Wang Dan's mouth hung open, his jaw seemingly locked in place by the freezing night air. His tongue felt frozen, too stiff to move against the roof of his mouth. He tried to speak, to say anything to break the suffocating silence, but nothing came out.
Sure, it was the apocalypse—everyone present had seen their fair share of bloated corpses and skeletal remains—but they had never seen anything quite this gruesome.
The men's screams were already fading into wet, gurgling rattles. Within minutes, the deck went silent, save for the whistling of the wind. From the red mess smeared across the floorboards, it was obvious they had fought hard before dying, clawing at the air and each other in a frantic bid for survival. But what did it matter?
That chicken was like a demon from the darkest depths of the earth. It had blinded them in seconds with precise, lightning-fast pecks. Then, one of the intruders didn't even get the chance to scream before he collapsed, dead on the spot.
The unlucky one had his skull cracked open like a dry gourd. A gaping hole stared back at the onlookers, leaking out a mixture of dark fluids and grey matter that you really didn't want to see.
The villagers stumbled back a few steps, their boots slipping on the wet wood. They hadn't seen clearly in the shadows before, but as the torchlight flickered over the scene, they realized the truth—they were standing in a widening pool of blood.
When Jing Shu walked over calmly, her boots clicking rhythmically against the deck, Li Dayou started stuttering even harder. "It, it, it killed someone! It actually killed someone! It's, it's a chicken!"
A chicken? How could a chicken be that vicious? The captain's mind raced, unable to reconcile the plump, feathered bird with the slaughter before him. Was that really a chicken? Could chickens even kill grown men with such terrifying efficiency? What the hell had he just witnessed? He blinked rapidly, wondering if this was just a fever dream brought on by months of eating dirt.
Jing Shu snapped her fingers, the sound sharp as a whip-crack. Xiao Dou, the fierce battle chicken that had just finished off the last survivor, hopped off the chief's corpse. She wiped her blood-stained beak on the man's ragged back, cleaned her elegant, yellow claws with a few quick motions, then wiggled her fat butt as she strutted over to her master. She knew her owner hated messes, hated the smell of copper in the air. She followed obediently behind Jing Shu, her head held high, clearly waiting to be praised for her guard duty.
"Good job," Jing Shu said with a slight smile, then she turned her gaze toward Li Dayou. "What, did you think a chicken like this survived all this time by just being cute?"
Li Dayou swallowed hard, the movement painful. His throat felt blocked by a thick lump of fear, but he couldn't look away from the bird.
The other villagers backed off even farther into the darkness. Moments ago, they had thought that chicken was just a potential meal, a bit of soup for their empty bellies. Now? Hell no. That wasn't food; that was a killing god. Who the hell would dare try to eat it now?
"That's Er Ga, isn't it? He is dead for sure," someone whispered from the back of the crowd.
"And the one with his head split open—that's the village chief. Damn, what a way to go."
"What the hell happened? How could anyone just let a chicken kill people like that? What if it comes after us next?"
Fearful whispers spread through the crowd like a contagion.
That was when Auntie Wang shouted from the back, her voice cutting through the panic. "Are all your brains made of pig fat? If they wanted to kill you, don't you think they would have done it already? Why bother sharing food, making porridge, and giving out eggs to your children? You think they are raising you like livestock for later? Pah! Those men must have done something dirty to trigger that bird. Everyone knows they were rotten to the core! Remember those missing kids from last year up the mountain? You really think no one in Gashan knew anything?"
"Stop talking nonsense, Auntie, how would we know about that?"
"Yeah, we are just saying—it's weird they died like that. We are scared too. What if the chicken loses its mind and starts killing randomly?"
"Quiet!" Jing Shu said.
The crowd fell silent immediately, the air turning heavy. Xiao Dou's intimidating presence alone, as she stood there with her chest puffed out, was enough to make them freeze in their tracks.
Jing Shu turned her attention back to Li Dayou. "Captain Li, tell everyone what happened here."
Li Dayou took a deep breath, trying to steady his shaking hands before answering. "The chief from the mountain village brought these men onto the ship. They came to steal the food. When they found me inside the kitchen, two of them grabbed me while the others tried to steal the chicken and the supply boxes. My gun was in my room, so I couldn't fight back. Then..."
He paused, his eyes flickering strangely as he remembered the blurred motion of white feathers and the sound of breaking bone. "Then that chicken killed them all. I didn't even see how it happened. It was too fast. You all saw what is left. Those bastards were planning to take all the food, control everyone, and use us as hostages when the rescue team came. People like that deserved what they got."
He had seen everything—too clearly for his own peace of mind. It was so bloody he couldn't find the words to describe it, and he didn't want to. It was better to bury that memory forever. That wasn't a chicken; it was a wolf in feathers.
Jing Shu smiled faintly, the expression not reaching her cold eyes. "You all heard him. My chicken never kills the innocent. When you all chased it earlier, did it peck a single one of you? No, right? As long as you don't go after what you shouldn't, it won't bother you. Otherwise, you will end up like them. Even if we reported this officially, no one could say we were wrong to defend our lives. Now, go on, everyone. Wang Dan, get someone to deal with the bodies and wash the deck."
And just like that, the matter was settled. The villagers didn't dare say another word in protest.
Stealing food wasn't a new concept in the valley. Some had even tried to sneak on board and steal seeds from the ship before. Usually, they just got caught, beaten a bit, and sent away. The ship's crew never pushed things too far because they knew everyone was desperate. But this time, the village chief had led them himself, and they ended up dead—brutally so. They had survived everything the earth had thrown at them so far, only to die right when rescue was finally in sight. What they tried to steal wasn't just food; it was their own lives.
Some villagers had been eyeing Jing Shu before, thinking about robbing her when she was alone. She was pretty, clearly wealthy, and had tons of supplies. Who wouldn't be tempted? But now, no one dared to even look her in the eye. When the dry, rock-hard flatbreads were handed out for dinner later that night, no one complained about the texture. They ate quietly, huddled in small groups, and went back to their assigned work.
The heavy atmosphere on the ship didn't last long, however. Before long, a different kind of excitement filled the air.
"Eleven!" a voice shouted from the deck.
"Twelve!" another followed.
Every few minutes, another loud cheer erupted from the boat. The villagers working below in the mud pits were confused, looking up at the hull. What the hell was happening up there? Weren't they terrified of that demon chicken?
The shouting and counting went on all night, the echoes keeping everyone awake in the valley.
Jing Shu yawned, cleared a clean spot in the cabin, and set up her private luxury tent with its warm, down bedding. After putting in her earplugs to drown out the noise, she muttered, "Idiots. If they want to count eggs all night, let them. Bunch of bumpkins."
It turns out that no matter how scary the chicken was, nothing could beat its miraculous ability to lay eggs in a world where protein was a distant memory.
Even those who had been terrified of Xiao Dou earlier, especially Li Dayou, completely changed their attitude once Wang Dan exclaimed, "Wait, didn't it already lay an egg just now? How did it lay another one so fast?"
Now, Li Dayou was personally bringing clean water and high-quality scraps for Xiao Dou, even lighting a small fire nearby to keep her warm in the drafty cabin. Wang Dan gave her gentle massages to soothe her wings, and the others took turns brushing her feathers, trimming her claws with precision, and even telling her jokes to keep her spirits up.
They didn't treat her like a chicken anymore. They treated her like a living Buddha.