Xie Anze, unconscious, felt as if he were lying in a blazing furnace, his body burning from the inside out with searing pain. He breathed rapidly, yet it felt like he had been walking through a desert for a long time—every breath tore at his lungs.
He endured the torment of the flames, and every time he wanted to give up, he felt a small, furry creature pacing across his body, its wet paws reaching into his mouth to feed him water. Drops of nectar fell from above, moistening his skin and throat, easing his physical discomfort and soothing his struggling spirit.
His consciousness slowly returned. Lying on the ground, Xie Anze slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was somewhat hollow, his mind still lingering at the very beginning of the apocalypse—when animals and plants suddenly mutated, and human society descended into chaos. He and his close friend Zhang Haozhong had been discussing in the villa whether they should rush back to the capital immediately, back to his parents' home. Before they could finish, mutation erupted in the room. Four or five rabbit-sized mutant cockroaches appeared out of nowhere, while flies the size of sparrows buzzed through the air. These mutant beasts frenziedly attacked the two of them.
He and Zhang Haozhong fought back desperately, using everything at their disposal. In the midst of battling the mutant beasts, Zhang Haozhong evolved. After evolving, he possessed tremendous strength and lightning-fast reflexes, quickly slaughtering all the mutated animals.
Before Xie Anze could catch his breath, his best friend—Zhang Haozhong—turned his fist on him.
Bang! A punch slammed into his abdomen. Struck with immense force, he crashed hard into the wall. He spat out a mouthful of blood with a retching sound, his body curling up on the ground. He stared at Zhang Haozhong in disbelief, unable to comprehend why he would suddenly attack him.
They had grown up together since childhood!
At this moment, Zhang Haozhong's handsome face twisted slightly, his eyes filled with venom, as if years of suppressed resentment had suddenly erupted.
"I've finally waited for this day!" Zhang Haozhong exclaimed.
He approached the fallen Xie Anze step by step, grabbing him by the collar with one hand while his other fist pounded into his abdomen again and again. He watched as blood continuously spilled from Xie Anze's mouth, his handsome face deathly pale, twisted in agony.
"I grew up under the shadow of your Xie family, treading carefully, never daring to make a single mistake. No matter how much I accomplished, I was always overshadowed by you. Do you know what outsiders say about me? 'He's just that kid the Xie family took in—what luck, rising straight to the top'…"
Zhang Haozhong rambled on about his years of resentment, his fists landing blow after blow on Xie Anze's body. Xie Anze felt like his internal organs were being beaten to pulp.
Releasing his grip, Xie Anze slid limply to the ground, blood seeping from the corners of his mouth, his breath growing faint.
A twisted smile appeared on Zhang Haozhong's face. "Today is the day you die."
What followed was a nightmare Xie Anze never wanted to recall again. His face was slashed a dozen times, his limbs were broken one by one with a steel pipe Zhang Haozhong wielded, his joints were shattered, his tendons severed, and several gaping holes were stabbed into his abdomen. Finally, the blood-stained dagger was plunged deep into his heart. Zhang Haozhong kicked his "corpse" and slowly walked away.
But what Zhang Haozhong didn't know was that Xie Anze's body was different—his heart was on the right side. He had narrowly escaped death.
Xie Anze's eyes were dead and hollow. He tried to move his body, but he was completely powerless, his limbs unresponsive. He lay on the ground, unable to move at all. Zhang Haozhong had crippled him—he was now a useless wreck. The apocalypse had already arrived; how long could someone like him survive?
He laughed bitterly at himself, closed his eyes, and waited for death…
Jiang Zhiying saw Xie Anze wake up, but before she could feel happy, she noticed his face was filled with despair, his eyes hollow, wearing the expression of someone who no longer wished to live.
Hmm? Why so dejected? That won't do. This cat put in great effort to save you—not so you could wallow in despair.
She leaped onto Xie Anze's chest. Xie Anze, with his eyes closed, felt a weight press down on his chest, the wound at his heart throbbing faintly. He opened his eyes and saw a scrawny cat crouching on his chest, its sapphire-blue eyes wide and round, glaring at him with fierce intensity.
Smack! Smack!
Paw pads like mangosteen halves slapped his face, snapping him out of it. Xie Anze stared blankly at the cat on his chest, unsure what it was trying to do.
Jiang Zhiying kept a cold expression as she pulled a small bread roll from her spatial dimension. She painstakingly tore off a small piece and placed it into his mouth.
Eat!
Xie Anze instinctively chewed and swallowed, his starving stomach finding some relief. Jiang Zhiying fed him piece after piece of bread, and finally gave him a little water.
She watched with satisfaction as Xie Anze's complexion improved considerably, and his eyes no longer held that dead emptiness.
"You saved me," Xie Anze said hoarsely.
No duh! Is there anyone else here? The cat on his chest rolled her eyes with a lively flick. She meowed at him a few times, her expression unmistakable: You'd better live well for me!
Xie Anze understood the look in Maomao's eyes, and felt his gradually chilling heart warm up again, beating with renewed vitality.
Patting Xie Anze on the head, Jiang Zhiying walked toward the window. Many mutated animals had arrived in the courtyard, wave after wave, and Xiaobai was stationed in the yard, killing all of these Mutant Beasts.
Jiang Zhiying felt uneasy looking at the courtyard full of Mutant Beasts. She looked up at the still overcast sky, feeling that she had overlooked something.
Her gaze shifted to the back mountain, where lush trees grew densely, and mutated birds occasionally flew about. Those dozen or so mutated birds seemed to be fighting…
Fighting!
Her round cat eyes suddenly widened. She knew what she had forgotten. The energy in the meteorite permeated the entire Earth. When it rained, the dense energy condensed within the raindrops, causing Mutated Flora and Fauna to riot!
They had to leave the hillside villa immediately. Realizing this, Jiang Zhiying paced anxiously on the floor, thinking about how they could possibly leave fastest with Xie Anze, whose injuries had not yet healed.
Got it! As she paced back and forth, Jiang Zhiying thought of a good solution. She quickly called Xiaobai up, gazing at Xiaobai's long legs with burning intensity.
"Xiaobai, carry him outside the villa." Jiang Zhiying pointed at Xie Anze lying on the ground, then jumped out the window herself.
Xiaobai silently looked at Xie Anze, then wrapped two spider legs around him and placed him on its back. Xiaobai's body was very small, so only Xie Anze's chest rested on Xiaobai's back while his legs and feet dragged along the ground, scraping all the way to the outside of the villa.
Jiang Zhiying pulled an off-road vehicle from her Spatial Dimension and opened the back door. She looked back at the mountaintop and could already faintly see mutated animals beginning to descend.
Anxious, she urged Xiaobai to toss Xie Anze onto the back seat. Xie Anze was shoved forcefully into the car, and the rough motion pulled at his wounds, causing him to let out an involuntary grunt.
Xie Anze curled up in the back seat, watching the frantic Maomao, and guessed that mutated animals were attacking and they needed to leave quickly.
Urging the bewildered Xiaobai into the driver's seat, Jiang Zhiying crouched on Xiaobai's back, gripping the steering wheel with both paws. She took a deep breath and said to Xiaobai, "Xiaobai, put your legs on those two pedals properly. I'll tell you which one to press."
Ignition started, and Xiaobai pressed the accelerator, causing the car to lurch forward suddenly. Jiang Zhiying threw nearly all her weight onto the steering wheel, struggling to control its direction.
From a distance, an off-road vehicle could be seen speeding recklessly down the road, wobbling and stumbling at breakneck speed, barely stabilizing itself just as it was about to crash into a wall or flip over.
Xie Anze lay on the back seat, feeling the racing speed and the jolting body of the car, watching as the vehicle forced a turn just ten centimeters from a large tree, the corner of its front end scraping against the trunk with a violent shudder.
He sighed, thankful it was a modified, reinforced off-road vehicle.