Wen Qi glanced at the glass cover and reached out, about to yank it off.
Jian An reacted instantly, grabbing her back. “Wait, don’t. There might be other traps.”
The little ginseng inside nearly exploded in anger—this human wasn’t going to save it?!And he even called it a trap?!
Have you ever seen such a miserable “trap”?!
“Little bunny, don’t listen to his nonsense! I’m just a helpless little ginseng, okay?!” it protested, almost crying.
Wen Qi stared at it, eyes narrowed.
“Hey! What kind of look is that?!” the ginseng shouted.
“Ask it how it got here,” Jian An said, watching the increasingly agitated ginseng.
Hearing that, the ginseng calmed down.
“Ahem… I was just sleeping, and when I woke up, I was already here…” it said a bit awkwardly.
It turned out the little ginseng had been living peacefully in the soil. When the apocalypse began, something affected it, and it fell into a deep sleep. When it woke up again, it was already in this place.
Chen Dao had been using it for experiments—cutting into it again and again, feeding the results to the zombie. He often muttered about an “immortality elixir.”
Until one day—
“I succeeded! I finally succeeded! Hahaha! I found it—the perfect ratio!” Chen Dao had laughed madly, holding the potion in his hand.
He stared at the ginseng with burning obsession.“As long as I have you, I’ll be the strongest in this world—your healing ability, hahaha!”
The ginseng had been terrified of him.“Bah! As if I’d stay with you forever, you demon!” it cursed nonstop, knowing Chen Dao couldn’t understand plant speech.
Wen Qi summarized simply, “He used it for experiments. It’s the main ingredient of the immortality drug.”
The little ginseng nearly fainted from anger.“Hey! I said so much and that’s all you say?!”
Wen Qi pressed her face against the glass, squishing her cheeks flat.“Too long. You talked too much.”
“…”
The ginseng took a few steps back in shock.“You may be pretty, but you can’t use your face like that!”
Tire tracks streaked across the ground.
Shu Qin sat in her wheelchair, a small white cat lying comfortably on her lap, eyes half-closed in contentment.
She smiled. “You’re really adorable.”
Her ability made animals instinctively like and approach her—even mutated ones would become unusually docile under her touch.
“Shu Qin.”
She looked up to see a tall, muscular man approaching. A scar ran from his temple to his brow, stopping just short of his eye.
“Brother Jiang Yan, you’re back from your mission?” she asked with a faint, knowing smile.
“Mm.” Jiang Yan replied curtly, then stood in front of her, blocking her path without another word.
“You finish missions way too fast,” Shu Qin teased, smiling.
“Where are you going? I’ll take you.”
He cleared his throat awkwardly and moved behind her, pushing the wheelchair forward.
“To the training grounds. Someone hurt my little tiger again yesterday.”
Mutated animals stayed near her and trained there. The training wasn’t brutal—everyone held back—but minor injuries still happened.
Every time, Shu Qin would comfort them. The animals healed quickly, but they all wanted her attention.
As Jiang Yan pushed her along, she suddenly asked,“Hey… why have Ji Chen and the others been gone so long? It’s almost a month.”
A flicker passed through Jiang Yan’s eyes.
“What mission did they take?”
Shu Qin raised a brow knowingly.“You’re not thinking of going after them, are you? If you go, take me too.”
“I’m not going. Just finished a mission—I need rest,” he said, looking straight ahead.
She felt a bit disappointed.She hadn’t seen Ji Chen in so long… she missed him.
Jiang Yan, meanwhile, continued pushing silently, lost in thought.
“So… it really is the immortality drug?” Liao Liao stared at the ginseng with blazing curiosity.
The ginseng shrank back nervously.“What are you looking at, human?!”
Immortality?
For someone who had already died once, Jian An didn’t believe in such things.
He looked at the ginseng. “Ask it if there are side effects.”
Wen Qi repeated the question word for word.
“How would I know?! I don’t have any side effects! If there are any, it’s from the other ingredients!” the ginseng snapped. “I’m perfectly healthy!”
Jian An glanced at the bottles and containers scattered around the lab—none of the labels made sense.
Nearby, the zombie in the cage kept groaning.
Jian An observed it closely. Like the ginseng, chunks of flesh had been carved from its body—but unlike the ginseng’s fine cuts, these were large and crude.
“This probably isn’t the only zombie used for experiments,” Ji Chen said quietly.
Experiments like this would require many test subjects.
Jian An, however, was thinking of something else—How did Chen Dao know he had succeeded?
At that moment—
A strong wave of scent suddenly rushed into Wen Qi’s nose.
“Ugh—ptui, ptui, ptui!”
Her taste-numbing pill had worn off. Now all the mixed, strange odors flooded her senses at once.
Jian An immediately looked at her, concerned. “What’s wrong, Bao?”
Wen Qi sniffed cautiously, trying to adjust.
“I can smell everything again… it’s so disgusting here!”
She looked utterly offended.
How could humans create something that smelled this bad?!
Jian An couldn’t stand seeing her uncomfortable. He pulled her into his arms and lowered his head.
“Is it better like this?”
In her previous life, she had always said he smelled good—wanted to bite him even. But back then, he had been blinded by hatred and never noticed the treasure beside him.
Now, Wen Qi looked up at him, eyes sparkling.
He’s so good to me… I’ll be his little rabbit again in my next life too!
I’ll raise his banner—who dares stand against him?!
Meanwhile, Ji Chen held a notebook, recording observations.
“Don’t you think this zombie is different?”
Liao Liao blinked in confusion, looking back and forth.“Report: no difference. Still screaming like usual.”
“Actually, it is different,” Jian An said.
Liao Liao: ???
Ji Chen tapped the cage lightly with his pen.
The zombie immediately rushed over, growling.
Then Ji Chen moved to the other side—but the zombie remained where it was, still clawing at the original spot.
“He’s highly sensitive to sound,” Ji Chen concluded, “but he doesn’t treat us as food.”
Wen Qi, however, saw something else—
The glowing core inside the zombie…The dark impurities within it were far fewer than in other zombies.