Seeing Old Ma standing in front of her, Ma Xiaoli knew that this matter would hardly end well without a proper explanation. She had no choice but to let him call Ye Huiling over so the three of them could sit on the sofa together.
“This matter is rather bizarre. I hope you won’t be scared by what I’m about to say next.”
After all, Ma Xiaoli was someone who had struggled in the end times for nearly four years. Once she turned serious, the murderous aura on her was quite heavy, instantly subduing both Old Ma and Ye Huiling.
Seeing the two of them sitting quietly, Ma Xiaoli began her speech: “Yesterday, grandaunt’s family suddenly coaxed me into going home. Then they let something slip, and I heard them say that they are reincarnated…”
“Reincarnated?!”
Old Ma stood up abruptly, only to sit back down under Ye Huiling’s glare.
Seeing them quiet down again, Ma Xiaoli spoke half-truthfully about the previous life’s apocalypse. Old Ma and Ye Huiling’s faces turned pale as soon as they heard that zombies bit people, and by the end, they were completely numb.
Ma Xiaoli also knew that what she said was hard to believe, so after finishing, she suddenly wiggled her fingers: “There is one more thing I need to confess to you.”
A flash of green light flickered on Ma Xiaoli’s fingertips, instantly capturing the attention of Ye Huiling and Old Ma.
“Grandaunt said I would awaken plant-attribute abilities. Yesterday, I thought it was a joke and that they were just making things up…”
As Ma Xiaoli pointed her fingertip toward the vase behind Ye Huiling, a series of swooshing sounds rang out.
Ye Huiling looked behind her, only to see the roses inserted in the vase visibly growing taller before her eyes. She gasped, understanding in an instant: “Yesterday’s garden!! Th-this is a superpower?”
Ma Xiaoli: “I’m sorry, Aunt Ye. At that time, I had just awakened my superpower and couldn’t control it well, so I accidentally affected the plants in the garden…”
Ye Huiling opened her mouth, trying hard to digest it: “So, will everyone awaken superpowers in the future?”
Ma Xiaoli shook her head: “I don’t know, but grandaunt’s family probably hasn’t.”
Old Ma: “Because you awakened a superpower, you believed grandaunt’s family, got anxious to hoard supplies, and sold the house…”
Speaking up to this point, Old Ma suddenly realized: “So you used my phone to order so many supplies last night… just to deal with the end of the world?!”
Ma Xiaoli didn’t expect Old Ma to even come up with an excuse for her.
Old Ma: “This matter involves the end of the world; it’s way too bizarre… We, we have to think of a way to leak this to the officials. Let the officials step in and figure out how to squeeze more details about the end of the world out of your grandaunt’s family.”
Ye Huiling also nodded: “After all, turning into zombies just from being rained on by acid rain is too terrifying, and zombies bite people… However, this matter involves too much, so Xiaoli must definitely not be implicated. It’s best to erase her existence entirely.”
Old Ma rubbed his aching temples: “But if grandaunt’s family implicates Xiaoli, I’m afraid Xiaoli’s matter won’t be kept hidden either.”
In her past life, Ma Xiaoli spent her first two years wandering around in hardship. It wasn’t until the spring of the third year—because Luo Xiaoxiao’s abilities were too formidable and drew invitations from multiple bases—that their team returned to Guang City.
At that time, however, the base ruler in Guang City was not the official authorities, but a few rich second-generation kids holding superpowers.
Before the end times, she was a nobody who didn’t know anyone official; after the end times, she was still a nobody, far removed from the core of power. Seeing Old Ma and Ye Huiling already studying which department or leader to leak this to, Ma Xiaoli didn’t want to pour cold water on them, but she didn’t think their approach held much value either—after all, placing all hope on that selfish family of grandaunt’s sounded exceptionally unreliable.
Thus, Ma Xiaoli directly took off the fake jade Buddha from her neck.
“Dad, besides grandaunt’s family wanting my jade Buddha, Luo Xiaoxiao wants it too. Yesterday, she tried repeatedly to probe where my jade Buddha was.”
Pausing, she added with a blush: “I was cautious back then, worried whether Xiaoxiao might also be reincarnated like grandaunt’s family. So I bought a second-hand phone, intentionally staged a robbery, and tricked Luo Xiaoxiao into thinking the jade Buddha was lost. If… if Luo Xiaoxiao is also taken in for questioning, and if she is reincarnated, she might reveal more things that grandaunt’s family doesn’t know, or mention the same details as them. Wouldn’t that prove the end times are real?”
After saying this, Ma Xiaoli placed the fake jade Buddha on the coffee table. “Although I still don’t know what function this jade Buddha serves, why don’t… we just take this jade Buddha and let the officials test it out?”
Ma Xiaoli knew human nature couldn’t bear testing, but with the end times approaching, she didn’t want to stay with Old Ma and Ye Huiling while keeping her guard up. If they were good people who weren’t greedy for the jade Buddha, she could take care of Grandma while bringing them along.
Otherwise…
The depths of Ma Xiaoli’s eyes were icy cold, though her face appeared increasingly nervous.
Old Ma raised his arm.
However, after picking up the fake jade Buddha and weighing it in his hand, he suddenly rushed out into the garden outside.
“Brother Ma?”
Ma Xiaoli followed behind Ye Huiling into the garden expressionlessly, but raised her eyes abruptly upon hearing Ye Huiling’s gasp.
*Crack!*
The brick slammed down forcefully.
The fake jade Buddha was smashed to smithereens by Old Ma right on the artistic garden brick!
Old Ma looked up now, his broad, wrinkled face forming creases under the sunlight that could squish a fly: “Alright, destroying a troublesome thing like this settles it. As for leaking this to the officials… until there’s a better way to protect Dabao, let’s set it aside for now.”
Ma Xiaoli only felt her head buzzing. She didn’t even know how she returned to the living room. By the time she reacted, Old Ma and Ye Huiling were already discussing hoarding goods.
“Old Ma, hurry up and take notes! We need to rush to hoard goods before the acid rain comes. It’s perfect that our warehouse and cold storage can be used!”
Ma Xiaoli: “Wait, if I remember correctly, Old Ma runs a shoe factory, right? A shoe factory… is its warehouse suitable for hoarding supplies?”
Old Ma smiled: “What your Aunt Ye is talking about is a pre-made dim sum production line she casually invested in a few years ago. Later, the owner’s family ran into trouble and desperately needed money, begging us to buy it outright. Since we happened to make a bit in the stock market, we bought it directly. If you’re interested, I’ll take you to see it another day…”
Ma Xiaoli stood up almost instantly: “No, let’s go right now!”
Old Ma thought for a moment and agreed.
Ye Huiling stayed home, partly to take care of Grandma and partly to buy time to reinforce the villa.
After agreeing on the plan, Ma Xiaoli and Old Ma walked out together.
As Ma Xiaoli walked, she kept thinking that she seemed to have forgotten something…
Not until she pushed open the door and stepped out with Old Ma did she suddenly see Old Ma’s burly frame shudder before he turned around to look at her: “Is this… your vehicle?”
Holy crap!
It was the little electric scooter!!
Ma Xiaoli squeezed past him in a hurry, her pupils dilating in shock the second she saw the little electric scooter—WTF?!