"Wang Shao?!" Li Yifei and the other two recognized the voice and cried out in unison.
The three of them exchanged a look and took off running down the lane Wang Shao had gone.
Lin Qiye stood alone where he was, frowning toward the gloomy little lane, his expression grim.
He didn't know what had happened, but an ill premonition had settled in his chest.
The edge of the old town. A psycho killer. That uncanny stench. A scream...
Something was wrong.
He hesitated on the spot for a long moment, fought a whole internal war with himself, then sighed in resignation—and finally hefted the white cane in his hand and charged toward the lane.
On any normal day, faced with a situation like this, Lin Qiye would absolutely not go sticking his nose in. He'd run the other way—as far as his legs would carry him!
If someone was screaming, it meant nothing good was happening.
Nothing good meant trouble.
Robbery, murder, or stumbling over a crime scene... whichever it was, Lin Qiye wanted no part of any of them.
He didn't have that much curiosity—he had no desire to find out what was going on. Nor did he have sympathy to spare—he had no interest in playing hero.
Most importantly of all, he couldn't fight. What if he threw his little life away in there?
But this situation was different.
If they hadn't insisted on walking him home, wouldn't Wang Shao have taken another route back? Or passed through a few minutes earlier—and never run into any of this at all?
He truly didn't like meddling. But he liked owing people even less.
Whatever else, he had to at least go see what had happened—call it repaying the favor. If there was real danger, he'd bolt on the spot.
Lin Qiye's eyes were bound, but he was not one bit slow. And the closer he got to where the scream had come from, the deeper his frown carved itself.
The stench was getting stronger.
"AAAAAAH!!!"
A second scream came from around the corner ahead—except this time, it was a girl's voice.
Jiang Qian!
Lin Qiye pulled up hard at the corner of the lane. The three of them had just entered his mental perception.
Not far ahead, Jiang Qian sat collapsed on the ground, mouth gaping, staring forward in terror, her whole body shaking!
In front of her, Liu Yuan and Li Yifei stood frozen like stone statues, eyes locked dead ahead, trembling just the same!
Farther than that... Lin Qiye couldn't perceive.
His eyes still couldn't open. He couldn't look at the world with vision of his own, and his mental perception reached only ten meters. Which produced a supremely awkward situation:
Within ten meters, he saw through everything. Beyond ten meters, he was a genuinely blind man.
What had the three of them seen, to be terrified like this?
He couldn't see it—but his hearing was razor-keen, and he could clearly make out, somewhere just beyond, a faint rustling, gnawing sound.
Like someone chewing on something. Chewing wildly, and with great relish.
Mm... it sounded like Little Blackie gnawing a bone.
"What happened?" Lin Qiye asked, voice low.
Jiang Qian seemed badly startled by his sudden appearance. Her hands scrabbled and clutched at the hem of his shirt, her teeth chattering!
"A monster... a monster is eating Wang Shao's face!"
Lin Qiye's expression changed on the spot!
"RUN!!"
Lin Qiye and Li Yifei roared the word at the same instant!
The word had barely left their mouths when Liu Yuan spun and bolted like a mad dog, staggering as he clipped Lin Qiye's shoulder, scrambling back up at speed, running for his very life!
"Monster... help! Somebody! MONSTER!" he shrieked as he ran.
The collision caught Lin Qiye off guard and sent him stumbling. The moment he steadied himself, a heavy, muffled impact rolled in from the distance.
Like a brown bear pounding the earth, charging straight for him.
Jiang Qian's pupils snapped tight. Finding strength from who knew where, she shot up off the ground like lightning and fled, screaming.
As for Li Yifei... he had bolted the instant the word "run" left his mouth—even faster than Liu Yuan, who'd shoved past Lin Qiye.
If Liu Yuan hadn't sent Lin Qiye stumbling, he too would have been long gone by now.
But that one instant of delay had left him dead last, alongside Jiang Qian.
In this moment, it seemed everyone had forgotten Lin Qiye's status as a "disabled person." The classmates who had sworn up and down to escort him home had wiped him from their minds entirely.
In the face of horror this bloody, terror had swallowed everyone whole.
Lin Qiye had run only a few steps when something crossed into the ten-meter reach of his mental perception.
It was like a person—and not like a person at all.
Like a person, because it had four limbs and a head, the same as anyone. Unlike a person, because it was tearing along the ground on all fours like a hyena, with a frame as massive as a brown bear's!
And above all else—on its head it wore a ghost's face.
Chalk-white. Twisted.
Its long, pointed, scarlet tongue stretched half a meter out of its mouth like a serpent, writhing nimbly.
Lin Qiye's face went ugly.
The thing was too fast. In the space of a few strides it had crossed from beyond ten meters into his perception—and it was still closing on him at an astonishing rate!
He could already feel a gale surging up from behind.
Jiang Qian beside him felt it too. Her face drained white in an instant. Terror and panic flooded her heart, and, stiffly, inch by inch, she began to turn her head, desperate to see how far behind the monster was.
Surely... it was still far away, right?
"Don't look back!" Lin Qiye's voice snapped out beside her.
Too late. Jiang Qian's pupils shrank to pinpoints. That warped, ghastly ghost-face was almost pressed against her own, and she could smell the thick reek of blood rolling off its body!
"AAAAAAH!!!"
Her scream tore through the lane once more. She squeezed her eyes shut and twisted around, trying to wrench her backpack off and swing it at the Ghost-Faced Man.
She had lost it completely.
A backpack is not a weapon, and she was no trained fighter.
In moments of life and death, the first to lose their head is the first to lose their life.
The Ghost-Faced Man seized the backpack's strap and yanked. Its brute strength ripped through Jiang Qian; she abruptly lost her balance, staggered, and went down hard on the ground!
A heavy black shadow plunged from above and slammed down onto her...
The next moment, fresh blood dyed the night a glistening scarlet.