He Jin stared at Gong Xiangyi with a sullen look. His eyes squinted into a glare, making a cold shiver run down her spine and her scalp feel numb.
Setting her inner fear aside with force, Gong Xiangyi swallowed and added, "You should already know, my father got news about the apocalypse before it happened, so he had the time to gather some military power and establish this base." After her words fell, she carefully glanced at the other and observed his reaction.
He Jin sneered as he asked with surprise, "You’re the one who can predict the future?"
Gong Xiangyi nodded and added with a calm voice. "Yes, I can predict the future. At the moment you appeared, I’ve foreseen yours. Your future is a bad future, therefore, I thought I should tell you. You are a friend of Lixin and I can’t simply watch you go to your death."
He Jin stood up straight with his back against the wall, hands folded as his eyes stared at Gong Xiangyi’s face that was full of sympathy and pity. He faintly said, "Keep talking."
Gong Xiangyi raised her brows, quickly loosening the fists she unconsciously had clenched as she slowly said, "Lu Zhenxuan is dead. After having mutated into a zombie, he was killed by his men. Your brother Zhao An gathered the other members of Poisonous Wolf mercenary team and set out for the location of Lu family’s firearms before dedicating the huge number of arms to the Song family. They are a small base with few supplies. He’s now an ability user with the Power Ability and has the capability to survive in the apocalypse. However, if you go back with Lu Yun, everything will crumble because the Poisonous Wolf team members are loyal only to you. Therefore, he will join Song Haoxuan’s - the current leader of the Song family - side. At that time, you will hit a dead end in your path."
Gong Xiangyi stopped speaking and looked up to see He Jin’s expression. She said all the facts from before, but the last sentence was a lie. He did not die at that time. Song Haoxuan changed his mind after understanding He Jin’s strength and character. He saved him instead and killed Zhao An. Of course, Lu Yun and Wu Ming didn’t escape either.
Song Haoxuan was good at seeing people’s potential and was quite adept at controlling those around him. It was he who decided who got killed and when. He was also the one who determined who lived, but hid it quite well. Few people knew this inside story. He appeared as a savior and one would be none the wiser about the truth until the day of their death. If his men didn’t do a good job and missed an insider, Lin Wenbo wouldn’t have found out and set himself against him.
He Jin’s dark and unclear eyes were hard to read. Even when the bottom of his heart tumbled with turbulent waves, nothing showed on the surface.
He was trying to digest Gong Xiangyi’s words. He didn’t want to believe those words but still, he couldn’t help but believe. His team members have been borrowing Lu Zhenxuan’s firearms and ammunition for the past two years and certainly knew the location of Lu Zhenxuan’s arsenal. Moreover, he understood the nature of his team members. They were not loyal to Lu Zhenxuan. Once the person is dead, they would take the chance to grab the arms for their own chance to live. They would 100% do this. If he were in Kyoto that time, he would make the same decision.
What really touched his heart was Zhao An’s betrayal. It is said that power, money, and beauty were the most captivating things to the human eye. Zhao An didn’t love beauty nor money, but he cared greatly about power. Otherwise, he would not have strongly persuaded him to kill Lu Zhenxuan. Moreover, after the coming apocalypse, the legal system and moral standards of controlling one’s thoughts and actions started to collapse little by little. Various people in the society hid their darkest parts deep in their hearts and during chaos, those darkest parts were stimulated. Therefore, Zhao An was very likely to betray him.
Seeing Gong Xiangyi’s expression after she finished talking, He Jin frowned and glared with coldness in his eyes.
"A dead end?" He repeated Gong Xiangyi’s words and smiled contemptuously. "What Zhao An is thinking in his heart, I can tell with a glance. He had to deal with me since he was young and now the Song family? I have to congratulate him. He’s not a vegetarian." His words fell and he directly looked at Gong Xiangyi, his face showing his doubt.
Gong Xiangyi shuddered deep in her heart and looked straight back, stiffly adding, "If my prophecy’s correct, you’re a wind ability user and the strength of your ability is not weak. It does give you the ability to protect yourself. But don’t forget, you are being followed by Lu Yun. Lu Yun is a useless man with no ability and with an extremely reckless and impulsive character. Knowing that your companions took Lu family’s firearms in order to live well, and the fact that you are taking him to them, he’s just a time bomb waiting to explode. Not only will he kill himself, but he will also kill you and your brother."
Lu Yun heard this outside the door, shocking his heart. He tried to suppress his heavy breathing as his face became pale and showed a scared expression. After all, such bad news hit him in the face and he didn’t know how to handle it, let alone how to face He Jin.
He stepped back and hit Lin Wenbo. Lin Wenbo grabbed his shoulder and made a gesture to drive him away. Lu Yun nodded with a smile and left.
In the room, He Jin’s eyes flashed slightly and lowered his head before Gong Xiangyi, asking with what almost seemed like a smile, "Miss Gong’s prophecies has never been wrong?"
Gong Xiangyi nodded proudly. "Of course, I’ve never been wrong."
He Jin asked, "Can Miss Gong foresee everyone’s fate?"
"Not everyone," Gong Xiangyi waved it off, "only those people I’m relatively close with will I be able to foresee."
He Jin stood up straight and slowly walked towards Gong Xiangyi, looking down at her as he spoke in a cold voice. "Since Miss Gong can foresee the fate of people Miss Gong is close to, why didn’t Miss Gong foresee Lixin’s departure? Why didn’t you look after him and protect him?"
Gong Xiangyi took two steps back. Her heart was flustered and she didn’t understand why he was suddenly talking about Gong Lixin.
He Jin sneered and continued speaking. "Maybe Miss Gong had already foreseen it but chose to let Lixin die." Seeing Gong Xiangyi’s obvious guilty expression, He Jin’s heart ignited with anger and his tone became even colder. "You can be so careless about your own younger brother, but why would you worry about the life and death of this stranger? Don’t tell me because I’m Lixin’s friend. After abandoning Lixin, don’t you think that reason is ridiculous? I can see through a woman like you: a good figure with good abilities, the reason why you told me is probably because one way or another, I’m somehow useful to you, no? Because I’ll probably be a strong figure in the future or because you value my ability? The so-called ’dead end’, did you make up that lie just so that you could use me? If not, then I really don’t see what value that I, this mortal person, has in the eyes of Miss Gong."
He Jin spoke out Gong Xiangyi’s selfish thoughts one by one. The expression on his face also got colder and colder. He slowly raised his hand and an invisible wind blade condensed in his hand as he thought of scraping Gong Xiangyi’s face with several cuts, like acupuncture.
"Stop, this is Uncle Gong’s base, not the place where you can kill people." Lin Wenbo felt He Jin start releasing his ability so he pushed the door open and grabbed his wrist. [1]
But still, he was a step too late. The wind blade broke away from He Jin’s hand and scratched Gong Xiangyi’s cheek before hitting the opposite wall. A half-moon shape was formed on the surface of the wall along with a few deep cracks which moved straight down the wall.
A long lock of hair fell to the ground as one side of Gong Xiangyi’s face felt as if she was cut by a knife. Although there was no wound on her, she still felt pain. Gong Xiangyi rubbed her face with one hand and grabbed Lin Wenbo’s arm with the other as her legs went soft. She thought that He Jin would be grateful to her, but she didn’t expect that He Jin would act like this.
At the same time, she regretted her actions at the beginning and hated her own reckless move towards Gong Lixin. If Gong Lixin didn’t leave, how could he trigger his ability? How could he get to know He Jin? Was this retribution for arbitrarily trying to change the fate of others? If she knew this, she wouldn’t have done anything and instead silently guard Gong Lixin from the beginning.
However, there was no medicine for regret in this world. Gong Xiangyi could only hide behind Lin Wenbo and seek his shelter.
He Jin saw Lin Wenbo, but there was still some coldness left on his face. He retracted his hand and spoke frankly. "Rest assured, I just wanted to scare her. I will definitely give face to Uncle Gong and will not move against his daughter."
The words fell before he opened his mouth again, his tone filled with strong sarcasm. "However, what do you even like about her? Is it her selfishness or stubbornness? Do you even know? When we returned to the Gong family compound, the Gong family had cleaned up and there wasn’t even a leaf in the refrigerator. Everything was gone. Only Lixin’s room was left intact. When she left, she didn’t take any items belonging to Lixin. This break in relation is really too quick and too clean! So, I kindly advise you to leave this woman as soon as possible unless you want your life to end in chaos."
Seeing Lin Wenbo’s ugly expression, He Jin laughed and walked away.
He couldn’t kill Gong Xiangyi in anger, but he could make her life uncomfortable. He could see that Gong Xiangyi may not care about others, but her love for Lin Wenbo was obvious. Sometimes, it was more effective to torture a person’s heart and let them lose something that was once most cherished. It was more effective than killing her directly and He Jin was deeply into this plan. Moreover, Gong Xiangyi was the daughter of Gong Yuanhang and the sister of Lixin, and she had such an unpredictable personality. The only thing he could do was to puncture her mask and let the other people around her improve their vigilance, so that Lixin could be safer and he could also get some peace of mind.
After the other walked away, Lin Wenbo took two steps and broke away from Gong Xiangyi’s hand on his arm before he turned to look at her pale face.
"Was that all true?" He whispered, his voice a bit dull and mixed with pain.
"I..." Gong Xiangyi couldn’t explain and quickly lowered her head to cover up her guilty conscience and confusion.
"When you left, you didn’t pack Xiaoxin’s things. Did you even prepare it? One year, one year was enough for you to gather his things yet you didn’t. Just hand them over to me and I’ll send it to him." He thought of that small empty room he had seen last night and then compared it with Gong Xiangyi’s exquisite and gorgeous room. Lin Wenbo’s expression twisted for a moment.
Gong Xiangyi’s head went even lower and a thin layer of cold sweat formed on her forehead. Where would she take those things from and hand it over to Lin Wenbo? She had determined that Gong Lixin would die and didn’t prepare any daily necessities for the other.
The two stood opposite each other and remained quiet. Lin Wenbo pulled his lips into an ugly smile. He whispered with sarcasm, "Gong Xiangyi, you are so kind! You can keep the things you prepared for me. I don’t need it."
After he finished, he was deeply disappointed. Gong Xiangyi looked up and showed an incredulous and heart-wrenching expression as he left the room without any reluctance. The scenes of them getting along with each other kept coming to mind. He closed his eyes and burned those memories one by one. Right then, the thought of Gong Xiangyi of preparing clothes and daily necessities for him had now turned to disappointment.
Obviously, they were the same person, why was the difference so big? It was too great a difference for him to accept! Lin Wenbo’s heart was in pain that he didn’t notice when he returned to his room.
After a while, he pulled open his closet and took out all his neatly-placed clothes and carefully selected them on the bed. Leaving a small part for himself, the rest were stacked and put into a travel bad along with a razor, toothpaste, soap, and other daily necessities taken from the bathroom. Then, he walked towards Gong Lixin’s room.
[1] CrazedCookies: WHHYYY!!!!