Chapter 56: Sitting
Xiao Ran was about to let out a scream, but Doctor Zhao immediately covered her mouth from behind.
The scream turned into a muffled groan, stifled in her throat.
Doctor Zhao had noticed that the three people who had just gone out had gone completely silent. Curious, he followed them out to check—only to witness such a bizarre scene that he nearly jumped out of his skin.
None of the four dared to make a sound. They stared silently at the "person" before them, who looked like a cricket.
It was rapidly kicking its hind legs like an insect, constantly changing direction as if searching for something. Every now and then, it lifted the two bloody sockets on its face to look around.
Its neck movements were also inhuman—quick, like an insect's, and with a terrifyingly wide range of motion.
A few seconds later, the "person" suddenly leaped high into the air, jumping toward the convenience store wall.
Qi Xia quickly raised his torch to illuminate, trying to track the figure. After all, in this pitch-black environment, losing sight of the target was the most dangerous thing.
But the moment the torchlight hit the wall, even someone with Qi Xia's mental fortitude nearly had his legs give out and collapse to the floor.
The wall illuminated by the fire was crawling with "people," packed tightly together.
At a glance, there were at least a dozen of them, moving rapidly across the wall.
When the light shone on them, they seemed to sense something and scurried back into the darkness.
They looked like crickets, like cockroaches, like spiders.
In short, nothing like humans.
Qi Xia felt every hair on his body slowly stand on end.
All the way here, he and Lin Qin had been walking to the convenience store in the dark, constantly hearing intermittent chirping sounds from all around.
Sometimes the chirping was far away, sometimes very close.
So that wasn't insects at all… it was one "person" after another.
The thought that when he and Lin Qin were moving forward, the ground beside them and the walls not far away were covered with these things…
Even the word "after-fright" couldn't describe this feeling.
Qi Xia broke out in a cold sweat. He slowly turned around and waved at the others.
They understood his intent and began backing away slowly.
Qi Xia held the torch, his eyes fixed on the "people" on the wall, and with the three behind him, they retreated step by step back indoors.
They didn't dare make a single sound the entire time, moving at an extremely slow pace.
These things all seemed to have their eyes gouged out, so they could probably only find their way by sound. Fortunately, everyone knew that survival was the priority, so no one made a noise.
After closing the door, Qi Xia grabbed a wooden board from the side and propped it against the door. The group continued retreating until they reached the corner.
The cold, mottled wall gave them a sliver of safety.
"What… what the hell are those things…" Xiao Ran stammered.
"They're people…" Doctor Zhao started, then immediately shook his head. "No… human bones can't move like that. They have to be insects…"
Qi Xia took a deep breath and said, "Last night, I also heard rustling sounds. That means these things didn't just appear today—they've been here all along."
He turned back, his face serious, and said to Lin Qin, "We two were incredibly lucky not to have stepped on any of these things along the way…"
Lin Qin nodded, still shaken, looking quite terrified.
The four of them fell into silence.
Before seeing this horrifying sight, they might have been able to sleep peacefully at night.
But now, none of them dared to close their eyes. They could only lean against the wall, staring intently at the door, constantly on guard against those things bursting in.
The night, stripped of sleep and sound, felt exceptionally long.
They stood by the wall for half the night, and now their waists and legs were aching.
Gradually, they noticed a problem.
The "bugs" outside the door really did seem to be just bugs.
They had no intention of breaking into this brightly lit place.
Qi Xia was using the rules of this place to explain the phenomenon.
No matter how creepy they looked, no matter that their eyes were constantly bleeding, they were still just bugs.
If "bugs" and "shop clerks" were the same kind of thing, then they would surely play their roles well.
With that thought, the bugs outside probably weren't too dangerous. Even if they did actively attack humans, they probably wouldn't charge the door in a swarm.
Thinking this, Qi Xia slowly sat down and stretched his sore limbs.
Seeing him take the lead, the other three also sat down, though they still looked tense.
"Qi Xia… what do we do?" Lin Qin asked.
Qi Xia rubbed his chin and said, "Sleep."
"Sleep?"
"Get some sleep. Conserve energy." Qi Xia found a clean wooden board and laid it next to Lin Qin. "After dawn, we'll set out to find Officer Li."
"But what about those things outside…"
"Don't worry." Qi Xia said nonchalantly. "They won't come in. As long as we don't go out, we'll be safe for now."
Lin Qin nodded cautiously, like a child, and lay down.
Qi Xia went to the corner, found another clean board, and placed it over the pot. He then sat on the board, using his weight to hold the pot down.
Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao exchanged glances. They looked at each other, then at Qi Xia and Lin Qin.
How could they possibly sleep?
Even if they could completely ignore the bugs outside, Xiao Ran still felt that Qi Xia was dangerous.
In the story he'd told at the beginning, he was a swindler who had embezzled two million yuan. How could someone like that be a good person?
If she slept near him, would she inexplicably die again the next morning?
Qi Xia paid no attention to the expressions of Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao. Instead, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes to rest.
To him, whether these two stayed awake all night was none of his concern.
Lin Qin, lying on the wooden board, looked at Qi Xia sitting in the corner and felt a bit sorry for him. She shifted over a little and said, "Qi Xia, this board is big enough. You can lie down here too."
Qi Xia lifted an eyelid and said, "No need. I'm used to sleeping sitting up."
"Sitting up?" Lin Qin thought about it for a moment, then stood up, moved the board over beside Qi Xia, and lay back down. "Then sit next to me and sleep."
Qi Xia didn't refuse. Compared to Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao, Lin Qin had left a decent impression on him.
Lin Qin lay on the board and looked at Qi Xia with some curiosity. "Why are you used to sleeping sitting up?"
Qi Xia raised an eyebrow and seriously considered the question. "Because sleeping sitting up keeps me from entering a 'relaxed' state. It lets my brain stay ready to function at any moment."
Lin Qin nodded, but seemed to think of something else. "You've always slept sitting up?"
"Yes."
"For many years?"
Qi Xia felt that Lin Qin was being strange, so he turned to look at her. "Is that question important?"
Lin Qin swallowed and organized her words before finally asking, "But you have a wife… Even when the two of you lived together, did you still sleep sitting up every night?"