Apocalypse Ground Ze Chapter 100: Right Name, Wrong Person

Chapter 100: Right Name, Wrong Person

I opened the door and immediately wished I hadn’t.

Not because I didn’t know what was on the other side. I already knew there were soldiers out there. I could hear them moving around the house long before they got the guts to knock. They were being loud because they wanted to be, not because they didn’t know how to be quiet.

Commander Li Wenqiang. For the third time in two days. I was beginning to think that he missed me or something.

He was the one I was expecting when I opened the door. Not her.

She was standing at the front like she owned the place, like the house already belonged to her and I was just in the way. It was almost reassuring that know that things hadn’t changed that much between my past life and current one.

Once a bitch, always a bitch.

"Shen Rouxi?!? Is that you?!?" Her voice was the same loud screech that it was last time I had to listen to her. It used to sound like nails on a chalk board to me... now it just made me see red.

She pushed past me and stormed into the house, the five men that had always followed behind her in our last life were acting like the dedicated little puppies I knew them for.

I let them into my house, not because I didn’t have a choice in the matter, but because...

"Right name, wrong person," I purred, a smile on my face. We had already established that I was a bitch, and the woman who had gotten me killed in my past life had just walked into my house of her own free will.

Don’t get me wrong, I was willing to let bygones be bygones. I was content never seeing her again. But now? Yeah. Payback’s a bitch and so am I.

She spun around and glared at me, the same face, the same look that she gave me when I did something she didn’t approve of.

"Nice try, Shen Rouxi. Do you really think that I have forgotten about you?" Meilan continued even as Commander Li and a bigger team walked through the door I was still holding open.

"Is she with you?" I asked, blinking up at the man even as one of his people very politely closed the door behind himself.

"Did you want me to lock this?" he asked before Commander Li could reply to my question. Yeah, I liked him already.

Smiling brightly, I nodded my head. "Please and thank you."

I heard the lock click even as Li shook his head. "I think the correct version is we are with her," he said, effectively creating distance between the two groups. "We just met outside your house." My respect for him raised just a bit. He already understood her after just a few minutes.

Meilan stomped her foot even as Zhenlan came up behind me and pulled me against his chest. "Commander Li," he sighed. "This is getting to be redundant."

"Tell me about it..." he paused, cocking his head to the side, waiting for Zhenlan to introduce himself.

"Xu Zhenlan," the man behind me replied. He didn’t bother to hold out his hand, just narrowed his eyes.

"Shen Rouxi!" yelled Meilan, already pissed that I was the center of attention and not her. I raised an eyebrow as everyone turned to look at her.

She visibly regrouped, straightening her spine as she smiled brightly at me. "You’re right. You can’t be the Rouxi that I know. Everything about you screams proper breeding and wealth. The Rouxi that I know clawed her way out of the slums."

She had everyone’s attention and she was loving it. The only problem was that her plan was about to backfire.

Spectacularly.

You see, I was never ashamed of any part of my life in the past. I had survived a childhood that would have broken or killed most kids. I had survived my teenage years when most would have turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. I had survived as an adult knowing exactly what I was and was not willing to do to get ahead.

"She didn’t live in a place like this," Meilan continued, glancing past me into the house like she was already measuring it. "She didn’t have anything like this."

I hummed, nodding my head. Let her talk. It meant nothing to me.

"She grew up in a trailer that should have been condemned," she continued, and I could feel Zhenlan’s hands tighten on my shoulders. Did he know? No. There was no way he would even think the Shen Rouxi in this story was the same one was me.

"Her parents hate her... like legitimately wanted her dead. They didn’t care whether she ate, slept, or survived the night. All they wanted was their next hit, their next drink of booze."

Even as she said the words, I could smell the alcohol on my mother’s breath as she leaned forward and slapped me across the face. When she beat a four year old for hiding money that never existed.

Mommy dearest never worried about teachers reporting the bruises. After all, who really cared about kids from the slums?

I popped the lollipop into my mouth and leaned back against Zhenlan, breathing in his scent.

It was clear that she was fishing. She was going to say all of it. Every detail. Every ugly little piece she thought would land. And when I reacted, when I snapped, she would know that I was reborn. That I was still that same Shen Rouxi.

To bad for her.

"She learned to cook when she was four," she said, her eyes sparkling as she stared down at me and took a step forward. Zhenlan took a step back even as Lingyun and Chenghai stepped in front of me.

"She burned herself more times than she could count, but she kept doing it because if she didn’t, she didn’t eat. She also dropped out of school at sixteen. Got a job cleaning motel rooms for cash. Never got her high school diploma. She worked until she couldn’t feel her hands anymore."

She paused for dramatic effect.

"In short, she was pathetic. A reject that no one liked, no one respected, that everyone wanted dead. If she was still alive, she probably would have loved a life like yours."

I stared into her eyes, being surrounded by three of the men who had willingly chosen me in this life, and nodded my head. "Yeah," I agreed. "She probably would have loved a life like mine."

That threw her.

Just a little.

I could see it in the way her smile tightened before she fixed it again.

Good.

"But hearing all that, I think that... with my life being what it is," I purred, sinking back even more into Zhenlan’s arms, making a point that no words could make. "I think I’m just going to stay home. After all... when I have everything, what’s the point in competing for something that isn’t mine?"

I wondered for a moment if she remembered the last words she ever said to me?

I can see feel the pain, taste the blood in my mouth, hear her words clear as day. "In your next life, just stay home. Don’t compete for what isn’t yours."

I wondered if she remembered what my last words to her were? "In your next life, try not to be as pathetic."

I looked her up and down even as I shook my head. Nah, she was the same way as before.

But I had lots of time to make her regret walking into my house. And I was hoping, almost praying, that she would chose to stay.

That way, there was no reason to rush anything.

Besides, they weren’t coming in without making a move, and I wanted to see how far she would go before she realized she was the only one pushing.

She didn’t make me wait long.

"Too bad this isn’t your life anymore. This house is officially under government authority. You are to pack up and leave," she said with a malicious smile on her face.

When I didn’t move, when I continued to look at her blankly, her face turned dark. "Didn’t you hear me? This is now my home. Don’t bother packing. Everything in this place is mine. Just fuck off on your own or I’ll have you thrown out."