Qiu Shi rarely feels fear. For a corpse collector who grew up outside the city, anything that could be seen, touched, and killed, whether human or otherwise, was not frightening.
But this Xing Bi, who could be seen and touched and probably could be killed given the opportunity to control him now, made him feel fear.
Xing Bi was someone he was willing to trust, his only support in this unknown environment when facing danger. Most of the time, he didn’t deliberately think about Xing Bi’s identity. Unlike Zhang Qifeng and others, who clearly categorize Xing Bi into a different group, one that existed for humans, with physical abilities far superior to humans, a tool.
Xing Bi was “more like” a person than many others.
But now this first-level hidden guard, exuding a suffocating killing intent, was unfamiliar.
Qiu Shi could feel that his fear was mixed with despair.
The kind of despair when Xing Bi turned from a “person” back into a “tool.”
But he didn’t have time to ponder why this was happening now. His long-term sensitivity to danger makes him instinctively judge that, right now, within a range of no more than three hundred meters, there was something other than him and Xing Bi.
Although it was uncertain if this thing was the reason for affecting Xing Bi, it definitely wasn’t friendly.
Qiu Shi touched his arm and opened the map. This mission-based communication map had already truly disconnected from Yun City. The map function still worked, though it provided no terrain or route hints, but it could indicate suspicious targets.
As soon as the map was activated, Qiu Shi saw two bright spots.
Bioroids.
Less than a hundred meters away, on the left side.
The left side was a mountain; these things could only be hiding among the rocks and trees.
The target was most likely Xing Bi.
Qiu Shi didn’t hesitate. He kicked Xing Bi’s body, flipping him face down, then pressed the gun to the back of Xing Bi’s neck.
“I don’t care who you are or what you want.” Qiu Shi grabbed Xing Bi’s collar and dragged him towards the car from the mountainside, “If you don’t get lost in two minutes, I’ll shoot.”
Xing Bi was quite heavy when completely still. Fortunately, Qiu Shi had dragged him once before when he pretended to be drunk, so he was mentally prepared, but Xing Bi’s face still hit the rocks twice.
The two bright spots moved a small distance and then stopped again.
“Can’t understand human language, huh?” Qiu Shi fired a shot into the muddy ground next to Xing Bi’s neck. The bullet made a muffled sound as it burrowed into the mud, and the gunshot echoed among the rocks.
“One and a half minutes.” Qiu Shi stood with one foot on Xing Bi’s shoulder, still aiming the gun at Xing Bi. He looked up in the direction of the bright spots and said, “He can only live in my hands. If you leave for any reason, both of you will die. One minute.”
“Thirty seconds.”
The bright spots started to retreat up the mountain, moving quickly.
“Get lost!” Qiu Shi shouted in that direction, “Get lost, get lost, get lost!”
Even after the bright spots disappeared from the map, Qiu Shi still aimed his gun at Xing Bi.
Five minutes later, Qiu Shi shouted towards the silent mountain forest: “Get lost!”
He moved the gun away.
“Xing Bi,” Qiu Shi squatted down, holding his head and turning his face towards him, “say something.”
Xing Bi remained silent. Qiu Shi didn’t know how to get Xing Bi back to a normal state, and he wondered if this restricted state would cause any harm to Xing Bi.
All he felt was a chilling coldness emanating from Xing Bi.
“Damn you, Xing Bi,” Qiu Shi cursed, leaning closer to meet his eyes, “make some noise! Count! Sing ‘Happy Birthday’!”
Xing Bi looked at him coldly.
“Do you remember your mission?” Qiu Shi drew a knife from his boot and said, “Your top priority is to protect my safety.”
“Any harm you receive that can threaten me,” Xing Bi suddenly said, his voice calm and cold, “will prevent you from reaching your destination.”
The excitement Qiu Shi felt when Xing Bi finally spoke dissipated almost instantly.
“I know.” He understood what Xing Bi’s response meant; no matter what kind of injury he received, it wouldn’t bring back the old Xing Bi.
So he didn’t plan to try anymore. He moved the knife to the back of Xing Bi’s neck: “If you don’t wake up, I won’t reach the destination either; it’s all the same.”
He held the blade, leaving only the tip exposed, and then suddenly stabbed downward. The tip pierced the back of Xing Bi’s neck.
Black liquid oozed out.
Xing Bi’s pupils contracted sharply at that moment. Before Qiu Shi could pull out the knife, Xing Bi had already raised his arm and flipped up, his knee slamming into Qiu Shi’s chest.
Qiu Shi was knocked to the ground, with Xing Bi’s knee pressing down on him, causing a strong sense of suffocation and a field of golden flowers before his eyes.
Trying to provoke Xing Bi ended up breaking the control system?
What kind of substandard control system is this?
But Xing Bi didn’t kill him immediately. For whatever reason, Qiu Shi seized the opportunity, perhaps only a fraction of a second, raised his left hand in a fist, and pressed down hard.
Xing Bi paused, his eyes suddenly becoming a bit confused. The strength in his knee pressing on Qiu Shi’s chest disappeared, and he collapsed onto him.
Qiu Shi quickly pushed Xing Bi off himself, grabbed his jaw, and turned his face: “Xing Bi!”
A few seconds later, Xing Bi spoke: “Here.”
“Have you woken up? Come back to your senses.” Qiu Shi slapped his face, “Answer me!”
“Control released,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi stared at him. Although the Xing Bi in front of him seemed a bit indifferent, much like when he first came out of the transition box, the killing intent had begun to dissipate.
Qiu Shi hadn’t released the control; he couldn’t afford any more mistakes.
He rummaged through his bag and found the steel cables used by the swamp nomads to bind Xing Bi earlier, and he tied Xing Bi’s hands and feet. Xing Bi couldn’t break these; he had previously undone the locks on the steel cables.
To prevent Xing Bi from moving, and since the cables were limited in length, Qiu Shi tied Xing Bi in a kneeling position. It looked a bit miserable, but it was better than another accident.
“I don’t have time to wait for you to fully recover,” Qiu Shi said to him, “Bear with it.”
Xing Bi said nothing.
Qiu Shi grabbed an axe and went to the mountain side, cutting a pile of vines. He wrapped the vines around an inflatable frame he had just taken from the car, making a simple cart, then used several thick vines to connect the cart to the motorcycle.
“I’m telling you,” Qiu Shi said, dragging Xing Bi onto the cart and securing him with vines, “the agency wouldn’t give us a car before. When we collected bodies, we dragged them like this.”
Qiu Shi mounted the motorcycle and looked back at Xing Bi: “Let’s go.”
Although the road here was close to the mountain, it was still smoother than the one near Cloud City because there was more soil than rocks. Plus, with the inflatable cushion below the frame, it was relatively smooth overall.
Before the cushion was worn out, Xing Bi, lying on the frame, wouldn’t suffer too much.
As the motorcycle moved forward, Qiu Shi kept an eye on the rear, wondering if he should contact Li Feng for some information.
But he wasn’t sure about the situation on that side now. If he got in touch and was bombarded with questions from Zhang Qifeng, Colonel Xu, and others… He didn’t plan to let them know about Xing Bi’s anomaly. There was no one he could trust among them.
He could only wait for Li Feng to contact him.
After driving for almost an hour, Qiu Shi saw a landslide area with a pile of rubble ahead, probably the road Xing Bi mentioned.
“Is it that road ahead?” Qiu Shi asked, turning his head.
“Yes,” Xing Bi replied, his face buried in the sleeping bag.
“Are you now…” Before Qiu Shi could finish his sentence, he heard a dull “bang.” The cushion, which had been constantly rubbed and bumped, finally burst.
He had to stop the bike, cut the vines with his knife, and remove the frame.
“Xing Bi?” Qiu Shi pushed the prone Xing Bi into a side-lying position, looking at him, “Say something?”
Xing Bi silently looked at him. After a while, he finally said: “That gesture.”
“Hmm?” Qiu Shi frowned.
“Just do it directly,” Xing Bi said, “no need to specifically raise your hand.”
Qiu Shi was stunned.
“If I wanted to kill you,” Xing Bi said, “the time you took to raise your hand would be enough for you to die eight times.”
Qiu Shi looked at him for a long time, then suddenly laughed: “You’re exaggerating a bit.”
Xing Bi smiled without saying anything.
“Are you back to normal?” Qiu Shi asked.
“No,” Xing Bi said, “I suggest you drag me up the mountain.”
“It’s you.” Qiu Shi pinched his jaw, checking left and right. The black marks on his neck were already gone.
“Hmm,” Xing Bi responded.
Qiu Shi struggled for a long time before he managed to untie the steel cables from Xing Bi’s hands and feet.
Xing Bi turned over, lying on the frame, and let out a gentle breath.
“Your neck…” Qiu Shi said.
“It’s fine.” Xing Bi stood up.
“What just happened…?” Qiu Shi didn’t know how to start, “Do you remember?”
“I remember,” Xing Bi said, “Let’s talk after we get up the mountain. It’s not safe here.”
Qiu Shi didn’t know what he meant by not being safe. The map before them was very clear, showing nothing, not even ordinary wild animals.
But now that Xing Bi had returned to the state Qiu Shi was familiar with, he chose to trust Xing Bi’s judgment.
They packed all the things from the car into their backpacks, one for each person. If they couldn’t find other means of transportation, they would have to walk the rest of the way.
“Can we hunt on the way?” Qiu Shi asked, following behind Xing Bi.
“If you can’t carry the cans, you can put them in my backpack,” Xing Bi said.
“…I’m just asking.” Qiu Shi said.
“There are no animals to hunt around here,” Xing Bi said, “There are many nomads by the river.”
“Hunt nomads?” Qiu Shi was stunned—a bit shocked.
Xing Bi turned to look at him: “Did you hit your head?”
It took Qiu Shi two seconds to realize, and he couldn’t help but laugh: “Damn.”
This path up the mountain wasn’t really a path. It was just that a landslide had once pushed down the trees here, leaving a slightly wider passage.
But that was, who knows, how many years ago? Now trees had grown back, just a bit sparser. For Xing Bi, he probably didn’t need a path, just a landmark.
Facing this kind of terrain that sometimes required using both hands and feet to climb, Qiu Shi felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, like returning to life outside the city.
But thinking of life outside the city now reminded him of the brothers who were being monitored, of Hu Xiaoling, whose life and death were uncertain…
It wasn’t until Xing Bi, ahead, suddenly changed direction, turning right from beside a rock into a dense forest with almost no path, that Qiu Shi snapped out of his thoughts and shouted in a low voice, “Xing Bi?”
“This way,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi let out a breath, quickly walked a few steps, and followed.
This forest was much denser than the one beside Yun City. So far, this part they had passed through was still smooth, with no anomalies and no signs of large-scale infections like nests.
They struggled and climbed forward for a while longer. Qiu Shi slipped for the second time and knelt on a rock.
Probably because one side was near the river and the other side was a swamp, and the forest was dense, the rocks exposed were all covered with slippery moss.
Xing Bi extended his hand in front of him.
“No need,” Qiu Shi said.
Xing Bi didn’t bother arguing, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up: “Aren’t we in a hurry anymore?”
“If you didn’t have any problems, we wouldn’t need to rush so much,” Qiu Shi said.
Xing Bi didn’t respond.
Qiu Shi regretted saying it as soon as he finished, but after the recent experience, he still hadn’t gotten Xing Bi’s answer. His mind was in turmoil, and he couldn’t think of anything to say to smooth things over.
“I’m sorry,” Xing Bi said.
“…I don’t blame you,” Qiu Shi glanced at him. The back of Xing Bi’s neck was clean now, with only an unhealed knife wound left, “I know it was… an accident.”
“I can’t really call it an accident,” Xing Bi said.
Just as Qiu Shi was about to speak, Xing Bi pushed aside the grass on the left, revealing a small hole just big enough for the two of them to crawl into.
“It’s still here,” Xing Bi said, “This is the place.”
“…What is this place?” Qiu Shi looked at it. The hole was low, and the forest was too dense to see inside.
“Get in,” Xing Bi said.
“Are we going to crawl in there and talk? It’ll be hard to turn around, and the one going in second will be at a disadvantage…”
Before he could finish, Xing Bi had already crawled in.
“F*ck your ancestors!” Qiu Shi had no choice but to grit his teeth and follow him in.
He couldn’t see anything, only following the sounds Xing Bi made as he crawled inside.
“One, three, five, seven…” Xing Bi started counting.
“What for?” Qiu Shi asked.
“To let you know, I’m still me,” Xing Bi said.
“Mm,” Qiu Shi responded, not stopping him.
Xing Bi counted to fifty-three before stopping, then Qiu Shi heard a “click,” and Xing Bi lit up a small outdoor lamp, about the size of a finger.
When the area lit up, Qiu Shi found that after passing through that narrow, rocky passage, they had reached a cave large enough to set up a dining table.
“It’s safe here.” Xing Bi sat down against a nearby rock wall and hung the small lamp in his chest pocket.
“That,” Qiu Shi pointed at the lamp, “put it somewhere else; it startled me.”
Xing Bi smiled, took the lamp, and hung it on a nearby backpack.
Qiu Shi also sat down, leaning against the rock behind him, looking at Xing Bi.
The half of Xing Bi’s face illuminated by the lamp still showed two small cuts from being dragged on the ground.
“How are you feeling now?” Qiu Shi asked him.
“Not bad.” Xing Bi looked at his own palm.
“That black stuff,” Qiu Shi said, “it had reached your neck earlier.”
“It’s fine; it got there a while ago.” Xing Bi looked at him, his voice low, “There are symbionts following us.”
“Was it when you wanted to go up the mountain?” Qiu Shi asked immediately, “The map shows two suspicious targets.”
“Mm,” Xing Bi nodded.
“Can they… control you?” Qiu Shi’s mind was quickly running through the events.
“I can feel it,” Xing Bi said, “since the first nest.”
“When you touched those things with your hand?” Qiu Shi asked.
Xing Bi smiled at him: “You’re often more perceptive than you seem.”
“Do I seem very obtuse?” Qiu Shi asked.
“The quality of the refugee school’s chapel is really poor,” Xing Bi said with a smile.
“So, you could already feel it back then, right?” Qiu Shi asked, “I never found the right opportunity to ask you.”
“But the feeling wasn’t very clear,” Xing Bi said.
“What kind of feeling?” Qiu Shi moved closer and sat in front of him.
“Very chaotic, like…” Xing Bi glanced at him and said, “I could hear the voices in their heads.”
“What the hell…” Qiu Shi was stunned, “Them? Not just one person?”
“Not just one person,” Xing Bi said.
“And then? They called you to go up the mountain, and you just went?” Qiu Shi asked.
“I don’t know about these things,” Xing Bi said, “My feeling was like I was back in the hibernation pod.”
Qiu Shi looked at him.
“I couldn’t hear, couldn’t see,” Xing Bi said, “trapped in my own thoughts.”
Qiu Shi couldn’t imagine that feeling, only felt suffocated. He wanted to say something but found he couldn’t, feeling that whatever he said would be meaningless.
“What did you see?” Xing Bi asked him.
“I think…” Qiu Shi thought for a long time and couldn’t find a better description. He looked at Xing Bi and said, “I think you looked like you were formatted, restored to factory settings.”
“Really,” Xing Bi’s voice was very low, “then I know what they want.”
“What?” Qiu Shi asked.
“They’re recycling,” Xing Bi said, “those former Level One hidden guards.”
The word “recycling” made Qiu Shi feel a chill on the back of his neck: “Who are they?”
“I don’t know,” Xing Bi said, “there are always people who want to control the world.”
“Was Deng Yeye sent by them?” Qiu Shi frowned.
“No, Deng Yeye wants you,” Xing Bi said.
“Fascinating,” Qiu Shi said.
Xing Bi didn’t speak.
Qiu Shi also fell silent.
“Are you hungry?” Xing Bi suddenly asked.
“I don’t know,” Qiu Shi said, pressing his stomach, “I haven’t had time to think about it.”
“Let’s eat something, rest a bit, and then go,” Xing Bi said, looking in another direction of the cave, “If we go through there, we can get to the other side of the mountain.”
“Is this a tunnel through the mountain?” Qiu Shi took out a can from his backpack and opened it.
“Part of it was an underground river, a long time ago,” Xing Bi said.
“How long ago was ‘a long time ago’?” Qiu Shi asked while eating.
“A time long before I know,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi laughed, “That could be counted as a legend.”
Xing Bi didn’t speak.
Qiu Shi quickly finished the can, reached out to wipe his hand on Xing Bi’s pants, but hesitated, looking at Xing Bi.
Xing Bi was also looking at him.
So, he wiped his hand on Xing Bi’s pants: “Earlier, when I wanted to wipe on you, you suddenly walked away.”
“Do you have a psychological shadow now?” Xing Bi asked.
“How could it be that easy to have a shadow?” Qiu Shi said, “I was just telling you.”
“Okay.” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi wiped his hand on his pants a few more times, took out a bottle of water, and drank half of it, then asked: “Xing Bi, are you afraid?”
“No,” Xing Bi said.
“Then your settings are still wrong,” Qiu Shi said, “Humans are all cowards, afraid of everything.”
“Were you scared just now?” Xing Bi asked.
“Of course, I was scared.” Qiu Shi looked at him, “Were you really not scared when you couldn’t hear or see?”
Xing Bi was silent for a moment, “In that case, I was.”
“Were you also scared when you were in the hibernation pod?” Qiu Shi asked.
“Different,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi thought for a moment, “You were afraid that you were not you.”
“I was afraid that there was no me,” Xing Bi said.
