Since they had to play hide-and-seek with a ghost, the group could no longer stay together.

Song Yuelin's group that started with a total of seven people, was now left with five.

After summing up the experience and rules, everyone finally chose to go their own way for the sake of life. Each person hid alone within a limited range, who will be found and who will survive to the end all depended on their own skills.

The area near the commercial vehicle was the first place where the ghost appeared, and with two people already dead, they decided to stay away from it.

Song Yuelin went in the opposite direction but after making sure everyone was far away, he returned to this area. After hiding every evening, he would return and sleep in the commercial vehicle at night.

Everyone thought that this was the ghosts’ lair and was the least safe, but the most dangerous place was actually the safest.

According to Song Yuelin, the ghost doesn’t search the vicinity of the commercial vehicle carefully.

Today was already the fifth day of their game of hide-and-seek.

By the time Song Yuelin finished speaking, they had returned to the vicinity of the commercial vehicle again.

Ji Mingxia looked at his mobile phone. It was already 4pm, only an hour before dusk.

Song Yuelin had been hiding in the forest for many days and had already gained full experience. After preparing all the equipment he should use, he started the commercial vehicle. He connected a plug from the car, plugged in a small electric stove, took out a mini milk pot and poured water in it. 

He waited for the water to boil before taking out a piece of red and yellow meat, cut it into thin slices and threw them in. When the meat was cooked for about seven minutes, Song Yuelin skillfully sprinkled in various seasonings.

The milk pot was small and the electric stove had good power, so in just five minutes or so, Song Yuelin had finished cooking a delicious meal.

A strange and rich meat aroma slowly wafted out from the milk pot.

Song Yuelin cooked very quickly and Ji Mingxia was some distance away from him so there was no way to see the whole thing. But from what he saw, Song Yuelin put in pepper, salt, grated carrots and some seasonings during the cooking process.

The peppers removed the fishy smell, the carrots were sweet and the salt added flavour.

The fragrant and warm aroma of the stewed food was simply too good not to notice in this cold forest.

When the meat was cooked, Song Yuelin turned off the electric stove and set aside his knife and fork as if he were eating Western food. He then took out a black pepper seasoning bottle and ground it on the spot, seasoning the meat with black pepper.

He finished all this and looked up to see Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning looking at him. Song Yuelin smiled and said: "I am a food blogger and cooking is my best skill. However, conditions are limited right now so I can only make do with what I have."

Ji Mingxia cheered, "As expected of a professional, I didn't expect you to have jerky, it looks quite unique."

"It's horse meat, I originally wanted to make it for everyone when we had a barbecue at the Quanzhuang." 

Song Yuelin saw Ji Mingxia looking at the meat in the pot and he cut off a small piece of meat, saying to Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning, "Do you want to come and try it?"

Ji Mingxia froze for a moment; for a moment, he did want to eat hot meat.

But he wasn't stupid. How could he accept Song Yuelin's food under such circumstances.

"No, thanks." Ji Mingxia said respectfully, "Do you want to try our food?"

"I have enough meat to fill me up." Song Yuelin also rejected Ji Mingxia, then said, "Let's eat quickly, hiding from the ghost takes a lot of energy, you can't survive without eating enough."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and ate his food with great gusto.

Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning were well prepared for this trip. Their backpacks were full of food and just the snacks that Yu Ning had prepared for Ji Mingxia were enough to fill a large bag. Yu Ning was carrying them and at this moment, they were all taken out and placed in front of Ji Mingxia.

Although Song Yuelin's meat smelled good, the food that Yu Ning had prepared for Ji Mingxia was also good. He brought out sandwiches, milk, and dried fruit to relieve the fatigue after the meal.

In the blink of an eye, more than half an hour passed. As soon as Song Yuelin finished eating, he grabbed his things and headed for the bushes.

After walking for a moment and realizing that Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning had not followed him, he hurriedly turned back and said, "What are you still doing, hurry up and come over. I've seen this whole area and the only hiding place is this way. There is a place in front where the grass is thick enough to hide people, everywhere else is very dangerous."

After saying that, he carefully took his hiking stick, pushed the grass away and walked deeper in the bushes.

Ji Mingxia turned to look at Yu Ning for his opinion, and Yu Ning whispered, "Let’s follow him."

Ji Mingxia was instantly relieved, and the two carried their things and slowly followed.

Song Yuelin had opened the way, and Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning only needed to walk the path he had taken.

He was right, the further in you went, the more lush the grass and trees became.

Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning were about thirty meters away from Song Yuelin as measured by their physical senses, but because they were separated by layers of trees, they had already lost sight of him. Even the sounds he made ahead of them were so small that they could not feel his presence unless they pricked up their ears and listened carefully.

As they walked, Ji Mingxia couldn't help but lower his voice and say to Yu Ning, "Are we really going to hide with him? I feel like he's brewing some kind of conspiracy ......"

Yu Ning also lowered his voice, "The ring covers a large area, finding someone in this forest is like finding a needle in a haystack. We might not find the other party even for a month if they decided to hide. Following this Song Yuelin will give us more clues."

"So what he just said was true?" Ji Mingxia said.

He could tell that something wasn’t right with Song Yuelin but there was no way to dig out more secrets based on the available information. Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning with some curiosity, almost as if he couldn't wait to know Yu Ning's analysis.

"Half true, half false, what he said about the ghost and the hide and seek rules is mostly true, but there are logical gaps and the details have been altered a lot." Yu Ning said this, and paused briefly, "Also, we've found a second person."

"A second person?" Ji Mingxia looked around in surprise, "You saw someone else? Where did you see them?"

"We both did." Yu Ning said.

The look on his face was serious and it gave Ji Mingxia a bad premonition, "Is the second person ...... already dead?"

The ones known to have died so far were a man named Shi Wei and another named Lu Liang.

It didn’t sound like Yu Ning was talking about those two.

Ji Mingxia struggled to remember.

According to Song Yuelin's words, there was a Zhou Li and Meng Xingyi named.

Judging from the names, Lu Liang and Shi Wei should be male, while Zhou Li and Meng Xinyi are female.

Together with Song Yuelin and Li Youzi, Ji Mingxia counted a total number of six people.

It was a seven-seater commercial vehicle, and there was one person who was not named for the moment. Ji Mingxi guessed that the person Yu Ning was talking about was already dead, but it wasn’t the unnamed seventh person.

In addition, the odds of it being Li Youzi were low, as she had the ring in her hand.

Ji Mingxia said: "That means ...... the deceased is likely to be Zhou Li or Meng Xinyi? Both are girls ......but we haven't seen any females on this journey."

Let alone females, there was no trace of any female-related items.

Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning in confusion, completely unable to understand how he had surmised the result.

Yu Ning whispered, "The piece of meat that Song Yuelin cooked was bright red in colour and yellow in fat."

Ji Mingxia nodded, "Mmm, he said it was horse meat."

They lived in the south and had never seen horse meat before, let alone eaten it.

Mammalian meat contains myoglobin, which causes the meat to be red in colour, and although Ji Mingxia had never seen horse meat, he knew that horses were mammals and there should be nothing unusual about that meat.

"Most mammals are able to break down the carotene in their bodies very well and convert it into vitamin A, which has no colour. So most of the fat we see in pigs, cows and horse meat is white in colour." Yu Ning said, "Humans can't convert the carotene in their bodies very well, and the carotene that doesn't get broken down settles on the fat ...... so generally speaking, only the meat of humans will show red meat interspersed with yellow fat."

Ji Mingxia stared blankly at Yu Ning, and all that flashed through his mind was Song Yuelin's every move as he skillfully cooked earlier.

The aroma of the cooked meat still lingered in his nose, and Ji Mingxia felt a chill run down his back. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he almost vomited.