Song Qing only remembered the general framework of this apocalypse novel. She had forgotten most of the finer details.
Before the apocalypse, the male lead, Jiang Chenyu, was a medical researcher with an upright set of values and a good family background. At a young age, he had already become a top medical talent protected by the state.
After the apocalypse began, both of his parents died, and he awakened dual abilities: healing and mental powers.
Influenced by his parents since childhood, he possessed a strong sense of social responsibility. After realizing that his ability could delay the spread of zombie poison, he voluntarily joined the base’s research institute following the chaotic early period of the apocalypse. There, he allowed them to collect his blood, hair, skin, and other bodily tissues for research, while also participating in the research himself.
Before long, they used his blood to develop a medicine that could prevent someone from being infected by zombies for a week. However, because the medicine required his own blood, it could not be mass-produced. Therefore, he actively began researching substitute ingredients.
In the apocalypse, morality had collapsed, and wealth could move people’s hearts. The research institute’s director could not resist the temptation of the enormous profits. Unable to wait for Jiang Chenyu to find a substitute for his blood, he set a trap to imprison him.
Day and night, they drew his blood to produce the medicine, which they sold at high prices to various bases. They also carried out all kinds of experiments on his body.
They used expensive medicine to keep him alive, preventing him from dying.
Jiang Chenyu’s mental powers advanced through the torture and hardships. He fought with all his strength and finally escaped.
In the slums, he encountered a senior brother who had grown up with him since childhood. That senior brother took him home and settled him there. Jiang Chenyu thought he would finally be able to catch his breath, but in the blink of an eye, he was sold to another base as a blood slave.
The researchers there had already been conducting illegal experiments during peacetime. On Jiang Chenyu, they carried out even more inhumane experiments, injecting zombie fluids of various levels, as well as fluids extracted from mutated plants and animals, into his body for research.
During this period, his body underwent a mutation, and his abilities greatly increased. He destroyed the illegal research institute and escaped.
This time, he no longer dared to trust anyone. From beginning to end, he carefully disguised himself.
Afterward, he was wanted by all the major bases. As long as an ordinary person revealed information about him, they would receive an enormous reward.
With Jiang Chenyu’s abilities, protecting himself was not a problem. However, when he saw countless people dying at the hands of zombies and various ambitious individuals, he could not bring himself to turn a blind eye or remain silent.
He took action along the way, silently saving many people. Quite a few of them also gathered behind him.
But he was still reported.
The very people he had personally saved joined forces with the research institute to set a trap and lure him in for the sake of profit. By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late, and he was captured and taken back to the research institute once again.
By then, Jiang Chenyu had completely lost all hope in the world. He no longer possessed the ambition to develop medicine that could bring the apocalypse to an end.
He only wished for the people rotten to the core to die quickly, and for humanity to become extinct as soon as possible.
After suffering through torture day after day, he prepared to self-destruct and end his life, only to be saved by the female lead.
Before the apocalypse, the female lead, Lin Xinya, had been a police officer. She had also been searching for a way to resolve the apocalypse.
After learning that Jiang Chenyu was a biological genius from before the apocalypse and the person most likely to bring it to an end, she went to great lengths to save him. She used her own team to fight against the various people who wanted to seize him.
Jiang Chenyu, who had been tortured until he was barely recognizable as human, slowly recovered. Under Lin Xinya’s protection, he gradually returned from his gloomy state to his former gentle and upright self.
He picked up his laboratory equipment once again and resumed researching the zombie virus.
The author abandoned the novel at this point. In the author’s note, they announced that they had won ten million yuan in the lottery and would never have to make a living by writing again, so they left the novel unfinished.
However, this was a plot-focused novel, and the story had already reached its final stages. Even though the author did not continue writing, Song Qing and most of the readers could guess the ending.
It would be nothing more than the male lead being moved by the female lead, developing medicine that could save the apocalypse, ending the decade-long catastrophe, and eventually falling in love with the female lead after spending so much time together.
But the System told Song Qing that things had not developed the way she thought.
After being rescued, Jiang Chenyu’s gentleness toward others and his upright values had all been an act. He had merely wanted Lin Xinya to lower her guard and provide him with a laboratory where he could research the virus.
During his research, he discovered a feasible method that could completely prevent people from being infected by zombies. But after suffering years of inhuman torture, his heart had already become twisted.
Without the slightest hesitation, he abandoned the research results he had once worked so hard to obtain and focused entirely on researching ways to spread the virus.
In the end, he developed a spore-based zombie virus and released it into the air. It spread rapidly, and he smiled as he watched everyone still alive turn into zombies.
As Song Qing recalled the contents of the novel, she also finished her porridge. She turned her head and silently stared at Jiang Chenyu, who was frighteningly thin on the bed.
As for his final indiscriminate attack on all of humanity, Song Qing could not make any judgment.
She was not him. She had never experienced the torture he had endured. Even though she knew that many innocent people should not have died, she still could not bring herself to say much.
If she had experienced what Jiang Chenyu had gone through, she might have become even more thoroughly corrupted than he had.
But she was an ordinary person. No matter how completely she turned evil, it would not make a difference. She did not have the ability to take revenge on society.
Thinking of this, Song Qing raised her eyebrows and smiled.
With her here, none of this would happen.
Jiang Chenyu’s betrayal by his senior brother had already been intercepted by her. She would definitely protect him properly and prevent him from experiencing those things.
Although she was timid and did not have much ability, she at least had the System. That made her one of the chosen ones, right?
Song Qing frowned uncertainly.
Even if she was not, as long as she remained alive, Jiang Chenyu would not fall into a situation where he was repeatedly betrayed.
If all else failed and Jiang Chenyu still turned evil in the end, she would drag him down with her and die together with him. She would not let him harm innocent people.
The loud “gurgle” from her stomach interrupted her thoughts. Clearly, one bowl of porridge was not enough to fill her.
Song Qing stood up from the edge of the bed, intending to go to the courtyard and serve herself another bowl of porridge. After taking two steps, she turned her head and blinked at Jiang Chenyu, who was sleeping quietly on the bed.
He had not eaten anything yet.
She had to make him eat something before he went back to sleep. With enough nourishment, his wounds would heal faster. Otherwise, if he starved to death in his sleep, all her efforts would be wasted.
Song Qing placed her empty bowl and chopsticks on the bedside table. Then, she reached out with her small hand and shook his shoulder.
“Professor Jiang, wake up. Have something to eat before going back to sleep.”
She sighed inwardly.
He was far too thin. His bones hurt her hand whenever she touched him. The most urgent thing was to find enough food and fatten him up.
Jiang Chenyu was covered in wounds and could not sleep soundly. He remained in a state between sleep and wakefulness, leaving a thread of mental power outside to stay alert to his surroundings.
The moment someone touched his body, he abruptly opened his eyes.
Fury surged through his narrow eyes. Combined with his gaunt, sharply defined face, he radiated a terrifying presence.
Song Qing was startled. Her hand shrank back, and she stammered, “You’re h-hungry, right? Have something to eat before going back to sleep.”
When Jiang Chenyu saw that it was her, he froze for a moment. The hostility in his eyes dissipated, and his expression returned to its former gentleness.
“Sorry. I thought I was still in the laboratory and frightened you.”
As he spoke, Jiang Chenyu struggled to sit up and leaned against the headboard. He saw the two bowls on the bedside table—one empty and the other filled with white porridge mixed with green leaves.
He picked up the full bowl of porridge and looked up at the pretty girl standing blankly beside the bed. A gentle smile appeared on his face.
“You’ve worked hard. It must have been difficult finding food, right?”
“No, no. This is what I should do. Professor Jiang, you’re humanity’s hope, and I…”
Looking at Jiang Chenyu’s calm and gentle face, Song Qing realized that she could not bring herself to continue with those grand, righteous words.
Her original reason for saving Jiang Chenyu was simply to stay alive and return to her own world to resurrect her parents.
Perhaps there was also a little pity involved. Seeing someone who had devoted himself wholeheartedly to the country being tortured to this extent had made her unable to bear it.
She did not have any lofty reason about saving the nation or humanity.
She had only arrived in this world two days ago. This world was still unfamiliar to her, and she still felt as though she were inside a fictional world.
“Just eat. There’s still more after you finish. I’ll bring the pot in from outside.”
After saying that, Song Qing hurried out of the room and stared blankly at the pot of porridge in the courtyard, where small bubbles were rising from the remaining warmth of the firewood.
In her own world, she had merely been an ordinary working person.
If there was anything different about her, it was that she was especially timid. She was completely incapable of speaking well or lying to others.
If Jiang Chenyu suspected her motives, she would not be able to explain herself.
Or perhaps he already suspected her.
Forget it. She would take things one step at a time.
Song Qing lifted the pot and carried it inside.
By coincidence, she saw that Jiang Chenyu had nearly finished the porridge in his bowl. She took the bowl from him and filled it again, then served herself another bowl and sat on the sofa in the bedroom to eat.
Jiang Chenyu held his bowl of porridge and looked at her thoughtfully.
She was drinking plain porridge that barely had any flavor, yet she looked as satisfied as if she were eating some kind of delicacy. The corners of her eyes curved with happiness.
After washing her face, her skin was even fairer and more delicate than he had imagined. Her palm-sized face was soft and tender, making her look young and charming. Her eyes were slightly round almond-shaped eyes, full of liveliness.
She wore a slightly loose apricot-colored long-sleeved top and black trousers, which made her already petite figure look even smaller. The sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, revealing her snow-white forearms.
She was not an absolute beauty, but she was charming and adorable, the kind of girl who could easily arouse a man’s possessiveness and destructive impulses.
There were no traces on her face of having endured two years of the apocalypse.
Either someone had been protecting her from behind, or she had encountered some kind of extraordinary opportunity that allowed her to protect herself.
Thinking about the miserable experiences the two of them had gone through from last night until now, Jiang Chenyu scoffed inwardly.
He did not believe that she had encountered any extraordinary opportunity.
Song Qing was eating happily when she noticed his gaze. She raised her head from her bowl and looked at him with confusion.
“Professor Jiang, is something wrong?”
A grain of rice clung to the corner of her tender red lips, making her look a little foolish.
Jiang Chenyu’s eyes curved slightly, and he chuckled.
“Nothing. You don’t have to keep calling me Professor. You’re making me sound old.”
“Then what should I call you? Calling you by your name would feel too distant.”
Thinking about having to spend a long time with him in the future, Song Qing held her bowl and enthusiastically tried to grow closer to him.
“Can I call you Brother Yu from now on?”
Brother Yu?
It was not exactly an intimate form of address, but when she said it in her clear, crisp voice, it carried a strangely affectionate feeling.
“As long as you like,” Jiang Chenyu replied.
Looking at her lively face, he asked, “What about you? What’s your name?”
“My name is Song Qing. You can call me Qingqing, Brother Yu.”
Song Qing blinked as she answered him. Every so often, she lowered her eyes to stare at the bowl in her hands, looking as though she could not wait to eat everything inside it.
Her adorable appearance made Jiang Chenyu shake his head and laugh.
It had been a long time since he had encountered such a straightforward and adorable girl. Being around her made both his body and mind feel relaxed.
Thinking about all her suspicious actions, Jiang Chenyu’s eyes deepened.
If everything she had shown him was merely an act, then she was truly remarkable.
After finishing the food and cleaning up the pot and bowls, Song Qing was so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open.
From yesterday afternoon until noon today, she had only dozed for a short while in the garbage truck. Her mind was now completely muddled.
She did not dare go too far from Jiang Chenyu, afraid that something might happen to him.
Song Qing lay down on the sofa in his room and covered herself with a thin blanket.
“Brother Yu, call me if you need anything.”
After throwing those words toward the person on the bed, she closed her eyes. Her body was exhausted beyond its limits, and within less than a minute, she fell into a deep sleep.
Before long, she began snoring softly.
Her action startled Jiang Chenyu.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at the girl on the sofa, whose fair, delicate face was only half visible.
Once again, he began to question her identity.
Her behavior was completely unlike that of someone with ulterior motives. Instead, she seemed like an innocent girl without a scheming bone in her body—someone who dared to sleep in the same room as an adult man she had known for less than two days.
She was not even afraid that something might happen.