Free Web NovelChapter 223: I Feel Left Out
Commander Li frowned. "What you survived?"
As far as he was concerned, the only thing that would ever count as survival was the time she had to sleep without air conditioning when the power went out in the base for five hours.
Meilan’s gaze flicked toward him, then away again, as though he was not the person she wanted to convince. She still saw Commander Li as an extension of her father’s authority, useful when obedient and irritating when not. She had not yet accepted that the man was standing in Rouxi’s living room under his own command.
"We survived the first ten years of the apocalypse," Meilan announced like she was announcing that the world was flat or something equally ridiculous. "We were reborn early on... before the apocalypse even came. We know things from the first timeline that you are going to want to know. That is... if you want to stay alive."
The only problem with her confidence was that no one seemed to really react to her words at all.
Zhenlan didn’t so much as filch, Chenghai let a sound out of his nose that made it seem like he was laughing at her and trying not to.
Even Yuche and Lingyun didn’t do anything more than raise an eyebrow.
Commander Li, on the other hand, looked at Chenghai first, then at Zhenlan, then back toward Meilan’s group. His soldiers did the same in smaller ways, their expressions changing slightly as they tried to decide whether the conversation going on in front of them had turned into nonsense or classified information.
Zhao Rui was the first to speak. "What first timeline?"
"The original one," Tao Jun answered, as if that explained anything.
It did not.
Sun Ming looked toward Commander Li and Wang Junjie looked like he wanted to ask three questions at once and had decided none of them would help. Luo Xin did not look up from Rouxi, but his hands paused for half a second before continuing their careful work along her spine.
Commander Li crossed his arms in front of him and leveled a glare at Meilan. "Explain."
Meilan took the opening gladly. "Before this life, there was another one. The apocalypse happened there too. We lived through it, fought through it, survived long enough to know what this world becomes. Sure, we died there, but then the universe understood just how important we are and we woke up here with our memories."
Nobody spoke for several seconds, which, to be fair, was probably wise.
Commander Li slowly turned his head toward Chenghai. "You... don’t think she is crazy?" he asked slowly.
"Unfortunately not," replied the other man. "But she isn’t as special as she likes to think. I remember the first timeline just fine. We don’t need her to know what comes next."
Commander Li turned toward Zhenlan. "You too?"
"Yes," he replied with a nod of his head. But he didn’t elaborate. There was really no point.
Commander Li looked deeply displeased by both answers. "And neither of you thought that was worth mentioning?"
"Would it have helped if we did?" Chenghai asked with a casual shrug. "Hey, Commander Li, I’ve been reborn and you are going to die when you base is completely out of supplies and is overrun by zombies. I don’t think you would believe me."
Lingyun snorted from near Rouxi. "That might be the first smart thing you’ve said today."
Chenghai ignored him.
Meilan did not.
She stepped forward, her voice sharpening as if the admission had given her the authority she had been trying to regain since walking through the door. "We know which territories rise. We know which powers become important. We know who survives and who dies. We know the names people will fear when this world finally stops pretending order still matters."
"You know what happened before," Zhenlan said, his voice even. "So do we. Why do we have to put up with you just for information that we all have?"
Meilan turned toward him sharply.
"You only know what you know. What I know is infinitely more important."
The words landed harder than he expected.
Shen Kaiyang’s gaze moved toward Rouxi and Tao Jun stopped smiling for the first time since entering the house. Lin Cheng’s eyes narrowed slightly even as Guo Renwang’s attention sharpened, and Huang Zedong finally stopped looking at the windows.
Good. freewebnovel.cσ๓
At least one of them was listening.
"This timeline is already different," Zhenlan continued. "Rouxi is alive. The mansion is still standing. The plants exist months ahead of when anything like this reached Rongdu before. Commander Li is here instead of at your father’s base. The cores you tried to claim have vanished, and none of you know where they went. The first timeline is not proof of ownership. It is not proof of authority. It is a record of a world that already failed."
Meilan’s mouth tightened. "That is where you are wrong. Rouxi was a live and kicking in the first timeline... or do you not understand that she has been reborn, too?"
Zhenlan’s entire body froze at her words before he forced himself to relax. He already suspected that she wasn’t his Rouxi. This just made more sense. "All the more reason why we don’t need you to do anything other than guard the outside until the plants come back."
Commander Li’s men were watching now, not as confused as before. Zhenlan could see the understanding spreading, piece by piece. Whatever the first timeline meant, whatever rebirth meant, the people claiming future power were standing inside someone else’s house arguing over work they refused to do.
That made the situation easier to understand.
But Meilan was not finished. Of course she was not finished.
"We were powerhouses," she said, lifting her chin. "All of us. You know that. Shen Kaiyang, Tao Jun, Lin Cheng, Guo Renwang, Huang Zedong... me. We all reached heights most people couldn’t even imagine."
"And yet here you are," Zhenlan replied, "discussing whether you will help rebuild a burned hedge."
Lingyun made a choked sound that might have been a laugh.
Meilan glared at him.
That was a mistake.
Lingyun looked delighted to finally be included.
"Actually, hold on," he said, straightening slightly. "I want to check something."
Nobody liked the sound of that.
Lingyun looked around the living room with bright interest, as if he had suddenly discovered a new game in the middle of a hostage negotiation. "Everyone who hasn’t been reborn, put up your hand."
Commander Li stared at him.
Then, very slowly, he raised his hand. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Zhao Rui raised his next, followed by Zhao Yucheng, Sun Ming, Luo Xin, Chen Minghao, Wang Junjie, Liu Zhenyu, and Deng Kai.
Lingyun raised his own hand next before turning his attention to Yuche. The other man glared at him.
Lingyun pointed at him immediately. "He isn’t reborn either."
Yuche snorted as he continued staring.
"Don’t look at me like that," Lingyun said. "I was clarifying for the room. What should we call them? Rebirthers? Birthers? Idiots who died?"
But the number count worked better than he probably intended.
For all Meilan’s talk about the first timeline, the stats proved something that she could not.
There were eight reborn people in the living room, including Chenghai and Zhenlan, and everyone else had been surviving this timeline without memories, without future rankings, and without whatever certainty Meilan kept trying to use as currency.
Commander Li looked around the room once, then looked back at Meilan with a calmer expression than before.
"Huh," he said. "You’ve been reborn and are still stubbornly trying to take the house from Rouxi. How has that been working for you? Knowing the future like you do?"
Lingyun scratched the back of his head, looking from one raised hand to another before finally letting his own drop.
"Well... shit," he said. "Now I don’t know if I should feel left out or not."
