Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 452: Chapter 442: Ant

Nature has its own food chain. When you’re strong, you’re the predator. But if your prey grows stronger, the roles reverse.

No one can stay on top forever; you have to keep struggling, or you’ll be overtaken by what you once hunted.

And right now, in the property management center, just such a role reversal had clearly taken place.

The Xu Yuanshan family had been turned on by what they thought was their prey.

Zhang Laohu was already acting as Xu Ru’s man. Although Xu Ru still looked relatively put-together, her ghastly complexion and vacant eyes made it easy to guess what had been happening.

Tan Jing timidly performed the duties of a servant, standing aside with her head bowed, afraid to even breathe too loudly.

Xu Yuanshan was in the worst state of all, lying limp to one side with his eyes closed.

If not for Tang Mo’s spiritual power detecting that he was still breathing, she would have thought the Xu Yuanshan sprawled in the corner was a corpse, just like the other bodies in the room.

In the end, Zhang Laohu hadn’t killed the man who had crippled his right arm. Instead, he had left him barely alive, just clinging to life in the corner.

Although the residents of the complex had taken all the food from the property management center, Zhang Laohu had hidden some in the wall of his own room.

Even if someone discovered that spot, unless they had immense strength, they wouldn’t be able to move the large boulder blocking it.

Zhang Laohu hadn’t originally hidden this food to guard against the residents; after all, back then, he hadn’t given a second thought to the people he was toying with.

He did it to guard against his so-called brothers.

One day they call you ”Boss,” the next they might be calling you their son.

It was the apocalypse. Believing in any kind of brotherhood would be far too naive.

And now, that hidden food came in handy. While there wasn’t much, it was enough to keep these few people from starving for the time being.

As Tang Mo watched Xu Ru vacantly massaging Zhang Laohu’s shoulders, she suddenly lost the desire to kill them.

’What are their lives to me, really?’

’If I wanted to, I could stand right here and use my spiritual power to crush their brains, not even letting them know how they died before it happened.’

’Death is over in an instant. A quick death is not nearly enough for true revenge.’

Tang Mo recalled the last remnants of Xu Yin’s energy. Just that final wisp of resentment had been so immense.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how much hatred Xu Yin must have felt in her past life.

’Let’s leave it like this for now. Let that family experience what it means to live a life worse than death.’

In Tang Mo’s view, Xu Yin’s hatred for Xu Yuanshan’s and Tan Jing’s family far surpassed her hatred for Zhang Laohu. The current situation was clearly something Xu Yin would have loved to see; Tang Mo could even feel a spontaneous sense of pleasure emanating from this body.

’But those corpses...’

Tang Mo looked at the reeking corpses in the corner. For some reason, Zhang Laohu hadn’t disposed of them.

But it was obvious that Tan Jing and the others already knew those things weren’t alive.

Although they were the corpses of superpower users, there was no energy fluctuation coming from them. Aside from rotting and stinking, there was nothing special about them.

After a quick inspection, Tang Mo felt relieved and withdrew her spiritual power.

’I’ll just let these people squirm for a few more days.’

After Tang Mo withdrew her spiritual power and turned to leave, the drama inside the property management center continued to unfold.

As Zhang Laohu felt a pair of soft hands kneading his shoulders, he was stirred and reached up his own hand to touch them.

Xu Ru instinctively froze, not daring to move an inch.

She no longer dared to resist the man before her. After all, she had taken enough beatings over the past few days.

But her subconscious aversion and resistance were impossible to hide, and Zhang Laohu felt it.

No one likes to be hated.

Zhang Laohu grabbed Xu Ru’s hand with his left hand, and with a sharp tug, sent her stumbling to the ground.

Whether from fear, humiliation, or physical pain, Xu Ru covered her face and began to cry softly.

Seeing her cry, Zhang Laohu felt an inexplicable irritation.

”What a jinx! I give you food and drink, and you still cry? You ungrateful bitch!”

Zhang Laohu looked thoroughly vexed, but what he said was true.

Over the past few days, Zhang Laohu had indeed not scrimped on Xu Ru’s food and drink. He basically gave her as much as he ate himself.

Although he would hit her when she struggled, with his strength, if he had really wanted to hurt her, Xu Ru wouldn’t be standing here in one piece.

After all, Xu Yuanshan’s example was lying right there in the corner, impossible to ignore.

In his mind, Zhang Laohu already considered Xu Ru his wife, but clearly, Xu Ru did not feel the same.

’In the future, I’m going to marry someone tall, rich, and handsome,’ Xu Ru thought. ’How could a brute like Zhang Laohu ever be worthy of me?’

The very thought of it filled Xu Ru with a sorrow so deep she felt she couldn’t go on living.

Xu Ru had long since lost the will to live.

But Tan Jing discovered her daughter’s intentions. Upon realizing Xu Ru was suicidal, Tan Jing’s first reaction was panic and fear.

This fear wasn’t about losing her daughter, but a different, selfish kind of fear.

Tan Jing was well aware that the only reason Zhang Laohu had spared her and given her food was because of her daughter.

If Xu Ru died, Zhang Laohu would never let her live.

Even if he didn’t kill her himself, without a food source, she would starve to death sooner or later.

Tan Jing adapted to the cruel apocalypse with shocking speed. At first, she thought Zhang Laohu’s ideas were insane, but now, she was starting to think this life was pretty good.

’What’s so bad about it? I get to stay alive, and I don’t have to worry about food.’ At times, she even secretly wondered, ’Why wasn’t I the one Zhang Laohu took a fancy to back then? That would have made everyone happy. Why is Xu Yuanshan still alive and wasting food when he’s so badly injured? The remaining food could last a few more days that way.’

Of course, Tan Jing would never tell Xu Ru her true thoughts.

She only told Xu Ru to hold on. ”As long as we stay alive,” she’d say, ”the apocalypse will end one day. When it’s over, we’ll call the police and have Zhang Laohu arrested. And then, who’s ever going to know what happened here?”

”You’ll still be able to live your old life, and it won’t affect you finding a boyfriend.”

Xu Ru believed her, and those words were what she clung to.

As for her parents’ lives, that didn’t even factor into her thoughts.