201: Chapter 201 Abandoning One's Tenderness

Xia Ran finally lost control, and silent tears surged down her face.

Qi Yun stopped looking at Xia Ran and turned back to the girl.

"Take us to see your family. We can protect them," he said.

The girl froze, lifting her tear-stained face, her eyes filled with confusion.

"No... no! There are only two of you! You don't know how strong they are! How many of them there are! You'll just be going to your deaths!"

"It will involve my mother too! Please, just kill me..."

Qi Yun said gently:

"If we can't win, we'll kill you first. You'll die as a hostage we abducted. According to 'their' rules, perhaps your family won't be implicated."

"If we do win," he paused, looking into the girl's eyes.

"You and your family will never have to live like this again."

The girl stared at him blankly, then looked at Xia Ran, who was crying silently with cold eyes.

For the first time, a crack appeared in the dead silence of her eyes. Something extremely faint, something she herself dared not believe in called "hope," struggled to sprout.

Living? Living like a human being with her family... was that possible?

After a long time, the girl finally, and very slowly, nodded.

She struggled to stand up, stumbling because of her leg injury. Xia Ran instinctively wanted to help, but her hand stopped halfway.

The girl lowered her head, avoiding Xia Ran's hand, and limped ahead to lead the way toward the filthiest, most dilapidated corner of the city.

They passed through narrow alleys where sewage flowed and avoided piles of trash emitting a foul stench.

Finally, they stopped at the edge of the city.

Before them was a low, dilapidated wooden shack.

The girl stopped in front of the door, her body trembling slightly.

She raised her hand, hesitated for a moment, and knocked gently on the door with a specific rhythm.

The wooden door creaked open a crack, revealing a bloodshot, wary eye.

Seeing it was the girl, the wariness in that eye was instantly replaced by excitement.

"Ranran?! Is that you, Ranran? My Ranran, you're back?!"

An old female voice rang out, choked with tears.

The door was pulled open abruptly, and a haggard-looking old woman with messy gray hair stumbled out, tightly hugging the girl with her only remaining arm.

Only then did Qi Yun and Xia Ran see clearly that this woman had not only lost an arm but was also lame in one leg, making movement difficult.

"Mom... I'm fine..."

The girl—it turned out her name was Ranran.

The old woman's gaze turned toward the two people behind her daughter, and she suddenly froze.

Her eyes were drawn to them like magnets. Her whole body shook as if struck by lightning, and her lips trembled, unable to make a sound for a long time.

"Captain? Xia... Xia Ran...?"

She finally squeezed out a faint whisper. Her cracked lips shook violently, and tears surged out without warning.

"Is it you... Xia Ran...?"

Xia Ran was stunned.

She looked at the old, disabled, and utterly haggard woman before her.

In her memory, a bright, lively young face that always followed her around calling her "Captain" slowly surfaced, yet it was impossible to reconcile with the person in front of her.

"Xiao... Nan?" Xia Ran uttered the name hesitantly, in disbelief.

"It's me! Captain, it's me! Xiao Nan! Nan Xiaoyan!"

The old woman, Xiao Nan, began to wail loudly like a child who had suffered endless grievances and finally saw a relative. She tried to rush forward but almost fell due to her mobility issues.

Xia Ran stepped forward quickly to support her.

"You're still alive, you're really still alive. I'm not dreaming. I waited, I finally waited..."

"I'm not dreaming. I waited until I saw you before I died."

Xiao Nan grabbed Xia Ran's arm tightly, crying heart-wrenchingly.

She had named her daughter Ranran because of Xia Ran.

Xia Ran held her stiffly, listening to those cries of "Captain" filled with blood and tears.

Feeling the trembling of the broken body in her arms, her heart ached so much she could hardly breathe.

Guilt submerged her like a tide.

Her most loyal subordinate had been barely surviving through endless torture, yet she hadn't been able to return sooner.

"Come inside... let's talk inside..." After crying for a while, Xiao Nan managed to stop. She pulled Xia Ran and gestured for her daughter and Qi Yun to enter the broken shack.

Xiao Nan had Xia Ran and Qi Yun sit on stools while she sat next to Xia Ran, gripping her hand tightly as if fearing the person before her would vanish if she let go.

"Xiao Nan, what exactly happened all these years? Your arm, and your leg... what happened?"

Xia Ran's voice was extremely hoarse.

Xiao Nan's body trembled slightly, and tears welled up again. But this time, besides excitement, her eyes held a bottomless pain and hatred.

"Captain, that retreat back then was a trap! Someone in the Tribe wanted to get rid of you."

Xia Ran's heart sank heavily. Was it really as she suspected?

She didn't understand. She didn't understand why.

She didn't understand what she had done wrong.

"I... I accidentally got information and wanted to tell you, to warn you... but I was discovered. They caught me and threw me into the dungeon..."

"She tortured me, using every method to interrogate me on how much I heard and if I told anyone else."

"I didn't say anything. Later, news came from outside saying you were dead."

Her voice choked, the color draining from her face, her eyes filled with immense humiliation and pain.

"Later, they cut off the arm I used for my abilities and gave me to a confidant—a beast."

"They... were afraid I would run away, so they broke my leg."

"I became pregnant with that beast's child, which is Ranran. They made me live a life worse than death."

"If it weren't for Ranran, if I hadn't thought that maybe one day you would return, Captain... I would have already..."

She couldn't go on, leaning against her daughter's shoulder, her whole body convulsing with sobs.

Xia Ran listened quietly, her face devoid of any expression.

Her hands were trembling slightly.

The air around her began to stagnate, and a bone-chilling killing intent slowly spread out with her at the center.

The dim light in the room fell on her face, half of it hidden in the shadows.

Xiao Nan's tearful account, Ranran's ordeal, those who had died like 'Xiao Ya' and 'A Yue'... and the broken body and desperate tears of her subordinate before her...

All the images and voices converged and churned in her mind, finally erupting into a towering flame of rage.

The trace of reluctance she felt toward her former subordinates was now burned away completely.

She slowly raised her head, looked at Qi Yun, then at the weeping Xiao Nan in her arms, and finally turned her gaze out the window.

Her voice carried a heart-stopping chill:

"I will make them pay their debt in blood."

"I won't be that gentle anymore."