Chapter 162
Chapter 162
An Xiaolin darted through the treetops, following the road.
The view below gradually opened up, revealing a massive wall stretching along the edge of the highway. Verses had been painted across it in large, pitch-black characters, but they were now obscured by dried black blood, giving the wall a hideous, terrifying appearance.
She remembered this place. She had passed by before.
Looking down, she saw a deep drainage ditch at the foot of the wall. At the bottom lay a patch of red and a patch of yellow, perfectly still.
Just as she was about to leap down, a dark figure beat her to it.
It was an exceptionally tall figure. The instant it landed, it scooped up the crate on the ground.
Immediately afterward, several figures crawled out from beneath the parachute fabric, brandishing large hunting nets!
“Some idiot took the bait! Hahahahahahaha!”
“Big dumb oaf! Big dumb oaf! Hahahahahaha!”
Two figures suddenly appeared atop the wall. Their coordination was flawless-one held the attackers off while the other cut them down. In an instant, they dispatched the Madmen swarming around them.
“Get down!”
The voice rang clearly in An Xiaolin’s ears.
Bzzzz!!!
A piercing noise drowned out everything. She could no longer even hear her own heartbeat. All she heard was the sound of them opening the crates.
Before her brain could process the overwhelming shock, her body had already reacted. Axe in hand, she shot downward like a cannonball, driven by a frenzy she did not even know she possessed.
“Die!”
Her axe instantly felled the remaining Madmen. Without the slightest pause, she spun around and lunged at the familiar figure.
Sensing the murderous intent behind her, Qingshui instinctively twisted aside and raised her sickle across her chest.
Clang!
The axe slammed into the blade, sending sparks flying.
A Madman?
Qingshui frowned sharply. She swiftly ducked and kicked the back of her opponent’s knee. Then she pressed forward and swung her sickle down without mercy!
But then a familiar voice sounded, freezing her mind in an instant.
“…Qingshui.”
Qingshui’s pupils contracted.
Was she hearing things…?
In that brief moment of distraction, the figure beneath her rammed its head into her stomach and threw her to the ground. It immediately straddled her and smashed a fist into her cheek.
Thud!
The blow snapped Qingshui’s head to the side, and a trace of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She quickly seized her opponent’s flailing arms and tried to pin the Madman down.
But her opponent seemed completely oblivious to pain, thrashing and biting like a rabid dog.
Amid the struggle, Qingshui’s helmet was knocked off and rolled away. Her gaze turned cold. She drove her knee hard into her opponent’s abdomen, then used the leverage to roll over and rip off the other person’s helmet.
The helmet tumbled aside, revealing a familiar baby face.
It was weathered and covered in scars.
Qingshui’s pupils trembled violently. A name escaped her throat before she even realized it.
“…Xiaolin?”
At the sound of that name, the figure above her stiffened slightly–then went completely berserk.
Despair, rage, resentment… Every emotion exploded at once. An Xiaolin slammed her head forward, breaking free of Qingshui’s restraint. She snatched up the axe from the ground with both hands, raised it high, and brought it down toward Qingshui’s head!
“Stop!”
A sharp shout rang out. Ye Que stood with her gun raised, its black muzzle aimed straight at An Xiaolin’s head. Her finger was on the trigger, a split second from pulling it.
“Don’t shoot!”
Qingshui’s roar rang out at the same moment the axe struck the ground.
Clang!
The axe buried itself deep in the snow, only a few inches from Qingshui’s cheek.
An Xiaolin panted heavily, both hands clamped tightly around Qingshui’s throat. She watched Qingshui’s pupils contract from suffocation and felt the taut muscles of the woman beneath her. Qingshui could counterattack at any moment, but she didn’t.
That complete, unconditional trust only made An Xiaolin want to vomit even more.
This wasn’t what she wanted! But what did she want? She didn’t know.
An indescribable itch rose from her chest. She coughed violently, then began to laugh with a manic edge.
“Haha… Hahaha…”
She suddenly squeezed harder, once again forcing the air from Qingshui’s lungs.
“Are you… going to kill me… Xiaolin…?”
Suffocation made Qingshui’s voice hoarse, but her eyes remained calm as they gazed up at her. It was the exact same look she’d always worn, so placid that she might merely have been asking, “Is this how you use this tool, Xiaolin?”
The corner of An Xiaolin’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. She wanted to kill Qingshui. She wanted to tear her limb from limb. But her body refused to obey.
Rage mingled with a feeling called hurt, pushing her mind to the brink of collapse.
She squeezed even harder, her nails digging into Qingshui’s flesh.
The instant Ye Que pulled the trigger, Wu Wujie grabbed her wrist from behind.
“Don’t.” Wu Wujie shook his head, watching the two women on the ground with a complicated expression.
“You’re… alive.”
Qingshui struggled to grasp An Xiaolin’s wrist as her eyes stung with unshed tears.
Before the tear could fall, An Xiaolin felt a scalding heat against her wrist.
She had never seen Qingshui cry. This woman, who had always been as calm as a god amid the apocalypse, was actually shedding tears.
She was crying.
The baby-faced girl abruptly froze, her grip on Qingshui’s throat loosening slightly. “Why… are you crying…?”
“You’re still alive…” Qingshui’s voice trembled faintly.
An Xiaolin’s sole remaining right eye flew wide. Then her black pupil spread until it filled the entire socket. She began to tremble.
A bloody tear fell.
It landed on Qingshui’s face and mingled with Qingshui’s tears as they streamed down together.
This woman was crying… simply because she was still alive.
Who was this woman? She was Qingshui. The woman An Xiaolin had once despised, then grown to love. The woman who had always protected her during the apocalypse–and the woman she now hated.
She didn’t know why she hated her… She just did.
Her hands loosened unconsciously.
The woman spoke. “Xiaolin. Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m taking you with me.”
An Xiaolin said nothing, lapsing into a deathly silence.
“Come with me,” Qingshui repeated.
Expressionless, An Xiaolin pulled open her collar. Her once-fair neck and chest were covered in hideous scars.
“Madmen bit me here. All of these.”
She pointed to a knife wound on her shoulder. “A Madman stabbed me here.”
She pulled up her sleeve, revealing an arm with a chunk of flesh missing. “A Madman bit me here.”
She leaned in until their lips were almost touching. But there was no love in her eye, only a heart-stopping madness and vicious desire.
It was as though she wanted to rip herself open completely and expose every inch of her ruined shell to this woman.
“I’m not An Xiaolin… I’m just a Madman.”
“Come with me.” Qingshui’s gaze did not waver in the slightest.
“Liar…” An Xiaolin murmured. She’s only lying. She must be disgusted with me.
“I’m not lying.”
“I don’t believe you… I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you.” The baby-faced girl’s features began to contort violently. She lowered her head and sank her teeth deep into Qingshui’s shoulder.
She waited. Waited for Qingshui to shove her away. Waited for Qingshui to look at her like she was a monster. If Qingshui grew afraid, if she pushed her away, An Xiaolin would bite her to death.
But Qingshui did not push her away. Instead, two arms wrapped tightly around her back, holding her even closer.
Qingshui embraced that trembling soul.
“I missed you.”
An Xiaolin released her bite and buried her face in the hollow of Qingshui’s shoulder. She felt so stupid. She had hated Qingshui for so long, searched for her for so long, waited for her for so long.
And now Qingshui was lying beneath her, holding her and saying, “I missed you.” Just like that, An Xiaolin couldn’t hate her anymore. Because she was nothing but a timid, cowardly, selfish person. She was someone who needed Qingshui to protect her… No, a Madman.
She slowly raised her head. “All right.”
“But if you abandon me again, I swear… I’ll kill you.”