Apocalyptic Island - Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Wen Yishu shoved her back into the chair with a shove; the screech of the chair legs scraping against the floor was particularly ear-piercing.

Bai Mi looked at her with an expression as innocent as ever, though her breathing was heavy, seemingly still suffering from the aftermath of the “torture” she had just endured.

“If I had come any later, I would have had to do the deed myself.”

Wen Yishu suppressed her frantic state of mind, her tone filled with fury: “Why did you do this?”

Bai Mi lowered her gaze and said nothing. She nonchalantly pulled out the indwelling needle from her hand; blood instantly sprayed out, crawling across the back of her hand.

The bright red stung Wen Yishu’s eyes. She couldn’t understand why someone would cherish their own body so little. Usually, Bai Mi seemed like a normal person, but once she deviated from the established path, it was as if she became a completely different person.

On the ground, You Zhi was still twitching, clutching his throat, one hand flailing blindly trying to grab onto something.

Wen Yishu became even more irritable due to the noise he was making, and she kicked You Zhi without mercy.

You Zhi was kicked over entirely, his head striking the corner of the interrogation table. His neck twisted at a sharp angle, and a massive amount of blood gushed from the wound in his throat as he breathed his last. His cloudy eyes were wide open; he never imagined, even in death, how Wen Yishu had managed to get in.

Those who abuse private torture deserve their fate; Wen Yishu didn’t feel a shred of sympathy for him.

Seeing Bai Mi’s silence, she felt her anger rising. She grabbed Bai Mi’s shoulders and asked, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Only then did Wen Yishu realize that Bai Mi’s body was shaking uncontrollably. It was freezing in here, yet she was only wearing a thin shirt. Even back at the Rhine apartment, she had worn more than this. Her quality of life was truly plummeting; Wen Yishu wondered how she usually managed. Such a powerful person seemed to completely lack basic life skills, as if she would die the moment she was let out on her own.

Wen Yishu hurriedly took off her own overcoat and wrapped it around her.

Since developing her ability, Wen Yishu felt her resistance to cold was much higher than that of an ordinary person; this temperature was nothing to her now.

Simply wrapping her wasn’t enough, so she helped the woman stand up and pulled the coat over her arms to make her wear it properly.

Wen Yishu wrapped the belt around her once. Her body heat still lingered on the fabric. She heard Bai Mi lean in and ask her: “Why do you hate me?”

“I don’t.”

She buckled the belt. Bai Mi felt a bit better, but the breath she exhaled was still cold.

“But you are very cold to me, different from how you were before.”

She sat back down in the chair and looked up at Wen Yishu.

Wen Yishu shoved her hands into her vest pockets and turned away, not daring to look her in the eye: “I just hate that you lie, that’s all.”

“But you just did exactly what you hate.”

Wen Yishu turned back, confused: “Where did I lie?”

There seemed to be a hint of grievance in Bai Mi’s tone: “You just said you didn’t hate me.”

Wen Yishu: …

She was truly done with this sophist. Back in the car, Bai Mi already had this ability to flip black and white.

However, this time she wasn’t wrong; Wen Yishu was not good at looking people in the eye when she lied.

“I just hate that you don’t value your own body and give others the chance to hurt you.”

She softened her tone and began checking the exit route.

Sitting in the chair, Bai Mi looked at the wound Wen Yishu was pressing down on and said in a low voice: “I was only trying to verify something.”

“What?” Her voice was miniscule, like a breath; Wen Yishu was so focused on the map she almost didn’t hear it.

Bai Mi shook her head, a smile touching her pale lips: “Nothing. Can you take me away? According to the danger assessment, this environment is no longer suitable for me. After all, you killed You Zhi; if you leave me here, Rhine might truly lock me up.”

Wen Yishu was slightly surprised: “I thought a person as powerful as you would always find a way.”

Wen Yishu crouched down, wiped the blood off her short blade, and put it back on her person.

She hadn’t planned on taking either of them with her when she came today; staying here was clearly safer than following her. But halfway through, the plan changed, and she was forced to come and rescue Bai Mi.

Judging by the situation just now, however, she didn’t seem to need a rescue; even without her, Bai Mi likely could have broken her restraints. Wen Yishu simply couldn’t stand that piece of trash who used torture for interrogation; no matter who he did that to, it would have made Wen Yishu uncomfortable.

Hearing her words, the light that had just flickered in Bai Mi’s eyes dimmed, as if she had lost all her strength and methods.

Their time wasn’t particularly tight, and they had You Zhi’s arrogance to thank for that—he had sent all the guards away, believing he could control the situation alone.

With a little time left, and after having suffered several setbacks at her hands, Wen Yishu felt a sudden urge to tease Bai Mi. Seeing that the back of her hand had stopped bleeding, she changed the subject, crossed her arms, and said: “If you want to come with me, you have to tell me all your secrets.”

Though even if she said nothing, Wen Yishu wouldn’t leave her here alone; they were, after all, companions who had faced adversity together. Once she was rescued, You Ning and the others could completely distance themselves from the two of them and successfully re-establish themselves in Rhine.

Those eyes lit up again. Bai Mi was somewhat puzzled: “I thought you already knew everything.”

Wen Yishu grabbed her collar: “Stop mimicking the way I talk. Why didn’t I notice before how irritating you are?”

Bai Mi’s cold fingertips gently pushed Wen Yishu’s hand away and said sincerely: “I really thought you knew. If I offended you, I apologize.”

Wen Yishu let go, leaned down to take the gun from You Zhi’s hand—ensuring he was thoroughly dead—and said to Bai Mi behind her: “Fine, then. I’ll believe you one more time. Let’s go.”

She stepped onto a chair, hoisted Bai Mi up first, then jumped with a burst of strength to grab the ceiling and climb up.

Inside the ventilation duct, the String of Pearls plant grew rapidly, hooking onto the broken vent cover below. This way, for a short period, the people outside wouldn’t see You Zhi’s body and wouldn’t be able to track them.

Bai Mi’s luggage had been tossed carelessly into a storage locker. Wen Yishu’s control over the String of Pearls had reached a level of mastery; she manipulated the plant to pry open the back panel and hook Bai Mi’s backpack. The String of Pearls dragged the backpack, transforming into a manual “trolley,” its leaves moving back and forth rapidly as it followed behind them.

When Wen Yishu passed the rooms of the others, she still didn’t stop to say hello; by tomorrow, they should be fine. She still trusted her friend’s intelligence; she should be able to figure out the logic of the situation. Whether or not Wen Yishu entered the city, those few would be safe.

The two of them crawled out of the ventilation duct without obstruction. It was even colder outside than inside. Bai Mi quickly changed her clothes and followed behind Wen Yishu with some difficulty.

Truth serum was an interrogation method already banned by the Federation, yet a large pharmaceutical company like Rhine still possessed it. An injection could cause unparalleled pain. Fine beads of cold sweat broke out on Bai Mi’s forehead, but she gritted her teeth and persisted in following Wen Yishu.

Wen Yishu turned her head and saw her furrowed brows and the expression of pain on her face in the night. It was the first time she had seen such an expression on Bai Mi.

She sighed and simply hoisted the woman onto her back, using the String of Pearls to secure her. The soft vines wrapped the two of them tightly together. Her back was very warm, making Bai Mi feel somewhat drowsy.

“Hang in there, we’re leaving now.”

Wen Yishu returned the way she came, avoiding the patrolling mercenaries and watchtowers. No matter how tight the guard, there were always holes the searchlights couldn’t reach.

It was another damp, rainy night. It was the first time the two of them had stepped onto the road home. Wen Yishu planned to go back and rest first.

She didn’t know when Bai Mi fell asleep on her back, so she resigned herself to carrying her all the way back to the apartment in Chengzhang Port.

There were few signs of habitation in the apartment—no food, of course, and only basic facilities.

Wen Yishu went into the kitchen. While checking the news on her device, she pulled all the food out of the backpack. She filled a pot with water, set a timer, and began to boil noodles.

The turmoil at Rhine was quickly suppressed. Various districts within the city chose to be autonomous, each with its own independent street government. Cleaning up small areas like this was more convenient and efficient than doing it as a whole.

After a brief period of panic, most people in the city calmed down. Once the Federation cleared away the plants, many other problems were exposed.

What should be done about household pets? Did they need to be handled uniformly for “harmless disposal”? Cases of pet mutation were not uncommon, and families with pets were in a state of constant anxiety, fearing that their “fur babies” might mutate one day.

Some people had already begun to worry about food—the most critical part of survival. All supermarkets had suffered heavy losses after the mutations began; except for packaged goods, almost all food inside had been destroyed by fruits and vegetables that suddenly turned violent, and casualties among staff were heavy.

Now, everything was under Federation surveillance, and all food was distributed based on need. Naturally, the government had its own emergency disaster relief grain. However, in a situation where production could not be sustained, the future food supply was bound to become the primary difficulty.

Binhai City gathered all botanists and agricultural researchers to analyze the accident day and night. So far, they were completely clueless. The “Doomsday” rhetoric had been officially acknowledged, which was enough to show the gravity of this accident.

Humans seemed to have entered a brand-new era; they were no longer the masters of the Blue Planet, and even basic survival had become a major problem. It wasn’t until today, when the plants outside began to riot again, that people realized they could never go back to the old days.

The new policies issued by the Federation caused a large number of people to start complaining. Most people still couldn’t completely transition their thinking away from the old days. After all, life before was too comfortable, and humans were extremely dependent on technology. Their first thought when encountering difficulty was still to rely on technology, but faced with such a large-scale disaster, the Federation was already operating over capacity.

Starting tomorrow, the government would no longer provide help to individuals; it could only maintain basic order and provide rescue for major accidents. The government appealed to all citizens to participate in this defensive war to reclaim their homes from animals and plants.

Some extremists simply gave up entirely, shouting that humans had slaughtered animals and destroyed the environment, and that this was nature’s punishment. They marched with banners, demanding the government return everything to the plants and animals, lying down on clean streets to block the army and citizens from going out to scavenge supplies.

Wen Yishu sneered at this. These small-minded people truly had too much time on their hands. If they really cared that much, why didn’t they go outside the city to hold such demonstrations?

She used chopsticks to lift the noodles from the pot, topped them with some instant meat sauce and vegetables, and brought the two bowls to the coffee table.

Bai Mi was awake. The air conditioning in the room was on. She sat on the sofa wrapped in a blanket, her gaze glued to Wen Yishu, reaching out her hands expectantly toward her.

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