Chapter 579: Not Yet the Worst

The woman lying on the bed, bound by ropes, was missing one leg—she suddenly snapped open her eyes from deep sleep!

If she had opened her eyes slowly, like waking from slumber, nothing would have seemed amiss; but to snap them wide open, bulging with shock, against the current atmosphere, made it terrifying—especially when her pupils didn't move, staring fixedly at the ceiling, the edges of her sclera crisscrossed with tree-branch-like blood vessels, suffocating! Zhang Su's perception was razor-sharp; perhaps he hadn't anticipated this, and failed to catch even the flicker of Qiu Hui's eyelids—she had been peacefully asleep one moment, and wide-eyed the next, zero point zero one seconds later—he grabbed Duan Wu's arm and swiftly stepped back two paces, creating a safer distance.

The scene fell silent. The air froze.

Zhang Su gripped Duan Wu's arm and felt it trembling slightly—clearly, Duan Wu was terrified. Zhang Su himself wasn't particularly afraid, for his acute hearing clearly picked up Qiu Hui's heart pounding: thump-thump-thump, strong and steady.

Since she had a heartbeat, she wasn't a zombie—but she might be something even more bizarre, so caution was still necessary.

"Z-Zhang, Zhang brother, is this… a corpse rising, or a corpse transformation?"

Duan Wu was so nervous he stammered.

"Hey! It moved! It moved!"

Before Zhang Su could respond, Duan Wu saw Qiu Hui slowly turn her head, her eyes following—her icy gaze colder than the air outside, piercing his nerves.

If he could, he'd leave right now. Zombies were brutal, but at least they were obvious. What was this? Psychological torture?

"Z-Zhang brother…"

Suddenly, Qiu Hui spoke. Her voice was hoarse, her gaze shifting from icy to lifeless. Her facial skin twitched, lips cracked and bleeding, staining her teeth red. She spoke slowly, painfully, calmly: "Am I… going to die?"

"You seem full of energy. Do you feel anything unusual?"

The heavier the atmosphere, the more Zhang Su preferred to lighten it with casual tone.

The strategy worked: Qiu Hui's mournful expression paused, the deadness in her eyes slowly receding. Then she spoke slowly.

"I'm so exhausted. I feel no cold, no heat—only numbness all over. The world I see is black and white. My head hurts so much I can't move, like ten thousand needles stabbing me."

Numbness wasn't as common as pain or itch—it usually came from pressure on limbs, not especially unbearable—but when it reached this scale, spreading across the entire body, it became agony. "That sounds unbearable. You're incredibly brave to endure it."

Zhang Su couldn't explain the strange symptoms, so he offered comfort before cutting to the point: "Do you know your exact condition? According to Dr. Fu and the others, you alternate between normal consciousness and… uh… unconsciousness. They say you have no memory during the unconscious periods?"

"No. I do."

Qiu Hui tilted her head blankly, staring at Zhang Su, giving a different answer.

Zhang Su froze. "You hid this before?"

Qiu Hui gave a slight nod, her eyes shimmering with sorrow.

"Sis, that's not fair," Duan Wu said, relieved she seemed human now. "If you don't tell us the truth, how can we help you?"

Qiu Hui didn't speak—only shook her head.

Zhang Su sensed she had secrets she couldn't reveal yet, so he said: "Can you tell us what happens when you lose consciousness?" "I can tell you," Qiu Hui's mouth moved like a puppet's: "When the pain in my head becomes unbearable, I suddenly lose control of my body. At that time… all my senses remain normal—I feel pain, I feel cold, my organs spasm. I don't know what force controls my body, or what it intends to do."

"And how do you escape that state?"

Zhang Su asked.

If she could break free on her own, it wasn't entirely hopeless.

Qiu Hui didn't answer—only shifted her gaze to Duan Wu's face.

Duan Wu understood. He sighed. "We inject a sedative, and she calms down. We've done it three times so far—no signs of drug resistance. The dosage hasn't increased."

Zhang Su rubbed his temple. "Maybe the dose was already high enough to suppress resistance…?"

Under these crude conditions, dosage control was normal. Like taking a sleeping pill: one pill is enough to sleep, but if you always take just under the lethal dose, even as tolerance builds, you're still far from the threshold.

"Maybe… yeah."

Duan Wu awkwardly shrugged, forcing a guilty smile at Qiu Hui. He was starting to understand why she'd hidden her condition from Fu Wei.

Throughout her treatment, Qiu Hui wasn't treated as a patient—more like an experiment subject. No one respected her thoughts. No one cared for her feelings.

"Zhang brother, I heard of lethal injection executions. Does the camp have the means? Could you arrange it for me? I don't want to live anymore."

Qiu Hui begged Zhang Su for death, her voice filled with despair.

"It's not that bleak yet!" Zhang Su waved his hand, voice low. "You said you lose control only when the headache peaks. What if we gave you small doses of painkillers regularly to suppress it? Would that solve the problem?"

Qiu Hui gave a bitter smile. "No need to go through all that trouble, Zhang brother. I know you've tried your best—but I feel like a zombie now. So many sensations are gone. Living gives me no hope. Better to die, and not waste food."

Hearing her words, Zhang Su suddenly frowned—not because of her despair, but because he noticed something else.

"Qiu Hui, I ask you: besides the headache, numbness, and dull senses, what else is different now? Tell me anything unusual."

Hearing Zhang Su suddenly grow serious, Duan Wu was startled.

Qiu Hui had no such thoughts—she only felt Zhang Su was kind, still not giving up on her even now. She gritted her teeth against the pain: "Besides those symptoms, my sense of smell has sharpened—I can smell things I never could before. But my mouth has no taste at all…"

Enhanced smell, lost taste—a bizarre, conflicting combination.

"And… I feel stronger than ever, all over my body—just the headache is unbearable. I…"

As she spoke, her headache intensified. Her fists, exposed beyond the ropes, clenched tightly—the coils binding her creaked under tension.

(End of Chapter)