Chapter 70: Certain Matters

Everyone was running for their lives, or rather, everyone knew that if they slowed down, they would lose their lives. Even though everyone was sprinting with all their might, not even Liu Chang, who was in the second echelon of the group, could completely shake off the hissing sound behind them.

The insects moved swiftly; despite their bloated bodies, their agility was undiminished. Liu Chang ran on, gasping for breath, yet when he looked up, he could still see branches and leaves overhead quivering, revealing flashes of vivid color hidden among the foliage.

“Split up! Split up!” Although Li Qingshui did not possess Liu Chang’s strength, his keen eye for detail was enough to make him aware of the danger overhead. As he ran, he shouted, “Everyone, scatter! If we get surrounded and bunched together by the insects, none of us will escape!”

“But—” Liu Chang had barely spoken when a massive insect’s body dropped down before him from the tree. Half of its body hung from the branch, the other half dangling in the air, its sharp mandibles aimed straight at Liu Chang. In that instant, it spat a strange liquid from its terrifying jaws, a fluid potent enough to blind a man.

“Damn!” Faced with this, Liu Chang did not hesitate. Dodging the venom, he turned and darted into a denser patch of forest.

Now that he was already near Zhengzhou, Liu Chang did not fear losing his way in the undergrowth. As long as he headed roughly in the right direction, he was confident of finding a way out. Cradling the little girl, he ran, leapt, and weaved through the dense woods, always choosing the thickest shrubs—places the giant insects would find difficult to traverse. The low-lying thickets lacked the sturdy branches of tall trees, unable to bear the insects’ massive weight, and grew more densely than any other plant, making it hard for the creatures to move among them.

Deliberately weaving through the underbrush, Liu Chang gradually left behind the “millipedes” whose speed rivaled his own.

Only when the hissing sound faded into the distance did Liu Chang dare not slacken his pace for even a moment. With the girl in his arms, he kept his speed up as he ran east, toward the city that represented Zhengzhou.

From west to east—eighty kilometers along the Zheng-Kai Highway—he finally reached the end, arriving on his last desperate breath.

As he ran, the forest around him thinned. The towering trees and the carpet of fungi vanished, the lush, layered rainforest giving way to a simple tangle of grass and shrubs. After another twenty minutes at full speed, the vegetation thinned again—until at last, Liu Chang burst out of the forest and beheld the open world beyond.

No longer confronted by boundless greenery, he saw a highway and the collapsed remains of an overpass. To his left, just a dozen meters away, lay the worn edge of the Zheng-Kai Highway.

He walked toward the end of the road, standing beneath an iron sign that read, “Welcome to Zhengzhou.” Looking at the surroundings, no longer green and wild, at the faint traces of human handiwork not yet erased from the distant ground, Liu Chang was struck by a feeling as if he had lived through an age.

From “Welcome to Kaifeng” to “Welcome to Zhengzhou,” he could no longer count the hardships endured along the way. What once was a mere hour’s drive had become a journey as arduous as a trek across a thousand miles. Of more than twenty people, almost all had perished, and the survivors were battered and scarred.

After catching his breath for two minutes, Liu Chang suppressed his emotions and began to search the area for signs of the others. Five minutes later, he found Shen Mingyi, who was searching on the opposite side of the road.

“Shen Mingyi!” Seeing his lost companion from afar, Liu Chang called out.

“You made it out!” Standing at the far end of the highway, Shen Mingyi’s face shone with relief. The two had fled in different directions, so they hadn’t emerged together.

“Yes, I made it.” Seeing Shen Mingyi, Liu Chang hugged the little girl closer and slumped to the ground, exhausted. “It wasn’t easy. Have you seen anyone else?”

“No, I’ve been here for seven or eight minutes and only seen you two.” Shen Mingyi spoke, lowering his head in some embarrassment. “I’m sorry. As a soldier, I should have made it my duty to protect you all, but I ran first myself.”

“Heh, what’s the point of talking about protection? In a situation like that, who could protect anyone else? Anyone who ran slower would’ve died. That you even thought about ‘military honor’ in such circumstances is already admirable in my eyes.” Liu Chang patted Shen Mingyi’s shoulder and forced a smile. “Don’t let it weigh on you. Let Li Qingshui handle the worrying—let’s search for the others around here.”

“Everyone scattered as we escaped. It won’t be easy to find them. But if they’re heading in the right direction, they should have come out somewhere around here. Let’s search carefully and try not to split up again.”

“Alright,” Shen Mingyi agreed. “Let’s split up, then. Every ten minutes, we’ll meet under this ‘Welcome to Zhengzhou’ sign. How about that?”

“Good.” Liu Chang nodded, stood up with the girl in his arms, and went off in his direction to look for survivors.

Ten minutes later, he found Li Qingshui who had also made it out. Twenty minutes after that, Shen Mingyi brought another soldier. But after finding that soldier, they searched for another forty minutes without encountering anyone else.

“You don’t think Fatty’s in trouble, do you? We’ve searched several times and still haven’t found anyone.” Back under the “Welcome to Zhengzhou” sign, Liu Chang looked at the other three survivors, worry etched on his face.

“I don’t know. Things got so chaotic, I have no idea what happened at the back of the group.” Li Qingshui shook his head—at a moment like that, everyone was fighting for their own life. Even he could not keep track of the others’ fate.

“I was running at the back, a bit slower. I think I heard some screams, but I don’t know if Fatty was among them.” The last soldier to emerge spoke, fear in his eyes. “I didn’t dare look back. I just ran and ran, not thinking about anything, not looking back, so...”

His voice faded into a hush.

“I hate to say it, but honestly, the chances of the others surviving are slim!” Shen Mingyi sighed. “There were twenty-seven of us. Maybe only five made it. As for those still in the forest... I doubt they’ll ever get out.”

“They definitely won’t. That last stretch wasn’t far. It’s been over an hour now—no one else is coming.” The last soldier glanced at the dimming red mist around them. “Let’s not wait any longer. Night has fallen, and even if the edge of the city isn’t as dangerous as the jungle, it’s still no place for people after dark.”

“Let’s go,” Shen Mingyi said, reaching out to pull Liu Chang along, agreeing with the soldier’s suggestion.

“I’ve been thinking…” Liu Chang stood still, unmoved by Shen Mingyi’s pull or the soldier’s words. He looked at Li Qingshui and said slowly, “Should we go back to look? Fatty’s probably dead, but I can’t rest easy without seeing for myself.”

“I was thinking the same.” Li Qingshui smiled and nodded.

“Eh? You agreed so easily? That’s not what I expected.” Liu Chang was surprised by Li Qingshui’s lack of hesitation. “Normally, you wouldn’t go for something so thankless. Anyone with a bit of sense would see that my suggestion is pretty foolish.”

“But some things shouldn’t be thought through logically,” Li Qingshui said, clenching his fist and pressing it to Liu Chang’s chest. “Did you think I’d abandon a companion?”

“You’re right.” Liu Chang bumped his fist lightly against Li Qingshui’s.

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