Chapter 127 Spider 14
On the way back, Xu Zhao discovered spider silk floating in the air.
These spider silks are hidden in the air, and if passers-by are not careful, they may fall into the sticky spider web.
This wasn't the work of those tiny spiders in the familiar world, those with the size and strength of a human thumb. A grown man might have a chance of breaking free from the web, but a frail woman or child who stumbled into it would simply be stuck, waiting to be devoured by a predator.
Xu Zhao had experienced two nighttime spider attacks in Blackwater Town. Adding to this the conversations he overheard from his neighbors, he had begun to discern some patterns.
When the spider web appears, it is the time for the giant spiders hiding in the deep forest to forage. The spider silk they secrete spreads throughout the town in a short time, and the spider silk keeps the town under their surveillance.
The giant spiders will be coming again soon.
Xu Zhao narrowed his eyes, carefully examining the strands of spider silk before him, carried by the wind. They drifted, eventually clinging to a building, blocking the middle of the road. Several identical strands lined up, gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight, like sharp, slender steel wires.
She drew her knife, raised her arm and chopped it off.
The spider silk fell and was stepped on by her.
Back in town, every household remained locked up. Xu Zhao was surprised to find that the windows of her room on the second floor of the hotel were boarded up.
Are the townspeople being kind-hearted? Or do they have ulterior motives?
Xu Zhao preferred the latter.
Instead of returning to the hotel, she went to the mayor's house.
There was a knock on the door.
The mayor opened the door, his face still kind and gentle. When he saw Xu Zhao, he showed a look of surprise.
"Where did you go last night?!"
Not only the mayor, but also the townspeople believed Xu Zhao had been taken by a spider. After all, she had been missing for an entire night, and things looked very bad. Unexpectedly, she returned intact. Not exactly intact, though: her clothes and pants were ripped, her arms and ankles were covered in scrapes, and she walked with a slight limp.
My whole body felt like it had rolled in a pool of blood.
I remember the day I first arrived in town. The little girl before me stood in the cold wind, so lonely and pitiful. In just a few days, as if in a dream, she shed her soft and obedient mask and stood upright, a bloody knife clutched in her palm, her pockets bulging with rocks. Her eyes also became sharper.
Xu Zhao: "Have you looked for me?"
The mayor didn't let her in, so they stood face to face at the door. He said, "Yesterday I asked Zhao Chunhong's husband, the owner of the hotel where you're staying, to come and fix the window. I didn't see you, not even during the day, so we thought you had an accident! I'm glad you're back!"
Xu Zhao smiled meaninglessly.
The mayor added, "...Don't take it personally. Xiao Wu was just anxious at the time, and he did something so awful! He's gone now, and the window has been repaired, so don't take it to heart. In the next few days, some spider might come back. Hide in your room and don't make any noise. Just hide for a day."
Xu Zhao thanked him and explained his purpose: "The pharmacy in town is closed. I was in the public restroom the day before yesterday and heard a noise. I thought it was a spider, so I found a place to hide. My body is covered in scratches. Does the mayor have any extra medicine?"
She smiled, and her eyes regained their sheep-like softness, which matched the anxiety of her current age, and was also a little sad.
"The food is almost gone. The mayor has some extra food. Can you give me some? I have money."
She took out the banknotes.
The mayor hesitated for a moment. Inside, his wife sighed and said, "The little girl is pitiful." The mayor had a strange look on his face and went back inside to talk to his wife.
Xu Zhao didn't hear clearly.
When the mayor came out again, he took her to the town's pharmacies and shops and let her buy whatever she wanted.
…
Xu Zhao returned to the hotel with a bulging backpack.
She bought mainly gauze and hemostatics. These were what Lin Yue urgently needed. Even if his wounds could heal slowly over time, the process would be painful. After packing her backpack, she lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
Nothing happened that night. In the morning, Xu Zhao walked to the first floor of the hotel with his backpack, but found that he couldn't push the door open. The door was a glass door with an iron lock on it.
Xu Zhao knocked on the door hard, making it clang loudly.
The streets were still deserted in the early morning. Everyone was anxious about the spider's imminent arrival. Only Lin Wang, the youngest son of the Lin family, quietly came to the door.
"elder sister."
Xu Zhao put away his cold expression and said, "It's you. Did your mother close the door? Call her over and open the door."
"Dad turned it off."
"Um?"
"The mayor ordered it. They're afraid you'll run away. Spiders are coming soon, and the roads are covered in spider silk. If you get stuck, no one can save you. Wait, sister. Once the spiders leave, the mayor will open the door and let you out."
Xu Zhao didn't believe the child's words. But she withdrew her hand from knocking on the door and stood at the door with her arms folded. She stared down at Lin Wang, thinking of Lin Yue lying on the ground, letting the spider bite him without struggling. What had he been through?
She could understand the townspeople's attitude towards spiders, but she did not agree with it.
When humans face powerful creatures many times their size, they instinctively surrender and compromise. Presumably, when the people of Blackwater Town resisted the spiders, they were met with even more intense retaliation—just as Lin Wang had said, a larger, more terrifying spider appeared.
The spider killed the townspeople and captured Lin Yue. Then, for some unknown reason, the spider and Lin Wang merged into a strange spider boy.
This powerful spider was unable to snatch Lin Yue away, and the consciousness of the human Lin Yue took over the body of the spider boy.
He is still kind and gentle.
Hiding in a dilapidated thatched hut, far away from the town where I grew up.
Let life rot.
but--
There's something that doesn't make sense.
Xu Zhao narrowed his eyes and stared outside the glass door, at the tightly closed door and the quiet and deserted street.
She leaned over. "Do you think spiders are scary?"
Lin Wang looked around. He had escaped secretly, afraid that Zhao Chunhong would find him and drag him back. He shrank back toward the door.
"Ah? It looks scary..."
"Besides that?"
"My brother can kill them! So can I!"
Xu Zhao followed up on his words and praised him: "You're great, just as good as your brother. I'm a little scared staying in a hotel by myself, afraid that it might suddenly break in."
Lin Wang: "I'm afraid too. But as long as you stay quiet when they appear, they won't notice. Don't worry, sister!"
"But the day before yesterday, Xiao Wu across the street was arrested."
"Sister, don't blame yourself. Uncle Wu is such a bad guy. He made a noise in his own house, but he broke your window. He deserves it!" Lin Wang clenched his fists and comforted her, "...In the beginning, when the spiders came here, we didn't understand. Many children and adults cried, and the spiders caught them all. But after that, we hid in the house, and few people disappeared. Don't worry, sister!"
When Lin Wang heard Zhao Chunhong's voice, he quickly covered his mouth and ran away.
Xu Zhao straightened up, carrying his backpack and returning to his room. He sat on the bed, one leg curled up and kicking the surface. The wooden board blocking the hole looked strange, like a sealed coffin, suffocating.
She finally figured out the reason for her strange feelings lately.
The spiders that appeared at night and wandered the roads didn't look hungry. Instead, they seemed well-fed and scoured their territory. They didn't devour their prey immediately, but dragged it back into the forest.
She had seen the look of a hungry spider. Just the day before yesterday, that spider had embraced Lin Yue, its fangs piercing his flesh with impatience and frenzy. It couldn't even wait to return to the forest, eager to feast in the thatched hut.
……what is going on.
Xu Zhao didn't want to think the worst of people, but everything he experienced in Heishui Town pointed to a cruel truth.
The townspeople's malice. In their eyes, outsiders are the plague gods that bring bad luck and are the existences they curse.
Xu Zhao had a deep understanding of these.
The tour group is full of young and strong people.
How is it possible that when the accident happened, the entire army was wiped out, but most of the townspeople survived? Where did they go?
Or rather - how did they die?
By a spider? Or...
Xu Zhao's face suddenly turned pale.
——"How could you hurt it! We will be punished!"
"Dead god, please do not blame us. It was an ignorant outsider who invaded you. If you do, please punish her! We are your most loyal subjects. This coffin was made by the most skilled carpenter in Blackwater Town. It will hold your body. May you rest in peace."
——"You killed it! Just wait! Wait for retribution!"
These words.
When Xu Zhao killed the spider that night, she heard with her own ears the townspeople's accusations against her. Also, at dawn, when the mayor took away the spider's body, someone knelt on the ground and muttered nonsense.
At first, they hated spiders for taking their lives and taking away their families.
Later, there was a huge disparity in power.
They fear the terror of spiders and are willing to bow down to them. In their eyes, spiders are like great gods.
So what is their attitude towards Lin Yue, who killed the most spiders?
See him as a hero... or a sinner who violated the gods?
Xu Zhao's face grew colder and colder. She thrust the fruit knife into the bed, causing the fragile wood to creak.
This piercing sound, inexplicably, made Lin Yue's faint moans echo in Xu Zhao's ears. His face, devoid of all life, looked like a fledgling, its nest knocked out by a rainstorm, left drenched on the ground. Even more cruel, this rainstorm wasn't caused by the heavens, but by human intervention.
It is very likely that he was delivered to the spider's mouth by the townspeople themselves.
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