Chapter 276: I’ll Give You Everything
Zhou Chenghai carried Lingyun upstairs without waiting for me to tell him where to go.
Maybe he had assumed that Lingyun would be placed in one of the guest rooms, or maybe he simply understood that I wasn’t going to let the man out of my sight until he opened his eyes. Either way, he headed straight for the room next door to mine while Yuche remained half a step behind me.
He was close enough to catch me if my leg decided to give out but smart enough not to touch me unless I asked.
I would have resented the hovering under normal circumstances, but right now, I was too busy trying not to kill someone.
Xu Zhenlan followed us upstairs, but I stopped in the doorway and turned to face him before he could enter the room. "I’m pretty sure that I told you to go deal with the people outside," I said, my expression carefully blank. "Or did I stutter?"
His jaw tightened and I felt the air around us moving just a touch faster. Most people wouldn’t notice it, wouldn’t see it as a sign of aggression, but I was pretty sure that I had already proved that I wasn’t ’most people’.
"I should stay," he said at last, like his opinion actually mattered to me. News flash... it didn’t. Not until Lingyun could clear him of everything I was already accusing him of in my mind.
"Why?" I replied, cocking my head to the side as Lingyun was placed softly on the bed and Yuche remained at my side. "Did you develop a healing ability that I didn’t know about? Did you become a certified doctor while you were at the base? Because if you haven’t, then you are about as useful as tits on a bull."
"I know what happened." He said those four words like I should get down on my knees and be grateful.
"So does Zhou Chenghai," I sneered back. But it wasn’t like I was going to let that man in this room either. I was just waiting for him to get close enough to the door to kick them both out.
"I know more about zombie bites."
I, also, knew about zombie bites and how to take care of people. And I had an entire fucking hospital in my space waiting for just this moment.
"Good for you. I’ll give you a ribbon when I am done dealing with this emergency. Until then, please, go fuck yourself."
That shut him up for half a second and his eyes went wide like he didn’t expect this side of me.
Honestly, I didn’t expect this side of me.
But I could feel my heart in my throat, I could hear my own pulse in my head as my heart continued to push blood through my system. I could feel myself wanting to shatter.
It didn’t matter that I technically knew that Lingyun would be fine. It didn’t matter that I had seen this situation countless times in my last life. That was happening to an outsider... someone who I didn’t give a fuck about.
This was Lingyun, which meant that all my rules had been blown apart and were now trying to reorganize themselves into something that might resemble me but wasn’t.
Taking in a deep breath, because I knew I only had a few minutes of control left, I straightened my spine, rolled my shoulders back, and stared at the man in front of me.
"You can explain everything later," I continued, forcing my voice to remain even. "Right now, I have a driveway full of strangers, two transport trucks, and enough supplies to attract every desperate person within ten kilometers. Put them in the empty houses, make sure no one wanders, and tell the vines that anyone who comes near this house without permission is food."
Xu Zhenlan looked past me toward Lingyun, and for one moment, I thought he was going to argue. But then he proved once again that he had brains, even if he didn’t always choose to use them.
"Okay," he agreed with a nod of his head. "I’ll take care of it all."
"You had better."
He left before I could decide whether I meant the workers, the supplies, or everything else that had gone wrong while they were gone.
Probably all of it.
Zhou Chenghai was hovering over Lingyun in the middle of the bright white bed while Yuche pulled the blankets and pillows out of the way. The sheets made the blood look even brighter and scarier, and I hated how small Lingyun seemed when he wasn’t moving.
That was not right.
Lingyun was never small.
He filled every room he walked into, even when he wasn’t talking. His smile appeared before the rest of him half the time, followed by some ridiculous complaint about food, attention, or the fact that no one appreciated his brilliance.
Now there was nothing.
"Cut his shirt off," I ordered.
Zhou Chenghai reached for the knife at his waist, but I was already shaking my head. "Not you. Yuche. You should go out with Xu Zhenlan."
Zhou Chenghai reacted like I had physically slapped him across the face, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want him holding a knife that close to Lingyun’s still beating heart.
"You need me," he announced like it should have been obvious. I barked out a laugh even as Yuche pushed him out of the way and grabbed the knife.
"I have never once needed a person since I was two. You are a little too late for that guilt trip."
Yuche, with the knife in his hand, didn’t turn to Lingyun. Instead, he stepped between Zhou Chenghai and me before Chenghai could respond, which was probably wise.
Zhou Chenghai narrowed his eyes as he looked at both of us, but I was done playing. I was done being nice. I was just done.
The vine pulled itself from out of my sports bra and hissed at Zhou Chenghai. "Go," grunted Yuche. "I have it from here."
Stiffly, Zhou Chenghai nodded his head and left the room.
Finally, I was able to see the damage done to one of my favorite humans. Yuche cut his shirt open and cleaned off the blood as gently as he could.
The bite was deep.
Far too deep.
The zombie’s teeth had torn through the muscle near his shoulder, leaving ugly punctures and ripped flesh where the jaw had latched on. The bleeding had slowed, but the wound was not closing the way it should have.
That was the problem with zombie bites. Unless you could get a top tier healer, the wound would stay raw for months. Power users couldn’t be transformed by a zombie bite, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t die from it.
Or from the infection that came when rotten meat was rubbed into wounds.
Without a single word, I took every last piece of medical equipment, bandage, drug, or surgical supplies that I had in my space.
Every part of the room was completely covered. The floor, the desks, the bed, the ensuite... Yuche and I couldn’t move without stepping on a supply, and that wasn’t even half of what I had.
"Tell me what you need," I said, all expression gone from my face as I stared at the man who, just this morning, looked at me like I was his world. "I’ll give you everything."
