Chapter 52 Qingming Festival
The small building is simple, but tonight it has welcomed distinguished guests.
The bodyguards at the door had long been dismissed.
Bai Guangzheng was dressed in a suit, wearing gloves, and completely covered up. His clean-shaven face was refined. He strode into the room and said happily, "It's rare that you're willing to let me in today."
Li Zhenzhen took two steps back, avoiding his hand. She lowered her eyes and took two steps forward, saying, "I did it for Bai Li."
"Oh? Bai Li?" Bai Guang followed her over and stood in front of the zombie.
Unfazed by the danger of the zombies, he directly grabbed Bai Li by the neck, watching the zombie struggle and scream with its mouth raised in his hand, uttering incomprehensible roars, its face contorted with blue and purple veins, reduced to an ugly creature driven only by instinct.
Although Bai Li had become a zombie, he received treatment that many people did not receive. His clothes were neat and his distorted face was cleaned.
But no matter how clean it is, it's still a zombie. Bai Guang looked around, his gaze full of inquiry, as if examining a piece of waste. He showed disgust, "Brainless thing."
He withdrew his hand and casually slapped Bai Li across the face.
The sound of the slap was loud and echoed in the small building. Bai Guang was slowly wiping his hands on Bai Li.
"Bai Guangzheng!" Li Zhenzhen's eyes widened. "Do you still remember he's your son? Do you still remember what you promised me? You had to save him."
"Oh, son." Bai Guangzheng seemed to recall something, and his gaze towards Bai Li softened. "Of course I will save my son."
"This is the last time I'll try to help you. If it still fails, I won't waste my resources anymore," Bai Guangzheng solemnly emphasized. "It's the same if it's not even for my son."
He wouldn't have kept Li Zhenzhen if it weren't for the fact that the Li family wasn't completely under his control yet.
If he didn't need another test subject, he wouldn't have kept Bai Li, who was already infected.
Bai Li has completely turned into a zombie, he's useless. Bai Guang was thinking slowly, but now he has a daughter, and she's caring and even cooks for him.
Although he could no longer taste it.
When he finally gets to test the effects of the small ball on Bai Tao, he might consider letting her live a little longer, considering the warmth of the meals she's cooked for him.
Bai Guang reluctantly pulled a small ball from his pocket. The ball was about the size of an egg and gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen. He held the ball and pressed it against Bai Li's forehead, who was still shouting incessantly.
That thing was like some kind of hypnotic device. As soon as it touched Bai Li's forehead, Bai Li calmed down, lowered his eyelids, and looked like he was about to fall asleep.
But the bloodstains on its body had not faded, and its face still looked like a monster, only it had become still.
There was no other reaction.
From initial anticipation to eventual desolation, a deathly silence filled the hall.
"Is that all?" Li Zhenzhen closed her eyes and made a decision in her heart.
The zombies before her were both familiar and strange... This was something she already knew the ending for. Bai Li had been gone from the moment she was infected, so what was she still hoping for?
Bai Guang was withdrawing his hand when Li Zhenzhen grabbed his sleeve, her eyes full of hope, "Try again, just one more time, just once."
“It’s completely a zombie now.” Bai Guang was looking at Bai Li. He had fed it so many brains, and he had tested that little ball on it. He had pulled it back from the brink of complete zombie transformation several times, using it as a test subject to see if it was possible for it to turn back into a human.
But now it seems the little ball has no chance of saving humans who have completely turned to zombies. Bai Guang frowned, a sense of panic creeping into his heart, because he knew he wasn't far from that moment either. His memories were fading, his emotions were almost gone, and even his appetite was changing.
"No! Let me try again!" Li Zhenzhen grabbed his sleeve relentlessly.
Bai Guang was annoyed by her, and since it was just him and her in the room, he handed the small ball to Li Zhenzhen.
Li Zhenzhen held the small, egg-sized ball in both hands and took a deep breath.
Bai Guang was prompting, "Put it on Bai Li's forehead."
Li Zhenzhen nodded, took two steps forward, then suddenly turned around, swung her arm in a circle in mid-air, and threw the ball to the second floor.
"You're asking for death!" Bai Guangzheng glared angrily, and Li Zhenzhen turned and ran.
Bai Guangzheng ignored her, lying on his back, but didn't hear the ball hit the ground. He looked around and heard barely perceptible footsteps. Bai Guangzheng quickly chased after them.
Under the moonlight, a vast rose garden stood quietly outside the gate, its towering flower walls like a maze, obscuring any trace of its presence.
Bai Guang stared intently at the rose garden and roared, "Come out here!"
Tranquil.
The next moment, Bai Guang, who had not received a response, shouted loudly. He grabbed the gardening hoe next to him and slammed it hard against the flower wall. The force was so great that the flower wall, which stretched in circles, bent and twisted with his force, its roots being pulled out of the soil. A large part of the flower wall, which was taller than a person, collapsed with a crash, and the soil underneath spread out and cracked all over.
Bai Chenzhu narrowly avoided the falling flower wall, startled. He gestured to Jiang Ye with his eyes, indicating what to do. The two were standing by another flower wall when Zhou Zhuohua and the others had already driven their car to the manor gate, ready to get in and make their escape.
A flower wall taller than a person is a good cover.
But now, as soon as they leave the rose garden, Bai Guangzheng will chase after them like a venomous snake and bite them to death.
Bai Guang was raising his hoe when he swung it down, and another section of the flower wall collapsed with a crash.
Jiang Ye patted the back of his hand to comfort him, gesturing for him to continue walking forward.
But the footsteps behind them grew heavier and heavier. Bai Guang, dressed in a suit, stood just a few meters away from them, carrying a hoe. His eyes were bloodshot as he searched for the thieves, destroying one flower wall after another.
Where are you going?
Do you think you can escape?
"I'm going to rip your brains out."
With fewer and fewer cover options available, the moonlight cast a shadow behind him, and Bai Chenzhu covered his mouth as he watched the shadow brush past his toes.
What to do? Is there anything that can lure him away? Bai Chenzhu suddenly thought of his mental power.
He quietly pulled out his spiritual threads and placed a chaotic mass of spiritual energy in the opposite direction.
Bai Guang reacted to this, he rushed over with a hoe in one hand, leaped up and smashed it into the empty flower bushes, destroying a patch of flowers.
He made a hoarse sound from his throat, and his bloodshot eyes scanned his surroundings.
It worked! Bai Chenzhu gestured to Jiang Ye: he could use his mental power to lure Bai Guangzheng away, and then they would leave quietly.
A simple and useful method.
Jiang Ye nodded.
He immediately released a ball of spiritual energy at the furthest point from them, then pulled Jiang Ye along the flower bushes, crouched down, and approached the door. The manor's door was an ancient and solemn wooden door, which always made some noise whether it was opened or closed.
Bai Chenzhu turned around and found that the white light was at the farthest diagonal position from them.
"It's so far, no problem." He opened the door with a swift motion.
But even faster than him was the hoe that flew through the air. Bai Chenzhu's pupils shrank, reflecting the image of the flying hoe.
The next second, he was pushed out the door, the hoe smashed against it and became embedded in it, the force so great that it slammed the door shut.
Bai Chenzhu fell to the ground, and Tang Zhao quickly got out of the car, crossed the road, and helped him up. "Brother, what happened to you? Where's Boss Jiang?"
A tremendous commotion erupted within the manor, and cracks began to appear horizontally along the manor's walls.
"Is there even a question?" Bai Tao picked up the microphone and small speaker she had brought and was about to rush forward, but Bai Chenzhu stopped her.
"Don't go. What if Jiang Ye is more affected by you than it is?" Bai Chenzhu's heart was pounding, but her thoughts remained clear and methodical.
Zhou Zhuohua also got out of the car. "It's been several hours since dinner. A normal person would have been reincarnated long ago. Bai Guangzheng can't hold on any longer. His internal organs are about to rot."
Bai Tao couldn't help but worry: "Even if it's rotten inside, it can still move around if it's not afraid of pain, unless the medicine takes full effect and it can no longer get up."
Tang Zhao stood on tiptoe, grabbed the hoe embedded in the door, and pulled down hard, tearing half of the door off.
The situation was far worse than they had imagined. The entire garden was razed to the ground, littered with colorful debris. All the surrounding buildings were destroyed. Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, they saw Jiang Ye, who was sweating profusely, and Bai Guangzheng, whose skin was ashen.
At this moment, Bai Guangzheng's gloves were already torn, revealing long, thin, and strange fingers. His suit was also torn, revealing his swollen, bruised body underneath. There was a bloody hole on his shoulder that Bai Chenzhu had once punched. His left leg had been broken by Jiang Ye, and he stood up at an uneven height, with foul-smelling blood dripping from it.
That monster... was it the old man...? Bai Tao stood frozen in place, unable to process what she was seeing. Zhou Zhuohua covered her eyes, "If you're scared, don't look."
As the fight raged, Jiang Ye's arm was being gripped by Bai Guang and about to be broken. Tang Zhao panicked and rushed over, shouting, "Boss Jiang, let me help you!"
Jiang Ye broke free of the restraints.
The three collided in the billowing dust. The smoke and dust obscured their vision, but just by listening to the sounds, Bai Chenzhu felt a pain in his bones.
As the smoke cleared, two figures were seen being sent flying, crashing into a concrete wall and breaking a concrete pillar in half.
The monster's gaze locked onto Tang Zhao.
"Tang Zhao!" Bai Chenzhu called out anxiously.
Tang Zhao coughed up blood. Jiang Ye moved with lightning speed, grabbing a piece of broken wood from the side and using it to block the monster's waving gardening fork.
The fork gleamed through the wooden board, its sharp point nearly piercing Jiang Ye's forehead.
"Ball, ball..." The white light was completely red, and its trachea made strange hoarse sounds as it cried out. Its body expanded like a balloon, bursting through its suit, and it was in great pain.
It raised its four-pronged fork and fiercely stabbed at Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye rolled away to dodge, tasting the metallic flavor in his mouth.
Bai Guang was limping after Jiang Ye, his tall, swollen, bluish-purple body becoming increasingly terrifying. Four black holes, lined up side by side, were left on the ground, each one grazing past Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye grabbed a chair and smashed it on Bai Guangzheng.
Splintered wood flew everywhere, and Bai Guang swayed slightly, raising his four-pronged fork. Jiang Ye's dagger, however, struck first, swiftly and accurately into Bai Guang's right shoulder, wedging itself into his shoulder joint and violently dislocating the joint, rupturing the ligaments.
Bai Guangzheng's body trembled, his four-pronged fork fell to the ground, and he mumbled incoherently, "Give...me back..."
He made a strange sound in his throat, waving his not-so-clumsy right hand, not picking up the fork, but clumsily shaking off Jiang Ye from his body.
Tang Zhao pounced from behind, straddled the monster's neck, and tightly hugged Bai Guangzheng's neck, twisting it backward. With a crack, it was the sound of Bai Guangzheng dislocating Tang Zhao's left wrist first.
Left leg, right shoulder... Jiang Ye rolled over and landed on the ground, wiping the blood from the corner of his lips. He quickly scanned the joints of the 'giant' in front of him and thought to himself: I'm almost there, I can dislocate its limbs.
However, his body was already showing signs of exhaustion, which slowed him down and affected his every offensive and defensive move.
Almost. Jiang Ye bit his knuckles hard to force himself to stay awake, hating that his body was not as strong as it used to be, otherwise he would have done it when his left leg was broken... Jiang Ye breathed heavily.
But in Bai Chenzhu's view, if they continued like this, they would all die here.
He couldn't wait any longer; he couldn't just stand by and watch. Bai Chenzhu's heart was in his throat; his mind raced as he searched for a solution.
In terms of strength and speed, they are no match for Bai Guangzheng. Even poisoning can only weaken Bai Guangzheng's power.
The only thing that benefits them is that Bai Guangzheng's zombification process has accelerated, and he now appears to have lost all human rationality.
So what other options are there? Even if we can't beat it, we have to drag it out until it dies.
Bai Chenzhu suddenly remembered a zombie that had chased him before, jumped into the pool and drowned.
Such absurd behavior is something only a zombie with nothing but an empty shell would do.
So, will the current Bai Guangzheng also be like this? A sharp glint flashed in Bai Chenzhu's eyes.
Bai Guangzheng grabbed Tang Zhao's arm. Jiang Ye rushed over and kicked Bai Guangzheng. Unexpectedly, Bai Guangzheng did not back down. He released Tang Zhao's hand and instead grabbed his ankle, spun him around, and smashed his entire body into the wall.
The white light was drawing ever closer.
Jiang Ye coughed up blood, his gaze fierce as he stared at Bai Guangzheng. He twitched his fingers slightly and pulled out a gun from his pocket.
Gunshots rang out one after another, but the man with several bloody holes in his joints remained unmoved and continued forward.
"The ball you wanted is here!" Bai Chenzhu shouted, taking something out of his pocket and quickly stuffing it back into his clothes.
The white light finally reacted; it sluggishly turned its head and, driven by its thirst for spiritual power, fixed its gaze on the man at the door.
In its eyes, the thing in Bai Chenzhu's arms emitted an enticing fragrance, arousing its 'appetite'.
It glanced back at Jiang Ye, who also possessed a strong spiritual power, but that spiritual power was mottled, layer upon layer, far less pure and fragrant than the 'food' at the door.
If he were lucid, Bai Guangzheng would have been able to recognize that Jiang Ye was carrying what he wanted. But now, driven only by the instinct to pursue spiritual power, Bai Guangzheng shifted his target.
Bai Chenzhu quickly pulled Zhou Zhuohua and Bai Tao into the car. A white light was hurtling towards them, and two large craters appeared in the ground near the entrance.
"Sister Zhuohua!"
Without Bai Chenzhu's reminder, Zhou Zhuohua had barely sat down when he turned the steering wheel, and the car sped off.
In the back seat, Bai Tao looked closely and saw that what Bai Chenzhu was holding was clearly a stone! However, this stone was wrapped with a lot of spiritual energy, almost like a giant dragon's beard candy.
"Sing quickly." Bai Chenzhu looked weak as he tested whether Bai Guangzheng, with his current intelligence, could recognize the difference between the two types of spiritual power.
The answer is no. Bai Guangzheng couldn't recognize it as a fragment. When the concentration of spiritual energy on the stone was high enough to overwhelm the fragment on Jiang Ye's body, it would be enough to attract Bai Guangzheng.
For this, Bai Chenzhu almost exhausted all his mental energy.
If they really catch up, they won't be as resilient as Jiang Ye and his group. One move from them and they'll all be finished.
Bai Tao glanced at Bai Guangzheng, who was chasing after them, in the rearview mirror. Zhou Zhuohua was covered in cold sweat, his fingers leaving marks on the steering wheel cover. "That's already the fastest speed we can go!"
Bai Tao quickly turned on the stereo, and Bai Chenzhu tore off pieces of cloth and stuffed them into his ears. The sound of singing a lullaby rang out in the darkness, catalyzing the true nature of the pseudo-human creature.
A high-hanging moon, a speeding car, a clear female voice, and a hideous zombie chasing after the car—the whole scene is absurd and bizarre.
——
The car stopped by the rocks, and the restless white light was chasing after them. It had completely lost its human appearance and become a terrifying mutant.
Bai Chenzhu held his breath, carefully holding the stone. He stood in front of it, backing away step by step until the seawater reached his knees. Then he turned around and forcefully threw the stone in his arms into the sea.
The white light, now completely red, gazed upon the sea.
Just as the three were wondering if he still had any human reason, he lifted his foot and limped towards the ocean.
The seawater rose from his knees, and mutated fish, smelling the blood, swam around him like loyal followers.
Bai Chenzhu watched helplessly as it walked towards the deep sea, each step taking a very long time, so long that he felt each day was an eternity.
Bai Tao beside her spoke softly, as if afraid of waking something, and said, "Today is Qingming Festival."
The seawater shimmered, with wave after wave rising and falling.
Bai Chenzhu witnessed the seawater submerge Bai Guangzheng. The breath that had been hanging in the air finally came loose, and a familiar headache surged back. The moon and the sea before him turned into darkness.
"Xiao Bai!"
"Brother Bai!"
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