Gao Ming didn’t believe the voice in the mill or the black donkey.
When he entered the room, he was assaulted by a horrible stench. Animal skins hung by the window. The blood that dripped off the pelts created small pools on the ground.
“What kind of place is this?”
Gao Ming’s eyes watered from the stench. He blinked. He saw ropes and gloves that were used to detain animals on the brick floor. Gao Ming moved away the skin of a sheep when he heard the crying of a child. He had to check multiple times before he confirmed the sound came from inside the sheepskin.
The pelt had a relatively intact head. The sheep’s eyes had been dug out, and the nose was pinched. Water leaked out of the hollow eyes. The stone pillars at the village entrance warned outsiders from speaking with animals. Gao Ming closed his mouth. He thought about it and removed the sheepskin. The skin was previously used to cover up a large wooden table. The surface was covered in knife cuts. This was basically where the owner used to chop bones.
The sheep's head fell over and knocked into the wooden pail under the table. It was filled with bones that had been pared cleaned. Gao Ming touched the table surface. He found a broken needle and some threads in the cuts.
“Why would there be needles and threads here? Did the butcher have to sew the skins back together?” Gao Ming shook the wooden pail and noticed something was wrong. The bones didn’t look like animal bones. “This place might not be an animal slaughterhouse.”
Gao Ming picked up the head and sneaked into the bedroom. He saw harnesses, whips, horseshoes and gags on the floor. The bed was unmade. He pulled back the cover and found a rusted pair of scissors and a large pool of blood.
“Where is the knife?” The harnesses and horseshoes were too small for an adult horse. They were probably for ponies. The items had been modified to fit tighter. Gao Ming opened the dresser. Most of the clothes were men’s clothes. There were a few torn dresses in the corner.
“The eighth of La Month. Bought three sheep from Elder Tang for fifteen copper coins.”
“The fifth of the first month. Madam Xi’s cow has been taken away. He’ll finally learn to listen this time.”
“Li Chun is best for auspicious events like marriages and sacrifices. Ma Ye sold me a donkey. This donkey is good and can eat, ride and pull my stuff. Thirty copper coins are not expensive.”
The handwriting was barely legible. Gao Ming stared at the second entry. The owner used ‘He’ and not ‘it’ to describe the cow. There were many similar examples in the book. He suspected the animals were all humans or Immortal Pharma’s testers.
“Immortal Pharma’s level five tests are very confidential. They can do anything they want here.”
The bedroom door slowly opened. Gao Ming grabbed the scissors in defence. However, what he saw was a donkey’s face. The donkey who worked the mill entered the home. Gao Ming was cornered by a donkey.
The donkey slowly entered the bedroom. When it saw the harness and whip, its eyes turned red. It bit them.
“Were these things used on him before? But it is clearly too big for the harness.”
Gao Ming didn’t dare to anger the donkey. After the donkey had fully destroyed the harness, Gao Ming asked, “I am a tester from Immortal Pharma. Can you understand me?” Gao Ming stopped caring about the warning. He even revealed his identity. He had a thought he wanted to confirm.
Hearing the mention of Immortal Pharma, the black donkey became angered again. Its black nose boiled. It wanted to break down the house, but it didn’t dare to make a large commotion lest it attract some other things’ attention.
Eventually, the black donkey calmed down. It walked to the bed and pulled out a box that had been pried open. It signalled Gao Ming to take a look. Gao Ming hesitantly looked inside the box. There was a half-burned picture book and two copper coins. Gao Ming looked through the picture book, and his pupils trembled.
“This is the nightmare to obtain level five access. It is fully different from what I have imagined. We have figured out some of the rules. The thirteen modification methods used by Immortal Pharma should be hidden here. The different villager houses correspond to different methods. Manager Wang of this meat shop has a good relationship with Butcher Zhu Ren. I might get some information from them. If something happened to me, the tester who is reading this needs to escape immediately!”
“Where does the meat come from? Paperfold Town is connected to many nightmare realms, but I’ve never seen the villagers leave or any outsiders come here.”
“I’ve become Manager Wang’s assistant chef and maid. I’m that much closer to the truth.”
“One day, while Manager Wang was drunk, I heard the name of a key character, Ma Ye. Ma Ye is responsible for delivering all the animals to this town. What is the relationship between all of them?”
The remaining pages were burned. Only snippets could be read.
“They are not animals! They are the other testers!”
“I need to survive, no matter what! I have to escape and tell the others!”
“We’ve been lied to!”
Gao Ming looked at the donkey again. The creature was once a tester like him. The black donkey used its tail to whack Gao Ming. Then, it ran out. It used its hooves to write on the ground, “Modifications.”
“You became due to modification? Is this one of the thirteen methods?” Gao Ming felt like Immortal Pharma was crazy.
“Don’t believe that donkey.” The male voice continued from the mill. “I wrote the thing in the box. I left them for you.”
The black donkey didn’t react. Instead, it put the rope back on and started to work the mill. It licked the blood that flowed out, and it grew larger and stronger.
The village had many homes. The thirteen methods Immortal Pharma derived from the nightmare were hidden here. They used inhumane methods to use the testers as experiments.
“No wonder Immortal Pharma keeps this a secret. The risk is so high.” Gao Ming suddenly remembered the knife mentioned by the man in the mill. He didn’t plan to kill the donkey, but having a weapon by his side was not a bad idea.