Chapter 54 – Butterflies in the Stomach

The imaginary butterflies did not emerge out of his throat. Xu RenDong leaned on the elevator door, panting and trying to calm his emotions. At this point, even if he closed his eyes, he could still see the text messages written by Lian Qiao in the left eye field of vision:

What’s wrong? What happened?

How are you doing right now? There are water and wet wipes in the bag.

Xu RenDong touched his cheek and found that he was sweating coldly. He leaned against the cold elevator fuselage and gradually calmed down. He told Lian Qiao that he was okay.

The elevator door opened and the narrow and dirty alley was still outside the door. The streets outside the alley were crowded with people and it was a bustling scene. Looking around, you could vaguely see the billowing black smoke rising from the factory chimney in the distance. Everything looked so normal.

Xu RenDong did not get out of the elevator for a long time because he needed time to calm down.

Since the world has reset, it meant that he already died once. But how come he had no memory of it at all? This time, could ghosts kill people silently in their sleep? What exactly were the conditions of death?

No, it was not necessarily a ghost which killed him. It may have been one of his teammates. But what was the motive?

His brain was filled with questions but he didn’t have any clues to answer them.

Xu RenDong sighed and walked out of the elevator helplessly.

When he walked onto the street, the beret man stopped him again. Xu RenDong joined the team with the calmest expression possible and soon the gentleman came over to chat to him again.

Xu RenDong stared at his every move carefully, trying to find clues from it, but the gentleman behaved very normally and he couldn’t see any problems. Xu RenDong thought for a while and then went to the back of the team and found the medical student.

The medical student was holding a book in his hand. He was walking and memorizing it with his head down and seemed completely unaware of Xu RenDong’s arrival. Xu RenDong took the initiative to say hello to him. When the medical student looked up, he was shocked to see two pupils in Xu RenDong’s left eye.

“You.. Is this the legendary double pupil deformity?!” The medical student was both shocked and overjoyed, “Fuck! Great! The first time I saw a living double pupil deformity!”

Xu RenDong tried to change the topic from his eyes to the medical student. The student readily reported his name, age, school, department and relationship status (single). He seemed like a very naive and honest person. But obviously he was more interested in Lamia’s eyes, staring constantly at Xu RenDong’s left eye so closely that his entire person was about to stick to Xu RenDong’s body.

Lian Qiao: Damn it! What is this man! His fat face is almost occupying the entire field of vision! Big boss, quickly tell him to get away!

Xu RenDong was forced by him to back away and felt a little embarrassed. He was about to push the medical student away when a hand suddenly appeared in front of him, and patted the medical student on his shoulder to stop him.

Obviously, this was a man’s hand with distinct joints and short nails almost sinking into the flesh. This hand was very white, the light blue blood vessels stood out clearly on the back of the hand. It can be said to look very masculine.

But what made Xu RenDong care about was that three fingers of this hand: the thumb, index finger and middle finger were abnormally dry, and the deep part of the nail was slightly white, for unknown reasons.

The left eye’s angle of view suddenly flickered and Lian Qiao typed out two words: A teacher?

Xu RenDong suddenly realized: Yes! Teachers often come into contact with chalk so they often have to wash their hands, so their hands will be extremely dry. There will also be chalk dust left in the crevices of the fingers.

He looked up along this hand and found that it was the gentleman standing in front of him.

The gentleman glanced at the book in the hands of the medical student and gave a friendly smile to the medical student: “Are you a doctor? I understand your excitement when you see a rare patient, but can you take into account the other person’s feelings a little bit?”

Only then did the medical student realize. He repeatedly apologized to Xu RenDong. Xu RenDong said that it wasn’t a big deal and then returned to his original position beside the gentleman. He continued to walk slowly towards the factory with the beret man.

Along the way, Xu RenDong couldn’t help but peek at the gentleman’s right hand, thinking that it is no wonder that he was so mannerly,? turns out he was a teacher.

Finally, the group of people reached the factory again. Everything was the same as last time and everyone was quickly assigned to their respective workstations and started to work.

In the stuffy boiler room, Xu RenDong once again put on his backpack. Before leaving, he took a deep look at the medical student. The guy was still burying his head in memorizing, in a posture of “Nothing in the world can stop me from studying”. This time Xu RenDong became more mindful and sprinkled a thin layer of coal ash on the floor at the entrance of the boiler room. The lights in the boiler room are dim and the soot scattered on the ground can’t be noticed if you don’t look carefully. But once the people inside walked out, there would be traces on the coal ash.

After arriving on the first floor, Xu RenDong did not continue to follow the foreman, but went from another direction to the top of the stairs and went directly to the third floor.

He remembered that Zhang XiaoXiao and the gentleman exchanged positions on the third floor. While the foreman was still patrolling on the first floor, he was the first to find Zhang XiaoXiao in the corridor on the third floor.

“You–” Zhang XiaoXiao was taken aback by Xu RenDong’s sudden appearance, and asked with her eyes wide, “You, what are you doing here?”

“Go back to your workshop first, the foreman will be here soon.” Xu RenDong watched the surroundings vigilantly, making sure that there were no other people nearby.

Zhang XiaoXiao felt shocked when she thought of the muscular foreman so she hurried back to her workshop. Seeing her return, the girl in her group was surprised: “How come you came back? Weren’t you going to find..” When she saw Xu RenDong, who was following Zhang XiaoXiao, the expression on her face was even more surprised, “Huh? What are you doing?”

Xu RenDong casually made up an excuse while observing this workshop. In addition to these two girls, there was also a row of jointed dolls in the workshop. The mechanical crawler keeps running and the workpieces are continuously transported to the front. The articulated dolls also handle the workpieces in an orderly manner like a machine, without reacting to the additional outsiders in their workshop.

If you don’t look closely, these jointed dolls looked almost the same as real people. But once you notice their exposed spherical joints, you will immediately feel uneasy and even fearful.

What is even more peculiar was, it was unknown what structure these wooden dolls were made from, but they could accurately grab the workpiece on the conveyor track and hold it in their hand for fine operation. There seemed to be more than a dozen souls hidden in the dozens of jointed dolls. They worked silently, tirelessly, and never complained. There was only the rumble of mechanical operation in the whole workshop, which felt dull and weird.

Xu RenDong cautiously went to the back of the conveyor track and squatted behind the jointed dolls. Sure enough, even if he did something abnormal like this, the joint doll did not respond. Not long after, the door of the workshop was kicked open with a loud bang. Both girls were taken aback.

Xu RenDong hid behind the doll so most of his vision was obscured. He could only see the foreman’s feet. The foreman stood at the door, muttered something with his mouth, then quickly turned his head and left.

As soon as the foreman left, Xu RenDong immediately walked out from behind the doll and found that Zhang XiaoXiao had retreated to the corner of the wall farthest from the conveyor track.

She was very afraid of these dolls. She crossed her arms tightly and said with a trembling voice: “I don’t want to stay here anymore. It’s terrible here.. I want to go find him..”

The other girl was quite surprised. She said disdainfully: “It’s just a dummy, what are you afraid of? Also, I think it’s better not to believe that man so easily. In this kind of place, people who take the initiative to approach others are definitely not good people. Why don’t you think about why he wants to help you? You’re not a big beauty and you’re not giving him money. Why would he risk helping you?”

Xu RenDong said: “I happen to be also looking for him regarding something. I will go with Zhang XiaoXiao.” He turned his head and looked at the other girl, “What about you? Are you okay to stay here alone?”

The girl was taken aback when she heard his words. She seemed very reluctant but she didn’t want to slap herself on her face so she insisted: “It’s okay, I’m good alone. If something happens, I will call for help.”

Xu RenDong remembered that in the workshop next door, there was a male teammate. If she called for help, then that person should be able to come and help right away. So he nodded and left the workshop with Zhang XiaoXiao.

The foreman had almost reached the opposite corridor. Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao walked quickly to the top of the stairs with the cover of the huge gear in the center area. Going down to the corner of the second floor, Xu RenDong felt something white flash in the corner of his eyes. He subconsciously had a bad feeling and quickly pulled Zhang XiaoXiao back behind him.

“What?..Um!” Zhang XiaoXiao’s mouth was covered by Xu RenDong’s hand. He watched anxiously as he made a gesture to her to be quiet.

Xu RenDong cautiously poked his head from behind the wall and saw a white figure walking out from the corner of the corridor. The man was wearing a white robe similar to a monk and his wrists and ankles were tied tightly with rubber bands, as if to facilitate certain operations. The white hood covered his face and only a long black beak could be seen from the side, which was so pointed that it looked as though he could pierce people to death. The man was still carrying a man on his shoulders, who seemed to have lost consciousness and was collapsed on the man’s shoulders like a sack.

Doctor Birdbeak? Why was he here? And who was the man on his shoulder?

Due to the angle problem, Xu RenDong can only see the lower part of the man’s body. He noticed a section of intestines hanging down from the man’s abdomen, dangling as Doctor Birdbeak walked. Doctor Birdbeak’s snow-white robe was also soaked with blood and a pair of scary scissors hung around his waist. The edge of the knife was dripping blood.

“That can’t be..” Zhang XiaoXiao’s voice trembled, “Could it be that he already..”

Xu RenDong did not answer. He was afraid the corpse on the shoulder of the beak was indeed the gentleman. His chest and stomach had been opened up and it looked exactly the same as Zhang XiaoXiao’s original death.

Lian Qiao wrote suddenly: In case you are found, don’t fight, just run upstairs.

Xu RenDong was taken aback. Upstairs? But isn’t the foreman upstairs?

Before he could comprehend Lian Qiao’s words, Doctor Birdbeak had already carried the body of the gentleman to the edge of the fence in the central area. He lifted his hand and easily pushed the body down.

Below it was the molten pool where the heat wave was tumbling!

The orange-red molten slurry wrapped around the corpse like silk and, within a second, flames ignited on the corpse. The fire scorched the clothes and hair of the corpse and a puff of black smoke emerged. The ultra-high temperature burning caused the body to quickly seep oil and crackle. In the roar of the factory machinery, the faint cracking sound was not obvious but both Xu RenDong and Zhang XiaoXiao could hear it very clearly.

In just a few seconds, the body has been burned into human-shaped charcoal. As the viscous molten slurry flowed slowly, the humanoid charcoal was broken into dozens of pieces which floated on the surface of the molten slurry. Before long, the charcoal was burnt red again and gradually merged into the molten pool, as if nothing had happened.

Zhang XiaoXiao was crying. She wiped her tears and trembling, suddenly asked: “What’s that in his hand..?”

Xu RenDong narrowed his eyes and was horrified to find that Doctor Birdbeak was holding a bloody organ in his hands.

A stomach.

Doctor Birdbeak grabbed the opening under the stomach pouch with his gloved fingers and pulled it hard. The stomach pouch was torn apart by him, revealing the pink gastric mucosa. Doctor Birdbeak seemed to be very interested in the structure of the stomach and played with it over and over in his hands. The blood dripped down the gloves and dyed his chest red, looking crazy and cruel.

The scene was too stimulating and even Xu RenDong had physical discomfort. He frowned and wanted to take Zhang XiaoXiao away but saw Zhang XiaoXiao was grasping her throat with one hand and her belly with the other. Her shoulders were twitching and her face was filled with pain.

“You..” Xu RenDong had a very bad premonition. Before he could react, Zhang XiaoXiao suddenly widened her eyes and vomited out with a “Ugh!”.

However, what she vomited out did not fall to the ground but fluttered away flying with wings!

It was a moth!

With its wings spread, it was about the size of a fist. The fluffy gray-white moth slowly flew away in a graceful posture that was incompatible with the surrounding environment.

Zhang XiaoXiao saw that she had vomited a moth and her face was pale. Immediately afterwards, her pupils shrank suddenly and she covered her mouth. More moths tried to get out of her mouth and her mouth was full of the sound of moth flapping wings. Even a gray wing had been squeezed out between her fingers.

Xu RenDong was so horrified that he couldn’t speak until a sentence appeared in his left eye: Run! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!

Recalled by this long string of exclamation marks, Xu RenDong came back to his senses. He instinctively turned his head and glanced in the direction of Doctor Birdbeak. He found to his horror that the first moth Zhang XiaoXiao vomited had already flown in front of Doctor Birdbeak!

Doctor Birdbeak stretched out his hand to catch the moth. He opened his palm, took a look, immediately turned his head and looked straight at Xu RenDong.

“Run!” Xu RenDong shouted violently. He grabbed Zhang XiaoXiao, turned and ran towards the stairs.

Up or down?

Up or down? !

There were rapid footsteps behind him. Before he could think about it, Xu RenDong made a hasty decision.