Chapter 116 Spider 3
The young man had a pair of beautiful, affectionate eyes with curved eyelashes. He pressed his eyes close to Xu Zhao's face, allowing her to clearly see the tearing struggle and deathly silence in his eyes.
"There's a spider outside the door. It's more suitable for filling your stomach than me," Xu Zhao heard the sound of herself swallowing saliva. The moment she finished speaking, she was entangled in a spider web. The boy mobilized his spider legs and pushed the door open.
There was no wooden house to block the moonlight. The boy standing under the light had a thin white back that formed a sharp contrast with the hideous and terrifying spider half, and his oval belly hung behind him.
Xu Zhao's hands and feet were entangled in spider webs, and her hair was covered with white spider silk, which smelled like a strong bitter herbal fragrance. She didn't think much about it and tore it apart with all her strength.
Spiders that catch their prey by spinning webs spit out sticky spider silk. The moment the prey lands on the web, it's like it's stuck with super glue, and no matter how hard it struggles, it can't escape the bondage.
She was so panicked that her mind was in a mess. She kept reminding herself to stay calm. Beads of sweat oozed out of her palms. Fortunately, the spider silk wrapped around her body was not sticky and was like a dry thin thread. She quickly broke free.
In the corner of his eye, the ferocious giant spider was pounced on by the boy, and its fangs easily bit through the spider's hard shell. The spider's struggling legs scratched the boy's thin and fragile human chest before dying. The bright red blood flowed all over the ground, like plum petals falling on a winter night. Drop by drop, the blood mixed with the bitter smell drifted towards the wooden house with the cold wind.
Just before Xu Zhao climbed out of the broken hole in the wooden house, he caught a glimpse of the spider's stiff, dying body and the boy's back standing in the moonlight. His back revealed boundless emptiness and loneliness, like a small ship lost in the vast ocean.
She walked back to the hotel as fast as she could. She heard the sound of glass breaking, but she didn't dare to slow down at all. She didn't throw away the spider silk she had pulled off. She wrapped it around her neck with a gamble in mind. When she met another giant spider on a narrow road - she made the right bet.
The spider silk with the scent of youth makes the spider afraid to move forward.
…
The strange and bloody night was broken by the morning light.
Xu Zhao hugged her knees and leaned against the wall, taking a nap. A sharp cry pulled her out of her dark dream. The moment she opened her eyes, she was in a trance and thought that what happened last night was just a dream.
There were groups of people on the streets in the early morning.
The woman cried shrilly, "...My child has been kidnapped! Who will save him? He's still a child... What's the point of me marrying you? My child has been kidnapped, and you just hide in the house. Do you have any heart?"
The man said dejectedly: "I want to save her, but how can I?"
Seeing the figure emerging from the hotel window, the man stood up straight and pointed at Xu Zhao: "It's all her fault. She said long ago that they should be..."
With his mouth covered, the man cursed unwillingly: "My son didn't deserve to die. She was the one who died last night!"
Xu Zhao quietly watched the farce below. There were large purple scratches on his waist and abdomen where the tentacles had scratched him last night. He tapped the windowsill lightly with his fingertips twice.
Is she the one who deserves to die?
She lowered her eyes in thought.
She came here yesterday evening. The streets were quiet and no one was around. The mayor told her it was because of a major festival, which was obviously a lie. So it can be inferred that the people in the town knew about the existence of the giant spider and stayed indoors from dusk to early morning, which means that the spiders are active at night.
They feed at night.
Xu Zhao narrowed his eyes and stared at the building opposite.
The doors and windows of every household in the residential buildings on both sides of the street were fixed with thick wooden boards. Xu Zhao had seen the lethality of giant spiders, and she did not think that the wooden boards could block the attacks of spiders. They were likely to rely on hearing to catch prey.
The person who broke the window has children at home. The adults may be able to remain quiet out of fear, but the mentally immature children are an uncertain factor.
The mother who lost her child knelt on the ground and cried bitterly, and the father lowered his head and blamed himself. However, when they looked at Xu Zhao, they were filled with hatred. That look seemed to say that you should be the one to die, not our innocent child.
The mayor rushed over and ordered several people to clean up the bloodstains along the street.
Then the mayor came to the hotel and stood at the end of the corridor: "It's not convenient for me to enter your room."
Xu Zhao locked the door and followed the mayor to the first floor.
The mayor sighed softly, "...they're angry at you because their child died. Don't take it to heart."
The mayor looked at the girl in front of him with his old, cloudy eyes, with an unidentifiable emotion.
She stood alone at the street corner, backpack on her back, bewildered and lost like a lost lamb. Seeing this energetic girl of her age, he couldn't help but think of his own daughter. Out of guilt, he and his wife invited her home for a cup of hot tea, believing she would be devoured by the monsters at night, in exchange for a brief moment of peace in the town.
Unexpectedly, she survived, and it was the young and lively child in the town who died.
Xu Zhao laughed softly.
The mayor's words expressed regret and remorse, and despite his kind and gentle eyes, could not conceal his disappointment.
Just don't expose it.
I originally thought it was just a search for missing persons. If things went well, she'd return safely and I wouldn't get the remaining funds from the reward. If things went badly, she'd also be missing.
I never expected that I would get a glimpse of the strange face of the world.
The crying couple outside the hotel stared at her with vicious eyes, as if they wanted to bite off a piece of flesh from her.
He muttered viciously, "These outsiders deserve to die! They brought in these monsters, why should they torture us? All these outsiders should be killed!"
The mayor stood up and shouted outside: "...Shut up! Stop talking nonsense!"
Xu Zhao rested his arms on the table at the front desk. The polite smile that was always on his face faded, and the corners of his eyes drooped slightly. When he looked at people expressionlessly, there was a strange indifference in his expression.
"Mayor, I just came here to look for my brother. I didn't expect to encounter something like this. What are these outsiders and monsters they're talking about?"
The mayor's straight back suddenly bent, and he sat down dejectedly on the bench: "...When did your brother come here?"
"A month ago."
He said sadly, "He died a long time ago."
Xu Zhao stared at him.
The mayor's eyes were red. "Blackwater Town isn't a picturesque place. Its inhabitants have lived here for generations, in peace and tranquility. But a month ago, a tour group somehow found their way here... At that time, we never imagined they would bring disaster. They lived in the woods, where there were many poisonous insects. I advised them not to stay for long, but they wouldn't listen. They were up to something mysterious, and I don't know what. Until that night, as they screamed and fled, several giant spiders unleashed a killing spree on the town... From that day on, no one has been able to leave the town. You should have noticed those spider silks when you came here. They're wrapped around every corner at the town entrance. Anyone who touches them will notice..."
"There's no way they can escape... If your brother was part of a tour group, you'd save yourself the trouble of looking for him; he'd have been eaten by the spiders long ago."
The mayor's brewing sadness stagnated under Xu Zhao's indifferent gaze.
How come she didn't feel any emotion at all when she knew her brother had passed away?
Xu Zhao withdrew his fingers from tapping the table and crossed his arms in front of him.
She thought of the mayor and his wife who had warmly entertained her yesterday, and the angry and resentful eyes of the townspeople she saw in the morning - they were just strangers to her, but the shocking hatred made her fall into self-loathing that she could not extricate herself from.
They knew spiders existed.
They resent all outsiders because of the tour groups.
They wanted her dead.
Xu Zhao knew that she had never been expected to be someone.
There's nothing to be sad about.
She lowered her eyelashes and adjusted her mood: "...Can't escape?"
The mayor answered yes.
"The town is built in the mountains, and the signal is not very good. When the accident happened, we tried to contact people outside for help, but the phone was not working. We tried many methods... but ultimately failed... This is a punishment from heaven..."
The mayor warned: "...stay in the hotel and don't go out. The roads are covered with spider silk, and they rely on spider silk to catch prey. Avoiding the spider silk will reduce their presence. Every day you live is a day."
Xu Zhao swallowed his question about the Spider Boy.
Watch the mayor leave.
Xu Zhao returned to the hotel with an expressionless face. The room was filled with the lingering smell of herbs. She held her chin and stared at the messy street outside the window.
The man poured water to wash away the blood on the ground.
These unpleasant smells gradually covered up the medicinal fragrance in the house.
Xu Zhao closed the window.
She wasn't one for self-pity; if she were, she would have long since been trapped in a life of misery. The mayor's mention of Zhao Wenqing's whereabouts remained to be investigated. Xu Zhao believed the information about the spider; it was almost identical to her speculation.
A giant spider that expanded several times its size could be interpreted as a species mutation, or the discovery of a new species, but the spider boy's form completely defied common sense—how could such a thing exist? With a human upper body and a spider lower body, it was a creature straight out of a science fiction movie!
Xu Zhao temporarily put his plan to find Zhao Wenqing on hold.
After all, she couldn't even protect her own life here, with the seemingly kind mayor, the malicious townspeople, the terrifying giant spider... and that strange spider boy.
…
No spiders appeared for two consecutive nights. Xu Zhao suspected that it was because he touched the spider silk when he entered the town that night.
The people in the town avoided her as if she were some kind of evil spirit.
Xu Zhao gradually got used to it. She tried to stay in the hotel as much as possible and didn't move around. She could often hear Zhao Chunhong scolding her husband from next door. The two buildings were adjacent and the walls were not soundproof. Xu Zhao didn't have the habit of eavesdropping on others' privacy, but Zhao Chunhong was too loud.
Zhao Chunhong: "I was blind at first, and I was so desperate to marry you because of your face. I didn't mind you being a widower with a son! But who knew you had another woman in your heart? If that was the case, why did you marry me? If you still have her in your heart, why don't you die with her!"
The man explained hesitantly.
Zhao Chunhong suddenly raised her voice: "How dare you say that about Lin Yue! He was sensible when he was little, but did I treat him unfairly? Because he's your child, I love him and his family, and I treat him with all my heart... But what about him? For all these years, he's never called me mother, and his eyes are gloomy, as if he's looking at an enemy! He can't help with any housework, so I have to do it all by myself!"
The man's voice rose as he thought of his son. "...Lin Yue's health isn't good. I told you before, and you don't mind. I don't want to burden you. The child is sensitive. I have eyes and can see how you treat him. The child knows it well... He's afraid of annoying you, so he offered to live in the building next door. Do you honestly say you're treating him well? Look at that room! Even a dog wouldn't live there!"
Xu Zhao: "..."
She tilted her head and wanted to cover her ears, but she was really curious and stared out the window with her chin in her hand, but her ears were slowly pressing against the wall.
Zhao Chunhong wailed.
Cry about your bad luck. Cry about your useless husband. Cry about not being able to be someone's stepmother.
Then, he started to curse: "... Bai Zhang has a pretty face. Someone in my family has taken a fancy to him and wants him to be a son-in-law. I don't agree. If he is willing to marry, not only will there be money for medical treatment, Wang'er will have left Blackwater Town and lived in a big city long ago. There is no way he would be trapped here!"
"Even if that hadn't happened, he should have died a long time ago... We're not a wealthy family. How much money did he waste with his sick body? If it weren't for him, our family wouldn't have been so poor all these years! He's just a jinx and a burden! Only you treat him like a treasure, but in my opinion, he's just stinking garbage. He deserves it!"
The man shouted in despair, "Xiao Yue is dead, he's dead! There's nothing left of his body. I just want to make him a coffin... He's my son. I was unable to protect him and harmed him... If it weren't for him, you would have died long ago. You're so cruel. You'll curse him even after Xiao Yue dies... Blame it on my son being too kind!"
The two condemned each other.
The insults became more and more harsh.
At the same time, there was a knock on Xu Zhao's door.
Lin Wang looked at her with tearful eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks, leaving two obvious tear marks. In a trance, Xu Zhao seemed to see the lonely back of the young man under the moonlight, and the pool of hot tears on his collarbone.
The little boy pushed Xu Zhao away, threw himself on the bed, hugged the pillow and sobbed.
Xu Zhao's speculation came true again.
This room was indeed the room where Lin Yue once lived.
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