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The sky was gray, and it started to snow. The snowflakes were soft like feathers, lightly swirled into the wind and landed on top of the hut.

Everything seemed normal until a loud and evil laughter exploded.

“Whahaha--------------------! Now you have ended up in my hands, there is no easy life! You are such an ungrateful pig, dare to smack me with a stick, if I don't get revenge, then I am not LiNa!”

Since he couldn’t even hear me, I spoke my home language.

I held a thick stick in one hand, and lightly patted on the palm of the other while walking slowly in front of the young man. His hands and feet were tied up tightly with ropes, and hatefully stared at me. Those eyes were untamed and savage like a wild animal. I walked like a swagger, and laughed with plain evilness.

“If it wasn’t Grandpa Jin, you would have been frozen to death out there. You really think you are a legendary ten-winged immortal, who has endless power to beat mother nature? No-no-no, you are just a normal demon without a brain. I carried you all the way here in a freaking blizzard, and all I got was a stick on the head? Was that a reward for me? I don’t expect a huge return on a good deed, but by all means it shouldn’t be a stick! I don’t blame you, because I was indeed the most stupid person in the world to save a jerk like you!”

He looked confused but full of contempt. I didn’t know why he was so spiteful because he was saved by us two times in a row.

I squatted and pointed the stick toward his nose, “We don’t owe you anything, but you owe us a ton. See this, take a close look at the little bump on my head, and ask whether you feel the guilt tickle inside or not.”

Of course, he couldn’t hear or understand me, therefore still looked very cold and hateful, as if we were all the bad guys, and he was the one being kidnapped and forced to stay here. The truth was that if we didn’t tie his hands and feet, he would go out and freeze himself to death. It was not like I care, I don’t, okay! It was Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha’s kindness to save him the second time, definitely not mine.

There was a limit to how much I could take.

“Now you owe me a blow on the head. How about this? For fairness, you let me smack your head once, then we would not owe each other anything.” I added some gestures to help him understand what I was saying.

I grinned cunningly, held the stick tight, and waited for him to be scared or at least understand what he had done earlier was not right.

But…….

He was not scared by an inch, and stared at me as contemptuously as before. I had a feeling that even if I was holding a knife, he would still look the same.

So fearless and stoic, as if nothing can make him back off!

I felt like a plain joke because I wasn’t really going to smack his head, just trying to get him to apologize for what he had done. Plus his injuries were bad enough, I didn’t want to kill him.

“Hey, you say sorry!” I yelled.

Wait, he was deaf! Oh, LiNa, you were really something!

I used “hand sign” again and pointed to my head and then pointed to him, asking him to apologize, otherwise I will really punish him. Seeing that he didn’t respond at all, I stood my ground and poked his forehead with the stick.

“Apologize!”

Guess what?

He was stunned for a second when that stick poked his forehead, then those dark blue eyes shone with shame as if I did something so disrespectful. This guy’s brain must be not working properly because it was his fault first, now acted like everything was my fault. Although all tied up, he managed to suddenly move toward me for about a foot, and then tried to “kill” me with those eyes with suspicion and contempt.

That indescribable expression seemed to say: If you dared to poke me one more time with that wooden stick, you would be dead in a second.

I was such a coward, not sure when the stick had slipped through my fingers and dropped onto the ground.

This jerk must have seen through me that I didn’t dare to hurt him. Fine, at least he was all tied up, there were plenty of chances for revenge!

“LiNa, how is he doing?” Grandpa Jin walked in, and sat on one of the stools. Grandma Sha followed him, bringing a bowl of sweet potato soup.

I pouted, “Full of energy, Grandpa Jin.”

Grandpa Jin chuckled, and looked toward the young man, “You sure look energetic. I know there is a place you want to go and you are determined as well, but if you leave, the only outcome is death. If you die in the Land of Ruins, you will never reach your destination.”

“Grandpa Jin, he is deaf and can’t speak either.” I explained.

At first Grandpa Jin was astonished, but then laughed loudly, “When someone doesn’t want to communicate with the outside world, he will keep everything in. He sure understands everything, it’s just a matter of when to open up.”

What!? Did that mean this jerk just pretended to be deaf and mute!? Then he must have heard every mumble I said! Damn it!

Well, at least I said them in my home language, he probably did not get everything either. How could Grandpa Jin figure out he was not a mute? The demons really possessed magic arts, or maybe Grandpa Jin was just a wise old man.

Grandpa Jin went ahead and untied him.

His voice was super calm, “Young man, if you decide to go, we won’t keep you here any longer, but just keep in mind there is no way you can make it out alive in this condition. Your injuries are bad, and won’t be recovering any time soon. You are welcome to stay here to completely recover, so there is a chance to get out of the Land of Ruins. There are only two choices lying in front of you, to live or to die. If you decide to stay, just eat the bowl of food here. If you decide to go, the door is right in front of you. Just remember to die is easy, but to live is hard.”

The young man fell into a deep thought, as if making up some important decisions. That was the moment when I realized that dude really was not deaf at all. That meant all this time he was just ignoring me and humiliating me with all the unresponsiveness.

Great……..I was secretly burning with fire inside.

He was so impolite!