This Damned Thirst for Survival

Jiang Luo’s face was blue and his chest was heaving with anger. But in the face of the evil spirit’s interested, probing gaze, Jiang Luo had to hold his temper and pretend that nothing had happened.

At this moment, we must not let Chi You see anything, or Jiang Luo will be in for a really bad night.

He exhaled a hot breath, forcing the heat from his body down, wrung the rain from his dressing gown and said, as usual, “That’s the end of the lesson.

Having said that, he tried to go around the evil spirit and return to the room.

Chi You, however, reached out and stopped him in his tracks.

Jiang Luo’s heart tightened, and he looked up at him without moving.

An unusual flush rises on the dark-haired young man’s face, his exhalation heavy, a white mist steaming under the cold rain. His eyes were cold and warning, but they burned red at the end, and in this unnatural flush, they seemed to resist, not anger.

Rather compelling.

Chi You laughed amusingly and said slowly, “You look a bit off.”

Jiang Luo forced his breathing to slow down and calmly asked in return, “What’s wrong with me?”

The evil spirit scowled and surveyed him.

The dark-haired youth was not right, no matter how he looked.

“You wouldn’t be ……” his dark eyes narrowed.

Jiang Luo’s fingers were clenched, his body tense and ready for him to see through them, when he heard Chi You say thoughtfully, “Fever?”

Jiang Luo : “……”

He was silent, and Chi You took it as a sign of his acquiescence. The omnipotent evil spirit suddenly loses interest in teasing Jiang Luo, and he even rises to a point of irritable displeasure.

The human body is always so fragile, even for Jiang Luo. He had fallen ill after just one shower, and the man he saw as a kindred spirit and a rival was imprisoned and weighed down by such a human body.

He will get sick, he will get hurt, he will die.

Uninteresting.

Chi You’s lips tightened coldly and stiffly, slowly pursing. The air seemed to thin as the black mist danced hideously behind him, and his aura became dangerously distorted for a moment. As Jiang Luo’s sweat rises instinctively, the evil spirit suddenly disappears.

Jiang Luo’s newly raised alarm froze on his face and turned to suspicion as the residual terror remained in place.

Chi You What is this?

Is it possible that he was deliberately dug a trap for him to try to trap him?

Jiang Luo was baffled. He stood guard for a few minutes and did not see Chi You reappear before Jiang Luo was convinced that Chi You had really left.

The evil spirits were so confusing to him that Jiang Luo just stopped thinking about it. The heat in his body was getting worse, his breath hot, and Jiang Luo hurried back to his room.

When he returned to the bathroom and saw his face, Jiang Luo understood why Chi You had said he had a fever.

His face is flushed and his lips look as if they have been crushed with rose juice. Rain and sweat slide down the corners of his forehead, and Jiang Luo’s whole body is hot and white.

But as soon as he saw him, he knew that he didn’t look sick, he looked like he was on fire.

Jiang Luo twitched his eyebrows and dared not delay in putting in a jar of cold water to lower his body temperature.

Jiang Luo did not feel any discomfort other than the growing fire. Even the fire did not affect his sanity, only his mouth was dry.

While soaking, Jiang Luo washed himself again. Abruptly remembering something, he touched his lips with an odd expression.

Another kiss went up.

Not even caring if it was disgusting, Jiang Luo just shot it back naturally.

The kisses killed each other and you died. The battle between their lips and tongues seemed to be a smouldering fire, and they even beat each other up in the rain. He was relentless with Chi You, and Chi You didn’t let up on him.

It seems like something is wrong, but then again, nothing seems to be wrong.

Jiang Luo is puzzled as he sluggishly drops his hand. Yu Guang glances over at himself and suddenly his face flushes and he covers his face in shame with a groan, not wanting to look at himself in pain.

Damn it ……

Why did it come up just as he was remembering that kiss?

–Absolutely all because of the male fish blood he reacted the way he did.

Jiang Luo was inexplicably stubborn with himself. I don’t know if he wanted to prove himself, but he didn’t move himself a bit and only used cool water to cool down his anger. When it was all over, the hour hand was already pointing to four in the morning.

It was getting late and everyone had gone to bed. Jiang Luo lay on the sofa, covered with his jacket and drifted off for a while, before forcing himself to fall asleep in a hurry.

At ten o’clock in the morning, he was woken up by Ge Zhu.

The moment Jiang Luo opened his eyes, he felt a splitting headache. He sat up holding his forehead and asked, “What time is it?”

The sound of his voice startled him, his nasal voice thick and muffled, as if he had not spoken for ten days.

Even so, when I spoke, my throat felt as if a knife had been stabbed through it, and it was so uncomfortable that it hurt to swallow.

Jiang Luo realized that he had a real cold and fever.

“……” For a moment, Jiang Luo didn’t even know what to say.

The sound of his voice startled Ge Zhu, who rushed to pour him a glass of warm water, Jiang Luo drank half of it and the pain in his throat improved a little, “Thank you.”

“Stop talking now,” Ge Zhu said sadly, “it’s almost twelve noon and a crew member just came by and asked me to let you know to go to the dining room for blood eel for lunch.”

Jiang Luo’s mind was still a little dizzy and he rubbed his forehead for a few seconds before saying slowly, “Oh, I remember, today is the third day.”

Ge Zhu got even more worried, “Are you still going?”

“I’m afraid I can’t go,” Jiang Luo took a sip of water, “the Chi family bought me the spot, and if I don’t go, they’re going to use it to their advantage.”

And with Lu Youyi and the others still hiding in both their rooms, now is not the time to tear them apart.

Ge Zhu : “But the blood eels they give, whether they have life-prolonging properties or not, are not good and you should not eat them.”

“I know,” Jiang Luo exhaled a hot breath and wiped his face, “I’ll go and change first, by the way, where are they?”

“They’ve gone to the civilian area to get the word out and tell them to hide inside the bilge after the flare goes off. Can’t those monsters smell the slime-soaked humans? They’ve got a better chance of surviving by hiding in the bilge than they would elsewhere. By the time we’ve survived until we’ve killed the female blood eels and the police have arrived, it’ll all be over.”

Ge Zhu said despondently, “Save one more person if you can …… just a few of us ……” He let out a bitter laugh and did not continue further.

Once the female blood eel is killed, the males on the whole boat will definitely go into a state of rage, and although Ge Zhu did not say so, he knew in his heart that it would be a battle to the death.

But he was always open-minded, so he simply didn’t think about it and waited for Jiang Luo to get changed before wondering with him how he could stop eating this bloody eel.

Jiang Luo’s mind was now buzzing, unable to think of any reasonable solution for the moment. After a long time, he said in a hoarse voice, “It doesn’t matter, let nature take its course, the big deal is that I am sick and have no appetite, how can they force me to eat?”

Ge Zhu looked at him and his heart grew more worried, “Good, then you must remember not to eat it.”

At noon, Jiang Luo was walking to the restaurant, but on the way he bumped into someone because he was dizzy.

When I looked up, it was an acquaintance.

Cheng Li was about to curse, but when he saw that it was a rich man, he put away his profanity and moved out of the way with a stern face.

As Jiang Luo brushed past him, he suddenly paused, looked at him sideways and smiled, “Is your name Cheng Li?”

Cheng Li said impatiently, “What can I do for you, sir?”

Jiang Luo shook his head, “It’s alright, I just see your name looks familiar, I think I’m mistaken …… I used to know a friend called Zhao Qing, her husband is called Cheng Li .”

Jiang Luo sighed again and muttered to himself, “I haven’t been in touch with Zhao for a long time either, I wonder how she is doing, I heard she even had a lovely daughter ……”

Cheng Li froze in place, the flesh on his face quivering as he stared dead at Jiang Luo.

As Jiang Luo was about to leave, he abruptly reached out and pulled Jiang Luo back, a big, masculine man who pointed at himself in a panic and said, “Yes, yes, my wife’s name is Zhao Qing, I’m her husband, we’ve been married for years, my daughter’s name is Ma Ma, you’re not mistaken.”

Jiang Luo’s brain hurt even more from the tugging, and he fought it down, pretending to be shocked, “Such a coincidence?”

Cheng Li nodded busily as he looked cautiously at Jiang Luo with a heart-wrenching gaze: “Are you on good terms with my wife? Sir, I haven’t heard anyone talk about my wife for a long time, can you talk to me more?”

“Did she say anything else to you? Like herself, or my daughter!”

Jiang Luo looked at him with difficulty, “It’s lunchtime.”

“I’ll waste a moment of your time by asking you to join me for lunch,” Cheng Li smiled curtly, “just a few words with me, just a few words.”

Cheng Li’s attitude is on the verge of lowering himself to the dust, he misses his wife and daughter too much, but he has relived his memories with his family countless times. He couldn’t find a second person to talk about his wife and daughter with on the boat and he was desperate to know more new things about her and her.

Jiang Luo looked at Cheng Li’s pleading eyes, he paused, “I’d love to talk to you about Sister Zhao and the interval, isn’t Sister Zhao very fond of photography? I’d also like to ask her about photography …… but I’ve got urgent things to do now. I have to go to dinner now and came on board just for this blood eel, so how about this, how about I come back and meet you for a couple of drinks together when I’m done?”

Cheng Li’s face changed dramatically and he gripped Jiang Luo’s hand even harder, “You’re one of the ten men?”

Jiang Luo nodded and sighed, “This meal alone is going to cost me all my money.”

Cheng Li’s lips twitched and his expression slowly sank. Suddenly Jiang Luo is dragged close to him and pulled into an unoccupied room, where Cheng Li closes the door and windows, plunging the room into darkness.

Jiang Luo stood patiently while Cheng Li looked around to see that nothing was missing before he walked up to him and lowered his voice, “That bloody eel, you can’t eat it!”

Jiang Luo’s eyes narrowed and he said with deliberate discontent, “Why? Didn’t I spend all that money just to have blood eels?”

Cheng Li suddenly snapped, “If you don’t want to die, you can’t eat it!”

Jiang Luo didn’t say anything, so Cheng Li thought he didn’t believe him and walked around the room impatiently, then finally, with one step, he lowered his voice as if he had made up his mind, “Where did you hear that blood eels can make people live longer and younger?”

Jiang Luo vaguely put it, “From the mouths of other rich people, of course.”

Cheng Li didn’t press the issue either, he sneered, “Then you should have seen the people who ate the blood eels.”

Without waiting for Jiang Luo’s reply, he continued, “Did those people become ten or twenty years younger? Did all the major and minor illnesses disappear and they could live for decades more?”

Jiang Luo looked at him sparingly and nodded repeatedly, “Yes, yes, yes.”

Cheng Li’s emotions grew, “Bullshit! You don’t need to be young and live long when you’ve already lost your life! Blood eel fry, male or female, are no good, the male fry allow the male fish to parasitise the human body and eventually assimilate into it, turning it into a monster in human skin! The females are even more terrifying, they will take control of your consciousness and make you less of you!”

“Those rich people who got off the boat were manipulated by the female fish, they got younger and longer, but they weren’t human either!”

Jiang Luo’s brow jumped hard, “Manipulating consciousness?”

Isn’t this similar to the Chi You approach?

It’s incredible, and really frightening to think about.

If all the rich people who had been on board and ate blood eels were manipulated by the blood eels into consciousness …… then wouldn’t this whole ship, both rich and commoners, be food for the blood eels?

They use the females to control the rich to bring more people on board, using the bodies of civilians as sustenance and food for their hatching eggs, and year after year, those rich people controlled by the blood eels are enough to become a formidable force. What are they trying to do? What kind of plans do they have?

How much does this resemble the captive breeding of cattle and sheep by humans? Slaughtering some of them for rations and leaving some for reproduction.

A chill rises behind Jiang Luo’s back.

It is not man eating fish or man eating man as they had previously thought, but rather a complete reversal, with the fish feeding the humans.

*

Jiang Luo was stunned by this fact for a while, but after regaining his composure, he prepared to leave in silence. Before leaving, he asked Cheng Li a question: “Do you want to see your wife and daughter again?”

Cheng Li’s eyes dimmed, “You don’t know, they’re dead.”

Jiang Luo said, “If you can find your wife’s and daughter’s hair or personal clothing, their favourite things in life, and their birth dates, you may not be able to see them.”

After saying this, he said goodbye to a frazzled Cheng Li and arrived at the restaurant on time.

But he was already the last of the ten when he arrived at the restaurant. The other nine rich people had long been eager to take their seats, and in addition to the ten of them, there were some people standing by the wall, seemingly visiting the sight of the first blood eels being consumed by the rich people.

One of them looks familiar, with a broad forehead, narrow cheekbones and a mole dotted on the bridge of his nose, and it is Jiang Luo and Ge Zhu who recognise the Chi family.

Jiang Luo sneered and went straight to the captain, rubbing his forehead, “Captain, I had a cold and fever last night, and an inflammation in my throat, which really hurts, so I won’t be able to eat fish for a few days. Can I save this opportunity to eat until I’m well?”

The captain frowned, but at the husky note of his voice could only shake his head regretfully and sympathetically, “I’m sorry, Mr Zhong Wei, the blood eels are ready and must be taken within half an hour for them to be effective.”

Jiang Luo coughed, his face pale but his lips so crimson and sickly that whoever looked at him would have thought he looked seriously ill. His brow knitted and he struggled for a long time before he relented, “But I really can’t eat …… forget it, let’s give this opportunity to someone else, I’ll wait for the second batch.”

His eyes scanned the crowd, abruptly settling on the Chi family member with a mole on his nose, and smiled weakly, “This big brother, I’ll let you have this opportunity.”