By the time they left the night before, it was already close to midnight, so they casually found a residential building and stayed there for the night.
Before going to sleep, Shu Ran had obediently lain on the other side of the bed. But somehow, she had ended up sleeping directly in his arms.
Yu Yan lowered his eyes and gazed at the girl curled up against him.
She was petite and delicate, with plump, chubby cheeks. She was so adorable that he really wanted to give them a little pinch.
The pale golden sunlight gradually crept across the white sheets and spilled onto their faces.
Yu Yan was forced to narrow his eyes slightly. He wanted to find something to block the light, but he was afraid that even the slightest movement would wake the little thing in his arms.
After thinking for a moment, he simply flicked his fingers and summoned the ever-useful magical vine, ordering it to pull over a piece of cloth and cover the window.
Cheap laborer · Magical Vine: sadly chewing on its finger.jpg
……
Shu Ran slept exceptionally well.
Once she was completely awake, she even stretched lazily in bed with a blissful little sigh.
“Phew…”
After stretching, Shu Ran glanced at the shabby ceiling and smacked her rosy lips.
Hugging the snow-white blanket, she murmured somewhat dazedly, “I’m so hungry. I want roast chicken.”
As she was still sleepily whining to herself, a delicious aroma suddenly drifted in through the crack beneath the door.
Shu Ran sniffed, and her eyes instantly lit up as she sat upright.
Yu Yan was cooking!
She had woken up a little late today, so she was already starving. She absolutely had to eat a huge meal later!
After putting on her clothes and shoes, Shu Ran trotted into the kitchen, where she saw Yu Yan standing with his back to her, roasting something.
Shu Ran rested her chin on his arm and leaned closer for a look.
“This is… roast chicken!”
Yu Yan pushed the girl, who had nearly stuck her nose right against it, back a little. His eyes and brows were filled with an unmistakable smile.
“Mm. I went out and hunted a mutated chicken just now. Go wash up. It’ll be ready by the time you come back.”
“Mm~”
Shu Ran was in an excellent mood. She had just been thinking about roast chicken, and now she could eat it the moment she woke up.
It couldn’t get any better than this~
After breakfast, the two quickly tidied up and left the residential building.
There were several zombies wandering aimlessly downstairs, already starving, and their eyes were bloodshot with hunger. The moment they saw Shu Ran and Yu Yan, they let out a series of shrill cries and charged toward them!
But before they could even get close, those vicious-looking zombies were burned to pieces by Yu Yan.
【Tsk tsk tsk, these zombies were really starving themselves blind. See what happened? They died so miserably.】
【Oh, right, Ranran! I just saw that the favorability meter has reached ninety percent! Do you want to push a little harder and get it all the way to one hundred?】
【All the way to one hundred?】
Shu Ran glanced at Yu Yan, who was leisurely holding her hand as they walked.
【How do I do that?】
【Of course, you have to take the initiative! Oh, right!】
The system rummaged around inside its system space. After a while, it finally dug out the handbook that one of its system seniors had given it.
【I’ve sent the methods to you. Read them carefully, okay!】
Shu Ran acknowledged it and began reading.
【Strategy Handbook, Rule One: Take the initiative to get physically affectionate with the other person.】
Shu Ran had only just finished reading the first rule when Yu Yan, who had been leading her along, suddenly stopped.
She lifted her gaze from the System screen, “What’s wrong?”
Yu Yan looked at the completely looted shops along the roadside, a trace of regret flashing through his eyes.
“Nothing. I just think it’s a shame that all these supplies ended up going to someone like Ren Hao.”
Shu Ran followed his gaze.
Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, her lips parted slightly.
“Oh! I almost forgot!”
Yu Yan lowered his eyes in confusion.
“Hmm?”
Shu Ran was just about to take the items out when she suddenly remembered that they were still outside and she needed to be careful.
She immediately reached over, grabbed Yu Yan’s large hand, and pulled him into a secluded corner.
“There’s something I never told you either.”
Having already experienced Yu Yan opening up to her, Shu Ran found it much easier to explain things this time.
She first briefly told him about the functions of her personal space and the matter of the master-and-servant jade pendants. Only then did she tell him about the grudge between herself and Qiao Lingling.
“So there’s nothing to regret! As long as I want to, I can take everything stored inside Qiao Lingling’s jade pendant!”
Shu Ran pulled out the master jade pendant and gave a sly little smile, clearly quite pleased with herself.
But Yu Yan’s attention wasn’t on that at all.
He took Shu Ran’s hand—the one that had been grabbed by a zombie before—and his expression turned dark.
“That would be letting her off far too easily.”
The man’s cool, slender fingers slowly stroked the patch of skin.
“Don’t transfer the supplies just yet. Let’s wait a little longer.”
Wait until the people from Jiaoyang Base discover that the weapons in the arsenal are gone.
Wait until they are preparing to leave.
That would be the best time to transfer the supplies.
……
“Yu Yan! I know you’re somewhere in H City! If you don’t come out, your only remaining relative, Yu Ping, is going to die! You don’t want to end up with no family left, do you?”
Several off-road vehicles slowly drove through the streets of H City.
A battered-looking man was tied to the front of the lead vehicle, while several loudspeakers mounted around the vehicles blared out the threat again and again.
After learning that the weapons inside the arsenal had disappeared, Ren Hao immediately thought of Yu Yan.
After asking his subordinates, he indeed learned that Yu Yan had set up camp outside H City that very day.
But Ren Hao didn’t believe Yu Yan could have emptied the entire weapons arsenal by himself.
After all, there was no space ability user by his side.
So he was certain that Xuanming Base had a hand in this!
First, they had ambushed him, then created chaos, and finally taken advantage of the confusion to move the entire weapons depot!
Ren Hao looked at the wound on his thigh and the cracks along his arm, his entire expression becoming increasingly gloomy.
“Xuanming Base! If you know what’s good for you, hand over Yu Yan and the weapons. Otherwise, don’t blame Jiaoyang Base for showing you no mercy!”
Ren Hao’s subordinate had shouted until his throat was dry. After taking a drink of water, he turned toward Ren Hao with an ingratiating expression.
“Boss, we’ve been shouting for ages, and they still haven’t made a move. Looks like Yu Ping isn’t enough to lure Yu Yan out.”
Ren Hao’s bloodshot eyes stared deeply at Yu Ping, who was still tied to the front of the vehicle.
“Useless!”
“Since he’s no longer useful, get rid of him.”
“Yes!”
Several burly men climbed out of the vehicle, dragged the already exhausted Yu Ping down, and began carrying him toward the nearest horde of zombies…
*
Yu Yan didn’t care whether Yu Ping lived or died.
When he left Jiaoyang Base, he had already planted a magical vine seed inside Yu Ping’s body.
A seed that would make every day of his life worse than death.
So when Yu Yan eventually learned that Ren Hao had fed Yu Ping to the zombies, he actually felt that it had been too easy on him.
Before the apocalypse, H City had been a picturesque resort city with beautiful scenery.
Even though it had now fallen into a city of zombies, the scenery from before the apocalypse still remained.
Yu Yan brought Shu Ran up a mountain. Standing behind a sturdy railing, they looked down at the lake in the distance.
“It’s so beautiful.”
Shu Ran leaned against the railing with her chin propped in her hands, her watery eyes reflecting the endless scenery before them.
In the end, the two of them set up camp on the mountain.
The weather had grown increasingly strange over the past few days.
During the day, it was still fairly normal, but as soon as night fell, the temperature became frighteningly cold.
Every time, Shu Ran would get so cold that she had to run into her space, take a hot shower, and then come back out.
But she hadn’t forgotten Yu Yan either. She had also prepared a simple bathtub outside for him and filled it with hot water.
After her shower, Shu Ran crawled into the tent and burrowed into her sleeping bag.
But just before falling asleep, she suddenly remembered the handbook System had sent her earlier.
The first rule said that she needed to take the initiative and get physically affectionate with the other person.
Take the initiative…
Get physically affectionate with the other person…
Shu Ran hid her face inside the sleeping bag, leaving only a pair of glassy eyes peeking out as she looked at Yu Yan.
She understood a little about what being physically affectionate meant.
She had her older sister to thank for that.
When she was little, she had accidentally walked in on her sister being affectionate and playfully intimate with her brother-in-law.
Her cheeks flushed crimson.
She wriggled her way over to Yu Yan little by little.
Yu Yan looked at Shu Ran, who had practically wrapped herself into a cocoon and was now desperately inching her way toward him.
The corners of his lips curled upward, his smile full of roguish charm.
“What are you doing? If you wanted to snuggle up against me, why didn’t you put your sleeping bag next to mine just now?”
He leaned over, preparing to pull both the girl and her sleeping bag into his arms.
But a soft little hand suddenly cupped his cheek.
Then a soft touch landed on the corner of his lips.
Yu Yan lowered his eyes and looked at Shu Ran, who had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her face filled with nervousness.
The emotions in his eyes instantly surged.