Eaten Ch.169.2

Chapter 169.2: Infected

Ning Bizhen gazed in the direction Wu Heng had disappeared. On the rooftop, a massive shadow slowly approached.

A mandible large enough to swallow two or three adults hovered just above the face of Shen Ping’an, who was on the verge of losing consciousness. It waited for Ning Bizhen’s command to begin feeding.

After a long silence, Ning Bizhen stretched his stiff neck and murmured, “You think just because you don’t want something, I’ll take it? Is this a garbage dump?”

But not far away, Mao Fengying, slumped on the ground, interpreted it as a signal that Ning Bizhen intended to kill Shen Ping’an. Summoning all her courage, she crawled toward him, bowing her head repeatedly.

“Xiao Ning, forget it,” Shen Miao said again, his face pale, as if about to faint.

Hearing Shen Miao, Ning Bizhen resisted turning around. He snapped his fingers. “Fine, let’s do it this way.”

“I’ll release a small insect in this courtyard. It will chase your son, but won’t use any other attack. Once it catches him, it will eat him.”

Mao Fengying froze, raising her head in shock, eyes wide with disbelief.

Ning Bizhen bent down. “Your task is to help your son, to prevent him from being caught by the insect.”

The hulking insect-humanoids now stood like a wall around the courtyard, while the crimson poisonous insects at the corners rubbed their claws together, saliva dripping.

“Good luck,” Ning Bizhen said, then turned and climbed the steps into the house. As the door closed, the light vanished, leaving only the glowing red lantern-like eyes of the insects.

Its scythe-like legs stabbed again and again into the soft, wet earth, restless and eager.

Mao Fengying crawled along the ground, trembling as she inched backward.

Vines flowed down Shen Ping’an’s hand from his fingertips. The air behind him tore with a whistling sound. He threw all his strength into a spinning slash. The insect’s body was cleaved, crashing heavily to the ground—but it soon regenerated.

The bitterness of abandonment now filled Shen Ping’an’s heart to the brim. Lying on his back, he faced death without fear.

The stench wafted back into his nose, and the familiar scents clinging to Mao Fengying followed closely behind. She grabbed Shen Ping’an’s arm, somehow summoning the strength to hoist the taller, stronger boy onto her back. Recklessly, she sprinted across the courtyard, running for their lives.

—

Wu Heng returned alone to the teaching building. Even back when it was just a teaching building, he would always walk through it like this, by himself.

The difference now was obvious: back then, it had been lively; now, it was silent, like a graveyard at dawn.

“Wu Heng!” Dou Lu’s voice suddenly rang from above.

She was panting, her eyes bright. “Zhou Yi is teaching us martial arts—he’s amazing! You should come try too!”

Following behind her were Lin Mengzhi and the blue spider crawling along the corridor ceiling; they had all come to meet him and Shen Ping’an.

“Where’s Shen Ping’an?” Dou Lu looked around, only seeing Wu Heng.

“He’s being detained by Ning Bizhen.”

At this moment, everyone was present. The curtains were tightly drawn, the room brightly lit, but the somber mood was completely at odds with the bright scene.

Xie Chongyi had blocked all outside observation. He occupied an entire sofa by himself, though it still wasn’t enough for his height. One leg rested on the floor, his head leaning against the armrest, half-asleep.

“It has to be Shen Miao!” Lin Mengzhi rolled on the carpet. “He’s on Ning Bizhen’s side!”

“Impossible!” Yang Ao, holding a child, rejected the idea outright. “Absolutely impossible.”

“If you trust him that much, then you’re on his side too.” Lin Mengzhi sat up, his tone sharp toward Yang Ao.

Yang Ao opened his mouth but said nothing for a long while.

He was just an ordinary person. Even if he had once been classmates with some of these people, over the past half-year he had long since settled into his place. Forget old feelings—there weren’t any, and even if there were, they were expendable.

“Let’s just go kill Ning Bizhen right now,” Xue Qi squatted on the coffee table. “We could do it immediately—it’s not impossible. It’s really simple.”

“He controls the whole city. If we kill him directly, what about the lives of the survivors?” Xue Shen removed his glasses. “First, let’s figure out a way to get Shen Ping’an back.”

“He’s already been implanted with a gu, even if we bring him back, he’ll just run toward Ning Bizhen again.”

“Why is this happening? Ning Bizhen is completely insane. I thought he’d at least maintain a façade of peaceful coexistence with us.”

“This is his territory—he makes the rules.”

“He wouldn’t just kill Shen Ping’an outright, would he? Maybe we could bring Shen Ping’an back first and lock him up, so he can’t escape.”

Xue Shen said, “Killing Shen Ping’an wouldn’t benefit him at all; it would only hurt him. He’s probably just using Shen Ping’an to restrain us.”

Dou Lu tilted her head back. “We can’t just kill Ning Bizhen. Then what? Persuade him to surrender? Is that even possible? He is the emperor!”

“No matter what, we have to ensure Shen Ping’an’s safety first.” Ying Liuquan sighed deeply from the corner.

“But,” Ruan Silian asked, “Shen Ping’an himself doesn’t fully belong to him. His movements were already restricted by Wu Heng—so how could he still be implanted with a gu? Does that mean Ning Bizhen’s ability level is equal to Wu Heng’s?”

“Impossible—”

“It’s actually easy to understand,” Lin Mengzhi said matter-of-factly. “Ning Bizhen is like a damn bug. Damn bugs bite around everywhere, and even the biggest, thickest tree, a damn bug can rot it from the inside. And plants—plants don’t have as strong a self-awareness as animals. Looks like A’Heng has to reach 100+ before it works.”

Three consecutive “damn bugs” jumped out of Lin Mengzhi’s mouth. Xie Chongyi, who had been drifting on the outskirts of the group, finally reacted—shooting him a sharp look.

“A’Heng?” Ruan Silian’s eyes scanned the room, noticing that Wu Heng, who had been quietly sitting in the corner, was gone.

“He just stepped out,” Yang Ao said, unable to join the conversation, his attention drawn only to small, unobtrusive movements.

“I’ll go check,” Xie Chongyi said, sitting up.

Wu Heng was in another room. When Xie Chongyi entered, the sound of running water in the bathroom had just stopped, and the boy stepped out, steam rising from his body.

“I’m going to sleep,” he said.

“Together.”

The bed in the room was warmer and softer than any bed they had slept in before.

Not long after the lights went out, the sound of soft, pattering footsteps came from outside the door. No need to guess—it was X and the greyhound sneaking in. Once inside, they silently climbed onto the bed, lying at the foot and pretending to be dead, thinking they were completely unnoticed. In reality, Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi were simply too lazy to pay them any attention.

Xie Chongyi twirled a strand of hair on Wu Heng’s chest, yawning. “I have a way to kill Ning Bizhen without affecting anyone else in Hanzhou.”

“What way?” Wu Heng asked. As the question left his mouth, he felt a pang in the ring finger of his left hand—his ring seemed to have disappeared. Almost immediately, a sensation of something living began slowly crawling over the surface of his body.

A jet-black insect emerged from under the blanket.

“…”

It crawled into Xie Chongyi’s palm, then turned and slithered back toward the foot of the bed.

Within seconds, the gray parrot that had been sleeping on the greyhound’s belly fluttered its wings.

Xie Chongyi’s voice was gentle. “Stand up and spin around.”

Wu Heng sat up, and true to form, X—who had been refusing to move from its spot—stood up, clearly unhappy, every bit of displeasure written on its face. Still, it stumbled and spun once in place.

“Jump.” Xie Chongyi said again.

X jumped, but now visibly annoyed. “Damn it—”

“Off the bed.”

With a plop, X rolled onto the floor.

A moment later, the insect crawled up from the foot of the bed, preparing to head toward Wu Heng’s spot. But X, feeling its dignity trampled, leapt back onto the bed at lightning speed. It stomped toward the insect, using its mouth to peck at it. The insect scurried under the greyhound’s belly, and X pressed down on the greyhound with both paws, making it yelp.

At the foot of the bed, chaos reigned; at the head, time passed quietly.

Wu Heng came back to his senses. “Class Monitor… you can plant a gu?”

“I’m not a gu insect, so I’m not planting anything.” The little insect suddenly appeared in Xie Chongyi’s palm. He guided it back onto Wu Heng’s ring finger, and only after it transformed back into the shape of a ring did he continue: “Two tigers can’t share one mountain. If we drive the larval insects out of their hosts and destroy them, how would they still be influenced by the mother insect?”

“The mother insect would sense it,” Wu Heng said quietly. “Even the slightest movement of the larvae alerts her, not to mention Ning Bizhen isn’t a low-level ability user.”

Xie Chongyi propped himself up, his eyes tinged red. “You don’t have the confidence to act at the exact same moment as me?”

Wu Heng stared at him. “You mean… on that night, we split up. You go rescue the survivors controlled by the larval insects, I deal with the mother insect—but to avoid alerting her, we must strike simultaneously, leaving no time for her to react.”

“You’re so smart, big brother.” Xie Chongyi leaned in and kissed the corner of Wu Heng’s lips.

Wu Heng wasn’t in the best mood. He tried to push Xie Chongyi away, but the other used the momentum to pin him to the bed. Xie Chongyi’s gaze bore down on him from above, eyes like thin crimson crystals.

“One last thing,” Xie Chongyi said, “what did you tell Shen Miao?”

Even a few months’ difference in age could create a generational gap, Wu Heng thought.

The class monitor only looked mature and reliable.

Just like the class monitor only looked tasty.

But smelled good—so good that Wu Heng could not resist.

Wu Heng’s slightly cool fingers slid into the hem of Xie Chongyi’s shirt, tracing upward along his waist and stomach. The skin beneath his palm tensed noticeably, but Wu Heng didn’t care, kneading and pressing insistently.

“Class Monitor… you smell so good.”

Xie Chongyi’s eyes slowly narrowed. Half of what he wanted to say slipped his mind. His gaze drifted from Wu Heng’s eyes to his lips, then to his throat—the most beautiful, delicate neck of the strongest ability user.

After a long moment, Xie Chongyi finally curved his lips into a faint, ambiguous smile. “Wu Heng… are you asking for it?”

It had been ages since he’d called him by his full name. Not just his lower abdomen—Wu Heng’s entire stomach clenched sharply twice at Xie Chongyi’s accusatory tone.

Sensing trouble brewing, Wu Heng withdrew his hand from beneath his shirt. “I just like your scent. Nothing else.”

Xie Chongyi’s long, strong fingers ruthlessly undid the knot at his waistband. His tone shifted to discontent as he muttered, “You’re dating someone but say you have no other feelings for your boyfriend? You’re really asking for it.”

<< _ >>

**TN

Damn bugs (死虫子/ sǐchóngzi) sounds like Xie Chongyi’s name, and that’s why he was so irritated. LOL