ss, and she did not know how to reply, so she only looked back blankly.
Hu Changzai rushed over from behind. "Xiao Jiu, do you know this duoluozhong? Come over here, you have to be wary of her…" Lin Sanjiu couldn’t hear Hu Changzai properly, it was as if he was very far from her.
Zhu Mei shot a glance at him and laughed acidly. "So it’s you now? Where is Ren Nan?"
"He’s is one of my companions," Lin Sanjiu replied as calmly as she could, suppressing her emotions.
Just then, Hai Tianqing and B.Rabbit also came over and stared at Zhu Mei. They maintained a large distance between each other to avoid direct contact with each other. Over the past one month, this had already become a subconscious habit.
Zhu Mei seemed unfazed being surrounded by them. She folded her arms and looked at Lin Sanjiu. A sudden silence surrounded them.
Facing Zhu Mei who not only had a different appearance but even a different personality, Lin Sanjiu really didn’t know what to say. Should she be happy that her best friend was alive? Should she be depressed that her friend had turned into a duoluozhong? Should she treat her friend like any other duoluozhong? After witnessing Wang Sisi feeding on her own father and Pei Jun who made use of his girlfriend to hunt… what else was there left to say? What should she even do? Lin Sanjiu was clueless as to what she should do next.
It took a while before Lin Sanjiu finally opened her mouth. Unexpectedly, the first words she blurted out were, "Zhu Mei, did you… did you kill a lot of people?"
She knew that Zhu Mei could only maintain her normal skin and flesh if she had consumed at least over ten people.
"Yes, I have to survive! I’ve already lived in this tunnel for a couple of months," Zhu Mei nodded, showing no attempts to hide this fact. "At least half of the people here, including the Posthumans, became my nourishment. As I told you about the details regarding the customs, I thought you would come here, so I waited… Lo and behold, I’ve really met you.
"I still have all my past memories, and I can still speak. I can still think… Xiao Jiu, do you know what this means? This means that Zhu Mei never died, and we’re still good friends."
Both of them were now standing in front of each other. While Zhu Mei spoke, she shook her mouthpart, so her saliva was now slowly dripping to the ground.
[Is this true?]
Hai Tianqing was standing to the left of Lin Sanjiu, where they could see the entrance where they came from. He took one step forward anxiously as he frowned and urged, "Xiao Jiu, don’t talk to her anymore. Once they’ve become duoluozhongs, they are no longer who they previously were. They all deserve to—"
Before he finished his sentence, he was stunned and forgot what he wanted to say. He was not the only one, Lin Sanjiu and Zhu Mei were also shocked. They slowly watched as a man approached them.
The young man was about 1.78m. He wore a beret, carried a backpack, and was humming a little tune as he walked between Lin Sanjiu and Zhu Mei nonchalantly. Acting as if he didn’t see them, he walked forward with a light march.
"Where... where did he come from?" Lin Sanjiu stammered as she looked to her left. She saw that Hu Changzai, Hai Tianqing, and B.Rabbit were still standing in their original positions. The man, apparently came from her left, so he had to walk past Hai Tianqing and the others — yet, they were equally shocked. They were stunned as they watched the silhouette of the man walking away. Clearly, they had just noticed the man.
"I… I don’t know. He just walked past…" Hu Changzai gaped. "I didn’t even notice that there was someone nearby…"
The man stopped as if he felt the stares behind him. At the same time, he stopped humming and turned to look behind. The shadow from his beret blocked half his face so they could only see the faint smile on his moist lips. It was a smile of courtesy.
"Did you just say that you lived here for a few months?" the man asked monotonously, without any pause or inflection. His robotic voice made everyone feel uncomfortable. His question was obviously directed to Zhu Mei leading Lin Sanjiu to instinctively look at her.
Zhu Mei frowned, carefully observing the man as if she hadn’t anticipated that the weirdo would speak to her. Shortly after, her face turned pale as her mouthpart trembled slightly: "Ah… You’re that—"
The next second, an oval hole appeared in her chest like magic. Through that hole, Lin Sanjiu could see the cars behind Zhu Mei. Zhu Mei lowered her head in disbelief, staring at the hole in her chest. She murmured something before she fell to the ground with a "thump". Her eyes were still wide opened.
It was only at that moment that the piece of flesh, expelled from her body, hit the wall of the tunnel. It dyed the wall red as it slid down. The Beret Man slowly placed his arm down. The gun-barrel like thing in his hand was still spouting smoke. "When a person becomes a duoluozhong, they only regain the dark sides of their personality, so they are no longer the same person. Since she was a duoluozhong, I killed her for you. You don’t have to thank me," he said in the same bland, monotonous voice, the corner of his lips were still curled.
Beret Man lifted his face up slightly when he spoke. This allowed the others to see his entire face. He appeared to be of mixed-race. His skin was smooth, he had a high nose bridge, and they could see wisps of curly hair under his beret. He would be considered rather handsome if only his eyeballs showed some sign of movement within his two eyes sockets. Instead, his pair of eyes looked soulless.
"Zhu Mei!" Lin Sanjiu held Zhu Mei’s dead body, which had a hole in the middle. She did not dare to look at her face but instead tried to control her trembling hands and legs. "You… you killed Zhu Mei?"
For a moment, her mind was clouded with this single thought. Unknowingly, she glared at Beret Man as her eyes started to turn red. She suddenly felt a heavy, large hand on her shoulder and felt that the person exerted some strength to hold her back. Hai Tianqing carefully avoided her skin while he did this, then he said with a deep voice, "Xiao Jiu, you shouldn’t act impulsively."
Lin Sanjiu looked down and saw that she had unconsciously armed herself with her mouthpart weapon.
"Calm down. You have to calm down," Hai Tianqing who was usually collected and dependable sounded different from his usual self, "Look behind you."
Lin Sanjiu looked behind, feeling a little puzzled. Over ten men were standing behind Hu Changzai and B.Rabbit, and they each looked exactly like Beret Man. Their eyes were hollow and devoid of emotion as they all pointed their gun barrels at Lin Sanjiu and her companions.
"Are you heading to the customs warehouse? Let’s go together," the man who had just killed Zhu Mei said with a flat tone.