Chapter One

**Ring... Ring... Ring...**

At eight-thirty in the morning, the urgent sound of an alarm clock rang out from one of the rooms on the third floor of a building nestled among many dilapidated houses.

Most of these houses were built in the mid-1980s and had very cramped layouts. The originally white lime-washed walls were stained and blotchy, with large patches of peeled-off lime revealing the red bricks underneath.

In the corridors of these buildings, coal briquettes, miscellaneous items, and broken cardboard boxes were piled high. Clearly, like many similar houses in Chengdu, these buildings were rented out to migrant workers as cheap housing.

However, the houses in this area were somewhat different because they were close to a technical university in Chengdu. Therefore, most of the renters here were students.

These young men and women, far from their parents and studying in a different city, came together for various reasons. Tired of the restrictive dormitory life at school, they moved out to rent houses together.

This phenomenon was very common, and the school turned a blind eye to it. The only ones who complained were the frustrated male students who couldn't find a girlfriend on campus.

Inside one room, a young man about twenty years old got up from the bed, groggily picked up the alarm clock, looked at it, then turned it off and tossed it onto the nearby table.

It was a typical bachelor's room, with various clothes and pants piled haphazardly on a chair in the corner. The desk by the bed was covered with books, magazines, and game discs, and the floor was littered with scraps of paper and garbage. The only trash bin was stuffed with instant noodle bowls, and everything screamed "messy."

The young man was about 1.75 meters tall, not particularly handsome but with regular features and a well-proportioned build, making him quite pleasant to look at.

He rubbed his head, got dressed, and then walked to another room, kicking a high-bouncing quilt on the bed. "Get up, it's time for class." He then turned and walked into the bathroom.

With a lazy groan, the quilt was pulled aside, and another young man crawled out of bed. He was slightly taller than the first, with a round face that wrinkled from lack of sleep. He squinted and rubbed his face before finally waking up.

If you looked closely at this young man, you would see that he had a delicate face and a scholarly air, with a very likable appearance. His eyes were extremely lively, indicating a sharp mind.

The young man mumbled something as he got out of bed and started getting dressed. "Guo Ming, what class do we have this morning?"

Guo Ming poked his head out of the bathroom, a toothbrush in his mouth, and mumbled, "Let me think... the first two periods are Political Economy, and the next three are all Economic Law."

"D*mn! It's Professor Zeng's class again. Hurry up, I need to use the bathroom!" The bespectacled young man groaned, pulling a few books from a pile and grabbing a notebook to toss onto the bed.

Ten minutes later, the two young men hurried down the stairs, each carrying a pile of books. One held a piece of dry bread, which he was munching on while running, choking and stretching his neck.

These two young men were Guo Ming and Xu Dongzhuo, both twenty-one years old and second-year Business Management students at the nearby technical university. They had grown up together in a small town near Chengdu, attending the same primary, middle, and high schools, and even ended up at the same university. With similar interests, they had spent almost every day together since childhood, becoming inseparable best friends.

Tired of the rigid dormitory life with its strict lights-out schedule and lacking girlfriends to share an apartment with, they decided to move out and rent a two-bedroom unit, enjoying a more carefree lifestyle.

This decision initially sparked rumors in their class, naturally unfavorable in content. However, the two were well-liked, and the rumors eventually died down, even encouraging several classmates to move out and rent apartments themselves.

Their place was about a ten-minute walk from the university, just enough time to make it to the 9 a.m. class. They were used to this race against time, so despite the apparent rush, they remained calm.

Running through the alleys of the residential area to the main road, they could reach the school in five or six minutes by following this road. However, as soon as they reached the roadside, they both let out a simultaneous cry of dismay and stood dumbfounded, looking around.

The normally poorly maintained, dusty road was now jammed with various vehicles, honking loudly. Two-thirds of the road was occupied by construction vehicles and rollers, laying asphalt. The remaining third was divided into two lanes, with vehicles cautiously moving along, fearing any slight mishap might cause a collision. There was no space left at the roadside, and several traffic police officers were sweating profusely while directing the heavy traffic.

"My god, why did they choose this time to repair the road?" Xu Dongzhuo yelled, covering his nose to avoid the dust blowing in his face.

"I have no idea what they're thinking! But one thing's for sure, we're definitely going to be late. Zeng the Demon is scarier than this when he gets mad," Guo Ming said despairingly as he checked the time on his phone.

The thought of Zeng the Demon taking attendance and finding them absent, and what that would mean for their final exams, made them both shiver. Xu Dongzhuo's eyes darted around, and suddenly he slapped Guo Ming on the shoulder and started running back. "Follow me, I have an idea."

Guo Ming, puzzled, followed Xu Dongzhuo, asking, "What idea? We're going to be late anyway; we might as well go back to sleep and just attend the last three classes."

"If you want to die, I won't join you. Zeng the Demon sometimes takes attendance during the second period to catch those who try to skip class. Let's try our luck this time! We can't take the main road, so we'll go through the shortcut." Xu Dongzhuo said, panting as he ran.

They ran back about 200 meters to an old brick wall, found some bricks to use as a step, and climbed over it.

Inside was the abandoned state-owned bus factory, which was quite large and adjacent to the school. It had been abandoned for five or six years but hadn't been sold, retaining its original appearance, with no one guarding it.

The factory area was overgrown with weeds, and many stray dogs and cats lived in the dilapidated workshops. The rusted frames of buses scrapped many years ago were still scattered around, corroded by the wind and sun.

This place was very eerie at night, and no one dared to come here. Even during the day, students only took this shortcut if they had no other choice.

There was still plenty of time before the first class ended, so the two walked casually, kicking at the knee-high weeds. Suddenly, Guo Ming, with sharp eyes, exclaimed, "Hey, what's that?"

"What?" Xu Dongzhuo was busy calculating his monthly budget with his wallet and responded absentmindedly.

Guo Ming had already run over and parted a clump of wild grass. In the center of the grass was a neatly pressed patch, slightly sunken, with some bones, rags, and other trash haphazardly piled up, looking like an animal's nest.

Xu Dongzhuo glanced at it and walked away. "It's just a pile of trash! What's so interesting?"

"No, look at this!" Guo Ming picked up two pale yellow, strange little balls from under a rag. The surface of these balls was covered with strange patterns and small holes. Weren't they the same as the four balls that had fallen from the hands of those mysterious people that night?

Xu Dongzhuo became interested and took one of the balls, examining it closely. "I don't know; this looks like a golf ball!"

"Nonsense, golf balls have logos on them, and besides, golf balls are white," Guo Ming said as he wiped the ball with his sleeve.

"Then it's a tennis ball. I remember seeing yellow tennis balls on TV." Xu Dongzhuo tossed the strange ball in his hand while looking around boredly.

"Nonsense, I bet this thing isn't any kind of ball," Guo Ming said, annoyed, looking at Xu Dongzhuo.

"Then what do you think it is?" Xu Dongzhuo asked, holding up the ball.

Having grown up together, Guo Ming didn't get angry and pretended to examine the ball, even though he was just as clueless.

Just as Xu Dongzhuo was about to throw the ball away and urge Guo Ming to leave, they heard a rustling in the grass behind them, followed by a low, growling sound.

The stray dogs in this area were notoriously numerous... The two immediately froze, not even daring to breathe. After a while, they stiffly turned their heads.

Sure enough, three or four meters behind them, a strong stray dog was crouched on the ground, growling at them with fiery eyes, clearly unhappy about them invading its territory and disturbing its nest.

"See what you've done, messing with a dog's nest! What do we do now?" Xu Dongzhuo stammered.

"How should I know? If it's just one dog, can we take it down?" Guo Ming's eyes flashed with determination as he glared at the dog.

Staring directly at the dog was a serious provocation. The dog bared its teeth, lunged forward, and barked loudly.

"Oh my god!" Guo Ming quickly looked away and started running.

"Idiot, why are you running! You're getting us killed!" Xu Dongzhuo tried to grab Guo Ming, but seeing the dog pounce, he screamed in terror and followed suit.

The knee-high grass severely hindered their running speed. Xu Dongzhuo, lagging behind, hadn't run fifty meters before feeling a sharp pain in his calf. He screamed and fell, touching the torn pant leg to find his hand covered in blood.

Seeing his friend injured, Guo Ming stopped running and turned back, shouting and waving his arms at the dog. The dog, unafraid, abandoned the incapacitated Xu Dongzhuo and charged at Guo Ming. In less than three rounds, Guo Ming was also down with the same fate as Xu Dongzhuo.

Satisfied after biting the two intruders, the stray dog growled contentedly, circled them a few times, and then stopped.

Guo Ming and Xu Dongzhuo were inwardly cursing their luck, wondering if the dog had rabies. The rabies vaccine cost several hundred yuan per dose, and now this unexpected disaster would cost them dearly. Plus, the dog wouldn't leave, which meant they might not even make it to Zeng the Demon's second class.

"Why won't it leave?" Guo Ming asked, grimacing as he held his leg.

"Why don't you ask it? If I get rabies, you'll be the first I bite," Xu Dongzhuo said through gritted teeth.

"Here, use this to throw at it. I've heard dogs are scared of people throwing stones," Guo Ming said, picking up one of the small round balls at his feet and preparing to throw it at the dog.

Xu Dongzhuo also picked up a ball, unsure if this would work. Surprisingly, the dog yelped, tucked its tail, and ran away without a trace.

"Hahaha... I told you it would work!" Guo Ming laughed triumphantly, helping Xu Dongzhuo up.

At this point, they hadn't noticed that the two round balls had absorbed the blood from their hands. The balls' surfaces began to change, with a faint red thread appearing in the center of the yellow patterns. Tiny tentacles extended from all the small holes, sticking to their palms.

Xu Dongzhuo, frustrated, kicked a stone and was about to speak when he suddenly felt the scenery around him twist. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but a shock hit his brain, and he lost consciousness.

As Xu Dongzhuo fainted, Guo Ming also collapsed. The round balls in their hands emitted a soft red glow, and the tiny tentacles extended like silk threads, wrapping around their bodies like spider webs.

The balls moved to their foreheads, with the patterns extending to their ears and noses, emitting a purple mist that entered their nostrils and ears.

As more silk threads wrapped around them, the balls gradually shrank until they disappeared completely. The two were encased in cocoons that resembled human forms, with a faint red and blue glow flashing from their heads.

After all the strange changes, the cocoons lay still, with only the red and blue light pulsing at their heads. Time passed slowly, and in the corner of the abandoned factory, the two lay motionless. Stray cats and dogs crouched at a distance, watching in fear.

After a day and a night, the next morning, the cocoons cracked with a sharp snap. The previously flexible outer layer crumbled like ash, blown away by the morning breeze, leaving no trace.

Guo Ming and Xu Dongzhuo, who had been wrapped inside for a day and a night, were revealed, seemingly unchanged. Even the blood on their leg wounds hadn't coagulated. If not for the passage of time, they looked exactly as they had before they fainted.

"Ugh..." Xu Dongzhuo groaned first, climbing to his feet in confusion.

Rubbing his head in confusion, Xu Dongzhuo slowly began to recall what had happened before he passed out. He looked around nervously and, seeing no sign of the wild dog, he finally let out a sigh of relief. Without bothering to question why he and Guo Ming had inexplicably fainted, he quickly squatted down and shook Guo Ming awake.

"Huh? What happened to me?" Guo Ming asked, finding himself lying on the ground, bewildered.

"I don't know either. It seems that after we got bitten by the dog, we just passed out," Xu Dongzhuo explained.

"What! Could it be that rabies is already setting in? How could it be so fast? Could we have caught some new strain of 'hyper rabies'?" Guo Ming's face turned pale as he scrambled to his feet.

"Cut the crap. If we really have rabies, I'll bite you first before I kill myself," Xu Dongzhuo retorted angrily, though he was genuinely frightened. He just wanted to get to the campus clinic and get vaccinated as soon as possible.

"D*mn it, how long were we unconscious? We're definitely late now," Guo Ming suddenly remembered, crying out as he pulled out his phone.

Unexpectedly, his distressed face turned to one of relief. "That scared me. It's only 9:30. We've only been out for a few minutes. Hurry, we can still make it to school on time." With that, Guo Ming picked up his fallen textbooks and ran off.

"Hey… you're paying half of the vaccination fee. I'm out of pocket money for the month," Xu Dongzhuo shouted, chasing after him.

"You think I have money? Forget it."

The two bickered as they quickly ran towards the school. Neither noticed that the two small balls they had been holding had mysteriously vanished.

About ten minutes later, they arrived at the teaching building just as the bell for the end of the first period rang. Ignoring the pain in their legs, they quickly slipped into the 2-F lecture hall where their class was held.

"Hey, Liu Jian, how's it going? Did Professor Zeng call roll?" Guo Ming and Xu Dongzhuo cautiously sat in the back row and patted a boy in front who was texting.

The boy, Liu Jian, turned around and gave them a strange look, raised his thumb, and then turned back to his phone without answering their question.

Their hearts sank. Despite their efforts, they had still fallen victim to Professor Zeng. Guo Ming's spirit deflated, and he sighed heavily, throwing his book on the desk. "We're screwed."

"Where were you guys yesterday? You missed the whole day of classes," said a boy who plopped down next to Xu Dongzhuo. This boy, Zhang Qingyu, was good friends with the two of them.

"What do you mean yesterday? We were playing S together yesterday. Zhang Qingyu, what nonsense are you talking about?" Xu Dongzhuo asked, puzzled.

To their surprise, Zhang Qingyu looked shocked. He glanced around and then leaned close to Guo Ming and Xu Dongzhuo. "Are you guys serious? It's already May 12th," he whispered.

"What! No way! We only fainted for a few minutes, right?" Guo Ming's voice was filled with disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me. You really spent the whole day yesterday asleep?" Zhang Qingyu asked, looking at them like they were crazy.

Guo Ming pulled out his phone and carefully checked the date. He then whispered to Xu Dongzhuo, "Crap, we must have been out for a whole day and night."

Xu Dongzhuo turned to Guo Ming, and the two exchanged looks of shock and confusion. At that moment, they both pictured Professor Zeng's icy glare.

As soon as class ended, they grabbed their books and dashed to the campus clinic.

Having whispered and speculated throughout the entire class, they had concluded that their fainting spell must have been caused by the dog bite. This realization left them restless, unable to sit still, worried they might have contracted some strange virus. Several times they almost bolted to the clinic, but they managed to stay composed, avoiding the folly of leaving class in front of the professor.

"Doctor, we've been bitten by a dog…" they cried out desperately, bursting into the surgery like a whirlwind.

A young doctor was chatting on his phone, smiling sweetly as he spoke, clearly preoccupied with matters of love. He glanced at them and mumbled, "Go to the nurse at the front, get some antiseptic, and come back in two days for a follow-up."

"We were bitten by a wild dog. We need rabies shots," Guo Ming insisted, banging his fist on the table, growing increasingly frustrated with the doctor's nonchalance.

The doctor's hand trembled, and his phone clattered to the floor. In the hallway, a nurse administering an injection yelped, "Sorry, the needle broke…" followed by a student's pained scream.

The doctor looked as though he had seen a pair of bandits. Terrified, he put on a sycophantic smile, abandoning his phone. "Please, follow me," he said, ushering them into the injection room.

"Do you think the rabies shot will hurt? I'm terrified of needles," Guo Ming asked, lowering his pants and looking back at Xu Dongzhuo as the doctor prepared the injections.

"I've never had one. We'll find out soon enough."

"What are you doing?" the doctor asked, baffled, as he walked in to find the two boys with their pants down.

"What do you think? We're getting shots," Xu Dongzhuo replied matter-of-factly.

"Idiot, the rabies vaccine is administered in the arm. Pull your pants up!"

Blushing, the two quickly got dressed.

Once they were ready, the doctor flicked the syringe, a strange gleam in his eye.

With a firm grip, he plunged the needle into Xu Dongzhuo's arm, forcefully injecting the serum. The force and abruptness of the injection, coupled with his unorthodox technique, suggested a hint of revenge.

Watching Xu Dongzhuo wince in pain, tears welling up in his eyes, Guo Ming shut his eyes tightly in anticipation of his own turn.