Chapter 38

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Xiao Tianming stared at the scene before him in utter shock.

Even merely catching sight of those severed tentacles from the corner of his eye was enough to raise gooseflesh all over his body. Only through sheer force of will could he barely maintain an outward calm.

And yet Xie Xishu…

The boy looked delicate and slender, as though a gust of wind might knock him over. But as he stroked those slimy, writhing tentacles, his expression remained remarkably tranquil.

There was even a trace of tender fondness in his clear eyes, as though the thing nestled in his arms were not part of a monster at all, but some fluffy, plump little kitten or puppy.

Xie Xishu was simply too calm, too matter-of-fact.

For one brief moment, Xiao Tianming even wondered whether there was something wrong with him.

“Hiss—”

As though sensing the man’s horrified scrutiny, one of the tentacles suddenly poked its head out. It bared its mouth at Xiao Tianming and released a hiss thick with hostility.

[No. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me.]

[Who could possibly stand looking at this thing? Not running away after seeing it already makes me braver than most!]

Xiao Tianming swallowed hard.

When he looked at Xie Xishu again, he could not explain why, but the boy before him—who seemed so easy to get along with and had never shown him the slightest murderous intent—felt even more terrifying than Qi Wu, the monster who had long since mutated.

“Um… aren’t you afraid?”

In the end, he could not hold back any longer and muttered the question softly to Xie Xishu.

Xie Xishu lowered his eyes, allowing the long, nimble tongue of the tentacle in his arms to gently brush and coil between his fingers. A moment later, he lifted his head and looked at Xiao Tianming, whose face was still frozen in terror.

“Afraid? Why should I be afraid?”

Xie Xishu replied, puzzled.

“You watched Qi Wu separate them, didn’t you? It looks a little… indecent.” Xie Xishu carefully considered his choice of words. “But they’re actually rather cute, aren’t they?”

The boy’s voice was soft and bright, entirely free of gloom.

“They aren’t like other monsters. There’s no need to be afraid of them.”

“…”

Xiao Tianming fell silent for a moment.

After hearing Xie Xishu describe those tentacles as “cute,” the man’s face twisted with indescribable unease.

“But—but they’re still monsters,” he muttered so quietly that it was almost only to himself. “And monsters… are ultimately different from normal people…”

“But that’s Qi Wu.”

Xie Xishu cut him off, his brows drawing together slightly.

“Qi Wu isn’t like the other monsters. He possessed reason from the very beginning.”

A trace of reproach gradually appeared in the boy’s gaze.

“I know Qi Wu has a bad temper, and that he may make you feel as though he’s deliberately giving you a hard time. But hasn’t he saved you at the last possible moment every single time? I don’t want you to keep maliciously misjudging him. Otherwise… I’ll be a little angry.”

By the end, a chill had entered Xie Xishu’s voice.

Xiao Tianming stood there dumbfounded, unable to form a reply. His face turned blue, then red, then white, as though Xie Xishu’s rebuke had left him thoroughly humiliated.

Yet just as Xie Xishu was thinking this, Xiao Tianming abruptly spoke again.

Usually, the man’s speech was slick and glib, making him seem utterly unreliable.

But this time… his voice sounded exceptionally grave.

“I’ve actually lied to you.”

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Xiao Tianming spoke without preamble.

He ran a hand through his hair, his expression bleak. Without waiting for Xie Xishu to respond, he continued:

“You know my girlfriend, Qianqian. After she turned into a monster, didn’t I find a chance to hide? At the time, she kept standing outside my door, talking to me and coaxing me to open it…”

Perhaps it was because of the unusual atmosphere. Or perhaps simply seeing a boy mingle with a monster so fearlessly had stirred the man’s conscience.

Without realizing it, he began to reveal the secret he had intended to bury forever in the deepest part of his heart.

“I’m telling you, I was curled up by the basement door back then, and I truly believed that the person outside was still my girlfriend, Qianqian.”

“She cried, complained, and even remembered all the little things between us. She told me outside the door that she was so worried about me, afraid I would suffocate, and afraid that after I died, she would have to go on living alone in the form of a monster… If the doorframe hadn’t warped and made it impossible for me to get out, I really would have opened that door.”

At the mention of his former girlfriend, Qianqian, a tremor entered Xiao Tianming’s voice.

“But just when I thought Qianqian had merely undergone a physical transformation, while her soul remained that same lively, kindhearted girl, she suddenly knocked on my door one day, sounding absolutely delighted.”

“She happily told me that she had taken care of the two ‘old bastards’ I hated most.”

As the story continued, the man’s face grew grayer and more haggard.

He turned his face away, his gaze wandering, while his eyes reddened slightly.

“Yes, I lied to you… I told you that the two people who died in the house were merely our maid and driver. But I knew that wasn’t true. They were my real father and mother. I just didn’t want to admit it.” Xiao Tianming sniffed. He seemed to try to force out a smile, but against his tearful face, that smile looked especially grotesque. “I’ve never had a good relationship with them. Since I was little, those two were always calling me a wastrel, saying I lived off them, saying I’d accomplished nothing. I… I hated them for a very long time. When I was dating Qianqian, I often badmouthed them in front of her. I called them old bastards and cursed them to hurry up and die so I could take the inheritance and enjoy myself. But I didn’t mean it. They were only angry words. Qianqian should have known that…”

And yet, in order to trick the prey hiding in the basement into opening the door, the mutated monster had brutally murdered the couple who had fought their way home, desperate to take their good-for-nothing son to safety.

Xiao Tianming had heard his parents’ wails and screams.

They had mingled with Qianqian’s familiar, delighted laughter.

Her voice had been sweet beyond measure as she dragged the bodies around outside the basement door, lingering there as though proudly presenting a prize.

[“Hey, Tianming, look. They’re dead.”]

[“Haven’t you always wished they would die soon? Look, now they’re dead. They can never scold you or hurt your feelings again!”]

[“Tianming? Tianming, why won’t you open the door?”]

[“Are you crying? What are you crying for?”]

…

Xiao Tianming forced himself to forget it all.

He wished his parents had never returned to the villa.

He wished that couple were exactly as they had claimed to be: disdainful of their own son, casting him aside like something worthless.

They would be safe and comfortable at their overseas holiday destination, continuing to live their privileged lives in security.

The two corpses hanging in the living room should have been nothing more than his family’s maid and driver.

Yes. That was all.

They were only the maid… only the driver…

They were not his parents.

Absolutely not.

*

Xie Xishu’s fingertips gradually came to rest against the tentacle.

Although he had long since sensed that Xiao Tianming was concealing something, he had never expected the man to reveal everything under circumstances like these.

Nor had he anticipated that the tragedy in the villa had come about in such a way.

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After mutation, some of these monsters would degenerate into lowly beasts, their minds muddled and retaining only the most basic instincts for survival. In others, their obsessions—or, more accurately, the deepest desires in their hearts—would be magnified without limit, ultimately driving them to commit countless horrifying and incomprehensible acts.

In Xiao Tianming’s eyes, everything Qianqian had done was meant to trick him into leaving the basement. But to Xie Xishu, it seemed more like the monster, acting on instinct, had simply wanted to please Xiao Tianming.

It was only that after becoming a monster, its actions were no longer governed by logic or law.

Xie Xishu’s heart tightened faintly.

“…I’m sorry.”

He murmured the words to Xiao Tianming.

“Um… my condolences.”

…

The boy’s voice sounded somewhat stiff.

Xiao Tianming could tell that, from beginning to end, Xie Xishu had never understood what he truly meant. Once mutation occurred, even if certain individuals retained what appeared to be normal intelligence, a monster’s nature would still drive it into madness.

In essence, a mutated monster had already severed itself completely from the human world.

It was impossible—and absolutely unwise—to place any hope or trust in a monster, because one could never know what it might do to satisfy the terrifying desires in its heart…

“But I still stand by what I said before. Qi Wu is different.”

At that moment, Xie Xishu’s voice rang out beside Xiao Tianming once more.

The boy held several tentacles in his arms, his expression extraordinarily firm and serious.

“You don’t understand what he and I have been through either. Even when he was at his most broken and most deranged, he was still able to control himself. Qi Wu has only changed physically. But his soul… his soul is human. I am certain of that.”

“But…”

“You don’t have to believe me. It doesn’t matter. In any case, he probably only needs me to believe in him.” Xie Xishu shrugged. “We’ll reach the civilian shelter soon. Perhaps we’ll never see each other again after that. But… considering that he and I have both helped you before, I hope you won’t say too much to the military or to certain other people.”

Seeing Xie Xishu like this, Xiao Tianming felt somewhat disappointed…

But at that very moment, something suddenly twisted in his heart.

Certain words he had long since forgotten broke into his mind like ghosts returned from the dead.

He remembered that day at the police station.

The strange man who had told him that the end of humanity was approaching had been taken away, his fingers bloody after he had bitten them off. As he was dragged away, he had let out a shrill, desperate howl.

*

[“If you want to live, kill the source…”]

[“Hee-hee-hee, as long as you kill it, everything will be fine. As long as you kill it, ordinary people like you will still have time…”]

[“It’s easy to find. It’s the most special one… It’s human and monster, and monster and human…”]

[“Those idiots let it go without knowing anything…”]

[“Boo-hoo-hoo, I don’t want this. I really don’t want this. Everyone is going to die. What’s the point of going on living in this hideous form?”]

[“Let me go! Let me go! I have to find the source! You people know nothing! I must—”]

…

The strange man’s screams had made no sense at all. They sounded exactly like the ravings of someone who had watched too many superhero films and lost his mind.

Compared with that, the bizarre things he had revealed in front of Xiao Tianming had seemed far more worthy of attention, so Xiao Tianming had not listened closely to those screams at the time.

But now, he could not help turning the words over and over in his mind:

Human and monster, and monster and human.