Chapter 124
Chapter 124
After saying that, Qingshui’s mind began to drift.
It wasn’t the haze of exhaustion, but something deeper, as though her words had pried open a crack in a door sealed for ages.
Light spilled through that crack, and within it, images emerged.
Far below, the land was ravaged beyond recognition. The once-prosperous human world had been shattered, carved into pieces by hideous black fissures.
Beyond the walls was a tide of Madmen several meters high, massed like a mountain. Humans fought desperately, only to be driven back again and again, while children huddled in corners, weeping without a sound.
All humans will die.
The cold prophecy surfaced in her mind once more.
Qingshui’s breath caught.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs, pounding so hard it seemed ready to burst from her throat. Even breathing became difficult.
She didn’t know how humanity had ultimately fared in her previous life.
She had died before she could witness its final end, and she was even less capable of predicting how events would unfold in this life.
But now, a cruel truth stood clearly before her.
Humanity would be surrounded and hunted down, forced step by step to abandon the homes their survival depended on.
“Qingshui? Qingshui!”
A hand nudged her shoulder.
Qingshui jolted back to her senses.
Chu Jingchu’s face was inches from hers, concern flickering in her eyes. “Are you tired? Should we take a break?”
Qingshui fully regained her focus and gently shook her head. Locking her gaze on Wen Lianfeng, she spoke slowly, each word heavy as lead. “No. What I’m saying is, those words, ‘the Earth will split open,’ mean…”
She paused. Every word that followed carried a bone-chilling coldness. “Cracks will split open across the Earth, and those Madmen will crawl out of them.”
The room fell deathly silent.
Wen Lianfeng’s pupils abruptly contracted.
Chu Jingchu’s breath caught, her entire body frozen in place.
In that instant, both women’s scalps prickled. A chill shot up from the base of their spines, crawled across their backs and up their necks, then burrowed into their minds.
A buzzing filled their ears, as though countless flies were swarming around them.
They stared at Qingshui, waiting for her to explain.
The truth is, I…
The thought surfaced, but Qingshui instinctively suppressed it.
After a moment of silence, she slowly began, “During the earthquakes, I heard… cracking sounds several times.”
“And Song Yunqing’s brother is a soldier. When we first met, he told me something: leave Xiangjiang. That place… will become hell.”
Qingshui then turned toward Chu Jingchu. Following her gaze, Wen Lianfeng looked at Chu Jingchu as well.
Being stared at by both of them made Chu Jingchu squirm.
“Wh-What?”
Qingshui didn’t answer. Wen Lianfeng did it for her.
“And then there’s you.”
She spoke slowly, as though fitting pieces of a puzzle together. “What you said about a Spawn Point.”
Chu Jingchu stopped breathing for a moment.
“No wonder…” Wen Lianfeng’s heart pounded. At last, she understood why her superior had said in despair, “Humanity is finished.”
Anyone who witnessed the earth split open and an endless stream of Madmen crawl out from underground would believe humanity was truly finished.
The whole thing was so absurd that it defied all scientific reason.
She narrowed her eyes and fixed Chu Jingchu with a heavy stare.
Chu Jingchu’s scalp tingled under her gaze.
“Hey, hey.” She drew in her neck and raised both hands. “Stop looking at me. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Wen Lianfeng didn’t look away.
“Then what about the Progenitor?”
“Is the Progenitor a Madman?”
Chu Jingchu swallowed.
“I’m scared…” Her voice lacked conviction. “I’m scared I’ll jinx us again.”
Wen Lianfeng raised a fist in a gesture of admiration, though her expression conveyed nothing of the sort.
“How could that possibly count as jinxing us? It just means your deductive skills are exceptional.”
Chu Jingchu was speechless.
She was certain Wen Lianfeng had been staring at her like she thought she was a walking jinx.
But with both of them watching her, she had no choice but to speak.
She contemplated the question for a long while, her brow tightly furrowed.
“If the Progenitor is a Madman…” she said slowly, thinking as she spoke, “then based on the conditions required for infection, it would still be impossible for everyone to mutate all at once.”
Wen Lianfeng nodded.
“So?”
“So I think… maybe…” Chu Jingchu paused as a possibility flashed through her mind. “A meteorite?”
“That crashed into Earth?”
Qingshui spoke up. “There weren’t any reports like that in the two weeks before the outbreak.”
Keeping up with current events was something she had deliberately made a habit of to help herself seem like a “normal person.” She had been born into the apocalypse, so everything about this peaceful era felt as unfamiliar as another world.
To fit in, she scrolled through the news, watched variety shows, and studied how ordinary people spoke. She even practiced controlling her expressions in front of a mirror, doing her best to strip away every trace that deranged world had left on her.
But an event as globally significant as a meteorite strike could never have gone unnoticed.
Chu Jingchu frowned. “Then… a biochemical virus?”
Wen Lianfeng shook her head. “It couldn’t have reached every corner of the world at the same time.”
“Then…” Chu Jingchu spread her hands. “I’m out of ideas.”
Giving up, she flopped onto the bed.
Qingshui silently lay down as well.
She stared at the ceiling, trying to dredge up more of her past. The fractured images, the fleeting thoughts, the fragments buried in the deepest recesses of her memory.
But her mind felt sluggish, as if something were lodged inside it, stopping her from looking, stopping her from thinking.
Wen Lianfeng lay down too.
Too many mysteries circled endlessly through her mind. Round and round they went, faster and faster, growing more tangled with every turn.
Silence settled over the room.
Then-
“Pfft.”
A sudden laugh broke the silence.
Qingshui and Wen Lianfeng both turned toward the sound.
Chu Jingchu.
The same woman who had just been discussing the fate of humanity, the Earth splitting open, and Madmen crawling out from underground was now covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking.
She was laughing.
Qingshui: “…”
Wen Lianfeng: “…”
The same thought appeared in both their minds at once:
She really had lost it.
“You can think I’m crazy if you want.” Chu Jingchu’s voice slipped through her fingers, broken by breathless gasps. “I know this is serious… but I just can’t help laughing…”
Wen Lianfeng looked at her helplessly.
Chu Jingchu finally lost control and burst out laughing.
“It’s just-what happened today-hahahaha-”
She didn’t finish, but Wen Lianfeng and Qingshui both understood.
What happened during the day.
Xu Wenlie and Li Chong.
Qingshui: “…”
Even Wen Lianfeng couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from twitching upward.
It was a weary, helpless smile, but a smile nonetheless.
“Stop laughing,” she said, an unconscious trace of softness in her voice. “That Li Chong looked pretty familiar to me.”
Chu Jingchu finally managed to stop laughing and sniffed.
“He’s an influencer.”
Wen Lianfeng raised an eyebrow.
“A pretty famous one,” Chu Jingchu said. “My younger female cousin is a huge fan. She sends me pictures of him every day. It’s so annoying.”
Wen Lianfeng nodded.
No wonder.
No wonder his face had seemed so familiar. She must have come across him online a few times and remembered him.
Chu Jingchu turned toward Qingshui, who had remained silent the entire time.
“Say something, Chen Qingshui. Come on, say something.”
Qingshui silently pulled the covers over herself and rolled onto her side, turning her back to them.
“I’m going to sleep.”
“You’re no fun,” Chu Jingchu muttered, but she quieted down too.
True silence finally descended upon the room.
Wen Lianfeng slowly closed her eyes. But the thoughts in her head kept spinning.
Madmen retained everything that made a person who they were-their intelligence, even their memories. Didn’t that put Li Chong in grave danger?
As long as it remembered you, the day would come when it found you.
Her breath caught. Then another pair of eyes surfaced in her mind.
Scarlet and icy.
The Madman that had been following them all this time.
Wen Lianfeng’s eyes flew open. “Do you think…”
“That Madman that’s been following us… could it know me?”
What if she had been its target from the very beginning?
She had no shortage of enemies.
The smile instantly vanished from Chu Jingchu’s face. Just moments ago, she had been struggling to suppress another laugh. Now there was no trace of amusement left.