novelsite Chapter 2 The First Signs of Dusk
Chapter 2 The First Signs of Dusk
At six o'clock in the morning, Zhang Xun was pulled from his light sleep by a suppressed sob. His forehead pressed against the cold edge of the counter, his neck stiff and sore. He then remembered that he had let Lin Xiaotang sleep in the bedroom on the second floor last night, and he had set up an aluminum alloy folding bed next to the counter on the first floor. It was a portable outdoor model that the store always kept on hand, the kind that was usually used to show customers.
The lights were off upstairs, but a muffled sobbing could be faintly heard, thin and delicate, like a thread stretched taut in the darkness.
"Little Sugar?" Zhang Xun sat up. "What's wrong?"
Hurried footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Lin Xiaotang came down, her eyes red and swollen, clutching her phone in her hand. The screen was still lit, showing 5:17 AM. It was a voice call to her grandmother, but the call didn't go through.
"Grandma called three times," Lin Xiaotang's voice trembled, "I was asleep and didn't hear her. I called back just now, but it's not going through. There's only one voice message," she put it on speakerphone, "listen..."
Grandma Lin's hoarse voice came through the phone, accompanied by a noisy background, like many people shouting: "Tangtang, Building 3 is sealed off, welded shut... Aunt Wang's son next door has gone mad, he's biting people... You absolutely mustn't come back... Listen to Zhang Xun, don't come back..."
The voice abruptly stopped.
Zhang Xun had already stood up and pulled out the electric scooter keys from under the counter: "Let's go back and take a look. Let's go now."
"But Grandma said not to go back..."
"I'm not going in," Zhang Xun said, hopping onto his three-year-old electric scooter and tossing a spare helmet to Lin Xiaotang. "I'll just take a quick look from the outside to make sure Grandma's still home. If there's any real danger, we'll figure something out."
The factory's residential area is located in the northern suburbs of Lanshan City, a forty-minute ride by electric scooter. The streets were deserted in the early morning. Zhang Xun turned the scooter up to the maximum speed, the wind rushing into his collar. Lin Xiaotang sat on the back, gripping his waist tightly, her shoulders trembling under her helmet.
As they turned onto the old road leading to the machinery factory, Lin Xiaotang suddenly grabbed his arm: "Brother Xun, look..."
Yellow and black striped caution tape was strung up in front of Building No. 3. It wasn't the thin tape used by ordinary police officers; it was thickened tape used by disease control centers, printed with a biohazard trefoil label and the words "No Entry." Several people in white protective suits were spraying pesticide at the building entrance; the white mist was particularly glaring in the morning light. The unit door was welded shut with steel plates; the weld marks were still fresh, emitting a faint smell of rust.
Meanwhile, downstairs in Building 2—the building where Grandma Lin lived—two people in protective suits were standing, blocking several family members who wanted to rush in.
"Grandma!" Lin Xiaotang jumped out of the car and ran forward.
Zhang Xun grabbed her wrist: "Don't go over there! That's the quarantine zone!"
"That's my grandma!" Lin Xiaotang's voice shrill, trembling with tears. "She's home alone! Let me go in and bring her out!"
Zhang Xun held her tightly. A person in protective gear looked at them, a muffled voice behind the mask saying, "Back off! This area is sealed off, no entry, no exit!"
"There are elderly people inside!" Zhang Xun shouted. "Can we let their families come out?"
"We can't take her," the staff member shook their head. "Someone inside has been diagnosed, and they're doing a thorough disinfection. The elderly will be transferred to Cuiping Mountain Sanatorium, which has been converted into a temporary isolation point with medical staff to take care of them. Going in now would only cause trouble and harm her."
Lin Xiaotang struggled in Zhang Xun's arms, her face covered in tears and snot: "Grandma! Grandma!"
Zhang Xun forcibly turned her around and looked up at the third floor of Building 2. Grandma Lin was standing at the window, wearing her old navy blue cotton-padded jacket, clutching a cloth bag tightly in her hand. The old lady saw her granddaughter downstairs, shook her head vigorously, and her lips moved.
Zhang Xun understood—"Go".
Then the curtains were drawn.
Lin Xiaotang froze in Zhang Xun's arms, as if her bones had been removed, and slowly slid to the ground. She stared at the drawn curtains, tears streaming silently down her face, but she stopped crying out.
Zhang Xun squatted down, knelt on one knee, and pulled her into his arms. Her face was buried in his shoulder, wet and burning hot through his clothes.
"Family members, please leave," the staff member repeated. "This area needs thorough disinfection. The elderly person has been moved to Cuiping Mountain, where it's safer than at home. Please go back and wait for further instructions; do not gather here."
A white bus slowly drove into the residential area and stopped in front of Building 2. Zhang Xun helped Lin Xiaotang to her feet and watched several people in protective suits go upstairs. A few minutes later, he helped several elderly people downstairs. Grandma Lin was the last to walk. Before getting on the bus, she looked back in Zhang Xun's direction with a complex expression—worry, reluctance, and a kind of entrustment to "take good care of her."
The doors closed, and the bus slowly drove away, disappearing into the morning mist.
---
On the way back to the city, Zhang Xun rode very slowly. Lin Xiaotang sat on the back, her arms wrapped around his waist, her face pressed against his back, and they remained silent the whole way.
She didn't speak until the car stopped in front of the shop, her voice hoarse: "Brother Xun, I'm not going back."
Zhang Xun turned off the engine; his legs felt a little numb. He turned to look at her.
"The shops across the street...can I not go back?" She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes, her voice so soft it was almost a soliloquy, "Just me alone...I..."
The words were unspoken, but the meaning lingered in the air. Zhang Xun looked at her pale knuckles, then glanced across the street—the lights of "Little Sugar Shop" were off, the glass door dark and empty, like a closed eye. He was used to walking down that narrow alley, but now it seemed rather deep.
"Move in," Zhang Xun said, as if it were the most natural decision imaginable. "You can live on the second floor, I'll stay downstairs. You can go back to get your things after Grandma's area is unsealed."
Lin Xiaotang looked up, her eyes still red, but the flickering uncertainty in her gaze had settled. She softly hummed in agreement, without saying "Is it okay?" or "Thank you," and quickly walked into the store, as if afraid that the promise would vanish in the next second.
At 10 a.m., the two made three trips back and forth in the narrow alley. Lin Xiaotang's oven wasn't heavy, but it was bulky. As Zhang Xun carried it across the street, the owner of the hardware store next door stood at his door, frantically making a phone call. His voice drifted over intermittently: "...another one was taken away...yes, Golden Home...they said it bit someone..."
Zhang Xun paused for a moment, but didn't stop. He put the oven inside the shop, turned to Lin Xiaotang, and said, "You tidy up the things, I'm going out for a bit, I'll be back in half an hour."
"Where to?"
"The hospital," Zhang Xun picked up his electric scooter keys, "I'm going to check on the situation."
I'm going too...
"You stay here," Zhang Xun said, pressing down on her shoulder. "Lock the door and wait for me to come back. If I'm not back in half an hour..." He paused, "then pull down the shutter door, don't open it, wait for me to knock."
Lin Xiaotang bit her lip and finally nodded.
Zhang Xun got on his bike and rode towards the hospital.
The back gate of Lanshan Central Hospital is usually lined with taxis and wheelchairs, but today, Zhang Xun was stopped when he rode his car two blocks away from the back gate.
Three black vans blocked the street leading to the hospital's back entrance. There were more people in black uniforms than in white coats, and anyone who tried to approach was waved away.
Zhang Xun parked his car on the side of the road and raised his phone to take a picture. Before he could even focus, a man in a security guard uniform walked over, his hand on the baton at his waist: "No photos here, delete this."
"I photograph landscapes."
"Deleted," the security guard said, staring at him with a hostile look. "Get out of here. Don't loiter around. The hospital isn't accepting visitors right now, and the emergency room is locked down."
Zhang Xun deleted the photos, but didn't leave immediately. He sat on his electric scooter, pretending to reply to messages, while glancing at the alley behind the hospital out of the corner of his eye.
The side door suddenly opened, and two people dressed in black quickly escorted a person in a white coat out. The person had their head down, their hair obscuring their face, making it impossible to see their features. The white coat was covered in dark red stains. They were shoved into a black van. The moment the door closed, Zhang Xun seemed to hear a suppressed sob, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of the engine.
---
Zhang Xun turned the handle and drove towards the shop.
It was 2 PM when Zhang Xun returned to the shop. He pushed his electric scooter inside and happened to see Su Nian.
She was quickly moving boxes into the trunk of a black SUV in the parking lot across the street. She wasn't wearing casual clothes today; she was wearing a black tactical vest, and the holster at her waist was bulging, revealing a section of the black grip.
Zhang Xun propped up his electric scooter and was about to say hello. Su Nian saw him but didn't come over. She simply straightened up, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and mouthed two words: "Go back."
Then she took something out of her pocket and tossed it to him. Zhang Xun caught it instinctively—it was a folded supermarket receipt with a few lines scribbled on the back in ballpoint pen:
"Water, biscuits, and matches—enough for three days. Lock the door. Hospitals aren't safe; don't go."
The smallest text on the bottom line reads: "Don't reply to this message, it might get filtered. I'll come looking for you in three days, if I'm still alive."
Zhang Xun looked up, wanting to ask more, but Su Nian had already gotten into the driver's seat. She glanced at him through the car window and mouthed, "I was planning to give it to you at the store."
Then the car door slammed shut, and the black SUV quickly merged into the traffic and disappeared into the night.
Zhang Xun clutched the receipt, his palms sweating. The distant siren of an ambulance pierced the silence.
He stuffed the receipt into his pocket and walked back into the shop with a grim expression. Lin Xiaotang was tidying up the flour that had been moved in when she looked up at him: "Brother Xun?"
"It's nothing," Zhang Xun said, stuffing the receipt into his pocket. "I ran into a friend."
---
Zhang Xun spent the entire afternoon organizing supplies. Lin Xiaotang sorted and stacked the flour and sugar, and he replenished the shelves with several boxes of compressed biscuits and water purification tablets. The shop gradually filled up, resembling a small fortress.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang Xun was taking inventory when the doorbell rang.
A couple stood in the doorway; the man was supporting the woman, who was heavily pregnant, appearing to be seven or eight months along. The man wore glasses, his face was pale, and he held a piece of paper covered in writing in his hand.
"Boss," the man's voice trembled slightly, "we want to buy some...survival gear."
Zhang Xun glanced at them. These two didn't look like outdoor enthusiasts; they looked like white-collar workers from an office building.
"Are you planning to camp, or...?" Zhang Xun asked tentatively.
"It's not camping," the man lowered his voice, glanced around, and leaned closer to the counter. "We just want to stock up on supplies, just in case. There's a lot of talk online about that flu...it's not right. They say some patients...died and then came back to life, and even bit people. Like rabies."
Zhang Xun recalled the woman in the white coat being dragged away in the back alley of the hospital, and the receipt Su Nian had thrown at him.
Zhang Xun looked at him silently without saying a word.
The man gave a bitter laugh, his voice trembling: "I know this sounds like a horror movie... but my wife is pregnant, and I can't gamble. What if it's true? I just want to buy some food and drinks, and some self-defense supplies. If something really happens, at least it'll be enough to tide me over for a while."
Zhang Xun looked at the man's hand supporting his wife's waist, and at the pregnant woman's pale face, and remained silent for a few seconds.
"Come in," he said, stepping aside in the doorway, "I'll help you choose."
Over the next half hour, Zhang Xun packed two large bags for them—compressed biscuits, canned food, water purification tablets, sleeping bags, and a multi-functional outdoor knife. The man tried to pay, but Zhang Xun waved his hand: "The knife is for you. Things aren't peaceful lately, so lock the door and don't open it for anyone—not even acquaintances."
After seeing the couple off, Zhang Xun returned to the shop, pulled the cord by the wall, and the roller shutter slammed down, the metal blades snapping shut one by one. The clanging of metal was particularly jarring on the quiet street.
---
As evening fell, the shop was piled high with goods. Lin Xiaotang sat amidst the flour sacks, recording inventory in a hardcover notebook: rice, flour, sugar, oil, and compressed biscuits. Her fingers were dusty with flour, yet her handwriting was remarkably neat.
Zhang Xun sat behind the counter, unfolded the receipt Su Nian had given him, and looked at it for a long time.
"Brother Xun," Lin Xiaotang looked up, "what are we having for breakfast tomorrow?"
"Make something simple, let's get some rest early tonight." Zhang Xun stood up, took two bottles of mineral water from the shelf, and said, "Tomorrow...tomorrow we'll try to contact Grandma."
He walked to the window and reached out to pull the curtains. Just as his fingertips touched the velvet, he suddenly caught a glimpse of dark red out of the corner of his eye—not a cloud, not a sunset, but a stain floating on the eastern horizon, as if someone had lightly drawn a line on the sky with a red pencil and then erased it, leaving only a grayish mark.
Zhang Xun looked up sharply. The red seemed to know he was about to look, and it vanished instantly, leaving only the blurry black silhouette of the hospital building, blending into the ordinary gray-blue twilight. He raised his hand to rub his eyes; he'd ridden his electric scooter all day in the cold wind, his eyes were dry and blurry, and everything looked double.
My eyes are blurry.
He drew the curtains and turned off the lights in the shop. The room was plunged into darkness, but the red afterimage still lingered in his eyes, like an unfinished nightmare, a bad omen.
[End of Chapter Two]