Actually, death is not what is terrifying; what is terrifying is having to watch yourself die.
Qi Wanyi's heart softened after all, but she didn't rush in blindly. Instead, she leaned over to Cheng Shuili and asked, "Should I help her bandage it?"
It would be futile.
Cheng Shuili felt helpless, but she nodded anyway.
When Qi Wanyi took the thermal shirt soaked in blood, her fingers trembled slightly. She crouched down, her line of sight level with Wang Lu's painfully contorted face.
"Try to endure it."
Her voice was very soft, yet unusually firm.
Cheng Shuili stood to the side, the baseball bat she had taken from Qi Wanyi resting against her shoulder, her gaze vigilantly sweeping across the growing number of Forms of the Blooming Skeleton inside the service area.
Those monsters' rotting faces were pressed against the glass, their hollow eye sockets seemingly watching this futile rescue attempt.
Qi Wanyi tore the thermal shirt into strips, her movements clumsy yet careful, as if she were terrified of causing Wang Lu more pain.
Yet, how could it not hurt?
The wound on Wang Lu's right leg was hideously deep, the muscle tissue everted; a chunk of flesh had clearly been torn away, and blood gushed out like an opened faucet, each heartbeat drawing out a new flow of blood.
"Help me press here."
Qi Wanyi pointed to the base of the thigh, hoping to staunch the bleeding by applying pressure—it was the only thing she knew how to do.
Wang Lu pressed down with trembling hands, her palms instantly soaked in the warm blood. Her face turned deathly pale, and her lips quivered, unable to utter a sound.
Qi Wanyi wrapped the fabric strips around the wound and pulled them tight with force.
Wang Lu threw her head back and let out a scream that sounded inhuman, her nails digging deep into Qi Wanyi's arm.
"Endure it a little longer." Qi Wanyi's voice was surprisingly calm, her hands not stopping, "The bleeding must be stopped."
Cheng Shuili glanced back, her brow furrowing even tighter.
The light-colored thermal shirt was rapidly turning dark red.
Qi Wanyi didn't even look up, her movements quickening.
She tied a tight knot with the last piece of fabric; the blood was temporarily staunched, at least on the surface.
Wang Lu's breathing became rapid and shallow, her complexion shifting from pale to grayish-white.
She clutched Qi Wanyi's hand, her nails leaving bloody scratches behind.
"Th... thank you..." she whispered, her voice like a dying thread.
Only then did Qi Wanyi look up to face Cheng Shuili again.
The moment their eyes met, Cheng Shuili saw with her own eyes that something had shattered within those eyes, which had held a smile ever since she heard "I am a crow."
It was the first time Cheng Shuili had seen despair in Qi Wanyi's eyes, and it would be the last.
Zhang Yueying had been lying on the highway like a dead fish since he came out, and only now did he regain a bit of vitality. He crawled on his hands and knees to Cheng Shuili and asked, "Did you find anything? Is there an exit? Can we survive?"
He asked urgently and rapidly, his face tilted up, his lips trembling uncontrollably, and his eyes bloodshot with an unknown intensity.
Clearly, his mental state had reached its limit.
Cheng Shuili took out the note she had found at the convenience stand.
Zhang Yueying seemed to see hope, and before Cheng Shuili could even hand it over, he snatched the note away.
He anxiously pressed the note against the ground to unfold it.
After reading the contents clearly, Zhang Yueying fell backward and lay flat on the highway, finally and truly relaxing.
He opened his mouth and let out a series of sounds that were half-sobbing and half-laughing, sounding even more terrifying than Wang Lu's earlier cries.
Cheng Shuili turned to look at the line of Forms of the Blooming Skeleton standing at the boundary, then back at the pale Wang Lu and the manic Zhang Yueying.
She suddenly felt that the horror movies she had watched in her past life were truly weak; those special effects were just garbage.
Now, reality was the most terrifying thing of all.
Cheng Shuili stared blankly at the system time, feeling a bit hungry, though it wasn't even eleven o'clock yet.
But thinking that it would end by four-thirty in the afternoon, eating now should be enough to hold out until the end.
Cheng Shuili sighed, glanced at the others, and picked up Qi Wanyi's backpack, pretending to take out her own lunch box from inside.
Qi Wanyi saw it but said nothing; it was normal for a boss to have some unknown abilities—after all, she was the boss.
Besides, she had no heart for small talk now; Wang Lu's breathing was getting weaker and was now barely audible.
Qi Wanyi actually knew that what she was doing was futile...
But... she had to do something, right?
This was the first time she had witnessed such a tragic scene, the first time she had seen a fellow human die helplessly beside her.
Qi Wanyi wasn't saving Wang Lu; she was saving the kind, warm-hearted self from her past life.
But reality is cruel; the past life was just that, and Qi Wanyi could no longer remain the person she had been.
She guessed that Cheng Shuili might have understood this, which was why she hadn't stopped her from bandaging Wang Lu.
Cheng Shuili didn't know what Qi Wanyi was thinking; she was indeed a bit hungry and was currently prying open her lunch box to eat.
Cheng Shuili lifted the lid of the plastic lunch box, and the aroma of cold grease mixed with sauce wafted out.
The rice was packed solidly, its surface slightly hardened and shimmering with a cold light. Three thumb-thick slices of pork belly lay askew in the corner, the fat having congealed into translucent gelatin, like amber wrapping around the texture of the lean meat.
It didn't look greasy at all; instead, it seemed somewhat appetizing.
Zhang Yueying couldn't help but swallow his saliva. He dug compressed biscuits out of his backpack and took out a bottle of mineral water, hugging it for a long time to warm it up before he managed to melt some of the ice, then tilted his head back to take a sip.
Qi Wanyi had been feeling miserable when suddenly she smelled the fragrance of food.
She turned to see Cheng Shuili eating with such gusto.
How could this person be so heartless? Wang Lu's corpse was still right there! Didn't she feel anything at all?
Thinking was one thing, but Qi Wanyi's body very honestly sat cross-legged beside Cheng Shuili and pulled her own lunch box out of her bag.
Both boxes were identical in both vegetables and meat, and even the placement was exactly the same.
Zhang Yueying had been stealing glances at Cheng Shuili's lunch box, and upon noticing this detail, his eyes widened instantly. He stared straight at Qi Wanyi's lunch box for a long while before asking, "You... you know each other?"
Cheng Shuili picked up another piece of meat, put it in her mouth, chewed, and nodded.
There was nothing left to hide now.
It was a good thing they weren't targeting Zhang Yueying; what else could Zhang Yueying do to them?
Zhang Yueying was very surprised; he opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.
The three of them waited quietly outside the service area until eleven-thirty, when a loud bang suddenly echoed from inside, and rising smoke obscured everyone's vision.
Cheng Shuili turned her head to look immediately; she was genuinely curious about what kind of monster could cost twenty points.
The smoke poured out from the cracks in the doors and windows of the service area like a living thing, twisting into bizarre shapes in the cold wind.
The commotion was too great.
Cheng Shuili's fingers tightened unconsciously, the texture on the handle of her dagger digging painfully into her palm.
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