“What’s going on? Where exactly did she slip up?” How could her luck be this bad?
Just as Nan Huaixu was about to walk over to the vehicle, a few faint gunshots rang out dully.
Then a man in combat uniform hurried over. “Captain, one of the survivors zombified. We’ve already shot them dead, but the group is causing a scene.”
Nan Huaixu gave a grunt of acknowledgment, glanced at the blurry figure inside the off-road vehicle, and turned to leave.
After he left, Yan Tingting quickly jumped out of the car. She checked her bulky clothing, confirmed there was nothing suspicious about her appearance, and immediately hurried toward the crowd.
If she stayed in the car any longer, Nan Huaixu’s suspicions would surely not fade. Since they were going to rest for a while, it would be safer to move ahead and slip away while she had the chance.
Of the thirty-six stratagems, the best is to run.
Yan Tingting stored the off-road vehicle in her Spatial Dimension and quickly weaved through the cars, running forward.
Just as she was passing the vehicles blocking the road, a black shadow shot out from a car behind her. The window shattered, and a child with a bruised, purplish face swayed unsteadily, blocking her path.
Yan Tingting’s heart jolted. Green light instantly appeared in her palm, and the moment the zombie child lunged at her, vines grew wildly, their tips transforming into sharp spikes that stabbed toward the zombie child’s head.
The zombie child’s grotesque, purplish face seemed to twist for a moment, and its small body vanished like lightning, reappearing behind Yan Tingting and pouncing at her.
The zombie child’s hands were bound, but it was still agile. The vines missed, slamming heavily into a nearby vehicle with a tremendous crash.
What terrible luck—to run into a zombie with a speed ability.
The zombie child lunged at Yan Tingting again and again. She saw the men in combat uniforms raising their guns toward her.
She silently cursed these people for still not taking action, and in the next moment, she saw Nan Huaixu’s eyes studying her intently, his whole aura looking sinister no matter how she saw it.
Yan Tingting wanted to end this quickly. Seizing her chance, the vines bound the zombie child tightly from head to toe, and their tips skillfully pierced into its head, extracting a translucent crystal core.
The ferocious zombie child instantly went still. Yan Tingting controlled the vines to lay it down, then impatiently wanted to leave the place.
“My child! You murderer! You killed my child! My child…” A disheveled woman around thirty years old rushed out from the crowd and grabbed Yan Tingting’s arm tightly. She stared at Yan Tingting with bloodshot eyes, her lips trembling constantly, her eyes brimming with hatred and madness.
The man who had followed behind her saw the child on the ground and pounced over in disbelief, collapsing powerlessly to his knees, beating his chest and wailing loudly.
Yan Tingting wanted to say something, but fearing Nan Huaixu might detect something from her voice, she dared not speak.
As the saying goes, the person who knows you best may not be your family, but your enemy. Nan Huaixu would surely recognize her.
“My child… my child…” The child’s mother shook Yan Tingting violently a few times, then collapsed limply to the ground, crawling toward her child. Her hands reached out to pick up her child, but she had no strength left…
“But isn’t he already turned—” a half-grown child nearby whispered, only to have a hand clamped over his mouth by the parent behind him.
This zombie child wasn’t one of the zombies that had caused the commotion earlier—it had slipped out amid the chaos, and Yan Tingting had been the sole unlucky one to run into it.
Watching the scene, Yan Tingting felt a pang in her heart. In the Apocalypse, children were the hardest ones to survive, and nothing hurt parents more than losing a child. No one would ever blame parents who had lost their child.
After a moment’s thought, she placed the crystal core she’d just obtained in her palm and handed it to the child’s father, her voice lowered to almost nothing. “I’m sorry.”
The father looked at the crystal core in her hand, took it with trembling hands, then clenched it tightly, pressing both hands against his chest as he bent over and wailed.
That jinx Nan Huaixu was still standing off to the side. Yan Tingting turned and strode away. She had just rounded the vehicles and was about to pull an off-road vehicle out of her Spatial Dimension when—
“Stop right there!” Nan Huaixu’s voice was chillingly sinister. “Yan Tingting, you run into an old acquaintance and don’t even stop to catch up?”
Holy crap, how did he recognize her?
His voice? Impossible! She had clearly taken care to disguise her voice, not to mention she’d barely spoken above a whisper. Was his sense of smell like a dog’s or something?
Yan Tingting froze, cold sweat breaking out all over her back, frantically calling out to the System in her mind. “System, hurry up and think of something to fool him, or we’re both dead!”
“Host, would you like to advance your next reward?”
“Yes, yes, hurry, hurry, hurry!” Yan Tingting listened to the footsteps behind her, anxiety gnawing at her.
“Ding! Reward issued: three uses of disguise for the host’s face, voice, and aura. One use has now been consumed.” The System’s mechanical voice rang out, and Yan Tingting calmed down slightly.
“Are you talking to me?” Yan Tingting turned around, pointing at herself in confusion.
The moment she spoke, her voice came out rough and hoarse. Who knew the System would actually come in handy.
“Ah-Xu, did you get the wrong person?” Fu Jun asked, puzzled. Nothing about this person resembled Yan Tingting, that spoiled young miss.
At the very least, he’d never seen the Third Miss of the Yan family apologize to anyone.
Nan Huaixu ignored him. In a few quick strides he was in front of Yan Tingting, reaching up to remove the sunglasses and disguise from her face. Yan Tingting stood calmly in place, revealing a… distinctly unremarkable face.
A broad, moon-shaped face dotted with pockmarks, a flat nose bridge, sallow skin, and small round mung-bean eyes—quite the sorry sight indeed.
A crack appeared in Fu Jun’s perfectly composed expression. Had Nan Huaixu gone blind?
The others in combat gear exchanged looks at Nan Huaixu that said everything and nothing. What kind of taste did their boss have?
Ignoring the strange looks around him, Nan Huaixu reached up and tugged at Yan Tingting’s chin, murmuring under his breath, “Real skin?” A flicker of disappointment and doubt surfaced in his eyes. Had he really gotten the wrong person?
Yan Tingting was furious but didn’t dare say so, her small round eyes involuntarily glaring at him. “Do I look like someone you know?” she said, touching her very real face.
Fu Jun looked at those mung-bean-sized eyes, recalling Yan Tingting’s large, upturned, bright eyes, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “No… not one bit!”
It wasn’t even close—the young lady had a terrible temper, but she was a genuine great beauty.
If Miss Yan found out about what happened today, she might just blow the roof off the place.
“So can I leave now?” Yan Tingting asked, secretly delighted.
“You’re a wood-element ability user? Would you be interested in joining us?” A shrewd glint flashed in Fu Jun’s eyes. If he guessed right, this person also had a Space Ability—that big off-road vehicle had vanished just moments ago!