bayedsolid Chapter 409 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (20)
Chapter 409 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (20)
Before Lu Liruan could move away from the peephole and turn back to talk to Liao Tingyuan,
The knocking on the door suddenly stopped.
A moment later, complete silence descended...
Lu Liruan could even hear her own breathing.
He knew he'd been discovered!
He knew I saw it...
Lu Liruan suddenly had this thought, which swept over her like a tsunami in an instant.
“He…” Lu Liruan murmured, not even sure if she made a sound.
"what happened?"
Liao Tingyuan noticed that something was wrong with Lu Liruan, and in an instant, her whole body froze.
"Stop looking!" Liao Tingyuan grabbed Lu Liruan's shoulders and pulled her away from the door.
“He knows I’m watching him!” Lu Liruan was finally able to speak after leaving the peephole.
In the last instant before Liao Tingyuan pulled her away from the cat's eyes, Lu Liruan saw it!
I saw it; the man's grinning mouth.
She still couldn't see his face clearly, but Lu Liruan could feel the intense malice emanating from him.
That utter malice, seen through the tiny cat's eye, sent chills down one's spine.
"Calm down, you're being affected." Liao Tingyuan grabbed Lu Liruan's hand tightly, so hard that Lu Liruan could feel her fingertips getting a little sore from his grip.
Only then did Lu Liruan realize that her hands were trembling.
"Don't think about that stuff outside. Look at me, look into my eyes." Liao Tingyuan used his other hand to lift Lu Liruan's chin, bringing her bewildered gaze to focus.
Lu Liruan met his gaze, as if by focusing on Liao Tingyuan's eyes, she could perceive the uniqueness of his eyes.
His eyes seemed to be filled with flowing silver sand.
With each blink of his eyes, he appeared even more beautiful, deep, and captivating.
"Don't be afraid, you'll be alright, calm down..." Liao Tingyuan's gloved hand was placed on Lu Liruan's cheek.
His thumb gently caressed her skin; the delicate fabric and the sensation of it touching her skin felt like it was directly contacting Lu Liruan's nerves.
This gentle caress seemed to slowly untangle her taut nerves, gradually calming her emotions.
At this moment, Lu Liruan felt that she could clearly sense what so-called spiritual power was.
It seems to be a concrete manifestation of neural perception, which is quite amazing.
Liao Tingyuan repeated those words, and Lu Liruan couldn't think of anything else, subconsciously obeying his words.
"Are you feeling better?" Liao Tingyuan closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Lu Liruan was a little dazed when she heard him ask her.
"Okay, I feel better. I was just scared by him." Lu Liruan shook her head vigorously.
She knew it was the influence of that thing outside on her; otherwise, even if she was afraid, she shouldn't be like this, as if her nerves were numb, making her unable to control herself.
"Mmm." Liao Tingyuan patted her head, as if to comfort her or encourage her.
"Can you hear me?" After regaining consciousness, Lu Liruan heard a voice.
A sharp, piercing, teeth-grinding "squeak" sound.
That was the sound of a knife tip scraping against the door.
"I heard it." Liao Tingyuan tapped his fingertip on the door, moving it in sync with the sound outside, tracing the direction the knife tip was moving.
Lu Liruan was horrified by what she saw.
The person outside moved completely erratically, from slicing down piece by piece at the beginning to hacking and slashing later on, just like the knocking sound earlier, getting faster and faster!
"..."
Besides these sounds, Lu Liruan also heard... that person speak.
At first, I couldn't hear him clearly, even though his voice wasn't quiet.
It seemed vague and deliberately hidden.
Lu Liruan concentrated, closed her eyes, and imitated Liao Tingyuan's actions, placing her palm on the door.
Gradually, the voice became clearer.
It's getting clearer and clearer...
Lu Liruan finally heard clearly that the person, like a madman or a demon, asked in rapid, frantic voice, "You saw it, didn't you?"
"You saw it, didn't you?"
"You saw it, didn't you?"
"You all saw it, didn't you?"
"Did you do it?"
"Did you do it?"
"Is that you?"
"Is that you?"
"It must be you..."
He repeated it over and over, until finally his voice became like that of someone who had lost their mind, muttering incessantly, "Go to hell!"
"go to hell!"
"go to hell!"
-
Lu Liruan and Liao Tingyuan exchanged a glance, cleared their throats, and said sternly, "What did you see?"
"We didn't see anything!"
Lu Liruan thought he understood the voice outside after a moment, but just a second later, he started repeating it again, completely unable to communicate with her.
Lu Liruan frowned: "Is he talking to us or not?"
“He might be influenced by the source of the infection, which is why he’s doing these things. These things might be what he wants to do to us, or they might not be.” Liao Tingyuan didn’t know why this person was here.
"Because others can't sense it, but we can sense it from the infected space at this moment. So, what's happening could be that the infected space wants to attack us, or it could be that it was attracted here by us," Liao Tingyuan explained simply.
Lu Liruan nodded, feeling that there must be a logic behind everything that was happening in front of them, and that these things were trying to show them something.
"We're not... looking for clues on this person, are we?" Lu Liruan took a breath. "How are we supposed to find that?"
Liao Tingyuan agreed with Lu Liruan's idea. He checked the time; it was already past 10 p.m., but there was no sign of the kitten at the door.
"Where's the cat?" Lu Liruan also noticed.
"No."
"This person appeared here, and the cats disappeared. What's the connection between him and those cats? He keeps saying, 'Do we know something? Know what?'"
Lu Liruan just thought that the man meant that she and Liao Tingyuan knew that he was holding a knife.
But hearing him repeat those words over and over again, Lu Liruan felt that it didn't quite seem like it.
It doesn't seem like that; it's not simply a matter of knowing he brought a knife...
They probably know something else as well.
That incident might also be the reason why he was here with a knife.
He wanted to kill that person because of himself and Liao Tingyuan, or rather because someone knew certain things.
Lu Liruan felt that this logic was correct.
"He wants revenge, or he'll kill him to silence him." Liao Tingyuan followed Lu Liruan's train of thought.
“I think revenge is more likely, because he just asked: ‘You all know, right?’ You all know, so more than one person must know something, and he wants to kill someone because of that. Could it be that the person he wants to kill leaked some of his secrets?” Lu Liruan thought seriously.
Liao Tingyuan nodded. He and Lu Liruan had similar thoughts. The space might be targeting them, but initially, they weren't the ones being attacked.
“The space cannot completely control everything that happens. For example, those kittens might not be controlled by the space to appear here every day…” Liao Tingyuan pointed to the door:
"This person's aggression is directed at us. The source of infection in the space has sensed our presence and wants to attack us, which is why these things have appeared here. But what he said may be something he said because he was influenced by the source of infection. These two things are not contradictory."
Lu Liruan nodded. She understood Liao Tingyuan's meaning: the space could only contain the killing intent towards her and Liao Tingyuan, but it couldn't completely control how to kill them, the methods to kill them, or who would kill them. It also couldn't control whether the people or things infected by it would show the characteristics of being infected.
What they saw was related to the sources of infection in the space.
They are alive. By analyzing these facts, we can finally pinpoint the source of the infection and begin containment.
Lu Liruan sighed, which meant that they really had to look for clues on this person.
"Maybe...maybe." Liao Tingyuan sighed as he looked at her dejected appearance.
"Do you think if we die here, we'll end up like those kittens, dying in front of your colleagues every day after they arrive?" Lu Liruan suddenly thought of this question.
"No, please," Liao Tingyuan said softly. "Wouldn't that leave them with a lot of psychological trauma?"
Lu Liruan: ...
Hilarious! My colleague died right in front of me, but came back perfectly fine the next day.
What is the uncanny valley effect?
“This door wasn’t working yesterday, and today…” Lu Liruan slapped her own mouth halfway through her sentence.
But the jinx came true.
After a while, Lu Liruan heard a "click".
...?
Liao Tingyuan reacted faster than Lu Liruan; he grabbed the doorknob and held it down firmly.
Lu Liruan jumped up like a rabbit, rushed into the house, and grabbed a large spoon: "Can you still hold on?"
Lu Liruan watched as Liao Tingyuan's entire body trembled violently with the pounding on the door. It seemed that the person outside had noticed the door lock was open and was frantically trying to open it.
"No," Liao Tingyuan said.
Lu Liruan: ?
Liao Tingyuan glanced at her and said, "I'll tell you the truth."
Lu Liruan: ...What an honest person.
"Then let's..."
"Move to the next stop."
Lu Liruan obeyed and took a step back. She then saw Liao Tingyuan move and take half a step back.
"Hey! You!"
You're going to confront him head-on! Don't be so overconfident, bro!
Before Lu Liruan could finish speaking, Liao Tingyuan shoved the door open with a bang!
This was the first time Lu Liruan had ever seen a door flap slammed out with such speed!
The person outside probably didn't expect this either.
He was frantically shaking the doorknob when, in the next second, the flying door panel slapped him hard on the butt.
Lu Liruan:
Brother, I spoke too soon.
Lu Liruan gave Liao Tingyuan an admiring look.
Liao Tingyuan moved with incredible speed; Lu Liruan could barely keep up with his movements. The moment the door slammed open, he followed it out as well.
The instant the door panel swept the man down, she kicked his wrist, the one holding the knife, with no hesitation. Lu Liruan watched as the man's wrist twisted at an angle.
Even so, he gripped the knife as tightly as if it were an extension of his skin.
He can't possibly be a normal person!
Lu Liruan thought to herself: No one can break their wrist under this force and still not drop what they're holding.
"Click it."
A crisp sound of bones grinding together made the hair on the back of one's head stand on end.
His hand didn't return to its normal angle; instead, it stabbed towards Liao Tingyuan at an extremely bizarre angle.
"state!"
"Bang Bang Bang!"
But the tip of the knife did not touch Liao Tingyuan.
The incredibly impressive scene Liao Tingyuan just witnessed reignited Lu Liruan's fighting spirit!
She squinted and followed Liao Tingyuan out.
She and Liao Tingyuan are now, in a sense, a community of shared destiny.
If Liao Tingyuan is finished, I am definitely finished too!
Lu Liruan thought to herself: Even if it's just to save her own life for now, she can't just stand by and watch.
Lu Liruan stared intently at the movements of the person who was slapped out by the door.
Seeing that he was about to attack Liao Tingyuan, Lu Liruan grabbed a large ladle with both hands and slammed it down from the side like a mountain crashing down!
Just like the cockroaches you see in your home.
I kept taking pictures of her until her arms ached.
When she looked over again, the person's body was tilted at a strange angle, as if the whole person had been folded up.
Lu Liruan gasped for breath: "I'll teach you to scare people! I'll teach you to knock on the door! I'll teach you to scare me!"
"Speak! What is it! Tell me!" Lu Liruan stepped on the man's slumped shoulder.
Just as he was feeling that his fighting prowess was increasing, he was suddenly thrown off balance by a tremendous force.
The man seemed to be enraged. He straightened his body with a "click-clack" sound and stood up very quickly, raising the dagger in his hand, about to stab Lu Liruan.
Lu Liruan raised her hand to block, and saw the person fall backward again.
Liao Tingyuan used a piece of clothing as a rope, strangled him, and forcibly dragged him backward.
"What do we do now? Should we dismantle him too? Yesterday we dismantled his head, what should we dismantle this one for?" Lu Liruan asked Liao Tingyuan loudly.
"Wait a minute! I think he's doing something he's done before! Just like those cats, they're probably repeating what happened before! If he's done something like this before, we need to know who he's trying to kill!" Liao Tingyuan tightened his grip, but his tone remained calm.
"When will we get there?" Lu Liruan asked anxiously. She saw that Liao Tingyuan's hand, which wasn't wearing gloves, was bleeding from the pressure of the object, showing how strong it was.
"At least until yesterday's end." Liao Tingyuan saw her pointing to her hand, her face full of worry, and shook his head: "I can hold on."
Lu Liruan didn't know what strength she could use, so she could only go up and add two large spoonfuls when the man was struggling fiercely, to lighten Liao Tingyuan's burden.
Finally, just as Lu Liruan was looking at the watch on Liao Tingyuan's wrist for the umpteenth time, footsteps echoed in the hallway.
"Plop—plop—plop—"
Thick, slow, like the sound of footsteps stained with water.