Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 49.1: Manman (22)

June 26, 2023 by Wyrd

Meng Jiang’s face was also wrapped in white bandages.

It was difficult for him to open his mouth, and his words were muffled. “A Yi, ah, are you really going to turn me into a mummy?”

A Yi quietly tugged on the white bandages, his voice dry and hoarse. “Mm.”

Among their group of ghost friends on the fourth floor, he had always been the strongest, or at least it seemed that way.

Blood Doll would shed tears of blood, Zhi Zhi had the smallest courage, Sui Sui was the most introverted. In comparison, he was the strongest and most stable.

But at this moment, Meng Jiang could hear a hint of a sob in A Yi’s hoarse voice.

“I gave you all my luck points,” he said. “Are you really going to leave?”

For him, giving all his luck points to a player was more precious than anything to any other ghost friend.

Since he was young, people around him always wanted something from him, so he cherished what he had even more. If he willingly gave it away, it meant he really liked that person.

On Meng Jiang’s first night in the castle, he received 1 luck point. Out of the nineteen players that night, only Shi Tianzhu, Ning Su, Zhu Shuangshuang, and he received luck points.

A Yi remembered that he had never actually touched his parents, only seen them in photos.

He lived with one rural relative after another, and the money his parents earned while working abroad was considered a fortune to those relatives. The allowance sent by his parents was also substantial.

Relatives wanted to take care of him, to have him live in their homes, so they could receive that financial support.

In the end, he stayed with his second aunt the longest because his second aunt gave him the best room in the house, and his parents thought it was slightly better compared to other homes.

In reality, the best treatment he received was simply staying in that room.

It was because he stayed in that room that his cousin resented him.

He had injuries on his body all year round, with half of them caused by his cousin.

When he first arrived at his second aunt’s house, he actually harbored a sense of expectation towards this cousin. It was the kind of expectation and admiration that a younger brother who was always bullied in kindergarten had for his older brother.

However, he didn’t expect that his insecure cousin would inflict just as much harm on him as others did.

Even among the few teenagers he tried to befriend, when they wanted to play the mummy game, he voluntarily pushed him out.

He wished that his cousin, who was twice his height, would actually be a capable brother who could protect him, driving away the kids who bullied him in school and beating up the relatives who mistreated him.

He wished that when he was suffocating, with his bones crushed by bandages, a tall and strong brother would jump out to save him.

Not even in death did such a brother appear.

But he also didn’t expect that long after his death, after becoming a vengeful ghost and being able to retaliate, such a brother would appear.

He had a tall stature, a cheerful personality, a bright smile, and an irresistible courage.

On the first night, he fiercely scolded the cowardly Sun Xing across from him.

On the first night, he slept together on the same bed, his arms formed a protective posture.

He wished he could always have a brother like him.

Meng Jiang felt an indescribable discomfort in his heart. “But I’ve told you before, you don’t have to give me all your luck points.”

The liquid soaked the white bandage on the mummy’s face. “It’s because you said that...”

Back then, when they learned that they could obtain luck points through intimidation, many players were pressuring their ghost friends, revealing their ugly faces.

It was so similar to his relatives demanding money from him, asking him to say good things to his parents.

But he never pressured him.

Not only did he never pressure him, but on the night when the scarecrow was destroyed, he told him that if there ever came a day when they both had to die, not to give him the luck points, but to keep them for himself, because perhaps they would be useful for him.

This was the first person to say such words to him.

He surely didn’t know how he felt at that moment, with his head hanging low.

He also didn’t know that it was his first awakening.

“Stay, okay?” A Yi’s voice sounded hoarse. “Let’s live together here. I promise to be a good little brother.”

Meng Jiang couldn’t speak anymore.

Another bandage was wrapped around his face.

Not only could he not speak, but he also couldn’t see the light, gradually losing his ability to breathe.

He had been through numerous instances, his body strong, and A Yi didn’t even use much force to tighten the bandages. His bones and flesh didn’t feel any pain.

But under layer after layer of white bandages, the air became increasingly thin.

These white bandages weren’t ordinary bandages. If they were, as an empowered individual, he wouldn’t have struggled to break free from them. There was a strange fragrance within the bandages, making him increasingly weak and dizzy.

The fragrance grew stronger, the air scarcer, and Meng Jiang could no longer stay conscious.

As his consciousness was about to dissipate, he vaguely seemed to hear a song.

[Mother’s womb is so warm, I want to reach into hell for companionship.

When I died, it trembled, but was it longing for me?]

The voices that had once haunted him in nightmares and chilled him to the bone now felt different.

***

In the thatched cottage, Ji Mingrui, who was teaching English letters to Sui Sui, suddenly raised his head upon hearing the singing.

On the table, Sui Sui, who had been wearily gripping a pencil and writing letters, also put down the pencil and turned to look outside.

Ji Mingrui didn’t detect much fear in his expression, but he noticed a slight change in his demeanor.

***

Zhu Shuangshuang bit her lip hard, using pain to keep herself alert.

Blood continuously flowed from the corner of her mouth, and tears streamed down as well.

“Perhaps... we misunderstood...”

They misunderstood the monster children.

She didn’t know if they wanted to seek revenge against the mother’s body, considering their songs contained resentment towards their mother. However, what was certain was that they didn’t want to harm them, but rather protect them.

They, a group of “children” endangered within the mother’s body.

On the day when they encountered the monster children, regardless of how the players treated them, the children didn’t harm the players proactively.

They only wanted to destroy the ghost friends before they were ‘born’.

Perhaps it was because they knew that the ghost friends were evil ghost children who would harm the “children”.

But they didn’t know that the group of “children” they wanted to protect didn’t want the evil ghost children to be harmed.

No matter if they were evil ghost children in the traditional sense.

***

Ning Su rushed to the castle. The top of the castle had already touched the ground.

He stepped on broken walls and debris, sprinting towards the highest point where the fetus statue that was about to fall was located, catching it just as it was about to hit the ground.

Then he turned around. What was once a magnificent castle became a shattered ruin under his feet.

Crushed beneath the creeping lily vines that extended from the castle to the entire Fairy Tale Town.

When the dust settled, Ning Su looked down at the fetus statue. It was right before his eyes, and Ning Su could clearly see that it was struggling in pain, although its struggle had become weak.

Ning Su looked up and noticed that many children from the Fairy Tale Town were looking in his direction.

It was still daytime, and they all appeared as normal children.

When Gui Sheng and Manman ran over, they saw Ning Su holding the fetus statue.

From the bottom of the castle, the fetus statue looked the same size as it did up close. The distance didn’t affect its size in their eyes.

It was not big; even a young boy could hold it, preserving its last “life.”

Ning Su held it like that, without saying what he intended to do.

Manman remained silent, staring at Ning Su and the fetus statue.

“Hmm?” Gui Sheng stood there for a while and asked, “What are you doing?”

Ning Su replied, “Waiting for nightfall.”

Every night, when the moonlight appeared, the fetus statue on the castle would struggle in pain, emitting a silent cry that players couldn’t hear. It was as if it sensed danger and sought help in its confusion.

The monster children would then come running towards the castle where the fetus statue was, vowing to destroy a ghost friend.

Even if they were suppressed under the lily vines, entangled by the Octopus monster’s tentacles, or scorched by flames.

They lacked the wisdom to consider everything thoroughly, and they didn’t understand many emotions. But they understood the concept of protection.

They hadn’t been born smoothly into the human world and knew the regret and hopelessness that came with it. Therefore, when they sensed the plea for help from the fetus statue, they would desperately eradicate the presence of evil.

They wanted to protect the children inside the mother’s womb, allowing them to be born safely and grow up healthy.

Not to experience the same fate as themselves.

One of the targets of their protection was this fetus statue.

And at this moment, the fetus statue was in Ning Su’s arms.

Under the moonlit night, Ning Su carried it and ran towards the street where they lived, followed by an army of countless monster children.

“Gurgle, gurgle—“

The monster children, appearing from various corners of Fairy Tale Town, continuously joined the army, relentlessly chasing the boy in the green shirt.

Ning Su wanted to lead them to that street.

He guessed that the monster children, born in Fairy Tale Town and naturally able to sense ghost friends, could follow their instinctual hostility and rush into the ghost friend’s house.

Ning Su ran swiftly, with the monster children angrily chasing after him. Every time a monster child was about to touch the corner of his grass-green shirt, Ning Su managed to escape.

That corner of the grass-green shirt, in this way, brushed past the wet white little hands, creating a fluttering arc under the moonlight.

The young boy was the first to step into the dark street.

He threw the fetus statue to Gui Sheng at the end of the street and turned to look at the monster children.

As he expected, once the monster children entered this street, it no longer pursued him relentlessly.

The fetus statue struggled at the end of the street, and the monster children scattered along this winding path, singing as they entered different houses.

Just like back then, when they searched for ghost friends on every floor and in every room of the castle beneath the fetus statue.

[Mother’s belly is so warm, I want to drag it down to hell for company.

When I died, it trembled. But was it attached to me?]

The young and chilly voice echoed throughout the street.

Countless monster children crawled into different houses.

The singing grew closer, right at the doorstep, right by the ears.

***

Zhu Shuangshuang’s lips were already bitten, stained with her own blood.

The red hairband on her head slowly fell from her hair, growing larger as it descended, gently covering the little boy completely.

The long red cover draped down to the ground, making the small figure inside even smaller.

“I... don’t know if I can survive. Zhi Zhi, live well.”

The boy’s body appeared even smaller, standing inside the oversized red cover with his head lowered, as if not just his neck, but even his back was slightly bent.

Tears fell from under the red cover, forming small puddles that dyed the cover even redder.

Zhu Shuangshuang’s tears flowed uncontrollably as well.

She didn’t know if she was crying for her impending death or for the small body under the red cover.

He was too young.

He was so young that he couldn’t distinguish between his mother and sister.

He was so young that if he fell down now, there wouldn’t be layers of thick red blankets to cushion him.

That little figure, stumbling within the red blanket, walked towards her and accidentally pushed over the lotus lantern she feared the most.

When Zhu Shuangshuang fell to the ground, she cried uncontrollably.

She held Zhi Zhi tightly and thought about how he had been calling her sister and mother these past few nights by her bedside.

Gently, not very skillfully, with great caution.

***

When the monster children approached, Meng Jiang couldn’t utter a word anymore.

With his arm tightly wrapped in white bandages, he struggled to lift it and pointed towards the window.

The monster children had come in through the door, but this was not the castle. Outside the window was another place. If they escaped from there, the monster children wouldn’t be able to catch them.

A Yi stared at his trembling fingers and the world outside the window, looking for a long time.

He didn’t walk towards that side, but instead carried Meng Jiang on his back and walked towards the door.

As he moved, a piece of white bandage floated up from his body.

The white bandage fluttered round and round, growing longer and longer, wrapping up a pile of monster children and throwing them onto the street outside the door.

All the monster children by the door were swept out by one white bandage after another. They stomped their feet in anger outside the door, but they couldn’t do anything against the white bandage.

He was no longer the weak little boy who could only be bullied.

He didn’t need protection; he just stubbornly wanted a tall and brave brother who could protect him.

On this street, those ghost friends who came out of the castle, except for the boy with the birthmark, no one died tragically and no one needed protection.

What they needed was never protection.