Eaten Ch.117

Chapter 117: Dark, damp corner of his own heart

Dawn broke, and the number of teams leaving the base increased. On the overgrown highway, cars occasionally sped past.

“Yo-ho—little sister, don’t block the road—” A motorcycle came charging straight from behind Wu Zhi.

She barely dodged it, almost falling into the forest beside the road. When she regained her footing, the motorcycle had already vanished.

She casually wiped the sweat from her face, slowed her breathing to a crawl, and walked silently along the road.

A bird’s cry echoed.

A parrot landed above her head.

“Go.”

“They went to Yunling,” Wu Zhi said.

“You go.” X grabbed Wu Zhi by the hair.

She looked at the empty, long road; heat waves shimmered across the surface, and salty tears rolled relentlessly from her eyes.

“I won’t go.” Wu Zhi lowered her gaze and said softly.

X tilted its head and asked, “Why?”

“I killed Meng Zhi,” Wu Zhi stopped walking, staring at her hands. “X, it turns out the only things hard to kill are monsters. Go find brother and the others. I’m not going.”

The sentence was so long that X took a while to understand. Only at the next bend did it suddenly release its grip on Wu Zhi’s head.

It circled above, its feathers glinting coldly.

Without warning, it dove at high speed, striking forward with both claws toward Wu Zhi’s chest.

Caught completely off guard, Wu Zhi was sent flying, rolling several times along the road before finally stopping.

“Stupid.”

X circled above several times, watching the girl struggle to get up. Unfortunately, it couldn’t spit out any words, so it had no choice but to flap away mercilessly.

It wasn’t like the others.

It wouldn’t go kill those chickens. All it had to do was find A’Heng, and A’Heng would give it all the chickens to eat.

An hour later, it caught up to the boy’s group, but still full of anger, it didn’t land. It walked and stopped intermittently, often resting on the treetops.

When it was hungry or thirsty, it would come down.

As soon as the parrot approached, Wu Heng sensed its presence. Its energy didn’t belong to Yunling—strong and unfamiliar. Had he not known exactly what kind of creature was approaching, Wu Heng might have acted.

But at a glance at that… under the harsh conditions of survival in the wild, few birds could manage to make themselves into such a lump.

“Stop the car.” Wu Heng suddenly straightened up, looking out the window.

Shen Ping’an stopped the car. Wu Heng opened the door and stepped out. On the outer side of the mountain road flowed a stream between the mountains. Due to the earthquake, rocks had tumbled down, piling up in the riverbed.

Wu Heng climbed over the railing and descended toward the stream, his figure gradually disappearing from the view of the others in the car.

“What’s going on?” Meisida asked nervously.

“I’ll go down and see too,” Shen Ping’an said. He glanced back at Ruan Silian and Meisida in the back seat, then directly tied Meisida to the seat.

Meisida: “……”

Just as Meisida was about to appeal to heaven for judgment, Wu Heng emerged from the riverbed carrying something.

In the boy’s hands was a road sign, deformed by falling rocks. But after wiping off the dust, the characters on it were still clear:

Yunling, 13th Checkpoint, Changsheng Pass, Hibiscus Bay, Chaos Mountain.

Wu Heng squatted on the spot for a moment, sweat dripping from his eyelids. He looked up at the observing Meisida.

“I remember Summoning Slope. It doesn’t seem to be at the 13th checkpoint. Because there was previously a black bear attack in Hibiscus Bay, I remember that.”

“I… I… I think that’s roughly how it goes…” Meisida was a bit directionally challenged. He only remembered the general idea, which often required some luck. “Yes, I think that’s the way… seems right…”

Wu Heng took out a map.

“You had a map and didn’t say earlier?” Meisida breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Yunling occupied a large portion of the map, but only half the entrances were marked. The so-called Summoning Slope wasn’t labeled on it either.

Recalling the legend Meisida mentioned, Wu Heng rolled up the map and stood up. “Are you sure there’s a place called Summoning Slope in Yunling?”

“I’m sure, I’m sure! I swear, okay?” Meisida gestured to the driver to move the plants off him. He jumped out of the car and looked around. “No, this doesn’t seem to be Summoning Slope.”

Wu Heng took a pen from his bag. “Describe what you saw yesterday.”

“For what?”

Shen Ping’an said, “Just tell him.”

“You have to go through a stretch of forest, mostly broadleaf trees. There’s no sunlight in the woods, and the ground is full of small streams with stones covered in moss. It can’t be far from here, because I remember clearly the few stone mounds we saw just now. After passing through this strange forest, you go up and to the right. The vegetation gradually thins, the rocks form layers. My companion and I slowly climbed up, and finally, midway up the mountain, we found a stone core wrapped in many layers of rock, roughly this size.” Meisida gestured with his hand. “But only a part of it was exposed. My companion and I sensed the immense energy inside through the exposed part. It felt gentle, but when we tried to dig it out, we were both struck down to the base of the mountain.”

“Was it a monster?” Shen Ping’an asked.

“I’m certain it was just a stone,” Meisida said seriously.

“How are you certain?” Wu Heng asked, quickly sketching on paper and comparing it with the map in his hands. Below him, the poppy had silently spread out in all directions.

Meisida hesitated.

“You’re an ability user?” Ruan Silian suddenly realized.

“Not exactly an ability user. I’m symbiotic with animals.”

He clearly didn’t want to say more. From his nervous expression and tone, it didn’t seem to be defensiveness but rather some personal secret. Shen Ping’an and Ruan Silian exchanged a glance, guessing he had something difficult to explain, so they let it go and didn’t press on what kind of animal he was symbiotic with.

“What kind of animal?” Wu Heng asked curiously, looking at Meisida.

“……”

“…Hornet.” Meisida squeezed the two syllables out through his teeth, then lowered his head. “My companion said hornets are disgusting. He hates them.”

Ruan Silian gently shook her head, unconvinced.

“No, they’re pretty cool,” Wu Heng said, showing no unusual expression. He lowered his head and continued studying the map.

Meisida still found it hard to lift his spirits.

After a while, Wu Heng’s murmuring reached his ears:

“Hornet adults, larvae, and nests can all be used as medicine. They are sweet and pungent, warm in nature, mainly used for treating rheumatism and arthralgia. The hive has analgesic, anti-swelling, and detoxifying effects, and can treat convulsions and rheumatic conditions. Hornet wine dispels wind and dampness and can treat acute and chronic rheumatic pain, as well as rheumatoid arthritis.”

“Doctor Chen is praising you,” Wu Heng said, merely relaying the information. After speaking, a glint of green passed through his eyes as he looked to the right. “Found it—the forest that’s so unusual.”

—

Heading east, the road conditions worsened. Wu Heng and Shen Ping’an had to use their abilities to clear obstacles just to move forward.

Meisida, dizzy from the bumpy ride, looked at the desolate landscape outside and said, “Don’t underestimate Yunling. Once you enter, under current conditions, without a guide, it’s basically impossible to get out.”

“There are countless rare beasts and treasures in Yunling. Many teams from our base have entered, and none have returned,” he continued.

“All for that stone core?” Shen Ping’an asked.

“Not entirely. Some go for food—Yunling’s resources are far richer than other places,” Meisida said. “And people also want to gamble on the chance of awakening abilities.”

After passing a massive rock face, the jeep carrying the group reached a low area between two mountains. The dense, towering forest above provided precious shade for the vegetation below.

A stream gurgled through the area, stones tilted in the water, sunlight flickered on the surface, and distant bird calls drifted faintly through the air.

“We should rest and have lunch,” Ruan Silian said, glancing at her watch. “It’s already one in the afternoon.”

Shen Ping’an stopped the car on a small patch of flat ground beside a narrow road.

The road was even paved with cement. Though the fences on both sides had collapsed, the orderly surroundings suggested that before the apocalypse, this had likely been a forest park or something similar.

“This used to be a tulip field. Further ahead were other flower fields. Yunling has several scenic areas. I haven’t come here since the apocalypse, and I didn’t expect that except for the trees being a bit taller and thicker, most of the place hasn’t changed much,” Meisida said with some wonder.

Shen Ping’an opened the trunk. “If it weren’t for the high temperatures, these flower fields might have turned into a forest by now.”

They pulled out pots, bowls, and pans from the trunk. As for vegetables, there were only a few handfuls of wild greens dug up and sold by the base residents. He claimed they were edible and even chewed and swallowed some to show them. The meat was half a lamb.

“How do you have so much stuff?” Meisida exclaimed in shock as he helped carry things. Even the most powerful ability users at their base couldn’t pull out half a lamb in one meal. This wasn’t mere luxury—they simply didn’t have such resources.

“Collected while traveling,” Shen Ping’an said succinctly, unwilling to elaborate.

Meisida plopped the half-lamb down by the stream, panting. He looked at the meat’s texture and thought to himself that this seemed to be lamb from Yunling.

Wu Heng could cook, but his talent in this area wasn’t high. Even after cooking at home for over ten years, his skill hadn’t improved much. He and Ruan Silian gathered bundles of dry branches from the nearby woods to use as firewood.

He also tossed two lighters to Shen Ping’an.

The three of them busied themselves building a fire and preparing the meal, while Wu Heng went upstream and drew several tons of water into the spatial pocket.

He only stopped when he heard someone downstream exclaim, “Huh, the water’s become so little.”

Shade from the trees above blocked the sun, but moss and lichens still thrived beneath. Endless green stretched as far as the eye could see, with splashes of sparkling white water occasionally bursting forth.

Wu Heng continued walking along the edge, occasionally bending down to pick up a chosen stone or plant and moving it into the spatial pocket. Not even the artistically sprawling native trees escaped his attention.

Lin Mengzhi watched the growing collection inside the space, exclaiming repeatedly, “Wow, wow, wow!”

Only Doctor Chen scoffed.

Eventually, the additions slowed to a temporary stop. Lin Mengzhi turned his head and saw Doctor Chen vigorously rubbing his stomach. He yelled, “Doctor Chen, don’t take it out on my stomach!”

Doctor Chen placed Lin Mengzhi’s stomach into a basin. “Time to feed the chickens.”

The zombie removed its white coat and carefully hung it on a poppy branch attached to the white wall. It put on work clothes, carried a plastic basin, and transformed into a half-alive, half-dead laborer.

Lin Mengzhi was inside Wu Heng’s space. Wu Heng could sense his active energy inside, so he didn’t go in to check.

Unconsciously, the boy wandered further and further from the camp, arriving at a forest patch filled with ferns.

There were bamboo-like feather ferns, elk horn ferns, densely packed maidenhair ferns with pink undersides, and unopened orb-like spore ferns.

They all reached human height, and in the most flourishing spots, they towered even higher. Their textbook-described biological features were even more striking in real life.

Wu Heng lay down on a flat stone slab in a clearing. If all the anomalies of the apocalypse originated from disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field, then a place like Yunling was unsurprisingly a natural energy convergence site.

He didn’t know if others could feel it, but from the moment he entered Yunling, he sensed a gentle yet powerful energy flowing beneath his feet.

Wu Heng closed his eyes for a short rest. The poppy stood nearby, fending off several Zhenzhong plants that had stretched their branches toward him.

After all, Wu Heng treated this place as a source of supplemental energy. Given that he was symbiotic with plants, it made sense that the local flora would greedily try to use him as nourishment in return.

After being driven back by the poppy, a layer of spores—the seeds of ferns—floated through the air.

The poppy consumed them all into the spatial pocket.

When Wu Heng returned to the camp, one hand carried a small bag of whitefish, the other a bundle of fresh fern shoots.

“Ah, did you catch these? There are still fish here? No mutations?” Ruan Silian said, pleasantly surprised.

“They’re mutated,” Wu Heng replied. But he had eaten the bigger ones himself. The small whitefish weren’t truly tiny either—none were under ten centimeters.

Ruan Silian smiled. “Shall we lightly fry them, or make a soup?”

Wu Heng nodded.

—

Wu Zhi pushed a bicycle along the road. Her hair was soaked through with sweat. She wore a short-sleeved shirt and a short skirt, her skin burned red from the sun. Her ears rang intermittently as she mechanically walked toward Yunling.

Engine noises came from behind.

Along with it came familiar shouting.

“Little sister, where are you going? Come on, get in—we’ll give you a lift.”

She didn’t respond, continuing forward.

“Hey!”

The vehicle stopped right beside her. Two tall, burly men got out, reaching to pull her into the car.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted.

Though she was cute and delicate, her yelling didn’t frighten anyone. If anything, it made them laugh.

“How about this: each of us gives you a cookie, or a sip of water. You keep us company—one of us per day. Deal?”

“Keep you company how?”

The men in front and in the car sneered.

“How about like this?” At some point, Wu Zhi produced an ice blade in her hand. She thrust it forward, piercing the abdomens of the two men.

Her pent-up rage found release. The ice blade melted inside them into icy claws. She pulled it back, and with a wet, squelching sound, both men’s stomachs collapsed, leaving two large pools of entrails on the ground.

“F*ck—an ability user!” someone in the car finally realized what had happened. “Give me… uh!” Blood sprayed from his throat, covering the windshield in red.

Wu Zhi sat in the blood-soaked back seat, stunned, after smashing the people in the car to pieces. She sat there for nearly two hours; the stench inside the vehicle began to rise before she finally moved.

She first looked at the blood on her body, then quickly found clean clothes in the car and changed. She packed all usable supplies onto the bicycle’s rear rack, then tossed both the car and the corpses into the river.

—

Unlike Wu Zhi…

When it was time to eat, X went home with a pout.

Ruan Silian placed a bowl in front of it. Everyone knew it had been wandering around, so a large piece of meat and several fish were left for it.

“X, did you have a fight with Wu Heng?” Shen Ping’an asked, noticing that it ate while turning its back on Wu Heng.

X was too hungry to care, devouring its food greedily.

Wu Heng ignored it.

Meisida sat nearby with a small bowl of meat. Wu Heng didn’t offer him any food, but seeing that Ruan Silian had given him a bowl and chopsticks, the boy said nothing.

He ate while observing the strange group. They all appeared to be high schoolers, plus a bird, yet none of them exhibited the chaotic aura so common nowadays—it was as if they were still living before the apocalypse.

Before the meal, Wu Heng had eaten to about seventy to eighty percent full. He finished quickly and walked to the stream to rinse his mouth.

X followed. After drinking a few sips, it strutted back and forth across from him, puffing out its belly.

Wu Heng didn’t look at it. He scooped up a handful of water and carefully poured it onto the flower bud on his head.

Accidentally pouring too much, the icy stream water ran down his face.

X spread its wings, chattering and cackling in glee.

Wu Heng directly splashed a handful of water at it.

Aside from bathing, X hated water on its feathers. It angrily jumped around, but after shaking the water off, Wu Heng’s quick reflexes caught it in his hands.

“Only this time, and no more,” Wu Heng said, his eyelashes glistening, his tone cold.

X knew Wu Heng would admit his mistake. It cooed twice, squeezed out of his arms, and flew around proudly.

They prepared to continue their journey.

“Xiao Zhi still hasn’t caught up,” Ruan Silian said, looking toward the dense forest.

Wu Heng climbed into the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt. “Let’s go.”

As they set off again, Wu Heng thought back to his childhood.

Unlike other parents, Wu Shiming and Zeng Like didn’t hit him behind Wu Zhi’s back. Instead, they would always make sure Wu Zhi saw, and she would cry loudly, begging them not to hit her brother.

After such incidents, Wu Shiming would treat him well for a while, and the cycle would repeat.

He knew clearly how important he was to Wu Zhi.

He also knew that his deliberate indifference, which caused her anxiety and madness, stemmed from the dark, damp corner of his own heart.

Neither Wu Shiming nor Wu Zhi could serve as nourishment anymore.

It was all over.

—

A helicopter hovered in the sky. Inside, everyone lay pressed against the windows, staring at the scene below, their expressions almost uniformly shocked.

The city had nearly collapsed entirely—not just from the earthquake, but also because of the climate, the zombies… the space for human activity had been squeezed down to less than a third.

“How did our homeland become like this?”

“If we don’t start clearing it, it will only get worse,” Sheng Jiang said, lying on a bed in the back. “At least Xiao Xie has influence. The colonel actually let us use a helicopter. Normally, only experts get this treatment.”

“Forget it, we actually have experts on the plane,” Sheng Jiang added, sheepishly smiling at Professor Ye in front.

Xie Chongyi flipped through the shoulder patches of new creatures compiled from Jingzhou and said lightly, “I’m not a supporter of privilege—don’t drag me into this.”

He leaned on the back of his chair and sat down next to Professor Ye, his usual arrogance somewhat restrained. “Professor Ye, I’d like to ask you a question.”

Professor Ye replied, “Sure, go ahead.”

The boy propped his chin on his hand, looking thoughtful. “If a poppy plant says it wants to give me the flower it blooms, does that mean it likes me?”

“……” Professor Ye adjusted his round glasses and studied the boy’s face carefully. Hearing that he was the son of a colonel, he noted that the boy was indeed handsome. After a moment of silent regret, he asked, “Do you have a mental illness?”

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