TDRA Chapter 22

(T/N: This chapter is dedicated to Julio, once again thank you for your kind support.)

“You aren’t afraid of me.” This sentence was not a question but an affirmation.

“Why should I be afraid of you.” This reply was certainly not a question, either.

There was something inexplicably righteous about it.

“You killed a man on my property and you’re so justified?” This time it was a question.

“I’ve killed the man who deserved to be killed. Because it was the right thing to do, thus it was justified.”

Bai Lang stared fixedly at Gu Ning for a moment, then said with a tsk: “I really don’t want to kill you at all.”

The underlying meaning of this statement was that he had intended to kill her again.

The look of interest in those long slanted eyes caused Gu Ning’s pupils to shrink slightly and her mind started spinning.

That smirk on Bai Lang had a hint of cruelty as if he was teasing Gu Ning but his words changed: “Even though I’m the boss, I can’t be so capricious as to say I won’t kill you. But for the sake of you being a minor, I’ll give you a chance.” As he said that, he placed down his long legs from the desk and stood up to walk towards Gu Ning. He looked to be at least 1.85 m, and when he walked, his body swayed naturally and effortlessly with his stride. His body exuded a strong aura to show his territory, enveloping the whole room, including Gu Ning in it.

It took a great deal of self-control for Gu Ning to force herself not to take a step back.

“That little knife at the back of your waist, better keep it there unless you don’t want that little hand anymore.”

Gu Ning’s hand that was resting on the hilt of her pocket knife at her back waist stiffened and froze. She raised her eyes to stare at Bai Lang who had already arrived in front of her, her pupils slightly shrank.

“Scared? It’s only right to be scared. Otherwise, I would have thought that because I hadn’t killed anyone myself for some time, I don’t look like a bad person anymore.” He casually said, but the malicious intent in his eyes was very strong. Bai Lang reached out to brush Gu Ning’s hand away before pulling the small knife out of her back waist.

His long, bony hand squeezed the handle of the knife, and the knife swirled back and forth between his fingers, like a living snake, without hurting himself, not even a tiny bit. In the end, the small knife was cupped and rested on Gu Ning’s face. The smile in his eyes did not diminish, but there was now a hint of chill in them: “I’m not in the habit of threatening little girls, but it is best not to play with knives in front of me. I, for one, have a habit of wanting to kill people when I see a knife.”

Gu Ning felt the cold blade resting on her face, her eyes still stubbornly staring at him, but the pupils of her eyes tightened uncontrollably. The fear in the depths of her eyes was easily captured by Bai Lang.

At that moment, there was a sudden rhythmic knock on the door three times.

A slender figure appeared in the wide-open doorway: “Bai Lang.”

The man was wearing an immaculate white shirt, with a pair of gold-rimmed frames on the bridge of his nose, looking very civilized. He nodded slightly to Gu Ning in a very polite manner before looking back at Bai Lang and tapped the watch on his wrist and said: “It’s meeting time.”

“What the hell do you mean there’s a meeting? I’m not free at the moment.” Bai Lang said impatiently as he casually threw the small knife onto the table, then gave Gu Ning a threatening glare from above and said: “Little girl, be a good girl and follow your uncle’s a** around and don’t give me any trouble. Otherwise, your Uncle San can’t protect you.” He kicked the stool that was blocking the way and cursed: “What the hell do we have meeting all day long.  Being the boss, I can’t even do as one pleases.”

With that Bai Lang wandered out the door.

“You can go now, Brother San is waiting for you at the stairway.” The man said to Gu Ning, then quickly followed Bai Lang in front of him.

“How’s that? You insisted on meeting this murderous little girl, so how does it feel?” The man took a slight half step behind and addressed Bai Lang.

As Bai Lang thought about Gu Ning’s reaction just now, a snort of disdain escaped his lips and spoke: “Boring as hell.” After saying that, he added emotionally: “This post-apocalyptic world is really getting more and more boring.”

Gu Ning was left alone in the room.

Gu Ning slowly stood up straight and walked over to the desk, putting back the knife that had been casually thrown on the desk into her back waist. Watching the wide-open door and listening to the conversation in the corridor, her gaze flickered slightly, under the blonde hair, the pair of eyes were now reflecting brightly without any trace of fear in them.

It’s difficult to balance between not drawing that person’s interest and not implicating anyone else from her actions. Also, she couldn’t act too deliberately on it but fortunately, she played her part well.

Walking out, Brother San was indeed standing at the stairway waiting.

As he watched Gu Ning walkout, his tightly furrowed brows didn’t relax.

“Bai Lang didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Brother San asked, frowning.

“It’s fine. I’m underage.” Gu Ning made a joke out of Brother San’s words.

However Brother San didn’t laugh, still frowning, and spoke: “It’s fine now, but I’m afraid that something will happen later.”

Gu Ning paused walking down the stairs and asked: “Bai Lang said that he would give me a chance, what chance was it?”

Brother San’s footsteps also stopped and he glanced at Gu Ning before replying: “A chance to fight for your life.”

Gu Ning and Brother San made their way down the stairs and they saw the group of people anxiously waiting in the hall.

Jia DaoZhang with his sharp eyes, spotted Gu Ning at once and shouted: “Hey! They’re coming down!”

The crowd surged over at once to surround Gu Ning in the centre.

Everyone started speaking at once: “Gu Ning, is everything alright?”

“Gu Ning, did those people give you a hard time?”

“It’s fine.” Gu Ning smiled in response and then asked worriedly: “Where are my parents?”

“They’ve settled down in the student dormitory, your Mom woke up for a while, but perhaps she was too tired so she fell asleep again. Huang MengYao said that there was nothing wrong with the wound and she’s taking care of them now in the dormitory.” Jia DaoZhang paused for a while before continuing: “But for your Dad’s case, it is a bit more troublesome. Huang MengYao said she couldn’t handle your Dad’s wounds.”

Brother San spoke: “There is a doctor in our colony. I’ll have someone guide her there later. Now the problem is getting the medicine though, all the medicine found in the school infirmary was taken away by Bai Lang and the others.”

Jia DaoZhang was surprised and asked: “You are not in cahoots with Bai Lang?”

Brother San glanced at him and replied: “Who told you that I was in the league with Bai Lang?”

“Brother San used to be the commander of our third company! How could he be with □□□?!” Zhang Yang interjected excitedly.

Gu Ning wasn’t too surprised, even though Brother San sat in the truck with his eyes closed and pretending to sleep, but his back was naturally straight, plus the way he behaved along the way, as well as the army cards and the guns they were holding. Gu Ning had more or less guessed that Brother San was probably in the military.

“So you’re a soldier too? How come you’re so bad with shooting?” Jia DaoZhang asked Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang clenched the gun in his hand and turned red as he replied: “I’m in the cooking squad!” It was because he had failed his marksmanship test that he was transferred to the cooking squad. At this point, Zhang Yang was about to cry when he was asked by Jia DaoZhang in front of so many people, and now that they knew he was a bad marksman.

“Alright.” Gu Ning interrupted Jia DaoZhang who wanted to continue and then said to Brother San: “First, let her go and check on my father’s leg and make a list of medicine needed and I’ll get it.”

“All right then. Zhang Yang, go to the school infirmary and invite Doctor Gao over.”

“Got it.” Zhang Yang answered, and then trotted off to the school infirmary with his gun on his back.

Doctor Gao was soon brought in.

What was slightly surprising was that Doctor Gao was a very young woman, probably around twenty-seven or eight years old. She had short hair, wore a white grey shirt, a pair of ankle cut jeans which revealed her slender ankles, along a pair of black shoes while carrying a medicine box on her back. Although a little dirty, she still managed to give off a very clean and fresh look.

She strode over with the medicine box on her back and asked after a nod to Brother San: “Where’s the patient?”

“He’s in the student dormitory. I’ll ask Zhang Yang to take you there.” Brother San said, turning to Gu Ning: “Gu Ning, I have other things to take care of. If you need to find me, just go to the fifth floor of the teacher’s building and look for me.”

“Alright. Thank you, Uncle San.” Gu Ning nodded and replied without changing how he was addressed since she was doing a show, then she had to play it until the end.

Gu Ning and the others then walked towards the student dormitory led by Zhang Yang.

“You’re the little girl who killed someone in front of the school?” Doctor Gao, who was walking on the side, suddenly said.

Gu Ning would be turning 23 this year, and always being called a little girl made her feel slightly awkward. Doctor Gao asked the question so straightforwardly that made Gu Ning slightly unsure on how to reply, but she still honestly replied: “Yes.”

“Good kill.” Doctor Gao said indifferently: “That kind of person living in this world is a waste of supplies.”

Gu Ning was slightly stunned, then smiled without speaking.

Then she surveyed the surroundings.

There were a lot of people rushing by on both sides of the road, only a few students left here, the majority of the students’ first reaction when the apocalypse started was to run back home. Now the school had more people coming from the outside. It had been more than three months since the apocalypse started, and it was hard to see any people dressed neatly and in good spirits on the road anymore, everyone had numbed expressions when they walked past Gu Ning.

Not many people threw extra glances their way since the place was receiving lots of people daily and everyone was too busy thinking about a way to survive rather than sparing their concern to others.

However, when they saw that Gu Ning’s group was heading to the dormitory building, they still couldn’t help but look over.

All the desks in the school buildings and classrooms had been moved out and piled up in the open space.

The classroom was full of people, dozens of them, men, women, and children. Those who didn’t have any luggage had to sleep on the concrete floor with a few books or newspapers. The environment was very harsh.

The weather was getting colder by the day, the classrooms were so big and draughty, sleeping on the floor without a cover made it easy for people with different physiques to catch a cold. Right now, medicine was more expensive than gold, and once you caught a cold, there was no other way but to fight it. If you’re unable to withstand it, you die.

Now and then, a dying person would be carried out and they never returned.

On the contrary, the dormitory building was a very different environment, not only did it have beds to sleep on, but if they were lucky, there were clothes and bedding left behind by the students when they fled, as well as some household items and so on.

There were only two types of people who could live in the dormitory building.

It was either you have connections with the higher up in the colony.

Or second, if you had submitted enough supplies.

Only when one of these two conditions was met, would one be able to live in the dormitory building.

Gu Ning and the others were clearly from the former.

As long as there were people gathered, there would be a potential set of rules for survival. It’s just that in this post-apocalyptic world, these unspoken rules have started to become even more blatant.

===============================================================

(T/N: Hehe bonus post! Thanks to Julio! Now back to the update schedule =))

(Editor: De Vile)