“System, System, what do I do? Is this the male lead? Ahhh! So scary!”
She screamed fearfully in her mind. The man lying in the garbage heap had frightened her badly, especially his eyes. Just one glance was enough to make her scalp prickle with terror.
It was as if, in his eyes, she was nothing more than a dead thing too.
Cold sweat slid down Song Qing’s forehead, and her fingers involuntarily cramped.
She discovered that compared to the half-dead man lying at her feet, the corpses were actually much less frightening!
The System hurriedly comforted her. “Host, don’t be scared. The male lead hasn’t fallen to darkness yet. He’s just being cautious.”
That was right.
The male lead had not yet been repeatedly betrayed, so he should not harbor malice toward strangers for no reason.
It must just be her imagination.
After reassuring herself, Song Qing crouched down and carefully looked at the severely injured man.
“Are you okay?”
The moment she said it, Song Qing bit her lip in frustration.
What kind of question was that?
She was asking whether a man who was barely clinging to life was okay?
The girl was clearly trembling with fear from head to toe, yet she was still forcing herself to remain calm and speak to him.
It seemed that the reason she had spent so long rummaging through the garbage dump was because of him.
Jiang Chenyu lay in the garbage heap and seemingly curled the corners of his lips slightly. He parted his bloodstained thin lips and said,
“I’m fine.”
His voice was hoarse.
Although his face was excessively thin and pale, one could still make out his exceptionally handsome features. It was easy to imagine how good-looking the man must have been before being tortured.
If Song Qing had previously regarded the male lead as nothing more than a fictional character whose existence was necessary to save her family, then seeing him covered in blood and wounds now had completely changed that thought.
She felt that Jiang Chenyu, who was gentle and refined like jade and wholeheartedly wanted to develop a way to eliminate the zombie virus, should not be lying in a garbage heap like a stray dog.
Nor should he have been betrayed time and time again, ultimately ending up in a mutual death with his enemies.
At that moment, sirens sounded throughout the entire base.
An ominous, storm-coming atmosphere descended over the area.
The System anxiously urged her, “Host, hurry! The research institute has discovered that the male lead escaped. Hurry and get him out of the base!”
Looking at the severely injured man in front of her, Song Qing had absolutely no idea where to start.
But the situation was urgent, and there was no time for her to carefully examine his wounds.
“Professor Jiang, I’m here to save you. I know that you’re the person most likely to develop a way to resist the zombie virus. Believe me, I’m not a bad person.”
Song Qing spoke incoherently.
She grabbed a discarded dark-red bedsheet that was relatively clean from beside them, wrapped it around his body, then crouched down and carried him on her back before hurriedly heading outside.
Jiang Chenyu was draped over the petite, soft body of the young girl.
His wounds were pressed and torn open, causing him to let out a muffled groan.
Immediately afterward, an enormous surge of mental power forced its way into his head.
His vision went black, and he briefly lost consciousness.
When he recovered, an unusual light flowed through his eyes.
Had his mental power returned too?
Then what about his healing ability?
He circulated the healing ability within his body.
It could still only slowly repair his injuries.
It seemed that he had lost it.
His bare feet dragged against the ground, the friction adding to his pain.
But after being tortured with his abdomen cut open for more than ten years, he had long since stopped considering this level of pain worth mentioning.
With a single thought, he could kill the maliciously motivated girl carrying him.
Yet he did not.
He quietly waited for her to reveal her true purpose.
When that time came, he could decide how he wanted her to die.
As for her words about coming to save him and having no malicious intentions, he did not believe a single word!
He also did not think that a girl with only a first-tier ability could take him out of Hua’an Base, where powerful ability users were everywhere.
The girl’s purpose would surely reveal itself soon.
Jiang Chenyu’s eyes shifted slightly, containing an endless storm of darkness.
“Host! His feet—his feet! You’ve hurt the male lead’s feet!”
Hearing the System’s urgent voice, Song Qing lowered her head.
The man was simply too tall. His feet were dragging along the ground, and his toes and part of the tops of his feet had been rubbed raw and bloody by the gravel.
Her heart suddenly clenched.
She stopped running.
“I’m sorry. Wait here for me.”
After apologizing guiltily, she bent down and put the silent man on the ground.
Then she ran toward the place where she remembered seeing the corpses.
When she reached the spot, she did not have time to be afraid.
She pulled off a pair of sneakers from one of the corpses and hurried back to Jiang Chenyu with them.
She put the shoes on him, carried him onto her back again, and continued running.
Although Jiang Chenyu was thin, his height and bone structure were still there, making him extremely heavy.
If she had not come to this other world and gained greater strength, she would never have been able to carry him.
Song Qing ran into the densely packed slums while panting heavily.
It was already three or four in the morning.
Normally, there should not have been many people out on the streets at this hour.
But now, the streets were filled with ability users.
They were kicking open doors and searching openly and aggressively.
The noisy shouts of people and the cries of babies echoed through the slums in the dead of night.
Those ability users did not treat ordinary people like people at all.
They barged into houses to search them, and anyone who refused to cooperate was kicked aside.
Song Qing watched with her heart pounding in fear.
Suddenly, one of the ability users swept a sharp gaze in her direction.
Song Qing immediately hid around a corner, her heart rate skyrocketing.
What should she do?
What should she do?
There was no way she could leave the base while carrying someone.
But if she hid inside Hua’an Base, those ability users would find them sooner or later.
And by then, their fate would be even worse.
She could only find a way out of the base.
Song Qing desperately suppressed her nervousness and fear as she thought of a way to leave Hua’an Base.
Cold sweat dripped down her fair forehead.
Jiang Chenyu’s head rested against her slender shoulder as he watched her with an unreadable expression.
Suddenly, the image of the blue garbage truck at the garbage dump flashed through Song Qing’s mind.
An idea struck her.
Garbage was usually cleared around four or five in the morning.
If she hid inside a garbage truck beforehand, then if she was lucky, she could leave the base along with the garbage.
Once she had the idea, she immediately acted on it.
Song Qing carried the man and ran back toward the garbage dump.
By the time she arrived, several sleepy-looking men were already using forklifts to load garbage onto a truck.
Relying on her strength, Song Qing deftly avoided them.
She climbed into a garbage truck that was already half-loaded.
She walked toward the front of the truck, lowered the man from her back, and then pulled the dark-red bedsheet covering him over her own head.
Her body pressed tightly against his.
Temporarily safe, she relaxed and sat down against the front of the truck.
When she turned her head, she met Jiang Chenyu’s increasingly pale face.
Blood stained the corner of his lips, yet his lips themselves were deathly pale, completely devoid of color.
His miserable condition was at least partly caused by her carrying him back and forth.
Song Qing blinked guiltily and forced a smile as she comforted him.
“Just wait a little longer. Once we’re out of the base, we’ll be safe.”
After saying that, Song Qing closed her eyes to rest.
She did not dare look into his dark, deep-set eyes.
They seemed to contain a bottomless vortex capable of drowning anyone at any moment.
Jiang Chenyu lay in the filthy garbage heap with his eyes half narrowed.
He looked at the young girl beside him, whose eyelashes were trembling violently.
The exposed skin of her face and arms was stained with dust and dirt, but it was not difficult to see the delicate softness beneath the grime.
It had already been two years since the apocalypse.
To still have such beautiful skin, she was obviously a girl who had been well protected by her family and had not suffered much.
Should he kill her?
Jiang Chenyu stared at her and pondered.
The ability users in the base were no match for him now.
He did not need to suffer like this at all.
He could control people to clean his wounds and let himself lie in a clean room.
But he had never seen this girl before.
Her purpose was unclear.
Killing her would be easy, but it seemed too boring.
It would not be too late to kill her after figuring out what she wanted from him.
He had already killed the people in the base once.
There was no need to rush now.
He had plenty of time to play with them.
As for the pain in his body at present, he could simply endure it.
He had made it through so many years.
A little while longer would make no difference.
Jiang Chenyu withdrew his gaze from the girl and released his mental power, spreading it across the entire base.
He watched as the ability users searched for him like headless flies.
The researchers in the laboratory were being cursed out by their superiors.
Research Institute Director Zhou Wentao jolted awake from his bed the moment he received the news.
He rushed to find the base’s administrator and made up an excuse, claiming that a researcher had stolen important experimental materials and escaped.
He then asked the base administrator, Liu Qiwei, to send more people to search for him.
Jiang Chenyu laughed mockingly inside.
This was much more entertaining than watching a show.
How could Liu Qiwei not know that Zhou Wentao was conducting inhumane experiments on living humans?
He simply turned a blind eye because Zhou Wentao supplied him with resources.
Song Qing rested with her eyes closed.
After being tense for the entire day, her mind finally relaxed slightly, and she eventually fell asleep from exhaustion.
She was awakened by the sound of the vehicle starting.
The truck drove out of the garbage dump and headed outside.
Her heart tightened.
She was afraid that the ability users searching for them outside would rummage through the base’s garbage trucks.
She tightly grabbed the person beside her who still had some warmth in his body, her lips trembling as she muttered,
“It’s okay. It’s okay. We’ll get out of the base safely.”
Jiang Chenyu’s arm, which had begun to heal slightly, was torn open again by her grip.
He did not mind.
Opening his eyes, he looked at the girl trembling uncontrollably and sneered inwardly.
Who was the one who was scared again?
She was this timid, yet she had actually dared to come into the base looking for him.
Song Qing suddenly noticed an unusual stickiness in her hand.
She quickly released him.
When she saw that her palm was stained with bright red blood, she turned toward the man, filled with guilt.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
The girl’s slightly round almond-shaped eyes reddened.
Tears welled up and hung from her eyelashes, making her look pitiful, as though she were about to cry.
Jiang Chenyu felt as if a soft feather had brushed across his heart.
It tickled.
He even had the wicked urge to make the girl cry.
Preferably until the tip of her little nose turned red too.
It would surely look very pretty.
He suppressed the mischievous urge to cause trouble and said to her indifferently,
“It’s fine.”
The male lead was too kind.
Even after she repeatedly aggravated his wounds, he did not get angry with her at all.
Song Qing secretly vowed that she would do everything in her power to protect the male lead.
She would not let him fall to darkness.
It was not only because she wanted to save her family.
It was also because of who he himself was.
This time, luck was on Song Qing’s side.
The garbage truck left through the back gate of the base.
The several ability users stationed there only gave it a casual inspection before disgustedly opening the iron gate and allowing the garbage truck to leave.
The vehicle drove out of the base.
Song Qing let out a huge sigh of relief.
Her tense body went limp as she lay down, not even caring about the dirt beneath her.
She turned toward Jiang Chenyu and curved her brows into a smile.
“See? I told you it would be fine. We got out safely.”
The girl’s smile was like morning dew in early spring, exceptionally refreshing to the heart.
And exceptionally tempting to destroy.
Jiang Chenyu stared steadily at her.
Then he curled his lips into a smile as well.
“Thank you for getting me out.”
His voice was hoarse and rough, startling Song Qing.
The arm pressed against his body also felt an unusual heat.
Song Qing hurriedly lifted the dark-red bedsheet covering their heads.
By now, the morning light had already risen.
Only then did she realize that Jiang Chenyu’s pale complexion had somehow turned flushed.
They were so close that she could even feel the scorching breath he exhaled.
Song Qing touched his burning forehead and frowned.
“You have a fever.”
It must be because his wounds had become infected.
He could not stay in the garbage heap any longer.
It would be extremely bad for his already severely injured body.
She turned her head and observed their surroundings.
Several hundred meters ahead, there were some houses standing in rows.
Since they were not far from the base, most of the zombies in the area had already been cleared out.
There were basically no zombies wandering around.
Originally, she had planned to get off farther away, where it would be safer.
But now, it seemed that would not work.
Song Qing carried the burning-hot Jiang Chenyu onto her back.
While the two ability users got out of the truck to clear an obstacle from the road, she jumped down and quickly ran toward the buildings on the right.
Up ahead, the tall driver moved an abandoned vehicle blocking the road.
Sensing something, he turned his head and looked behind him, his face wary.
“Why do I feel like something got off the truck?”
The skinny man beside him smiled.
“Probably a rat. It’s not like this is your first time taking out garbage. Why are you still imagining things?”
“Is that so?”
The tall driver suspiciously walked around to the back of the truck to check.
He saw nothing.
It seemed he had simply sensed incorrectly.
Meanwhile, Song Qing was hiding behind a battered car not far away, breathing rapidly.
She was terrified that the two ability users would discover them.
If the base found out, it would be over.
They would definitely send people out to search for Jiang Chenyu very soon.
Only after the engine roared and the garbage truck drove away did Song Qing finally relax.
Carrying the man, she hurried toward the buildings.
She had to find a safe place to settle down and treat Jiang Chenyu’s wounds as soon as possible.
If his wounds became infected and started rotting, it would be troublesome.