To avoid alerting the other party before striking first, he turned off the flashlight, relying only on the faint reflection of neon lights from distant buildings and his night vision.
Xin Hexue remembered a saying online: all human fear stems from insufficient firepower.
“Tap.”
A pale, ghastly hand first gripped the turning handrail.
Xin Hexue tightened his finger on the trigger.
Logically, having seen many bizarre mutant species in the contaminated zones of the apocalypse, and after systematic training at the comprehensive military academy, he could remain calm in many harsh situations.
But even among non-humans, the level of intimidation could vary completely. The mutant species in the apocalypse often originated from plants and animals; here, it was different.
Xin Hexue pressed against the wall, glanced sideways at the scene in the stairwell, and his pupils contracted.
Black hair dragged on the ground. It wasn’t a four-legged; it was crawling.
When humans see human-like but non-human creatures, cognitive dissonance activates both the amygdala and the insula in the brain. Fear and disgust towards such creatures seem to be etched into human DNA since ancient times.
The debuff of paranoia took effect at an inopportune moment, making Xin Hexue bite the tip of his tongue. Only until a trace of blood spread did he manage to steady his gun hand.
“Mother…eat…”
The little monster’s voice suddenly rang out. Xin Hexue’s heart jumped, and the gun went off instantly.
Deviating from the intended trajectory, the bullet shot straight into the wall beside the crawler.
Crack, crack.
The crawler looked at the bullet hole. Its neck twisted with a grating sound, as if bones were being forced back into place.
Li Zheng who jumped also had his neck twisted to the left.
The difference was, it had a very, very long neck.
“Ahh…!”
Its throat let out a hoarse screech, and it scurried up quickly, like an arthropod.
But it was too late!
Several gunshots rang out in the deep night, but the surroundings seemed to form a black hole of their own and absorbed the noise as no one noticed the anomaly on the tenth floor.
The bullets pierced the crawler’s body, causing it to pause momentarily in pain, but otherwise there was almost no other effect.
Xin Hexue turned and ran towards the corridor.
A head stretched its neck around from behind, coming into view before him.
At the same time, bluish-white fingers grabbed his heel.
The sudden fall sent the handgun sliding far away.
The crawler with disheveled black hair screamed with an intimidating female voice, “Ah, ah ah…ah…?”
Xin Hexue pushed himself up from the floor. The long-haired female ghost that had been sprawled on his legs suddenly shyly straightened her skirt which had ridden up to her thighs.
Then she awkwardly stood up.
Oh, so she could stand up, not just crawl on the ground.
Her untrimmed black hair dragged on the floor. Her neck was even longer; when standing, her head almost hit the ceiling.
So, under Xin Hexue’s gaze, she bashfully twisted her neck like spaghetti, rotating it several times into a spiral coil. Finally, she reduced the height of her head to be level with Xin Hexue standing up.
Two bluish-white hands hurriedly brushed aside her bangs. She then applied lipstick using the reflection from a family’s window facing the corridor.
Xin Hexue didn’t know where she pulled the lip stick from either…maybe her school uniform pocket?
Yes, it seemed this ghost was still a high school student before death. The uniform badge was from a private high school in Beidao City, with a university admission rate as high as 99%. It was very popular among Beidao City parents.
Enrollment required not only a large registration fee but also the highest high school entrance exam score threshold among all high schools in Beidao City.
“Mother, eat…”
The little monster seemed to have an appetite for other monsters.
Xin Hexue whispered a warning expressionlessly: “Cannot eat.”
The little monster quieted down, perhaps having gone back to sleep.
He will settle accounts with it later.
The ghost in front suddenly turned her head, eyes flashing as she also whispered, “Big Sister, what did you just say?”
Seeing that the other party had completely lost her aggressiveness, Xin Hexue’s eyelid twitched. His intuition told him it was best to maintain her misunderstanding about his gender.
“Nothing.” Xin Hexue skipped the topic. “You… why are you here at night?”
The female ghost said, “Big Sister, I should be asking you. Why are you alone here so late? It’s so dangerous.”
……Nothing could be more dangerous than her.
Xin Hexue brushed the dust off his cheongsam, maintained a smile, and asked tentatively: “Did you scare the postman who jumped?”
That postman was a player, because Xin Hexue noticed the real-time survivor count on the identity card had decreased by one.
“No, no! It wasn’t me!”
The female ghost quickly waved her hands. Perhaps due to the high school girl’s uniform, one could even see a kind of “vitality” from her, even though she was a ghost.
“He jumped from upstairs. I don’t know what happened either. I should be complaining; it was my job, why did he steal my jumping scene? It was so hard to climb all the way to the tenth floor.”
As she spoke, she turned to look at the stairwell with confusion. “This is the tenth floor, right?”
Xin Hexue understood now. The ghost wall he encountered while going downstairs was caused by a ghost climbing up below, creating a strange domain.
“I appear on the rooftop at exactly 8:30 every night.” The female ghost looked down regretfully. “Sigh, there are so many people down there tonight……Even though they can’t see me, I still get stage fright.”
“Then let’s not jump tonight.” She backed out without much hesitation.
“Big Sister, let me walk you home.” The female ghost said a bit shyly.
Xin Hexue couldn’t help but ask: “You… Why did you jump?”
She looked too young, still in her school uniform.
“Is the academic pressure at Beidao Mingde High School very high?”
“It’s okay. When I was studying, I was ranked first in my grade.”
The female ghost boasted triumphantly.
Remembering her life before death, her voice suddenly fell, and dark clouds seemed to gather over her head.
The female ghost’s name before death was Lei Nianqiao, from a single-parent family; after the divorce, she was awarded to her father.
Father Lei loaded goods at the dock, and was as diligent as an old ox. He came from the countryside and was illiterate, but his daughter was the opposite. She ranked in the top fifty in Beidao City in the high school entrance exam and got admitted to Beidao Mingde High School, receiving a half-tuition waiver and full textbook fee waiver. Even with these deductions, the remaining tuition for the private school was still a considerable sum.
But thinking of Mingde High School’s top-tier status in Beidao, Father Lei gritted his teeth and vowed to sell everything to send her there.
Fortunately, Lei Nianqiao was a natural studier, perhaps a genetic mutation from both parents’ families. She had very impressive grades and could get the full scholarship from Mingde High School every semester, so tuition wasn’t a problem overall. The school noticed her family situation and even gave her an extra five hundred yuan in meal subsidies monthly.
The turning point came in the first semester of her third year of high school.
Father Lei was called to school because the dean caught her and her deskmate kissing by the lake after evening self-study.
The deskmate was also a girl with excellent grades.
The parents from both sides almost fought in the dean’s office, arguing over who had corrupted their child.
“Originally, it wasn’t a big deal,” Lei Nianqiao muttered. “We were just good friends kissing after evening self-study ended.”
No matter what they thought, her deskmate eventually transferred schools, and Lei Nianqiao was sent to a special school.
Father Lei paid this school half his life’s savings, more than Mingde High’s tuition, and begged them to return a “healthy” daughter to him.
“Turns out it was all false advertising! They never gave me any Chinese medicine!” Lei Nianqiao said indignantly.
The layers of electric burn marks on her arms and legs exposed by the summer uniform, and the scar on her forehead as if from a cigarette burn, probably indicated what she had gone through.
Finally, Lei Nianqiao successfully escaped one day. She returned from hell to the human world, only to find that because he had given all his savings to the special school, he ultimately died from serious illness without treatment.
The insurance company found her and gave her a sum of money because she was the beneficiary listed on her father’s critical illness insurance.
What had sustained Lei Nianqiao’s desire to escape hell wasn’t longing for a new life, nor attachment to her deskmate, but hatred for her father. But Father Lei died before she could take revenge. With all her pent-up hatred having nowhere to go, she jumped from the rooftop.
The spring wind whistled past, and her troubles lightly fell to the ground.
“I had it all planned out, to reincarnate, be a happy pig in the next life…” Lei Nianqiao said. “But I don’t know why I became like this. And I can’t leave this place. Having nothing to do, I just climb sixteen floors to the rooftop every night and jump again.”
“This feeling of jumping yet not dying, it’s truly intoxicating.”
Xin Hexue: “…”
It was both laughable and pitiable; he didn’t even know where to begin comforting her, especially since she didn’t seem to need it.
She had probably not seen anyone who could talk to her for a long time either, and her chatterbox opened completely.
“But, after jumping so many times, I suddenly remembered something.” Lei Nianqiao said seriously, “I remember that although my dad was resistant at first, it wasn’t that severe. Considering I was in my third year of high school, he originally planned to settle accounts with me after I got into university.”
“He suddenly made up his mind to have me take a leave of absence from school so he could send me to the special school. During that time, he always went to the clinic in the Walled City for consultations. He said that the doctor had diagnosed me, that my condition was a mental illness, and it must be treated early. That person acted as a referrer for my dad; you could get a discount if you went through him.”
When he heard the term “mental illness,” Xin Hexue’s became sharp, “The Eric Clinic?”
Lei Nianqiao thought for a moment and nodded. “I think that was the name.”
“He definitely took money from the school!” she said indignantly, then deflated. “But my range of activity is only this stairwell and the rooftop. I can’t go settle accounts with that doctor either…”
“Big Sister, if you see him, help me get someone to put a sack over his head and beat him up!”
Lei Nianqiao pleaded with her hands clasped together.
“I can give you money. I haven’t spent the money my dad left me, though it might be a bit moldy…”
Xin Hexue could only answer truthfully: “He disappeared two years ago.”
This was the rumor he heard from the neighbors. One day, this doctor vanished into thin air and never returned to the clinic.
Later, the vacant clinic space was taken over by Gu Mifeng.
“How could that be!” Lei Nianqiao messed up her long hair frantically. “Ahhh, damn it! He must have run away with the money!”
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes and fell silent, thinking.
His mind was now filled with various clues, tangled like a ball of yarn messed up by a cat’s paw. He couldn’t find where the end was hidden, was it under the sofa or inside a cardboard box.
Suddenly, he caught a flash of white light. “You said earlier that you jump down at exactly 8:30 every night?”
Lei Nianqiao nodded.
Xin Hexue asked her, “Then, on the rainy night a few days ago…when you jumped down, did you see anyone outside the window of room 511?”
That night, he saw an eye pressed against the window crack. The time was just after eight.
“511…” Lei Nianqiao suddenly smacked her palm. “That’s the room, right! I see it often!”
She scratched her head, and confessed with some embarrassment, “Actually, when I jumped back then, I didn’t die from the fall because I got caught in a tree outside the building.”
“There was a fork in the branch, and my head got stuck there. My body felt so heavy, and it dragged my neck so long, so long that……When the wind blew, my body hung there swinging, swinging…”
The description was somewhat creepy.
“That old tree is so tall, you can even see into room 511.” Lei Nianqiao said, “Is that your home, Big Sister?”
Xin Hexue nodded, then immediately asked, “Then did you see it?” His tone was somewhat urgent, as if wanting to confirm a certain suspicion.
“Ah, there was a black thing watching you all the time.”
Lei Nianqiao then put away her playful smile and answered honestly: “Then you should be careful, Big Sister.”
“It lies outside the window, then crawls into the bathroom, hides under the bed or stuffs its body into the cabinet.
“When you are asleep, it hangs from the bedroom ceiling in white clothes. And every foot that dangles down is covered in eyes.”
………
It was 9 p.m., just past the fifteenth of the month, and the moon was bright and stars were sparse.
Gu Mifeng hummed a little tune as he returned to the clinic.
His residence was behind the clinic, while the assistant rented a place in another building and had parted ways midway.
After placing the medical kit on the table and hanging up his white coat, Gu Mifeng walked inward, casually loosening his red checkered tie.
The moment the motion-activated light in the corridor lit up with white light, Gu Mifeng was caught off guard by a push. His back hit the wall with force, and the muzzle of the gun pressed hard against his jaw.
The fluorescent light shone soundlessly overhead.
A fair face with beautiful dark eyes stared at him intently. His left leg was even bent, knee pressed between Gu Mifeng’s legs, restraining him like a criminal.
Gu Mingfeng’s gaze uncontrollably moved down.
Xin Hexue’s raised left leg lifted the cheongsam slit, revealing large areas of fair skin. The handgun pressed against his jaw had also been drawn from the holster strapped there.
Noticing his restless gaze, Xin Hexue increased the pressure slightly and said in a cold and clear voice, “Confess and you’ll be treated leniently, resist and you’ll be punished severely.”
“Please interrogate me harshly, officer.”
Gu Mifeng looked at Xin Hexue eagerly, his eyes pleading.
Actually, besides birth control products, Gu Mifeng had also bought some unspeakable things from the adult shop in the Walled City, still unopened.
As a *mengnan fan like him, he came prepared for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He was completely different from certain “black fans” who speak sarcastically and stalk as their way of pursuit.
**A fan who sees their idol as their ideal romantic partner.
[Actually, when Snow Cat threatens with a gun, the first thing that wafts over is the fragrance, then the bullet. The moment the fragrance fills your nostrils, the burning sensation of your skull bursting isn’t pain anymore; it’s pleasure.]
[I’m an English major; this is called M.]
Xin Hexue frowned.
Gu Mifeng glanced down at the black gun barrel. “I bet there’s no bullet in the gun.”
“What if there is?” Xin Hexue looked back calmly. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll pull the trigger next second?”
Gu Mifeng: “If one dies under the peony flower, their fate and love will continue in the next life.”
He offered no resistance at all. “Go ahead and shoot. Even if I get ejected from the game, I’ll still chase after you.”
Remembering something, Gu Mifeng added seriously, “I only have one request: in the next life, can I still be your “mistress”?”
“If I reincarnate first, I should be able to reserve a spot in advance, right?”
Xin Hexue looked him up and down, then simply shook his hands, as if he had touched something unclean. Before the gun hit the ground, Gu Mifeng swiftly caught it.
“Sure enough, there was no bullet. I knew you weren’t that heartless to me.”
Gu Mifeng checked the magazine and smiled happily.
Xin Hexue lifted his eyes. “……It’s only because they were all used up.”
After some probing, he confirmed that a creature like Gu Mifeng posed no threat and eliminated the possibility that this person was scheming against him. He sat down on a nearby chair. “You should know about this matter, that’s why I came to you.”
He asked Gu Mifeng, “What did Eric do to Tan E?”
“Your new question is related to Eric?” Gu Mifeng raised an eyebrow.
Xin Hexue denied, “No, but it’s related to Tan E.”
Gu Mifeng: “No wonder… the photos this morning……”
He clearly knew some inside information.
Xin Hexue stated his guess, which he was eighty or ninety percent sure about: “Eric is in my house.”
