Chapter 7

The black shadow at the alley entrance moved forward a step,

the hem of the military coat sweeping across the snow, revealing ankles stained with minced meat.

The charred human head in its hand dropped to the ground,

rolling to Lin Chen's feet, the eye sockets empty.

The chin still had half a piece of roasted skin hanging—

it was exactly a part of the child corpse gnawed on by the barbecue shop owner.

Meat fragrance mixed with corpse stench, condensing into a nauseating fog in the cold air.

Lin Chen pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the black shadow's chest,

the military coat torn open, revealing the squirming meat mass underneath, as if something alive had been stuffed inside.

The black shadow didn't scream, just lowered its head to look at the wound,

a purring sound coming from its throat, and it lunged over abruptly.

Its speed was twice as fast as Su Qing after mutation.

Lin Chen rolled to the side, dodging the claws it swung,

his fingertips grazing the other's arm, the touch like touching frozen raw meat.

Sticky with ice shards.

When he climbed up, the hunting rifle had fallen three meters away,

facing the direction of the single-story house, where the fire had already burned through the roof.

Su Qing's screams had turned into hoarse roars, as if something was about to drill out from the fire.

"Damn it!" Lin Chen cursed,

bending down to pick up the steel pipe from the floor.

The black shadow had already lunged before his eyes, opening its mouth,

revealing two rows of yellow teeth stained with meat threads.

The hot air sprayed from its mouth carried a strong smell of blood, fresh, mixed with undigested bone fragments—

he didn't need to think to know that Captain Wang and those cannibals had already become its belly meal.

The steel pipe smashed onto the back of the black shadow's head, making a dull thud,

like hitting a sack full of meat paste.

It staggered, turned, and swung its fist,

Lin Chen used the steel pipe to block, his wrist going numb from the vibration.

The steel pipe flew out of his hand, hitting the wall and bouncing back, landing right at the end of the alley.

"Run!" Lin Chen had only this one word in his mind,

turning and rushing toward the end of the alley.

The sound of the black shadow's footsteps chased behind,

the rustling sound of the military coat rubbing against the snow getting closer.

And the crisp sound of teeth biting bones, as if chewing on meat just torn from its own body.

When he reached the end of the alley, Lin Chen caught sight of the steel pipe on the floor,

bending down to pick it up, his fingers just touching the cold metal.

His neck was suddenly grabbed by something, the force like iron pliers.

He was forced to look up, seeing the black shadow's face—

it was a face covered in meat masses, a large lump bulging at the left eye position.

An eyeball was vaguely turning inside, the right corner of the mouth split to the ear, revealing gums stained with minced meat.

"Hee... meat..." a blurred word squeezed from the black shadow's throat,

the other hand grabbing toward Lin Chen's shoulder.

The fingernails were embedded with dark red meat threads, from the blood on the fabric of Captain Wang's military uniform.

Lin Chen lowered his head abruptly, slamming the back of his head into its chin,

hearing the crisp sound of teeth colliding.

The black shadow felt pain, the hand grabbing his neck loosening,

Lin Chen took the opportunity to break free, lunging toward the steel pipe at the end of the alley.

His fingertips just touched it when he heard a loud noise from the direction of the single-story house—

the burning roof collapsed, and a black shadow darted out from the fire, lunging straight this way; it was Su Qing!

Half of her body was burned charred black,

the scales melted and then solidified, like wearing a layer of burned pig skin.

The other half had grown new meat, tender pink, stained with unburned fabric pieces, exactly the kind of mutated tissue Lin Chen had seen before.

Her eyes stared fixedly at the black shadow at the alley entrance, a threatening low roar coming from her throat, as if protecting food.

The black shadow at the alley entrance was indeed attracted, turning to face Su Qing,

and the two collided, biting and tearing at each other.

Su Qing used her scaled claws to tear open the other's military coat, revealing the squirming meat mass underneath.

Half an arm with a military tag rolled out from inside—Captain Wang's!

The name on the military tag was blurred by blood, only the character "Zhang" visible.

Lin Chen grabbed the steel pipe, taking advantage of their entanglement,

rushed out of the alley entrance, and dove into the off-road vehicle parked by the side of the road.

When he started the car, a shocking scene was reflected in the rearview mirror:

Su Qing had bitten off the black shadow's neck and was lowering her head to gnaw on the meat mass in its chest cavity.

Those squirming living things were chewed with a crunching sound, green blood mixed with dark red minced meat splashing on the snow, like an overturned slaughterhouse waste bucket.

The car hadn't driven far when Lin Chen's phone vibrated;

it was a multimedia message sent by Xia Nuan, with only one photo:

In the snow at the warehouse entrance, there were more bloody footprints, very small, like a child's.

Beside it lay half a piece of bitten sweet potato dried slice, the tooth marks on it very small, the edges stained with a bit of green mucus.

Li Wei was gone.

Lin Chen slammed the steering wheel, the car sliding on the snow,

almost hitting a street lamp by the road.

He gritted his teeth and stepped on the gas to the floor, the engine roaring as he rushed toward the warehouse.

The snow on the road was crushed into two deep ruts by the car wheels, revealing not soil, but frozen dark red, like ice soaked in blood.

When he was one kilometer from the warehouse, Lin Chen smelled that familiar roasted meat fragrance,

thicker than the square side, mixed with a charred smell, drifting from the warehouse direction.

His heart sank; he slammed the brakes, pushed the car door open, and ran toward the warehouse, the steel pipe in his hand feeling hot.

The warehouse door was wide open, the fire inside had already gone out,

and the bloodstains on the floor extended from the entrance all the way to the cellar.

Lin Chen rushed down; the cellar was empty, only Xia Nuan's thermos lying on the floor.

The water inside had frozen into ice, and half a piece of sweet potato dried slice was frozen in the ice, with a small tooth mark on it, exactly the same as the one in the photo.

The sack in the corner had been torn open, the sweet potato dried slices scattered all over the floor,

mixed with a few strands of blood-stained hair—it was Xia Nuan's.

What made Lin Chen's scalp tingle the most was a few bones in the ashes by the fire that hadn't burned through, very small, like finger bones.

They were still stained with a bit of meat threads, scorched by the fire—exactly the "true meat smell" he wanted, fresh to the point of nausea.

His phone vibrated again, this time a multimedia message from an unknown number:

A photo of the warehouse backyard, Li Wei tied to a tree, cloth stuffed in his mouth.

A piece of meat had been gouged out of the wound on his leg, revealing white bone, and a man in a white coat stood beside him.

Holding a scalpel in his hand, he was sprinkling something onto Li Wei's wound, white powder falling onto the meat, sending up white smoke.

In the background of the photo, there was a makeshift shed,

with several strings of meat hanging under the shed, frozen hard.

One of the strings was wearing a familiar blue fabric—it was the sleeve cuff of Xia Nuan's military coat.

Lin Chen grabbed the hunting rifle from the floor, the sound of bullets loading into the magazine sounding exceptionally loud in the empty cellar.

He looked up toward the warehouse backyard; in the snow there, faint cooking smoke was rising, mixed with meat fragrance, drifting very far.