200: Chapter 200

A deathly silence permeated the square.

Qi Yun walked over to Xia Ran, looking at the person who had just stopped him from delivering the killing blow.

"Couldn't bring yourself to do it?" Qi Yun's voice was calm.

Xia Ran remained silent for a moment before nodding.

"Is that so?"

Qi Yun softly uttered those words and turned to walk in another direction.

"Your gentleness is sometimes just indulgence; to some people, it's a form of harm."

Qi Yun's voice drifted on the wind, reaching Xia Ran's ears clearly.

The girl who had just pushed herself aside was now sprawled on the ground, waiting for her fate.

He stopped in front of the girl and crouched down.

"Please... kill me."

The girl sniffled; her voice was soft, yet exceptionally clear.

Qi Yun raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh? You're not even afraid of death?"

The girl lowered her head, her voice firm. "...I'm not."

"I don't want to live. I want to die."

"Then why were you afraid of that scum?" Qi Yun asked.

The girl's body began to tremble violently—not out of fear this time, but from something deeper and more desperate.

She looked up, her eyes filled with total deadness.

"Because my family is still in their hands. I'm not afraid to die, but I'm afraid of him—afraid they'll hurt my family."

"It doesn't matter if I die, but I don't want my family to die."

Her voice grew lower and lower, and the despair within it was so heavy it was suffocating.

Qi Yun looked the girl in the eye.

"Then if he's dead, won't there be no one left to hurt your family?"

The girl shook her head vigorously, tears flying.

"No... you don't understand! If he dies and I'm still alive, the Tribe will know. They'll blame me for not protecting him properly, and they'll retaliate! They definitely will! They'll take my mother... they'll..."

She couldn't go on, only shaking her head in despair.

Qi Yun watched her silently for two seconds.

"Cruel. Using the people you care about as chains to bind your hands and feet."

"That way, not only do you not dare to resist, but you're forced to protect your abuser with all your heart. Because as long as he's alive, the people you care about can temporarily stay alive, even if they live worse than dogs."

The girl's whole body shuddered, large tears rolling down.

"Please..."

"Kill me... kill me... as long as I die, everything will be fine."

"And I'll finally be free."

She closed her eyes, tears welling from the gaps in her eyelashes.

Standing not far away, Xia Ran found it increasingly difficult to breathe.

Every one of the girl's pleas felt like a dull knife, sawing back and forth across her heart.

"If you want to die that badly," Qi Yun's voice rang out again, still calm, "why not just commit suicide?"

"I can't... I can't... I can't... I can't... I can't... I can't... I can't..."

The girl's voice was hoarse and broken.

"I can't! I can't kill myself! If I commit suicide, it's betrayal!"

"They'll kill my family all the same! I don't have the right to die! I don't even have the right to die! I can only wait until they're bored of me, or for some accident to happen."

"But that's too slow... too painful... please... kill me... kill me now..."

"That way, in their eyes, I died protecting him... according to the rules, they might let my family go... and I... I can finally be free..."

She broke down in tears, her body curling into a small ball.

Her sobbing was suppressed and broken—a complete weariness of life itself.

Qi Yun watched in silence.

Seeing a life whose dignity and hope had been so systematically destroyed caused a slight ripple in his heart.

Their so-called promises were nothing more than the most malicious form of domestication—be a good dog, and your people can scrape by.

Resist or commit suicide, and you all go to hell together.

And letting the family go wasn't out of kindness; it was to better control these girls by giving them a sliver of hope.

If the family died even when the girl died protecting them,

then many of these girls would have probably committed suicide already.

They had no right to choose death for themselves; they could only die for them.

"How many girls are there like you, accompanying that scum?"

He spoke again, his voice slightly deeper.

The girl's crying paused. She lifted her tear-blurred face from her arms and looked at him blankly.

"If I tell you, will you kill me?"

she asked hoarsely, a faint, morbid hope igniting in her eyes.

"No. But I know that if you don't tell me, I'll make sure you stay alive."

Qi Yun stood up, his shadow looming over her again.

The girl's body began to tremble violently, more so than any time before.

Living... to her, was ten thousand times more terrifying than death.

"I'll tell you... I'll tell you. Xiao Ya, A Yue, Ling Dang, Ping Ping, Xiao Qi... they... they're all dead..."

She blurted out several names in rapid succession, her voice dropping lower with each one.

"Xiao Ya was... by many people... she didn't make it... A Yue drowned in the bath... Ling Dang was pregnant, they didn't want the child, they used a club... Ping Ping was sick, they wouldn't treat her, she burned alive, yet I'm still alive, why am I still alive?"

"This place... is hell... we're just slaves... toys... livestock that can talk..."

Having finished, she suddenly looked up, her face streaked with tears, her gaze holding nothing but the purest supplication.

"I've said it... I've said it all... please... kill me... kill me..."

Qi Yun didn't look at her again. Instead, he turned to face Xia Ran, who had been standing behind him all along, her face pale as paper and her body trembling slightly.

Xia Ran bit her lower lip hard, nearly drawing blood.

Her eyes were filled with immense shock, pain, anger, and a suffocating sense of guilt.

"Did you hear that?" Qi Yun's voice rang out calmly and exceptionally clearly.

"This is the person you just stopped me from killing. What you let go wasn't just a piece of scum, but the most insignificant link in a vast system of evil."

"By letting him go, there will only be more 'Xiao Yas', 'A Yues', and 'Ling Dangs' who, like her, find life worse than death."

"I..." Xia Ran opened her mouth, but her throat was too choked to make a sound.

A wave of immense bitterness and remorse crashed over her, making her vision go dark.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

She didn't know who she was apologizing to.

To the desperate girl before her?

To those girls who had already died, whose names she didn't even know?

"Give up your undiscriminating gentleness. Sometimes, when gentleness is used in the wrong place, it's more hurtful than cruelty."

Qi Yun looked at her, his voice devoid of emotion.

Xia Ran's body swayed.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I understand."

Just then, the girl's tearful plea came from behind:

"Don't go... don't go... please kill me... I beg you... please kill me..."

Large teardrops rolled down her dirty face. Every plea was like a red-hot knife, stabbing deep into Xia Ran's heart and twisting.