"Zombie" Chickens

Without a second's hesitation, Fu Yanci turned, hoisted Chi An over his shoulder, and sprinted down the mountain.

After a dizzying whirl, Chi An came to his senses and found himself draped headfirst over Fu Yanci's shoulder. The ground before his eyes shook violently, as though the whole world had turned upside down.

His stomach churned, nausea rising inside him, and he couldn't help dry-heaving. His abdomen felt as though it had taken a heavy blow, giving him the illusion that his organs were being crushed flat. The pain made him grimace.

"Fuck... put me down-"

This time, Chi An genuinely wanted to cry. Never in his life had he wanted to die this badly. Who the hell had taught this dumbass Fu Yanci how to carry someone? If nothing else worked, he could have carried him on his back, but he threw him over his shoulder every single time! Did he think he was a sack?!

Watching helplessly as Fu Yanci ran off with Chi An over his shoulder, Song Wenjing gritted his teeth in fury, but had no choice but to keep running for his life. Fortunately, his mouth still worked, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Fu Yanci! You bootlicker who forgets his little brother the second he sees someone hot!!!"

Bracing himself against Fu Yanci's back, Chi An struggled to lift his head. That single glance left him so stunned he couldn't look away.

He had seen yellow-feathered chicken, beggar's chicken, lotus-leaf chicken, braised chicken, white-cut chicken, iron-pot chicken, and mouthwatering chicken, but this was his first time seeing "zombie" chickens charging after them with reckless abandon. Their desperate flight was like being chased by a horde of zombies in the apocalypse, except here, the zombies had been replaced by chickens.

Meanwhile, Lin Yuxuan clutched his basket and chased frantically after them, panting heavily as he ran. He had completely given up on keeping up appearances. He could swear he had never been this bedraggled in his entire life.

"Wait... you-you guys can't just keep running!!!"

"Think of something! At this rate, a bunch of chickens really will chase us to death!"

Gu Zijin truly felt despair. He had better never find out who had brought these chickens here! He had only been looking for eggs. Who had he offended?! Now a flock of chickens was chasing him for no reason!

Behind them, Li Nanyi suddenly screamed. Her eyes widened as she pitched forward in terror and fell straight to the ground.

A piercing pain shot through her ankle. Unable to get up for the moment, she could only lie on the ground with her hands over her head in terror, praying the chickens wouldn't peck her.

"Nanyi!"

Lu Wanqing watched helplessly as Li Nanyi fell behind. She wanted to turn back and check on her, but seeing the flock charging toward her from behind, she had no choice but to keep running.

Strangely, the chickens ignored Li Nanyi on the ground and continued chasing the people fleeing ahead.

Gone was Ren Wuyang's usual timid demeanor. With Ren Anwen on his back, he charged forward with all his might, even overtaking Gu Zijin, who had originally been ahead of him.

A flash of astonishment crossed Gu Zijin's face as he watched the two shoot past him like a gust of wind. By the time he saw the path ahead and tried to warn them, it was already too late.

"Up ahead! There's... a slope..."

Ren Wuyang cried, "Ahhh-!!! Sis, sis, help!"

"Ahhh!!! I can't stop! Sis, help!!!"

Ren Anwen screamed, "Aaaah!!!"

The chickens behind them went, "Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cluck-cluck! Cluck, cluck, cluck!"

Trailing behind, Lu Wanqing couldn't run another step. She found a patch of grass beside the path and ducked straight into it, covering her head with both hands and giving up all resistance.

"Boo-hoo-don't peck me, don't peck me..."

The pain she had spent so long anticipating never came. She secretly raised her head for a look, only to meet a pair of beady eyes. With a frightened shriek, she landed on her backside.

But the chicken merely looked at her for a while, pecked at the ground, and wandered away from her.

Strange. Why weren't these chickens pecking her?

After sitting on the ground for a while, Lu Wanqing remembered Li Nanyi, who was still behind them. She hurriedly stood and retraced her steps, but the moment she turned around, what was imprinted on her pants came clearly into view on the livestream.

[What's that? Chicken shit?]

[Wrong. Flattened chicken shit.]

[What did they do to get chased by all these chickens? Did Fu Yanci blow up their nest?]

[Fu Yanci really must have offended you. No matter what happens, you blame him.]

[How does their owner usually feed these chickens? They're so vicious they could be guard chickens. Are all country chickens this fierce?]

[I've only ever seen geese chase and bite people. This is my first time seeing chickens chase anyone.]

[Where I'm from, we'd already be plucking chickens like these by now.]

His feet moving faster and faster, Ren Wuyang spotted three figures ahead and instinctively shouted, "Aaaah-! Chi An, help!"

"Wenjing, get out of the way!"

His throat was parched. Song Wenjing had barely opened his mouth when he tasted blood in his throat. He swallowed with difficulty, and before he could turn his head, something went flying past him.

What the hell just flew past?!

They were almost at the exit. Fu Yanci quickened his pace, while the jolting left Chi An dizzy and nauseated.

Dimly hearing someone calling his name, Chi An focused his eyes and saw Ren Wuyang drawing closer, with Ren Anwen reaching out from his back. All he caught was "help," and he instinctively reached out and grabbed her hand. The immense pull dragged his arm down, and all four lost their balance, tumbling out of the exit together in a heap.

Fu Yanci had no idea why he had fallen. His vision went black, and he only had time to gather Chi An into his arms. Unable to attend to anything else, he could only do his best to shield Chi An against his chest.

Even though Chi An was 180 centimeters tall, he still paled in comparison to Fu Yanci's 192 centimeters.

Once they stopped rolling, Fu Yanci ignored the cut on the back of his hand. After making sure Chi An was all right, he got straight up, then lifted Chi An off the ground and onto the table beside them where the baskets were placed.

"Fuck!"

"Who the fuck has such lousy manners?! A sneak attack, seriously?!"

"Who the fuck are you trying to kill?!"

Ren Anwen lay on the ground, her face contorted in pain. She reached to touch her leg, only to touch someone's shoulder instead. Struggling to prop up her upper body, she finally saw Ren Wuyang lying across her legs. "Get up, you're squashing me."

Still visibly shaken, Ren Wuyang stared wide-eyed and panted heavily. Hearing his sister's voice, he quickly snapped back to his senses despite his fear, got up, and asked how she was.

"How are you? Where did you hurt yourself?!"

"I'm sorry, it's all because I haven't been exercising properly? How are you?"

"You'd better be okay. If anything happens to you, Grandpa will whack me with his cane when we get back."

[Holy shit! That scared me to death!]

[Good thing it was dirt. If that had been concrete, they'd have gone straight to the hospital.]

[That was way too dangerous! I jumped when Li Nanyi fell earlier, and when those four rolled down together afterward, I stopped breathing.]

[That was terrifying. Why did Chi An reach out just now? Ren Wuyang clearly couldn't stop. Wasn't trying to grab him just putting Fu Yanci in danger?!]

[Exactly. Fu Yanci carried him the whole way and was almost down the mountain. But because he reached out, what should have been two people falling turned into four.]

[He didn't necessarily do it on purpose. Didn't you see how he looked just now? He was clearly out of it. He'd been upside down the whole way, so the blood must have rushed to his head. With all that bouncing on top of it, it was already good that he didn't throw up.]

[Isn't there a doctor? Why aren't they getting a doctor to check them over already? There are still three people in the mountains being chased by chickens!]