First Encounter

Now then, over on Wang Yizhi's side, after entering her cousin's home and hearing everything Zhang Chen had told her, she could not help feeling uneasy. But she did not tell her cousin about that unease and kept it buried in her heart. Alone in the bedroom, she stared at her book and recalled the cold, quiet feeling from earlier, when she had pressed her hand against Zhang Chen's chest on the road.

"Wang Yizhi, are you afraid of him?" Wang Yizhi thought as she drew circles in her notebook with her pen. Then she vigorously scribbled all over the page.

Next, Wang Yizhi examined the little finger of her right hand over and over, but could not spot the slightest abnormality.

"If I really only have nine days left to live, what should I do? Go into the city to buy clothes, go to the seaside and look at the ocean, or go have fun on Tie Feng Mountain with my classmates? What am I even thinking? Didn't Zhang Chen say everything would be fine?" Wang Yizhi still did not seem to believe it was real and could not fully accept everything. After all, it had happened too suddenly. Anyone else would have been the same.

"Ah, what is wrong with me? I don't even feel like reading anymore. Should I call him? He should still be on the road, right?" As she spoke, Wang Yizhi took out her phone and dialed Zhang Chen's number.

At that moment, Zhang Chen was squatting beside the bed, thinking about what his sister was handling.

"Beep beep beep~~~~" Since the window had not been closed today, the familiar Ruojia ringtone drifted in through the window and reached Wang Yizhi's ears.

"Could he be outside?" Wang Yizhi immediately got to her feet and walked toward the window.

Startled by the ringing, Zhang Chen sprang up and moved farther away from the window before preparing to answer Wang Yizhi's call.

"Yi Zhi, what's wrong? Did something happen at home?" Zhang Chen had never received a call or text from Wang Yizhi in the evening before. After all, Wang Yizhi was the class's recognized top student. Studying was the most important thing to her, and what she ought to be doing.

Zhang Chen was a little nervous when he received the call as well, afraid that something had truly happened to Wang Yizhi. But when he had been outside just now, he had not sensed the slightest sound or dangerous aura.

"It's nothing, idiot. I was just checking whether you made it home." Wang Yizhi's gentle voice came through.

"Huh, I never expected even the top student Wang would have times when she didn't want to study." Zhang Chen sighed in relief and said with a smile.

"Don't call me that. It sounds awful. Zhang Chen, turn your head around, will you?" Wang Yizhi said.

"I'm riding my bike. Turning my head is dangerous." Zhang Chen spoke calmly as he deliberately turned his head anyway.

The moment he turned around, Zhang Chen froze. The curtains that had covered Wang Yizhi's bedroom window were now open, and the person standing beside the window was none other than Wang Yizhi.

"Zhang Chen, you said you wouldn't lie to me. Why haven't you gone home?" Wang Yizhi's voice suddenly became stern, seemingly carrying a trace of anger.

"I... because..." Zhang Chen did not react in time. The words reached his lips, then were swallowed back down.

"You were here all last night too, weren't you? When you called me before I went to sleep, you were here across from me too? Don't lie to me anymore." Wang Yizhi said.

"I was just worried. I knew there was something wrong with this house, but if I took you away, I didn't know where I could take you to stay, so I..." Zhang Chen suddenly poured out everything in his heart.

"You... sob, sob..." The previously stern Wang Yizhi suddenly began to cry.

Seeing this, Zhang Chen rushed outside the window and fixed his eyes on the four nailed-down corners of the security bars. With a bang, he tore off the huge security grille and jumped inside, pulling Wang Yizhi into his arms.

"It's all right, it's all right." Facing this situation for the first time, Zhang Chen did not know what to do and could only hold Wang Yizhi tightly. Seeing her still sobbing in his arms, his heart ached terribly.

Yet just as Wang Yizhi gradually stopped sobbing in Zhang Chen's arms, an overwhelmingly uneasy aura swept through Zhang Chen's entire body. It was completely different from the feeling he had experienced yesterday at Xie Wen's home. It was not torment, hatred, or bloodlust. It was simply a feeling. If he had to use something to describe it, it would be a knife. At that moment, Zhang Chen felt as though a knife were pressed against his neck.

Suddenly, with a crack, the door Wang Yizhi had locked opened. Zhang Chen immediately shielded Wang Yizhi tightly in his arms. A gust of wind swept past, slicing long wounds across Zhang Chen's left cheek, waist, and left leg. Blood immediately began pouring out.

Zhang Chen gently sent the still-shaken Wang Yizhi out through the window and said,

"Yi Zhi, run outside, quickly. Wait for me at the end of Anxin Bridge. I'll be there soon." The moment he finished speaking, another wound appeared on Zhang Chen's left arm, bright red blood flowing from it.

"Ah!" Wang Yizhi, whom Zhang Chen had sent outside, cried out the moment she saw this.

"Go! I'll be fine. Wait for me at Anxin Bridge. Here are the bike keys." Zhang Chen immediately roared, then pulled the keys from his pocket and threw them out.

Zhang Chen's roar snapped Wang Yizhi out of her shock. After catching the keys, she nodded, biting her lower lip as she looked at Zhang Chen with worry and reluctance. But when she saw the reassuring look in his eyes, she knew that staying here would only burden him. Gritting her teeth, she left.

Watching Wang Yizhi leave, Zhang Chen immediately sighed in relief. He feared nothing, even if King Yama himself stood before him. But he feared Wang Yizhi being dragged into this. Letting Wang Yizhi get hurt meant touching Zhang Chen's reverse scale. It was absolutely unacceptable.

Zhang Chen turned around. The wounds on his body were only superficial, but recalling what had happened made his entire body feel uncomfortable, and goosebumps rose all over him. When the door had opened, Zhang Chen had seen a humanoid monstrosity covered from head to toe in red fingernails. Its stomach, face, mouth—its whole body was covered in nails. Anyone with trypophobia would have fainted on the spot at the sight.

After entering the room, the Nail Man had immediately merged into the walls. Long red nails grew out from every part of the room and came at Zhang Chen. If not for Telekinesis, he would not have escaped with merely three wounds.

Zhang Chen turned around. How was this still Wang Yizhi's room? Aside from the spot where he stood, dense long nails had grown not only from the walls, but also from the wardrobe, bed, chandelier, and dressing table. They varied in length; the short ones were only one centimeter long, while the longest were nearly a meter. But these nails now seemed dead and no longer moved toward Zhang Chen as they had before.

"Creak~~~~~~" A sound like growing bones came from behind Zhang Chen. When he turned around, he found that the window was also covered in nails, sealing him inside completely.

"Why didn't this thing kill me directly? Why trap me here instead? Is it because it can't kill people, or is there another reason?" Zhang Chen grabbed one of the longer nails growing from the floor and yanked hard. With a wet pop, the nail came out as though it had grown from the floorboards. Flesh and blood clung to its root, and blood flowed from the hole it had left behind.

"This nail is so hard. If they all shot at me together, wouldn't I be dead for sure? In this situation, where am I supposed to find its true body?" The moment Zhang Chen finished thinking, several spikes suddenly shot toward him.

I'm done for. I can't dodge them. After Zhang Chen barely evaded the first three nails, there were too many following them. Four nails first pierced through his right palm, then his left hand and both feet. His entire body was nailed firmly to the nail-covered window behind him.

Zhang Chen remained calm. None of the nails that had shot at him earlier had targeted his vital points. If he had used Telekinesis just now, who knew how many more would have fired at him afterward? Once he reached his limit, he would truly become a turtle in a jar. As for the ability of his mouth, he did not intend to use it before seeing the opponent's true body.

"Ah, this hurts like hell. Damn, I probably look like Jesus right now, maybe even worse." Zhang Chen watched blood continuously flow from his pierced body. The only move I can think of now is this one: pretend I'm powerless to resist and hope it draws out that thing's true body.

"It took the bait." Zhang Chen watched the nails in front of him begin to break apart piece by piece and fall to the ground. They slowly wriggled toward the place where the Nail Man had vanished, and before long, they gathered into the exact same Nail Man as before.

This time, Zhang Chen finally saw clearly. The only place on that person without nails was his eyes. Those eyes were staring fixedly at Zhang Chen. After watching him for a while, the Nail Man revealed an extremely excited expression and walked toward Zhang Chen step by step. The nails on the soles of his feet scraped against the floor with creaks that made Zhang Chen's skin crawl.

At last, the thing reached Zhang Chen. It actually opened its mouth, as if it wanted to say something. But Zhang Chen saw that even its tongue was covered in nails, while his own mouth kept filling with saliva. He even forgot the pain from his wounds.

Fuck, this thing is so disgusting that anyone else would probably be disgusted to death just from seeing it. Yet I actually think it looks delicious—more fragrant than fatty intestine noodles with ten portions of extra pickled mustard greens.

At that moment, the Nail Man spat out a small red worm shaped like a fingernail. The little worm grew extremely excited upon noticing Zhang Chen, as though it could not wait to come into contact with him. However, the Nail Man pinched the worm and slowly tried to place it into Zhang Chen's ear.

Zhang Chen moved. Telekinesis erupted at full force, and the dozens of nails pinning his hands and feet were snapped all at once. If he forcibly pulled them out, the resulting massive blood loss would be troublesome.

The Nail Man before him did not seem flustered at all, as though everything had gone according to his calculations. Zhang Chen had just landed and had not yet regained his footing when he looked up and saw dozens more nails shoot from the Nail Man's body.

Zhang Chen did not panic. Instead, he smiled faintly. A howl burst from his mouth. His mouth instantly opened wide—so wide it could even swallow a person. Every nail flying toward Zhang Chen flew into his mouth without making a sound, as though they had fallen into an abyss.

The Nail Man clearly had not expected this. Just as he tried to retreat, Zhang Chen bit down, swallowing the Nail Man's head and upper body in one mouthful.

"This didn't kill it?" Zhang Chen was shocked, because he saw the remaining half of the body immediately merge into the ground, while the nail-covered window behind him still remained.

Yet this thing seemed to have become angry. Nails suddenly grew from where it had just vanished and raced toward Zhang Chen along the ground, like the spine crawlers in StarCraft.

"Run." Zhang Chen knew that this time, the thing would definitely not hold back. The same trick could not be used twice on the same person, and ghosts were the same. Zhang Chen used Telekinesis first, but the nails blocking the window only bent slightly. He could not shake them at all.

"Damn it!" Zhang Chen cursed and lunged directly at those nails. Opening his mouth wide, he bit a huge hole through them, then landed outside the house.

Zhang Chen turned around and watched the remaining nails on the window slowly gather together, forming the Nail Man. At that moment, it stared at him, then gave a deeply eerie smile before turning around and leaving, as though it had no intention of coming out to pursue Zhang Chen.

"Why isn't this thing coming to kill me?" Zhang Chen found it strange. Then his expression suddenly changed. "Could it be..."

Ignoring the nails still embedded in his body and the blood streaming from his wounds, Zhang Chen used all his strength to run toward Anxin Bridge.