Invasion

At this moment, beneath the seemingly ordinary facade of Youcheng No. 3 Middle School, an unusual shadow had quietly seeped in.

The first place to suffer was the school cafeteria's back kitchen.

That afternoon, Master Liu, who was preparing dinner, turned on the tap and was about to wash a batch of fresh ribs and vegetables when someone outside suddenly called out to him, saying there was an issue with the delivery slip that needed to be checked immediately.

Master Liu answered, casually put the ribs into the sink, and hurried out without fully turning off the tap.

Water gushed from the faucet, rinsing over the ribs in the sink and flowing through the old pipes.

In the few short minutes Master Liu was gone, something strange happened.

Several small snakes, dark green with ominous white bands and about as thick as fingers, somehow "squeezed" out of the narrow pipes inside the faucet along with the water, splashing into the water-filled sink!

They seemed unafraid of the unfamiliar surroundings. With a twist of their slender bodies in the water, they swiftly swam to the edge of the sink and crawled out along the damp tiles.

Their cold, slimy scales slid across the floor almost soundlessly.

Their target was clear: food that carried the rich scent of blood and flesh.

Several little snakes quickly slithered to the basket of eggs, easily slipped through the gaps, and opened their tiny mouths to an unbelievable angle. Within seconds, they swallowed several eggs, leaving distinct bulges in the middle of their bodies.

Several others climbed onto the prep counter and opened their mouths toward the bright red ribs...

Just then, footsteps sounded outside again as Master Liu returned while chatting with a coworker.

Hiss—

Faint, nearly inaudible hissing passed between the snakes.

They immediately stopped feeding and slipped away from the counter and floor at astonishing speed, burrowing beneath the shadows of the stove, into cracks in the wall, and even behind piled bags of miscellaneous supplies, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

When Master Liu returned to the kitchen, he glanced at the sink. The water was still running, and the ribs were soaking inside.

He muttered, "Didn't I turn it off just now?" Then he tightened the tap and got back to work.

It was not until he began marinating the ribs that he vaguely felt the quantity seemed off. Looking at the egg basket again, it seemed a little emptier too.

"Strange... Could Xiao Wang have taken some earlier to prepare other dishes?"

He shook his head and did not dwell on it. The students' dinner could not be delayed.

Night fell, and the cafeteria staff got off work and left. The kitchen returned to silence, with only the sterilizing lamps casting their dim blue glow.

In the dark corners, those dark green shadows began to writhe again.

This time, they were even more brazen.

The entire kitchen became their feast.

Stored fresh meat, frozen foods, semi-prepared ingredients... anything containing animal protein and fat became their targets.

Their tiny bodies continuously swelled, writhed, and digested as they swallowed, then visibly grew thicker and longer!

In just one night, the largest among them had grown nearly as thick as a wrist. Their dark green scales glimmered eerily in the weak light, and their white bands had become sharper and more glaring.

The largest snake coiled atop a cold metal stove, slowly raising the front half of its body as its frigid snake eyes surveyed the territory they had "occupied."

It opened its mouth, its bright red tongue flickering rapidly as it let out a series of hisses unlike those of ordinary snakes—deeper, carrying some strange rhythm. The sound was not loud, yet it seemed able to pass through walls and pipes, traveling farther away.

Soon, more rustling sounds arose from the maze-like network of pipes beneath the campus.

In the depths of the darkness, countless slender dark green figures with white bands answered the call, gathering and writhing toward Youcheng No. 3 Middle School from every direction...

The next morning, Master Liu arrived at the kitchen early as usual to begin preparing lunch ingredients.

When he opened the cold storage door, his entire body froze at the entrance.

It was empty.

The cold storage room, which had been packed full the previous evening, was now nearly bare!

A large shipment of fresh meat, chicken legs, and fish fillets had vanished without a trace. Even nearly half the backup frozen sausages and ham were gone!

Only vegetables, rice, flour, grain, and cooking oil remained.

"Wh-what happened?!"

Master Liu's mind buzzed. He quickly ran to check the other storage rooms and freezers, only to find similar situations. All the meat supplies had suffered severe losses.

He rushed off in a panic to report it to the cafeteria manager.

The manager's first thought was theft from within. His face turned ashen. "Investigate! Check the surveillance footage! Who was the last one to leave yesterday? Did someone secretly make a copy of the keys?"

But he also knew this was not the time to investigate. The lunches of over a thousand students could not be left without food.

"Quick! Contact the suppliers and have them rush another batch over! We'll pay more if we have to! Make sure it gets here before ten thirty!"

The news could not be contained. It soon spread through the school on a small scale.

During breaks, the students chatted animatedly, full of curiosity and teasing.

"Did you hear? The cafeteria got robbed!"

"For real? What did they steal?"

"They said all the meat was stolen! Hahaha, was the thief so poor they went crazy? Stealing only meat?"

"Who's that trashy? We're not going to have meat for lunch, are we?"

"Who knows... Hey, do you think it might've been some 'struggling household'?"

A boy who was usually sharp-tongued wiggled his brows and meaningfully jerked his chin toward Hua Yin's empty seat. "Some people have always been pretty 'poor,' haven't they? No one at home to look after them, so maybe they..."

Before he could finish, several girls beside him glared him down. "What nonsense are you talking about? Hua Yin hasn't been to school in ages!"

Lin Qingqiu sat at her desk, listening to the discussions around her, her brows knitting slightly.

She instinctively felt that something was wrong.

Would an ordinary thief be so precise and greedy as to take only all the meat, leaving behind other comparatively valuable or easily portable things?

And while the security at No. 3 Middle School was not top-notch, it was not somewhere one could easily sneak into either.

Then another, more widespread problem began troubling the teachers and students.

"Don't you think the school water smells strange?" More and more people frowned when washing their hands or getting drinking water.

"Really! I smelled it too. It has a fishy smell, like something went bad."

"I thought something was off when I rinsed the mop this morning!"

"Even the water from the drinking fountains seems a little..."

The complaints quickly reached the school administration.

The school's logistics department did not dare neglect it and immediately contacted the water utility company and professional testing agencies.

Staff came to the school that afternoon to inspect the main valve, the primary pipes, and several sampling points.

The preliminary test report showed that the water quality indicators were basically normal, and the microbial levels were not excessive. However, the inspectors admitted that they had indeed detected a "faint fishy odor of unknown origin," and recommended further inspection of the internal pipe network, especially the old water tanks and storage facilities.

The logistics director therefore decided to have people open the rooftop water tank of the teaching building and the cafeteria's backup water tank for inspection early the next morning.

The unease in Lin Qingqiu's heart grew stronger and stronger.

Meat had mysteriously disappeared, and an unknown fishy odor had appeared in the school's water supply system...

With these two incidents occurring one after another, she could not help connecting them.

She remembered the confidentiality agreement she had been required to sign, the pale butterfly shadow in the alley that night, and the monster skeleton.

Could this be another one of those incidents? Her heartbeat quickened uncontrollably.

But she did not dare tell anyone else, afraid they would say she was being overly paranoid.

Early the next morning, the sky had just begun to brighten.

The repairman hired by the school carried his tools up to the rooftop of the teaching building under the logistics director's escort, arriving before the huge cylindrical stainless steel water tank.

The repairman skillfully found the inspection hatch, unlocked the heavy cover with a key, and then strained to lift the thick round lid open by a crack, intending to shine his flashlight inside first.

The beam of the flashlight shot into the water tank.

The next second—

"Mother of God—!!!"

The repairman let out a shriek that cracked out of tune and leaped backward as if he had been electrocuted.

He landed hard on the cold concrete, his face deathly pale. Trembling, he pointed at the tank opening, barely able to speak. "Snakes! They're all snakes!! Packed everywhere... Oh my God!!"

The logistics director jumped in fright and hurriedly leaned closer, peering through the gap.

After only one look, he too sucked in a cold breath, his legs turning weak.

Inside the tank, which should have been filled with clean water, the water level had dropped considerably. Countless dark green shapes writhed, twisted, and coiled across the damp inner walls and in the remaining water!

They varied in thickness, from finger-thick to nearly arm-thick, and the white bands on their bodies stood out vividly under the light.

They seemed to have been disturbed. One after another, they raised their triangular heads, flicking their bright red tongues as densely packed, icy snake eyes all "looked" toward the light and the gap.

A scalp-crawling chorus of hissing threats filled the air! The inner walls of the water tank were covered in slime and shed snakeskins, while a rank, fishy stench assaulted their noses!

"Quick! Close it! Get away from here!"

The logistics director's voice trembled. Together with the terrified repairman, he clumsily forced the lid back into place. They did not even bother locking it before scrambling away from the rooftop.

Because of their terror and haste, they failed to seal the lid completely.

Not long after they left, an especially thick snake with dark green bands poked its head out through the gap, its cold vertical pupils sweeping across the empty rooftop.

Then more and more snakes crawled out through the gap and other tiny vents in the water tank...

They slid across the cold concrete, following drainage pipes, ventilation shafts, and cracks in the outer walls. Like a spreading plague, they silently began rapidly infiltrating and spreading through the teaching building and every corner of the campus.

Youcheng No. 3 Middle School, beneath the awakening morning light, was about to face a cold and bizarre invasion beyond everyone's understanding.

And Lin Qingqiu, the first to sense the connection and whose heart was gripped by overwhelming unease, was currently on her way to school, completely unaware of the horrifying sight that awaited her.