“Shoulder strap, eight o’clock. Behind the tree!” I shouted, stomping my feet and using the flamethrower to burn the centipedes that were crawling up. These centipedes were as big as crayfish, and if I hadn’t experienced this before, the hair on my body would have stood on end. Fortunately, the centipedes’ legs and antennae were easily scorched by the flames, and with one sweep of fire, they all fell to the ground. The deadly part was that after burning them, there was a strange smell, surprisingly sweet like some kind of protein.
Over the years, my sense of smell had become less acute; the doctor said that I could no longer detect certain smells, and these odors were sensations generated by my visual perception.
The color of the centipedes on the ground was almost indistinguishable from that of the leaves, and under the firelight, it looked like the ground was writhing with leaves. Countless hairs were mixed in.
The shoulder strap pulled back the slingshot, the sound of the rubber snapping through the air hit the shadow behind the tree. The sparse black hairs on its body shook violently, clearly infested with centipedes.
I knew how powerful the slingshot was, but the shadow remained perfectly still, showing no reaction.
As I pulled out the elastic band from my hooded jacket and tied the lighter to the front of the spray can, I stomped my feet and took out the white dog leg, spinning it in my hand.
Every time the blind man taught me to use a knife, he had this habit; it was a bad habit, but I learned it anyway.
Approaching within about a meter, everything in front was pitch black, with only the brief flashes of firelight. I first saw a mass of centipedes crawling over the shadowy figure.
No, or rather, this figure was essentially composed of centipedes coiling around it.
Not some high-IQ reptile, I thought to myself, and then I saw a bloody, mangled hand among the gaps of the crawling centipedes.
The fingers of that hand were long, and in the darkness, with each flash of firelight, I clearly recognized this feature.
“Damn it,” my mind buzzed, and I shouted, “It’s the little brother!”
“Damn it!” Xiaohua immediately cursed from the treetops. I couldn’t care less about Xiaohua; I plunged the knife into the ground, rushed to the shadow, using fire and hand-to-hand combat, one hand swiping, the other spraying directly to burn off all the centipedes on the person’s body.
A body covered in wounds slid down from the tree. I saw his clothes, his fingers, his hair—all very similar to the little brother.
He was already dead, his mouth wide open. I pinched his jaw; the corpse still had body heat, having just died not long ago, and his mouth was full of centipedes, clearly having suffocated to death.
It wasn’t the little brother; the muscle mass on the body was far inferior.
Insects crawled all over me, starting to make their way into my nostrils and mouth. I used my arm to brush them away, looking at his hand. Xiaohua came to my side, inserting a cold flame to drive the insects away.
The fingers of the corpse were fake. I pulled hard, and the fake fingers were ripped off the corpse’s hand.
Fueled by genuine anger, I tore off the corpse’s wig and recognized this person. This person was one of Wang Meng’s subordinates.
“You son of a bitch,” I shouted into the forest. “I curse your ancestors for eight generations!” My curses echoed in the valley.
Wang Meng must have been following me all along. What did he want by having his subordinate impersonate a dull oil bottle? Was he trying to disgust me? Or was he trying to lead me somewhere?
If it hadn’t been for the sudden appearance of the centipedes in the darkness, I might have really fallen for it.
I turned around, pulled out the knife from the ground, and cut my hand, leaving a blood mark on Xiaohua’s ankle. The centipede began to retreat, shaking off the blood onto the ground and igniting a cold flame.
“Are you going to seek revenge?” Xiaohua asked me coldly.
I looked at him and replied淡淡道, “He must be nearby. His IQ definitely won’t last until tonight; we need to find him. I’ll save him one last time.”
发表回复