Chapter 237: Don’t Go Anywhere
Roots pulled Lin Cheng down while flowers rose to meet him in a dance that I could watch forever.
Seriously... it was like watching a train wreck. I might be detached, but even I could see the enjoyment of watching the inevitable happen.
And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of people.
I hummed softly under my breath as one of Lin Cheng’s arms disappeared into a cluster of blooms. The screams that came from that was like the chorus to a song as old as time.
But the jungle wasn’t done with him yet.
His legs were dragged in different directions, and his head snapped backward as a vine wrapped around his neck and pulled him into the wall he had built with his own power. It was a repeat of how Huang Zedong had died, but really... how inventive could plants be when they were hungry?
The end of the dance came when the stone wall cracked around him, swallowed him, and bloomed.
I stared at the flowers opening across the surface of the wall.
"Well," I said quietly, "that was certainty creative."
Shen Kaiyang stumbled back, covered in ash and blood that wasn’t all his.
For the first time since the fight started, he looked toward the porch.
Not at Commander Li.
Not at Zhenlan.
Not at Chenghai.
At me.
I didn’t know what he expected to find there. Mercy, maybe. Recognition. Some sort of acknowledgment that he had tried harder than the others. The problem was that trying hard didn’t change the fact that he had walked into my house behind Meilan, stood beside her while she tried to claim what belonged to me, and then helped destroy my living room.
Effort was cute.
Consequences were cuter.
Luo Xin stepped closer to Yuche, and spoke softly in the other man’s ear. "I’ve recovered enough. She needs to go back inside so I can keep treating her."
I kept my eyes on Shen Kaiyang even as I shook my head. "That’s not happening."
"Your leg is still broken," Luo Xin said. I rolled my eyes at the fact that he could use logic against me at this moment.
"I know where my leg is," I replied, my eyes never leaving the fight still going on in front of me.
"Your foot is pointing the wrong direction," he continued. I glanced down for half a second and immediately regretted it. How did I not notice that before?
"Huh. It is making a statement I guess."
Luo Xin made a sound like he was one bad decision away from passing out or strangling me. Since he had already saved my life, I decided to be generous and pretend I didn’t notice.
"You need more healing," he said. "Now."
I shook my head. "I want to watch them die." That wasn’t strictly true. I didn’t want to watch them die. I NEEDED to watch them die more than I needed my next pain free breath. I needed to know that all this bullshit was over and done with.
I needed to know that I was the last one standing in this lifetime.
I looked down to where I could see Yuche’s hands wrapped around my thigh, holding me above everything... his arms not even shaking with the exertion.
I guess ’last one standing’ was a bit of a stretch... maybe last one breathing? Surviving?
Yeah... that was me.
I was the last one surviving.
Yuche’s hand moved, and I felt the shift before I saw it.
Metal answered him from somewhere inside the house, fast and sharp and quiet. Shen Kaiyang moved at the same time, because he was fast enough to understand danger before most people even saw it coming.
But he still wasn’t fast enough.
The bullet hit him in the forehead.
A second shot followed before his body hit the ground.
Meilan screamed as a third bullet struck the ground under her feet, close enough to stop her from moving but not close enough to kill her.
I slowly turned my head and looked at Yuche.
He looked completely calm. "There," he said. "He is dead. You watched."
I stared at him. "That is not what I meant."
"Then you should have been more specific. But it’s done. He’s stopped breathing. You can now go inside and get healed."
Lingyun started laughing so hard that he had to brace one hand against the porch railing.
I tried to glare at him, but my body betrayed me by choosing that moment to remind me just what pain felt like. Yuche noticed immediately, because of course he did. His arm tightened around me, and the amusement vanished from his face as quickly as it had appeared.
"Inside," he said.
"I still want to watch Meilan die."
"You will... Later."
"That sounds like a copout."
"It is a delay to make sure that you aren’t in pain while you watch her screaming in her own."
I paused for a second and cocked my head to the side. "I like that idea," I agreed. "But I hate the idea that she might find a way to escape between now and then."
Luo Xin stepped in front of me, pale, exhausted, and furious enough that I almost respected it. "If you do not let me work on your leg now, I cannot promise what use you will have of it later."
That shut me up.
I hated that it shut me up.
I hated that every person on the porch noticed it shut me up.
Most of all, I hated that Meilan was still alive to see it.
Yuche turned around with me in his arms before I could decide whether pride was worth losing a foot over. The movement made the entire yard tilt, and I had to close my eyes for a second until the nausea settled. When I opened them again, Meilan was still hanging there alone in the burned yard, surrounded by flowers, vines, blood, and the pieces of every man who had followed her into my house.
She finally looked afraid.
Good.
Yuche turned toward the front door.
I looked over his shoulder at Meilan and smiled.
"Don’t go anywhere. We still need to have a long conversation on what we should do in our next life."
