Chapter 528 A Strong HeartThose who disappeared forever in the Gem Flower City either became food for the King Insect or were unable to accept their identity as monsters and chose to understand themselves.
Ran Ran stood beside the bed, staring at the old woman quietly.
Her old face was full of regret, as if she was feeling sorry for the innocent lives lost.
But Ranran wanted to tell her that she had done a good job, and the person who should regret and hate her was not her, but the person who was manipulating everything behind the scenes.
The old woman breathed heavily, and her voice became intermittent.
"…Anna once met a boy from outside during a night out…She fell in love with him at first sight."
"She happily invited him home, dressed herself up carefully, and happily listened to him talk about his experiences in the living room."
"She is so happy. I haven't seen her so happy in a long time. I prepared snacks and fruits for them."
"After the new mayor took office, he cancelled all the hotels in the city. He said that he wanted to show everyone's hospitality, so he encouraged residents to invite outsiders to live in their homes. But Anna was very depressed. That was the first time she invited someone to live in her home."
"I happily prepared the guest room and hoped that the lovely boy could spend a pleasant night in our home."
Ran Ran frowned slightly when he heard this. "Didn't you suspect at that time that your own weirdness was related to the disappearance of the outsiders?"
The old woman bit her lower lip in pain, tears of regret flowing from her eyes.
"…I don't know…If only I had known this earlier…"
"The next night I woke up and found... the boy dead in the guest room! His neck was bitten to pieces, and Anna was sleeping beside him with blood in her mouth. There were bright red gems scattered on the ground..."
"That's when I realized! Those outsiders who disappeared the next day didn't leave here, but died here!"
"They were eaten by us"
Tears kept flowing from the old woman's cloudy eyes.
"My Anna was completely devastated...she killed the boy she loved."
"I want to comfort my Anna, but what can I say? I can't think of anything. We are indeed a group of man-eating demons!"
"She hit the wall in front of me. There was so much blood."
"I couldn't do anything. I hugged her and cried. I wanted her to get better, but she said..."
[Mom, I am no longer a human being if I live like this. I don’t want to live like this. Please give up on me.]
Ranran's pupils shrank when she heard this.
Even though she was not emotional, she knew how cruel it was for her daughter to say such words to her mother.
The old woman seemed to return to that helpless moment, and grief swept over her.
"I lost my Anna, my baby. I know all this is caused by the new city lord. I want to find him."
“But when I walked to the square, I found that… a new round of carnival had begun!”
"I saw a little girl surrounded by many residents, who warmly invited her to be their guest. I saw the greed and madness in their eyes. I realized that everyone had changed. The residents who had invited guests could not have been unaware of the truth, but they still stayed in the square every night."
Ran Ran was silent, her eyelashes drooped, and in the dim light, her expression was complicated and difficult to see clearly. Not everyone can stick to the bottom line of being a human being like the old lady and Anna.
The old woman sobbed, "That girl looks so much like my Anna. I can't let her die in this city like this."
"So I rushed into the crowd and dragged the girl towards the city gate."
"The girl was very scared and she cried and asked me to let her go."
"I wanted to tell her that she would die if she stayed here, but I couldn't say a word about the truth here. It was as if something was controlling me!" When the old woman said this, her eyes widened in horror, as if she remembered the feeling of being out of control of her body at that time.
Ran Ran knew the reason: the worms in the old woman's body controlled her.
The little girl is delicious food and an excellent host for the worms. Letting the little girl go obviously goes against the worms' survival instinct, so the worms in the old woman's body forbid her to do so.
The old woman's eyes turned red. "I was so angry. I have never been so angry before! I cried and yelled at the girl, begging her to live and leave here."
"I turned around and saw the city lord. He was standing at the city gate, smiling at me, and then took the girl away from me. He comforted her softly and told her not to be afraid."
"Behind him stood two huge guards."
"I couldn't do anything but watch them leave"
"I was desperate. But when I looked at the carnival around me, I suddenly realized that it wasn't just one child! Many children like the little girl died in this city every day, silently."
"It's not that I can't do anything. At least I know the truth. I can do my best to protect them, even if it's only for a few people..."
Ranran listened with a light flashing in her eyes. She once again felt the loveliness of human beings. What the old woman showed made her feel that the world was not hopeless.
"Every night after that I would go to the square, I would invite those children to my house, put them in place, lock myself up, and take care of them as much as possible."
"When they have had enough fun, I will signal them to go home quickly."
The old lady sobbed painfully.
"But it was no use. No matter how hard I tried, they couldn't escape death in the end. Everything seemed to have been doomed from the moment they stepped in."
"I said I wanted to save them, but I never succeeded!"
"I just let them watch for a few more days the city's carnival designed to kill them... It's too cruel" The old woman trembled sadly, weak and desperate.
"This is cruel to you too." Ran Ran remembered the look in the old woman's eyes when he first met her. That was another reason why Ran Ran chose her.
That look is so sad.
The old woman covered her heart in pain, ignoring the chains, she looked like an ordinary old woman at this moment.
But Ranran knew that this was not the case. The old woman was very strong and had a strong heart.
She saved others from suffering, and even when she herself was almost drowned by the suffering, she was firm and unyielding, and never retreated or admitted defeat.
She was confronting a force that she could not defeat, but she would never retreat in the slightest.
It was the huge courage that erupted from such a small person that made Ranran feel...
The world has to continue.
