V2C23

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing walked through the dim hive. The walls were covered in luminescent creatures, creating an eerie world from the rugged path they followed.

Liu Qingqing looked back constantly. They had just walked out of the larvae cell, the squirming white flesh still turning her stomach now. The shadow of death never once left her heart though she forced herself to look onwards. Gu Fengyi’s upright figure and unhesitating footsteps made her feel both secure and confused; did she not feel fear too?

Gu Fengyi suddenly stopped. “I smell fresh blood.”

Liu Qingqing looked around. She didn’t have snake senses and couldn’t tell apart the miniscule differences in the air, but she was obedient, and useful enough.

Gu Fengyi croushed down on the ground, her fingers lightly feeling around. The dried brown blood looked like the remnants of another world, but she knew that they weren’t.

“Fengyi, here.” Liu Qingqing picked up a small piece of fabric from the ground and passed it nervously to her.

With a glance, Gu Fengyi could tell it came from Xia Huan’s jacket. It was covered in blood- she felt along the clean edge of the cloth; it hadn’t been ripped apart, it had been cut away by a sharp tool.

In that one moment, she thought of many things, but silently slipped the rag into her pocket before saying to Liu Qingqing as if nothing had happened, “Let’s go.”

Liu Qingqing asked hesitantly, “Is that… Xia Huan’s clothing?”

“Probably.”

Liu Qingqing’s already pale face lost all of its blood. “Is she still alive?”

“… I don’t know.” Gu Fengyi closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

A strange smell rushed into her nostrils. Her nerves instantly shot alert.

It was the smell of moths and blood.

But why here? Wasn’t here the domain of the bees?

With no time to question it, Gu Fengyi warned out loud, “Be careful, a moth is approaching.”

“Huh?” Liu Qingqing was stunned for a moment before entering a state of alarm.

It had arrived, there!

Gu Fengyi tightened her grip on her metal bar and kicked at the bullet of wind plunging towards her. A dark shadow thumped heavily against the hive wall, and the metal bar pierced fiercely through the giant moth’s body.

Green liquid splattered all over Gu Fengyi. She pulled out the bar and added another killing blow to its head. The moth suddenly spat out its mouthparts straight at Gu Fengyi’s head.

A moment stretched out to eternity. With unbelievable reaction speed and instinct, Gu Fengyi’s waist arched backwards and avoided the lethal strike at the last moment!

A flash of fire appeared in the darkness, instantly sweeping over the moth stuck on the wall.

The moth made a terrible gurgling noise, its struggling figure within the flames like a black monster that burned to ash.

Liu Qingqing finally let go of her tattooed wrist, her head lowered, hiding her expression. Gu Fengyi took a step back and patted her shoulder. “You did well. Let’s go.”

Taking a few steps, she realized that Liu Qingqing was still standing there without moving, and turned around. “What’s wrong?”

Liu Qingqing collapsed onto her, holding her close, her arms tightly clutching onto Gu Fengyi’s waist and her entire body trembling.

“Qingqing?” It was the first time that she had seen Liu Qingqing act so unusually; Gu Fengyi almost didn’t know what to do. Was she afraid? That was normal. Twenty years of smooth sailing in life had been turned upside-down in this one night; it was no less than a nightmare for the gentle Liu Qingqing.

In the end, Gu Fengyi chose to gently reassure, “Don’t be afraid, it’s almost dawn, we’ll be fine.”

“But Xia Huan is gone.” Lin Qinging pressed herself against Gu Fengyi, Quietly, she asked, “That piece of cloth was cut off by a wind blade. Did Chen Lu do it?”

“…Right now, that’s still unclear”

“Chen Lu dislikes me; she hates me. The way she looked at me back then… it was so scary,” Liu Qingqing said, choking on her tears.

Gu Fengyi patted her back in silent comfort.

“I’m so scared… I’m so scared, what do I do?” Liu Qingqing leant against Gu Fengyi’s shoulder, shaking.

But she knew she wasn’t truly that afraid. Like a cuckoo laid in another bird’s nest, the first cuckoo chick to hatch would push every other egg out of the nest and crush them to pieces because it wanted the love all to itself.

It was what it relied on to survive. Without it, it would have nothing left.

So she appeased Xia Huan’s weakness and provoked Chen Lu’s jealousy, because she knew that they would fall out of the nest and shatter to pieces as a result.

The one to remain by Gu Fengyi’s side, it would only be her.

And the last one standing was only her; she was satisfied.

“I’m fine.” Liu Qingqing rubbed her face, her eyes still wet with tears, but a smile forced out on her lips, clear, gentle, and pitiful.

Gu Fengyi looked at her with worry before letting out a light sigh. “Then let’s go, Protect yourself, don’t think about Chen Lu and Xia Huan anymore. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own life.”

“Mhm, I know.” Liu Qingqing’s mouth curved into a sweet and gentle smile. She was very obedient.

In the dark beehive, the two figures, one in front and one behind, walked further and further away.

Their muffled conversations echoed from the end of the tunnel.

“What should we do now? Leave the beehive? I wonder if the ants have entered into the domain yet; they shouldn’t be here with that boundary though, right?”

“If the ants can break through the spiders’ domain, then the hive may not be able to block their footsteps forever. Let’s first see if the boundary still exists. If not… I have an idea.”

&&&

“This is it then.” Lu Ren leaned against the hive wall and looked down at the empty space beneath his feet.

In the middle of the hive was a giant cave, almost half the size of a soccer field. Passages leading to it were packed densely in the walls around it, both high and low.

It should have been a magnificent scene- countless bees entering and exiting from the tunnels, forming a dark-colored stream as they crawled to and fro.

In the empty space at the center of the cave, ‘Xia Huan’ sat on the platform and looked down at her people with a monarch’s arrogance.

The newly-born queen bee was already capable of controlling its people. After the old queen had left, she had become the new queen.

Song Hanzhang observed the height difference between their current location and the platform. “It would be difficult to jump down without injury.”

Lin Jue was already rummaging through his bag; Song Hanzhang had made him prepare some ropes beforehand.

“But if we go down now, we’ll just be surrounded by the bees; there wouldn’t be a way for us to approach the queen,” Lin Jue said quietly, passing the rope to Song Hanzhang.

“It isn’t that there’s no way, but rather that the problem would be solved if there was somebody here capable of long distance attacks,” Song Hanzhang said as he fixed the rope into the hive’s wall with his dagger.

“So what do we do now?” Chen Lu who could have wielded wind blades was already dead, and Liu Qingqing who could control fire was missing in action.

Song Hanzhang looked at the time. “Wait for it, the chance will come soon.”

Lin Jue didn’t know what chance he was talking about but out of trust, he still chose to listen to him. Lu Ren glanced at them seemingly unintentionally and surprisingly, didn’t ask anything.

A faint breeze came from the tunnels, bringing about the slightly pungent smell of smoke. Lin Jue’s sluggish spirits were instantly lifted. Song Hanzhang wet some masks which had obviously been made in a hurry and passed them on to the two, wearing one himself.

“Before, I wasn’t sure if this plan would work, but it seems as if everything is running smoothly. We won’t have much time, perhaps only five or six minutes; after five minutes, whether we succeed or not, leave the hive with me or we will all suffocate. The fastest escape route will take at least a minute and a half,” Song Hanzhang warned.

Lu Ren had already grabbed the rope and jumped. Lin Jue pulled Song Hanzhang back and asked hurriedly, “What’s happening? Why the smoke?”

“Gu Fengyi and Liu Qingqing set the hive on fire. There were many cars in the carpark next to the theater and it wasn’t too difficult to get their hands on some petrol, and with the environment around here, it was easy to set things aflame.” That was why he had made a few temporary masks. At first, they were just precautions, but unexpectedly, they had ended up using them, and for such a precarious intent.

“But we’re still in the beehive! What was that crazy woman thinking?!”

“To eliminate the root of the problem. The smoke will drive the bees out to deal with the army ants; the ants have most likely already crossed the boundary around the bees’ domain. If not, they wouldn’t be so desperate.”

“Then why are we fighting the queen bee instead of leaving?” Lin Jue called out in confusion.

Song Hanzhang grabbed the rope and prepared to jump down. A moment before he jumped, he turned around and looked at him, a suppressed calm in the dark eyes behind his glasses.

“Run away, live purposelessly, then die like an ant?” Song Hanzhang asked, a faint frenzy and desire in his usually calm voice. “Running away would only lead to a temporary peace. If you don’t force yourself onward, you’ll always remain stagnant, and die in your struggle. Perhaps there’s another path to freedom in this game. Compared to fleeing, which would end in sure death, I would rather let go and fight.”

Saying that, he leaped. Lu Ren had already killed his way into the swarm of bees, anxious from the smoke, and stepped slowly towards the queen.

The smell of smoke grew thicker and thicker and Lin Jue the two from up high.

He felt like Song Hanzhang was changing. If he had been careful and cautious the last round, always putting in effort to maximise his possibility of survival, in this round, he had begun to try and fight the game. He was still cautious, carefully calculating his hand and his chance of success; he knew that there was such a thing as a gamble that could not be lost. Unless he was the banker, he could lose his life at any moment. But…

Why? Lin Jue wasn’t sure what had happened, but he could faintly feel that this change came from the end of the last round.

Lin Jue realized that he and Song Hanzhang were two completely different people. He always chose to run away; every time he was filled with hesitation and a desire to retreat. He was afraid of risks, afraid of challenges, afraid of death. Even his sudden outburst on the verge of dying; it was just his survival instinct speaking for him. In hindsight, he was still afraid.

But Song Hanzhang wasn’t like him. He would take risks, he would take on challenges, his heart would never be satisfied by a moment of peace unless he controlled everything.

The antibody from the last round, Song Hanzhang had chosen to risk it; in the mirror world of this round, Song Hanzhang had chosen to risk it once again, to gamble his life to rescue the him who had trapped himself in the mirror realm under his own weakness.

But what about himself? Everytime he wanted to protect Xuezhang, he ended up being protected.

He was so… unforgivable.

|TOC|

Like this:Like Loading...