Yao Tao pulled the trigger, expression blank.
The air rifle made barely any sound. “Pop!”
The mutated rat, which had been clinging to Li Lin’s back biting wildly, let out a squeal at the shot, its plump body crashing to the ground, four legs kicking.
“Pop!”
Another shot.
“Squeak squeak squeak!” The second mutated rat also screamed as it took a hit.
Yao Tao lowered the air rifle, glanced flatly at Song Lianqiu, who was still shrieking “she’s trying to kill us,” and turned to walk away.
Song Lianqiu was frozen in shock.
Qin Jiang was the first to react. He shoved Song Lianqiu aside and chased after Yao Tao. “Wait a minute.”
Yao Tao slung the air rifle over her back, her waterproof backpack already on the other shoulder, and, ignoring Qin Jiang entirely, walked into a small appliance shop nearby.
The glass door lay shattered across the floor. Qin Jiang’s foot came down on it with a sharp crack, and he jumped back, startled.
Getting your foot cut open by glass at a time like this would be no joke.
Yao Tao stepped into the shop and swept her flashlight across the shelves, her eyes lighting up.
Breakfast machines, high-power blenders, bread makers, light-meal cookers, all of it was here.
A high-quality apocalypse lifestyle couldn’t do without these little appliances.
Having lived a second life, she had no intention of settling for a pack of instant noodles like she had in her past life. She was going to treat herself right, and enjoy this hard-won second chance.
She waved her hand, sweeping all the small appliances in the store into her space.
The entire wholesale district had lost power; the shop was pitch dark. Standing outside, Qin Jiang couldn’t make out what she was doing at all.
When she stepped back out of the shop, Qin Jiang was still waiting there. “Lucky you saved us just now, where’d you get that air rifle? Got another one? Could you give me one? I know how to shoot too, I can help protect everyone with you.”
In the darkness, a mocking curl touched the corner of Yao Tao’s mouth.
Nobody in the apocalypse handed a weapon to a stranger.
Your own life was only reliable when it was in your own hands.
“I only found one. You can go look over there and see if there’s another,” she said, gesturing vaguely.
Qin Jiang didn’t expect her to refuse. “Don’t you trust me? I’m Qin Jiang. Those are Zhong Huaiming and Song Lianqiu. The uncle back there is Li Lin.”
Yao Tao glanced at the miserable middle-aged man trailing at the back.
Li Lin was covered in blood, with no telling how many wounds the mutated rats had left on him; he was slumped on the ground now, breathing hard.
Yao Tao could tell Li Lin had been taken advantage of by these three.
Li Lin, thinking Yao Tao was worried about him, forced a bitter smile. “The wounds aren’t too bad, nothing fatal.”
“Infection after a mutated rat bite is the real danger,” Yao Tao said flatly.
At those words, Song Lianqiu and Zhong Huaiming seemed to remember something and helped each other stand, putting distance between themselves and Li Lin.
Li Lin: ???
Song Lianqiu trembled. “He’s not going to turn into a zombie, is he?”
Zhong Huaiming whispered reassuringly, “Don’t worry, if he turns into a zombie, this woman will kill him.”
Qin Jiang, more level-headed than Zhong Huaiming, asked Yao Tao, “We’ve all told you our names. Can you tell us yours?”
“Yao Tao.” She didn’t mind saying her name, whether these people would even survive was still uncertain.
After being bitten by a mutated rat, the body would run a high fever or suffer an allergic reaction.
That was the human form of mutation.
Unfortunately, unlike in novels, humans who mutated didn’t gain special abilities.
All they got was death.
Without treatment, they’d die sooner or later.
In her past life, the toughest person she’d ever seen had held out for five days, but died in the end anyway.
And there was no specific cure for mutated-animal bites, treatment was purely supportive, focused mainly on reducing fever and easing allergic symptoms; the rest depended on the person’s own physical constitution.
Qin Jiang’s expression turned grave. “The rats grew this big, what exactly happened out there?”
“The apocalypse has begun.”
Song Lianqiu and Zhong Huaiming both stared at Li Lin at the same moment, as if looking at a zombie.
“Is it all zombies out there?” Qin Jiang asked.
“You think this is some novel’s plot?”
Qin Jiang looked at Li Lin. “Then he…”
“He won’t turn into a zombie. He’ll just die.”
Hearing that he was going to die, Li Lin’s body jolted.
Song Lianqiu suddenly screamed, “Am I going to die too? I’m bleeding here, boo hoo, I’m still so young and pretty, I don’t want to die…”
Zhong Huaiming was scared out of his mind too, but he still went and carefully checked Song Lianqiu’s bleeding leg first.
As it turned out, Song Lianqiu’s leg had been cut by debris on the ground when she fell.
The fact that Song Lianqiu was fine didn’t mean Zhong Huaiming and Qin Jiang were too.
Both of them had marks on their legs, more or less, from the mutated rats’ claws, not as severe as Li Lin’s wounds, but they’d bled too.
Zhong Huaiming was frantic. “Quick, hurry up and get us out of here, I need to get to a hospital.”
Li Lin struggled to his feet as well.
He believed what Yao Tao had said was true, because he could already feel something wrong with his body. His strength seemed to be draining away, and breathing was getting harder and harder.
“If you want out, that’s your own business. Don’t drag me into it,” Yao Tao refused coldly.
Seeing that Yao Tao wouldn’t protect them, Zhong Huaiming flew into a rage. “Then how about you give us the air rifle, and we’ll make our own way out?”
Yao Tao was so annoyed she laughed. “Why would I give you my own things? Why don’t you go take a look in a mirror at your own face?”
“What do you mean by that…” Zhong Huaiming didn’t catch on.
By then Yao Tao had already walked off, heading into another shop.
“She said your face is too big,” Song Lianqiu said, stirring the pot for fear things weren’t chaotic enough. “There’s more of us, why not just take her air rifle by force? No one’s watching here anyway, and the two of you grown men can definitely beat her.”
Zhong Huaiming looked at Qin Jiang. “I think it’ll work.”
A flash of something odd crossed Qin Jiang’s eyes, quickly hidden. He nodded readily. “Fine. Let’s go at her from behind.” He found a length of steel pipe on the ground.
Seeing this, Zhong Huaiming grabbed one too, as a weapon.
Li Lin saw Zhong Huaiming and Qin Jiang about to hurt someone and hurried to stop them. “You can’t… she saved us twice…”
Zhong Huaiming turned and struck Li Lin’s head hard.
Li Lin, caught completely off guard, felt heat spread across his face. He raised a hand to touch it, blood, all blood. “You…”
He gritted his teeth in fury.
He’d kindly saved the three of them, never expecting them to bite the hand that fed them.
Zhong Huaiming struck Li Lin’s head a second time.
Li Lin collapsed to the ground, whether dead or alive unclear.
Zhong Huaiming no longer bothered with Li Lin, and headed into the shop Yao Tao had just entered, Qin Jiang right behind him.
Yao Tao stood with her back to them, apparently searching for something on the shelves.
Zhong Huaiming shot Qin Jiang a look.
Qin Jiang understood.
Both raised the steel pipes in their hands at once…
Suddenly Yao Tao spun around to face them, a curved meat-slicing knife in each hand.
The gleaming blades stood out sharply in the darkness.
Zhong Huaiming could practically feel the cold radiating off the real blades.
“Whack!” Something struck his head hard.
Zhong Huaiming turned in shock, looking at whoever had just hit him.
Qin Jiang stood there holding the steel pipe, his face murderous. “I can’t let you hurt anyone else. She saved us twice. I’m sorry…”
Zhong Huaiming could never have imagined his own teammate would turn traitor.
He didn’t even manage to get out a single curse before his eyes rolled back and he fell stiffly backward.
Qin Jiang followed up with two more blows, and only once Zhong Huaiming was thoroughly dead did he turn to Yao Tao with a smile. “Sorry about that, I hope I didn’t scare you. Never expected he’d actually try to hurt you, good thing I caught it in time.”
Song Lianqiu, standing off in the distance, was stunned into silence.
Things were moving too fast for her to keep up.