Then Who Sleeps Beside Grandma Tonight?

The gap in the door was narrow.

The light was dim.

A hand... a hand covered in thick black hair...

That hand was pinching something, moving back and forth through the air...

There was no telling what the right hand was holding...

Chen Mo leaned forward again, pressing a little closer.

The hand held a huge bone needle threaded with something white. It moved deftly back and forth, stitching something.

Chen Mo shifted slightly to the right to look at what the right hand held.

It was a skin...

A pale human skin... judging by the white hair at the top, it must have been "Grandma's" skin.

A pale human skin, with little clumps of fat still clinging to it...

Chen Mo stumbled, falling backward before he could stop himself.

Using every ounce of strength, he clamped a hand over his mouth and fell onto the open ground in the courtyard.

Thud.

"Who's there? Who's outside?"

"Grandma, it's me. I'm fine. Chopping firewood wore me out, so I'm sitting on the ground to rest."

Those few words seemed to drain all of Chen Mo's strength.

Dead silence...

No more sounds came from the room...

Human skin. A black-haired monster. It had eaten "Grandma" and was sewing her skin into something it could wear.

Nausea surged from his stomach straight into his throat. Chen Mo hurried away, crouched in a corner, and began dry-heaving.

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

It was Hu Yaya.

Hu Yaya was holding the large broom used to sweep the courtyard, watching him with worry written all over her face.

"Big brother, you didn't eat yesterday, and you looked pale when you got up today. Are you sick?"

As she spoke, she stepped closer and reached out to help him up.

Chen Mo instinctively shrank back, staring fixedly at Hu Yaya's face.

The words Hu Yaya had blurted out when she followed the others into the courtyard flashed through his mind.

"Captain Niu told you to..."

They were the people Su Qian had brought. Greenhead had already been eaten last night.

The Hu Yaya in front of him was a real person!

Chen Mo's mind raced, weighing the risks.

Should I wake her up?

Once she wakes up, will she start screaming and give me away?

Or will she fail to keep up the act, expose herself, and drag me down with her?

Or should I wait until they've all been eaten, then make one last desperate stand?

No. Keeping this up is no different from waiting to die. I have to take a gamble.

I probably won't survive alone.

Those two biker punks look unreliable-emotional and simple-minded... this pretty woman who dared to drive in alone seems a little more dependable than either of them.

Chen Mo raised his head, looked at Hu Yaya, and lowered his voice.

"Do you... remember driving a Mercedes before coming 'home'?"

Confusion filled Hu Yaya's face, and she froze for a moment.

"A Mercedes? Big brother, what nonsense are you talking about? When did our family ever..."

Before she could finish, a flicker of pain crossed her face, and her delicate brows drew tightly together.

"Hiss... my head hurts."

It's working!

Chen Mo continued,

"Do you remember what Captain Niu asked you to say?"

"Check your pocket. See if there are any car keys inside."

Clutching her head, Hu Yaya instinctively reached into her pocket, the pain on her face deepening.

The next second, her body went rigid.

She had felt the keys.

Hu Yaya's pupils slowly widened. She opened her mouth, about to scream, but Chen Mo sprang up and covered it, looking back at the door to the main room.

The door was still closed...

"If you don't want to die, keep quiet!"

Chen Mo kept his hand clamped over her mouth and tilted his head toward the main room.

The fragments of memory in Hu Yaya's mind frantically pieced themselves back together. College, content creation, the apocalypse, Captain Su, the Starfire Convoy, Wugui Village, Big Niu... the Mercedes...

Chen Mo slowly loosened his grip over her mouth. Only when he saw she wasn't going to scream again did he gradually lower his hand.

Pulling her down into a crouch, he quickly explained what had happened after she fell asleep last night, what he had just seen through the door, and the clock hanging on the wall.

Hu Yaya crouched on the ground, the color rapidly draining from her face. The more she heard, the more terrified she became. Her whole body trembled slightly, making her high ponytail shake.

After a long while, Hu Yaya finally seemed to recover, drawing deep breaths...

"Then... then those two. We have to wake them up..."

As she spoke, she stood and staggered toward the woodshed, intending to wake Redhead and Greenhead.

Her idea was perfectly normal: gather everyone's strength, then escape.

It was simply a normal reaction, because as far as everyone knew, ordinary people couldn't kill supernatural horrors. They could only run.

Chen Mo reached out and caught the staggering Hu Yaya, his gaze slowly turning cold.

He asked a question that chilled Hu Yaya to the bone.

"If everyone wakes up, and everyone knows perfectly well that sleeping beside Grandma means death..."

"Then tonight..."

"Who sleeps beside Grandma?"

Hu Yaya froze in shock, staring at the man before her, who was about her age, her eyes filled with disbelief.

As though all her strength had deserted her, she leaned against the wall and studied him.

His face betrayed nothing. He was as calm as if he were discussing some trivial matter...

That hadn't been a question. He was stating a fact.

If everyone regained their senses, then tonight's certain death for one person would become a bloody struggle among them all.

The color drained from Hu Yaya's lips, and they trembled slightly.

She had been raised to believe that people should help one another in the pre-apocalypse "silent era." Even after the "tidecry era" arrived, her understanding had gone no further than everyone looking out for themselves.

Yet the man before her had spoken the cruelest words in the calmest voice...

He was like a demon.

No, he was a demon.

Chen Mo said nothing. He simply watched her in silence, slowly moved around to her side, and casually picked up the axe he had dropped earlier.

If Hu Yaya screamed or tried to do something foolish... he would swing without hesitation.

He had finally managed to wake a teammate who seemed reasonably intelligent. He hadn't done it so she could play the saint and drag him down to hell...

Chen Mo didn't know what would happen if he killed a "family member" inside this supernatural domain, but he didn't mind killing a "liability" before fighting the old woman to the death.

In this man-eating world, any unnecessary sympathy was poison that would kill him.

Time ticked by, second after second...

After a long while, Hu Yaya slowly slid down the wall and sat on the ground.

She looked up at Chen Mo, a new glint of resolve in her eyes.

"I understand."

Her voice was low and hoarse.

Chen Mo slowly lowered the axe.

His gamble had paid off.

This woman was tougher than he had imagined.

"What... do we do?" Hu Yaya wiped away her tears, slowly calmed down, and began thinking of a way out.

She had no other choice now. If she wanted to survive, she could only work with this cold-blooded man before her.

"You said you saw a hand covered in black hair through the gap in the door?" Hu Yaya suddenly asked.

"Yes. And a human skin," Chen Mo added.

Hu Yaya stiffened, then leaned close to Chen Mo and whispered, "Have you ever heard... the local folk legend about the 'Hairy Savage'?"