You Want Me to Go on an Expedition to the City?

“It tickles.”

I closed my eyes gently, feeling the Leader’s embrace.

Subconsciously, I snuggled closer. Being freezing cold made me instinctively burrow toward the warmth.

I felt less like a human and more like a pathetically stupid small animal.

It shouldn’t be like this. I consider myself reasonably clever.

In a situation like this, I should have stayed motionless and let the Leader do as she pleased, rather than actively throwing myself into her arms.

“Don’t act cute. Acting cute won’t help you. I’m not giving you anything anyway.”

She stopped stroking my hair and pinched my earlobe instead.

I felt my face start to heat up.

“Mmh.”

I responded, gradually feeling bored. Sitting in the Leader’s lap, I couldn’t do anything.

So, I started playing with my fingers again.

“Leader?”

She pried my fingers apart, squeezed my hands together, and pinned them on top of my head.

Didn’t she say she would spare me this time? What is she doing now?

“It’s nothing. I’m just bored.”

If you’re bored, then leave! What is the point of sitting in my house holding me?

Daring to be angry but not daring to speak, I could only narrow my eyes and smile silently.

“Yesterday, my two neighbors died.”

Sensing that the Leader’s hands were starting to get restless, I took the initiative to start a conversation, trying to distract her.

If I stayed silent any longer, I figured I was going to be in big trouble again.

“You killed them.”

Hearing this, she pushed me away from her embrace, then yanked me back onto the bed just as I was about to fall.

Lying on my back, dizzy and disoriented, I started to ponder the Leader’s words.

It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. What was she trying to do now?

“Leader, you know I couldn’t have done that.”

After thinking about it, the only conclusion was that the Leader wanted to find an excuse to bully me again.

For the Leader, it was revenge. Well, it didn’t matter. Whether it was bullying or revenge, it was all the same to me.

I smiled helplessly. My golden hair fell to the side of my face. Was it my imagination, or had it grown a little longer?

“If I say you killed them, then you killed them.”

She pressed down on me again, using her thigh to pry my legs apart, and leaned over my upper body, looking me in the eye.

“Hah~ So, how do you want to punish me, Leader? As long as it’s your decision, I can accept it.”

Faced with her forcefulness, I was powerless to resist, so I chose to give up on myself.

I probably couldn’t escape today. I just hoped the Leader would take my injuries into account and go easy on me.

It’s not that my head is filled with lewd thoughts, but almost every time I see the Leader, it ends up like this. Qin Dai is much the same.

Especially Qin Dai. She always acts deeply devoted to her ex while committing atrocities against my body.

She calls it revenge, but it’s really just another form of betrayal. I despise Qin Dai. Even though I can’t fight back against her.

Compared to Qin Dai, what the Leader does fits her status.

The Leader has always been promiscuous.

“…You’re not as cheerful as when we first met.”

The Leader seemed a bit dazed.

Well, duh. Anyone who encountered so many terrible things wouldn’t be able to stay cheerful.

I think I’m already being quite open-minded about it.

“Eh? Really? That must be your imagination, Leader.”

Smiling, I took the initiative to kiss the Leader’s lips, a touch that lasted only a second.

Her dazed expression vanished, and she wiped her lips with a look of disgust.

“Cut it out. I said we aren’t doing it, so we aren’t.”

Then let go of me!

“Tomorrow, a convoy is going to Tongda to search for supplies. You’re going with them.”

After a brief silence, the Leader got off me and gave me an order I couldn’t refuse.

“Tongda? That’s a heavy-radiation zone… are you sure you want me to go?”

I pointed at myself and tilted my head to look at the Leader.

She was expressionless, her brown eyes as cold as a deep, dark spring.

“Yes.”

She reached out and gently stroked my right eye socket. The action gave me the illusion that I was about to end up in the same state as the teddy bear.

“Meet at the camp gate tomorrow morning. If you make it back alive, I might stop coming for you.”

The Leader said this, but the hand stroking my eye socket pressed harder.

The condition she offered was tempting. It meant I would only have two people left to please. But I didn’t think I could come back alive from a heavy-radiation zone.

Besides, even if I did come back, it was highly likely the Leader was lying to me. After all, lying to me cost her nothing, and she didn’t need to be accountable.

“Okay…”

Knowing it was a scam, I agreed anyway.

Because I couldn’t refuse. Even if I said I didn’t want to go, the Leader would just force me.

I reached out and gently rubbed the Leader’s finger resting on my eye socket.

Her fingertips were calloused and hard; it was uncomfortable being pressed like that.

She probably sensed my discomfort and withdrew her hand.

“Hey, hey, did you prepare a hazmat suit for me, Leader?”

I hugged her gently, resting my head against her chest.

“I told you, don’t act cute. Hazmat suits are limited; there isn’t one for you.”

I was pushed away…

She got off me, got out of bed, picked up the teddy bear and the black eye she had gouged out from the floor, and threw them both at me.

“…”

I sat up, looking at her with a loss for words.

Great. I gradually understood everything. She just found me an eyesore and wanted me to go die somewhere far away.

“Don’t make that face. Although you don’t have a hazmat suit, I prepared anti-radiation medicine for you. Take one every hour.”

She impatiently threw a white plastic bottle at me. No label, nothing else.

Even the lid was just a snap-cap that closed with a press. The seal was visibly poor.

Is this thing really useful?

“Um… thank you, Leader.”

I didn’t think this so-called medicine would work. I just felt the Leader was tricking me into sending myself to my death.

But I thanked her anyway.

If worse came to worst, I thought, maybe I could run away halfway.

“Alright, I’m leaving.”

She turned around, not looking at me again, and walked toward the door on her own.

I wanted to follow her out of politeness, but by the time I got out the door, the Leader was nowhere to be seen.

Turning my head, I realized a bag of potatoes had been left at the door.

Did the Leader leave them? I don’t know. Not sure.

A bag of potatoes wasn’t enough to improve my impression of her. After all, she already wanted me dead.

These potatoes were probably so I could be a ghost with a full stomach.

“Sigh… still have to pack and go to Su Yanlan’s. Live one day at a time, I guess.”

I sighed and went back into the room.

There didn’t seem to be much left to pack. I probably wouldn’t live long anyway.

I just put on the coat Su Yanlan gave me, then stuffed the so-called anti-radiation pills and the teddy bear’s eye into my pocket. That counted as packing.

Holding the teddy bear in one hand and the bag of potatoes the Leader left in the other, I left my home and headed toward Su Yanlan’s shop.