Chapter 9: Be Good, Close Your Eyes, Sleep

Wen Yao fell asleep with a complicated heart. Perhaps because her thoughts were in turmoil, she had a dream that night. She dreamed of half a year ago, when she and Ji Mingchen were trapped in the Cangping Mountain Range.

That was the first time she had come into close contact with this man.

She had gotten separated from the main force, and Ji Mingchen had come to chase after her. They both got lost on the vast snowy mountains. She held a knife to his neck, wanting to kill him, but he was cunning and deceitful. He said that she wouldn’t be able to get out alone, so they should find a way out together.

She believed his lies, but he easily found a way out and then captured her.

Ji Mingchen bound her hands and feet, carried her on his back, and threw her into a deserted, dark cave.

Wen Yao had heard many terrifying rumors about Ji Mingchen. It was said that he liked to torture people slowly instead of killing them all at once. For example, he would peel off their skin piece by piece, or cut off their limbs and sew them back on…

The cave was dimly lit. Facing such a cruel, vicious, and cunning psychopath, Wen Yao was terrified: “Let me go…”

Ji Mingchen, dressed in white, knelt in front of her, his voice calm as he repeated what she had said before: “You see, this is the difference between you and me. We people of Beizhou never drive anyone to extinction…”

“Tsk tsk tsk, so kind…” The man smiled, his long index finger hooked under her chin in a frivolous and mocking gesture. “So, you didn’t kill her, little girl. Do you regret it now?”

Wen Yao turned her face away, gritting her teeth and cursing him: “…You’re despicable and shameless.”

Ji Mingchen looked at his rejected finger with regret and suddenly started to unbutton her collar.

Wen Yao felt a chill down her spine and struggled desperately: “What are you doing?”

But Ji Mingchen leaned closer to her face, his tone light and playful to the extreme: “Dragging a captured beauty into a cave, what do you think I can do, huh?”

“Since you’ve already been called shameless, why not be even more shameless…”

Wen Yao: “Ji Mingchen!”

Ji Mingchen: “Yes?”

“…”

Seeing that she couldn’t struggle free and her collar was completely undone, Wen Yao’s pupils constricted, her face filled with fear and shock: “You might as well kill me!”

But Ji Mingchen didn’t care, his hot breath falling on her neck: “I wouldn’t dare…”

His fingertips caressed her collarbone, and when he saw her tears fall, he laughed. He wiped her tears while speaking sarcastically: “What’s wrong, Deputy Captain Wen? You’re actually crying.”

“…”

“If you tell people, wouldn’t they laugh at you? Tsk, Wen Yao, the Deputy Captain and Commander of Beizhou District 13, is actually crying in front of me.”

“…”

“Don’t cry, I’ll be gentle.”

Wen Yao couldn’t move, and in her despair, she could only close her eyes. She thought, “It’s just my skin, it’s like being bitten by a dog.”

And she was indeed bitten. Her collarbone was held by the man’s hot lips, and with the licking of his tongue, a stinging pain followed. A drop of blood flowed into her inner garment.

But that was all. After biting her, Ji Mingchen let her go. He wiped the blood from his lips with his fingertips and smiled gently: “A little punishment for the captive, isn’t that too much?”

Wen Yao didn’t say anything, and Ji Mingchen went to untie her: “Today, this is just a small lesson for you.”

“Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to oneself.”

“Remember that?”

“…”

While he was speaking, Wen Yao rolled over and, with incredible speed, grabbed her Silver Moon knife and pointed it at Ji Mingchen.

Ji Mingchen was unarmed but unafraid: “Tsk, you heartless little thing, you’re really ungrateful…”

Wen Yao didn’t have time to pull up her collar, she just gripped the hilt of the knife, cold sweat dripping down her forehead: “Today you let me go, and I’ll let you go for now. But next time we meet, I will kill you.”

Ji Mingchen plucked some dry grass from his clothes and continued to smile: “Then… I’ll be waiting.”

“…”

“There’s no such thing as black and white in this world.”

“At least in this land, I’m white, and you’re black.”

“Next time we meet, I will kill you.”

“…”

Unexpectedly, when they met again, she was not only powerless to kill him, but was also saved by him. And all the harsh words she had spoken had become a joke.

Wen Yao slept lightly, half-awake and half-asleep, but she was awakened by a faint sound in the early morning.

It was the sound of rain boots stepping on mud. Many people were coming from outside the dilapidated villa…

She had been trained for many years, her hearing was sharp, and her alertness was high. Hearing this sound, she quickly opened her eyes and grabbed the knife beside her.

Ji Mingchen noticed Wen Yao’s movements and woke up. He looked down at her and made a “shh” gesture.

Wen Yao said softly, “Someone’s coming. They seem to be coming in from the back door of the villa. We can’t see them from this balcony…”

Ji Mingchen didn’t care and closed his eyes. He even stroked her hair: “Be good, close your eyes, sleep.”

Wen Yao: “…”

She roughly estimated that there were about a dozen people in the group. In the end times, no matter what you encountered, you had to be on high alert. Sometimes people were even more dangerous and terrifying than zombies.

Wen Yao put her hand holding the knife behind her back, her eyes fixed on the entrance of the spiral staircase. Soon, a sharp-faced, skinny head poked out, then disappeared instantly in fright, saying to the people below, “Boss! There’s someone upstairs…”

At this time, in the hall on the first floor, the bearded man called “Boss” frowned and kicked him hard: “Who is it! Tell me clearly!!!”

“A man and a woman, they’re sleeping on the sofa…”

“…”

The bearded man put his machete on his shoulder and asked in a rough voice, “Just two?”

The skinny man with the sharp face nodded cautiously: “Yes, just two…”

Someone behind him said, “Just two people daring to sleep in this dangerous villa, they must be from the base of some district…”

Someone refuted, “Impossible, the base moves in teams, there couldn’t be just two people!”

“Then they must have guns, we need to be careful…”

The bearded man pointed at a few people: “You guys go ahead, you guys cover the rear, let’s go up and have a look!”