At first, he chanted silently but the demon was not affected, so he read aloud: "OM MANI PAPME HUM! OM MANI PAPME HUM! OM MANI PAPME HUM!!!".
The louder he read, the more the demon laughed happily: "HAHAHA! YOU CAN'T CHANT AT ME HAHA!!".
Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of him, a large container truck was rushing towards his and his car. Both of them were motionless and panicked, Xie Ying was startled and didn't have time to turn the wheel. The truck crashed straight into the car, the strong collision created an explosion, smoke and fire rose, the car flipped over and was destroyed.
"HAHAHA!!!". The demon's laughter echoed and tore through the night sky.
"NO!!!".
"Huff huff...".
Xie Cheng opened his eyes wide, what he saw was the ceiling. He whispered: "Where is this?".
Looking at it for a few seconds, he came back to his senses: "This is my house".
His head was numb and his body was extremely sore. He tried to move his neck and felt stiff, so he tried to turn his neck. Turning around, Xie Ying was sleeping soundly beside him. He forced himself to sit up and found himself lying on the living room floor. Suddenly, a beam of light flashed across his head.
"That's right... Ying and I were chased by a demon and... We were hit by a truck, and then?".
Confused, he checked his body and then turned to check Xie Ying's body: "What the hell is going on?! No injuries! In the end... How did I get home?".
After a moment of confusion, he suddenly laughed crazily: "Haha! It was a dream! That's right, it was just a dream! I finally woke up!".
He sat up and threw open the door with all his might and ran outside. In the morning, clouds covered the sun, not a single ray of sunlight shone down. Xie Cheng walked barefoot, running back and forth on the street, his eyes looking around wildly. Standing in the middle of the city, he collapsed, holding his head and screaming: "WHERE IS EVERYONE?!".
There was no sound or sign of human existence around, only the sound of crows cawing fearfully in the desolate place. Xie Cheng punched himself in the head: "This is still a dream! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up and go to work!!".
"It hurts so much huhu.. This is not a dream".
He bowed his head and stood still for a moment, clenched his hands, and muttered to himself: "Don't be afraid, have to face the truth, have to be strong".
"Cough cough.. Cough cough".
The sound came from behind, Xie Cheng sensitively turned around and was scared to the ground by the thing in front. In front of him was a hungry ghost with a missing leg, skinny and bony, with burnt gray skin and an ugly face, crawling towards him. Its mouth was dripping with a thick green mucus that smelled like sewage.
Xie Cheng tried to calm down, his hand caressed and touched a hard object on the ground, glanced down and saw a rock as big as a fist, so he picked it up and threw it with all his might at the ghost. The rock hit the head, the ghost's head spurted blood and stuck to his face, then the ghost lay motionless.
His trembling hands were brought up in front of his face, the corner of his mouth slightly raised, then he used his hand to wipe away the blood on his face: "Haha... I killed a ghost! This is the first time I've killed a ghost! Haha!".
"Cough cough Cough cough".
Xie Cheng: "!". His eyes moved to the right, a group of about nine hungry ghosts were rushing towards him.
"Fuck!". Just now, he was lucky to have a rock at his feet, but now there was nothing he could do to kill the demons. He ran away, turning his head as he ran. The slow-moving hungry demons couldn't catch up to him at all. Seeing that, he stuck out his tongue and smiled smugly, running to find a place to hide.
In the alley, he found a rusty sharp stick in the trash, raised it up and looked at it: "I see that in horror movies or horror games, the main character always has a weapon to kill demons, so I quickly found a weapon to defend myself ~ Experience is really different hehe".
He stood there, twirling the sharp stick in his hand, making movements similar to the demon-slaying wizards.
"Cheep cheep, I look so cool!".
If he was still human, they would say he was crazy and send him to a mental hospital.
Standing with his hands on his hips, he raised the sharp stick to the sky and shouted: "You demons, I will destroy you! Haha!".
Stepping back, he suddenly bumped into something soft like a human's, someone hugged him from behind: "Brother! Finally found you".
Unexpectedly, he turned around: "Ying?".
He frowned: "Why are you so panicked?".
Xie Ying kept hugging him, breathing a sigh of relief: "When I woke up and didn't see you, I thought you had disappeared and left me in this world, you searched everywhere for me".
He patted his head, saying: "How could I disappear, let's survive and kill ghosts together!".
"Gurgle gurgle gurgle"
Xie Ying: "...".
Xie Cheng: "...".
Xie Cheng's stomach growled loudly, he staggered and fell into Xie Ying's arms, he supported him: "Let's go home and let me cook breakfast for you".
He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon, his body was weak from fighting his fear.
The aroma of food filled the kitchen, Xie Cheng tried to inhale deeply. Xie Ying put down two plates of fried noodles with meat, smiling: "Today we have fried noodles".
So hungry, Xie Cheng quickly picked up his chopsticks and shoved everything on the plate of noodles into his mouth, in less than two minutes he had cleaned the plate. He took a sip of water, closed his eyes, leaned back in the chair and patted his stomach, exhaling happily: "This is delicious, it feels like it's been a long time since I've had this. Thinking back, why have you suddenly become so good at cooking these past few months?".
Xie Ying: "...".
Not hearing his reply, Xie Cheng opened his eyes and found that he was resting his chin on his hand, smiling at him attentively, the plate of noodles was still intact and untouched. He swallowed his saliva, feeling a little scared. Looking closely, he saw that Xie Ying's smile was strangely different. His eyes were wide open, seemingly lifeless, and he was staring at him without blinking. Xie Cheng felt a chill down his spine and forced a smile: "Ying, why don't you eat and keep looking at me?".
"I'll eat." He raised his eyebrows slightly, returning to normal, and then started picking up his chopsticks to eat.
To be honest, ever since he had the dream that he was possessed and pressed down on him, he still had some doubts about him. He wondered if the person beside him yesterday was still him, his younger brother, or someone else? His actions, expressions, and personality changed abnormally. Sometimes he looked gentle and obedient, sometimes he was cold and quiet, sometimes he was even cute and spoiled, and sometimes he was brutal and wanted to kill someone. He had been like this for months, he thought he had a mental illness, he just needed to go to the doctor and he would be fine again.
"Do you have any plans yet?".
Xie Cheng was startled: "Huh? Um... Not yet".
Putting the last piece of meat in his mouth, Xie Ying said: "I saw you thinking about a plan just now".
Standing up, he put his arms behind his back, stroked his chin and walked back and forth, showing that he was thinking about something, saying: "Ah, actually I have a plan".
Taking the bowl and chopsticks to wash, he said: "Tell me".
Pausing for a moment and then counting his fingers, he said: "We need weapons so that when we go out we won't be attacked by demons and we need food reserves to prevent hunger. Today we will go scout the city to see if there are any people still alive besides us".
After taking a towel to dry his hands, he pulled a chair and sat down: "What happens next?".
Xie Cheng tilted his head and thought: "What happens next... What happens next to find the person and bring him back here and then think about it".
He patted him on the shoulder: "Now let's start getting the right weapons and food to put in the backpack and then set off."
After a while, all the so-called weapons were placed in rows on the living room floor, and the canned food was placed on the dining table. Xie Cheng stood there, looking at each weapon but had not chosen a suitable one for himself, so he remembered that he had brought a rusty sharp knife back earlier, he found that one more suitable for him, so he took it out and picked it up.
"I think you should bring a knife to kill demons." Xie Ying suddenly appeared behind him, spoke close to his ear, his breath blew into his ear, making him startled and move forward, his feet tripped over each other, and he fell. He immediately caught him, the sharp knife fell to the ground, making a clanging sound. His arms wrapped around his waist, his eyes met his, their lips almost met.
Immediately pushing him away, he picked up a sharp knife and said awkwardly, "Oh, then you choose for me. I haven't seen anything suitable for me so far."
In front of him were pans, baseball bats, shovels, hammers, axes, scythes, brooms, and so on. Next to them were sharp knives of all sizes, big and small, short and long. These knives not only caused harm to ghosts but could also injure himself, so Xie Cheng didn't dare to choose a knife. Xie Ying pondered over the knives for a moment, then picked up a long-bladed knife and held it in front of him, saying, "This is fine."
The white blade flashed a cold light that reflected his face. This knife had been used to cut open many animals for meat. Somewhere, the souls of the animals were still clinging to the blade. He shuddered as he received it, pondering the knife in his hand for a while, then he suddenly threw the knife to the ground, took a few steps back, and looked terrified: "Wh... What the hell is that?!".
Picking up the knife, he asked him, "What's wrong?".
Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he said, "There's a face on the blade."
Xie Ying raised his eyebrows: "A face?".
He observed the knife, turned it over and over, and said: "It's normal, it's nothing, you must have seen wrongly.
Just now, when he was concentrating on observing the blade, suddenly a pale face, messy hair covering half of the face, revealing deep black eye sockets appeared behind him and smiled. He was so scared that he threw it away. Feeling cold, he continuously waved his hands: "No, no, I have a sharp knife in my hand, that's enough."
Xie Ying took a black cloth with red patterns, wrapped the blade in several thick layers, carefully and meticulously, then gave it to him, saying: "Here, it's okay now."
Looking at the knife in front of him, he swallowed his saliva, he had sworn that he would not be afraid of anything anymore, but deep down, his heart was still trembling. He reached out to take the knife, shaking and sweating coldly, forcing a smile: "Why did you choose this knife for me?".
He immediately replied: "I just took it ah".
Xie Cheng still kept smiling and said nothing: "...".
He also quickly grabbed his weapons, he chose a switchblade and a baseball bat, then both of them stuffed the weapons and food into their backpacks.
Taking a bite of the apple, Xie Cheng said: "Is everything ready? Ready to go".
Xie Ying replied: "Yes..".
Then he looked up at him and suddenly burst out laughing: "Haha, what are you wearing on your head?".
The yellow duck kept shaking on Xie Cheng's head, he said: "Wearing a helmet to protect your head".
A yellow helmet, on top of his head was a yellow duck that was shaking every time he moved, looking no different from an idiot. Xie Cheng finished eating the apple and said: "Do you want to wear it? There's still the pink one".
Xie Ying immediately replied: "No".
Each person had a backpack, fully equipped and walked out. Xie Cheng now felt like he was playing a survival game, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a sharp stick across his shoulder, walking proudly, imagining himself to be very cool.
But in reality, it was so tedious and messy!
I don't know why but the backpack he was carrying felt heavy on his shoulders, while Xie Ying was comfortable and cheerful, full of energy. He tried to warm up by rotating his arms and massaging his shoulders, for some reason he felt even more tired.
"I'll carry it for you." He took his backpack.
He said: "Can you? It's too heavy..".
Without waiting for him to finish speaking, he took the backpack off his shoulder and carried it in front of his stomach, saying: "Let's go."
Yanglake people are really different, full of strength. While walking, he secretly glanced at him, feeling extremely jealous. He used to wish he had a tall, strong body like him but was lazy to exercise. I wonder if it's too late now? If he fought with the devil, maybe he would become stronger, and his body would be as strong and toned as Xie Ying's.
A bright star flashed in his eyes, and he clenched his fists and jumped up: "I will strive to be strong! Yaa!!".