After Song Qing and the group of ability users cleared away the zombies blocking the road, she nodded at the tall woman leading the group as a greeting.
She then turned around and was about to get into the car and leave. She had no intention of having a deeper conversation with these people. After what happened in Liu Family Village, she had come to deeply realize that people who seemed easy to get along with were not necessarily good people. They could very well be hiding all sorts of bad intentions.
“Hey, little sister, wait! I haven’t even thanked you for helping us.”
The tall woman hurried after her.
“No need. I was passing through, and clearing out the zombies was something I should have done anyway.” Song Qing stood in front of the car and turned to look at her, her eyes filled with wariness.
A third-order ability user was being this enthusiastic toward her. Anyone could tell that something was off.
Gao Wenting’s beautiful face showed a helpless expression as she spread her hands.
“Don’t be afraid. I don’t have any bad intentions. I just saw how good you are at killing zombies and wanted to ask if you would team up with us to enter the hospital.”
Hearing that, Song Qing looked toward the hospital in the distance.
The hospital was huge, with several towering white buildings standing close together and covering a vast area. From the countless windows, the rotten figures of zombies would occasionally appear. It was obvious that the inside was extremely dangerous.
Song Qing shook her head. “I’m not going.”
Gao Wenting was very interested in her abilities. She felt that having Song Qing with them would greatly increase their team’s chances of survival, so she patiently tried to persuade her.
“There are third-order zombies inside. Aren’t you tempted? I can see that you’re very capable, but your ability level is still only second-order. If you reach the third order, your strength will increase by a lot. It’s already been two years since the apocalypse began, and second-order ability users are no longer rare. If you want greater ability to protect yourself, the higher your ability level, the better.”
Hearing this, something shifted in Song Qing’s eyes. She was genuinely a little tempted.
The stronger she became, the better she could ensure that Jiang Chenyu would not be taken away from her, and it would also make the journey ahead smoother.
Seeing her waver, Gao Wenting offered another temptation, smiling as she said, “How about this? As long as you enter the hospital with us, whether or not you manage to kill a third-order zombie, I’ll give you one third-order crystal stone. How about that? Our team is mainly going in to complete the base’s mission of bringing medicine back. Our purpose isn’t the crystal stones.”
Hearing this, Song Qing gritted her teeth and agreed.
“Fine. I’ll go with you.”
She couldn’t stay in a safe environment forever. There would be all kinds of dangers waiting for her later. Now that she had a ready-made opportunity to increase her strength, she had no reason to miss it.
When Wang Haiting heard this, he got out of the car. He was just about to ask Song Qing how he and Jiang Chenyu should be arranged if she was going to the hospital when he noticed the handsome man behind Gao Wenting had black-purple scratches on his arm.
His pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively hid behind Jiang Chenyu, who had also gotten out of the car, and shouted in horror at Song Qing a few steps away.
“Xiaoqing, come over quickly! One of them was scratched by a zombie!”
Huh?
Song Qing was startled by his words. She immediately stepped in front of Jiang Chenyu and once again looked warily at Gao Wenting and the others.
“You mean this?”
Ning Rui stepped out from behind Gao Wenting with a smile on his face, extending his injured arm in front of them.
“This is nothing. You should have heard of No. 1 Medicine, which Hua’an Base developed a year ago, right? I took the medicine before I came out. For a whole week, I won’t be infected by zombies. Even if they bite my body, as long as I’m still alive, the zombie virus won’t infect me.”
Wang Haiting had heard of this medicine, but it was not easy to obtain. He had heard that it was very expensive.
He spent all day outside killing zombies and was always at risk of infection, so he was also very interested in the medicine. Staring at the man in front of him, he asked about the price.
Seeing that they did not show any fearful expressions, Ning Rui lowered his arm. Hearing Wang Haiting’s question, he frowned.
“Although this medicine was expensive before, we second-order ability users could still buy a few pills from time to time if we worked hard. But recently, I don’t know what happened. The orders that the various bases placed with Hua’an Base have all been delayed, so now it’s almost impossible to get even a single pill. The medicine I took today was from my previous stock.”
“Oh.” Wang Haiting lowered his head in disappointment.
Song Qing almost turned around to look at Jiang Chenyu behind her, but fortunately, she reacted in time and did not show anything unusual on her face.
The “raw materials” had all run away. Of course Hua’an Base couldn’t produce the medicine!
Although she didn’t turn around, she reached one hand backward and grabbed his dry, slightly cool palm, gently squeezing it in reassurance. She was afraid he would remember the inhuman life he had endured as a blood slave in the laboratory.
Jiang Chenyu felt nothing upon hearing those words, but the soft little hand holding his and awkwardly trying to comfort him lifted his mood somewhat, and a smile appeared at the corners of his lips.
“Who is he?” Gao Wenting noticed him and asked Song Qing.
For some reason, she felt that this thin, pale man gave off a frightening aura.
“He’s my companion.” Song Qing brushed her off. She did not want too many people paying attention to Jiang Chenyu, so she changed the subject.
“When are we going into the hospital? Are we leaving anyone outside to keep watch?”
Gao Wenting had originally thought that if the man was also a powerful figure, their operation would be much more secure. But seeing that the girl was unwilling to talk about him, she did not press further.
Otherwise, if the girl decided not to go into the hospital with her, it would be troublesome. Her team only had one third-order ability user. Even if all the other second-order ability users were combined, they probably wouldn’t be as capable as this girl.
“As for entering the hospital…”
The two of them began discussing the arrangements carefully.
In the end, they decided that Gao Wenting’s side would leave six first-order ability users and one second-order ability user outside to provide support, while the other nine second-order ability users would enter the hospital.
As for Song Qing’s side, she had originally planned to leave Wang Haiting behind to protect Jiang Chenyu, but he refused.
Jiang Chenyu’s mental power had detected several little bugs. He was going to deal with them and had no intention of bringing along the noisy Wang Haiting.
“Let him go into the hospital with you. You two have worked together to deal with many zombies over the past two days, so you have a certain level of coordination. I’ll feel more at ease with him helping you.”
Jiang Chenyu gently rubbed her head as he spoke.
Song Qing took his hand down and looked up at him hesitantly.
“But if you’re alone…”
“It’s fine.” Jiang Chenyu interrupted her. “You’ve cleared out most of the zombies outside. The danger is all inside. Besides, there are several ability users outside to provide support. I’ll be fine.”
“Fine, then.”
Song Qing couldn’t refuse him. She took Wang Haiting toward the hospital, intending to finish things as quickly as possible.
Gao Wenting quickly led her team after them.
After Song Qing entered the hospital and her figure completely disappeared from Jiang Chenyu’s sight, he turned around and walked in the opposite direction.
Chen Minhua, the second-order ability user Gao Wenting’s team had left outside, saw him leave. Remembering the worried expression on the girl’s face, he still dutifully stepped in front of the thin man.
“Don’t wander around. It’s dangerous.”
Jiang Chenyu did not make things difficult for him. His eyes were gentle.
“I’m going to relieve myself. I’ll be back soon.”
“Ah? Oh.”
Chen Minhua awkwardly moved aside.
Jiang Chenyu slowly walked away with a smile on his lips. As he walked, his mental power enveloped those few troublesome little bugs. He saw that they were at the corner of a street just ahead of him, where they had stopped a car and were questioning the occupants.
“Have you seen this person?”
A man dressed in a black windbreaker and black pants held up a photograph and questioned the woman in the passenger seat.
The woman had a round, slightly plump face. If Song Qing had seen her, she would have recognized her as the woman who had just warned her not to go to the hospital.
The woman was named Cui Fufang.
At first, she was startled by the pale man in the photograph, whose cheeks and eye sockets were sunken. After taking a closer look, she realized that he looked very similar to the companion of the young girl she had just encountered.
However, the man had put on some weight now and no longer looked as frightening.
They had tortured someone to this state and still wanted to capture him and take him back. Anyone could tell that these men did inhumane things.
Cui Fufang did not want to cause trouble, so she shook her head at the man questioning her.
“I didn’t see him.”
Yang Chengming noticed something strange in her expression and asked suspiciously, “Really? If you have information about him, there are two No. 1 Medicines as a reward. You don’t want them either?”
Cui Fufang had been about to shake her head after hearing the first half of his sentence, but when she heard the second half, she suddenly froze. Her eyes widened as she hurriedly asked, “Is it really No. 1 Medicine? The medicine that can prevent infection for a week after taking one pill?”
Yang Chengming said nothing more. He simply took a transparent glass bottle from his pants pocket. There were more than a dozen round red pills inside.
Cui Fufang stared excitedly at the medicine in his hand.
It was this one. She had seen other people take it before!
She stared at the bottle, a fierce struggle flashing through her eyes. In the end, she gritted her teeth and spoke.
“I’ve seen this man.”
She was only telling them what she knew. Whatever happened to someone else had nothing to do with her.
Yang Chengming excitedly grabbed her by the clothes and demanded, “Then where is he?”
“Why ask her when you can ask me?”
A light laugh came from behind them.
Yang Chengming released Cui Fufang’s collar and abruptly turned around. He looked at the tall, thin man approaching them from not far away.
The overwhelming joy in his heart had not even had time to show on his face when he saw the two companions beside him, both third-order ability users just like him, clutching their heads in pain and collapsing to the ground.
Before long, they stopped breathing.
Yang Chengming fearfully took a step back and asked in a trembling voice, “Aren’t you a second-order ability user?”
The fear of death sent a chill through his heart.
What had happened?
How had Jiang Chenyu been able to easily kill third-order ability users in less than half a month?
“That’s not something I can tell you.”
Jiang Chenyu’s tone remained gentle. His mental power, however, did not stop for even a moment as it invaded Yang Chengming’s mind, sending him to join his two companions.
After dealing with the troublesome little bugs blocking his way, he turned around and looked at the terrified woman in the passenger seat.
If he remembered correctly, this woman had said a few words to Song Qing, after which Song Qing had happily told him that no matter how chaotic the world became, there would always be warm-hearted people appearing in it.
Thinking of this, a trace of mockery flashed through Jiang Chenyu’s eyes.
Warm-hearted people who could be tempted by a little benefit?
“I didn’t say anything. It has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with me. You can’t kill me…”
Having watched several third-order ability users die in such a strange manner, almost all the blood in Cui Fufang’s body seemed to freeze. When she saw him look over, she frantically waved her hands and shook her head, speaking incoherently.
Jiang Chenyu had no patience to listen to her and directly made his move.
A sharp pain suddenly struck Cui Fufang’s mind. Her eyes widened, then quickly lost all color as her body went limp against the seat.
“Ah…”
The driver and several people in the back seat screamed in terror.
The noise gave Jiang Chenyu a headache. He had originally intended to deal with them as well, but then he remembered Song Qing’s personality.
Although she looked fierce, she had not even been able to bring herself to kill the people who had almost assaulted her.
If she found out that he had killed people who had nothing to do with the matter, she would probably be afraid of him, wouldn’t she?
Forget it.
He was in a good mood today, so he would spare these people.
He erased the memories of him from their minds, then walked leisurely back.