Chapter 163 Benboerba

The car drove through several streets and alleys, and the closer it got to Hongqiao, the older the houses on both sides became.

The walls are covered with gray bricks and tiles, the plaster is peeling off, and some courtyard walls are covered with withered grass, shivering in the autumn wind.

Fang Yingxia peered out the car window, muttering, "It should be the third house in that alley ahead... no, it seems to be the fourth house..."

Chen Mo slowed down and drove into the alley.

The alley was narrow, with high firewalls on both sides, and a few withered vines sticking out from the top of the walls.

The moss at the base of the wall had dried, turning black and gray.

The ground was paved with stone slabs, worn smooth and uneven from years of wear, and filled with dirty water, reflecting the hazy sky.

The car can't go in.

Chen Mo turned off the engine, and the three of them got out of the car and walked forward.

The alley was quiet; I didn't see a single pedestrian.

Occasionally, a cough or two would come from one of the houses.

Fang Yingxia looked around. "The neighbor said he lives at the very end of the alley, the one with the big rock in front of his door."

Chen Mo looked up.

Sure enough, there was a large rock at the end of the alley.

The stone weighed at least three or four hundred pounds, was bluish-gray, and had a pitted surface covered with dark green moss.

He just squatted in the middle of the alley, blocking the road so that there was only a narrow crack left.

Fang Yingxia frowned: "Why is this stone placed in the middle of the road? Doesn't it allow people to pass?"

Liu Ruyan didn't speak, but just stared at the stone for a couple of seconds.

The three of them squeezed past the rock, sideways.

As Chen Mo passed by, he paused. Beside the stone, against the wall, lay a broken shoe.

The gray-blue cloth shoes were soaked and worn out, with black silt clinging to the uppers, as if they had been pulled out of the water.

Behind the stone was a black lacquered wooden door, most of the paint peeled off, revealing the grayish-white wood underneath.

The door was ajar, and a chilly aura emanated from the crack.

Fang Yingxia quickened her pace and was about to knock on the door when Chen Mo suddenly reached out and stopped her.

"What's wrong?" Fang Yingxia asked, startled.

Chen Mo didn't speak, but frowned and sniffed in the direction of the door.

A faint, lingering scent wafted out from under the door.

It's not the fishy smell that Grandpa Liu described yesterday.

It's a different kind of smell, the smell of a corpse.

"Step back," he whispered.

Fang Yingxia wanted to ask something, but Liu Ruyan pulled her behind her.

Chen Mo stepped forward and pushed the door open.

The door wasn't locked and creaked open.

The courtyard was deathly silent.

The door to the main room, which faces the courtyard gate, was wide open, but it was pitch black inside, and you couldn't see anything.

Upon entering the courtyard, the stench of the corpse became even stronger.

Chen Mo took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Liu Ruyan followed behind him, while Fang Yingxia clenched her fists, her face pale.

Stepping over the threshold of the main room, you enter a small hall.

The light was dim, with only a little bit of grayish-white light coming in through the back window.

Several pieces of clothing were scattered on the ground, and a square table was overturned with its legs pointing upwards.

That stench is coming from this room.

Chen Mo took a step inside, then suddenly stopped.

Two dark figures were curled up on the ground in the corner.

One big and one small.

After he could see the shadowy figure clearly, his mind went blank.

It's Lao Liu.

And his daughter, Liu Fang.

The two were huddled in the corner, their bodies stiff, their faces ashen with a bluish tinge, their eyes half-open, their pupils dilated.

Old Liu's hand was still stretched out forward, as if he was protecting his daughter behind him, or as if he was pointing at something.

Both of them only had their upper bodies intact; their lower bodies had been gnawed open by something, exposing the bones.

There were countless fine marks on the bone, as if something had scraped it bit by bit with its teeth.

Fang Yingxia vomited loudly behind him.

Liu Ruyan supported her; her face was slightly pale, but not that serious.

Chen Mo didn't turn around, but just stared at Old Liu's face.

When they first moved to Willow Leaf Lane, the two often played chess. The old man had a loud voice and would cheat when he lost.

We occasionally bump into each other at the alley entrance after I start working, and we greet each other.

Yesterday, he sensed that something was wrong with Lao Liu; he seemed to have too much yin energy about him, unlike a living person.

Judging from the current situation, he has clearly been dead for several days.

So, the person who came to see me yesterday was Old Liu, who died with his eyes wide open in disbelief?

Or is there something they're using to entice Old Liu to their door?

As Chen Mo was pondering, a sudden fluctuation came from his sea of ​​consciousness.

The shadow puppet is reacting.

Chen Mo closed his eyes and used his divine sense to probe into the back room, following the guidance of the shadow puppet.

The feeling was strange, as if an invisible thread was pulling his senses backward, through the main room, through a door, and into the innermost room.

Then he saw it.

There is a half-human creature in the back room.

The thing was curled up in the corner, all wet.

He was wearing a tattered gray cloth jacket, the original color of which was no longer discernible.

Her hair was soaked, hanging down in strands, obscuring her face.

Chen Mo opened his eyes and lowered his voice: "In the back."

Fang Yingxia's face turned pale, and she covered her mouth, not daring to utter a sound. Liu Ruyan glanced at him and nodded slightly.

The three of them tiptoed toward the back room.

The further you go in, the stronger the fishy, ​​stench becomes.

It wasn't the stench of a corpse, but a different kind of fishy smell, like the kind that comes from a fish stall that's been sitting idle for three days in the middle of summer, attracting lots of greenbottle flies.

The fishy smell was mixed with a damp, sticky odor.

The fishy smell was mixed with a damp, sticky odor.

The door to the back room was ajar, and it was dark inside.

Chen Mo reached out and gently pushed open the door.

The room was dimly lit, and the windows were covered tightly with rags and scraps of paper.

The stench was coming from inside the house; it was so strong it was almost choking.

The ground was covered in water.

Puddles of water seeped in from the corner of the wall, accumulating into small puddles in low-lying areas.

The water was murky, carrying silt and sand, with a few fish scales floating on the surface, shimmering with a faint light.

The walls were covered with old newspapers, which were moldy and blackened, and large patches were falling off.

The exposed wall plaster was covered with dark green mold.

There were some things piled up in the corner.

A pile of tattered clothes, soaked and wrinkled.

In the darkest corner, a person was curled up.

It huddled in the corner, its back to them, completely soaked.

His back was hunched, and his shoulder blades protruded high, stretching his soaked clothes into two sharp corners.

He curled up into a ball, trembling like a leaf.

He kept muttering to himself, his voice indistinct and muffled.

Fang Yingxia covered her mouth, her nails digging into her palms.

Sensing the presence of the three people, the thing suddenly stopped trembling.

Slowly turn your head.

Chen Mo then got a clear look at the face.

It resembles a human face, yet it doesn't look human at all.

The face shape was still human, but the skin was grayish-white with a sickly bluish tinge, like the skin of a dead person who had been drowning for too long and had become bloated.

His cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones were high and prominent, and his eye sockets were frighteningly deep.

The eyes are human eyes, but the pupils are cloudy as if covered by a film.

His lips split open, from the corner of his mouth all the way to his earlobe, revealing two rows of fine teeth inside.

There were bits of meat stuck between his teeth, red and white, and blood was still dripping from them.

The most terrifying thing was his neck.

Several cuts appeared on both sides of the neck, resembling fish gills.

The gills opened and closed, oozing a sticky liquid.

It looked at Chen Mo and moved its mouth.

"I...don't want to kill you..."

"I didn't mean to kill..."

As it spoke, it began to tremble again, trembling violently.

He held his head with both hands, his fingernails digging into his scalp, leaving bloody marks.

"But why did you run away...?"

"Why did you run away...?"

It slowly raised its head, and its mouth, which stretched all the way to its ears, opened wide, as if it were laughing.

A gurgling sound came from his throat, like laughter or crying at the same time.

"Er Ya... Er Ya, don't run away... I didn't mean to bite you... I just wanted to touch you..."

It suddenly started crying.

She cried her heart out, tears mingling with the sticky liquid on her face as they streamed down.

"But you're so warm...so fragrant...I couldn't resist..."

"I just licked it once... I just licked it once..."

"I'm hungry...I want to eat..."

Its eyes were fixed on Chen Mo and the other two as it slowly stood up.

He was much taller than a normal person, and even with his back hunched over, he was taller than Chen Mo. If he stood up straight, he would probably touch the roof beam.

His clothes were tattered, and his exposed skin was covered with tiny scales.

It was grayish-green and shimmered with a faint light.

She was barefoot.

Those two feet no longer resembled feet; they were flat and wide, with a thin membrane connecting the toes, like webbed feet.

It stood there in the corner, looking at them, its cloudy eyes darting around before finally settling on Chen Mo.

"you......."

"You feel...cool..."

"It's not as hot as it is there..."