Chapter Ch139.2 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (18.2)
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Shortly after entering the town, Chi Xiaochi made a small sound.
Uncle Luo asked, “Captain Ding, what’s wrong?”
Chi Xiaochi spoke, “Over at seven o’clock. What’s that?”
Uncle Luo slowed down and followed the direction that Chi Xiaochi had pointed out.
It was an ice sculpture. It looked like a young woman in her early twenties, her body frozen in a huge, clear block of ice. Under the ice was a piece of rock that was used as the base, like this was an exhibition for a brilliant piece of art.
At first, Chi Xiaochi had thought so as well. Until he saw the young woman in the ice blink slightly.
A living person?
When he saw the plum blossom spot on her shoulder blade clearly, Chi Xiaochi realized one thing:
This was a new human.
...... A new human who was receiving some sort of punishment.
Uncle Luo drove the car to a slow stop and asked the new human who was directing the construction of the stands, “Excuse me, what is that sculpture over there for?”
He casually handed over a pack of cigarettes as he spoke. After the new human accepted it, he naturally shared what he knew without holding anything back.
“You’re here from outside, right? ... Oh, you’re delivering slaves. No wonder you don’t know. Something big happened here two days ago, it’s that person...”
He pointed to the young woman and said, “She was living off to the side while secretly helping others. She planned to help the slaves escape, kill the mayor, and snatch away the AI’s control. Fortunately, someone exposed everything ahead of time and restrained her. Otherwise, she would’ve really made a lot of trouble. ... Good heavens, even the bombs had already been made.”
Yan Lanlan opened her mouth and shaped the words ‘oh my god’.
Sun Bin also wanted to take a look at this fierce person, but was kicked away by Yan Lanlan. “Go away, go away, what are you looking at? You men should all keep your eyes closed.”
Gu Xinzhi locked in on the key point, “Security will be strict over these few days.”
Chi Xiaochi agreed with his opinion and said, “This girl’s not bad. Lanlan, find a way to get her out. Even if you can’t, we can still make use of her to create unrest. It’ll be up to you to find the right timing and opportunity”
Yan Lanlan accepted the order. She took out a special tattoo sticker from her trouser pocket and pasted it on her neck, then quickly took off the tattered outer layer of her clothing, revealing a thin, slim sweater that automatically kept the human body at a steady temperature. She pulled off the bird’s nest-like wig on her head, pushed aside the cloth at the bottom of the truck, and opened up the hidden door beneath it. When jumping in, she casually peeled off the sticker from her neck, leaving a series of spots similar to livor mortis on her skin.
It took her approximately two minutes to accomplish all this.
Then, she leapt lightly through the opening.
Uncle Luo chatted with the new human for a while, learning that the girl was called Shu Wenqing. She’d been betrayed and exposed by her boyfriend, who was an old human.
Shu Wenqing was a girl who’d been raised in a military compound. Both of her parents were martyrs, and she’d been in the army for four years prior to the apocalypse. When the disaster occured, she’d just been diagnosed with advanced stage bone cancer.
Without medical resources, she died very quickly. But she soon came back to life.
She found her boyfriend and fled here with him. After finding her uncle, she obtained a place to live. However, this place soon became a slave trading town. She used her strength to become a member of the guard team in the town so that she could protect her boyfriend from harm.
But in fact, she couldn’t tolerate the existence of human trafficking at all.
She wanted things to change, so she chose to rebel.
However, her boyfriend was afraid that if her rebellion failed, not only would he lose her protection, things might grow even worse. He tried to dissuade her several times, but found that she had no intention to listen, so he simply gritted his teeth and reported her to the higher ups.
After being exposed, in order to cut off all ties with her, her boyfriend had frozen her into a living ice sculpture with one ladle after another of cold water.
As for those who had planned to rebel with her, as long as they were caught, they were all brutally slaughtered in front of her.
Only when all her accomplices were killed would she be allowed to die.
On one hand, the new human spurned Shu Wenqing, who had wanted to destroy their stable life, while on the other hand, he also despised the weak and cowardly old human man. After gossiping for a while and satisfying his desire to chat, the man went back to work.
He waved to Uncle Luo, who also started up the truck again.
After the truck started up, a young woman with long hair appeared from the side of the truck. She was wearing headphones, and had one hand inserted into her pocket. The bells on her wrist jingled as she moved.
When the new human saw that she was a slender and weak looking girl, he didn’t take her seriously and even whistled at her as she walked away.
The young woman didn’t hear him. She was heading towards the ice sculpture.
This caught the attention of the new human man who’d originally been planning to turn around and head back.
These days, no one in the town dared to approach the ice sculpture out of fear that they may be mistaken as one of Shu Wenqing’s accomplices and bring disaster upon themselves.
Was there something wrong with the girl’s brain?
He watched the girl approach the ice sculpture and walk around it several times, stroking the ice curiously. She didn’t seem worried at all, and on the contrary, she looked like she found the situation very interesting, even stretching out her foot to kick the sculpture. He thought to himself, she really was tactless.
By the time Yan Lanlan had circled around twice, she’d already roughly calculated where she should place the bombs in her backpack.
She raised her head to look at Shu Wenqing and just so happened to meet her gaze.
Shu Wenqing had a cold and beautiful face. Looking at her through the ice made her eyes and expression seem even colder.
She moved her mouth to form the words, “Get out of here.”
These days, anyone who had the slightest bit of a relationship to her had suffered. She didn’t want to harm anyone else, and she didn’t want to build any unnecessary relationships with anyone.
However, because she couldn’t make any fierce expressions with her face, Yan Lanlan didn’t understand the words she mouthed. She thought about it, then raised her hand in greeting. The bell jingled as she gave a rather friendly reply, “Hi.”
Shu Wenqing: “......”
Yan Lanlan felt her face heat slightly as she looked at her figure, but there was no way to cover her up, so she simply took out a piece of clothing from her backpack, stepped up onto the base of the sculpture, and covered her face. Immediately after, she picked out a stone to sit down on, took out Ding Qiuyun’s sketchbook and a pencil from her backpack, and started to draw the scene in front of her.
Her actions were too ostentatious and soon attracted the attention of a guard who was stationed nearby.
He came over quickly, snatching up the sketch book rudely and flipping through a few of the pages. He found nothing unusual, so he tossed the book back and asked, “What are you doing?”
Yan Lanlan glanced at him, then brushed the dust off her sketchbook disdainfully. “A study sketch of the human body. Have you never seen such a thing before? Hillbilly.”
The guard: “...... Get lost, get lost. This isn’t a place for you to draw as you like.”
Yan Lanlan: “To hell with getting lost. Is this place your home? Did you pee and mark your territory over this area?”
The guard was left with a belly full of anger from Yan Lanlan’s words, but judging from her clothing, she didn’t seem like a poor person. He also didn’t know which slave merchant family she belonged to, but her attitude was arrogant, and he didn’t dare to offend her easily, so he unconsciously softened her voice, “You... at least remove the clothing.”
Yan Lanlan’s attitude was bold and righteous. “I’m drawing, but she’s staring at me and making me uncomfortable.”
The guard: “... My salary will be deducted if you continue doing this.”
Yan Lanlan tsked. She had an expression on her face that seemed to say ‘forget it, I’ll help you out’ as she unwillingly pulled down the clothing she’d just tossed up.
The guard was afraid of offending Yan Lanlan and didn’t dare to entangle with this big tempered young miss any further, so he went back to his original position to observe her from a distance. After a while, he found that she really was just bowing her head to write and draw, and his vigilance lightened.
However, Shu Wenqing had already discovered that something wasn’t right.
She had good eyesight and a top-down perspective, so she could easily see what Yan Lanlan was drawing on the paper.
...... She was drawing out the positioning for the bombs.
Yan Lanlan noticed the gaze coming down from above. She looked back at her, her eyebrows and eyes curving beautifully with her cheerful smile. She then bowed her head again, starting to hum ‘there’s a little frog in a happy pond’. Her pencil swept rhythmically over the paper, listing out a series of formulas.
When living Ding Qiuyun’s life for him a second time, Chi Xiaochi had never intended to teach his team members to become useless wastes who had to rely on him.
They had to be able to stand up on their own even without Ding Qiuyun.
She continued humming as she looked out nearby.
First came the soldiers, and then other people gradually gathered together, bringing with them the sound of music. The group soon showed signs of becoming a large crowd.
Amidst the dim night that swept in from all directions, the slave market opened for business.