Xiao Ran was just about to scream when Doctor Zhao immediately covered her mouth from behind. That scream turned into a muffled grunt, suppressed in her throat. Doctor Zhao saw that the three people who had just gone out had gone quiet.
He had followed them out of curiosity to take a look, only to see such a bizarre scene, and he was also almost scared out of his wits. None of the four dared to make a sound, quietly watching this "person" in front of them whose shape resembled a cricket.
They saw him rapidly swinging his hind legs like a bug, his entire body constantly changing directions as if searching for something, and from time to time, he would raise the two bloody holes on his face to look around.
The twisting of his neck did not resemble a human either; instead, it was as fast as an insect, and the angle of the twist was terrifyingly large. A few seconds later, that "person" suddenly leaped high into the air, jumping toward the wall of the convenience store.
Qi Xia hurriedly raised his torch to illuminate the area, attempting to follow the other party's figure. After all, in this pitch-black environment, the most taboo thing was losing track of a target. But the moment the torch was raised, even with Qi Xia's psychological resilience, his legs almost gave out and he nearly slumped to the ground.
On the wall illuminated by the firelight, it was densely packed with crawling "people." Sweeping a glance over, there were at least over a dozen of them, all moving rapidly across the wall. As the firelight shined on them, they seemed to sense something and successively crawled back into the darkness.
They looked like crickets, like cockroaches, like spiders. In short, they did not look like people. Qi Xia only felt all the hairs on his body slowly standing on end.
Along the way, he and Lin Qin had navigated through the dark to get to the convenience store, continuously hearing the rising and falling sounds of bugs chirping. Those chirping sounds were sometimes very far away, and sometimes very close. It turned out that none of those were bugs... but rather, "people," one by one.
The mere thought that while he and Lin Qin were moving forward, the ground beside them and the walls not far away were completely covered with these things... This feeling could not even be described as simply "lingering fear." Qi Xia broke out in a cold sweat, slowly turned around, and waved his hand at the few of them.
The crowd also understood his meaning and all slowly backed away. Qi Xia held the torch, staring intently at the "people" on the wall, and then, along with the three people behind him, retreated step by step into the room. Throughout the whole process, they did not dare to make a single sound, their movements extremely slow.
These people looked like their eyes had all been gouged out, so they should only be able to find directions through sound. Fortunately, everyone knew that saving their lives was the priority, and no one made a sound. After closing the door, Qi Xia brought over a wooden plank from the side to prop against the back of the door.
The crowd continued to retreat backward until they reached the corner of the wall. This cold and mottled wall gave everyone a trace of a sense of security.
"What... exactly are those things..."
Xiao Ran asked tremblingly.
"They are people..."
After saying this, Doctor Zhao immediately shook his head.
"No... human bones cannot possibly make those kinds of movements. They can only be bugs..."
Qi Xia took a deep breath and said, "I also heard rustling sounds last night, which means these things didn't just appear today, but have been here all along." He turned his head and said to Lin Qin with a serious face, "The two of us had incredibly good luck. We didn't step on these things the entire way..."
Lin Qin also nodded, still shaken, looking quite frightened. The four people then fell into silence. Before seeing this terrifying scene, perhaps everyone could still get a peaceful sleep at night.
But at this moment, no matter what, they didn't dare to close their eyes. They could only lean against the wall and stare fixedly at the doorway, constantly on guard against those things breaking down the door to get in. A night devoid of sleepiness and sound felt exceptionally long.
They stood by the wall for a full half of the night, and by now their waists were sore and their legs ached. They gradually realized an issue. Those "bugs" outside the door seemed to really just be bugs.
They had absolutely no desire to barge into this brightly lit place. Qi Xia was using the rules of this place to explain the phenomena here. Even if they looked bizarre, and even if their eyes were constantly dripping blood, they were still just bugs.
If the "bugs" and the "clerk" were the same type of thing, then they would definitely play their roles seriously. Thinking of it this way, the danger of the bugs outside the door wouldn't be too great. Even if they would proactively attack humans, it wasn't likely they would swarm and ram the door.
Thinking of this, Qi Xia slowly sat down and stretched his sore limbs. Seeing someone take the lead, the other three also sat down, but their faces were still full of tension.
"Qi Xia... what do we do?"
Lin Qin asked. Qi Xia touched his chin and spoke, "Sleep."
"Sleep?"
"Sleep for a while to save your energy."
Qi Xia found a clean wooden plank and laid it out beside Lin Qin.
"After daybreak, we will head out to find Officer Li."
"But those things outside the door..."
"Relax."
Qi Xia said without a care.
"They won't come in. As long as we don't go out, there won't be any danger for now."
Hearing this, Lin Qin nodded cautiously like a child, and then lay down. Qi Xia also went to the corner of the wall, found a clean wooden plank to cover the pot, and sat on the plank himself, weighing down the pot. Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao looked at each other in dismay.
They exchanged a glance, then looked at Qi Xia and Lin Qin. How could they possibly sleep? Even if they could completely ignore the bugs outside the door, Xiao Ran still felt that Qi Xia was a dangerous figure.
In the story told at the very beginning, he was a con man who scammed two million. How could such a person possibly be a good person? Sleeping in the same place as him, would they inexplicably die again the next morning?
Qi Xia completely ignored the expressions of Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao, and instead leaned against the wall to rest his eyes. To him, even if these two people couldn't sleep all night, it had nothing to do with him. Lying on the wooden plank, Lin Qin looked at Qi Xia sitting in the corner.
Feeling a bit bad for him, she moved to the side and said, "Qi Xia, this plank is big enough. You should come lie down too." Qi Xia lifted his eyelids slightly and said, "No need, I'm used to sleeping while sitting."
"Sleeping while sitting?"
Lin Qin pondered slightly after hearing this. She stood up, moved the wooden plank over beside Qi Xia, then lay back down and continued, "Then you can sit and sleep right beside me." Qi Xia did not refuse.
Compared to Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao, the impression Lin Qin had left on him was fairly good. Lying on the plank, Lin Qin looked at Qi Xia with slight curiosity and asked, "Why are you used to sleeping while sitting?" Hearing this, Qi Xia raised an eyebrow, and then seriously considered this question.
"Because sleeping while sitting doesn't let me enter a state of 'relaxation.' It allows my brain to start working at a moment's notice."
Lin Qin nodded, but seemed to think of something else.
"Have you always slept sitting up?"
"Yes."
"It's been like this for many years?"
Qi Xia felt that Lin Qin was acting very strange, so he turned his head to look at her.
"Is this question important?"
Lin Qin swallowed, reorganized her words, and finally opened her mouth to ask: "But you have a wife... Even when the two of you live together, do you still sleep sitting up every night?"