Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1250: Puppeteer Breaks the Contract

Many iron cans clattered and rolled onto the road, producing clear impact sounds that echoed incessantly. The labels stuck on the cans had turned pale and blurry, and the eroded words were difficult to read. Bohemia picked up one that had bumped into her knee, squinting as she looked at it, trying to read the label. "Fresh, fresh... what soup?"

Yuan Xiangxi put down his coat that he had used as a pouch moments ago, brushed off the dust, and walked among the scattered iron cans. He looked at them and confidently said, "Tomato soup, definitely... Wait, let me take another look."

"Who knows how long it's been since the doomsday in Bear City... Even if it's canned, it must have expired," Bohemia said, glancing at him sideways, "If you're willing to risk going back to get canned food, why don't you bring a can opener?"

Yuan Xiangxi, too, had a temper and seemed unhappy. "We're all posthumans. Who needs a can opener?"

"Have you seen my hand evolve into a saw blade?" Bohemia continued to shoot her mouth off, even though she could only sit on the ground to recover. She looked for a knife blade to open the can. "If Lin Sanjiu hadn't passed out, I wouldn't have wanted to eat expired canned food."

"Fresh cockroach soup." Yuan Xiangxi pointed to the can in her hand and said, "That's right."

Despite knowing he was talking nonsense, Bohemia still threw away the can. The wounds all over her body, caused by the lashes, were burning with pain. The broken ankle bones made it impossible for her to sleep or move. Besides a living ghost like Yuan Xiangxi, who took forever to return after fumbling around, there was also Puppeteer, whom she couldn't approach and initiate a conversation with. Bohemia lay back down and glanced at the seemingly lifeless Lin Sanjiu beside her, feeling like throwing the canned food at her face. "It's all because of this vegetable!"

It had been early morning when Lin Sanjiu passed out after her tree roots were cut off. However, now the sun was about to set again over the distant mountains, and there was still no sign of her regaining consciousness. Her breathing and heartbeat were still normal, but the more Bohemia looked at her, the more she felt Lin Sanjiu looked like an empty plastic bag, barely alive when there was no wind, and ready to vanish with the wind when it blew.

After pulling her out of the ground, Puppeteer scrutinized Lin Sanjiu for a while, not saying a word.

On the section of the road where they encountered Lin Sanjiu, the newly grown forest was completely destroyed and turned into nothingness by Puppeteer's white light. Although Bohemia didn't understand his method or why he didn't use it earlier, she didn't dare to ask. However, because there was no fence on that section of the road anymore, for safety reasons, they decided to walk a little further before setting up camp.

Although they said they were setting up camp, Lin Sanjiu and Yuan Xiangxi's tents disappeared into the forest under the white light. The only thing left standing was Puppeteer's high frame. Before the white light rose, they had already disassembled themselves and quickly climbed to one side of the road, waiting for their master's next summons. At this moment, they were nearby, reconstructing their shapes, arranging their beds, and hanging curtains. Of course, none of this had anything to do with the two injured.

The two injured were now lying side by side on the rough and cold road surface, surrounded by rolling cans.

Yuan Xiangxi inserted the knife blade into one can and said, "It's not easy to open..." After glancing at Lin Sanjiu a few times, he said, "Cutting off the root of a tree cost her almost her entire life. It seems to make sense."

Bohemia glared at him. "You're the one who suggested cutting off the tree roots!"

Yuan Xiangxi, silenced, lowered his head to contend with the can. After a while, he mumbled, "Your memory is quite good."

After struggling to open a few cans, Bohemia painstakingly started a fire, becoming the only one having dinner by the fire that evening. She punctured holes in the cans with a hairpin and hung them over the fire. After a while, a strange odor mixed with the smell of old vegetables and mold emanated.

Bohemia looked at the sticky, grayish-white mixture in the can, mustered up her courage a few times but still couldn't bring herself to eat it, and turned her head to look at Lin Sanjiu. The latter kept her eyes tightly shut in the face of such a delicious meal. The flickering firelight cast dancing shadows on her face, constantly changing her features and giving her an illusion of false vitality.

In fact, apart from the roots drilled from her feet, Lin Sanjiu had no injuries. But the more intact she was, the more Bohemia felt helpless—she could bandage bones and wounds, but what could she do when faced with a vegetable?

"Should we give her some water?" she said.

"Right," Yuan Xiangxi nodded.

"Then... Should we feed her from the mouth or the roots?"

"Both?"

"Here," Bohemia said, then pointed to her ankle, "My foot hurts."

Yuan Xiangxi was indeed a very gentle person by nature. He filled an empty iron can with water and sat beside Lin Sanjiu. He pushed his long hair behind his ears, revealing a face that seemed softly touched by moonlight, and checked Lin Sanjiu's condition for a while. After placing her head on his lap, he gently pinched her chin to make her open her mouth.

"It's useless," Puppeteer said coldly from behind the deep red curtain. "Water won't restore the life force she has lost."

"What should we do then?" Yuan Xiangxi turned his head toward the voice, looking curious, like a deer facing a gun. "Come over here and take a look."

Bohemia pretended not to hear.

"Pour the water away," Puppeteer said, sounding like he was enduring this guy whom he couldn't kill or turn into a puppet. "Don't feed her water or food."

Bohemia found herself taken aback, trying to figure out what to say without sounding like she was questioning Puppeteer. It was not easy. As she tried to find the right words, Yuan Xiangxi responded, "Then she'll die, won't she?"

"You see," Puppeteer's voice had an almost appreciative tone, "she's not like you. You know when it's time to die, so you die. She has never been so self-aware."

Seeing Yuan Xiangxi tilt his head in thought, Bohemia couldn't help but say, "He's not praising you."

"Oh." He hesitated for a moment and gently put down the iron can in his hand.

After cutting off Lin Sanjiu's supply of food and water, coupled with the fatigue from traveling during the day and the chilling wind at night, she seemed weaker with each passing day.

Every night before Bohemia closed her eyes, she wondered if Lin Sanjiu would slowly fade away as she slept until she disappeared into the endless darkness when she opened her eyes. This thought disturbed Bohemia's sleep, and she would wake up several times each night, reaching out to feel Lin Sanjiu's face and trying to find her breathing. One time, she was half-asleep and fumbled on Yuan Xiangxi's face for a long time, which scared her awake. As a result, because her midnight cursing was too loud, Puppeteer sent her and Yuan Xiangxi flying several steps away.

When Bohemia mustered the courage to ask Puppeteer what to do in a situation like this, he responded coldly, "There is no way."

'So, should we just let Lin Sanjiu's life force drain away? What kind of way to save someone was this?'

Of course, she couldn't say these words out loud.

After trekking on the road for another two weeks, Bohemia began to feel that she would probably follow Lin Sanjiu soon. Along the way, they only occasionally glimpsed human figures beyond the roadside fence; the dense forest had become sparse, but the terrain continued to rise and fall. She had already gone through the stage of feeling hungry, and now she felt desperate to put everything in her mouth. If Yuan Xiangxi hadn't stopped her, she would have been eating weeds.

At some point, Puppeteer suddenly spoke up, asking them to stop.

Bohemia was leaning on a tree branch she had picked up from elsewhere as a crutch while her other hand supported Lin Sanjiu so she wouldn't slide off Yuan Xiangxi's shoulder. Yuan Xiangxi was panting heavily, breathing more laboriously than walking. Upon hearing the command, he stopped and quickly set Lin Sanjiu down. "What's wrong? Did you find something?" He naturally turned to ask as if Puppeteer were an old friend.

Puppeteer glanced at him with a gloomy look and shifted his gaze to Lin Sanjiu lying on the ground.

"Dispersing her life force is more difficult than eliminating the odor from the sewer," he sneered and raised a hand, lightly gesturing in the air. Several black leather strips kissed his hand and twined around his fingers, reflecting glimmers of light as he moved. "It seems I have to give her a hand."

Despite not having eaten anything for a long time, Bohemia suddenly hiccupped.

Puppeteer seemed to have promised not to kill Lin Sanjiu, and no matter how Lin Sanjiu jumped around, she had indeed survived. So, she must have misunderstood. He wouldn't harm Lin Sanjiu... If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already. But... what did 'dispersing her life force' mean? Why did he want to disperse Lin Sanjiu's life force?

"Um, sir." She hesitated and spoke up, "Maybe I can..."

A heavy gust of air struck Lin Sanjiu's chest directly.

The force of this blow was much stronger than it appeared. It instantly sent her tumbling like a dead fish; the sound of her chest bones cracking was so clear that it made one's own bones ache in sympathy. They both jumped back in surprise, momentarily stunned by what they had just experienced.

Despite being knocked over, Lin Sanjiu remained unconscious. She remained motionless on the road, and Bohemia kept staring at her, holding her breath. After waiting for a while and seeing no blood spread on the ground, Bohemia finally let out a sigh, but it got stuck in her throat before she could finish.

Lin Sanjiu's back was no longer rising and falling with breath.