I'm speechless! You want me to drive a baby stroller on the highway to survive?

Lu Youyou clenched her fists so tightly that she didn't even realize she had scratched her palms raw with her fingernails.

[Number 12345: Why are you asking me this question? I love tiger-skin green peppers, especially with a steamed bun topped with a rich sauce. One bite, and it's absolutely divine.]

Lu Youyou stared wide-eyed, utterly incredulous.

One reason is that there doesn't seem to be any monster here that can hear her thoughts.

Secondly, it's such a coincidence that Yu Qian likes the same things that number 12345 likes.

Could this 12345 be Yu Qian?

impossible!

Yu Qian is dead!

I picked up the urns myself from the funeral home.

It's a coincidence.

It's absolutely a coincidence!

[ID 12345: By the way, since you're so good at interpreting dreams, can you do it? I've been having a lot of dreams lately, and in one of them there's a little girl with pigtails, but I can't see her face clearly. What does it mean?]

Girl with pigtails...

This was Yu Qian's favorite hairstyle when she was a child; she said it made her look very energetic.

[Dream ID 12345: Although I'm afraid of scaring you, I still want to ask you, why did the girl with pigtails suddenly lose her arms? For some reason, the last scene of my dream was a trash can, which is so strange. Could you help me interpret this dream?]

The other person's words brought Lu Youyou back to that painful memory.

The trash can, swarming with flies, reeked of decay, and its bottom was oozing foul-smelling blood. Inside, a man missing both arms lay huddled, his eyes wide open in death…

Do not!

Stop thinking about it!

Forget about it!

The more Lu Youyou tried to calm herself down, the more agitated she became.

Suddenly, Lu Youyou smelled a putrid stench, exactly the same as the smell that had recurred countless times in her nightmares.

Her eyes widened immediately.

My feet moved uncontrollably towards the car door.

"Click."

The door opened.

Little Black lifted its face from the food bowl and looked curiously at its owner.

Its nose twitched, and finding no signs of monsters around, it continued to nibble on its bun with peace of mind.

"Come here, come keep me company~ Please, Youyou, we're best friends—"

A shrill, tearful female voice reached Lu Youyou's ears. She lifted her dazed eyelids and stared out stiffly, like a machine.

Her long-lost friend appeared perfectly healthy just over ten meters away from her.

Yu Qian still wears pigtails like she did when she was a child, but this hairstyle looks a bit comical on an adult.

Lu Youyou pointed at Yu Qian's hair and laughed so hard that tears streamed down her face.

"Xiaoqian, after all these years, you've finally dried your face and come to see me in my dreams. You used to be all dirty and not pretty at all."

Her voice trembled with tears, and a fleeting glimmer of clarity returned to her eyes.

Yu Qian waved to her, backing away as she waved.

"Youyou, come down and play with me! Let's play jump rope, our favorite game from when we were kids, okay?"

"Xiaoqian, it's dangerous ahead. Don't go any further. There are monsters."

“There are no monsters, they are family. I came here after I died and built a monster kingdom in the eyes of outsiders. Everyone can say I am a monster, but as my good friend, Youyou, you can’t say that.”

A hint of heartache and struggle flashed across Lu Youyou's face: "Yes, even if you're a monster, I won't tell you. You'll still be my good friend."

"Yes, then come find me quickly! Get off the bus, let's play jump rope together! I love playing jump rope the most!"

Do not!

As Xiaoqian grew up, she didn't like playing jump rope because she had been in a car accident and her legs were no longer agile.

Lu Youyou felt some thoughts flashing through her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp them.

"Come here~ Come here quickly~ If you come a little earlier, we can play a little longer, otherwise the headmistress will be worried."

Lu Youyou suddenly pulled her leg back as she was taking a step forward.

The headmistress is a bad person; she beats and scolds the children all the time, so there's no way she would care about them.

The Xiaoqian in front wasn't real...

The stench at the tip of her nose grew even stronger, making her dizzy and lightheaded.

My mind, which had just regained its clarity, was plunged into chaos once again.

She got out of the car and walked step by step toward Yu Qian.

Like an obedient puppet, or a walking corpse.

"Wang Woo!"

Xiao Hei followed behind Lu Youyou ever since she got off the bus.

Thinking its owner was going to the toilet, the dog barked anxiously as the car walked further and further away, but Lu Youyou didn't react at all and continued to walk forward.

With the ten-meter safety circle about to be crossed, Xiao Hei didn't care about anything else.

He pounced on her and bit through Lu Youyou's finger.

Around the blood hole, a cluster of red, swollen pustules emerged, and the festering was spreading.

Lu Youyou felt a sharp pain in her finger, and her mind instantly cleared.

The Yu Qian in front of me wasn't a person at all; she was an indistinct mass of black mist, almost blending into the night.

The ulceration had spread to her arm. Lu Youyou didn't have time to think about anything else and immediately took out the antidote and swallowed it.

The pain receded like a tide, and Lu Youyou took a deep look at the dark figure before preparing to carry Xiao Hei into the car.

This thing is too eerie.

It seems that it can't understand people's thoughts, but rather it can acquire people's memories.

Perhaps because he was in too much pain when Xiaoqian died, some of his memories became disordered, which allowed the shadowy figure to repeatedly slip up.

Even though it has revealed its true colors, it still cannot wake up, which is enough to show how terrifying it is.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

Just as they were about to get on the bus, Xiao Hei suddenly barked and darted out, tearing into the shadowy figure.

At first, it was a back-and-forth battle, but it only lasted a few seconds before its small body was covered by a dark shadow, leaving only a small, immobile tail outside.

"Little black!"

Lu Youyou's head was spinning, and she felt her blood rushing backward, causing her to instinctively throw the axe into her hand and rush straight at the shadowy figure.

"clang!"

The axe, which had fused two high-level red energy fragments, only managed to cut a slit in the dark shadow.

"Ah! Die!"

Driven to her rage, Lu Youyou swung her axe and hacked wildly at the crevice.

Finally, the shadowy figure was cleaved in two, transforming into a glittering golden treasure chest.

"Wow~"

Xiao Hei lay down at Lu Youyou's feet, licking her ankles incessantly.

It was as if it was begging her not to be angry, and also as if it was comforting her heart, which had not yet calmed down.

"Xiao Hei, you've really made me angry."

Her hands were still trembling, and her heart was still pounding.

"I told you not to rush out recklessly. Look at yourself now, is this the state you wanted?"

Except for its tail, Xiao Hei's entire body was bald, covered in blood, and its flesh was torn open.

Lu Youyou felt her heart and liver tremble just from looking at him.

"Woof..."

Little Black wagged its tail, let out a weak and ingratiating cry, and lay still on the ground.

Lu Youyou sighed, took out the last basic universal pill she had on her body, and put it into Xiao Hei's mouth.