The Great Worm Lich

After some chilling torture, Zhang Lisheng obtained what he desired most while Raby and the rest’s fresh flesh replenished Mountoad’s vitality to its peak.

“Seems like fresh human’s much more nourishing to wizard worm’s vitality than animal meat. But if I’m a murderer who would kill innocents just for witchcraft cultivation, I wouldn’t need to replenish my wizard worm’s vitality at all times.”

After he was done handling everything, Zhang Lisheng controlled Mountoad to open the heavy warehouse shutter with its long tongue. He then pulled George out of the warehouse strenuously while mumbling to himself. George’s face was swollen while he had shoe prints all over his body. Fortunately, those were just skin injury.

“George, wake up…” George opened his eyes in Zhang Lisheng’s call as he grasped a few breaths of fresh air while the chilly wind was blowing outside of the warehouse.

“Hey buddy, we met again. I knew people like you wouldn’t make it to heaven too…”

“We’re not dead.”

“What are you saying, we’re not dead, how is that possible… Ouch, ouch…” The pain that came gradually spread all over his body when he woke up made him realized that he was really still alive, “Sh*t, I feel like I’ve been torn apart. What exactly happened? Where are Raby and his men? Where are they? Why did they let us go?”

“I’ve no idea. I was hiding in the warehouse for a while and saw a light at the door all of a sudden. When I walked closer, I saw you lying on the floor while the rest was gone.”

George was stunned, there were unstable emotions in his eyes. He was silent for a while and gazed deep into Zhang Lisheng’s eyes, he then spoke while nodding his head, “It must be god protecting us. If that’s the case, let’s leave this dangerous place after we close the shutter. Come, buddy, come help.”

He struggled to get up from the floor in pain, while he spoke and pulled down the heavy metal shutter with all of his might while grinding his teeth. Zhang Lisheng gave a helping hand, they finally closed the shutter with their effort little by little.

“Hey buddy, I suppose I’ve returned you the favor that I owed,” George brushed off the dirt on his body and said half-jokingly. At that moment, Zhang Lisheng was taken aback by the risk that he brought onto himself. In reality, Raby’s shooting using the pistol at Mountoad at the warehouse earlier had caused significant harm to his wizard worm. The ending might be very different if Raby was to shoot with guns together with his men earlier.

“You’ve fulfilled your promise, George. It seems like I’ve underestimated this.”

“Fortunately you’re not too late to realize this. Let’s go, we must leave this place as soon as we can. We can’t afford to offend Raby’s brother.”

Zhang Lisheng was secretly shocked when he heard that. He ran clumsily on the empty, ruined street with George. Both of them slowed down while panting after running through the two streets continuously, as they saw growing numbers of pedestrians around. Just like that, they arrived at the subway where they came from without resting in between. They took the train with countless excited tourists.

As safety was regained, Zhang Lisheng stood in the train compartment while holding the handle. He suddenly asked softly after passing two stations without speaking while watching the vandalism outside the window and listening to the sound of the moving train, “George, do you know what was the warehouse for?”

“It’s obviously a load house, where smugglers keep the illegal immigrants temporarily. The illegal immigrants who had paid the remaining smuggling fee could leave the load house soon to work illegally. Those who aren’t able to pay the full fee would have to stay there forever,” George said calmly, he added after some hesitation, “Even though such a place often has people staying, there won’t be anybody who would clean it deliberately. Nobody would care if there were a few dead bodies lying around in there.”

George’s answer stunned Zhang Lisheng. Recalling the terrible environment in the warehouse such as fear and despair one would encounter when they go in, made him said this out loud, “Such a load house’s perfect for me. But is that really New York? The New York where everyone says it’s the most bustle, civilized and open?”

George said while smiling, “Buddy, nobody would force you to go to such a dangerous place. Staying in the better community in Brooklyn wouldn’t be as dangerous as what you experienced even if world war was to come. But whatever you’ve experienced today was indeed a part of New York. Welcome to the real New York, young New Yorker.”

The train passed by a few stations as they chatted and stopped at Brooklyn’s Lowbige Station. It was a Saturday, most people who were waiting for the train dressed casually. They looked relaxed, it was clear that they were enjoying their weekend holiday. It was a blue sky with white clouds outside the subway. The air was fresh, there were many skyscrapers in his field of vision, although they were not connected. Half of the pedestrians on the streets had pets with them while walking with their family. Everything was joyous, civilized and beautiful.

“The life here’s really what I call living. It’s 2:30 p.m. now, it’s still early. What plans do you have, my friend?” George took a deep breath in and said after getting out of the station.

“Let’s get you to the orthopedic hospital, I hope they take Agricultural Bank of China’s Gold Wheat Card though.”

“No need, this minor injury’s nothing. I have your Chinese special chiropractic ointment.”

Zhang Lisheng did not proceed with being polite hearing what George said, “If that’s the case, I’ll see if there’s anything useful that I can buy with my Gold Wheat Card at the international store nearby. I’ll head home after that.”

“Alright, I suppose I’ll do the same. I’ll see you on Monday, buddy,” George was stunned for a moment then waved while turning around wearing a smile.

“Bye, George.”

Hearing Zhang Lisheng’s goodbye, George who had taken a few steps away turned around abruptly and stared at Zhang Lisheng as he asked, “Lisheng, are you really not doing anything for leisure? Even my brother who is insane like a Frankenstein would go to the strip club to relax himself every week. Do you not want to relax at all? Especially when… we’ve just… experienced… Nevermind, pretend I said nothing. Goodbye friend,” He waved at Zhang Lisheng and walked further away.

Since then, Zhang Lisheng’s life was pretty stable. Apart from going to school, he would be working at Dan Souza Butcher Shop and cultivate secret witchcraft method privately, when he got home. He dared not to risk his life any longer.

Winter came after autumn, in a blink of an eye. The first heavy snow fell in New York, it was a winter wonderland in the city. The young people from the city began their snowball fights, it was the most ancient and fashionable activity during winter.

On one afternoon in December, Zhang Lisheng nailed a frog and a mouse onto a plank with needles while dissecting their organs in New York Lowbige Junior High’s biology lab on the school building’s third floor. Professor Steven, who was known to be old fashioned and strict in school stood beside him. It was said that this outstanding biologist should have been working in the best biology lab in the world, if not for the terrifying experiment disaster. However, he could only stay in a high school, teaching some fussy kids how to slice off a frog’s leg.

“Lisheng, what did you find?”

“There are many things in the frog’s stomach. I saw insect’s wings and some — some mushy meat. Looking at the digestion progress, I think the anesthetic had yet to kick in before we dissected it…” Zhang Lisheng spoke continuously. He was speaking so much more, compared to the time when he had just arrived in America. He was so much more open now.

“You can see those without using the microscope. Looks like you’re improving fast in the experiment operation, keep it up kid,” Professor Steven revealed a rare smile on his serious face, “Keep up with your learning progress, I definitely won’t be stingy with the recommendation letter to my ex-colleagues from those popular universities when you graduate. Although those universities are poor in biological studies, they could totally give you a great foundation.”

“Thanks, professor,” Zhang Lisheng surprisingly thanked him for that remark. The school bell rang at the moment, it was lunchtime. Professor Steven walked onto the podium to dismiss the class. Seizing the moment, George who picked biology class with Zhang Lisheng said softly behind him, “Hey buddy, Professor Steven really likes you. It’s worth it that you’ve killed so many frogs, the ‘baby toad’ that’s always following you must be crying now.”

“George, making fun of your friend won’t get you an A or even a B or a C in test,” Zhang Lisheng proceeded to dissect the two little animals without even lifting his head, “Give me a minute, we can go for lunch after I’m done separating these two experiment animals’ organs.”

He seemed calm when he was speaking, but every student who passed him by would show a vomiting gesture. Seeing that, George sighed while putting his experiment paper away. He walked to Zhang Lisheng and said in a despairing tone, “Buddy, you don’t have to talk like that. Many people in the school knew that Ms. Lili has a crazy kid who came from China. What’s even more depressing is that they also knew that I’m that crazy kid’s only friend.”

Zhang Lisheng separated the frog’s organs carefully and soaked them in alcohol from a little bottle. He then said while feeling relieved, “George, dissecting animals for personal excitement’s crazy. However, doing it for science is a sign of professionalism and scientific spirit. Those are two completely different things.”

As Zhang Lisheng spoke, he heard mixed clamors downstairs that came out of nowhere.

“Oh wow… Shh…” George sprinted to the window in a few steps and looked outside. He saw a few black extended limousines parked by the street far away and a bunch of men in black in neat suits. They surrounded a few beautiful young ladies who dressed gorgeously in the winter wonderland, they were walking slowly towards Lowbige’s school compound.

“Lisheng, the New York Girl’s voting team is here at our school,” George ran to Zhang Lisheng in excitement and said, “They must be the gorgeous ladies from Fordham High School judging by their guts coming to Lowbige to challenge those shallow girls from our school who are only interested to get in touch with handsome guys and athletes. We must show our support to the Fordham High School beauties, letting those shallow girls from our school know that us shorties aren’t pushovers.”