When Wen Lan turned around, she saw a man standing beside Wen Che.
He was dressed in camouflage combat fatigues, his broad shoulders and narrow waist forming a powerful inverted triangle.
The camouflage fabric clung tightly to his lean, well—defined torso.
His sharp brows were as imposing as mountain peaks, and his slightly upturned phoenix eyes radiated an icy intensity.
His nose was high and straight, while his thin lips were tightly pressed together. They looked a little dry, the skin slightly chapped.
His jawline was clean and sharply defined, giving him an aloof aura that kept others at a distance.
Compared to the man before her, her brother Wen Che appeared much gentler.
Wen Che looked at Wen Lan, who was digging into a zombie’s chest with blood covering both hands.
His face was full of worry and confusion.
Could his sister have some bizarre hobby?
Why had he never known about it before?
She hadn’t mutated into a zombie herself… had she?
“Brother!”
The man beside him carried an overwhelming presence.
His gaze settled briefly on Wen Lan’s abdomen, a flash of shock crossing his eyes before disappearing just as quickly.
“This is Su Han, my captain.”
“Hello, Captain Su.”
Su Han’s eyes remained fixed on Wen Lan.
She had the distinct feeling of being locked onto by a predator.
“Lanlan, what are you doing?”
Wen Che looked deeply concerned.
There was nothing she wanted to hide from her brother.
“Brother, let’s talk over there.”
“All right.”
Left standing behind them, Su Han frowned slightly.
“Captain, my sister and I need to talk.”
Wen Che assumed his sister was simply feeling embarrassed.
A strange glimmer flashed through Su Han’s eyes.
His awakened ability was psychic power.
As long as he wished, everything within his range was under his awareness.
Wen Lan pulled Wen Che beside an abandoned car.
Only after making sure they were far enough from Su Han did she speak.
“Brother, my awakened ability is perception. I discovered that zombies have these inside their chests.”
She took out the object she had just dug up.
When someone had called her earlier, she had immediately hidden it inside her spatial storage.
“This is…”
“An energy pearl.”
Since her babies absorbed the pearls for her, she had no idea whether other people could absorb them the same way.
“These energy pearls can strengthen awakened abilities!”
“And not every zombie has one!”
Wen Che carefully sensed the pearl before shaking his head.
“I can definitely feel the energy inside it. It’s giving off a scorching aura. Maybe only someone with a fire ability can absorb this one?”
“Then try this one instead!”
She handed him a transparent pearl.
Wen Che’s guess was correct.
The energy pearls inside zombies came in different colors.
Only by absorbing the color that matched one’s own ability could that ability become stronger.
Wen Lan, however, wasn’t restricted in the same way.
She simply placed every pearl into her spatial storage, and the babies absorbed them on their own.
Wen Che crushed the transparent pearl in his hand.
Immediately, its energy flowed through his skin and entered his body.
After awakening, every ability user developed an energy core within themselves, though its location differed from person to person.
Wen Lan could sense that her brother’s energy core was in his chest.
Su Han’s, on the other hand, was located in his brain.
She herself had no energy core.
If she did, then the two babies were her energy core.
Watching her brother’s expression, she knew he had successfully absorbed the energy.
“So it’s true.”
Wen Che could clearly feel his energy core expand.
“I can absorb the transparent energy pearl.”
“Brother, don’t tell anyone about this yet. Let’s collect all the energy pearls from the nearby zombies first.”
Wen Lan’s eyes sparkled.
With her brother helping, gathering them would be much faster.
After all, she was pregnant.
“All right.”
Wen Che glanced back at Su Han.
He had actually wanted to remind Wen Lan that Su Han’s psychic ability allowed him to hear every word they said from this distance.
What Su Han couldn’t detect, however, were the energy pearls hidden inside zombie corpses.
Wen Lan alone could perceive them by sharing the babies’ perception.
The two of them spent the next while digging through every zombie around the building.
“Brother, this one has an energy pearl.”
“Brother, skip this one. There’s nothing inside.”
What had started as the two of them working together gradually became Wen Lan directing while Wen Che did the digging.
After all, Su Han’s team had already eliminated every zombie in the area.
“Great! Great!”
Wen Lan was thrilled with the number of energy pearls they had collected.
However, she also discovered something.
She could only absorb one energy pearl per day.
The babies were probably still too small.
When she placed another pearl into the spatial storage, they no longer absorbed it.
Wen Lan hid very little from her brother.
She even secretly told him about her spatial storage.
If there was only one person left in the world she could trust completely, it was him.
The remaining energy pearls were all stored inside her space for safekeeping.
The only thing she kept secret was her pregnancy.
She still hadn’t figured out how to tell him.
Although Wen Che was usually gentle and rarely lost his temper…
When he did get angry, he was terrifying.
The next morning, Wen Che informed Su Han that Wen Lan’s perception ability could identify energy pearls.
Su Han immediately decided to gather the rest of the team.
Su Han, Zhang Ye, and Song Wen were comrades who had survived life—and—death situations together.
Su Han had even saved Wen Che’s life before.
This time, he had willingly taken a detour to Qinghang City just to help find Wen Che’s sister.
“Brother Han, even your psychic ability couldn’t detect them?”
They had already killed countless zombies over the past several days.
If they had collected every energy pearl, how many would they have by now?
“…”
Su Han’s psychic power wasn’t omnipotent.
It could only detect living creatures.
Strictly speaking, zombies were animated corpses.
He could only sense zombies while they were moving.
“You can only absorb one energy pearl each day. If you try absorbing another before finishing the first, it won’t work and the energy will be wasted.”
“And everyone can absorb different types of energy pearls.”
“For example, I have a water ability, so I can only absorb blue energy pearls.”
“Seriously?”
Zhang Ye exclaimed.
“I absorbed a red one, and now my energy is overflowing. I think I can make my fireballs even bigger!”
He couldn’t hide his excitement.
“I never imagined Wen Lan’s ability could be this useful.”
“So who was the one saying my sister’s ability was useless?”
Wen Che snorted.
“It definitely wasn’t me.”
Zhang Ye immediately denied it.
Song Wen lowered his head guiltily.
Their abilities had been evolving far too slowly compared to the zombies.
Everyone decided to test the different energy pearls.
The transparent pearls could only be absorbed by users with special abilities.
Ji Feng, Wang Hui, Wen Lan, and Su Han were all able to absorb them.
The red pearls belonged to fire users.
Green pearls could only be absorbed by plant manipulators.
Blue pearls were clearly for water ability users.
Su Han intended to report the discovery to their superiors.
“I’ll make sure Wen Lan receives full credit for this.”
Su Han promised.
With such an important contribution, Wen Lan’s status in the safe zone would be completely different.
Wen Che nodded.
That meant she would likely be assigned much better housing once they returned.
But first, they still had a mission.
Their destination was Jiangyang City, the provincial capital.
It was more than two hundred kilometers away.
They all climbed into the vehicles.
Su Han tossed a small bag to Wen Lan.
“…”
She wasn’t exactly familiar with the captain, was she?
Opening the bag, she discovered it was filled with energy pearls.
“You…”
“Su Han has a psychic ability. Anything said within several hundred meters is impossible to hide from him.”
“…”
So Su Han had heard every word she and her brother had said that day.
Her brother had known that all along.
“Su Han is my brother.”
The moment her brother said that, Wen Lan understood.
Her brother trusted Su Han completely.
And she trusted her brother.
“These are for you.”
“As thanks for discovering all this.”
Inside were five transparent energy pearls, each about the size of a quail egg.
Su Han didn’t possess Wen Lan’s perception ability.
He often had to pierce several zombie corpses before finding even one pearl.
“Did Wen Lan really discover this?”
Wang Hui was genuinely shocked.
She had just absorbed an energy pearl herself and immediately felt both her ability and her physical strength improve.
Only then did she realize zombies contained such treasures.
“She did.”
“The captain said that from now on, however many energy pearls each person finds depends on their own ability.”
Of course, if someone found pearls they couldn’t use, they could exchange them with others.
“Even if Wen Lan discovered this, her ability is still pretty useless to us.”
Wang Hui remained dissatisfied.
She still believed Wen Lan was nothing but a burden.
She only had a good brother.
Without him protecting her, she wasn’t strong at all.
Discovering the energy pearls had simply been luck.
Sooner or later, someone else would have found them anyway.
Unlike Wen Lan, Wang Hui had earned her place on the team through her own strength.
“Her perception only reaches ten meters. Other than sensing things, what else can she do? She can’t really help us.”
“The captain’s only keeping her because of Wen Che. Once we get back to the safe zone, she probably won’t be traveling with us anymore.”
Not just anyone could join their squad.
Wang Hui still refused to accept Wen Lan.
Song Wen remained silent, quietly pocketing his energy pearls.
Still…
The captain’s psychic ability couldn’t detect energy pearls.
The convoy consisted of two vehicles.
Zhang Ye rode ahead on his motorcycle, clearing the way.
Ji Cang drove the vehicle in the middle, with Song Wen and Wang Hui riding inside.
Su Han drove the last vehicle.
Wen Che sat in the passenger seat.
Wen Lan sat in the back.
As they traveled along the provincial highway, the occasional zombie would wander onto the road and be taken care of by Zhang Ye.
If they encountered a large horde, Su Han and the others would get out and eliminate them together.
These zombies weren’t particularly fast, making them relatively easy to deal with.
The roads had become cracked and riddled with potholes.
After the zombie outbreak, abandoned vehicles had collided everywhere.
Rain had damaged pipelines, and with no one left to maintain the infrastructure, everything continued to deteriorate.
It hadn’t even been a month, yet cities without people had already fallen into astonishing ruin.
Even driving, they couldn’t move very quickly.
Wen Lan sat quietly in the back seat.
Although her brother was there, the atmosphere still felt strangely oppressive.
Especially with Su Han around.
For some reason, he made her nervous.
Su Han steered with one hand while resting the other on the open window.
To conserve fuel, they kept the air conditioner off.
Perhaps sensing Wen Lan’s unease, Su Han took out his phone and connected it to the car’s Bluetooth.
Before long, soft, soothing music filled the vehicle.
Wen Lan immediately felt the babies in her womb become delighted.
They seemed to love listening to music.
The happiness they felt transformed into energy, which flowed back into her body.
Her fatigue disappeared once again.
Even after staying awake all night, she no longer felt sleepy.
Wen Lan’s eyes lit up as a thought suddenly occurred to her.
So…
Prenatal education really should start as early as possible?