Chapter 144: 321

Sinopec Service Area.

Liang Shaoguang habitually went shirtless, squatting on the front of the blocked truck, glancing at the smoke off and on.

The dark red fireworks flickered, casting his face in alternating light and shadow.

The sky grew dark much faster than usual; since the Apocalypse broke out, it's no longer possible to tell time by the sky.

Liang Shaoguang looked worriedly at the distant fields, while on the other side lay a small town with whitewashed walls.

"Hiss."

His finger burned, and he instinctively sucked in a breath.

The wrinkled cigarette had burned down to the butt, and the distracted Lao Liang only then realized the ember had singed his finger.

"You don't even know to go farther away to smoke!"

Behind him, Aunt Zhou's complaints suddenly came; she wrung a damp undershirt in her hands and gave Liang Shaoguang an irritated glare.

"There's an oil tank behind you—if it blows up, what do we do?"

"I've noticed you've been absent-minded these past two days, yet you've got everyone blocking the road and hauling sandbags—what exactly are you trying to do?"

Liang Shaoguang let out a light sigh and stomped out the cigarette butt.

Standing on the truck's front, he was about to speak to Aunt Zhou.

Suddenly his face changed, and his nose twitched rapidly.

Then he abruptly turned his body, his eyes locked firmly on the fields swaying in the wind.

His sturdy sinewy muscles instantly tensed.

After the Apocalypse, weeds grew with astonishing speed; these tenacious weeds sometimes reached half a person's height.

Nothing could be seen, and there was nothing unusual.

"What are you making a fuss about?"

Although Aunt Zhou said that, she suddenly leapt onto the truck roof and stood beside him.

The scene was eerie—though she looked like an ordinary farm woman, her movements were as agile as an acrobat's.

Zhou Fengling held her breath carefully; she knew Lao Liang wasn't the type to panic.

Although nothing seemed amiss at a glance, she was well aware of Liang Shaoguang's abilities.

Not being able to see doesn't mean you can't smell.

"Paint smell! A strong paint smell!"

Liang Shaoguang frantically twitched his nose, feeling somewhat flustered.

"Nearby—it must be nearby!"

Sniffing left and right, the increasingly rich wood smell made him extremely agitated, his eyes full of dread.

"Just tell me where it is!"

Zhou Fengxiang lowered her voice, looking at him just as anxiously; unlike Lao Liang, she didn't have a special sense—she was merely an ordinary physically strengthened Awakened One.

"I don't know!"

Liang Shaoguang was extremely vexed; he could only sense that the monster's smell came and went, yet he could neither see nor hear it.

"Stay here and don't move!"

"I'll circle the wall!"

"If it really comes again, you know what to do!"

Having said that, Lao Liang leapt down from the truck roof and began sniffing along the edge of the wall that had just been sealed with sandbags.

At the sandbag haul, Li Xiang took the sandbag handed over by the glasses man with a face full of resentment, his shirt soiled with dirt to the point of being unrecognizable.

"These country bumpkins are just damn idiots!"

"What's the point of hauling these sandbags? He actually expects them to stop zombies?!"

The glasses man wiped sweat from his forehead and gave him a weak, exhausted glance.

"Alright, my big boss, lay off the complaining a bit. If he hears you, he'll beat you up, and I won't be able to save you."

"At least they're Awakened Ones; we're following them to stay alive."

"I don't give a damn about him—this useless piece of trash, if it weren't..."

Li Xiang suddenly clamped his mouth shut, lowered his head, and obediently stacked the sandbag.

Not far away, Liang Shaoguang bent over and ran like a madman, his nose constantly twitching as if searching for something.

Like a gust of wind.

Li Xiang watched Liang Shaoguang run to the other end, then let out a cold chuckle without turning back and said:

"Hey, you see that? Just now that guy was sniffing around for poop like a dog."

"And he's lying on the ground sniffing—hilarious."

No one responded.

Li Xiang turned his head in confusion, only to see that the glasses man had already jumped out of the dirt mound.

Through the gap, he could barely make out the man standing stiffly with his back to him on the grass.

He frowned, opened his mouth, and called out to the glasses man:

"Why aren't you speaking? That guy already ran off."

"I also don't know what you're afraid of..."

"1"

A voice like a doll's suddenly rang out.

Li Xiang looked around in astonishment for the source of the sound, but through the gap he saw the glasses man trembling all over, pointing at his feet.

"There... there's something that suddenly appeared in front of me..."

2

The doll's voice continued without emotion, the bespectacled man's body trembled, and he couldn't help wanting to leave the spot.

He used both hands and feet, suddenly turned his body, and quickly tried to climb onto the sandbag.

Face full of terror, the bespectacled man desperately begged Li Xiang to pull him up.

"Quick! Quick, pull me up!"

3

"What? What thing! What are you talking about!!"

Li Xiang looked doubtfully at the bespectacled man; from his angle, he saw nothing strange.

On the lush grassland, there was only green.

He instinctively moved close to the sandbag, then stepped on it and grabbed the bespectacled man's hand, pulling hard inward.

"Wooden person."

As the doll's voice sounded, the man who had already poked his head out and half his body crawled back onto the sandbag suddenly shuddered all over.

Before Li Xiang could voice his doubt.

"Creak."

Only saw the bespectacled man's neck begin to stiffly and slowly turn, like a puppet, slowly turning his skull toward the back,

The flesh on his neck wrinkled and then split as it twisted, until with a crisp sound of the spine, his head drooped limply.

"Ahhhhh!"

Screaming in fear.

Li Xiang had never seen anyone able to twist their own head backward; he panickedly released the bespectacled man's right hand and couldn't help shouting loudly.

"Plop."

After letting go, the still-warm corpse fell to the ground, revealing the obstructed view.

In the dense grass thicket, a motionless, cheap toy doll, like one carelessly thrown away, its white-painted eyes somewhat comical.

Their eyes met.

"3"

The voice sounded; this time it was speaking to him.