Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
He couldn’t give up.
He needed to muster enough courage to match the level of sacrifice Lu Xiaoyun made at the last moment.
Lu Xia inhaled deeply and unlocked the door. Thick blood oozed in along the crack of the door. Lu Xia clasped the lock with his right hand, turned his elbow sideways, and shoved the door outwards forcefully and smoothly in one complete motion. It accompanied the loud thud of a heavy object falling to the ground.
He didn’t know what magic or spell his elder brother casted on this door, but it seemed to be very handy when dealing with these terrible creatures.
Rustle, rustle.
Rustle, rustle.
There was a crowd of them flocking towards him. Yet they were afraid of this door and could only stare at it from a distance.
But if he couldn’t get rid of them, he would have to be trapped here forever.
Lu Xia intentionally pushed the door wider by another fraction. Sure enough, there was a bloody mess of flesh twisting around and trying to squeeze in through the crack of the door.
Lu Xia couldn’t help swearing again. He took a few steps away from the door speedily, then rushed forward and kicked the door panel into the wall at the right.
There were a few loud thuds and squishing sounds of mutilated flesh. Lu Xia was a tall and strong person after all, and with this one vicious kick, the door panel crushed so many of them and sent them flying
The space outside the door now was as clean as clear white snow.
He let out a long exhale and dusted his hands off.
“If it wasn’t because I’m famished, I would have taken them out one by one…”
Lu Xia trailed off. He heard a familiar series of footsteps.
It was very light and came from very far away, but it was extremely familiar.
It came from the other end of the corridor, in the direction of the operating room.
Sun Zheng!
Lu Xia excitedly ran out.
He dashed into the corridor. He trained his flashlight in the direction of the operating room. There was no one, but the footsteps were still ringing.
He was inside.
“Zheng, I’m here—”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly dragged down by a strong force. His jaw smashed into the floor and he almost bit his tongue off as a result.
What was it?!
He panicked, wanting to get up, but something was grabbing his ankle tightly and dragging him towards the other end of the corridor. Fortunately, Lu Xia’s physique was not weak, so the creature was faltering a little.
Lu Xia glanced towards his feet, and his breath almost caught in his throat. There was a pale hand, the size of a child, grabbing his ankle.
This is the child from the Gao family, and he… the current him, could actually already see the child clearly!!
He didn’t know whether he was frightened by the child or by his deteriorating condition, but the dazed man stopped struggling for a moment.
Creak.
The door to the third room moved. The noise brought him back to his senses.
He whipped his head in that direction and his heart sank.
There was a survivor from his attack earlier, and that lump of wriggling flesh, was crawling out of the bloodied pile with gurgling noises, crawling towards him
Its body was so distorted that Lu Xia couldn’t even make out the location of its head.
“Zheng! Sun Zheng!” Lu Xia shouted for help, but he found that he had long since exhausted all his strength, and even this cry for help was extremely weak.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The lump of flesh was near enough to touch his face.
Was he really going to be like them, and live here in this eternal darkness?!
At this very moment, Lu Xia let out a roar. He stretched both hands forward, just in time to grab the door frame in front of him. He gripped at it tightly, refusing to let go. He had squeezed himself into this small corner in order to dodge that lump of flesh, and now there was nowhere left for him to hide.
Just then, he suddenly remembered the one thing he mentioned at the beginning, and it was also the one thing that Lu Xiaoyun had told Yan Yang during a critical moment.
Do not touch anything that sounds like a bell.
With almost the last of his strength, Lu Xia pulled out the key to the dean’s office, which was useless from the beginning to the end, from the pocket of his trousers and threw it near the child.
Kid, I’m really sorry!
Lu Xia murmured in his heart. The bloody lump of meat immediately slid over, leapt up and fell on the darkness behind that little hand. The little hand holding onto Lu Xia finally lost its strength, and rolled along with that creature further down the corridor.
What kind of monster was that…
Lu Xia rose to his feet while bracing himself against the wall. He was so scared, his whole body fell back down. He couldn’t even tell that the lump of meat which was wriggling so slowly all the time, could move at that burst of speed. It seemed like he had managed to escape from death once again.
Fortunately, no matter how much his body had changed, it was still under his own control.
Thinking about Sun Zheng, Lu Xia stood up again and rushed towards the operating room in a frenzy.
.
In the shadows, a hazy figure stepped out slowly through the crack in the door of the operating room.
Lu Xia’s flashlight flickered and landed on that person’s face.
It was a delicate face, pale and almost bloodless, slightly pursed lips, and eyes which were squinting because of the light.
“Zheng!”
He let out a yell and ran straight over.
The man raised his eyes in a daze, with an indescribable expression on his face.
When they were only a few steps apart, Lu Xia almost opened his arms to embrace Sun Zheng, but he suddenly stopped.
When he saw Sun Zheng frowning and looking at him in confusion, he suddenly hesitated.
If he got close to Sun Zheng, the monsters might also go after Sun Zheng.
After all, he himself was already… half a monster.
They no longer felt like the same people they were ten hours ago.
Lu Xia parted his lips to say something, but closed his mouth again.
He actually lost the courage to verify each other’s identity. Was he afraid that he was no longer himself, or was he afraid that this Sun Zheng who disappeared and came out of the operating room again and again was not Sun Zheng?
Who knew if this Sun Zheng who returned was the same one who disappeared?
“Lu Xia,” Sun Zheng called out, and took another step forward,
“Zheng…you…” Lu Xia hesitated to speak.
“What is it?” Sun Zheng asked. There was a trace of joy in his eyes. This joy made Lu Xia feel a little strange, but he could not put his finger on it.
“You…” Just as Lu Xia was about to speak, he suddenly felt a bone-chilling chill, followed by something viscous crawling up his feet. “Don’t come here!”
It crawled onto his back.
“What’s wrong?” Sun Zheng’s expression shifted. He moved closer.
Lu Xia took a step back nervously. The thing behind him was unusual. Very unusual.
He could almost feel the breath on the back of his neck. The cold, death-like breath stuck to his back within an instant just now. It was as if two dark eyes had been watching everything about him the whole time, and at this last moment, it finally caught him.
Was this… ‘it’?
Did ‘it’ finally find them? Because… he was going to become one of them?
“I-I’m fine. Just stand there, don’t move.”
This was too much… Why was his body a little… out of control… He couldn’t move his legs anymore… Impossible, impossible… this…
He couldn’t let Sun Zheng come over, couldn’t let Sun Zheng be caught by ‘it’.
“What’s the matter with you?” Sun Zheng’s voice became anxious.
Lu Xia looked at him. Sun Zheng seemed to be right in front of him, close enough to touch, yet also at the same time, somewhere terribly far away, parted from him by a wide berth he would never be able to breach.
What’s the matter with him? He didn’t know either.
“Quick…pass me that key,” Lu Xia said with some difficulty. “Give it to me and I’ll be fine…”
Perhaps that key…was his last hope.
Perhaps that key…would no longer be able to save him.
Sun Zheng approached Lu Xia while fumbling around in his pocket. Sun Zheng glanced around warily. “Where is it?!”
“There, there’s nothing!”
There’s nothing at all… Don’t look. He was afraid… afraid that Sun Zheng would see ‘it’.
And knowing Sun Zheng, he would definitely not leave him behind and run away alone.
After fumbling for a while, Sun Zheng finally found the giant clam key. His eyes lit up as he pulled out that key. “That reminds me! I finally found the exit!”
Lu Xia was startled: “The exit? You found the exit?”
He stretched a hand for the key, but found that he couldn’t reach it.
Sun Zheng took a step closer, and his tone became more gentle. “Lu Xia, we can finally go out together.”
The thing seemed to have stopped moving on his back. It felt as if death was already eyeing him.
Sun Zheng’s hand wrapped around Lu Xia’s. It was cold.
Lu Xia flinched, knocking Sun Zheng’s hand away with a slap. “Don’t touch me!”
Sun Zheng seemed to be surprised by his behaviour. He stared at Lu Xia, eyes full of surprise.
“I…I…” Lu Xia stammered. He was afraid that Sun Zheng would be infected by him, he was afraid Sun Zheng would see that thing. But he couldn’t bring himself to utter a single word.
He didn’t know how to word the reason why that thing always appeared around him, because he knew that it could only mean one thing: because he was no longer a normal person, and that was why he would constantly attract these things.
And he…he couldn’t let Sun Zheng know this.
“I understand her because we both have someone we like. Liu Qunfang was actually very scared…… And I’m more scared than her, Sun Zheng.”
“You really found the exit?” Lu Xia asked in an attempt to cover the awkwardness. He took a step back, and stammered, “That’s good, y-you will be able to leave here then.”
Sun Zheng raised his brows. There was a hint of anger in his expression. “What do you mean by that?”
“Actually I’ll be relieved, as long as you are able to make it out…” Lu Xia’s words came from the bottom of his heart. He ignored the welling sensation of disgust he felt for the thing sticking on his back, and said seriously.
Since the moment he found out there was that issue with his leg, Lu Xia was already mentally prepared for this ending.
He knew he would likely not make it out, but he would still go until the very end with Sun Zheng. As long as he could help Sun Zheng escape from his place, then he will no longer have any regrets.
Sun Zheng was about to say something, but Lu Xia interrupted him. “Don’t worry, I will still be accompanying you to the exit. I’m still interested to see what the exit looks like…”
Lu Xia wanted to give a reassuring smile, but his smile was twisted.
Sun Zheng grabbed Lu Xia’s hand, tightening his hold on it. “What did you just say? I dare you to say it again!”
Lu Xia looked into Sun Zheng’s eyes. Although he had been struggling in the chasm for this long, at this moment, he felt relaxed, relieved.
As though he had finally put down a huge burden.
Although the state of mind had never been more bleak, at least there weren’t any more entanglement of messy thoughts.
The thing on his back didn’t seem to exist anymore.
He had found his brother, and in this bleak predicament, he would soon manage to send Sun Zheng back safely too. Being able to leave this chasm was originally something he’d never thought was possible, and it was a miracle that one person would be able to now.
“I’d like to at least… help you to see if that’s really the exit…” Lu Xia smiled again, slapping Sun Zheng on the shoulder, using the change to push the latter further away from himself. This motion moved the thing on his back, and Lu Xia smiled again, covering his momentary expression of discomfort.
“Lu Xia! Are you even hearing the crazy things you are spouting now?!”” Sun Zheng yelled. “Do you not trust me anymore?! Do you not want to leave this place with me anymore?!”
“Come, give me the giant clam key.” Lu Xia was still smiling as he reached out for the key in Sun Zheng’s hand.
“Lu Xia!!”
Lu Xia spread his hands helplessly. “Fine, fine, I lied to you. I can’t leave with you anymore.”
Clang!
Sun Zheng hurled the giant clam ke in his hand to the ground.
“You lied to me?!”
“I had been lying to you the whole time. You should hurry and go already. I never thought about leaving this place together with you. After all, I’ve already found news of my brother, so…” Lu Xia said while backing away further and further, looking every bit as pathetic as he felt.
“Lu Xia, look me in the eye and tell me clearly, what’s wrong? Stop joking around as usual and tell me honestly, alright?” Sun Zheng softened his tone again. There was a sliver of hope still remaining in his gaze.
Lu Xia had never seen Sun Zheng with this expression before. Sun Zheng was always someone who kept others at arm’s length, how could there be such a soft look in his eyes?
It made Lu Xia want to hold him, want to drag him away from all the horrifying creatures here..
But his body was entirely stiff. He could no longer move.
It was as though he was being slowly swallowed by ‘it’. His first layer of skin had already been peeled off by ‘it’.
There was only his mouth left, which could still move fluently. “I’m not joking around… You are the only one who can leave now. I’ll tell you the truth… This chasm is controlled by ‘it’, if you wanted to leave, you needed it to let you go… Did you know? Back then, my brother decided to become ‘it’ and that’s why the hospital was, was…”
“What are you talking about, Lu Xia… you…”
“That’s why… I’ll stay here. It’s even better if I could become ‘it’… That’s what the letter said at the beginning, and what I thought would be the outcome, so I lied to you… All of this is inevitable. You should just hurry and leave.”
Lu Xia had never realised that lying could be such a difficult thing. Every word he said, every sentence, made his head ache and heart twitch.
I’m sorry I’m lying to you.
But this is the last time. Everything I said before, you can take everything as a lie too. It’s better if you can forget it all.
“Do you trust me?”
“We came in together, so we will go back together too.This might be our last chance to leave this place together.”
“I like you.”
“You are right.” The soft edge in Sun Zheng’s gaze suddenly vanished. His expression changed in an instant, like a snow mountain shrouded in a thick layer of cold mist. “Your brother, Lu Xiaoyun, was once ‘it’.”
Those frigid words pierced through Lu Xia’s churning emotions.
“Because of him, this chasm had its one and only survivor, but,” Sun Zheng paused. He suddenly revealed a smile, the corner of his mouth curved like a sharp blade. “Turn around, and look at that thing lying on your shoulder.”
Lu Xia whipped his head around in shock.
It was a face, a pair of eyes.
It was a familiar face, a pair of familiar eyes.
It was Sun Zheng’s face, and Sun Zheng’s eyes.
I did NOT see that coming; so what happens to Sun Zheng now? 😭😭😭