Free Web NovelChapter 243: Well, That’s Stupid
"She?" I asked, letting a slight smirk touch my lips because the alternative was letting my entire face twist with irritation. "And who is this ’she’ that you keep going on about?"
Jiang Meilan stared at me as though the answer should have been obvious, and that reaction immediately irritated me more than the vines, the burned yard, or the fact that I was still being held like an injured cat who might leap off the furniture the second no one was looking.
I could understand hatred.
At this point, Meilan hating me had become one of the few consistent things in two lifetimes, which said something very depressing about the state of the world.
What I could not understand was her assumption that everyone else should automatically know what was happening inside her head.
"You." Her answer came out sharp enough to cut, leaving no doubt about who she blamed for every miserable thing currently happening in the yard. "Everything happening here is because of you."
I shifted slightly in Yuche’s arms because I wanted a better look at her expression, and the movement immediately earned a disapproving look from him.
I ignored it because I had bigger problems than one overprotective dragon head deciding that my bones were now public property.
I also ignored the tiny, inconvenient part of my brain that noticed his arm tightening around me felt less annoying than it should have. That was obviously a sign that I had either lost too much blood, absorbed too many cores, or hit my head at some point and forgotten about it.
I dragged my attention back to Meilan because nothing deflated a dangerous thought faster than her face. "That seems highly unlikely given the fact that I am not the one going to your house and bugging you."
Meilan let out a harsh laugh. "Of course you would say that."
"I say it because it is true."
I frowned at her, genuinely unsure how she had reached her conclusion when the evidence around us involved several different disasters committed by several different people. "The zombie apocalypse happened because... I don’t know why it happened. The jungle happened because somebody got pissed off when they were told they were dumb for wanting to put a vaccine in a water supply, and the giant man-eating flowers happened because my plants apparently have poor coping mechanisms. But none of that is on me."
Several of Commander Li’s team immediately looked away from the flowers as if staring directly at them would make them hungrier.
Lingyun laughed outright, which did not help the situation at all, though it did make me feel a little less insane. I pointed toward him with the hand that was not trapped against Yuche’s chest. "See? He gets it."
The smile disappeared from Meilan’s face as if someone had cut the string holding it up. "You think this is funny?"
"No," I replied, shaking my head.
I looked around the ruined yard, the scorched earth, the restless vines, the soldiers trying very hard not to move too suddenly, and the half-digested evidence of what happened when people invaded my home with bad intentions. "I think it is exhausting."
That seemed to catch her off guard, and I found a small, petty amount of satisfaction in that.
Good.
For once, someone else could stand there confused while the world behaved like it had personally decided to chew on their ankle. I was tired of being the only one who had to keep adjusting to everyone else’s madness.
"My spine got broken. My leg got broken. Then Luo Xin broke it again because the first break healed wrong." I lifted my brows at her because none of that should have required explanation, yet I seemed to be vomiting words like some evil villain during the ending montage. "I have not had a proper nap in days. The jungle is eating people in my front yard, and somehow you still think that you are the center of the universe."
The silence that followed felt surprisingly pleasant.
Meilan looked offended, which I considered a bonus, before she shook her head. "You always do this," Meilan snapped.
I blinked at her. "Do what?"
"You pretend you do not know. You are gaslighting me! Yes, that’s it! You are gaslighting me and that is a sign of abuse."
Her voice rose, and with every word, the frustration inside it became more obvious.
It reminded me of someone throwing herself against a locked door, again and again, then becoming increasingly furious because the door did not feel guilty for remaining locked. "You pretend you do not understand why people choose you while secretly laughing at me behind my back."
Okay... so now we were in the realm of delusions... good to know.
Meilan was not looking at me like an enemy in that moment. She was looking at me like I had stolen something from her and spent years pretending I did not know where I hid it.
"Choose me for what?" I asked.
The disbelief on her face was almost impressive. "For everything."
I stared at her for a moment, then looked up at Yuche as if he could make more sense of what was going on in the world.
His expression had gone cold enough that most sensible people would have stopped talking and reconsidered all their recent life choices. Then I looked toward Lingyun, who was watching Meilan with the bright, interested expression of a man who had discovered free entertainment in the middle of a battlefield.
Chenghai stood beside him with one hand pressed against one of the pillars on the porch, while Zhenlan’s gaze remained fixed on Meilan in a way that made me feel slightly more sane. Apparently, I was not the only one confused about the shit she was spewing.
"You are going to have to be more specific," I answered.
"You always had people following you." The words burst out of her as if they had been trapped behind her teeth for years. "They listened to you. They respected you. They cared what you thought." fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Understanding began to dawn slowly, painfully, and with the reluctance of a sunrise that had been dragged out of bed too early.
It was not a pretty realization.
It was not even a satisfying one.
It was just embarrassing enough that, for one horrible second, I almost felt insulted on behalf of the apocalypse.
"Oh," I murmured. "Well... that’s stupid."
