Villain Boss Chapter 144
Translated by Digitalian (ko-fi)
Chapter 144: Trying To Get Away With It
After Chu Yuan left, Si Xu changed his sitting posture and looked at Jiang Ran.
With her chin propped on one hand, she was deep in thought and didn’t notice his gaze.
Si Xu cleared his throat. "Ahem."
Jiang Ran still didn’t look at him.
Si Xu, "..."
He called her expressionlessly, "Jiang Ran."
"Huh?" She turned her head to look at him suddenly like a frightened rabbit, blinking her eyes. "What's wrong, Si Xu?"
After calling her back to her senses, Si Xu suddenly didn't know what to say.
He pursed his lips. "Why do you want to investigate that person?"
Si Nian... Just hearing this name made him uncomfortable.
"I don't know." Jiang Ran deliberated. "I just feel that that person is very important—it’s a woman's intuition."
Si Xu temporarily let go of this question and asked another question, "Are you not going to let Chu Yuan return to Xiling base?"
"..." When he asked that, Jiang Ran only then remembered that Chu Yuan was his subordinate.
She arranged Chu Yuan's next assignment without seeking the opinion of his direct superior.
She blinked and spread her arms. "Si Xu, hold me~"
She was trying to get away with it using this method.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and Si Xu leaned over to pick her up and put her on his lap. However, he wasn’t ready to let her go. "Jiang Ran, what do you want?"
What did she want?
This time, she didn’t avoid his question, but looked directly into his eyes and said word by word, "I want Xiling base, Si Xu."
He once said that he would give her back the ordinary but warm world she liked.
However, as long as Xiling base was still in the hands of the Shen family, as long as some people were still alive, he would probably never be able to settle down and fulfill her wish.
In that case, she might as well have Xiling base in her grasp.
"I want Xiling base," she repeated. "Si Xu, can you help me? I want Xiling base."
"Oh." Without asking why she was suddenly interested in the base, Si Xu smiled slightly. "Okay—if you want it, I'll let Shen Lang give you Xiling base to play with."
Jiang Ran, "..." How straightforward.
"Okay." She smiled and rubbed against his cheek. "Let's go back and teach those ignorant people a lesson first."
The Shen family wanted to get rid of Si Xu and take control of all the power in the base, but she wouldn’t let them have their way.
To her, fighting for power and benefits was just a game. Let’s see who would have the last laugh.
……
Jiang Ran's leg injury wasn’t serious, and soon, she could get out of bed and move around.
She sat under the eaves of the temporary base to bask in the sun, listening to the team members who were packing their luggage discussing in a low voice the events of the past two days.
"I didn't expect Captain Chu to be so depressed... It seems that Captain Chu really likes his fiancée."
"Sigh, I don't know if Captain will come back... Do you think he’ll commit suicide for love..."
"Pfft, pfft, pfft! Nonsense! Our captain won’t commit suicide for a woman!"
"But he’s missing now because of a woman."
He was missing? Thinking that she hadn't seen Chu Yuan for several days, Jiang Ran interrupted their discussion, "Captain Chu is missing?"
Not being on guard against Jiang Ran, several team members stopped in front of Jiang Ran with their heads drooped.
"Yeah, Captain disappeared last night," one of them said. "After we found out today, Professor Si asked us to look for him in many places, but we couldn't find him."
"Professor Si said that Captain was devastated because of the death of Sister Qi and needed to calm down..."
"We don't know where Captain went and when he’ll come back."
Jiang Ran, "..." She had been thinking about how to stop these team members from talking about Chu Yuan in the base.
Unexpectedly, this worked according to her plan.
"Professor Si is back!"
Someone shouted, and the people standing in front of Jiang Ran were gone in an instant.
"Professor Si, have you found Captain?"
"Did Captain really..."
Si Xu had a cold expression. He threw the thing he was holding on the ground, and said in a deep voice, "There’s no need to search anymore."
The team members around him looked down at the ground.
"Oh, it's Captain's uniform belt... Could it be that Captain really..."
"I found this in the river in the north. You guys should pack up." With that, Si Xu walked through the crowd to Jiang Ran, picked her up, and prepared to go back to the room.
"Captain really committed suicide for love?"
"Boo hoo, Captain doesn't want us anymore!"
"..."
Hearing the bawling of the people outside, Jiang Ran, "..." Why did she suddenly feel guilty?
"He already left." Putting her on the bed, Si Xu said, "Pack up your things. We're leaving for Xiling base."
"Why-why are you so enthusiastic all of a sudden..."
"Don't you want Xiling base?" Si Xu was eager. "I'll go back and kill Shen Lang, and give Xiling base to you."
Jiang Ran, "..."
She couldn't help but laugh.
"It's me who wants Xiling base. Why are you more impatient than me?"
"You've been in a bad mood these days." With his eyes on her, Si Xu gathered a strand of her hair with his fingers, pinned it behind her ear, and pinched her earlobe. "Gu Yunqing said that girls will be happy to receive gifts."
Oh, it had been a while since she heard the sentence pattern of "Gu Yunqing said..." Jiang Ran’s heart softened. She leaned on his shoulder and said softly, "Si Xu, am I useless?"
She took Qi Yao out of the base and brought her into Beihe laboratory. And then, she caused Qi Yao to lose her life.
"Jiang Ran."
He liked pinching her ears these days. The soft and delicate touch made him... unable to let go.
"She died because she was too weak. It has nothing to do with you."
He used very straightforward words and said something that sounded heartless.
"Jiang Ran, in this world, no one has to protect anyone else—if you can't protect yourself, then all the more you can't count on others."
"..."
"Remember, you aren’t God, and it’s impossible to save everyone."
Yes, she wasn’t God. She still had to rely on him for protection, so she wasn’t fit to talk about protecting others.
"I shouldn't have brought her out..." She hummed, "I should’ve let her stay in the base. Maybe..."
"If she’d stayed in the base, the one who died would have been Chu Yuan."
Without Qi Yao, those zombies would break through the glass in the storage room, and Chu Yuan and the other two with no combat power would become their food.
"If the person who died was Chu Yuan, you’d still blame yourself like you do now—why didn't I bring a few more people in? Why wasn't I strong enough? Why didn't I escape from that stupid snake's lair earlier?"
Hearing his series of questions, Jiang Ran frowned and muttered, "Okay, I get the drift."
"Jiang Ran, Qi Yao's death has nothing to do with you. You don't have to shoulder all the responsibility."
She could indeed comfort herself this way, but...
"Of course, self-blame can make a person stronger." Si Xu patted the back of her head gently. "Jiang Ran, you can blame yourself and become depressed, or you can make yourself stronger and stronger."
"As strong as you, enough to protect everyone?"
Si Xu was silent for a moment, and with the fine quality of honesty and trustworthiness, he said, "It's a bit difficult for you to become as strong as me now."
Jiang Ran, "..."
