A flicker of panic at being caught flashed through Qiao Xi’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by feigned weakness.
“What are you talking about?”
“Still pretending!”
After so long in the apocalypse, Qin Wang’s instincts had never been wrong.
Qiao Xi was definitely problematic—her abnormal body temperature, her aggressiveness, and her craving for blood.
All the signs pointed to one conclusion: something was off about her.
More precisely, she didn’t seem like a living person.
A storm of complex emotions churned in Qin Wang’s eyes.
Even though he hated her to the core, the hand gripping her neck trembled uncontrollably.
Seeing that he remained motionless for a long time, Qiao Xi’s gaze shifted. She boldly climbed up his arm and coquettishly whined, “Qin Wangwang… you’re hurting me…”
Her soft, silky voice and innocent expression were like those of a seductive siren.
This was exactly how she acted every time she felt guilty.
Qin Wang truly wanted to kill her.
Especially after hearing that nickname.
His eyes turned icy cold.
“You haven’t answered me yet!”
“Answer what?”
As Qiao Xi spoke, her slightly cool fingertips traced across his forearm.
She pressed lightly on the inside of his wrist with a hint of teasing. “Are you talking about this?”
Qin Wang frowned and looked down.
The next instant, the ferocity on his face was replaced by confusion and shock.
The wound that had just been cut by the knife had actually healed?
Stunned, he released her and rubbed the spot with his thumb, repeatedly. “What’s going on here?”
Qiao Xi clutched her neck without saying a word.
Qin Wang suddenly looked up at her. “Are you a Healing-type Ability User?”
Qiao Xi froze.
Healing-type Ability User?
What was that?
Before she could answer, an explosion suddenly rang out from the street outside. Flames shot into the sky at the other end of the road, and roars rose one after another.
Qiao Xi knew those were the excited cries of zombies feeding.
There were people on the street.
Anyone out this late was most likely not going to survive.
Qin Wang stared at the direction of the explosion, his brows tightly knit.
The others were also startled awake by the noise and crowded over to look.
“What’s going on?”
The burly Northeastern man pressed his face against the glass to peer outside. “Making that much noise—if all the zombies come running this way, aren’t we screwed?”
As soon as he finished speaking, several fireballs blasted out from the other end of the street.
Any zombie that got close was burned to char without exception.
Qiao Xi drew in a sharp breath. A fire-element ability user, of all things.
Qin Wang’s expression changed the moment he saw the fireballs.
“Pack up your things.”
He stood up and headed out. “Wait for me to get back, then we leave.”
“Brother Qin, where are you going?”
Qin Wang didn’t answer and quickly made his way downstairs.
Qiao Xi watched him leave and realized this was the perfect chance to escape.
She followed him down the stairs.
Crouching at the corner of the stairwell, she waited until the rolling shutter door came down before stepping out.
Outside was a main road. One end led in the direction Qin Wang and the others had gone, while the other end was blocked by the fire-element ability user.
To leave, she would have to detour through the alleys on the side.
Qiao Xi silently mapped out her route and reached for the edge of the rolling shutter door. But the moment her hand touched it, her fingertips went numb, and then her entire arm felt like it was being stabbed by needles.
The intense pain made her let go immediately.
Qiao Xi stared at her scorched black fingers. Ever since becoming a zombie, her sense of pain had almost completely disappeared. Pain like this was something she hadn’t experienced in far too long.
Damn it!
That bastard Qin Wang had set a trap on the door.
She stood by the door, cursing out his entire family in her mind.
Just then, the bespectacled man called down from the stairwell. “Miss Qiao, could you do us a favor?”
“What?” Qiao Xi replied irritably.
“Well… Brother Qin just said you’re a Healing-type Ability User, right? Miss Xia won’t wake up no matter how we try. We’re not sure if something’s wrong. Could you take a look…”
Miss Xia?
Xia Manman?
Qiao Xi rolled her eyes inwardly.
Can’t wake her up? Of course she can’t.
She went upstairs. The burly Northeastern man was still shaking Xia Manman’s shoulders. “Sis, how can you sleep this deep? Wake up!”
“Move aside.”
Qiao Xi shoved the burly man aside, then straddled Xia Manman.
Under the eager gazes of the two men, she rolled up her sleeves and delivered two sharp slaps to Xia Manman’s face.
The force was considerable—two visible handprints swelled up on Xia Manman’s cheeks.
“Hiss…”
The two men beside her stared in shock.
Just as they were wondering what was going on, Xia Manman let out a soft moan and groggily came to.
“She’s awake! She’s awake!”
Qiao Xi rubbed her numb hands and stepped to the side.
Xia Manman frowned at the group. “What’s going on? Why… are you all gathered around me?”
The bespectacled man spoke up. “Brother Qin said to pack up and get ready to leave. How are you feeling?”
Xia Manman touched her swollen cheeks and winced slightly. “Nothing… nothing else, but why does my face hurt?”
“That’s nothing.”
The bespectacled man urged, “Hurry and get up. Brother Qin could be back any minute.”
Xia Manman held her cheek and glanced at Qiao Xi, who looked completely unbothered. Suspicion and hostility flickered in her eyes.
Boom!
The battle outside raged fiercely.
They had just reached the first floor when they were nearly hit by a piece of the rolling shutter door that came flying backward.
Thick smoke stung their noses, and visibility was extremely low.
Seeing this, Qiao Xi immediately dashed toward the darkness.
But she had only taken a few steps when her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
A familiar voice spoke with an unyielding tone. “This way.”
Without giving Qiao Xi a chance to refuse, a powerful force dragged her in the opposite direction.
Qin Wang held Qiao Xi with one hand while gripping a blood-soaked man with the other.
The man’s clothes were torn and ragged, with wounds covering several parts of his body. His eyes glared viciously at the zombie horde as he struck with ruthless ferocity, hurling fireball after fireball at the zombies behind him.
If not for Qin Wang pulling him along, he would likely have gone down fighting the zombies to mutual destruction.
Just how deep was that grudge?
To avoid the zombie horde on the main road, they ducked into a narrow alley.
The alley was tight, and Qin Wang tossed the man to the burly Northeasterner, then pulled Qiao Xi along to cover the rear.
“Let go—I can run on my own.” Qiao Xi pried at his hand.
Qin Wang gave her a quick glance before looking away, his grip not loosening in the slightest.
As they rounded a corner, Qiao Xi caught a glimpse of a familiar white figure out of the corner of her eye—small, sneaking along behind them, having followed the whole way.
Her heart lurched. That was her only friend after she’d been infected with the virus—Little Tuanzi.
She must not have returned last night, so she’d tracked Qiao Xi by scent and come looking.
By the time dawn broke, they’d shaken off the zombies and stopped at a corner grocery store.
The others were bandaging the fire-element ability user’s wounds. Qiao Xi used the bathroom as an excuse, stepping outside to glance around.
Before long, a ball of fluff came hopping toward her.
Tuanzi was a white rabbit with patchy fur, but Qiao Xi kept her clean and well-groomed.
Qiao Xi had named her Tuanzi. She would find food for Qiao Xi, stomp her feet hard to drive away approaching zombies, and sprawl out beside Qiao Xi to snore away in deep sleep.
Tuanzi nuzzled against her palm, affectionate and close.
Qiao Xi stroked her rabbit ears and urged her in a low voice: “It’s not safe here for me. Go back now—I’ll come find you in a few days.”
She gave Tuanzi’s round rump a gentle push.
Little Tuanzi was reluctant, circling her twice, licking her fingers, refusing to leave with a clingy whine.
It wasn’t until Qiao Xi’s face turned stern: “Be good, or I’ll get mad.”
Seeing her upset, Little Tuanzi’s ears drooped, and she turned and hopped away.
Qiao Xi let out a sigh of relief.
The moment she turned around, she saw a figure standing in the doorway of the grocery store.
The instant her gaze landed on him, a fireball came hurtling straight at her.
It all happened too fast—Qiao Xi had no time to dodge.
The burning fireball reflected in her pupils, her hair lifted by the scorching wind. She thought her identity had been discovered.
But the fireball flew right past her.
The next second, she heard a shrill squeal of agony behind her.
Qiao Xi spun around and saw Tuanzi writhing and screaming in the flames, her ears curling like withered leaves under the searing heat, rapidly losing all signs of life.
The stench of burning filled the air.
Someone ran up behind her, saying something.
The voice sounded distant, indistinct.
Qiao Xi stood there, staring blankly ahead. The rabbit that had been nuzzling her just moments ago had turned into a charred, blackened lump.
And she felt like she’d been through this exact scene before.
Her head throbbed.
Strange yet familiar images flooded her mind.
A dog leash deliberately let go.
A dog running toward her.
A car that never slowed down.
And afterward, her collapse as she held the dog’s body.
Then the wealthy woman’s dismissive words:
“Good that it’s dead. My son is precious—filthy things like that never should have been near him.”