The Killing Trap

Hanshuang Street.

Two uncollected figures stood at the door of their house, their faces full of hesitation.

This house that once belonged to them was now occupied by someone who had come back from the dead... or rather, a "thing". The mass grave had been polluted by the Gray Realm last night, so it was highly likely that the one in the house was a calamity disguised as Chen Ling.

"What should we do now..." Li Xiuchun swallowed nervously.

"What else can we do?" Chen Tan took a deep breath. "Go in, quickly take all our valuables, and then run! Run to District 5 or District 6. Anyway, the farther away from here, the better!"

"But it's still inside. What if we wake it up?"

"It's already left."

Chen Tan looked at the muddy footprints at the door and said with certainty.

Hearing this, the woman finally let out a sigh of relief. She opened the door with the key, and the two of them rushed in quickly.

"Only take the coins and precious items! Leave all the bulky things behind!"

"I'll go to the bedroom, and you go to the living room!"

"Hurry up! Hurry! We still don't know when it will be back!"

The two of them nervously took out two sacks and started packing their things separately.

The man opened the drawer and stuffed all the money into his pocket. Just as he was about to leave, he saw the axe by the bedside for self-defense. After a moment of hesitation, he stuffed it into the sack as well.

Their family was not well-off, and there were few valuable things. But precisely because of these two reasons, the two of them couldn't bear to give up these few belongings that they had earned with their own hands.

Li Xiuchun stuffed three cotton and linen clothes into the pocket in one go. After making sure there was nothing left behind, she hurried to the living room.

The two of them carried the sacks on their shoulders and were about to leave when Li Xiuchun suddenly spoke up:

"What will happen to A Yan when he comes back if we leave?"

"Then we'll go to District 2 first! After picking him up, we'll take him with us and run away!" Chen Tan replied firmly.

"He will definitely look for his brother..."

"His brother is already dead."

As Chen Tan spoke, he was about to open the door. Just then, the sound of a key being inserted into the lock came.

The two of them froze in place!

The door was slowly opened, and a young man walked in.

Chen Ling was slightly taken aback when he saw the two people carrying the sacks and asked in confusion, "Dad, Mom, where are you going?"

Chen Tan and Li Xiuchun looked as if they had seen a ghost, their faces turning pale.

At the same time, a fast horse galloped past the window, and the shouts of the Enforcers echoed in the air above the street:

"A suspected high-risk calamity has appeared! The entire District 3 is under full lockdown! No one is allowed to enter or leave!!"

"Pay attention to all suspicious signs around you, such as roads or buildings that appear out of thin air, strange and mysterious creatures, or even humans with abnormal behavior!!"

"If you find anything unusual, report it to the Enforcers immediately..."

The voices of the Enforcers gradually faded away.

In the narrow house, the atmosphere fell into a strange and deathly silence.

"We..."

Hearing the voices outside, the two of them trembled in fear. They stared at the young man in front of them in horror, and in a trance, he seemed to turn into a ferocious demon from hell!

Chen Ling's gaze fell on the two large sacks, and thinking of what the Enforcers had just shouted, he tried to comfort them, "Don't worry too much. That so-called calamity doesn't seem to be around here. The street is still okay, isn't it?"

Chen Tan: ...

Li Xiuchun: ...

Chen Ling was also very helpless.

At first, when he heard the news of the "world-destroying" calamity's invasion, he didn't think much of it. But when he saw the sudden surge in the audience expectation value, he immediately felt that something was wrong...

Zhao Yi had been beaten for an entire afternoon, and the expectation value had only increased by a dozen or so points. But as soon as the Enforcers shouted, the expectation value soared to over sixty!

Based on what Chen Ling knew so far, this meant that "they" had found something extremely exciting.

Unfortunately, this "exciting thing"... might be himself.

Doctor Lin had also mentioned the convergence of the Gray Realm and the calamity before. And it so happened that he had 穿越 last night, and the memories of the original owner from that night were gone... Putting all these clues together, who else could this calamity be if not him?

Chen Ling guessed that what these Enforcers were looking for was very likely the "audience" in his head.

Chen Ling had also thought about turning himself in to the Enforcers directly and asking them to find a way to deal with the "audience" in his head. But judging from their attitude towards the calamity, there was a greater possibility that they would kill him along with it.

All in all, he decided to try to ride out this storm first and observe the situation.

Seeing that the two of them were still tense all over and looked extremely nervous, Chen Ling sighed and took the initiative to reach out and take the sack from Li Xiuchun.

"Mom, where else can you run to at this time?"

"Both District 2 and District 3 are under lockdown, and we can't get out at all. Are you going to sleep on the streets?"

When Li Xiuchun heard the first sentence, she was so scared that she was stunned. After hearing the rest of the words, she barely came back to her senses and forced a dry laugh, "Yes... You're right."

"Dad, put it down too. Don't be too nervous... What will happen to A Yan if we run away?"

Chen Tan swallowed hard and stared intently at Chen Ling, trying to find even the slightest hint of strangeness or killing intent on the latter's face... But he failed.

Chen Ling's every move didn't seem like that of a "calamity" at all, and he was no different from the Chen Ling in his mind.

But Chen Tan knew very well in his heart... He wasn't Chen Ling.

Chen Ling was already dead.

"You guys sit for a while. I'll go to the kitchen and pour you a glass of water." Seeing that the two of them still had pale faces, Chen Ling pulled out the chairs beside the table and then turned and walked into the kitchen.

Li Xiuchun and Chen Tan looked at each other and finally sat down obediently...

As Chen Ling was pouring water in the kitchen, he was thinking about how to ease the atmosphere and casually said, "By the way, Mom, the sausage you left for me this morning was really delicious. How did you make it?"

"Sausage... sausage?"

Li Xiuchun looked a bit dazed.

She and Chen Tan had gone to the mass grave last night. Where had she left any sausage?

"It's the one on the chopping board." Chen Ling replied.

The confusion in Li Xiuchun's eyes became even more pronounced. She tried hard to recall, and finally, as if she had thought of something, her face turned as pale as paper!

"When did you leave a sausage for him?" Chen Tan asked in a low voice.

"I... I didn't leave one." Li Xiuchun also replied in a low voice, stuttering. "There was originally a boning knife on that chopping board... But when I was packing things just now, I found that... the knife was gone."

Chen Tan's face also changed suddenly!

At the same time, Chen Ling, who was standing in the kitchen with his back to the two of them, slowly continued, "That sausage tasted really good, but it seemed a bit hard... Mom, remember to bake it softer for me tomorrow."

The living room was deathly silent.

Chen Ling poured the water and handed it to the two of them, only to find that their faces seemed even paler...

"Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?" Chen Ling asked in confusion as he sat opposite them.

"...I'm fine."

Chen Tan took a deep breath, quietly pulled the sack on the ground to his feet with his foot, and his voice became a bit calmer, "A Ling."

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember what happened yesterday?"

"Yesterday?" Chen Ling tried hard to think for a while and then shook his head. "I can't remember clearly... Why?"

"...It's okay." Chen Tan took a sip of water lightly, as if he had made up his mind, and looked Chen Ling directly in the eyes. "What do you think... How have we treated you?"

"Very well." Chen Ling said matter-of-factly. "If it weren't for you taking me in back then, I might have already frozen to death on the street... My biological parents didn't want me. It was you who raised me and worked hard day and night to send me to school. Everything I have is given by you."

Everything I have is given by you.

Hearing this sentence, a hint of relief flashed in Chen Tan's eyes...

"Then if one day, A Yan is ill... and only your heart can save him... Would you be willing to save him?"

Chen Ling was stunned.

At that moment, he felt that this sentence was somewhat familiar.

Fragmented memories emerged from the mind of the original owner, and Chen Ling's head started to hurt again... He suddenly remembered that the original owner last night seemed to have heard similar words.

"I... I..." Chen Ling held his head, and a look of pain appeared on his face.

"A Yan is our own flesh and blood. In order to conceive him, your mother took so many medicines that it ruined her health... We tried for ten years before finally having this one and only child...

"A child who truly belongs to us!"

"Now he's ill, and we can't just watch him die... The divine shaman in District 2 said that as long as we can get another young heart that's no more than 20 years old, it can replace A Yan's heart that's about to fail.

"A Yan has called you brother for so many years, and you've been our dear son in our family for so many years. Your parents have never asked you for anything, but just this once... We're begging you to save A Yan.

"Tell me... You're willing, right?"

Chen Tan's body trembled slightly, and his eyes looking at Chen Ling were full of pleading and expectation.

He was like a child who had done something wrong, waiting for a long-awaited forgiveness.

At this moment, the fragmented memories buried in the heavy rain last night were finally gradually remembered by Chen Ling. While enduring the pain in his head, he took a deep breath and said hoarsely, "So... it was you who killed him..."

"Him?"

"...Does A Yan know?"

"He doesn't know. If he knew that the heart he was about to receive was yours... He would rather die than agree."

Chen Tan snapped out of his inner struggle and guilt, reached into the sack at his feet, and slowly took out a sharp axe.

"A Ling, you're already dead. You shouldn't be here." Chen Tan's eyes were bloodshot, and he clenched the axe tightly as he said hoarsely, "No matter what is occupying your body... I will set you free."

A low rumble of thunder flashed across the dim sky.

A sharp axe was raised high...

And then swung down with force!

Bang——

A warm sensation splashed onto Chen Tan's face.

The scarlet blood bloomed on the floor like a bouquet of flowers. Chen Ling's body fell straight to the ground with a dull thud.

The axe embedded itself in his neck, almost cutting off his entire head. His eyes were glazed over as he stared into nothingness, and there was still a look of pain and confusion on his face...

He was dead.

There was no heartbeat, no breath. His body gradually grew cold, like a martyr who had fallen in a sea of bright red flowers.

Chen Tan's chest heaved violently. He stared fixedly at the completely dead body, and his clothes were soaked with sweat...

"Is he... dead...?" Li Xiuchun slumped in the chair and stuttered.

"...He's dead."

"What about the calamity?"

Chen Tan paused for a moment. "...I don't know."

Li Xiuchun stared blankly at the corpse and suddenly said, "Do you think... Is it possible that he wasn't a calamity... but that God gave us another chance to atone for our sins?"

"If that's the case..." Chen Tan let out a bitter laugh. "Then we really deserve to go to hell."