Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 257: My Secret

Chapter 257: My Secret

"What have you done?" This time, when Wei Xiao Li spoke, it was a soft whisper, like he couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. His eyes never left the retreating back of Liu Hao Yu.

The old man, now made young again, was whistling ’Ring around the Rosie’ in a somewhat creepy manner, but it didn’t really bother me.

"What you asked me to do," I replied to his question with a smile. I didn’t judge those I healed. I didn’t ask for their life story or try to play God by figuring out if they deserved to live or not. I just...healed.

What they did with their life afterward was up to them.

As long as it didn’t affect me and mine in a negative way, I was happy.

"You don’t know what you have done." This time, the words came from another man as he hoisted the dead body of Wan Ying over his shoulder, the blood dripping down everywhere. "You have restored the Butcher of the Bay. Any blood spilled is now on your hands."

"Now, wait just a minute," grunted Bai Long Qiang, stepping in front of me as if trying to hide me from the man’s words.

But neither one of them understood.

"Ah," I nodded, placing my hand on my fiancé’s back. "If that is the attitude that you have, you might as well just put a bullet to your brain to save the Butcher the time and effort of slicing your throat. What he does or doesn’t do has nothing to do with me. And his restoration? That was all him. I cannot turn back time; it’s not one of my powers. But it is his."

I mean, I had never actually met anyone who could turn back time, and I didn’t even know what power that would be classified under. But both Bin An Sha and I had watched him do just that.

I rolled my eyes, no longer caring about what was going on around me. The ants had left me alone, and the white funeral banners were no longer fluttering out of the corner of my eyes.

Whatever I had come here to do was done, and now I was more than ready to get back home and to my closet for some rest.

I was peopled out.

"We need to go check the houses around here to see if they have any glasses and sheets," I said, looking at Bai Long Qiang and the rest of the men. "We need to get whatever we can get our hands on before we return to the city."

"Are we going to wait for Chang Guo Zi and the other teams or just get going?" asked Fan Teng Fei, leaning against one of the kitchen counters. He didn’t really seem to care about the answer so much as to know our timeframe.

If we waited for the others, then that would mean we had to spend at least a day, if not more, here in City B. And while that wasn’t the worst thing to do, I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted nothing to do with people right now.

"We’ll wait," I grumbled under my breath. If we wanted to stand the best chance at getting back into City A Sanctuary, then we needed to be a united front.

In the grand scheme of things, our team was so far down on the totem pole that without the clout of Phoenix Rising Team, we might have to wait outside of the gates until the others arrived anyway. And, since we left ahead of them, it might mean that we were burning a bridge that we couldn’t afford to burn.

"You are more than welcome to stay here until the others arrive," offered Liu Hao Yu as he walked into the kitchen. He had gotten changed from the elderly white loungewear he was wearing before to a black suit with a bright red shirt underneath. The top few buttons of the shirt were undone, showing off more of the dragon tattoo on his torso.

Even his right hand was covered in the tail end of the serpent. How had I missed that much ink before?

"Like everything, tattoos fade with time," shrugged Liu Hao Yu as he caught me staring at his hand. "The burns also didn’t help."

Ah, right... I forgot about that.

"I need sleep," I groaned. It felt like every time I opened my mouth around this man, something stupid came out.

"Xiao Li will show you to a room that you can use," smiled Liu Hao Li, "I’ll send my men out to grab everything that you need. Not to mention, I have some keep an eye out for any teams entering the city. It’s been a while since we had so much company. I missed it."

"We’d appreciate that," answered Si Dong with a smile of his own.

"I’ll stay here to keep an eye on her," grunted Rip, crossing his arms across his massive chest.

"Are you questioning my ability to protect those under my roof?" asked Liu Hao Yu, his head cocked to the side.

"Not at all," assured Si Dong, stepping between the mountain and the madman. "It’s kind of his thing. He has been protecting her since the second year of the apocalypse; it’s now a habit."

"If you believe that, I have a zombie-infested hotel to sell you," replied Liu Hao Yu, raising his eyebrow.

"I’ll be fine here," I interjected, putting a hand on Rip’s arm. There was no point in getting into an argument over this. I was safe in this house. And I had a living tattoo and the ability to drain the life force of anyone who pissed me off. I was not the helpless innocent that everyone assumed that I was.

I mean, I liked being protected by them, and I was still recovering from the horrors of Camp Hell, no matter how well I pretended otherwise.

But at the end of the day, I could drain every last person and zombie in this city if I needed to.

Not like I was going to tell anyone that. That was my secret.

I didn’t think people would be overly happy to know I could kill off the human race if I really wanted to... I had enough of a target on my back.