CH 44

Li Weilan stared coldly at the scene of the person and the cat cuddling, with no expression on his face. He neither said that she was wrong nor softened his tone to apologize as she hoped.

The cold night wind blew by, and the woman’s soft sobbing gradually became weaker. With tears in her eyes, she held a faint resentment: What’s wrong with these people? Can’t they even coax a woman?

Just then, a soft voice like a kitten came from beside him. It was a child’s voice, innocent and lovely, but the content was not quite right in the woman’s ears: “Sister, your big cat can heal. My hand hurts too…” The little girl weakly raised her yellow and thin arm, which was bruised and scratched. It was injured when she dodged a mutant dog’s attack earlier, and the blood was mixed with mud. However, the little girl neither cried nor made a scene, only asking with wide eyes, “Sister, if we don’t fight anymore, can you heal my hand?”

Li Weilan crossed his arms and a faint hint of mockery flashed in his eyes. This hint of mockery was aimed at Chen Feng, who had a glimmer of hope in his eyes: unreliable.

The woman was stunned for a moment.

Then, a hint of anger flashed in her eyes as she hugged her cat tightly in her arms. “You hurt my cats and my dogs, and you still want me to heal you? Fine! Bring me some supplies in exchange!”

Chen Feng’s eyes showed dissatisfaction.

If this woman really wanted to turn swords into plowshares and didn’t want to fight anymore, it would be effortless to heal the child. After all, children were not the main combat force, and the children who survived in their team were not the kind who were stubborn and unreasonable. Ciao was even the favorite of the orphan group.

Moreover, Xiao Ai only had minor injuries, which wouldn’t require much energy. His excitement about encountering a rare healing ability user gradually faded. Chen Feng went over to pick up Xiao Ai and made a vaguely defensive posture. He didn’t forget that it was these mutant beasts who attacked people first, and they even went straight for the children!

Li Weilan looked coldly at the seemingly weak and gentle woman and only asked her one question, “All these mutant beasts need to eat meat, right? What do you usually feed them?”

The woman was stunned for a moment.

She didn’t answer, but Chen Feng and his companions’ expressions changed slightly.

If the mutated beasts hadn’t eaten humans before, why would they charge straight at the children?

Before the apocalypse, many cats and dogs were companions that grew up with children. However, just now, everyone could clearly see that the dog charged straight at the smallest child, Xiao Ai, in the group. They didn’t even bother to look at other slightly taller but thinner boys, and were quite picky eaters!

Such cats and dogs, if not trained by their owner, if they had not had similar experiences… it’s despicable!

Chen Feng was able to protect the children at the Tenglong base, but he was no saint. When Li Weilan’s words woke him up, he immediately realized where his logic had gone wrong earlier. Once he figured this out, his expression changed and he looked at the woman with only cold vigilance in his eyes.

The woman did not expect the handsome man leading the group to speak so directly and harshly. She had thought that she had shown rare talent in her abilities, and with her group of cats and dogs, even if these people didn’t regard her highly, she could at least exchange for peaceful coexistence. This was how she had dealt with several groups of ability users before. When she encountered weaker ones, she pretended not to know, and when she encountered stronger ones, she showed her face and used both hard and soft tactics to resolve things.

How could humans be compared to beasts?

She turned her eyes and then smiled at Xiao Ai in a gentle manner. “Sister is worried about Dali being hurt. I’m not really angry at you. Here, let me help you heal.”

“No need.” Li Weilan suddenly felt something added to his hand. He realized what it was, and a warm feeling rushed through his heart. There was even a hint of a smile on his cold face, which even stunned the woman who had previously felt endless hatred towards by Li Weilan.

Li Weilan gently extended his hand towards Xiao Ai, holding a bottle of light green ointment. “We have our own medicine.”

Xiao Ai obediently walked over, her voice soft and tender: “It doesn’t hurt much…” Before she finished her sentence, she was shocked by the sight of the wound on her leg, which healed visibly at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye.

Damn it! There’s actually such a medicine! If there’s medicine, why bother letting her heal it!

The anger in the woman’s heart grew stronger. She didn’t think she was wrong, but was angry that they had such a miraculous medicine that rivaled healing abilities. It seemed that her ability couldn’t earn too many points on their side.

“What do you want to do?” Since they had come to this point, the woman didn’t bother pretending anymore. She stood up in anger and protected the cats and dogs behind her, saying, “I’m not afraid of you, but these are all stray pets that I’ve taken in. Even if one dies, I’ll be heartbroken. If you want something, just say it directly. There’s no need to put on airs.”

Li Weilan’s deep brown eyes fell silently on her face, and after a while, he smiled lightly and said, “We’re just looking for a place to stay for one night. Find us an empty villa and we’ll stay for the night and leave.”

**

The villa the woman pointed out was really clean, but it was also bare and empty. However, it had windows and a roof, and the children found some sheets to lay on the ground and slept. In the apocalypse, children were no longer like the little princesses and ancestors of the past, and they all had strong self-care abilities. Li Weilan leaned against the window in the living room, looking at the darkness outside, while Xi Nan looked at his contemplative profile and couldn’t help but whisper to him, “Brother Li, is that it for this matter?”

“Is it?” Li Weilan hooked his lips and asked the other two adult men, “What do you think?”

Xi Nan brought along Sun Yifei, an earth type ability user who was not a combat-type but rather useful for logistics. At this moment, he was listening to their conversation without rushing to express his own opinion. He didn’t interrupt.

Chen Feng paused, looking at the children sleeping in the living room in all sorts of positions. “Shall we just… forget it?” he suggested.

“We can forget about people,” Sun Yifei whispered. “But not about those mutant cats and dogs.”

Chen Feng and Xi Nan turned to look at him.

With Li Weilan’s deep and penetrating gaze on him, Sun Yifei hesitated before continuing, “Even the pets that were accustomed to eating human flesh before the apocalypse and would attack humans for no reason are not suitable for coexistence with humans.”

Li Weilan nodded slightly, encouraging Sun Yifei to go on.

He continued, following the logic of a science and engineering man, “She didn’t hurt us, so we can’t resort to vigilante justice against her. But if we let the mutated cats and dogs that attack children live, we’ll be accomplices if another ability user comes here in the future.”

“But…” Chen Feng couldn’t follow his logic. “She is a healing-type ability user after all. If we kill her pets, won’t she become our enemy? Isn’t that creating unnecessary trouble for ourselves?”

To him, either they should eliminate the potential threat or make peace with her, and part ways tomorrow. It didn’t make sense to kill the mutant pets and leave themselves with a bunch of follow-up problems.

However, Xi Nan already understood Sun Yifei’s point of view. Even though this was already a lawless post-apocalyptic world, rules were necessary in a large base.

He was already… faintly imagining himself in the role of a base administrator!

“It seems that my good friend has a high opinion of Noah, otherwise, with his low-key personality, he would never speak up about this on the road,” Li Weilan thought and nodded, his gentle gaze falling on the children who were already asleep in the room, and whispered to someone, “Can you watch over the children for me?”

Shen Cheng knew clearly that she was the one being addressed.

A hint of pride curled up at the corner of her lips: how come cub I raised have such good values? Ah, this game is really well-made!

Her cub, who had principles and bottom lines in both values and methods, and had not been consumed by the abyss despite experiencing it firsthand, really made her heart skip a beat.

Mom would be willing to spend any amount of money on such a child!

The scene fell silently into the peaceful, serene darkness of the room.

A flickering flame illuminated the peaceful side faces of the boys and girls, as if it were a sweet dream at night.

Outside the frame, there was a faint sound of animals howling and fighting, as if it was another world.

The woman curled up in her room, hating so much that her gums bled. She never thought that these people would be so ruthless. Just now, she only took a sneak peek at the window and saw the mutated beasts she raised dying one by one under the leader’s hands. Her heart felt like it was being cut with a knife repeatedly, but she couldn’t summon the courage to go down and stop them.

Looking at the leader’s cold gaze, she knew that he would not spare her because of her ability. He just probably thought that she didn’t deserve to die and let her go.

As for the concept of whether or not she should be treated differently because of her abilities, it seemed like it never crossed his mind!

Why would there be such a nemesis?

Her tears rolled down one by one, whimpering like a small animal, the woman was tremling all over but unable to muster the courage to leave the house.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

***

Li Weilan got rid of the last big dog.

In the woman’s backyard, they found many human remains and bones in the dog and cat kennels, the stench was overwhelming, like a battlefield in hell.

Looking at these horrifying scenes, even Chen Feng, who had the softest heart, could not say a word about “not hurting animals.” He didn’t even dare to think about what would happen if they were defeated today. What about the children? What about themselves? Would the healing ability user he thought highly of give them even half of her sympathy?

Li Weilan quietly lit a fire.

Watching the fur of the animals and the human bones gradually being engulfed by the flames, he glanced at the blacked-out windows and sneered: If she had the courage to come down and argue, and take responsibility for this scene of carnage, he would respect her for being daring.

But now, she turned a blind eye to the slaughter of her beloved pets after saying a lot of empty words about pampering and loving them.

Their Noah would not want such an ability user.

Even if her ability is rare, what he needs is a companion with a heart towards the light, a teammate who can entrust their back in life and death on the wasteland, not… a coward who only dares to stab in the back and has no courage to bear their own sins.

The next day, when Li Weilan and his team set off, there was still a faint smell of burnt flesh in the air. The woman’s small building seemed to have been burned down by herself, and the person inside was naturally nowhere to be found.

At noon that day, Li Weilan and his team returned to the Noah base.

As soon as they arrived at the base, Li Weilan heard from Yan Hongyu who came up to meet him about the siege of the Noah base and the arrival of a strange man sent by the boss.

“What’s his name?” His pupils shrank.

“Fu Yanzhou.” Yan Hongyu didn’t expect Li Weilan to have no idea about this matter, and immediately added, “This person is really difficult to deal with… Fortunately, Brother Li, you’re back.”

Li Weilan’s eyebrows faintly furrowed: Difficult to deal with?

He paused and said casually, “Let me go see him.”