NOVEL NEXT Ch. 9
Chapter 9: Alive
Bai Lengci opened his eyes, and sunlight pierced through the thin curtains.
He instinctively squinted, trying to adapt to the overly bright light.
Propping himself up with his arm, he sat up, his movements carrying a faint sluggish stiffness.
His body didn’t feel the weakness and soreness that usually came after a fever.
Instead, there was… a strange heaviness and numbness.
He habitually reached out for the phone on the nightstand.
The screen was pitch black.
He held down the power button.
No response.
No battery.
He frowned.
Last night (he remembered it was last night), before going to bed, the battery still had more than 80%.
Even if left on standby overnight, it shouldn’t have drained completely.
He had been using this phone for almost a year; the battery had indeed degraded a lot.
Pulling over the charging cable, he plugged it in.
Only after seeing the charging icon appear on the screen did he get up and head toward the cramped bathroom.
Cold tap water splashed onto his face, bringing a brief moment of clarity.
He lifted his head and looked into the mirror.
The face in the mirror was still pale, but those eyes… were filled with spiderweb-like blood vessels, and the bruising under his eyes was so dark it looked as though he had been punched twice.
Completely unlike his usual self.
Bai Lengci calmly stared at his reflection.
This state… wasn’t right.
No matter how bad his fever had been before, he never looked like this after it broke.
This wasn’t like recovering from illness; it was more like he had stayed up for several nights in a row.
By the time he finished washing, his phone had charged to 30%.
He picked it up and unlocked it.
The screen instantly displayed more than a dozen missed calls and a string of message notification icons.
He skimmed through them.
Most were from unfamiliar numbers marked “Sales” or “Real Estate Agent,” with one missed call from “Miss Yan.”
The message list was also mostly advertisements, with the class group chat messages pushed down.
His gaze habitually drifted to the date and time at the top of the screen.
January 17, 2024, 5:27 PM.
Bai Lengci’s finger froze on the screen.
Yesterday… yesterday had clearly been January 14.
He clearly remembered bringing Yan Junzhu back on the night of the 14th.
He fell into a feverish coma on the 15th, and then… then it was now?
The afternoon of January 17?!
How long had he slept?
From the night of the 15th until the afternoon of the 17th?
A full day and a half?!
And yet, after sleeping so long, he didn’t feel thirsty, nor hungry!
“Aftereffects of the fever?”
He walked into the kitchen, boiled some water, and tore open the packaging of a beef instant noodle cup.
Scalding water poured in, filling the air with the industrialized aroma of seasoning.
Carrying the noodles back to the small table, he sat down and lifted a chopstick of noodles into his mouth.
A faint but distinct sense of rejection came from his stomach.
He forced himself to swallow a few bites, but couldn’t eat anymore.
Bai Lengci put down his chopsticks, staring at the steaming bowl of noodles that held no appeal.
Then he lifted his gaze to look around the cramped, quiet apartment.
......
Bai Lengci sat at the dining table, the bowl of instant noodles before him had already congealed into a greasy lump.
Looking out the window, he realized it was already pitch black outside.
He put on his shoes and stepped out.
The city’s neon lights were dazzling, mingling with the aroma of various foods.
He wandered into a clean-looking small restaurant and ordered a bowl of plain porridge with two light side dishes.
He sat down and had barely taken a bite, just about to swallow—
“Urgh!”
A violent nausea surged uncontrollably!
He immediately turned to the side, pressing a tissue over his mouth, and spat out the food before he could swallow it.
The waiter cast him a startled glance.
Bai Lengci waved a hand to signal he was fine, hurriedly paid, and left the restaurant.
Standing in the busy street, the cold wind blew past, yet he felt no chill.
His body’s abnormality had gone beyond what he could understand.
After hesitating a moment, he turned into a nearby small clinic.
The attending physician was an elderly man with graying hair and reading glasses, surnamed Li.
Doctor Li was a retired chief surgeon from a top-tier hospital, with a good reputation for his medical skills.
Bai Lengci had come to him a few times before for colds and fevers, finding him reliable.
“Doctor Li.”
“Xiao Bai? You look terrible. Sit down.”
Doctor Li adjusted his glasses and gestured for him to sit.
Bai Lengci tried to stay calm as he explained.
“Doctor Li, I had a fever a few days ago, pretty severe. Later it broke, but… from the night of the 15th, I slept straight until… this afternoon. And when I woke up, I didn’t feel thirsty or hungry at all.”
“Oh? Slept for nearly two days?”
Doctor Li frowned slightly, motioning him to extend his wrist for a pulse reading, then asked him to open his mouth to check his tongue coating.
Fingers resting on the pulse, Doctor Li muttered thoughtfully.
“Your pulse is a bit weak and floating, tongue coating whitish and thick… Your constitution is weak to begin with. This cold really took a toll.”
He withdrew his hand and picked up a pen to write a prescription.
“I’ll prescribe you something to replenish qi and strengthen your system, also regulate your spleen and stomach. Take it on time. Most importantly, rest. Eat lightly, more vegetables and fruits, get vitamins…”
“Doctor Li.”
Bai Lengci pressed further.
“Sleeping this long, nearly fifty hours—could it mean something else?”
Doctor Li lifted his head, peering at his pale face and bloodshot eyes through his glasses.
“In general, prolonged deep sleep can happen with weakness combined with high fever. But sleeping this long is indeed rare. If you’re really worried—”
He paused, then signed his name on the prescription slip.
“—the best would be to go to a big hospital for a full-body checkup. Blood work, biochemistry, EEG, everything checked, for peace of mind.”
He handed the prescription to Bai Lengci.
“Take this first for a couple days. Rest well, don’t overthink.”
When he left the clinic, it was already past 8 PM.
The city was even more bustling, and the smell of food filled the air more strongly.
Bai Lengci smelled it all, but faint waves of nausea welled up inside.
As he passed an old vegetable market entrance, a peculiar smell caught his attention.
Unconsciously, his footsteps slowed.
He wrinkled his nose and followed the smell deeper into a quiet corner of the market.
Only then did he see it clearly: a middle-aged woman in an apron was skillfully handling a freshly slaughtered chicken.
Chicken blood dripped into a plastic basin at her feet, filling the air with a pungent, fresh, bloody scent.
Beside her, several live chickens waited in a cage, clucking uneasily.
That was it!
A desire unlike anything before, from the depths of his body, from the depths of his soul, instantly ignited!
It was so intense, so pure, that it overwhelmed all reason, all common sense, all the instinctive aversion to blood!
Normally, when he saw chickens being slaughtered, when he smelled blood, at most he found the odor unpleasant.
Never—never had he felt this way before, as though every cell in his body was screaming madly.
Get closer! Take it!
His throat moved involuntarily, and saliva actually filled his mouth.
“Madam… how much for the chicken?”
His voice was a little tight.
“Oh, young man, buying a chicken? These free-range ones, thirty-five per jin, freshly slaughtered!”
The woman greeted warmly.
“Mm… I’ll take that one.”
Bai Lengci pointed to a rooster in the cage that still looked lively.
“Alright!”
The woman swiftly opened the cage, reaching for its neck.
“Wait!”
Bai Lengci suddenly stopped her, his voice urgent.
She looked up in confusion.
“N-no… no need to kill it.”
Bai Lengci took a deep breath, forcing his voice to sound normal.
“I… I’ll handle it myself at home. Just tie the legs for me.”
“Huh? You’ll slaughter it yourself? Well, fine.”
Though puzzled, the woman didn’t question further.
She quickly tied the rooster’s legs with straw rope and handed it over.
Bai Lengci paid, grabbed the struggling, clucking rooster, and hurried away from the market.
He walked fast.
Back at his rented apartment, he shut the door, cutting himself off from the outside world.
He tossed the rooster onto the cold kitchen tiles.
He didn’t even bother to turn on the light.
In the darkness, relying on memory, he felt for the kitchen counter and grabbed his usual kitchen knife.
The cold handle strangely filled him with excitement.
He crouched, seizing the struggling bird.
The rooster shrieked in panic, wings flapping wildly.
He yanked off a patch of feathers from its neck, tearing them away roughly, exposing the pink flesh and faint veins beneath.
Without hesitation.
The blade slashed across the fragile skin!
Blood surged out with a rich metallic stench!
But Bai Lengci’s movement was faster!
He didn’t wait for the blood to drip into a bowl, didn’t try to collect it at all!
The moment the blood spurted, he lowered his head violently.
Pressed his lips hard against the gaping wound!
“Gulp… gulp…”
In the darkness, urgent, clear swallowing sounds echoed.