Chapter 731: Unwelcome Company

Feng Wen went on and on, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at Xia Qing as if she was ready to bare her soul.

“Are you done?” Xia Qing’s face stayed calm. “Please leave. I’m busy.”

Feng Wen shot to her feet, chest heaving. “Xia Qing… are you really this heartless?”

“Heartless? Was there ever anything between us to break off?” Xia Qing answered coolly. “First of all, the evolved fighters’ dorms are two people per room. I’m an evolved. I applied for my spot the proper way, not because you let me stay.”

Back when Xia Qing moved into the evolved fighters’ dorm, only four rooms were available: two housed auditory evolutionaries, one had a vision evolutionary, and one was with a scent evolutionary.

Not wanting to expose her hearing and vision abilities, she chose to room with the scent evolutionary. Evolved fighters were sharp and sensitive to each other’s abilities—sharing with an auditory or vision evolutionary would’ve been far too risky.

“Second, you’ve never helped me—so why should I help you?”

Xia Qing and Feng Wen had shared a dorm for four years. When Xia Qing was sick in bed and couldn’t move, Feng Wen didn’t bother bringing her a sip of water. When muscle overuse left Xia Qing’s arms too sore to lift, forcing her to gnaw on compressed ration bars just to eat, Feng Wen just stood by laughing, not even willing to tear open the packaging.

And then there was that time after returning from a mission—before stepping into the bathroom, she suffered Feng Wen’s mockery as she held her nose; after coming out, she discovered her hard-earned supplies had vanished—stolen by Feng Wen. That anger still burned.

After reclaiming her things, Xia Qing welded together a few sturdy metal lockers and locked all her supplies inside.

Under Xia Qing’s cold gaze, Feng Wen’s bravado faded but she still tried to plead, “If you hate me so much, shouldn’t you let me stay? Let me work for you—do the laundry, cook… humiliate me…”

Hate? They were just not on friendly terms, that was all. Xia Qing’s voice turned even colder. “Will you walk out yourself, or should I drag you out?”

Clutching her backpack, Feng Wen stubbornly refused to go. “I know I was wrong before. Just let me stay in this little house, please. I’ve given up tons of evidence on Tang Rui and Tang Zheng. There’s nowhere left for me in the Safe Zone. The moment I go back, someone will kill me for sure.”

Tang Zhengrong and Tang Zhengsu might be gone, but the Sufeng Squad is still around—and so is Tang Lu. Feng Wen was genuinely scared now. She wouldn’t be begging Xia Qing to take her in otherwise.

Seeing Feng Wen wasn’t about to leave, Xia Qing took a step forward and reached out her hand.

“Ah!” Feng Wen screamed, hugged her backpack tight, and bolted outside.

She didn’t stop until she’d sprinted past the south gate of Section Three. Only then did Feng Wen turn and, still breathless, shriek, “Xia Qing—”

“You filthy bitch! You used to be so toxic, nobody’d even pay for you! You could only end up hauling rebar with some random guys on a worksite but still acted like you were something special. Now that you’re cured and filled out, you latched right onto Hu Zifeng from Azure Dragon Squad, living off a man and making him do your work! I’ve always looked down on women like you…”

Hearing Feng Wen screaming insults about Xia Qing right outside the territory, Zhao Ze couldn’t take it anymore. He pressed his walkie-talkie, “Sister Qing, want me to go out there and teach her a lesson?”

Yuan Yan had heard the rant, too. “Feng Wen’s got nothing left to lose. If you so much as touch her, she’ll collapse and play dead until you’re stuck taking care of her.”

Zhu Li, listening in from Territory Six, was long since immune to these kinds of rants but wasn’t sure if Xia Qing could stomach it. “Sister Qing, should we call the Inspection Team to make her leave?”

“Just ignore her.” After so many years in the Safe Zone, Xia Qing had heard almost every insult under the sun. If she’d lost her temper every time someone badmouthed her, she’d have dropped dead from rage long ago. No way she could’ve survived this long if every word cut her deeply.

Tang Huai squeezed through the wild grass wall, tone gentle as he tried to reason with Xia Qing. “You built the fields with your own hands. Even the path from Section Three to Hill Forty-Nine, you cleared it yourself, but rumor has it Hu Zifeng supports you. And that’s just because the guy never bothers to defend you. People only believe what fits the gossip. Even if you were really that lonely and needed someone to live with, why pick someone like him…?”

“He’s defended me plenty of times. No one believes him, that’s all.” Xia Qing stood motionless in the middle of the passage, gaze fixed on the distant Feng Wen, deliberately giving off a sense that she cared much more than she really did.

Tang Huai grumbled on. “See? Why keep a man who can’t even say what needs saying…”

Feng Wen kept running, glancing over her shoulder. When she realized nobody was chasing her, she stopped to yell another round of insults before moving on. Only after she was over three kilometers away—far enough even a sniper rifle couldn’t reach—did she finally dare to rest, hands on her knees and gasping for breath.

Suddenly, a noise came from inside the wild grass wall. She jumped to her feet, clutching her knife, and slowly backed away.

Yuan Yan stepped out, standing by the signpost and silently watching Feng Wen in all her disheveled glory.

Having followed Tang Rui for almost a year, Feng Wen had seen the dossiers of Section One’s lords plenty of times. She recognized the tough, scarred woman instantly.

But so what if she was tough? At the end of the day, she was just another scrapper digging in the dirt. Feng Wen scoffed internally and walked on without a word.

Zhu Li, leaning against the signpost, watched Feng Wen approach. With a look of disdain, she waved the air in front of her face and covered her nose.

That gesture got under Feng Wen’s skin immediately—it was a sensitive spot for scent evolutionaries. But this was someone else’s territory; she didn’t dare start trouble with a bunch of muddy farmers, so she just quickened her pace.

After trekking all this way, her legs were so sore it felt like they’d snap.

“Tch!” Zhu Li was disappointed—she’d had a string of harsh words ready to let fly, only for Feng Wen to slink past in silence.

Passing north of Territory Fifteen, Feng Wen caught sight of Jiang Ying crouched in the wild grass wall, mumbling, “She used to be a level three evolved. How’d she end up like this…?”

Tan Qi whispered back, “My dad says—man or woman, evolved or not—you’ve got to keep learning and getting stronger to survive. Feng Wen, she’s a level three but dragging such a tiny pack and wiped out after just a little walk… clearly never put in the effort.”

Jiang Ying nodded. “That’s for sure!”

Once Xia Qing saw that Feng Wen hadn’t entered Territory Fourteen, she stopped listening to Tang Huai’s ramblings, turned around, and locked the main gate to her territory.

Not long after, Zhao Ze’s mother called to her over the lords’ channel.

When Xia Qing arrived at the northern gate, Zhao Ze’s mother was already there, holding a rabbit cage. Inside were two tiny, fluffy wild rabbits—just the sight warmed Xia Qing’s heart.

A month ago, Xia Qing had offered two adult rabbits as payment for Section Four’s help in raising an entire litter of baby rabbits. Thanks to Zhao Ze’s mother’s round-the-clock care, two out of the three injured little ones had survived.

Seeing that Xia Qing hadn’t been rattled by Feng Wen’s tirade, Zhao Ze’s mother swallowed all the consolation she’d planned to offer.

After handing over the rabbit cage, Zhao Ze’s mother took a bag of freshly steamed buns from her basket and pressed them into Xia Qing’s hands before she could protest. “They’re Yellow Lantern Snake and chive stuffed, just out of the pot. Eat while they’re hot and you can skip making lunch.”