Chapter 103: This Is a Misunderstanding!

It was crying. But unlike human tears, what flowed from its eyes was blood.

Fan Li suddenly recalled the old man he had met in a bungalow—who had treated him with kindness, wearing a gentle expression and speaking softly, only to ultimately intend to kill him and feed his mutated, zombified wife and son.

The human heart is unfathomable.

After living through the apocalypse for so long, Fan Li suddenly felt that he liked monsters more than humans.

Monsters have no hidden agendas; if they want to kill you, it’s written plainly on their faces—not concealed behind their minds. Humans, on the other hand—whether they are people or ghosts—might only reveal their true nature at the very last moment.

“Come with me,” Fan Li repeated once more.

The woman stepped forward, her mouth stretching wide, cracking all the way to her ears. Inside were rows of teeth, like miniaturized great white sharks.

Monsters always have two faces: one still, one moving.

With blood tears streaming down her face and a cracked mouth, the woman raised the scissors in her hand and slowly moved closer to Fan Li. “You... I... should be... same... scissors... mouth...”

It seemed that, aside from “I’m pretty,” she had not spoken any other words for a very long time, so her thoughts were tangled, unable to form a complete sentence.

Beast tamers who spend much time with wild creatures learn to discern their intent from subtle gestures.

Having spent time with monsters, Fan Li had gained some experience and was slowly piecing together the full meaning of her words in his mind.

“You and I should be the same, using scissors to cut the mouth like this...”

The woman was somewhat insecure. She seemed to accept his proposal to stay but demanded that he transform his face to look like hers.

Summoning monsters requires certain conditions. Even summoning a tireless button spirit demands feeling the chill of naked skin in the icy cold. How much more so a true protagonist from a horror tale?

To fulfill the final bond between them, perhaps the requirement was... to disfigure oneself with scissors, to become a monster.

Fan Li clearly had not expected things to develop this way—it was somewhat different from what he had imagined. He forced a smile: “Being like you isn’t a problem, but I’m human. If I lose too much blood, I’ll die. Do you know what death means? If I die, I can’t bring you home.”

“Afraid... no... I can... blood... stop... mouth... mouth stop... blood...”

The woman’s blood tears flowed more freely, staining her entire cheek crimson, while the angle of her cracked mouth lifted higher, as if splitting her face in two. Overall... she looked happy.

The happiest thing in the world is to find a kindred friend.

Fan Li was not wrong to say that the woman was lonely. She was like a wandering ghost drifting through shadows, day after day, year after year—a truly tedious existence for any creature with simple thoughts.

She had heard rumors of an interesting human in the death-ridden city who had come seeking her, hoping to add a touch of brightness to her gray world.

She was not disappointed.

This so-called interesting human truly possessed precious qualities other humans lacked.

He did not shun her because of her appearance; he even promised to introduce new friends to her.

He was good, so she wanted to give him a gift.

She had nothing else but a pair of scissors. Throughout her long killing spree, she had cut open countless mouths with those scissors. Her control over wounds was no less skilled than any surgeon’s; she could even manipulate the wounds to heal quickly without bleeding.

They were friends.

Friends should be exactly alike, shouldn’t they?

Same hairstyle, same clothes, same shoes, or... the same mouth.

Monsters are stubborn; once they fixate on something, it’s hard to change their mind.

The woman’s mouth continued to crack open. Fan Li had no doubt about the sharpness of those teeth; each one could be fashioned into a defensive weapon.

Fan Li began to hallucinate—the scissors in her hand seemed to grow larger and larger, and a sharp metallic scent of blood filled the air. He felt that no matter where he ran, those scissors would press against his mouth, tearing his flesh to transform him into a figure just like hers.

“No... pain... friend... will... not... hurt...” Besides the usual “pretty,” the woman spoke more like a child learning to talk—each word was a struggle, but she tried her best to comfort Fan Li.

“This isn’t looking good...”

Fan Li’s head ached. The monster’s thoughts were absurd beyond measure. Even as he tried to keep his tone gentle, luring her deeper into his words, he couldn’t overcome the sheer hardness of her mental circuit.

She wasn’t joking.

Fan Li was certain that if he didn’t refuse, it would only take minutes to complete a painless surgery to slit the corners of his mouth.

“Clang!”

“Snap, snap…”

Just as the monster closed in, forcing Fan Li to retreat several steps toward a corner, a sudden noise came from behind them.

A murderous aura swept over the scene.

The woman seemed to sense something and turned around. Her once-cracked mouth slowly closed, but the whites in her eyes began to spread, turning her entire eyeball milky white. In her vision appeared a little girl wielding a massive hammer, standing on the opposite side of the street.

The hammer was nearly shoulder-high, but the girl’s appearance was even more astonishing.

Her teeth spiraled like a powered-up meat grinder, rotating round and round. Though small in stature, her body held a strength that even monsters feared.

Beside her stood a zombie with a puffed-up mouth, who seemed afraid of the little girl. Though on the same side, it kept its distance, more than ten meters away.

The two sides faced each other, thick tension hanging in the air.

Fan Li tried to speak, but at that moment, the woman blocked him. Holding the scissors, her lifeless eyes fixed on the little girl. Her cracked mouth opened, emitting emotionless words:

“Hide... well... I... come...”

Fan Li: “...”

Sensing the killing intent radiating from the woman, the little girl with the hammer could no longer restrain herself. She bent her legs, gripped the hammer’s handle with both hands, and like a hawk swooping on a rabbit, fiercely struck down toward the woman’s head!