Free Web NovelChapter 246: Make It Hurt
The words settled between us, and the humor in them was a whole lot darker than I expected.
It also made me feel fucking fantastic to see the color draining from her face.
I had stayed home.
I had locked my doors, collected my supplies, strengthened my walls, stole weapons from a gang leader that would later be carrying me everywhere, and done everything I could to make the world outside my house someone else’s problem.
I had not gone looking for Jiang Meilan. I had not stepped into her territory, stolen her resources, or dragged her name into my mouth just to see if it still tasted bitter.
She had come to me.
Again.
That was the part she would never be able to swallow.
"And guess what?" I asked, my smile turning sharper. "I got the guy."
Meilan’s eyes flicked toward Yuche before she could stop herself.
I hummed softly, pretending to reconsider. "Actually, I suppose that is not entirely accurate. I got four of them."
Yuche went so still beneath me that I nearly ruined the moment by laughing.
I didn’t actually think I had four men, not in the way Meilan’s mind immediately leaped toward, but she did not need to know that.
Honestly, none of them needed to know that.
It was the principle of the matter, and Meilan had spent two lifetimes proving that principles were much more useful when they hurt someone else.
Lingyun made a low, delighted sound from the porch. Chenghai muttered something under his breath that I chose not to hear, and Zhenlan, the traitor, looked as though he understood exactly what I was doing and had no intention of saving anyone from it.
Meilan’s face twisted. "You—"
"I also got the supplies," I continued, cutting over her before she could decide which insult would make her feel better. "The weapons everyone was desperate to get. The cores. The soldiers at my gate. The food you were desperate to control in our last life. The resources you thought had to be gathered with smiles, bargains, lies, and pretty little speeches about survival."
I felt Yuche stiffen at the mention of weapons, and I looked up at him from under my lashes. "Yes," I purred, this time speaking only to him. "Those weapons. They were the holy grail in my last life... the cursed weapons of the Dragon Head. I found them then and I found them now."
He grunted and I knew that we were going to have words later, but it was worth it to see the expression on his face. I wondered if he still wanted those weapons?
But now everyone also knew enough to understand that Meilan had not simply been annoying in the life before this one. She had been dangerous. She had been organized. She had been successful enough that, for a while, people mistook her hunger for leadership.
But I could only laugh, because the absurdity of it was too much. "I did not even have to leave my house, and somehow, I still got it all."
Meilan’s breathing turned harsh.
"So thank you for that advice." I kept my voice almost pleasant, because rage would have given her something to fight. Calmness gave her nowhere to put her hands. "For once, you were useful."
Her eyes burned with hatred. "You think you won?"
"No," I answered. "I think you lost after being given a second chance, and that is much more impressive."
The vine holding her shifted as if it agreed with me. One of the nearby flowers opened wider, its petals peeling back with a damp sound that made several soldiers take a careful step away. The baby’s little triangular leaf head tilted toward me, waiting. It was unsettling how much personality could fit into something that did not have a face in any normal sense of the word.
Meilan glanced toward the flower, then back at me. "You cannot kill me."
I stared at her.
The confidence in her voice was not bravery. It was entitlement.
Even now, even after everything, some part of her still believed the world owed her another scene, another chance, another escape, another person willing to step forward and declare that Jiang Meilan was too valuable to lose. frёewebηovel.cѳm
She had mistaken surviving consequences for being chosen by fate.
And that was enough. freeweɓnøvel.com
Something inside me went quiet.
I had spent too much time trying to understand her, too much time letting her speak, too much time letting the shape of our first life crawl through the ruins of this one.
I had wanted answers because unanswered things had a way of rotting in the corners of the mind. But now that I had them, they were smaller than I expected. Uglier, too.
Meilan had not hated me because I took something from her.
She hated me because I had refused to disappear after she decided I should.
"In your next life," I said, my voice losing every trace of humor, "if you are cursed enough to have one... stay away from me."
Her expression shifted as if this was the first time she actually understood that she was going to die.
"I mean it." I looked at her, and the ruined yard, the vines, and the dead bodies of her men getting turned into compost. "If I open my eyes again in another lifetime and see your face, I will kill you the second I recognize you. I am not putting up with this bullshit for another moment, let alone another life."
For a second, no one moved.
Then Yuche turned.
He did not ask whether I was sure. He did not tell me I had done enough. He did not try to make me soften the words or swallow the decision down because someone else might find it too cruel.
He simply shifted me more securely in his arms and started walking toward the door, carrying me away from the yard, the flowers, the burned ground, and the woman who had followed me across death only to learn that my patience had limits.
Meilan shouted something behind us, but I did not bother listening.
I was done letting her words matter.
The baby vine rustled overhead, excited and eager, but it did not move until I gave permission.
That, more than anything, made the corner of my mouth lift. Maybe Meilan was right to be jealous after all. Even my murder plant had better manners than she did.
I turned my head just enough to look over Yuche’s shoulder.
Lingyun stood near the porch, watching me with that bright, dangerous expression that did funny things to my insides.
His eyes met mine, and I saw the question there before he asked it. He did not need me to explain. He did not need me to justify myself. He only needed to know how far I wanted this to go.
"Lingyun," I called out, and his smile widened.
I rested my cheek against Yuche’s shoulder and closed my eyes, because I did not need to see Jiang Meilan anymore.
"Make it hurt."
