Shadow 380,000 Уровень 17

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In his drowsy state, Grandpa heard the water in the pot boiling, making a loud sizzling sound. He opened his eyes and saw the lid of the pot bobbing violently from the steam, hissing and screeching. "Don't overcook it," Grandpa thought, filling a ladle with water from the tap and lifting the lid to add some more water to the pot.

Before this, at this time, and after this, in many homes throughout the city, perhaps the cooking methods differed slightly, but they all ultimately encountered this appalling scene.

As soon as the lid was lifted, the old man, who had seen countless things in life and experienced the vicissitudes of human existence, opened his cloudy eyes in surprise.

In the misty haze, the clumps of ground seemed to come alive, leaping back and forth on the steamer like a group of frogs, emitting croaking sounds. As the mist dissipated, this group of leaping objects suddenly stopped, lined up neatly, and tilted their heads back towards the old man.

Not only did they tilt their heads back, but they also had an eye on their heads, staring straight at the old man. In that eye, there was no trace of life, only hatred, cruelty, and...

bloody!!!

Suddenly, the objects leaped up one after another, lunging at the stunned old man. Their bodies radiated scorching heat, burrowing into wherever they touched, rapidly penetrating his body and wreaking havoc within him at unimaginable speed. Finally, they burst out at will, the old man's blood and flesh exploding like fireworks across his body, rising and falling, scattering throughout the room. His life force also dissipated. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground. The bloody objects, after emerging from his body, landed on the ground with shrill laughter and vanished.

---janeadam

Reply [16]: Xiaomei, who had just returned to the house, looked at her grandfather on the ground, whose face was disfigured and whose limbs were scattered and unrecognizable, and burst into tears.

The tragedy is recorded in the *Weiyu County Gazetteer* as follows: In the autumn of 1968, due to inadequate defensive measures during the renovation of the Weiyu city wall, the poison from corpses flowed onto the ground, causing a plague to spread throughout the city. In just three days, the death toll exceeded ten thousand. While writing this article, I visited the old county seat and interviewed those who had personally experienced the event, verifying the historical account in the gazetteer with them. Even the elderly person with the worst memory clearly told me:

"Ten thousand people? Don't listen to their nonsense! Half of the city's hundreds of thousands of people are dead. For days, those things have been hiding in every corner of the city, passing through people's bodies at any time. They can appear at any moment, and their corpses are left behind in any place. We are not safe anywhere to hide, living in constant fear. We want to leave this place, but anyone who leaves the county is eventually brought back as a corpse. Corpse poison? Plague? No way! They are demons from the Ghost Realm. The government has tried every method they can think of, but those things are still increasing. Nobody knows what they are, where they come from, or when they will leave. At their most rampant, they would line up and roar through the streets, emitting ear-piercing laughter, fearlessly passing through walls and into the ground. If it weren't for Professor Lin, Weiyu City would have been wiped out long ago."

Professor Lin is Xiaomei's father, a scholar who specializes in social sciences.

---janeadam

Reply [17]: (III)

Professor Lin knelt blankly in front of his father's body.

Only a few hours had passed; the meal his father had prepared for him was still undigested in his stomach, and his father had already passed away. How could he, as his son, not be heartbroken? The vicious torture by the rebels, the harsh living conditions, and the terrible labor camp conditions had not broken him, but faced with his father's death, tears streamed down his face like a spring.

What on earth is going on? Is it really divine wrath? Professor Lin silently cried out in his heart.

Just now, on his way home, he saw scattered corpses lying around street corners, in front of and behind houses, and under high walls. He wondered, "There haven't been any armed conflicts these past two days, so how come so many people have died?" It wasn't until he saw the white paper pasted on his own door that he realized someone in his family had also died. When he saw his father lying there, unable to get up to greet him, he even thought he was dreaming.

Xiaomei had already been taken away by her maternal grandmother. To allow him to handle the funeral arrangements, the rebels released him for a day to bury the body. The man who escorted him was actually his student. After taking him home, the student quietly told him, "Teacher Lin, just call me when you're feeling better!" Then he went back to his own home. Now, the empty house only contains his and his father's bodies.

He had heard about these events while he was still in the cowshed, but only now, when the devastating news struck him personally, did he truly begin to consider them. What force, from which source, wanted to destroy this entire city?

The first to die was Wang Tiegen. When no one else dared to continue digging the grave, he jumped down to be the first to do it, and died a violent death. From that time on, strange deaths began to plague the city.

The second person to die was the old man who looked after the body. He died mysteriously in the morgue where Wang Tiegen's body was kept.

Zhang Yongwang and his wife were later found dead in their home.

Then came the deaths of Liu Jianjun and his family of three from poisoning.

Then there's today, in Weiyu City after the rain. Because the food was gathered and cooked whole, an unknown creature has launched a brutal massacre against humans. The death toll is now impossible to count. And the killing continues!

What about tomorrow? Will this massacre end tomorrow? If not, when will it end? Until everyone in the city is dead? Professor Lin couldn't help but shudder.

He calmed himself and began to consider everything that had happened from the beginning. Decades of social research experience reminded him that beneath the surface of all seemingly complex events lay a perfectly clear thread. So, where did the events of the past few days lie? If there was a thread connecting them, where did it begin and where did it end?

---janeadam

Reply [18]: A vague idea suddenly came to Professor Lin's mind, but he quickly shook his head, clearly finding the idea himself absurd. He stood up and walked toward his student's house.

The student was having dinner at home when he opened the door and saw him. He asked in surprise, "Teacher Lin, you're done already?"

"No, I haven't even started yet!"

"What's wrong? Do you need my help?" the student asked with concern.

"No, I want you to do me a favor," Professor Lin said earnestly to the student. Seeing the troubled look on his face, he quickly added, "It's nothing difficult. I want you to take me to see your leader. If he can let me handle what happened these past few days, I might be able to get rid of those things quickly."

The students led Professor Lin hurriedly through the streets and alleys, heading towards the home of Zhang Hai, the director of the county revolutionary committee.

Zhang Hai, a cigarette dangling from his lips, sank into the sofa whose springs had stopped working, his brow furrowed, the room filled with smoke.

An emergency meeting was convened this morning with key departments of the county to discuss solutions to the recent unforeseen events. The meeting room was silent. Everyone smoked incessantly, but no one spoke. Finally, the police chief stood up and said, “Our comrade Liu Jianjun is dead, and I am deeply saddened. Today, these evil things are killing people in the city again, and I feel terrible. But, to be honest, I’m helpless. I don’t know what they are, what they want to do, or how they died. I’ve investigated; those who took the food home whole, I tried almost every method—boiling, steaming, frying, roasting—and in the end, it was all the same: they didn’t die. Even if I catch them, how can I eliminate them? Besides, these evil things are fast; they disappear as soon as they land. I—” He hesitated for a long time, but finally couldn’t help but say, “I think it would be better to go to the mountains and invite some sorcerers to subdue them!”

Thinking about this, Zhang Hai became angry. The police chief was a veteran Party member from the 1930s who had worked underground for over a decade. Those present, even the youngest with the longest Party membership, were older than the People's Republic of China itself, yet they all unanimously agreed to this idea. They completely lacked the integrity of communists. How could a pure materialist resort to hiring a sorcerer or shaman to solve a problem?

The meeting ended in discord, with Zhang Hai firmly disagreeing with everyone's views. As everyone left, they became extremely agitated, hurling insults and completely losing their usual composure.

Zhang Hai took a deep drag of his cigarette and slowly exhaled, the smoke in the room suddenly dissipating. What should he do? Zhang Hai thought helplessly, throwing the cigarette butt on the ground and stomping on it, grinding it hard. The spongy texture of the cigarette butt seeped through the hemp-stitched sole of his shoe, making a grating sound. Damn it, you little cigarette butt, trying to bother me. Zhang Hai ground it even harder, but it felt as if the cigarette butt was alive, moving under his shoe, and...

It grew bigger and bigger, no longer resembling a cigarette butt underfoot, but rather like something stubbornly trying to expand!

Zhang Hai moved his foot away and looked down.

---janeadam

Reply [19]: Eyes, densely packed, bulged up from the ground, followed closely by the white body, emerging from the ground without a speck of dust, leaving not even a trace of damage. I find it difficult to describe this scene accurately now; I just want everyone to think about how, in the TV series "Journey to the West," the scene when the Great Sage recites the incantation and the local earth god appears is exactly the same as when these monsters appear. Clean, efficient, and without any hindrance.

They stood in a neat circle, their movements perfectly synchronized as they stared blankly at Zhang Hai with their single eye. Zhang Hai was very familiar with this scene. Thirty years ago, whenever he inspected his troops, those thousands of soldiers moved in perfect unison, just like these monsters now. But today, he knew it was he who was being inspected, and these monsters were inspecting him, trying to find a way to break through his defenses.

He subtly reached behind him, drew his sidearm from its holster, and disengaged the safety. He wasn't sure if the monsters' eyes could see him; they hadn't moved an inch, just stared straight at him.

Zhang Hai's left shoulder dipped slightly, and simultaneously, he used his waist to propel himself forward, his legs pushing off the ground, and he landed on the open space behind the sofa. Countless combat experiences and long-term training allowed him to instantly enter a state of readiness. His ten standard movements—standing still, proper gun stance, target acquisition, wrist extension, magnification of the aiming area, recovery of vision, timely breath-holding, pre-pressing the trigger, smooth firing, and a natural pull—were executed flawlessly in one fluid motion.

"Crack!" A monster was smashed into thousands of white fragments like pear blossoms.

Before the recoil from the gun had even reached his hand, Zhang Hai had already released the trigger. At the same time, using his shoulder as a pivot point and maintaining a consistent grip, he moved his arm laterally, his gaze returning to the aiming area to search for the next target. With a "click," the slide recoiled. Simultaneously, Zhang Hai slowly pulled the trigger again.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" All five shots hit their target. The shattered white monster fragments were scattered all over the ground. However, the fragments quickly disappeared into the ground without a trace, as if they had never existed. The remaining monsters remained calm and motionless, still staring at him with their dead fish-like eyes.

Zhang Hai reached for the spare magazine on his waist, only to remember that he had left it on the table after returning home. He faced the monster, moving his feet alternately towards the table.

The monsters let out shrill laughter, seemingly mocking Zhang Hai's overestimation of his abilities, and then they began to move.

One after another, the monsters jumped together, then stacked on top of each other like a human pyramid, rising straight up on the ground, resembling a hideous snake, its lifeless eyes like the evil spots on its body.

Zhang Hai watched in astonishment as the snake, its body covered in eyes, grew taller and taller, looking down, then straightening its neck, then looking straight ahead, then raising its face, and finally looking up.

The snake slowly lowered its head, like a real Tyrannosaurus Rex, undulating and tentatively approaching Zhang Hai. A chilling light emanated from its single eye. Zhang Hai tried to look away, but couldn't. He wanted to quickly move to the table and load his magazine as fast as possible, but his legs wouldn't obey him. He desperately tried to mobilize all his nerves, to regain control of his body, but to no avail. His eyes were bitter from staring for so long, his whole body stiff as he watched the malevolent one-eyed snake rush towards him, its eyes gleaming with mockery. He, who had once charged bravely through a hail of bullets, felt a genuine fear then. That fear creaked and groaned in every joint of his body.