Ruan Tao sneaked out of Li Yudong’s reserved escape district, carrying the latest spatial gem Bo Yutong had given her.
It was worth mentioning:
Ordinary portable storage spaces could not be stacked. Otherwise, if one space could contain another, all spaces could become infinitely large.
Only a special kind of spatial gem could act as a “stackable container.”
It could hold another space inside it, or be placed into another space itself, making it far rarer than standard large spaces.
The gem Bo Yutong had brought back for her was exactly this type.
Its capacity wasn’t enormous—roughly the size of an 18-inch suitcase.
But for a hamster to store food, it was excessively extravagant.
Ruan Tao stuffed in the bracelets she had scavenged from Li Yudong’s home, and she also asked Li Yudong to help buy a few sets of clothes, which she washed and neatly stored inside.
Water and food were necessities, along with some miscellaneous crystals—essentially the currency of this world.
Prices in this era were vastly different from what Ruan Tao was familiar with. She couldn’t directly convert the crystal value into RMB and could only roughly estimate.
Crystals came in orange, purple, blue, green, and white, ranked from highest to lowest value.
Li Yudong gave her a blue crystal, six green crystals, and a small handful of white crystals.
A9 District was large, but fortunately, the Jinghua Avenue Ruan Tao had arranged to meet Lu Yingzhu at wasn’t far from the Administrative District.
And it was close to the exotic beast trader Ba Ye.
Xue Xiao naturally recognized the place. He ran alongside Ruan Tao, and they soon reached the street.
Originally, Ruan Tao hadn’t known she could control her human-form time and had told Gao Yang it would be noon.
Now, it was barely past eleven.
She had nearly three hours of human time stored up, and after two in the afternoon, she couldn’t turn human again.
Ruan Tao didn’t worry about wasting time. She found a restroom nearby, returned to her human form, put on clothes, and placed Xue Xiao back into the beast stone in her pocket before stepping out.
She hadn’t even reached the vicinity of No. 103 when she spotted a familiar figure in the distance.
He was nearly two meters tall, with dark red, shoulder-length hair spiking wildly. Only a strand above his left ear was braided and hung down, fastened with a fine metal ring set with a ruby at the tip.
He wore a black tank top and loose cargo pants, revealing muscular arms. A sheen of fine sweat glimmered over his bronze skin in the sunlight.
Golden vertical pupils gleamed like a venomous snake, exuding a dangerous, icy light.
It was Gao Yang.
He stood in front of a supermarket, swaggering while eating a post-apocalyptic version of oden.
It was the noon meal period, and this street, close to the Upper-Class Residential area, had several rare post-apocalyptic eateries and small supermarkets. Compared to elsewhere, it counted as bustling.
Ruan Tao froze in her tracks and spun around to run.
After a few steps, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air at her feet.
A skewer, originally meant for oden, whizzed past her foot and embedded straight into the ground in front of her.
Ruan Tao: …Is this a threat?
She turned her head and saw the towering, muscular figure striding toward her, giving her a cold look.
His deep voice was chilling: “You’re Mr. Lu’s sister?”
Ruan Tao quickly said, “What Mr. Lu? You’ve got the wrong person.”
Gao Yang narrowed his eyes. “Fair-skinned, plump face, weak and foolish, poor physical constitution. Clearly never suffered hardship.”
Ruan Tao: “…Is this how Lu Yingzhu describes me to his subordinates?”
Gao Yang: “You won’t find another like her in the world.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Ruan Tao tried to put on a colder expression than him. “You’re District Chief Lu’s subordinate, right? Before causing trouble in Mr. Bo’s residential area, did you ask him for permission?”
Gao Yang raised an eyebrow. “You put on quite a show.”
Ruan Tao said nothing.
In her hamster form, she hadn’t felt the heat. Now, as a human, the weather outside was scorching. She felt it must be over thirty degrees, and the sun burned painfully on her skin.
Her head spun, and she felt she was close to heatstroke.
“Choose: find a place to discuss business, or keep wasting time chatting nonsense with me,” Gao Yang said. “Pick one.”
Ruan Tao: “……”
This wasn’t a ‘discuss business’ expression—this was a ‘kill me’ expression!
She had subtly asked—did you ask District Chief Lu for permission?
Gao Yang didn’t answer directly.
It seemed likely he hadn’t even relayed messages for Hamster Tao. Listening carefully but refusing to help? This guy must get scolded by Lu Yingzhu every day for being useless.
Gao Yang patiently stared at her, without rushing her.
His presence alone was so overwhelming that nearby shops were already losing business.
Ruan Tao felt uneasy the moment she saw him.
Gao Yang was the type who naturally drew attention, standing so openly in such a place—essentially shouting with a megaphone, “I’m here in your territory, Bo Yutong!”
Lu Yingzhu wasn’t foolish like Ling Xing; he wouldn’t put her in a difficult situation like this.
Moreover, sometimes Gao Yang’s mind was even sharper than Lu Yingzhu’s.
He was clearly doing this deliberately, just to make her uncomfortable.
Ruan Tao sighed helplessly and asked, “Why don’t you want me to appear in front of my brother?”
Gao Yang smirked. “Because he’s been doing well while you weren’t around.”
Ruan Tao: “……”
The words stabbed at her heart. She almost wanted to cover her chest and cry right there.
Fortunately, she was always good at making light of hardship.
Though her heart hurt, she forced a smile, wiped the sweat from her brow, and retorted, “Are you worried about some third party sneaking in? Afraid I, the original, will steal your husband?”
Gao Yang: “……” This was a strange tactic.
“What are you worried about? We both truly love him,” Ruan Tao said. “If he got worse after I appeared, I would leave voluntarily.”
Gao Yang scoffed and clenched the skewer in his hand.
Before Ruan Tao could react, the skewer shot toward her ankle at incredible speed—
At that instant, Ruan Tao’s mind froze: was that earlier warning actually aimed at her foot?
She didn’t have time to dodge, but a small, snow-white, fluffy blur moved faster than the skewer.
Ruan Tao heard a soft “ao wu” sound—like a tiny kitten trying to roar like a lion.
In the next second, Xue Xiao had snatched the skewer and crouched by her foot, rubbing his furry little head against her intact ankle.
The little snow leopard spat the skewer to the ground, his blue-gray eyes fixed on Gao Yang.
Gao Yang stared back.
Ruan Tao felt the little creature trembling against her ankle.
She suppressed a laugh, picked up the little fellow, stroked his fur, and calmly looked at Gao Yang: “I don’t get it. What exactly are you trying to do?”
Gao Yang lowered his gaze. “I’m doing it for his sake.”
“For my brother?” Ruan Tao asked. “Do you think he’ll appreciate it? If he knew you were bullying me like this, what do you think he’d do?”
Gao Yang ignored her, simply moving his fingers.
Many civilians had powers, but people like Bo Yutong—District Chief-level—were versatile, capable of using nearly every type of power.
Gao Yang belonged to that “one below heaven, thousands above earth” level, mastering multiple major systems.
Among them, he excelled in the mental and fire systems.
Ruan Tao saw a small flame ignite at his fingertip.
—In A District, Upper-Class Residents were prohibited from using powers to fight—it was illegal.
“I advise you to stop,” Ruan Tao said with a smile, patting the beast stone to recall Xue Xiao. “If my brother sees this, you’re done for.”
“He won’t see,” Gao Yang raised his finger.
The flame shot straight at Ruan Tao’s ankle like an arrow.
Before it reached her, a foot stomped it out, extinguishing it instantly.
The only trace was a tiny charred mark on the ground, barely noticeable.
“You won’t see?”
The person who stomped out the flame had a grim expression, voice terrifyingly cold: “Gao Yang, are you insane? Doing these things behind my back?”
Gao Yang froze.
Almost immediately, he reacted, dropping to one knee and lowering his voice: “Mr. Lu.”
Ruan Tao shrugged and said to Gao Yang: “I warned you. You didn’t listen.”
Lu Yingzhu turned, tapped Ruan Tao’s head with a curled finger: “Next time, if I hadn’t arrived, that foot of yours would be finished!”
Ruan Tao: “……”
Lu Yingzhu glared at her for a few seconds, teeth clenched.
She covered her head, feeling aggrieved: “I trusted you, didn’t I? And the scolding… isn’t my mom your mom?”
Before she could finish, Lu Yingzhu pulled her tightly into his arms.
His strength was immense; Ruan Tao felt as if her tiny waist might be crushed, so she patted his back to signal him to ease up a little.
In reality, Lu Yingzhu had already restrained himself.
His physical strength far exceeded Ruan Tao’s understanding; if he hadn’t consciously restrained, she would have been crushed.
This embrace also made Lu Yingzhu notice—Ruan Tao’s body had not changed at all since before the apocalypse.
Soft, fragile, and yet capable of having her ribs and internal organs crushed with a little force.
Lu Yingzhu inhaled sharply, forcing himself to control his emotions.
He hadn’t released Ruan Tao when a familiar voice called from across the street: “Ah Zhu?”
Lu Yingzhu released his sister, held her wrist with one hand, and looked toward the voice: “Shan Huai? What are you—”
He froze mid-sentence.
Two people stood across the street.
Ruan Tao felt like she might faint from the heat, but the two across the street seemed entirely unaffected.
They wore the Regional Chief’s uniform, black military attire from head to toe, including boots covering their calves.
Both were tall, with impressive builds, wearing the uniform perfectly.
Ruan Tao was so hot that her vision blurred. She could barely make out anything.
Fortunately, Lu Yingzhu was radiating slight cool air.
She leaned on him, squinting.
Finally, she could see the faces of the two men clearly.
One looked at them and smiled, calling out, “Ah Zhu,” a face vaguely familiar to her.
As for the other…
Wasn’t that Bo Yutong, who had said he was going to C76 today?!