After the head emerged from the water, it didn't stop. Gradually, shoulders, the upper body, and then the legs, a person came out of the lake.
This person was wearing a regular T-shirt and jeans, his entire body drenched from the lake, seemingly like a young man who had narrowly escaped drowning.
But to the onlooking Monkey and Brother Liu, they would not think that this is merely a drowning man.
A drowning person who has narrowly escaped death would either collapse on the ground or scream for help, and certainly not be expressionless like this person.
Yes, expressionless, truly expressionless. This man slowly emerged from the water, saw Monkey and Brother Liu, yet his face showed no signs of emotion, not to mention he did not utter a word. It was as if he hadn't seen the two at all. Holding something strange in his Right Hand, he walked straight past the paralyzed pair and continued along the shore.
An unknown amount of time passed, perhaps five minutes, or maybe ten. In the blank minds of the two, the concept of time seemed to have vanished completely until a night breeze brushed over their faces. Only then could Monkey barely manage to move his body again.
"Bro... Bro… Brother Liu…"
Stuttering and trembling, Monkey struggled to speak, then collapsed.
Brother Liu did not respond to Monkey's words. Shaking, he pulled a lighter from his pocket, took out a cigarette case, picked a cigarette from it, intending to light one to calm his nerves.
"Snap…"
A flame flickered, but due to his trembling hand, instead of lighting the cigarette he burned his palm.
"Shit…"
Dropping both the lighter and cigarette box, Brother Liu did not care about the dirty weeds. He sat down and gasped heavily for breath.
He had no choice but to gasp for breath. If a person suddenly encountered something terrifying, palpitations, chest discomfort, chest pain, difficulty in breathing, suffocation, dizziness, excessive sweating, unsteady steps, trembling, numbness of hands and feet can be typical symptoms. If he does not recover soon, the over-excited state of nerves can cause even bigger harm.
After gasping for a while, Brother Liu struggled to control his fiercely beating heart, yet it still throbbed uncontrollably. What kind of eyes were those?
Dark, devoid of any emotion a human should have, was it really a person?
Thinking carefully, Brother Liu was horrified to discover that in his memory, he had no clear impression of that person at all, only recalling the expressionless face and a pair of emotionless eyes. Beyond that, he had no impression of what that person really looked like.
"Bro, Brother Liu... let's hurry up and leave..."
Having regained some strength, Monkey crawled over fearfully.
Yes, let's get out of here!
Dismissing his throbbing heart, Brother Liu stood up without a word and together with Monkey helped each other stumble away. Only after spotting a few couples out for a stroll in the distance, did they finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Brother Liu… do you… do you think that person… was it a water ghost?"
Monkey's voice was low, unable to hide the fear within.
"A water ghost?"
A shiver ran through Brother Liu recalling the scene from earlier. He remembered tales of strange occurrences from the elders, could it really have been a water ghost?
He slapped Monkey on the back of his head and forced down his fear. "Who cares if it's a water ghost or not. As long as we don't provoke it. Let's just go."
What Brother Liu and Monkey assumed was a water ghost was not a ghost at all, but a poor person parasitized. No, to be precise, could it still be considered human after being parasitized by an Extraterrestrial creature?
Chen Yang considered himself still human, at least he still felt as humans do, for instance, he felt hunger…
Damn it, he just ate six bowls of noodles not more than an hour ago, right?
And now, he was hungry again, as if he hadn't eaten at all.
The goddamn annoying ...uh, I mean, the infinitely revered and supremely invincible Right Hand, what on earth had it been doing with his pathetic human body this time?
Chen Yang looked down at his soaking wet body with a pitiful expression. Just back to senses, he felt an urge to cry.
Unfortunately, his Right Hand had done something that left it feeling tired. Besides instructing him to grab something and go home, it gave no further response.
Had it fallen asleep?
Chen Yang sighed as he looked at his ordinary right hand. He then raised what was in his left hand to examine it again.
In his left hand was a cylindrical object with a metallic silver exterior, approximately the size of a regular cup that measured about fifteen centimeters. He had no idea what it was for or where it came from. Of course, Chen Yang knew that if his Right Hand had taken so much effort to find this thing, it definitely wasn't ordinary.
Well, regardless of what that thing was, the most urgent task now was to get home as soon as possible!
He scanned his surroundings, watching groups of passers-by casting curious glances at him, making him quicken his pace, leaving wet footsteps on the concrete ground.
His drenched appearance was as noticeable as a firefly in the darkness, drawing the attention of every passer-by, prompting their guesses, curiosity and whispers.
In the end, Chen Yang decided to just run along the edge of the road. Given his soaked state, no taxi would take him anyway, so he might as well run home.
Twenty minutes later, a panting Chen Yang finally saw a familiar alley. He hastened his pace, nearing his building with two steps at a time, and walked in.
Thank heavens his keys hadn't been lost during his dive. He hurriedly stripped off his sodden shoes and jacket, rushed to the bathroom, and took a hot shower.
Chen Yang was now gradually realizing that he had most certainly been compelled by his Right Hand to jump into the lake in the park, otherwise he wouldn't be soaking wet, and certainly wouldn't be smelling this rotten stench, with muddy silt lodged under his nails.
After the bath and dressed in clean clothes, Chen Yang heaved a sigh of relief, took a large watermelon out of the fridge, cut it open, and began feasting upon it at the living room table.
There was nothing quite as delightful in the sweltering heat of summer as comfortably sitting and enjoying a bite of icy watermelon. Chen Yang was enjoying his refreshing treat when he suddenly remembered the bizarre creature living in his right hand. His mood plummeted deeply and he put down the half-eaten watermelon and sighed.
"Ah, such rotten luck, how did I end up in this mess?"
While brooding, Chen Yang picked up the cylinder to examine it again.
Upon further inspection, he noticed a unique feature - this metallic silver cylinder had no seams or cracks anywhere. It was completely solid.
"This thing…"
After a moment of hesitation, Chen's fear of the Right Hand's non-human punishments prevailed. Unable to figure out what it was, he carefully stored it in a hidden compartment under his bed.
His careful gestures and movements made it seem as though he was holding a nuclear warhead.
Indeed, Chen felt that this unknown object could very well be an extraterrestrial weapon as powerful as a nuclear weapon. He decided to keep it safe. After all, losing it could cause quite a scene.
As for whether the Right Hand would use this thing against humans, well, Chen stroked his stubbled chin, recalling the psychological blow dealt by the Right Hand, suddenly shivered and thought, 'screw it, every man for himself. Let's just hope for the best.'
On May 27th, the first real "human traitor" was born in human history…
At this moment, the blissfully ignorant humanity had no idea that a great crisis was looming from within them.