A faint cry was startlingly clear in the quiet mountain hollow.
Song Changsheng's heart skipped a beat, and he hurried toward the sound. Before a haystack, he saw the bodies of a man and a woman, kneeling on the ground in an embrace.
They held each other silently, their faces filled with terror.
They were a young couple, barely in their early twenties. Two small bundles lay scattered beside them, stuffed with soft valuables and two golden, griddled flatbreads.
It seemed they had planned to escape this mortal Purgatory when the catastrophe struck. But the changes happening to their bodies drove them to despair, and the couple ultimately died in each other's arms.
The baby's cries were coming from between them, incredibly faint.
He reached out and separated the two, revealing a swaddled infant. The little one's eyes were shut tight, his pair of soft, pale hands grasping at the air as he let out weak sobs.
"This child actually wasn't implanted with a Poisonous Insect?"
