Qiu Shi was rarely afraid. For a corpse collector who grew up outside the city, as long as something could be seen, touched, and beaten to death, it was not scary, whether it was a human or something else.
But he felt scared of Xing Bishi, the man in front of him who he could see and touch and who he really wanted to kill, and who should be able to be killed given the opportunity he had under his control.
Xing Bi was the person he was willing to trust, and his only support when he faced danger in this unknown environment. Most of the time, he did not deliberately think about Xing Bi's identity. Unlike Zhang Qifeng and others, he did not clearly put Xing Bi in another circle, a tool that existed for humans and whose physical functions in all aspects were stronger than humans.
Xing Bi is more like a person than many people.
And now this first-level hidden guard with suffocating murderous aura is a stranger.
Qiu Shi could feel his fear mixed with despair.
The despair of Xing Bi turning from a "person" back into a "tool".
But he didn't have time to think about why this happened. His long-term sensitivity to danger allowed him to intuitively conclude that right now, within a range of no more than three hundred meters, there was something other than him and Xing Bi.
Although it is not certain whether this thing is the reason that affects Xing Bi, it is definitely not friendly.
Qiu Shi touched his arm and opened the map. This map based on mission communication had been completely disconnected from Yuncheng. The map function was still usable. Although there were no terrain route prompts, it could indicate suspicious targets.
As the map started up, Qiu Shi saw two bright spots.
Biochemical body.
It’s less than a hundred meters away in a straight line, just on the left.
There is a mountain on the left, and this thing can only be hidden among those rocks and trees.
The target is most likely Xing Bi.
Qiu Shi did not hesitate. He used his foot to lift Xing Bi's body and flipped him face down, then pointed the gun at the back of Xing Bi's neck.
"I don't care who you are or what you want to do," Qiu Shi grabbed Xing Bi's collar and dragged him from the hillside to the car. "If you don't get out of here within two minutes, I'll shoot."
Xing Bi was quite heavy when he was completely motionless. Fortunately, Qiu Shi had dragged him once when he pretended to be drunk, so he was mentally prepared. However, Xing Bi's face still hit the stone twice.
The two bright spots moved slightly horizontally for a short distance and then stopped.
"You don't understand what I'm saying, right?" Qiu Shi fired a shot at the mud near Xing Bi's neck. The bullet made a muffled sound when it penetrated the mud, and then the gunshot echoed among the rocks.
"One and a half minutes." Qiu Shi stepped on Xing Bi's shoulder, the muzzle of the gun still pointed at Xing Bi. He looked up in the direction of the bright spot, "He can only live in my hands. No matter what the reason is, he will die. One minute."
"Thirty seconds."
The bright spot began to retreat up the mountain very quickly.
"Get out!" Qiu Shichong yelled, "Get out, get out of here!"
Until the bright spot disappeared from the map, Qiu Shi still pointed the gun at Xing Bi.
Five minutes later, Qiu Shi shouted towards the silent forest: "Get lost!"
Then he moved the gun away.
"Xing Bi," Qiu Shi squatted down, held up his head with his hands, and asked him to turn his face to face him, "Speak."
Xing Bi remained silent. Qiu Shi didn't know what method he could use to make Xing Bi return to normal, and whether the current restricted state would cause any harm to Xing Bi.
He just felt a chill coming from Xing Bi that made his back go cold.
"Fuck your ancestor Xing Bi," Qiu Shi cursed, leaning over to look him in the eye, "Make some noise! Count! Sing Happy Birthday!"
Xing Bi looked at him coldly.
"Do you remember your mission?" Qiu Shi pulled out a knife from his boot. "Protecting my safety is the first priority."
"Any harm you suffer that threatens me," Xing Bi suddenly spoke in a steady and calm voice, "will prevent you from reaching your destination."
Qiu Shi's surprise at Xing Bi finally speaking disappeared almost instantly.
"I know." He knew what Xing Bi's answer meant. No matter what kind of harm he suffered, it would not turn him back into the Xing Bi he used to be.
So he didn't plan to try. He moved the knife to the back of Xing Bi's neck: "If you can't wake up, I can't reach my destination. It's the same."
He held the blade, leaving only the tip exposed, and thrust it downwards, piercing the back of Xing Bi's neck.
Black liquid oozing out.
Xing Bi's pupils suddenly contracted at this moment. Before Qiu Shi could draw his knife, he raised his arm, turned over and jumped up, then hit Qiu Shi's chest with his knee.
Qiu Shi was knocked to the ground, and Xing Bi's knee pressed down on him. He suddenly felt a strong sense of suffocation, and a golden flower floated in front of his eyes.
You wanted to stimulate Xing Bi, but ended up releasing your control
What the hell is this poor quality control system
But Xing Bi did not kill him immediately. No matter what the reason was, Qiu Shi seized the opportunity which might have only a few tenths of a second, raised his left hand, clenched his fist, and pressed down hard.
After Xing Bi paused, his eyes suddenly became a little confused, the knee pressing on his chest lost its strength, and then he fell on him.
Qiu Shi didn't care about anything else. He struggled to push Xing Bi off him, then grabbed his chin and turned his face around: "Xing Bi!"
A few seconds later, Xing Bi said, "Yes."
"Are you awake? Are you back to your senses?" Qiu Shi patted him on the face, "Answer me!"
"Release control." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi stared at him. Although Xing Bi in front of him looked a little cold, much like when he walked out of the transfer box, the murderous aura on his body had begun to dissipate.
Qiu Shi did not release the control, there could not be any more mistakes.
He took out the steel cable that the swamp nomads had used to tie up Xing Bi from his bag, and tied Xing Bi's hands and feet. Xing Bi couldn't break free from the cable, so he opened the buckle at the other end of the cable.
In order to prevent Xing Bi from moving, and because the length of the steel cable was limited, Xing Bi was tied up into a kneeling position. It looked a bit miserable, but it was better than another accident.
"I don't have time to wait for you to fully recover," Qiu Shi looked at him, "Just bear with it."
Xing Bi said nothing.
Qiu Shi took an axe and went to the side of the mountain to cut a bunch of vines. He wrapped the vines around the air cushion frame that had just been removed from the car to make a simple trailer, and then used a few thick vines to connect the trailer to the motorcycle.
"Let me tell you something," Qiu Shi dragged Xing Bi over and put him on the trailer, securing him with rattan. "In the past, the Security Bureau was reluctant to give us a trailer, so we towed the bodies like this when we collected them."
Qiu Shi got on the motorcycle and looked back at Xing Bi: "Let's go."
Although the road here is close to the mountain, it is still smoother than that in Yuncheng, because there is more soil than rock, and there is an air cushion under the shelf, so it is generally stable.
Before the air cushion was worn out and deflated, Xing Bi would not feel too much pain when he was lying on the shelf.
As the car moved forward, Qiu Shi kept paying attention to the movements behind, wondering whether he should contact Li Feng to get some information.
But he didn't know what the situation was like over there. If he got in touch with them, there would be a bunch of people like Zhang Qifeng and Colonel Xu asking this and that... He didn't intend to let them know about Xing Bi's abnormality, because none of those people could be trusted.
He could only wait and let Li Feng contact him first.
After driving for nearly an hour, Qiu Shi saw a rubble belt formed by landslides on the side of the mountain ahead. He estimated that this was the road that Xing Bi mentioned.
"Is it the road ahead?" Qiu Shi turned around and asked.
"Yes." Xing Bi answered with his face buried in the sleeping bag.
"You now..." Before Qiu Shi could finish his words, he heard a dull "bang". The air cushion that had been frictioned and bumped along the way finally couldn't hold on and burst.
He had no choice but to stop the car, cut the vines with a knife, and take down the rack.
"Xing Bi?" Qiu Shi pushed Xing Bi, who was lying on his stomach, to lie on his side and looked at him. "Say something?"
Xing Bi looked at him in silence, and after a while he said, "That gesture."
"Hmm?" Qiu Shi frowned.
"Just do it directly," Xing Bi said, "You don't have to raise your hands specifically."
Qiu Shi was stunned.
"If I wanted to kill you," Xing Bi said, "the time it took you to raise your hand would be enough for you to die eight times."
Qiu Shi looked at him for a while, then suddenly laughed: "You're exaggerating a bit."
Xing Bi smiled and said nothing.
"Are you normal?" Qiu Shi asked.
"No," Xing Bi said, "I suggest you drag me up the mountain."
"It's you." Qiu Shi pinched his chin and checked left and right. The black mark on his neck was no longer visible.
"Yeah." Xing Bi responded.
Qiu Shi took a long time to untie the steel cables tied around his hands and feet.
Xing Bi turned over, lay on the shelf, and let out a sigh of relief.
"Your neck..." Qiu Shi said.
"It's okay." Xing Bi stood up.
"You just..." Qiu Shi didn't know how to start, "Do you remember?"
"Remember," Xing Bi said, "go up the mountain first. It's not safe here."
It's not safe here. Qiu Shi didn't know what it meant. The map in front of him was very clean. There was nothing on it, not even ordinary wild animals.
But after Xing Bi returned to the state he was familiar with, Qiu Shi would still choose to trust his judgment.
All the things in the car were put into backpacks, one for each person. If we couldn't find other means of transportation for the rest of the journey, we would have to walk all the way.
"Can we hunt on the road?" Qiu Shi followed Xing Bi.
"If you can't carry the cans, you can put them in my backpack." Xing Bi said.
“… I’ll just ask.” Qiu Shi said.
"There are no animals to hunt here," Xing Bi said, "and there are many homeless people along the river."
"Hunting nomads?" Qiu Shi was stunned and a little shocked.
Xing Bi looked back at him and asked, "Did you get hurt in the head just now?"
It took Qiu Shi two seconds to react, and he couldn't help laughing: "Fuck."
This road leading up the mountain is not actually a road. It is just because a mudslide once knocked down all the trees in this location, leaving a slightly wider passage.
But that was unknown how many years ago. Now trees have grown here again, just a little sparse. For Xing Bi, what he needs is probably not a road, but just a signpost.
When Qiu Shi faced this kind of road condition where he had to use his hands and feet to climb up from time to time, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if he had returned to the outskirts of the city.
But now when I think of life outside the city, I think of the brothers who were under surveillance, and of Hu Xiaoling whose life and death is unknown...
It was not until Xing Bi in front of him suddenly changed direction and turned from a rock to the right side of the dense forest with almost no path that Qiu Shi suddenly retracted his thoughts and shouted in a low voice: "Xing Bi?"
"This way." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi breathed a sigh of relief and took two quick steps to follow.
This forest is much denser than the one near Cloud City. So far, the section they have been through has been relatively smooth, with no abnormalities and no large-scale infections like those in nests.
After climbing forward for a while with difficulty, Qiu Shi slipped for the second time and knelt on the rock.
This place is probably because it faces a river on one side and a swamp on the other side, and the forest is dense, so the rocks exposed on the ground are all covered with slippery moss.
Xing Bi stretched out his hand in front of him.
"No need." said Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi didn't bother to be polite with him. He grabbed his hand and pulled him up: "Aren't we in a hurry now?"
"If you don't have any problems, you don't have to rush too much," said Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi said nothing.
Qiu Shi regretted it as soon as he finished speaking, but he still hadn't gotten Xing Bi's answer for what had just happened. His mind was in a mess and he couldn't think of anything to say to make up for it.
"I'm sorry." Xing Bi said.
"... I don't blame you." Qiu Shi glanced at him. The wound on the back of Xing Bi's neck had been wiped clean, leaving only a wound that had not yet healed. "I know that was... an accident."
"It can't be said to be an accident." Xing Bi said.
Just as Qiu Shi was about to speak, Xing Bi pushed aside the grass on the left, revealing a small hole that was roughly big enough for two of their size to squat and squeeze in.
"It's still there," Xing Bi said, "right here."
"… What is this place?" Qiu Shi took a look. Because the cave entrance was low and the forest was too dense, he couldn't see clearly what was inside.
"Go in." Xing Bi said.
"Should we kneel down and talk inside?" Qiu Shi said, "It would be difficult to turn around, and the person who goes in later would be at a disadvantage..."
Before he could finish his words, Xing Bi had already gone in.
"Your ancestors!" Qiu Shi could only grit his teeth and follow in.
I couldn't see anything clearly and could only listen to Xing Bi's movements as I went inside.
"One, three, five, seven..." Xing Bi began to count.
"What?" Qiu Shi asked.
"Let you know that I'm still me." Xing Bi said.
"Yeah." Qiu Shi responded without stopping him.
Xing Bi counted to fifty-three and stopped. Then Qiu Shi heard a "click" sound. Xing Bi lit an outdoor light the size of a finger.
After it became bright all around, Qiu Shi discovered that after passing through the narrow rock passage, they arrived at a cave that was large enough to accommodate a table for dining.
"It's safe here." Xing Bi sat down against the rock wall next to him and hung the small lamp on his chest pocket.
"That," Qiu Shi pointed at the lamp, "Put it somewhere else, it'll scare me."
Xing Bi smiled and hung the lamp on the backpack next to him.
Qiu Shi also sat down, leaning against the rock behind him, and looked at Xing Bi.
On the half of Xing Bi's face illuminated by the light, one could still see two small cuts caused by him being dragged on the ground.
"How do you feel now?" Qiu Shi asked him.
"Not bad." Xing Bi looked at his palm.
"That black color," Qiu Shi said, "had already reached my neck."
"It's okay, we've arrived a long time ago," Xing Bi looked at him and said in a low voice, "There's a symbiote following us."
"Is it time for you to go up the mountain?" Qiu Shi asked immediately, "There are two suspicious targets on the map."
"Yeah." Xing Bi nodded.
"They can... control you?" Qiu Shi's mind quickly replayed the previous events.
"I could feel it," Xing Bi said, "before, in Lair No. 1."
"When you touched those things with your hands, right?" Qiu Shi asked.
Xing Bi looked at him and smiled: "You are often more perceptive than you appear."
"Do I look obtuse?" Qiu Shi said.
“The quality of the church in the refugee school is really poor,” Xing Bi said with a smile.
"You could already feel it then, right?" Qiu Shi said, "I just couldn't find the right opportunity to ask you."
"But the feeling is not very obvious." Xing Bi said.
"What does it feel like?" Qiu Shi moved forward and sat in front of him.
"It's very chaotic, like..." Xing Bi glanced at him, "I can hear the voices in their heads."
"What the hell..." Qiu Shi was stunned, "They? Not a certain person?"
"More than one person." Xing Bi said.
"Then what? They asked you to go up the mountain, and you went?" Qiu Shi asked.
"I don't know about this," Xing Bi said, "I feel like I'm back in the hibernation capsule."
Qiu Shi looked at him.
“I can’t hear or see,” Xing Bi said, “I’m trapped in my own thoughts.”
Qiu Shi couldn't imagine this feeling, he just felt suffocated. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't say anything. It felt like there was no point in saying anything.
"What did you see?" Xing Bi asked him.
"I think..." Qiu Shi thought for a long time but couldn't find a more appropriate description. He looked at Xing Bi, "I think you seem to have been formatted and restored to factory settings."
"Really?" Xing Bi said in a low voice, "Then I know what they want."
"What?" Qiu Shi asked.
"They are recovering those former first-class submersibles," Xing Bi said.
The word "recycling" made Qiu Shi feel like a cool breeze blowing across the back of his head: "Who are they?"
"I don't know," Xing Bi said, "There are always people who want to control the world."
"Was Deng Yeye sent by them?" Qiu Shi frowned.
"No, Deng Yeye wants you." Xing Bi said.
"It's really exciting." said Qiu Shi.
Xing Bi didn't say anything.
Qiu Shi also fell silent.
"Are you hungry?" Xing Bi asked suddenly.
"I don't know," Qiu Shi pressed his stomach, "I can't take care of it anymore."
"Let's eat something and take a rest before leaving," Xing Bi looked in the other direction of the cave, "We can go through that side and reach the other side of the mountain."
"Is this a tunnel through the mountain?" Qiu Shi took out a can from his backpack and opened it.
"Part of it was an underground river in the past," said Xing Bi.
"How long ago was it?" Qiu Shi asked while eating.
"I didn't know it was that long ago." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi smiled and said, "It can be counted as a legend."
Xing Bi said nothing.
Qiu Shi quickly finished the can and reached towards Xing Bi's trouser leg, but hesitated and looked at Xing Bi.
Xing Bi was also looking at him.
So he rubbed his hand on Xing Bi's trouser leg: "When I wanted to rub you before, you suddenly walked away."
"Do you have any psychological trauma?" Xing Bi said.
"It's not that easy to be in a shadow," Qiu Shi said, "I'm just telling you."
"Yeah." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi reached out and rubbed his pants a few more times, took out a bottle of water and drank half of it, then asked, "Xing Bi, are you scared?"
"No." Xing Bi said.
"Then your setting is still wrong," Qiu Shi said, "Humans are cowards and afraid of everything."
"Were you scared just now?" Xing Bi asked
"Nonsense, of course you're scared," Qiu Shi looked at him, "You're really not scared, it's just when you can't hear or see."
Xing Bi was silent for a while: "That's true, too."
"Were you also afraid when you were in the hibernation capsule?" Qiu Shi asked.
"It's different." Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi thought for a moment and said, "You are afraid that you are no longer yourself."
"I'm afraid that I won't exist anymore," said Xing Bi.
The author has something to say:
To be continued tomorrow⊙▽⊙.