Song Jinhe looked at the rundown small supermarket, café, and tavern ahead, then parked the car behind the buildings and got out with a kitchen knife in hand.
Because of the bad weather, the glass doors were in complete disarray. The supermarket shelves were mostly empty, miscellaneous items scattered all over the floor, and a few zombies were wandering inside.
With her arm completely unable to lift, Song Jinhe didn’t go in. Instead, she headed straight for the small tavern, her eyes lighting up at the large number of empty beer bottles inside.
High-proof liquors and bottled purified water were also plentiful, exactly what she needed. Especially clean water, which was being consumed quickly.
While she was moving supplies into her space with one hand, she suddenly sensed the sound of tires rolling over the ground outside.
Song Jinhe quickly stored away the purified water beside her, grabbed her knife, and hid toward the back. Seeing that the rear was a kitchen and storage room, she immediately turned and went upstairs.
Just as she stepped onto the wooden stairs, voices rang out from below.
“This is good stuff! A bottle like this cost four figures before the apocalypse.”
Then came the sound of a bottle being opened.
“Don’t drink too much, or we’ll mess things up.”
“Got it. Do you think they’ll really head toward the Nanhe District? We’ve been waiting on the road out of the city for a whole day already.”
“Not necessarily. The roads here are easier to travel.” A thick arm lifted a bottle and took a heavy swig. “The water in the city is receding. Anyone who can get out will start fleeing in a few days.”
There were four of them in total, burly men. Song Jinhe pressed her back against the wall, her body tense.
“I’ll go check the storage room in the back, see if there’s any good liquor hidden there.”
Hearing footsteps approaching, Song Jinhe held her breath and moved upward.
The old wooden stairs creaked easily, so she turned her body sideways, staring tightly at the stairwell below as she moved slowly and carefully.
Just as her foot stepped onto the last stair, she turned back, and suddenly saw a tall man with long legs standing right in front of her.
His features were strikingly refined, especially his eyes and brows, carrying a faint coldness and laziness. He looked completely harmless, nothing like someone who belonged in the apocalypse.
Song Jinhe’s eyes darkened slightly. She instantly pressed her kitchen knife against his waist and lowered her voice.
“Don’t move.”
The man seemed to pause for a second, his gaze flicking toward the stairwell without saying anything.
Noticing his wrist beginning to lift, Song Jinhe pressed the blade closer.
“I said don’t move. Or I’ll stab your kidney.”
The man lowered his eyelashes, a hint of surprise flashing through his eyes. Then he let out an indifferent chuckle. “With where you’re aiming, you won’t hit the kidney. You should move it a bit higher.”
Song Jinhe: ……??
“You were able to detect my intention like that… is it perception?” His voice was very light, his tone pleasing to the ear, yet it carried a faint sense of pressure.
“I’ve never seen a psychic-type ability like this before.”
Previously, he had thought the sudden appearance of that knife was her ability, but it seemed there was another reason.
Song Jinhe’s brows furrowed tightly.
Just from a single sentence, he had analyzed her ability. A few days ago, Scar had fired so many shots and fought her for so long without realizing anything.
“You’ve seen other ability users?”
She didn’t follow his lead, wary that he might be probing her.
The man’s voice deepened slightly. “You have an injury on your hand. Your ability is unstable…”
At that moment, sounds came from the storage room. The man who had gone in earlier came out holding two bottles of foreign liquor and said in a rough voice, “There’s a second floor here?”
Hearing the creaking footsteps, Song Jinhe tightened her grip on the knife and forced the man beside her into cover.
The footsteps drew closer.
The second floor was completely exposed at a glance, with nowhere to hide. Song Jinhe focused all her attention on the stairs and the movements of the man beside her.
What she didn’t notice was that the man she was holding at knifepoint showed no sign of being threatened at all, on the contrary, he looked almost as if he were cooperating willingly.
“We should get going. Don’t waste time,” another man called from below.
The man holding the liquor responded and glanced casually toward the stairs before heading back down.
Only after they left the tavern did Song Jinhe step out from behind the wall with the man, standing by the window as she watched them leave.
“At your current condition,” the man continued what he hadn’t finished earlier, speaking slowly and evenly, “you can’t do anything.”
As his words fell, he shifted slightly to the side.
Song Jinhe reacted instantly, lunging after him with the knife.
The next moment, her wrist was caught. The blade stopped just two finger-widths from his body, unable to move any further.
“Western District Commercial Center, gray work uniform, bite wound on the left shoulder.” His pitch-black, deep eyes looked at Song Jinhe without much emotion. “The level of decay isn’t severe. Its movement speed is slightly faster than other zombies in the same area.”
“What?”
Song Jinhe froze for a moment, then quickly realized he was describing the characteristics of the first zombie behind her that had been shot in the head two days ago.
She only remembered the gray work uniform.
If it hadn’t been for the way that zombie’s skull shattered and brain matter splattered out leaving such a strong impression, she wouldn’t have even remembered that detail.
“That was you?”
“I didn’t expect that the next time we meet, you’d be trying to stab me.”
He avoided her injured area, but the grip on her wrist remained impossible to break free from.
Song Jinhe looked at the prominent bones of his hand. “How about we let go at the same time?”
He released her, and she also lowered her hand and stepped back.
“You… why did you help me back then? Was that car also your doing?”
Why?
He paused for a moment. That face was too vivid, pale and sickly with splashes of bright red blood. His eyes were lighter than those of ordinary people, making him stand out even more in that environment.
Even when killing, he was decisive. Almost instinctively, he had shot down that zombie which he had been observing as a sample.
“Probably because you were human, and you looked good, especially compared to the zombies around you.”
That sounded… somehow not quite right.
“Comparing humans to zombies? No normal person would think that swollen, decayed zombies look good, right?”
“Your hand injury isn’t treated yet?” He skillfully took out a medical kit from inside and placed it on the table.
“You seem very familiar with this place.”
What Song Jinhe was thinking was that Scar’s group only had one handgun, while this man could use a sniper rifle and knew quite a lot of things. He didn’t seem like an ordinary survivor.
She wanted information.
But this man knew about her ability, while she knew nothing about him.
“I’ve been here before. Jiang Shian.” He looked at the light and shadow reflected in Song Jinhe’s pale eyes. “You do it yourself?”
“Song Jinhe,” she said her name, carefully pulling her right hand out from under her coat, revealing a blood-soaked bandage.
Jiang Shian paused for a moment. “You handled it so casually, yet you’ve been able to survive alone in the city for several days and get out in one piece. That’s not easy.”
It wasn’t just “not easy”, it was a struggle she couldn’t even put into words.
Did she want to wander around the city like this? Spending nights in a car was terrifying. She just hadn’t been able to find the way out.
Jiang Shian skillfully took out the necessary items from the medical kit. Unable to stand her rough way of ripping off the sticky gauze, he motioned for her to stop and let him do it instead.
“Repeated tearing has worsened the injury. If you weren’t a ability user with enhanced physique, the tissue inside the wound would already be necrotizing by now. It would require debridement to properly heal.”