Chapter 166
Chapter 166
Ji Feifan was carrying the empty basin back when Big Guy came lumbering down the corridor and blocked his path.
“Caught another piglet,” it said, nauseating excitement gleaming in its blood-red eyes.
Ji Feifan didn’t even look up. He simply stepped aside, intending to go around it.
“Let’s go, dog.” Big Guy grinned as if it were tossing him a scrap of food.
Ji Feifan set down the basin and followed it outside. A vehicle was parked in the courtyard. He opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat. Big Guy squeezed into the passenger seat after him and immediately put on its helmet, concealing its blood-red eyes and ear-to-ear grin.
“La la la… oh, la la la…”
It propped its filthy, callused legs directly on the dashboard and hummed a bizarre, tuneless song.
Ji Feifan started the engine and drove out of the stronghold.
“Where?” he asked.
Big Guy abruptly stopped humming. It had been so consumed by its urges to capture people and kill that it hadn’t listened to the location. Nor did it think that was something it should have to worry about.
Ji Feifan’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. He waited several seconds, hoping the idiot might cough up at least half a useful sentence, but Big Guy merely kept humming.
“Which area? South or north?” Ji Feifan pressed, forcing himself to remain patient.
Big Guy looked at him as if he were a dog asking too many questions. “Don’t know. Find them yourself.”
Ji Feifan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, filling his chest with the lingering stench of blood. This was hardly the first time. Those Madmen would shout something over the radio and then toss it aside. Sometimes, they didn’t even know where they were themselves.
The smarter ones could at least give him a general direction. The stupid ones only knew to yell that there was a piglet, never where the piglet was. So he had to search. Like a dog, driving around with a drone and combing through the area one section at a time.
The vehicle pulled onto the highway. Snow was still falling, and as they left, Ji Feifan could still see Cat standing high above the stronghold.
After driving for a little over ten minutes, Ji Feifan parked in the shadows of a forest beside an open field. He opened the door, retrieved a drone from the back seat, and deftly climbed onto the roof.
Inside the vehicle, Big Guy slapped the window impatiently, its breath fogging the glass white. “Hurry up! The piglet will get away! Hee hee hee…”
It could hardly wait to see the despair on the piglets’ faces. Hee hee hee.
“Tch.”
Ji Feifan ignored it. He pushed the control stick forward, and the drone rose into the air, its buzz fading in and out amid the wind.
The drone struggled through the blizzard. Gritting his teeth, Ji Feifan guided it south. That region had more forests than houses and complicated terrain. It was the route survivors used most often–and the Madmen’s favorite place to set ambushes and trap people.
The feed on the screen was a field of glaring white.
Then, suddenly, something changed.
A jarring splash of dark red entered the bottom left corner of the screen.
Ji Feifan immediately zoomed in, his fingers flying over the controller. The image enlarged, then enlarged again.
Corpses.
The corpses of Madmen.
Ji Feifan’s fingers froze on the control stick. Dead Madmen? His heart skipped a beat. He had only once before seen so many Madmen killed all at once.
He zoomed in again, trying to get a clearer view of the battlefield.
There were four people, all dressed in dark clothing. They stood in a loose fan formation, completely locking down the clearing between them.
For some inexplicable reason, Ji Feifan’s heart began to race. A long-forgotten, distinctly human shiver crawled up his spine. Instinctively, he tried to get a closer look.
Just then, a figure in the frame moved.
Bang–
The screen went black.
The drone had been shot out of the sky.
His fingers began to tremble, making the controller quiver in his hands.
“Hey! Did you see them?” Big Guy, the Madman, stuck its head out the window, leaning half its body outside as it roared impatiently, “Where are the piglets?”
Ji Feifan didn’t answer. He stared in the direction where the drone had vanished, toward the general location of that open field. He had only seen it for a few seconds, but he remembered the terrain-the mountains and forest bordering that vast expanse of snow.
He knew where it was. That area had the highest capture rate. Go take a look… His instincts were screaming at him. Go look. Hurry!
Ji Feifan took a deep breath, opened the door, and slid back into the driver’s seat. He slammed down on the accelerator with nearly all his strength and sped in that direction.
Big Guy grew excited. It stroked its ax and giggled. “Same as always? Chop down a few dogs first and put on a show? Hahahaha…”
But contrary to its expectations, Ji Feifan didn’t charge straight into the crowd of Madmen and launch into another delightful rescue operation.
The instant a speck of blood-red appeared in the distance, Ji Feifan slammed on the brakes. He surveyed the surrounding area, then climbed a utility pole and crouched atop it before pulling a pair of binoculars from inside his coat.
The world through the lenses trembled. He steadied his breathing and adjusted the focus. Little by little, the open field came into view.
The four of them stood amid the corpses, armed to the teeth. Some were crouching, others standing, their coordination seamless.
Four people… had managed to suppress this many Madmen.
Ji Feifan’s heart began to pound. He could even make out two figures, one large and one small, hauling Madmen around as shields.
His gaze swept over them one by one before suddenly locking on to a particular figure.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Amid the wind and snow, that tall, slender silhouette stood unwavering. With the slightest movement of her fingers, a Madman would silently fall.
That technique…
It was far too familiar.
There was only one person who could be that strong.
Ji Feifan gripped the edges of his binoculars so tightly that his knuckles turned blue. His mind went completely blank, and a deafening roar seemed to fill his ears, drowning out the howling blizzard outside.
Qingshui.
It was her.
How was she still alive?
She really was still alive.
Countless complicated thoughts exploded in his mind like fireworks, making his temples throb. Fear, ecstasy, despair, and hope tangled together until they finally condensed into a single thought.
I’m fucking saved.
It felt as though a single piece of duckweed had drifted toward him across the icy waters of despair.
Grab it. Grab it!
He screamed frantically inside his head, his nails nearly digging into his flesh.
“Hey! You worthless mutt!”
Big Guy’s furious roar came from behind him.
Ji Feifan snapped back to his senses and turned around. Big Guy had already grabbed its axe, shoved open the vehicle door, and climbed out. It had clearly lost patience with Ji Feifan’s dawdling, and its face was twisted into an especially vicious expression.
“What are you dragging your feet for, you worthless mutt? Are you trying to… run away?”
Despite the bone-chilling winter cold, Ji Feifan felt hot all over, and cold sweat soaked his back. He lowered his head and stared at the Madman gazing up at him with crimson eyes. A violent urge to kill surged inside him. For a moment, he genuinely wanted to slaughter the monster.
Kill it, then go find Qingshui.
“Run to the ends of the earth if you want, mutt. We’ll still find you…”
Big Guy suddenly broke into a grin. The axe in its hand shifted restlessly, as though the slightest hint that something was amiss would make it hack Ji Feifan to pieces.
Ji Feifan’s heart instantly went cold, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over him.
No. Even if he joined Qingshui, Cat would still hunt him to the ends of the earth.
The enemy was hidden, while he was exposed.
Cat was everywhere. That nightmarish “Cat,” the monster who controlled every Madman and held Ji Feifan’s fate in his hands, would never spare a traitor.
Ji Feifan drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the bloodlust surging in his eyes. He returned to the driver’s seat, shut the door, and locked it.
Big Guy narrowed its eyes at him. Through the glass, its face looked especially distorted. “They… got away. You did that on purpose.”
“Idiot,” Ji Feifan rasped irritably. “Try using that thing on top of your neck. There were only four of them, yet they killed this many Madmen. Look at how many bodies are lying out there. If the two of us went after them, wouldn’t we just be throwing our lives away?”
Big Guy froze, seemingly giving the question serious thought.
“If you want to get yourself killed, go ahead. I don’t,” Ji Feifan said coldly. “They’re tough customers, not helpless piglets.”
Big Guy tilted its head and stared at him for a while, then glanced back at the bloodstained field of snow. It was terrifyingly quiet there, with only the wind and snow howling.
Only after a long silence did it acknowledge the truth with a cold sneer. It spat on the ground. “Don’t try anything, mutt. Drag your feet again, and I’ll chop you up.”
Ji Feifan licked his cracked lips as an idea formed in his mind. The thought made his heart pound wildly, filling him with both excitement and fear.
Of course these ordinary Madmen were no match for Qingshui. They had only survived this long because Cat had forced them to wear clothes.
Anyone who had survived until now was no weakling. If not for their advantage in numbers and Ji Feifan’s assistance, the Madmen could never have captured so many people.
But none of those people had been able to deal with Cat.
And what Ji Feifan needed most was someone who could.
The only person capable of dealing with Cat… was Qingshui.
He would make Qingshui fight… Cat.
As long as that bastard ended up badly injured–or anything close to it-Ji Feifan would finish him off himself. Cat had to die. Nothing else mattered.
“We’re going back.”
Ji Feifan shifted into reverse and floored the accelerator. The SUV carved a deep track through the snow as it turned around and drove away.
In the rearview mirror, the battlefield receded farther and farther into the distance. The figures had long since vanished into the wind and snow, but Ji Feifan knew that if Cat wanted to find them, there was nowhere they could hide.
And as long as Cat went after them, Ji Feifan would have his chance.
I’m right. This is the right way. I can’t rush it.
Ji Feifan did not even realize that his legs were trembling. His gaze kept drifting toward the rearview mirror until there was nothing left to see. Only then did he slowly turn forward and tighten his grip on the steering wheel.