Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - chapter 103

Gu Huaiwei flicked a glance at Xiao Youqi on the flatbed cart, amusement hidden in her eyes. “You heard what I just said, didn’t you?

Qian Duoduo still can’t stop worrying about you. She’s afraid I’ll ditch you halfway and toss you aside like dead weight.”

Xiao Youqi was silent for a moment, then said something much like Qian Duoduo had: “It doesn’t matter anymore. She and I aren’t friends.”

This was the peculiar way drifters got along.

Their ties were mixed with profit and betrayal. They treated each other with sharp cruelty, yet there was still the faintest shred of sincerity left-until, in the end, they became strangers.

Gu Huaiwei took the Apocalypse Armored Vehicle out of her space. When it hit the ground, dust billowed up. He Xueyi helped Xiao Youqi into the back seat. Gu Huaiwei got into the driver’s seat, buckled up, and stepped on the gas.

“He Xueyi, get these on him,” Gu Huaiwei said, tossing a loose long-sleeved hoodie and a pair of sweatpants into the back.

“Let me keep them for now.” Xiao Youqi didn’t want to stain such good fabric. He wanted to wait until Gu Huaiwei cured him, then change into clean, brand-new clothes.

“Put them on now.” Gu Huaiwei didn’t want the tumors and oozing pus on his body to ruin her back seat.

Gu Huaiwei drove, and along the way they made a detour to pick up Xiao Ai.

After the Black Spiral Research Institute discovered Gu Huaiwei had gone missing, they dispatched heavily armed troops to guard the high-speed rail station.

The four of them didn’t take the high-speed rail. Instead, they went straight into the surface Radiation Zone and drove the Doomsday Armored Vehicle overland to the Neon Nest in the Third District.

Since there was no time to return to the Oasis Hotel anyway, Gu Huaiwei simply went to the Upper District’s largest entertainment district and took the people with her to enjoy themselves.

The Neon Nest was a jumble of all kinds-every sort of person you could imagine. Xiao Ai had lived in the Upper District before, and she knew the place like the back of her hand.

After they disguised themselves, Xiao Ai suggested they watch the Neon Nest’s most classic event: an Arena match.

He Xueyi kept saying he didn’t like anything bloody or violent, but seeing how interested Gu Huaiwei was, he followed along anyway.

They sat down in the stands. Doing as the locals did, Gu Huaiwei placed a bet with Gold Coin.

The Arena stank of blood and sweat. The crowd’s feverish cheers thundered in their ears.

The slaves fighting weren’t very old. They went in bare-chested-battle-axes cleaving downward, short swords darting away. One man’s blade ripped open the other’s abdomen, and blood sprayed out.

The victor raised his battle-axe high. The scars on his body were his badge.

Gu Huaiwei lost a little and won more. After several bouts, she even came out ahead by a few Gold Coin.

Xiao Ai was having a great time. “Changge never used to come here with me,” she said. “She thought this place was barbaric.”

Gu Huaiwei simply enjoyed the pleasures this world offered, without interfering in how they lived.

Xiao Ai took her to the local Red Light District next, where they watched an intensely vulgar show.

Here, Gu Huaiwei saw another side of the Wasteland World’s luxury.

She saw expensive greenery sealed in glass cases. She saw fresh water meant for bathing. She saw pets untouched by radiation, and even strawberry-flavored nutritional supplements made specifically for those pets.

Gu Huaiwei casually tossed two bottles of fresh water to runaway slaves hiding in a dark alley.

Then she stuffed some bread into the hands of the girls working the street.

Gu Huaiwei realized that with only the smallest kindness, these people would be willing to leave with her. Some even cried with gratitude, ready to follow her lead without question.

That look in their eyes was the look of those at the bottom-an expectant gaze from people desperate to change their fate.

She thought Professor Feng must be addicted to the self-esteem and vanity that came from handing out low-value scraps of mercy. That had to be why he wanted to stay in this world.

How arrogant.

And how childish.

Every time Gu Huaiwei gave something away, Xiao Youqi would tense up.

He kept urging Gu Huaiwei to leave this world and cure him.

At first, he still had brief flashes of energy, enough to go out with them for a while.

But as the days went on, Xiao Youqi’s condition worsened. In the end, he could only lie on the hotel bed, mumbling indistinctly.
Every day, Gu Huaiwei went out with Xiao Ai to wander around, leaving He Xueyi behind to keep Xiao Youqi company.

It was the night before last before the plane jump.

“He’s about to die.” Gu Huaiwei stared at the green shoots pushing out from the rotting cavity of Xiao Youqi’s abdomen as she drew up a larger dose of the Inhibitor Qian Duoduo had given them and injected it into him.

Xiao Youqi most likely wouldn’t make it through the night.

“He’ll grow into a tree-lush branches, thick leaves, heavy fruit. The nobles in the Upper District will put him in their homes as decoration.” He Xueyi looked at the tree that was on the verge of ripening, amusement shimmering in his gilded eyes.

“You should rest. I’ll watch him tonight.”

“Are you sure?” He Xueyi’s gaze fell on the dark circles under Gu Huaiwei’s eyes. “I don’t need sleep. It won’t affect me.”

Gu Huaiwei shook her head lightly, refusing his kindness. “Tonight, I’m enough on my own.”

“I’ll be in the next room. If you want to end his pain, I can help.” His mercy carried a blade.

“No. Just like this.” Gu Huaiwei’s cruelty, too, left room for a sliver of mercy.

After He Xueyi went to the next room, Gu Huaiwei took nine sets of clothes out of the Jade Bracelet and folded them neatly, placing them by Xiao Youqi’s pillow.

Xiao Youqi drifted in and out of consciousness. His whole body burned with heat, a fever that wouldn’t break. Whenever he forced his eyes open, he could see the tree growing from inside his belly.

“I don’t want to die…”

“Go to sleep. When you wake up, it’ll be over.” Gu Huaiwei sat on a small stool beside the bed, watching his death in silence.

“These days… I keep dreaming about the people who died by my hand. I haven’t dreamed in years. Is there such a thing as karma in this world?

Is my retribution… having to suffer all this pain before I die?”

In the darkness, Gu Huaiwei sat on the wooden stool by the bed, legs drawn up, arms wrapped around her knees. Her black hair spilled down like water, veiling half her face.

She didn’t answer. She only listened to Xiao Youqi’s murmurs at the edge of death.

Faint breaths. Broken words. Xiao Youqi’s confusion and helplessness in the face of dying.

“But I’m not satisfied. I met you… You can walk on the ground without fearing radiation. You can raise buildings out of thin air… You have so many abilities. Why won’t you save me?”

“Why won’t you save me? Why won’t you take me with you? Why?!”

“Is it because you think I’ll betray you? Because I’ve done so many bad things? Or because I earned your Gold Coin, stole your hair-”

“I didn’t want to do it, either, but I was going to die. I can’t stay at the Oasis Hotel forever. I had to find myself a way to live…”

The more Xiao Youqi struggled in pain, the faster the tree inside him grew.

Gu Huaiwei could already see small, glossy green fruits forming on the branches.

Death and pain were the tree’s nourishment.

He Xueyi had given Xiao Youqi hope-then, at the brink of death, made him realize it had been a lie. The agony and hatred that followed fed the tree, urging it to mature.

“Save me…”

Gu Huaiwei rose from the chair. Her lotus-pale feet slid into slippers, and the bare ankle above them was so thin the shape of the bones showed clearly.

Xiao Youqi struggled to push himself up from the bed. Bloody tears streamed from his eyes, staining his gray irises red. He reached toward Gu Huaiwei, trying to fight for one last chance.

“Take me with you…”

“To your world…”

Gu Huaiwei walked to his side.

“Don’t be afraid. In the end, everyone has only one destination. You’re just taking the first step ahead of the others.”

She watched his hand fall. A trace of rotten flesh clung to stark white bone, then slipped off as his last strength drained away, dropping to the bedside.

She had come to this world and received him as her very first customer. Now, she was the one seeing him off.

A beginning, and an end.