Welcome to the Wasteland - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Cries and Laughter

Columbia University, one of the United States’ oldest. The stories about this university would be enough to fill more than a few books. The fact that the university was the alma mater of more than a hundred Nobel Prize recipients alone was already stunning enough. It was a pity that China had borne few Nobel recipients that were professionals in the fields of natural sciences; there was only one until now, it seemed.

One day, China would find receiving Nobel Prizes as effortless as winning gold medals in the Olympics.

The Columbia University campus was small, unbefitting of its reputation as a globally renowned school. Flowing next to the campus was the Hudson River. Out of the riverside spots, Leila found an empty clearing in the riverside park and landed the helicopter there. Next, the two of them hijacked a car quickly and got in.

The hijacking process was extremely smooth. Leila could not help thinking that she had been influenced by Zhou Qingfeng, now that she had become more and more skilled in committing crimes such as this one.

What they needed to do next was wait. Zhou Qingfeng was only a few hundred meters to Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He would be able to reach there within a few minutes even if he was on foot.

It was now twelve in the afternoon. After the final six hours, after the government, the army, and the police all vanished, it would be time for him to charge inside, armed.

Zhou Qingfeng thought, ‘No matter how lucky Tony Parker is, if he takes my stuff, I’ll kill him with one shot! Just the right time to off that lucky brat, stirring sh*t up all the time.

Silence filled the car. Leila Fox opened a container of food and ate her lunch quietly with a fork and knife. She also had a bottle of red wine and a wine glass beside her arm. She poured herself a small amount and sipped. For all purposes she looked like she was having a meal in a grand restaurant.

It was Zhou Qingfeng who took the food with him as they left the club. He knew that food would be more important than ammo in the future, so he had to prepare well at all times.

In this silence, Leila said as she ate her lunch, “Victor, I can’t believe that I made friends with you.

“The people I knew before were either business elites or political leaders. If someone told me two days ago that I would start to trust a criminal wanted by the police, I would take it as a joke.

“But now I’m not only in the same car as you, but I’m also facing the same difficulties as you. And it can be said that I took everything upon myself.”

Miss Fox sounded somewhat lost and despondent, but her emotions did not touch Zhou Qingfeng. He did not see Leila Fox in the wasteland movie he had watched. Maybe the original Leila Fox was already killed in the street where he met her for the first time.

Also, everyone in the conglomerate would disappear after a few hours, including those who are at its lower circles. Even though Leila Fox was no longer had control over the conglomerate, she would still disappear, Zhou Qingfeng thought.

Seeing Zhou Qingfeng’s lack of reaction toward her words, Leila Fox could not help furrowing her brow. “Oi! Do you really dislike me? Or do you hold some preconceptions toward me?”

“Nah, I just don’t wanna talk.” Zhou Qingfeng was trying to clear out the shrapnel on his skin. His superhuman recovery was already at work. If those glass shards were still stuck in his skin and flesh, they would give him a lot of trouble. “Can you help me with those glass shards?”

“You are brave.” The memory of them being the subject of a sudden police attack came back to Leila’s mind at the sight of Zhou Qingfeng’s back, a mess of blood and flesh. If this boy did not save her during that crucial moment, her face would be destroyed. “Thank you for saving me again.”

Leila took an army knife from Zhou Qingfeng, cut his clothes open, and plucked the shards out with her bare hands. After a short while, her hands were covered in blood.

“Don’t you feel the pain?” Leila asked.

“I’m good.” Zhou Qingfeng would not tell her that he was under so much pain he wanted to jump. He had no choice, though, as crying and jumping around would not help the pain.

“What do you plan to do after you get your hands on that robot dog?” Leila asked.

“Wait until I get it to discuss this.” What Zhou Qingfeng wanted most was to recruit some partners. In the apocalyptic wasteland, a few dependable partners were more valuable than gold.

“Do you wanna hear about what I’m planning?” Leila was still hoping that Zhou Qingfeng could move with her, but then Zhou Qingfeng refused immediately, “I don’t want to.”

“You!!” The beautiful woman wrinkled her brow and pouted crossly. She surrendered at the end, though. “Fine, you win. Really, though, I don’t know why I came with you.

“My father is dead now, and I can’t even see him for the last time. My uncle hid information from me, faked my father’s will, and he even wanted to kill me. He didn’t only bribe my bodyguard and hire a gang of daredevil kidnappers, he had also made the Commissioner of the NYPD stand on his side.

“I’ve lost everything. Money, power, my connections. Everything disappeared. I have a sharp sense for danger ever since I was born. I’ve had thoughts about unfortunate scenes like this one and formulated plans in case something like this did happen. When it really did, though, I realized that everything I prepared for was nothing but a joke.

“I thought that I could rely on my solicitor, my friends, and my employees to regain whatever I have lost. But when they discover that I no longer have control over the Fox Conglomerate, they immediately think of leaving me.

“I’m doubting myself, if I had done something wrong. I no longer believe my own decisions. I feel helpless. And that’s why I want to come with you. I have a feeling that you can protect me. You make me feel comfortable.”

While Leila cleaned Zhou Qingfeng’s wounds, she talked about her emotional journey. Now she gave out this feeling of helplessness, of someone who was alone and had nowhere else to go. Zhou Qingfeng turned back to look at her and discovered that tears were falling down her face.

“I look really inelegant now, don’t I?” Leila rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She said, self-deprecating, “It’s been a long time since I last cried. It was when my mother died. I feel better now that I did. How about you… When have you cried before?”

It was now when Leila Fox looked like an ordinary girl in her twenties. Zhou Qingfeng sighed softly. “I’m not faring that much better. You can even say that I’m doing worse than you. At least you know how you ended up like this. I don’t.”

Maybe it was because a conversation really did help relieve his stress. Zhou Qingfeng connected his computer to the Internet and searched for all kinds of news reports about him, all from the past two days. “Look!”

Zhou Qingfeng was the most popular topic in the news the past two days. From killing a man that attempted to rob him to peeling off everything two policemen had on, he had become the most infamous suspect one step after another.

Leila scanned the news articles one by one. From confusion to shock, from being extremely confused to laughing on the top of her lungs, she went through a whole range of emotions. “The media says that you’re the scariest criminal in the country, and that you killed more than ten people in two days. Some of them are NYPD officers.

“God, I should be scared. But I still feel like you’re my best friend now. You killed so many people, and yet I don’t think that you were beyond reason. Will I have to live this life in the future?”

Miss Fox’s bitter laugh was quite infectious. Zhou Qingfeng felt his heartstrings thrum at the sound of it. Thinking of his unknown future, thinking of the limitless darkness that would come, and the blood-colored sunset that would illuminate the world, he said derisively, “I think killing and being killed will be the only life I’m going to live.”