Chapter 381: Chapter 371: Qiao Xin Has Gone Mad

"Still say it has nothing to do with you? If it’s nothing, then why can’t you make such a simple choice?" Zhang Li snorted. Qiao Xin’s evasiveness was starting to bore him.

"Fine, then. I’ll be taking this idiot daughter of yours." The expression on Zhang Li’s face was utterly foul, making his already sleazy features even more repulsive.

The girl might be a simpleton, but she was quite pretty. ’She must have good genes.’

Zhang Li’s gaze shifted to Qiao Xin. ’How have I never noticed before?’ he mused. ’This woman looks a bit rough, but her underlying features are actually quite good.’

But the younger ones were always fresher. Zhang Li’s gaze snapped back to Yiyi, his expression like he wanted to devour her. Terrified, Yiyi instinctively shrank away, her eyes pleading helplessly with her mother. She looked as timid as a little lamb.

Zhang Li’s predatory gaze and Yiyi’s terrified reaction finally snapped the last thread of Qiao Xin’s sanity.

She flew at Zhang Li like a madwoman. They weren’t far apart to begin with, and he didn’t even bother to dodge her.

’I have special abilities. Why would I be afraid of some old hag?’

But if the countless lessons of history teach us anything, it’s to be humble. Never underestimate anyone, especially someone who has been cornered with no way out.

Qiao Xin reached Zhang Li in an instant. She produced a knife from somewhere and viciously plunged it into his body.

One stab wasn’t enough. It wasn’t over. She stabbed him again, and again.

At that moment, Qiao Xin had completely lost her mind, moving as if possessed.

"It’s already so hard for a widow and her child to survive! Why are you pushing us this far? Why?! Why?!"

Her hands never stopped moving as a desperate roar tore from her throat.

They say some wild animals become exceptionally ferocious right before death, unleashing their body’s full potential. At this moment, Qiao Xin had become such a beast.

Never underestimate a mother’s resolve. The moment someone has something to protect, they can become superhuman.

This sudden turn of events stunned even Tang Mo. Snapping out of it, she instantly used her spiritual power to form a Wind Blade and dispatched the two men standing behind Zhang Li.

Since he was sneaking around to do his dirty work, Zhang Li had only brought two men with him. After all, he was only dealing with three women.

How could Zhang Li have ever imagined that among these three women was a silent lioness, a raging bull, and an innocent little lamb?

Wang Yan was frozen in terror by the scene unfolding before her, collapsing in a heap beside Tang Mo.

Wang Yan’s mind completely shattered. ’This woman must be a psycho! She turned the tables and killed Zhang Li so easily.’

’Of course, a little psycho’s mom must be a big psycho. What was I thinking, provoking people like this?’

Wang Yan wasn’t sad that Zhang Li was dead. She was terrified of retaliation.

’I have to escape,’ was the only thought in her mind, but her feet felt like they were rooted to the spot, refusing to move.

This was Tang Mo’s doing, of course. She wasn’t about to let this woman get away.

Wang Yan could never have imagined that the trap she’d set wasn’t for the mother and daughter, but for Zhang Li himself.

Even though it was now a post-apocalyptic world where order had ceased to exist, the thought of killing another person had never even crossed most people’s minds.

After all, they had been law-abiding citizens for so many years. Old habits weren’t so easily broken. Even Tang Mo was surprised that Qiao Xin had actually gone through with it.

Qiao Xin had always kept the knife hidden in her innermost clothes. A woman trying to eke out a living in the apocalypse while caring for her daughter... to say she wasn’t afraid would be a lie. To say it wasn’t a bitter, exhausting struggle would be an even bigger one.

The knife was like an Amulet she carried everywhere. It gave her immense courage, enabling her to endure this painful existence and continue supporting her daughter.

And now, forced to draw her final defense, all the unvoiced complaints, all the unshed tears from over the long years, erupted along with her emotions, transforming into the force behind each plunge of the knife into Zhang Li’s body.

This woman had been repressed for far too long. The expression on Zhang Li’s face shifted from amusement to disbelief, then to wide-eyed terror, and finally, to an empty void.

’Let it all out,’ Tang Mo thought. ’If you bottle up negative emotions for too long without an outlet, you’ll break.’

The burst of potential was immense, but also fleeting. Soon, Qiao Xin’s strength was completely spent. Her body, utterly drained, collapsed to the ground as she gasped for breath.

At some point, tears had begun streaming down her face, but this was no time for her to rest.

As her senses returned, she immediately struggled back to her feet and began fumbling with the ropes binding her daughter to the chair.

Seeing that the situation over here was mostly settled, Tang Mo walked over to the two men on the ground and kicked each of them twice to be sure.

Then, she picked up the knife Qiao Xin had dropped and, in a few swift motions, sliced through all the ropes binding Yiyi.

Qiao Xin’s hands were shaking too much to untie the knots. She shot Tang Mo a grateful look before pulling her freed daughter into her arms, kneeling on the ground, and bursting into loud sobs.

She was so afraid of losing Yiyi. Without her daughter, she had no reason to keep living in this world.

She hadn’t been a good daughter, or a good sister, and certainly not a good wife. But up to this point, at least, she had been a good mother.

And her final wish in this life was simply to be a good mother.

Tang Mo stood behind the mother and daughter, watching them cling to each other and weep. In her sea of consciousness, the pearl that had appeared at some unknown time seemed to stir once more.

Tang Mo had the distinct feeling that the energy inside the pearl had increased. She still didn’t know what this new pearl was for, and it felt weak compared to the Spirit Power Pearl and Power Pearl she had already absorbed.

But Tang Mo felt that this pearl would slowly grow stronger, and one day it would be just like the others.

However, this time, the pearl’s stirring seemed to give Tang Mo a flash of insight. She thought she now understood why its energy had increased.

Tang Mo thought back to the other moments when the pearl’s energy had grown. She felt like she was starting to see a pattern.

"Yiyi, you’re not afraid of Mama, are you? I didn’t scare you, did I?"

Her tears spent, Qiao Xin carefully examined her daughter’s face, checking for injuries. But she was even more afraid that Yiyi had seen what she’d done—that it would leave a psychological scar, that her own daughter would now be afraid of her.

’I shouldn’t have done that in front of her,’ Qiao Xin thought, a pang of regret striking her. She didn’t regret killing him, but she deeply regretted frightening her daughter.

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