Just as Xiao Ran was about to let out a scream, Doctor Zhao immediately covered her mouth from behind.

That scream turned into a muffled grunt, suppressed in her throat.

Doctor Zhao had seen the three people who went out earlier all fall silent. Curious, he followed them out to take a look, only to witness such a bizarre scene that nearly scared his soul away.

None of the four dared to make a sound, quietly watching this “person” whose form resembled a cricket.

They saw him rapidly swinging his hind legs like an insect, continuously changing direction as if searching for something, while occasionally raising the two bloody holes on his face to look around.

His neck movements were nothing like a human’s, but rather like an insect’s—quick and with a frighteningly large range of motion.

A few seconds later, that “person” suddenly leaped high into the air, jumping toward the convenience store’s wall.

Qi Xia hurriedly raised the torch to illuminate, trying to follow the figure, since in this pitch-black environment the most dangerous thing was to lose track of the target’s whereabouts.

But the moment the torch was raised, even with Qi Xia’s mental fortitude, he nearly went weak in the knees and collapsed to the ground.

The wall illuminated by the firelight was densely covered with crawling “people.”

At a glance there were at least a dozen or more, all rapidly moving across the wall.

When the firelight hit them, they seemed to sense something and scattered crawling toward the darkness.

They were like crickets, like cockroaches, like spiders.

In any case, they were not like humans.

Qi Xia felt all the hair on his body slowly stand on end.

Along this journey, he and Lin Qin had groped their way through the darkness to the convenience store, constantly hearing the rise and fall of insect chirping.

Those chirping sounds were sometimes distant, sometimes near.

It turned out those weren’t insects at all… but “people” one after another.

Thinking about how when he and Lin Qin were advancing, the ground beside them and the walls not far away were all covered with these things…

This feeling couldn’t even be described as “lingering fear.”

A drop of cold sweat ran down Qi Xia’s face as he slowly turned around and waved at the others.

Everyone understood his meaning and slowly retreated.

Qi Xia held the torch, keeping his eyes fixed on the “people” on the wall, then step by step retreated indoors with the three behind him.

They didn’t dare make a single sound the entire time, moving extremely slowly.

These people’s eyes all seemed to have been gouged out, so they could probably only locate things by sound. Fortunately everyone knew their lives were at stake, so no one made any noise.

After closing the door, Qi Xia took a wooden board from the side and propped it against the door. Everyone continued retreating until they reached the corner.

This cold and mottled wall gave everyone a sense of security.

“What… exactly were those things…” Xiao Ran asked tremblingly.

“They’re people…” After Doctor Zhao finished speaking, he immediately shook his head. “No… the human skeletal structure couldn’t possibly make those movements. They can only be insects…”

Qi Xia took a deep breath and said, “I also heard rustling sounds last night, which means these things didn’t just appear today—they’ve been here all along.”

He turned around and said to Lin Qin with a serious expression, “Our luck was really too good. We didn’t step on any of these things the entire way…”

Lin Qin also nodded, still shaken, looking quite frightened.

The four then fell into silence.

Before witnessing this terrifying scene, perhaps everyone could still get a peaceful night’s sleep.

But now no one dared close their eyes. They could only lean against the wall and stare fixedly at the doorway, constantly on guard against those things breaking through the door.

Without drowsiness or sound, the night was extraordinarily long.

Everyone had been standing by the wall for half the night, and their backs and legs were now sore and aching.

They gradually discovered something.

Those “insects” outside the door really seemed to be just insects.

They had no intention of breaking into this brightly lit place.

Qi Xia was using the rules of this place to explain the phenomena here.

No matter how bizarre they looked, no matter how their eyes constantly streamed with blood, they were just insects.

If the “insects” and the “clerk” were the same kind of thing, they would certainly play their roles earnestly.

Thinking this way, the insects outside the door wouldn’t be too dangerous. Even if they would actively attack humans, they wouldn’t necessarily swarm together to break down the door.

With this thought, Qi Xia slowly sat down and stretched his sore limbs.

Seeing someone take the lead, the other three also sat down, though they still looked tense.

“Qi Xia… what should we do?” Lin Qin asked.

Qi Xia rubbed his chin and said, “Sleep.”

“Sleep?”

“Sleep for a while to conserve energy.” Qi Xia found a clean wooden board and laid it beside Lin Qin. “After dawn we’ll set out to find Officer Li.”

“But those things outside…”

“Don’t worry.” Qi Xia said dismissively. “They won’t come in. As long as we don’t go out, we won’t be in danger for now.”

After hearing this, Lin Qin nodded carefully like a child, then lay down.

Qi Xia went to the corner, found a clean wooden board to cover the pot, then sat on the board himself, pressing down on the pot.

Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao looked at each other. They glanced at one another, then looked at Qi Xia and Lin Qin.

How could they possibly sleep?

Even if they could completely disregard the insects outside, Xiao Ran had always felt Qi Xia was a dangerous person.

In the story he told at the beginning, he was a fraud who had swindled two million. How could such a person possibly be good?

Sleeping together with him, wouldn’t they mysteriously die again in the early morning hours?

Qi Xia completely disregarded Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao’s expressions, instead leaning against the wall with his eyes closed to rest.

To him, whether these two people stayed awake all night had nothing to do with him.

Lin Qin, lying on the wooden board, looked at Qi Xia sitting in the corner and felt somewhat sympathetic. She moved over a bit and said, “Qi Xia, this board is big enough. You should lie down too.”

Qi Xia raised his eyelids and said, “No need. I’m used to sleeping while sitting.”

“Sleeping while sitting?” After hearing this, Lin Qin pondered for a moment, then stood up and moved the board next to Qi Xia before lying down again. She continued, “Then sit and sleep next to me.”

Qi Xia didn’t refuse. Compared to Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao, Lin Qin had left him with a fairly good impression.

Lin Qin lay on the board, looking at Qi Xia with some curiosity, and asked, “Why are you used to sleeping while sitting?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia raised his eyebrows, then seriously thought about this question. “Because sleeping while sitting doesn’t let me enter a ‘relaxed’ state. It allows my brain to start working at any moment.”

Lin Qin nodded but seemed to think of something. “You always sleep sitting up?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve been doing this for many years?”

Qi Xia felt Lin Qin was being strange, so he turned to look at her. “Is this question important?”

Lin Qin swallowed and organized her words before finally asking, “But you have a wife… Even when the two of you live together, do you still sit up and sleep every night?”