(3) Transformation into a Serpent in Desperation

The elevator had already stopped, so she made her way upstairs via the emergency staircase.

The backstage employees’ lockers had all been pried open, their contents scattered: fruit knives, King Sausages, cold medicine, biscuits, toast, milk, lemon chicken feet, instant noodles, potato chips, popcorn, duck necks, preserved plums, and brittle candies. There were even some rotting fruits—apples, dragon fruit…

She took anything that could be used as seeds.

Despite the sweltering heat of over forty degrees, Liu Yi neither tired nor complained. She swept through the entire building, gathering an entire backpack full of snacks. Though they could not fill her stomach, she was content simply to have them.

She carefully retraced her steps, double-checking for anything she might have missed. In a kettle, she discovered a bit of water left—still warm to the touch. It had been two or three days since the evacuation notice had been given here. The kettle had kept its warmth well, so she took it, too, back to the car.

Liu Yi loaded the goods into the hearse. Just as she turned to fetch a second load, she noticed a silver-gray van slowly edging toward her, driving against the flow of traffic.

A sense of unease prickled at her. She turned and hurried away in the opposite direction. Whoever they were, with the mall already shut down, any scavengers now were likely opportunists looking for easy prey.

She darted into a shadowy corner, waiting until the van passed before emerging to continue moving her things.

A harsh screech—a car braked abruptly, the sound grating and sharp. The men within had come prepared, and they went after her.

There were eight of them, all brawny men well over six feet tall, shirtless and menacing.

Someone yanked her by the hair, the grip merciless. She was flung backward like a chick, landing hard on the ground and rolling over several times from the force. The rough asphalt scraped her skin, sending waves of pain through her body. Her scalp and body burned with agony, her previous head wound reopening and bleeding afresh, the blood trickling down her neck and onto the jade pendant she wore.

“I have AIDS! If you touch me, I’ll bite you!” she shouted from the ground, fighting the pain. But her words did nothing to deter them.

The thugs only burst out laughing.

“Go ahead and scream! The louder, the better!”

“Did you think we’d grab just anyone without checking first? We’re not fools.”

“We’re famous in the underworld—AIDS doesn’t scare us.”

Liu Yi noticed they carried no weapons and remembered the fruit knife she’d scavenged. She slowly reached for her pocket.

A blond-haired thug stomped down on her shoulder, pinning her. He twisted his foot viciously, pain radiating from her shoulder to every part of her body.

“Big brothers like obedient little sisters. If you make me angry and I hurt you by accident, whose fault is that? Be good, behave yourself.”

The others, all swagger and malice, leered at her as she lay pitiful and battered on the ground. One of them, bald-headed, lit a cigarette, laughter in his eyes.

They emphasized the words “obedient” and “well-behaved” with a sick and threatening tone.

“This little thing looks so tender—must be smooth and fresh…” Two men had already climbed into the hearse, rummaging through what she’d stashed on the back seat.

Pinned to the ground, Liu Yi’s body was already covered in bruises, pain wracking her frame. The men’s eyes lingered on her, and as they rifled through the vehicle, it was obvious they intended both to rob and violate her.

The situation was dire; fear gripped her heart, but her mind raced, searching for options.

“All my stuff is in the car—take it! Just let me go!” she pleaded.

The thugs exchanged glances, cackling.

“We want more than just your stuff…”

They tore through the car, pulling things out at random.

“Military coats? Flowered jackets?”

“Ugh, what ugly taste! What’s with her?”

“Rotten apples—gross!”

“A coffin this big?”

“So it really is a hearse? Bad luck!”

The bald man and his companions yanked her things from the hearse, tossing them carelessly to the ground.

One of them stomped on the kettle, smashing it, snacks scattering everywhere. Her once clean clothes were soiled, stained with rotting fruit and dust.

In moments, the hearse was ransacked. Even the welded coffin was pried loose and dumped by the roadside. The bald man even raised an axe to the coffin, trying to split it open.

With every blow, only faint scratches marred the black metal. Whatever it was made of, it was tougher than it appeared.

At that moment, Liu Yi was as disheveled as her belongings. Pinned helplessly to the ground, her delicate, pale face was streaked with blood, dust, and cold sweat.

Her body ached. Her heart ached even more. These things may not have been valuable, but she’d scavenged them one by one, cared for them, packed them carefully. Now, seeing them destroyed by these men, she could almost feel her heart bleeding.

Human beings truly are strange creatures. In the animal world, at worst, it’s survival of the fittest. But in humanity, kindness is not innate. Goodness must be taught; without guidance, people become monstrous. When order collapses, the darkness that emerges can be unimaginably cruel.

There is nothing in the world more ruthless, more wicked, than mankind.

The blond thug, his eyes growing more sinister, unexpectedly whistled as he hoisted her toward the van, boasting, “This one’s a virgin—I’ll take her first…”

“When was it ever your turn to break one in? The boss always goes first.”

“Yeah, after the boss is done, they’re half-dead by the time we get a turn. Last time, the girl died before it was even our turn. What a jinx…”

Liu Yi saw herself about to be dragged into the van, the street her stage for despair.

There was no surveillance, no law. Villains could do as they pleased and vanish without a trace, dying in obscurity.

If she was going to die, she’d at least take a few of them with her.

Her eyes flared with rage; she clenched her lips and struggled with all her might.

A slap crashed down on her, the blond thug’s hand smashing across her face.

Suddenly, all sound faded. She heard nothing, her vision blurred. Her heart raced, her body flushed with heat, blood surging within her.

“He who knows when to yield is wise—urk, urk…”

The blond thug staggered, clutching his throat, blood spurting through his fingers, collapsing into a pool of it, blood bubbling from his mouth. His face was a mask of disbelief, his trembling finger pointing at the real culprit.

The pitiful, battered girl spat out a piece of throat cartilage. Behind the bloodstained smile, her teeth had become razor-sharp fangs.

Her black eyes shifted, turning into vertical scarlet slits like a serpent’s, her skin shimmering with an icy, scaled luster. Her legs fused, transforming into a massive tail.

A colossal white serpent surged into being, coiling before the men, half-hidden amid the swirling dust.

Its body was thick as a barrel, stretching across the entire intersection.

“Monster!”

“She’s a snake demon?!”

“Kill it—kill the monster, now!”

They scrambled for axes, hurling them at the serpent from a distance.

Metal clanged against her scales, not leaving so much as a mark. Her body, like a living iceberg, steamed with a frosty mist at every breath. The frigid, vertical pupils glimmered with bloodlust as she writhed forward.

Axes, stones, and other debris were crushed into the asphalt beneath her coils.

Her serpentine tail swept across the cars, screeching against the metal with a force fiercer than any road scraper, leaving destruction in its wake.

Just moments before, Liu Yi hadn’t known what was happening. She’d only thought of fighting for her life. Her bones felt as if they would shatter, as though they were being painfully reshaped.

In that instant, the people before her were no longer human but heat sources, their skeletons and organs visible as if seen through infrared.

Her mind was overwhelmed by hunger. She lunged, jaws locking onto the blond thug’s throat. Instinct urged her to swallow, but the taste of human blood repulsed her, and she fought to spit it out, suppressing her hunger.

Her stomach cramped with spasms; she was starving.

So hungry… These heat sources seemed so appetizing.

Liu Yi’s sense of self remained, but she could barely control herself.

She knew her state was dire, even breathing was a struggle. She forced herself to stay rational, spitting out blood, trying not to look at the men.

Wait—a van full of supplies.

The van’s doors were warped and wide open from her rampage. Beneath the seats, boxes of supplies were piled up—bread, instant noodles, clothes, bottles of water—labels still visible despite the dented packaging.

Her vision blurred again—was she fainting from hunger?

She couldn’t bother with wrappers, she just shoved food into her mouth, devouring it ravenously.

Under the scorching sun, the black metal coffin soaked in blood gleamed with a cold, ghostly light. From the air holes at its base, slender vines began to sprout.

Then, suppressed screams echoed down the street.

“Ghost!”

“Ghost!” The wails were deafening.

The thugs had only known human evil, never the supernatural. Terrified, they could not even run.

By the time they regained their senses and tried to flee, their bodies shriveled and withered.

Their cheeks caved in visibly, foreheads and cheekbones protruding, their skin turning dull and wrinkled. In the blink of an eye, strong men became hollow-eyed skeletons, their clothes hanging loosely from their frames.

Their thin necks revealed the knobby line of vertebrae.

“I’ll never do it again—help, help…”

The bald man reached out for his companions, his cries fading until, finally, he dissolved into dust with the wind, leaving only a pile of old clothes.

Dust swirled across the dry asphalt, the sounds of agony rising and falling.

Soon, all that remained were heaps of abandoned clothing.

Meanwhile, Liu Yi still gorged herself, fangs scraping open tins as if biting through fragile beancurd skin. No matter how much she ate, her hunger was insatiable.

Only when everything was devoured did she spare a glance at her surroundings.

So quiet…

Where had all the heat sources gone?

She had worried that, in her hunger, she might lose control and eat those wretches too.

A sharp pain twisted in her belly.

First, her spine felt as if it was being yanked out, then the agony spread through her body like knives slicing and burning, every bone aching.

Had she swallowed the packaging by mistake?

She writhed in pain, tears welling in her serpentine eyes, her tail inadvertently striking the coffin.

With a series of sharp cracks, the axe had failed to break the black metal, but her scales, grating against the seams, forced it open. Wrist-thick vines burst from the crack, prying it wide, growing with violent force.

The vines shot toward the white serpent, binding her writhing body.

The massive snake thrashed, breaking countless vines, which recoiled into the coffin, wounded.

But even as the vines retreated, her scales began to peel away, leaving a pristine layer of shed skin behind.

Liu Yi’s eyes widened, her neck arched, white scales rippling across her face before finally receding.

Her body was covered in abrasions, the skin at her joints raw and bleeding, tiny beads of blood oozing from the broken skin…