Chapter 253: Meeting with a Severed Head
A shriek ripped through the air, and Lily Hart snapped to attention, her eyes scanning the crowd.
When she got a clear look at the scene, she couldn’t help but gulp. Chad Yates was striding toward her with a graceful, debonair air. Though his features were plain, he carried himself well.
The scene might have even been impressive, if you could ignore the severed head dangling from his hand—the one that was steadily dripping blood and carving a gory trail behind him.
But as it was... the head’s expression was a gruesome grimace, its skin shriveled as if it had been tortured before death.
Not only was it gruesome, but it was also filthy. The whole scene was utterly ghastly.
Lily Hart recognized the head. It was the Director of the Research Institute from yesterday’s meeting. ’Damn, he really brought me a head. Guess I have to give him the soil now.’
’It doesn’t matter, though. The soil is only special because of that little sapling. Away from it, it’ll just turn back into useless, ordinary dirt.’
By the time Chad Yates arrived in front of Lily Hart with the head, the surrounding customers had already given him a wide berth. They were settling in to watch the show, though deep down, none of them wanted to see anything happen to Boss Hart.
Chad Yates moved to slam the head onto the table—CLANG—but before it could land, a mysterious force caught it in midair...
WHOOSH—the head shot forward and planted itself right on Chad Yates’s lips, giving him a face-to-face kiss.
Seeing him stunned, the head even tilted slightly to the left, pressing its lips firmly against his. Chad Yates’s eyes flew wide as he registered the strange sensation on his mouth.
Clammy, coarse, and tinged with the coppery tang of old blood.
Utterly revolted, he instinctively took a step back. But the head followed, clinging to his lips. He retreated, it advanced, never breaking contact.
In a panic, Chad Yates clawed at the head, but he couldn’t pry it off. It was stuck to his mouth as if bonded by super glue.
He ducked, and the head followed. He spun around to flee, but the head flew even faster, cutting him off and blocking his path.
Chad Yates was panicked and nauseated. The head stuck to him like a shadow, impossible to shake off. He knew this was Lily Hart’s doing, but he had no proof and no way to fight back.
All he could do was blindly stumble forward, a dripping, putrid head still plastered to his mouth, impossible to dislodge.
Unable to see where he was going, he tripped and fell flat on his face. The two pairs of lips squashed together even more tightly. With his brow furrowed in a pained grimace, he began to crawl away.
It was a bizarre spectacle. The once-debonair Chad Yates was now a pathetic mess, the head still glued to his face like a grotesque shadow.
He struggled back to his feet and stumbled on, the jeers of the crowd ringing in his ears. Strangely, after he’d covered a certain distance, the Director’s head suddenly dropped to the ground.
Chad Yates let out a huge sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground. The laughter only grew louder, each jeer making him feel even more humiliated. ’Damn you, Lily Hart!’
He wanted to turn around and demand an explanation, but he was terrified of a repeat performance. Instead, he punted the severed head, sending it flying far into the distance.
He then stormed back to Lily Hart. When he met her mocking gaze, he saw red.
Curses formed on his lips, but he remembered he still hadn’t gotten the soil. He choked the words down, the humiliation a bitter taste in his mouth.
Chad Yates thrust out his hand, his voice demanding. "The soil!" ’I brought you the head. You have to give it to me now!’
Lily Hart crossed her arms and shrugged. "Where’s the head? The deal was a head for the soil."
"You!" Chad Yates was so furious he was speechless. ’What if I bring the head over and she pulls that same stunt again!’
Lily Hart chuckled. "Relax, Manager Yates. I don’t have that twisted a sense of humor." ’As if!’
Chad Yates didn’t believe a word of her bullshit, but he knew she wouldn’t give him the soil without the head.
He turned to retrieve the head, and as soon as his back was to her, he heard Lily Hart’s gleeful laughter. The sound was grating.
’How grating!’
Chad Yates picked up his pace. He’d been so angry a moment ago, and as a superpower user, he had put a lot of force into that kick.
Finding it again was going to take some effort. Fortunately, he remembered the general direction and eventually located it after a brief search.
’It was even filthier now.’
The neck had already been dripping blood, but after rolling around in the dirt, the entire head was now caked in a gray-brown sludge of dust and gore.
He really didn’t want to touch it, so he kicked it all the way back. As he neared the RV, a sense of dread washed over him.
Especially when he reached the point where the head had dropped off before. He didn’t want to go any farther.
The head was far filthier now. Kicking it all the way back had coated it in... well, everything. Shit, piss, mud...
The mere thought made Chad Yates want to gag. But he had no choice, so he kept kicking it closer to the RV.
Lily Hart sneered. "Is that the Director’s head, Manager Yates?"
’So ruthless. He actually went and did it. I thought he’d just let it go.’
Chad Yates sneered back. "That’s right. The Director made a voluntary contribution to Central Command. This was Boss Hart’s idea, after all—that a human life must be traded for a handful of dirt."
Hearing this, the surrounding customers exchanged glances. ’Boss Hart’s idea?’
’Boss Hart forced Central Command to trade a life for soil? Impossible! Boss Hart isn’t like that!’
’She’s so beautiful and kind-hearted!’
Lily Hart just smiled at him, ignoring his accusation. She pulled a small plastic bag from her pocket.
It contained a small pinch of black soil. She casually tossed it out, and it landed near Chad Yates’s feet.
"There, you can have it," Lily Hart said with disdain.
Chad Yates’s face was livid. Feeling deeply humiliated once again, he snatched the head off the ground and hurled it at Lily Hart.
"Screw you!" Chad Yates snarled.
But the head was stopped by a thin, invisible barrier. It dented the film slightly before being flung right back.
It smashed squarely into Chad Yates’s face, plastering him with all sorts of filth. A bit of it even got in his mouth.
"PTUH! PTUH! PTUH!" Chad Yates spat frantically. He stumbled backward in a panic, only to trip over his own feet...
He fell backward, the back of his head hitting the ground with a sickening THUD. He writhed on the ground for a moment before scrambling back up.
He snatched the pinch of soil, shoved it in his pocket, and fled in utter disarray, not daring to imagine what other tortures awaited him if he stayed any longer.
Lily Hart gave a nonchalant shrug. "Honestly, these people. They just have to come looking for trouble. I didn’t even do anything..."
The surrounding customers nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I didn’t see Boss Hart lift a finger."
"It’s true. I saw her with her hands in her pockets or on her hips the whole time. She didn’t look like she was fighting at all."
"I’d say it was that guy who was looking for trouble. Who shows up at someone’s door with a severed head? If that’s not a threat, I don’t know what is."
But who among them could have known that Boss Hart was controlling everything with her spiritual power? Lifting a finger? What was that? It wasn’t in her vocabulary.
Roman Rowe, who had watched the entire exchange, was so impressed he felt like applauding. He had no idea where Boss Hart came up with so many ways to torment people.
Her methods weren’t lethal, but they were incredibly humiliating—a form of mental torture.
Frost Shaw pressed her lips together to hide a smile, secretly vowing to herself that she would never, ever get on Lily Hart’s bad side.