When Su Mu and Ling Wei arrived at City A, Jiang Mingkai happened to be on patrol duty. Seeing Su Mu, he recognized her as the person who had saved him that day. Just as he intended to step forward to express his gratitude, his gaze was stolen by the girl in white beside her. Even with a cold face, she was incredibly beautiful; a feeling of sudden heartbeat swept through Jiang Mingkai’s heart.
“Hello, I am Jiang Mingkai, the person you saved outside a few days ago.” Jiang Mingkai walked up to Su Mu and smiled slightly, giving off the impression of a man as gentle as jade.
“Mm.” Su Mu responded coldly and focused her attention on the recruitment missions displayed on the screen.
In the apocalypse, all supplies were extremely scarce and had to be obtained through one’s own strength. If she and Weiwei wanted a place to live, the best way was to join the city’s patrol team. Given her and Ling Wei’s strength, obtaining good treatment within the team was a certainty. However, seeing Jiang Mingkai thanking her on the surface while his eyes kept darting toward Ling Wei, Su Mu’s expression turned even colder. She abandoned the idea of joining the patrol and decided to take on missions with Ling Wei to exchange for housing ownership.
“I see that both of your abilities are quite good. Would you like to join the patrol? We can arrange decent accommodation and free meals for you.” Jiang Mingkai didn’t care about being given the cold shoulder; instead, he began to enthusiastically invite Su Mu and Ling Wei.
Seeing Jiang Mingkai’s enthusiastic appearance, Su Mu silently opened the System Store, looking for something to “enthusiastically” respond to him with. Just as she was about to buy a few items, her attention was diverted by Ling Wei’s words.
“Fine, thank you.” Ling Wei saw Su Mu’s intent to refuse and agreed a step ahead of her.
Ling Wei agreed to Jiang Mingkai’s request because she didn’t want the hassle; since benefits were being delivered to the door, there was no reason not to take them. Furthermore, she wanted to see what kind of person Jiang Mingkai was, whether he truly was as Su Mu had said in the previous life, someone who would deliberately approach her because of her strength.
And… Su Mu’s reaction was a bit much. She clearly hadn’t met Jiang Mingkai before, yet she harbored an inexplicable hostility. But if they had known each other from the start and were on bad terms, why would she have helped him in the first place? Moreover, if her memory served her correctly, Jiang Mingkai should now possess dual-system abilities and have successfully caught the attention of the City A Consul; why would he still be here patrolling?
All these suspicious points were leading in one direction, yet Ling Wei didn’t want to think too deeply. She looked helplessly at Su Mu, who had been cold-faced ever since she accepted Jiang Mingkai’s invitation, and gripped Su Mu’s hand back, wanting to maintain this relationship.
The three of them went to the City Government in silence. Since the emergence of zombies had destroyed most buildings, only the City Government facilities remained relatively complete, so it had been converted into a Supernatural Bureau for ability users to register and collect supplies.
After entering the assigned house, Jiang Mingkai felt the silent atmosphere and tactfully left.
“Su Mu, why are you targeting Jiang Mingkai so much?” Unable to stand the silence between them, Ling Wei spoke up and asked.
“What do you think?” Su Mu felt Ling Wei’s probing, but she didn’t explain, asking back instead.
“Are you also reborn?” Hearing Su Mu’s words, Ling Wei asked the question hidden in her heart.
“Mm.” Seeing Ling Wei ask this, Su Mu knew her behavior had made Ling Wei suspicious and simply admitted it.
“What do you want to do?” Hearing Su Mu answer so bluntly, Ling Wei, who was still thinking of how to fish for information, didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t want to fall out with Su Mu, but she didn’t dare take a further step with her either, because certain things were uncertain. Even if they were together, it would become a fuse for a rift in their feelings. Thinking this, Ling Wei still planned to lay her cards on the table with Su Mu to see what she actually intended to do.
“Regarding love rivals, one must be as ruthless as the cold wind; regarding one’s wife, one must be as warm as a little sun.” Saying this, Su Mu showed Ling Wei a row of neat teeth.
The moment Su Mu spoke, the heavy atmosphere vanished without a trace. Ling Wei saw Su Mu suddenly acting goofy and a flicker of a smile passed through her eyes. Truly, such a serious-looking person suddenly became so childish.
System: So why do I even bother having expectations for the host? I even had the popcorn ready…
Knowing Su Mu was changing the subject, Ling Wei didn’t expose her. However, in the evening when Su Mu shamelessly tried to enter her room, she slammed the door shut forcefully, leaving behind only a light sentence: “Regarding perverts, one must be as ruthless as the cold wind.”
…
After joining the patrol team, Su Mu and Ling Wei made several friends and often teamed up to take on missions. The relationship between Su Mu and Ling Wei felt a bit strange to people; they didn’t seem to get along, yet their inadvertent eye contact and conversations always gave off a “sticky” (clingy/sweet) feeling, as if… one were being force-fed a handful of dog food.
Bang… With a wave of Su Mu’s hand, a water arrow pierced through a zombie’s head, leaving the surrounding people looking dazed, wondering how Ling Wei and Su Mu had gotten into a conflict again.
Ling Wei, meanwhile, had a face full of helplessness as she looked at Su Mu. Every time they went on a mission, Jiang Mingkai would come over to show concern for the people in the team, and then give “special care” to Ling Wei. While on the mission, Su Mu would hold her breath in anger; the moment she saw a zombie, she would insta-kill it. Those following them on the mission mostly watched with dazed expressions, having absolutely no chance to take action.
“Ding… Successfully slaughtered fifty zombies, reward: 50 Nutrient Solution.”
“Ding… Successfully slaughtered one hundred zombies, reward: 100 Nutrient Solution.”
“Ding…”
Hearing the system notifications of mission success, Su Mu’s mood improved slightly. She planned to go back and properly deal with that fellow Jiang Mingkai. Although she gradually realized through interaction that he had no ill intent toward Weiwei, the fact that he was interested in Ling Wei was a deep form of ill intent toward her. She definitely had to give him a good beating.
Having dealt with the surrounding zombies, she was just about to walk to Ling Wei’s side to take her back to the base when she suddenly saw Ling Wei teleport over and throw a knife behind her. Simultaneously, Su Mu heard a zombie roar that was different from the usual. Realizing something was wrong, Su Mu’s nerves tightened, and she entered a state of high alert.
“Is this a mutated zombie?” Because Ling Wei also possessed space-system abilities, she was exceptionally sensitive to spatial anomalies. Having just felt a distinct spatial tear behind Su Mu, Ling Wei had teleported over without hesitation to block the attack. Now, seeing the zombie that had revealed itself, she felt something was wrong; in the previous life, mutated zombies clearly didn’t appear until a year later.
The surrounding people saw Su Mu being suddenly attacked and also realized something was wrong. Stepping forward, they discovered to their shock that this zombie could still struggle even after being attacked by Ling Wei. Its body gradually became transparent; after being stepped on by Su Mu, it began to reappear, looking like a duck that wanted to run but was being pinned down.
Furthermore, this zombie’s face was not heavily ulcerated like others, but merely pale and bluish. Some people realized that zombies might also be leveling up and hurriedly connected their communicators to report to the base.
Seeing Ling Wei’s solemn expression, Su Mu walked over and gave her a hug, smiling: “Don’t worry, Weiwei, I’m here.”