"Stay where you are. Don't come any closer."
Jin Xueli froze at her words. She shivered twice in the rain before asking Mai Mingle, "...What's wrong? She saved me once..."
"I know,"
Mai Mingle softened her tone, her peripheral vision still fixed on Brianna on the road. She spoke as if coaxing a child, "Just wait a moment. Come over after we're done talking, okay?"
Jin Xueli's face and lips were blue from the cold. She glanced at Brianna, hesitated for a moment, and finally sat back down in the car, leaving the door open.
When Mai Mingle turned back to face her, Brianna had already pushed herself up from the ground.
She had no feet; they had been cast off to some unknown corner of the world. So Brianna propped herself up with her arms, standing silently in the black rain. On her pale, ashen face, her hair streamed down like trails of blood.
The two locked eyes for a few seconds—Mai Mingle fought the urge to turn and grab a machine gun from the car.
