Xu Xiaoyou put the plastic bag back into her wallet, quietly zipped it closed, and returned it to her pocket, pretending she hadn’t seen anything. She squatted by the railway embankment, intending to finish her half-eaten bento, but after a long time, her chopsticks remained suspended in mid-air, her appetite entirely gone. How could she possibly eat anything in this situation?
Xu Xiaoyou looked at the appealing dishes in her bento box with a complicated expression, her mind replaying the man's earlier image, his words echoing in her ears. She couldn't believe that the teacher she had always respected would be involved with moon sugar. He usually seemed like such an honest man, always keeping his head down.
She often saw scenes where the higher-ups would point fingers and scold Chengcun Yi. It wasn't enough that he was bullied by his superiors; students openly mocked him, and his wife frequently gave him the cold shoulder at the school gate, leaving him humiliated.
Before today, while she respected this teacher, she also sympathized with his plight. But the colorful sugar cubes in the bag were so glaring, so glaring that the man's image in her heart utterly collapsed.
Beneath the disguise of a goody-two-shoes, another demonic face was hidden.
What should she do?
Confront him directly, tearing off his facade?
Or pretend that nothing had happened, that she saw nothing, and return the wallet to Chengcun Yi tomorrow?
No, she absolutely could not ignore this.
She had to find out if he was a victim or the perpetrator, to understand all the reasons behind his contact with moon sugar. Whatever his motive, if he harmed innocent people, he had to pay for his actions. This was her resolve as a Night Walker.
After a psychological struggle, Xu Xiaoyou no longer had the appetite to eat. She stood up, patted the dust off her clothes, and planned to discuss the matter with her companions. Before that, she would deliver the other bento to her aunt. She couldn't let Xiao Xu’s kind intentions go to waste.
The sound of the skateboard wheels on the cement ground was no longer as lighthearted as before, but a dull thud. Gliding past the square in front of the commercial street, the once bustling and prosperous district had inexplicably grown quiet. A solitary “GG” played on the large screen, and the distant whistle of the tram crossing the intercity line faded into the city's horizon.
The hands of her pocket watch ticked, the wheels of her skateboard rumbled, and the girl’s heart thumped. The sky slowly darkened, and passersby hurried along in silence, turning into rows of dark shadows.
Along the way, people occasionally greeted Xu Xiaoyou. This perpetually enthusiastic and vibrant girl had left a deep impression on the residents of Dragonfly Town. Xu Xiaoyou waved back, a step and a lift, her skateboard airborne, landing steadily on the handrail of a ramp, swiftly sliding downwards.
Before long, she arrived at the chemical plant where her aunt worked. She shouted several times towards the security booth, but the middle-aged man with a receding hairline didn’t respond. A faint sense of unease grew within Xu Xiaoyou. She bypassed a small path lined with green roses and reached the shorter wall of the chemical plant on another street.
Xu Xiaoyou tried to jump. The building's shadow covered half her face. With a forceful push, her hands finally gripped the edge of the wall. Using her waist, her canvas shoes finally reached the top of the wall, and with a practiced flip, she skillfully climbed into the chemical plant.
After landing steadily, Xu Xiaoyou walked towards the workshop where her aunt worked, following her memory. She curiously surveyed her surroundings, not encountering a single person along the way, as if all the chemical plant employees had vanished. The wind howled through the gaps between the large chemical tanks, remarkably clear in the silent atmosphere.
“What happened?” Xu Xiaoyou’s unease intensified. Chemical plants usually closed around eight in the evening. Even after closing, security teams would conduct high-intensity patrols to prevent theft of valuable chemical materials. This was the shift change time, so how could there be no one in sight?
Finally, at a corner, Xu Xiaoyou saw living people, but they weren't chemical plant employees. Their black uniforms with white emblems identified them as enforcers from the Mountain Crow family. Why were they here?
Xu Xiaoyou leaned against the wall, her dark red eyes discreetly observing the figures ahead. One particularly spirited girl approached the three others, her clear voice reaching Xu Xiaoyou's ears.
“The Sword Covenant Group’s execution team is nearly done with the sweep. You can go in and clear the scene.”
Hearing this, the three nodded and quickly moved. Xu Xiaoyou followed them, passing through the corridor beside the workshop. There were many more Mountain Crow family members hurrying in the same direction. Xu Xiaoyou also noticed members of the Eye Association among them, and her inner unease finally materialized.
Only when urban legend-type incidents broke out would members of the Eye Supervisory Section appear. Only then did Xu Xiaoyou suddenly remember the discussion she had overheard in the classroom: this chemical plant had been sealed two hours ago. She had just managed to avoid the surveillance to get in.
She finally understood why everyone she had encountered earlier looked so worried.
Her unease, once materialized, transformed into a kind of fear. Xiao Xu’s mother still worked at the chemical plant. Where was her aunt now? Was she in danger? Her aunt should still be at work at this hour.
When Xu Xiaoyou saw the Mountain Crow family members entering the workshop ahead, the string in her heart seemed to snap. Boundless fear seized her. She didn't think twice, rushing headlong into the workshop.
That was the workshop where her aunt worked. She had to confirm her aunt's situation.
“Hey, you over there! This area is sealed! How did you sneak in?!”
“Stop right now!”
The surrounding Mountain Crow family members quickly noticed the sprinting dark-haired girl. One of them, closer by, tried to stop her, but Xu Xiaoyou’s strength was surprisingly great. She directly broke free from his grip, sending him crashing into the wall. Several others rushed forward together, but the girl easily shook them off too.
“Look, that guy’s facial features.” Someone shouted in the chaos. “That guy, the Sickness has acted up!”
Everyone focused, and only then did they notice that Xu Xiaoyou's body had, at some point, erupted with spider totems. The tree-like branching black patterns resembled countless crawling black insects, and the girl’s eyes were filled with squirming compound eyes. She turned her head, her crimson gaze flashing unnaturally, and exhaled white cold air: “Don’t block me!”
“Wait, don’t raise your weapons! She’s not a mutated spider-body; she’s the little family head!”
Someone with sharp eyes in the crowd recognized Xu Xiaoyou in this form and quickly shouted. The surrounding Mountain Crow family members, who had been aiming their guns, then lowered them. They allowed the girl to push past the people in front of her, break through their encirclement, and plunge into the workshop.
Upon seeing the world before her, Xu Xiaoyou nearly collapsed to the ground in a daze. The place was utterly ruined. Countless thick, viscous white spider silk was distributed across the walkways, support columns, elevator shafts, and chemical tanks. The entire ceiling had caved in, weaving into a giant spider web that hung downwards. Countless figures, cocooned in spider silk, hung suspended in the air. Tiny spiders crawled out of their eye sockets, ear canals, and throats. In the darkness, the constant sounds of crawling, gnawing flesh, and spiders whispering as they spun silk filled the air.
At this, Xu Xiaoyou stiffly turned her head.
She saw a clear, translucent egg sac on a support column rupture; it was the swollen abdomen of a man. Pungent yellow fluid gushed out, and countless spiders, clinging to white silk, crawled out of the mountain-like bulge of the abdomen.
The man, who served as the ‘egg sac,’ had long since grown together with the load-bearing wall through violent proliferation and accumulation of blood vessels, sarcomas, and fat. He looked as if his body had melted into the wall, vast and bloated, finally finding release after fulfilling his reproductive mission.
The entire workshop had clearly become a gigantic spider nest.
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