“Stop yelling already, it’s not like anyone wants to follow you!” one of the girls outside shouted back without the slightest fear. “We’re all classmates here. Earlier, you locked the door and left us to die, that was already disgusting enough. And now you want to chase us away too? What kind of people are you?”
“Exactly! If that gentleman driving the van and those two students hadn’t saved us earlier, we would’ve all died at the hands of those zombies!”
“How shameless can you be? You won’t save people yourselves, and you won’t even let others do it either.”
Several boys were still guarding the entrance, while the girls crowded around the doorway, attacking Luo Xinxin from every direction with sharp words.
The accusations sounded strangely familiar to Lin Mingmei, and hearing them made her feel immensely satisfied. Especially when she saw the ugly expressions on Luo Xinxin and Zhang Rui’s faces, dark enough to rival the bottom of a burnt pot.
If gathering in large groups did not attract zombies so easily, Lin Mingmei would have happily let these girls stand there arguing with Luo Xinxin for three days and nights straight.
“Zhang Rui, let one representative come in to talk. Tell everyone else to disperse. If they keep crowding here and more zombies show up later, I won’t be responsible for saving them.”
Zhang Rui reluctantly went to the door to negotiate. Soon after, she returned with two girls.
The moment Luo Xinxin saw them, her face darkened even further.
“Why are the two of you here?”
“We didn’t come for you,” one of the girls replied coldly. “We came for Lin Mingmei.”
Only then did Lin Mingmei recognize them.
One was Wang Ting, a publicity officer from the Student Union. The other was He Minjun, vice president of the track club. Both girls were famous beauties at school, practically campus goddesses.
Still, they had only ever exchanged the occasional glance in the hallways. They were nowhere near close friends.
So why were they suddenly looking for her?
Noticing Lin Mingmei’s puzzled expression, He Minjun coughed lightly before speaking.
“Lin Mingmei, besides you and your group, there’s another very capable gentleman with you too, right?”
Lin Mingmei nodded.
“Where is he?”
“He’s outside helping lure the zombies away for you people.”
Embarrassment briefly flashed across He Minjun’s face, leaving her momentarily speechless.
Wang Ting quickly stepped in.
“We saw everything yesterday. Both you and that gentleman are amazing. Not only can you protect yourselves, you can save other people too.”
“And?” Lin Mingmei raised an eyebrow.
Wang Ting smiled faintly.
“As the saying goes, unity is strength. In times like these, only by sticking together can everyone survive. So, we wanted to invite you to join our group.”
“Join your group?”
Lin Mingmei was genuinely surprised, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.
Back in her previous life, she and Gao Lang had desperately tried to join groups like these countless times, only to be rejected over and over because of the scars covering her face and body.
Yet now, these people were actively inviting her instead.
“Who do you think you are? Nobody wants to join your stupid group!” Luo Xinxin suddenly screamed. “That capable gentleman you’re talking about belongs to me! His job is to protect me only. Why would he care about the rest of you? Get lost already!”
Wang Ting looked stunned.
“Yours?”
Gao Lang hurriedly stepped forward to explain.
“That gentleman’s surname is Qin. Uncle Luo sent him specifically to protect Xinxin, so… I’m afraid we can’t join you.”
“I see…”
Wang Ting looked thoughtful for a moment before turning toward Lin Mingmei again, her smile becoming gentler.
“Mingmei, what about you?”
The way she casually changed from “Lin Mingmei” to “Mingmei” instantly made them sound far more familiar.
“Lin Mingmei isn’t going with you either!” Luo Xinxin interrupted again, aggressively staking her claim.
That was simply the kind of person she was.
Even if she did not want something herself, she refused to let anyone else have it.
“Luo Xinxin, you’re not Mingmei, what right do you have to decide for her?” He Minjun snapped impatiently.
As she spoke, she glanced at Gao Lang with obvious ridicule.
“Gao Lang, since you love staying beside Luo Xinxin so much, then let Mingmei leave. It’ll save everyone a lot of trouble.”
Gao Lang’s expression immediately darkened, but he said nothing.
He Minjun walked straight over and hooked her arm around Lin Mingmei’s.
“Mingmei, we’ve met before at the track club, remember? Let me tell you something, men are unreliable. With your abilities now, you can absolutely build your own future.”
Lin Mingmei: “…”
“Mingmei, don’t listen to her nonsense,” Gao Lang said anxiously. “Those people definitely have bad intentions. You barely know them. They could sell you out and you wouldn’t even notice.”
And so, while Wang Ting and Luo Xinxin argued fiercely on one side, Gao Lang and He Minjun started quarreling on the other.
Lin Mingmei truly wished she could pull out a bag of sunflower seeds from her spatial storage and sit there cracking them open while enjoying the drama.
Just as the situation descended into complete chaos, Ke Haiyang entered with another boy.
Seeing the scene before him, he immediately rushed over to mediate.
After finally calming everyone down, Ke Haiyang turned toward Lin Mingmei.
“The zombies outside have been dealt with, but Brother Qin still hasn’t returned.”
Luo Xinxin immediately panicked.
“You people are too much! If something happens to Brother Yueming, I’ll never forgive any of you!”
Qin Yueming was her only hope of escaping Jiangbai City.
If something really happened to him, she genuinely had no idea how she would ever make it home.
Thinking of that terrifying possibility, Luo Xinxin instantly burst into loud sobs.
The noise gave Lin Mingmei a headache.
Frowning, she coldly warned, “Keep crying and you’ll attract the zombies back here.”
The crying stopped immediately.
Luo Xinxin’s face flushed deep red with humiliation.
“Ke Haiyang, get these people out of here. Do they want to attract another zombie horde by gathering around like this? I’m going to look for Qin Yueming.”
After giving her instructions, Lin Mingmei casually patted the dust off herself and headed outside.
Following the direction Qin Yueming had driven toward earlier, she did not walk long before she spotted him running back toward her while panting heavily.
“Why did you come out here?” Qin Yueming grabbed her wrist at once. “Go back quickly!”
Before Lin Mingmei could even react, he dragged her toward the classroom building.
She was completely dumbfounded.
Instinctively, she tried to pull her hand back, but she worried that using too much force might accidentally send him flying.
Because of that moment of hesitation, Qin Yueming had already dragged her dozens of meters away.
“Alright, I think they stopped chasing us,” he said after glancing behind him and confirming there were no zombies following.
Only then did he finally stop.
Lin Mingmei felt conflicted.
“Right, why did you come out here? Did everything back there get resolved?” Qin Yueming asked.
Lin Mingmei still felt conflicted.
Following her gaze downward, Qin Yueming finally realized he was still holding her hand.
It was as though he had been struck by lightning.
He released her instantly, his entire face turning red with embarrassment.
“Th-that… I’m sorry. Earlier, I…”
Lin Mingmei quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
At least he still had some sense.
If he had continued holding on, she really might have thrown him away by force. And if he got injured because of it, Luo Xinxin would definitely nag her to death afterward.
“Classmate Lin, I really didn’t mean anything just now…” Qin Yueming awkwardly tucked the hand that had grabbed hers behind his back, clenching it tightly while desperately trying to explain himself. “I was just in a hurry…”
Lin Mingmei did not care about his explanation at all.
Her attention was focused somewhere else entirely.
“Where’s the vehicle?”
“Hm?”
“The vehicle you drove away earlier. Where is it?”
They had spent half the day searching for fuel and a usable vehicle, hadn’t they?
Only then did Qin Yueming realize what she was asking.
“There were too many zombies. I couldn’t drive it back safely, so I had no choice but to leave it there for now. Once the zombies disperse, we can go retrieve it.”
“Oh…”
Lin Mingmei nodded to show she understood.
Meanwhile, deep inside, she was seriously considering whether she should secretly sneak over there herself, stash the vehicle into her space, and make absolutely sure not even a single extra resource was left behind for anyone else.