Qin Jiang considered himself a smart man.
He didn’t want to offend the people on his own side, but he wasn’t about to give up the chance to seize the weapon in Yao Tao’s hands either.
He had to admit, Yao Tao had some real skill, not someone easy to deal with.
Zhong Huaiming was an idiot who couldn’t see any of this, and the moment Song Lianqiu egged him on, he charged right in.
Even though the two of them were his friends, he wasn’t foolish enough to offend Yao Tao at a time like this.
So the instant Yao Tao spun around, blades pointed at their chests, he didn’t hesitate for a second, he brought the steel pipe in his hand down on Zhong Huaiming’s head.
Song Lianqiu clapped a hand over her mouth, shocked by the sudden turn of events.
She couldn’t understand why Qin Jiang would attack Zhong Huaiming, the two of them had clearly gone together to take down that woman.
When Zhong Huaiming collapsed, Yao Tao froze for a moment.
Having lived through a second life, she never trusted anyone easily. She’d noticed Zhong Huaiming and Qin Jiang sneaking up behind her long before they got close, and had already pulled the curved meat-slicing knives from her space, planning to give the two of them a matching set of slit throats.
What she didn’t expect was for Zhong Huaiming to be betrayed by his own teammate.
After finishing off Zhong Huaiming, Qin Jiang lowered the steel pipe and flashed her a friendly smile.
Yao Tao smiled back.
Qin Jiang felt pleased with himself.
Just as he thought, women were all the same the world over. Show them a little kindness and they’d trust you completely.
What good was being tough, in the end?
Long on hair, short on sense [1]long on hair, short on sense (tóu fa cháng jiàn shi duǎn, 头发长见识短) Proverb, a sexist old saying implying women are less intelligent than men jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3220121_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3220121_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
But before the smile at the corner of Qin Jiang’s mouth had even fully spread, the curved blade in Yao Tao’s hand had already sliced across his throat.
Qin Jiang’s expression froze in place.
Shock, confusion, terror…
A whole spectrum of emotion flashed through his eyes, before it all dissolved into a gush of hot blood.
Qin Jiang and Zhong Huaiming both died on the spot.
Only Song Lianqiu remained, standing there “weak” and “helpless.”
Yao Tao flicked the blood off her blade and, ignoring Song Lianqiu entirely, went back to gathering supplies.
Song Lianqiu was scared half to death.
In the blink of an eye, both Zhong Huaiming and Qin Jiang were dead, with them gone, who would protect her now?
“Yao Tao, you devil, you killed them!” Song Lianqiu’s shrill scream echoed through the basement level.
Yao Tao didn’t so much as turn her head, continuing to gather supplies.
She couldn’t be bothered with Song Lianqiu, besides, screaming like that would draw the mutated rats. That was suicide.
After shrieking for a while, Song Lianqiu suddenly sensed something was off around her.
In the darkness, several pairs of small eyes glinted, watching her.
The mutated rats, drawn by her noise, were lurking in the cracks of the broken ruins, watching.
By the time Song Lianqiu realized danger was closing in, it was already too late.
Drawn by the thick smell of blood, the mutated rats grew more excited, scuttling onto the bodies of Qin Jiang and Zhong Huaiming and beginning to feed.
Song Lianqiu no longer had it in her to curse at Yao Tao, all she wanted was to find someone, anyone, to protect her.
“Uncle Li, wake up.” She ran to Li Lin’s side, calling out in a trembling voice.
Li Lin was lucky, Zhong Huaiming had struck his head, but he wasn’t dead.
Shaken awake by Song Lianqiu, he felt utterly weak, waves of cold washing over him.
“There are giant rats.” Song Lianqiu clutched tightly at Li Lin’s arm, ducking behind him.
Even as dense as he was, Li Lin now finally understood exactly what kind of people Song Lianqiu and the others were.
If he let Song Lianqiu hide behind him, she’d definitely shove him out in front the moment danger came.
How laughable.
He’d thought he’d done a good deed, saving these people, never expecting to be the one left holding the bag in the end.
With the last of his strength, he shoved Song Lianqiu away. “Get lost!”
Song Lianqiu begged desperately, “Please, save me, be a good person all the way to the end.”
Blood covering his face, Li Lin sneered. “I am a good person. You, however, are not.”
“Zhong Huaiming’s the one who hit you, it’s got nothing to do with me,” Song Lianqiu said, trying to dodge any blame.
A mutated rat crawled up beside Song Lianqiu’s feet, rearing up to stare at her.
Terrified, Song Lianqiu threw all caution aside and pressed herself against Li Lin.
“Get away from me!” Li Lin slapped her hard.
Song Lianqiu screamed and fell, and the mutated rat seized the moment to lunge and bite at her face.
“Aaaah, help me…” Song Lianqiu writhed on the ground, trying to pry the mutated rat off.
Unfortunately, a second mutated rat pounced on her too, biting off one of her fingers in a single bite.
Li Lin watched, sneering, as Song Lianqiu was bitten to death by the mutated rats.
He knew he wasn’t going to make it either, he might as well stop hiding, and quietly wait to become the mutated rats’ next target.
“Bang!” A gunshot-like pop rang out from a distance.
“Squeak!” A mutated rat dropped to the ground.
“Bang!” Another shot.
Another mutated rat went down.
Five mutated rats were killed one after another, and the survivors, apparently sensing the danger, scattered and burrowed back into the rubble.
Li Lin, drenched in cold sweat, looked at Yao Tao approaching from the distance. “Thank you.” He forced the words out with effort. “I know there’s a side door here that leads outside… you go on ahead without me…”
Yao Tao had had no idea there was an exit on the basement level too.
In her past life, when she’d come here with Zhu Hua’s team, they’d always entered from the first floor.
Li Lin pointed out the location of the side door for her.
Yao Tao nodded, and, to his surprise, didn’t bother with him at all, simply walking off alone.
Li Lin lay back down on the ground, his mind strangely at peace.
Yao Tao had already saved him three times now. She didn’t owe him anything.
Li Lin’s consciousness slowly began to fade. He had no idea how much time had passed when, in a daze, he seemed to hear footsteps.
Then a light shone over his face.
Who… was it?
Yao Tao’s face reappeared in his field of vision.
“…is the exit over there blocked?” he asked with effort.
If Yao Tao had come back, the only explanation he could think of was that the exit was impassable, forcing her to return.
Yao Tao didn’t answer him. Instead she pulled a bottle of water from her backpack, twisted off the cap, and aimed the opening at his face.
She dumped the entire bottle over his face.
Li Lin choked and coughed violently.
After the coughing fit, he came to briefly, clear-headed enough to see Yao Tao holding out a few pills to him.
“What… is this?”
“Take them,” Yao Tao said, handing him the rest of the water in the bottle.
Li Lin threw all the pills into his mouth at once and gulped down the remaining water.
Although he had no idea what medicine Yao Tao had given him, he believed she wouldn’t harm him.
After he’d taken the medicine, Yao Tao grabbed him by the collar and roughly dragged him into a nearby shop.
The shop’s door was already shattered, but the roller shutter still worked.
Once inside, Yao Tao sprinkled some rat poison at the entrance, pulled down the roller shutter, and then dragged a counter over to brace it shut.
Li Lin stared, dumbfounded.
He’d thought this woman was just skilled in a fight, he’d never expected her to be so thoroughly prepared, carrying rat poison in her backpack even.
Yao Tao set down her flashlight and pulled an emergency lamp from her backpack, and the once-dark shop suddenly lit up.
Li Lin: “…”
One after another, Yao Tao began pulling things out of her backpack.
A portable power bank, a breakfast machine, a portable juicer, four pears, a bag of sliced bread, a smoked ham, a bag of cheese, a bottle of ketchup, a picnic mat, a blanket…
Li Lin’s eyes were nearly popping out of his head.
How could a backpack that small hold so much stuff!
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