Chapter 67 Lin Wanyun's Despair
The Thunder Leopard Squad's vehicles, battered and bruised, sped back to Dawn Base and, after inspection, drove straight into the C-sector outpost.
The vehicle was roughly parked in the middle of the yard, with wisps of smoke still rising from the hood.
Lei Bao's face was so gloomy it could drip water. He was the first to jump out of the car, his body covered in blood and his breathing somewhat disordered, clearly indicating that the breakout process had not been easy.
The other team members also got off the vehicle one after another, all of them injured and still in shock. They silently began to treat their wounds and check the damage to the vehicle.
Lin Wanyun, who had been anxiously waiting at the door, immediately went to greet them. Her gaze quickly swept over the crowd of people getting off the bus, again and again, her face gradually turning pale.
No! Her daughter, Lin Jiaojiao, is not there!
She rushed to Lei Bao, her voice trembling and shrill with fear: "Brother Bao! Where's Jiao Jiao? Why didn't my Jiao Jiao come back with you?!"
Lei Bao was already furious because his teammates were injured and fled in a sorry state. Now that Lin Wanyun had stopped him and questioned him, he became even more agitated.
His sinister gaze swept over Lin Wanyun's face, which, though well-maintained, still bore the marks of time. Thinking of the trouble her daughter had caused and the resulting losses, anger instantly overwhelmed his reason.
"Get out of my way!" he growled, swinging his arm out violently!
"Smack!"
A resounding and merciless slap landed hard on Lin Wanyun's face!
Lin Wanyun was so badly hit that she staggered backward and fell heavily to the ground. Half of her cheek swelled up visibly, and her mouth cracked, oozing a trickle of blood.
She was stunned by the blow, her ears ringing, staring incredulously at the man who had once sheltered her and her daughter, but now wore a hideous expression.
Lei Bao looked down at her, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust and violence, devoid of any pity. His voice was as cold as ice.
"That good-for-nothing? He's dead!"
"Disobeying orders and acting on their own alerted the horde of zombies, resulting in several of our brothers being injured!"
"If you utter another word of nonsense, I'll throw you out to feed the zombies!"
His roar echoed in the courtyard. The other team members stopped what they were doing and looked at them with indifference or pity, but no one dared to utter a sound. The newly favored female team member even curled her lips into a barely perceptible sneer.
Lin Wanyun collapsed to the ground, her cheeks burning with pain, but the pain in her heart was even greater. Her daughter was dead… Jiaojiao was dead… abandoned by them…
Overwhelmed by immense grief and despair, she opened her mouth but could not utter a sound; only tears, mixed with blood and foam at the corner of her mouth, silently gushed out.
Looking at Lei Bao's heartless back and the indifferent gazes around her, she realized for the first time so clearly that, having lost her daughter, she was nothing in this apocalypse, in the eyes of these powerful people, not even as good as a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy.
Lei Bao didn't even glance at her again, as if she were merely brushing off a speck of dust. He irritably yelled at his men, "What are you all standing there for? Clean this up! Damn it, we've lost big time this time!"
He cursed and walked up to the third floor, leaving the desperate and weeping Lin Wanyun completely abandoned on the cold ground.
The warm spring sunshine streamed into the courtyard, but it couldn't dispel the bone-chilling cold and utter despair that enveloped Lin Wanyun. She had lost her only daughter, and with her, the last vestige of support and hope in this cruel world.
All of this was clearly seen by Ruan Ning, who was watching from afar with her mental power.
Ruan Ning's lips curled into a cold, emotionless smile.
Ruan Ning returned to her apartment, locked the door, and after carefully checking that there was nothing unusual around her, she entered the space with a slight thought.
The space was still filled with spiritual energy, with distant mountains shrouded in mist and nearby springs gurgling, creating a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere, a world completely different from the apocalyptic world outside, filled with death and crisis.
Instead of cultivating or tending to the crops as usual, Ruan Ning went straight to the softest patch of grass beside the spiritual spring, then fell backward, letting herself sprawl on the warm, moist earth.
She stared intently at the unchanging sky above, a sky as clear and bright as the finest jade. There was no sun, yet it was forever bright and warm.
Lin Jiaojiao is dead.
This realization, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, created a tiny yet undeniable ripple in the stillness of her heart.
There was no expected ecstasy, no exhilarating satisfaction of revenge. In fact, it was difficult to detect even the slightest emotional fluctuation.
She succeeded. Using the cleanest means, through the choices of the zombies and the Thunder Leopard Squad, she settled one of the blood debts from her past life. Lin Jiaojiao's shocked, fearful, and finally enlightened gaze before her death was branded into her mind.
Ruan Ning slowly raised her hands and held them out in front of her. These hands were clean, slender, and unstained by a single drop of Lin Jiaojiao's blood. But she knew they were soaked with an invisible stench of blood.
She gently clenched her fist, feeling the slight pain as her fingertips dug into her palm.
Is it worth it?
She asked herself that question.
She had meticulously planned for this moment, placing herself at potential risk. She watched a living, breathing person—even one who deserved it—be torn apart and devoured in extreme pain and fear.
The answer seems to be yes. That was one of the driving forces that kept her going through countless nightmares and waking her up in the dead of night since her rebirth.
But why does my heart feel so empty?
It was like struggling to move a huge rock that had been pressing on your chest. Instead of the expected relief, it revealed the emptiness underneath, which had been numb and even deformed from being pressed down by the rock for too long.
She remembered her past life. She remembered how Lin Jiaojiao smiled as she pushed her into the horde of zombies; she remembered the excruciating pain as her body was torn apart by the zombies, and the bone-chilling cold and despair.
Those images, like the hottest lava, burned her soul day and night, making her wish she could tear her enemy to pieces immediately.
But now, when Lin Jiaojiao really died in the same tragic way as in her previous life, that burning hatred seemed to suddenly lose its fuel, slowly cooling down and settling down, turning into something heavier and colder.
It felt like a piece of ice that would never melt, pressing heavily on my heart.
Revenge cannot bring the dead back to life, nor can it truly erase the wounds of the past. It is merely a ritual that must be performed. A ritual to commemorate the foolish, naive, and tragically deceased self of a past life, using the blood of one's enemy.
Once it's finished, this part of my obsession will be over.
That's all.
A faint, almost imperceptible sense of bewilderment swept through Ruan Ning's heart. But it was quickly replaced by a deeper chill.
She doesn't need happiness, she doesn't need satisfaction. She only needs to know that those who hurt her and betrayed her have paid the price they deserved. That's enough.
Exhaustion washed over her like a tide. She slowly closed her eyes, letting the rich spiritual energy beside the spring envelop her, soothing her tense nerves and weary mind.
She needs rest.
Because of her next target, Lin Wanyun has already embarked on the path of despair she has laid out for her.
Ruan Ning lay on the warm ground of the space, her breathing gradually becoming steady and long, as if she had temporarily unloaded a heavy burden, or as if she was accumulating a colder and more ruthless power for the next storm.
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