The sincerity in Qin Yueming’s words would have moved almost anyone, but Lin Mingmei felt neither touched nor comforted by them.
It was not that she failed to understand what he meant. What she truly could not understand was how someone could trust another person so easily.
Did this man truly realize that the apocalypse had already begun?
In a world where order had completely collapsed, people who trusted others too quickly usually met miserable ends.
Lin Mingmei hesitated for a moment, clearly wanting to say something. Qin Yueming noticed the subtle change in her expression almost immediately.
As they walked back upstairs, he spoke first.
“Is there something you want to tell me?”
Lin Mingmei carefully organized her thoughts before finally asking,
“Do you really understand what kind of world this has become now?”
Qin Yueming raised a brow slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“The world has already fallen apart. In a situation like this, you shouldn’t trust people so easily. You never know what someone might be hiding behind a smile.”
A faint smile appeared on Qin Yueming’s face.
Looking down at Lin Mingmei’s messy short hair and her unusually serious expression, he suddenly felt the urge to pat her head.
And he did.
Lin Mingmei instantly dodged away, her face filled with displeasure.
What is wrong with this man?
Why is he suddenly touching me?
The smile on Qin Yueming’s lips gradually faded. After a brief silence, he asked softly,
“I just realized I never asked your name.”
“Lin Mingmei. ‘Lin’ as in forest, ‘Mingmei’ as in bright and radiant.”
“A beautiful name,” Qin Yueming said quietly with a nod.
Then he straightened slightly and added,
“Let me formally introduce myself too. Qin Yueming. Soldier. Twenty-eight years old.”
Lin Mingmei stared at him speechlessly.
Why is he introducing himself so seriously all of a sudden?
After a brief pause, Qin Yueming continued in a calm but firm voice,
“I don’t trust people easily. But I trust you.”
Lin Mingmei froze.
A strong wave of guilt instantly flooded her chest, forcing her to lower her eyes.
She could not bring herself to meet his gaze.
Qin Yueming noticed her sudden silence, and his heart sank slightly.
They had been complete strangers before last night, yet she had risked her life to save him and even gone out of her way to protect that child.
And in return, he had…
He wanted to repay what he owed her, but she clearly wished to keep her distance from him.
For the first time in Qin Yueming’s life, someone was openly avoiding him.
Still, he was not the type to shamelessly force himself into someone else’s life. Besides, he still had military duties to complete.
“Lin Mingmei,” he said quietly, “about what happened last night… thank you.”
He walked to the desk, picked up a piece of paper and a pen, then wrote down his phone number neatly.
“I’m leaving my contact information here. If you ever need help in the future, contact me anytime.”
He paused briefly before continuing.
“I still have a mission to complete, so I’ll be leaving now. Please take care of yourself.”
By the time he finished speaking, they had already reached the apartment entrance.
Qin Yueming gave her one last deep look before turning around and walking away without hesitation.
Lin Mingmei remained silent the entire time.
The moment his footsteps disappeared down the corridor, she picked up the paper with his number on it, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it straight into the trash.
Within two days, electricity, running water, and communication networks would completely collapse.
What use would a phone number even have then?
Besides, she had no desire to meet Qin Yueming again.
Whenever she was around him, she felt awkward and uneasy.
Most likely because she had stolen his virginity and absorbed his water ability.
If she had not interfered with his fate, Qin Yueming, with his military background and natural talent, would have eventually become an extremely powerful triple-ability user.
In her previous life, she had heard rumors about a terrifying triple-attribute powerhouse who ruled the northern Chaoyang Survivor Base.
That man was said to be cold, ruthless, and overwhelmingly powerful. Across more than a dozen survivor bases, no one dared provoke him.
Whenever Gao Lang and his followers spoke about that person, their expressions were always filled with envy despite their dismissive tone.
Gao Lang had even arrogantly declared that once his fire ability reached Rank 5, he would challenge that legendary powerhouse himself.
Could that person have originally been Qin Yueming?
Lin Mingmei instinctively shook her head.
Impossible.
Although Qin Yueming had already awakened three abilities in this timeline, his personality was nothing like the rumors described.
When he cared for the seizing child earlier, his movements had been careful and gentle.
He was fundamentally soft-hearted.
The thought of the dead child immediately caused Lin Mingmei’s chest to ache again.
That had been an earth ability…
“Master, do you finally understand what regret feels like now?” Heiqiu suddenly complained inside her mind. “I already told you to kill him earlier, but you hesitated!”
Lin Mingmei frowned sharply.
“There was a trained soldier standing right beside me. Did you expect me to casually kill a child in front of him?”
“So what if he was there?” Heiqiu replied dismissively. “His fire ability is only Rank 1 right now. Even if you couldn’t kill him directly, he still wouldn’t have been able to kill you.”
Lin Mingmei almost wanted to throw it against the wall.
Qin Yueming was an elite soldier whose combat instincts had been forged through real battlefield experience.
Even with her enhanced strength, her chances of winning against him in close combat were still very low.
“Master, you’re just making excuses for yourself!” Heiqiu shouted angrily before falling silent.
Lin Mingmei ignored it completely.
She was exhausted.
Before lying down to rest, she set an alarm for exactly four hours later.
There was still too much she needed to do tonight.
If her memories were correct, Gao Lang’s fire ability should be nearing its awakening point around this time.
She needed to return to the university campus, locate him, make sure he survived long enough, then harvest his fire core the moment his ability awakened.
Lin Mingmei quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The moment the alarm rang, her eyes snapped open instantly.
Without hesitation, she slammed her hand down and silenced it immediately.
In the apocalypse, letting an alarm continue ringing was practically inviting zombies to your door.
After changing into a clean tracksuit from her storage space, Lin Mingmei grabbed her framing hammer and slipped quietly into the night.
The sun had already set.
The weather had changed dramatically.
Unlike the unbearable heat during the day, freezing winds now howled through the streets, cold enough to pierce straight through the bones.
Lin Mingmei shivered slightly.
Although her storage space contained thick winter coats, she deliberately chose not to wear them.
A little cold helped keep the mind sharp.
Besides, lighter clothing allowed her to move faster.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, she swung her framing hammer downward with brutal force.
Crunch.
A zombie’s skull shattered instantly.
Lin Mingmei crouched beside the corpse and stirred through the remains with the tip of her hammer.
To her surprise, she found a tiny white crystal no larger than a grain of rice.
“This is actually a crystal nucleus?” she muttered uncertainly.
“Give it to me immediately!” Heiqiu shouted excitedly.
Lin Mingmei frowned.
Why were ordinary zombies already producing crystal nuclei this early?
If this phenomenon was becoming widespread, then zombie evolution was advancing much faster than expected.
That would make survival even harder for humanity.
Then again…
What did that have to do with her?
Lin Mingmei casually handed the tiny crystal nucleus over to Heiqiu.
“Why is it so small?” she asked.
“My calculations suggest this zombie completed an ability awakening at the exact moment it died, much like that child earlier,” Heiqiu explained greedily. “That made it slightly stronger than an ordinary zombie. If you had allowed it to continue evolving, the crystal nucleus would have grown larger over time.”
Then it added regretfully,
“You really should’ve captured it and raised it like livestock until the nucleus matured.”
Lin Mingmei almost rolled her eyes.
Raise zombies like livestock?
What kind of insane idea was that?
Was she supposed to feed them living humans?
She had absolutely no interest in such ridiculous methods.
In the future, the streets would be overflowing with evolved zombies anyway. There would be no shortage of crystal nuclei to collect.
Without another word, Lin Mingmei tightened her grip on the framing hammer and charged toward the next wandering zombie.
Unfortunately, that one had no crystal nucleus at all.
During the next ten minutes, she killed more than twenty zombies in succession, yet only obtained that single rice-sized crystal.
By the time she finally reached the university entrance, she was leaning heavily against the security office wall, breathing hard.
Killing that many zombies continuously had already pushed her stamina to the limit.
And according to her memories, the university campus itself would be far worse.
When the apocalypse began, countless students had been gathered inside classrooms and dormitories. Entire groups had transformed one after another.
The number of zombies inside the campus would be terrifying.
Finding Gao Lang there would not be easy.