under the tower

That night, Ji Xi was woken up not long after falling asleep.

In the dead of night, in the boundless darkness, he clearly heard the sound of "thump, thump, thump" coming from the floor upstairs, as if something was walking clumsily and stiffly.

Or... crawl.

Ji Xi suddenly had goosebumps all over her body.

It turned out that the nightmare he had yesterday was not a dream, but something really "walked" and "walked" upstairs above them, and it lasted all night.

"Den...Den...Den..."

Everyone was fast asleep, and the whole house was as quiet as a dead house, only the sound was separated by a thin layer of boards, and it felt as if something bad was spying on Ji Xi's head at any moment.

Ji Xi's first reaction was to stretch out his hand, and gently pushed Yan Yi who was still sleeping beside him.

Yan Yi woke up soon, and he asked hoarsely, "Huh? What's the matter?"

"Did you hear footsteps upstairs?"

"What?" Yan Yi rubbed his eyes, his voice was low, "...what footsteps?"

"Listen carefully, there is something walking all the time." Ji Xi whispered.

He has known since he was a child that his sense of hearing is sharper than ordinary people, which may also be one of the effects of genetic modification. In his perception, the sound is almost like hitting the tympanic membrane, but to Yan Yi, it is only about Only by holding your breath and concentrating can you faintly hear a slight sound.

"Den...Den...Den..."

On the floor, the regular sound continued to echo back and forth, and it was only limited to the part of the ceiling above their heads.

Yan Yi suddenly opened his eyes and woke up completely.

This time it wasn't just Ji Xi, he also heard the unusual sound clearly, the sound was very special, it wasn't beating, and it wasn't the sound that ordinary people would make when walking upstairs, it was a bit like a combination of the two Mixed, the source that can make this sound is very rare, and they happen to feel very familiar...

What is this familiar and special sound?

...Where did they hear it?

Ji Xi and Yan Yi looked at each other in the dark, and came up with an answer almost at the same time——

"It's a deformed person!"

Upstairs, there was a living deformed person, constantly moving around the ceiling of their room!

When Ji Xi uttered this sentence, the end of the sentence trembled, and her whole body almost flinched and stuck to Yan Yi's body.

Yan Yi was still calm, he hugged him and patted him: "It's okay, don't be afraid."

Ji Xi nestled in Yanyi's arms with peace of mind, and a terrible guess suddenly flashed in his mind: "Shen Yuebing lives upstairs alone... Shen Yuebing is a deformed person?"

This feeling is really creepy, even though it has been so long since his family was wiped out, the sight of an acquaintance suddenly changing face and rushing towards him with bloody mouth open still sends chills down his spine.

Who would have thought that this young and beautiful woman who was still talking and laughing with them during the day was the same as those monsters with festered skin and bulging eyeballs outside?

Those incomplete and suspicious fragments seem to become extremely reasonable and real because of the fact that there is not much basis for reasoning.

The broken threads are threaded into an almost entirely unbroken chain.

"Shen Yuebing can freely enter and leave the base, but she still chooses to move out."

"What's more, they also spent a lot of time building houses in the wild, which is completely unnecessary."

"Maybe it's because she knows that she has become a deformed person, and it is safer to live in the wild, so it makes sense."

"When we talked to her earlier, we mentioned the abnormal behavior of deformed people after entering winter. At that time, her expression was a bit wrong. She may have become rational, but she still retains some instincts of deformed people, so at night, Her behavior pattern will be more like a deformed person..."

To be honest, this is too whimsical, Yan said with all his heart, the deformed person is not a werewolf, how can it change because it is dawn or dark?

But he can't completely rule out the possibility of such a small probability event. After all, he has also witnessed the appearance of a deformed person who is no different from ordinary people. This kind of even more incredible event has actually happened. What else is wrong possible?

"You mean... she is a semi-finished product that hasn't evolved completely, so she retains the habits of a deformed person at the same time?"

"Yes." Ji Xi pondered, "For some reason, or purely a matter of probability, she did not completely lose her will after being bitten, and she could even act like a normal person. In order not to hurt Grandpa Shen, she chose I live on the third floor by myself, lock myself in the room at night, and usually try not to contact the two of you."

"As for why she took us in..." Ji Xi said softly, an almost imperceptible coldness flashed in his eyes, "Is it because we are fattened up before we are killed?"

"I tend to think that she is not malicious for the time being." Yan Yi said, "If your deduction is correct, maybe she can provide us with some information about this special deformed person."

"The premise is that she is willing to help us, or that she does not have the tendency to attack humans. This needs further confirmation."

"I hope so." Ji Xi echoed casually, but he didn't care about it at all.

He doesn't like Shen Yuebing, and he is not attached to the truth. His goal is very clear, to find Wu Qianshu, go through this short difficult period, return to his original position, and live as smoothly as before. You don't have to care.

He softened his voice: "Yanyi, can we leave tomorrow? Can we go home tomorrow? I don't want to see this woman again."

"I'll go up the mountain to have a look at dawn tomorrow morning. If we can, we'll leave right away." Yan Yi comforted him in a low voice, "Don't worry, with me here, she won't dare to do anything to you."

"I'm watching, you go to sleep." Yan Yi tightened the arm holding Ji Xi a little bit, the young man under him arched his back slightly, the flexible waist and the protruding butterfly bone were particularly distinct.

Ji Xi put his hands on Yan Yi's shoulders, he had to admit that the fear of having nowhere to rest after his family was wiped out was a lot diluted by Yan Yi, but the loneliness that no one could trust and the huge dissatisfaction The sense of security still haunted him all the time, which made him cling even more tightly to Yanyi, the only life-saving driftwood, and refused to let go even more.

The two embraced until dawn.

Ji Xi didn't sleep well, and he could feel Yan every time he moved in the morning, and his state at this time can be described as like a grass and trees.

Yan Yi then said to take him up the mountain to have a look.

It was still very early, and the whole room was still quiet. I don't know when the regular "thumping" sound upstairs had disappeared. Yan Yi and Ji Xi had finished washing, opened the refrigerator, and were about to find something to eat.

Ji Xi suddenly noticed the black bag that Shen Yuebing brought back two days ago, and that bag was still lying in the bottom drawer of the freezer.

At that time, he took it for granted that it contained some kind of meat, and didn't think about it.

But now?After knowing that she is actually a deformed person, what kind of meat is this meat?

Ji Xi wanted to open that drawer, but hesitated the moment he touched it.

His intuition told him that if he wanted to escape, now was the best time, he shouldn't touch anything here, he simply put away his unnecessary curiosity and pretended nothing happened.

Yan Yi rolled up his sleeves and was busy in the kitchen, Ji Xi couldn't make up his mind, so he subconsciously turned his head to look over, and coincidentally, Yan Yi also raised his head, and the eyes of the two met at the same place.

Ji Xi moved her mouth, but did not make a sound.

But Yan Yi saw his hesitation, he came over and saw Ji Xi opened the refrigerator door, staring straight at the drawer with the black bag, and immediately understood what he was thinking.

Without saying a word, he decisively opened the drawer and carefully took out the bag.

Ji Xi stood aside, neither helping nor stopping.

Yan put the bag in the sink in the kitchen. They couldn't see the bag in the refrigerator before. When they took it out, they found that the original bulging bag had lost about a quarter of its contents.

Yan Yi dug inside and took out a piece of frozen leg, but because it was cut into pieces, he couldn't tell what kind of creature's leg it was.

He pondered for a while, put the amputated leg on the chopping board, and looked for other parts.

After searching for a long time, he took out a huge and hard triangular piece of meat from the bottom of the bag.

He cut part of the piece of meat with a knife, and then said slowly in a difficult tone: "...it's a human being."

He showed Ji Xi the cross-section of the bone inside the meat.

"...The human sacrum is roughly in the shape of an equilateral triangle. Here, there is an obvious ear-shaped surface structure. If it is an animal bone in this part, the shape of the entire sacrum will be flatter, and the joints are mostly hook-shaped. This is obviously not the case."

Ji Xi lowered his eyes and looked at the bone surface. Under the thick eyelashes, a trace of hatred flashed in his eyes, and it was fleeting: "She is really eating people..."

Yan Yi immediately packed up the piece of meat that he had taken out, and put it back in the refrigerator as it was.

His expression was solemn, if they were just speculating last night, then today's bag is obviously irrefutable ironclad evidence, proving that there must be an ulterior secret hidden in Shen Yuebing's body.

After all, as long as he is a human being with sound cognition and basic moral awareness, it is impossible to hide a bag of broken human flesh at home.

"I have to inform the others." Yan Yi said, "Then we will go up the mountain immediately."

As a professional mercenary, Yan Yi barely made any noise when walking, he quickly went upstairs to the big room where Mao Hei and the others were, and after a while, he came out, and then went out with Ji Xi .

"For now, don't startle the snake. If we suddenly propose to leave at the same time, there is no guarantee that the Shen family will not be suspicious." After leaving the door, Yan explained to Ji Xi.

"I've told them to pay special attention to today's breakfast, and don't touch that bag of meat, but I didn't mention that she might be a deformed person, but I just told them to be careful."

Ji Xi nodded.

It took the two of them more than ten minutes to climb to the top of the mountain, but to their disappointment, looking from a distance, there were still an astonishing number of deformed people around the base of Beicheng, and the situation had not improved much.

"How could this be..." Ji Xi murmured, he was a little dazed, there were so many deformed people outside the base, it was impossible for them to break in, but he also didn't want to go back and face that A deformed person with human flesh hidden in the refrigerator.

It is true that there are wolves in the front and tigers in the back. If you answer those four words, you are in a dilemma.

One side is open guns, the other side is dark arrows, no one can say which side is more dangerous.

But judging by the situation, they couldn't leave for a while. In order to prevent Shen Yuebing from becoming suspicious, Yan took a bundle of firewood back.

"Why did you go out so early today?" As soon as they entered the door, they heard Shen Yuebing's concerned voice. A group of people sat around the dining table eating as usual, talking and laughing from time to time, as if it was no different from yesterday.

They are all people who have been licking blood all year round, and they know it in their hearts. They will never talk too much when they should not ask, and they will not easily show the slightest strangeness, so as not to cause trouble for nothing.

"Have you eaten yet?" Shen Yuebing warmly greeted Yan Yi, "Shall I serve you some porridge?"

"No need." Yan Yi shook his head, untied the firewood from his back and put it at the door, "Xiao Ji and I have already eaten. I got up early today and couldn't sleep, so I went out to chop some firewood for you guys. It's always cold To use."

"Oh, I really don't have to work so hard." Shen Yuebing blushed slightly, feeling rather embarrassed, "Thank you so much, you have helped me so much, I am so sorry."

Yan Yi nodded slightly: "It should."

After eating, they went to the Shen family's farmland as yesterday, and Mr. Shen stayed alone to look after the house.

Taking advantage of the interval of lunch break, Ji Xi and Yan one or two entered a deserted forest.

"I'm still inclined that Shen Yuebing doesn't have too much malice towards us." Yan Yi lowered his voice, "It's a simple logic, if she wanted to eat people, she would have done it long ago, there is no need to keep human flesh for us to eat and drink at the same time. At least we're not in too much danger until she finishes eating that bag of human corpses in the freezer."

Ji Xi looked at him: "So you mean, we still have to live in her house?"

"Yes." Yan said, "We don't have a better choice at the moment. We don't have enough supplies, and it's even more unsafe to spend the night in the wild."

Ji Xi squinted her eyes: "What if we kill her? Have you thought about this?"

Under the shade of mottled trees, Ji Xi's pupils like the deep sea shone with a icy light.

"It's in this field, the five of us, there's no reason why we can't do anything to her as a single deformed person."

he said softly.

"—This is the best choice."