The hall designated for receiving outsider ability users was in complete disarray.
Seeing that the people had left, Sun Wan hurried forward to help. “Mayor, are you alright?”
The mayor’s face was dark as he flung her hand away and got up by himself.
Alright?
How could he possibly be alright!
Not only had his meticulously planned scheme been disrupted, causing the coveted Grade 3 crystal to slip through his fingers, but he had also suffered serious injuries… All of this was simply unacceptable to him.
Sun Wan was evidently familiar with his temper and carefully tried to console him. “Mayor, it doesn’t matter that they left. At least we’ve achieved more than half of our initial goal, and besides… isn’t she still here?”
She gestured toward Su Su’s direction with a glance.
The mayor shut his eyes in frustration. “You think she is worth a Grade 3 crystal?”
At this point, he no longer bothered to put on a facade. The contempt and sharp ridicule in his tone were evident.
Sun Wan dared not say another word.
After a long moment, the mayor finally opened his eyes. The usual feigned gentleness was gone, replaced by unfathomable gloom.
“Sun Wan.”
“Yes, sir? What are your orders?”
“Throw all the ordinary people those ability users brought here into forced labor. I don’t want to see them again!”
Sun Wan immediately responded, “Understood!”
The mayor took several deep breaths before suddenly turning to look at the only woman left in the hall.
She was still wearing the white dress he had given her. Her slender figure trembled slightly as she hid behind a pillar. Her innocent eyes, her innocent face—just one look at them was enough to awaken his urge to destroy.
“Take her to my room.”
“Yes, sir.”
The brief exchange seemed to startle Su Su into a panic. Her beautiful eyes filled with alarm as she looked over.
“I—I want to leave. Can you let me go? Please?”
Such a naive thought.
The mayor sneered. “Do you know why they left you behind?”
Su Su bit her lip lightly and shook her head. “I… I don’t know…”
“They left you for me to vent my anger on.”
For a brief moment, the mayor’s expression twisted with savagery. Just thinking about how he had been played moments ago made the fire in his chest blaze even stronger.
Since the apocalypse began, he had never suffered such a huge loss!
And anger always needed a place to be unleashed. The woman before him was the perfect choice.
“Blame your companions for this.”
“If they had been more obedient, my interest in you could have lasted a little longer.”
“But now…”
He no longer cared whether this little beauty lived or died. Tonight, he was going to vent everything completely.
“Sun Wan, have someone clean her up and keep an eye on her.”
Sun Wan lowered her head. “Yes, sir.”
The mayor left. His injuries were too severe and needed immediate attention.
As for Su Su, her attempt to escape failed, and she was thrown directly into the mayor’s room.
“Please let me go, okay? I’m not from this town. I don’t want to stay here…”
Su Su suddenly grabbed Sun Wan’s hand, tears streaming down her face, making her look utterly pitiful and miserable.
But Sun Wan had been in the town for more than half a year. She had seen this scene countless times before and was far more cold-hearted than most women.
She mercilessly flung Su Su’s hand away.
“The mayor is right. If you want to blame someone, blame your companions.”
“If you want to stay alive, behave yourself tonight. Maybe then, you’ll last a little longer.”
Bang!
Sun Wan slammed the door shut, shutting out the sight of the lost and helpless beauty inside the room.
Outside, a strong and nimble old woman was already waiting.
“Go in and wash her properly. Don’t let the mayor lose interest.”
“Don’t worry, leave her to me.”
The old woman had been cleaning in the mayor’s house for over half a year, “serving” different women for him. Without exception, none of them had lasted more than a month.
This one tonight was a bit special… she might not even last through the night.
Su Su lay expressionlessly in the bathtub, completely exposed, while the old woman behind her scrubbed her back vigorously.
“Little girl, don’t blame me for being blunt, but the apocalypse is here. You’re beautiful—sooner or later, this was bound to happen.”
“If you had any abilities, you wouldn’t have ended up here, right?”
“You might as well behave. The longer you stay alive, the better. Think about it—who in the apocalypse still gets to enjoy being served by someone like me?”
“The mayor’s ex-wife was a strong-willed woman. They didn’t get along, so they divorced. That just goes to show that men still prefer obedient women. Later, make sure to be compliant…”
Su Su ignored all of the old woman’s “advice.”
Only after she was done bathing and changed into an extremely revealing nightgown was she finally left alone in the room.
But she knew—there were definitely people standing guard outside.
Sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, Su Su no longer had the fear or numbness that Sun Wan and the old woman had seen earlier.
She thought about many things, yet it also felt like she had thought about nothing at all.
Ultimately, she had walked a different path from her previous life.
Having severed ties with Lin Weiran and the others, she was abandoned in this small town. Next…
Click—
The window was gently pushed open. The faint sound made Su Su whip her head around.
Hiss—
A black python, almost blending into the darkness, slithered inside. Only its deep emerald-green vertical pupils stood out sharply.
Upon seeing it, Su Su froze for two seconds. Then, silent tears rolled down her cheeks.
This time, it was no longer an act—it was real grievance and fear.
“Xiao Hei!”
She scrambled across the bed, pulling the black snake inside.
“You still came for me!”
Earlier, her backpack had been ruthlessly tossed into the garbage heap by Sun Wan. Su Su had only managed to unzip it just a crack, whispering softly for it to follow her.
But… she hadn’t known whether it would actually come. Maybe it would simply leave her behind.
Just like those people did.
Su Su had thought she had long since become unbreakable, but the moment she saw the black snake, the grievance buried deep inside her heart surged forth like a flood.
“Xiao Hei, you’re all I have left.”
She hugged the python’s head tightly, crying in a way that was both suppressed and indulgent.
“I knew it from the start—they would definitely abandon me.”
“This was my goal all along. I wanted to sever ties completely. But, Xiao Hei, I still feel just a little bit hurt.”
The only remaining family she had. The companions she had helped.
Did returning the off-road vehicle and the medical kit truly justify pushing her into the hands of scum so self-righteously?
The pain was only a small part of it. More than that, she felt anger and unwillingness. Yet, she couldn’t even pinpoint exactly where that anger and unwillingness came from.
Just as Zhao Zhenyu had said, they had no obligation to reach out and save her.
Even after living another lifetime, Su Su still couldn’t untangle these knots in her heart.
But she didn’t want to suffer this torment any longer. She would rather cut everything off completely than remain ensnared in this mess.
The only problem was that everything ahead was unknown. Every danger and consequence would have to be shouldered by her alone. Even though she had already planned to use her ability to stabilize the mayor, taking action while purifying his impurities… it was still a gamble where she would be putting herself at great risk.
But now, things were different.
She still had Xiao Hei.
A Xiao Hei who, even after being discarded, would obediently come back to find her.
Su Su had been crying for too long, hugging too tightly, and her soft body was pressing firmly against the snake’s body.
The black python only felt squeezed, squirming restlessly in discomfort.
Damn human.
She had thrown it into the garbage dump, yet she got to stay in this warm, comfortable room.
The black snake had followed her scent all the way here. With its grudge-holding nature, it had originally intended to be angry, to intimidate her, to make her understand what a master-servant relationship truly meant…
But it hadn’t expected that as soon as it appeared, it would find this human crying.
Warm tears fell one after another onto its body, dampening its already cold and slick scales even further. Droplets rolled down along the patterns of its scales.
Instinct urged it to shake off the moisture, but its evolved intelligence suddenly gave rise to a trace of curiosity—
Why did she cry so much?
And what did human tears taste like?
Su Su was holding its head against the back of her neck. The snake struggled slightly before slipping free.
Hiss—
Its crimson forked tongue flicked out, licking off the remaining tears on its body.
No taste. Cold-blooded creatures couldn’t distinguish flavors.
But its vertical pupils slowly shifted toward the human.
Her sobs had quieted, but there were still a few tears clinging to her soft cheeks, not yet fallen.
Without warning, the black snake reared up, its tongue darting out with the speed of a predator striking its prey—licking away a tear from her face.
Su Su stared at it, stunned.
She hadn’t expected Xiao Hei to lick away her tears. The cool sensation lingered on her cheek, leaving her momentarily dazed as she wiped away the rest of them.
“No licking. It’s salty.”
As soon as she said it, Su Su felt a little foolish.
What was the point of reasoning with a snake?
But she couldn’t deny that, after this strange little episode, all the grievances in her heart seemed to have drained away with her tears. At this moment, she felt unusually calm.
“Xiao Hei.”
She gently grabbed the tip of the black snake’s tail, giving it a coaxing little squeeze.
“Help me kill that ability user later, okay?”
“He’s Tier 3, and so are you. But he’s injured—he definitely won’t be your match.”
“In a little while, you can hide under the blanket. When he gets on the bed, catch him off guard and bite him—just like you did with Wu Zhi and Zhang Er before.”
Su Su muttered on and on, but when she looked at the black snake again, it remained motionless.
She furrowed her brows in slight distress.
“Did you understand?”
Of course, the black snake understood.
It was just still lingering on the memory of that tear. It really had no taste at all.
Su Su pursed her lips, then cautiously reached out and poked its head.
“Are you even listening to me?”
How bold!
A mere human dared to poke its head!
The black snake suddenly opened its jaws and lunged at that slender, fair finger.
Su Su let out a startled yelp. Before she could pull her hand back, the snake had already clamped its mouth around her finger.
“Xiao Hei!”
Su Su’s heartbeat skyrocketed. She thought she had truly angered this proud and untamed cold-blooded creature, but the pain she had braced for never came.
The two venomous fangs merely grazed against her skin, rubbing lightly as if to warn this impudent human—letting her know what it meant to be afraid.
But things didn’t go as planned.
After that brief moment of heart-stopping panic, Su Su blinked, belatedly realizing something—this cold-blooded creature, most of the time, seemed to be all bluff rather than bite.
It had never actually hurt her.
The realization made her heart instantly relax.
Growing bolder, she used her other hand to push the thick body of the snake under the blanket.
“Xiao Hei, hurry and hide.”
“That Grade 3 crystal had such massive energy—you haven’t fully digested it yet, have you?”
“Once you bite that man, I’ll help you purify the impurities in your body, alright?”
“And once we leave this town, you won’t have to stay cooped up in my backpack anymore. I’ll even let you sit in the front passenger seat. How about that?”
A string of coaxing words gradually made the black snake loosen its grip and release the dampened finger from its mouth.
Its fierce-looking head finally disappeared beneath the bedcovers.
At that moment, the sound of movement came from outside the door.
“How is she?”
It was the mayor’s voice, questioning the people standing guard outside.
“She cried for a while, but she’s been obedient.”
The mayor let out a low, unreadable chuckle. A moment later, the door was pushed open.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, the delicate young woman was dressed in a barely-concealing nightgown. She lifted her head slightly, her tear-stained eyes still red, her frightened gaze resembling that of a fawn caught in a hunter’s trap.
The mayor reached out with his bandage-wrapped arms and slowly shut the door behind him.
“I have to admit, the smartest thing those ability users did… was throwing you away.”
The remnants of his false facade cracked, revealing a shadowy, sinister smile.
Unhurriedly, he stepped toward the bed.
Su Su retreated instinctively, but there was nowhere to go—just a narrow space behind her. No matter how much she struggled, she was nothing more than a cornered little beast.
This sense of helpless resistance catered exactly to the mayor’s twisted tastes.
“Other than my divorce, I’ve never suffered such a loss before.”
“If not for you and those discarded ordinary people, I might have had my men set up an ambush along their escape route.”
“You should be grateful—for your cousin and your companions. They finally got away unscathed.”
With that, the man shrugged off his coat and carelessly tossed it onto the floor.
That middle-aged body, surprisingly, had no beer belly—only a lean and toned musculature.
“I’ll be gentle.”
He gave Su Su an ambiguous smile, his toes already touching the edge of the bed.
Su Su did not believe a single word.
Supporting herself with her palms, she frantically shuffled backward a few inches. “Don’t come any closer!”
So naive. So utterly powerless.
The mayor, confident in his victory, reached out—his fingers about to clamp around Su Su’s ankle and drag her beneath him…
But at the critical moment, a dark blur slashed across his vision.
The next second, searing pain shot through his wrist.
Stunned, the mayor looked down.
First, he saw two deep purplish fang marks.
Then—
He met a pair of cold-blooded, merciless emerald-green vertical pupils.