The person in his arms was trembling, which surprised Yu Yao a little.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he hoisted the continuously slipping figure upward. Yun Ying hung in the crook of his arm, her spine pressed tightly against his chest.
“What are you shaking for?”
Yu Yao finally spoke.
The familiar yet unfamiliar voice reached her ears, and Yun Ying suddenly snapped back to her senses, flustered as she pushed at him: “Let—let go!”
She struggled too violently. Yu Yao frowned, worried that her small frame might get hurt, so he loosened his grip slightly. The girl slipped away like a rabbit.
Her weak legs made her stumble the moment she left Yu Yao’s support. Yu Yao reached out and caught her by the wrist. Through the loose sleeve of her hoodie, he could effortlessly encircle her entire wrist.
…So thin.
Yu Yao’s eyes darkened. That useless boyfriend of hers really was good for nothing, keeping his girlfriend this skinny.
His wrist was burning hot. Even though there was a layer of clothing between them, Yun Ying felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. She yanked her hand back, her legs no longer weak, her back no longer aching—she wished she could be eight hundred meters away from him.
Yu Yao’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Yun Ying was panicking beyond measure, her mind a complete blank.
Why was Yu Yao here?
He hadn’t even shown up to his own father’s funeral. Yun Ying had been anxious and frightened for a long time before deciding to come back for the funeral. His absence had actually been a relief to her. Later, when the apocalypse broke out, she hadn’t even known whether Yu Yao was still alive.
How had she run into this lunatic here?
Yun Ying fled blindly, about to run downstairs, when several dark figures darted up from that direction. Yu Yao’s expression darkened. He caught up to Yun Ying in two strides, wrapped an arm around her waist, drew his gun, and dispatched the zombies that had slipped through in a few shots.
Yu Yao said coldly, “Don’t run around. The entire town’s zombies are here. Who knows which factory zone they’re hiding in—there are probably more zombies here.”
The girl in his arms went quiet. Yu Yao holstered his gun and lifted Yun Ying with one arm. She suddenly found herself suspended, sitting on his arm, half a head taller than Yu Yao.
The weightlessness scared Yun Ying into clutching his neck tightly. Before he could even catch his breath, Yu Yao braced one hand on a pole and vaulted down from the third floor.
Yun Ying cursed, “Bastard!”
Yu Yao landed steadily. Several of his teammates had just finished off the zombie horde when they suddenly heard a loud “Bastard!”—so startling that they nearly lost their grip on their guns. They turned around with wide eyes.
Yun Ying was badly frightened, clinging tightly to Yu Yao’s neck, while the bastard in question held her steady, the corners of his lips curved upward.
He looked very pleased with himself.
Cheng Zainan shook his head and cast a rather sympathetic glance at the ashen-faced Yun Ying.
With this mad dog taking an interest in her, the girl’s days ahead were probably not going to be easy.
Dog, bastard—he’d always been this awful. Even in the apocalypse, Yu Yao was still the same detestable Yu Yao.
Yun Ying was so angry her lips trembled. She was just about to struggle and slide down from his arm when she caught a glimpse of the zombie horde covering the ground—mangled flesh, blood, and severed limbs everywhere. Her stomach churned, and she nearly dry-heaved.
Terrified that Yu Yao would set her down and make her step among the corpses, Yun Ying held on for dear life.
“You—get out of here, quick!”
The girl was stubborn, but she sure knew how to order people around.
Yu Yao was in a good mood. He held her sitting on his arm like a child. She clung tightly to his neck. In the apocalypse, with water resources scarce, it was inevitable that many people would carry odors on them, but she still smelled clean.
Like jasmine.
Several teammates had already opened the gate. Yu Yao carried her out. As soon as they reached the clean open ground outside, Yun Ying turned on him like she didn’t recognize him, slipped off his body like a loach, and retreated several steps back.
Yu Yao lifted his foot onto a step and scraped it against the stone, removing the blood and flesh stuck to the sole of his combat boot. He lowered his eyes and said calmly, “Why are you hiding from me?”
Yun Ying was stunned by his sheer audacity.
How could he have the nerve to ask something like that? After all the terrible things he’d done, he still dared to ask why she was avoiding him?
If it weren’t to get away from him, why would she have run so far and lived under a false name?
During those two years she was trapped by his side, Yun Ying had thought a person like him was just playing around. Who knew Yu Yao would want to drag her off to get a marriage certificate?
Spending a lifetime with this man—bad-tempered, insatiable, all brute force, who every time seemed to want to shatter her to pieces—Yun Ying felt her vision go black, and she wanted to close her eyes and ascend to heaven on the spot.
“You… you… you’re shameless!” She was trembling with rage, yet all she could stammer out was one feeble curse.
Yu Yao’s scraping motion paused.
Cheng Zainan, who had just walked out, burst out laughing, doubling over.
“Captain, what did you just do to that little girl?”
Lu Yao laughed too. “Look how scared you’ve made the poor girl. Don’t use your drill-sergeant tactics on a young lady—that’s not how you chase a girl.”
Yu Yao let out a laugh—the kind born of pure exasperation.
Ever since this girl laid eyes on his face, it was like she’d seen a ghost. Her attitude had done a complete one-eighty.
Yu Yao thought to himself, sure, he looked fierce, but not to the point of stopping babies from crying at night, right?
Yun Ying turned to leave. Yu Yao stepped forward and grabbed her arm, saying coldly, “Stop. It’s not safe here.”
“Let go, let go of me.”
The girl’s eyes reddened with frustration as she desperately tried to shake off his hand. In the distance, several teammates were laughing themselves to death—when had they ever seen the captain so thoroughly rejected?
Yu Yao’s face darkened. He refused to let go, squinting as he asked her, “What did I do to you? Do we even know each other?”
Yun Ying’s pushing motion froze.
Yu Yao stepped forward, practically backing her into his chest. Looking down at someone who only reached his collarbone, his voice softened a little: “Why are you so afraid of me? Am I that ugly?”
How could Yu Yao be ugly?
This bastard was born with a decent face. In the past, Yun Ying could only console herself bitterly—at least he was good-looking, had a nice body, and was decent in bed, so she’d gotten something out of it.
Yun Ying’s fear of him had never been about his face.
She looked up. They hadn’t seen each other in two years. Yu Yao was much tanner than before, and much more rugged. It was clear the half-year of the apocalypse had tempered him considerably. His whole aura of pressure and dominance was even stronger than before.
In the past, Yun Ying always thought Yu Yao must be some kind of sex fiend. Every time he saw her, he’d either pin her down to kiss her or pin her down to do it. He even had to bring her along to work—as long as she wasn’t at school, she had to be within his line of sight.
The two of them lived under the same roof. Even if she locked her door, it couldn’t stop Yu Yao from climbing into her bed in the middle of the night.
Though sometimes Yu Yao would just hold her and sleep.
But now, Yu Yao’s brows were furrowed. There was no trace of that past hunger in his eyes—the desire to tear her apart and devour her. The way he looked at her now was somewhat like before they’d gotten together: that gaze of wanting to get close, yet forcibly restraining himself.
And now there was confusion in Yu Yao’s eyes too.
He was confused about why she was afraid of him.
Yun Ying’s heart suddenly pounded wildly, her throat tightening.
Right. Yu Yao’s possessiveness and desire for her had already reached a point he could no longer restrain. She had dumped him without any warning, and she’d heard that Yu Yao had abandoned his company entirely, booking a flight that very night to come hunt her down. If not for Uncle Yu using his influence to keep blocking him and hiding all news of her whereabouts, Yun Ying wouldn’t have had this much peace.
He had been so furious back then. Yun Ying had no doubt that if he ever saw her, he’d probably want to crush her to pieces. How could he be this calm now—even gentle, one might say?
“Do we know each other?” She remained silent, so Yu Yao leaned in closer.
But Yun Ying sprang backward, leaping several steps away, and her suddenly raised head smacked right into his chin. Yu Yao nearly bit his tongue off.
Yun Ying said nervously, “You—you look too much like someone I hate. I’m sorry. I hate him so much that I’ve taken it out on you too.”
Yu Yao’s gaze at her was like he wanted to devour her whole. “We really don’t know each other?”
With that reaction from him, Yun Ying was fully convinced: Yu Yao had lost his memory.
For some reason—perhaps a side effect of awakening his supernatural ability—he had amnesia.
To him, she was now a stranger.
Yun Ying said hurriedly, “We really don’t know each other! You—you just look too much like him!”
Yu Yao released his grip and walked toward her, his chin red from the collision. “Who? Who’s the person you hate?”
“That’s my personal business—”
He took a step forward, and Yun Ying took a step back. Yu Yao was clearly irritated, closing the distance in two long strides, and Yun Ying quickened her retreat, backing away several steps.
“Why are you dodging—”
“A Ying!”
Before Yu Yao could grab her, he heard someone’s voice and looked over irritably. Song Huai came running from a distance, followed by several Ability Users.
They must have been drawn by the gunfire.
Seeing that Yun Ying was fine, Song Huai’s face lit up with relief. He rushed over, grabbing Yun Ying’s arm and looking her over. “A Ying, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Yun Ying’s feelings at that moment were complicated. She knew what he’d done was the right call—in that situation, if Song Huai had pulled her to safety, it would only have cost both their lives.
Besides, Song Huai had helped her so many times. If not for him, her days at the base wouldn’t have been this peaceful.
She mustered a smile and shook her head. “I’m fine. They saved me.”
The base’s Ability Users looked over and saw… five Ability Users in clean, tidy clothing.
Though their clothes were splattered with grime, they were clean and neat enough by apocalypse standards.
A few Ability Users had taken down an entire small Zombie Horde?!
Being stared at by a group of people, Cheng Zainan—who was carrying a gun—felt somewhat uncomfortable. Remembering that Yu Yao hated being cornered by crowds, he was just about to advise him not to act rashly when he looked up.
Well, well. Their captain wasn’t even looking at that ragged group. His gaze was fixed on the young woman… and the hand belonging to another man on her arm.
Song Huai also sensed the discomfort. That tall man in the windbreaker had been staring at him—at the hand gripping Yun Ying’s arm—since the moment he appeared.
They were both men. How could he not know what that meant?
There were plenty of people who had their eyes on Yun Ying. Though Song Huai felt some unease in his heart, he still pulled Yun Ying behind him.
He put on a composed smile and said, “Thank you, brothers, for saving my girlfriend.”
“Is she your girlfriend?” Yu Yao finally glanced at Song Huai, his gaze icy, no different from how he looked at zombies.
Song Huai’s heart tightened, but remembering Yun Ying was behind him, he forced himself to stay calm. “Yes, my girlfriend.”
“Your girlfriend saved you, and you threw her into the zombie horde.” Yu Yao spoke directly, no longer sparing Song Huai a glance, instead looking at Yun Ying, who was shrinking behind him. “Having such big eyes and they’re purely decorative. You might as well open them and look at someone else.”
Song Huai’s expression turned ugly. “Brother, in that kind of situation, I had no choice.”
Yun Ying just wanted to keep her head down like a quail, but he insisted on singling her out.
She poked her head out and said, “Thank you. I… my boyfriend and I will remember you for the rest of our lives.”
She deliberately emphasized the words “my boyfriend,” and how could Yu Yao not catch it? Even his blocked meridians were cleared by sheer anger.
Seeing the captain was about to beat the man up, Cheng Zainan hurried forward to smooth things over. “Alright, alright. The girl’s so pretty—who’d have the heart to watch you die in a zombie horde? We don’t even know where more zombies might be. This isn’t the time.”
He turned and signaled Yu Yao with his eyes—they still had things to do.
The base people were afraid they might leave, so the middle-aged man leading them laughed heartily twice. “Hey, we came from the eastern base. Which base are you friends from, or are you living on your own? Any interest in joining a base?”
“No.” Lu Yao’s voice was cold.
The girl dressed all in black had icy eyes and had long since seen through their intentions.
Cheng Zainan was just about to drag Yu Yao away, and even the base people wore regretful expressions, thinking to themselves that it just wasn’t meant to be.
Yu Yao suddenly spoke. “What are the benefits at your base?”
Cheng Zainan’s head snapped up to look at him.
The base’s Ability User snapped to attention and said joyfully, “Excellent! Absolutely preferential treatment! We’re divided into three districts. Ability Users all live in the central district, with housing assigned according to ability level. With your and your friends’ strength, you could live in a villa on the city outskirts. Even if you have family, you can bring them!”
“The central district has medical care, schools, shopping—everything. And—”
“Alright, we’ll join.”
Yun Ying’s eyes went wide.
“Hm?” Not expecting him to agree so quickly, the lead Ability User was stunned for a moment. Pushed by someone beside him, he quickly put on a fawning smile. “That’s wonderful!”
Cheng Zainan tugged at Yu Yao’s sleeve and lowered his voice. “Captain.”
They did need to go to the eastern base to take care of some business on this trip, but no one said anything about joining the base… no, wait—he had agreed to join, but they could still run off after finishing their business. And if they got into the central district, handling their business would be even more convenient.
But Cheng Zainan felt that Yu Yao might have another motive.
From beginning to end, Yu Yao only looked at the panicked Yun Ying.
“How convenient. We’ll escort you back to the base.”
That look was all too familiar.
Like looking at a delicious dessert, pondering how to obtain it smoothly, and once obtained, where to take the first bite.
…Done for.
Yun Ying could see it.
Yu Yao had taken a fancy to her again.