After Bystander A Bound to JJ Literature City – CH17

Chapter 17 – I Am Your Father

Zhuang Ding, still reeling from the encounter, struggled to grasp Yu Zhi’s instructions. His situation was clearly worse than Lu Liming’s. “I’m out of universal currency,” he finally mumbled, eyes glued to his depleted panel.

Yu Zhi’s response was blunt. “Then you’re broke.”

Silence hung heavy in the air. Zhuang Ding felt a surge of shame, the sting of Yu Zhi’s words hitting hard. “What should I do then, Officer Yu?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Yu Zhi, already tearing into a pack of beef jerky, simply said, “Eat.”

“I can’t pay for that,” Zhuang Ding protested weakly.

The spicy, salty flavor of the jerky exploded in Zhuang Ding’s mouth, momentarily overwhelming his other senses. As he swallowed, his sluggish mind finally began to churn.

Yu Zhi, slinging Guo Qiang’s backpack over his shoulder, strode towards the floor-to-ceiling window. He scanned the backyard below. The lawn stretched out as usual, the stone path cutting through its center. No Guo Qiang. No cockroaches. No cockroach people.

Turning back to the others, Yu Zhi announced, “Let’s go. We need to find Guo Qiang.”

“Do you know where he went, Brother Yu?” Lu Liming asked.

“Rooftop,” Yu Zhi replied. “Probably sunbathing.”

“Cockroaches sunbathe?” Lu Liming sounded incredulous. “No wonder they’re a source of pollution!”

As they passed Tang Yong, huddled in a corner, he seemed to recoil from Yu Zhi, shrinking further into himself. His features were becoming more distorted – his head increasingly triangular, eyes bulging, and skin taking on the sickly sheen of a cockroach carapace.

“System,” Yu Zhi demanded, “will the mental pollution disappear once the source is eliminated?”

The system’s response was frustratingly familiar: [Please explore on your own! Actively complete tasks!]

Yu Zhi frowned. The same robotic answer, not even a variation in the wording. He gave up on the system and tried to get Tang Yong’s attention, but the man remained unresponsive. With a sigh, Yu Zhi stepped out of the apartment.

“Officer Yu, what about Brother Tang?” Zhuang Ding asked hesitantly.

“We have to prioritize,” Yu Zhi said, shaking his head. “We need to find the source of the pollution first. If eliminating it helps Tang Yong, then we’ll know he can be saved. If not…” He let the sentence trail off, the implication clear.

He knew Zhuang Ding was in no state for a detailed explanation. Leaving the apartment, he was met with the intensified sounds of skittering and rustling in the corridor. The noise seemed to be coming from the stairwell.

Yu Zhi quickened his pace, his jaw working on the beef jerky. As he rounded the corner, he stopped dead. The stairwell was swarming with cockroach people. It wasn’t just the four he’d encountered earlier; two more had joined them, all disguised in the typical attire of the building’s residents. They were clustered on the landing between the fifth and sixth floors, murmuring amongst themselves like gossiping neighbors.

Yu Zhi scanned the group. No administrator. He couldn’t make out their words over the deafening scritch-scratch of the cockroach horde. The tide of insects had already reached the fourth floor, an endless wave of white, chittering bodies, their sound a grating assault on his sanity. Even the walls were alive with the creatures, their tiny forms crawling towards the ceiling.

Every visible spot was covered in cockroaches, as if they were about to take over the entire world. Yu Zhi took a deep breath and said to Lu Liming and Zhuang Ding behind him, “If you can’t stand it, just close your eyes. We’ll be on the rooftop soon.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Liming immediately grabbed Yu Zhi’s clothing and quickly closed his eyes. Zhuang Ding reacted a bit slower; seeing the scene in the hallway, he hurriedly closed his eyes.

Yu Zhi stepped forward. As he approached, the little cockroaches on the wall surged even more violently, crawling away from him. For the first time in his life, Yu Zhi felt that having good eyesight was not a good thing. He could clearly see that the writhing little cockroaches on the wall were not just one layer; they were stacked in several layers. With every step he took, the outermost layer of little cockroaches would fall off in a flurry. It felt like a nauseating rain of cockroaches was falling from above. Underfoot was a flood of cockroaches, overwhelming and disastrous.

The oppressive feeling was like an invisible net, the entire space thick and heavy, with every breath and every step requiring more effort. The sounds of the cockroaches, a constant “rustle rustle rustle,” penetrated everywhere, flooding into his body. Zhuang Ding tried to cover his ears with his hands, but the sounds pierced through his palms, drilling into his mind, gnawing at his thoughts and reason, eroding what little judgment he had left.

Zhuang Ding’s heart raced, and his breathing became rapid as he trembled, climbing step by step. Are we there yet? Why haven’t we arrived? Am I really going up? The sound of little cockroaches continuously falling around him, rising and falling endlessly, was like a maddening drumbeat. His head felt itchier, as if countless little cockroaches were hatching and crawling on his head, then continuously falling down. Zhuang Ding felt like he was trapped in an endless nightmare.

He wanted to shout for Officer Yu, opened his mouth, and suddenly realized there was something in his mouth. Zhuang Ding’s body stiffened; what was in his mouth? What was he eating? Was it a cockroach? There were cockroaches everywhere; did a cockroach fall into his mouth? Zhuang Ding gagged, but the thing in his mouth slipped down his throat, the sensation of it scraping against his esophagus felt like a cockroach crawling over.

The sound of his sanity snapping echoed in his ears. His body, inside and out, was being consumed by cockroaches. Zhuang Ding opened his eyes and raised his knife to slash at his surroundings, the blade hitting the stair railing with a heavy clang. His palm went numb from the impact, and Zhuang Ding felt countless little cockroaches crawling up his knife and onto his hand, then burrowing into his palm.

Zhuang Ding wanted to scream, but fear choked his throat. He forcefully threw the knife away and sprayed his hand with a lighter and hairspray. Upon hearing the noise of Zhuang Ding chopping at the stair railing, Yu Zhi immediately turned around. “Zhuang Ding!” But Zhuang Ding’s eyes were bulging, his expression frenzied, completely lost in his madness, unable to hear his words.

He reached out to grab Zhuang Ding, but Zhuang Ding, eyes wild and unseeing, mistook him for another cockroach and frantically dodged away, even spraying fire at him. In the next second, Zhuang Ding missed a step and tumbled down the stairs.

The sickening thud of his body hitting the steps was swallowed by the thick, rustling mass of cockroaches that instantly engulfed him.

Yu Zhi’s lips tightened. There was no time to mourn. He grabbed Lu Liming’s arm and pulled him upward, hurrying towards the rooftop.

Although Lu Liming couldn’t see, the sounds – the frantic scrambling, the sudden thud, the chilling silence – painted a grim picture of Zhuang Ding’s fate. Even though he had only known Zhuang Ding for a short time, the realization that someone he knew had just died, mere steps behind him, sent a shiver down his spine.

Trembling, he handed his alcohol and lighter to Yu Zhi. “Brother Yu, you should take these. I… I’m afraid I might lose it and burn myself.”

Yu Zhi took the items, noting Lu Liming’s unusually cold hand. “Lu Liming,” he reminded him, “you still owe me a house.”

Lu Liming was momentarily startled. “Right… I still owe you a house.”

“Does it feel like you’re poorer now?” Yu Zhi asked.

The question seemed to pierce through Lu Liming’s daze. He gripped Yu Zhi’s clothing tighter, a flicker of clarity in his eyes. “Brother Yu,” he said, his voice filled with a strange conviction, “the feeling of being in debt is better than being a broke loser.”

Yu Zhi grunted in response. “Don’t forget, you still have to drive me to the capital.”

Lu Liming nodded vigorously. “That’s right! I not only owe you money, but I also owe you labor!” He sounded almost cheerful, a bizarre sense of purpose filling his voice. “I’m deeply in debt now!”

Yu Zhi didn’t reply. They had reached the last half-flight of stairs. Rounding the corner, they finally saw the rooftop door standing open. The little cockroaches on the wall seemed to avoid the entrance, as if something inside repelled them.

“We’re here,” Yu Zhi said to Lu Liming.

The rooftop was a stark contrast to the horrors within the building. Bathed in sunlight, with a clear sky overhead and dappled light dancing on the ground, it felt peaceful and serene.

Yu Zhi tightened his grip on the knife and took two steps forward. A faint clicking sound reached his ears. He followed the sound to its source – a broken stainless steel water tank. A huge cockroach was lodged inside, its upper body protruding limply. Below it, curled up in a pool of viscous, transparent liquid, was a white cockroach person.

A gentle breeze stirred the air, and the white cockroach person twitched, as if catching a scent. It slowly turned towards Yu Zhi.

In a blink of an eye, the creature lunged. It was a blur of motion, faster than anything Yu Zhi had ever encountered, closing the distance between them in an instant.

Yu Zhi’s expression hardened. The cockroach extermination title was still active. He had assumed it was working flawlessly, but it seemed the ineffective 1% had been reserved for the source of the pollution itself!

He shoved Lu Liming aside. “Run in different directions!”

Lu Liming didn’t hesitate, sprinting away.

The white cockroach person, ignoring Lu Liming, continued its pursuit of Yu Zhi. He had expected as much; he seemed to be a magnet for these creatures. But when he saw that the creature was charging with its eyes closed, he couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

Am I your mother?! You come looking for milk with your eyes still closed?!

A sudden chill swept over him. He instinctively sidestepped and rolled away just as a clawed hand swiped through the air where he had been standing.

“Bang—”

The white cockroach person crashed into the spot where Yu Zhi had been standing a moment before, creating a large crater in the concrete floor. Dust and debris exploded outwards. If Yu Zhi hadn’t dodged, he would have been severely injured, if not killed outright.

On the other side of the rooftop, Lu Liming, witnessing the near-miss, gritted his teeth and yelled, “Guo Qiang! Do you dare to chase me, you little punk?! What’s so great about chasing an E-level physique? Come chase me! I’m a B—no, an A-level ability user!”

Lu Liming’s taunts seemed to have an effect. The white cockroach person paused its pursuit of Yu Zhi and reached up to wipe the goo from its face.

For the first time, Yu Zhi saw the creature’s face clearly. It was a human face – Guo Qiang’s face. But it was different, somehow. Like a “Guo Qiang Plus” version, more defined, more robust.

Its tightly closed eyes slowly opened, revealing a pair of unnervingly blank, black eyes. It seemed disoriented, confused. “Guo, Guo, Guo Qiang…” it mumbled, the words slurred and indistinct, like a child attempting to speak.

Lu Liming, still trying to draw its attention, continued his taunts. “Guo Qiang! You, come over here!”

The creature mimicked him. “Guo, Guo Qiang…”

Yu Zhi, noticing its reaction to the name, tentatively called out, “Guo Qiang.”

Guo Qiang looked up, his gaze blank. “Guo, Qiang,” he said slowly.

This time, the pronunciation was clearer, more distinct.

“Do you not remember your name?” Yu Zhi asked. “Your name is Guo Qiang.” He tossed Guo Qiang’s student ID card towards him, repeating, “Your name is Guo Qiang.”

Guo Qiang looked down at the photo in the ID card. His blank mind was suddenly flooded with a torrent of chaotic images. He couldn’t make sense of them, but he could hear voices, all calling him Guo Qiang.

“Guo, Qiang, Guo Qiang, Guo Qiang…” he murmured repeatedly. “I am… Guo Qiang?”

“Yes,” Yu Zhi said gently, “you are Guo Qiang.”

“I am Guo Qiang,” Guo Qiang repeated.

The aggression had drained from him, replaced by confusion. He sat on the ground, hugging his knees, looking lost and vulnerable.

Yu Zhi slowly took a step forward. “Guo Qiang, do you remember me?”

Guo Qiang looked at him, his brow furrowed. “You, who are you…?”

Yu Zhi smiled, a gentle, reassuring smile. “Silly child,” he said softly. “I am your father.”

Lu Liming, witnessing this scene, was utterly dumbfounded. “???”