Blood trickled continuously from the car’s hood, dripping onto the ground.
For a moment, Xie Xishu found himself completely unable to move. He could only stand beside the car door, watching Qi Wu devour what used to be his deskmate—now a monster—until nothing was left.
Most of the boy’s body had disintegrated into a tangled mess of red, fleshy noodles, resembling a meat sauce—like spaghetti sauce, right? Except real spaghetti wouldn’t be as thick as a human arm, nor would it writhe and coil, rapidly dissolving another person’s corpse into a slurry that could be swallowed whole.
The sounds of mucus, soft flesh, and the monster’s mouthparts greedily chewing blended together, forming a nauseatingly wet noise.
Xie Xishu felt as though his soul had been violently split in two. One half was trapped inside his trembling body, paralyzed by fear and completely at a loss for what to do next. The other half floated far above, like an indifferent observer, coldly watching everything happening to him.
After finishing off the “Cheng An” monster, which was about the same size as him, Qi Wu’s body—half of which had turned into tentacles—swelled to nearly twice its original size. The tentacles began to pulsate, writhing like exposed intestines.
Seeing this, Xie Xishu finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
Then he vomited uncontrollably.
*
By the time Xie Xishu had finally calmed down, quite a bit of time had passed.
Qi Wu had barely managed to return to his human form.
Xie Xishu vaguely sensed the boy standing not far from him for a moment.
If he hadn’t known Qi Wu’s personality, Xie Xishu would have thought he was hesitating.
A few minutes later, Qi Wu’s footsteps slowly approached Xie Xishu.
Before that, Qi Wu had expressionlessly returned to the car, rummaged through the supplies they had collected from the supermarket, and found a bottle of mineral water.
He twisted off the cap and handed the bottle to Xie Xishu.
When the bottle touched the side of his hand, Xie Xishu’s fingers twitched.
But after a few seconds, he sniffled and took the bottle.
“Done puking?”
Qi Wu, with his arms crossed, stared at Xie Xishu gulping down the water before speaking stiffly.
“Mm.”
Xie Xishu wiped his face and responded quietly.
Because of how violently he had been vomiting, his nose and eyes were red, and there was a faint wetness around the corners of his eyes from the shock. He looked utterly worn out and pitiful.
Qi Wu suddenly felt like he caught a whiff of a bittersweet fragrance again… even though he had just eaten, and every cell in his body was overflowing with energy, he inexplicably felt a dry thirst in his throat. The “tongues” hidden within his body began to stir restlessly.
Ah, it must be because of the tears.
Qi Wu thought irritably.
Given the current situation, since Xie Xishu had shed tears, wanting to lick the corners of his eyes was completely normal…
Yes, perfectly normal.
*
On the next stretch of road, Qi Wu and Xie Xishu abandoned the old car.
Part of it was because the already worn-out engine had completely broken down after Cheng An rammed into it twice. It wouldn’t start anymore.
The other reason was that, after the battle between Qi Wu and Cheng An, the car’s interior was now nothing short of a blood-soaked mess. The passenger seat was corroded and contaminated by Cheng An’s saliva, and the front windshield had been shattered beyond repair.
The entire car reeked of rotting flesh. Even Xie Xishu, let alone the mutated Qi Wu, couldn’t possibly sit in it again.
Fortunately, they were not far from Qi Wu’s house, and since the villa was located in the suburbs, there were fewer monsters wandering around here. Even when strange shapes occasionally rustled in the roadside bushes, upon sensing Qi Wu’s presence, they would scurry away like rats.
Clearly, the monsters here hadn’t gone through the brutal survival of the fittest that plagued the city center, so they weren’t as aggressive.
This gave Xie Xishu a small sense of relief.
“Otherwise, why do you think I brought you home with me?” Qi Wu coldly said as he carried the supplies they had gathered. “If you went back to your high-density home in the city center, you wouldn’t even make it upstairs before that group of monsters tore you apart and ate you.”
Xie Xishu had been walking with his head down, lacking energy, following closely behind Qi Wu. But at that moment, a slight tremor passed through his heart, and a huge question mark flashed in his mind.
How did Qi Wu know he lived in a high-rise?
Oh, right—this was the same person who had sent a phone to his home to threaten him.
It had only happened recently, but perhaps because of the overwhelming stress, his sense of time had become distorted. Now, thinking back on it, it felt so distant, as if it were from a previous life.
“Thank you,” Xie Xishu said softly. After a brief pause, he added, “You’ve protected me many times. Thank you.”
Qi Wu heard the soft voice beside him and twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing a faint smile. But the next moment, he suddenly stopped walking.
“What’s wrong?”
The boy looked at Xie Xishu suspiciously.
“Why do you look so drained… Wait, you’ve got a fever.”
Qi Wu easily detected the familiar scent on Xie Xishu’s body—after a fever, his rising body temperature made his fragrance even more intense and humid than usual.
“Damn.”
Qi Wu cursed.
Xie Xishu raised his hand and touched his forehead with the back of it, his face turning paler than before. Normally, having a high fever before a big exam would be troublesome enough, but in their current situation, a fever could be deadly.
Qi Wu snatched the plastic bags from Xie Xishu’s hands. Even though they only contained light snacks like chips.
The intoxicating fragrance that Xie Xishu’s fever had amplified, which was like a potion to monsters, began to faintly disperse into the air.
Qi Wu’s expression darkened instantly.
He could already sense that in unseen corners, those irritating monsters were beginning to follow the faint scent, unconsciously trailing behind them.
“What a bother… Ugh, whatever. Get on my back, I’ll carry you.”
As he spoke, Qi Wu, carrying the bulging plastic bags, turned his back to Xie Xishu. He squatted slightly, offering his broad back to the boy.
Xie Xishu’s body stiffened a little.
“No, that’s not necessary.”
His voice was hoarse as he instinctively refused, “It’s just the early stages of a fever. I’m not that weak yet. I can still walk—”
But before he could finish speaking, the boy interrupted him.
“You can either climb up on your own, or I’ll tie you up and carry you.”
Qi Wu turned his head slightly, his voice cold as ice.
Xie Xishu’s throat tightened.
After half a second of silence, he awkwardly stepped forward and climbed onto Qi Wu’s back.
The mutated boy’s body temperature seemed much higher than that of a normal person, and even in the midst of his own fever, Xie Xishu found the body beneath him to be shockingly hot.
“…Hold on tight!”
As if completely unfazed by Xie Xishu’s discomfort, Qi Wu used his tentacles to firmly bind Xie Xishu’s legs and waist. Then he commanded again.
After a brief pause, he added, “If you don’t hold on tight, and a monster grabs you from behind later, I won’t bother chasing after you.”
Xie Xishu gripped Qi Wu’s shoulders a little tighter than before.
Oddly enough, though he’d had fevers before, the moment he was on Qi Wu’s back, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion washed over him like a tidal wave, something he had never experienced.
In the end, Xie Xishu simply gave up resisting and completely relaxed, letting his whole body slump against Qi Wu’s back.
The muscles on Qi Wu’s back seemed to twitch slightly.
In this position, with every breath Xie Xishu took, his nose filled with Qi Wu’s scent. Eventually, it felt like that smell was seeping into his body. The gentle bouncing of Qi Wu’s body as he ran only made Xie Xishu’s thoughts drift further away.
“Qi Wu.”
“What?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you have a terrible temper…”
By the time he realized it, Xie Xishu had accidentally voiced the thought in his heart.
Qi Wu’s steps didn’t falter at all.
“Oh, of course,” he replied indifferently. “But anyone who dared say that to my face has already been thrown into the river.”
Xie Xishu: “…Huh?”
Suddenly, Xie Xishu felt much more alert than before.
Fortunately, the next second, Qi Wu continued speaking, “I’m kidding. It’s a law-abiding society now. Even if my crazy family held a meeting, they wouldn’t let me go to jail just after turning 18.”
It was clear that Qi Wu had heard many rumors about himself.
Back in Nanming Third High, both the teachers and students privately believed that Qi Wu was destined to walk the path of crime and end up in prison someday.
As time passed, the sun slowly began to set. The sunlight was no longer as harsh, and the air had cooled slightly.
A soft breeze brushed across Xie Xishu’s cheek, and even the bloody stench left by Cheng An seemed to fade somewhat in that moment.
For some reason, Qi Wu suddenly began talking about his family.
“Oh, my family… Yeah, they’re all lunatics. Mental illness runs in the family, no one can help it, not even a deity. We couldn’t walk the straight and narrow even if we wanted to, so we have to resort to shady stuff.”
“The only advantage, I suppose, is that they’re all afraid of dying, so we have plenty of supplies stocked up.”
“My old man is a brainless moron, running on instinct alone. But I figure he’d probably like you—he’s an idiot who loves smart people because he’s not too bright himself.”
“I’ve got a few siblings. Hmm, don’t worry about them. They’re just a bunch of idiots my dad left behind. Annoying as hell.”
“In short, they’re all weak, greedy, and dumb. Try to avoid them so you don’t catch their stupidity. Oh, by the way, that old fool made plenty of enemies when he was younger. He’s so scared someone might show up for revenge that he moved us to this godforsaken place to live…”
…
Under the cover of dense tree shade, a cluster of villas came into Xie Xishu’s view.
They had arrived at Qi Wu’s home.
Contrary to Qi Wu’s earlier description of it being in the middle of “nowhere,” it was actually a luxury villa area located in the outskirts of the city.
The meticulously maintained plants and the exquisite architecture clearly indicated that this was an expensive neighborhood. Around the community stood a circle of ornate iron fences, suggesting it was a gated community with strict security measures.
Moreover, since most of the residents here were quite wealthy, each household also had their own robust security systems. According to Qi Wu, it was rare to hear of anyone in this neighborhood falling victim to the flu epidemic that had ravaged City A.
“Heh, most of the people living here have probably committed some unspeakable deeds. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so scared of death,” Qi Wu had once remarked about his neighbors.
Logically speaking, the people living here had a much higher survival rate compared to the common folk in the city. However, as they approached the gate of the community, without needing to say a word, they could both sense the ominous atmosphere hanging over the area.
A deathly silence enveloped the community.
The only noise was the faint, weak beeping of an alarm.
The delicately designed security booth had long since collapsed, with broken glass scattered in the dried-up pool of blood.
Several corpses were nailed above the dark, sturdy gates of the community, their heads dangling as flies buzzed around them.
Each corpse had only a thin layer of skin and flesh left, with their internal organs completely hollowed out. Not much meat was left behind, as the creature that had attacked them seemed to have a peculiar preference for organs.
The corpses swayed slightly in the breeze, their heads hanging down.
Flies and other insects had not passed up the chance to lay eggs in the warm, moist cavities of the bodies. Clusters of fly eggs filled the eye sockets, nostrils, and slightly parted mouths of the corpses, with some even overflowing.
Qi Wu had already put Xie Xishu down by this point, and the two stood at the gate of the community, looking at the scene before them. Xie Xishu’s stomach churned once again.
Unconsciously, he grabbed onto Qi Wu’s dangling wrist. The latter had no expression on his face.
“Qi Wu?”
“…Let’s go in.”
Qi Wu gripped the boy’s hand in return, his strength so great that he nearly hurt Xie Xishu. But Xie Xishu said nothing.
The iron gate, which once required strict verification to enter, now stood wide open.
Xie Xishu followed closely behind Qi Wu as they stepped into the community, step by step. Suddenly, there was a harsh creaking sound behind him. Startled, Xie Xishu spun around, only to see Qi Wu, using his bare hands, roughly bend the already deformed metal gate back into shape and forcefully close the gate.
At some point, Qi Wu had also removed the corpses hanging from the gate and placed them on the ground.
As soon as the gate shut, the piercing, irritating alarm finally ceased. However, in its place, an even worse stench of rot rushed toward them.
The stench mixed with the scent of the blooming flowers in the community, making it even more unbearable than a simple foul odor.
There weren’t too many bodies along their path—some were already unrecognizable, likely the remains of creatures that had ventured into the community to feed, only to be killed by something even stronger and more brutal. Others were just ordinary humans, dressed in fine clothes, lying face down in dried blood.
However, without exception, their internal organs had also been devoured clean, leaving only soft outer shells.
The beautiful roads of the community were stained with blood, making the ground sticky underfoot. This caused their footsteps to sound particularly loud as they walked.
At the center of the community—what one might call the “king of the buildings”—Qi Wu stopped.
“This is… my home.”
He stood at the entrance of the villa, his voice hollow.
*
Xie Xishu covered his mouth.
He couldn’t say a word.
Several bodies were piled on the driveway of the villa. Right in front of him, Qi Wu approached the pile and turned over the corpses. Then, standing in the twilight, Qi Wu stared expressionlessly at the bloated, slightly decomposed faces for a while.
“These… are my dad’s business partners.”
Qi Wu muttered softly, as if talking to himself.
Then he slightly tilted his head, following the trail of blood on the ground with his gaze, which led to the entrance of the villa.
A long bloodstain stretched from the direction of the doorway to the pile of bodies.
In the villa’s lavish foyer, bloodstains and claw marks were visible on the marble floor. Xie Xishu could easily imagine the scene of these people, covered in blood, desperately crawling out of the house in terror, only to die.
It made him feel worse than ever.
Hand in hand, Qi Wu led Xie Xishu slowly into the villa.
Fortunately, they didn’t see many more bodies inside—at least not on the first floor.
However, on the second floor, the walls and carpet were soaked with blood.
Almost every room bore deep signs of battle, as if someone had nearly carved through the walls.
Blood. Blood everywhere.
All the high-end furniture had been overturned and shattered, leaving the place in complete disarray.
The air was thick with the stench of decaying blood in the heat.
Qi Wu dragged Xie Xishu from room to room, opening the doors of each family member’s bedroom and then closing them again.
Finally, at the end of the second-floor hallway, Qi Wu took a deep breath before slowly opening the door to a small room. But just as quickly, he slammed it shut again.
His figure staggered slightly, and if it weren’t for Xie Xishu holding onto him, it looked like he would have collapsed to the ground.
But in the next second, Xie Xishu wondered if that had been his own illusion.
Qi Wu stood with his back straight, steady, his face seemingly covered by a thin mask, revealing no trace of emotion.
“Nothing worth looking at, it’s just the maid at home. Maybe she was too scared, so she decided to end it herself.”
Qi Wu glanced at Xie Xishu and explained.
But then, as if talking to himself, he muttered softly, “Her name was Aunt An.”
“She really liked students like you guys, who are useless except for studying, and her soup was quite delicious.”
…
Compared to the pale, panic-stricken boy, at this moment, Qi Wu seemed as calm as an outsider in this house.
However, when Xie Xishu met his gaze, he felt as if an invisible hand had tightly clenched his chest.
“Qi Wu…”
“Come on, it’s nothing, the world’s already in an apocalypse, even I’ve turned into this mess. It’s only natural something like this would happen here too… Damn, what’s with that look on your face? You look like you’re the one with the surname Qi.”
Qi Wu continued to mutter non-stop.
It wasn’t until he noticed Xie Xishu’s gaze that he tilted his head and abruptly stopped talking.
Then, he forced a smile, giving a small grin to the boy beside him. It was one of the few smiles Qi Wu had ever shown, and it was also the ugliest smile Xie Xishu had ever seen on his face.
“…It’s really no big deal.”
Qi Wu’s facial muscles were tense, his eyes dark and hollow.
“All the bodies we’ve seen so far are outsiders. My old man and a few siblings are nowhere to be found. For all we know, they’ve already turned into monsters and are out there chewing on someone’s skull by now—tsk tsk, they weren’t good people even when they were normal, so I imagine they’re ruling the area after mutating. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“…”
“You should worry about yourself instead. You’re burning up this much—tsk, this crappy house can’t shelter anyone now, so it looks like you’re destined to sleep in the garage tonight. Just so you know, it’s not my fault; it’s purely your bad luck—”
At that moment, Xie Xishu suddenly, without control, raised his arms, then, with all his strength, tightly hugged the tall boy in front of him.
Qi Wu’s voice abruptly stopped.
“Qi Wu…”
The fever had sapped all of Xie Xishu’s strength, and his mind was muddled, as though filled with mush.
Even though he had given everything he had, his lips moved for a long time, but he couldn’t squeeze out a single comforting word.
The only thing he could do—or rather, wanted to do—was what he was doing now, hugging Qi Wu as tightly as he could.
“It’s okay,” he murmured repeatedly into Qi Wu’s ear, saying the same lie he himself couldn’t believe, “Everything will be okay. Everything will pass.”
Qi Wu didn’t say anything, but a few seconds later, he suddenly hugged Xie Xishu back.
With the difference in their size and strength, the frail, feverish boy was almost pressed deep into Qi Wu’s body.
“Everyone is dead.”
“Mm.”
“I didn’t expect even the scum in my family couldn’t escape this damn mutation.”
“Mm.”
“I never really had feelings for them, anyway.”
“Mm.”
“…I guess I only have you left, Xie Xishu.”
It was probably an illusion, but at that moment, Qi Wu heard a sound from his throat—a low murmur that was almost like a sob.
“Really, you’re the only one left.”
This time, Xie Xishu didn’t respond.
Yet, the sweet, warm scent continued to waft from Xie Xishu’s soft, pale skin under the fever’s heat, slowly enveloping the mutated monster in the hallway that had begun to hunch down and tremble uncontrollably.
In Qi Wu’s world, that was the last, and also the only, comfort.
__
Author’s Note:
Well… actually, our little seme… after all, he’s still a young high school student…
