“I can’t tell,” Ruan Zhe said, feeling a chill run down her spine.
They continued driving forward, and then a thin figure suddenly crawled out from the ruins.
It was an old man—gaunt and thin, his back hunched. His clothes were soaked through and clung tightly to his skeletal frame. In his arms, he was holding something wrapped in cloth, from which a small grayish-white foot was exposed.
The old man staggered into the middle of the road and blocked the RV. He raised a hand, his mouth opening and closing as he shouted something they couldn’t hear through the glass—judging from his lip movements, it was probably “help.”
Fu Yinli reversed the car, showing no intention of stopping to negotiate. There was no need to linger here—if something was off, they would just leave.
As the RV slowly backed up, the old man quickened his pace. He rushed toward the driver’s side. His eye sockets were sunken, his lips tinged purple. The “child” in his arms was very small, its skin a grayish-blue color—clearly already dead for some time.
A wave of cold fear rose in Ruan Zhe’s heart. The apocalypse had arrived, but she hadn’t seen many real corpses yet—and now this old man carrying a child…
“Please, let me get in. Give the child something to eat… he’s hungry… please…”
Neither of them responded.
In the apocalypse, kindness was often a one-way ticket to the underworld. More importantly, something about this situation felt deeply wrong to Ruan Zhe.
Seeing no reaction, the old man ran and slapped the side of the vehicle.
“Please! Just a little food! Please!”
It had only been a few days since the apocalypse began, and already a whole town had run out of food? That was even more terrifying than she imagined.
The old man suddenly sped up, ran in front of the car, and dropped to his knees—revealing the pitiful “child” in his arms again.
That was when Ruan Zhe finally realized what felt off.
If the old man truly cared about the child, he would have buried him properly long ago. Why would he still be holding the corpse like this? Clearly, he was using the child to gain sympathy.
Fu Yinli kept reversing, expressionless.
The old man knelt in the rain, then slowly straightened up, saying nothing more.
At that moment, more people began crawling out from the ruins.
Three… four… eight… ten…
Men and women alike—around fifteen people in total. They wore wet clothes and carried tools like shovels, wooden sticks, and metal pipes.
Not a single one spoke.
They silently moved to surround the RV.
“Go,” Ruan Zhe said decisively. This was clearly a trap.
The old man had tried to lure them into opening the door or getting out of the car. Once they did, the others would swarm them.
And now that they saw no sign of “kindness,” they were ready to rob them by force.
Fu Yinli shifted into reverse and backed up to widen the distance.
The people around them quickened their pace. Two of them moved to the side, raising shovels to block their path.
Fu Yinli didn’t hesitate. He turned the steering wheel sharply and forced the RV through a gap, tires splashing through puddles.
But more people were already blocking the rear, dragging obstacles into place. Two young men suddenly leapt out from the side, swinging metal pipes and smashing hard toward the windshield.
“Damn it!” Ruan Zhe cursed under her breath.
Cracks instantly spread across the glass like a spiderweb. One more hit and it would shatter.
She immediately grabbed her pepper spray and fired it straight at their faces.
With the rear blocked, Fu Yinli accelerated while pushing the door open with one hand, slamming it into a man’s chest.
The man grunted and staggered back, dropping the metal pipe.
But shards of glass sliced across Fu Yinli’s forearm. A long wound opened instantly, blood pouring out and running down his wrist.
He didn’t even look at it. He just closed the door again.
“The road ahead is blocked—but it’s made of wood. We can ram through,” Ruan Zhe said, already holding a knife. Anyone who tried to reach inside would be cut down without hesitation.
Fu Yinli floored the accelerator. The RV roared forward and smashed through a wooden barricade—but the people didn’t stop. They chased after it.
To them, this RV was a fat sheep. Once spotted, they wanted to keep it at all costs.
From their coordination, it was clear they had done this many times before—no wonder they had seen so many overturned vehicles on the way in.
No wonder there were so few people here. Earthquakes and heavy rain had made supplies scarce.
They pushed forward, but the pursuers kept coming.
They planned to break out of the town entirely—but just as they were about to relax, something suddenly rushed into their peripheral vision.
Yellow—an excavator.
Its bucket was still covered in mud, as if it had been waiting by the roadside. It charged in with overwhelming force. The driver gripped the controls tightly and slammed the bucket straight into the side of the RV.
Fu Yinli yanked the steering wheel hard, but they were still hit. The bucket scraped along the vehicle with a piercing metallic screech. The side mirror flew off, and a huge dent caved into the body.
“Wait—why is there a river here?!”
Ruan Zhe didn’t know how to swim—but even as Fu Yinli braked, it was useless. The excavator pressed against the RV, forcing it forward.
The operator jumped out.
By the time she realized what was happening, Ruan Zhe strangely felt calm.
The RV had already entered the water—but they didn’t feel any flooding inside. Instead, everything spun, their bodies feeling weightless, as if they were being thrown up and then set down again.
When she opened her eyes, she quickly went to free Fu Yinli, who was still restrained by his seatbelt—but because of it, he was safe.
Fu Yinli pointed at the navigation panel.
The time displayed on it had changed to twelve hours.
What was going on?
Ruan Zhe quickly grabbed the first-aid kit and began treating his wound.
His arm was well-shaped—veins slightly raised beneath the skin—but now wasn’t the time to appreciate that.
The cut was long and deep. She could only rely on basic first aid: stop the bleeding, apply medicine, and bandage it carefully.
“Maybe this long wound is the price for whatever your injury triggered,” she said softly, focused and careful, her long lashes lowered as she looked at his arm.
This was the closest they had been since sleeping in shifts at dawn.
Fu Yinli sighed slightly and pointed outside. “I think… it might be because of that big thing.”
Ruan Zhe stood up—and saw that the RV had stopped beside a fish pond. On the other side, the excavator still had scratches from their vehicle on its bucket, parked there openly.
That thing could actually enter here.
Which meant this farm wasn’t just for planting crops—it could store things too.
Ruan Zhe immediately became excited again.
“You rest first. I’ll go take a look.”
“Let’s just keep working,” Fu Yinli said, shaking his hand. “Rest later.”
Since they had time, they should take advantage of it—plant all three crops as quickly as possible and move some items out of the RV; otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough space.
“Then let’s unload some things first and leave part of them in the car.”
Ruan Zhe turned around—
Then suddenly stepped back several paces.
What a good day this was. Her golden finger had finally gone all out!