Xie Xishu stood at the door, his expression confused.
The tendrils that Qi Wu had separated from his body were held in his arms, motionless as if they were asleep.
Qi Wu shuddered.
That feeling was very strange. As the mutation deepened, after many transformations, it had become difficult for him to feel emotions like fear, which were considered weak. But at this moment, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of dread.
He hadn’t noticed Xie Xishu’s arrival.
Not at all.
A cold chill crawled up his spine like a many-legged insect.
He instinctively covered the phone screen with his palm.
But the next second, he heard Xie Xishu continue in a puzzled voice, “…You’ve been staring at that broken phone for so long, did you find something new?”
“?”
Qi Wu felt something was off.
He looked at Xie Xishu at the door in surprise. The young man’s exceptionally pale face, in the dark, resembled a slowly blooming night-blooming cereus, his smooth skin faintly glowing from within.
Xie Xishu seemed to have completely ignored the corpse on the bed and didn’t see the screen of Qi Wu’s phone either.
He only stared at Qi Wu with a slightly concerned look.
Perhaps because Qi Wu remained silent, Xie Xishu continued explaining.
“The phone has been broken for a long time. Even if it weren’t, there shouldn’t be anything useful on it. My mom stopped using that phone a long time ago,” he explained patiently.
Then, Xie Xishu cast a suspicious glance around the bedroom.
“Did you find anything else?”
Qi Wu instinctively followed his gaze back to the bed, and what sent a chill down his spine was that he saw a neatly made, clean bed.
If it weren’t for the edge of the phone digging painfully into his palm, Qi Wu might have even thought that the two decomposing, liquid-leaking corpses he had seen earlier on the bed were just a hallucination.
However, when Qi Wu carefully examined the bed again, he noticed that dark patterns in the fabric seemed to move like living creatures.
When he looked down at his phone again, he realized that the screen had darkened completely, and the metal edges of the phone had slightly deformed, likely because he had unconsciously gripped it too hard.
“Qi Wu?”
Xie Xishu slowly walked closer.
“Are you… alright?”
Then, he leaned slightly forward and asked gently.
His lips looked moist and soft, and his pearly white teeth gleamed.
His breath, as always, was sweet and alluring.
“Your tendrils, they suddenly look very lifeless…”
Xie Xishu frowned slightly, his concern and worry appearing so real.
“I… I’m fine.”
Qi Wu stared blankly at the young man. After a long while, he hoarsely spoke.
“How did you wake up so quickly? Didn’t I tell you to rest properly?”
Xie Xishu, hearing this, let out a light, youthful laugh.
“I couldn’t sleep. I kept feeling uneasy.” He paused for a moment before his voice became excited. “Then, I suddenly remembered that my dad, when he was younger, used to mess around with radios and transmitters because he was always working with geology and was bored out in the wilderness.”
“Ah…”
A man’s scream suddenly echoed in Qi Wu’s mind.
He realized that Xie Xishu’s father was actually in this room… not far from them.
But was that real?
Or was it just an illusion in his mind?
Qi Wu suddenly felt uncertain. He realized he could no longer clearly remember everything he had just seen.
His breathing began to speed up involuntarily.
Then, his lungs filled once again with the familiar, enchanting fragrance of Xie Xishu.
At the moment he inhaled that familiar, captivating scent, Qi Wu couldn’t help but shiver lightly.
He realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t convince himself that Xie Xishu was the source of all the tragedy.
That he was a creature more pure and terrifying than him.
How could that be?
In fact, just thinking about it made Qi Wu tremble. He could feel his body, and even his soul, resisting such suspicions about Xie Xishu. His love for Xie Xishu should be pure, passionate, and flawless—after all, Xie Xishu had accepted his love even when he had become a monster.
And he should repay him with the same enthusiasm and purity.
“Qi Wu, you really look a bit off now. Are you going to mutate again? Or are you feeling unwell…?” Xie Xishu’s voice grew anxious.
He hesitated for a moment before adding, “If you need something, I mean, if you want to ‘eat’ something, I’m already rested…”
Qi Wu’s heart tightened as though something had grabbed it.
After mutating into a monster, almost everyone would experience a certain degree of mental change. In simple terms, their thought patterns would gradually depart from those of normal humans, becoming bizarre, paranoid, and mad. And from the video earlier, it seemed Xie Xishu’s mother had mutated even earlier than anyone in City A.
The truth of what she said was highly questionable.
A cold voice inside him analyzed it dispassionately.
After considering this, when Qi Wu thought back to the hesitation and fear he had sensed from Xie Xishu earlier… that feeling made his veins constrict with disgust and shame.
Thank goodness, the lighting in the room was very dim at that moment, dim enough for Xie Xishu to not see his current expression. Moreover, Xie Xishu didn’t seem to be concerned with Qi Wu’s distraction. He directly took Qi Wu’s hand and led him out of the bedroom, heading straight for the storage room.
With the remaining few candles in the room and Qi Wu’s exceptionally good night vision as a monster, Xie Xishu quickly found a radio among the clutter in the storage room. From both its appearance and weight, this radio was far more professional and of better quality than the one they had found in the supermarket’s break room.
Qi Wu stared at Xie Xishu’s profile, watching the young man seriously tuning the radio that had accumulated a lot of dust over the years. The side of Xie Xishu’s face was as elegant and pale as always, his skin still exuding warmth, and his slender fingers were the most perfect human features Qi Wu had ever known.
How could Xie Xishu not be human?
How could he be the monster that twisted people’s hearts, as revealed in the woman’s video?
…
“Great, it’s still working! It’s still working. Let me adjust the frequency, maybe we can pick up broadcasts from other areas. I wonder if other regions have been affected…” Xie Xishu asked, but then seemed to notice Qi Wu wasn’t paying attention. “Are you listening, Qi Wu? Qi Wu!”
Xie Xishu waved his delicate hand in front of Qi Wu’s face.
Qi Wu snapped back to reality and met Xie Xishu’s clear, dark eyes.
Xie Xishu was staring at him intently, holding the radio, with visible confusion in his gaze.
“What’s going on? This is the first time I’ve seen you so distracted.”
By the end of his words, the young man looked somewhat anxious.
“Did you discover something again?”
He asked in a soft voice, holding his breath.
Qi Wu sensed the rising anxiety emanating from Xie Xishu.
“Ah, no… I’m just… a bit…”
Qi Wu’s lips moved, stuttering out a response that made no sense.
He shouldn’t have been like this.
Just seconds ago, he had even thought about honestly telling Xie Xishu everything, including the bodies on the bed, the video the woman left behind. But as soon as he looked into Xie Xishu’s eyes, he found that he couldn’t even form a single coherent sentence.
He didn’t know how to start.
And that impulse to confess everything vanished like a spark falling into ice-cold water.
But at this moment, anyone could feel that Qi Wu’s abnormal behavior had turned the atmosphere in the room heavy and strange. Xie Xishu’s gaze became even more confused as he looked at Qi Wu.
The air felt thick and sticky, as if it had turned into a viscous gel, making it hard to breathe.
“I…” Qi Wu finally couldn’t hold back and murmured.
At that moment, the once silent radio suddenly emitted a buzzing white noise, startling both of them.
Then, as if it had unintentionally tuned into a certain frequency, the white noise gradually stabilized, slowly forming a voice distorted with severe static, but still somewhat recognizable.
“…This is the national emergency broadcast… We have just received a shocking global emergency message… At 17:13 tonight, Country A detonated a nuclear bomb at the nuclear power station located in… zzzz… This measure was taken to contain… zzzz… the mutation outbreak… zzzz…”
“zzz… Since the crisis began, Country B has been a major disaster zone… zzzz… The number of mutated individuals has sharply increased, and traditional isolation and control methods are no longer effective in curbing the spread of the epidemic… zzzz…”
“A spokesperson for the government of Country A stated that this was a difficult but necessary decision… zzzz…”
The voice on the broadcast had a very distinct accent, clearly indicating that the message was not being broadcast from mainland China.
However, both Qi Wu and Xie Xishu could clearly capture the message being transmitted.
Xie Xishu’s face turned pale instantly.
“Nuclear explosion…”
The latest information made Qi Wu’s earlier strange behavior seem trivial in comparison.
Xie Xishu gasped for breath, yet still felt a strong sense of suffocation.
“They nuked Country B… My dad… My mom… They’re all there…”
“They’re all there.”
The young man mumbled incoherently, his tone drifting.
“Didn’t they say it would be safer abroad?”
“Why… why is no one left in A City… they’re still…”
“Is it fake? Maybe someone deliberately used the radio to spread fake news? Do you think so, Qi Wu… It must be, right?”
…
Xie Xishu’s pain was so real.
Qi Wu stared unblinkingly at the boy, feeling as though he could almost touch the immense fear and sorrow spilling from the depths of his soul.
“Why are there mutations abroad too? Why is it so bad that they had to use a nuclear bomb?”
At this point, Xie Xishu, overwhelmed by sadness, could no longer stand steady. He clung tightly to the radio in his arms, shivering as he leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down to the ground.
“Has the whole world become like this?”
Qi Wu heard Xie Xishu’s confused murmuring.
“They’re all dead, aren’t they… Can they survive? What should I do? Can I go find them? I… I… what am I…”
Tears, as clear as crystals, began to fall from Xie Xishu’s eyes, sliding down his ghostly pale cheeks.
Although it was extremely wrong, in that moment, Qi Wu found himself unable to control his gaze, which lingered on the tear.
His Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.
…
“Qi Wu, I’m so scared… ugh… what am I supposed to do from now on?”
In that instant, an indescribable shiver spread through Qi Wu’s nervous system. Since watching the video, as a monster, he had been uncontrollably expanding his perception, carefully capturing every physiological trait and reaction from Xie Xishu. And now, he acutely felt Xie Xishu’s helplessness and vulnerability in this moment.
He’s so pitiful.
He couldn’t help but think.
And it’s so good.
The joy, utterly despicable in the eyes of human morality, surged through Qi Wu’s veins like a hot flood, making him feel almost delirious with the ecstasy.
He greedily gazed at Xie Xishu by his side, finally realizing where the complex emotions he had felt earlier, upon seeing the two corpses on the bed, came from.
Does it really matter whether Xie Xishu is human or a monster, the instigator of everything or purely a victim?
After severing the ties called “parents,” Xie Xishu’s only remaining support… or perhaps the person he could control, was him.
All the confusion and doubts in Qi Wu’s mind completely vanished in that moment.
He carefully savored the weakness Xie Xishu exuded, and he didn’t quite remember when he had pulled him into his arms.
“It’s okay, you still have me.”
Qi Wu heard his own voice, calm but false, as he comforted the trembling boy in his arms, trying desperately to suppress his tears.
“I will protect you.”
He spoke to Xie Xishu.
“From now on, if you want to stay in the no-man’s land, we’ll go somewhere deserted. If you want to return to the crowd, like a refugee shelter, we can go there… Don’t worry, I’ve evolved to be strong now, no one will notice anything wrong with me.”
“Anyway, no matter where you want to go, I’ll be with you. I will never leave you.”
Then, Qi Wu felt Xie Xishu’s hands tighten around his back.
The boy’s delicate fingers gripped so hard that it felt as if they could sink into his flesh.
“You promise,” Xie Xishu said, his voice shaking.
“We’ll always be together… forever.”
“Yeah, forever.”
Although it was a childish vow of eternal loyalty from a young boy, the moment the words were spoken, Qi Wu felt his heart soften, burn with heat.
In the next instant, Qi Wu saw Xie Xishu lift his tear-streaked face.
The boy wrapped his arms around Qi Wu’s neck, forcing him to lower his head.
Then, he initiated a kiss at the corner of Qi Wu’s mouth, the movement awkward but urgent.
Qi Wu paused for only a moment, then without hesitation, embraced Xie Xishu, deepening the sweet and innocent kiss.
So sweet.
So enjoyable.
So, so, so, so fond of… so fond of Xie Xishu.
So fond of… this person.
Like honey heated up, an intense feeling of happiness slowly flooded his mind.
As the kiss deepened, the boy’s human form began to collapse.
This was the first time he consciously shed his human disguise. His long, moist tongue slithered out, pressing against Xie Xishu’s cold body, moving restlessly, rubbing against it.
It gently licked the sweet, comforting tears from the boy’s face, greedily sucking them dry.
…
The city, now almost completely reduced to rubble, had begun to fog up once again.
In the dust-covered living room, a massive black shadow was squirming and expanding, like a giant sea anemone wrapping its soft, white flesh around anything that fell into its center.
“Mm…”
Xie Xishu lay in the entangled mass of mucus and tongue, his eyes wide open but hollow. His tear-filled eyes still shed tears, but it was hard to detect any pain or despair on his face.
In fact, when Qi Wu became rougher, he even embraced its tendrils.
It seemed like only in doing so could he forget everything.
Forget the bleak and hopeless future and the reality that his parents were dead.
Tears and sweat were continuously squeezed from Xie Xishu’s body, and in the end, he couldn’t help but fully open himself.
In a moment when his mind became clouded due to overstimulation, Xie Xishu felt as if the whole house was gently squirming.
What he saw no longer resembled a flat ceiling or ordinary light fixtures.
Instead, it was clusters of soft, unidentified creatures, like sea anemones, occasionally emitting a soft, dazzling glow in the dark.
That glow surrounded him.
And it surrounded Qi Wu.
This scene made fleeting, blurry images flash through his mind: humans in white coats, pale faces screaming nonstop, an icy, closed water tank, distorted giant human faces, and an entire planet covered in shapeless, mindless, and soulless flesh hell…
But eventually, all those illusions were turned into liquid, dissolving within the thick, foul-smelling monster’s interior.
…
The exceptionally sweet and fragrant scent of the boy burst open inside the shapeless, constantly expanding, and stretching monster’s body.
Finally revealing its true form, the monster could no longer smell the faint, lingering scent of decay in the air.
Of course, from that point on, it could never recall the dark, ominous whispers of the woman in the video.
*
【How terrifying, but I even feel like it doesn’t matter.】
【My reason is being twisted, I am…】
【I am becoming a monster.】
Damn so sick and twisted