Caught completely off guard, Lin Gaoshan felt his head ring with a deafening buzz. Staggering, he crashed to the floor as the kerosene lantern slipped from his grasp, shattering its glass chimney and sending fuel splashing outward to quickly ignite the gymnastics mats nearby.
“You bitch, how dare you hit me!”
Recovering his wits, Lin Gaoshan lunged forward and grabbed Xia Miao by the ankle just as she tried to flee, dragging her down to the floor with him. His face was stained crimson with blood, and because his gas mask had cracked along the seam, the paralyzing toxins in the air managed to breach his nasal passages.
Though his mind spun with heavy dizziness, Lin Gaoshan gripped Xia Miao with a deathly tenacity, refusing to let go.
“You… you’re not getting away!”
The flames spread at a terrifying speed, the resulting smoke greedily consuming the oxygen in the room.
Propping herself up on the floor, Xia Miao’s limbs quickly grew too weak to support her, and she collapsed back down, wracked with coughs.
It was the peak of summer, and a pair of sparrows had built a nest in the branches, laying a clutch of eggs.
Crouched up in the tree canopy, the boy secretly plucked two eggs and tucked them into his pockets. He still remembered his mission to make Xia Miao like him even more, so anything he deemed good, he wanted to present straight to her.
The day before yesterday it was a giant pine cone; yesterday it was a pretty pebble; and today, it was delicious bird eggs.
He let out a quiet, wicked hee-hee-hee chuckle as he imagined the scene of Xia Miao kissing him while diligently adding to his score.
From the distance, the conjoined brothers strolled back.
“The humans are giving off a rather appetizing stench of malice.”
“Must be some more of them slaughtering each other again.”
“I wonder who’s going to survive the internal culling this time?”
“Who cares? Either way, they’ll end up as our rations in the end!”
Listening to the conjoined twins chatter, Lu Yan paid them no mind—after all, humans butchering one another was a common enough occurrence. But the moment a faint whiff drifted past his nostrils, his expression shifted abruptly.
The pleasant scent belonging to Xia Miao had vanished. No, rather than vanished, it felt as though it had been smothered beneath an overwhelming, suffocating scent—the unmistakable odor of burning fire.
As the conjoined brothers chatted away, a figure suddenly plummeted from the branches above, landing squarely on top of them. The twins tumbled flat to the ground as the figure bounded off with a few explosive leaps, vanishing into the dusk like a wild beast.
Lifting their heads, the conjoined twins cursed,
“What is wrong with that guy?!”
Paralyzed by the toxic fumes, Xia Miao felt the thick smoke block off her airwaves completely, surrounded by an unbearable wave of heat. Her consciousness blurred, yet she knew that if she fell fully unconscious, death would follow swiftly.
If I’d known… if I’d known, I should have just slept with Lu Yan sooner, she thought bitterly. The thought that his first time might end up stolen by some other girl makes me so furious I could die!
“Lu Yan… Lu Yan…” she murmured in a delirious haze, her trembling voice laced with a bitter, tearful reluctance.
Perhaps it was just a trick of her imagination, but she thought she heard a loud bang as a door was kicked off its hinges. Following right after came a pair of strong, familiar arms scooping her up into a grip that radiated safety and comfort.
“Miaomiao!”
Xia Miao cracked her eyes open a fraction, though her pupils remained scattered and completely unfocused.
“Help… save me…” Lin Gaoshan reached a trembling hand outward. The primal urge to survive had stripped away all fear of the terrifying monster before him, leaving behind only the desperate need to grasp a lifeline.
Squinting through the blazing inferno, the boy narrowed his eyes, bringing his foot down with crushing force. With a sickening squelch, Lin Gaoshan’s skull shattered.
Scooping Xia Miao into his arms, Lu Yan tore her away from the sea of fire. Hit by a blast of cool night air, Xia Miao caught her breath once more. Regaining a sliver of clarity, she forced her heavy eyelids open.
Bending down, Lu Yan lowered his head to rub his cheek gently against hers.
“It’s alright, Miaomiao. It’s all over now, don’t be scared.”
A faint dripping sound echoed softly. Stripped of its solid foundation, flesh and blood melted into a sticky, viscous fluid that began to leak from the gaps in his bandages, while his tightly wrapped wrappings slowly caved inward from the lack of a sturdy frame beneath.
The boy’s figure appeared increasingly emaciated, and the arm holding her had already begun to reveal bare, white bone beneath.
“Lu Yan… I think I’m hallucinating,” she murmured weakly. “Why are you all wet… like you’re starting to melt…”
Dragging out those words with her last remaining ounce of strength, she could hold on no longer, letting her consciousness plunge completely into darkness.
Xia Miao slept all the way until the following night. When she finally opened her eyes, her head still spun with a lingering dizziness. Sluggishly sitting up in bed, she stared at the empty space beside her, her brain still struggling to process reality.
Ever since Lu Yan had spent that first night sharing her bed, he had sneaked over almost every single evening to cuddle and snuggle. But right now, he was nowhere to be found.
Looking down at herself, Xia Miao realized she had already been changed into a clean set of clothes, yet Lu Yan himself was completely absent from her room.
After waiting a good while for her wits to return, Xia Miao groped around her nightstand for her phone and sent Lu Yan a message:
“Where are you?”
“Miaomiao, you’re awake! That’s wonderful, I’m at work right now!”
True to form, he still hadn’t figured out how to type properly, sending a voice message instead. His tone was brimming with cheerful enthusiasm, sounding no different than usual.
Lifting her head to eye the deep night sky outside the window, Xia Miao typed back another message:
“Then when are you going to finish work?”
“Well… that’s probably going to take quite late.”
“Lu Yan, I miss you.” This time, Xia Miao sent a voice message as well, unconsciously letting a hint of playful spoiledness creep into her tone.
A tremor rippled through the audio on Lu Yan’s end:
“Miaomiao, I miss you too, but—but I’m working right now, I can’t come back.”
“Oh, alright then. I’ll wait for you.”
That wait stretched all the way until dawn, yet Xia Miao didn’t catch even a glimpse of Lu Yan.
At lunchtime, she sent a text:
“It’s almost time for lunch, Lu Yan! Let’s go grab something to eat at the cafeteria together!”
“Sorry, Miaomiao, I’ve already eaten. Go ahead and eat without me.”
By evening, Xia Miao tried again:
“It looks like the temperature’s going to drop tonight, Lu Yan. I want you to hold me while I sleep.”
The boy’s voice dipped lower, carrying a heavy note of dejection:
“I’m sorry, Miaomiao. I have work tonight too, I can’t stay with you.”
Ever since he had started courting her, the two of them had never gone this long without seeing each other.
Normally, Xia Miao would have found him clingy and annoying, but now that he was truly out of reach, a hollow, frantic restlessness clawed at her chest. She could feel that something was wrong—something very wrong!
As the thick cloak of night descended, yet another round of the game officially commenced.
In the pitch-black darkness, gorgeous flowers suddenly bloomed, exuding an eerie, alluring fragrance. But the moment anyone drew close, the seemingly harmless blossoms would violently snap open their gaping maws, swallowing a person’s head whole.
Yet human bodies were simply too massive; trying to gulp down a full-grown person in one go proved rather difficult.
Thus, the old gardener would shuffle over, using his heavy pruning shears to snip clean through the “fertilizer’s” neck to help the flowers swallow their prey more smoothly.
Gently stroking the petals with a benevolent hand, the old gardener finally lost his patience, turning his head to scold:
“You’ve been trailing behind me this entire way. What do you want?”
A girl clad in a school uniform stepped out from behind a tree trunk, pursing her lips as she declared:
“I want to see Lu Yan.”
A look of profound shock flickered across the old gardener’s face. In truth, whenever the other survivors caught sight of him, they fled in sheer terror. To have the roles completely reversed—with this girl actively chasing him down—made his head spin with absurdity.
He had initially assumed Xia Miao was just an absolute fool. But looking at her now… she was definitely, undeniably out of her mind.