As Geng's father was about to get up and rush out, Qin Ci quickly and forcefully pressed him down: "It's too late! You can't go out! They're far away; you won't be able to get back!"
Geng's father struggled and roared angrily, and Ke Xun heard the little boy beside him let out a sob.
Ke Xun sat up: "I can run fast. I'll go over and throw away their offerings." He said, lifting the curtain and stepping out of the tent.
"It's too late." Mu Yiran leaned out and grabbed him.
"Let me try," Ke Xun looked at him, "Even if that thing comes, I think I can at least save one person. Didn't Doctor Qin escape with Zhao Dan on her back while it killed Zhou Bin last night? I think that thing can't be distracted while killing someone. Let me try."
"Then there will only be two people left in your tent? What if that thing gets to your tent first?" Geng's father was worried about his wife, but he was also worried about his child.
Ke Xun noticed Mu Yiran loosening her grip on his hand, and abruptly pulled away, running towards the tent where Geng Ma was, throwing down a sentence: "Yiran, stay by the tent, play it by, try switching between the two tents!" He was gone in an instant.
"Yiran?"... Mu Yiran stared coldly at Ke Xun's retreating figure without saying a word.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Qin Ci comforted him, struggling to hold down the anxious Geng Ba.
Mu Yiran turned and stared at Qin Ci: "What part of my face looks like I'm worried?"
Qin Ci: "..." Why the sudden sulking?
Ke Xun sprinted to the tent where Geng Ma was, flung open the curtain, and demanded of Sha Liu, "Where are the offerings? Throw them away!"
Sha Liu cried out in horror, "We can't throw them away, they'll die! Don't get us into trouble..."
Ke Xun said coldly, "Didn't Mu Yiran say that keeping these things is fatal!"
Sha Liu cried out anxiously, "He also said he wouldn't interfere with our choices. You have no right to control our lives, understand?"
"Is it 'your' choice or your personal choice?" Ke Xun said, squeezing into the tent and searching for the offerings.
Sha Liu lunged to the corner of the tent, shielding the tent with her body, screaming in shock and anger, "What right do you have to do this! You're harming people, you'll kill us, you're murdering us!"
Ke Xun stopped what he was doing, ignoring Sha Liu, and looked only at Geng Ma, who stood by helplessly, "Brother Geng is worried about you. He thinks there shouldn't be any offerings in the tent. What do you think?"
Before Geng Ma could answer, Sha Liu quickly grabbed her shoulder and said urgently, "Sister-in-law, think about it. Brother Geng doesn't have any offerings, right? Whether the chosen ones have offerings or not, one of you and Brother Geng will survive. But if you don't want any offerings either, and the chosen ones are those without offerings, wouldn't you and Brother Geng both have to survive? Isn't it wiser to try to save one person's life than to risk both of you being chosen? Think about it, sister-in-law! Even if not for yourselves, think about your children!"
Geng Ma, who had been hesitating, listened to Sha Liu... With these last words, she finally made up her mind, looking at Ke Xun with tears in her eyes: "Young man, don't worry about me, hurry back to the tent, tell my husband to protect the child..."
Ke Xun frowned, and Sha Liu, seeing this, hurriedly pushed him out: "Go quickly, don't force others to make an unwilling choice! The Black Corpse Sky is coming soon, if you stay in our tent, we will be chosen because the number of people does not meet the requirements, go quickly!"
Aunt Geng also urged with tears in her eyes: "Go quickly, young man, my son... your tent is missing one person, it's too dangerous, please, please, even if it's selfish of me, please go quickly for my son's sake!"
Ke Xun gritted his teeth, turned around and left the tent, but the scene before him was different from when he came, though not visible, but felt. There was no wind, everything was still like a painting, the snow on the distant mountains turned pale, and the sky above seemed to be filled with thick ink, swollen and hanging down, about to drip down.
Ke Xun sprinted, the dense darkness overhead pressing down, and that suffocating feeling returned. He couldn't breathe, and quickly covered his mouth and nose with his hands. However, this time Mu Yiran's method didn't work. He felt increasingly suffocated, his chest feeling as if it were being stretched open, the pain excruciating.
A huge drop of thick, black liquid slid down from the sky, and as it fell, it sprouted two legs as thick as pillars of heaven, then a body, then arms—one, two, three—slowly differentiating and beginning to writhe and wave.
This thing looked even larger than yesterday; its skin was dark and rough, covered with incantation-like patterns, densely packed, enough to send shivers down one's spine.
However, Ke Xun didn't care about the goosebumps at this moment. In the agonizing feeling of suffocation, he struggled to sprint towards his tent, his chest swelling, his heart pounding, and his legs growing weaker.
Just as he was about to collapse a few meters from his tent, he saw Mu Yiran rush out of the tent, grab him by the scruff of his neck, and drag him back into the tent like a Shar-Pei.
Ke Xun lay down in his tent, panting heavily.
The tent smelled unpleasant, but at least there was air.
Ke Xun then understood that these tents were like small barriers; the thing called Black Corpse Heaven wasn't unable to watch over those who ran outside while killing others, but rather it didn't need to. Anyone outside the tent would suffocate in no time.
Ke Xun finally filled his lungs with air, staring out of the tent. The thing's enormous silhouette was now completely imprinted on the tent skin. It landed, bent its legs, and walked step by step towards the two adjacent tents.
Would it choose the people in these two tents?
Ke Xun tried to activate his telekinesis, but this wasn't some kind of cosmos, and he wasn't Saint Seiya. Coupled with the suffocation he'd just experienced, he was still dizzy and his will was scattered, making it impossible to concentrate. He
watched helplessly as the giant shadow walked step by step to the two tents, its enormous head slowly lowering, hovering above the tent ceiling, its eight arms writhing and twisting around it like Medusa's snakes.
Ke Xun stared intently at the tent ceiling, watching the giant shadow slowly extend an arm towards the adjacent tent.
Ke Xun suddenly clenched his fist, then released it, his hand, which was near the tent door, reaching through the gap in the tent flap and directly into the adjacent tent flap.
Mu Yiran was lying by the tent door; Ke Xun's hand touched his arm as soon as he reached out.
His fingertips slid down the arm, and then he grabbed Mu Yiran's hand firmly.
Feeling Mu Yiran stiffen slightly, Ke Xun's hand twitched slightly, but he didn't want to let go, so he tightened his grip, thinking that if the giant shadow dragged Mu Yiran out, he would hold this hand and go with him.
Ke Xun was startled by this sudden thought.
What happened to... just simply admiring and honestly supporting him?
The giant shadow lay on the top of the tent, panting heavily as it observed for a long time, then suddenly moved its massive body to the side of Ke Xun's tent.
This time, its arm reached to the top of the tent and stopped, its five fingers spread wide, its nails scratching the tent skin, making a sound like scraping bone that sent chills down one's spine.
—It had finally chosen this tent?!
The little boy sandwiched between Ke Xun and Wei Dong cried, but tried hard to suppress his sobs, his thin body trembling uncontrollably.
Ke Xun wrapped his other arm around him, pressing his head into his chest.
He suddenly couldn't remember the last time his father had held him in his arms—perhaps seven or eight, perhaps three or four.
Like many fathers and sons in Chinese families, they were always reluctant to express their feelings. And as they grew older, expressing their emotions to their fathers seemed to become something deeply shameful.
So, even now, Ke Xun regretted it.
He regretted never having said "I love you" to the people he loved most while they were still alive.
Some regrets can be made up for, but some regrets can only remain regrets forever.
Ke Xun disliked having regrets more than anyone else.
He held the child tightly in his arms with one hand, while his other hand still held Mu Yiran's hand.
Mu Yiran's cool hand made his fingertips feel slightly hot.
His hands were always warm, even in tension, fear, sadness, or even when facing death.
Ke Xun traced words on the back of Mu Yiran's hand with his fingertips.
The sound of the giant shadow scraping against the tent roof grew louder and sharper, as if it would burst through the tent at any moment, its sharp nails slicing open the chest of this audacious human.
Death was imminent.
[I like you.]
Ke Xun wrote.
Mu Yiran in the adjacent tent remained motionless, seemingly ignoring him.
The audacious human smiled and continued writing with his fingertips.
[I know you're gay too.]
This time, Ke Xun felt Mu Yiran's body stiffen subtly, almost imperceptibly.
Ke Xun had said that his intuition was always accurate.
Besides, the sense of smell between kindred spirits is always very keen.
Ke Xun withdrew his fingertips, looked up at the bizarre scene above, and felt a strange sense of ease and peace.
Since his belief was in freedom and unrestrained expression, then while alive, he should live life to the fullest; if he couldn't live, then he should die a passionate and flamboyant death.
Time seemed to flow by at a snail's pace, as if at 0.1x speed. The giant shadow continued to pry at the tent roof, pressing its enormous face against it as it peered into the tent.
Ke Xun stared at the tent roof; the snowlight and the darkness cast by the giant shadow flickered and swayed, like a silent film playing on an old film reel.
Why was there no source of light during the day? It was so diffuse, spreading in from all directions.
Only at night, when the light shone only from the snow-capped mountains, slanting onto the tent, casting shadows—the perfect silhouette of Mu Yiran's profile, and the disgusting giant shadow of this eight-armed monster.
A sudden thought struck Ke Xun: light and shadow. During the day, things outside seemed to cast no shadows because the light was diffuse, scattering from all directions
; even people's feet cast no shadows. This was obviously illogical, since it was a painting. But why were there shadows at night?
Was it… a hint?