This may have been the most terrifying moment in Xie Xishu’s life—even when “Teacher Li” mutated and started slaughtering, there had at least been some time to react.
[We’ve been discovered—]
Xie Xishu’s heartbeat was so fast it felt as if it might burst out of his chest. He could already picture the impending carnage.
However, in the next second, the woman with the heads suddenly turned the opposite direction, pressing her blood-soaked mouth against the other side of the pharmacy’s ceiling.
The intestine-like organ that had been squirming around was caught in her jaws and pulled into the inside of the skull.
“Crunch—crunch—”
The sound of chewing came from inside the swollen head, but Xie Xishu could see clearly that its throat, having decayed so severely, had already torn apart. After chewing and swallowing, a lump of soft, shapeless dark red flesh mixed with filthy blood and corpse fluid was forced out from the gash in its neck and fell with a “splatter” onto the floor.
The head wobbled slightly, and despite the corpse’s features being stiff and rotting, in that moment, Xie Xishu felt as though he could detect a trace of confusion and impatience on its face.
“Wrong, wrong!”
Sure enough, the head then pressed its face against the ceiling again, sniffing around.
The cracked, outward-turned lips quivered, and a sharp, furious hiss emerged from deep within its throat.
“Wrong, this isn’t the smell, not this, not this, not this—”
Even though the head-carrying woman was so close that she was barely half a meter away, it was as if she didn’t notice Xie Xishu hiding in the corner at all. The two decaying heads wandered aimlessly, and the swollen purple tongue protruded from their mouths, licking at the sticky residue left on the ceiling by that “intestine.”
Something at the corner of Xie Xishu’s eye was swaying slightly.
It was Qi Wu—or, more precisely, Qi Wu’s “tentacles.” The tongues, which Xie Xishu had always remembered as wet, slippery, and sticky red, now resembled real sea anemones, clustered together, slowly wriggling and swaying in the air.
The “taste buds” that had once covered the surface of the tongues had transformed into countless tiny, flickering spots, large and small. Together, they formed stripes that appeared completely random and meaningless to Xie Xishu. At this moment, those stripes were rotating and flickering continuously.
In contrast to his earlier silent stealth, Qi Wu now appeared almost dazzling.
Yet despite the head-carrying woman’s excellent night vision (as Xie Xishu had just witnessed her precisely snatching a small insect from the shadows of the shelf with the tip of her tongue), she seemed completely oblivious to Qi Wu and the tightly-bound Xie Xishu.
The spots indeed seemed to have some sort of concealment effect against the monster that Xie Xishu could not understand.
However, while the visual disguise was effective, Qi Wu couldn’t completely hide Xie Xishu’s scent.
This was evident from the fact that the woman with the severed heads had not withdrawn and left; in fact, one of the heads was slowly inching towards their direction.
“They’re here, I know someone is here, I can smell them, I can feel them! Right here!”
The decaying head screamed.
And with each scream, Xie Xishu’s heart trembled.
[We’re going to be discovered.]
[We’ll definitely be discovered.]
That premonition was so strong that Xie Xishu was nearly suffocating. If it weren’t for Qi Wu tightly binding him within his own body using his “tongue,” and the fact that Xie Xishu was thoroughly immobilized by the thin strips of flesh coiled around his wrists and ankles, he might have already surrendered to his instincts and tried to escape while screaming.
In fact, his premonition wasn’t wrong. After what felt like an eternity, the swollen head of the woman carrying the heads had crept up right in front of Xie Xishu.
Xie Xishu could already see the damp, oozing corpse fluids seeping from the decayed skin.
Her nose had long since disappeared, leaving only a large, dark hole.
But she was definitely sniffing heavily.
“So fragrant…”
Suddenly, the monster let out a faint, moaning murmur, as if speaking in a dream.
Xie Xishu froze completely.
The boy’s back was pressed tightly against Qi Wu, and at that moment, he could feel the guy behind him transform instantly. Xie Xishu was extremely grateful that he didn’t have to turn around and see what Qi Wu looked like in his fully inhuman form.
The “tongues” swaying in the dark suddenly stopped moving.
The patterns on their surface turned into sharp, thin black lines.
Xie Xishu felt… it was some kind of preparation for an imminent attack.
*
Time suddenly became incredibly slow.
Xie Xishu held his breath, anxiously awaiting the inevitable fight.
But just then, a sudden, jarring noise erupted from the heavy darkness outside the pharmacy.
[“Mom!”]
It was a childishly innocent voice, so out of place that both the woman with the heads and Xie Xishu instinctively turned their heads to look towards the source. Outside the pharmacy, a drone hovered in the air, its faint buzzing filling the air, and beneath it hung a cellphone. The phone’s screen was lit, continuously playing a recorded video.
[“Mom, Mom, I love Mom the most…”]
In the video, the protagonist was a child, no more than three or four years old, barely able to speak properly. Her eyes were wide and shiny like black grapes, and her clothes were clean and tidy, clearly cared for with great affection by her parents.
At that moment, she was looking up, babbling towards someone off-camera.
Her words were filled with the natural affection a child has for their mother.
Then a woman’s warm voice, unable to suppress her laughter, sounded from the video.
[“Nannan is so good, Mom loves Nannan the most too!”]
After that, a man playfully interjected with a laugh.
[“Oh? What about me? Nannan, you love Mom the most, but what about Dad?”]
The girl, confused by her parents’ teasing, bit her finger in bewilderment, her face full of distress as she pondered in the video.
[“Dad… Daddy, Nannan loves Daddy too.”]
The video was ordinary. The child was cute, but only in a typical way. The filming was unremarkable, something any parent would have in their phone—a simple record of daily life.
And yet, this simple video completely captivated the woman with the heads.
Even though she had already locked onto the maddening scent of her prey, the monster abruptly pulled back her hand. Her long arms, stiff like a zombie’s, stretched forward.
The rotting heads she held were now staring unblinkingly at the cellphone beneath the drone.
“Nannan… Nannan…”
After a long pause, she suddenly let out a hoarse, garbled mumble.
Then, with a completely different kind of speed, the woman charged forward, crashing into numerous shelves in the pharmacy in her frenzy, wildly lunging at the drone.
At that moment, the drone lifted higher, carrying the phone still emitting the same sounds, and quickly flew into the distance. The woman let out an enraged howl and, without hesitation, chased after it, vanishing into the dark night outside.
As the woman’s figure and presence gradually faded, Xie Xishu felt something loosen around him.
Without having time to react, he was already falling with a wet squelch, landing on the floor along with Qi Wu, wrapped in a mass of sticky flesh.
Of course, thanks to the “tongue,” Xie Xishu didn’t hit the ground hard, but Qi Wu’s condition made his nerves tense.
“Qi Wu?”
Xie Xishu struggled out from the squishy mass and stood up, calling out tentatively.
The room was too dark. He could only vaguely make out Qi Wu’s collapsed form, countless slender shadows twitching slightly as they spread out around him. It seemed as though they were trying to retract back into Qi Wu’s body but couldn’t manage to do so.
Moreover, Qi Wu’s breathing was particularly labored and heavy.
“Are you alright?”
Xie Xishu’s heart skipped a beat.
“Tch, I… I’m fine.”
Qi Wu’s voice came a moment later than expected.
“It’s just another fully developed one, the visual interference took a bit more effort, that’s all.” After a brief pause, the boy added inexplicably, “I’m fine. No need for you to worry.”
But Qi Wu’s shadow shifted slightly toward the deeper corner of the pharmacy while he spoke.
— As if intentionally avoiding letting Xie Xishu see what he looked like now.
Xie Xishu couldn’t help but frown slightly.
“Are you sure you’re really okay?”
He asked again, but this time he received no response from Qi Wu.
“Qi Wu?”
…
At that moment, a sudden noise came from outside the pharmacy.
Having just been frightened by the woman with the severed heads, Xie Xishu felt his scalp nearly explode. He quickly turned to look out the door and saw a figure hesitantly lingering outside, taking a few steps back and forth, as if finally gathering the courage to stick their head out.
“Hey, um, that student, you… you’re still human, right?”
The person spoke in a trembling voice, low enough to avoid detection, likely due to overwhelming fear, with the end of their words shaking.
Xie Xishu froze for a moment.
*
It was a haggard-looking middle-aged man wearing glasses. The voice sounded vaguely familiar.
When speaking to Xie Xishu, he deliberately raised his hand to show that he was holding a knife. But it was just a kitchen knife, and combined with the man’s pale and frightened expression, it honestly didn’t carry much intimidation.
“You are human, right? I saw you and another boy coming from the direction of San Zhong.”
Seeing Xie Xishu momentarily silent, the man didn’t know what to think and started shaking even more. His questioning sounded less like an inquiry and more like he was trying to reassure himself.
From his demeanor, it was clear that, like Xie Xishu, this man was also uninfected.
After experiencing a hellish day, finally encountering another human being, especially an adult… Xie Xishu thought he would feel quite happy, but somehow, thinking about Qi Wu’s sudden silence, he hesitated before responding.
“Yeah, I’m human, I haven’t mutated.”
Xie Xishu replied quietly, but he didn’t move.
“Ah, that’s good, that’s good.”
The man sighed in relief, but his expression remained tense, frequently glancing towards the distance, where the drone had disappeared. His other hand was tightly gripping a remote control.
If he guessed correctly, the drone earlier had been sent out by this man.
“Um, thank you for saving us.”
Xie Xishu hurriedly expressed his gratitude.
But after hearing this, the man’s expression turned somewhat bitter.
“…It was nothing.”
He swallowed hard.
After a pause, he suddenly tensed up again: “Forget about that, while she isn’t back yet, you two need to run. Find a place to hide quickly; after nightfall, these monsters will become extremely agitated and crazy, much more dangerous than during the day. Remember, you must find a good hiding spot before dark, don’t linger outside!”
From this speech, the man clearly had some understanding of the monsters. Xie Xishu’s heart stirred; he was about to ask more information when suddenly, a distant, faint explosion echoed from afar, sounding like an electronic device blowing up.
Xie Xishu and the man were both startled.
The next moment, the man suddenly looked down at the remote control in his hand, his face turning even paler.
“—Run!”
He raised his head to look at Xie Xishu, his eyes filled with fear.
“You must hide well, don’t, don’t let these monsters find you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the man dashed towards a camper van parked by the street like a frightened rabbit.
The area around the camper was cluttered with several overturned cars, the smell of gasoline heavy in the air, resembling wreckage left from a car accident. Without this man, Xie Xishu wouldn’t have thought anyone could still be inside the camper.
At the moment the man opened the door, Xie Xishu vaguely saw a little girl inside, curiously peeking out through the gap.
Her eyes were dark, innocent, and clear.
As the man jumped into the camper, he pressed his hand over the girl, pulling her into the darkness. When he closed the door, he glanced back at Xie Xishu one last time.
As the man fled, Xie Xishu instinctively followed him to the pharmacy door. The dim moonlight fell down, making the boy look especially frail and pale, filled with terror. Seeing Xie Xishu like this, the man’s eyes showed a hint of struggle, but ultimately, he didn’t invite Xie Xishu inside; instead, he cautiously closed the camper door.
Afterward, he made no more sound.
Everything happened very quickly.
Xie Xishu didn’t even have time to react; he could only watch as the door of the survivor he had finally encountered abruptly closed.
An oppressive silence and terrifying darkness once again enveloped Xie Xishu. The joy of seeing an adult and a survivor hadn’t even faded from his heart when, in the next moment, a strong sense of helplessness crashed over him.
Qi Wu had suddenly gone quiet.
The man, overwhelmed with fear, could hardly provide protection for anyone else—yet the man’s terrifying warnings still echoed in Xie Xishu’s ears.
Once night fell, the monsters would become even more frenzied than during the day.
But now their hiding spot had been discovered by that woman with the severed heads.
That kind of monster could return at any moment.
Would he really have time to escape?
…
“What are you spacing out for at a time like this?”
At that moment, a hand suddenly reached out from behind Xie Xishu.
Qi Wu pulled Xie Xishu close, coldly asking, “Disappointed that that guy didn’t want to take you with him?”
The boy tilted his head, looking at Xie Xishu with a mocking glare.
