Chapter Nine: Cao Mengmeng

A warm liquid slid down Qin Changsheng’s nose bridge, the skin it passed over tingling with a faint burning sensation.

It was his own blood.

Qin Changsheng stared at the blade mere inches away—the sharp serrated edge pierced the space between his eyebrows but did not plunge any deeper.

What was going on?

He didn’t understand and no longer cared to figure it out.

The monstrous figure composed of countless bodies before him seemed frozen in place, as if someone had pressed a pause button. It stood motionless, the cleaver in its hand just fractions of an inch from splitting Qin Changsheng in two.

Yet, Qin Changsheng had survived, as if following some predetermined fate. A long, melodious chime echoed from afar, reverberating in his ears.

This was Hangzhou. He had no idea where such a lingering bell sound could be coming from and momentarily thought he was hallucinating.

But with the chime’s ringing, the monstrous figure began to move again, slowly retracting the cleaver aimed at Qin Changsheng. Its massive body shifted, turning away and moving in the opposite direction from him, dragging a trail of blood behind it as it disappeared around the corner.

If not for the half-corpse left on the ground, Qin Changsheng might have thought the monster had never been there at all.

What the hell was this?

Qin Changsheng slumped to the ground, utterly drained. He had been prepared to die, yet the outcome was this—he had shamelessly survived, trapped forever in this nightmare.

And Chen Yuanyuan, she was dead.

Chen Yuanyuan’s half-body lay on the ground, flipped over by the earlier commotion caused by the monster. Only the back of her head was visible. Qin Changsheng reached out toward her back in confusion but withdrew his hand halfway, lacking the courage to see her face.

Why had it come to this? He had believed they had won, that they had repelled the mysterious pursuer chasing them. He had thought his life was finally beginning to improve, only to discover that the abyss had yet to bottom out.

Staring blankly at Chen Yuanyuan’s body, Qin Changsheng was speechless for a long time.

Her last words echoed repeatedly in his mind. When he had insisted they could return to normal life, Chen Yuanyuan’s hesitation had caused him a moment of doubt.

Now, that doubt was resolved. He recalled why, even though she was in the class next door, his impression of Chen Yuanyuan had never been strong, and why she had been reluctant to return to their former reality.

“You’re just like me; neither of us wants to face that terrible life.”

Qin Changsheng remembered back in school, there was a student in the class next door who consistently ranked in the top ten but had been on extended leave and absent from classes.

She was unpopular but often kept to herself, and after spending time alone, people would sometimes talk to her without deliberately avoiding her.

“Hasn’t the academic siren from the next class been coming to school lately?”

“Does she even dare? Everyone knows about her mom and the vice principal’s affair. Would she come just to be laughed at?”

“Wait, that’s her mom? I thought it was her having an affair with the vice principal!”

“Your theory’s more believable! Otherwise, why would she be called Chen Yuanyuan? A classic femme fatale!”

Hearing these words now felt like stabbing knives, but back then, Qin Changsheng didn’t know Chen Yuanyuan and simply dismissed them. He was also ostracized, so he had no time to care about others’ private affairs.

But now, looking at the corpse on the ground and recalling Chen Yuanyuan’s smile just moments ago, those words transformed into blades piercing his own heart.

Besides the blood, two more warm streams slid down his cheeks—Qin Changsheng’s tears.

He cried. Perhaps the monster had not gone far, or maybe other terrifying things would come following the sound, but at this moment, Qin Changsheng no longer cared.

He cried loudly until his throat ached and hoarsened, his vision blurred and eyes swollen. In a brief instant, he witnessed the disappearance of a life he once knew. Unlike movies or anime, there was no tragic beauty—only ugly, ruthless, swift death.

This was no game, no film or animation. This was reality—cruel and merciless.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Perhaps only a short while, but to Qin Changsheng, it felt like a century. His throat was too sore to make a sound, his eyes dazed as he stared at the carnage before him, slumped on the ground, unwilling to rise or move.

Fine, he thought. Whatever happens, just end it quickly!

“Pathetic.”

Suddenly, a voice came from in front of him. Qin Changsheng weakly lifted his head, looking indifferently toward the source.

At the alley entrance where the monster had just left, a figure now stood, arms crossed, looking down at the seated Qin Changsheng with disdain.

His tear-blurred vision made focusing difficult, and he barely bothered, roughly taking in the figure before him.

From the petite frame and slight curve beneath the sailor-style school uniform, he recognized a girl. Her hair was a naturally white short cut, not dyed, and over her uniform she wore a white jacket loosely draped.

Faced with this sudden appearance of an anime-style girl, Qin Changsheng had no interest in pondering her origins, how long she had been standing there, or her intentions. He simply asked lightly, “Who are you?”

His voice was hoarse, breathless, and low, but the girl clearly heard him.

However, she showed no intention of answering directly. “Does it matter who I am? Someone like you won’t live much longer anyway.”

Qin Changsheng said nothing in reply. In fact, he felt the girl was right.

He gave a self-mocking smile. “What, you wanna make a move? Go ahead, I’m too tired to resist.”

The girl narrowed her eyes slightly, then after a moment turned away. “With your weakling looks, killing you would dirty my hands.”

See? Always like this. Qin Changsheng sneered inside, if you don’t have the guts, why bother talking to me? Just to stand on some moral high ground and belittle me?

Ridiculous...

But this thought didn’t last, because the next second, Qin Changsheng suddenly felt a gust of wind rushing toward him.

A fierce murderous aura surged forward, leaving him no time to think. His body reacted instinctively. The black ink-like mark above his head suddenly grew and spread, shooting toward the nearby wall and pulling him along with it.

Just as Qin Changsheng left the spot, a blood-red claw covered in scales sliced through the space where his head had been, missing his nose tip by a hair’s breadth.

The lifeless expression vanished instantly from Qin Changsheng’s face. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at everything before him—not because he was surprised the girl had suddenly attacked, but because he was amazed at himself.

He had dodged it!

Why? He didn’t understand. Though he had lost all will to live, his body had still reacted to the approaching death.

He dodged, like a coward, evading the attack!

Suddenly, his vision sharpened. He looked up toward the girl, who was turning to meet his gaze. For the first time, he saw her face clearly.

Her skin was pale and flawless, matching her hair. Beneath her short bangs were a pair of beautiful gray eyes, as if veiled by a layer of misty water.

Their eyes locked, and the disdain in her expression softened into a smile.

“You’re lying. You don’t want to die.”

The girl mercilessly exposed the lie even Qin Changsheng hadn’t realized.

“You can fool others but not yourself. You chose to live.”

Really?

Qin Changsheng looked down at his trembling hands. Though slight, they were shaking.

That was a timid tremor—he was afraid, afraid of death. It was a cowardly kind of courage.

The girl was right. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live.

“If you don’t want to die, then fight to live.”

She extended a hand toward him. Just then, the sunlight shone from behind her, dazzling Qin Changsheng’s eyes. In that halo of light, her face suddenly overlapped with that of Chen Yuanyuan, the one who had saved him.

Swallowing hard, Qin Changsheng reached out and grasped her hand. He repeated the first question he had asked: “Who are you?”

“My name is Cao Mengmeng,” the girl answered this time. “I am your only hope to survive.”

She pulled him up from the ground, stepping out of the shadows into the sunlight.