C2 Death of a Novelist(2)

Struggling to his feet, Lu Yu turned his head to peer into the vehicle.

Inside, a boy with black-rimmed glasses slumped in his seat, his body convulsing from the severe blood loss, while his girlfriend lay unconscious beside him, having fainted from fright.

In the desolate carriage, the instigator—a man clad in black—was grappling with the bus driver.

The man's throat emitted a guttural growl, barely human, intertwining with the driver's muffled grunts of exhaustion.

It was less of a fight and more a one-sided struggle as the driver desperately tried to fend off the man in black—a struggle he was on the verge of losing.

"Zombie?"

The word flashed across Lu Yu's mind, triggering a rapid-fire montage of apocalyptic movie scenes he'd seen before: the gore, the panic-stricken crowds, the chilling screams.

Frozen like a deer caught in headlights, Lu Yu's mind went blank, and he stood there, rooted to the spot.

"Someone call the police, for God's sake! There's been a murder!"

A glamorous woman in the crowd suggested with a shaky voice, her quick thinking evident as a recent escapee from the bus.

"Yes, call the cops, now!"

Yellow Hair, crammed to the side, whipped out his phone and dialed emergency services.

"Hello, hello, yeah, I need to report a crime. It's on Zhongshan Road, right across from Brilliance Cinema. There's been a murder on Bus Line 12. Yes, it's a bloody mess. Please hurry, the driver is still wrestling with the assailant..."

Yellow Hair's voice boomed, snapping Lu Yu out of his stupor.

As the driver teetered on the brink of being overpowered by the man in black, Lu Yu instinctively moved to board the bus and intervene.

But as his right hand reached for the door, he felt a tug on his left arm, pulling him back.

Whirling around, Lu Yu found himself face-to-face with a man in a gray hoodie, offering him a slight smile.

The man sported an angled fringe and a small mole between his brows, his distinctive peach blossom eyes giving him the air of a popular celebrity.

"You're Lu Yu, aren't you?"

The man's voice was soft but piercingly clear.

"I'm one of us. Don't go up there; you can't help him. Nobody can," Hoodie Guy continued, "Get out of here quickly. I'll explain everything in due time."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yu instinctively rifled through his memories, but the face before him remained a stranger, not someone he had previously known.

As Lu Yu attempted to break free, he discovered Hoodie Guy's grip on his left hand was unyielding, like a vise. Struggling in vain, he found himself being pulled toward the roadside.

Meanwhile, the bus driver had succumbed to the man in black. During a brief gasp for air, the man in black latched onto the driver's throat, blood spraying everywhere, prompting another wave of screams from the onlookers.

This time, however, no one dared to intervene as Lu Yu had.

The sight of the man in black savagely biting the driver sent waves of fear through the crowd, causing them to retreat slowly.

Hoodie Guy, with a firm grip on Lu Yu, made their way through the crowd to a motorcycle parked at the curb.

Just as Hoodie Guy was about to mount the bike, Lu Yu, with a forceful twist of his wrists, managed to wrench himself free.

Hoodie Guy, seeing Lu Yu escape his grasp, didn't seem inclined to continue the struggle. He flipped back the hood of his sweatshirt, revealing a head of disheveled hair.

The black motorcycle's engine growled to life, rumbling like a fierce hound ready to pounce.

"Who are you? How do you know me?" Lu Yu asked, stepping back cautiously.

"Get on the bike first. We need to leave this place, and then I'll explain everything to you," Hoodie Guy urged, revving the throttle as if to hasten Lu Yu's decision.

"Do you really think I'd just blindly follow your instructions? You claim to be an ally, but you seem incredibly suspicious to me. Do you have any proof that I can trust?" Lu Yu challenged.

Hoodie Guy shrugged helplessly. "Not really. This is only our second encounter. You weren't exactly approachable the last time we met."

"The second time we've met?"

Lu Yu murmured to himself, replaying the faces he knew in his mind, yet Hoodie Guy was nowhere to be found among them.

In Lu Yu's brief 27 years, the concept of friendship was foreign to him. He was someone devoid of empathy, unable to connect with the emotions of others.

Take, for instance, when Lu Yu was in elementary school. Xiaohua's mother tragically died in a car accident, and while the entire class and teachers were engulfed in sorrow for the child who lost her mother so young, Lu Yu felt nothing.

It was then that Lu Yu recognized his difference. His inability to share in others' emotions made the pursuit of friendship a dismal affair. Who, after all, would befriend someone incapable of empathy?

After a brief silence, Lu Yu didn't maintain the caution typical of most people. Instead, he swung his legs over and settled onto the motorcycle.

Surprise flickered across Hoodie Guy's face. He seemed poised to speak, but then shut his mouth, fired up the motorcycle, and accelerated away.

Just then, a fresh wave of screams broke out from the crowd behind them.

Lu Yu glanced back to see the man in black who had been attacking the bus driver now stumbling off the bus.

Blood, intermingled with drool, dripped from his mouth as he unleashed roars akin to a wild beast at the onlookers.

The Hoodie Guy driving the motorcycle looked back at the retreating crowd, his gaze seemingly fixed on Lu Yu, though it felt like he was talking to himself.

"If there were no such thing as the butterfly effect, I'd take out that king level right now."

While speaking, Hoodie Guy caught Lu Yu's reflection in the motorcycle's rearview mirror.

"Butterfly effect? King level? Take out?"

Lu Yu swiftly latched onto the critical details of the conversation.

Dismissing the idea that Hoodie Guy was insane, the implications of his words were significant.

"Are you sure you're all right in the head?"

Clearly, Lu Yu hadn't ruled out the notion that Hoodie Guy might be deranged.

"Pretty much. Someone with a sound mind wouldn't be this composed in these circumstances."

After finishing his statement, the Hoodie Guy shot another glance at Lu Yu.

"I have extremely low empathy, which could be considered a disability of sorts. To be precise, it's not exactly a mental issue," Lu Yu responded earnestly.

The Hoodie Guy fell silent, choosing not to add anything more, and simply continued driving.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at a dimly lit alley. Lu Yu hopped out of the car and confronted the Hoodie Guy.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you claim to be one of us as soon as we met? And what's this 'king level' you mentioned? 'Kill you'—have you actually taken someone's life?"

Lu Yu bombarded the Hoodie Guy with a rapid-fire string of questions, to which the Hoodie Guy just offered a wry smile and spoke in a calm voice.

"Let's begin with introductions. Hello, I'm Zhang Hang."