PSW - Chapter 54

Chapter 54

"…" Yu Yinan took a step back. With a quick movement, she grabbed Chu Yi, who was about to leave, and pulled her directly in front of herself as a shield.

Chu Yi stumbled from the pull, finding herself inexplicably face-to-face with the disheveled Yu Yaozu.

The mournful "Jiejie" that Yu Yaozu was about to cry out died in his throat. But he didn't give up. He shuffled on his knees, changing direction to face Yu Yinan again, and forced out tears as he cried miserably, "Jiejie! Jiejie! I know Mom and Dad wronged you! It's all our fault, but-but you can't just leave me to die, Jiejie!"

"You still have a younger brother," Chu Yi said, wanting to awkwardly move aside, but Yu Yinan didn't let go. Her expression turned cold, and she uncomfortably adjusted her glasses. "He's got all his arms and legs. What's the matter… a terminal illness?"

"Jiejie! Jiejie! Dad's dead!" Yu Yaozu wailed, breaking into loud sobs. Blood, tears, and snot mixed on his face. He crawled toward Yu Yinan, trying to grab her leg. "Dad got caught in the rain, and he turned into a zombie the next day. I couldn't do anything… By the time I got there, he'd already been killed…"

"Mom's okay, but she was terrified. She can't eat much, and she's wasting away to skin and bones…" Seeing Yu Yinan retreat, Yu Yaozu stopped crawling closer. He sat up on the ground and wiped his face with his grimy hands. "Jiejie, Mom and Dad are already in this state…"

One dead, one sick? Yu Yinan felt a little dazed. The memory of her family's ugly behavior was still so vivid. She thought with self-mockery: I wonder if my sick mother, upon seeing me again, would be able to put on her sharp, spiteful expression and, full of vigor, accuse me of being unfilial, emotionally blackmailing me into sacrificing myself.

The funny thing was, aside from a tiny bit of sadness in her heart, she didn't feel much grief at all. She looked at Yu Yaozu. "So? I thought your family didn't have a daughter."

"…That-that was just Mom and Dad talking nonsense because they were angry. They have sharp tongues but soft hearts," Yu Yaozu said, struggling to come up with an excuse.

"Get to the point. What do you want from me?" Yu Yinan said, glancing at Chu Yi. The woman was no longer in a hurry to leave, her eyes filled with gossip. But Yu Yinan had lost interest. She remembered that Zheng Yi had gone to buy something and would probably be back to look for her soon.

"Jiejie, can you lend me some contribution points? I want to buy medicine and hire a healing ability user to check on Mom." Yu Yaozu wrung his hands, speaking in a subservient yet uncomfortable tone. "And also… can you take me with you on your future missions? I promise I won't hold you back. I'm even willing to take a smaller share of the contribution points!"

"Don't you have a squad?" Yu Yinan frowned.

"I… I…" Yu Yaozu stammered.

Just then, Chu Yi studied the dirt-streaked face carefully and finally remembered something. "Yu Yaozu?" The guy had appeared, knelt, and kowtowed, smearing his face with blood. His subsequent antics had made him even harder to recognize. It was a good thing Chu Yi had a sharp memory.

"He's from Lian Langxi's squad." Once she remembered him, she naturally recalled the dispute before the big rainstorm. "This kid was fawning all over Lian Langxi. With Langxi's arrogant personality, she wasn't really inclined to pay him any mind. But he was in her squad, and he performed well on missions, so she didn't want to make things too awkward. After one mission, he invited Lian Langxi to his home for dinner, and she went." As the person in charge of ability users, Chu Yi was on good terms with almost every squad captain and knew a fair bit of gossip.

Yu Yaozu's eyes instantly filled with terror. He desperately wanted to stop Chu Yi from saying more. "Th-this… Lady Chu Yi…"

The title made Chu Yi laugh. She spread her hands. "Then why don't you tell her yourself? It's not exactly a secret. You've seriously pissed off Lian Langxi. What's the plan? Get your sister to take you on a mission, leave the shelter, and pick a fight with Lian Langxi's squad?"

"Tsk. You can't possibly be unaware of what that heavy rain means for ordinary people, right? Your family has housing, so it's not like your roof leaks. The moment the rain started, the shelter sounded an emergency alarm. There's no way you didn't hear it. Ability users were in extreme pain after being exposed to that rain, but I didn't see you downstairs wailing. So how did your parents get caught in it?" Chu Yi crossed her arms. The more this man tried to hide, the more interested she became, and she began to speculate. "Don't tell me you offended Lian Langxi, so you pushed your parents out into the rain, hoping to gain two more helpers?"

"I… I…" Yu Yaozu was speechless. The panic on his face for that brief moment said it all. He suddenly grit his teeth and forced himself to get angry. "That woman, Lian Langxi, I didn't do anything to her! I served her hand and foot like a dog, and she looked down on me! My mom is just an ordinary person, uncultured and ignorant. How could a few words from her be enough to offend someone?"

"Oh? Why don't you have the guts to say that to Lian Langxi's face?"

"Why wouldn't I dare! I don't know what that crazy woman has to be so arrogant about. My mom cooked a huge meal, spent so many contribution points, and she can't even handle a little criticism?" The man seemed to have completely forgotten that he was the one who had begged her to come to his house for dinner in the first place.

Watching this farce, Yu Yinan finally understood why this man had suddenly sought her out, unafraid of death. In the end, she had only threatened them before; she hadn't actually done anything, still holding on to some consideration for their blood ties.

But now, Yu Yaozu… seemed to have provoked a formidable ability user. Compared to her threats, this other ability user might actually kill him. He had let his parents get caught in the rain, but the old couple's bodies couldn't handle it. One became a zombie, and the other didn't gain any abilities. It was hard to say if his mother was truly sick; it was possible he was just playing the victim to pressure her.

As Yu Yinan thought about this, she suddenly recalled the words she had overheard the first time she saw her family.

Something about "winning her over," something about a "stable life"… and the phrase, "Twenty-seven? She's so much older than you, almost thirty… It'll be hard for her to have children, won't it?"

Perhaps her dear mother, deep down, still hadn't gotten used to the apocalypse and didn't realize just how powerful ability users were. Or perhaps, because her precious son was also an ability user, he was the most important person in her heart.

Add to that whatever boasts Yu Yaozu might have made to her, and was it any surprise that her dear mother had been so "frank" when his captain visited for the first time? That was certainly something she would do. Yu Yinan guessed at what must have happened. Even if her father had been there, he probably would have tacitly approved, believing it was necessary to put their "daughter-in-law," who hadn't even married into the family yet, in her place. After all, they were both ability users; they couldn't let their precious son be bullied.

They probably even thought Lian Langxi was marrying up by being with their son.

The reality wasn't far from Yu Yinan's guess.

Lian Langxi had an arrogant and domineering personality to begin with; she was already making an effort to be amicable with her squad members. When he warmly invited her, she didn't go empty-handed; she brought a gift. But the moment she sat down, before she'd even had a sip of hot tea, Yu Yaozu's mother sat down next to her and started interrogating her about her entire family history. She seemed dissatisfied with Lian Langxi's age and shamelessly declared that since it was the apocalypse, it was best to have more children. "You're not young anymore, so you should hurry up and have a few more. Three at least, right?"

She and Yu Yaozu weren't even dating! They were simply captain and squad member! Considering the woman was just an ordinary old lady, Lian Langxi, despite her dark expression, endured it. But the old woman clearly didn't know when to quit. She started criticizing her, saying her personality was no good, that a woman should dote on her man and take care of him, and even suggested that once they had children, she should go on fewer missions and stay at home.

This was the fucking apoc-a-lypse!

Her interest in staying vanished. She glanced at the gift she'd brought and felt like she'd wasted it on a dog. She stood up to leave, and that's when Yu Yaozu's father came "alive," trying to smooth things over and play the good cop. Meanwhile, his mother started calling her petty and thin-skinned, saying she was too precious to take a little criticism.

Well, Lian Langxi had never been insulted like that in her life. She dragged Yu Yaozu out of the kitchen, slapped him twice across the face, told him to get the hell away from her, and kicked him out of the squad.

At that point, the matter could have ended there. Although Lian Langxi was domineering, she still valued their camaraderie as squadmates and didn't intend to pursue it further. But Yu Yaozu lost his mind. How could he accept being kicked out of the squad? It wasn't easy to join an ability user squad, and now that he'd been dismissed by Lian Langxi, other squads would hesitate to take him!

It would be a lie to say he didn't resent his parents. He had a huge fight with them, stormed out, and went outside to cool off. At the time, he was still thinking about how to apologize. He could play the victim, or at worst, kneel before Lian Langxi and tell her he truly liked her.

While Yu Yaozu was mulling this over, his parents belatedly panicked. No one knew what the old couple was thinking, but they went downstairs and started crying and playing the victim, claiming Lian Langxi had a bad temper, that she bullied the elderly, that she was ungrateful…

Anyway, they said everything they should and shouldn't have, a whole mess of nonsense, slinging mud and making up lies to tarnish her name. As a crowd gathered, they even started claiming Lian Langxi had seduced their son.

The outcome was obvious. If the shelter didn't forbid killing, Yu Yaozu probably wouldn't be alive today.

"…" After hearing the whole story, Yu Yinan didn't know what expression to make. She blinked, and finally, she couldn't help but laugh out loud. She was laughing at this family, and she was laughing at herself. It was so hilarious, so ridiculous. Was this the family she once couldn't let go of, the family she had yearned for with all her heart?

"Thank you. That was a very funny story." Yu Yinan looked at Yu Yaozu, wiped away a non-existent tear, and said softly, "I've been thinking about learning the Rebirth Mantra recently. When you die, I'll chant a passage for you, free of charge."

"Jiejie? Jiejie! You're my own sister! You can't just watch me die!" Yu Yaozu tremblingly took out his ID card. "I still have a few contribution points. I'll give them all to you, okay? Jiejie, save me! Don't abandon me!"

"Break it up, break it up. No gathering and causing trouble inside the shelter." Having finished her gossip and seeing that Yu Yinan had no interest in staying, Chu Yi enthusiastically waved her hand, shooing Yu Yaozu away. She looked at Yu Yinan. "If there's nothing else, I'll get back to my work."

"Thanks. Sorry to bother you." Yu Yinan waved. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Zheng Yi in the crowd, and her eyes suddenly lit up. Ignoring the departing Chu Yi, she walked quickly toward Zheng Yi.

It was at that moment that the hatred in Yu Yaozu's eyes became impossible to hide. The thought of his potential death, of Yu Yinan refusing to save him, of her laughter—it drove him mad with hatred. Why? Why was he in this situation while his sister got to live so freely? How could she laugh!

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