Chapter 342: Already Moved On
Old Chen’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
I stepped closer until he had no choice but to either move or keep standing between me and the house. "Do you have medicine that can kill something we can’t identify without making it leave the body? Do you have equipment to examine them without touching blood, vomit, skin, or whatever else the parasites decide to crawl through?"
"No, but—" he sputtered.
"Then just stop," I replied with a sigh. Like I said... I was done.
Old Chen’s jaw tightened. "They’re some of the workers and their family. You’re asking us to stand here while they burn."
"Maybe you should just be glad that I’m not asking you to watch," I snarled, my upper lip twitching. He could be as noble as he wanted when he wasn’t living near me.
The people inside, as if finally figuring out that something was going on considering that Yuche was encasing them in a metal coffin, started paying attention. One woman moved toward the front window, her face pale as she looked from Lingyun’s fire to the metal sealing the door.
"What’s happening?" she called through the glass.
I didn’t answer her.
Old Chen followed my gaze before turning back to me. "At least let them say goodbye."
"No."
His expression hardened. "Why?"
"Because opening the house gives those things another way out. Because the longer they stay alive, the more of their bodies get eaten. Because every extra minute gives the parasites time to reach the floor, the walls, the pipes, and the ground beneath them."
I pointed toward the mansion.
"My plants are already dying because of this. Half the defense around my home is gone, and I have no idea whether those things have reached the water beneath us. I’m not waiting until they crawl into my house because killing five infected strangers makes you uncomfortable."
"They aren’t strangers to us," Old Chen replied.
"They are to me."
The words landed hard enough that one of the workers behind him looked away.
I didn’t care.
I had two people in this entire world whose lives mattered more to me than everyone else combined, and I had two more people that I was catching feelings for. I had a mansion full of supplies, water, food, weapons, and everything I had spent two lifetimes trying to protect.
I wasn’t losing any of it because someone wanted me to be kinder.
Old Chen stared at me for several seconds. "And if I refuse to help?"
"Then leave."
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
I nodded toward the entrance of the cul-de-sac. "Take whoever agrees with you and go. I won’t stop you. But you don’t get to stay here, ask me for my supplies, sleep in houses protected by my plants, and then argue when I remove a threat to all of it."
The workers behind him went still.
Old Chen’s face tightened, but he didn’t answer immediately. He looked toward the house again, then at the burned road leading to the mansion.
When he finally stepped aside, he looked older than he had a few minutes earlier.
"I don’t agree with this," he muttered.
"You don’t need to," I replied. "You just can’t stand in my way."
Inside the house, the man with dried blood beneath his nose grabbed the door handle.
It didn’t move.
Yuche had already pulled metal across the frame, sealing it shut from the outside. More strips covered the windows, leaving narrow gaps through which we could still see the people gathering in the living room.
The man slammed both hands against the glass. "Let us out!"
The woman behind him started crying.
One of the others shouted for Old Chen, while another picked up a chair and struck the sealed door hard enough to crack the wood around the frame.
But none of it mattered.
Zhenlan spread his fingers, and the air around the house changed. Smoke from the burned yard stopped drifting toward us and began curling inward, trapped against the walls.
Yuche closed the last gap beneath the door.
I looked at Lingyun. "Burn it all."
His fire hit the house before anyone could beg again.
Flames raced across the dry grass, climbed the porch, and rolled over the outside walls. The windows cracked under the sudden heat, but Yuche’s metal held each pane in place while Zhenlan forced the air back inside.
The people inside screamed as the flames heated the metal before sliding inside the house.
Old Chen turned away, and the two workers followed him, their faces grey as they stared toward the road instead of the house.
But I kept watching.
Not because I enjoyed it but because I needed to know nothing escaped.
The man inside swung the chair again, but the flames had already reached the living room. Fire spread across the curtains and ceiling, swallowing the doorway before anyone could break through it.
Dark shapes began moving beneath the trapped smoke.
Lingyun’s expression changed.
The playful light disappeared from his face, leaving something colder as he increased the heat. The flames turned white around the windows, burning through wood, furniture, bodies, and anything else the parasites might use.
The screaming stopped long before the fire did.
"Hotter," I ordered and Lingyun obeyed without saying anything.
The roof sagged inward. Burning beams collapsed into the center of the house, sending sparks through the trapped air before Zhenlan forced them back toward the flames.
For several minutes, nothing moved outside.
No insects crawled from the soil. No dark shapes slipped through the cracks. The plants stayed far away, but none retreated farther.
That would have to be enough.
Then I turned toward the cart.
Wang Lei and Liu Fang stood behind Yuche’s metal barrier, staring at the burning house. Liu Fang’s hands covered her mouth, while Wang Lei looked like he had forgotten how to breathe.
They knew.
Good.
That saved me some time.
Not to mention, I really hated repeating myself.
Wang Lei backed into the cart as I approached. "We didn’t drink from that bottle."
"You drank from the same spring."
"We can go back," Liu Fang blurted, lowering her hands. "We can warn Qingxi Village. We won’t touch anyone here. We’ll leave everything behind."
"Not happening."
Her face crumpled. "People need to know."
"They already think the village protects them. They won’t believe you until they start dying."
"Then let us try."
I looked at the five remaining bottles tied beneath the cart, then at the hollow road leading toward my mansion.
"You brought parasites into my territory inside a corpse, living bodies, and water. You destroyed half my plants and may have contaminated the ground beneath my home."
Lingyun stopped beside me, the house still burning behind him.
"You’re not taking another step."
Wang Lei looked toward Old Chen for help, but Old Chen understood what was at stake.
Liu Fang began crying before I even gave the order. I didn’t wait for her to stop.
"Lingyun."
The metal barrier closed around them.
Fire filled the space inside.
I turned away before their bodies hit the ground and started walking toward the mansion.
There was still contaminated soil beneath the road, an exposed path through my defenses, and a water supply that needed checking.
The dead could burn behind me.
I had already moved on to figuring out the next solution.