Does Shen Cheng Seem to Be Alive?

Everyone stared at the white fog beyond the school gates, their moods heavy. They seemed to have no appetite at the moment.

Ever since he had climbed back over the wall, Lin Yang had been listening for the broadcast.

As he thought about it, the loudspeaker overhead crackled to life.

"Current survivors: 27. Current Facelings: 4."

Everyone on the concrete ground behind the school gates froze for a moment. Then they looked up at the rusty loudspeaker in the corner of the wall.

The mood grew heavier.

Shen Cheng's younger sister, Shen Yue, wept. "Brother... brother..."

The fatty wiped the blood off his hands and gave the tentacle, which was still twitching, a vicious kick.

He sighed. "A few days ago, that guy Shen Cheng was still arguing with me. And now he's just up and died..."

Yet Lin Yang's brow furrowed even deeper when he heard the broadcast.

Something's wrong! The broadcast is wrong!

If Zhang Hao and Shen Cheng were both dead, there should have been 26 survivors now, not 27.

The number didn't add up. Who was still alive? Once the thought surfaced, he couldn't push it down.

He began replaying the memory in his head. When Zhang Hao had been wrapped up by the tentacle and dragged into the fog, he had clearly seen blood spurt from the man's neck.

The barbs on the tentacle had sunk straight into the side of his neck, and the blood had sprayed outward in a jet. His artery had been severed!

Then there had been the sound of chewing, crunching away just like it had with the skinny man.

And when Shen Cheng was dragged into the fog, there had only been a single sound...

By the laws of probability, Shen Cheng's chance of survival should have been eighty percent higher than Zhang Hao's!

As he stared into the white fog, lost in thought.

"Brother Lin?" The fatty's voice pulled him back to reality. "What's wrong? Stop spacing out. Eating comes first."

Lin Yang looked away and turned his gaze to the writhing tentacle.

Eating did come first.

The thing looked hard to swallow. But with some seasoning, it should be passable, right?

He began arranging for everyone to return to the teaching building, then build a fire and cook in the corridor.

The teaching building offered more privacy and would be safer.

By the time the tentacle meat had been roasting on the rack for five minutes, the classroom finally showed a little sign of life.

The fatty had started the fire by friction.

He pressed a sharpened wooden stick against a completely dry desktop and spun it between his palms until the webbing between his thumbs and index fingers turned red. It took nearly twenty minutes to produce the first wisp of smoke.

When the flames sprang up, the fatty nearly singed his eyebrows off. He froze for a second, then grinned and laughed.

"Got it! Finally got it!"

Everyone stared at the flames, a glimmer of hope for survival in their oppressed hearts.

The grill had been put together from detached iron desk legs and wire mesh.

The tentacle meat had been cut into palm-sized pieces. The cut surfaces were grayish-white, and they did look a little like oversized squid.

The fatty arranged the pieces on the wire mesh with practiced movements.

Only later did everyone learn that he used to cook in a restaurant kitchen. He had honed his meat-cutting skills preparing hundreds of fast-food meals every day.

The fatty put each of the seasonings found in the hidden compartment to use.

An aroma of charred meat and garlic filled the classroom.

Lin Yang drizzled the water that smelled of almonds evenly over the pieces of meat. It sizzled and gave off white smoke as it hit the heat, the smoke carrying a strange hint of sweetness.

"Almond Water... I feel like I've heard of it somewhere."

The fatty said, "This stuff smells like the charcoal-grilled octopus they used to make at the place where he worked. All it needs is a handful of cumin!"

Many people in the classroom were starting to drool. "It looks... pretty tasty."

"Can we eat it?"

"..."

Even so, when the first piece of meat was done, no one dared eat it.

The fatty took a bite himself and chewed twice. The expression on his face went from nervousness to surprise, and then from surprise to an indescribably complicated look!

He let out a whimper and swallowed the meat, his Adam's apple bobbing. Then he handed the remaining half to the person beside him.

The pieces were handed out one by one. Some people's hands were still trembling as they accepted them, because they had been hungry for so long!

The girl with the ponytail took one bite and burst into tears!

"This taste... it's incredible! I thought it would be hard to swallow, but it tastes almost like charcoal-grilled octopus!"

"How long has it been since we had a decent meal..."

"Here, have a piece too."

"You can't fault the taste. Ninety-nine percent..."

"..."

They built two fires. One was for grilling meat, and the other was for light and warmth.

Some pushed desks together to make beds, while others took off their coats and folded them into pillows.

Some leaned against the wall, holding half a piece of tentacle meat in both hands and nibbling at it as though it were the most precious thing they had ever eaten.

A look of satisfaction appeared on everyone's face.

Lin Yang took a bite of the tentacle meat in his hand.

It did taste good, with the charred aroma of grilled seafood. It was springy to chew, with a texture somewhere between squid and chicken breast.

He took a bite of meat, then a sip of water.

The water had been drawn from the school pond.

The pond was behind the teaching building. Its water was yellow, with a layer of unidentifiable debris floating on the surface.

She poured the water into a tin kettle found in a classroom and set it over the fire to boil.

Once the water boiled, it bubbled away, the heat drawing out an earthy smell that mingled with the smell of rust. It didn't smell very good, but it was better than dying of thirst. There were also several cups with years of grime on them.

Shen Yue held an enamel cup. Her eyes were badly swollen, and her lower eyelids were red all over. She had been crying on and off for nearly two hours, from the hunt for the tentacle until now.

Jiang Yu'an sat beside her, one hand on her shoulder as he spoke words of comfort.

Several other girls gathered around too. Some helped wipe away her tears, while others broke off half their own grilled meat and put it in her enamel cup.

Even the fatty brought her some meat and said, "The dead can't come back to life. Staying alive is the greatest comfort you can give your brother."

Shen Yue kept crying, her shoulders trembling as tears ran down her chin and dripped into the enamel cup, mixing with the boiled yellow water.

She swallowed the meat in her mouth, then looked up at the fire and spoke very softly.

"My brother used to grill meat for me too... He was a really good cook. He did all the work around the house."

The firelight illuminated Shen Yue's face, making the outline of her profile look a little like Shen Cheng's. She was only a teenage high school student.

The sight left everyone feeling somewhat oppressed. In this bizarre world, death could come anytime, anywhere. Anyone could die.

Seeing this, however, Lin Yang put down his grilled meat, stood up, and walked over to Shen Yue.

He looked at her reddened eyes and said,

"Don't cry."

Shen Yue froze.

Lin Yang added, "Your brother isn't dead."

The words made the air still for a moment.

Everyone looked over at her.

Shen Yue raised her head. She was stunned, her lips moving twice in disbelief.

"Not dead? How could that be... We saw it with our own eyes. He was dragged in..."

Jiang Yu'an suddenly froze, as if something had occurred to him. "Wait... it looks like he really isn't dead."

The others looked at the two of them in confusion.

"Not dead? How is that possible?"

"Yeah, I saw Zhang Hao and Shen Cheng get dragged in by the tentacles with my own eyes!"

"You don't get it. Brother Lin is just trying to comfort the girl."

Hearing this, Shen Yue froze, then lowered her head. "Brother Lin, I know you want to comfort me, but... I'm not as fragile as you think."

Lin Yang shook his head. "I'm not comforting you. I'm just telling the truth."

"Did you hear the broadcast?"

Lin Yang looked around and raised his voice a little.

"The broadcast said there are 27 people left. Zhang Hao is definitely dead. That means Shen Cheng!"

He paused, giving everyone a moment to follow his reasoning.

"Shen Cheng hasn't been counted among the dead in the broadcast yet. He might be alive. At least, he isn't dead!