Chapter 516: It's Time to Give Up
Chapter 516: It's Time to Give Up
Little Mint held Doll, looking down with a gentle smile.
Zhao Ru stood by the window not far away, gazing at the dark sky and the heavy rain. Her voice was tinged with worry. “Nothing bad will happen, right? I just have this heavy feeling in my chest, like there’s no peace of mind.”
By the fire, Zhang Boxun sat with half his clothes removed. Zhao Ru ignored him, leaving Liang Ziyu to tend to him—cleaning the wound, applying medicine, and bandaging it.
Just as Zhao Ru had said, it wasn’t life-threatening. The stab wound above his heart was neither large nor deep, and there hadn’t been much bleeding.
But something about him was strange. A trace of despair lingered in his handsome brows. He didn’t explain, and no one dared to ask.
After a while, Zhan Lian and his men returned from patrol.
Luo Feifan called Zhang Boxun aside to talk, while Zhan Lian took Doll back to the car to read. An Ran brought several down jackets from the van and gave them to Zhao Ru, Little Mint, and Hengheng.
Then she returned to the car and asked Zhan Lian, "Did Zhang Boxun say how he was injured? And Axe—how did he die? What a pity… Axe was actually a good guy.”
“Zhang Boxun was stabbed by Tang Siluo. Axe was shot and killed by Lei Jiang.”
Zhan Lian lay in the back seat with Doll leaning against him, flipping through a pop-up book and pulling out a white paper cloud as he went on: “Metal-type ability users only soften their skin in front of someone they don’t guard against. That stab on Zhang Boxun was definitely from Tang Siluo — no one else could’ve done it.”
As a metal-type ability user himself, he knew that Zhang Boxun’s body was as tough as steel. Sometimes, that strength was also a curse—hurting those they loved. Only by softening their skin could they truly embrace someone. That was why, whenever Zhan Lian held An Ran’s hand or embraced her tightly, An Ran never felt any difference from before the apocalypse.
Because Zhan Lian was defenseless before her.
Zhang Boxun had gone after Lei Jiang, but Lei Jiang had taken Tang Siluo with him. He had only ever let his guard down in front of Tang Siluo, yet Tang Siluo had never cherished him. Zhang Boxun didn’t need to say how the stabbing happened—Zhan Lian already knew it was Tang Siluo’s doing.
Zhang Boxun didn’t deserve sympathy, but Axe’s death was a shame. Love and hate between others had nothing to do with him, yet he was dragged into it.
"He should probably give up this time, now that he’s been hurt like this."
Listening to Zhan Lian’s explanation, An Ran sighed and turned to look out the car window at Zhang Boxun, who stood in the corner speaking with Luo Feifan. His tall figure and handsome features should have made him a woman’s dream, but now they were shadowed by pain.
She glanced at Luo Feifan, shook her head, patted Zhang Boxun on the shoulder, and turned to leave the small temple.
Then she returned to the car and asked Zhan Lian, "Is Luo Feifan going to look for Tang Siluo?"
"Lei Jiang is heading north, and so are we," Zhan Lian said thoughtfully. “Lei Jiang’s taken most of the ordinary people, and Zhang Boxun killed almost all of them. The rest are a few soldiers, plus some water- and wood-types. He’s obsessed with power — going north, he’ll surely become a major force. For Tang Siluo, that’s actually a form of protection.”
What he meant was that Luo Feifan wouldn’t be going after Tang Siluo at all—he believed letting her follow Lei Jiang was the best way out for her.