Chapter 3

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No one would ever know how much effort Qi Wu had spent that day restraining the mad, clamoring desire within his body when Xie Xishu had hurried past him, attempting to leave.

When he seized Xie Xishu by the collar and pulled him toward himself, what he truly wanted to do was certainly not ask whether the other boy had put on perfume. He knew better than anyone that the soul-stirring scent could never have been blended from mere perfumed essences.

He could smell it.

Those heavenly particles of fragrance came from deep within the boy’s damp, sweat-slicked skin.

So exquisite. So rich, sweet, and intoxicating.

So much so that the instant he touched the boy, Qi Wu discovered, to his utter horror, that he actually… actually wanted to lick him.

*

The thought was absurd, yet overwhelmingly powerful.

Even Qi Wu himself was thrown into a panic by that bizarre desire. A formless fear suddenly descended upon him, allowing him, for one brief moment, to reclaim his fragile reason and release the boy.

But Qi Wu knew things were not so simple.

His family had often praised the almost beastlike acuity of his instincts when he worked. His intuition was always precise, never making a mistake.

This time was no different.

His instincts were shrieking, warning him that he was slipping into an unknowable and indescribable abyss.

He was facing total ruin.

And yet, that day, Qi Wu still put on an appearance of lazy indifference. Seemingly without a second thought, he took away the clothes Xie Xishu had left on the bench. He played the part perfectly. No one noticed that his hands had been trembling the entire time he stuffed the school uniform into his backpack.

That evening, after returning to his almost empty room, Qi Wu shut every door and window and disabled the air-circulation system.

Then, with the utmost care, he took out the school uniform.

His throat bobbing, Qi Wu bound the garment over his face.

Xie Xishu’s scent still lingered among the threads of the cheap fabric. As Qi Wu breathed heavily, it was drawn ceaselessly into his nostrils, soothing each of his olfactory cells with exquisite gentleness.

Qi Wu closed his eyes and stretched his spine in the darkness, sinking into that impossibly wonderful scent.

…

It was a long time before Qi Wu realized that his tongue had already slipped out. Like a bright-red, glistening serpent, it coiled again and again around the collar of the uniform—the place where the boy’s scent was strongest.

His saliva had soaked the spot through.

*

Qi Wu startled himself.

A normal human tongue could never be like his—so slender, so agile, resembling the tongue of some reptile enlarged in perfect proportion.

It was almost as if an alien life-form had parasitized his body without his realizing it.

Startled, Qi Wu released the fabric. The next instant, his tongue snapped back into the depths of his mouth.

Qi Wu frowned.

He went to the mirror and examined himself. Outwardly, he remained exactly as he had always been, indistinguishable from an ordinary person. But when he opened his mouth, he noticed more signs that something was wrong.

His jaw seemed capable of opening extraordinarily wide.

Beneath the dark-red mucous membrane inside his mouth, several tiny white points stirred restlessly, ready to spring out at any moment.

The muscles of his tongue had become abnormally developed, powerful, and remarkably long.

And, of course, there were changes unrelated to his outward appearance.

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Qi Wu realized that while taking in the pitifully faint scent molecules clinging to the school uniform, he had also developed an uncontrollable hunger and thirst for the owner of that scent.

*

He was hungry.

*

…

…

…

The day after Xie Xishu discovered that Qi Wu had been inexplicably staring at him, he was late.

The reason was a nightmare.

The nightmare’s protagonist was naturally Qi Wu. In it, Xie Xishu pushed his desk aside without hesitation and walked straight toward Qi Wu at the back of the classroom.

Why do you keep looking at me?

Xie Xishu heard himself ask in the dream, his voice trembling violently with fear.

Dream-Qi Wu still maintained the lazy, slouching posture Xie Xishu remembered. Yet his entire body was shrouded in a layer of pitch-black shadow, his features and expression blurred beyond recognition. Only after Xie Xishu questioned him did he slowly raise his head and bare his teeth at the boy before him.

The instant Xie Xishu saw his face, he let out a short, terrified scream—

A tongue.

A slender, bright-red tongue emerged from Qi Wu’s mouth.

But there was more than a single tongue upon Qi Wu’s face. His eye sockets were already empty of eyeballs, and two equally moist, thick, drooling tongues writhed outward like the feelers of a snail, reaching toward Xie Xishu.

Xie Xishu never even had the chance to run. Those tongues wrapped around him like the most greedy and cunning of forest boas.

I keep looking at you because… I really… really want to lick you…

This is the reward I deserve…

Muffled murmurs spilled from the depths of Qi Wu’s throat, which was crammed full of tongues.

You’re sweet.

I want to lick you.

Let me have a taste… I won’t bite you… I’ll only lick you…

More tongues sprouted from Qi Wu’s body.

And now, every one of them was wrapped around Xie Xishu.

…

…

Xie Xishu sat bolt upright in bed, drenched in sweat.

Cold sweat had soaked through his pajamas. The sticky sensation remaining on his skin made the scenes from the nightmare seem even more vivid, until he could no longer control himself and, covering his mouth, gave a dry retch.

Fortunately, a few minutes later, as the haze of waking gradually lifted, Xie Xishu managed to calm down. He forced himself out of bed and retrieved a thermometer from the nightstand. After taking his temperature, the number on the liquid-crystal display made his already pale face turn even whiter.

He had a fever again.

“Damn…”

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A powerful wave of self-loathing surged over Xie Xishu.

He knew perfectly well why he had developed a fever. It was simply because realizing that Qi Wu had been staring at him had caused him excessive stress, and the stress had brought on the fever.

The same thing had happened many times—so many times that Xie Xishu himself had grown accustomed to it.

His parents had long since gone abroad for work, and there was no one else at home. After getting up, Xie Xishu prepared some fever medicine for himself, then packed his schoolbag and got ready for school. But the moment he opened the front door, the damp, stifling midsummer air rushed inside and enveloped him. In a daze, Xie Xishu once again thought of the nightmare from the night before.

Qi Wu’s dark, uncanny gaze in the dream, and the clammy warmth of those tongues—he could still feel them clinging faintly to his body, as though he had never truly awakened from the nightmare.

Xie Xishu’s steps faltered briefly.

…Actually, if he felt unwell, there was no harm in staying home to rest. Southbright No. 3 High School was lax about attendance to begin with, and he enjoyed the privileges granted to a top student. Even if he took a day off, surely no teacher would pursue the matter.

The pale, thin boy stood there for several seconds, one hand gripping the doorknob while the other absently picked at his schoolbag strap. Then he suddenly shuddered lightly.

As though waking from a dream, he abruptly shut the door with a bang. In the final second before the gap closed, Xie Xishu unconsciously raised his head and looked toward the end of the hallway.

The door to his parents’ bedroom remained tightly shut.

*

He could not explain why.

But for some inexplicable reason, he did not want to remain at home over an ordinary fever, even though there was no one else in the house.

*

…

…

…

After sluggishly taking his medicine and leaving the house, Xie Xishu reached school long after the bell for morning study had rung.

He did not pay much attention to it. At a school like Southbright No. 3 High, the bells for morning study and regular classes had always been little more than decorations. For the students there, merely showing up at school was already considered exemplary obedience.

Today, however, things were different from what Xie Xishu remembered.

He had not yet reached the school gate when he heard a commotion in the distance. Then he saw that the entrance—where tardiness and early departures had always gone entirely unmonitored—was now crowded with a large number of people.

And a familiar figure stood blocking the gate, holding a pointer with the imposing force of one man holding back a multitude.

It was Teacher Li.

She was not particularly old, but perhaps because she needed to keep her students under control, Teacher Li habitually wore a somewhat dowdy, rigid suit. Today was no exception.

The only difference was that today, Teacher Li truly looked capable of intimidating them. The young teacher’s eyes were webbed with red veins, and behind her thick lenses, her slightly bulging eyeballs seemed ready to fall from their sockets at any moment.

Her expression was extraordinarily severe—so severe that it had become somewhat distorted.

When she spoke, her voice was also much higher and sharper than usual.

Even from far away, Xie Xishu could hear her shouting:

“Didn’t I tell you that if you come to school for class, you’re supposed to look like students?! The school rules clearly state that you must wear your uniforms and obey school regulations. You should all learn to behave yourselves. Otherwise, don’t come to school at all. Look at you! Just look at the state you’re in… You’re late, and you’re still grinning and joking around! Do you realize that if you continue like this, you’ll become the scum and cancers of society…”

The several No. 3 High students Teacher Li had stopped at the gate said nothing in response to her tirade. It was obvious, however, that they were not frightened. They were simply stunned by Teacher Li’s sudden and astonishing change in manner.

After all, the school’s disorderly atmosphere had not appeared overnight. Teacher Li had not been transferred there long ago, but any normal person should have figured out the situation at No. 3 High by now. Yet today, she seemed to have suddenly lost her mind. She had begun policing not only their studies, but also such trivial matters as being late and failing to wear their uniforms.

All right—at any other school, this might have been perfectly normal.

But at No. 3 High, Teacher Li’s behavior had become an absurd farce. If anyone had dared lecture this group of unruly delinquents so openly under ordinary circumstances, they would certainly have taught that person a lesson.

Today, however, Teacher Li was unlike any version of herself they had seen before. An inexplicable, frantic restlessness clung to the young teacher, sending an insidious chill through anyone who looked at her. It was obvious to everyone that something was wrong.

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