Grudge

Ridiculous!

Tang Ling looked at Su Yao before him calmly with that only thought in his mind.

He could not describe the despair in his heart. He had once tried so hard to bring his Grandmother and his sister into the Safety Sector, yet when he woke up, he realized that only he alone had survived. Inside the Safety Sector, facing a man named Su Yao, who was as strong as a bull, his identity was still hidden.

What would he say? What reaction would he give? Tang Ling feared nothing anymore as his heart was as dead as ash! After losing his mental support, he was no longer afraid of dying.

"Fine." After staring into Tang Ling's empty gaze for close to a minute, Su Yao felt defeated, and he simply threw Tang Ling on the bed.

"Is this the attitude you show to your life savior?" Su Yao was a little angry, but he actually felt more helpless than angry. He sat on the sofa with both his long and robust legs placed on top of the little tea table with a heavy thud.

Su Yao took another cigarette out and lit it. He felt that he needed to put in some extra effort.

Tang Ling, on the other hand, showed no response at all. He maintained the posture in which Su Yao had thrown him on the bed. In fact, Tang Ling could no longer move. When he woke up, the weakness in his body was far stronger than anything before this.

In addition to that, he had stood in front of the window for almost eight hours.

That was the only belief that supported him. If there was a hell, he ought to go there. Then, at least he could tell his grandmother and his sister how Safety Sector No. 17 was like.

As a matter of fact, the sector was nothing like heaven.

With muddy roads, rows of stone houses overlapped each other. Some were tall and some were short, but every single one of them was as narrow as an ant box. It was suffocating.

One's sight could not reach too far within the sector. The level of congestion which could even shadow the sky stopped many places from seeing the light, so it was as dark as dusk.

Even though it was a part of Safety Sector No. 17, would they be any happier than the people in the settlement?

Perhaps they had a sense of safety.

Tang Ling's heart was pained by the despairing numbness. He did not even react to the knocking from outside the room.

Instead, Su Yao gave Tang Ling the side-eye, who was as dead as a corpse on the bed, before he opened the door.

It was the cooking maiden, wiggling her hips flirtatiously as she walked in with a pot of fragrant meat soup.

She did not care about Tang Ling at all as she placed the soup on the table and looked at Su Yao with a bashful gaze, unwilling to leave. Unfortunately for her, Su Yao answered her with a less-than-friendly gaze, sending her sulking on her way.

"Drink it." Su Yao put the meat in front of Tang Ling, speaking in a tone that he thought was kind enough.

As a matter of fact, the meat soup looked very inviting. The steaming soup had been boiled for almost a whole day, and the milky white soup had a layer of glistening oil on top. The large piece of meat was originally tough, yet it was boiled to its softest state whereby the meat would simply slide off the bone.

The lush and precious vegetables were probably put inside last. They were floating on top of the milky white soup.

Tang Ling had lived for 15 years, yet he had not even seen such an extravagant meat soup before. He could not even picture it if he heard about it.

"Hehe, living in this era, yet you don't even have the least sincerity towards food! It seems like after you recover, based on this attitude of yours alone, I'll have to beat you up badly." Su Yao was strangely not angry anymore although he cracked his knuckles. 

He calmly stopped talking as he walked to the corner of the room. He opened the closet and took a backpack out. He then held Tang Ling up and threw him over to the backpack.

A loud thud sounded when Tang Ling fell on the sturdy floor, but strangely, his body lost even all sense of pain. Su Yao casually squatted down and opened the backpack.

A dress stained with blood was brought to Tang Ling's sight.

Tang Ling lifted his head suddenly. Even though the dress was torn beyond recognition, the familiar floral pattern and patches were recognizable at a single glance.

It was a cotton dress which was San San's favorite and most extravagant dress. 

Even if she was escaping for her life, she had purposely worn it inside her robe.

Tang Ling swiftly snatched the dress over and held it tightly in his hands. He buried his face in the dress as though he could still smell the familiar fragrance of dried pogostemon stellatus leaves.

"San San…" Dry and painful words came out from Tang Ling's mouth. He wanted to cry, but no tears came out and his eyes were in extreme agony.

"Unfortunately, that's all I can find. Living in this era, you might need to get used to the fact that a well and healthy person might turn into nothing in the blink of an eye." Su Yao's tone softened. It was obvious that he tried to comfort Tang Ling, but the words sounded more despairing than ever.

Tang Ling did not reply, but his eyes had a trace of gratitude. He could not care less about his life anymore, but he thanked the man before him who had the heart to retrieve this torn little dress.

"Here, take this too. I can't do anything. There was very little of her body left, so…" As he spoke, Su Yao took a very small pot out of the backpack and put it in front of Tang Ling.

Tang Ling was not stupid. He knew what Su Yao was talking about. He reached out to the clay pot and it was unbelievably light.

Because Tang Ling used too much of his strength, his joints started to turn white. It was also the only strength he had left, which was used to hold the torn little dress and the little pot that held Grandmother's ashes.

"Thank you." With his head down, Tang Ling spat those two words out painfully, and his eyes grew even more empty.

The remains were not a comfort; it actually shattered the last bit of hope and fantasy he had.

"Does 'thank you' mean anything now? I thought hatred could bring you back up." Su Yao took a deep puff and squinted his eyes again.

Tang Ling was still lost. Hatred? Was it to find those zombies? He yearned to live with his grandmother and his sister together.

Would find those mindless zombies bear any meaning? Tang Ling had zero motivation.

Su Yao was not in a hurry though. He sat with crossed legs in front of Tang Ling as he spat out a mouthful of smoke and took another item out from his arms to pass it to the latter.

"You wouldn't think that all this is merely a coincidence, would you? Just look at this. Every debt has a debtor! If you are really a man, even if you want to die, shouldn't you be responsible for yourself? Perhaps even those stupid as pigs high ranks of Safety Sector No. 17 could hardly absolve themselves from the blame, would they not?" It seemed like he deemed the fire in Tang Ling was not burning fierce enough, hence he purposely added fuel to it.

Looking at the item in Su Yao's hand, Tang Ling suddenly widened his eyes. He was so shaken that he wanted to stand, but the weakness forced him down on his knees.

"W-Where did it come from?" Tang Ling's breaths quickened. In his weakened state, it was difficult for him to speak and asking the question out loud used up all his strength. His face was flushed.

"From the battle, but unfortunately, I didn't win. I consider it luck for coming back alive! But do you still have any reason to lose in the future?" Su Yao explained casually.

Tang Ling snatched the item from Su Yao's hand. Shockingly, it was a lock of silver white hair.