Seeing Nan Fei sitting there resting, Guan Kaiwen suddenly spoke up.
“What are you sitting there for? Can’t you see the zombies?”
His tone was harsh. Nan Fei glanced at him.
Guan Kaiwen was a well-known playboy. In the original story, he followed Qin Ze and lived fairly well.
But his brain was honestly a bit off.
To him, Nan Fei’s performance yesterday was probably just a mildly interesting episode. The moment he didn’t benefit from her—like getting an easier time killing zombies—his attitude toward her immediately reverted.
Nan Fei rolled her eyes at him, shook her head slightly, and stood at the stairwell to kill zombies.
With her joining in, everyone immediately felt much more relaxed.
She swung her golden blade, cutting down zombie heads one after another.
Compared to yesterday, the zombies themselves hadn’t become stronger. But Nan Fei had no ability, and after a night of nightmares, her stamina was far worse than before.
Fortunately, she stood at the stairwell, where zombies couldn’t easily climb up, so the pressure wasn’t too great.
Of course, her position there wasn’t just for convenience.
Zhou Wenqian and Wang Qianqian clearly harbored malice toward her. Since neither of them needed to kill zombies, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t take the chance to attack her again while she was in a weakened state.
Nan Fei mechanically chopped at the zombies’ heads as time passed and her stamina drained rapidly.
Looking at the pile of corpses, she kicked one zombie aside and quickly retreated back onto the steps.
By the time her stamina recovered, most of the zombies were already cleared.
She came down from the escalator and walked toward the group.
But just five meters away from them, something suddenly happened.
A pregnant middle-aged zombie, which had clearly been charging toward the group, abruptly changed direction and rushed straight at Nan Fei instead.
“Nan Fei! Dodge!” Lin Runxin called out sharply when he noticed the abnormal movement.
Fortunately, Nan Fei also saw the full motion in time and quickly sidestepped.
But the zombie seemed to have locked onto her like a radar. It turned its stiff body again and lunged at her once more.
Before Nan Fei could regain her footing, another attack came.
She instinctively blocked with her golden blade, but the zombie’s powerful force pressed forward relentlessly.
Its gray, sharp nails were almost brushing her arm. Knowing she couldn’t match its strength, she suddenly let go of her force and dodged aside.
But instead of falling forward as expected, the zombie twisted its body unnaturally and pounced again, as if it had human-like coordination.
Alarm bells rang in Nan Fei’s mind. At the moment she was about to be knocked down, she caught a glimpse of the worried crowd from the corner of her eye—and her heart sank.
Of course. She never should have come down to help.
Her arm was scratched by the zombie’s claws. Enduring the pain and the momentary dizziness in her mind, she rolled aside.
Behind her, Lin Runxin’s vines finally arrived, piercing through the zombie from all directions and tightly binding it, preventing a second attack.
Seeing it restrained, Nan Fei let out a breath of relief. She struggled to open her eyes and looked at the darkening wound on her arm, anger rising uncontrollably.
She never expected that simply coming down to help kill zombies would lead to someone trying to harm her.
Amid her resentment, her consciousness began to blur. She couldn’t help but crouch on the ground, clutching her head. Her entire body felt like it was being burned—hot all over.
She gasped for breath, her hand pressing harder and harder against her head.
She can’t die…
She still needed to awaken her ability…
Over on the other side, Lin Runxin quickly drained the zombie and rushed to Nan Fei’s side. Seeing the blackened bloodstain on her arm, he pressed his lips together, his clear eyes turning dark.
Guan Kaiwen, the one who had suggested Nan Fei help kill zombies, stood stiffly in place. Watching the group gather around her, irritation and displeasure flashed across his face.
“I told you she wasn’t a good person. Even zombies can’t stand her—turning like that just to—”
Before he could finish his sharp remark, he was interrupted by disapproving and shocked looks from the others.
He fell silent, his eyes drifting subconsciously toward Qin Ze.
“What do we do now?” Yu Yang asked seriously, looking at Qin Ze.
No matter how bad Qin Ze and Nan Fei’s relationship was, he was still her fiancé. Only he had the authority to decide what to do with her.
Hearing this, Qin Ze remained expressionless, though impatience flashed deep in his eyes. Looking at Nan Fei curled up on the ground, he showed no intention of touching her.
“Bind her first.”
Everyone understood what he meant.
Although being infected with zombie virus usually meant turning into one, there were always rare individuals with strong willpower who survived the infection and awakened abilities instead.
They just needed to wait. If Nan Fei showed no signs of zombification, she might become an ability user.
But his attitude was uncomfortable to watch.
Even though Nan Fei was unpleasant and annoying, she was still a human life. Even Zhou Wenqian and Wang Qianqian, who disliked her, felt somewhat heavy-hearted.
And yet her own fiancé seemed almost eager for her to die.
If they remembered correctly, Nan Fei had never even targeted Qin Ze directly. Even if he simply disliked her, his reaction was still strange.
Despite their thoughts, they still watched as Lin Runxin carefully bound her with vines.
After that, they sat on the steps waiting. Time passed slowly until dusk.
Nan Fei remained in the same condition as when she was injured.
Not mutated—but not getting better either.
“Let’s go,” Qin Ze said first.
Everyone was shocked. It had only been half a day since Nan Fei was injured, yet as her fiancé, he was already so casually choosing to abandon her. He looked almost like he had been reluctantly staying here the whole time.
And what shocked them even more came next.
The cold man walked up to Nan Fei, used his blade to hook her bag off her body without touching her, and even picked up the golden blade she had dropped.
Throughout the entire process, he did not touch her at all—and left her no food or weapons.
This was basically a decision that she would die. Even if she survived, she would starve.
For a moment, no one knew whether to call him cruel or simply practical.
Seeing Qin Ze truly preparing to leave, the group followed.
Lin Runxin looked at Nan Fei left alone at the stairwell, then suddenly turned back, carried her up to the steps, and placed the clothes he had been carrying beside her.
This action stood in stark contrast to Qin Ze’s coldness.
Everyone expected Qin Ze to be angry, but he merely glanced at it and said nothing.
As if none of it mattered more than a piece of chocolate in his hand.
It wasn’t too late in the day yet—they still had time to go down to the first floor.
And Nan Fei, abandoned, remained alone on the steps.
No one could see the virus ravaging beneath her pale skin. No one could see the tightly clenched teeth behind her pale lips.
It hurt too much.
This pain was different from ordinary pain—her entire body was swollen and burning, dragging her into overwhelming sleepiness.
But she knew clearly: if she fell asleep, she would become one of the countless zombies.
Perhaps because the pain had reached its peak, she vaguely felt a warm energy appearing around her.
But it was blocked by her flesh and couldn’t enter.
She craved that warmth so much she almost wanted to tear open her wounds to let it in.
Finally, she discovered that with each breath she took, the warmth inside her grew stronger.
She began breathing heavily, almost frantically, like someone suffocating and desperately trying to get air.
With each breath, not only warmth appeared—but also the virus that caused her pain. Yet compared to the raging infection inside her body, those viruses seemed insignificant.
She kept breathing heavily, unaware of how long she had been like this.
Her throat and nose burned. Her mouth felt sore.
Then, gradually, warmth filled her body completely. It only accepted that warmth, slowly expelling the painful virus bit by bit.
Until the very last trace of infection left her body—
Nan Fei opened her eyes.