Jiang Chuyan suddenly woke up with a violent heartbeat.
He let out a scream of pain, and even after waking up, the rotten stench that came from the nightmare still seemed to linger in his nose.
It was as if the bodies of the three people in the dream were still tightly attached to his back at this moment.
Jiang Chuyan opened his eyes and was met with a pair of smooth, wrinkle-free faces.
He found himself back in his room in Longzhu Village.
He was lying on the narrow and hard bed, and Budacuocuo was leaning over with her head down, staring at him intently in a strange posture.
Jiang Chuyan suddenly opened his eyes wide, and fear came over him like a tsunami.
Clearly, the person in front of him was the familiar village chief of Longzhao Village, but the moment he saw Budacuocuo, Jiang Chuyan seemed to see the water monkeys chasing them in the dark night.
The water monkey also had such a face, smooth and wrinkle-free, with bulging eyes. Even the expressions on the faces of those monsters were the same as Budacuocuo's at this moment, so evil and so stupid.
Following his most primitive instinct, Jiang Chuyan picked up the stainless steel travel cup on the bedside table.
He uncontrollably threw the water cup at the nearby Budacuocuo. However, the moment he grabbed the travel cup, Jiang Chuyan realized that his body was completely out of control. Every muscle in his body was sore and painful, as if it had been soaked in aged vinegar for three days and three nights.
Even a travel mug weighs more than a thousand pounds to him at this moment.
"Bang--"
The travel cup brushed against Budacuocuo's forehead and slid away, but the village chief seemed completely unaware of what was happening. He still kept his bulging eyes open, staring at him intently.
Like a frog, or some other amphibian or aquatic animal.
Budacuocuo didn't move, but Jiang Chuyan almost fell off the bed because of his unstable center of gravity.
Fortunately, at this moment someone suddenly pushed the door open, rushed directly towards Jiang Chuyan, stretched out his hands and grabbed the other's weak body.
"careful!"
A familiar voice came, but Jiang Chuyan struggled uncontrollably in the other's arms.
"Let me go! Let me go—let me go—"
Even Jiang Chuyan himself didn't know why he was so frightened and so stressed.
"Chu Yan, don't be afraid, it's okay... Really, it's okay."
The man put his arm under Jiang Chuyan's ribs, using so much force that it seemed as if he wanted to rub Jiang Chuyan into his body. He kept repeating in Jiang Chuyan's ear.
Finally, Jiang Chuyan recognized the other person.
It's He Yuan.
Jiang Chuyan stopped moving. However, his usually calm and cool face was pale, and he was shaking uncontrollably like an abused stray dog.
He held He Yuan's hand in return, his eyes empty.
"Dead, they are all dead, what should we do...they died so horribly..."
"Chu Yan, look at me and listen to me..."
He Yuan raised his hand and grabbed Jiang Chuyan's chin, forcing the latter to look at him.
Even so, when Jiang Chuyan looked at him, his gaze seemed to pass over the boy's tall body and fall into the void.
"He Yuan, we have to leave here immediately. We have to call the police. Oh, call the police. Where's my phone? We have to call the police..."
Jiang Chuyan was still whispering nervously.
"Jiang Chuyan!"
In the end, He Yuan had no choice but to let out an almost rough growl at him.
"Calm down!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Chuyan's body twitched violently in He Yuan's arms, and then his whole body collapsed like a doll that had lost power.
"...He Yuan, I, I'm so scared."
After a long time, Jiang Chuyan let out a whimper as thin as a mosquito's.
He Yuan was silent for a moment, then stretched out his hand and placed it on Jiang Chuyan's forehead.
When Jiang Chuyan finally seemed to sober up a little, he spoke in a deep voice, word by word.
"Listen to me, Chu Yan, no matter what you saw in your hallucination, it was just an illusion. It's not real. So, don't be so excited, and don't be afraid. I'm always here. As long as I'm here, no one can hurt you. Everything is just an illusion."
"…Hallucination?"
Jiang Chuyan looked at He Yuan in disbelief. After several seconds, he muttered and repeated the word.
His once clear eyes were now filled with a quagmire-like confusion.
"What I saw was just an illusion?"
The young man's body trembled even more violently.
"How could it be an illusion? I remember——"
"You've been possessed by an evil spirit, and your entire being has been bewildered."
Budacuocuo suddenly interrupted Jiang Chuyan's bewildered mumbling. He slowly approached the bed, made a bitter face and added in unstandard Chinese.
…
Regarding everything that happened last night, Jiang Chuyan heard a story from He Yuan and Budacuocuo that was completely different from what he remembered.
Last night, Jiang Chuyan suddenly went berserk. In the wee hours of the morning, when everyone was fast asleep, Jiang Chuyan suddenly burst out of the bedroom and began yelling at the ceiling, looking like a madman. Worst of all, no matter how his companions called out to him, he ignored them and continued crying and screaming.
Just when everyone didn't know what to do, Jiang Chuyan suddenly ignored the obstruction of others, and ran out of the small building with fear on his face as if he was being chased by something, and jumped into the night alone.
"It was nighttime, you don't know how dangerous it was. If you had been dragged away by the water monkeys, you would have been dead by now..."
As he spoke, Budacuocuo's face was full of fear.
It is said that Jiang Chuyan ran so fast at that time that the others could not catch up with him at all, nor did they dare to chase him.
Only He Yuan, whose physical fitness exceeded that of an ordinary person, rushed out immediately after hearing the noise and caught up with Jiang Chuyan who was running wildly at night.
He wanted to take Jiang Chuyan away, but failed. He could only watch as Jiang Chuyan rushed to an abandoned building that had been deserted for a long time. When He Yuan arrived, Jiang Chuyan was standing in the abandoned building, muttering to himself, wandering around like a headless fly, and no one knew what he was trying to do. He Yuan was worried that Jiang Chuyan would be in danger, so he had to use some fighting skills to restrain Jiang Chuyan with his body. In this way, the two of them stayed in the abandoned building for a night.
It was not until dawn that the villagers found the two people sleeping in the deserted house. However, Jiang Chuyan was unconscious, while He Yuan was so tired that he fell into a deep sleep.
Afterwards, the village witch gave Jiang Chuyan some special herbs, and Jiang Chuyan woke up.
As for what he experienced last night, Bai Ke was cooked, Liu Tianyu rotted, Xu Yuanzhou was skinned, the remaining body was chopped up and stuffed into a thermos, and he was chased by a water monkey in the middle of the night...all of them were just Jiang Chuyan's hallucinations.
"How is it possible? How could last night have just been an illusion?!"
Jiang Chuyan's voice was trembling.
"I remember it clearly. Last night, He Yuan and I were being chased by water monkeys. They... they looked so disgusting. Yeah, and there was also Liu Tianyu. Liu Tianyu was lying on the bed like that, his nose and ears full of maggots. Xu Yuanzhou kept asking me to let him out of the thermos... I remember every detail. How could this be an illusion?! Oh, He Yuan, He Yuan can prove it. You were with me at the time, you saw it!"
Jiang Chuyan was more certain than anyone else that he was definitely not hallucinating.
If it were just a fantasy, how could such a terrifying night be so rich in details? Whether it was the stiffness of the corpse or the stench of decay, including the soft texture he felt when he put his finger into the thermos.
Even the unique sticky feeling of blood adhering to the skin still remains on Jiang Chuyan's fingertips.
…
However, He Yuan did not respond to Jiang Chuyan's words.
The tall, dark-skinned boy looked at Jiang Chuyan with some embarrassment, his eyes flickering slightly.
"You were talking to yourself the whole time last night. You were very excited and scared."
He whispered to Jiang Chuyan in an extremely gentle tone.
"But, the things you said did not happen."
"No—no—it wasn't an illusion, I know it wasn't—"
Jiang Chuyan subconsciously wanted to argue, but at this moment, his door creaked and was pushed open. The next second, the three people he had just mentioned, who had already died tragically in bizarre ways, walked in from behind the door.
"Chu Yan, how do you feel?"
The first person to walk in was Xu Yuanzhou, followed closely by Liu Tianyu and Bai Ke.
"…"
Jiang Chuyan opened his eyes wide, staring blankly at the three familiar faces, unable to move.
Bai Ke, Liu Tianyu and Xu Yuanzhou were also looking back at Jiang Chuyan with a reserved and nervous expression.
"Jiang Chuyan?"
Xu Yuanzhou shouted again in a dry voice.
It was almost like looking at a stranger.
In Jiang Chuyan's heart, a voice whispered.
"Why do you still look so pale? Oh, can you hold on like this? Your health is already so poor."
Xu Yuanzhou said this, his face full of worry.
"Hey, let me be honest, Brother Chuyan, you're already number one in the grade. There's no need to put so much pressure on yourself. Look, if you really have some mental problems, wouldn't that be more trouble than it's worth? You really scared me to death last night..."
The next person to speak was Bai Ke.
"Yeah, yeah, Chuyan, you don't know how scary you were yesterday. No matter how we called you, you just cried and screamed as if you couldn't hear us. I was so scared that I almost peed myself."
Liu Tianyu was just as carefree as Jiang Chuyan had imagined. The slightly plump boy simply sat down on the edge of the bed and started complaining.
The three of them chattered for a long time, but from beginning to end Jiang Chuyan just sat on the bed, staring at the three people in front of him.
The living classmate was standing right in front of him.
Jiang Chuyan was very sure that they did not have that strange corpse smell on them, and the exposed skin was smooth and white, without the burnt flesh and inexplicable teeth marks, nor the flowing brain matter and peeled skin.
Even their attitude towards themselves is so natural and impeccable.
I should have felt at ease.
Jiang Chuyan thought.
However, the images of the three corpses in his nightmare kept lingering in his mind.
He couldn't help but feel that these three people... might just be corpses that were resurrected in some way.
After all, the smiles on the faces of the three people in the dream were exactly the same as the expressions he saw now.
It's so strange, do they laugh like this in school?
Jiang Chuyan's eyes were fixed on the corners of the standardized smile, but he found that no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall what these three people really looked like in school.
"wrong..."
Jiang Chuyan suddenly interrupted Bai Ke.
"No, your tone is weird."
Bai Ke is good at being sarcastic, but today he didn't say a single extra word.
So, Bai Ke is really not right.
"Your legs..."
Jiang Chuyan spoke to himself, then suddenly bent down and reached out to Bai Ke's pants.
Bai Ke screamed and stepped back in panic: "Brother Chu Yan, what are you doing?"
There was some displeasure in his voice.
But Jiang Chuyan seemed to have gone mad at this moment, his eyes were wide open, and there was a strange light flashing in his pupils.
"I want to see your legs."
"I just want to know if your legs... are intact or not."
Jiang Chuyan said anxiously.
"Your legs should have been missing several pieces of flesh. The flesh that was eaten is gone."
"Chu Yan, stop joking. You look so scary."
Bai Ke's face froze.
However, perhaps because Jiang Chuyan's condition was so bad at the moment, even though his request was unreasonable, Bai Ke still kept a straight face and slowly pulled up his trouser legs with an expression that looked like he was crazy.
His calves were exposed, and the skin on them was white and smooth, without any scars, let alone a piece of flesh bitten off.
And the Bai Ke that Jiang Chuyan saw yesterday was already cooked from the waist down.
*
Great, they are all still alive, I really was just hallucinating."
Jiang Chuyan breathed a sigh of relief and sat down limply on the bed.
Bai Ke quickly lowered her trouser legs and looked at him unnaturally.
It was at this moment that Jiang Chuyan suddenly realized what he had just done.
Well, he is like a psychopath now...
Even Jiang Chuyan himself felt that his actions just now were a bit ridiculous.
Wait... Psychopath
The moment this word came into his mind, Jiang Chuyan's body trembled violently.
Jiang Chuyan's mother is also a mental patient.
When thinking about this incident, Jiang Chuyan felt even more fear than when he faced the corpses of everyone last night.
The reason why Jiang Chuyan has been displaced since childhood is because his mother suffers from severe schizophrenia.
When the woman died, Jiang Chuyan was actually seven or eight years old.
Therefore, he clearly remembered the whole process of his mother's temperament change. She was obviously a strong, smart and capable woman before the onset of the disease, but suddenly she became insane, locked herself in the house all day and dared not go out. In the end, she even smashed all the glass and mirrors in the house.
["Don't look at me, I'm turning into a monster."]
"Hehe, scales! Look, my quilt is covered in scales. Hahaha, these are scales growing from my body."
"I don't want this, please, no, don't turn me into a monster."
["Help… Help… I don't want to…"]
My mother kept crying and repeating all kinds of incoherent things.
In her imagination, she seemed to be gradually transforming into some strange, fish-like monster.
Finally one day, Jiang Chuyan woke up, opened the bathroom door, and saw blood all over his eyes.
His mother didn't commit suicide. She was just trying to scrape off the nonexistent scales on her arms.
Unfortunately, she was too scared and tried too hard.
*
There is a certain probability that mental illness will be passed on to offspring.
*
Jiang Chuyan couldn't help but scratch his palms, the blood drained from his face, and his breathing became unusually rapid.
To be honest, at this moment, he would rather believe what Budacuocuo said, that the water monkey had cursed him in order to catch prey... rather than that he had inherited his mother's crazy genes and started to become mentally ill in college.
…
Jiang Chuyan covered his chest and almost couldn't breathe.
"Chu Yan, calm down and don't think too much. Your body hasn't fully recovered yet. Come, adjust your breathing..."
He Yuan also realized that Jiang Chuyan was wrong, and he forced Jiang Chuyan back onto the bed.
"You guys get out first."
In the chaos, Jiang Chuyan vaguely heard He Yuan speaking to the three people in an unfamiliar accent.
The college boys, who had been moving freely and looking natural, froze for a moment, and a faint bluish-gray color suddenly flashed across their cheeks.
They instantly stopped all movement, stood up one by one, and walked quietly towards the door, their movements strangely stiff. However, Jiang Chuyan didn't notice the three people's unusual behavior until Liu Tianyu suddenly reached out and grabbed Jiang Chuyan's wrist the moment he left.
He grabbed it so hard that he almost crushed Jiang Chuyan's wrist bones.
Feeling the pain, Jiang Chuyan looked at Liu Tianyu in shock.
"Liu Tianyu, what are you doing?"
Before Jiang Chuyan could speak, He Yuan spoke gloomily from the side.
But Liu Tianyu ignored He Yuan, he just stared at Jiang Chuyan.
Similarly, Jiang Chuyan couldn't help but look back at him: Liu Tianyu's face seemed a little swollen.
After observing Liu Tianyu carefully, Jiang Chuyan couldn't help but think.
Moreover, the boy's pupils seemed to be trembling slightly, which seemed a little abnormal.
"Liu Tianyu?"
Jiang Chuyan couldn't help but speak.
Facing the two people's questions, the slightly fat boy did not answer, but...
His lips moved quickly and he seemed to say something with great difficulty.
But just when Jiang Chuyan was trying very hard to figure out what Liu Tianyu was saying, the boy suddenly shuddered and stood up as if he had just woken up from a dream.
He quickly withdrew his hand.
"fine."
Liu Tianyu said without any fluctuation.
"Please have a good rest."
After saying this dryly, Liu Tianyu stood up and started walking towards the door.
Liu Tianyu's abnormal behavior made Jiang Chuyan involuntarily focus all his attention on him. It was also because of this that at the moment the door was closed, Jiang Chuyan actually saw... something flowing out of Liu Tianyu's ears and nostrils.
A sticky, milky white mucus mixed with dark blood.
Jiang Chuyan's breathing stopped for a moment.
When he looked again to see more clearly, Liu Tianyu had already closed the door and disappeared behind it.
Jiang Chuyan fell silent.
"Don't mind him, that guy might just be scared."
He Yuan reached out and wiped the cold sweat from Jiang Chuyan's forehead. Then, his slightly cool fingertips slid down slightly and gently wiped Jiang Chuyan's wrist.
Jiang Chuyan did not answer He Yuan immediately.
Similarly, he did not mention to He Yuan the strange scene he had just seen.
He didn't know what was wrong with him.
Maybe he was crazy, maybe he just saw it wrong, or maybe he was still in a terrible nightmare from which he couldn't wake up...
Because he felt that the scene just now was so familiar, as if he had seen it countless times: countless times when Liu Tianyu's brain matter was overflowing and pouring out of his nose and ears.
The chill began to spread, and Jiang Chuyan felt his stomach cramp, making him almost vomit.
"I want to leave."
By the time I realized it, Jiang Chuyan had already said it.
He Yuan was stunned: "Leave? You mean go back to the city? But, your health is not very good now..."
"I don't want to stay here. I can't stand it anymore. Longzhao is too weird!" Jiang Chuyan interrupted him, "He Yuan, I will definitely go crazy if I stay here."
The thin and frail young man said dejectedly, and unconsciously rested his head on He Yuan's chest.
He Yuan's chest felt a little wet.
"I want to leave, He Yuan, let me go——"
At this moment, Jiang Chuyan had already forgotten about group assignments and papers.
At this moment, he had only one thought in his mind, and that thought was so strong that he couldn't think of anything else -
He must leave Long Marsh immediately.
He Yuan seemed silent for a while, then he raised his hand and pressed Jiang Chuyan's back.
"Okay, I'll go pack my bags and we'll leave right away."
He made a promise like the most loyal knight making a promise to his beloved princess.
"You can't leave—"
But just at this moment, Budacuocuo's strange whisper came from the side of the two again.
Jiang Chuyan and He Yuan immediately turned to look at Budacuocuo.
"What's the meaning?!"
He Yuan lowered his voice, his tone full of vigilance.
But Budacuocuo's eyes were slightly bulging, and she was staring at the trembling Jiang Chuyan with a sympathetic expression.
"You've been spotted."
Budacuocuo said without thinking.
"I know... I'm favored by the water monkey, right?"
Jiang Chuyan murmured.
When he heard the word "water monkey" from Budacuocuo again, the lighthearted and playful feeling he had a few days ago was gone. The lighthearted and cheerful voiceover of the Tibetan fox-faced uploader no longer rang in his mind. Instead, he was filled with a near-endless fear that surged through his body.
Regardless of whether it was an illusion or not, the water monkey now had an extremely vivid image in his mind.
Just thinking about the appearance of the water monkey made him shudder and his whole body turned cold.
He finally understood the genuine fear that the Longzhao people had for water monkeys.
…
Budacuocuo sighed deeply, glanced at He Yuan, and then slowly looked away.
"That's why I told you to be careful and not mess with the water monkeys. Water monkeys are extremely persistent. Once they've chosen their prey, they'll do everything they can to make that person experience all sorts of hallucinations. Even if you're in a safe place, you'll just want to escape. Even if you know it's dark outside and that's where the water monkeys are, you'll still be driven by fear and walk into their trap involuntarily... You see, you fell for it yesterday."
The village chief's face was full of bitterness.
"Alas, this is actually my fault. I should have taken a closer look at you when I entered the village. That chicken must have been an evil spirit released by the water monkey, but you... failed to remove the curse properly, didn't eat the food you were supposed to, and didn't please the Dragon God."
"Don't think the water monkeys are little monsters you can easily get rid of. They are the most ferocious and persistent monsters in the entire mountain. Once they target you...if you don't find a way, you'll never be able to leave us."
Hearing this, Jiang Chuyan could no longer bear it. After a moment of silence, he repeated his previous words in a hoarse voice with a stubborn, even willful tone.
"I want to leave. I don't want to stay here."
As Jiang Chuyan spoke, his eyes gradually turned red.
The next second he suddenly thought of something, and he looked up at He Yuan in horror. Even the joints of his hands that were holding He Yuan began to turn white.
"He Yuan, you don't care about this, right? You, you will take me away, right?"
Jiang Chuyan had never hated himself so much for not being able to drive.
He Yuan looked at Jiang Chuyan deeply at this time.
Then he turned sideways and stood between Budacuocuo and Jiang Chuyan, intentionally or unintentionally.
"Thank you for your reminder, but the water monkeys, they can't possibly follow us back to K City, right?"
As soon as He Yuan finished speaking, Jiang Chuyan's back relaxed.
Yes, no matter how mysterious and terrifying the monster was, it would be impossible for it to follow them back to such a far place.
A prosperous city cannot accommodate the strange and bizarre supernatural creatures in the mountains.
"We'll be leaving soon."
He Yuan promised firmly in Jiang Chuyan's ear.
On the other side, Budacuocuo let out a long sigh.
Jiang Chuyan originally thought that Budacuocuo would continue to use the curses of the water monkeys to stop him, but unexpectedly, in the end, Budacuocuo just sighed.
The village chief looked at him hesitantly, and finally said nothing.
Everything seemed to go smoothly afterwards.
Jiang Chuyan didn't even bother to pack his luggage. He just stuffed whatever he could find into his bag and staggered towards He Yuan's car.
Jiang Chuyan thought he had acted quickly enough, but when he got in the car, he found that Liu Tianyu, Bai Ke and Xu Yuanzhou were already sitting in the back seat.
Perhaps they also felt something was wrong like Jiang Chuyan, so the three of them did not question Jiang Chuyan's early departure at all.
They were even faster than Jiang Chuyan himself.
"you..."
Jiang Chuyan looked at them and was stunned for a moment.
The familiar sense of déjà vu comes again.
Jiang Chuyan shook his head and forcibly suppressed the strange feeling that emerged in his heart.
"You guys are so quick."
He couldn't help but say.
"fine..."
Bai Ke spoke softly after a slight delay.
Xu Yuanzhou was next: "This place is actually quite scary. It would be nice to go back soon."
"Yes, yes, yes, I can't stand it here anymore, let's go quickly. As for the paper, I'll use the content I collected yesterday and then go back and use the search engine to piece together some information--"
Liu Tianyu also said it easily.
Hearing them say this, Jiang Chuyan pursed his lips and was silent for a few seconds before mumbling "Okay". Then, he hurriedly got into the car.
…The conversation between the three people actually sounded familiar.
The car engine started, and soon the car drove towards the narrow mountain road outside Longzhao Village.
Jiang Chuyan looked back and saw that Budacuocuo was standing at the village entrance just like when they came, watching their car gradually drive out of Longzhao Village.
There was no expression on the village chief's smooth face.
Jiang Chuyan kept looking at him until Budacuocuo's figure completely disappeared at the end of the road. Only then did he feel relieved a little bit.
It's fine.
He said to himself.
Everything will be fine.
Just like He Yuan said, those water monkeys or the curse couldn't possibly follow them back to the city. Once they get back, they'll immediately arrange for a psychiatric examination. No matter what the problem is, as long as it's discovered and treated early...
As for those weird and supernatural things, he can also ask Professor Li Xiu.
He had actually heard a lot of rumors, and heard that Professor Li Xiu was actually very good at handling this kind of things.
As long as I can leave quickly.
if only...
Can go back...
…
In this way, Jiang Chuyan nervously scratched the palm of his hand while constantly comforting himself.
There was no conversation for the rest of the journey.
Compared to when we came, the carriage was extremely silent.
When he came, he thought Bai Ke was too noisy, but at this time, he would rather Bai Ke said something, but Bai Ke remained dead silent from beginning to end.
Jiang Chuyan stared quietly at the trees on both sides of the mountain path retreating continuously.
He was moving away from Longzhao Village. Thinking of this, his heart seemed to finally calm down a little.
He shrunk himself to one foot of the seat and banged his head against the window.
Jiang Chuyan thought that he would be in a state of high tension from beginning to end, concentrating on observing everything around him.
But in fact, it didn't take long before he accidentally fell asleep due to extreme fatigue.
There was a pair of blood-red eyes in the dream.
It was dark all around, with only two red candles burning brightly, emitting a flickering light, and the air was filled with damp vapor.
"Who are you?!"
He heard himself speaking.
The voice is very childish and small, completely like the voice of a young child.
In a daze, Jiang Chuyan could feel that "he" was actually afraid, and tears had already accumulated in his eyes, but he forced himself to hold them back.
"Hiss…hiss…"
Accompanied by a vague, strange hissing sound that seemed to come from under the water, something cold and sticky stretched out from the depths of the darkness and slowly stuck to his ankle.
He shuddered.
"Are you here to participate in the game too?"
He mustered up his courage and asked again tremblingly.
But the other party did not answer.
The shadow cast upon him grew larger.
The red eyes seemed to be dripping blood.
Strangely, Jiang Chuyan felt that... he sensed the hesitation emerging from the heart of the giant standing in front of him at this moment.
There is still confusion.
It seemed confused by its own reaction.
No screaming, crying, or pointless struggling.
Only timid inquiries.
"Can't you speak?"
"…"
"Don't be afraid, I won't dislike you. My mom said that there are many people in this world who may not have the same appearance as normal people, but their hearts are as kind and warm as normal people!"
What kind of absurd dream is this?
Who on earth would say such words to such a strange and terrifying thing in a dark cave?
Jiang Chuyan felt confused, but also felt that the scene in front of him was incredibly familiar.
Yes, when I was a child, I was always transferred to the intensive care units of various hospitals. I could almost be said to be a child who grew up in the hospital. I saw too many people suffering from diseases in the hospital.
Some people become hideous and terrifying due to burns, while others look grotesque due to congenital genetic diseases...
It's not that he hasn't been scared before, but every time his mother would secretly grab little Jiang Chuyan's hand and tell him not to show any expression of disgust or hate.
"That would make them sad."
"Didn't Yanyan also shave her head and cry under the covers? You know how that feels, it's so uncomfortable..."
"Yanyan, be a kind child. So next time you see kids like this, don't run away. Find a way to make friends with them!"
Later, Jiang Chuyan unknowingly got used to patients of all sizes who had different appearances for various reasons.
He also made friends with several of them.
Thinking of this, Jiang Chuyan opened his eyes wide in his dream in the darkness.
He took two cautious steps towards the hideous and terrifying chaotic human figure.
The young child swallowed his saliva and wiped his red eyes.
Then he forced a smile.
"Are you scared?"
The other party didn't say anything.
So, he rubbed against the other person again.
"Don't be afraid... I, I can accompany you."
The thin child said softly.
Although everyone could hear his fear.
"…"
The shadows that kept wriggling in the darkness paused for a moment.
The look those blood-red eyes gave the child was even stranger.
But the child was too young at the moment. He could not understand such a complicated look at all. He only knew that having a companion in the darkness was the greatest comfort.
In order to keep his strange-looking friend, he even sniffed and carefully took out the chicken doll in his arms.
"If you are afraid, just hold it and you won't be afraid anymore."
"My mother said that if I'm in danger, the chicks will protect me."
Jiang Chuyan stretched out his hand towards the figure in the darkness.
He stayed in mid-air for a long time.
The chicken doll trembled in his palm.
The shadow remained motionless.
"Zizizi…"
Deep in the cave, a wet friction sound came.
It was as if some monster huge enough to fill the entire cave was moving.
The child's breathing has become increasingly rapid due to nervousness.
"You...you don't like chicks?"
Just when he was panicking, suddenly, a huge and deformed claw was placed directly on the child's hand.
The sharp claws grabbed the chicken doll in Jiang Chuyan's hand.
…
["Who are you"]
From the deepest part of the cave, a vague and strangely pronounced question was heard.
[My name is...my name is Yanyan.]
…