Just as everyone was about to raise their hands to vote, the entire wall suddenly shook.
The floor beneath their feet trembled violently, throwing everyone off balance.
Chunks of plaster crashed down from the ceiling, while windows in the distance cracked before shattering across the floor.
“An earthquake!” Ji Feng shouted.
Everyone hurriedly rushed outside.
Cracks spread across the walls as the building swayed dangerously.
“Lanlan!”
Wen Che tried to rush over and grab Wen Lan, but a collapsing section of the wall fell between them, separating the siblings.
“Get outside first!”
Everyone scrambled toward the exit.
Rumble…
Outside, the rain was still pouring.
Wen Lan fully activated her perception ability. Every falling brick seemed to move in slow motion, allowing her to dodge each one with uncanny precision.
The earth continued to quake violently as she sprinted into the street.
Compared to the zombies, the natural disaster now felt even more terrifying.
A massive fissure split open across the road.
Old abandoned cars tumbled into the gaping crack.
Roar! Roar!
The earthquake had agitated the zombies, making them even more active.
They sniffed the air, instantly locking onto the scent of living humans.
Their senses had become even sharper.
Roar!
Squelch!
Seeing such a horrifying scene, Zhang Meng’s face turned deathly pale.
Her fingers went limp as she shrank into a corner, completely at a loss.
Not everyone had the courage to face a catastrophe like this.
An earthquake.
A torrential downpour.
Zombies…
As she watched the zombies charging toward her, she instinctively activated her ability.
She was terrified of dying.
When people were overwhelmed by fear, their minds simply shut down.
Self—preservation took over.
“Damn it!”
“Zhang Meng!”
This was beyond frustrating!
As soon as the mist spread, everyone else’s vision was obscured.
They instantly lost contact with one another.
The earthquake had already left the ground littered with rubble and cracks. One careless step could send someone falling into a sinkhole.
Thud!
A chunk of broken concrete slammed into Wang Hui’s arm.
Her speed ability was practically crippled inside the fog.
Running too fast, she crashed into an abandoned car.
A jagged piece of metal sliced deeply into her leg.
Blood immediately poured out.
Wang Hui’s face turned ghostly white.
For the first time, she truly felt death closing in.
Was she really going to die here?
Would she finally be free of worrying about her parents and younger brother?
The smell of fresh blood stimulated the zombies.
Following the scent, they charged straight toward her.
Roar!
Wang Hui desperately swung her knife at them.
But both her arm and leg were injured.
Rain.
Fog.
No one could see anyone else.
No one around her knew what was happening.
Except for Wen Lan, who could perceive everything.
Wen Lan grabbed Wang Hui and, with a single slash of her military dagger, cleanly severed a zombie’s head.
The head rolled across the ground.
The zombie’s icy blood splattered across Wang Hui’s face.
Just a moment earlier…
Just a split second…
She had nearly been bitten.
She could still smell the rotten stench from the zombie’s mouth.
A wave of delayed terror washed over her.
She had almost died.
“Can you still move?”
Hearing that familiar voice—
The voice she had always found annoying—
Wen Lan.
Standing there with a flowerpot hanging from her chest and a military dagger in hand.
Normally she looked so slight and delicate.
Yet at this moment…
She seemed unbelievably dependable.
The same Wen Lan whom Wang Hui had always looked down on.
The same Wen Lan whose ability she had mocked as useless.
At that moment, Wang Hui’s emotions became indescribably complicated.
“Hiss…”
She frowned as rain streamed down both of their faces.
Her leg was still trapped beneath the abandoned car.
Slash!
Wen Lan dispatched two more zombies before swiftly digging the energy beads out of their bodies in just a few seconds.
Through her perception, she sensed more and more zombies converging.
If they didn’t leave now, they’d be trapped.
Gripping the car with both hands, Wen Lan actually lifted it.
“Get out! I can’t hold it for long!”
Even Wen Lan was shocked by her own strength.
She could actually lift a sedan by herself now.
Wang Hui crawled free, but her injured leg wouldn’t support her weight.
“Just go.”
“Leave me.”
“I can’t move my leg.”
She frowned.
Of course she wanted to survive.
But she didn’t want to drag someone else down.
She had always relied only on herself.
And she refused to become someone else’s burden.
“Get on.”
“Stop talking.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“How can I let you?”
“You’re pregnant.”
Wang Hui frowned.
More than anything, her pride simply couldn’t accept it.
She couldn’t believe Wen Lan was actually saving her.
She couldn’t believe the woman she’d always despised…
The woman she’d thought was nothing but dead weight…
Had just saved her life.
She killed zombies with clean, decisive strikes.
One slash was enough to take off a zombie’s head.
That seemingly frail body had even lifted a car.
“Quit wasting time.”
“If you want to live, come with me.”
Wen Lan’s tone wasn’t particularly gentle.
If anything, she sounded impatient.
Yet to Wang Hui…
That voice…
That moment…
She knew she’d never forget it for the rest of her life.
“…”
Wang Hui climbed onto Wen Lan’s back.
“I’ll remember this.”
“I owe you.”
She gritted her teeth.
How could she not want to live?
Ever since her perception ability evolved, Wen Lan could sense other people’s emotions.
Although Wang Hui’s words were always harsh, her heart was surprisingly harmless.
On the other hand…
That girl Zhang Meng looked like nothing more than an ordinary recent high school graduate.
Yet she always seemed intent on dragging Wen Lan down with her.
The moment Zhang Meng had released the mist, Wen Lan had sensed exactly what she was thinking.
She only cared about saving herself.
Carrying Wang Hui on her back, Wen Lan didn’t feel tired at all.
She could clearly sense every zombie around them.
But Wang Hui couldn’t see a thing.
Among the crowd, one bright light stood out.
It was Xia Mo’s glowing orb, which could inflict a certain amount of damage on zombies.
“Wen Lan!”
Xia Mo shouted through the crowd.
She couldn’t find Wen Lan anywhere.
All she could see were zombies pouring in from every direction.
“Xia Mo! Go!”
Wen Che searched frantically for Wen Lan but couldn’t find her.
Spotting Xia Mo by the light, he hurriedly pulled her away first.
“There are too many zombies.”
The earthquake had shaken countless zombies out of the buildings where they had been trapped.
Even with smashed skulls and brains spilling out, as long as the energy bead inside wasn’t removed, they could still move.
Some zombies dragged their intestines behind them as they staggered through the rain.
With Wang Hui on her back and a military dagger in hand, Wen Lan carved a bloody path forward.
She had never killed so many zombies before.
By now, she had gone numb.
Rustle…
Without Wen Lan noticing, He Shou Wu quietly extended one of its vines.
Like a tiny vacuum, it extracted the energy beads from the zombies one by one, stringing them along its vine.
Whew…
After running who knew how far with Wang Hui on her back, Wen Lan finally found a building that hadn’t collapsed.
She hurried up to the second floor.
Using his psychic power, Su Han had already confirmed that Wen Lan was safe and memorized the general direction she had gone.
Together with Zhang Ye, he blocked the endless stream of pursuing zombies.
“Move!”
Su Han shouted urgently.
More and more zombies were pouring in.
“Where the hell are all these zombies coming from?” Zhang Ye cursed.
His fire ability was almost useless in this torrential rain.
“Brother Zhang! Brother Zhang, save me!”
Zhang Meng clung tightly behind Zhang Ye.
Clutching a knife, she stared at the sea of zombies as though trapped in a nightmare.
Su Han and the others led the group away first.
They had to shake off the zombies before anything else.
“Don’t use your ability again unless I tell you to!”
Zhang Ye barked.
Zhang Meng hurriedly nodded.
If she hadn’t suddenly activated her mist ability, everyone wouldn’t have been separated.
Nor would they have ended up surrounded by zombies one by one.
Meanwhile…
Wen Lan brought Wang Hui into an apartment inside a residential building.
The staircase had cracked but hadn’t collapsed.
She shut the apartment door behind them.
Then casually dumped Wang Hui onto the sofa.
Suppressing the pain, Wang Hui watched as the rainwater washed her own blood across Wen Lan’s back.
Her face grew even paler.
Wen Lan searched one of the bedrooms and found several changes of clothes along with a first aid kit.
“Bandage yourself.”
Then she turned and entered another bedroom.
From inside her jacket, she took out the now surprisingly heavy He Shou Wu.
One pitch—black vine was covered with energy beads of every color, glittering brilliantly.
…
Wen Lan plucked every energy bead from the vine and stored them inside her spatial dimension.
Then she checked on the twins in her womb.
They were doing just fine.
Remembering her earlier theory…
She took out a small knife.
After hesitating for a moment, she steeled herself and cut her fingertip.
A drop of blood fell onto He Shou Wu’s vine.
The wound on her finger healed instantly.
After absorbing her blood, the plant, which had previously borne only one tiny flower, sprouted a second blossom beside it.
Through their connection, Wen Lan sensed He Shou Wu’s emotions.
“Once every few days is enough.”
Cutting herself every day felt a little too much like some cult raising an evil creature.
The main reason was that Wen Lan’s blood was overflowing with vitality.
He Shou Wu was originally a medicinal plant that nourished blood and vital energy.
Naturally, it loved anything rich in those qualities.
But the blood energy produced by He Shou Wu was absorbed by the babies, who then returned it to Wen Lan at double the amount.
Her blood now carried He Shou Wu’s own life essence.
That was why He Shou Wu regarded Wen Lan as one of its own.
The more it drank her blood, the more attached it became to her.
After tidying up He Shou Wu, Wen Lan slipped it back into its cup holder.
Its vines could extend and retract freely.
That was actually very convenient.
Otherwise, she’d eventually have to carry an increasingly enormous flowerpot while fighting zombies, which would look rather ridiculous.
Once she finished, Wen Lan returned to the living room.
Wang Hui had already bandaged herself.
Hopefully, the wounds wouldn’t become infected.
Wen Lan never believed in making herself suffer.
Mistreating herself meant mistreating the babies in her womb.
She took a self—heating hot pot out of her spatial dimension and sat down to enjoy it.
Across from her, Wang Hui stared at the dry piece of bread in her own hands.
She didn’t even have a sip of water.
Meanwhile, Wen Lan happily ate her steaming hot pot, taking bites of a Country Style braised chicken drumstick between mouthfuls.
It smelled incredible.
Wang Hui could only watch.
The fact that Wen Lan had saved her life and helped her find shelter was already more than enough.
She had no right to ask for anything else.
But…
That hot pot smelled unbelievably good.
So good that her mouth involuntarily filled with saliva.
“Thank you for today.”
“I owe you my life.”
“Instead of thanking me, shouldn’t you apologize?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I underestimated you before.”
Wen Lan shook her head.
Wang Hui was just a little too sharp—tongued.
Sensing the guilt radiating from her, Wen Lan decided not to say anything more.
Wang Hui was the type who couldn’t hide her feelings.
Whatever she thought, she said.
“It’s fine.”
Wen Lan truly didn’t mind.