Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Xu Haitang’s gun was a taboo artifact. Every bullet she fired was her blood.

“No. This isn’t the time to discuss that.”

“I know, but if we leave now, I may never have another chance…” Chu Yanran gritted her teeth.

A gunshot would be quick.

Chu Yanran had no weapon, nor could she bring herself to smash her lover’s brains out with a stool. She could only beg Xu Haitang for help.

Xu Haitang firmly pulled her up. “He still has some self-awareness. I have principles. I won’t indiscriminately kill the innocent.”

Her gun was aimed only at entities that had completely lost their humanity.

Chen Fei slowly turned his head, his eyes shifting between clarity and murkiness.

Strange gasps came from his throat as he roared in pain. Sharp black nails grew from all ten fingers and dug into the floor. Dragging his malformed fish tail, he crawled uncontrollably toward them.

Bang!

His tail struck the wall hard.

A crack opened in the concrete, and debris showered down.

Chen Fei struggled desperately to restrain himself. Veins bulged on his forehead as he began hurting himself.

“Go…”

“Don’t… worry about me…”

Chu Yanran’s tears poured down. “Feifei…”

Enough of the tearjerker, please.

The footsteps outside were approaching. Lin Yinxi was almost turning into King Jiji in her impatience.[^king-jiji] She took out the iron box and unfolded it into a flatbed cart.

With a heave, she scooped Chu Yanran onto it from behind.

Chu Yanran landed backward on her bottom, bracing herself with both hands behind her. She looked bewildered, apparently not yet understanding what had happened.

“Your boyfriend told you to run. Let’s respect his last wishes!” Lin Yinxi sprinted with the cart. “If we don’t run now, we’ll be those idiots in horror films who stand there babbling while the monster comes!”

She really was born to toil.

The room’s other door led to a staff passage reserved for nurses.

Lin Yinxi removed the employee wristband Chu Yanran had taken, scanned it to open the door, and all three entered.

The door behind them slowly closed. Lin Yinxi saw the rot on Chen Fei’s tail spreading to his upper body. He watched their escape passage with many emotions in his eyes.

Fear, pain, the instinct to survive, and a trace of reluctance he was desperately suppressing.

Bang!

Then the passage door shut completely.

Chu Yanran slumped on the cart, her pupils trembling and her gaze unfocused. Her chest heaved violently, and her rigid fingers curled inward in spasms like chicken claws.

“What’s wrong with her? Asthma?” Xu Haitang kept watch on the depths of the passage.

“No. This looks like respiratory alkalosis brought on by extreme emotion.” Lin Yinxi had experience from her many part-time jobs. She hurriedly pulled Chu Yanran upright, cupped both hands over her mouth and nose, and said, “Slow your breathing. Yes… Breathe in slowly. Out slowly.”

Chu Yanran did as she was told.

Lin Yinxi folded the flatbed cart away. Speaking at high speed, she painted a rosy picture of the future for her. “Chu Yanran, listen. Chen Fei will very likely end up an entity.

It’s all contaminated zones outside now. If he becomes an entity and stays here forever, why couldn’t that count as another kind of new life?

Once the contaminated zones are completely eliminated, perhaps he’ll have a chance to become human again.”

Huff, huff, huff.

Saying so much in one breath had left Lin Yinxi a little breathless too.

She had only said it to soothe Chu Yanran.

But Chu Yanran clung to it like a lifeline. “That’s right… Once all the contamination in the world disappears, Feifei could still become human again.”

Xu Haitang hesitated, but did not shatter her naive fantasy.

Lin Yinxi’s offhand, made-up promise became Chu Yanran’s reason to keep going. Her vacant eyes finally focused again, and she gritted her teeth and stood.

“As long as I’m alive, there’s hope.” Chu Yanran clenched her fists.

They headed out along the staff passage.

Two doctors wearing white masks approached from the other direction.

One man, one woman.

Their gait was extraordinarily strange. Their shoulders did not rise or fall as they walked. Their lower legs folded backward at mid-calf, and their feet seemed boneless, dragging limply as they moved forward.

Pale green fish scales grew at the corners of the female doctor’s eyes. She carried a silver-white metal case, apparently cherishing it so much that she looked down at it every few steps.

Fish scales covered the backs of the male doctor’s hands. He held a vial containing blue liquid.

There were no branches in this corridor.

Lin Yinxi and the others had no way to avoid them.

“Who are you?” The doctors’ expressions turned vicious.

Struggling to control her trembling voice, Chu Yanran showed her wristband. “They’re temporary workers from other departments. They’re injured. I’m taking them out.”

“Injured?” The male doctor looked all three up and down. “You should leave through the main entrance.”

“The other doctors are treating… treating Fei…” Chu Yanran’s breathing quickened again.

Lin Yinxi took over. “They’re dealing with an out-of-control merman there. We’re using this door so we don’t interfere with their work.”

As she spoke, she showed her own wristband too.

Deep blue, edged in gold, with a lifelike rabbit head in the center.

At the sight of the emblem, the pale green scales beside the female doctor’s eyes contracted. Her voice abruptly grew gentle. “Have your wounds been treated? Would you like me to check them again? There are newly purchased scalpels in my case. They scrape off scales as smoothly as scraping human fat.”

The male doctor’s vicious gaze softened. “Ah, a colleague on secondment. I have some blue solution that can stabilize your condition. Let me inject you.”

“No need.” Lin Yinxi did her best to look cold and aloof, keeping them guessing.

Chu Yanran released a breath of relief.

Xu Haitang remained on guard, ready for anything unexpected.

Just as Lin Yinxi prepared to bluff her way past with her head high, a sound interrupted her.

Beep, beep, beep!

The radio at the male doctor’s waist suddenly gave a piercing shriek. A hurried voice followed: Alert! Intruders discovered in Ward 116! A uniform is missing from the nurses’ changing room! Suspects have entered the staff passage!

Lin Yinxi cursed inwardly. What rotten luck.

The air seemed to freeze. For an instant, things became rather awkward.

The male doctor raised his head and stared at Chu Yanran’s obviously ill-fitting, bloodstained nurse’s uniform.

“You’re intruders!”

He roared. His body began jerking uncontrollably with a grinding noise that set their teeth on edge, and he reached out to grab them.

Lin Yinxi had intended to intimidate them with her status.

She had not yet managed to speak.

“Move!”

Xu Haitang attacked directly, kicking the male doctor’s wrist. With a crack of breaking bone, the vial flew from his hand and shattered against the wall.

The female doctor tipped her head back.

Her neck lengthened and bent when it touched the ceiling.

Facing Lin Yinxi, she let out a piercing, soul-shaking whistle like a siren singing.

Lin Yinxi immediately plugged her ears, but a thunderous buzzing still struck inside her head. Her brain felt hit by a sledgehammer, and blood instantly streamed from both nostrils.

She was already short on qi and blood…[^qi-blood]

Fight!

Haitang, grab some long bean pods and beat their asses raw!

[^king-jiji]: King Jiji is an animated monkey character whose name is used online to express frantic impatience.

[^qi-blood]: Qi and blood are traditional Chinese concepts used to describe the body’s vitality and nourishment.