translator: xiin
Chi Xiaochi wanted to turn back and check the results of his labor, but Boss Coal practically pounced him, blocking his hands and feet, cutting off his line of sight and making him unable to move. It leaned over against the side of Chi Xiaochi’s neck and left a hot, bloody kiss.
At the same time, 061 spoke coldly in his head, “Don’t move.”
Chi Xiaochi was stunned and obediently stopped moving.
Sun Yan was in the midst of worry when he heard a familiar voice. He was instantly joyful, “Vice-captain Gu!”
But when he turned back and saw his face, he didn’t quite dare to believe that he’d recognized the right person for a moment, “… Vice-captain… Gu?”
There was no other reason for it. Gu Xinzhi had changed too much.
He was now as thin as the gun he held in his hands, and his eyes were a dark, intense black.
If it could be said that his eyes used to be cold and indifferent, then now, only the cold was left, along with the look of a badly frightened person.
Sun Yan was both surprised and suspicious. He didn’t have time to think about how that young man who’d still been filled with spirit back then could’ve changed to this. Instead, he went forward, wanting to snatch Ding Qiuyun back from beneath Boss Coal’s paws, “Boss, don’t hug Captain Ding like that, let him catch his breath. Be good.”
His voice trembled.
After all, ‘Boss’, was a wild animal. Although it was known that beasts and hunters were always at odds, it had never shown malice to human-type creatures before.
Now that it had seen blood, and Captain Ding was also injured, he was really afraid that the leopard would become like a wild beast and attack Captain Ding.
But unexpectedly, the crisis he expected didn’t happen at all.
The fierce beast who’d slaughtered so much just now actually listened to his words and let him go. It also seemed to, either intentionally or unintentionally, end up coming between Gu Xinzhi and Chi Xiaochi. It paced around in a circle, its pace anxious, and it appeared really worried.
Sun Yan breathed a sigh of relief, then pressed down a few times along Ding Qiuyun’s open front to make sure that his organs hadn’t been injured by the shock and he’d only slightly bruised his ribs. His heart, that had leapt up all the way to his throat, finally fell back down with a thump.
Only when his mind settled did he have time to pay attention to his old comrade in arms who’d suddenly appeared here.
He turned his head and looked over, discovering unexpectedly that Gu Xinzhi was still standing in the same spot, an expression like he was sleepwalking on his face. He couldn’t help but be caught by surprise.
In his impression, if Gu Xinzhi showed any trace of humanity, then it would be towards Ding Qiuyun.
Captain Ding had been injured. How could Vice-captain Gu have this spaced out appearance?
What he didn’t know was that Gu Xinzhi thought that he was having another illusory dream again.
Gu Xinzhi was fully engrossed in staring at the Ding Qiuyun on the ground. He thought to himself, he’d seen the same beginning in his dream so many times, but this time was the most different from usual.
In the end, it was Yan Lanlan who broke the silence.
She looked back and forth between Ding Qiuyun and Gu Xinzhi, “Do you guys know each other?”
“… Comrades in arms.”
This answer was from Chi Xiaochi.
He put his forearms on Boss’s back, took two deep breaths, and struggled to get back up, hastily straightening up his loosened clothes. “Lanlan, Sun Yan, withdraw. If there are new humans nearby, there’s no way that they won’t come over after hearing the sound of gunfire.”
Sun Yan was surprised by Ding Qiuyun’s total disregard towards Gu Xinzhi and was a little bit at a loss about what to do, “Captain Ding, Vice-captain Gu, he’s…”
Chi Xiaochi headed out, totally regarding Gu Xinzhi as a transparent person who didn’t even exist, “Let’s go.”
Gu Xinzhi’s eyes widened slightly.
It seemed that the plot this time was really different from before.
He took two steps after them and whispered, “Qiuyun?”
Chi Xiaochi limped to the entrance of the shopping mall. When he heard this call, his body shook, and he raised his arm to support himself against the door. He laughed briefly under his breath, then turned back halfway to show only half his face.
Gu Xinzhi’s heart and mind was a mess when he heard this laughter.
… He had seen this kind of Ding Qiuyun before.
The muscles on his face were twisted, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised up, but his eyes were dead and heavy, filled with an accumulation of the deepest despair and hatred. They transformed into a gaze that shot out of his eyes and made others feel cold.
In his never ending, repeated nightmares, Ding Qiuyun had given him this look thousands of times.
He’d once held Ding Qiuyun’s neck in his dreams and begged him over and over again not to look at him like this.
However, in the past two years, he’d been constantly living with such a gaze, watching as the eyes that were once filled with trust grew cold again and again.
… This was the first time that Qiuyun had looked at him with such eyes right from the beginning of his dream.
Ding Qiuyun quickly shifted that gaze away and strode away.
From behind him, Gu Xinzhi suddenly took out his gun and swiftly pulled the trigger.
The bullet whistled past Ding Qiuyun’s shoulder and completely blasted the remaining half of the new human’s head into pieces. The new human had come out from behind the truck, intending to ambush Ding Qiuyun.
Gu Xinzhi hefted his gun and walked quickly to Ding Qiuyun’s side. He supported him with an arm around his waist and held him up.
Although Gu Xinzhi was thin, his strength was amazing.
When they reached the truck compartment, he used the hot barrel of his gun to lift up the thick curtain, then gestured for Ding Qiuyun’s team members to quickly help him up into the car.
Yan Lanlan felt that this person’s mental state wasn’t quite right, and could also feel that her Captain Ding’s attitude towards this person was strange. It wasn’t like affection, and more like having a vendetta, so she really didn’t want to have any interactions with him.
However, Gu Xinzhi didn’t pay any heed to her opinion at all. After Ding Qiuyun was hoisted up into the car, he jumped in after him, shouldering his gun and crouching down beside Ding Qiuyun before knocking on the roof of the truck compartment. “Drive.”
… In his dreams, he’d been with this group of people for at least several decades, and following them up into the car to leave had already become an instinctive action.
However, this time, there were several new faces and an adult leopard crouched beside Ding Qiuyun. This made Gu Xinzhi even more confused.
Was this really a dream?
In the truck cab, Sun Bin asked in a low voice, “Big brother, isn’t that your comrade in arms? I saw him before in your photos.”
Sun Yan stepped on the gas pedal, carefully avoiding the new human corpses beneath the wheels, then turned at the corner to drive down the road.
He answered in a whisper, “They… the two of them weren’t like this before.”
Based on Gu Xinzhi’s solitary character from the past, if nobody called out to him, he might not have chosen to follow them at all.
And based on Ding Qiuyun’s personality, he would never have turned a blind eye on an old comrade after seeing them.
Sun Yan muttered to himself under his breath as he drove, guessing about whether or not the two men had had any conflicts between them after their retirement.
Sun Yan wasn’t the only one who was muttering.
Yan Lanlan wasn’t the type of person who would keep problems hidden in her heart. After observing Gu Xinzhi for a while, she opened her mouth, “Mr. Gu?”
Gu Xinzhi had gotten accustomed to Yan Lanlan’s face a long time ago. He nodded his head in response, but his eyes remained locked on Ding Qiuyun’s face.
Yan Lanlan also didn’t bother trying to exchange conventional greetings with him either and said directly, “Based on the locations of those new humans outside the shopping mall, it’s obvious that they wanted to surround us. What exactly is going on?”
“Surround you guys?” Gu Xinzhi shot Yan Lanlan a cold look out of the corner of his eyes, “Did those people know that you were coming?”
Yan Lanlan was rendered speechless.
Ding Qiuyun, who was lying on a layer of felt, opened his mouth, “… Did they come to catch and kill you?”
There was no emotion in his voice, but hearing it still made Gu Xinzhi excited.
As of now, any sign that things were different from his dream was enough to stimulate his nerves.
Regardless of whether it was the extra strangers in the team, or the cold-faced Ding Qiuyun, as long as what was happening was different from the scenes in his dream, he could use it as evidence and hypnotize himself, telling himself that everything that taking place in front of him wasn’t just a wishful dream.
He half knelt down by Ding Qiuyun’s ear, his voice soft as he spoke to him, “Ye-yes.”
“Why?”
Gu Xinzhi originally wanted to hold his hand, and his expression changed slightly when the other side avoided him. But, he immediately remembered everything that had taken place in his dream, and his heart instead filled with happiness. He explained with unprecedented patience, “I’ve killed a lot of new humans over the years. A few days ago, a group of new humans came to me and asked me to be their leader.”