Yun Ying certainly didn't dare make a sound. If a person could survive without breathing, she wouldn't even dare let out a breath.
Yu Yao's lips brushed against her ear as he lowered his voice and said, "There are at least three hundred Zombies in there. Now back away with me, and keep quiet."
His warm breath spilled against Yun Ying's ear. She no longer had the presence of mind to care that she was being held in some scoundrel's arms. She nodded to show she understood.
Yu Yao released the hand covering Yun Ying's lips. Her nervous breathing swept across his palm, a little ticklish, scratching at a man's heart until it itched too.
He looked down at her. Her small face was ghostly pale, badly frightened.
Yu Yao retreated a few steps. His combat boots made almost no sound on the ground. Yun Ying also lightened her steps, and the two of them withdrew just like that, pressed close together, until they reached the laboratory table.
Yun Ying looked up. The window of the ventilation duct had already been melted away. Yu Yao must have come in through there earlier.
She understood what Yu Yao meant. When he crouched halfway down, Yun Ying sat on his shoulder and was steadily lifted up by him. He had received professional training, and his lower body and core strength were powerful. Lifting her was effortless.
Yun Ying clenched her jaw, not daring to make the slightest sound. After Yu Yao sent her up, she carefully crawled into the duct. The space above was quite spacious. It had probably just been built not long ago and had never been used; there was still a smell of building materials.
The moment Yun Ying got up there, she heard the sound of Zombie shoulders scraping against the door panel. Several Zombies were probably walking right against the door, and it would be easy for them to knock it open. Her heart was so nervous it felt like it was about to jump out. She hurriedly reached out toward Yu Yao.
Yu Yao was just about to climb up when he saw the hand reaching down. Crescent-shaped marks had been pinched into her palm, clearly from when she had unconsciously dug her nails in out of fear earlier.
He curved his lips into a smile. He did not take Yun Ying's hand, afraid that before he even used force, the little girl would be pulled down by him.
Yu Yao used the wall to step up and quickly flipped himself up. The instant he got into the ventilation duct, a Zombie unconsciously knocked the door open. The door panel slammed against the wall with a crisp, muffled thud, and immediately a chorus of heh-heh sounds rose as a group of Zombies surged over.
Yun Ying held her breath, watching the dense black mass of the Zombie Horde below through the gaps in the ventilation duct. Unconsciously, she clutched Yu Yao's sleeve, terrified that the duct would not hold and that if she fell, it would be the same as being served up on a dining table.
The hand gripping his assault jacket was trembling slightly, knuckles white, as if only by holding on to him could she feel the slightest bit safe. Yu Yao's throat rolled. He stared at her fair, luminous profile.
He had not seen her for several days. The little girl he thought about day and night should have been sent by Zhang Qin to the place he had arranged in advance, so that when he withdrew from the base he could take her away. Who would have thought she would appear here.
When he saw her inside the duct, Yu Yao had not even been this nervous when facing a Zombie Tide. This little sweetheart really could play him.
He quietly approached Yun Ying from behind. "Go forward, to the room at the end."
Yun Ying nodded slightly. Clearly trembling with fear, she still did not make a sound, carefully moving through the duct toward the other side. Yu Yao was amused by her nervous appearance and followed behind her.
Along the way, Yun Ying saw countless Zombies through the gaps in the duct. She did not know how Zombies could have appeared inside the base. If Yu Yao had not been there just now, she probably would have been nothing but a skeleton by now.
He is now behind her. Yun Ying clearly hates him, but with Yu Yao here, he inexplicably gives her a sense of security—a feeling she only ever experienced before they got together, back when Yu Yao was still her brother.
They move step by step to another spot. Yu Yao glances down; only two or three zombies are below. He crouches on one knee and uses his supernatural ability to melt the board.
Drips of molten plastic fall onto the face of a zombie below. Its lifeless eyes lift upward—and the next moment, flames rush out. The three zombies are burned to ashes before they can make a sound.
Yu Yao leaps down from above, landing on something that looks like a sofa below without a single sound. He looks up at Yun Ying and reaches out his hand toward her.
Yun Ying takes several deep breaths, her fists clenching and unclenching again and again. Under Yu Yao's teasing gaze, she shuts her eyes, steels herself, and jumps.
She tumbles into Yu Yao's arms, instinctively clinging tight to his neck as she buries her head in his shoulder, the fragrant little cake colliding into his embrace. Yu Yao passes one arm under the bend of her knees and wraps the other around her waist, mischievously hoisting her closer to his chest.
Hearing Yu Yao's muffled laughter, Yun Ying snaps back to her senses and angrily lifts her head from his neck, shoving him hard as she struggles to get down from his arms.
Bad dog. Shameless pervert. Total scumbag.
Exactly the same as before the apocalypse—he just loves to mess with her. Yun Ying shoots him a glare.
…God, she's ridiculously adorable.
Yu Yao used to never understand why people still had the energy for romance even in the apocalypse—until he met this precious treasure. She suits his fancy in every way, as if she'd grown right onto his heart. Even her anger is adorable; he wants to kiss her when she curses at him.
Yun Ying's heart still hasn't settled. She looks around—this place looks like a simple office, and there's even a computer. Communications had long since collapsed in the apocalypse; most people used radio to stay in contact. What would a computer be for?
But Yu Yao simply walks over and picks up the record book on the desk. It's filled with data, and he scans through it briefly.
Yun Ying lowers her voice. "We need to leave now. It's almost dark—once the zombies' semi-hibernation period ends, they'll definitely smell us."
"Scared, are we?" Yu Yao turns his head to look at her, leaning in close. "It's not like I'm that boyfriend of yours—I'd never abandon you. How about you dump him and get with me instead? Then I'll take you out of here."
The amusement in his eyes is obvious—he's clearly toying with her.
Yun Ying grits her teeth and kicks him hard.
Yu Yao feels thoroughly pleased with himself, and when he sees her eyes turning red, he can't bear to tease her anymore.
"Don't worry. As long as I'm alive, I won't let anything happen to you."
The wireless earpiece at his ear lights up. Yu Yao raises his hand and lightly taps it—Cheng Zainan's voice comes through.
"Captain, how's the situation on your end?"
Yu Yao flips through the papers on the desk as he replies, "Not bad. There should be another level below us—that High-rank Zombie is down there."
Yun Ying's eyes widen. Not only are there this many zombies in the base, but there's also a High-rank Zombie?
This is supposed to be a safe zone—how could these things be here? Could they be researching a vaccine?
As if he can hear her thoughts, Yu Yao says in a flat tone, "Unfortunately, these people aren't researching a vaccine. They're gu-breeding."
Cheng Zainan's confused voice comes through the earpiece. "Captain, who are you talking to?"
Yu Yao tears off a sheet of paper covered in viral data and answers casually, "Talking to a pretty girl."
Yun Ying glares at him.
Cheng Zainan's volume suddenly spiked: "What?!"
He Fangchen punched him, and Cheng Zainan quickly covered his mouth, sticking his head out to look. The machines here were running, so no one heard.
The wireless earpieces shared a frequency, so everyone in the squad could hear the conversation.
He Fangchen frowned. "How did that girl end up there?"
Yu Yao glanced sideways at Yun Ying. She wished she could stand eight hundred meters away from him, yet didn't dare get too far, afraid there might still be Zombies around. Her expression was far too vivid—somewhat excessively cute.
"Yeah, how did a girl end up here?"
Yun Ying didn't dare approach him. She craned her neck and whispered back, "I was thrown in here by someone."
Yu Yao's expression wasn't pleasant. Though there was a smile at the corner of his lips, there was no warmth in his eyes. Yun Ying was most familiar with this look of his—it was exactly how he looked when angry in the past.
Their RV was parked on a street outside the main hall. Lu Yao and Lin Xizhi sat inside, monitoring the situation outside, and heard Yun Ying's whispered explanation.
Lu Yao's brows knitted tightly. She said coldly, "They're not going to use a girl to test Zombies, are they? Those missing survivors from before—it's possible they didn't just die on missions."
What use would testing her on Zombies be? Yun Ying had neither awakened a supernatural ability nor had any combat experience. She couldn't test Zombies' tolerance for supernatural abilities, nor could she determine just how agile Zombies were. She wasn't the most suitable candidate.
Yu Yao knew this naturally. He tore off a few sheets of data and said calmly, "I don't know. I'll send her out first in a bit. Who'll rendezvous?"
Lin Xizhi crushed her lollipop and replied, "I'll go."
"Mm. Come to the third basement level through the back door. I'll send her there." Yu Yao responded, folded the torn data, and walked toward Yun Ying.
He was already tall by nature, and the windbreaker outlined his figure even more upright. As he walked toward her, it was too much like the Yu Yao of the past coming to get close to her. Yun Ying was startled and took two steps back.
Yu Yao frowned, glancing at her retreating feet, his thin lips pressed tight, but in the end he said nothing.
He walked over, raised a hand to hook her jacket collar, and easily pulled her over. Yun Ying nearly crashed into his collarbone.
"I've never bullied you, so why are you so afraid of me?" Yu Yao stuffed the data into her pocket, then pulled the dagger from his windbreaker pocket and stuffed that in too.
Yun Ying clenched her jaw and said nothing.
As if Yu Yao hadn't bullied her enough. She wondered if he'd still have the face to say such things once he regained his memory.
The others on the other end of the earpiece laughed in unison. Even Lin Xizhi, with the coldest expression, couldn't hold it in.
Yu Yao knew what they were laughing at—nothing more than thinking he was always bullying this girl.
He finished stuffing the items, zipped up her jacket for her, and slightly lifted his eyelids to look at the fair-skinned girl. She hadn't put on any face cream today, and this face really was beautiful.
He didn't think he'd been bullying her before. This was nothing. The real bullying hadn't even started yet.
Yu Yao rolled his throat. Seeing her twisting and struggling, he raised a hand and pinched her cheek, getting the frown he wanted from the girl. She tilted her head to bite him.
"Tsk." Yu Yao clicked his tongue, withdrew his hand, and let her go.
Of course he would have loved to be bitten by her a few times, but after crawling through pipes all the way here, his hands weren't exactly clean.
"I'll get you out of here." Yu Yao straightened her shoulders and looked down at her, eye to eye. "If you run into zombies, whatever you do, don't scream. Screaming won't do any good—it'll only make you more terrified and attract even more zombies. We'll run into plenty of nasty things along the way, but don't worry. I won't leave you behind."
Yun Ying blinked and asked in return, "Y-you're not leaving?"
"I've got something to take care of. It's not safe to bring you along. I'll get you out first—don't go wandering off." Yu Yao took her hand. This time Yun Ying didn't resist and followed obediently behind him.
She wasn't stupid. She could more or less guess why Yu Yao had come here. Several High-tier Ability Users showing up near the Jiangcheng base—maybe they'd intended to come here from the very start.
Yu Yao was probably going to look for that High-rank Zombie. Yun Ying knew her presence would only drag him down—he'd have to split his attention to look after her.
She grabbed the fire axe she'd pulled from the corridor earlier and gripped it tight. When Yu Yao turned back to look at her before opening the door, Yun Ying was nervous, but not excessively afraid.
"I-I'll do my best to chop zombies. I won't be too much of a burden."
Yu Yao was amused by her, his eyebrows arching.
"I never said you were a burden."
His taste was truly excellent. This was clearly the finest treasure in the world.
Yun Ying was stunned for a moment, her red lips pressing together, and she said nothing while gripping the axe.
She had no supernatural ability, nor was her physique particularly strong. After the apocalypse she had trained hard, but how strong could a body that never got enough to eat really be? Even Song Huai was only a second-tier water-type ability user—a support-type ability at that—yet everyone still thought she was a burden to Song Huai.
Yu Yao was such a powerful person, and yet he didn't look down on her?
The door was quietly opened. There weren't many zombies in the corridor. Yu Yao said in a low voice, "The pipes haven't been fully repaired yet. We'll have to walk a stretch."
Yun Ying nodded. "Okay."
She clenched her jaw. No matter what she saw, she absolutely would not scream.
Most of the zombies had been drawn to that room earlier. The scattered zombies along the way were all silently dealt with by Yu Yao. Retracing the path he'd come in by, Yun Ying gripped the axe tight and followed behind him.
He had come down through the pipes earlier, then discovered the pipes weren't fully repaired, so he'd jumped down and walked a stretch before entering the second section of piping, where he'd seen Yun Ying.
Yu Yao was almost back to the pipe entrance that led to the upper level. It was too dark here. He tightened his grip on Yun Ying's hand.
Just as they were about to pass the corner of the corridor ahead, a piercing alarm suddenly blared, like a stone thrown into a calm lake—in an instant, everything was thrown into chaos.
Yun Ying hurriedly said, "I didn't touch anything!"
Yu Yao gripped her hand tighter. "Run!"
Yun Ying didn't dare stop for even half a second, practically dragged forward by him. This floor instantly exploded into chaos—every zombie snapped awake, and terrifying roars came from all directions.
Flames rushed down the corridor ahead, burning the zombies blocking the way to ash. But with such intense flames erupting in a narrow space, bursting sparks splattered onto the back of Yun Ying's hand. Yu Yao turned back to look at her, and Yun Ying gritted her teeth and endured the pain.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
Yu Yao wrapped an arm around her waist and hoisted her up onto his shoulder, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt over her face. Yun Ying knew she ran too slowly, so she didn't struggle. She clutched his sleeve and entrusted her life and death to him.
Fire-type abilities were extremely powerful offensive abilities, but the flames of a Seventh-rank Ability User burned at such high temperatures and with such devastating force that while they gave a definitive advantage against large-scale Zombie Tides, they became a liability in narrow, sealed spaces.
For example, the heat made it hard to breathe.
Yu Yao carried Yun Ying on his shoulder and ran toward the pipe he had come down from. A wall of fire behind them held back the surging horde of zombies, but the thick smoke and crackling sparks choked Yun Ying, making it hard for her to breathe. He shoved her up into the pipe, then braced himself and jumped up after her.
There was a ladder inside the pipe. Yu Yao said, "Climb!"
Ignoring the pain, Yun Ying tucked the axe into her waistband and climbed up, with Yu Yao following close behind. He tapped his earpiece and said, "Old He, come down and back us up. Something's happened."
The blazing flames made the ladder hot to the touch, so Yun Ying had to shield herself with her hoodie.
Afraid of blocking Yu Yao's path, she didn't dare stop for a moment. Then she felt the ladder suddenly shake. She looked down and saw the zombie horde surging forward, piling on top of each other, while the zombies at the top had already charged into the pipe and were climbing the ladder hand over foot.
Shocked, Yun Ying said, "They can climb ladders!"
The flames burned back the zombies that were following, and Yu Yao said, "Don't look back. Move!"
Yun Ying hurried to keep climbing, finally understanding what Yu Yao meant by "gu-breeding."
She climbed upward, tilting her head to look, and stammered, "The way up ahead is blocked."
Yu Yao looked up. The opening he had come down through was now blocked by something unknown. His gaze turned cold in an instant. He climbed up the ladder with force, reaching Yun Ying's side in one move, almost cradling her in his arms.
"Lower your head."
Yun Ying quickly lowered her head and pulled the hood of her hoodie over her face.
Yu Yao raised his hand, and burning flames shot toward the unknown object blocking the way. Then his eyes froze inch by inch.
"It's high-alumina refractory brick."
Yun Ying looked up, dazed. "Huh?"
She paused, then realized what it was. She had learned about it in university, and said in surprise, "Isn't that a fire-resistant panel?"
It was even a fire-resistant material of extreme hardness—the same stuff used in ceramic kilns, able to withstand temperatures over a thousand degrees Celsius.
It seemed it was specifically designed to counter him.
Yun Ying felt like the sky was falling. She looked down and saw the zombies below had already climbed halfway up.
"They're catching up!"
Yu Yao pressed her head into his chest and could only use his ability to burn away the zombies that were closing in.
The high heat made it hard for Yun Ying to breathe. She covered her nose and mouth, tilted her head up from his embrace, and looked at him helplessly.
Her face was flushed red from the smoke, and tears had gathered at the corners of her eyes from the choking fumes. The resistance she had shown him before was gone, replaced by pure dependence in her gaze.
Yu Yao let out a laugh and pinched her cheek. "Look at that. It's not that I won't send you off—you're really stuck with me now."
Yun Ying frowned and tried to shake him off.
Yu Yao wrapped an arm around her waist and glanced down at the burning wall of fire below, and the zombies trying to charge through it from behind.
"Baby, don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."
Before Yun Ying could react to his words, he suddenly let go of the ladder with the hand gripping it, and jumped down with her in his arms.