Chapter 112: Escaping Ulcolo

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At dusk, the Siweiwei River churned like a vat of wine, shimmering with a luminous, captivating sheen.

Yet a scene so dreamlike and illusory, when viewed by someone burdened with troubled thoughts, could look like a vision of hell.

A seven-seat Iveco was moving slowly along a rough, uneven country road.

Dazhuang was driving. Liang Zhichao, Su Wei, Bai Ruixue, and Lu Zuzhi—bound tightly and wrapped in a thick quilt—sat inside.

Although Lu Zuzhi was no longer raving, he had lost consciousness. Wrapped in the quilt, he was tied up from head to toe.

Su Wei sat in the front passenger seat. Bai Ruixue occupied the second row with a large stack of books, while Liang Zhichao and Lu Zuzhi sat in the third row. The luggage and experimental equipment had been placed in the very back.

Watching Lu Zuzhi tremble beside him, Liang Zhichao felt deeply uneasy.

Before they left, Li Tianque had roughly explained his suspicions to Liang Zhichao.

Liang Zhichao had been both shocked and nervous after hearing them. If Li Tianque’s guess was correct, then what awaited them would undoubtedly be a journey fraught with danger.

Liang Zhichao looked at Su Wei in front of him, his heart filled with wariness.

After the terrifying and bizarre events that had just occurred to Professor Lu, it was truly baffling that they seemed to have had no great effect on her.

Su Wei had been enthusiastically photographing the beautiful scenery outside and occasionally joking with Dazhuang, the driver, as though she hardly took the horrifying experiences of the past few days seriously at all.

But as darkness gradually deepened, she finally fell silent. Looking at the desolate surroundings, Su Wei’s expression became somewhat anxious.

The tension inside the vehicle returned.

The car continued onward, and Su Wei began eating snacks.

She handed Dazhuang a slice of dried sweet potato and said, “It’ll be a long while before we get back to the county seat, won’t it? Have something to eat first.”

“Don’t remind me. If the section chief hadn’t insisted that we take a detour, we wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble. Taking this road means it’ll be at least two hours before we reach the county seat,” Dazhuang complained, though he still accepted the slice of dried sweet potato she offered.

In Ulkoluo, a remote ancient town, the common packaged snacks found elsewhere were rare delicacies. Dried sweet potatoes and preserved fruit, however, were quite common, since every household could make them at home.

The girls on the research team had long since eaten all the snacks they had brought with them, so they had stocked up on a few local specialties to nibble on.

Looking at the river in the distance, which had almost become a line of fluorescent light, Su Wei said helplessly, “There’s nothing we can do. That madwoman still hasn’t been caught. Who knows whether she’ll keep killing people?”

“Even though this area has already been searched, we should still be careful,” Liang Zhichao reminded them.

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Judging from the clues currently in hand, Zhuoma should be heading toward the vicinity of the Siweiwei River. That was why the police had instructed Dazhuang to take this road, which kept them farther from the river.

“I wonder whether the professor can hold on,” Bai Ruixue muttered to herself. Though her words expressed concern, there was no real warmth in her voice.

“He should be fine. The professor only has a fever and no other symptoms. It may simply be a chill,” Liang Zhichao reassured them.

Under the circumstances, he certainly could not add to the atmosphere of tension. All he could do was try to ease everyone’s anxiety.

The car continued along the road. The seats in this sort of minibus were narrow and uncomfortable to begin with, and the jolting journey, combined with the unpleasant medicinal odors mingling throughout the cabin, had left everyone feeling carsick.

Still, they were in a hurry, so naturally no one suggested stopping to rest.

As the light outside gradually faded, Dazhuang switched on the headlights. Two dim yellow beams projected from the front of the vehicle, illuminating the darkness ahead.

Su Wei had lost her earlier enthusiasm. She neither ate nor spoke anymore, yet she did not fall asleep either.

It was not difficult to see from her expression that she, too, had become nervous.

The road they were traveling on was a country road that had essentially been abandoned. Ever since the bridge had been completed, no passing vehicles were willing to use it.

And since Ulkoluo Township was already quite remote, the area had become even more desolate.

They had not seen a single vehicle along the way.

Of course, though the journey was monotonous, if it could remain that way, it would have been exactly what they wished for.

Unfortunately, things rarely went as one hoped. What was destined to come would come in the end.

While the vehicle was moving, Dazhuang suddenly slammed on the brakes for no apparent reason. Everyone lurched forward, nearly flying out of their seats.

Su Wei, sitting in the front row, let out a startled cry and curled up in her seat like a frightened lamb.

“What happened?” Bai Ruixue asked.

Liang Zhichao and Bai Ruixue both looked ahead.

Dazhuang immediately drew his service pistol and clicked off the safety.

“Stay here. Don’t move,” he said.

Everyone stared toward the road ahead. At the far end of the dim yellow beams, a tall human figure could just barely be seen.

The figure stood across the middle of the road, its arms hanging naturally at its sides, utterly lifeless, like a gigantic stone statue.

Dazhuang swallowed and slowly released the brake, allowing the vehicle to creep forward.

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Before they had gone very far, everyone heard a mournful, eerie flute melody inside the cabin.

Mixed into the flute music was a sound of teeth grinding that made their scalps prickle.

“Skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch… skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch… skritch, skritch, skritch, skritch…”

Soon, amid the increasingly intense grinding, the Iveco’s four tires began bursting one after another. At the same time, the grinding sound started drawing closer—closer and closer.

Dazhuang swallowed, hurriedly locked the doors, grabbed the radio, and shouted, “Captain Li! Captain Li! We’ve encountered danger. The vehicle can no longer move normally. Requesting assistance!”

“What… what is that?” Su Wei asked in a trembling voice.

Bai Ruixue also followed the sound and looked outside. She switched on her phone’s flashlight, but because of the angle, she could not see anything.

Liang Zhichao slowly leaned back. Though he had prepared himself mentally long ago, now that the danger had truly arrived, he realized that the courage within him was still sorely lacking.

At that moment, the tall figure that had been standing in the distance suddenly vanished from the headlights’ focus.

It disappeared completely, as if it had never appeared at all.

Liang Zhichao’s heart lurched. He realized what was about to happen.

Soon, a dense swarm of insects crawled up from beneath the vehicle. They were the same velvet tiger beetles they had previously seen in Professor Lu Zuzhi’s laboratory.

The velvet tiger beetles had mutated. Their bodies had become unnaturally soft, like leeches.

Now, as they surged forward in layer upon layer, the steel vehicle seemed to have been made of paper. It began rocking violently and looked ready to collapse at any moment, while the harsh scraping noise grew even more intense.

“Oh my God… sob… what are we going to do? Are we going to die here?” Su Wei burst into tears.

Even Bai Ruixue’s composed expression finally broke. She ran toward the luggage in the rear and pulled out a bottle of insecticide spray, gripping it tightly in her hand.

The vehicle

was still rocking violently…

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