Chapter 108-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World

Chapter 108 The Forsaken Village (XII)

A pair of feet hidden among the leaves. Perhaps to avoid showing dirt, the shoes were dark brown. The toe of one shoe was wet with fresh blood.

Drip—

Fresh blood was still dripping down. Li Nianchuan's stiff neck slowly lifted. He saw a very familiar outfit.

A black wool half-skirt, a white sweater yellowed with age. When they'd seen the old lady in the first world, they'd thought she had good taste.

This was Shengxin.

Her silver hair was curled, looking very refined. Even in old age, she remained proper.

Now her neck was suspended from a tree branch by a rope, half her head blown apart, as if she'd fired a shot into her own mouth.

They had once entered Shengxin's house. This old lady loved smoking and hunting, had a bit of a temper. Her journal had started with complaints about Old Zhang.

At the same time, she was very dutiful, wanting to find the secret of why Happiness Village's residents had disappeared. She must have been good to Grandma Afen next door—otherwise Afen wouldn't have desperately passed her notes telling her to escape.

What had Shengxin done after receiving the note?

She... had killed herself?

Zhu Ning and Xu Meng both saw it. Li Nianchuan's camera was like a remote exploration device, accurately transmitting the image to them.

Xu Meng said, "Check what's on her body."

Xu Meng was the first to speak—after all, she was a veteran Demon Hunter with faster reactions.

Li Nianchuan followed Xu Meng's instructions, trembling as he searched Shengxin's corpse. Because the body was hidden among the leaves, it was difficult. She seemed to have died recently—blood was still flowing, her body still warm.

Li Nianchuan often handled corpses, but he'd never seen one this eerie. With shaking hands, he reached into the pocket of her black wool skirt and pulled out a box of matches, a rolled cigarette, and a piece of paper. The old lady loved smoking—matches and cigarettes on her person were normal. Li Nianchuan unfolded the paper.

The note was long, crumpled and wrinkled, with brown bloodstains on it. Li Nianchuan spread it out.

"Qin Fen has been contaminated." The first line. Qin Fen must be Afen's real name.

"Wu Dawei has been contaminated." Old Wu's real name.

"Zhang Bohai has been contaminated." Old Zhang's real name.

...

After that, Shengxin had recorded every villager's name. She'd received Afen's note and wanted to warn the other villagers. The first person she probably thought of was Old Zhang, but she encountered a contaminated Old Zhang.

Shengxin thought: Old Zhang is dead, but there are others. She had gone to confirm each one, writing down each name on the note as she did.

As time passed, Shengxin found that every villager's name was on this note.

Including those who had disappeared and returned. Their entire Happiness Village was all present.

Familiar villagers, known for decades, living together like family, knowing even the gossip from each other's households. One day they all became different people, looking at you as if monitoring you.

When everyone looked over, their eyeballs would rotate in sync. They had abandoned their souls, becoming puppets of the same worm.

"The missing villagers were infected. When they came back, they weren't the same people anymore."

After Old Wu returned, other villagers gradually came back too. They returned to their homes, but behind closed doors, they behaved just like Old Wu—not like humans at all.

"I've been contaminated too. My eyes hurt so much."

Shengxin leaned against the big locust tree at the village entrance, covering her eyes as she wrote this line. She knew she was almost done for. Soon she would become a puppet of the worms.

"The village's electricity and internet have been cut off."

Someone had cut the power lines. This Happiness Village was completely isolated from the outside world. She couldn't call for help.

"I'll become just like them later. Old Zhang said the Mother Worm has taken a liking to me."

She'd hunted her whole life, but now she didn't know who to shoot.

She thought of Old Zhang. Old Zhang stood right in front of her, eyes crawling with worms, asking, "Did you find the truth?"

The worm was speaking, but it was also Old Zhang speaking. The worm had inherited Old Zhang's memories and actually remembered what they'd once said.

In that instant, the worm was Old Zhang, and Old Zhang was the worm. They had become a brand new creature.

Old Zhang said, "I found it. I think I've been infected."

He looked up at Shengxin. "The Mother Worm has taken a liking to you. Run."

Old Zhang's speech became increasingly halting, as if fighting something for control of his body.

"Do me a favor. K-k-kill me." Old Zhang looked at Shengxin pleadingly. He couldn't take it anymore. This was the most painful torture in the world. You could feel something crawling inside your body, worms squirming through narrow blood vessels.

Kill him. He couldn't go on.

Don't let him watch his body slowly stop belonging to him. Don't erase his soul. Don't destroy his will.

Kill him.

Shengxin looked at Old Zhang. They'd known each other for sixty years. Old Zhang had always complained about her, said she was unreliable, that even as an old lady she was unreliable. Other old ladies did embroidery; only Shengxin went hunting every day.

Old Zhang had always wanted Shengxin to throw away her gun. Now Old Zhang was begging Shengxin to shoot him.

While he wasn't completely infected yet, end his life.

Bang!

Shengxin fired a shot at Old Zhang's heart. A huge hole was blasted through his chest. Even though Shengxin hunted often, when she fired that first shot, her heart was full of uncertainty.

Old Zhang didn't fall. His damaged chest was full of writhing maggots. He looked down at his own chest, somewhat puzzled. Why wasn't he dead yet?

So even seeking death was impossible.

Old Zhang, with his ruined chest, walked toward Shengxin, a smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth. "Shengxin, oh Shengxin."

Old Zhang was completely no longer Old Zhang. You could tell from his eyes—he showed a greedy gaze, calling her name over and over.

Shengxin, oh Shengxin.

Shengxin ran. At her age, she shouldn't have been able to run like a young girl.

But now her feet seemed to have grown wings. She didn't know where the strength came from. She'd never felt so young. She ran through the village, down the village road, as if she'd become that teenage girl again.

She ran all the way to the village entrance. Just as she was about to step out, she stopped. She remembered she was already infected. She couldn't escape—if she did, she might spread the parasites outside the village, possibly infecting others.

An abandoned village, cut off from the outside world, every villager infected. She had nowhere to go.

Guns were useless. Even blasting Old Zhang's body apart, they would just come back.

That day happened to be near sunset. The setting sun became the village's backdrop. Happiness Village had been quite famous for a while—people from inside the walls often came to vacation.

They thought the setting sun looked beautiful.

Now the villagers were walking out of their houses, including Old Zhang who'd been shot. They were approaching her.

Shengxin climbed the old locust tree at the village entrance. Afen was right—this tree had grown larger. Shengxin had grown up in Happiness Village and had never felt the village entrance's locust tree was this big before.

As a child, this old locust tree had watched Shengxin grow up. Now Shengxin watched the old locust tree grow up.

Disaster had already swept in. Not just the villagers—even the surrounding plants couldn't escape.

Contamination was devouring the land inch by inch, swallowing humanity. She couldn't stop it at all.

The whole village had fallen. Only one person was still alive, but Shengxin didn't know how long she could keep her sanity.

She'd been climbing trees since childhood. Old now, she was still climbing trees. She carried her gun, using hands and feet to climb up. The branches were thick enough to sit on.

Shengxin sat on a branch and continued writing on that note, densely recording the villagers' names. She felt something moving in her eyeballs, as if a worm was about to crawl out of her eyes.

She didn't have much time left.

Shengxin lit a rolled cigarette and leaned against the branch to smoke. That was a peaceful moment—those few minutes belonged only to Shengxin.

The cigarette quickly burned out. The butt was pressed against the tree trunk.

Shengxin stood up. She had made her choice.

She threw the rope on her back over the branch and tied a solid knot. She looked down at the villagers below, then looped the rope around her own neck.

The hemp rope was very rough. This was a sensation ordinary people couldn't experience—she was actually going to strangle herself.

She was seeking death, but also seeking life.

Why were humans human? What was the difference between humans and worms?

Humans had dignity. They were willing to give up their lives to preserve human self-respect.

If humans were destined to die, then let her choose how to die.

Bang!

Shengxin fired a shot into her own mouth. The bullet pierced through her skull. She had been standing at the edge of the branch, teetering.

After firing, she lost her balance. Her foot slipped and her whole body tilted, but that rope firmly caught her neck.

Her corpse hung from the tree.

Go to hell.

"Go to hell." This was the last line Shengxin wrote on the note.

She was telling herself to go to hell, and also telling the world to go to hell. This contaminated world—go to hell.

The note had no more information. This fierce old lady hadn't even left a proper suicide note.

She had recorded every villager's name. Her last words to the world were "go to hell."

They had witnessed Shengxin's death.

Li Nianchuan couldn't understand what kind of desperate mindset had driven Shengxin to suicide. She had used death to seek life.

After Shengxin died, the last living person in this village was also dead.

Was the contamination source Shengxin?

But she was already dead. How could a dead person become a contamination source?

Could her willpower before death have been so strong that she wished to live forever in this Happiness Village?

But this old lady didn't seem like that kind of person. Even in death, she probably wouldn't want to trouble herself—better to be free of it all.

Had she really committed suicide?

First firing a shot into her own mouth, then strangling herself with a rope. The determination was understandable, but Zhu Ning felt this choice was a bit strange.

Zhu Ning had encountered similar situations in the zombie world. Some people, in despair, would rather commit suicide than be infected by zombies.

But in the zombie world, people were one hundred percent certain zombies couldn't infect corpses. How had Shengxin been certain worms couldn't parasitize dead bodies?

If worms could parasitize corpses, hadn't she committed suicide for nothing?

Rustle—

A strong wind blew, scattering large patches of leaves, revealing what had been hidden among them.

Li Nianchuan's pupils suddenly contracted. Above Shengxin's corpse, what had been completely covered by leaves was now exposed by the wind.

The—the tree had other people hanging from it too.

They swayed in the breeze, hanging from the tree like ripe apples.

In this world, there were fruit trees, and there were also "human" trees.

Some of them wore casual clothes—probably nearby villagers. Several wore outdoor jackets, looking like tourists or explorers.

What shocked Li Nianchuan even more was that some wore the Garrison Troops' blue protective suits, which gave off a strange glow.

Garrison Troops had died here?

Zhu Ning and Xu Meng saw it too. What had happened to this village? If Shengxin had committed suicide to preserve human dignity, what about these people?

Surely the Garrison Troops and explorers hadn't all committed suicide together. And why had they all chosen hanging?

This looked like... someone had deliberately hung them on the tree, displaying their trophies.

What kind of person would kill people and then display them on a tree? Zhu Ning felt this person was even more antisocial than Gao Zijian. Maybe this person had never been through social conditioning at all.

Such a savage, primitive method.

Infected villagers, the apparently suicidal Shengxin, Garrison Troops hanging from trees—each addition made one's brow twitch.

From when Happiness Village's incident began until now, seventy years had passed. In seventy years, there had been civilians who wandered in, exploration teams, Garrison Troops—they had all died here.

What had happened in this contamination zone? Even the Garrison Troops couldn't escape?

Zhu Ning's voice was stern. "Come down. Come down right now."

Li Nianchuan also found it rather creepy up there and was about to descend.

Suddenly—

"Zhu Ning!" Cui Kai's voice came through. "You're here?"

Zhu Ning's body stiffened. She slowly turned around. When had they arrived?

Even Xu Meng hadn't sensed the presence behind her. Three Garrison Troops had walked into the shadow of the big locust tree. Because their expressions were hidden, she could only judge their emotions by voice. Their voices were very calm, showing no sign of panic.

They had just been communicating and had agreed to meet up. Now, seeing Cui Kai again felt like seeing a ghost.

Rustle—

The leaves rustled. The Garrison Troops corpses hanging above swayed, appearing and disappearing among the leaves.

Zhu Ning stood beneath the Garrison Troops corpses, and right before her eyes appeared three living Garrison Troops. Because they all wore blue helmets, the helmet surfaces giving off a strange glow, the three of them looked like some kind of cold-blooded lizard creatures.

Honestly, though they clearly looked like living people, they were more terrifying than the corpses hanging overhead.

"What did you find?" Cui Kai asked again. His voice was very calm.

Xu Meng's hand had already moved toward the gun on her back. Zhu Ning reacted more naturally, her voice not even trembling. "We found Shengxin's suicide corpse."

Cui Kai asked, "Who's Shengxin?"

Zhu Ning hadn't mentioned in their communication that the journal's owner was named Shengxin. So Cui Kai's first reaction was to ask who Shengxin was—he hadn't revealed any flaws.

Zhu Ning said, "The owner of that journal from before. She committed suicide."

Cui Kai asked, "Why?"

Zhu Ning answered while listening to Cui Kai's tone, trying to determine if something was wrong with him. He looked exactly the same as before, even his voice was the same.

Zhu Ning said, "Probably despair. She didn't want to be parasitized by worms. It's hard for anyone in that situation."

Cui Kai said, "Humans are truly great."

Zhu Ning frowned. What a strange thing to say. What a deliberate response. Why did his tone sound so much like Jiang Ping's?

Zhu Ning continued asking, "Any clues from Old Wu's place?"

Cui Kai said, "Old Wu was parasitized by worms before."

Zhu Ning said, "I know."

She kept her eyes fixed on Cui Kai, watching for any slip. Cui Kai had said earlier he'd found important clues.

Cui Kai continued, "His sheet music mentioned the Mother Worm. Said the Mother Worm was looking for a host."

Zhu Ning couldn't tell if this was true or false, but Shengxin's note had also mentioned the Mother Worm. What was the Mother Worm?

If it was true, was Cui Kai telling her because he wanted her to give something real in return?

Zhu Ning asked, "What's the Mother Worm?"

Cui Kai said, "Don't know. We need to look for more clues."

Zhu Ning restrained herself from reaching for her gun and asked, "What do we do next?"

Zhu Ning said "we"—at least linguistically, Zhu Ning still trusted the Garrison Troops. They were one team.

Cui Kai said, "Let's check Old Zhang's house. There should be clues there."

Zhu Ning had also planned to go to Old Zhang's house but didn't know which one it was. She asked, "Where's Old Zhang's house?"

Cui Kai said, "Supposedly the first house at the village entrance."

Zhu Ning was standing at the village entrance. Not far away was a house with an old man pressed against the window. This person was Old Zhang.

Cui Kai wanted to lead Zhu Ning and the others into Old Zhang's house. There might be something there.

Or it might be a trap.

From start to finish, only Cui Kai had been talking to her. Jiang Ping and the other team member remained silent.

Cui Kai led the team forward. After taking two steps, before leaving the tree's shadow, he turned back to find Zhu Ning hadn't followed. Zhu Ning stood in the shadow, and Xu Meng had disappeared somewhere.

Xu Meng wasn't the type to draw attention. No one knew when she had vanished.

"Why aren't you coming?" Cui Kai glanced around and asked, "Where's your captain?"

Zhu Ning stood in place. Wearing a black protective suit, hidden in the shadow, her body seemed to merge with the darkness.

Zhu Ning didn't answer the question. Instead, she asked, "Cui Kai, have you been infected?"

Cui Kai frowned. "What are you talking about? You suspect me too?"

Suspecting a teammate of being contaminated during a mission was a very impolite assumption. Zhu Ning said, "I've been thinking about something."

Cui Kai asked, "What?"

Zhu Ning was watching Xu Meng's movements. The other woman was hidden in the shadows, silently approaching Cui Kai.

Zhu Ning looked directly at Cui Kai and continued, "I was thinking wrong before. I always assumed the contamination source was one of the villagers. But the contamination source isn't necessarily human."

Zhu Ning's previous approach had been to sort out the relationships between these villagers, looking for their "obsessions" to determine who was the contamination source.

But this was outside the walls. Humans might not be the only ones with intelligence. Humans were evolving, and so were plants, trees, and parasites.

Zhu Ning had a terrifying guess. Could the contamination source be a worm?

---

Author's Note

Ning-baby hit 20,000 collections! Thank you all for your support!

← Previous Chapter Next Chapter →