Chapter 5: A Pack of Beasts

Surrounded by pitch darkness, the eerie cries of strange birds pierced my eardrums. Towering trees loomed everywhere, their dense foliage blotting out the night sky, leaving me utterly disoriented.

“Is… is anyone there? Anyone?! Where are you all? If you can hear me, answer me!”

Terrified, I began fleeing blindly, aware only that I had run a great distance without any idea of where I had ended up.

My flashlight grew dimmer, its beam swallowed by the endless darkness ahead. It felt as though at any moment, a monster might charge from the shadows and tear me to pieces.

Cold sweat drenched me. Suddenly, I spotted a distant glow. Like a drowning person clutching at their last hope, I sprinted toward it with reckless abandon.

If there was light, if I could find other people, I wouldn’t be afraid anymore.

But when I burst into the circle of firelight, my smile froze on my face. Had I known this would be the outcome, I would have rather curled up alone in the dark forest, waiting for death.

Before me stood several men in their thirties and forties, armed with crossbows and hunting rifles. Beside them, nets held numerous captured rare wild animals, while nearby lay freshly skinned pelts. The meat had already been roasted and eaten.

I stumbled backward instinctively, uncertain what these men might do to me. If the situation turned dangerous, I was ready to turn and flee immediately.

Their cold, piercing gazes swept over me one by one. Their eyes were terrifying perhaps hardened by excessive killing, they radiated a sinister, bloodthirsty aura.

One of the men, with a thick beard, grinned ominously, his yellowed teeth gleaming in the firelight.

“What lucky day is this? We return with a full haul, and now beauty is delivered to us!”

“A woman appearing out of nowhere in these deep mountains… Could she be a female ghost like in those Liaozhai tales?”

“Who cares if she’s human or ghost? I’ve been pent up for so long my dick’s about to explode. Even if she’s a ghost, I’ll still fuck her!”

Their discussion wasn’t loud, but every word reached my ears clearly. I turned and ran. But being my first time in these deep mountains, I was unfamiliar with the terrain. In my panic, I kept tripping, and the hunters quickly surrounded me.

“What do you want? I’m warning you, don’t you dare try anything!”

My final desperate screams seemed to amuse them. The more frightened I appeared, the more excited they became. One man lewdly unbuckled his pants and pulled out that disgusting thing.

“Little sister, let us brothers have some fun. We’ll let you go afterward.”

I felt as if I had been plunged into an ice cellar. Being raped by these men was worse than dashing my brains out right then and there! I knew no one was coming to save me. Without another thought, I tried to ram my head against a nearby tree to end my life. But they wouldn’t let me succeed so easily. One of them grabbed me by the waist, yanked me backward, and threw me hard to the ground.

Another man pounced on me and began tearing at my clothes. I struggled desperately, screaming until my voice grew hoarse.

“Let me go, you beasts!! Don’t…”

They cheered excitedly: “Damn, didn’t expect her to be so strong. You guys hold her arms and legs down. Let me fuck her first.”

“Hahahaha, Old Liu, have you figured out if she’s human or ghost yet?”

“Why don’t you come feel for yourselves? See if she’s human or ghost? I’m telling you, she feels soft and smooth, hehehe…”

I was utterly desperate, wanting to end it all with these beasts, but I didn’t even have the right to die now. They had gagged me with a cloth strip, and my hands and feet were tightly restrained, unable to move an inch.

The man on top of me frantically reached down between my legs, the sensation so nauseating I wanted to vomit.

“No, don’t…”

“Just wait until I fuck you senseless! You’ll be begging me for more!”

Just as the man was about to force his way in, a sharp scream tore from him. He grabbed downward and pulled out a venomous snake. Enraged, he smashed the snake’s head against a tree trunk, leaving it limp and motionless in the grass. Then he hurriedly examined his wound.

He spat out a curse: “Damn it! This snake’s highly venomous! You… you guys come help me now!!”

One of them released my hair while the other two rushed to tend to their companion’s injury.

“Shit, where did this snake come from? And at the worst possible time? Fatty, don’t you dare kick the bucket on us.”

“Fuck you! Can’t you say something decent?!”

After their brief exchange, a rustling sound emerged from the surrounding grass, and everyone fell silent instantly.

“Listen, what’s that noise?”

Terrified, I watched dense clusters of snakes emerging from all directions within mere seconds. This bizarre phenomenon left everyone stunned.

The man who had been holding my hair was so frightened his limbs went weak, and he dropped me to the ground. Collapsed and helpless, trapped between predators and prey, my mind went blank as I weakly awaited whatever fate had in store.

A horrifying, bloody scene unfolded clearly before my eyes, illuminated by the firelight, rivaling any Hollywood horror film. Thousands of snakes swarmed over the men, swiftly enveloping and devouring them.

Their agonized, piercing screams were utterly harrowing. Snakes slithered into their eyes, mouths, and ears, biting countless holes into their bodies. After brief struggles, they collapsed to the ground, convulsing unconsciously.

Trembling with fear, my mind foggy, I fled deeper into the forest. My consciousness grew hazy, my steps unsteady as I clutched my head, muttering: “Don’t bite me, don’t bite me, don’t bite me…”

I seemed to have run far, without a flashlight or firelight. The sky grew faintly lit, the eerie forest shrouded in pale gray dawn light as the morning mist thickened.

Suddenly, my foot slipped into emptiness. Panicked, I screamed as I tumbled down a steep slope. Desperately, I tried to grab onto something, my fingers scraping bloody, until I finally caught hold of a thin vine.

The dense fog below dissipated with the morning breeze. When I saw the cliff beneath me, my last shred of hope shattered into dust. Was I truly destined to die here?

The thin vine couldn’t hold my weight and snapped abruptly. My body plummeted downward.

The last thing I heard was a loud ‘splash’ as icy, bone chilling water enveloped me completely, instantly stealing my breath without any mercy.

I no longer had the strength to struggle, letting my body sink slowly into the depths. Is this what it feels like to be on the brink of death? Scenes from my past flashed through my mind like a projector reel, and I suddenly realized how many regrets filled my life.

Yet it had only just begun, and now it was ending. What could I do with all this resentment? I could only helplessly accept the fate that heaven had long arranged for me.

Like a dream, like an illusion, I heard a voice so ethereally it seemed to come from an abyss, drifting faintly into my ears.

He seemed to be calling: “Lian Qiu, Lian Qiu, you’ve come?”

My eyes snapped open. A figure slowly emerged from the water’s depths a man in a white Republican era robe, his jet-black hair swaying like seaweed in the lake. His sharp eyebrows tapered into his temples, his starlit eyes brilliant and luminous, ethereal and transcendent.

It was him! The man from my paintings, the one who entered my dreams. Was this the final radiance before death’s approach? Too beautiful to be real.