Wilderness Redemption Tour

After walking a few steps, Lin Yan saw a relatively gentle slope in front of him. The four of them went down this slope smoothly and landed on the riverbed of Dewberry Creek.

Charles dismounted and knelt on one knee. He first observed the soil in the riverbed closely, then grabbed a handful of soil and rubbed it, then put his fingers that had rubbed the soil to his nose and smelled it.

"This river is not completely dry, it should be a seasonal river." Charles judged by the soil in his hand.

"Indeed." Arthur nodded, agreeing with Charles' point of view, and then added: "Looking at the width of the river, if you live near here when it rains, the situation must be very bad."

"Let's go upstream and see if there's any suitable place to set up camp."

Others naturally had no objections. When passing the mill on the river, Lin Yan curiously stared at the wooden building for a few more times.

Mills were too far away from the time when Lin Yan lived. Not to mention the water-powered mill in front of him, he had only seen the most common mills in modern rural areas that used livestock to pull the millstone in movies and TV shows. However, he still knew a little about the working principle of the water-powered mill.

The mill in front of us looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. The waterwheel, which was more than one meter tall, had become dilapidated and obviously could no longer work.

There are traces of dams in the river next to the mill. Lin Yan speculated that the owner of the mill wanted to maximize the use of the mill so that it could work normally even in the dry season. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Perhaps it was the long-term depletion of water resources that directly led to the abandonment of the mill.

After walking about 1 kilometer forward, some green plants began to appear sporadically in the river. Going further, some small puddles appeared in everyone's sight.

"quack..."

The sound of birds chirping not far away attracted everyone's attention. Lin Yan, like everyone else, looked towards the place where the sound came from.

In the middle of the river ahead, several ravens were standing on the riverbed pecking at the corpse of some animal. Arthur, who was walking in the front, saw it most clearly. He said in a deep voice, "It's a human..." Then he sped up to the corpse, dismounted and checked the cause of death.

"It's a gunshot wound. He's been dead for a while." After just a quick look, Arthur determined the cause of death and the approximate time of death.

Lin Yan rode on his horse and glanced at the corpse on the ground from a distance.

The body was a male, about 30 years old. Judging from the depth of the blood on his clothes, he was shot in the chest. Because he had been visited by the raven, his eyeballs were gone. The black eye sockets and the terrified expression on his face made him look particularly creepy.

After just one glance, Lin Yan looked away. Although he had begun to get used to the feeling of killing people, he still didn't dare to look at the body that had been abused.

In order to forget the scene just now, he moved his eyes quickly, trying to let the different scenery around him cover the scene he just saw.

Suddenly, a white spot beside the river attracted his attention. He looked closely and found that it seemed to be a piece of white cloth. Next to the white cloth, there were a few scattered wooden racks.

"Look over there!" Lin Yan pointed in the direction he was in and shouted, "Is there a camp over there?"

Charles drove his horse a few steps over there, and only when he saw the outline of a tent did he say with certainty, "Yes, it's a camp!"

Hearing that there was a camp, Arthur drew the pistol from his waist and called out, "Everyone get off the horse, let's go over and take a look."

The four men left their horses where they were and, led by Arthur, tiptoed towards the unknown camp.

On the way, Arthur spoke again and gently reminded: "Be careful, no matter what happens, shoot first."

"I only shoot people who try to attack me." Charles replied sullenly.

Arthur was not at all displeased by Charles's rebuttal.

"Okay, you can decide whether to shoot or not, but be careful."

As he slowly approached the camp, the white cloth that Lin Yan had just seen also revealed its true appearance, a corner of the top of the tent. The entire camp was built in this relatively narrow tributary of the river, and its entire appearance could be seen at a glance. There were two tents in the camp, and the interior of the tent was a little messy, but there was no trace of people, no corpses, and no bloodstains.

"It's empty." Arthur lowered the muzzle of his gun slightly and issued another order: "Confirm the surrounding situation again."

Taking this opportunity, Lin Yan observed the camp closely.

The entire camp looked like it had just experienced a tornado. Blankets, chairs, and tableware were thrown on the ground at random. There was a bonfire in the middle of the two tents, but someone covered it with a piece of wood. There was still a faint smoke coming out of it.

The body in the river had not been dead for long, and the deliberately covered bonfire had not been completely extinguished, which meant that the camp had just been looted. Lin Yan reasoned silently in his mind based on the current situation.

While Lin Yan was enjoying the reasoning process, Charles followed the traces on the ground and stood in front of the only carriage in the camp.

The carriage was surrounded by high fences, with barrels and wooden boards scattered about on the sides.

He held onto the carriage fence with his right hand, stepped on the shaft with his left foot, exerted a little force, raised his body and took a look inside the carriage.

Arthur noticed Charles's actions and asked casually, "Did you find anything?"

"No, there isn't."

Although Charles said no, his hand pointed to the wooden board next to the carriage.

Arthur immediately understood what he meant, and when he came over to check, he pointed his gun at the suspicious place.

While reasoning, Lin Yan discovered some children's clothes scattered in the tent. At the same time, he also noticed some small footprints on the ground, which were different from adult shoe prints.

Following the footprints, he also focused his attention on the carriage. Seeing Arthur raise his gun, he also raised the muzzle of his gun.

Among the four people, only Sadie climbed up the river bank and looked around. After turning around for a while and finding nothing, she wanted to see what the men had found, but she saw them all gathered around a carriage.

Charles jumped off the carriage and quickly moved the wooden board that was sticking to the carriage.

After the wooden planks were removed, there were several wooden boxes at the back that tightly blocked the bottom of the car.

Charles and Arthur looked at each other, and when Arthur nodded slightly, Charles turned sideways and carefully moved the top wooden box a gap.

From the gap, the barrel of a double-barreled shotgun trembled and stretched out, but the other party did not pull the trigger immediately.

Realizing that the other party had no ill intentions, Charles simply moved the top wooden box away.