“This child has a fever. Watch over him for a while, I need to head out again.”
The moment Lin Mingmei finished speaking, she turned to leave. Qin Yueming reacted instantly, grabbing her wrist before she could walk away.
“Wait, there are a few things I need to…”
“Whatever it is, it can wait until I get back,” Lin Mingmei interrupted with a frown.
Then Qin Yueming noticed the torn fabric hanging from her filthy clothes.
“You’re injured?”
Standing so close to her, he could clearly see the ripped sections of her sleeves and the foul-smelling stains covering her body.
Without waiting for permission, he reached out and pulled the torn fabric aside. Several long scratches were visible on her thin arm. His expression immediately changed, and he instinctively tried to remove more of her clothing to check for additional wounds.
“I’m fine!”
Now that she possessed a strength superpower, Lin Mingmei shoved his hands away effortlessly and stepped back several paces.
“You’re bleeding!” Qin Yueming’s voice carried obvious concern.
But Lin Mingmei misunderstood completely. She assumed he was only worried she might turn into a zombie and threaten him.
“Relax, I’m not going to mutate,” she replied coldly. “If you’re scared, you can leave after I go out.”
Qin Yueming froze.
Lin Mingmei tightened her grip on her filthy jacket, turned around, and walked out the door.
Although her clothes were disgusting and reeked horribly, they acted as excellent camouflage, masking the scent of a living person. As long as she stayed quiet, the zombies wouldn’t notice her easily.
She moved too quickly to notice Qin Yueming scrambling to stop her. He nearly exposed himself completely before hurriedly sitting back down and clutching the bedsheet around his waist.
Staring at the tightly shut door, then at the unconscious child lying on the bed, Qin Yueming couldn’t stop thinking about the scratches on Lin Mingmei’s arm.
She must have gotten injured while saving this child.
She was so small and thin, yet she had still risked herself to bring the little boy back alive.
And earlier, he had completely misunderstood her. Worse, he had done something so shameless and disgraceful to her…
Qin Yueming shut his eyes and pressed a hand against his aching forehead.
He would take responsibility for her.
But before that, he needed to handle his duties first.
The moment Lin Mingmei stepped out of the apartment building, she immediately pushed both Qin Yueming and the child out of her mind.
She had far more important things to secure, medicine, vehicles, and gasoline.
The amount she managed to gather tonight would directly determine how comfortably she survived in the future.
Cars were abandoned everywhere along the streets. Using her flashlight, she found one with the keys still in the ignition, started the engine, and drove straight toward the vehicle exhibition center she remembered from her previous life.
Gao Lang had once taken her there during a car show the week before.
She still vividly remembered the greedy excitement in his eyes as he stared at a luxury car and swore he would own one someday.
Back then, her heart had softened instantly. She had even secretly decided to work harder, save every penny, and buy it for him someday, even if she had to starve herself to do it.
At the time, Lin Mingmei knew nothing about luxury cars. When she saw the two-million-yuan price tag, her legs nearly gave out. She hadn’t even dared touch the car door, afraid a fingerprint might cost more money than she could ever afford.
But now that the apocalypse had arrived, whoever claimed the vehicles first became their owner.
And Lin Mingmei intended to strike first.
Naturally, she didn’t waste a single opportunity along the way. Like a frantic little hamster, she continuously swept supplies into her storage space.
Medicine, fuel, clothes, food…
By the time she arrived at the exhibition center, the sun was already high in the sky.
After smashing several zombies wandering outside, Lin Mingmei was drenched in sweat.
She licked her dry lips and glanced at the blazing sun overhead. It had rained all night yesterday, yet today the temperature soared the moment the sun appeared, causing the stench of decay to thicken in the air.
Was it like this in her previous life too?
Back then, she had been too focused on protecting Gao Lang to notice anything else.
Lin Mingmei quickly stored several motorhomes inside her space, but suddenly stopped when she noticed a decapitated zombie lying nearby.
There were other survivors here.
No wonder there had been so few zombies around the exhibition center. Under normal circumstances, a car show interrupted by the apocalypse should have been swarming with undead.
Lin Mingmei immediately became cautious and carefully scanned her surroundings.
After confirming no one was nearby, she rapidly stored several more motorhomes and prepared to leave.
Just then, the roar of engines echoed through the area.
Startled, she immediately hid behind a nearby vehicle.
Moments later, six gleaming luxury cars sped past, accompanied by arrogant laughter and loud shouting from the drivers.
Six vehicles.
She had no idea how many people were inside each one.
Lin Mingmei held her breath and stayed completely still until the convoy disappeared.
Clearly, some people had already begun exploiting the chaos to rob and kill openly.
Once ordinary citizens ran out of food and were forced to search outside for supplies, the entire city would descend into complete disorder.
Lin Mingmei waited a while longer before emerging again. The noise from the convoy had attracted most of the nearby zombies away, making it safer for her to continue collecting vehicles.
However, when she discovered two decapitated human corpses nearby, her expression darkened.
These people had not turned into zombies.
They had been murdered by that group.
Lin Mingmei silently thanked herself for not crossing paths with them earlier.
After storing ten motorhomes and ten off-road vehicles, her gaze landed on the exact luxury car Gao Lang once coveted.
After a brief hesitation, she stored it too, along with several nearby vehicles.
Satisfied with her haul, she climbed back into the small car she arrived in and drove away.
Since stopping at a gas station felt too dangerous, especially if she ran into that six-car group again, she chose to head directly home.
On the way back, she passed several vehicles fleeing the city.
Clearly, some people had already realized the city was no longer safe and were trying to escape elsewhere.
Unfortunately for them, the apocalypse had spread across the entire world.
There was nowhere left to run.
Without encountering any major trouble, Lin Mingmei eventually returned to her apartment complex. After casually killing a wandering zombie near the entrance, she headed upstairs and opened her apartment door.
The moment she stepped inside, she saw Qin Yueming sitting beside the bed, carefully wiping the child’s body with a damp cloth.
He was now dressed in a set of clothes that were obviously too tight for him.
Hearing the door open, he stood up immediately.
“You’re back.”
Lin Mingmei gave a distracted nod.
“This child’s fever still hasn’t gone down,” Qin Yueming said heavily. “If this continues, he could die.”
He felt as though he had failed the task she entrusted to him. Worse, based on the information he had gathered so far, society’s entire infrastructure had already collapsed. Hospitals were no longer reliable.
The apocalypse, something people once only saw in movies, had truly arrived.
His superiors had given him a mission before everything fell apart, and he needed to act quickly.
Which meant…
“You’ve fully recovered, right?” Lin Mingmei asked casually while checking the child’s condition.
Qin Yueming nodded.
Lin Mingmei reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of fever medicine from her storage space. She placed a pill into the child’s mouth and carefully fed him a few mouthfuls of water.
This was the most she could do. Whether the child survived now depended entirely on his own strength.
After finishing, Lin Mingmei looked directly at Qin Yueming and spoke seriously.
“You should already know that something unusual happened to your body, right?”
Qin Yueming nodded again.
The moment flames burst from his body and burned all his clothes into ashes, he had thought he was hallucinating.
But after testing it several times while Lin Mingmei was gone, he finally confirmed the truth.
He had awakened a superpower.