Chapter 133 Spider 20
The river's surface was covered in spider silk, shimmering in the sunlight. The silk was a pale golden color, swirling around Xu Zhao. When it broke through, it rippled with the water, like a flowing, golden painting.
These spider threads carry the scent of the forest. A faint, bitter aroma, steeped in traditional Chinese medicine over the years. With this scent, spiders lurking in the shadows, waiting for their chance to hunt, must consider whether they can even take prey from the stream.
Lin Yue hadn't walked far, just near the stream, gazing at Xu Zhao's back from afar. He was dazzled by the hint of white amidst the rich, pale gold. His chest suddenly began to beat rapidly and abnormally, as if he had kicked a lively rabbit.
Lin Yue took a breath, the gentle shyness in his eyes giving way to a gloomy mood. The wind blew his hair up, revealing two single spider eyes above his eyebrows, dark and emotionless. His large belly slowly dropped to the ground, his four pairs of legs lowered, their muscles tensed. He suddenly leaped up, his powerful, hard legs aimed at the spider half-hanging on a tree branch in the distance, firmly grasped it, and toppled it to the ground.
His chest was stained with dust, mud, and scratched. Lin Yue didn't cry out in pain. He sniffed the slightly foul-smelling spider. The human part of him felt nauseous, but even more so, the allure of the food and the searing hunger lingered.
As his tentacles pierced his skin, his fangs bit through the spider's head, and the venom seeped into the spider's insides, and the struggling fangs gradually lost the ability to resist.
Compared with the hard hind abdomen and spider legs, the upper body of humans is obviously a weak point in a fight. The fragile skin, blood vessels and internal organs are vulnerable and can be punctured and injured easily.
The liquid flowed down his throat, filling his stomach. Lin Yue still felt unsatisfied. He could smell the scent of a spider from further away; it was fleeing. As he sucked the last of the liquid into his stomach, Lin Yue's eyes were stained with hunger—how could it be so hungry? He couldn't catch up. Xu Zhao was still by the stream. He had to return to her.
As he turned and walked towards the stream, he casually picked a leaf from a low branch and wiped the liquid from his mouth and the mucus from his chest. As soon as the leaf left his palm, Lin Yue bumped into Xu Zhao's slightly shocked and timid eyes.
She was wearing clean clothes, her hair dripping wet and draped over her shoulders. He hadn't seen her since when, but he looked at her with a panic he had never seen before. As he approached her, he inadvertently took two steps back. Behind her was the stream, and her feet splashed on the water.
The hunt was a quick, bloody affair. From the moment the fangs touched the food, all human reserve was forgotten. All he knew was hunger, hunger, hunger, and his face inevitably turned hideous as he gnawed.
Lin Yue felt an unprecedented sense of fear and unease in Xu Zhao's terrified eyes. He stopped stiffly, lowered his eyes, and mustered up the courage to walk up to her again.
"I feel a little hungry, and the smell of spiders has aroused my appetite. I know the process of eating, it's ugly. If you feel disgusted, I will never do it again."
Her hair, wet from sweat or blood, stuck to her skin. The two spider eyes on her forehead and the tearful eyes of a human stared at her nervously.
"Don't be afraid of me, okay?"
Xu Zhao felt his limbs stiffen. Witnessing the entire process of Lin Yue's predation, his fangs bared, all traces of humanity vanished from his face. He looked like a complete monster, driven by an instinctive, even cruel, craving for food.
It was no different from a spider's feeding. Not only did it suck out the entrails, which had been reduced to liquid by the venom, but it also took in the spider's limbs, cruelly crushing the spider's body with its two sharp teeth, which usually looked a bit lively when smiling.
How could one not be afraid and terrified when witnessing such a scene?
Xu Zhao clenched his fists, digging his fingernails into his palms to suppress the trembling fear that inevitably set in when Lin Yue approached. There was mucus around his mouth that hadn't been wiped clean, and a new wound on his still-unhealed chest stained his fair skin.
"Yes... I'm a little scared," Xu Zhao said sincerely, unwilling to lie to Lin Yue. "I haven't seen you hunt before. To be honest, it's a little hard to believe."
Lin Yue pursed his lips, remaining silent. A gloomy look, along with the excitement of gnawing on prey, still lingered in his eyes. He stared expressionlessly at Xu Zhao. This grotesque body, a fusion of the monster and the body itself, finally revealed a sliver of its evil, terror, and cruelty to Xu Zhao.
Xu Zhao lowered his gaze to the pile of dirty clothes scattered on the ground. While the scene was horrific and cruel, it at least proved that Lin Yue had the ability to hunt. As his companion, he should be proud of him.
"It's really hard to forget what just happened, but..."
Xu Zhao blinked, stretched out a hand to Lin Yue, and glanced at him. He stood there in a daze, as if he was stunned by her words of fear, his face full of sadness.
Seeing the boy's aggrieved expression, Xu Zhao suddenly became at a loss, and his fear was thrown out of his mind.
She took Lin Yue's wrist, the same cool temperature as the stream water. She led him to the edge, and each of her eight legs stepped into the water one by one, dispersing the floating spider webs. Xu Zhao rolled up his trouser legs and submerged his calves in the water. He bent down, scooped up some water, and sprinkled it on Lin Yue's chest.
The water washed away the blood and spider slime.
Xu Zhao: "Fear comes from many factors. There's the worry of being stung by a spider when you catch it, the panic of seeing a strange expression on your face when you eat, and the worry that you'll lose your mind and turn around and eat me too..."
Lin Yue, who was as stiff as a log, finally moved. He raised his hand and gently grasped her wrist, which was holding the water. His tone was as solemn as an oath: "I won't hurt you."
Xu Zhao smiled: "Yeah, I know. But, there are always a lot of worries..."
Lin Yue held her wrist tightly, glancing at her belly, which was now flooded by the current. He held her wrist tightly as he walked deeper into the stream, until the strange spider's lower limbs were completely buried beneath the stream. The young man before Xu Zhao looked like a normal human, unpersecuted. He had soft hair, a delicate and beautiful face, thin but broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and—below—two long, straight, human legs.
"Do you still have worries about me like this?"
Xu Zhao moved her lips, but didn't utter a single word of affirmation. She wasn't afraid anymore, nor was she worried. Because the person before her was someone she knew well, not some unknown monster who might lose its mind at any moment.
Lin Yue hid the monster's limbs, his eyes filled with broken points of light. The hand that was pinching Xu Zhao's wrist slowly transformed into a lifting hand, and he bent down and rested his cheek on Xu Zhao's palm again, like a winter bird longing for warmth, and tentatively stepped into the room with the fireplace burning.
"I'm sorry for meeting you in the body of a monster." Lin Yue's tears fell into Xu Zhao's palm.
…
After returning to the stream, Xu Zhao clearly sensed Lin Yue's deliberate attempts to conceal his strange form. His hair fell down, covering his spidery eyes. When he spoke to Xu Zhao, he would crouch down beside the bed, using the bedboard to shield half of his body. He would look at her like a normal teenager, his hands cupped around his cheeks, his eyes still soft and trusting.
Xu Zhao knew this wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't say anything against her will. She was afraid of Lin Yue's spidery body; that was an indisputable fact. She could only hope that time would pass, that after enough time together, she would get used to his appearance.
While living in the thatched cottage, the town was attacked by spiders at night again. This time, the screams and cries made it hard not to think of the end of the world. Xu Zhao sat at the door, looking out at the dark town in the distance, and smiled mockingly.
As long as you keep quiet at night, you won't be caught by the spider. So why can't you keep quiet this time and make a lot of noise instead?
There are no outsiders left to sacrifice to the spider.
Hungry spiders entered the town. Instead of the leisurely and carefree mood after a full meal, hunger made them more urgent and cruel. They rushed into houses and ate their prey.
These were matters that had nothing to do with her. Her plan was to recover and then go deep into the forest to try her luck and see if she could find Zhao Wenqing's body.
But now something very strange happened, forcing her to put aside her plan to go deep into the forest to explore.
Lin Yue's appetite increased, but his body became weaker.
On nights when Xu Zhao was asleep, Lin Yue would always sneak out of the house and come back with the refreshing scent of soapberries.
He came back after washing himself at the stream.
At first, Xu Zhao didn't know about this. When they were sharing snacks in the morning, Lin Yue hesitantly told her that he was full and that she didn't need to share Xu Zhao's food with him in the future.
After that, Xu Zhao accidentally ran into Lin Yue going out in the middle of the night.
"I'm very hungry. If I eat human food with you, I will eat up all your food." When Xu Zhao woke up that morning and saw Lin Yue covered in wounds, she couldn't help but ask. Lin Yue then lay down beside the bed, pinched her wrist, and skillfully pressed his cheek against her palm. He stared at her with his moist eyes, and said in a timid tone:
"At night, I sneaked out to catch spiders. They don't taste good, but they can quickly fill my stomach... I will wash them very carefully, please don't hate me..."
Lin Yue's stomach was still shriveled, with thin skin covering his bones and internal organs.
Xu Zhao: "How many did you eat?"
Lin Yue hesitated and replied, "Two... well, maybe three or four."
"Are you full then?"
"Only a little hungry."
That meant he wasn't full. He probably calculated the time every night he went out, packing up and returning to the hut before she woke up, pretending nothing had happened. But according to common sense, even if he had only eaten two spiders, he shouldn't be this hungry. Lin Yue's appearance hadn't changed at all, and he had only grown thinner.
The palm wrapped around Lin Yue's cheek rubbed it twice involuntarily. Lin Yue immediately opened his tired eyelids, and tiny stars seemed to emerge in his eyes.
Xu Zhao: "Are you feeling unwell? You look very weak. Is there any wound that hasn't been treated properly?"
"I'm fine, I'm just very sleepy."
Xu Zhao never felt at ease, until one day, her worries came true. Lin Yue, who had sneaked out to hunt at night, never left the house again. He returned to the dying look he had when they first met. He curled up in the corner, barely breathing, his neck tilted back, and uttered a weak moan.
Xu Zhao panicked and quickly took out the food from his backpack, tore off the plastic wrapper, and held the soft and fragrant bread to his lips.
"Lin Yue. You haven't eaten all day. Eat some bread first. Don't worry about food. I can find more if you run out. You look very serious right now."
Lin Yue opened his eyes slightly and opened his mouth obediently. The bread entered his mouth, but he couldn't swallow it. Xu Zhao broke the bread into crumbs and forced him to eat it.
She had no idea what Lin Yue's situation was and could only worry.
Lin Yue whispered to comfort her, "Don't worry. It's okay. You'll be fine when you wake up tomorrow morning. I'm just a little sleepy and tired..."
"Xu Zhao, will you always stay with me?"
Xu Zhao responded. He leaned against the wall, drowsy all night. When dawn broke, Lin Yue's condition hadn't improved as he'd said.
On the contrary, it is more serious—
He refused to eat.
It looked like he would die immediately.
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