PD -Chapter 99 Brain-Eating Insects

I bit down on the flashlight and slowly slid down the rope. The inside of the pit was slightly damp, and the moment I dropped in, I was hit by the smell of moist soil. The shaft wasn’t wide. I scooped up a handful of dirt from the wall to check it, but found nothing unusual.

Soon I reached the bottom. Beneath the loose soil, I noticed something reflecting my flashlight. I brushed the dirt away and discovered… a mobile phone.

I figured it must have belonged to the two workers who fell in earlier.

I picked it up and tried to turn it on, but it was out of battery. I then stuffed it into my pocket and continued examining the pit.

“How is it, Brother Han!”

Liu Xiaopeng’s voice came from above.

I looked up. I was about to respond, but for some reason—maybe the oppressive atmosphere inside the pit—I couldn’t bring myself to answer. I only shook the rope slightly and said nothing.

At that moment, I suddenly felt something move beneath my feet.

My heart jolted. I lowered the flashlight—and saw the soil beside my feet trembling continuously, as if something was about to crawl up from underground.

I immediately stepped back, trying to distance myself from the shaking ground… but my back hit the wall of the pit. The cold, damp soil pressed against me.

And then I felt an itch on my back, as if something like an insect had taken the opportunity to crawl into my clothes.

I couldn’t help but shrug my shoulders, reaching back to feel along my skin while continuing to watch the trembling ground.

Suddenly, densely packed, glossy black insects began crawling out of the soil…

And at the same time, I felt a sharp pain on my back, as if I had been bitten. I immediately reached back and felt a hard-bodied insect trying to burrow into my flesh.

I forcefully pinched it out with two fingers—but before I could even look at it, more and more black beetles surged out from the ground beneath my feet like a tide.

I cursed under my breath, shaking off the ones already climbing up my pant legs, and quickly pulled the rope again, shouting upward:

“Pull me up! Now!”

Immediately, I felt the rope tighten around my body, and a powerful upward force began dragging me up.

By then, the entire bottom of the pit had already been taken over by those black beetles.

They were densely packed, layer upon layer, covering the ground. The collision of their hard shells created a horrifying, hair-raising sound.

Fortunately, they didn’t climb up the walls. I was quickly pulled out of the pit.

Standing at the entrance, I untied the rope and looked back down—but the insects were already gone from sight.

I brushed the dirt off my body and called Liu Xiaopeng and Li Zi back to the car, showing them the insect I was holding.

They both looked confused, not understanding why I was showing them a bug.

“Isn’t this just an ordinary beetle?” Li Zi asked.

I examined it carefully. The insect had already died at some point. It was pitch black and hard-shelled, nothing unusual in appearance—just a common beetle you could find in remote countryside areas.

After thinking for a while, I held it up and cautiously brought it near Liu Xiaopeng’s nostril. It fit perfectly.

Liu Xiaopeng jumped in shock and leaned back instinctively, giving me a strange look.

“Brother Han, what are you doing?”

“This thing is small enough to crawl into a person’s nose or ears…” I said thoughtfully. “Li Zi, didn’t you say those two workers were carried up with blood coming out of all seven orifices?”

Li Zi nodded, staring at the dead beetle in my hand. It seemed he realized something. His pupils widened in disbelief.

“Big bro… are you saying these bugs ate their brains?”

“I think it’s possible,” I said casually, wrapping the beetle in a tissue I grabbed from the car. “Those two workers had no external injuries, and their heads weren’t smashed open. So unless—like what Li Zi joked—someone stuck a straw into their brains and sucked their brain matter like jelly, then this is the only remaining explanation.”

“When I was down there, I already noticed these insects are extremely aggressive… If there are enough of them, they could crawl into a person’s brain within minutes and eat it empty. It’s not impossible.”

“This… this is the first time I’ve heard of bugs eating human brains,” Li Zi muttered, stunned for a long moment before coming back to himself.

“There are indeed a lot of strange insects in this place. When I first came here, I heard locals say that back when it was still rural years ago, there were cases of bees stinging people to death,” Li Zi sighed. “Then… what about my uncle’s construction site?”

“This situation is indeed strange, but after sensing the area inside that pit, I didn’t detect any yin energy or malevolent aura…”

“Tomorrow, bring in an excavator and backfill that pit. Don’t touch the surrounding foundation for now. Resume construction elsewhere first,” I said after thinking it over.

Although the situation seemed odd, I couldn’t sense anything supernatural in it. The only option was to observe for now—and investigate this strange insect later.

“So that’s it for tonight?” Li Zi asked.

I nodded, and only then did he continue, “Alright. My uncle has prepared a banquet at the hotel tonight… all the company executives, developers, and some local political and business people will be there. You two should come too.”

I hesitated for a moment, then agreed. Since it was a relatively formal occasion, I went back to the hotel with Liu Xiaopeng to change into clean clothes.

The hotel where Li Zi’s uncle was hosting the banquet was the same one we were staying in, so we soon went downstairs to the event.

In this small county, this was probably the only hotel with a somewhat decent standard. Compared to big-city hotels, however, it still fell far short.

Still, it had its own charm. With the arrival of summer and autumn, the weather was pleasant, and the evening air in the courtyard felt refreshing.

So the hotel made use of the backyard, setting it up as an outdoor buffet and bonfire party.

When we arrived early, there were already quite a lot of people—mostly developers, property managers, sales companies, and some local officials, according to Li Zi.

Aside from Li Zi, Liu Xiaopeng and I didn’t know anyone else, and we weren’t particularly interested in their business dealings. While Li Zi went off with his uncle to greet guests, we helped ourselves at the buffet and were just about to find a table to enjoy our food—when suddenly, a woman’s scream rang out from nearby.