Upon hearing those words, Ma Xiaoli looked at Luo Xiaoxiao in absolute shock. She hadn’t even uttered a word yet, but Luo Xiaoxiao was already cowering in fear, clinging to a companion beside her. “Xiaoli, don’t glare at me… I’m scared…”
With Luo Xiaoxiao putting on such a helpless, pitiful, and fragile act, the others naturally took her side. They began reprimanding Ma Xiaoli for taking things too seriously, even starting to persuade her not to be so stingy.
“Xiaoli, when we ran into the zombies, you were the one charging up front. You have great skills and aren’t afraid of them. But Xiaoxiao isn’t like you; she’s so weak. Now that she’s finally awakened a useful ability like a spatial dimension, we can’t let a zombie just carry her off!”
“How about this? We’ll all serve as your witnesses. Let’s lend the Jade Buddha to Xiaoxiao for three days, and she’ll return it to Xiaoli after that. That should be fair, right?”
Luo Xiaoxiao immediately agreed: “I have no problem with that! Xiaoli, you shouldn’t have a problem either, right?”
Cornered by their moral blackmail, Ma Xiaoli had no choice but to agree.
Yet no one could have anticipated that three days later, those so-called witnesses would turn their back on her completely. Whenever she brought up the Jade Buddha, they would snap at her, calling her petty and arguing that the Jade Buddha was far more useful in Luo Xiaoxiao’s hands than in hers.
Later on, some even suggested that Luo Xiaoxiao could just use supplies to buy the Jade Buddha from her…
Naturally, Ma Xiaoli refused. However, Luo Xiaoxiao used her nightmares as an excuse again, claiming that her mental exhaustion was weakening her control over her spatial ability. As she spoke, the supplies stored inside her spatial dimension suddenly burst out, as if conveniently proving her point.
Left with no choice and facing the accusatory glares of her companions, Ma Xiaoli was forced to let Luo Xiaoxiao keep the Jade Buddha for the time being.
From then on, Luo Xiaoxiao always had a fresh excuse not to return it. Coupled with the fact that she was the team’s only spatial ability user—and was later put on a pedestal by the base for her hoard of a million supplies—it became nearly impossible for Ma Xiaoli to even get close enough to speak to her, let alone demand the Jade Buddha back.
Ma Xiaoli’s final memory of the Jade Buddha was right after she was shoved into the zombie-infested pit.
At that moment, Luo Xiaoxiao had stood on higher ground, clutching the Jade Buddha while saying something. As Ma Xiaoli was being torn apart and bitten, her eyes turned blood-red from the agonizing pain, and she caught sight of her Great-aunt’s family standing nearby…
Honestly, she could no longer see their expressions clearly back then, but the excruciating pain of being devoured made her ruthlessly squeeze out every bit of ability power inside her body.
She soon lost consciousness from the pain.
By the time she snapped back to reality, she had been on a electric scooter, nearly executing a scene straight out of a high-speed thriller!
Recalling all these past events and connecting them with the System’s actions, a stormy wave surged in Ma Xiaoli’s heart—so Luo Xiaoxiao hadn’t awakened a spatial ability at all. The one that truly possessed the spatial dimension was her Jade Buddha?!
However, when she questioned the System, her tone was extraordinarily calm: [If this Jade Buddha is bound, will it activate a spatial ability?]
System: [Yes.]
Just as she suspected.
Ma Xiaoli was about to ask the System how to activate the space, but the System spoke up on its own: [You only need to drop blood onto the Jade Buddha to bind the item. However, this System must remind the host that this item does not belong to the host, but to the Destined Heroine of this world.]
Ma Xiaoli froze. She suddenly remembered hearing the System mention an “unknown error” during binding when she had just reborn. She asked in a cold voice: [The Destined Heroine you’re referring to… isn’t Luo Xiaoxiao, is it? Was she the one you originally intended to bind with?]
System: [What if she was? Destiny is fickle, and twists of fate are commonplace in this world. This System’s initial choice was nothing more than a mirage to you anyway. Now that the deed is done, why dwell on useless past events, host?]
Great. Simply fantastic.
It confessed, yet still had the nerve to talk back.
System: [A blessing in disguise, perhaps? Even if Luo Xiaoxiao held the Jade Buddha, she might not have unlocked this System’s true capabilities. As for you? Unlucky as you may be, at least this System chose you. Isn’t that a monumental stroke of luck?]
Ma Xiaoli decided to ignore this sharp-tongued, slack-jawed System that loved to make grand promises while putting on a fake facade of Zen-like mercy!
Right at that moment, her phone rang.
Surprisingly, it was a call from Luo Xiaoxiao!
Before Ma Xiaoli could even answer it, her Great-aunt rushed over and slammed her hand down to reject the call!
Ma Xiaoli abruptly hid her phone behind her back and raised her eyes, looking guardedly at her Great-aunt.
The Great-aunt’s lips twitched. After holding it in for a long moment without saying a word, Mai Zixuan stepped in once again to offer a hasty explanation: “Oh, Xiaoli, your Great-aunt has been… well, she’s been suffering from an emotional condition recently. She can’t stand the sound of ringtones. The moment she hears one, she instinctively presses it to stop. Don’t mind her.”
The Great-aunt hadn’t expected Mai Zixuan to curse her with an illness, but sensing Ma Xiaoli’s suspicious glare, she could only force a humiliated smile, rubbing her hands together like a fly and saying apologetically: “Sorry, sorry, Xiaoli. Your Great-aunt didn’t mean to…”
Hearing this, Ma Xiaoli said, “Then I’ll step outside to return the call…”
“No!”
The entire family objected in unison.
Ma Xiaoli frowned. “Great-aunt, you guys are really strange today. Why not? What if Xiaoxiao has an emergency and needs to reach me…”
Li Jiahao instantly broke free from Mai Zixuan’s grip. Charging over like a cannonball, he grabbed Ma Xiaoli’s wrist tightly and shouted at the top of his lungs: “You’re not allowed to call! That bad woman is a liar! Last time, she even hid jerky and secretly fed it to those wild men! I saw it, and she even warned me that if I told anyone, she’d get ability users to beat me up! Nothing good ever comes from her reaching out to you. She’s either tricking you into running errands or scotching your stuff. Are you stupid?!”
Ma Xiaoli was utterly shocked: “Jiahao, you know Xiaoxiao? And what’s this about hiding jerky and not giving it to you? When… when did you guys ever meet? Also…”
A chilling coldness swept across the bottom of her eyes: “Ability users? What on earth are you talking about?”
Realizing her son had let the cat out of the bag, Mai Zixuan quickly rushed over and awkwardly covered her son’s big mouth. “No, no, Xiaoli! Jiahao is talking about his classmate Xiao Xiao—the ‘Xiao’ meaning small, not the ‘Xiao’ spelled with bamboo! As for ability users… right! They were talking about a performance for their upcoming school anniversary celebration. The school anniversary! Right!”
Ma Xiaoli scoffed cold in her heart, yet her face remained filled with confusion and doubt: “Auntie, let’s set the school performance aside. But you… you don’t even know Xiaoxiao. How do you know her name is spelled with the bamboo radical ‘Xiao’?”
Mai Zixuan was rendered completely speechlessly at Ma Xiaoli’s question. Seeing this, the Great-aunt beside her glared in sheer anxiety.
Great-aunt: “Xiaoli, where is your Jade Buddha? You didn’t lend it to your friend, did you? Now is not the time to debate how to pronounce or spell words! The most important thing is where on earth that Jade Buddha went!”
The corner of Ma Xiaoli’s mouth curled up imperceptibly—the secret was out.
Before the apocalypse, her Great-aunt’s family and Luo Xiaoxiao had never met.
Furthermore, in Cantonese pronunciation, the words “Small” and “Bamboo-Xiao” shared the exact same sound.
The very first time she heard Luo Xiaoxiao introduce herself, she had even assumed Luo Xiaoxiao meant “Small” rather than the character “Xiao”!
So, besides Luo Xiaoxiao, had her Great-aunt’s entire family… been reborn as well?
At this thought, she suddenly looked at Mai Zixuan in utter astonishment: “Auntie, how did you know I lent the Jade Buddha to Xiaoxiao?”