Chapter 40 The Doctor's Reasoning

"Doctor, are you saying that Su Xiaoxiao is also..." Fatty immediately understood Jiang Cheng's implication.

Jiang Cheng was still looking around, casually replying, "Don't always say 'my implication, my implication'. This is Chen Ran's plan. He wants to use us as pathfinders. Su Xiaoxiao is just a backup, in case something goes wrong."

"That guy is really insidious," Fatty muttered. "Isn't this blatantly treating people like dirt? If he ever falls into my hands, I'll definitely..."

"Shut your mouth," Jiang Cheng said. "Stop dreaming. First of all, he's not going to fall into your hands. Your brain is less useful than a bowl of tofu pudding to him."

"Besides, what does his scheming against Su Xiaoxiao have to do with you? Are you in love with her, or do you just lust after her body?"

Jiang Cheng glanced at Fatty, making the latter shudder. "Su Xiaoxiao is cooperating with him to survive, and then incidentally take us out, understand?"

Fatty nervously swallowed, "Understood, understood, Doctor."

After being lectured by the Doctor, he felt a little embarrassed. After a while, he blushed and said, "I... I was just saying. You know me, Doctor."

Jiang Cheng ignored him and continued to observe Chen Ran and Su Xiaoxiao's every move.

Feeling awkward, Fatty dared not speak anymore, continuing to hold up the branch and pretend to be a little tree indifferent to the world.

"Something seems... seems wrong," Su Xiaoxiao, who was less than 10 meters away from the stone disk, frowned and looked back at Chen Ran. "There are no corpses of them on it, and... and the bones on it are old bones, already yellowed."

Chen Ran stared at the disk and said after a while, "Get closer, let's take a closer look."

"No way," Su Xiaoxiao shook her head. "My brother and I got too close before, and triggered some mechanism of this stone disk. The skeletons on it all came to life."

She rolled up her sleeves and pointed to the scratches on her body. "The injuries on me, and on my brother, were all left by those resurrected people and monsters."

Chen Ran narrowed his eyes, smiled, and looked at Su Xiaoxiao's serious face, nodding. "Is that so..."

Su Xiaoxiao stared at him, her pupils shrinking involuntarily, as if she suddenly realized what was about to happen.

"Miss Su," Chen Ran tilted his head, looking at her playfully, and suddenly said, "I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to demonstrate for me."

Su Xiaoxiao's eyes widened, and after a long while, she asked loudly, "Are you crazy?!"

Chen Ran spread his hands and sighed helplessly. "Miss Su, if you can't even satisfy this small request..." The corners of Chen Ran's mouth suddenly widened as he looked up and said, "Then I think... we shouldn't be companions."

A cold glint flashed in Su Xiaoxiao's eyes, and then she immediately attacked. A wooden dagger, always hidden under her wrist, suddenly stabbed out. She understood the principle of striking first, especially... when facing such an opponent.

If she gave him a chance to react, she would be the one to suffer.

She wasn't sure how tricky Chen Ran was, but she was confident in her skills. She had specially trained with someone, not a training institution, but a real mercenary.

She lacked strength, so she focused on technique, especially specializing in close-range dagger attacks.

Her strike was unexpected, and the location she chose was not the hard-to-hit eyes or throat. She chose the abdomen.

As long as she seriously injured him, it would be much easier to fight or escape.

Although after killing someone in the nightmare, she would be haunted by the ghost of the killed person, she clearly couldn't care about that now.

If Chen Ran didn't die, she would.

To seek cooperation with a tiger was truly courting death.

However...

The victory or defeat was faster than she thought.

She watched as her stab was about to hit his abdomen, and Chen Ran clearly hadn't reacted, still smiling at her a second before it pierced his abdomen.

But... she actually missed.

Then a sharp pain spread from her abdomen. She was sent flying by a huge force. Chen Ran's palm struck her lower abdomen.

Then, still in mid-air, she was thrown away and slammed heavily on the ground.

"Pfft—"

A mouthful of blood spurted out the moment she landed.

Chen Ran stared down at her, like looking at a dead dog.

The sharp pain from her abdomen made her curl up into a ball. Without a doubt, she had broken several ribs at least, and the inward-broken ribs were likely to have pierced her lungs. Each breath brought forth blood foam.

Chen Ran sighed, shrugged innocently, and said, "Miss Su, what are you doing?"

He crouched down and patted the face hidden by her hair, a face that was originally pale but now covered in blood. Su Xiaoxiao's body trembled uncontrollably.

Chen Ran grabbed her arm and reached for the dagger in Su Xiaoxiao's hand. "Hmm?" Chen Ran paused. He wanted to pull out the dagger, but he didn't succeed.

"You're really tenacious..." Chen Ran stood up and then stomped hard on Su Xiaoxiao's wrist with the hand holding the knife.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound intoxicated Chen Ran. He couldn't remember how many times he had done such a thing, but each time was as exciting and blood-pumping as the first.

It was like his obsession with the piano, but he didn't like those soft and weak tunes. He liked the kind of blood-pumping, throat-exploding melodies.

Like Beethoven's Tempest Sonata.

The whole world exploded in his ears. Every time he heard the prelude, he felt like he was walking in the pouring rain on a city street.

The streets were empty. He looked up at the sky, the rain seeming to engulf his eyes.

But the later part of the piece was boring and disgusting. The sad and despicable lament had to create a half-dead, mournful feeling. It was truly... unforgivable.

Just like the stupid woman in front of him.

He took a deep sniff of the blood-filled air, then leaned over, preparing to take the dagger from Su Xiaoxiao's hand. Her wrist was shattered, twisted irregularly.

"Hmm?" Chen Ran frowned slightly.

He failed again. Su Xiaoxiao's hands were tightly gripping the dagger, and although she was trembling with pain, she still didn't let go.

Still persisting?

Chen Ran suddenly lost interest in the mission, but his interest in this petite woman greatly increased. He hadn't encountered such a cute little thing in a long time.

Before, whether it was a man as strong as an ox or a woman who had seen the world, they could only tremble in fear when they fell into his hands, unable to speak clearly.

Suicide... was a luxury.

He lowered his head, no, knelt on the ground, pressing his entire upper body as close as possible to Su Xiaoxiao's body. He wanted to hear what this tenacious woman would say in the end.