The people who are currently occupying the Grand Hotel are either those who booked rooms for vacation or only fled here the day Typhoon Yagi made landfall.
Gu Lin and Ke Xin were part of the first type and those tattooed men were the latter.
The hotel owner was indebted to the villagers for contributing to the profits and kindly let them occupy temporarily the hotel's vacant rooms until the storm passed.
In exchange, they helped the staffs moved the things inside the hotel's warehouse and promised to keep the hotel clean.
The villagers packed emergency food like dried fish, dried lotus, grains, clothing, and water which they shared with the tourists and staffs.
But those tattooed men had appeared out of nowhere, threatened the staffs and looted all the supplies from the villagers, the warehouse and from the vacationers.
Because the network was cut off, there was no way to call for help.
To worsen it, one of these foul men was in a possession of a firearm.
Some of the villagers had tried to resist and were mercilessly killed, including the child's parents.
The villagers fear for their safety could only give up and complied.
Nanzhi now understand why those villagers reacted that way when they saw the Lin Weihao, particularly the guns they hold.
Hungry, wet, and cold, the villagers huddled in their rooms and most of them died from starvation, wound infections trying to scavenge for food, from food poisoning, diarrhea, and from fighting.
Feng Ran's face was dark as the bottom as the pot, "Those guys are so evil! I hoped the heavens struck them with thunder!"
Lin Weihao turned to Nanzhi. Her face was indifferent as usual but for the short time they interacted, he knew she doesn't appear to as different.
There were clanking sounds of pounding metals. Nanzhi shifted her gaze to the direction of the villagers' camp.
The female child heard the sounds too and explained, "Aunties and Uncles are probably working. Those ugly men ordered us to make a large boat and if we don't finish it by tomorrow, they'll harm the children."
Feng Ran was flabbergasted, "They gone too far!"
Nanzhi was silent but her face was shrouded with dark clouds.
"A'ze!"
The female child heard her name being called. She stood up and looked at the direction of the entrance.
Her aunt saw her niece with the strangers and became anxious. "What are you doing there?! Come here quickly!"
A'ze quickly ran to her Aunt but not before thanking their group for the meal.
"Are you crazy? They would have killed you and turned into a soup! Do you want that?"
"But they just gave me food…"
"Don't speak anymore!"
The child's aunt dragged her back to the camp.
Feng Ran rubbed his face. "Ey? Compared to those tattooed men, we're better-looking. I'm not a cannibal. Auntie is clearly judgemental."
Nanzhi listened to Feng Ran. What the child's aunt said was right.
You can never know if the stranger has ill intention or not and being a cannibal doesn't mean you can't have a handsome face.
People can use their looks to commit crime.
She can vouch it from experience.
Because they were out in the open, there were mosquitos everywhere. Nanzhi took out mosquito repellant from her bag and shared it to everyone.
Later, when has free time, she'll also make repellants from scratch. She can used essential oil, vinegar, garlic, coffee grounds, peppermint leaves, witch hazel, and rosemary.
Now that the storm is over, plenty of areas will be filled with stagnant water which will be the mosquitoes' breeding sites and diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever will be a big problem for the survivors especially without a hospital and the ecosystem is disrupted.
Without their natural predators, the mosquitoes' population will increase significantly.
"Miss Lin, you can sleep, we'll take care of the night watch." Lin Weihao cleaned a spot for her.
His eyelids were getting heavy. Feng Ran yawned, "Brother Lin, I'll sleep first, wake me up when it's my shift!"
Bingwen and Lin Weihao were up for the first shift.
Nanzhi felt it was unfair. "Mr. Lin, I will sleep but later I'll also join the join the night watch." This will make her body adapt better in the future.
A minute later, Hei Qian who was just setting his sleeping bag and Nanzhi looked at Lin Weihao lying beside her.
"I suddenly feel sleepy too, Miss Lin."
Feng Ran and the others including Nanzhi were speechless.
….
Nanzhi wasn't the type to dream at night but this night it was different. The events before her dying moments appeared and those hateful people's laughter echoed in her ears.
"If you have handed it over in the beginning, we would have left your corpse intact!"
"Now you only have your stubbornness to blame!"
Extreme pain akin to her organs being scraped by dull blades travelled all over Nanzhi's body.
She awakened in the middle of the dawn, only to find a cold hand on her cheeks, stroking it.
It was Lin Weihao's. Hei Qian and Bingwen had already fallen asleep. On the other hand, Feng Ran was still out cold, snoring.
"Did you have a nightmare Miss Lin?"
Startled by his hand, Nanzhi nodded and sat up, wiping the sweat from her back and scalp.
"You can tell me what it is. I'm all ears." Lin Weihao also sat up and inched closer. His expression was of concern.
"It's nothing." People tend to hide their deepest pain. Nanzhi was no exception.
Lin Weihao was not discouraged. It's alright. I can wait.
Because of the nightmare, Nanzhi couldn't fall asleep, to pass the time, she took out her radio.
The same news was being repeated. There was still no news of the alien beasts or the people awakening mental power.
In the past, such events only occurred after the disasters.
Similar to the measurement of the awakeners' power, the alien beasts' rank is divided into Tiers.
Experts had studied how they came to be.