Li Xiu looked at her grandmother, and a little hope suddenly rose in her heart.
But in the next second, Grandma's corpse, the zombie, turned around and continued its previous movements. It was as if its pause after hearing Li Xiu's voice was just a coincidence.
At this moment, time seemed to suddenly slow down.
Li Xiu felt a sharp pain spreading from his sternum, as if a transparent person had stabbed him in the chest.
He was so upset that he could hardly breathe.
Almost immediately, Teacher Xu leaped forward from his side and rushed toward Grandma's body. A quick, mumbled incantation escaped his lips, and he quickly pulled out sheets of yellow paper and hurled them at Grandma's body. The talismans defied scientific common sense, erupting in flames as they were flung, clinging to Grandma's body as if possessing a mind of their own.
This time grandma really stopped.
Fang Qianan seized the opportunity, he let out a scream of fear, then stumbled down and escaped from his grandmother's dry and cold hands.
"Help—"
He screamed at Teacher Xu and Li Xiu.
In just such a short moment, the flames on the talisman paper that Teacher Xu had thrown out had dissipated.
My grandmother's body suddenly shook, and she fell from the ceiling with a bang. Her deformed corpse squirmed on the ground for a few seconds, and then, like an insect or some animal, she lay on the ground, arching her back in an abnormally twisted posture.
It let out a terrifying cry towards Teacher Xu, the sound was hoarse and creepy.
A strong stench mixed with the smell of disinfectant gushed out. Li Xiu wanted to hold her breath, but in the end she almost vomited.
Li Xiu watched her grandmother become like this, and she was on the verge of collapse.
"grandmother!"
The boy shouted subconsciously. The excessive shock even made him forget his fear. For a moment, Li Xiu couldn't help but rush a few steps towards his grandmother.
He still couldn't believe that the "monster" that was moving and screaming at this moment was his grandmother.
Besides, grandma no longer remembers him at all.
Fortunately, as soon as Li Xiu moved, Qiao Yang grabbed his waist tightly and dragged him backwards.
"No, Li Xiu, don't go near. Your grandmother has resurrected as a corpse. There's no telling what kind of monsters are inside her body. Don't go near her!"
The young Xuanmen disciple's face turned pale and he kept muttering to himself.
Although he appeared to be in better shape than Li Xiu, he was actually frightened to the point of losing his soul. As far as he could remember, the last time zombies actually appeared in China was in 1995. Qiao Yang had originally thought that these things were becoming a ghost story, but now he had actually encountered one.
...He now also hopes that a Lin Zhengying will appear in front of him.
The most important thing is that at this moment, Grandma Li Xiu is not the only zombie in the luxurious mansion.
"rustle..."
"sand..."
A figure swayed in the darkness.
A pale human figure with a slow and slightly deformed body staggered to his feet from the ground and walked slowly towards Li Xiu and the others.
They were the ordinary people who had been bitten by grandma before.
"We have to go quickly!"
Teacher Xu shouted loudly, raised his hands, and quickly nailed several pieces of talisman paper on the heads and shoulders of those people. Then he supported Fang Qianan and retreated in front of Li Xiu and Qiao Yang.
When the four of them gathered, Teacher Xu pushed Li Xiu and Qiao Yang, and then led everyone to run out the door.
"Bang--"
The double doors of the mansion were slammed shut by the man.
Almost at the same time as the door closed, several teeth-grinding, wet and dull banging sounds came from inside.
That was the sound made by those "people" who had besieged Fang Qianan before when they kept banging their bodies against the door.
Li Xiu covered her mouth and looked at the slightly shaking door in horror.
"Let's go."
Teacher Xu also breathed heavily. He patted Li Xiu on the shoulder and said with forced calmness.
"Those talismans won't last long... They haven't appeared in China for many years. I'm not from the Xiangxi School, so I'm not a professional at drawing talismans."
The building was pitch black.
Just like when they hurried here.
When they arrived at the building, Teacher Xu and Li Xiu discovered that the high-end building, which should have been lit 24 hours a day, was now completely dark.
The security guards, lobby managers, and even the owner of the building disappeared as if they had been swallowed by a monster.
Teacher Xu knew something was wrong at the time, but even he had not expected that after climbing the stairs with so much difficulty, he would face such a horrific scene.
After leaving Fang's house, the four of them naturally ignored the elevator and ran straight to the fire escape.
When leaving, Teacher Xu intentionally or unintentionally pushed himself to the back of everyone, and then the group hurriedly circled around the fire escape, running downstairs.
Occasionally, one could hear something rustling outside the fire door, making strange noises. Apart from the hurried footsteps, the entire corridor was filled with thick darkness and an almost visibly oppressive fear.
Finally, Li Xiu couldn't hold it in anymore and asked in a low voice almost whispering.
"Who were those people in the house just now? Are they dead?"
"Have you never seen a zombie movie? Anyone bitten by a zombie will also become a zombie in the future."
Qiao Yang said in a low voice.
"They... died?"
Then Li Xiu heard Fang Qianan ask dryly.
Qiao Yang said nothing.
Li Xiu suddenly felt panic.
"...No, but now that it's been infected by the Yin Qi, I guess it's almost like a zombie."
Fortunately, after a pause of a few seconds, Qiao Yang added a sentence.
"Don't talk too much."
At this moment, Teacher Xu, who was walking at the back of the group, suddenly spoke in a very serious tone.
Everyone fell silent immediately.
The reason was very simple, because just after Teacher Xu asked them to be quiet, in that moment of silence, everyone in the emergency escape heard the faint sound of footsteps.
"Click—"
"Click—"
…Those weren't human footsteps at all.
It sounded more like the sound of something jumping on tiptoe on the ground.
Li Xiu vaguely heard the rustling sound of papers in Teacher Xu's hands behind him.
He subconsciously wanted to look back, but as soon as he turned his head slightly, Teacher Xu suddenly reached out and pressed on the back of his head.
"Don't look."
Teacher Xu's voice was hoarse, with a subtle hint of weakness. Li Xiu immediately headed straight ahead, not daring to look back. All four of them had cell phones, and in the darkness of the emergency escape, using their phones as a light would have made descending faster. Yet, for some reason, some intuition led everyone to avoid this action.
However, in such heavy darkness, people's perception will unconsciously become extremely sharp.
Several times when Li Xiu stepped on the stairs, she felt that the touch was not right.
The soles of his feet were sticky, and there was an indescribable strange smell in the air.
Occasionally...
Only occasionally, Li Xiu even felt as if he had stepped on something soft.
Li Xiu walked down step by step in the darkness, and in a trance he even felt that he was trapped in an absurd and empty nightmare again.
And this time, he actually hoped that all this was a dream. After all, there would be no real zombies in the dream, no grandmother who came back from the dead and could not find peace, and no such terrifying and suffocating darkness.
"Click—"
The building is very tall.
When they reached the second half, Li Xiu, who had difficulty walking, could hardly move even if more people came.
He slowed down unconsciously.
But right behind them, the sound became more intense.
Sometimes Li Xiu could even feel the strange footsteps overlapping with their own. They were so loud, so distinct, and so close that it seemed as if they were right beside them, following them down in the darkness.
Li Xiu gritted her teeth, and a bloody taste rose in her mouth.
My feet hurt so much that they felt like they were going to break.
His extremely tense spirit seemed to be about to break his body apart, and his brain was almost unable to control his legs—
"Li Xiu, hurry up..."
He heard the tense urging from Teacher Xu behind him.
"good."
Li Xiu forced himself to respond.
But before he could finish his words, he accidentally missed a step and fell forward uncontrollably.
He let out a stifled scream.
A feeling of despair instantly hit Li Xiu. He knew very well that if he fell down the stairs at this moment, he would not only be injured, but more likely...
A pair of hands suddenly stretched out and grabbed Li Xiu's body firmly.
"Fang Qianan?"
"Shh-"
The tall boy whispered to him in a suppressed voice.
Before Li Xiu could react, the boy was once again carried on the back of his former school bully. Li Xiu subconsciously struggled for a moment, and then felt Fang Qianan's body suddenly tense up.
"I'm warning you, don't struggle. I don't have much strength right now."
Li Xiu heard Fang Qianan's stern warning.
"You're such a skinny little thing, it's not even a stretch for you, so you'd better just stay on me and don't cause me any trouble."
"…"
The frail boy bit his lip and did not utter a word in rebuttal in the face of the rude warning. Instead, he adjusted his posture as much as possible - his thighs were intertwined and stuck on Fang Qianan's waist, his upper body was tightly pressed against the other's back, and his arms were around the boy's shoulders and wrapped around his chest.
This posture can save Fang Qianan some energy.
However, it was precisely because of this posture that Li Xiu realized how nervous Fang Qianan was.
"Click—"
There was another strange sound of footsteps.
Li Xiu instinctively hooked her thighs together.
Through the thin clothes, Li Xiu could clearly feel Fang Qianan's muscles twitching several times as if in spasm, and then suddenly tensed like stone. Even Fang Qianan's palm that was holding his thigh was unconsciously exerting force.
Li Xiu has difficulty walking and the muscles in her thighs are unusually soft.
Fang Qianan's fingers were almost sinking into his thighs, and Li Xiu felt a little sore.
But in this situation, he didn't take this little pain seriously.
"Thanks."
Li Xiu's voice of thanks, as soft as a mosquito's, rang out in the darkness.
The previous shock had left Fang Qian'an's back soaked with sweat. However, his back remained broad and strong, and his arms around Li Xiu were as firm as ever.
Li Xiu just felt that the scene in front of him was so familiar.
How many times has this happened?
Li Xiu couldn't help but think.
It seems like it has happened several times.
When he was about to be unable to walk, it seemed that it was always the same person who silently led him forward in the unknown fear and inescapable darkness.
thump thump——
There seemed to be something wrong with my heartbeat.
Li Xiu closed her eyes, rested her face on Fang Qianan's shoulder, and thought hazily.
*
Time seems to pass slowly, yet also seems to pass quickly.
Looking down from the top of the building, when they finally saw the exit, everyone almost fell to their knees due to the double burden of physical and mental strength.
Teacher Xu was the last one to step out of the emergency staircase door.
Li Xiu noticed with sharp eyes that Teacher Xu was indeed holding a talisman paper in his hand, but at this time, there was only the last piece of talisman paper left.
Having also experienced such a life-saving escape, unlike the other three who were out of breath, Teacher Xu's face was now pale and slightly transparent, and he looked like he had just been pulled out of the water.
Before Li Xiu could ask how Teacher Xu was doing, he saw him suddenly turn around and throw the last piece of talisman paper into the darkness.
Then he slammed the door of the emergency escape.
"Bang--"
The next second, Li Xiu heard the extremely familiar, dull and strange collision sound.
"Teacher Xu?"
"It's okay now." Teacher Xu leaned against the wall, met Li Xiu's gaze, and shook his head gently.
He said softly.
"Let's go, get in the car first."
After a short rest, the four people staggered out of the building, supporting each other.
Then, they faced the thick night fog outside the building.
"grass--"
Teacher Xu's lips moved slightly, no longer as gentle and polite as before, but he cursed.