Mitternachtsböse

Kapitel 18

Before they left the morgue, Liu Zihu suddenly stopped and gave Zhou Yu's camera a meaningful look.

Thump, thump, thump...

Zhou Yu felt his heart was about to leap out of his throat. He clenched his teeth, pressed his tongue against his palate, and clenched his fists until they were almost sweating… What should he do? Had he been discovered? Impossible… But who knew what abilities that monster, that demon, possessed…

However, Liu Zihu didn't linger; he followed the patients out of the morgue. The centipede on the camera also swam out after them.

The footsteps in the corridor gradually faded away.

Should he go out or not? Zhou Yu hesitated. Maybe he should wait a bit longer; if Liu Zihu were to launch a surprise attack, things would be disastrous.

So he waited another ten minutes. Only when he was sure that there was no sound around him did he tiptoe slowly toward the door.

However, he overlooked two points: First, Old Liu was still immobilized and had not regained his mobility. Considering the previous time he had been immobilized, Old Liu's immobilization time was far too long; second, in the darkness behind him, a pair of eerie eyes were quietly watching him—it was a black, shiny centipede more than three inches long.

After he opened the door, he cautiously looked around to make sure no one was there before he confidently opened the door wide and leaned out.

But he always felt something was wrong, as if there was a faint presence surrounding him, or as if a pair of eyes were staring intently at him.

Until he looked up… a person in a hospital gown was hanging upside down from the ceiling, limbs clung to the ceiling, staring up at him. The person's saliva stretched into a glistening thread in the air, landing on his face. Cool and refreshing.

ah……!

Zhou Yu yelled and quickly backed away.

The patient was a woman surnamed Li. Zhou Yu remembered that she was a relative of the hospital director and one of the seventeen patients.

"Sister Li, you...you mustn't do anything rash."

Zhou Yu retreated while incoherently begging for mercy.

Suddenly, Sister Li turned her head 180 degrees and stared straight at Zhou Yu, then climbed down the wall using both hands and feet.

Zhou Yu felt like he was about to faint, but after all, he was a corpse handler and had seen many strange and unusual bodies. He told himself, "This is not a person, just a corpse," which calmed his agitated heart a little.

After landing back on the ground, Sister Li stood up, turned her head back to its normal position, and walked towards Zhou Yu expressionlessly. Zhou Yu clearly saw two black tentacles about to emerge from between her teeth.

Damn it, she's trying to suck my brains out!

The will to survive overcame fear, and Zhou Yu knew that if he did not resist, he would only face death.

Instead of retreating, he charged forward and kicked Sister Li hard in the shin, fracturing her leg on the spot.

But she felt no pain at all, and dragging her broken leg, she reached out with both hands to grab Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu smashed the glass of the fire cabinet next to him with his elbow, took out a fire axe, and, seeing an opening, chopped it at Sister Li's forehead.

It's useless.

Despite her brains oozing out, Sister Li continued to approach step by step.

At that moment, the black centipede that had been in the cleaning room quietly crawled onto Zhou Yu's shoulder, aiming for his ear and waiting for an opportunity to invade.

Zhou Yu's senses had never been so sharp. He retreated while grabbing the little worm that was about to crawl into his brain.

With a pinch, *poof*... a segment of the centipede's body burst open.

The centipede struggled in agony. Strangely, Sister Li's body opposite them began to tremble like a sieve.

Enraged, Zhou Yu tore the centipede in two, threw it on the ground, and stomped it into a pulp.

"Ugh, gurgle..." Sister Li made a strange sound and suddenly pounced on Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu hurriedly swung his axe to defend himself. With a horizontal slash, Sister Li's abdomen opened wide, revealing a mouth full of red, yellow, and white things.

Unexpectedly, the axe got caught on the clothes when he tried to pull it out. Zhou Yu pulled hard and actually ripped off Sister Li's hospital gown.

In this situation, the woman's naked body would only disgust Zhou Yu.

Sister Li was still closing in, and Zhou Yu had nowhere left to retreat.

Without hesitation, he swung the axe horizontally towards Sister Li's legs.

With two snapping sounds, the woman's legs separated from her body. She lunged at Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu quickly dodged and went around to her back.

To his surprise, Zhou Yu was dumbfounded by what he saw.

Because the woman's spine—where her spine originally was—had been replaced by a giant centipede about one meter long.

The centipede was perched on Sister Li's back, its hundred legs piercing into her ribs. Its head burrowed into her skull from the back of her neck, seemingly hidden in its mouth. Now Zhou Yu understood why these people with spinal problems could walk—they had an "artificial spine"! He also understood how these patients were sucking spinal cord from people.

The centipede seemed to sense that Sister Li's body was no longer usable, and it struggled to detach itself from Sister Li's spine.

Unfortunately, Zhou Yu was already in a killing frenzy. When he saw the centipede trying to escape, he swung his axe and chopped the fat centipede into meatballs in just a few strokes.

Looking at Sister Li's back, which had lost its "spine," all that remained were deep pits that resembled a string of candied hawthorns.

At this moment, Zhou Yu noticed that one segment of the centipede's body was still moving. Could it be that even a centipede with a hundred legs doesn't die easily?

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a bag of small centipedes huddled together.

Zhou Yu felt nauseous and swung the axe down hard.

Now he understood why cutting Sister Li hadn't worked before, but tearing the centipede off his shoulder had elicited a reaction from her. He figured the little centipede must be the offspring of the big centipede.

Back home, Zhou Yu began to worry. If he asked for leave now, Liu Zihu would definitely suspect him. But if he went to work, he didn't know if there would still be any danger.

After thinking it over, he guessed that Liu Zihu had only discovered that someone was watching him, but was not sure who it was, so he left Sister Li behind as an investigator.

So he gritted his teeth and went to the hospital anyway.

Through subtle questioning of Lao Liu, he discovered that the murder of Sister Li had been completely covered up; no one in the hospital knew a thing. Liu Zihu actually had such power!

Fortunately, he was on the day shift during this period, so at least it wasn't so scary during the day.

He had secretly filmed Liu Zihu and burned the video onto a disc, but he didn't know who to give it to.

The dean? Or the police station? If I hand over the stuff, and they don't believe me, wouldn't I be exposed?

I gritted my teeth and endured a few days like this, still undecided.

Suddenly, a thunderbolt struck Zhou Yu's mind: his secret installation of a surveillance camera in the morgue must have been captured by the existing cameras. If Liu Zihu went to the monitoring room to review the footage, wouldn't that mean...?

Through careful observation over the past few days, Zhou Yu realized that his worries were not unfounded.

Wherever he frequented the hospital, he would always run into Dr. Liu Zihu or one or two of the recovered patients, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

This already proves that I am being monitored, and the other party must be looking for an opportunity to strike. It's just that I am currently on the day shift, and they will definitely make a move when I am on the night shift.

We must not sit idly by and wait to die!

Zhou Yu knew that asking for leave or resigning wouldn't solve anything. The other party was a monster, and if they wanted to kill him, they certainly wouldn't stop just because he left the hospital.

So on the day he was on night shift, he sent the CD to the dean via registered mail. He couldn't send it in advance, otherwise his plan would be ruined.

As long as the dean receives the disc, it will play a decisive role, regardless of whether he dies or Liu Zihu dies. If he dies, at least he can expose Liu Zihu; if Liu Zihu dies, the disc can exonerate him.

As night fell, Zhou Yu stood ready.

He was actually quite worried that if all sixteen patients attacked at once, plus Liu Zihu, he had no chance of victory. He hoped his previous plans would be effective…

As always, Liu Zihu arrived at the morgue at two o'clock in the morning. He first asked the patients to guard the door, and then went alone through the corridor to lull Zhou Yu into a false sense of security.

This time, Zhou Yu installed the camera under the second-floor balcony, and could clearly see Liu Zihu's every move.

Liu Zihu walked to the morgue door and gently extended his tongue to release paralyzing gas. Then he used the small centipede to block the camera.

He saw Zhou Yu sitting with his back to the door, motionless, clearly paralyzed. In front of Zhou Yu was a laptop. The screen displayed the scene at the entrance to the corridor.

When Liu Zihu walked over, he realized that this was not Zhou Yu at all, but a corpse from the morgue dressed in Zhou Yu's clothes and sitting there.

Oh no, this is a diversionary tactic.

Liu Zihu watched in disbelief as Zhou Yu appeared out of nowhere, wearing a gas mask and carrying a medicine box, spraying an unknown insecticide onto the sixteen patients.

The medicine seemed very potent; the patients initially had the strength to resist, but soon they all convulsed and lay on the ground. Zhou Yu was still not satisfied and continued to spray the medicine wildly onto the people lying on the ground.

It seemed the potion was not only highly toxic but also corrosive. Soon, the patients' faces and clothes were burned with holes. You could even see that their centipede spines had been corroded through; the giant centipedes were writhing in agony, unable even to break free of their bodies.

Only then did Liu Zihu realize the danger; these centipedes were all his offspring, and their tragic deaths broke his heart.

He realized he had underestimated this human being; one mistake could have led to total defeat!

"I'm going to kill him with my own hands!" Liu Zihu turned and rushed out the door.

Zhou Yu knew that Liu Zihu must have seen what was happening outside through the surveillance video, and he couldn't help but feel excited, feeling that he had finally gotten his revenge.

Wearing a mask and carrying an insecticide spray kit, he walked into the corridor. He happened to see Liu Zihu standing at the other end of the corridor, backlit, so he couldn't see the expression on his face. But he could feel a chilling aura spreading through the narrow, confined space.

Zhou Yu cautiously walked towards Liu Zihu, gripping the medicine spray stick tightly in his hand.

Halfway there, Zhou Yu began to feel something was wrong. Why had the sprayer in his hand gone loose?

He looked down and saw that the connecting pipe between the spray nozzle and the medicine tank had broken at some point. Turning back, he discovered that the medicine tank was covered in slugs. Had the slugs chewed through the pipe?!

Where did these insects come from?

Zhou Yu cautiously raised his head: the ceiling was covered with insects: centipedes, cockroaches, slugs, star anise, and some that were hard to see clearly.

Then the insects began to fall like raindrops. In no time, they covered Zhou Yu's entire body. Although he was wearing a thick coat and a gas mask, the insects were still everywhere – on his neck, trouser legs, sleeves… it was impossible to completely protect him.

Zhou Yu had no choice but to run while taking off the medicine tank on his back, his coat, and the mask crawling with insects. He swatted away the insects trying to crawl into his underwear.

The venomous stings from the star anise left his hands red and swollen, and the centipede bit off a large chunk of flesh from his earlobe...

In his panic, he ran right up to Liu Zihu.

Liu Zihu grabbed his neck and pinned him to the wall. Zhou Yu tried his best to pry Liu Zihu's fingers off, but he couldn't.

The force was immense; he was inhaling less and less oxygen, and Zhou Yu felt he was about to die.

"I...I...would rather die than...let you...bite me, and become...a...monster...like you...that sucks out bone marrow!" He forced out these words through clenched teeth.

Liu Zihu laughed loudly, "You think I'm a vampire? I'd bite you and turn you into one of my kind. Let me tell you, you're not worthy! You think those seventeen people are my kind? Haha... they're nothing but straws I made, sucking out their bone marrow for my own consumption every day. You really think highly of yourself..."

As he spoke, Liu Zihu slowly moved his face closer, staring intently at Zhou Yu with his eyes.

Zhou Yu felt that those eyes seemed to be filled with something, as if it were about to burst forth.

The eyes bulged more and more, and slowly antennae grew out of them.

It turned out to be two slugs.

The two slugs slowly peeked out from Liu Zihu's eye sockets and crawled little by little toward Zhou Yu's eyes.

"It would be a waste for you to become a straw, with your strength and power. I want you to become a predator, to kill people for me, and then I'll have an endless supply of spinal cord. Haha! Perfect timing, this awful hospital is running out of corpses."