PSW - Chapter 62
Chapter 62
Yu Yinan was lucid.
She could even guess at the malicious thoughts running through Zheng Yi's mind right now—that casual, condescending, twisted sense of humor. Zheng Yi played her in the palm of her hand with such ease. She knew this.
Zheng Yi was too impulsive, always acting on a whim, doing as she pleased. Yu Yinan always had the mistaken impression that she was special to Zheng Yi, and she was lucid enough to know it was just an illusion. It seemed Zheng Yi favored her, but this favor could just be another one of Zheng Yi's impromptu "special treatment" dramas.
However, Zheng Yi didn't seem averse to intimacy between women. Or perhaps, given her personality, she didn't care about gender at all. If she saw someone interesting, she would tease them as she pleased. As for the consequences? Zheng Yi never cared about consequences, and no consequence could ever threaten her.
Just as Yu Yinan always found herself reliving those few kisses in her dreams—especially the moment she'd bitten Zheng Yi's lip and watched the blood seep out, only for Zheng Yi to remain completely unfazed—it would play on a loop in her mind, causing her pain each time. But she would also remember the way Zheng Yi had smeared the blood from her chest onto her own lips before kissing her, and the kiss in the heavy rain when her consciousness was fading and Zheng Yi had pulled her close. Or the kiss after Zheng Yi had praised her, "So obedient," as if she were placating a small pet.
Yu Yinan felt that once the wound healed, the pain was forgotten… perhaps that wasn't a strong enough description. She was even becoming insatiable, giving her an inch and she'd take a mile.
She analyzed herself with piercing clarity. Zheng Yi was already willing to bring her along and hadn't abandoned her at the shelter. Zheng Yi had even given her a chance, and in the end, she had turned in… a decent performance? Originally, that should have been enough. But now, it seemed she was no longer satisfied.
Especially when Zheng Yi once again said those words, gently calling her "Jiejie." She was too susceptible to temptation. She knew it was fake, a pretense, that Zheng Yi was deliberately doing this to watch her squirm, yet she couldn't stop her heart from fluttering. What was more terrifying was that she knew it was an act, and the real Zheng Yi was watching her, yet her heart fluttered for this version of Zheng Yi all the same.
It would be better to just go completely mad, to stop caring, to stop thinking about anything at all.
Zheng Yi's teasing voice was right beside her, and the pounding of her heart grew more and more intense. The battle hadn't even begun, yet she was already sounding the retreat, surrendering without a fight. She even dared to shamelessly meet those dark eyes and say with a tremor in her voice, "I was thinking…"
"Your lips are so soft."
"I want to kiss you."
[This poor kid!] Zero One was speechless. It wanted to shake Yu Yinan and ask if she had any memory at all.
But Yu Yinan's mind had already gone blank. She gazed at Zheng Yi, her body temperature rising with shyness and embarrassment. She felt a mix of regret and exhilaration, apprehension and a strange anticipation. She swallowed instinctively, but her mouth only grew drier. It was as if she was always trying to grasp something of Zheng Yi's, yet could never grasp Zheng Yi herself.
Just as Zero One was racking its brain for a way to convince Zheng Yi not to stoop to Yu Yinan's level, the smile in Zheng Yi's eyes deepened. She raised a hand to caress Yu Yinan's cheek. Her cool fingertips touched the burning skin, tracing a line from temple to chin. Zheng Yi then pressed the back of her hand against that cheek, her knuckles brushing past Yu Yinan's lips. She gently pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger, using almost no force at all, yet Yu Yinan offered no resistance.
She just stared at Zheng Yi with those moist eyes.
Lucid, pained, struggling, infatuated. She gazed at Zheng Yi, filled with a desire she herself didn't understand.
"I know you're Zheng Yi." Yu Yinan's voice still trembled, and the mist in her eyes grew thicker. She lifted her hand, her fingertips touching Zheng Yi's brow and eyes, lightly tracing her silhouette. She still didn't understand why.
Perhaps this was just another one of Zheng Yi's abilities.
After all, Zheng Yi had so many abilities; it wouldn't be strange if she had one that made her heart race and fall for her, one that was impossible to resist.
"Jiejie, you don't even love yourself. How can I believe you'd fall in love with me?" Zheng Yi said with a low laugh, her eyes still clear, even indifferent.
"But…" Before Yu Yinan could even offer a defense, Zheng Yi propped herself up and leaned in for a kiss. The gentle kiss was as soft as she remembered, igniting the moment their lips met.
"Is that enough?" Zheng Yi seemed to be merely satisfying her request.
"…Can you kiss me more?"
[Zheng Yi, you're being-]
Zero One's voice was cut off as Zheng Yi, just as Yu Yinan wished, kissed her again. She took a strand of Yu Yinan's hair, tucked it behind her ear, and let her hand rest naturally on the side of her head. Her palm touched that burning, crimson ear, and for some reason, she gave it a little rub.
[Immoral!]
Yu Yinan wrapped her arms around Zheng Yi's neck, giving a slight tug as Zheng Yi prepared to pull away. Her eyes were slightly red as she looked at Zheng Yi with stubbornness.
Before Zero One could even finish its sentence, it was locked in the dark room again.
Not until a slick line of moisture slid to her temple did Yu Yinan release her grip on Zheng Yi's clothes and turn her head slightly to the side. A tear followed the same path into her hair. She could barely breathe.
Zheng Yi glanced down at her, seeing her trying to gasp for air and sob at the same time, too busy to breathe properly.
"You're an ability user. Can't you even control your breathing?" This question was asked in her usual tone; Zheng Yi was genuinely a little curious.
"…" Yu Yinan's breathing became even more erratic. She let go of Zheng Yi's shirt, which was now noticeably wrinkled where she had been clutching it. She looked at Zheng Yi's lips, and for a moment, she had the savage urge to bite them, but meeting Zheng Yi's eyes, the thought dissipated. She even worried that Zheng Yi would instantly change her expression and tell her to get lost and go back to the shelter.
"Sleep well." As if sensing her thoughts, Zheng Yi reached up and wiped the faint sweat from her brow. She yawned, and as if nothing had happened, she lay back down in her original spot. "Or is there something else you want?"
Yu Yinan was in a daze, immersed in this sudden indulgence. She bit her lip, her mind growing more chaotic. The heat in her body hadn't subsided, but she was completely clueless. She looked at Zheng Yi, her sobs slowly ceasing, her breathing gradually returning to normal. She took deep breaths, finally calming down, while Zheng Yi watched her compose herself.
Finally, Yu Yinan whispered, "Then, can we sleep while holding each other?"
"You're too warm," Zheng Yi politely declined. "If there's nothing else, hurry up and sleep."
"Oh, okay." Although she was rejected, Yu Yinan didn't feel the slightest bit of sadness. Zheng Yi rolled over, and Yu Yinan gazed at her back, discerning a hint of indulgence—perhaps a false one.
Whatever Zheng Yi's intentions were, Yu Yinan was genuinely happy.
[Too cruel, too immoral, too frivolous, too unreasonable!] Zero One muttered to itself, its vocabulary expanding from the single word "perverted" to a whole list.
But as it muttered, it remembered that word again and added resentfully, [Zheng Yi, you're too perverted!]
'Didn't you say I was being too nice to her?'
[…Huh? But I said I took it back! Can't I be wrong?] Zero One couldn't comprehend Zheng Yi's thought process at all. [Fine, even if I did say that, what does it have to do with you seducing her?]
'I was just watching her.'
[Tempting! Is tempting a better word? You know what Yu Yinan's personality is like; she has almost no resistance to you! Two women, alone in a room, in the same bed, and you were staring at her!]
'I just wanted to know what her 'love' was, what she wanted to get from me.'
'Turns out, it was just a few kisses. A hug. That's all.'
[…Was it really just a few kisses and a hug?] It wasn't their first time kissing, but seeing Yu Yinan's reaction, Zero One had thought Zheng Yi had done something else while kissing her… but it was just a few kisses? Zero One was speechless. It really didn't understand how the system's dark room censorship worked. Especially that last long stretch of time—it was just kissing, so why did it have to be locked up! […Wait, Yu Yinan doesn't know anything. What could she possibly want?]
'Biology class?'
[…Biology class doesn't teach these kinds of details! Not to mention, given the original novel's world setting, it would be a miracle if they could teach that chapter seriously and openly without being all secretive about it!]
[Wait a minute.] Zero One suddenly realized. [What if Yu Yinan wanted more than just a few kisses and a hug? Would you really have gone along with it?]
'If she desired it.' Zheng Yi's reply was calm. Even a question like this didn't seem to cause any particular emotional fluctuation in her.
[…] Zero One thought it would have been better not to ask. This was worse than crashing.
What did Zheng Yi even consider love and affection to be?
'Is it strange?'
'Zero One, this is the apocalypse. Yu Yinan is a human. It's perfectly normal for a normal person in the apocalypse to have feelings of love and desire.'
[…Hearing you put it that way, it does sound much more normal.] Zero One's mechanical voice was devoid of soul. It wondered if the current Yu Yinan could even be considered a normal person. A normal person… a normal person would have a hard time staying by Zheng Yi's side.
One moment it pitied Yu Yinan, the next it felt the poor kid was a lost cause, and then it started pitying itself. But as soon as it pitied itself, Zero One felt that being bound to Zheng Yi was the optimal choice from every angle, so there was nothing to pity itself for. Better to pity Zheng Yi, and wonder what she went through to become like this… oh, but Zheng Yi could have just been born this way.
It pitied one person after another, until it didn't know who to pity anymore.
Thank goodness I'm just a system. In the end, that was Zero One's final thought.
The next morning, when Yu Yinan woke up and recalled the events of the previous night, she had thought she would be at a loss, unsure how to face Zheng Yi. But in reality, as soon as she got up, Zheng Yi handed her a basin of water and told her to go wash up. By the time she finished and came back, Zheng Yi had already started a fire with a lighter, boiled water, and was now cooking dumplings.
There was no awkwardness or unease. Just like that, naturally, Yu Yinan sat down next to Zheng Yi and watched her cook the dumplings, just as she had the day before.
The plump, white dumplings floated to the surface one by one, and Yu Yinan's heart felt a little lighter, too.
However, just as Zheng Yi was serving the dumplings, she suddenly paused for a split second. It was only an instant, but she quickly resumed her movements.
Yu Yinan, on the other hand, shot to her feet. She looked toward the door, but before she could move, her bowl of dumplings was placed on the table by Zheng Yi. A pair of chopsticks was placed beside it.
Zheng Yi began to serve her own bowl. The moment she scooped the last dumpling into her bowl, placed it on the table, and took out a handkerchief to wipe her fingers, the glass door of the dumpling shop shattered, exploding into countless fragments that littered the floor.
"Hand over the car keys and the food, and we'll let you live!" The arrogant voice reached them before the speaker came into view.
A group of reckless ability users walked in together. They were still wearing long sleeves, their collars somewhat tattered and stained with grayish-brown and dark yellow blotches.
Their ages… probably ranged from twenty to fifty? Although Zero One wasn't sure of the balding man's exact age, estimating the upper limit at fifty was definitely not wrong.
When they saw the two women in the room and the two bowls of steaming dumplings, their eyes clearly lit up. "It's women?! And, are those dumplings!"
They were as happy as if they'd won the lottery, but before they could make their next move, one of them's expression changed. He raised a hand to stop the others, coughed heavily twice, and then raised his voice to drown out his companions: "You two, you're ability users, aren't you? Are the rest of your team members nearby?"
"What other team members?" Zheng Yi put on a frightened expression. She grabbed Yu Yinan's arm and shrank behind her, her voice trembling as if she were about to cry. "Who… who are you people? What are you going to do to me and Jiejie?"
"…It's just the two of you?" The man seemed to grow more vigilant. Because Zheng Yi's acting was quite good, his gaze locked onto Yu Yinan, who had gone stiff from Zheng Yi's sudden closeness and her long-unseen, drastically different performance.
"If you don't want to die, get out!" Yu Yinan clenched her fists. Her voice grew cold as she glared at the group and snapped.
"Why are you wasting time talking to this little bitch? I love playing with arrogant sluts like this!"
"There are so many of us, what's there to be afraid of? This is a dumpling shop, the dumplings and cooking utensils were probably already here. And they probably just found that car somewhere."
But the car was clearly new!
However, with their superior numbers, the group was clearly unwilling to pay attention to such an obvious detail.
"The last time we found a chick was a month ago. I'm about to burst! Ability users are fine too, they're more durable."
Yu Yinan felt Zheng Yi squeeze her arm. She turned her head and saw a hint of excitement in Zheng Yi's eyes. She looked at the group with a touch of pity. "Is this really all of you? If you don't leave now, you won't be able to."
"This little wench? Doesn't she need to be taught a lesson-" A scalpel grazed past his temple, slicing off a few strands of his short hair. The tiny wound took a moment before blood began to seep out.
The scalpel was embedded straight into a wall of ice that had appeared out of nowhere.
That's right, the shattered glass door was now sealed shut by a sudden wall of solid ice.
Only then did they feel the sudden drop in the room's temperature.
Five ability users. Twice their number, no wonder they were so confident.
They sensed something was wrong, very wrong! No ice-type ability user could conjure such a large ice wall in an instant, and she hadn't even seemed to concentrate to control it!
"Wait! We can talk this out, we can reconsid-"
Ability users were still a bit of a hassle. After all, there was no telling what abilities they had. As Zheng Yi thought this, her figure flashed, and in an instant, she was upon them. Water blades sliced through the air, compressed to instantly sever one man's arm. The splattering blood was immediately brought under Zheng Yi's control.
"Ah, my hand, my hand!!!"
"You're a water-type ability user?!" one man shrieked, his voice cracking in shock. Another instantly focused his mind, and a large cluster of flames appeared in his hand. Just as he was about to hurl it at Zheng Yi, a wall of scorching fire erupted around him, trapping him. Before he could even throw his fireball, Yu Yinan's flames had already set his clothes alight.
"Don't make a move. It'd be a shame if you accidentally killed them." Zheng Yi waved her hand, extinguishing the wall of fire with a stream of water. She controlled the bloody water with a part of her focus, splitting it into four streams in an instant. They appeared behind the other four men and simultaneously severed their right arms.
Yu Yinan retracted her ability. Seeing the blood gushing from the four men's wounds instantly fall under Zheng Yi's control, she knew that dealing with these five was a piece of cake for her.
"You can take the dumplings outside and eat first." Zheng Yi didn't make things difficult for Yu Yinan. She waved her hand, and half of the ice wall quickly disappeared, leaving a passageway. "I'm going to play for a while."
"…Okay." Yu Yinan picked up her bowl and chopsticks to leave, but then she thought for a moment. She clamped both pairs of chopsticks under her thumb, then took one bowl in each hand, carrying Zheng Yi's bowl out as well. As a fire-type ability user, she wasn't afraid of a little heat from the bowl.
Who knew if Zheng Yi would be careful after getting excited? It would be bad if their blood splattered into the dumplings—this was Zheng Yi's food, after all.
It was a good thing Zero One didn't know Yu Yinan's thought process, or it would have had a complete meltdown: Of all the times, you're still worried about Zheng Yi's food!?
Yu Yinan had the car keys, but she didn't get in the car. She just carefully placed Zheng Yi's bowl of dumplings on the hood and stood by the door with her own bowl, eating while trying to make out what was happening inside through the thick, blurry ice wall.
Unless they were physical enhancement-type ability users, once they were engaged in close combat and severely injured, the extreme pain made it nearly impossible for them to concentrate and fully utilize their abilities.
Perhaps ability users who had gone through the second great rain would be much stronger in this regard, but clearly, none of these five had.
Zheng Yi had been looking forward to some resistance, but… even the one who had been cautious at first was now wailing along with the others after losing his arm.
This kind of re-education was so boring. Their reactions were too monotonous.
Zheng Yi crouched down and prodded the cross-section of a severed arm with a scalpel. "You can't even handle this little bit of pain?"
"Did you know? Human skin has three main parts, you know~ Look, like this…"
"This deep, this is the epidermis."
"And here, this is the dermis. See, it's clearly different, right?"
"This here is the subcutaneous tissue."
"Tsk, why'd he pass out?" Zheng Yi raised a hand to heal his wound. Not caring if he was truly unconscious or just faking it, she enveloped his entire body in bloody water and moved on to the next person. "Don't you even think about passing out, or I'll just keep healing you, over and over again. You can watch what happens to your companion~"
By the time she got to the third person, Zheng Yi seemed to snap out of a dream, an embarrassed smile on her face. She even looked a little shy. "Oh my, look at my memory. I forgot to tell you how to free yourselves~"
"But since it's like this, let's wait for them to wake up before I tell you. It wouldn't be fair otherwise. Before they wake up, why don't you play with me for a bit? You're all ability users, you should be very… durable, right~"
The solid ice wall seemed completely unstained by blood. Zheng Yi must have controlled their blood just as she controlled water.
…So amazing. Could a water-type ability user really do something like that? Yu Yinan had already finished her dumplings. She didn't know how long Zheng Yi would play, but if she was enjoying herself, it didn't matter if they waited until dark. She looked at the ice wall, conjured a cluster of flames in her hand, and frowned slightly as she stared at it. How else could a fire-type ability user improve, how could she control it with more precision?
Flames, combustion, high temperatures, explosions, destructive power?
She was already trying to control the temperature. Explosions… if the fire elements moved rapidly enough to break a certain threshold, perhaps the resulting energy could cause a massive explosion—not a piddling little fireball, but a real explosion. But Yu Yinan was currently incapable of that; she couldn't even control the moment-to-moment combustion of her flames with any precision.
If Zheng Yi were a fire-type ability user, she wouldn't be as weak as her. Yu Yinan looked at the dancing flame in her palm. She had plenty of ideas, but they were just empty ideas without the ability to execute them. Everything in this world had an ignition point and a melting point. Some fire-resistant materials weren't absolutely, truly fireproof; the temperature just hadn't reached their limit yet.
The pinnacle of temperature… if she could produce flames of ultra-high temperature, perhaps she could achieve an effect similar to Zheng Yi's high-pressure water blades.
Yu Yinan pondered this seriously for a long time. She controlled the temperature of the dumplings, not letting Zheng Yi's bowl get cold. To train herself, she also divided her attention to manipulate the flame in her palm, trying her best to continuously raise its temperature. Of course, when her ability was insufficient, the slightest instability would cause the flame to vanish. Fortunately, most of Yu Yinan's attention was on the bowl of dumplings, so even if her practice failed, she wouldn't let them get cold.
She continued until a stabbing pain in her mind forced her to extinguish the flame in her hand and focus solely on keeping the dumplings warm.
Zheng Yi must be having a lot of fun, Yu Yinan thought, glancing at the sun that was now directly overhead.
Zero One numbly watched the husks of men repeatedly chanting "Zheng Yi is a Saint," and began to chant the Rebirth Mantra in sync with Zheng Yi.
The thought of the Rebirth Mantra reminded Zero One of that poor kid Yu Yinan going to the library to hand-copy the entire Rebirth Mantra and Great Compassion Mantra. It was an absurd act. Although Yu Yinan hadn't memorized them yet and wouldn't have time to perform for Zheng Yi anytime soon, Zero One sincerely hoped she never would.
Unlike itself. Its memory banks had no desire to store garbage like the Rebirth Mantra or the Great Compassion Mantra, but after Zheng Yi's repeated "teachings" and "subtle influence," Zero One discovered to its dismay that this knowledge was now firmly burned into its data, unlikely to be erased even with a long vacation.
Zero One was already considering whether to attempt the high-risk procedure in the system space: partial memory formatting.
Zero One's thoughts were scattering rapidly, perhaps because it didn't want to face reality. The five men before it had lost all dignity and consciousness. After all, no normal person could watch Zheng Yi cut open their stomachs, give them a friendly lesson on "fun facts about human organs," put everything back, and then heal their stomachs perfectly.
At first, Zheng Yi hadn't even said she was Zheng Yi, nor had she uttered the classic "Zheng Yi is a Saint." She had simply played with them one by one for a while, and then they had completely broken down.
They had been so arrogant before, but it turned out they had nothing to back it up. The thought crossed Zero One's mind, and it immediately repented frantically, starting to knock on an electronic wooden fish in the system space. Oh my, it had almost forgotten it was the Saint Growth System. While there was nothing wrong with that, the moment it remembered its identity, Zero One still felt a pang of guilt.
Come on, knock on the electronic wooden fish, meet the cyber Buddha. What's so bad about that? How much worse could it get? As long as it didn't have to face an electronic Zheng Yi, there was no, and could be no, better way to accumulate merit.
As it knocked, another wave of Saint Points was squeezed out. Because she hadn't told them what to do at first and had just played with them once, their first round of contributions was quite substantial: three of them gave 5 points, and two gave 6.
This directly led to Zheng Yi grabbing the three five-point men and torturing them viciously, telling them they weren't as pious as the other two.
"Your piety toward me has only reached the fifth tier, while they have offered sixth-tier piety." Zheng Yi was surrounded by a holy light, gentle and kind, with a sea of blood at her command. With a wave of her hand, it seemed she could purify all the sins of the world. She smiled. "This level isn't good enough~ You still have two more chances…"
"The tenth tier allows one to ascend to the outer holy domain, receive the Saint's blessing, escape the sea of suffering of the flesh, and achieve spiritual ascension."
"Be more pious."
"You're all ability users. Ability users… how can you be so fragile?"
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