Chapter 581: People Who Are Kind to Me
Zheng Yingxiong gave Tiantian a very strange feeling.
He was like her, as if he had never really wanted to live.
Now, both of them wanted the other to go while they themselves died.
If this continued, who would actually survive?
"If we're going to live, let's live together..." Tiantian let out a bitter laugh, then turned to Old Liu and said, "Brother, I said I'd do anything. But I don't want this kid to see me like this. So can you let him wait here while I go in with you?"
"No." Old Liu said decisively. "If he runs off to call your companions... I'd be the one in the most danger."
"Our companions...?"
Tiantian knew the man must have assumed she and Zheng Yingxiong were teammates who had escaped from the same room. No wonder he hadn't allowed anyone to leave alone from the very beginning.
"Old Fang, bring Xiao Cheng out here. Kill the kid and drain his blood." Old Liu called back. "We'll have something to eat for the next few days."
"Drain his blood..."
Although Tiantian could imagine this kind of thing was normal in the "Land of Finality," having it happen to her was still hard to accept.
If this child hadn't met her... would he have met such a horrible fate?
"Wait a minute..." Tiantian suppressed the panic rising in her heart and said to the tall man in front of her, "To be honest, this place is already full of corpses, right... If you really want to find food, there are even corpses around here that have already been drained of blood... Why do you have to target a child? You don't have to kill anyone..."
"It seems you really haven't eaten human flesh...?" Old Liu asked, his yellowed eyes wide. "Then how exactly have you survived here?"
"I..." Tiantian naturally didn't want to tell him about her experiences, but she still couldn't accept "cannibalism" as a normal thing.
"Nothing can grow in this godforsaken place, not even crops." Old Liu frowned. "If you want to survive, you have to eat people, right? We've eaten all kinds of corpses... Generally speaking, men are a bit better than old people, women are a bit better than men, and the best tasting are children. Children have less muscle content, mostly fat. When you roast them, they sizzle and don't burn easily. Plus, a child's internal organs are very clean, you can eat those too."
"This is absurd..." Tiantian gritted her teeth. "So neither of us can escape..."
"Originally, you could have run." Old Liu laughed. "But seeing that you both have rations and water... it's obvious you're part of an organization, right? Otherwise, I can't imagine a frail woman and a ten-year-old kid being able to gather these things on their own. So now, neither of you can leave. If you did, it would put us in danger."
Tiantian had never imagined that Zheng Yingxiong's backpack would become the fuse that led to both their deaths.
"So you're just going to kill us both?" Tiantian asked.
"No, I'm going to 'make the best use of everything.'" Old Liu smiled. "Here, pretty women have their uses, and kids have their uses. You'll understand later."
"There's no need to wait until later..." Tiantian replied, her face full of dejection. "I've seen more of the filth in this world than anyone..."
"Oh?" Old Liu clearly didn't believe her. "A delicate little girl like you, pretending to be so worldly-wise?"
"Let me put it this way." Tiantian's eyes suddenly turned cold, and her entire demeanor seemed to shift. "I know I'm definitely not getting out of here. But you still have a choice. If you want to have some fun later, do what I say and let this child go. Otherwise, I guarantee that I'll make you die at the moment you're having the most fun..."
Although she was speaking the most submissive words, Tiantian's aura still made Old Liu feel something was wrong.
He even began to worry that the woman before him was some kind of "Echo User" with a strange ability. After all, she had been remarkably calm from the very beginning, unlike an ordinary girl.
Old Liu remained silent, his eyes fixed on Tiantian's, scrutinizing her.
Normally, to tell if someone was lying, you just had to see if their gaze betrayed them.
And Old Liu caught the faintest trace of panic deep in Tiantian's eyes.
No matter how calm her words were, her expression couldn't lie.
She had no trump card. All her cards were just the hint of a threat in her words.
By this time, Old Fang and Xiao Cheng had also arrived behind Old Liu, both of them thinking with different expressions on their faces.
"She's lying." Old Liu laughed. "Kill the kid and tie up the woman."
Tiantian's eyes flew open in shock, and Old Fang, a delirious grin on his face, had already walked up to Zheng Yingxiong.
The wound on Zheng Yingxiong's forehead had left him groggy and barely able to move.
"Don't..." Tiantian frantically grabbed Old Fang. "You can kill me, but don't kill him..."
"Get lost!" Old Fang kicked Tiantian away. "You'll get yours soon enough!"
Tiantian fell to the ground, her whole body beginning to tremble. What was wrong with this world?
Whether it was the real world or the "Land of Finality," where was the difference?
It seemed to be the same everywhere. The survival of the fittest was the only law of the entire world.
"Making the best use" of women and children. How ridiculous was that?
Why did everyone who was kind to her have to die in the end?
Old Fang grabbed Zheng Yingxiong tightly by the neck and yanked him up from the ground. Zheng Yingxiong kept swinging his flimsy newspaper short sword, flailing it against Old Fang's body over and over.
He swung it as if it were a real sword, slashing horizontally, then vertically, and then thrusting forward with the tip.
Unfortunately, to save costs during printing, newspapers use a lot of mechanical wood pulp to make newsprint. Such paper was useless for killing, barely even suitable for swatting a fly.
"Uncle Fang!" The young man named Xiao Cheng stepped forward and grabbed Old Fang's arm. "Enough! Why do we have to go after a child?"
Old Liu snorted coldly and immediately pulled out a knife, pressing it against Xiao Cheng's waist. "Xiao Cheng, have you lived long enough? Do you know why you've survived until today?"
"I..." Unarmed, with a sharp knife at his waist, Xiao Cheng was at a loss, his face filled with nothing but unwillingness.
Watching Zheng Yingxiong's face slowly turn red from suffocation, Tiantian felt a strange sensation wash over her.
She could allow anyone else in the world to die, but she could not allow someone who was kind to her to die.
Because in this world, people who were kind to her were rarer than anyone else.
Now, Yun Yao was missing, and the little boy she had met on the road was about to die a senseless, miserable death. This feeling shrouded her heart in a deep sense of despair.
She didn't want to escape from here, and it seemed she couldn't live here either.
Was destruction the only correct answer?
**Clang!**
The bell had just rung when Old Fang, who was holding Zheng Yingxiong, shuddered violently, as if something bizarre had happened to him.
But Zheng Yingxiong, his face still red, eyes closed, continued to swing his short sword.
One slash, two slashes, three slashes.
Old Fang's clothes were being sliced open, flesh and blood flying, blood splattering everywhere.
Within a few seconds, he had completely lost his strength. He let go of Zheng Yingxiong and collapsed backwards onto the ground.