Obviously, Aunt Qian had been waiting for news. After receiving it, she stayed on “【typing】” for a long time before sending a long message full of greetings.
Putting aside the emotional appeals and looking only at the content, it was clear: she wanted Xin Xiaoru to pick someone up, she wanted supplies, and she wanted Xin Xiaoru’s RV as a fallback.
“That child has been thoughtless for a long time, you know that. She doesn’t have bad intentions—I apologize on her behalf!”
“Xiao Ru, when you were sick as a child, I took you to the hospital. I saved you. Now you help Auntie. Without you, Auntie can’t survive either! Can you really be so heartless?”
“I’ll have Qian Duoying apologize to you right now! Just wait a moment.”
Xin Xiaoru steeled herself, turned on Do Not Disturb mode, put her phone aside to charge, and ignored it.
He Guying took his breakfast, a delicious and healthy vegetable salad with boiled eggs.
He was starving and ate quickly while listening to Xin Xiaoru report on Zhao Changyue’s condition.
“No need for a transfusion,” He Guying muttered, swallowing an egg. “He hasn’t turned into a zombie yet; he should already have awakened his abilities. His body’s vitals should recover quickly.”
Xin Xiaoru’s eyes lit up. “Abilities!?”
Ignoring her own meal, she hurried to the bedside, unwrapped the bandage from Zhao Changyue’s left arm, where the injury was relatively shallow. Last night, the wound had been one centimeter deep and ten centimeters long; now only faint blood marks remained. Lifting the scab gently revealed fresh, tender new skin underneath.
The recovery speed… this was incredible! He had truly become an awakened!
Sister Xiaohua was equally shocked.
As a nurse, she could judge the healing process of wounds. This recovery rate was at least ten times that of a normal person.
“At this pace, he should wake up by this afternoon!”
Xin Xiaoru immediately turned to He Guying.
Besides a deep wound on his lower back, he had some scrapes elsewhere, but the scabs had formed quickly and didn’t need attention, so she hadn’t focused on them. Looking carefully now, she noticed a long, shallow scratch on his shoulder blade, it was now only a faint trace, nearly disappearing at a glance.
He Guying, pushed to face away from her, felt the warmth of her fingers lightly touching his back. It tickled, and his ears flushed slightly, though his expression remained calm. “I wasn’t bitten by a zombie. I’m not an awakened.”
Xin Xiaoru: “……” Speechless, she quickly had Sister Xiaohua hand over the phone to record a video of the wound on his back.
After a minute of filming, she handed the footage to He Guying to watch.
In the video, the scratch that had been reduced to only a faint mark was visibly fading before the eye, growing lighter and lighter until it disappeared completely.
He Guying’s pupils contracted slightly.
“Congratulations, you’re an awakened too!” Xin Xiaoru said excitedly. “Try out what your ability is!”
He Guying clenched his fist, a ripple stirring in his heart.
The two vials he had seized could be called the core treasure of the organization’s research. Supposedly, they could push a person toward positive mutation when zombie mutation occurred.
The serum hadn’t been tested before. Treating a dead horse as if it were alive, he injected one vial into Zhao Changyue and saved him. He was happy, but not surprised.
But he himself had clearly never been scratched by a zombie… Could it be that the enemy’s weapons carried the virus? Or that one of the pursuers was already infected without knowing it?
He hadn’t realized he was infected, so he hadn’t used the remaining vial. If he hadn’t pulled through, he would already be a zombie corpse by now…
Fear surged belatedly.
Then came relief.
He sensed a trace of cool, unfamiliar energy within his body. The next moment, a small snowball appeared in his palm.
Without changing his expression, He Guying continued to pour energy into it. The snowball slowly shrank, gradually condensing into the shape of solid ice.
He tried to transform the ice into an ice spike, but Xin Xiaoru stopped him in time. “It’s your first day, don’t overdo it. Look at yourself, your face has already gone pale.”
If the ice could be eaten, then even in a future drought, they would have a stable water source!
She took the ice block, rinsed it with water, and popped it straight into her mouth before He Guying could stop her.
He Guying said, “I should’ve tested it first.”
Xin Xiaoru shook her head, enduring the chill with a hiss as she swallowed the ice, and said indistinctly, “This RV is my ability. Inside the RV, I can’t die. If this ice couldn’t be eaten, the RV wouldn’t let me swallow it.”
He Guying: “……”
It was hard to say how many times he had been shocked in the short half hour since waking up.
He stood there, looking around. In this tiny five‑square‑meter RV, there were actually three awakened individuals!?
“Can you explain your ability in detail?”
Xin Xiaoru nodded.
This time, she explained it very thoroughly.
Sister Xiaohua’s eyes widened. “So that’s why you had me transfer 100 yuan back and forth when I stayed in the RV before!”
“Yes. Money transferred back and forth doesn’t count in the system; only when a guest pays me directly for the RV does it register. This morning, I asked you to transfer 500, that’s the system’s current rate. He Guying transferred 1,000 for him and his brother, which also counts as the system’s rate,” Xin Xiaoru explained.
With that, everyone understood.
He Guying suddenly asked, “Then can we confirm it? The four of us are a team now, right?”
Sister Xiaohua didn’t know why he asked all of a sudden and felt a bit nervous. After all, among the four of them, she was the most ordinary, with nothing at all…
Xin Xiaoru seemed to understand what he meant. “I don’t have anyone else on my side. What about you?”
He Guying: “Zhao Changyue and I also have no one else.”
After they spoke, they looked at Sister Xiaohua.
Sister Xiaohua’s real name is Xiao Yan, but because she kept shouting around in the hospital, something like “anti-inflammation,” which didn’t sound nice, everyone started calling her Sister Xiaohua, comparing her to a flower in full bloom, bright and colorful.
She graduated from a legitimate medical university. Although she joined the hospital just a year before Xin Xiaoru, her higher, more formal degree made her five years older; she was now 25.
When Xin Xiaoru joined the hospital, Sister Xiaohua trained her. Later, since both worked hard, although there was no head nurse position available for them yet, their salaries were far ahead of their colleagues, and good performance, such as correct emergency treatment, often earned them extra raises.
But her salary and savings were insignificant compared to the 500-yuan-a-day RV cost.
Moreover, she didn’t have any awakened abilities. All the medical skills she knew, Xin Xiaoru also knew. Among the four of them, she had no special advantage…
“You can help me complete the upgrade tasks,” Xin Xiaoru said, reading her thoughts, and gently squeezed her hand.
“But I only have a little over 100,000 yuan saved. I can’t even pay for a year’s RV fee,” Sister Xiaohua said.
Xin Xiaoru thought for a moment. “The system’s upgrade requirements probably change with the environment. For example, money isn’t worth much now; what used to cost 100 yuan a day is now 500. In the future, if money becomes worthless, payment may be in other forms. The question is, you have to decide: stay with us, or go back to your home out of town.
My upgrade task still needs 11 guest-days. If the three of you stay four days… no, you only need three days, you can complete the task for me.”
Sister Xiaohua hesitated. “Can I discuss it with my family first?”
“Of course,” Xin Xiaoru nodded, quietly continuing her breakfast. He Guying also stopped talking and ate in silence.
Perhaps due to two days of hunger, or maybe because his appetite had increased after awakening, the large bowl of salad and two eggs, which should have been filling, weren’t enough.
He went nearby to buy groceries or look for a breakfast shop, hoping to get a sense of the outside situation, only to find most shops closed. Only some supermarkets were open, and most of the food had already been looted.
He had no choice but to return and cook a big bowl of dry noodles from his stockpile, tossing in some Lao Gan Ma sauce and eating it hastily.
Sister Xiaohua came back from making a call outside, drenched in sweat.
Her expression was complicated.
There was confusion, disappointment, relief, and just a hint of “so it was as I expected.”
“My parents want me to go back. Sorry, I probably have to leave,” she said.
She looked at Xin Xiaoru, afraid of seeing disappointment on her face. But Xin Xiaoru just nodded and continued eating, pulling her along.
Medical personnel were now scarce talent. Families with members in the field would naturally rely on them heavily; in the future, dealing with illnesses or injuries would all depend on these professionals. Sister Xiaohua’s family probably thought along these lines.
“Then in three days, you help me finish the task, as repayment for me getting you out of the hospital. After that, take a ride and leave,” Xin Xiaoru said.
Sister Xiaohua nodded, but her body felt weak, and she said nothing more.
Xin Xiaoru exchanged a glance with He Guying. Saying they wanted to check on the outside situation, they asked Sister Xiaohua to watch over the patients and got out of the RV.
He Guying slipped on a loose white T-shirt. From the outside, there was no indication that he had fought for his life just two days ago.
Once they were far enough that their voices couldn’t be heard from inside the RV, they began discussing the matter seriously.
“I still have a 700,000-yuan savings book,” He Guying said. “Originally, I planned to pay the RV fees for the three of us at once. That would allow us to stay in the RV hotel for a year and three months. If she doesn’t join, just me and Zhao Changyue, we can stay for two years. During those two years, your task should be fine.”
Xin Xiaoru brightened but said, “Don’t rush. Take all your money and convert it to cash. In the future, many people won’t have time to do this. The cash can be converted two to three times into digital currency, then used to pay for RV fees.”
He Guying sensed there was more to it. “In the future, money might not be accessible?”
Xin Xiaoru nodded. “Haven’t you noticed? The network is getting worse and worse. A few days ago, it was hard to stream videos. Now even sending images is difficult. One day, the internet may go down entirely, and all digital currency will be unusable. But we’ve already stockpiled what we should. 700,000 yuan might not buy much now, but it’s enough to let you and Zhao Changyue stay as guests for two years.
If you exchange 700,000 yuan into 2.1 million in digital currency and pay me, you can remain stable RV guests for six years. No matter how the system’s upgrade requirements change, these six years are guaranteed.
The digital currency can later be exchanged at banks. You can check large branches in nearby cities or even small rural banks. Exchange as much cash as possible. If someone else also needs to exchange cash for digital currency, I can convert it back and buy supplies again.
Each of you provides 3.5 stamina points per day, totaling 7. That allows the RV to drive continuously for 24 hours, consuming 3 points. The remaining 4 points let the RV fly for about 4 hours. If there’s an obstacle on the road, it can fly over it directly.”
She explained all the RV strategies she had been thinking about in detail. “The only problem is, once we convert cash to digital currency and pay the RV fees, we might not have time to spend the money, and a lot could go to waste.”
He Guying paused to think.
Xin Xiaoru’s point was that the internet would inevitably be cut off in the future. To convert triple the value, everyone must trust that the network will go down. But that trend hasn’t started online yet; they might have to wait a few days.
Fortunately, these few days could be used to go to banks and withdraw cash, taking it step by step.
He immediately agreed and took out his passbook to go to the nearest savings bank.
When he tried to withdraw the money, He Guying noticed a warning sign: the ATM wouldn’t dispense cash anymore.
He exchanged a glance with Xin Xiaoru and went to the teller instead, finally managing to withdraw only 100,000 yuan.
“You called it,” He Guying murmured.
Xin Xiaoru sighed inwardly. It wasn’t that he “called it”, this was exactly what had happened in her previous life. It was just that the situation hadn’t yet reached its worst; visiting a few more banks could still yield results.
So they went to several more banks, here taking 70,000, there a little over 100,000, until they finally converted the full 720,000 yuan into cash.
After that, they had to wait for the winds to change and simultaneously await the RV upgrade.
Xin Xiaoru maneuvered He Guying’s off-road RV into a concealed spot in the mountains and, along the way, picked up the starving people from the RV camp and brought them back to Yicheng.
Those people had ultimately never received any rescue. One rescuer had accidentally been infected with the zombie virus, so the entire rescue team was quarantined and processed.
Seeing the RV, the people at the camp didn’t hesitate, forget paying 10 yuan for a cup of instant noodles, they were willing to pay 1,000 yuan a cup.
Xin Xiaoru looked at the ransacked camp supermarket and said, “The cost of damaged facilities and stolen goods…”
“Anything! Anything! You say the price, we’ll pay!” Those who had been arrogant just a few days ago finally gave in. “As long as you feed us and take us out, we’ll pay whatever you say!”
Xin Xiaoru gave He Guying her bank account number, instructing them to transfer 10,000 yuan each—31,000 in total, to him, then led them back to Yicheng.
In the process, they earned 31 “popularity points,” which converted into stamina. After tallying everything, their stamina reached 126 points.
On July 26, the RV task reached 12/20. Zhao Changyue officially woke from his coma and devoured two large bowls of noodles in one sitting, restoring his vitality. He Guying converted the newly acquired 310,000 yuan into cash, bringing their total cash on hand to 1,030,000 yuan.
On July 27, 62 cities, including Yicheng, made a major announcement, they would shut down electricity citywide on August 4. Only a few highly paid personnel responsible for basic city operations would remain outside; everyone else was instructed to reduce travel. Anyone showing high fever or dilated pupils while outside would be captured, and severe cases would be executed on the spot.
Public outcry erupted.
Banks experienced a cash withdrawal frenzy. In just one day, all banks in the Yicheng urban area were emptied. Rioters protested in groups but dispersed only after being promised a large cash influx at the end of the month.
Some impatient citizens exchanged digital currency for He Guying’s cash at a 3:1 ratio. That day, He Guying converted 580,000 yuan into 1,740,000 digital currency and immediately transferred it to Xin Xiaoru, paying four years and nine months’ RV fees for himself and Zhao Changyue.
On July 28, the RV task reached 18/20. It was time for Sister Xiaohua to return home. Xin Xiaoru escorted her to the crowded but not yet chaotic train station and watched her leave.
That same day, Qian Zhengli and Qian Duoying (mother and daughter) made up their minds and agreed to Xin Xiaoru’s proposal.
On July 29, the RV task reached 20/20, successfully upgrading to Lv1 and gaining an additional 1 square meter of space.