Bai Ru sensed something was amiss on his side and couldn't help but ask, "Feifan, what happened over there?"

Kuang Feifan instinctively lowered his voice. "That thing... it suddenly stopped moving..."

Gu Yi's voice held a hint of anxiety. "Still no gasoline?"

Kuang Feifan glanced sideways toward the door. "Nope, probably still a little while yet..."

As he spoke, a sharp shriek suddenly erupted from the phone, the sound so piercing it felt as if it might rupture his eardrums. He involuntarily gaped his mouth open, instinctively hanging up, yet the lingering resonance seemed to echo within the room.

For a moment, he felt as though he couldn't hear anything at all. He opened and closed his mouth, frantically digging at his ears and shaking his head. In his daze, a 'glug-glug-glug...' sound drifted from inside the room, reminiscent of a glass marble rolling across the floor.

Gradually, the sound became clearer. He couldn't help but turn toward its source, his body involuntarily tensing.

When he had smashed the zombie's head earlier, one of its already clouded eyeballs had been smashed in, and the other had been knocked clean out of its socket.

And now, for some unknown reason, that detached eyeball was slowly rolling across the floor. Though there should have been no sound, he clearly heard the distinct noise of the sphere rattling against the ground.

Kuang Feifan watched the eyeball roll toward him, stopping a few paces from his feet. The dead gray-black orb stared directly up at him.

Without even thinking, he lifted his foot and stomped down on it.

With a 'splat,' the eyeball burst under his heel, leaving a slick patch of black fluid beneath him.

Simultaneously, a sharp 'snap' echoed suddenly from within the house, like the sound of something breaking.

Kuang Feifan spun around sharply. He heard a rustling sound, a 'sizzle-sizzle,' coming from the adjacent room—the sound of something dragging itself across the floor. He quickly stowed his phone, rushed into the hallway, and peered into that room. The headless zombie was no longer completely inert as it had been moments before. Near its body, an arm still attached to a forearm was writhing on the ground. Its steel-claw-like fingers flexed and contracted, seemingly imbued with life, slowly crawling toward him.

The other hand was also stretching forcefully in his direction, extending further and further until it surpassed the limits of human reach, only to stop with another sharp 'crack' as that arm also cleanly broke off at the forearm. Although there was no dramatic spray of blood, strands of decaying flesh still connected the break point, and it continued to crawl toward Kuang Feifan.

Even though he had seen severed limbs before, the sight of an arm and forearm wriggling on the floor had an extremely intense visual impact. It seemed the zombie had been in a state of dormancy, gathering all its energy for this very form of attack.

Kuang Feifan swallowed hard, silently cursing why Xu Hui hadn't returned yet. The severed hands weren't fast, but they were relentless, which left Kuang Feifan quite frustrated. If he fled the house now, he might not be harmed, but he worried what would happen if the zombie’s limbs got outside, perhaps onto the road, endangering others.

Suddenly, an idea struck Kuang Feifan. He backed away into the room Shen Jun had been using as a bedroom, grabbed the large nylon bag, and turned back, fixing his gaze on the movement in the doorway.

The two severed hands, one leading and one trailing, had reached the hallway. They paused, seeming to sense Kuang Feifan’s location, and began crawling toward him.

Kuang Feifan suddenly remembered something and reached out, grabbing a few pieces of clothing to stuff into the bag as well, just in case.

As he anticipated, the hands stopped some distance away, suddenly seeming to be pulled by invisible wires, and floated into the air.

Immediately, the other severed hand also lifted into the air. The grayish-blue skin on the limbs faintly shimmered white in the gloom of the room. The black fingernails were long and sharp, twitching slightly.

Slowly, the leading severed hand drifted silently toward Kuang Feifan, its fingertips seemingly aimed directly for his eyes.

Kuang Feifan was fully alert, bracing for its attack method, yet he never expected the movement to be so slow. He took a deep breath and, acting on impulse, opened the nylon bag, swinging it over the first severed hand.

With a 'whoosh,' the large nylon bag seemed more than adequate to contain the first severed hand.

However, he overlooked one crucial detail: there were two severed hands. The second one was clearly less cooperative than the first. In fact, the moment he managed to bag the first one, the second had already darted aside, its speed so rapid that Kuang Feifan’s eyes momentarily couldn't track its movement.

In that split second of distraction, Kuang Feifan realized the other severed hand had vanished from his sight.

The next instant, he felt a sudden unnatural sensation against his back. He instinctively lunged two steps forward, which unintentionally saved his life. Five dark, inky claws scraped past his back, tearing his clothes.

Kuang Feifan felt a sharp sting on his back; the claws had clearly broken his skin.

The pain startled Kuang Feifan. Ignoring the nylon bag that was still twisting violently, he spun around, hoisting the bag and whipping it toward the hand that had attacked him.

Taking advantage of the bag's larger size, Kuang Feifan’s swing connected solidly. Like a batted baseball, the attacking hand was flung away, arcing through the air before slamming against the wall.

With a dull 'thwack,' the severed hand dropped to the floor.

While pulling the zipper closed on the nylon bag, Kuang Feifan rushed to the wall, fighting a sickening sensation, and stomped his foot down hard onto the hand that was struggling on the ground.

A noise sounded from the main entrance as Xu Hui burst in, carrying a rectangular plastic bucket.

"Kuang Feifan, where are you?"

When he left, Kuang Feifan had been in the hallway. Seeing him gone upon re-entry startled Xu Hui, who feared something might have happened while he was out getting the gasoline.

"I'm over here..." Kuang Feifan yelled.

By now, the severed hand inside the nylon bag was struggling violently, on the verge of bursting through the fabric.

And the limb pinned beneath his foot was thrashing with great force; he could barely keep it contained.

Xu Hui rushed into the room, saw the scene, and involuntarily blurted out, "Holy hell..."

"Forget 'holy hell,' hurry up! Take this bag and burn it—no, first burn the body. I don't believe these hands can still move if the body goes up in flames."

Kuang Feifan yelled, sounding almost frantic.

Xu Hui grimaced but dared not delay. He grabbed the nylon bag with one hand, holding his arm straight out, keeping it as far from his body as possible.

The severed hand inside seemed to sense another person's presence and thrashed wildly within the bag. If it hadn't been for the soft clothing padding it, it might have already shredded the bag, but even now, the situation was precarious; the sharp nails had already pierced the plastic.

Xu Hui ignored this, rushed into the other room, and tossed the bag onto the zombie’s corpse. He then twisted off the cap of the plastic bucket and poured the gasoline directly over the body.

He splashed it along the floor leading into the hallway, then swiftly lit a cigarette, backed up a few steps, and tossed the butt onto the gasoline...