A Night of Desperation

Chapter 2: Mysterious Shadow (2)

In response to Yu Hong’s questions, the girl was completely unable to react; she didn’t know which question to answer first.

She stood there in a daze, trembling with the medicine box in her hands. The shaking was so intense that it seemed like the medicine might fall out at any moment.

Click.

The door was pushed open again, from the outside.

A middle-aged woman in a dirty white lab coat walked in. With yellow skin and black hair, wearing black-framed glasses, she was the same woman who had appeared earlier, presumably a doctor.

“I’ll answer your questions. Don’t make things difficult for Yi Yi. She had an illness before and was frightened. Her speech and thoughts aren’t quite right,” the woman said.

She walked over to the bedside and placed a light gray water jug on the wooden nightstand.

“We don’t know how you got here. Last night, Yi Yi went out to gather firewood and accidentally found you in a pit, then dragged you back.”

“When we found you, you were unconscious. There didn’t seem to be any visible injuries, but you were unconscious with a fever. Yi Yi fed you some filtered water, and you finally woke up after waiting through the night.”

The woman exhaled.

“As for where this is, this is Baiqiu Village. The area is surrounded by deep mountains, and the only way out is an old road to the west.”

She paused.

“I’m the village doctor, my last name is Xu. She’s called Lin Yi Yi, an orphan living here alone. There’s not much else to say. Well, now it’s your turn. Who are you? How did you get here? What are you doing here?”

“Dr. Xu, can I call you that?” Yu Hong, still holding his throat in pain, spoke in a low voice, trying to make sense of the situation.

He saw her nod and continued.

“My name is Yu Hong. I was just sleeping at home before, and then…” He recounted his previous feelings in detail.

“I don’t know how I got here. I…” He struggled to raise his hand and press it to his forehead.

“How old are you?” Dr. Xu suddenly asked.

“Twenty… twenty-seven,” Yu Hong reflexively responded.

“That’s enough. Anyway, you won’t be going back. With the way things are, it doesn’t matter where you came from or how. There are no vehicles; if you go outside, you’ll die. You’ll probably have to stay here for quite some time,” Dr. Xu said indifferently.

“??? No vehicles? Can you… can someone lend me a car to take me to the nearest bus station? I can pay!” Yu Hong was confused.

“A bus station?” This time it was Dr. Xu’s turn to be puzzled. “What are you talking about? Where would you find a bus station? Who’s going to drive you? Outside there are all sorts of strange monsters. If you go out, you’re just asking for death.”

“Monsters?!” Yu Hong froze.

“What kind of monsters?!” He doubted that the woman was playing a prank or had some mental issue.

But as he looked at Dr. Xu, who was staring at him like he was a fool, Yu Hong began to feel that something wasn’t right.

A sense of unease started to rise in his chest.

He was just an ordinary office worker. No one would hire such a low-level actor to deceive him, would they?

“Well, looks like you’re a fool after all,” Dr. Xu sighed as she raised her head.

“A fool with another fool. You two are quite a pair.”

She glanced out the window.

“It’s still early. When night falls, you’ll see. I’ll leave now. Yi Yi, keep an eye on him. Don’t let him open the door tonight.”

“Okay,” the girl, stuttering, quickly nodded.

When Dr. Xu turned to leave, the girl hurriedly called out.

“Medicine! Sister!” she anxiously called out.

Dr. Xu turned back, understanding, and took a mercury thermometer from her pocket, shoving it into Yu Hong’s mouth.

“Let’s check your temperature.”

After a while, she took the thermometer out and looked at it.

“38.5°C, you won’t die.”

“Medicine… I’m sorry…” The stuttering girl quickly handed over the medicine box to Dr. Xu for inspection.

The mold spots on the medicine made Dr. Xu frown.

“Yi Yi, I don’t have much medicine left either. The post office only goes to town once a month.”

Upon hearing this, the girl immediately panicked, looking around before quickly finding something resembling a yam from a corner cabinet and handing it over.

“Trade, this, trade… for medicine!”

Dr. Xu shook her head, saying it wasn’t enough.

The girl then started rummaging through other places.

They haggled, and the voices reached Yu Hong’s ears.

He felt drowsy and weak, his body sluggish. Soon, he fell back into a deep sleep, his throat still aching, his head heavy, and his limbs too weak to lift.

His body’s natural healing mechanism drove him into sleep to quickly recover his strength.

Time passed quickly.

He wasn’t sure how long had passed—maybe an hour, or maybe three. Time was meaningless for someone in a daze.

Slowly, Yu Hong woke up from his stupor.

His whole body ached, feeling weak, and his throat felt blocked as if something was lodged there, making it impossible to speak. Only hoarse breaths escaped.

He opened his eyes, struggled to prop himself up, and surveyed the surroundings.

The room was quiet.

This small, square bedroom had walls and a ceiling made of wood, all a light yellow color.

The floor was black mud, smooth and dry, with some corners even sprouting grass.

Yu Hong slowly shifted his body, lowered his legs over the edge of the bed, and gently let his feet touch the ground.

The solid feeling of the floor under his feet made his heart feel inexplicably relieved.

He looked down at himself.

He was wearing a grayish-white short-sleeve T-shirt, with a cartoon tiger head printed on the front, stained with some yellow marks. His pants were cream-colored casual trousers, now wrinkled.

His gray socks were torn at the big toe, with two big toes poking out through the holes, covered in black dirt.

‘What is this?’ He noticed a black mark on the back of his right hand.

The mark looked like an ancient seal, a square stamp with what looked like a clump of rotten mud on it, with no patterns or characters. It resembled a birthmark at first glance.

But Yu Hong clearly remembered that he never had such a large birthmark, especially not on his prominent right hand.

He rubbed the mark, but it didn’t hurt or itch.

He tried to wipe it off, but it didn’t come off, so he gave up for now.

After checking his body and confirming there were no external injuries, Yu Hong touched the stubble on his chin and glanced toward the window.

The window was square, located to the right of the bed, and was secured with horizontal wooden planks, both inside and outside. It was tightly sealed, as if protecting from a mental illness patient, messy yet unsettling.

The light outside was dim, casting a faint yellow glow into the room, leaving pale yellow spots beside the bed.

Yu Hong took a deep breath, noticing a strange, indescribable burnt odor in the air.

He walked a few steps to the door and saw a thick stack of old newspapers by the doorframe.

Pausing, he bent down, struggling to pick up the stack, and looked at the topmost paper.

“Top Alert: Major Black Disaster Strikes Nationwide”

The huge headline almost took up half the page.

Below it were the details.

‘…The frequent black disasters and the weak response from authorities have posed a huge threat to the lives of the people. In the face of this grim situation, the National Disaster Prevention Committee has urgently set up an Emergency Management Department to respond swiftly to the worst-hit areas and organize rescue efforts.’

Yu Hong frowned and flipped to the back of the page.

A chaotic scene of rescue efforts appeared in front of him. It showed a grey, dilapidated building with people in heavy protective suits lifting stretchers, carrying blackened corpses.

“Black disaster?” He had never heard of such a term.

He continued flipping the paper.

“Massive Bug Disaster Approaching, How Should We Respond?”

“Food Shortage, Water Crisis, National Rescue Teams Work Relentlessly to Save Thousands”

“Suspected Biochemical Agent Leak, Yi Guan City Sealed Off with Vehicle Barricades”

“Experts Discuss Blood Ticks in Response to Black Disasters”

“First Hope City Completed, 10,000 People Move In”

With the sound of the pages rustling, Yu Hong’s expression grew more serious.

Not only were the headlines bizarre and abnormal, but more crucially, he suddenly realized that these newspapers were written in a language he had never learned before. It wasn’t Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, or any language he recognized.

It was an entirely unfamiliar language.

“Dammit!”

Yu Hong put down the newspaper and looked at the date.

January 3, 2020.

He had never seen this language before, yet he could understand it.

This strange feeling made a sense of discomfort rise in his chest.

After putting the newspaper back in its place, Yu Hong glanced at the door in front of him.

The door was gray-black, with a large and small square pattern, one above the other. The doorknob was white, with some of the paint chipped off, revealing the black metal underneath.

He reached out, gripped the handle, and the cold, solid touch sent a shiver through him. He gently turned it.

Click.

The door opened.

Outside was a gray stone staircase, with three steps.

Beyond that was a broken, rocky path.

On the opposite side was a small, dark house with its door open.

The walls were gray and white, the roof black and ruined.

The house was only about three meters tall, and there were red slogans painted on the walls, now too faded to read.

The slanted roof tiles still had pebbles and yellow dry leaves on them, which rustled in the wind.

Yu Hong stepped outside, only to realize he wasn’t wearing shoes, just his tattered gray socks.

The rough ground felt uncomfortable, pricking his feet.

He stood still for a moment.

He looked around.

On both sides of the rocky path stood a row of houses with stone walls and tile roofs.

These houses were very old, their walls covered with mold and stains. Some had red slogans written on them, like “Live a Happy Life, Be Safe Forever,” “One Person Serves the Family, Everyone Is Safe,” and “Fire, Bug, and Moisture Protection.”

The rocky path was a bit gloomy, with the sun blocked by the houses. Only a sliver of light was seeping through the doors and windows.

It was because these houses were all relatively low.

He scanned his surroundings.

Each house, like a person standing in line, was of similar height, dilapidated, with leaking doors and windows. Most of the dark wooden doors were wide open, revealing empty rooms and the sound of the wind howling through them.

He turned to look back at the house where he had been staying.

Indeed, his place, though also a tile-roofed house, was different from the others.

Both the doors and windows were nailed with thick black and yellow wooden slats, with the gaps stuffed with heavy cloth, and the threshold was higher than the others.

“This place…” Yu Hong couldn’t shake off a sense of unease rising in his chest.

Click.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the right side, in the distance.

It sounded like shoes stepping on gravel.

Yu Hong quickly looked in that direction.

He saw, inside a house on the right side of the road, a blurry figure in white standing in the shadow of the doorway, looking at him.

From afar, it seemed like the person was smiling at him.

“Smiling my ass!” Yu Hong frowned and ignored the person.

Although he was eager to ask someone what was going on, the person’s appearance was a bit unnerving. It felt wrong, making him uncomfortable.

So, he decided to look for someone else.

He turned his head, stopped looking at that person, and began scanning the other houses, hoping to find someone else.

Unfortunately, after a quick scan, he didn’t see anyone else.

So, he reluctantly turned back and looked at the figure in white.

But this time, when he looked back, his heart sank.

The figure in white was no longer in the house he had just seen.

Instead, it was now in another house, much closer to him.

Standing in the shadow of the doorway, smiling at him.

In just a few seconds, the person had closed the distance by at least several dozen meters.

What was even stranger was that despite the proximity, Yu Hong still couldn’t make out the person’s face clearly. He could only barely see the person smiling, with very pale skin, and it appeared to be a man.

There was no sound of running—how had this person crossed such a great distance so quickly?

A chill began to creep up Yu Hong’s spine.

He took a deep breath and turned his head to look in another direction, then quickly looked back at the figure in white.

Only a second had passed.

But in that second…

The figure in white was gone again, and now appeared in a house just ten meters away, across from him.

The person was still standing in the shadow of the doorway, smiling at him.

“Goddamn!!” Yu Hong’s heart raced as he slowly began to back away.

What was even stranger was that, despite being this close, he still couldn’t make out the details of the person’s face!

Remembering the earlier situation, he dared not blink, slowly backing away.

He stepped back into the house, still watching the figure, and began to gently close the door.

Slowly.

The door was now only open a crack.

Yu Hong strained to keep his eyes open, but they were growing sore, and tears began to pool in the corners of his eyes, increasing by the second.

He could barely hold on.

(End of chapter)