My footing uncertain, the night dark and featureless, searching for Xiao Shu already had me on edge. To have someone suddenly appear behind me, knocking the candle from my hand, startled me so badly that my hairs stood on end, and I couldn't move for a long time.

Only when I turned and met his eyes in the faint light did I realize the person who had sprung up behind me was none other than Xiao Shu.

The moment his hand left my mouth, I was about to demand an explanation. But before the word "you" could even leave my lips, his hand pressed back over it. I saw him place a single finger to his own lips, making a silent gesture, then he took my hand and, bending low, softly guided me toward the bonfire.

The bonfire was situated twenty or thirty meters from the Sea of the Dead, sheltered by a ring of dense brush, making it a relatively concealed spot. Xiao Shu pulled me along quietly until we reached the vicinity, then we crouched low beside the bushes, deliberately avoiding the immediate vicinity of the fire.

I puzzled over his sudden maneuvers—what were we hiding from? I had just surveyed the area and found nothing amiss; why was the atmosphere suddenly so precarious around him?

Hunched over, I squatted next to the undergrowth. Seeing that everything around the bonfire remained normal, with no apparent danger, I couldn't help but whisper, "What are we hiding from?"

"Shhh, don't talk," Xiao Shu whispered back, pointing a finger in the direction opposite to the bushes.

I followed the line of his finger. I wish I hadn't looked, because that glance truly made me jump. Over near the edge of the Sea of the Dead, hundreds of egg-sized things were crawling in a dense mass. They moved without a sound, one after another like ants, heading straight for the bonfire. A few had already reached the front of the flames, and when the firelight caught them, I saw six legs and a single, thick, bulbous abdomen—undoubtedly spiders. It turned out I had been so focused on searching the plain for people that I completely missed what was happening near the Sea of the Dead. Only when Xiao Shu pointed did I see the danger silently closing in.

An eye for an eye. I had burned one spider to death while rescuing Xiao Shu during the day. I wondered if these creatures had come seeking vengeance for their companion. Thinking of that corrosive, sulfuric venom and the webbing as sticky as 905 glue, I couldn't stop my whole body from shaking. If these hundreds of spiders lunged at us simultaneously, it wouldn't take thirty seconds for Xiao Shu and me to be reduced to two skeletons scorched by acid, or perhaps mummified in silk strands. Either way, a miserable end, with no one left even to collect our remains.

What now? I asked myself, glancing at Xiao Shu. He remained perfectly still, crouched by the bushes, using the leaves to conceal himself, quietly observing the spiders' movements, a shadow of worry clouding his eyes.

The spiders kept creeping closer to the fire. At first, only a few crawled into the firelight, then dozens, and soon hundreds—their fleshy abdomens twitching—they silently encircled the bonfire, packed shoulder-to-shoulder as if attending a mass meeting, each one still and silent around the flames. Our bags, the lighter, the book we had set down—everything became their perch, occupied without exception.

Seeing these uninvited guests filled me with nausea; acid churned up from my stomach. The long-dormant Intestine-Piercing Gu inside me seemed to sense the danger too, wriggling restlessly and emitting a low gurgling sound. The sound wasn't loud, but in the deep silence of the night, it was jarring. Xiao Shu heard the rumble from my gut, suddenly leaned close to my ear, and spoke in a voice so low it was barely a breath: "Ask her what we should do."