“You see.”
I twisted my body as much as I could in the cramped space where I was tied up, trying to strike a pose that could be called sexy, but it ended up looking rather ridiculous.
“With my looks and figure, plus my high education, I was a rare resource even before the apocalypse, let alone now.” I paused, then added, my tone taking on a touch of professional emphasis, “And… I’m also a doctor.”
“Psychologist,” he pointed out coldly.
“Well, people need comfort and healing for their minds too,” I followed his lead, “After all, in the apocalypse, I bet there are fewer professionals who can offer mental health services than there are fresh fruits.”
“That reason is about as convincing as your earlier dream of joining Star Fury.”
“Hey! That’s just mean,” I sighed with mock grievance, “It took a lot of courage for me to ask to join Star Fury, you know.”
“Heh, but you…,” Lin Mo’s voice carried an almost visceral disgust, his whole body giving a slight shudder, his face twisted in sheer rejection, “…there’s just no way.”
My mouth twitched uncontrollably.
“Then just kill me already,” I said, giving up completely.
“Alright.” He agreed with chilling decisiveness.
Before the words were even out of his mouth, he grabbed the chair beside him and swung it down at my head with a gust of wind.
“Hey hey hey!”
“Bang!”
I twisted away with all my might, rolling to the side with the chair still tied to me.
The back of the chair barely grazed my forehead, crashing heavily onto the ground with a dull “thud.”
Lying on my side, my heart thudding wildly, my eyes showed genuine terror.
“Why do you always do exactly what you say you will?” I gasped, incredulous.
“No,” he tossed aside the chair, looking at me at his leisure, “If you told me to let you go, I definitely wouldn’t.”
“I think I need psychological therapy,” I tried to regain some control over the conversation, even if it was just nonsense, “Can you call a psychologist for me?”
“No.” Lin Mo stayed where he was, looking down at me from above.
“Dr. Lu, are you alright?” His voice was laced with absurd amusement.
“Looking at you now, you really do seem like a patient who needs electroshock therapy. But, being a doctor myself, I’ll give you a discount.” As he spoke, his eyes swept the corner.
He yanked the power cord from the rice cooker, stripped off the insulation with his bare hands, revealing the copper wires inside.
“I’ll treat you for free, how about that?” He dangled the dangerous wire.
I lowered my head so he couldn’t see my face, my body barely stirring, the wrists tied behind my back seeming to tense.
“I think… you’d better not do that.” My voice dropped, unusually calm, as if I were stating a simple fact.
“Hmm?” Lin Mo raised an eyebrow.
“Limit…”
I lowered my head, something inside me about to burst free.
“After all, I’m almost at my limit.”
He pressed the wire to me.
In his imagination, I should have been screaming in pain, convulsing, and dying a miserable death.
I didn’t move at all.
Lin Mo frowned and poked me with the wire again.
“The power’s out at my place.”
“You could’ve said that earlier!”
“Pfft… At my limit, hahaha!” I lifted my head, looking sincere, even a bit innocent.
“The power’s probably been out since last night. Did you try the light when you came in? I don’t think it’s ever been on.”
He thought back, and yes, from the moment he broke into this basement, there’d only been the daylight filtering through the window.
His emotions had been so intense, he’d missed such an obvious detail.
The wire fell to the floor, the exposed copper bouncing in the dust, mocking him in silence.
Lin Mo said nothing, looking like a clown.
“You never asked,” I sighed, even sounding a little aggrieved.
“And you moved too fast. I didn’t have time to remind you before you, well, started the treatment.”
“Is this fun for you?” His voice was low and dangerous.
“Honestly,” I carefully shifted my position on the floor, trying to ease the pain from the ropes biting into my wrists, “not really. Being tied up is uncomfortable, and at any moment I could be hit with a chair or… ineffective electroshock. Terrible experience.”
He stared at me in silence.
I wisely shut my mouth, watching him quietly.
The room settled into silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and the increasingly distinct howls from outside, growing ever closer, carrying a sticky sense of unease.
Lin Mo’s attention was drawn outside.
He tilted his head, listening, the anger on his face slowly replaced by alertness.
He stopped looking at me, quickly walking to the small basement window.
Standing on tiptoe, he cautiously peered out.
One glance, and his expression darkened, even worse than before.
He hurried back.
This time, without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed the knot behind my back and began untying it.
“Mr. Lin?” I was surprised by this sudden change.
His hands were rough but fast, almost tearing the rope off.
The instant my wrists were free, the red marks on my pale skin stood out harshly.
Before I could even rub my numb arms, Lin Mo grabbed me by the back of my collar, dragging me like a sack toward the stairs leading up to the first floor.
“Wait, wait! Mr. Lin, shouldn’t we at least come up with a plan…?” My protests were drowned out by his heavy footsteps and the increasingly terrifying howls and scraping from outside.
He didn’t answer, his face expressionless, his eyes cold and merciless.
He yanked open the door, already battered from earlier, letting in a flood of harsh, gray daylight—and with it, a stench of rot and blood, multiplied many times over.
Outside, it wasn’t the empty street I’d imagined, but shadowy, writhing figures.
Their clothes hung in tatters, skin ashen, movements stiff but full of desperate hunger for anything alive, pressing in around the house, slamming against the walls and doors.
Lin Mo didn’t pause for a second.
He didn’t even give me time to see what was happening outside.
“Let’s see what you can do.”
The words drifted to my ear.
In the next instant, I felt a powerful force at my back.
With a loud “Duang”, he kicked me in the lower back!
“Ugh!” I shot forward, totally out of control, stumbling out of the porch and into the gray light and reeking air outside.
Momentum carried me several steps forward.
I nearly fell, but managed to steady myself and spun around.
Lin Mo stood in the porch’s shadow, expressionless as he looked at me.
Then, to my disbelief, with a “bang”, he slammed the door shut.
I even heard the bolt drop inside with a crisp “click.”
I’d been thrown out.
Like tossing out a bag of trash, he’d chucked me right into a nest of monsters.
In that moment, all the howls and crawling noises around me seemed to freeze.
Those things that had been wandering aimlessly or slamming themselves against the house all turned at once, fixing their cloudy, hollow, yet burning eyes—filled with primal hunger—on me, the fresh, living target suddenly among them.
The closest ones were less than five meters away, making guttural noises in their throats, thick drool dripping from torn mouths, stiff limbs starting to pivot in my direction.
The air felt frozen.
Standing there, I could hear my heart pounding in my chest, “thump, thump, thump”, like a drum of war.
I looked at the tightly shut door, then at my friendly neighbors closing in.
“Hi (^_^)ノ, I can lead the way for you guys, so how about we make peace?”