Chapter 109: We Are Not Beasts

From Song Yucheng’s tone, it almost sounded like he was blaming Pang Zhenggong for pretending to be mysterious.

Standing ahead, Pang Zhenggong’s expression was icy cold, his eyes filled with mockery.

“What, did I come back just so you could kill me again?”

Song Yucheng shook his muddled head,

“What are you talking about, Ah Zheng? We never intended to kill you from the start.”

He felt as if he was suffering from a splitting hangover.

“Ah Zheng, there are a lot of misunderstandings between us.”

Pang Zhenggong asked coldly, “Fine, what misunderstandings? I’ll give you time and a chance to explain now.”

Song Yucheng opened his mouth.

Before, he’d always insisted they never wanted to kill Pang Zhenggong, that it was all a misunderstanding.

But now, with Pang Zhenggong standing right in front of him, asking what exactly the misunderstanding was—

Song Yucheng suddenly didn’t know what to say.

“Ah Zheng, we…”

His lips trembled. After a long pause, he finally spoke, a trace of anger in his voice:

“We’ve always been brothers. You suddenly said you wanted to split from us, you broke up our team’s unity.”

“Of course the brothers would be angry. It’s like sometimes your teeth bite your tongue by accident.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Pang Zhenggong stepped forward, a heavy wrench in his hand.

He swung it straight at Song Yucheng’s temple.

“Yeah, sometimes your teeth bite your tongue. That’s exactly how you smashed me back then.”

Brotherhood? Even if brothers fight, they don’t go at each other so ruthlessly.

Every time Pang Zhenggong recalled how those he’d once considered brothers had beaten him with fists and kicks,

he couldn’t help but feel a surge of hatred.

“Did you forget your gambling-addicted father, your runaway mother, your sister in school, your little brother, your broken home?”

“Did you forget how you came crawling to me like a dog, begging for help?”

Pang Zhenggong didn’t hesitate for a second—the wrench came down hard on Song Yucheng’s head.

With Song Yucheng’s abilities, he never would have passed the initial screening for Pang Zhenggong’s security company.

Because of his poor background, he’d been malnourished since childhood, weak and frail, with no strength to speak of.

He’d been eliminated in the first round of interviews.

But Song Yucheng had rushed up to Pang Zhenggong, knelt down, and begged for a chance.

He promised to work hard, to train his body.

Pang Zhenggong gave him that chance, and Song Yucheng finally got a good job.

He and his family could finally live like human beings.

Song Yucheng collapsed to the ground.

He couldn’t tell anymore if his head hurt more from before, or from Pang Zhenggong’s blow.

“Do you think you’ve treated me right, Song Yucheng?”

Pang Zhenggong kicked him hard.

Suddenly, Song Yucheng burst out with a surge of strength.

He scrambled up and shoved Pang Zhenggong,

“All those people you mentioned—they’re all dead! They all died out there in the wasteland!”

“Pang Zhenggong, you were the one who betrayed our team first! You ignored your brothers for the sake of those two burdens. So what if we beat you? You deserved it!”

Blood streamed down his head; as he struggled, white bone was visible through the wound.

“You think I wanted things to be this way? You treated me like a brother, I treated you like a brother too. In the wasteland, you guys were all I had left!”

“But for your wife and kid, you said you wanted to leave, to split from us?!”

“What’s so great about them? Didn’t you know they’d die soon anyway?”

The wasteland always preyed on the weak.

The weaker you were, the shorter your life.

At that time, everyone could see that Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan were about to die.

They were nothing but a burden to Pang Zhenggong.

“Ah Zheng, everything I did was for your own good!”

Song Yucheng lunged and pinned Pang Zhenggong to the ground, his hands clamped tightly around Pang Zhenggong’s throat.

At that moment, Song Yucheng’s eyes bulged, as if he was locked in a final struggle with fate.

“They’re just two useless burdens. With them around, you’ll never have a good life.”

The truth was, Pang Zhenggong had indeed sacrificed a lot for Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan.

If not for that mother and son, the food Pang Zhenggong found would have been more than enough for himself.

He could have lived well in the wasteland.

Women—once you had food, Pang Zhenggong could have had as many as he wanted.

Ah Hong was simply too kind for the wasteland.

She even lent out the food Pang Zhenggong had worked so hard to find.

Pang Ziyuan was starving, not because of anyone else, but because of Ah Hong.

Ah Hong had dragged everyone down.

She’d even nearly gotten Pang Zhenggong’s son killed!

“They’re just two dispensable burdens. For them, you’d abandon your brothers.”

“So what if your brothers beat you? We were just trying to knock some sense into you!”

“Besides, you turned out fine, didn’t you?”

Pang Zhenggong kicked Song Yucheng off him.

He grabbed the wrench and started smashing Song Yucheng again.

“I’m alive not because you guys showed mercy!”

If it hadn’t been for Shi Yuebai, Pang Zhenggong would have been nothing but a skeleton by now.

He survived, not thanks to Song Yucheng and the others.

“You’ll never understand what family means to a person like me.”

In the wasteland, there were too many who abandoned their wives and children.

Everyone only cared about themselves.

So no one understood Pang Zhenggong.

But Pang Zhenggong survived because of Shi Yuebai.

Because of Ah Hong, who carried him out of the ruins step by step.

“Song Yucheng, if you’re alive, you should at least act like a human being.”

“We are not beasts.”

Pang Zhenggong kept smashing Song Yucheng.

No one knew when, but Song Yucheng lay motionless on the ground.

Only then did Pang Zhenggong drop the bloodied wrench, looking down at Song Yucheng.

Song Yucheng’s face was unrecognizable, his breath long gone.

“You can stay here. This is the place you all chose for me.”

Back then, Pang Zhenggong had been left for dead in the ruins by Song Yucheng and the others.

Now, it was Song Yucheng’s turn.

Pang Zhenggong sat beside Song Yucheng’s corpse for a while, laughing.

Then, exhausted, he stood up, picked up the wrench, wiped the blood off on his clothes,

and continued toward the rest of the search and rescue team.

Meanwhile, the ten people climbing the garbage mountain had already scattered or fainted from Shi Yuebai’s dizziness attack.

After dealing with a few of them, Pang Zhenggong suddenly saw a flare shoot up, piercing the darkness.

It landed behind the Shi family’s wall.

It was Zhong Zeqian, desperate to see the way ahead after losing his sense of direction.

Unknowingly, it was Friday again. So much homework for the weekend…"