studiobondurri Chapter 345: Farm Daily Life 17
Chapter 345: Farm Daily Life 17
Fairgate suffered heavy losses this time, with nearly twenty people dead.
Under the harsh weather and various crises, many refugees began to suffer from mental breakdowns. In the days that followed, everyone said they could hear cries and screams coming from Fairgate.
The most terrifying kind of slaughter in this world is, in fact, like boiling a frog slowly.
And now, everyone was a frog. The slaughter brought upon humanity by the Little Ice Age operated on the same principle.
In this environment, you slowly lose your vigilance, your ability to resist. You grow numb, becoming a docile puppet. And just then, the final, fatal blow falls.
Inside the training room, Evelyn Ford was unleashing a flurry of attacks on a sandbag. Having been under Ronan Kendrick’s protection for so long, she had forgotten to improve her own abilities. She had plenty of weapons in her dimensional space, but if her physical condition was too poor, even the best weapon couldn’t save her.
Evelyn decided to train hard and improve her physical fitness. First on the list: turning the soft flesh on her stomach into muscle.
In the extreme cold, a person’s thoughts and physical reflexes would become sluggish. But when you’re running for your life, reaction speed and physical stamina are the most important things.
"Did something get to Evelyn?"
"Probably had a fight with Ronan. She’s been training like a maniac these past few days."
"I want to train too. Ever since the extreme cold began, it’s just been running, running, running. Since we’ve been at the farm, life has gotten comfortable. I’ve even put on weight. This can’t continue. You have to maintain a sense of crisis."
Following Evelyn’s lead, all the women on the farm began to exercise. Paul Pence and Officer Graham became their trainers. Both were former police officers, and each had their own self-defense skills and finishing moves.
For Evelyn, the hardest part was still waking up early. After all, she was used to sleeping in. Suddenly having to get up early to train was genuinely painful for the first few days. But as long as she could stick it out for a week, it would get much easier.
Although at first, Ronan felt it was unnecessary for Evelyn to suffer through this hardship, he still followed her every step of the way when she got up to train. When it was time to learn close-quarters combat and finishing moves, Ronan became her sparring partner.
The gap between them was just too wide, in both strength and reflexes. In the beginning, Evelyn had almost no ability to fight back. Although Ronan’s heart ached for her, he never went easy on her during these sessions. Instead, he was even stricter, demanding she reach a higher standard.
Back in the cabin at night, Ronan, afraid that Evelyn would be angry and make him sleep on the floor, resorted to everything: coaxing, acting cute, and being shameless.
"Someone was all business today, throwing me around without a hint of mercy."
Ronan grabbed Evelyn’s hand and slapped his own face with it twice.
"Beat me to death."
Evelyn huffed. Of course she wasn’t actually angry; she just wanted to tease Ronan.
"If I beat you to death, who will be my sparring partner tomorrow?"
"I’ll revive quickly."
Evelyn bit down hard on his shoulder. "I can’t beat you to death, but I can bite you to death."
"Do I need to beg for mercy?"
Evelyn nodded. "Hurry up and beg."
Ronan looked at her with a smile. "I was wrong. Please spare me. I’ll never do it again."
Evelyn... ’Help, Ronan has lost his mind.’
She thought Ronan might go a little easier on her the next day, but to her surprise, he doubled down. The training intensity increased, and Evelyn was pushed so hard her legs trembled. In the end, she collapsed on the floor and begged for mercy.
"I’m tired. I can’t get up. I’m not training anymore."
Ronan’s face was stern. "You can’t give up halfway. Get up."
"I can’t. Let me rest for three minutes."
"Your last movements were limp and powerless. Your reaction speed was as slow as a turtle’s."
Evelyn gritted her teeth. "You’re ruthless. Ronan Kendrick, you’re dead meat. You’re sleeping on the floor tonight."
A flash of panic crossed Ronan’s eyes, but he quickly calmed himself.
"Ford, don’t use this as a chance for personal revenge."
Evelyn was speechless.
’I want to beat up Ronan. I want to pin him to the ground and grind him into the floor.’
"Ronan’s really something else, dancing on the edge of danger like that. Evelyn looks like she’s about to breathe fire. I’m not saying another word, I’m out of here. I feel like Evelyn’s about to go on a killing spree."
The others left in a swarm, thoughtfully closing the training room door behind them.
Evelyn just lay on the wooden floor, giving up completely. Ronan cleared his throat, walked over, and knelt on one knee to look at her.
"Really not training anymore?"
Evelyn closed her eyes, ignoring him. Ronan suddenly scooped her up into his arms.
"Good students don’t give up halfway."
Even at a time like this, he could still be so dead serious about continuing her training.
Evelyn did the opposite. She hooked her arms around his neck, hanging her entire body on him.
"I don’t want to train."
"That won’t do. Who was it that said they wanted to reach my level?"
Evelyn looked at him pitifully. "Is being all cute and whiny with you useless?"
"It’s useful anywhere outside the training room."
Evelyn sighed and could only go back to practicing obediently.
Although it was tough, the results were remarkable. A month later, Evelyn’s stamina, physical condition, reaction speed, and counter-attack abilities had all improved.
"Evelyn, you’re so tough! I can’t believe you managed to stick it out with Ronan being so harsh."
Evelyn gave a wry smile. She finally understood what it meant to shoot herself in the foot.
"I wanted to give up too, but Ronan wouldn’t let me quit halfway."
At the mention of Ronan, fear appeared on the others’ faces.
"Evelyn, are you sure Ronan doesn’t have a violent streak?"
"Yeah, I never expected him to be so brutal when training you. It scared me just watching. And he doesn’t hold back. There were a few times I thought he was going to break your ribs when he threw you."
"Evelyn, if he has a violent streak, you have to tell us. We may not be able to beat him, but we’ll definitely save you."
Evelyn pressed her temples. "How could Ronan possibly have a violent streak? I think it’s more likely that *I* have one. He’s just strict during training. That’s perfectly normal. No coach is all smiles and jokes during a session."
"Really? He’s never really laid a hand on you?"
"Really, he hasn’t. You guys have a huge misunderstanding about him."
Everyone felt that Evelyn was seeing Ronan through thick, rose-tinted glasses. In other words, she was completely love-struck.
For a long time after that, everyone looked at Ronan with a mixture of accusation and fear.
Ronan was a little baffled.
"What’s gotten into them lately?"
Evelyn felt a little guilty. "They think you’d commit domestic violence."
Ronan was silent for a long time. Evelyn also felt that what she just said was a bit hurtful.
"Ronan, you..."
"Do they have some deep misunderstanding about your abilities?" Ronan asked, confused.
"Domestic violence is a moronic act committed only by incompetent weaklings. When we first met, you could only call what we did a mutual brawl, right?"
"Please forget about that."
Ronan nodded. "Okay, I’ll never bring it up again."
"It was clearly a match between experts," Ronan muttered, unable to let it go.
"I would never commit domestic violence. That’s something only an incompetent pervert would do."
"Who said it? I refuse to accept this!"
"Evelyn, did you clear my name?"
"It must have been Quincy. He’s a dead man. I’m assassinating him tonight."
Evelyn was speechless.