Bronya bent down to pick up the cane, her white-gloved hand lightly brushing away the dust.
"As everyone knows, an assistant's intuition is usually wrong."
"Bronya, this isn't a detective game. What kind of detective pulls out a blade and starts hacking without even interrogating anyone?"
Zhao Bai planted a foot atop the severed remnant, stripped of all its branches. Unlike the soft vines, Gong Shan's trunk was hard, dark-yellow wood, covered in cracks and still faintly retaining a human shape.
Its vocal organs remained intact.
The leaves trembled, releasing a string of mocking, manic laughter, as though it had not been her limbs that were severed.
The vines twisted as they shuddered, their moisture evaporating as they blackened and withered.
After disabling her ability to fight, Bronya and Zhao Bai searched the apartment together. The five bodies were on the balcony. No... they were not corpses. Strictly speaking, they were still alive, albeit incompletely. Vines wrapped tightly around them, sinking deep roots like parasitic plants.
The vines rooted themselves into them while releasing anesthetic, reducing their bodily activity to its lowest point.
They absorbed nutrients, bloomed into flowers, and bore fruit.
Like fertilizer. The only difference was that they were all still alive, staring fixedly at the newcomers with longing eyes.
Facing those burning gazes, Zhao Bai wanted to look away for the first time.
"They are yearning for death."
Bronya said expressionlessly, "Bronya has seen those eyes before. They made Bronya... remember many things. Bad memories."
"If they're bad, then don't remember them."
Zhao Bai tried to comfort her. He did not want to look at this scene of human misery either. Plants had burrowed deep into their abdominal cavities, growing slowly until they finally emerged from their mouths and noses, bearing dark red fruit.
Five girls had