“Take your clothes off yourself, and this is yours.”
In the rain-soaked evening, the alley was damp and reeked of decay.
The girl stumbled deeper into the alley until a wall blocked her path.
Behind her, a middle-aged man approached unhurriedly, holding half a Snickers bar in his hand.
This was day 156 after the apocalypse. Pollution was severe, resources were scarce, and the street-side shops had been ransacked over and over again. Finding even a piece of candy now was difficult.
Let alone a high-calorie food like a Snickers bar.
The man sized up the girl.
Long hair, short skirt, a stunningly beautiful face.
Especially those legs—pale and long.
Just looking at her made him drool.
He only wanted to use the food to coax the girl into obedience, but he never actually intended to give it to her.
The girl naturally saw through this, but she didn’t care. She really hadn’t eaten in two days.
She looked in the man’s direction, licked her dry lips, and crooked her finger at him.
The man’s eyes lit up, and he lunged at her like a starving wolf.
But the next instant, a slender, fair hand clamped around his throat and pinned him against the wall, his feet dangling in the air.
The girl’s strength was terrifying.
The man’s face was full of horror as he flailed his limbs desperately.
Guttural “uh, uh, uh” sounds escaped his mouth.
Crack!
A crisp sound.
The man’s head lolled limply to one side, his limbs went slack, the Snickers bar slipped from his hand, and his body crumpled at the girl’s feet.
Qiao Xi crouched down with a calm expression, deftly pulling out her eating tools.
A large blood storage bag connected to a needle and tube.
A needle as thick as a thumb pierced the man’s carotid artery with precision, and she watched the dark red blood slowly flow through the tube.
Qiao Xi swallowed.
In the early days of the apocalypse, she had been infected with the virus.
The good news was that she had retained her human appearance and mind.
The bad news was that her memory was damaged, and she had to feed once every three days, or she would go mad and turn into a dried corpse.
Oh, and she also had a Healing ability, but it felt pretty useless.
Qiao Xi hugged her knees and squatted on the ground, staring at the blood bag gradually filling up.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded from beside her. She thought another zombie had come to steal her food, but listening more carefully, it didn’t seem like it.
The footsteps were steady and light—a living person.
Qiao Xi’s expression shifted slightly. Living people were more troublesome than zombies.
Because some of them might be Ability Users.
Reluctantly, she packed up the half-full blood bag, tucked it into the inner layer of her bag, and stood up to meet them.
“Just saw some guy follow you into this alley—you alright?” A burly man with a Northeastern accent ran over, accompanied by a bespectacled young man.
Qiao Xi instinctively glanced behind her and shook her head.
“I’m fine.”
The young man adjusted his glasses. “Where are you headed? If it’s on the way, we could go together. A girl like you, this pretty—you must need protection, right?”
Qiao Xi frowned slightly. She was still thinking about the big blood bag in the alley and just wanted to get rid of these two quickly.
But before she could refuse, a cold voice suddenly sounded from behind the two men.
“Bad weeds never die. Qiao Xi, so you’re still alive after all.”
The voice was familiar, dredging up fragments of memory.
“Qiao Xi… I love you, Qiao Xi…”
“Without me, where would you find such an obedient dog?”
“Baby, one more time, okay?”
“Little Qiao Xi, am I good? Say I’m good!”
…
She looked up and saw a man and a woman walking over.
The man was over 1.9 meters tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, with long legs. His face was handsome and wild.
“Qin Wangwang…”
A name slipped out.
This was her ex-boyfriend, Qin Wang. Qiao Xi couldn’t remember why they had broken up.
“Brother Qin, you two know each other?” the bespectacled man said with a dry laugh.
“Isn’t this the famous beauty of Nanda, Qiao Xi?”
The woman beside Qin Wang spoke up first, looking at Qiao Xi with a hint of mockery and jealousy in her eyes.
“Back then, Qin Wang even jumped off a building for her.”
Qin Wang frowned and said nothing, but his gaze never left Qiao Xi’s face.
The burly Northeastern man looked shocked. “No way, Brother Qin? You’re a pure-hearted warrior?”
Qin Wang scoffed lightly. “Just drunk, that’s all.”
The others exchanged knowing smiles.
The woman, meanwhile, looked at Qiao Xi with both hands clasped to her chest and said in a sweet, coquettish voice, “I’m so jealous of you. If someone jumped off a building for me, I’d definitely marry him no matter what.”
Qiao Xi looked at her with a flat expression. “Then get together with him. Give it enough time, and maybe he’ll jump for you too.”
Her tone was indifferent, as if she truly didn’t care.
The woman’s smile instantly froze on her face, and she didn’t know how to respond.
“Qiao Xi, what do you mean by that?”
Qin Wang looked displeased. “Do you think I’m some cheap person in your eyes?”
Qiao Xi looked at his angry face.
She suddenly realized a problem—they probably hadn’t parted on good terms.
Because the look Qin Wang gave her was filled with disgust and hatred.
The group discussed where to stay for the night while Qiao Xi waited for them to leave.
She leaned listlessly against the wall, hunger draining her energy, her gaze drifting unconsciously over their necks.
“What about her?”
The woman suddenly pointed at Qiao Xi and asked, “Should we bring her along?”
The others instinctively looked at Qin Wang.
He replied expressionlessly, “Bring her.”
Three light words decided her fate.
Qiao Xi’s eyes darkened abruptly. “I’m not going.”
Qin Wang tilted his head to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not going with you all.”
“What’s the matter?” The burly Northeastern man scratched his head in confusion. “It’s about to get dark soon, and it’s going to be real dangerous out there.”
“I know.” Qiao Xi tightened her backpack straps. “I have my own place to go.”
The group was neatly dressed, and she hadn’t spotted any special weapons on them. Yet they moved freely through the city—odds were at least one of them was an Ability User. She didn’t want to invite trouble.
At her words, Qin Wang’s face instantly turned cold, his tone laced with menace: “Qiao Xi, are you asking to die?”
His voice was full of impatience, as if he’d already decided she was being unreasonable.
She’d been holding in her frustration ever since her meal was interrupted, and now being snapped at like this made her temper flare right up.
“I said I’m not going with you—are you deaf or what?”
With that, she shot him a vicious glare and walked straight past the group.
“I’m deaf?!”
Qin Wang was so furious his jaw went taut, his chest burning with rage.
He felt like he must have been kicked in the head by a donkey to have come all the way to Lijiang looking for her.
“Fine!”
He shouted at her retreating back through gritted teeth: “Then get lost, Qiao Xi! Get as far away as you can!”
“And pray I never lay eyes on you again!”
Qiao Xi didn’t even look back.
The woman beside him sneered with thinly veiled sarcasm: “Qin Wang, don’t get so worked up. This Qiao Xi is all clean and pretty—maybe she’s got someone more capable than us protecting her. She looks down on us, so why bother worrying about her?”
At her words, the other two exchanged looks of sudden realization.
Qin Wang’s expression darkened even further.
Without a word, he followed behind Qiao Xi, casually lifting his gaze in her direction.
The next instant, he vanished from where he stood.
Qiao Xi had just reached the corner when she suddenly felt a tight grip on her wrist, and then she was yanked sideways, tumbling into a warm embrace.
At the same time, Qin Wang’s palm faced outward, releasing a bolt of lightning.
Crack!
The two zombies that had just emerged from around the corner were instantly charred to cinders by the electric strike.
Both collapsed to the ground.
So brutal!
So decisive!
Qiao Xi froze in place.
The stench of burnt flesh from the zombies hit her nose, her heart pounding uncontrollably as fear crawled up her spine.
What was Qin Wang playing at?!
One second he told her to get lost, and now he was killing zombies right in front of her.
Was this… killing the chicken to scare the monkey?