Medicine and Monsters

Song Weishi immediately started looking for a place to hide. Even though she'd spent a long time at her original spot getting her bearings, being caught up to now still shook her deeply.

This was a full sixty kilometers, no exaggeration. It couldn't be that this thing had luck as good as hers and also found a bicycle, could it?

She stowed her skis and leaned on her ski poles to duck behind a snowdrift. The noise from the tunnel was simply too loud—no ordinary person shoveling snow would make a sound like that.

She quickly confirmed her suspicions. As the shoveling grew louder, an opening appeared on the other side of the tunnel, and in the white expanse of snow, a bizarrely shaped claw emerged.

The nails were pitch black, long and sharp, like a natural three-pronged ice axe.

The thing crawled out from inside—its entire body was pitch black, covered in large, neatly arranged scales, with a thin, deformed human head attached seamlessly on top.

Its body was no longer humanoid at all. Song Weishi examined it closely and finally realized what it actually was. If you ignored the body shape and the head, it was essentially a pangolin.

It had somehow fused with a human to become a monster.

Once the whole creature had crawled out of the tunnel, Song Weishi even let out a small sigh of relief. She realized belatedly that she was more afraid of Xie Yi than of this thing.

What a twisted turn of events. Song Weishi carefully circled around the snowdrift, trying not to make a single sound.

There was no clear information on this type of monster. Pangolins, however, she knew about—they had poor hearing, were timid, and moved sluggishly.

Its claws made a rustling sound as they pressed into the snow, and its long tail dragged behind, carving a trail. It didn't seem to mind the cold much; its breath billowed out in endless puffs like steam from a steamer basket.

If you removed the head, it would be nearly identical to a giant pangolin. It was that thin human head that gave Song Weishi goosebumps all over.

She had no idea how the two had been fused together. Its small, beady eyes darted around, and Song Weishi knew full well it hadn't spotted her, but the instant their gazes met, her heart pounded like crazy, threatening to leap out of her chest.

The pangolin-man crawled forward. Its speed wasn't slow at all—in fact, it was much faster than Song Weishi, who didn't dare run for fear of falling in the snow.

Staying put and not moving really was the best choice, because this monster's hearing was nothing like a normal pangolin's—it was extremely sharp. Even the rustle of Song Weishi's clothes as she shifted drew its attention.

She waited patiently for over ten minutes, until the pangolin had wandered far away, before carefully moving out from behind the snowdrift.

In just that short time without moving, she felt like she was freezing solid. If not for her thermal gear, she was certain she'd have turned into an ice sculpture by now.

Once she was certain the pangolin-man could no longer hear her, Song Weishi put her skis back on and glided over to the main road. A few more kilometers down this road, and she'd reach Donghu Town.

The terrain there was relatively elevated—it was the boundary point between Ji City and Donghu. The lakeside road was clearly marked, and the surrounding area was dotted with residential buildings.

It was the exact direction the original body had come from by car.

Unfortunately, there were no tall mountains around here; otherwise, she might have found a cable car to save time.

Song Weishi checked her map, confirmed her location, and immediately set off toward Donghu Town. The tunnel networks here had a decent chance of spawning monsters like the one she'd just seen. She didn't know their attack power yet, but if she got spotted and surrounded, she'd be dead.

She pulled herself along with the ski poles. Even though her gloves were thick, days of this had raised blisters that had since callused over. Now, at full speed, her hands ached terribly. She'd covered a two-day journey in one day, and she felt pretty good about herself.

Still, at times like this, she couldn't help but miss having Xie Yi around. She could sit in the car and have Xie Yi pull her ahead. It wasn't exactly moral, but Song Weishi had no qualms about it—Xie Yi ate several people's worth of food in one sitting, and trading labor for meals was just how the two of them worked. Song Weishi thought it was pretty fair.

But more than convenience, she cared about her own life. Getting close to the female lead meant getting close to disaster. So while Xie Yi hadn't caught up yet, she needed to put as much distance between them as possible.

She skied fast and reached Donghu Town before dark. The houses here looked like the Nordic-style buildings from Song Weishi's original world, apparently deliberately designed that way.

Tall spires and rough stone houses handled load-bearing and snow shedding surprisingly well. Song Weishi spotted these peculiar buildings from a distance.

She skied up excitedly. The town's stone name marker was completely buried under snow, with only part of the scenic area still visible.

Song Weishi approached cautiously. She figured no one would choose to tour these buildings at a time like this, so she let herself in.

In winter, there was a fishing activity here. The original body had marked it on her map out of boredom, with a big fish icon that only showed as a rough outline due to network issues.

Song Weishi got a glimpse into the girl's inner thoughts. Beneath her meek, passive exterior, she had her own ideas. Compared to a team-building trip to the Garden of a Hundred Herbs, she'd probably have been happier fishing here.

In winter, these stone houses were stacked with ice blocks. The rooms were small, but now that it was snowing, it worked in her favor—she didn't need to cover the gaps. She just pried open an unlocked door and slipped inside.

These stone houses were built right on the lake, and the rooms had warm charcoal stoves with tall chimneys leading outside. They were made to look quite authentic. Song Weishi tried throwing some charcoal in, and the stove worked surprisingly well—it even had a wire rack that let ash fall through.

After burning for a while, the room actually warmed up. But the chimney had been blocked, and without proper ventilation, Song Weishi nearly suffocated on the smoke.

She scrambled out of the house and quickly cleared the snow from the chimney outlet. She laughed at herself—how could she be this stupid? After fixing the chimney, she went back inside.

The whole room soon became toasty warm. She took off her gloves, placed a grill and a baking tray over the charcoal fire, and started boiling water to cook.

A warm room felt absolutely heavenly. She immediately set about making the place her own. Since the house was small, she didn't bother laying out the mattress she'd taken from the hotel. Instead, she avoided the already-frozen lake hole in the center of the room, laid down the straw mat she'd grabbed back at the Garden of a Hundred Herbs, and stacked several mattresses on top, creating a raised platform she could sit on.

She covered it with thick blankets and a down comforter, fashioning a makeshift sleeping bag. It felt wonderfully cozy.

After blasting the heat for two hours, the room was pleasantly warm. If she didn't have to keep moving, she'd have wanted to stay here for a few days.

After days without such comfort, Song Weishi was overjoyed. She even pulled out the water heater she'd stored in her space and gave herself a good scrub.

After eating and finishing all that, night had fallen. Only then did she open her little cart.

The part she looked forward to most each day was opening the cart. She pulled up the System panel, which showed the three items in the cart refreshing.

Items updated:

Ibuprofen sustained-release capsules 0.3g × 20 pills/box

Loratadine 10mg × 6/box × 5

Vitamin E, 50mg × 120/bottle

Today it was medicine—an absolute necessity. In times like these, who could guarantee they'd never get sick?

But before Song Weishi could celebrate, the silence outside was suddenly broken by a few knocks on the door. In this quiet night, they sounded especially jarring.

Song Weishi stood up alertly. She didn't dare open the door, and she had no idea whether whoever was outside was friend or foe.

She tried to pretend she hadn't heard, but it was clear whatever was out there wasn't going to give her the option of refusal.

A deep, steady female voice called out cautiously, "Hello? Hello!"