“We don’t have any books left, but what about toilet paper? Or sanitary pads?”
To women, those counted as essential supplies too.
After all, they needed them every month.
Wang Hui looked tempted.
She had already run out.
Still, she had no intention of trading with this woman. She planned to search for them herself.
To her, food was far more important than sanitary pads.
“I don’t need them.”
Right now, sanitary pads were the last thing Wen Lan needed.
Diapers, on the other hand… those were worth considering.
“Then please, have mercy on us. Help us.”
The woman’s voice turned pleading.
Since Wen Lan had just traded bread for books, she assumed Wen Lan was the kind of person who couldn’t bear to refuse others.
People were like that—they always begged the soft—hearted ones.
“I already said I don’t need them. I can’t help you.”
Wen Lan frowned slightly.
Wen Che, however, was very satisfied with her response.
It seemed she had truly taken his words to heart.
“Didn’t you hear her? My sister said she doesn’t need them.”
His gaze turned icy as he looked at the woman, frightening the little girl beside her into shrinking behind her mother’s back.
“Mom, let’s go.”
The little girl tugged at her mother’s hand and took two steps backward, nearly bumping into Su Han.
The moment she looked at him, she burst into tears in fright.
“Get lost.”
Su Han showed no trace of courtesy.
Realizing none of these people were easy to deal with, the woman hurriedly left with her daughter.
Especially Su Han.
Just meeting his eyes made her feel chilled to the bone.
Wen Lan looked at the two men.
Normally, neither of them seemed fierce.
Yet today, they were surprisingly cold and intimidating.
“Brother, weren’t you a little scary just now?”
“If I wasn’t, they wouldn’t have left.”
Wen Che had noticed the little girl trying to steal something.
Wen Lan instinctively rubbed her stomach.
Did her brother dislike children that much?
What would happen if he found out she was carrying two little burdens?
“Hurry up and rest. We’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yes!”
At four o’clock in the morning, the group prepared to depart.
Outside, another car was still parked there—the same family of four from yesterday.
Only now, all four of their tires had been removed.
Vroom—
The roar of Wen Lan’s convoy starting up woke the couple.
“They’re leaving! They actually left this early just so they wouldn’t have to take us with them!”
The woman fumed.
With Wen Lan’s group gone, they had no choice but to abandon their own vehicle.
Traveling along the provincial highway at four in the morning, dawn had yet to fully break.
Even inside the car, they could hear the occasional zombie roar echoing through the darkness outside.
Three hours later…
They had entered Jiangyang Province.
Only a few dozen kilometers remained before they reached Jiangyang City.
As long as they retrieved the equipment from the agricultural base on the outskirts, they could head home.
Suddenly, Su Han’s eyes sharpened.
He had spotted something.
“Move! Faster!”
Grabbing the walkie—talkie, he shouted to the vehicle ahead.
The rumble of the engines had attracted numerous zombies from the surrounding area.
In less than two minutes, Wen Lan heard a barrage of frantic zombie shrieks, their piercing screams ringing painfully in her ears.
“Hold on!”
She immediately fastened her seatbelt.
Zombies began hurling themselves at the vehicles without regard for their own lives.
Filthy blood sprayed everywhere.
Their rotting flesh burst apart on impact, scattering in all directions.
“These zombies… they’re different.”
Wen Lan quickly sensed something unusual.
Ordinary zombies still had relatively tough skin.
But these…
Their internal organs seemed as though they had been decomposing for years.
Even after their flesh exploded apart, they continued moving.
Some had lost entire limbs yet still crawled forward.
Even when Ji Feng chopped off a zombie’s head, the headless body continued writhing.
“How is this possible?”
Several tour buses blocked the highway ahead.
Hundreds of zombies were pouring out from inside them.
They threw themselves forward one after another, smashing through the bus windows.
“Lan!”
Wen Che’s expression tightened.
At that instant, a black dagger floated into the air.
It flashed toward a zombie that had thrust its head through the car window, instantly severing it.
But even without its head, the zombie’s body kept moving.
“Aim for the heart!”
Wen Lan suddenly realized something and shouted.
The black dagger immediately stabbed into the zombie’s chest.
As it withdrew, it carried out a blue energy pearl.
Only after the pearl was removed did the zombie finally go still.
The energy pearl, once only the size of a quail egg…
Had now grown as large as a ping—pong ball.
“The energy pearls have gotten bigger.”
“So the zombies have become stronger too?”
That meant killing them had become far more difficult.
They now had to sever a zombie’s limbs before it would completely lose its mobility.
The sudden appearance of several hundred zombies instantly surrounded all their vehicles.
Two tour buses still blocked the road ahead.
Driving through was impossible.
Reversing was equally impossible.
There was only one option now.
Kill every zombie.
Short knife in hand, Wen Che jumped out of the vehicle.
Any zombie that approached was cut down without hesitation.
Su Han got out as well.
With his current level of psychic power, he could only control the weight of two daggers at once.
Slash—
Everywhere, the air filled with the zombies’ savage roars.
“Brother, left chest!”
“Lower abdomen!”
“The head!”
Almost the instant Wen Lan spoke, Su Han’s telekinetically controlled daggers struck precisely where she indicated.
Each attack extracted an energy pearl.
Wen Lan gave her directions rapidly.
Wen Che and Su Han responded with perfect coordination.
Nearly every zombie died in a single blow.
The two men kept Wen Lan safely between them the entire time.
As Wang Hui fought off zombies, she caught sight of the scene.
Her face darkened immediately.
Both men were busy protecting Wen Lan.
Did they not care whether the rest of the team lived or died?
She kicked a zombie square in the face.
Its bloodshot eyeball burst apart.
Black, filthy blood splattered across her shoes.
Ji Feng noticed and walked over with a grin.
“Nice one, Wang Hui!”
Receiving praise from a teammate made her even happier.
The captain must only be taking such good care of Wen Lan because of Wen Che.
Eventually, the battle came to an end.
The ground was covered with mangled zombie flesh and pools of black blood.
Every step stained their shoes.
Everyone’s clothes were filthy.
Everyone except Wen Lan.
Only her shoes were dirty.
The rest of her remained spotless.
Even the short knife in her hand didn’t have a single drop of blood on it.
It was obvious just how thoroughly she had been protected.
Wang Hui looked down on someone as delicate and burdensome as Wen Lan.
After the zombies were dealt with, no one intended to waste the energy pearls.
Everyone began collecting them one by one.
Wen Lan gathered quite a few herself.
She quietly slipped them into her spatial storage.
Her brother knew about it.
But Su Han always seemed to be watching her.
At first, she didn’t dare pick any up.
Only after his attention shifted elsewhere did she quietly collect three pearls.
She openly kept one while secretly tossing another into her space.
Inside her space, the babies absorbed the energy through it, causing the space to slowly expand once again.
Her perception continued growing stronger.
The babies could also absorb the red crystal beads.
However, after absorbing them, she still couldn’t feel any immediate effect.
Perhaps she would only notice the changes after the energy fed back into her body.
“The vehicles have been damaged too badly by the zombies. We can’t drive them anymore.”
“We’ll travel on foot for now. Let’s see if we can find another usable vehicle along the way.”
Anything in the cars they didn’t urgently need was abandoned.
All the food was packed into backpacks.
The energy pearls they had collected were divided according to everyone’s needs.
“Wen Lan didn’t even kill any zombies! Why should she get a share?”
Wang Hui protested angrily.
She was also able to absorb the transparent energy pearls.
After the distribution, two pearls remained in the bag.
One was transparent.
The other was pink.
“It was Wen Lan who discovered the zombies’ weakness. That’s the only reason we were able to kill them so efficiently,” Wen Che said with a frown.
“Forget it, Brother. I’ll just take the pink one.”
“We’ve all tried absorbing that pink one already.”
“No one can absorb it. It’s probably meant for some special ability.”
“Taking it won’t do you any good.”
Wen Che immediately defended his sister.
“Take both of them.”
He placed the two remaining energy pearls into Wen Lan’s hands.
Everyone else had already received seven pearls each.
“If Wen Lan hadn’t helped us locate the zombies’ weak points just now, none of us would have made it out alive.”
“She has an ability too. She also needs to become stronger.”
“And we’ll definitely need her help locating energy pearls in the future. Otherwise, we’ll waste a lot of time searching for them every time.”
Zhang Ye quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“She wants to level up?”
“While everyone else is absorbing energy pearls and training their bodies, she’s just sitting there reading books!”
“What’s the point of reading?”
“Can it kill zombies? Can it make her stronger?”
“Giving her energy pearls is just a waste.”
“She doesn’t even try to improve herself, yet she still takes up resources.”
Wang Hui shook her head as she looked at Wen Lan.
Wen Che’s face turned as dark as thunder.
“That’s enough.”
Su Han frowned and spoke coldly.
“Don’t say things like that again. Since we’re a team, we should work together.”
Wen Lan hadn’t expected Su Han to stand up for her.
It seemed he really was on very good terms with her brother.