When the Female Lead Becomes Obsessive – Chapter 137
by Little PandaVolume Six: The Years I Wasn’t Human
Returning Home
Wen Nuan took the third-generation antidote. The medicinal effect was indeed as An Min had said; the reaction was not very intense, just a slight drowsiness.
In order to constantly monitor Wen Nuan’s condition, An Min did not let her leave the laboratory.
Sang Er did not leave the laboratory either. She would not affect the experiment between the two of them, so she sat obediently to one side, watching the drowsy Wen Nuan in the sealed room.
“Is she in pain?”
An Min paused for a moment and said in a light voice, “It will hurt a little.”
The experimental process was not a calm, ripple-free one; all kinds of sudden situations could appear, and unexpected accidents that catch one off guard could also quietly occur.
Sang Er’s fingers clenched tightly, and her voice was a bit strained as she asked, “Does it have to hurt?”
“It’s a matter of probability, I can’t give you an accurate answer,” An Min looked at Sang Er, “Are you afraid of pain?”
“I’m afraid of her being in pain.”
An Min put down the pen in his hand, turned to look at Sang Er, and said seriously, “Actually, it’s you… who’s afraid of pain, which is why you’re afraid of her being in pain.”
Her fingertips trembled slightly, and her eyes dimmed for a brief moment. “Is that so?”
When she was wandering, when she was begging, when she had no food and her stomach was empty.
Because she was too hungry, she wanted to eat a baozi, but the shopkeeper beat and cursed her. To fill her stomach, she snatched food from a wild dog’s mouth and was almost bitten.
In order to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, she fought with local ruffians and scoundrels. Their tempers were explosive and their hands were ruthless, so she would learn their way of fighting, and then strike even more ruthlessly than them. This life-risking fighting style allowed her to possess a small patch of ground where she could catch her breath.
Sang Er watched Wen Nuan’s beautiful eyebrows furrow tightly together. She was suffering inside, while Sang Er could only watch her pain from the outside, completely powerless.
She did not like this feeling of powerlessness.
An Min could sense Sang Er’s low spirits, but he was not someone who was good at comforting people.
“I think you should trust her,” An Min said, looking at Wen Nuan in the sealed room. “She is even stronger than you imagine.”
Sang Er lowered her head, her fingertips turning white from picking at them. “But… I can’t help her with anything.”
Whether in the past or now, she could not help Wen Nuan, having accomplished nothing.
“No,” An Min looked at Sang Er and said lightly, “You are of great use to her.”
Sang Er’s eyes held inquiry and surprise. “What?”
“When it comes down to it, you are the antidote for Wen Nuan to be rid of the H-agent.”
Sang Er’s gaze flickered. “What… do you mean?”
An Min said unhurriedly, “Actually, it’s very easy to explain. When Wen Nuan is testing the medicine, her reactions are usually immense. Others cannot get close to her and might even be attacked by her, but you won’t be.”
“You can get close to her, touch her, and soothe her.”
“To her, your existence is the heavy within the heavy1.”
For a whole week, An Min produced the antidote at a very fast pace, and Wen Nuan tested it with equal frequency. They went through the zombies so quickly that even the ones newly captured by the ability users couldn’t replenish the supply in time for testing.
The antidote had already been developed to the seventh generation. The medicinal reactions had gradually become balanced, without any very strong reactions. Whether it was the zombies, ability users, or Wen Nuan who took the capsule, their reactions were all very mild, and the H-agent within their bodies was rapidly disintegrating.
The zombies began to show human consciousness. Their memories only remained up to the point before they became zombies; not the slightest trace of their memories from after becoming a zombie was retained.
After the ability users took the seventh-generation antidote, they could feel the fluctuation of the abilities within their bodies. This was the reaction as the seventh-generation antidote took effect.
As for Wen Nuan, she could feel the most perfect chain of medicinal effects from the H-agent in her body being completely destroyed. From now on, she would become a short-lived ability user.
Regarding the research and development of the antidote, the majority held a supportive opinion, with only a small minority holding an opposing one. After all, in the apocalypse, ability users were almost like heavenly gods. Many people had been just mediocre and without accomplishment before the apocalypse arrived. They had accidentally awakened their abilities and become overlords of their own domains in this apocalyptic world, so naturally, they were unwilling to give up such preferential treatment.
However, that group of ability users with opposing opinions did not persist for long. After all, they could not defeat the combined attacks of Chu Han and Sang Er. One by one, they were electrocuted and burned until they were crying for their fathers and shouting for their mothers, and in the end, they unconditionally supported the policy of implementing the antidote.
【The antidote has been created. Are we about to leave?】 the system asked.
At this time, the female lead’s blackening value had already dropped to 0.3, lacking only a single opportunity to be completely eliminated.
Wen Nuan took a drag from her cigarette. “Soon.”
She looked at Sang Er, who had already walked downstairs. “After the antidote is released, to what point will the lifespans of the ability users and zombies be shortened?”
An Min had not been precise about this time, only saying that they would be short-lived.
【Based on speculation, in one month, both ability users and zombies will completely disappear from this world.】 The system’s calculations were more accurate compared to An Min’s.
Moreover, the system also had this world’s main storyline. In the original plot, after An Min developed the antidote, ability users and zombies would also gradually disappear from the stage of history.
Wen Nuan’s brows furrowed. “The deaths of the world’s main characters, won’t that cause the mission world to collapse?”
Although she had long known that the male and female leads of this mission world would be short-lived, she was still somewhat puzzled.
The system said: 【This is a necessary condition, because the plot setting of this mission world is that An Min creates the antidote, overcomes the after-effects of the H-agent, liberates all of humanity, and eliminates the apocalypse. The male and female leads have completed their mission and will retire after achieving their merits. This is the natural law of the Three Realms2; a world collapse will not occur.】
Wen Nuan heard the sound of the door opening, turned around, leaned her back against the railing, and watched Sang Er walk in.
She raised her hand, “Little Ears, come here and let me hug you.”
Sang Er put her things aside, took off her dirty clothes, walked over, and buried herself in Wen Nuan’s embrace, asking in a muffled voice, “What’s wrong?”
“I just wanted to hug you.”
Sang Er sensed that Wen Nuan’s mood was a bit low. “What’s wrong? Are you unhappy about something?”
“I’m not unhappy, I just missed you.”
“Missed me?” Sang Er poked her head out and said with a smile, “Wen Nuan, I’ve been away from you for less than a day, and you already miss me?”
Wen Nuan lowered her head and kissed the space between her eyebrows. “Mm, whenever you leave me, even for a second, I think of you as if I’m going mad.”
My reluctance to part with you and my attachment to you are becoming more and more severe.
Sang Er’s eyes curved into crescents. “Wen Nuan, you’re so clingy.”
“Then do you like me being clingy with you?”
Sang Er hugged Wen Nuan’s waist tightly, swaying back and forth while holding her, and said with a wide smile, “I especially like it.”
“Little Ears?” Wen Nuan gently stroked her brows and eyes. “If you only had one month left in your life, what would you want to do?”
Sang Er blinked, thought for a moment, and said, “I don’t know. But as long as I’m by your side, it wouldn’t matter even if I were to die tomorrow.”
Wen Nuan gave a helpless smile. “I’m being serious with you. Think carefully, is there anything you particularly want to do?”
Something I particularly want to do?
Before, she wanted to have a home, to have parents who doted on her and loved her. Later, she felt she was indulging in infatuated wishful thinking, so she changed her dream.
She wanted to live on, to survive in this sinful world, to survive in this cruel apocalypse.
But after Wen Nuan died, she no longer wanted to live. That was the first time she felt that living on was a form of torture, one that would torment a person until they were in so much pain they did not wish to live.
And now, Wen Nuan had died and returned to life, and she had been by her side all this time. The apocalypse was about to end, so if there was truly something she wanted to do…
“I’ve thought of something.” A thought flashed through Sang Er’s mind.
Wen Nuan asked, “What is it?”
“I want to have a home.”
She still wanted to do her best to fulfill her original dream.
Have a home?
Sang Er was an orphan. Her biological parents couldn’t be found, and in the current apocalypse, they had likely long since become food for zombies. The old couple who had raised her had also long since entered the earth to find peace3. Now, Sang Er’s only relative was Mu Xuan.
Wen Nuan was not quite sure about the meaning of “home” that Sang Er spoke of.
She asked tentatively, “How do you want to… have a ‘home’?”
Sang Er looked at Wen Nuan. This was the person she thought of day and night, the person she placed at the very tip of her heart, the person she couldn’t bear to hear cry out in pain, the person she had loved so deeply for this half of her life.
Why say half a lifetime?
Because An Min had told them that once the antidote was released, the continuation of their lives would also come to an abrupt halt. They would gradually head towards demise, eventually disappearing along with the apocalypse.
Half a lifetime was Sang Er’s everything. Her childhood had been one of extreme hardship, wandering and displaced and alone with no kin to be seen. To have survived until today with no one to rely on, she was already very grateful to Heaven for its mercy.
What she had expected even less, however, was that Heaven had also sent Wen Nuan to her side, just like a traveler about to freeze to death on a winter’s day, whose heart was warmed by a brilliant beam of light.
Now, she greedily thought of keeping this beam of light by her side forever and ever. Even if she were to enter the yellow earth and descend to the Nine Springs4, she wanted Wen Nuan, this beam of light, to shine only upon her.
“Wen Nuan?”
She responded, “Mm, I’m here.”
The tip of Sang Er’s nose tingled, and with a trembling voice, she held back a sob and said, “Let’s get married, okay?”
Wen Nuan’s eyes widened as she looked at Sang Er in disbelief.
The moment the words were out, her tears could no longer be held back, instantly streaming down her cheeks.
Sang Er wiped away her tears and said with great solemnity, “Wen Nuan, let’s get married. I want to have a home with you.”
She wanted a home, and Wen Nuan was the “home” she had been searching so long and hard for.
The author has something to say:
Author: In a good mood today, so I’m giving my little cuties an extra chapter!
(Thanks for JJ’s grace of not killing yesterday5)
Footnotes
- 重中之重 | zhòng zhōng zhī zhòng | Literally “the heavy within the heavy” or “the important among the important.” An idiom meaning the absolute top priority or the most crucial part of something.
- 三界 | sān jiè | Literally “Three Realms.” A concept in Chinese cosmology, Buddhism, and Taoism, typically referring to the Heaven Realm (天界), the Mortal Realm (人界), and the Underworld (地界), representing the entire cosmos.
- 入土而安 | rù tǔ ér ān | Literally “to enter the earth and be at peace.” A common saying that means to be buried and find final rest after death.
- 九泉 | jiǔ quán | Literally “Nine Springs.” A term in Chinese mythology for the underworld or the realm of the dead. “Descending to the Nine Springs” is a poetic way of saying “to die and go to the afterlife.”
- jj的不杀之恩 | jj de bù shā zhī ēn | Literally “JJ’s grace of not killing.” “JJ” is a common abbreviation for Jinjiang Literature City (晋江文学城), a major Chinese webnovel platform. “不杀之恩” (bù shā zhī ēn) is a dramatic, often humorous internet slang phrase used to thank a platform, moderator, or authority figure for not censoring, deleting, or otherwise punishing one’s content.
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