talented shooter, not to mention how fast of a learner she was—a lot better than Zhang Heng’s mediocre horsemanship .

Each time they stopped to rest by the road, she would ask Zhang Heng to lend her his gun for some target practice . And she even managed to hunt down two hares for dinner .

“I also noticed the thing that you told me earlier . ”

“I don’t like the look in their eyes,” Wendy said . She saw the woman on the balcony across the street hanging her clothes . The woman hastily retreated into her house, slamming the door and shutting all the windows, giving the most nervous of glances . “Is that an outbreak here? Chickenpox, or perhaps something more terrible like leprosy… When I was born, there was a chickenpox outbreak in the town that I lived in . I heard from my father that they would gather all the sick in one room to prevent them from infecting the healthy . Every day, they would send someone to deliver food and water to them until…” Wendy paused, “…the people inside were all dead . That was no treatment! It was murder . ”

Zhang Heng had also heard all about leprosy, the infamous disease . Let alone the 19th century, countering this disease in the modern-day was still a daunting task . Those living in the countryside were terrified when they heard about this disease . In this era, where medical know-how was still in its infancy, apart from isolation, there was almost no other way to tackle leprosy .

“Be careful . This town is indeed unusual . ”

“We leave as soon as we find my father . So where should we go next?” .

“Let’s look for the sheriff since no one wants to talk to us . But before that, we have to go to the grocery store to replenish supplies . ”

The owner of the grocery store was cleaning the shelves . When he saw Zhang Heng and Wendy walking towards him, he immediately came down the ladder and hung up the closed sign . Within seconds, he, too, like the others, shut and locked the door .

But right before the door latched, a hand-stretched into the crack of the door, blocking it from closing .

“Sorry, sir, we are closed,” the owner said while attempting to close the door with increased strength . However, he wasn’t nearly as strong as Zhang Heng . In the end, the door was slowly pushed open from the outside .

“It seems we are lucky enough to get here before the shop closed . ” Zhang Heng walked into the shop with Wendy before the owner could argue with them .

Leaving with no other options, the owner could only serve them and hoped they would leave his shop as soon as possible . He then wiped away the sweat from his forehead . “Anything I can help you with?”

“I want to buy four… no, six boxes of bullets . ”

“Caliber?”

“Two boxes of 44-40 Winchester, four boxes of 0 . 45-inch Colt long bullets, thank you . ”

“That’s a lot of ammo… going hunting by any chance?” While taking the ammunition from the shelf, the owner reluctantly tried to strike up a conversation with them .

“Are there any hunting grounds around here?”

“Not as far as I know . If you want to hunt, you’ll have to go further . ”

“Well, looks like we won’t be going hunting then,” Zhang Heng said . He then turned and looked at Wendy beside him . “You want some licorice?”

“I’m not a kid anymore!” Wendy frowned .

“It doesn’t mean that you are a child if you like to eat sweets . I know a guy, and I honestly don’t know how old he is . Anyway, he is older than anyone you have ever met . He has a sweet tooth, and he can devour all kinds of sweets like a bottomless pit . ”

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