Blood Neon-Chapter 17

Chapter 17
Pretty Big, Actually
No one could blame Lin Ying for being full of frustration right now.
What had started as a pleasant surprise — stumbling upon a decent target for hunting — ended up completely ruined by him. In the end, she hadn’t even gotten a single bite.
And the worst part was, the guy hadn’t even done anything wrong. Rationally, she had nowhere to vent her anger. But this sudden loss of a potential task bonus made her feel like she’d come out at a loss regardless, so all she could do was silently draw little circles in her heart in frustration.
.
As the key was inserted into the lock and turned a full 2π rotation, the anti-theft door creaked open with a "squeak."
"Not coming in?"
Zhang Qiming turned his head and asked, seeing the girl still standing outside the door.
"No need. I’ll just wait outside. I don’t want to bother your family."
The boy shrugged. "Ah, don’t worry about that. They haven’t been home these days anyway."
After thinking about it briefly, Lin Ying figured it didn’t matter either way, so she nodded and stepped inside.
While changing into the guest slippers the boy handed her, Lin Ying took the chance to glance around the apartment.
Just inside the entrance, on the left, was the shoe cabinet. There wasn’t really a foyer, and directly ahead was the living room, with the balcony visible further beyond. To the right was the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom. The whole place didn’t look very big — especially since the amount of furniture and decorations inside made the space feel quite cramped.
The building itself was a residential complex for employees of some nearby work unit, and it was close to twenty years old, giving it a slightly aged feel. But it also carried a kind of early-2000s charm that gave Lin Ying a sense of nostalgia.
The room was actually quite tidy.
Were his parents away on a business trip? One of those jobs where they flew around the world? Did he maybe have a twin-tailed childhood friend living next door, and a non-blood-related younger sister?
Lin Ying couldn’t help roasting the situation in her head. After all, a high schooler, living alone, getting into trouble, hotheaded rookie — stack a few of these tags together and you’ve basically got the main character of some cringe anime. If she had the time, she’d suggest he get a spiky hairstyle — might even boost his luck by 5 points. He could really use that.
"You can rest on the couch for a bit. I’ll go grab the money for you from my room."
After gently closing the door, the boy headed into his bedroom. Lin Ying naturally settled herself onto the couch.
It was soft — soft enough that her body sank into it slightly.
The sensation, as if from another world, made Lin Ying momentarily dazed.
After all, ever since arriving in this world, she had been spending the nights in all kinds of strange and sketchy places. These past few days, even finding shelter from the elements and having a few cardboard boxes to lie on felt like a huge upgrade. In the beginning, she had even spent nights sleeping directly on the grass.
This feeling — of being home — when would it ever truly return?
—Because right now, among the thousands of lights shining every night, not a single one was lit for her.
Lin Ying gently hugged her knees, rested her chin between them, and curled herself into a ball on the couch.
.
"Thanks for having me. I’ll be going now."
Lin Ying gave a light bow at the doorway.
After receiving the impressive sum of thirty-seven yuan and fifty cents from the boy in the living room, she decisively chose to say goodbye.
"Mm... Although as the host I should be more hospitable, for safety’s sake, it’s better not to stay too long."
Zhang Qiming nodded helplessly and started putting on his shoes.
"I’ll walk you to the gate at least."
"No need, I can handle that much on my own."
Lin Ying acknowledged the kind offer but politely turned to leave.
Still, this kid really was a decent person who genuinely cared about others. Hearing that same line from someone else might have felt awkward, but coming from him, it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.
That’s what she thought to herself.
"It’s fine. This is kind of a guy’s responsibility too. Just wait a sec."
The boy had no intention of being polite in return and decisively stepped out as well.
His body was still a bit unsteady, and because he had rushed to put his shoes on, one of them wasn’t even properly worn—just loosely hanging off his foot as he hurried out the door.
"You really don’t have to," Lin Ying waved her hand as she began heading downstairs. "You should rest a bit more. And tomorrow, take the day off and just stay in bed if you can."
"It’s fine, really. These injuries aren’t that bad, I—ah!"
.
That was when the accident happened.
The boy, rushing out to catch up with Lin Ying without properly wearing his shoes, with his slightly impaired body still affected by injuries and unsteady movement—
Maybe it was the bandages on his head throwing off his balance, or maybe he really did have a mild concussion from the earlier beating—
Whatever the cause, a perfect storm of conditions came together in that instant as he stepped onto the stairs, and it resulted in an unavoidable trip and fall.
With his body in motion, the boy was practically launched horizontally toward the hard concrete stairs.
Lin Ying had already gone down half a flight of stairs. From that position, there wasn’t even a chance to catch him in a clumsy fall to soften the blow.
Hearing the shout from behind, Lin Ying instinctively turned her head — and moved in a flash.
.
Zhang Qiming stared at the ground less than a decimeter from his face, still shaken.
Just moments ago, everything had spun around him, and he had felt himself flying forward at high speed, heading straight toward the uneven steps of the staircase. He could already feel the pain from what should have been a bone-breaking fall.
Wait—no, the pain he felt was real. But it was just the same pain from his earlier injuries... and mixed in with that, there was a strange sensation.
Gasping for breath after narrowly escaping disaster, he raised his head and saw something unimaginable.
The girl standing on the stairway had her hand half-extended, frozen mid-motion. But behind her — from her shoulders and beneath her skirt — several pitch-black tendrils exuding a thick, ominous black mist like something out of CG animation were reaching out, wrapped tightly around his body, suspending him in mid-air.
The two locked eyes for a second — frozen in time.
And in that moment of clarity, an overwhelming wave of terror mixed with splitting pain crashed into Zhang Qiming. It felt like a battlefield of thousands warring inside his skull, while distant screams echoed in his ears. That despair and fear surged like a flood, utterly overwhelming his mind.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Under the assault of unbearable pain, Zhang Qiming let out an instinctive scream. The shriek echoed through the narrow apartment stairwell, and combined with the scene before him, it was like something out of a horror movie.
The girl's expression froze as well, and it was only his scream that pulled her back to her senses. In an instant, all the tendrils recoiled like they’d been shocked by electricity, snapping back behind her.
.
Lin Ying realized that she had just instinctively reached out with the new limbs that had, over the past few days, become an inseparable part of her.
Without those tendrils supporting him, the boy still didn’t escape his original fate — he fell to the ground. Though at least this time, the momentum had been reduced. It probably wouldn’t be too bad.
But Lin Ying now had a headache of her own. There was no doubt — this guy had seen her tendrils. Judging by the look on his face, he’d probably just failed a sanity check.
She knew very well how people reacted to those tendrils. The two guys she had already digested definitely hadn’t gone peacefully.
Looking at the boy still twitching slightly on the ground, Lin Ying sighed and bent down to help him up.
To be honest, for a brief moment just now, she had considered whether she might need to silence him permanently.
But no matter what, killing an innocent person went against her principles.
Her body might have inevitably become monstrous, but at the very least — mentally, Lin Ying refused to let herself become a monster too.
Okay... at least not completely.
.
Looking over at the boy and realizing that he was still conscious, Lin Ying had no choice but to help him back up the stairs and into his home, hoping to avoid any nosy neighbors who might come out to investigate after hearing his pig-like scream.
Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten around to closing the door earlier.
As for everything else — it could wait until they were back inside.
She could only hope the guy would be okay.
Lin Ying thought helplessly.