Han Shuang Street.
Two disheveled figures stood at the doorstep, their faces filled with hesitation.
This house that once belonged to them had now been occupied by a person who had come back from the dead... or rather, a "thing". The mass grave had been contaminated by the Grey Realm last night, so it was highly likely that the one in the house was a disaster that had disguised itself as Chen Ling.
"What should we do now..." Li Xiuchun swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"What can we do?" Chen Tan took a deep breath, "Go in, quickly take all our belongings, and then run! Run to District 5 or District 6. Anyway, the farther away from here, the better!"
"But it's still inside. What if we wake it up?"
"It has already left."
Looking at the muddy footprints at the doorstep, Chen Tan said with certainty.
Hearing this, the woman finally let out a sigh of relief. She opened the door with the key, and the two of them rushed in quickly.
"Only take the coins and valuable items! Leave all the bulky things behind!"
"I'll go to the bedroom, and you go to the living room!"
"Hurry up! Hurry up! We still don't know when it will come back!"
The two of them nervously took out two sacks and began to pack things separately.
The man opened the drawer and stuffed all the money into his pocket. Just as he was about to leave, he saw the axe for self-defense on the bedside. After a moment of hesitation, he also stuffed it into the sack.
Their family's financial situation was not well-off, and there were very few valuable things. But precisely because of these two reasons, the two of them were reluctant to give up these few belongings that they had earned with their own hands.
Li Xiuchun stuffed three cotton and linen clothes into the pocket all at once. After confirming that there was nothing left behind, she hurried to the living room.
The two of them carried the sacks on their shoulders and were about to leave when Li Xiuchun suddenly said:
"What if A Yan comes back when we're gone?"
"Then we'll go to District 2 first! After picking him up, we'll take him with us and run!" Chen Tan answered decisively.
"He will definitely look for his brother..."
"His brother is already dead."
As Chen Tan spoke, he was about to open the door. Just then, the sound of a key being inserted into the lockhole came.
The two of them froze in place!
The door was slowly opened, and a young man walked in.
Chen Ling was slightly taken aback when he saw the two of them carrying the sacks and asked in confusion:
"Mom, Dad, where are you going?"
Chen Tan and Li Xiuchun were as pale as if they had seen a ghost.
At the same time, a fast horse galloped past the window, and the shouts of the law enforcers echoed in the air above the street:
"A suspected high-risk disaster has appeared! District 3 is fully blocked! No one is allowed to enter or leave!!"
"Pay attention to all suspicious signs around you, such as roads or buildings that appear out of thin air, mysterious creatures with strange appearances, and even humans with abnormal behavior!!"
"If you find anything unusual, report it to the law enforcers immediately..."
The voice of the law enforcers gradually faded away.
In the narrow house, the atmosphere fell into an eerie silence.
"We..."
Hearing the sounds outside, the two of them trembled with fear. They looked at the young man in front of them in horror, and in a trance, he seemed to turn into a fanged evil spirit from hell!
Chen Ling's gaze fell on the two large sacks. Then, thinking of what the law enforcers had just shouted, he opened his mouth to comfort them:
"Don't worry too much. That so-called disaster doesn't seem to be nearby. Isn't the street still okay?"
Chen Tan: ...
Li Xiuchun: ...
Chen Ling was also very helpless.
At first, when he heard the news of the "world-destroying" disaster's invasion, he didn't think much of it. But when he saw the audience's anticipation value skyrocket, he immediately felt that something was wrong...
Zhao Yi had been beaten for an entire afternoon and had only managed to increase the anticipation value by a dozen or so points. But as soon as the law enforcers shouted, the anticipation value skyrocketed to over sixty!
According to what Chen Ling currently knows, this indicates that they have found something extremely exciting to amuse themselves with.
Unfortunately, this source of amusement... might very well be himself.
Previously, Doctor Lin had also mentioned the convergence of the Grey Realm and disasters. And it just so happened that he himself had transmigrated last night, and the original host's memories of that night were gone... Combining all these clues, who else could this so-called disaster be if not him?
Chen Ling guessed that what these law enforcers were looking for was likely the audience in his head.
Chen Ling had also considered turning himself in to the law enforcers directly and asking them to find a way to deal with the audience in his head. But judging from their attitude towards disasters, there was a greater possibility that they would kill him along with the problem.
All in all, he decided to first try to ride out this storm and observe the situation before making any further moves.
Seeing that the two of them were still completely tense and looked extremely nervous, Chen Ling let out a sigh and took the initiative to reach out and take the sack from Li Xiuchun.
"Mom, where else can you run to at this time?"
"Both District 2 and District 3 are blocked, and there's no way to get out. Are you going to sleep on the streets?"
When Li Xiuchun heard the first sentence, she was so frightened that she was stunned. Only after hearing the rest of the words did she barely come to her senses and forced a dry laugh:
"Yes... You're right."
"Dad, put it down too. Don't be too nervous... What about A Yan if we run away?"
Chen Tan swallowed a mouthful of saliva and stared intently at Chen Ling, trying to find even the slightest hint of abnormality or killing intent on the latter's face... But he failed.
Every move Chen Ling made didn't seem like that of a "disaster", and he was no different from the Chen Ling in his mind.
But Chen Tan knew very well in his heart... He wasn't Chen Ling.
Chen Ling was already dead.
"You guys sit for a while. I'll go to the kitchen and pour you a glass of water." Seeing that the two of them still had pale faces, Chen Ling pulled out the chair beside the table and then turned around and walked into the kitchen.
Li Xiuchun and Chen Tan looked at each other, and finally, they obediently sat down...
As Chen Ling was pouring water in the kitchen, he was thinking about how to ease the atmosphere and casually said:
"By the way, Mom, the sausage you left for me this morning was really delicious. How did you make it?"
"Sausage... sausage?"
Li Xiuchun was a bit dazed.
Last night, she and Chen Tan had gone to the mass grave. Where had she left any sausage?
"It's the one on the chopping board." Chen Ling replied.
The confusion in Li Xiuchun's eyes became even more pronounced. She tried hard to recall, and finally, as if she had thought of something, her face turned as pale as paper!
"When did you leave a sausage for him?" Chen Tan asked in a low voice.
"I... I didn't leave one." Li Xiuchun also replied in a low voice, tremblingly, "On that chopping board... there was originally a meat cleaver..."
But when she was packing things just now, she found... the knife was gone.
Chen Tan's face also changed suddenly!
At the same time, Chen Ling, who was standing in the kitchen with his back to the two of them, slowly continued:
"That sausage smelled really good, but it seemed a bit hard... Mom, remember to roast it softer for me tomorrow."
The living room was deathly silent.
Chen Ling poured the water and handed it to the two of them, only to find that their faces seemed even paler...
"Are you okay? Do you feel unwell?" Chen Ling sat opposite them in confusion.
"...I'm fine."
Chen Tan took a deep breath, quietly pulled the sack on the ground to his feet with his foot, and his voice became a bit calmer:
"A Ling."
"Hmm?"
"Do you remember what happened yesterday...?"
"Yesterday?" Chen Ling tried hard to recall for a while and then shook his head. "I can't remember clearly... What's wrong?"
"...It's nothing." Chen Tan took a sip of water gently. As if he had made up his mind, he looked straight into Chen Ling's eyes.
"What do you think... How have we treated you?"
"Very well." Chen Ling said matter-of-factly. "If you hadn't taken me in back then, I probably would have frozen to death on the side of the road long ago... My biological parents abandoned me. It was you who raised me and worked from dawn to dusk to support my schooling. Everything I have is given by you."
Everything I have is given by you.
Upon hearing these words, a look of relief flashed across Chen Tan's eyes...
"Then, if one day, A Yan gets sick... and only your heart can save him... would you be willing to save him?"
Chen Ling was stunned.
At that moment, he felt that this sentence was somewhat familiar.
Fragmented memories emerged from the original host's mind, and Chen Ling's head started to ache again... He suddenly remembered that the original host last night seemed to have heard similar words.
"I... I..." Chen Ling held his head, and a look of pain appeared on his face.
"A Yan is our own flesh and blood. In order to conceive him, your mother took so many medicines that her body was completely ruined... We tried for ten years before finally having this one and only child..."
"A child truly belonging to us!"
"Now he's sick, and we can't just watch him die... The divine shaman in District 2 said that as long as we get another young heart that's no more than 20 years old, it can replace A Yan's heart that's about to fail."
"A Yan has called you brother for so many years, and you've been our beloved son in our family for so many years. Your parents have never asked you for anything, but just this once... We're begging you to save A Yan."
"Tell me... You're willing to do it, aren't you?"
Chen Tan's body trembled slightly. In his eyes as he looked at Chen Ling, there was full of pleading and expectation.
He was like a child who had done something wrong, waiting for a long-overdue forgiveness.
At this moment, the incomplete memories buried in last night's torrential rain were finally gradually recalled by Chen Ling. While enduring the pain of his headache, he took a deep breath and said hoarsely:
"So... it was you who killed him..."
"Him?"
"...Does A Yan know about this?"
"He doesn't know. If he knew that the heart he was about to receive was yours... he would rather die than agree to it."
Chen Tan snapped out of the inner struggle and guilt, reached into the sack at his feet, and slowly took out a sharp axe.
"A Ling, you're already dead. You shouldn't be here." Chen Tan's eyes were bloodshot. He tightly gripped the axe and said hoarsely.
"No matter what has taken over your body... I will set you free."
A low rumble of thunder flashed across the dim sky.
A sharp axe was raised high...
And then swung down with force!
Bang——
A warm liquid splashed onto Chen Tan's face.
Scarlet blood bloomed on the floor like a bouquet of flowers. Chen Ling's body fell straight to the ground with a dull thud.
The axe embedded in his neck, almost severing his entire head. His dilated pupils stared into the void, and a look of pain and confusion still remained on his face...
He was dead.
There was no heartbeat, no breath. His body gradually grew cold, like a martyr who had fallen among the bright red flowers.
Chen Tan's chest heaved violently. He stared fixedly at the completely dead body, and his sweat soaked through his clothes...
"Is he, is he dead...?" Li Xiuchun slumped in the chair and stammered.
"...He's dead."
"What about the calamit y?"
Chen Tan paused for a moment. "...I don't know."
Li Xiuchun stared blankly at the corpse and suddenly said, "Do you think... is it possible that he wasn't a disaster... but that God has given us another chance to atone for our sins?"
"If that's the case..." Chen Tan gave a bitter laugh. "Then we really deserve to go to hell."