Chapter 4: Feast

31ST AUG 2021~ VERALUCTL

“Impossible!” 

Half a China away in the south of Shanghai, there was a normal-looking office building. No-one knew the backgrounds of the white collar workers entering or leaving the company, or that the gentle and honest looking chairman He Jingming was actually the most active drug lord of the recent years.

He Jingming was almost in his fifties, his hair completely white but his health still in good shape; so good that even now, he maintained control of his world, acting out the role of the social elite and chairman in the day and dealing in the forbidden drug business at night.

Whether from the dark side or the light, there wasn’t a person who could threaten his position.

Yet this drug lord who maintained a constant leisurely facade lost it in front of his underlings. The crystal coffee table was flipped, everything on it scattered across the floor, eight or nine people standing at the sides, not daring to even breathe. 

He Jingming raised his eyes viciously. “Zhao Jin, didn’t you tell me that you would be able to track him even if he went to Mars? Where is he?!”

A pale, perverted-looking man trembled and squeezed out a groveling smile. “Boss…”

He Jingming leant over him, his face inches away. He stared at him with eyes as dark as the void, and said in a softened voice, “Where is he? Zhao Jin, won’t you tell me, that man, Yin Hu1… Where is he?”

“I… I- I- I- I…” Zhao Jin took a small step back, right on top of an overturned ashtray. His uncooperative legs were already shaking like a sieve and collapsed, sending him into intimate contact with the floor2.

“Didn’t you say that you would be able to find him even if he were at the corners of the earth once that thing was injected into his body?” He Jingming asked softly. His voice suddenly rose. “Where is he!? How come that damn machine of yours can’t show his location anymore? Huh!?”

“W-w-well… Maybe he suddenly went to a place with too much magnetic interference and the signal was caught…”

He Jingming spat through gritted teeth, “It’s been caught for three days.”

“Yin- Yin- Yin…”

“Yin what? Is his name something that someone of the likes of you can use?” As if tired of looking at him, He Jingming’s face darkened and he lowered his eyes. He waved a hand. “Leave. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

The sentence seemed to have triggered a button. Zhao Jin wailed and scrambled to He Jingming’s feet like a dog. “Boss, boss He, please give me another chance- give me another chance, I promise, I promise I won’t lose him again, sir, you’ll be able to see him whenever you want…”

“Drag him out!”

Two heavily muscled African-Americans came at his order and lifted Zhao Jin up from both sides. He clawed at the air with chicken-clawed hands, tears and snot dripping down his face. For such a dry-looking man, he truly carried a lot of stuff inside of him.

Without a word, the log-like men standing at the sides of the room began moving, cleaning and spraying air freshener.

He Jingming clenched his teeth tightly and stood up with a heavy breath. “Don’t follow me,” he tossed behind him and strode out of the room.

No one dared to go against his orders and he entered the elevator alone, going straight to the rooftop and locking the door from the outside. The wind blew strongly, the sky grey with incoming rain, the thick clouds pressing down onto the city like to smother every last strand of light. The tiny cars below repeated their ebb and flow, their squalor spreading throughout the city.

He slowly sat down against the wall, his shoulders slumped, an old man in an instant, lonely and tired. He buried his face in his hands. “Yin Hu…”

======================

“These things aren’t dumb, they know how to work as a team and there’s an obvious hierarchy between them.” Half of An Jie’s body was covered in disgusting purple flesh as he wiped his hands off carefully. No-one interrupted him, all staring at this man who was so gentle and polite in the day but now with an appearance like he had just walked out of hell. Not even Bian Lian changed faces that fast3.

“You may not have noticed, but the position that the monster that Lao Ma killed was taken over by the one that devoured its head. I’m thinking that since they devour human heads, they could be able to assimilate parts of the human brain as well?” The corners of An Jie’s mouth curled up, but a cold light ran through his eyes. “What, did I scare you?”

Lao Ma took a cigarette out of his pocket and held it in his tanned hand, unhurried in lighting it. He looked at An Jie. Behind the man was a vast field of bloody and mangled monster corpses; had they not not seen it themselves, no-one would have believed the power inside of him, the accuracy and decisiveness of his shots, the sharpness of his gaze and his ability to adapt to the battlefield.

“Who are you?” Lao Ma went straight to the point, staring fiercely at An Jie. “Even desert bandits aren’t as good as you at fighting.”

“A simple traveller.” An Jie swung the shotgun over his shoulder, his head slightly tilted, a tired nonchalance in his eyes and a hand in his pocket. Meng Xiaoming’s gun found itself pointed at him without realizing. “As for you…”

An Jie’s eyes swept across Shen Jiancheng’s shadowed face and smiled. “Israel’s Desert Eagle, an SPAS-12S shotgun, America’s MAC11… goodness, that’s enough for a special operations force. Professor Shen, this doesn’t look like it’s for a simple architecture mission.” With that one sentence, everyone’s attention, including Lao Ma’s, shifted at least partly onto Shen Jiancheng. The main supervisor for this mission was Professor Shen- all of the resources and funds were handled by him, and before this, no one had questioned him on the matter.

Mo Yannan took an untimely glance at the firearm on An Jie’s shoulder and asked in quiet disbelief, “This… this, Lao Shen?”

Shen Jiancheng forced out a smile. “What, is Mr An suspicious of this humble professor?”

An Jie glanced lightly at him. “I wouldn’t dare, I’m a mere outsider.”

Mo Yannan looked at one then the other, a little lost at what to do. Lao Ma lit up his cigarette and narrowed his eyes at Shen Jiancheng. “Professor Shen, I’ve been meaning to ask about these guns for a long time. Would you care to explain?”

Shen Jiancheng’s expression turned solemn. “Everyone, I know you all have your concerns, but I have my reasons. To be honest with you all, this mission is secretly supported by the army; there are state secrets involved that I am unable to speak of. Whether or not you choose to believe it, I swear to the heavens that it’s true!” 

He raised a hand, his fingers pointing skywards and the muscles in his face tightly drawn. The old professor’s face had always been firm and upright4 and he swore, “Our archeology mission is completely legal; it’s supported by the state! I will ensure everyone’s profit and should I go against this oath, let me be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!”

With that oath, for some inexplicable reason, everyone’s expression seemed to relax a little. Meng Xiaoming lowered her gun and Li San’er tilted his mouth. “Don’t, don’t. What are you doing old man, how are we meant to turn back? If we go back home empty-handed, how would we face our ancestors?”

An Jie followed in Li San’er’s tone, “Everyone, I’ve followed you all here as well, I’ve roasted fish and killed monsters… Indeed, I’ve had some curious experiences before this and learnt some martial arts, but rest assured, it has nothing to do with any of you. How about I make an oath like Professor Shen too?”

Mo Yannan’s lips lifted a little and Lao Ma lit up his cigarette, still looking at An Jie but no longer with the same menace.

Just as the atmosphere relaxed slightly, Meng Xiaoming suddenly interjected, “Do you all think that there’s something strange going on?” She walked in front of a monster corpse and crouched down. “Didn’t this thing have a tail? How come it’s gone now that it’s dead?”

“What did you say?!” An Jie swung around from where he was looking at the archaeology team with an ambiguous smile, shocked. The monsters’ blood and flesh was still sprayed everywhere, but the long tail that had dragged behind each one of them had disappeared at some point, as if they had simply melted into the sand.

An Jie had been confident in his ability to notice every move within a ten meter radius, but right under his nose, these tails had disappeared.

Meng Xiaoming dug through the sand, searching carefully. “It’s like they just vanished…” She stared at where the monster’s tail should have been and just as An Jie said, “Don’t touch it,” reached out as if lured by some unknown force. “Eh? Look, there’s this sparkly sequin-looking thing on it…”

The object flashed on her finger, then disappeared. Meng Xiaoming rubbed her fingers in confusion. “Where did it go?”

With a clank, An Jie reloaded his gun as he surveyed his surroundings. For some unknown reason, this man who had kept a calm profile the entire time showed a sliver of nervousness. With even him becoming uneasy, Li San’er and Mo Yannan followed, even Shen Jiancheng and Lao Ma voluntarily gathering everyone into a circle, holding onto their weapons tightly.

Suddenly, Meng Xiaoming let out an odd laugh, a slight twist to her expression as saliva began running down the corners of her mouth, turning her into the center of everyone’s focus. Li San’er yelped. “It’s over, it’s over, don’t tell me Meng-jie got possessed by a monster! Heavens forbid, why did I not bring some donkey hooves this time5…”

An Jie ignored his muttering and bent down. “Miss Meng?”

Meng Xiaoming’s throat gurgled and she giggled. “Sparkly…” 

An Jie couldn’t help but take a step back. In a few moments, countless sequins dug out of the sand and lunged onto Meng Xiaoming, surrounding her. Her eerie smile seemed even more ghoulish in the faint light.

Covered entirely by glittering scales, Meng Xiaoming let out a strange sound from deep inside her throat. Everyone watched as a crack appeared down her neck, sparkling sequins crawling out of it and onto the ground, then her enclosed head splitting. A bit of brain plasma oozed out and like they had been stimulated, the sequins threw themselves onto it densely, quickly sucking it dry… 

Mo Yannan felt his stomach roil but there was nothing left to throw up.

A blazing light soared through the air- Lao Ma had lit something on fire and thrown it across. The scales were made of some kind of flammable material and caught fire with a single touch. In the furious flare they quickly gathered together, their sparkle dimming as they did so- it was in the shape of a tail, the tail of the monster!

That monster’s tail really did dissolve!

The fire spread along with Meng Xiaoming’s corpse. More and more scales gathered as a shrill woman’s scream sounded from within the flames. Meng Xiaoming’s fallen head was raised up by something, looking almost as if it was floating midair, her eyes and mouth gaping wide open like it was screaming from the torment of the blaze.

An Jie’s pupils dilated. “Go! Quickly! Get out of here!”

1A moniker. The Yin (饮) means ‘drink’ or ‘to drink’, and the Hu (狐) means ‘fox’. There will be other names in this kind of sequence; a verb character followed by an animal.

2Basically, he kissed the floor.

3Bian Lian is an ancient Chinese dramatic art, part of Sichuan opera. It literally means ‘change faces’, and involves the actors changing the makeup/mask on their face in an instant. The method behind it is apparently top secret. Here’s a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1IVyo7Txus

4Chinese people are big fans of physiognomy. Here, Professor Shen’s face is described as very square, which suggests that he’s a rigid, rule-abiding, upstanding citizen of society.

5Donkey hooves aren’t actually made of donkey hooves, but rather sticky rice that’s shaped to resemble the shape of a donkey hoof. They’re said to be very effective in fending off zombies. Now I want to eat zongzi…