RIACMET chapter 185

 

Ignoring his boyfriend’s helpless expression, Jiang Nian leaned back comfortably, adjusted his posture, and began to speak about revenge.

“I initially wanted to get revenge on Chen Yue and his family with you, Brother Jing. I secretly asked Brother Kai, and I knew you wanted to help me take revenge on your own … but this time, something special happened.”

Cheng Jing, already prepared, asked,

“What kind of special accident?”

“It’s just that…”

After sorting through past and present information, Jiang Nian spoke seriously.

“At first, I was one of the conditions for their family to enter Base S, and we all know the purpose and reason. Later, Chen Yue got infected, and I became the only condition for them to enter the base. If they couldn’t catch me, they couldn’t enter Base S.”

“It’d be too easy to turn them into ashes.”

Cheng Jing cursed.

Jiang Nian paused for a moment and continued.

“If it were just because of that, I wouldn’t have gone to find them. After all, Chen Yue got infected. Chen Shanmin and the others couldn’t go to Base S, so they went to the Nancheng Base to find me. That would’ve been safer.”

Cheng Jing interjected, “I thought the same.”

Jiang Nian pressed his lips together.

“But after Chen Yue was infected with the zombie virus, he remembered his past life. I wanted to learn about the circumstances surrounding my death in my previous life. To prevent him from spreading that news out of despair, I went.”

As he spoke, he flipped his palm and produced the voice recorder from his previous conversation with Chen Yue.

“After Chen Yue regained his memories of his past life, his family grew distant from Xia Weiwei. Chen Shanmin used that as an excuse to trick me, and he achieved his goal without exposing his betrayal of Xia Weiwei.”

“…”

Cheng Jing was stunned for two seconds before realizing what he had said. His expression showed shock.

“Did Chen Yue awaken memories of his previous life?”

Knowing that his lover had been reborn, he could accept such a mysterious occurrence.

However, the fact that Chen Yue had regained memories from a previous life meant that he knew what Jiang Nian knew—perhaps even more—which sent a chill through his heart.

Imagine if Chen Yue had awakened his past-life memories first—the consequences would have been unimaginable!

Jiang Nian replied calmly:

“Yeah. Chen Yue told Chen Shanmin that only I could cure him. There was no point in going to Base S without me. They had been schemed against by Xia Weiwei in their past life. But we were all birds of a feather. Even though our ideas were different, they all just wanted to use me.”

After saying that, he took out headphones, connected them to the recorder, and handed it to Cheng Jing.

Cheng Jing listened with a serious expression. Jiang Nian patted his hand and said,

“It’s fine, Brother Jing. It’s all over.”

Then, he grabbed some snacks, sat down beside Cheng Jing, and occasionally fed him.

This kind of safety could only be found when he was with Brother Jing.

“…”

Compared to the two long, painful years Jiang Nian had endured, describing it in words took very little time.

After listening to it for the first time, Cheng Jing’s face fell. He then hugged Jiang Nian and listened again.

Afterwards, he stayed silent for a long time.

He had avenged his loved ones and fed his zombified lover their flesh and blood.

But even though he had avenged Jiang Nian in a previous life, Cheng Jing didn’t feel happy. His chest was filled with heartache, sorrow, regret, and unwillingness.

What good did it do that Chen Yue’s family, Xia Weiwei, and the others had died tragically?

That still couldn’t make up for the years of pain and grievances his own family had suffered.

However, he also felt fortunate that the rebirth wasn’t just his, but also that of the people around him.

“Niannian…”

Cheng Jing took a deep breath and kissed his quiet lover. His voice was choked with sobs.

“In this situation, you should’ve kept them alive and waited for me to return so I could settle your debts myself!”

Jiang Nian hugged him back.

“I had the same thought. I didn’t want you to dirty your hands. After all, you already avenged me in my past life. Let me do it myself in this life. I’m happy, not uncomfortable at all.”

He had thought it through carefully before doing it.

“…”

After a while, Cheng Jing’s emotions suddenly calmed, and his tone returned to normal.

“Well, that’s good.”

As the person who handled the aftermath, he knew this man and Tang Ji had done their job well. He hated them so much that he wanted to grind their ashes even more!

After taking a few deep breaths, he changed the subject.

“I didn’t expect Xiaoya to become a zombie king in his previous life and help us.”

Jiang Nian smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, I never expected it to be her.”

He had already guessed that the person was one of his teammates, but he hadn’t expected it to be Xiaoya.

Cheng Jing sighed lightly.

“If not for her superpowers, I wouldn’t have been able to avenge you.”

How could this not be considered mysterious fate?

According to Chen Yue, if Xiaoya had stayed in Qingyun City, something major must have happened in her community or the surrounding area in her previous life.

After all, the conditions for a zombie king to appear were far rarer and stricter than those for a dual-attribute mutant.

For some reason, he felt that the likelihood of Xiaoya becoming infected and mutating because of her mother was low.

Xiaoya’s mother knew they were looking for abnormalities, so she intentionally infected herself in an attempt to take Xiaoya with her. Had they not been paying attention, she would have continued to use Xiaoya.

Even if the incident in Room 1805 had happened the same way in both lives, the result would have been very different if someone else had been watching over Xiaoya.

“…”

Cheng Jing’s thoughts raced. He remembered agreeing to let Zhou Li watch Xiaoya while he was in Qingyun City so he could get closer to the authorities and gain more freedom.

This would better protect his loved ones and teammates in such a special situation.

The authorities had entrusted him with this task because they trusted his professional abilities before the apocalypse and because he was a dual-attribute, attack-type mutant. Their team was also overwhelmingly strong at that time.

There was a sense of testing and trust—testing how a superpowered team would judge and handle such a chaotic situation.

Would they take the opportunity to try Xiaoya in the name of justice and hand her over to the victim’s family? Or would they carry out orders calmly and help the authorities assess the situation?

If they found a reason to kill Xiaoya after accepting the commission or pushed her forward to incite “justice” sentiment across the West District resettlement site, absolute chaos would have ensued.

Even if Zhou Li couldn’t do anything at the time due to a lack of official manpower, there was a high likelihood of a purge later. At the very least, the situation wouldn’t be as favorable as it was then.

Fortunately, all “related personnel,” including Xiaoya, remained “rational and calm.”

Under their careful watch, Xiaoya didn’t flee or resist. Instead, she faced her crimes and accepted the official verdict.

They handled the commission objectively. They didn’t become arrogant or overconfident due to their increased power. They also earned the authorities’ trust.

However, the person watching over Xiaoya in the previous life might not have made the same decisions.

This could have been Xiaoya’s opportunity to become the zombie king.