Chapter 348: I’m Scared
Chapter 348: I’m Scared
An Ran and Hengheng follow into the ward, check on Little Mint’s condition, place the sleeping Doll on the bed, ask Hengheng to look after the two girls, and leave the room. She wants to find Zhao Ru. No matter what Zhao Ru’s purpose is, she has to thank her for saving Little Mint’s life.
Outside the ward, she sees Zhao Ru sitting on the ground, still in a sterile surgical gown stained with blood, a light blue sterile hood on her head, her face tired.
An Ran walks over, turns to sit down along the wall next to Zhao Ru, then sincerely says, exhausted after hours of work, “Thank you. I owe you her life.”
Zhao Ru shrugs and accepts An Ran’s thanks without hesitation, without offering any polite words in return.
An Ran asks again, “Where is Doctor Zhao?”
“My aunt is old. I pushed her back to the doctor’s office to rest,” Zhao Ru replies, raising one hand to remove the sterile hood from her head. After a moment of silence, she tilts her head and looks at An Ran. “You haven’t asked, but are you very confused about why Lei Jiang let my aunt and me go?”
An Ran raises her eyebrows and looks at Zhao Ru, silently showing that she is indeed very confused.
Outside, the howling of zombies around the hospital grows louder, faintly revealing some unsettling signs, but at this moment, the battle outside allows An Ran to feel a bit assured.
“I told Lei Jiang that if he didn’t release me, Zhan Lian would come to kill him. Besides, Tang Jianjun has several water- and wood-element ability users under his control.”
Seeing An Ran’s unsurprised expression, Zhao Ru continues, “Actually, I didn’t know Lei Jiang at first, but I saw he was an earth-element ability user, and his subordinate Zhou Xiang said you were wood-element. So I approached Lei Jiang. My original plan was to help Lei Jiang capture you. I planned to get close to you by taking your daughter first, and then control you.”
That’s why Zhao Ru wants to take An Ran’s daughter outside the barrier of Tiesi Village. But the plan can’t keep up with changes. When she learns that Zhan Lian, from the fourth district of Tiesi Village, is An Ran’s ex-husband and the biological father of Doll, she immediately stops and gives up on the idea. Zhan Lian is a tough nut to crack.
Zhao Ru scratches her scalp with slender fingers, buries her white fingers in her black hair, and says softly, “An Ran, I’m scared. Do you feel it? You’re a wood-type mutant, so you should be able to sense it now. Our situation is very dangerous. I was very naive before. When the end of the world first came, I thought I was here to save the world.”
As soon as she finishes, Zhao Ru laughs, and An Ran can’t help laughing too.
Save the world? Promote the growth of food or vegetables? Or give water to survivors? Somehow, the phrase “save the world” sounds ridiculous to both of them. It would be strange if the world didn’t eat them alive!
The world would swallow them whole if it could.
“But I gradually realize how desperately the world craves wood and water elements. A water-element user, just sitting peacefully at home, can have their door broken down and be stolen away. And someone like you, a wood-element user, has Lei Jiang going through so much trouble to keep you captive. We are too weak. In the end of times, we can do nothing except be held captive and serve as mobile reservoirs and granaries.”
Although Tiesi Village later finds more than one wood type, more than one water type, and of course more than one metal type—and similarly more than one fire and earth-element user—Zhao Ru’s worry about her own situation only deepens.