Please Don’t Be Angry

In the distance, Su Yanlan finally finished her conversation with the woman I didn’t recognize. She noticed me sitting alone on the wolf carcass and walked briskly towards me.

“Ha, cough cough, sorry, Miss Yanlan, I ruined the clothes again.”

Hastily wiping the blood and mud from my face, I smiled again.

I wasn’t happy at all, but I had to smile. Because no one likes a guy who always looks miserable.

I covered the still-bleeding wound on my left shoulder. The black padded coat had been torn by that damned wolf, exposing the white cotton inside.

Oh, wait, the exposed cotton wasn’t white; it was red. Dyed red by my blood.

“…”

She came up to me, moved my hand covering my shoulder away, and frowned at the exposed cotton.

We had an agreement not to damage this coat. Clearly, I had broken the contract again.

The gentle Miss Yanlan was about to turn into the malicious Su Yanlan.

It was all that damned wolf’s fault! If it was going to die, it should have stayed dead; why did it have to suddenly come back to life?

“I’m sorry, please don’t be angry.”

Without time to think further, I extended both hands to cup Su Yanlan’s cold hand, trying to warm her with my own body heat.

The wound on my shoulder hurt more because of my movement, but I had no choice. If Su Yanlan got angry, the consequences would be severe.

In this convoy, I only knew Qin Dai and Su Yanlan. I had already angered Qin Dai; I couldn’t let Su Yanlan get angry too.

“Does it hurt?”

She didn’t answer my plea. Instead, she pulled her hand free, squatted down, and examined the tear in the clothing closely.

On the left shoulder, besides the blood-soaked cotton, there was a glaring footprint. That was left by Qin Dai.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

That was a lie. The wound really hurt. The flesh had been pierced by the wolf’s teeth, and then crushed repeatedly by Qin Dai’s foot just now.

“Miss Qin Yue.”

She softly called my name and peeled the padded coat halfway down, revealing the white long-sleeved shirt I wore underneath.

The left shoulder was still a mess of blood red.

“Hmm? …Hiss…”

Just as I wanted to respond, the next moment, she thrust her fingers into the bloody hole left by the wolf.

Pain. Intense pain. Even my body couldn’t help but tremble.

But I didn’t resist because my remaining rationality told me that resisting would make it worse. Just like with Qin Dai earlier—if I hadn’t impulsively verbally attacked her and pointed a gun at her, would the outcome have been better?

“Does it hurt?”

Smiling, Su Yanlan exerted force with her hand. In a trance, I seemed to hear the sizzling sound of flesh and blood being squeezed.

“No… it’s fine. As long as Miss Yanlan is happy… I don’t mind?”

I forced a smile. with every word I spoke, Su Yanlan’s force increased. By the end, even my tone had changed.

What a utterly unlucky life.

“Mm…”

Seeing that I had no intention of resisting, she finally let go. Every joint of her five fingers was stained with my blood.

As she pulled away, cold wind poured into the wound, cooling my body that had heated up from the pain. I started to feel a bit chilly.

I didn’t dare to get up or pull my clothes back up. I waited for Su Yanlan’s next words.

“This piece.”

She reached out and circled an area on my chest. Even through the padded coat and shirt, I still felt a slight itch.

“Mm, so, please don’t be angry anymore, okay? Miss Yanlan.”

I understood what she meant. Last time I broke the contract, the skin on my collarbone became hers. Now it was my chest?

By the time the skin all over my body was signed away, I would probably be dead.

I still remembered the promise I made last time to avoid being skinned. Wait until I made more mistakes, and then she could peel off all my skin at once.

Okay, I admit I regretted making that promise, but I couldn’t go back on it. Going back on my word would only lead to a more miserable death.

“Fine.”

She nodded, helped me put my clothes back on properly, and then supported me as I climbed onto the truck.

It was still that corner covered with the rain tarp, but I was much more pathetic than before.

Because of the conflicts that had occurred with Qin Dai and Su Yanlan, and my disadvantaged position, the surrounding soldiers no longer regarded me as a cyborg like Su Yanlan.

However, because of Su Yanlan’s presence, they didn’t directly make trouble and tell me to get off the truck, tolerating this small privilege.

The wound wasn’t bandaged, and there was no medicine here to treat it. I could only tear a strip of cloth from the shirt inside my padded coat and clumsily bind the wound myself.

As for whether it would get inflamed or infected, that was no longer something I could decide.

Leaning against the side wall, I wiped away non-existent tears. I lamented my bad luck.

In just a few days, I had received more injuries than in the past few years combined and encountered harsh treatment I had never faced before.

Did I feel wronged? No, because I brought it on myself. Was it painful? Yes, it was painful.

“A total of fifty-three mutants were killed, all wolf-like creatures. Twelve people died, eight were seriously injured. The seriously injured were left behind, and their guns and ammunition were confiscated.”

Su Yanlan leaned beside me, quietly recounting the losses she and another cyborg had tallied.

The convoy had lost twenty combatants in one go. I hadn’t counted exactly how many people were in the convoy before entering the forest, but twenty was obviously not a small number.

As the engine started, the convoy began to move again. The tires crushed the scattered corpses on the ground, pressing them into meat paste.

“Hoo…”

Taking a deep breath and feeling the cold wind blow across my cheek, a hint of drowsiness hit me.

“What’s wrong?”

Beside me, Su Yanlan had reverted to her gentle self, as if she wasn’t the one who had just tortured me by squeezing my wound.

She rubbed my hair with one hand and gently rested the other on my forearm. My drowsiness became more pronounced.

Would I fall asleep and never wake up? An inauspicious thought popped into my head out of nowhere.

“It’s nothing, Miss Yanlan. Are you really not angry anymore?”

I shook my head and stared into Su Yanlan’s eyes, hoping for a definitive answer.

“Mm.”

Hearing her response, I finally relaxed completely. I didn’t have to worry about being thrown off the truck by Su Yanlan while sleeping and then crushed by the wheels.

Yes, I planned to sleep on the truck. For no other reason than that I felt terrible. Before the apocalypse, my mother once told me that when you feel bad, just sleep it off.

“Goodnight… Miss Yanlan.”

Tentatively leaning on Su Yanlan’s shoulder to ensure she wouldn’t get angry, I then took out the anti-radiation medicine I had taken once before from my pocket.

Regardless of whether it worked or not, I’d take it first. Taking medicine is better than taking nothing.

With this thought, I opened the cap, poured out a pill, and swallowed it whole.

Closing my eyes and emptying my mind, finally… before the side effects of the drug kicked in, I fell into a deep sleep.

Miss Su Yanlan, I hope you really aren’t angry anymore.