CH 148

Chapter 148 – 1992-2020

Little Apple panicked and didn’t know what to do.

Are these people the monk’s associates? If they find that the monk is missing, will they come to find him?!

Should she run?

But what about Lian Qiao? Why did the curse activate at this time!

Little Apple felt like she had a ball of cement in her head, too thick to be stirred. She couldn’t use her brain at all and was sweating profusely, so she had to ask Lian Qiao for help tremblingly.

“Lian, Lian Qiao!” Little Apple tried her best to hold back her crying, “What to do! What to do!”

“… Hu… hu…” Lian Qiao gasped for breath, without a trace of blood on his face, but he was still fighting. He raised his hand and pointed to the hole in the wall, “Block… hu… Block the hole…”

Little Apple ran to the wall without thinking but immediately felt overwhelmed.

Block the hole? Use what to block?

That’s right! Clothes!

Fortunately, they were still wearing the old clothes given to them by the principal. The clothes were full of patchwork. Little Apple gritted her teeth, tore the patches to pieces and stuffed them into the wall in clumps. It didn’t take long before the holes in the entire wall were completely blocked.

The light-transmitting wall hole was blocked and the small room immediately became dark.

“What next?!”

Little Apple turned her head anxiously but in the darkness she couldn’t see where Lian Qiao was.

When she couldn’t see Lian Qiao, she was even more shaken. Fortunately, Lian Qiao immediately gave her the next step.

“Next… Hu… Don’t, don’t talk…”

Little Apple sniffed, holding back tears: “…Hmmphh!”

She tried her best to restrain the trembling of her body and groped towards the direction of Lian Qiao’s voice. When she crawled over, she accidentally bumped into the monk on the ground and the soft touch of his body scared her to death. Fortunately, Lian Qiao sensed her approach and took the initiative to give her a hand.

“Here.” Lian Qiao’s voice was thin and inaudible.

Lian Qiao tugged at her sleeve. That movement was very light but it made Little Apple feel at ease like never before. She bit her lips tightly, holding back her tears, avoided the monk as carefully as possible and crawled to Lian Qiao’s side.

The footsteps on the stairs were getting closer and closer, and they had reached the fourth floor.

Little Apple didn’t even dare to breathe and was even afraid of the sound of her heartbeat being overheard. Lian Qiao beside her didn’t seem to care so much, still taking slow and long deep breaths. The sound of breathing trembled slightly, he was obviously enduring great pain.

There was a flickering light outside the small room, like a flashlight. The group of people chatted, laughed and spoke a dialect, but Little Apple couldn’t understand what they were saying.

It’s just that there are far more people in this group than she imagined. It seems that there are at least… seven or eight?

The light of the torch was flickering but this group of people didn’t notice it. They still walked upstairs. Little Apple felt relieved and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly someone shouted loudly on the stairs.

“Fuck!”

Even with a dialect, any Chinese person can understand this countrified curse word. Immediately afterwards, the man murmured something again and everyone around him burst into laughter.

Little Apple’s nerves tensed up again in an instant. She listened intently, breathlessly, wondering what was going on outside. However, she didn’t dare to poke her head out to take a peek and could only try to discern the situation outside from the voices.

“Uh…uh!” Amidst the series of scolding and laughter, there was a faint meowing sound of a kitten.

Little Apple wondered what was going on and then heard a few blunt sounds, which seemed to be the sound of metal hitting the flesh. The meowing of the kitten stopped abruptly and the men burst into laughter again, talking in gibberish dialect, laughing and walking upstairs.

After the group of people walked away, Little Apple finally let out a long sigh of relief.

She felt dizzy for a while and then realized that she had been holding her breath.

At the same time, the person beside him let out a weak moan.

“Uh…”

Little Apple felt that the person next to him had fallen limply, so she quickly reached out to help him. However, as soon as she stretched out her hand, her fingertips suddenly touched something cold and sharp.

Little Apple retracted her hand in shock. The weird touch still lingers on the fingertips, lingering.

It was cold, sharp, and seemed to be touched by something warm and greasy…

Little Apple was startled by the smell of hot blood rising into the air. Shocked, she couldn’t help but lose her voice: “Lian Qiao, you—”

Lian Qiao’s weak panting came from the concrete floor and he no longer had the strength to speak.

Restraining the fear in her heart, Little Apple reached out to him again. This time, even when she touched that weird thing, she didn’t back down. So she quickly discovered what the cold and sharp thing on Lian Qiao’s chest was.

It was a hand.

Three fingers were extended, with pointed nails, the hands of a child.

The ghost claw was covered with blood and it was firmly inserted into Lian Qiao’s chest. It turned out that the curse was actually like this, and it turned out that there was really no salvation!

Little Apple burst into tears instantly. She wanted to cry but her voice was choked in her throat, so she could only kneel in front of Lian Qiao, trying to block the bloody hole in Lian Qiao’s chest with her hands.

Hot blood poured out of the blood hole continuously. The ghost claws sensed the stranger’s approach and the three ghost claws twisted together.

Lian Qiao snorted, obviously in extreme pain.

Little Apple’s heart trembled and she quickly withdrew her hand, not daring to touch him again. She really didn’t know what to do at this time. Hot tears infected her entire face and she burst into tears like rain, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Lian Qiao, don’t… don’t die… what will he do if you die… don’t die!”

Even if he didn’t hear the person’s name, just hearing the word “he” knocked sense back into Lian Qiao. He forcibly pulled himself back from the brink of unconsciousness.

“…” A faint voice came from the darkness.

Little Apple didn’t care about the ferocious and twisted claws on Lian Qiao’s chest and quickly put her ears towards the noise, holding back her tears and said, “What are you trying to say? Tell me, I’m listening!”

“Help…him…” Lian Qiao’s throat was blocked by surging blood and he could only utter indistinct syllables, “Save him… save… him…”

“I will definitely save him! I will do my best to rescue him!” Little Apple suddenly had a strong impulse in her heart. She hugged Lian Qiao in her arms, dragged him to the stairs and said,  while suppressing crying, “You hold on! Hold on a little longer! I’ll take you to see him for the last time!”

“Cough…cough Cough…” Lian Qiao coughed violently as he moved rashly and irritated his badly injured lungs. He coughed so hard it seemed he was going to cough both lungs out of his throat.

Coughing and retching, he started vomiting again. It’s just that in the dark, it’s impossible to see whether he vomited blood or internal organs.

Little Apple couldn’t bear it anymore and finally collapsed, covering her mouth and crying loudly.

“Wuuuuu……” The suppressed and desperate cries echoed in the dark room, mixed with the weaker coughing of the man.

“Don’t… cry…” Lian Qiao stretched out his hand to her with difficulty and gently pushed her with bloody fingers, “You… alone… go…”

“Wu… wu wu…Lian Qiao…” Little Apple hated herself so much that she could only cry, she thought how great it would be if Xu RenDong was here! Lian Qiao was so strong, a man who can stand side by side with Lian Qiao must also be strong!

—If that person was here instead of her, would Lian Qiao still die?!

But there is no if in the world!

Little Apple desperately covered her mouth, fearing that the crying would disturb the people above. She crazily hated herself and hated her own incompetence, but she finally forced herself to calm down, forced herself to ask Lian Qiao tremblingly in a hoarse voice: “What else do you want me to… tell him…”

“…” In the darkness, Lian Qiao seemed to smile slightly, and then exhausted his last bit of tenderness and said, “Help me…bring him a Xiaolongbao…”

“… it’s delicious.”

After saying these three words, there was no sound around.

Little Apple was stunned. Like being suddenly thrown into a -20 degree freezer, her whole person was frozen into ice from head to toe.

Lian Qiao died.

There was no need to confirm, Lian Qiao was dead.

Little Apple stood up in a trance and walked towards the stairs.

She didn’t know how she got outside the building. Outside the unfinished building, it was already dark. Had it been such a long time?

What’s the time now? Has Xu RenDong finished class yet?

…Let’s go buy Xiaolongbao first.

Delicious. Really tasty. He will definitely like it.

After a day of class, he must be hungry.

But Lian Qiao—

Lian Qiao—was dead—

Little Apple walked to the edge of the fence, saw the pile of construction waste on the ground, remembered that Lian Qiao was still looking for weapons here a moment ago and even handed her two bricks with a smile. She broke down in tears again.  “Wuuuuuuuuuuuu…”     

Suddenly, her eyelids twitched.     

Little Apple was stunned, feeling as if her eyelids were lifted by a pair of invisible hands.    

What, what’s going on?     

She touched her left eye in horror. The next second, her left eye went black and severe pain came suddenly!     

“Ahhhh!” It hurts! It hurts!

Hot and sticky stuff came out of her eye. Little Apple lowered her head tremblingly and saw a red, white and white thing lying in his palm.

Her—her—

Eye—ball—

Great fear seized her heart within an instant. Before she could catch her breath, the eyelid of her right eye was opened by an invisible hand.

And then. 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” 

Little Apple could no longer see anything and her whole world fell into eternal darkness.     What happened and why? It hurts, it hurts… Who will save me…     

Xu RenDong, go find Xu RenDong! He might have a way!     

Following the memory before losing her eyes, Little Apple stumbled and ran outside but bumped into an iron fence.     

Where was the exit? Where is that hole?!     

With blood-stained hands groping wildly on the iron fence, Little Apple wept uncontrollably and was so frightened that she couldn’t breathe.     

It hurts! It hurts! Who can help me!     

She frantically called for help in her heart, but what responded to her was not redemption but two “clicking” noises.

Suddenly she couldn’t feel anything with her hands.

……What?     

What about the fence? Where is the fence, why can’t I touch it.     

Then severe pain came from her wrist, Little Apple didn’t realize that it was her two hands that fell to the ground with two slapping noises.     

Fortunately, she didn’t suffer the pain of her wrists being broken for long. Because her legs were also suddenly broken.     

…… Why?

Little Apple that lost both her hands and feet was like a broken china doll. She fell on the abandoned construction site, staring at the sky with empty eye sockets.

Why? Why did it become like this?

The excruciating pain and massive blood loss cut off her senses. In the severe dizziness, she thought in great confusion:

Why? Why did I become like this?

Who did these things to me?

… Now, I can’t even buy Xiaolongbao.

{If it’s not clear, XRD just died in the manner that Little Apple did, hence why she suffered the same fate as him. There will be more information about how it happened later on.}