After Transmigrating as the Vicious Female Supporting Character, I Ran Away While Pregnant - Chapter 29.1

“Pei! You money-losing thing. If I’d known you were such an ungrateful wretch, I should have strangled you to death the moment you were born. Would’ve saved me from getting angry.”

“Dad! It’s all because Li Sheng keeps going to our school every day. She made my classmates laugh at me. You have to teach her a proper lesson.”

“My precious son, you go back inside and do your homework. Dad will teach this thing that doesn’t know what’s good for her a lesson.”

The chubby boy carried yogurt and potato chips as he walked toward the old room. Outside in the corridor stood a thin, tiny little girl. She wore an oversized plaid shirt on her upper body, and even at the tail end of autumn, she was still wearing thin shorts. On her feet was a pair of new shoes, but judging from the style, they were boys’ shoes.

The little girl’s hair was dry and withered, and her skin was not very good either, but her little face had been washed clean. Her hair had also been combed and tied into a ponytail, neat and tidy.

The middle-aged man reached her in a few steps and glared down at her from above. “Who told you to go to Haohao’s school? I told you to go pick up bottles. Did you pick them up? Second Uncle’s small shop still needed help, and when I told you to go help, your hands weren’t clean and you stole food and drinks. If you keep acting like this, I’ll send you to that whore mother of yours. Stop being an eyesore in front of me.”

The little girl did not speak. Her eyes, the most striking part of her entire body, were bright and shining, revealing stubbornness and a tiny bit of grievance.

“Damn it, I’m talking to you. Are you mute?”

The man grabbed her collar with one hand and easily lifted the little girl up. The little girl was frightened at first, but after a while, she relaxed. Hanging in the man’s hand, she instead became less afraid.

It was as if this kind of thing had long since become normal.

“If you run to Haohao’s school again, I’ll throw you to that pork seller.”

The little girl did not make a sound. Her eyes stared straight at the man until he felt somewhat creeped out inside. Another burst of anger surged up, and with a casual movement, he flung her to the ground. “No dinner tonight. Get lost.”

The little girl slowly climbed up and walked through the corridor, went downstairs, and her small figure disappeared around the corner of the street.

In this world, the rich were already living in heaven, while the poor were still in hell. The polarization between rich and poor was enough to make people’s hearts go cold just looking at it.

The little girl was called Li Sheng. She was nine years old this year. Two years ago, she had still been living in an ordinary family in the slums. Although they were poor, with the government’s help, they could still eat until full and go to school.

Until her parents divorced. Originally, she followed her mother. After her mother married another uncle and became pregnant, she began to find Li Sheng unpleasant. Li Sheng remembered that on the snowy day, her mother had taken her to buy vegetables. Her mother said the vegetable vendor had given five mao less in change and told her to go back and ask for it.

She stood at that vegetable vendor’s place from morning until noon. When that family was about to close their stall and go home, they were finally pestered into annoyance by her and threw five mao at her feet. She took the money and ran home. When she returned, she found the door locked. At the place by the door where the old dog had been tied, only a dog skin and a pool of blood remained.

Later, someone found her and said both her parents were still alive, so she did not yet qualify to be taken in by the welfare home or shelter. That group of people tried every possible way to find her father and sent her over to him.

Because there was a rule that someone had to raise her until adulthood. Otherwise, it was illegal.

Her mother’s new home was in the rich district. Her mother told those uncles in suits that she should follow her father. So she followed her father.

Her father found her unpleasant. Her father’s new wife also found her unpleasant. She did every kind of work, but she still could not eat enough or dress warmly. In summer, she once suffered heatstroke from the heat and fortunately fell headfirst into a water trough. Although she cracked her head open, she regained some clarity and survived by using that bit of coolness.

There were many people like her who could not study and came out to pick up bottles and search through trash. When she first came to her father’s side, she was beaten quite a few times for “stealing territory.” Fortunately, she was small but ruthless, like a wolf cub that did not care about its life. Whoever came to fight for her treasure grounds, she would fight them. It did not matter if their heads split open and blood flowed. In any case, they were all people not valued by their families and with cheap lives.

After a long time, she gained a nickname. People called her Wolf Rat. She was fierce and poisonous, unafraid of filth and unafraid of death.

Even a corpse floating downriver, she dared to fish it out. Corpses rotten beyond human shape were treasures in her eyes. Finding one meant finding some money, especially on this big river whose upstream was the wealthy district. Any dead person drifting over from there would have plenty of valuable things on them.

Li Sheng had never been upstream. She heard that there used to be an experimental research institute in the middle section of this river. Using it as the dividing line, upstream were wealthy people passed down generation after generation. Downstream were white-mouse people whose lives had been cheap for generations.

When the upstream wanted to do experiments, they would come here and catch people. Just like when she had free time in the afternoon and caught little bugs, there were many of those things. They could not be killed off, and they could not be caught completely.

Ever since a cross-era scientific research success in the last century, a portion of people had been injected with research genes and became superhumans. In order to push this planet toward better development, they gathered together in another world on this planet.

There was also a portion who had no chance to receive the gene injection, or who refused to receive it for certain reasons, and they ended up here.

As time passed, it was no longer only a division of rich and poor. Divisions on all kinds of levels had turned this world into two kinds of people: superhumans and ordinary people.

Li Sheng had been born here. She had never seen the world on the other side of the research institute. Someone told her that the wealth and prosperity there was like an earthly paradise. Li Sheng believed it very much, but since she had never seen it, she did not know what it was really like. She only felt that perhaps the children there did not have to suffer like she did. Everyone could be like her younger brother, able to eat their fill without working and able to go to school to learn characters.

On this day, fierce winds rose. Layers of dark clouds gathered, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see, as if the whole world had been covered by these oppressive, suffocating clouds.

Li Sheng felt stifled and irritated, so when she was fishing for corpses by the river, she was one step too late. That “person,” who looked bright and clean as if still alive, drifted away before her eyes.

Li Sheng gritted her teeth and ran along the bank after it. Before long, she saw someone go into the water ahead of her and fish the corpse up.

She knew that person. She had heard that the other girl was even fiercer than she was. Not only did she search dead people for things, Li Sheng had heard that she even ate food she found in dead people’s bags.

Just thinking about it made Li Sheng feel a little nauseous, but fortunately, she held it down.

“You’re that dead rat?”

As soon as Li Sheng walked over, she heard this question. She knew this person liked to hit people when they did not get along. She had not eaten for a full day and night, and yesterday afternoon, her father had thrown her to the ground. Right now, she could not fight this person.

Li Sheng nodded. “They all call me Wolf Rat.”

“Tch.” The girl gave a strange laugh, seeming to look down on her somewhat.

Li Sheng did not mind. Instead, she stood there and watched her search the corpse for things. The other girl did not look very old either. Li Sheng heard she was two years older than herself, but she did not look like it at all.

“Rain is coming. The old man who collects bottles said when dark clouds come, it’s going to rain.” Li Sheng found something to talk about with her. That person did not find even half a fart on the corpse. She simply stopped searching and found a stone with her back to the corpse, then sat down.

Li Sheng also sat down across from her.

The girl said, “Do you have a name?”

“What?” Li Sheng did not understand.

The girl said again, “A name, a name. I have a name. I’m called Di Xue.”

“Oh, I do. I have a name. I think it’s Li Sheng. Other than my younger brother, no one has ever called me by my name.”

“Then in the future, make people call you by your name. Don’t let people call you rat anymore. It sounds awful.” Di Xue seemed to care a lot about this matter. Li Sheng could not beat her and did not want to fight her, so she followed her meaning and nodded.

Di Xue pointed at the dark clouds. “Do you know? The rain on the research institute’s side is made by people. It isn’t controlled by heaven.”

Li Sheng did not know. She expressed disbelief. Seeing her dumbfounded appearance, Di Xue’s mood improved quite a bit, and she said to her, “Actually, the books say that if superhuman genes hadn’t been researched a hundred years ago, making more and more elites appear among ordinary people, we wouldn’t have become low-grade white-mouse people so quickly. At the very least, it would have taken another five centuries.”

“What is a century?” Li Sheng did not understand.

Di Xue did not understand either. The fact that she could recognize those words was already not bad. So now, she lifted her head mysteriously and looked at the sky. “These things are not something you need to know yet.”

“But my dad said it’s because there are too many lazy ghosts like me that we were assigned to the lower district.”

“Bullshit!” Di Xue sneered.

Along with her coarse words, a shocking bolt of purple lightning descended.

The two of them saw it strike as if at the edge of the sky, but in reality, it had struck a tall building in the noble district.

Li Sheng was so frightened that she fell off the low stone. Di Xue disliked her cowardice even more. “It’s just thunder. Did it scare you into this bear-like state?”

“It moved, it moved!”

Li Sheng shakily reached out and pointed at the female corpse. When Di Xue turned back to look, the female corpse sat up stiffly and strangely. The two of them were so frightened they both retreated two steps.

“Alive?” Li Sheng asked her.

Di Xue bent down, picked up a stone, and smashed it at the woman. It hit. The other party let out a low roar, like a wild beast and like wind crying. This strange sound made the hearts of both little girls pound with fear.

“Dead.” Di Xue picked up a few more stones. With her other hand, she grabbed Li Sheng, squeezed hard, and said, “Three, two, one… run!”

At the command, Li Sheng ran with all her might. Di Xue was about to run too but was tripped. Seeing that the female corpse was about to pounce over, Li Sheng ran back again.

“Monster! Get away!”

Li Sheng pushed forward with her tender, delicate arm, but it was grabbed. The female corpse bit her small arm with pitch-black, sharp teeth.

Pain made her tears burst open like a floodgate. Di Xue took the chance to climb up, found a bent steel bar, gripped it in her hand, and fiercely, forcefully hit the female corpse.

With a mournful cry, the female corpse let go of Li Sheng.

Di Xue pulled her and continued running.

“Monster, monster.”

As Li Sheng ran, she shouted all the way. Di Xue did not stop her either.

On the road as they ran, they saw some people who were also like those monsters, their steps strange and their expressions dull as they ran toward them.

“Wait! We can’t go forward. There’s a corpse hall ahead.” Li Sheng remembered. “Dead people have become monsters. I don’t know if there are more ahead. Let’s not go there.”

Di Xue thought about it and agreed.

They found a worn-out iron house and hid inside. The place where Li Sheng had been bitten was oozing dirty blood. It looked hideous and frightening. The veins near the injured area had also become visible to the naked eye, thick and blue-purple-black beneath Li Sheng’s flesh.

Li Sheng was a little afraid. “Will I die?”

“Are you afraid of death?”

“Afraid.” Because she was afraid of death, she was desperately alive. Li Sheng cherished her little life very much.

Di Xue said, “I’m not afraid. For people like us, being alive is the same as being dead.”

The topic was too profound. Li Sheng did not understand, and she did not want to understand either. Her whole heart was fixed on the injury on her hand.

Di Xue found some water and boiled it. She also found a knife in the old house and tucked it at her waist. She said to Li Sheng, “Lean against the wall and rest a while. I’ll go find you some things.”

Di Xue left. Li Sheng thought of many things. In the yard at home, she had hidden two biscuits and planned to secretly eat them tonight after everyone fell asleep.

She also had four cents buried in the greenbelt beside the sewage treatment plant in the back district. It was called a greenbelt, but the green leaves had already been dyed black. The leaves and branches were withered yellow, making it hard to imagine they could survive this winter.

Li Sheng also wondered whether Di Xue would abandon her, whether Di Xue would be eaten by monsters, and whether monsters would find this place.

Li Sheng thought for a very long time. The sky was almost dark. Outside, thunder kept rumbling, and heavy rain poured down. This small broken house also leaked, dripping from above. The place where Li Sheng stayed was soaked too.

She wanted to move somewhere dry, but she did not have much strength. She drank the hot water Di Xue had boiled for her. By now, the hot water had long since gone cold.

She felt hot, and her head was unclear. Many people swayed before her eyes. Li Sheng thought this was probably what dying felt like.

When she woke again, it was the second half of the night. Di Xue knelt on one knee beside her with a knife, cutting rotten flesh from the wound on her body.

Beside her leg were old liquor and gauze, along with some pills she did not recognize.

“Endure it. If it hurts, cry quietly. Once these bad pieces of flesh are removed, you’ll get better.”

Looking at Di Xue like this, Li Sheng thought she must often do this kind of thing.

Li Sheng shook her head. “It doesn’t hurt.”

Di Xue stopped and looked at her. Li Sheng’s face was weak, but she really did not look like she was in pain. Otherwise, no matter how strong one’s endurance was, one could not withstand having flesh cut like this.

Di Xue did not say anything. In any case, neither of them understood. Even if they discussed it, they would not be able to say anything meaningful. She could only continue dealing with the bad flesh.

When the sky was almost bright, Di Xue had finished treating her.

“I’m hungry,” Li Sheng said. She was truly hungry. It had been almost two days and nights since she had eaten, and now flesh had been dug out of her. She really was almost unable to live.

Di Xue took out a rice ball from her clothes. “Eat.”

“I want to eat meat.” Li Sheng accepted the rice ball but did not bite it for a long time.

Di Xue was just about to scold her for not knowing what was good for her. How could people like them have meat to eat? Then she noticed that Li Sheng’s gaze had fallen on the rotten flesh she had just dug out. Di Xue was so frightened she became nauseous, and with one kick, she sent all of that flesh flying away.

Seeing her make such a big movement, Li Sheng was startled. Holding the rice ball, she took two small bites. She still wanted to eat meat. Whatever meat she looked at, she wanted to eat it. Even when she saw Di Xue, she wanted to bite her.

“Giving it back to you. I can’t eat it.” Li Sheng handed the rice ball to her. Di Xue took it without politeness and bit off a big mouthful, wolfing it down. Even the white plastic bag wrapped around the rice ball was bitten and swallowed along with it.

Watching her eat like this, Li Sheng felt a little appetite again. But when she stared at the rice ball, she still did not want to eat anything. Her heart and eyes were full of meat.

“It’s daylight. I want to go home.”

Li Sheng struggled to get up, but Di Xue pushed her, and she leaned back against the wall again.

“You can’t go out. There are more and more monsters outside. Monsters can bite people to death. If you go out, you’ll die.”

“My dad and the others are still at home. I want to go back and take a look.” Li Sheng wanted to go back. Di Xue suddenly pounced over, pressing both hands on her shoulders and staring straight into her eyes. Di Xue said fiercely, “You really are cheap! Don’t you know how they treat you? What are you going back for? People like that might as well be eaten by monsters.”

Li Sheng was scolded. She felt a little wronged, but also somewhat satisfied.

However, before her brain had much time to turn, she looked at Di Xue so close before her, and it was as if her mind could smell the fragrance of meat.

“Don’t get so close to me. I want to bite your neck.” Li Sheng turned her head away.

Suddenly, one hand clamped around her head, and her mouth was brought to Di Xue’s neck. “I’ll let you bite. After you bite, come with me. You’re not allowed to go home anymore.”

She really wanted to take a bite. Li Sheng was hungry. She had no interest in anything she looked at. Her whole heart and eyes wanted to bite people and eat meat.

But she still struggled and pushed Di Xue away. “Don’t mess around. My arm hurts.”

Di Xue did not dare torment her anymore. She just stared at her angrily. “Maybe your dad and the others are already dead. Bitten to death by monsters.”

Li Sheng did not speak and closed her eyes to rest.

Di Xue sat beside her and chattered nonstop. “What’s so good about adults? They’re stupid and bad. What are you going back for?”

“If they died to monsters, wouldn’t that be great? Then you’d be free.”

“Are you afraid you won’t be able to keep living in the future? It’s fine. In the future, we’ll find a place to live. I’ll take you to find food. Believe me. Look, I’m living just fine.”

Li Sheng did not know why Di Xue kept stopping her and forbidding her from leaving. In any case, they stayed in the iron house for two days. During that time, Di Xue went out to find food: half a piece of bread, a handful of candies, and leftover cold rice.

Outside, there were more and more monsters. Occasionally, there were sounds of something hitting the door. Li Sheng was so frightened she did not know where to hide.

Until the afternoon of the third day, Di Xue returned carrying a backpack. She pulled Li Sheng up from the ground and asked, “Do you have strength now?”

Li Sheng shook her head. If she had strength, she would have stood up herself. These days, eating, drinking, and using the toilet had all been taken care of by Di Xue. It was a little embarrassing, but also a little happy. Truly shameless—she was almost dying, yet she still thought of these things.

Li Sheng used Di Xue’s strength to stand. Di Xue became even more excited.

“Do you feel like my strength is very big?”

“Mm.” Li Sheng felt surprised. Di Xue stretched out one hand again. Li Sheng stared at it curiously. Suddenly, a ball of fire appeared in her palm.

“I have superpowers!”

Di Xue’s excitement infected Li Sheng. Li Sheng smiled. “Like the people on the research institute’s side?”

“Hmph, they’re not the same as me. They only strengthened their brains and muscles. Mine is superpower.” Di Xue carried Li Sheng on her back, speaking as she walked.

“The living people all ran away, and the monsters followed the living people and left too. We’ll walk toward the research institute. Most living people went downstream, so we’ll go the opposite way. We should encounter fewer monsters.” Di Xue carried her very easily, not panting and not complaining of tiredness.

Di Xue said that when she went to find things, she also saw some adults with superpowers. Maybe Li Sheng had one too. It was just that Li Sheng was injured right now, so she did not have it yet.

Li Sheng felt that not dying was already extremely fortunate. Whether she had superpowers or not was not important.

Di Xue scolded her for being stupid. Li Sheng also admitted it. She was stupid. Someone who was not stupid would not have run away and then returned to save her.

Di Xue stopped speaking. Along the way, she was somewhat silent. The two of them walked and rested. When they encountered monsters, they hid. When they encountered living people, they also hid.

After dragging things out for a week, they finally reached a small town. The town was already empty. There was not a single living person or monster.

Li Sheng still had no strength in her entire body. If Di Xue had not been carrying her on her back and still able to feel the rise and fall of her breathing, Di Xue would almost have suspected that she was already dead.

Later, Li Sheng fell unconscious. Di Xue found a clean house in the small town and let Li Sheng rest properly there. Then she searched house by house, taking whatever she could find: food, water, and some medicine.

Her strength was growing greater and greater, and the fire she could release was becoming more powerful too. Several times, when they encountered monsters, it was her fire that forced them back.

Di Xue also became even more worried about Li Sheng.

Later, Li Sheng recovered. She finally had some strength and could walk on her own.

She and Di Xue walked and stopped along the way. Only after more than a month did they finally reach the research institute. The two stood on a hill and gazed at it from afar, then suddenly began to cry.

Li Sheng cried because she had heard legends about the research institute since she was little. She had never expected that she would finally see it with her own eyes.

Di Xue cried because when she was very, very young, a woman had carried her from there and sent her downstream. But unlike Li Sheng, she did not wail out loud. Only a few tears slid down her cheeks.

“There are people in the research institute. They definitely won’t leave the institute alone. We’ll find a place nearby and settle down here. If monsters come, the people in the research institute will definitely save us.”

Di Xue said.

Li Sheng was a little afraid. She asked cautiously, “What if they don’t save us?”

“Then we’ll lure the monsters over there. Even if they don’t want to save us, they’ll have to.” That was exactly Di Xue’s plan. Besides, that female corpse had drifted down from upstream. Maybe the monsters were caused by upstream in the first place.

Li Sheng was very worried, but Di Xue calmly found a place and settled down with her.

There was no movement from the research institute for a long time. Some guards discovered them and asked a few harmless questions, then told them to stay properly and not run around.

“What if the people upstream are in trouble too?” Li Sheng asked. “What if that place is full of monsters too?”

“If that’s really the case, then we have nowhere to run anyway. Before we die, we might as well go inside and take a look. Take a look at heaven.” Di Xue sounded a little yearning. “Don’t you want to see the world inside?”

Li Sheng did want to. Of course she wanted to. “Can we get in?”

“If there really are monsters inside, then we’ll definitely be able to get in.”

Di Xue was right. There really were monsters inside, and they really did get in.

The gate in the great wall guarding the research institute was opened. Some people holding weapons rushed out and guarded the areas around the research institute. Li Sheng and Di Xue continued watching from the hill.

“The city gate is open. If we wait a few more days, we’ll know what it’s like inside.”

The two waited for nearly half a month. One early morning, facing a half-risen red sun, they saw a large convoy gather outside the research institute’s gate. Di Xue suddenly felt uneasy.

“How about… we leave,” Di Xue suddenly suggested. Li Sheng found it strange. “Why?”

They had traveled for so long to get here. There were monsters everywhere, and only the research institute had extremely strong armed power. Now that so many people had come here for refuge, why should they leave?

“I can’t explain it, but I feel something is strange.” Di Xue wanted to leave. She was a person of action. She packed up their things and took Li Sheng away.

Li Sheng felt it was a pity. She still had not gone over to the city side to look.

But Di Xue ignored everything and dragged her away.

Di Xue’s intuition was right. On the second day after they left, the research institute sent people to their little house. When they found no damage there, they protected the place properly instead and sent people to guard it, waiting for the two little girls to return.

Di Xue traveled with Li Sheng. On the way, Di Xue said, “I was thinking wrong. Those people created some superhumans and made our lives so miserable. Over the years, they also treated us like lab rats. Our lives, in their eyes, are like bugs in our eyes. They don’t mean a damn thing.”

“People like us should stay with our own kind. We’ll go downstream and find people with abilities like mine. If we all stay together and help one another, we’ll definitely be able to live well too.”

Li Sheng felt Di Xue was right. She had no opinion. Anyway, with so many monsters around now, she definitely could not survive alone. She could only follow Di Xue.

Di Xue also liked that she followed her. This feeling was really good. In Li Sheng’s world, only Di Xue was left.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you properly.” Di Xue held her hand and said seriously.

Li Sheng replied weakly, “Mm-hmm, I know. Hurry and walk. I’m hungry again.”

Di Xue gave her a bag of biscuits, and she ate as they walked.

On the road, Di Xue thought that walking like this was too slow. It would be great if she knew how to drive.

Then they really did find a family of four who could drive. Di Xue wanted to hitch a ride, but that family refused. Di Xue grabbed their little child and stuffed him into Li Sheng’s arms.

That family was nervous and angry, panicking as they told Di Xue not to hurt their son.

Di Xue threw a ball of fire onto the ground, smashing out a small fire pit. Then she sat in the passenger seat and told Li Sheng to sit in the back while holding the child, together with the man’s wife and their other child.

The man prepared to drive.

Di Xue asked him how to drive. The man drove while teaching her. When Di Xue felt she had learned enough, she had the man drop them off at the next town street.

Di Xue also returned the child, who had been crying nonstop the entire way, to them.

After that, Di Xue found a car on the road. “Let’s go!”