Although Zuo Zhu had made it sound like there was a cockroach in the bucket, Lin Tianming and Liu Minmin were still startled.
Lin Tianming took a step back before reacting. After hesitating for just a second, he gritted his teeth and stepped forward to Zuo Zhu’s side.
He peered into the well but saw nothing.
“Gone!”
“Did you really see it just now?”
Zuo Zhu nodded, a hint of disdain in her tone. “Yes, it was just sitting in the bucket smiling at me. I thought it was sitting on my watermelon.”
Lin Tianming was speechless. Was this really the time to worry about a watermelon?
Liu Minmin, trembling, kept her distance from the well and asked, “Why is a ghost appearing now before nightfall?”
Her question echoed Lin Tianming’s worry. They had always encountered ghosts at night. During the day, nothing happened.
Otherwise, he would not have been bold enough to wander the village with Liu Minmin looking for clues during daylight. But now it was just dusk, and ghosts were already appearing.
“Do not be afraid. It only appeared for a moment and then disappeared. This shows that as long as it is not fully dark, they cannot come out,” Lin Tianming reassured her.
After this, everyone felt uneasy. As the sun set and darkness approached, Lin Tianming urged everyone to return to their rooms and avoid going outside unless necessary.
Zuo Zhu returned to her room without any precaution and saw Huo Fu inside.
She looked outside briefly; it was still light, and the Huo Fu in front of her was the normal, human version.
Tentatively, she asked, “Isn’t this my room?”
Huo Fu glanced at her, a broader smile forming. “I might have a little snack tonight.”
Zuo Zhu stiffened, a cold breeze at her back.
She pleaded pitifully, “But I have not lost weight yet.”
Huo Fu’s tone turned sarcastic. “I saw you eating well at lunch and dinner, did you not?”
Zuo Zhu had not expected him to be everywhere, even paying attention to her meals.
They say weight loss starts with the chest. She was worried about losing too much too fast, so she had eaten a lot at lunch and dinner, planning to get a little snack from the watermelon at dusk.
She could not read Huo Fu’s thoughts, so an idea struck her. “Shall I do some aerobic exercises now?”
Before becoming a demon, Huo Fu had been kidnapped into this remote mountain village. He had lived many years here without ever encountering something called aerobic exercise.
His curiosity was piqued.
Seeing his interest, Zuo Zhu relaxed slightly.
She really feared that Huo Fu would connect with Demon Huo Fu in his mind, thinking that she was tricking him. Everybody has fat. He could just consider her like a piece of braised pork, fatty and delicious.
The words were out. Zuo Zhu prepared herself to do the aerobic exercises, feeling tearful and helpless.
She had learned many exercise routines at a famous fitness studio to lose weight, including planks, mountain climbers, and burpees.
Zuo Zhu performed them painfully, while Huo Fu watched with great amusement.
A beauty sweating from exercise would normally attract everyone’s gaze, yet Huo Fu, the demon, was fascinated by her twisted expressions and laughed uncontrollably, clutching his stomach.
From the corner of her eye, Zuo Zhu saw him laughing hysterically.
She started cursing Brother Wei again. People never reflect on themselves, and she could not blame herself for creating such an odd male lead. All she could do was repeatedly insult Brother Wei for forcing a female cannon fodder into his comic just to enjoy the view.
This comic’s failure was a joint effort between them. Why was she the only one trapped inside it?
After a few minutes, Zuo Zhu collapsed, seeing stars. “I feel like I am seeing my long-deceased grandmother.”
Huo Fu had stopped laughing, sitting listlessly in a chair.
“Good luck,” he said in a low tone. “Hope you can survive longer at its mouth.”
He and the demon coexisted. Since the moment he was abused to death, he had become a half-human, half-demon monster.
He still retained human warmth and a shadow, so he did not like eating people. But if the demon did not eat, it became hungry, and he suffered too.
Huo Fu had to restrain the demon as much as possible, but he could not stop victims who willingly presented themselves at night.
Night had fallen.
Zuo Zhu shivered awake and realized that Huo Fu, who had been sitting in the chair, was now crouched beside her.
“So hungry,” he said, eyeing Zuo Zhu like a piece of fatty pork. “Why haven’t you lost weight yet?”
Now Demon Huo Fu has emerged.
Zuo Zhu said helplessly, “Weight loss does not happen in a single day.”
The demon’s hunger was intense. It grabbed Zuo Zhu’s arm. “Shall I start with an arm?”
“No!” Zuo Zhu yelled, pressing her hands over its mouth. “There is no hospital here. If you bite off my arm, I will not survive.”
The demon opened its mouth savagely. “You were always meant to be eaten by me!”
Before she could reason with it, someone knocked on the door.
“Brother Huo, are you in there?” Lin Tianming’s voice came from outside.
Demon Huo Fu froze, a flicker of confusion in its eyes.
It only appeared at night. Since all the villagers had died, it had not seen a living person in a long time.
Among the living who had come, Huo Fu’s remaining consciousness prevented it from showing abnormal behavior.
Now that Lin Tianming had come, it could not eat anyone.
Outside, Lin Tianming did not get a reply and grew anxious. “Brother Huo, Qin Shou and Zhao Siyu are missing. Can you help find them?”
At night he dared not go out, but seeing classmates disappearing one by one, he feared it might be his turn next.
Demon Huo Fu remained motionless, afraid of messing up Huo Fu’s affairs.
Zuo Zhu, knowing it was her creation, understood its thoughts.
She was secretly grateful for Lin Tianming’s timely arrival.
Zuo Zhu pushed Demon Huo Fu and asked, “Shall we go look for them together?”
The demon looked like a socially anxious person, reluctant.
Zuo Zhu coaxed it. “If you do not go, Huo Fu will be angry tomorrow when he wakes.”
The demon seemed afraid of its other personality. After thinking briefly, it finally nodded.
Reluctantly, it took its gaze off Zuo Zhu’s arm and moved to open the door.
Lin Tianming stood outside. He glimpsed Zuo Zhu sitting with disheveled clothes but pretended not to notice.
“Brother Huo, do you know where Qin Shou and the others are?”
The demon of course knew. The whole village was under its watch. It nodded reluctantly and led the way.
Lin Tianming noticed that he clearly knew where Qin Shou was while being alone in the room with Zuo Zhu, and a flicker of unease passed through his mind.
Before he could think further, Liu Minmin shouted behind him. “Shameless!”
She was scolding Zuo Zhu, noticing her disheveled state after Lin Tianming moved aside.
Zuo Zhu, having just escaped danger, recovered her shameless demeanor. “Why are you scolding me? Brother Huo wanted to eat me. I was scared.”
Liu Minmin had not realized Zuo Zhu meant being eaten literally. She immediately felt angry and resentful.
She glared at the demon, harboring a touch of contempt.
Her family was wealthy, accustomed to privileged men. Huo Fu’s appearance and physique were the finest she had seen, and he could dispel ghosts in this strange village.
Whether for his looks or abilities, she was attracted to him.
Yet she looked down on him, thinking him a poor villager with a few strange abilities that only mattered here. Outside the village, he would be worthless.
And yet such a man had been easily won over by Zuo Zhu, a woman she considered unworthy.
Liu Minmin felt both helpless and resentful.
Zuo Zhu ignored her inner turmoil, naturally holding Demon Huo Fu’s arm as they left the room.
No one realized that just minutes ago, this very demon had wanted to bite her arm.
The demon did not expect its meal to be so obedient. But pressed against the softness of her chest, even with its singular hunger, it found her too soft.
Remembering the piece of fatty pork Zuo Zhu had shown it, the demon thought it could wait for her to slim down and eat her later.
It could start with the skinny woman nearby first.
The group silently left the courtyard, led by the demon.
Halfway along, Lin Tianming casually asked, “Brother Huo, I forgot to ask. You do not seem like you are from this village. How have you lived here so long?”