"He can still talk. Should we observe him for a while longer?" another, more timid voice asked.
"Sure. You can lie there in his place." The man in the black shirt spoke with menace.
"N-no... Forget I said anything. I'm just afraid Sister Su will shoot us dead."
"How dare she go against the Black Shirt Organization! The rules are the rules. No one gets to escape them!"
As they spoke, the two headed toward the sidewalk.
A large crowd had gathered there, making all the racket. Every one of them wore black, like members of some organization involved in shady work!
"Bang!!!"
"Bang!!!"
"Bang!!!"
Suddenly, three gunshots rang out across Cross Commercial Street!
Many members of the Black Shirt Organization crouched down, staring in shock toward the other end of the street, where a woman in her early thirties stood holding a gun!
She had short, jet-black hair, and her delicate, jade-like ears were exposed. Her face might once have been considered gentle, but now it bore the hard-won grit and weathered air of someone who had endured countless hardships.
She walked to the middle of the intersection and stopped beside Wu Hen, who was tied to a handcart.
"Su Li, have you gone mad?" a tall man in the organization shouted angrily.
"I told you, if anyone dares offer my nephew to the Dusk Night, I'll shoot them dead!" the short-haired woman with the black-pearl complexion said coldly.
She held the gun in one hand, pointing it at the entire Black Shirt Organization, while her other hand rested gently on Wu Hen's chest, patting him softly as she comforted him. "Don't be afraid, Xiao Yun. Don't be afraid. I promised your dad I'd make sure you could live a good life in this world."
"Su Li, then tell me: how are we supposed to make it through this whole night?" the imposing, burly man from the Black Shirt Organization demanded.
"That has nothing to do with me!"
"How can you say that? The Black Shirt Organization has helped you and your family, too. And when you joined, you agreed to the rules. We've been safe all this time because someone was willing to make a sacrifice. Now that it's your family's turn, you're unwilling? You can't expect to have everything your own way!" the imposing, burly man from the Black Shirt Organization said.
"You said that as long as someone retained their sanity, you'd never do anything against your humanity!" said Su Li, the short-haired woman with the black-pearl complexion.
"We've been watching him for many days. Your nephew has already lost himself," the burly man from the Black Shirt Organization said.
"Say something, Xiao Yun. Please, say something. Tell them you haven't lost yourself. Tell them!" Su Li gently shook Wu Hen, tears welling in her eyes.
Her face was set with determination, yet her gaze toward him was infinitely gentle. Wu Hen realized that this woman truly loved the person whose body he now inhabited.
"I... I'm fine. I don't think I've lost myself. I just can't remember a lot of things," Wu Hen said.
When she heard him speak, Su Li's eyes filled with excitement and joy!
"He spoke, and his speech is normal," a woman in the Black Shirt Organization said.
"Even if someone loses themselves, they don't lose their ability to speak. Besides, he's only on the verge of losing himself. But right now, he's the one most suited to be offered to the Dusk Night," the imposing, burly man from the Black Shirt Organization said coldly.
"It'll be dark soon," someone reminded them in a low voice.
"Su Li, pointing a gun at the Black Shirt Organization is an act of betrayal. From today on, you and your friends and family are exiled. You no longer belong to the Black Shirt Organization, or to this city. Good luck," the imposing, burly man from the Black Shirt Organization said.
"Hurry, it's going to get dark!"
"Remember to lock the doors and windows!"
"Without a sacrifice, our area won't be safe anymore. A lot of people are going to die, aren't they?"
"That Su Li is a damn bitch. She'd rather save someone who's already lost himself than spare the rest of us!"
Soon, the members of the Black Shirt Organization who had gathered on the sidewalk scattered in every direction.
They didn't all hide in the nearby buildings. Some went into office buildings, some into apartments, and others into the mall or underground parking lot. They usually formed groups of four or five.
What happened when it got dark? Was something terrible going to happen?
Wu Hen was deeply confused, but it was hard for him to gather any useful information.
"Come on, let's go, Xiao Yun. You'll get better. You'll definitely get better. Once we find the Nuwa Divine Terminal, you'll recover!" Su Li immediately unlocked the chains around Wu Hen and helped him up from the handcart.
Wu Hen brushed the dust off his clothes and instinctively glanced at the slice of sky framed by the long street. The clouds on the horizon were tinged with an eerie glow. It was only dusk, yet it filled him with a powerful sense of unease and fear!
Wu Hen knew nothing. He felt that the unease and fear came from the original owner of this body!
He'd taken over the account, but the body's lingering fear remained!
"What happens when it gets dark?" Wu Hen asked his young and dashing aunt.
"Don't ask right now. We need to hide." Su Li led Wu Hen at a quick pace in the other direction down the street.
The city was nothing like the silent Jue Town they'd passed through before. Strange noises could be heard everywhere: the creak of steel bars bending, car alarms going off for no reason, things falling from high above and crashing to the ground, and the hushed whispers and low prayers of people hiding in sealed, lightless rooms...
A ray of the setting sun stretched along the city's central avenue. As the sun sank, it was as if a door of light were slowly closing. The two people running along the road were clearly outside that door, shut out beyond it.
Su Li quickened her pace. She had to reach the subway before the last ray of light faded!
"Grrr~"
Suddenly, Wu Hen heard a hungry growl.
The sound came from some distance away. As he ran, Wu Hen looked up at the high-rises.
Someone was clinging to an office building covered in glass!
At first glance, it looked like a window washer. But the figure had its limbs spread wide, suction-cupped to the wall, and was slowly, slowly crawling across the vertical glass curtain wall...
The last light of the setting sun divided the two sides of the avenue into bright and dark. The "person" was on the shadowy side of a building, moving against the light, and following Wu Hen and Su Li by scent!
"Aunt, there's something on the wall!" Wu Hen blurted out the name, warning the original owner's relative.
Su Li glanced up. The woman had clearly been through countless trials, and she showed admirable calm.
Holding the gun in her right hand and supporting it with her left, Su Li took aim at the "person" on the glass curtain wall and fired twice!
"Bang! Bang!"
Both shots were precise, hitting the evil being crawling on all fours!
The surrounding glass panels shattered, and shards rained down from above!
After being shot, the crawling monster went rigid and fell, smashing hard onto the sunlit street...
The bullets had left only two holes in its body, and the fall from such a height hadn't broken it to pieces. Instead, after landing in the sunlight, the monster's body began to turn to stone!
Starting with its limbs, a granite-like substance rapidly formed and spread across its entire body, covering it completely!
Before long, the monster had become an incredibly hard stone statue!
"That's a low-level Dusk Night Evil Spirit. It moves so quietly that it barely makes a sound. How did you notice it?" Su Li asked Wu Hen, surprised.
"I heard its stomach growling," Wu Hen said.
The thing called a Dusk Night Evil Spirit really had made almost no sound as it crawled. If its stomach hadn't been growling, Wu Hen probably wouldn't have heard it until it was much closer.
"You can hear it from that far away... Could it be that you've developed heightened senses on the verge of losing yourself?" Su Li asked, sounding hopeful.
"Heightened senses?"
"It's a prerequisite for becoming strong. If your hearing has awakened, we might be able to leave this place shrouded in daylight," Su Li said.
"Huh? We can leave the area covered by the sun?" Wu Hen asked, puzzled.
"This isn't the sun we've always known. It's the Great Terror Evil Sun. We can't even look at its light. Otherwise, we'll turn into evil spirits!" Su Li quickly explained, then grabbed Wu Hen's right hand again and hurried toward the shelter.
But the moment Su Li touched Wu Hen's right wrist, a black spark of lightning flashed, jolting her backward.
Su Li was so startled that her face went pale. She stared at Wu Hen in disbelief, then finally asked, "Xiao Yun, what happened to your arm? Are you infected?"
Wu Hen looked down and saw the Death Sword-like Substance still etched on his arm. But amid the desolate dust, it looked more like a black mark radiating powerful energy, filled with mystery and a sacredness that inspired awe!
Wu Hen opened his mouth, but couldn't explain it.
This thing was still inside him.
It had even remained after his soul crossed into someone else's body!
"I don't know, either. We need to hurry. I hear more hungry growls, coming from the shaded sides of those buildings." Wu Hen pointed toward the eastern side of the row of high-rises.
Su Li didn't ask anything else. She took Wu Hen by the left hand and rushed toward the subway station near a cluster of commercial buildings!!
The subway was sturdy enough to be the best shelter Su Li could think of. It wouldn't be long before evil spirits roamed the city, searching for the living with hungry growls!
Recommended: a new book by the great urban fiction author Lao Shi.
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