Chapter 205: Mutation (Part III)
Xiao Ji stared at the grim-faced man on the computer screen, lost in thought.
The girl found other reports from the past two days for Xiao Ji to see.
The morning before last, at the CBD building in the Central District, countless people were lining up to swipe their cards for the elevators. A man in the lobby suddenly collapsed and began to convulse. A helpful bystander stepped forward to assist. Just as he knelt down to check the man’s condition, the man’s abdomen began to swell rapidly. After bursting through his shirt, his belly split open, and a bright red, skinless “child” crawled out.
Without any warning, the “child” lunged and tore out the throat of the helpful bystander.
The incident happened so suddenly that the entire lobby fell into complete chaos. The video was surveillance footage; amidst the screaming and people fleeing in all directions, the image flickered and turned into static.
The girl looked back at Xiao Ji. “Do you want to see more?”
Xiao Ji pursed his lips. He pointed to the previous tab that hadn’t been closed and asked:
“Is there more video of this person?”
The girl shook her head, her voice full of worry. “I’ve only seen this one. The whole city is in a mess now. No one has explained exactly what’s going on, and we don’t know if it’s contagious.”
“Contagious…”
Xiao Ji was about to say that it was definitely contagious when the girl’s computer screen went blank, with a string of English text appearing in the corner.
“The internet is down again.” She sighed, refreshing the connection several times to no avail.
Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.
The girl didn’t hear it and was about to say something else when Xiao Ji raised his index finger to his lips, signaling for silence. In this situation, everyone’s nerves were taut; seeing Xiao Ji tell her to be quiet, she immediately shut her mouth and strained her ears to listen.
Soon, knocking sounded from the end of the hallway. Then came a somewhat familiar male voice:
“Did you see? I didn’t kill anyone.”
No one opened their doors.
Xiao Ji gave the girl a look, signaling for her to turn off the lights. Her face was deathly pale and filled with terror as she tiptoed over to switch them off.
Xiao Ji walked to the door and looked out through the peephole. The angle wasn’t wide, and he couldn’t see anything at the moment. However, the sound of footsteps, the knocking, and the man’s muttering continued to linger in the corridor, getting closer and closer.
The girl stood in the corner, watching Xiao Ji and listening to the movement outside, her hands clutching the hem of her shirt so tightly her knuckles were white.
Soon, Xiao Ji saw the man through the peephole. He looked just like he had on the night they first met: shirt and trousers, dragging his feet, head bowed as he walked to the girl’s door.
He stood there for a moment and mechanically raised his hand to knock.
“Did you see? I didn’t kill anyone.”
Xiao Ji didn’t move, his eyes fixed on the peephole.
The man asked twice and then suddenly leaned his face close to the door, looking toward the peephole. His face was a bloated, sickly blue-black. A large patch near his left eye was covered in dense, transparent blisters. Distorted by the convex lens of the peephole, he looked exceptionally horrifying.
He pressed against the door and asked again, “Did you see? I didn’t kill anyone.”
The dim, sound-activated lights in the hallway flickered on and off. One could clearly see that when the man spoke, the tongue in his mouth was split into two pieces, like a snake’s tongue, but much thicker.
Xiao Ji remained motionless, and the girl held her breath.
Just before the man was about to leave, the phone the girl had left on the table suddenly vibrated with a buzz. The sound wasn’t loud, but the man’s hearing seemed incredibly acute. He instantly became visibly excited; his previously pitch-black eyes seemed to fill with blood. He pressed himself against the door and began to pound on it with immense force.
The girl was terrified. Her legs went weak, and she slid down the wall to sit on the floor, covering her mouth and struggling not to cry.
Xiao Ji still showed no reaction. He was trying to communicate with the thing outside through telepathy, but unfortunately, the creature seemed unable to comprehend him. Its strength was terrifying; the rhythmic pounding was deafening, and the entire wall seemed to vibrate with the impact.
Just as Xiao Ji was wondering if the telepathy wasn’t working and he needed to speak aloud, the man pressed against the peephole suddenly stopped moving. Then, he slid down the door to the floor.
Following that was the voice of a middle-aged woman:
“You unlucky thing! I told you that you wouldn’t let anyone have peace, and now you won’t even let us be at peace even though you’re dead!”
Xiao Ji then saw the auntie who had smashed the man’s door a few days ago. She was swinging a pickaxe, slamming it repeatedly into the man’s head on the floor. Once the man stopped moving completely, she knocked on the door:
“Stop playing dead and come out and help!”
After confirming that the woman outside didn’t show signs of infection for the time being, Xiao Ji opened the door. The auntie was wearing rubber laundry gloves. She scrutinized Xiao Ji for a moment before she seemed to recognize him:
“The little cripple?”
Xiao Ji nodded. “Hello.”
The auntie handed the pickaxe to Xiao Ji and said, “Give me a hand; we need to throw him out.”
Before she could finish, the man on the floor began to squirm again.
Without a second thought, Xiao Ji slammed the pickaxe into the man’s spine twice with a sickening crunch. He then grabbed the auntie, yanked her into the room, and closed the door.
He continued to observe the man outside. He saw the creature pick up the half of his head that had been smashed, hunch his back, and stand up from the floor. He stood there for a moment—either forgetting what had just happened or no longer hearing any noise—and then dragged his twisted steps toward the end of the hallway again.
After a long while, once it was completely silent outside, the auntie whispered:
“Can this thing not be killed?”
Xiao Ji said flatly, “You have to use fire.”
Only when they were turned to ash could cell regeneration be stopped.
The girl was drenched in a cold sweat. Recovering her wits, she walked over and extended her hand to Xiao Ji:
“My name is Li Nan.”
Xiao Ji didn’t shake her hand; he only gave a distant nod in response. After a moment, he said, “I’m going back now.”
He left Li Nan’s home. Just as he reached his own door, that surge of intense pain returned. Xiao Ji leaned against the wall, silent and motionless, waiting for the sensation to pass.
But this time, before the pain vanished, he saw a layer of red patterns spread across his right arm. It looked like the veins beneath his skin were floating to the surface.
Even after the pain disappeared, the patterns remained.
Xiao Ji gathered his wits and looked up. He saw the man with the half-smashed head standing at the end of the hallway. The two stood facing each other. After a moment, Xiao Ji walked toward him.
As they brushed past each other, the man seemed completely unaware of his presence.
Xiao Ji tentatively spoke: “Come here.”
Sure enough, after a moment of staring blankly, the man turned around and followed Xiao Ji’s steps.
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