Chapter 52: The Nape
Zou Weichang, based on the location Xu Huo had given him, precisely found a leopard skin. He felt it for a long while, then muttered a low curse before turning to a rhinoceros hide. After rubbing it similarly, he suddenly ripped the skin off and threw it heavily to the ground.
"Bastard!" he cursed viciously, then barged straight into the Skinner's bedroom!
As the bedroom door opened and closed, Peng Fengnian, who was clinging to the wall, silently cursed the fool in his heart, but his peripheral vision was fixed on the Skinner, who had just come out of the warehouse.
The Skinner held a candle in one hand and a rusty, thick iron chain in the other. He casually tossed the chain over a beam, tested its height after hanging it, and lit an alcohol lamp below.
The flame illuminated the metal hook dangling from the tip of the iron chain. Unlike the rusted chain, this hook, shiny as a mirror, gradually turned red under the flame's heat. The red glow spread out like a tangible substance, quickly enveloping the entire workshop.
Sweat beaded on Peng Fengnian's forehead. His nose was pressed against the wall, his eyes fixed on the dust right in front of him, not daring to let his gaze drift even towards the Skinner.
He was a hundred percent certain that the glowing red metal hook was a special item. He didn't know its exact effect, but he could only pray it didn't have a search function. His own item, "You Can't See Me," would be less effective whether he stared directly at the Skinner or if there was light.
"Two little piglets," the Skinner muttered as he moved. "One is very naughty, damaged my beloved skin. The other is disobedient, hiding outside during playtime."
"Which one should I deal with first?"
When he said the first sentence, he was still in the center of the workshop. By the time he asked the second question, his voice seemed to be right next to Peng Fengnian's ear.
Peng Fengnian broke out in a cold sweat, his eyeballs trembling wildly. He didn't dare focus on the Skinner, who had suddenly entered his field of vision. At the same time, a half-finger-long injection appeared in his left hand. He clenched his fist, and the black liquid was injected into his palm. A black vein bulged from his skin, racing up his arm towards his chest. The moment it reached his heart, he was clinging to the wall, his breath cut off.
"Dead?" The Skinner stood beneath the wall, raised the candle to look at the person hanging crookedly above, shook his head regretfully, then walked out the front door and into the fur storage room.
Inside the Skinner's bedroom, when he jumped out the window for the third time only to land back in the same spot, Zou Weichang finally realized something was wrong.
He had originally planned to get the fur and clear the instance early without telling the others. But based on the location Xu Huo gave him, he had taken two skins and still hadn't received the clearance prompt. It was obvious Xu Huo had given him false information.
Talking about working together to save people was all an excuse, just to stall for time and monopolize the good stuff in the Skinner's secret room. Those other idiots trusted him unconditionally, but Zou Weichang wasn't that stupid.
Everyone who sees it gets a share. Whatever Xu Huo got, he wanted a piece too.
So he immediately entered the Skinner's bedroom. The bed was indeed empty. Needless to say, the Skinner must have gone into the secret room.
After several attempts at negotiation yielded no response, and failing to push open the wall, he planned to go back and wake up Qin An and the others. But he never expected he couldn't get out!
The instance had changed!
Zou Weichang suddenly remembered the look on Xu Huo's face when he was on the phone with Peng Fengnian earlier. It seemed they had already discovered the problem with the instance.
Cursing himself for being careless, he immediately turned back towards the bedroom door. But as he reached the door, a beam of light also appeared at the entrance. A pair of shadows stood face to face with him outside.
"Knock, knock!" The person outside knocked on the door, singing in a cheerful tone: "Little piggy, be good, open the door. Open it gently, don't break it."
The weird, neither-foreign-nor-native tune made his scalp crawl. Even as slow as Zou Weichang was, he could feel that the Skinner outside the door was different from the one during the day. No wonder Xu Huo hadn't made a sound no matter how long he shouted in the bedroom. He must have already hidden himself!
"Little piggy, be good, open the door. If you don't open it, I'll come in." The Skinner's tone changed again as he turned the doorknob.
Time to fight!
Zou Weichang steeled himself and threw out a skateboard!
The bedroom door crashed to the ground. The moment the skateboard flew out, Zou Weichang leaped and landed on it, vaulting over the Skinner and jumping out of the bedroom!
The candle flame didn't flicker. The Skinner stood by the door, first glancing at the fallen door, then looking up at Zou Weichang. His bloodshot eyes moved slightly, like a dead man looking at another dead man.
Zou Weichang shuddered in terror, cold sweat pouring down. He didn't care anymore and ran straight across the fur storage room to escape!
As he was about to leave, he looked back and saw the Skinner still standing there in the same posture. The candlelight cast a shadow on half his face, but a smile slowly spread across it.
Zou Weichang's heart sank. He immediately sped up, but the next second, he crashed headlong into the hanging furs!
The furs moved like living things, wrapping around him as soon as they touched his body. Hand to hand, head to head, the fur perfectly adhered to him. By the time he rolled off the skateboard, he had turned into a four-legged, closed-eyed tiger!
Unable to see or speak, Zou Weichang stumbled towards the door using his sense of direction. But before he could take two steps, another force seized him. The skin binding his hands and feet forced him to kneel on the ground. Both the skin and he himself were trembling!
The Skinner walked over to him, grabbed his hind leg, and dragged him towards the workshop.
Zou Weichang screamed for help, but what came out of his mouth were only low, discordant roars. He clawed at the ground with his hands, leaving faint marks on the floor, almost negligible.
But the Skinner turned back, saw them, walked over, and stomped on his hands, breaking them. He said coldly, "Disobedient piglets must be punished."
Zou Weichang screamed in agony as he was hung on the metal hook, now red-hot from the alcohol lamp. Then the Skinner peeled off the tiger skin, picked up his broken hands, examined them, and said regretfully, "They're bruised. This skin won't look good when it's peeled off."
Zou Weichang, his nape pierced by the metal hook and hanging long from it, had his eyeballs and lips trembling simultaneously. He couldn't speak or move, his whole body drenched in sweat.
The Skinner opened a leather case and took out tweezers, a file, over a dozen small blades of various shapes, and a fishhook tied to a fishing line.
He heated each of these tools, then checked the metal hook in Zou Weichang's nape. Finally, he walked back to the front, took the skinning knife off his apron, and wiped it carefully.
"Some mammals, due to memories from infancy, dare not move when their nape is pinched. Whether it's a newly weaned kitten or an adult tiger or leopard, they all have the same neural reflex. You don't have to spend much effort catching them; they'll be docile and obedient on their own. They won't move when being skinned, so it won't affect the beauty of the hide."
"It's the same with humans. Hook the skin on the spine of the nape, and the muscles will relax. Although they can feel pain, the nerves won't let the skin and flesh tighten. This way, the peeled skin will be evenly stretched."
"I call it the 'Nape of Fate.' It's now threaded through the 'Awakening Hook.' We have two hours." The Skinner looked up at Zou Weichang, his features twisting into a "smile." "Let's begin."