Chapter 493
473 The Past of Chi Piao
Chapter 493, Section 473: The Past of a Late Journey (7)
"pat..."
The last person fell to the ground, and Chi Piao looked dazedly at her palm.
She is a mage, and her gravity allows her to control objects remotely, so her hands are naturally clean and bloodless.
But if you look down, you'll see a completely different scene.
The ground was no longer recognizable as its original color, soaked in dark red, and the sticky pool of blood resembled an ever-expanding carpet.
Broken organs slid out of the torn body, mixed with mud and grime, lying limply on the ground, exuding a strong smell of rust and decay.
The severed limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, and some fingers were slightly curled up, as if they were still trying to grasp something at the last moment.
In the center of this slaughterhouse, the earth has sunk into an irregular shallow pit, a mark left by her strong gravitational field. At the bottom of the pit, there is a thick layer of blood plasma, reflecting the iron-gray clouds in the sky.
At the edge of the pothole, a little boy huddled tightly in his father's arms, his thin back trembling violently.
He cried almost silently, only large tears rolling down his face, leaving two white streaks on his dirty cheeks.
His father held him tightly, his arms stiff, his eyes vacant as he stared at a patch of indistinguishable flesh and clothing not far away—that was the child's mother, a woman from the war zone.
Just now, right before the child's eyes, it was instantly crushed and disintegrated by an invisible force, becoming part of the mess on the ground.
And now, it's their turn.
"Get them."
Chi Piao heard her own voice, dry and hoarse like a broken twig:
"Drag them all into sacks."
She turned around, her boots sinking into the pool of blood with a sticky, squelching sound, leaving a wet, dark red footprint with each step.
Behind them, the child's sobs suddenly rose to a shrill scream, then subsided, turning into desperate struggles and muffled cries from inside the sack—someone had tightened the sack's opening with a rough hemp rope.
The sound of engines grew louder as several unmarked vans rolled across the gravel road and came to a stop at the edge of the pool of blood.
The train doors opened with a "whoosh," and several people dressed in identical gray uniforms jumped out, silently tossing the bulging, writhing sacks into the carriage one by one.
The sacks slammed against the cart floor with a heavy thud, occasionally punctuated by suppressed groans that pierced through the coarse burlap.
Chi Piao didn't know where it was going, but Feng Shiman, who had been working here for a long time, told her that it was going to the organ park.
Black Eye Pharmaceuticals is involved not only in the pharmaceutical industry, but also in a very important link of the black industry chain.
The Crown Prince gave Tantai Hui a strict order to ensure that there were enough "goods" from the black market, so these henchmen belonging to the blind master had to do this kind of dirty work every day.
The soldiers were killed directly in the war, while those from other factions were brought to the park to serve as supplies.
During the month that Chi Piao had been here, his hands were stained with blood every day. He had personally killed countless people and watched countless lives wither away in the park.
She had no way to deal with this, because mind control abilities were extremely torturous; if she didn't do it, she would be subjected to a direct attack on her brain.
The intense pain made her feel like she was dying, and she even wanted to understand herself several times, but even these thoughts were forcibly suppressed by mental control.
Under constant and forceful mental interference, her memory began to falter, often failing to connect events from the previous moment, and her speech became occasionally incoherent. She knew that her thinking was being brutally pruned by some force.
Her symptoms were actually considered mild compared to those of her colleagues.
When Feng Shiman is on a mission, his eyes, which always carry a hint of weary smile, completely lose their sparkle and become a blank as he executes the instructions.
He could only barely piece together a little bit of his own consciousness by swallowing the few white pills that the company distributed for free after the mission was over.
Feng Shiman once tried to persuade her in a flat, monotone voice while swallowing medicine with cold water:
"Stop thinking about it, Chi Piao. Just think of yourself as a knife, a good knife."
"Here, emotions are a luxury; the clearer you feel them, the faster they shatter."
Chi Piao's throat tightened at that moment, and he couldn't say anything.
Only in the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep, would she dare to quietly get up from her communal bed, walk outside the temporary tent, and sit down with her knees drawn up to her chest.
The night sky was a thick, deep blue, and the moon was missing a piece, its edges blurred in the clouds, like a dusty, broken heart.
As she gazed at the moon, a vision of Chi Ling's pale face on her sickbed appeared before her eyes, a scene from long ago.
The moon back then seemed to be less round as well.
A sour feeling rushed to the tip of her nose, and tears rolled down her cheeks silently. She bit her hand hard, swallowing back the sob deep into her throat.
The passing of a loved one is like a light drizzle; every seemingly insignificant detail is magnified after their death, eventually becoming a bitter, unspeakable taste in one's mouth.
Chi Piao sensed that her colleague's mental state was becoming abnormal, and she also felt that her own mind was slowly decaying.
She took a small bottle of medicine out of her pocket.
This is a free psychiatric medication distributed by the company. Many of my colleagues who were fighting wars take it. It is said to really relieve mental pain and breakdown, and bring people into a state of indifference.
Feng Shiman did become much more normal after taking the medicine, but he believed that the medicine only had a numbing effect and could not cure his real mental pain.
Chi Piao had never taken it before, but thinking of Chi Ling and her current situation, she felt really uncomfortable, so she couldn't help but open the bottle cap. Just as she took out a pill, she felt a shadow suddenly appear in front of her.
"Why aren't you asleep?"
His voice was gentle, even carrying a familiar concern.
Chi Piao suddenly looked up and met a refined and calm face—it was Xu Huan.
After being away for many days, seeing my boss again brought a flood of pent-up fear and exhaustion that instantly overwhelmed my defenses.
She blurted it out almost spontaneously, her voice filled with sorrow:
"You schemer, I'll never go to that abandoned building again. Let me go back, I... "
She was about to say something when she saw the shy girl behind Xu Huan, whose eyes were covered by a white cloth and who was smiling. Startled, she changed her words:
"...I love it so much, but I still want to go back to work."
Xu Huan noticed her momentary stiffness and change of heart. He glanced at Tantai Hui beside him, his tone remaining unchanged:
"The time has come, and I've come to take you back."