Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

"But you are worried that they will find the place where you men have been killing and chopping up people before feeding them to the others?" I asked with a smile on my face. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't surprised to see Xing Xin Ya here with her men, but at the same time, having her here made my thoughts become 100% clearer.

I now knew exactly what I was going to do. I could only hope that she would be okay with my decisions. Hell, even if she wasn't, it was no skin off my back.

What I didn't realize right at that moment was what all the small things I was doing to kill time now meant for the future.

Mind you, when you are in fight, flight or freeze mode most of your life, you don't really look that far into the future. Even a few hours ahead was a long period of time where a lot of things could change.

Look at the fake in front of us, for example. I bet he didn't see this coming when he woke up this morning. Oh well, I digress; back to the show.

Xing Xin Ya turned to look at me. The expression on her face was blank for the first time since I had met her. "You knew?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Apparently, her men weren't happy with the fact that she was unhappy. Good for them. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝒎

But the look they turned to me put them in the crosshairs of my men, and that wasn't a place that they wanted to be. I simply smiled and shrugged my shoulders. For what I had planned for her, it would be a good thing if she didn't just roll over and accept it.

"Not really," I said with a snort. "If you think I care about any of this, you have another thing coming."

"But you said to let them come," she asked me, confused. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch, but it was enough to let her men relax too.

"Yeah," I said. "If they came to attack me and mine, they can expect death. The fact that they were pretending to be my men, well, that just added a whole other level."

"Your men?" she pressed.

"Chen Zi Han," I said as I pointed over my shoulder to the man in question. "Liu Yu Zeng," I continued as I pointed to the other man who was standing in front of the fake Liu Yu Zeng. I watched Xing Xin Ya's eyes widen in disbelief. I never introduced her to the guys and vice versa, so she had no idea that the man she knew as the head of the Red Dragon Syndicate was a fake.

And a liar.

And a cheat.

I mean, really. Even the level of narcissism and pretentiousness it took to have all of those girls sitting at his feet all day, every day, was something special.

I would have liked to make a smart-ass comment that at least the guys that I surround myself with every day were there of their own free will. But I was going to assume that the girls wanted to be there more than anyone else. After all, you weren't going to be thrown into the meat grinder if you proved to be useful. And it didn't escape my notice that they were all beautiful and all looked alike.

The fake Liu Yu Zeng definitely had a type.

"My biggest problem, a red flag if you will, is the fact that I tend to be a tad bit possessive when it comes to my men. The fact that there is another Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han out there means that there are other women that can say that they are their men. I don't share. Or, at least, not anymore. Anyone claiming to be them needs to die. It really is that simple." With a shrug of my shoulders, I turned to look at Xing Xin Ya.

"I don't suppose that you know who had access to the meat and who didn't," I asked, looking at her face.

"Everyone was given meat each night," she replied, looking at me. "At first, it was a draw for the people. The promise of fresh meat and vegetables every night made people who were on the fence about staying want to stay."

"And I suppose that Liu Yu Zeng wasn't overly forthcoming on exactly what type of meat it was," I added.

"No. The guys and I knew that we didn't have enough meat, let alone fresh meat, to give to everyone. We were hesitant and hid the meat that he gave us or gave it to the others."

"Are you saying that just so I will let you live?" I asked, turning my attention away from her and to the men in the corner. There was a large part of me that wanted to take their souls where they stood. But I also knew that doing that would make me sick.

'Not if you don't consume them,' said Violence from inside of my head. 'Remove the flame outside of the body. Liu Wei will handle the rest.'

'How will he be able to handle it? And I don't exactly want them to have a next life. If you know what I mean.'

'Questioning me now? You aren't there yet, Blue Eyes. And if you don't want to leave them for Liu Wei. Simply blow out the flame. You absorb the flames as a default mode. Simply picture blowing out the candle, and it will achieve the same results. With the added bonus of having them never reincarnate.'

'Huh,' I said, impressed. I had completely forgotten about the conversation I was in the middle of with Xing Xin Ya, and I definitely didn't notice my men facing off against her men. I was much more interested in the promise behind Violence's words. "So, picture the flame and just blow it out?" I asked her, completely unaware that I was speaking out loud.

'As easy as that,' Violence reassured me. 'As easy as that.'