☆ Anger, a turning point
Ye Xi was stunned for a moment. She stared blankly at Ethan's satisfied expression, a bittersweet feeling spreading through her heart. For the first time since she had killed a "person" in the Raccoon City Hive, Ye Xi found her hands trembling. She couldn't bring herself to do it; she couldn't blow Ethan's head off like she had done to other zombies or near-zombies.
Since arriving here, Ye Xi hadn't considered opening her heart to anyone. She didn't want to easily trust anyone, much less fall in love with anyone easily. Ethan's confession left her bewildered, and at the same time, it warmed her frozen heart slightly. More than anything, it brought Ye Xi an uncontrollable bitterness and anger.
“Stupid senior…” Ye Xi took a deep breath, tears finally welling up in her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. She turned away decisively, taking firm steps, one by one, unhurriedly walking out of the operating room. She should have run away quickly; she should have avoided facing the armed enemies outside… Ye Xi’s reason warned her, but now she was beyond furious; any rationality seemed like a joke in her presence.
Ye Xi's expression was so calm, so coldly calm. Looking into her unfathomable black eyes, the Umbrella mercenaries, guns pointed at the exit gate, couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines. It was deathly still; Ye Xi's eyes held nothing but a terrifyingly deep blackness.
"Ye Xi, long time no see." A voice as cold as a snake came from behind the mercenary. Ye Xi slightly shifted her indifferent black eyes and fell on the source of the voice. A refined and harmless face, cold red eyes—who else could it be but the man who had confronted Ye Xi a few days ago? "You're really hard to catch."
Ye Xi maintained her expressionless, indifferent face, as if that person was utterly beneath her notice. She slowly raised her hand, and the man's face stiffened. Almost simultaneously with Ye Xi's fist gesture, he snapped, "Make your move."
"Bang bang bang—"
"Snap—"
Gunshots and the cracking of bones rang out simultaneously. The heads of the four men aimed at Ye Xi suddenly exploded, their headless bodies trembling and convulsing as they collapsed to the ground. As for Ye Xi, surrounded by bullets, two meters of tall weeds enveloped her like a cocoon, layer upon layer. The gunfire ceased abruptly, the supple weeds gently unfurling, countless bullets scattering at her feet as she stood silently in place. Her face was unnaturally pale, her cold, dark eyes clouded with an eerie milky white—a symptom very similar to the one she displayed when rescuing people in Las Vegas, yet different—Ye Xi's expression was calm, a hint of mockery suddenly gracing her indifference.
If it weren't for the dirty, milky-white substance obscuring her bright black eyes, everyone still alive present could clearly see the mockery in them. Seeing their guns encased in weeds, the mercenaries frantically tore at them, but to their surprise, the weeds didn't come off; instead, more and more grew, instantly covering their entire arms. A force seized their hands, and in the mercenaries' horrified eyes, their gun-wielding hands slowly pointed at their own heads.
Some astute mercenaries noticed that a weed had quietly connected to their gun-wielding arms behind them. They immediately realized that it was the weed pulling on their arms and causing them to lose control. They turned around and drew their daggers to cut it off, but unexpectedly, the weed under their feet suddenly grew wildly, pulling them to the ground and swarming them up. Green, humanoid grass cocoons immediately appeared on the ground.
"Bang—" All the guns rang out at the same time, and in less than two minutes, all twenty mercenaries surrounding the emergency aid station were killed.
"You didn't even lift a finger." Ye Xi finally spoke, her voice thick and sticky as it had been at the beginning. But the Ye Xi of the past was no longer the indecisive and kind-hearted woman she once was. She felt no remorse for the twenty people she had killed with her own hands. No, she felt absolutely nothing.
Bloodshot eyes met eerie milky white. The man stared intently at Ye Xi, a flicker of desire and greed flashing in his cold red eyes. Although his glasses were a good disguise, Ye Xi, who had been staring at him, was absolutely certain she hadn't misjudged him. The man paid no attention to the twenty corpses on the ground. He spoke slowly in his distinctive, chilling voice, "It doesn't matter, they've already been used."
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his right palm outwards without any apparent purpose, and then, strangely, the air in front of his palm seemed to distort and twist. "Truly satisfying. Number 13 probably never realized that his most precious experimental subject could be so perfect when he exerted all his strength." He sneered, "Anger makes you impulsive, tsk, the emotions of a weakling."
Seeing that the most powerful decomposition ability granted to her by the O virus was easily blocked by this man, Ye Xi remained calm. Her pale, milky-white complexion deepened, and her face turned so pale that the fine veins beneath her skin were visible. She continued to stare intently at the man, saying calmly, "A bait. You've actually used me as bait..."
The man shrugged indifferently, a gesture so natural it seemed incredibly stiff on him. "There are still a few baits left, but you just happened to run into this one."
"Only?" Ye Xi tilted her head slightly. "Actually, I wanted to say this from the beginning: sir, you probably haven't read many books. Your choice of words is truly inappropriate. 'Capture' and all that, do you think you're catching a magical pet?" If Ye Xi had used a light tone to state this, the sarcasm might have been stronger. However, when Ye Xi spoke with a cold and indifferent tone, it instantly became eerie.
This doesn't seem to match the description in the file at all. The man adjusted his glasses with his left hand. Ye Xi, who buried all her expressions and emotions deep inside, was more dangerous than the gentle and harmless Ye Xi who always appeared gentle and harmless. He was only good at discerning a person's psychological feelings from subtle human expressions. He didn't understand how to read people's emotions, especially since the person he was trying to read was staring at him with an indifferent and aloof expression.
Just as the two sides were locked in a stalemate, the distorted air in front of the man's palm suddenly stopped, and then the distortion suddenly increased. A crisp sound like breaking glass appeared in the man's ear. His right hand, which was blocking in front of him, trembled, and an irresistible pressure forced his hand to slowly retreat towards his body.
"Naive man, you really think I used my full strength?" Ye Xi's lips curled into a strange smile, her slow, viscous tone accompanied by increasing pressure. Taking advantage of his momentary lapse in attention, Ye Xi suddenly contracted her pupils, the sudden increase in force causing the skin on the man's right palm to gradually disappear, followed by subcutaneous tissue, blood vessels, muscle… until bone…
The situation was dire! The man, seemingly oblivious to the pain, leaped up, attempting to escape Ye Xi's sight. However, Ye Xi, in her berserk state, was not about to let him leave her control so easily. Before he even landed, Ye Xi appeared behind him and, catching him completely off guard, kicked him towards the helicopter with such force that the helicopter was deformed!
Ye Xi's control over her abilities had reached an astonishing level, something neither the man nor even Albert Wesker had anticipated. She instantly switched from disintegration skill to martial arts mode, and then back again. A raging inferno suddenly engulfed the deformed helicopter, the flames so intense they seemed to burn the sky. Yet, not a single flame approached within half a meter of Ye Xi or the house behind her!
Ye Xi stared coldly at the raging fire before her. The flames stained her pale face red, and the milky white color slowly faded, eventually creeping out of Ye Xi's eyes to reveal her original, more dazzling black pupils than the stars.
Ye Xi remained silent, glanced at the house behind her, sighed, and swayed along the road.
The road ahead is dark and uncertain.
The helicopter was still engulfed in flames. Suddenly, a hand, or rather, a charred arm bone, emerged from the rubble. Then, a horrifying skull appeared, followed by its other hand, its body, its legs… The charred skull slowly emerged from the flames, gradually turning crimson. Red human tissue magically enveloped its body, rendering the flames unable to harm it. It had no eye sockets; its blood-red pupils shone alone, looking utterly terrifying.
It slowly moved forward, its body recovering a portion with each step, until finally, new white skin covered the red tissue. The man who had been severely injured by Ye Xi had so easily been reborn naked from a pile of bones that was almost turned to charcoal! Although he was completely naked, he still walked leisurely into the emergency medical station with unhurried steps...
Similar to a moment of silence, Ye Xi walked silently along the desolate road. In the three years since arriving in this absurd world, Ye Xi had always coldly observed this tedious game of death. She instinctively deceived herself into believing that there was no warmth here. Although the camaraderie between Carlos and Nikola, a bond unique to mercenaries, repeatedly proved the fragility of her viewpoint, she still constantly told herself that her feelings for them were merely for her own use.
Essentially, Ye Xi is both timid and hesitant, yet also stubborn and strong, even somewhat obstinate. Ethan's confession warmed her heart, but also filled her with panic; denying herself was not an easy thing. Ye Xi didn't know that when she began to believe that emotions she only believed existed in her previous life still existed in this world, when she began to cherish this world, when her heart... finally held someone, would she still remember how much she longed to go home back then?
The firelight faded into the distance, and before we knew it, dawn had broken, and the new day that no one had been looking forward to had officially arrived.
Ye Xi looked up at the gloomy sky and sighed. It will rain today... Ye Xi gradually recovered from her previous indifferent state, and then suddenly realized that the silent anger she had been holding back had made her unaware of her own condition. She felt sore and weak all over, and after taking a step back, Ye Xi collapsed limply to the ground.
"Really, Ye Xi, what's wrong with you..." She smiled bitterly. "Aren't you usually so good at holding back? Why did you suddenly explode today?" Ye Xi knew perfectly well that her feelings for Ethan weren't what people call love, but she was so melancholy and angry about his death. In this world, pure people like Ethan, untouched by the darkness and indifference of the world, were almost extinct... So, that's why she's like this? Tsk, Ye Xi, this is so unlike you.
Ye Xi smiled weakly, thinking of leaving this place as soon as possible. She forced herself to get up and continued on her way, her steps unsteady.
The rain lasted for a week.
Sitting in the cold driver's seat, staring blankly at the wipers as they swung back and forth, Ye Xi still gripped the steering wheel nervously, but a hint of numbness crept onto her delicate face. Aside from the good fortune of finding this car and some clothes, Ye Xi had encountered almost nothing good in the past week. Her food supplies were running low, and she was out of syringes filled with T-virus zombie blood. If she didn't find food or zombies soon… a trace of worry crept onto Ye Xi's indifferent expression. She hadn't been injected with zombie blood for two days; she used to inject it every three days. It was hard to imagine what she would become without the T-virus.
Damn it, where have all of Ye Xi's beloved zombies gone? Can't you see how much this girl misses them right now?
Just as Ye Xi was frowning and worrying about her future livelihood, a black object suddenly appeared in her field of vision. Ye Xi instinctively slammed on the brakes, staring at the humanoid figure ahead, silently pondering. Judging from its shape, the object was a human male. Was it alive or dead? Seeing that it was motionless, it was either unconscious or dead, but dead was more likely. Perhaps it was suicide—there was no red mark on it—after all, this world was truly devastating.
What a pity. If only he were a zombie, or someone about to become a zombie… A layer of regret, but even more so, longing, appeared in Ye Xi’s eyes. She turned the car key again, preparing to leave, when she happened to see his finger twitch.
He's not dead? Ye Xi didn't even realize her eyes had lit up. If it were before, when Wesker was pretending to be infected with the O virus to spy on her, Ye Xi would have definitely chosen to push him away without hesitation. But now, perhaps it was because his hair color was exactly the same as Ethan's, which had been lingering in her mind, or perhaps it was because she had been alone for so long, Ye Xi hesitated about whether to stay or leave. After struggling for a moment, she made a decision she would later want to slap herself to death—she got off the bus.
Author's Note: Tsk, Ye Xi is such a cowardly and indecisive girl. She has too many worries. We'll wait until she really explodes... (stares into the distance) As for the person she saved in the end, I'm not telling you who it is. Hmph, keep rolling around begging for comments! Even if you're a tyrant, there's no sewer in front of your door. You'll still bump into someone on the street and fall in, turning into a sewer mermaid!
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