Chapter 121 Spider 8
The sun was setting. The hut was dark again. Xu Zhao moved her fingers, grabbed a handful of straw, and a rustling sound was heard. She sat up.
The bleeding from the two bloody holes on her shoulders, caused by the fangs, had stopped. Sticky semen remained around her skin. She pulled the clothes that had slipped off and put them on.
Qingling glanced at the quiet corner.
The young man slumped his shoulders, silent. Xu Zhao, adjusting his clothes, took a moment to examine him. He realized he was leaning slightly sideways, his back and shoulders unable to rest against the wall due to his large belly drooping from behind. He leaned sideways, half leaning against the wall, his head lowered, his hair covering his eerie, spider-like eyes.
She revealed her affectionate eyes, which belonged to a human being. She was covered in mist, biting her lip, wishing she could hide in the dirt.
"Awake?" Xu Zhao asked in a low voice, curling his fingertips and grabbing the stone casually.
The other party was silent for a while, then replied, "Yeah."
He glanced at Xu Zhao quickly, then hid his face.
Xu Zhao picked up a stone with a sharp top and put it in his pocket. He changed his posture and sat on the thatched pile.
"Are you Lin Yue?"
The boy didn't react. A cold wind rushed into the broken thatched hut, causing his hair to flutter in disorder. His eyelashes covered his eyes, making it impossible to tell his emotion. His single, shiny black spider eye, like a jewel set in his brow, hinted at a hint of sadness.
Still silent for a moment, he replied, "Yeah."
He seemed to be puzzled as to how his name came out of Xu Zhao's mouth. He cast a questioning look at her, pursed his lips, and did not ask, continuing to huddle in the corner. Except for the occasional faint groaning, he looked like a delicate corpse that had been dried for many years.
Xu Zhao gradually let down his guard, pushed aside the thatch, picked up the spider silk scattered on the ground, and in front of Lin Yue, wrapped them around his wrists and neck, and even grabbed a thick handful and tied it to the base of the horse's tail.
These are good things. They can help her escape the giant spider's predation. Xu Zhao, absorbed in picking up spider silk, didn't notice the boy's nose twitching slightly across from her.
Spider silk is released by spinnerets, which are distributed in the spider's belly, which is the belly behind Lin Yue's hips at the moment.
There is a channel at the bottom that spits out spider silk.
It has a scent that is unique to Lin Yue.
It has a light herbal bitter aroma.
As long as Xu Zhao didn't speak, Lin Yue would remain silent. Considering the two previous experiences, Lin Yue didn't ask her to leave, indicating that he was able to maintain human consciousness at this time, although it was unclear why he regained consciousness.
As Xu Zhao stuffed spider silk into his pockets, he explained, "I came to Blackwater Town to look for someone. I stopped at the only inn in town. Later, I learned that the room I stayed in was where you once lived."
Fearing that Lin Yue might be upset, she concealed the names of everyone connected to Blackwater Town, including Lin Yue's brother. She only mentioned her own reasons for coming and how she learned his name.
Lin Yue was silent.
Xu Zhao hadn't come here to chat with him. Seeing that he was in a relatively stable condition, he spoke tentatively, "...The person I'm looking for is Zhao Wenqing. He came to Blackwater Town with a tour group a month ago to rest. Since then, he's disappeared. Have you... seen him?"
I didn't expect Lin Yue to answer, but he suddenly turned his head and looked a little confused.
Xu Zhao asked, "Do you have any impression?"
Young people, full of youthful energy. Dressed brightly and elegantly, the young men in tracksuits, their eyes brimming with life, like sunflowers blooming towards the sun. They had come to Blackwater Town from distant cities, possessing profound knowledge and a good sense of humor.
Lin Yue only glanced at them from afar a few times from the windowsill. Later, the spider appeared and the crowd became chaotic, so he no longer paid attention to the group of young students.
"I saw it before the accident. Afterwards, no."
Xu Zhao: "Like this."
Maybe it was really as the mayor said, eaten by a spider. If that was the case, then she wouldn't be able to find Zhao Wenqing's body. Perhaps, even she didn't know when the spider would eat him.
I smiled nonchalantly. It was getting dark. If I didn't leave now, I'd probably run into some giant spiders. They hadn't been out for a few days. Better to be careful.
Lin Yue huddled in a corner, seemingly unwilling to pay attention to her. Xu Zhao swallowed her goodbyes and, before she even stepped out of the hut, heard him suddenly speak.
"you……"
"Huh? What's wrong with me?"
"Why are you taking my spider silk?"
Lin Yue's face turned red.
Xu Zhao rubbed his fingertips awkwardly: "This, I'm sorry, I can't take it, right?"
Although she felt a little disappointed, the spider silk was Lin Yue's after all, so she began to untangle the spider silk wrapped around her wrist. There was too much of it, and she couldn't pull it apart one by one, so she could only slowly untie it.
"No," Lin Yue struggled to move his body. The moment the spider legs made a sound, he froze. Fortunately, it was dark at the time, so he didn't have to worry about being stared at his strange half-body. He organized his words and said, "...Those spider silks are useless. They are not as strong as ropes. I don't understand why you took them."
It turns out he wasn't stopping himself.
Xu Zhao changed the direction of the spider silk and wrapped it around his wrist again in circles.
"It's very useful to me. Those spiders outside are afraid of your scent. Do you remember that night? I have your spider silk with me, and if I meet spiders again, they won't dare to attack me... If it weren't for the spider silk, I would have died long ago."
Lin Yue pursed his lips.
He recalled the townspeople's wailing at night, his eyes like a pool of cold, stagnant water, staring coldly at Xu Zhao's movements. The spider silk had been there for so long that only a faint trace of his scent remained, completely vanished by the cold wind outside.
“The smell is very light and disappears quickly.”
Xu Zhao smelled it. The spider silk had been pressed into the thatch for too long, stained with the smell of dust and hay. Lin Yue dashed her faint hope. She looked up at the darkening sky, and her mood brightened. "It's okay. It's not dark yet. I just need to get back to the hotel quickly."
After saying that, he was about to leave.
Lin Yue called her: "Wait a minute."
Xu Zhao turned back subconsciously.
Lin Yue bit his lip, his cheeks flushed. He still exuded that same languid, weak aura, his chest a horrible sight. He said, "Don't look at me." Xu Zhao awkwardly averted his gaze, staring at the ground, unsure of the reason for his sudden words.
Just as he was about to ask, Lin Yue took the initiative to speak: "They are already here. I smelled their scent and ambushed them nearby. The road is full of spider webs, and you can't avoid them on your way back."
Oh! Then she is doomed to die?
Xu Zhao looked worried.
There was a rustling sound in the corner, and footsteps tapping on the ground. Curious, Xu Zhao respected Lin Yue's privacy and didn't turn around. He leaned against the door frame to observe the surroundings outside.
If there was no way to go back, then she could only ask Lin Yue to allow her to stay here. She just didn't know if he would lose his mind again...
On the other side, Lin Yue stood up. His large belly spitted out sticky, white spider silk, and his legs nimbly wound it into a web-like web.
His heart was pounding. He was afraid Xu Zhao would turn around and see this strange scene. His cheeks were stained with a deep red. He was embarrassed. Although he hated the townspeople of Blackwater Town, Xu Zhao was innocent. Innocent people should not be implicated.
The woven spider web turned into a tangled mess of threads. He placed it in his palm and called to her, "...You, please turn back."
Xu Zhao stared at him in surprise. His fingers, like him, were slender and long, yet exuded a sense of fragility. Their white fingers were covered only by a thin layer of flesh, their phalanges protruding, and pale veins crisscrossed the back of his hands. He gently moved them a few times, stretching the glistening white spider silk, revealing a web before his eyes.
A spiderweb, composed of horizontal and vertical lines, had a grid pattern, each grid equal in size, as if meticulously calculated. A rich herbal aroma drifted into his nostrils on the wind. Lin Yue took a deep breath, his large belly slumping backward, his sturdy legs buckling against the ground. He half-leaned against the wall, his hand raised.
"This is for you. Once they smell your scent, they won't dare come near you... I'm not sure how long this will last, so get back to a safe place as soon as possible."
Xu Zhao took the web. The silk was sticky and cool, but not sticky. Where Lin Yue had touched it, there was a slight warmth. Unlike his terrifyingly cold spider lower limbs, the upper body was human, warm, frail, and eyes often filled with tears... She wrapped the web around herself like a mesh garment, enveloped in the rich, bitter aroma of herbs.
The sky darkened quickly in the evening. Xu Zhao didn't linger. Before turning to leave, he glanced at the boy who had retreated into the corner.
Bleeding wounds and a chest covered with scars.
A thin layer of skin and flesh covered the bony body, lifeless and barely breathing.
Yet, there was a hint of inexplicable emotion in his eyes. Like... a nestling, knocked down by a heavy rainstorm, falling to the ground, dripping wet. Opening its mouth, it chirped pleadingly. But, with its life slipping away, the sound was repeatedly drowned out by the torrential rain. Ultimately, no one heard it.
…
Xu Zhao didn't sleep. She hid behind a window and watched the street. There were four giant spiders, their webs sticking to the pavement. The street was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. They wandered aimlessly, their legs tapping against the pavement.
Until the woman screamed. The spiders seemed to come alive and rushed towards the source of the sound, breaking open the window.
“Help…Help!”
The woman struggled desperately.
The man curled up in the corner of the broken window, and suddenly grabbed the succulent potted plant on the windowsill and smashed it hard at the window opposite - there was a loud "bang".
The spider was attracted by the sudden sound and turned around.
The man hurriedly dragged the woman's broken body back to the room.
Xu Zhao cursed softly.
Fortunately, she dodged in time, but the glass shards still cut her arm, and the smell of fresh blood completely attracted the spider's attention.
The couple across the street had long disliked Xu Zhao. Their child had been eaten by a spider on Xu Zhao's first day, and they had come to believe that his arrival had brought bad luck. They hated Xu Zhao, and the man was vainly trying to use him to resolve their crisis.
The window opposite had been struck twice, and the wall was showing signs of collapsing.
Xu Zhao's face was grim. She poked her head out. She lived on the second floor. Four giant spiders, sensing the scent of blood, used sticky silk to crawl toward her window. She was face to face with the spiders' hideous, terrifying mouthparts: two massive fangs and eight single eyes spread out in a 360-degree angle.
Horrible, ugly.
Xu Zhao endured the nausea, her mind racing. She wasn't sure she could handle just one, let alone four. They crawled through the first-floor window, barely a meter away from her!
Xu Zhao didn't linger any longer. The man across the street pushed furniture over to block the broken window. Xu Zhao aimed at him and threw it with all her might. Fortunately, her physical fitness wasn't bad. When she was little, she had done all kinds of hard labor to make ends meet.
The thin muscles in his arms flexed. Along with the man's scream after being hit on the head, he was cursed: "...You, you outsiders are the ones who brought this disaster! Why should we bear the consequences? You are the one who deserves to die! Fuck... bitch!"
The man, reckless, threw every tool he could think of in the house into Xu Zhao's room. For some reason, none of the tools avoided the spider's body. Xu Zhao was inwardly shocked. Was he crazy? He was actually thinking about revenge at this time, instead of aiming at the spiders and throwing them. He might even kill a few!
The man's roar took one of the four spiders away. The remaining three salivated at the taste of sweet blood. The hard soles of his feet scraped against the wall, making a terrifying sound.
Xu Zhao forced herself to remain calm. Her arm was bloodied, and without a bandage, even if she escaped, the spider would still follow the scent and snatch her. She might as well give it a try. She weighed the mop thrown at her and walked to the window, narrowly avoiding being stabbed by the spider's fangs. She raised her arm and, with all her might, smashed the top of the mop into the spider's mouthparts.
The spider let out a terrifying howl.
The man opposite opened his eyes wide: "No... No! How could you hurt it! We will be punished!"
Xu Zhao was already feeling weak all over, but as soon as the man spoke, anger rose from the soles of her feet and suddenly rushed to her head.
Hit the spider hard.
"Go to hell! If you want to feed the spider so badly, feed it yourself. Don't take me with you." The spider's shell looks hard, but it is actually thin and brittle. The wooden stick easily penetrates its mouthparts. Xu Zhao's face was cold, and he pierced its head and chest with force. Then he raised his arm high and smashed it at the other spider that was about to climb up.
The two spiders collided, the spider behind it's pedipalps grasping the spider in front without any discrimination, and its fangs pierced its body.
Xu Zhao stood at the window, covered in spider slime. After her initial nausea faded, she frowned as she watched the giant spiders fall to the ground.
As long as you avoid their fangs and tentacles, and aim your weapon at any part of their body, you can kill them.
Her eyes flushed red. Feeling the blood boiling inside her body, she used the same method as before, aiming at the fragile shell exposed by the spider's open fangs.
"Bang!"
The man opposite was stunned.
Xu Zhao gripped the stick, thought again, and reached out to the spider's hideous mouthparts. She clamped the stick to the window, like a load carrying water, except it was the spider's corpse that was being carried in mid-air. She pulled out a knife from her backpack and the kitchen knife she'd found in the corner.
He swung his hand and chopped at the spider's exposed fangs.
It wasn't just the man across from them. Many more brave souls poked their heads out, witnessing Xu Zhao's actions firsthand. There was no excitement, no joy at being saved. Instead, their cloudy eyes were filled with worry and anger.
"How can this be..."
"We are about to suffer retribution again!"
"Outsiders shouldn't be allowed in!"
Xu Zhao had no idea what the townspeople were thinking. She didn't even bother sealing the window. She wrapped her hands in her clothes and stared at the stinking claws.
Think about where to start.
In this situation, you need to have a weapon that suits you to feel at ease.
Screams echoed from the street. It was the last remaining spider. She heard the sound, half leaned out the window, and shouted at the screaming people: "... Pick up your weapons and kill it!"
The man was already terrified. Trembling and crying, he became food for the spider. The spider, having taken its food, left the town, leaving behind a long trail of blood.
Xu Zhao frowned. Returning to his room, he sat cross-legged on the floor, wondering what his chances of winning were he to face the spider on the ground. The more he thought about it, the more horrified he became. It had enormous claws and tentacles, and its previous victory was simply due to its advantageous location.
The next day, at dawn, Xu Zhao tied the fangs with a bed sheet and fastened them to her waist. She dragged them along, about to ask the mayor what to do with them. Her original intention was to make a handy weapon: three spiders, six fangs, and hard tentacles.
Unexpectedly, the usually kind mayor angrily took away the spider's claws tied around her waist and ordered the spider's body to be wrapped in soft bedding - he even asked the townspeople to build coffins for them!
"I don't understand," Xu Zhao stopped the mayor. "They are not indestructible. We are fully capable of killing them. Before yesterday, I was as terrified as you, but I still killed them. As long as we unite..."
The mayor's face was filled with bitterness. "Union? Little girl, you know what a terrible price our union has brought! There were hundreds of households in this town, but now there are less than ten left... Our power is too small."
Xu Zhao didn't quite understand. With a cold face, she watched as the fangs she had worked so hard to cut off were snatched away. She tried to take them back, but the townspeople looked at her with hatred.
It's really incomprehensible!
While wandering around during the day, Xu Zhao vaguely overheard something about what had happened a month earlier. It seemed the townspeople's rebellion had triggered a more violent retaliation from the spiders, and it was that retaliatory predation that nearly destroyed the town.
Is this what led them to abandon themselves? But their behavior wasn't entirely self-destructive... There was something strange and eerie about it. It was like they were able to use some method to protect themselves. What method was that?
Xu Zhao had a vague thought. But she couldn't grasp it. As noon approached, the sun grew increasingly scorching. She thought of the forgotten spider boy. She could only let go of her doubts and ask the townspeople if she could find the town's hospital.
“If there is no hospital, a pharmacy will do.”
The townspeople were reluctant to talk to her, as if she would bring some terrible misfortune.
No one told her.
Xu Zhao stood at the street corner with a sullen face.
Fortunately, when they returned to the hotel, Lin Wang secretly ran to her side and said: "...In our town, Uncle Li was the only Chinese medicine doctor who treated people. But he died. But my brother has medicine, and his medicine is in the drawer of the house. How are you injured, sister?"
After Xu Zhao dealt with Lin Wang's questions, he walked into the room and found the Chinese medicine bag that Lin Yue had placed inside. He had prepared everything, including gauze and disinfectant.
She packed everything she needed into her backpack. She watched the sunlight gradually rise to the sky. If she waited a little longer, the corner where Lin Yue was would be illuminated by the sun.
How strange! Why didn't he just avoid it? Thinking of him gasping for breath after every three steps, I felt anxious. Although the half-man, half-spider creature looked terrifying, his human limbs were too fragile, as if they would fall apart at the slightest breeze.
Avoiding the sight of the townspeople, Xu Zhao quickened his pace and ran to the thatched hut.
Inside the thatched hut, Lin Yue curled up on the ground. He was clearly aware that he was still alive, but the pain from the wounds on his body nearly made him faint. Nature always believed in the law of the jungle, and as he battled the spider's consciousness, the terrifying pressure he exuded made the giant spider shrink back.
But now, the hideous wound on his chest, scorched by yesterday's sun, had become rotten and decayed. Lin Yue lay on his side, his pale back stained with grime, his gaze fixed on the giant spider just a few steps away.
It broke in when he was weak, vainly seeking the sweet flesh and blood of this ancient and powerful creature. But it was afraid of his power, hesitant and uncertain.
Lin Yue thought desperately. That meat-mincing torture was about to happen again. Tears slid down his eyes, soaking the muddy ground.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
