Holding the clothes, Ning Ran touched here and looked there, standing inside the fitting room completely at a loss for what to do.
Fortunately, Han Chao and Xu Sui had both gone up to the third floor at this moment, leaving just the two of them on the entire second floor.
“Brother, wear!” She genuinely didn’t know how to put them on.
Pei Huaiye took a deep breath and resignedly changed Ning Ran into the new set of clothes.
Thankfully, Xu Wei had a shred of conscience left and provided unused, brand-new undergarments for Ning Ran; otherwise, he would have had to change those for her, too.
That was just how much of a mysophobe Pei Huaiye was.
Once she was dressed, rustling sounds echoed from downstairs.
Meanwhile, Han Chao and Xu Sui walked down from the upper floor: “Upstairs is an amusement park, along with some electronic equipment,” the two briefly explained.
Pei Huaiye was not particularly interested upon hearing this. Before the apocalypse, they had already stockpiled a large quantity of electronic devices, so these would be left for other survivors.
Coming downstairs, they happened to bump directly into the group of people emerging from the market.
“Pei Huaiye?” A surprised female voice sounded. Seeing Pei Huaiye neatly dressed, the woman’s eyes turned red.
Pei Huaiye frowned and looked toward the source of the voice—Shen Shuhe and Zhou Xu, along with a few others who appeared to be ability users.
The girl who spoke was in her early twenties, wearing sportswear covered in stains. Her ponytail was loose and messy, and there were several streaks of dirt on her face.
The young man beside her was slightly older than her, tall and big, quite handsome in his own right. At this moment, he was looking at Pei Huaiye and his companions with a complex gaze. He was Zhou Xu—the man Shen Shuhe currently liked.
He was a bit gentler and fairer than Pei Huaiye, looking like a completely different person compared to the future version of himself who calmly commanded others.
“It really is you… You’re still alive…” Shen Shuhe’s voice choked up. Stepping forward, she tightly grabbed Pei Huaiye’s sleeve: “I thought… I thought…”
“Thought I was dead?” Pei Huaiye calmly brushed her hand away: “Which is why you brazenly got together with this Zhou Xu, right?”
His voice was very calm, yet it was like a sharp blade, precisely tearing open the facade Shen Shuhe had fought so hard to maintain.
Shen Shuhe’s face instantly turned pale. Instinctively stepping back half a pace, Zhou Xu behind her immediately reached out to support her, his eyes looking at Pei Huaiye with a hint of vigilance and hard-to-detect hostility.
“Huaiye, things aren’t what you think…” Tears welled in Shen Shuhe’s eyes: “I… I… Zhou Xu, Zhou Xu was trying to save me…”
“You don’t need to explain anything to me. Who you like is your own freedom. Congratulations on regaining your freedom.”
Pei Huaiye interrupted her. His tone was neither sad nor happy, but as his gaze swept past Zhou Xu beside her, it carried a trace of icy scrutiny.
The issue that had tangled in his mind for months was finally resolved in this moment.
“Huaiye…” Shen Shuhe wanted to say something more, only to see Ning Ran lean close into Pei Huaiye’s arms.
She was wearing clean, brand-new clothes, her face fair and rosy, her eyes pure—looking entirely out of place in this filthy apocalyptic world.
Right now, she was tightly holding Pei Huaiye’s hand, playing with it, while he made no move to stop her.
A mix of jealousy and embarrassment surged in her heart.
Shen Shuhe bit her lip: “Is it because of her that you don’t want to be with me anymore?”
“Don’t project your own fickle nature onto everyone else,” Han Chao chimed in out of nowhere, arms crossed, his tone sarcastic: “Miss Shen, there’s nothing wrong with finding a new flame, but at the very least, clear things up with your ex before moving on. However, stepping on the path paved by your ex while putting on the stance of a victim is a bit unseemly.”
Xu Sui didn’t speak, merely adjusting his posture silently.
An ability user behind Zhou Xu couldn’t help but speak up: “Hey, mind your tongue! Do you have any idea how many people Miss Shen has helped along the way? And is Brother Zhou someone you people can just gossip about?”
Zhou Xu had now evolved a Wind ability and was the earliest among their group to awaken an ability, giving him considerable authority.
Pei Huaiye looked at them with a sneer, taking a step to leave.
“Brother, hug!” Ning Ran opened her arms and threw herself into Pei Huaiye’s embrace.
Shen Shuhe assumed she would be tossed aside. Unexpectedly, not only did Pei Huaiye not throw her out, but he also freed up a hand to support her waist, preventing her from falling.
To Shen Shuhe, this was even more embarrassing.
Even when she and Pei Huaiye were dating, it had never been like this—at most, they held hands.
Pei Huaiye was busy with work, so they spent far more time apart than together. Thus, when Zhou Xu showed interest in her, she had chosen Zhou Xu without hesitation.
Yet now, he was actually holding that girl in public. Where did that leave her?
Leaving the market and getting back into the car, Pei Huaiye’s expression was frighteningly dark.
He had originally thought that seeing them would allow him to humiliate them without restraint, but now it seemed he was still too soft-hearted to do vicious things.
Oh well, in the future, they would just be strangers when they met.
It was his own uselessness.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Han Chao heard Pei Huaiye say softly, “Let’s go, next stop!”
Xu Sui also agreed to leave; after all, there was someone here who made the Boss feel uncomfortable.
“Brother, smile!” Ning Ran tugged at his cheeks, pulling them into an arc.
“Little idiot, stop fooling around. Wild-ge is in a bad mood!” Xu Sui spoke up to stop her.
Ning Ran tilted her head to look at Xu Sui, then pressed her head against Pei Huaiye’s chest, quietly listening to his heartbeat.
“Xu Sui, stop talking nonsense. I’m not in a bad mood.” Seeing his enemies from his past life living poorly put him in a great mood.
Apart from feeling that he was a bit useless, soft-handed, and soft-hearted, everything else was tolerable.
Before they could even start the car, the people from the market followed them out.
Shen Shuhe spread her arms, blocking the front of the car: “Pei Huaiye, I want to talk to you!”
She was unwilling to let an ex-boyfriend with special abilities just walk away like this.
In the apocalypse, having one more ability user meant one more layer of safety. She had clearly witnessed the scene of them fighting zombies earlier and could never let them leave so easily.
“Boss said he has nothing to talk about with you. Please move aside, we’re heading to the next location,” Xu Sui poked his head out of the car window, relaying Pei Huaiye’s message.
“Impossible, Huaiye wouldn’t treat me like this.” Shen Shuhe clearly didn’t believe it, her steps remaining firmly planted in front of the car hood.
“Han Chao, drive!” Pei Huaiye’s voice sounded leisurely.
The engine roared with a low growl. Han Chao slammed his foot on the gas, and the off-road vehicle surged forward aggressively.
Shen Shuhe let out a terrified scream, falling awkwardly to the side at the very last moment, narrowly avoiding the hood.
She tumbled onto the ground, looking in disbelief at the off-road vehicle driving away in a cloud of dust that splattered all over her face.
“Pei Huaiye, how could you treat me like this?!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, tears mixing with dirt to streak down her face.
“Forget it, Shuhe, they aren’t worth it!” Zhou Xu stepped forward quickly to help her up, his face dark with rage.
“No, you don’t understand. He would never treat me like this in the past,” Shen Shuhe grabbed Zhou Xu’s arm, her fingernails almost digging into his flesh. “It must be that girl—he only changed his heart because of her. Besides, we must recruit Pei Huaiye over, otherwise, our future days won’t be easy…”
She had a premonition that only Pei Huaiye could allow her to live a life free of worries about food and shelter.