Chapter 83 - Wall (2/2)
In the eyes of others, however, his behavior seemed a bit odd. Everyone was bustling around, trying to cram as much as possible in what little time they had to prepare for the term’s final examination. Zhang Heng was the only one wandering around indifferently. Even his roommate, Chen Huadong, had managed to drag himself out of bed early every morning to study. With his head buried in books, Chen Huadong could not help but roll his eyes whenever Zhang Heng left the room with his bow.
Worse still, Zhang Heng would always return very late in the night – almost always just before lights-out. Chen Huadong wondered how his friend would be able to find any time to prepare for the exam.
…
Zhang Heng felt great today, successfully hitting a moving target 50 meters away. All ten arrows. .h.i.t the bullseye. He ignored the coach’s resentful looks and took a drink of water. Since he had just completed the third game, there was still plenty of time before the fourth and did not pack his schedule with all the training. After his practice, he headed to the park to feed the pigeons there instead of going to the gym. When night fell, he spectated a game of football in the stadium.
It was ten by the time the match ended. Rather than taking the train, Zhang Heng opted to jog back to school. As he jogged, he pa.s.sed by an alley and quickly noticed two drifters searching for food in a dumpster.
They appeared to be a bedraggled grandparent and her grandchild, both wearing tattered and soiled clothing. The older one fished out a piece of half-eaten fried chicken and two packets of takeaways. She called her grandson to her and they crouched by the wall to eat. When she looked up, she saw Zhang Heng suddenly racing toward them!
The pair had probably been bullied by other homeless for the moment they saw Zhang Heng coming towards them; they looked extremely terrified. The old lady dropped the plastic bag in her hand and reached to pull her grandchild closer.
Suddenly, something fell on her shoulder. From his angle, Zhang Heng was able to see everything. The brick wall behind the old lady melted like hot cheese, and some sort of black liquid crawled onto her shoulder. When her grandson, about seven years old, saw this happening, he froze in his tracks.
Zhang Heng ran quickly towards the elderly lady and grabbed her hand, but the black liquid was a h.e.l.l lot stronger than he thought. That thing seemed to be able to s.h.i.+ft between a liquid and solid form. Zhang Heng’s pulling did nothing to free the old lady of its shackles.
Although he was conservative on strength, it would have been useless even if he used all of it. If he exerted too much force, the old lady’s body might be unable to take it. As Zhang Heng was racking his brain for a solution, the black liquid had already engulfed half of the elderly woman’s body.
Then as, if having a mind of its own, it crawled onto the old lady’s arm towards Zhang Heng as if not satisfied with the prey that it already had.
Zhang Heng reacted quickly, withdrawing his hand at the very last second! Then, he grabbed the motionless child – the sudden movement shook him from his daze, and in panic, he started struggling. He wanted to save his grandmother but the black liquid moved so quickly that, in less than a minute, it had completely engulfed the woman. It then slowly pulled her into the back.
Half a minute later, Zhang Heng and the little vagrant were the only ones left in the alley.
A sharp pain shot up Zhang Heng’s right arm. The kid had bitten him and struggled himself free. He rushed to the wall and fell, knees to the ground. No matter how hard he thumped and punched the wall, the bricks remained unchanged, as if everything that had just happened was a bad dream.