Switch Mode

Chapter 13

Dog Tooth roared, “If you don’t shut up, I’ll kill you!”

The handcuffs were fastened to the wastewater pipe. Though Nie Jiuluo was stuck to the pipe, she could still sit up and stand with some effort. She gripped the pipe with her fingers and slowly stood up. “Yan Tuo instructed you not to touch me.”

Dog Tooth sneered, “That was before. Now, even if I kill you, Yan Tuo wouldn’t object.”

Oh, what’s the difference between before and now?

Nie Jiuluo repeated for the third time, “Are you really not human?”

Initially, the concept of “not human” made her shiver, but then she thought, if he could still run away in pain with a pencil stuck in his eye, despite being capable, he was just flesh and bone—“not human” wasn’t truly terrifying. Chickens and ducks weren’t human either, yet they were slaughtered for food. What was truly frightening was “what exactly is he?”

Dog Tooth’s eyes brimmed with murderous intent. His already ugly face, now marred by a blind eye, twisted into a ghastly expression. As he moved towards her, Nie Jiuluo commanded him, “A woman has gone missing in Xingba Village. Does it have anything to do with you?”

She realized the connection began with the straw field: Sun Zhou, covered in blood, driving frantically as if he had seen a ghost, Yan Tuo throwing a heavy canvas bag into the trunk, the dried blood, collapsed straw, and a stinking pit a few meters deep…

And the day before, a woman had gone missing. To call it a coincidence was something even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe.

Dog Tooth’s voice was venomous. “You’re asking for it.”

Before he finished speaking, he lunged at her.

Nie Jiuluo gauged his approach. She tightened her grip on the pipe, used it to propel herself into the air, and then kicked off the wall. Wrapping her legs around Dog Tooth’s neck, she twisted her body, releasing her hold on the pipe and letting her full weight press down on his neck, bringing him crashing to the ground.

As they fell, Dog Tooth was still conscious and tried to raise his head. Nie Jiuluo increased the pressure with her knee, compressing his carotid artery from the side. Dog Tooth felt darkness closing in, his brain pressure dropping rapidly, and he lost consciousness without a sound.

Nie Jiuluo didn’t release her legs immediately. After a few seconds, she finally removed them and sat up.

The entire process took less than ten seconds.

With her hands cuffed, the maneuver inevitably caused her some injury. Her wrists were already scraped raw from the friction of the twist and turn.

Nie Jiuluo sighed in relief, quickly unfastening the handcuff. The bracelet had two pearl-sized beads on its ends. She rubbed the pearl off one end, then used her fingers to quickly spin it. The bead was soon removed, revealing a sharp point.

In the next moment, she inserted the sharp end into the handcuff’s lock and, with careful movements, heard the subtle clicking of the lock mechanism until it finally snapped open.

Nie Jiuluo immediately stood up, shook her wrists, and first cuffed Dog Tooth to the pipe. Then, she picked up the wide tape left by Yan Tuo and, without hesitation, tightly bound Dog Tooth’s legs.

How did Yan Tuo overlook binding her legs? Well, she had to thank him for underestimating her; otherwise, she might not have been able to cause trouble so easily.

With Dog Tooth dealt with, Nie Jiuluo finally relaxed. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and approached the canvas bag, unzipping it.

Sun Zhou was still unconscious, his pale face devoid of life, though he was still breathing.

Given how long he had been asleep, it wasn’t likely due to natural sleep alone; there was certainly some medication involved. Nie Jiuluo decided not to wake him up, letting him breathe freely and recover a bit with the bag open.

As she stood up, ready to search through Yan Tuo’s luggage, Sun Zhou suddenly twitched, emitted a groan from his throat, and abruptly opened his eyes.

It was unsettling—his eyes were wide open, showing nothing but the whites, as if a dead fish’s belly had been stuffed into his eye sockets, bulging out. Nie Jiuluo was startled and shivered. When she tried to examine him closely, his eyelids drooped again, and he settled back into stillness.

What’s going on?

Since Sun Zhou was also bound, there was no need to fear him attacking. Nie Jiuluo bent down and carefully examined his face—his bandages were soaked with blood and had darkened due to the lack of timely changes and the messy environment.

As she looked closer, she noticed a patch of black stubble on the edge of the bandage around Sun Zhou’s neck.

Sun Zhou had a buzz cut, so it shouldn’t have been hair. Nie Jiuluo extended her right index finger and lightly touched it—it was hard and felt like short bristles.

After a few seconds of shock, a terrifying thought flashed through her mind.

No way?

Nie Jiuluo’s heart pounded wildly. Ignoring her gentleness, she grabbed Sun Zhou’s bandages, and when she couldn’t pull them off, she went outside to find a pair of scissors and quickly cut through the bandages.

What she saw made her feel a chill to her core and a coldness in her chest.

Sun Zhou’s head and face were covered with numerous bite and scratch marks, at least a dozen of them, all bleeding and meat exposed. Of course, they weren’t bleeding now, only the skin was rolled up, but under the rolled-up skin, black hair had grown—ranging in color from pitch black and coarse to gray-brown and soft, like velvet, some curled up.

Nie Jiuluo stared for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out and yanked a few of the coarse, hard hairs out.

Strangely, Sun Zhou, who had been twitching and rolling his eyes earlier, now lay completely still, as if dead, without any physical response. It was as though he wouldn’t even move if she cut flesh from him with a knife.

These hairs were not just pulled out; they were attached to long strands of sticky, yellowish mucus, somewhat like lotus root fibers.

Nie Jiuluo murmured, “Damn.”

Being strangled unconscious was a peculiar experience, and different people had different reactions: some would instantly lose consciousness, while others might see vibrant colors and find the scene beautiful.

Dog Tooth belonged to the latter category. He felt extremely comfortable, with soft sunlight and a world that felt like a large, pliable piece of flesh, and he was like a bouncy bubble, floating up and down on this large piece of meat.

Suddenly, the meat seemed to collapse and turn into a vertical wall of crashing ice water. He shivered and abruptly woke up.

There was indeed water—Nie Jiuluo had just poured a basin of water over him.

Through the droplets hanging from his eyelashes, Dog Tooth vaguely saw her holding a gaudy red basin, now empty. She tossed the basin aside with a clang, wrapped her hand with a piece of tissue, and picked up a plastic slipper. She then marched over to him and bent down.

The sensation of oxygen deprivation lingered, causing a bit of double vision. Dog Tooth shook his head to clear it.

Nie Jiuluo said, “I’m asking you, who caused Sun Zhou’s injuries? Was it you or Yan Tuo?”

A surge of anger welled up in Dog Tooth. He was about to spit at her, but Nie Jiuluo’s slipper slapped him hard on the cheek, distorting his face. “I’m asking you, who did it? Not going to say? I’ll keep slapping until you do.”

As she spoke, another slap came.

Moments ago, she had spoken to him gently, asking if he needed his wounds bandaged. Now, she was cold and ruthless, almost like a different person.

After taking a few slaps, Dog Tooth’s anger flared. He roared, “It was me, I’ll kill you!”

Good, the first question had an answer.

“So Yan Tuo was just cleaning up after you? You made a mess outside, and he helped you clean it up?”

Dog Tooth’s body tensed. He hesitated to answer, and just that delay earned him another slap—despite his tough and thick skin, the corners of his mouth were now bleeding from the hits.

He desperately shook his head, trying to avoid the slaps. “Who are you? What exactly are you?”

“Third question…” Nie Jiuluo’s empty hand pressed against his abdomen, “The woman from Xingba Village, is she here?”

Dog Tooth’s mind exploded with panic. Every hair on his body stood on end as he heard Nie Jiuluo’s voice: “If you don’t answer, it’s fine. It’s only been two days. If you can’t digest it, we’ll cut you open and see.”

Soon, she brought over a pair of scissors. The sharp blades clinked and snipped, snip, snip.

Dog Tooth had a terrifying premonition: this woman meant what she said and could really do it.

He screamed, “Yes, yes, yes!”

The snipping sound stopped.

The room fell into a terrifying silence. Dog Tooth felt like his heart was about to stop: why hadn’t Yan Tuo come back yet? It had been so long, he should have returned by now.

Nie Jiuluo slowly squatted in front of him, her eyes level with his. “Last question.”

Dog Tooth’s lips trembled slightly. In his extreme panic, he suddenly lost focus: in the cornfield in Xingba Village, there was a dilapidated old temple he had visited, where there was a broken statue—very beautiful, but upon closer inspection, it seemed quite frightening.

Nie Jiuluo’s eyebrows and eyes were as vivid as that statue, and she was even more terrifying. No, she was far more terrifying.

“Are you a ground owl?”

When Yan Tuo returned to the hotel, it was well past midnight.

Besides the neon sign with red letters still lit, the courtyard was pitch black, and even the dogs had stopped barking. Hearing the sound of the car, it lifted its head slightly and then lazily dropped it again.

Yan Tuo parked the car and walked straight to his room.

Before leaving, he remembered leaving the bathroom light on, but now it was completely dark. This was normal; Dog Tooth had always disliked lights, saying that a flickering bulb was like a sun, which disgusted him.

He opened the door.

At the moment the door opened, he suddenly felt tense: something was wrong with the room.

There was indeed something wrong. The room was dark, but in the center, there was a darker silhouette, swaying unsteadily.

He shouted, “Who’s there?”

At the same time, he quickly reached for the light switch, which was located to the right as you entered the room.

The light came on.

Under the light stood a person—Nie Jiuluo.

Her condition was terrible: her face was pale, her spirit was dazed, her clothes were disheveled, and worse, she was covered in blood, even her hair was matted with it.

Yan Tuo’s mind buzzed: Dog Tooth had caused trouble.

Seeing Yan Tuo, Nie Jiuluo’s lips moved slightly. She staggered toward him but couldn’t keep her balance and collapsed after only two steps.

Yan Tuo reflexively stepped forward to support her. “Miss Nie, are you alright…”

Before he could finish, he felt a slight pain in his abdomen, like something had stung him.

A warning bell rang in his head. He instantly remembered the injection needle the limping old man had used on his neck: it wasn’t ordinary anesthetic. Typically, anesthetics are administered intravenously because intramuscular injections work too slowly. But that syringe had only administered a small amount, still intramuscular, which had knocked him out for almost ten hours.

He had carefully packed the syringe with most of its contents still in it, intending to have it analyzed by a professional later…

He tried to push Nie Jiuluo away but was a moment too late. The syringe had already been emptied, and Nie Jiuluo shoved him aside, stabilizing herself with the momentum.

Yan Tuo staggered back a couple of steps, no longer caring about Nie Jiuluo. He quickly discarded the syringe and pressed on the injection site: the drug was so potent that in an instant, the area had gone numb, and he could distinctly feel this numbness spreading like a swarm of ants…

Nie Jiuluo tossed aside a wet towel she had been holding. Looking at Yan Tuo, she casually wiped the grime from her hair, saying, “I’m fine. Dog Tooth’s blood isn’t mine. Don’t worry.”

Damn it!

Yan Tuo’s anger was almost making him spit blood. He swiftly drew his gun from his lower back, but while his arm still had some strength when pulling out the gun, his entire forearm went numb when he raised it. His fingers spasmed, and the gun fell to the ground with a clatter, sliding about ten feet away, closer to Nie Jiuluo.

He tried to step forward to retrieve the gun, but his leg joints were also numb. He stumbled and fell to the ground. Nie Jiuluo ignored him, picked up a chair next to her, placed it firmly on the ground, and then sat down.

Yan Tuo mustered all his strength to reach for the gun. His trembling fingers barely touched the handle when Nie Jiuluo stepped on his hand, pinning both his hand and the gun under her foot.

She was wearing short boots with hard soles, shiny leather, and a strip of delicate white ankle exposed.

Yan Tuo looked up.

Nie Jiuluo sat on the chair, leaning over him, her long hair falling onto his shoulder.

She said, “You really shouldn’t have invited me.”


To Buy Coins, please Register and Login before purchasing any chapter! Please join our Discord to get updates on normal and locked chapters! Also, Illustrations are available for some novels!
An Owl Rising From The Green Soil

An Owl Rising From The Green Soil

Love On The Turquoise Land (Drama)
Score 8.0
Status: Ongoing Type: , Author: , Artist: Released: 2020 Native Language: Chinese
Over two thousand years ago on a deep night, Xu Fu* set sail to the eastern seas in a treasure ship to search for immortality, but few people knew that at the same time, a group of black-turban soldiers secretly entered the vast and dense Nanbao forest… A millennium later, the dark legend continues to slowly grow in the shadows. Xú Fú: Qin dynasty court necromancer and was tasked by Qin Shi Huang to look for the elixir of life between 219 BC and 210 BC. He never returned after departing on his second mission in 210 BC.

Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Options

not work with dark mode
Reset