Chapter Forty-Eight: Black Snow

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I tilted my head and looked upward. It was pitch-black up there; apart from the suffocating gloom, I could see nothing.

Beside my ear, I could still hear the red-eyed rat pups gnawing at flesh, chittering and crunching away like some village madman sucking on a fat earthworm.

But apart from that, the surroundings suddenly fell into a deathly silence. Something strange hung in the air. Whether it was Fatty, me, or the red-eyed rats surrounding us, we were all enveloped by it.

It was as though, in that instant, we all sensed something in the darkness above, looking down upon us.

“Hss...”

A low, faint sound began to drift overhead. Almost the moment it arose, the tens of thousands of red-eyed rats converging on us all took a step backward in unison.

“Hss... hss...”

It was unlike the feeling of encountering some kind of danger. What that sound evoked was... the unknown.

It was far too strange.

The moment I heard it, countless possibilities flashed through my mind. Yet when I listened closely, I realized it resembled every sound I had ever heard—and none of them.

Whenever a person hears a sound, even once, the brain preserves a corresponding memory. But this time, I discovered that I had absolutely no memory of anything like it.

It sounded like countless people whispering among themselves, like fingertips brushing lightly across a wall, or like fallen leaves drifting eerily along the road in the dead of night. It was every sound at once, and yet it was nothing at all... Never had I imagined that my hearing could produce such a bizarre sensation.

Fatty was clearly bewildered as well, but he was ultimately far more experienced than I was.

After sensing that strange presence, Fatty turned his attention back to the red-eyed rats. Those hulking creatures, their bodies covered in black fur, seemed to have completely lost interest in us. One after another, they raised themselves and stood upright.

Fatty tugged at me, urging me to look.

Seeing that sea of black-furred rats standing all around us, I was even more astonished.

Yet through the gazes of those red-eyed rats, I could sense a warning of danger being transmitted without end.

“Hss-hss-hss...”

All at once, I heard the sound darting rapidly through the darkness above. I hurriedly raised my head.

The strange noise continued without pause. Faster and faster, closer and closer. Fatty and I no longer paid attention to the rats; we held our breath and stared upward.

What made it most unbearable was that although the sound kept circling above our heads, after waiting for what seemed like ages, neither Fatty nor I saw anything appear.

Under those circumstances, which were nearly enough to drive us mad, the red-eyed rats surrounding us suddenly dropped flat to the ground in perfect unison. Before Fatty and I could react, the rats at the front let out shrill cries and charged straight at us.

Describing their speed as lightning-fast would not have been an exaggeration.

Fatty had barely shouted, “Move!” when the rats had already reached our feet.

The cold sweat on my body seemed to flow backward. All I could see before me was a dense mass of black fur and red eyes rushing toward us—layer after layer, wave after wave.

It was as though these creatures were not running toward us but erupting from a volcano. When the first red-eyed rat slammed into me, it felt as if my lower leg had been struck by a heavy club. Pain shot through me, and I bared my teeth.

I had no idea whether these rats had grown up eating iron weights, but they were unbelievably hard. After being hit more than a dozen times in succession, I was almost knocked to the ground.

Fortunately, in that crucial instant, Fatty and I had both grabbed hold of each other, barely managing to keep our footing.

But faced with such an onslaught, there was nothing we could do. We could only endure the relentless collisions head-on. At that moment, both of us were certain we were doomed.

Fatty howled like a beast, as though he meant to vent every ounce of strength in his body through his mouth.

I narrowed my eyes in terror and thought that if Heaven still had even the slightest mercy for me, it might as well let these rats bite straight through my neck and be done with it.

Yet we stood there for a long while, and after nearly every rat had trampled over us, something strange happened.

Aside from the impact, neither Fatty nor I had even the slightest bite mark on our bodies.

As the swarm gradually thinned, Fatty and I stared at each other in disbelief. Then we turned around and saw that some of the rats had picked up the pinkish pups in their mouths. Once an adult red-eyed rat had seized a pup, it would race frantically toward the pile of bones, while the others continued searching the ground for any remaining pups.

“I understand now.” Fatty suddenly looked upward. “Those rats wanted to use us to feed their pups. But now that the thing above has appeared, they know they’re in danger, so they’re trying to escape.”

By then, much of the swarm had already dispersed, while the sound above continued to circle like a curse.

Just as the red-eyed rats were scattering in all directions, a sudden whistle came from overhead, followed by a tremendous crash. A second fleshy coffin fell from above.

In an instant, the scattered rats threw themselves toward it. Then we saw them once again fleeing in all directions with their pups clamped in their mouths.

The black mass of rats was like a whirlwind, and soon they had stripped the fleshy coffin bare.

But whatever was above gave them no chance to catch their breath. A dozen seconds later, a third, fourth, and fifth fleshy coffin came crashing down around the smokeless stove.

In an instant, the entire area became as terrifying as hell. Chunks of flesh lay everywhere, and entrails were visible at every glance. If not for the fear in my heart, I surely would have vomited again.

Although neither Fatty nor I had been struck by the coffins, our bodies were splattered from head to toe with the gruesome remains.

The rats’ eyes grew redder and redder, while their movements became slower and slower. Fatty and I could both tell that they were not tired. Rather, an extreme fury was spreading among them.

Before long, all the red-eyed rats gathered together. They glared furiously into the darkness above and let out a succession of piercing cries.

The “hss-hss” from above grew even more rapid...

It seemed that a vicious battle between two monsters was about to begin.

“Evil runs rampant. Bystanders, keep clear.”

Fatty and I had no idea why such a scene was unfolding in this ancient tomb, but we both knew perfectly well that we had better stay as far away as possible. We quietly picked up our blood-slick, sticky equipment bags and began retreating step by step.

At that moment, the largest red-eyed rat sprinted up along the brick wall and into the darkness above. Once its figure vanished, the other red-eyed rats surged after it like a rising tide.

The sight was horrifying. Many of the rats were pushed down by their companions behind them, but before they could even reach the ground, they sprang upward again.

They were like soldiers on a battlefield who had gone berserk with bloodlust, utterly incapable of understanding the meaning of fear.

“Should we fire a flare up there and take a look?” Fatty asked.

“I think we’d better not. If even this many red-eyed rats are afraid of that thing, lighting up the area would be no different from courting death, wouldn’t it?”

Though I said this, I was actually desperate to know what exactly was lurking above us.

However, after the last few red-eyed rats disappeared into the firelight, I still heard no great commotion from above.

Not only that, the rats’ shrieks gradually weakened. In barely more than a dozen seconds, every sound had vanished.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on up there? Who won?” Fatty was visibly panicked.

“Why don’t you climb up and check the score?” I stared at the darkness above, equally bewildered.

The silence was so completely at odds with the momentum the red-eyed rats had displayed earlier. Damn, it was just like people—no matter what kind of competition it was, whenever the decisive confrontation arrived, it always ended up disappointing the spectators.

Still, after surviving this long in front of tens of thousands of red-eyed rats, Fatty and I no longer dared ask for anything more.

I was just about to pick up the smokeless stove and leave when Fatty, still staring upward, suddenly sneezed.

“Achoo! Hey, why the hell are there so many black hairs? Ah... ah-choo!”

Fatty sneezed repeatedly while groping wildly around him.

But after only a few grabs, we both stood there dumbfounded.

Within the range illuminated by the smokeless stove, black fur from the rats was now drifting everywhere, as though black snow had begun falling inside the ancient tomb.

P.S.

Can Old Bei still receive your precious monthly votes before the end of the month?

(That’s right—the blind date ended in tragedy.)