The raindrops were as big as soybeans, initially falling distinctly one by one, but in an instant they connected into white streaks.
Dark clouds rolled in, and the rain poured down.
In the mountain forests on the north shore, birds fluttered about, and crows cawed incessantly. When Xin Hexue looked over, flocks of birds circled in the sky, like a net woven by Xiao Hei.
Paper figurines cannot touch water or fire.
Xin Hexue realized this and hastily stuffed Xiao Hei into his backpack, hurriedly opening an umbrella.
Xiao Hei was confused, “Ji?”
He wiped the rainwater blurring his eyes, cupped his left hand around his mouth like a megaphone and called out, “Xing Ming!”
His voice traversed the vast sea surface, and the young man who had been desperately swimming forward seemed to suddenly sober up.
Xing Ming was breathing rapidly, and his head was buzzing.
There was water above and all around him, and the sea was surging towards him from all directions. Without the bright sun, everything was soaked in a piercing cold.
Several dozen meters away, the drowning person bobbed up and down, struggling and calling for his help, “Xing Ming! Xing Ming!”
The different voices from the sea and the shore tore at his nerves.
The paper doll was stomping on his head and pulling hard at his hair, having already snapped several curly strands.
Xing Ming stopped, pinched his own arm fiercely, and managed to regain some clarity.
Just moments ago, he had seen the shoes washed back by the waves on the shore and immediately recognized them as the ones Kong Yuan was wearing. They both liked discussing sneakers, and that brand was Kong Yuan’s favorite; he had several pairs on his dormitory shoe rack.
When he saw the struggling figure in the sea, he plunged in without a second thought to rescue them.
Now, he realized how foolish he had been, it was as if he was bewitched.
He cursed in shock and fear, turned his back towards the shore, and dove frantically, swimming for his life.
Kong Yuan was from inland and couldn’t swim at all. How could a drowning landlubber last this long without drowning?!
That thing wasn’t Kong Yuan!
During the moment Xing Ming came up for air, amidst the churning seawater beside him, came the sound of splashing waves.
He was not the only one swimming back, that humanoid sea creature was also in hot pursuit!
At this moment, fear of the unknown creature reached its peak, no less potent than being chased by a shark from behind.
Xing Ming cursed and buried his head, swimming frantically.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his ankle, and a tremendous force dragged him down!
“Kong Yuan, you fuc…!”
Gulp, gulp!
Choking on several mouthfuls of water in succession, Xing Ming kicked back fiercely with his leg but couldn’t shake it off!
His heel kicked past a slippery mucus layer, then scraped over a layer of hard scales…features that simply couldn’t belong to a human.
The paper doll let out a sharp cry. Only then did Xing Ming realize it could make sounds. In his surprise, the paper doll plunged into the water.
The sea creature grabbing him shrieked and let go of Xing Ming to deal with the new threat.
Seizing this opportunity, Xing Ming mustered all his strength and swam to shore. With adrenaline soaring, he managed to crawl onto the sand, gasping for air as if trying to clear his entire lungs.
His throat, choked with seawater and strained from intense activity, felt like it was on fire.
“Xin… Xin Hexue…”
He couldn’t catch his breath, so he reached a hand out towards Xin Hexue.
In the pouring rain, Xing Ming saw through his blurred vision as the young man delivered a sharp blow to the back of his neck.
He lost consciousness, and his face slammed heavily into the sand.
Xin Hexue took a few deep breaths and glanced at the long, bleeding gash scraped open on Xing Ming’s left heel.
The rain washed the blood into a pale red, and the receding tide carried it away with the waves.
………
“So the sea monkeys set traps, disguising themselves as humans to call for our help?”
“Mn.”
The conversation was chaotic, with voices overlapping one after another.
“That’s too cunning! What kind of species is this?!”
“…The sea monkey you and Xing Ming saw, could it still be Kong Yuan?”
“I guess it isn’t him anymore.”
Xin Hexue frowned, pulling up the photos from the camera to show them. “Even if you see it, for your own safety, don’t think of it as Kong Yuan.”
“Kong Yuan…” The girl with glasses trembled. “He became like this… is it related to when he opened the door that night and got scratched by the sea monkey? Didn’t you say he had a wound on his arm?”
After wiping the rainwater from his lenses, Matsukawa Masato placed his glasses back on his nose bridge. “There’s a high probability.”
“What about Xing Ming?”
It was as if a mute button had been pressed, and no one answered.
Xin Hexue looked at Xing Ming.
The young man had a wound on his left leg that had been disinfected and bandaged. Remembering Kong Yuan’s situation earlier, he was afraid Xing Ming would also become bewitched and jump into the sea without a second thought, so he knocked him out on the beach, then found others to help carry Xing Ming back to the old house.
Now he was tied up, along with the entire chair. His hands were bound behind the back of the chair, his feet were also fixed to the chair legs. To prevent any abnormal behavior from Xing Ming upon waking, they had used a thorough, restrictive binding method.
“Let’s wait and see.”
Xin Hexue said.
He subconsciously pinched Xiao Hei. Thinking about Xing Ming’s paper doll and how it had jumped into the seawater to help Xing Ming escape, he pulled Xiao Hei’s hands and legs to check whether it was fine.
Xiao Hei thought Xin Hexue was playing a game with it and it clung to his hand affectionately.
The saying was true…
‘If parents truly love their child, the child will love you too.’
*
Since Xing Ming no longer had his paper doll, a white porcelain doll entered the room and stood to one side.
Clearly, it was concerned about this potential candidate to become its father.
Nine hours after losing consciousness, Xing Ming developed a high fever. The fever reached 42 degrees Celsius, which already exceeded the physiological limit for an adult human.
The rain continued at night, and the wind blew incessantly.
To rest and conserve energy, everyone had to go to sleep, leaving one or two people to watch over Xing Ming until they changed shifts later in the night.
Xin Hexue was part of the group that went to sleep early. He couldn’t remember exactly when he fell asleep, but during his deep sleep, a force pushed him awake.
“…Mn?”
He woke up in a daze and found Matsukawa Masato standing by the bed. “It’s two o’clock, our shift.”
Xin Hexue tried to prop himself up on his elbows, but Matsukawa Masato gently pressed his shoulder.
“Are you very sleepy? Then sleep a bit more. Xing Ming is tied up. As long as one of us is watching, it should be fine.”
Matsukawa Masato reassured him.
Xin Hexue shook his head. “It’s fine, I’m awake. Let’s go together.”
He straightened his clothes and went outside the room, only then realizing the entire house’s corridors were unusually bright.
“Luo Liangming said something has been hitting the door all night. Zhou Liao said the sea monkeys are afraid of light, so he turned on almost all the lights in the house.”
Xin Hexue nodded.
He had only slept for five hours and was still somewhat sleepy, and his eyes were watery and dazed.
“We’ll switch with Zhu Jiyue and Teacher Zhang at four o’clock. Just hold on a little longer, okay?”
Matsukawa Masato looked at him worriedly.
For some reason, perhaps because of the rain, the temperature at night dropped rapidly. Xin Hexue added an extra jacket but still felt a bit of a chill.
“Thank you.”
Xin Hexue took the tea offered by Matsukawa Masato; it was hot, with steam rising faintly.
Xing Ming was tied to a chair in the main hall, facing the central skywell of the old house, where water gathered from all four sides and poured down into the center.
“It’s ripe Pu’er, it’s mild and warms the stomach. No need to worry about too much caffeine preventing you from sleeping later.”
Matsukawa Masato sat down on another chair beside him.
Xin Hexue mumbled a reply and took a few small sips of tea. Xiao Hei was sleeping in his pocket, emitting little snores, its body warm.
Matsukawa Masato: “I went to fetch well water earlier and it seemed to have a sulfur smell, so I used the water originally stored in the water jar instead. Does it taste okay?”
“Really?” Xin Hexue was distracted. “It’s not bad.”
Matsukawa Masato also drank his tea, watching Xin Hexue through the faintly rising steam, as if searching for a topic: “What were you like as a child? I’m suddenly curious.”
Good-looking, quiet personality…
“I always thought you must have been a child that was very popular with adults and other children in your childhood.” Matsukawa Masato had a sudden idea. “If only I could take a time machine to confirm. I am really curious about this aspect. Could you tell me about it?”
“I don’t really remember.”
Xin Hexue said.
His tone was faint, and his attitude towards this topic was particularly cold.
Fortunately, there was no time for the atmosphere to stagnate, as Xing Ming suddenly began struggling violently!
Squeak, creak…the wooden chair made a grating noise that set teeth on edge, and the entire chair rocked precariously.
Xin Hexue stood up abruptly. “Find the hemp rope.”
They should have tied Xing Ming to the house pillar.
Matsukawa Masato quickly went to a nearby chest of drawers to search for tools. The two worked together to tie Xing Ming, chair and all, to the pillar to avoid difficulties if the chair tipped over.
Bang, bang, bang!
The wind and rain outside grew stronger, accompanied by dense banging sounds on the door.
Why were the impacts on the door so frequent and dense?
The white porcelain dolls on the red tiles also seemed somewhat afraid, coming down from the roof and hiding in the corners of the house, peeking at Xin Hexue’s reaction. Seeing that he didn’t drive them away, they settled down safely.
They definitely could not open the front door, so Xin Hexue scanned the courtyard environment.
“You stay here and guard Xing Ming.” Xin Hexue glanced over; scales had already begun growing on Xing Ming’s calf. He was struggling in agony, seemingly having lost his human reason. “Turn off the lights in this hall. He’s already beginning to mutate.”
The sea monkeys feared light. They still didn’t know if there was a way to save their companion, but what humans found even more impossible was to personally kill their companion.
Xin Hexue returned to his room and rummaged for the camera. The old house didn’t have many open windows. There was a stone window at the end of this corridor, but it was quite high. Xin Hexue brought a stool, but even then he couldn’t look directly outside. He carefully opened the camera lens cap clasp.
In the night, the flash lit up outside with a white glare.
He heard a series of overlapping shrieks, and in the distance, the sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking from the village came through.
Xin Hexue’s arm suddenly felt weak. He gripped the camera tightly and checked the photo he had just taken.
Dense humanoid figures, too many to count at a glance, clung to the base of the house, surrounding the walls of the old house.
Their limbs were covered in fish scales, their skin had a slippery mucus layer like frogs, and their pitch-black eyes were looking towards the window.
Their faces were very strange.
Xin Hexue stared for a long time, until he felt dizzy and a wave of physiological disgust rose in him.
Their skin was smooth like a newborn baby’s, without a single wrinkle, even lacking the facial folds human cheekbones and jawbones should have. Their eyeballs bulged outwards like goldfish, with almost no whites.
At the moment the shutter was pressed, the flash would have lit up, yet their pupils remained completely black.
The Happy Bean effect struck.
Xin Hexue’s foot missed a step, nearly causing him to trip. He steadied himself on the stool again, his gaze unconsciously sweeping over the blurry faces.
In a flash of insight, he suddenly found a few of the faces familiar.
They looked like…
The black and white photos he had seen hanging on the wall at the village chief’s house.
To confirm, he adjusted the aperture, raised the camera, aimed towards the angle from his memory, and pressed the shutter.
This photo was not successful; the noise was too great, and the image even showed near-total blackness.
Had the autofocus failed?
Xin Hexue frowned and fiddled with the camera.
Outside, a sound like fingernails scraping glass screeched, and he subconsciously covered one ear.
“Xin Hexue, you’re clearly home… why won’t you open the door?”
A hoarse inquiry came from above.
Semi-transparent mucus dripped down from webbed fingers, sliding down the white wall inside the room.
Xin Hexue raised his head; his neck seemed stiff from being lowered for so long, making even this movement difficult, as if rusted.
So what he had photographed just now was Kong Yuan’s eyes.
