Struggling to rise from the pile of heads, Li Cu stumbled and tried to run a bit further away. In his panic, he accidentally stepped on a head, slipped again just as he got up, and fell back to where he started. Looking down, he saw that his foot was tangled in hair, and Li Cu completely broke down, kicking the hair off forcefully.

All of this happened in less than two seconds; before Li Cu could get up, the cardboard box nearby suddenly moved, and something as thick as an arm sprang out from the pile of boxes, striking him right in the neck.

By reflex, Li Cu reached out to grab it, but only caught a greasy piece of it, which he yanked off and threw to the ground. Unexpectedly, that thing bounced back like a spring and lunged at his chest. This time, it hit him hard enough to cause a sharp pain, clearly indicating that it had some strength.

Li Cu was completely driven mad. He cursed loudly and yanked that thing down again, slamming it to the ground. This time, before it could bounce back, he stomped down hard on it. Instantly, it coiled around his foot. Li Cu reached into a nearby coffin and grabbed a human head, smashing it down onto that creature.

He smashed it until it oozed brown liquid and completely fell limp. Only then did Li Cu slowly catch his breath. Pulling his foot back from the creature’s body, he realized it was actually a thick black snake, or rather, it seemed to be the thickness of an arm because it was covered in hair-like black fur.

Now split into two pieces, it was still writhing but gradually weakening. He picked up a longer piece of cardboard from the pile and poked at it. At that moment, he heard teeth clashing behind him. Turning around, he saw Su Wan and Yang Hao staring at him, clearly having rushed over after hearing the noise.

Li Cu looked at them, and they looked back at him. He noticed Su Wan’s gaze was not on the strange snake but on his hand. Looking down, he saw that he was holding the smashed human head, which made him shudder and drop it back into the coffin.

“Did your T-virus act up? Did you bite it or smash it?” Su Wan asked. Seeing Li Cu’s eyes were red as he stared at him, he quickly added, “Good zombies don’t eat their buddies.”

Li Cu pointed his chin at the thing on the ground, and only then did they notice the snake. However, they still didn’t approach it. Yang Hao asked, “What is this?”

“The fact that you still have the ability to complain means your mental fortitude is better than mine. You should go take a look,” Li Cu replied. Yang Hao shook his head, took the long piece of cardboard from Li Cu’s hands, poked at the creature, and revealed a confused expression, saying, “This seems like a snake.”

“This is a snake,” Su Wan said. “The question is, what’s with all this hair?”

“A new species, I guess.”

Yang Hao dropped the cardboard and looked at Li Cu, who recounted what had just happened: “It probably crawled in when they were packing the bodies, and it froze inside because it was all ice. So, this means the place these things were sent from must be in the wild, and this kind of snake is roaming around there.”

Yang Hao glanced at the coffin: “Then maybe you shouldn’t mess with it anymore; there might be more inside.”

Li Cu kicked a few coffins but found no further movement. Shaking his head, he said, “It can’t be that lucky that every box has one. Are they trying to kill me by sending so many snakes?” He felt it wasn’t necessary to complicate things further.

If it were Wu Xie, he wouldn’t think this way. Although Li Cu was still somewhat cautious, he only felt that things had become even stranger. Where on earth did these things come from, and why was there such a bizarrely long snake?

After they silently looked at each other, Li Cu’s gaze refocused on the coffin. He stubbed out the cigarette he had just lit and said, “We have to continue.” Turning around, he saw that the two people had retreated behind him again, their speed comparable to Bolt.

He sighed, thinking to himself that he had chosen his friends poorly. He squatted down. He had to rely on himself.

Even with a thousand kinds of courage, Li Cu didn’t dare to reach directly into the coffin to pull out the head. Even as he got closer, his hands were shaking. This was really different from a mummified corpse; a mummified corpse is an object, very light, and many times you get the illusion that it is fake, not the same kind of thing as you. But these corpses were still very full, their moisture not yet lost, looking as if they could still talk to you. Moreover, when lifted, they felt heavy and had a strong drag, making him feel like they might slip from his hands and roll onto him at any moment.

He tried several times but couldn’t manage to lift the head out of the water. He could only use the method of aesthetic fatigue, forcing himself to stare at the head, gradually getting used to his disgust for these things. But most of the heads were seen from the side or back, obscured by hair. He was particularly afraid of the moment when the head was lifted, the hair flying away, and the face suddenly appearing.

Who knows what expression these people had when they died?

This couldn’t go on; Su Wan and the others were almost retreating to Wangfujing. If they continued to stall, they would have to retreat to Hebei tonight.

Li Cu used a stick from the warehouse to poke at the heads, flipping one of the faces upright. To his surprise, it was a woman’s head.

What he didn’t expect was that these people’s heads were all very young. Young enough to be around the same age as him. Li Cu had originally thought he would see middle-aged or even elderly people, because in his worldview, those who experienced such things would definitely be older. He didn’t expect to see someone from the same age group as him.

He pushed aside the hair on the head, and when he saw the swollen face that was vaguely recognizable, his legs went weak. He turned back and said, “Su Wan, come here for a moment.”

“Li Cu, I haven’t finished my homework yet; I’m going back first,” Su Wan called from a distance. When Li Cu looked back, he saw that he had already called a taxi at the entrance.

“Damn it!” Li Cu shouted, “If you dare to leave, I’ll expose everything! You’ll be implicated in dismemberment and hiding firearms while reading adult comics!!”

“Damn it, that’s you! I’m the one taking the blame! Do you have any conscience?!” Su Wan shouted back.

“You better get over here, or I’ll die with you! I’ll hang myself on your front door!” Li Cu roared angrily. “You leave me here alone; you’re the one without a conscience! Think back to when you crashed your dad’s car—who helped you take the blame?”

There was silence on both sides, and the taxi behind Su Wan quietly drove away. Yang Hao looked at the two of them and asked Su Wan, “Did you crash your dad’s car? Wasn’t it the pear that crashed it?”

Su Wan’s face turned bright red, and after holding it in for a long time, he said, “Fine, do whatever you want.” He then walked over to Li Cu.

Holding his nose, he walked over to Li Cu. Li Cu pointed at the head and asked him, “Do you think we’ve seen this person before?”

It was a very young girl; her looks weren’t particularly striking, but for girls of that era, someone who looked like her could already be considered a little beauty. She was probably about the same age as Li Cu.