The wooden door was broken open, a sliver of light falling on Tang Nai.
She stared wide-eyed at Jin Xiao, looking as though she hadn’t yet grasped what had happened. Her body curled up, pressed tightly against the corner of the wall, like a desperate little white mouse whose home had been ransacked by a wild beast.
Jin Xiao couldn’t help but think this, and the next second, his thin lips pressed down as he instantly dragged her out:
“Who allowed you to get off the vehicle on your own?”
His voice carried an overwhelming pressure; he didn’t need to roar to make one’s heart tremble with fear. Tang Nai stumbled from his pull, rising slightly on her toes to press against him, barely managing to create some distance.
Jin Xiao didn’t give her any time to speak: “Do you know what would have happened to you if I hadn’t found you? If everyone had come looking for you and encountered a zombie tide, how many casualties would there have been?!”
Tang Nai looked up at him, her lips parting slightly but saying nothing.
This speechless demeanor seemed almost like disdainful refusal to explain, as if she had calculated that he would come to rescue her. After all, the moment she saw him, there was only surprise, no joy, as if his appearance had long been within her expectations.
If not for his repeated indulgence, she wouldn’t have had the courage to get off the vehicle alone.
Jin Xiao laughed bitterly and nodded, realizing that the root of all this lay with him. He simply lifted her chin, wanting her to explain clearly.
“Look up at me…”
But the moment his fingertips touched her chin, he suddenly paused.
His hand had brushed against a trace of moisture—not tears, but beads of blood. In the light, he could see the bite marks on her lips from her teeth. Her once-full lips were swollen like bruised berries, trembling with each breath as blood beads quivered.
Her eyes were slightly widened, looking at him with great confusion. Her long, wet lashes clung to the corners of her eyes, as if rubbed, leaving a noticeable redness.
She looked like someone who had cried but gritted her teeth to stay silent…
His cheeks tightened, a fire in his throat seeming to shatter against a cold wind, turning into chaotic emptiness.
“Speak.”
“Say what?”
Her lips trembled against his fingertips. She pursed them slightly, a glistening crimson seeping between them.
“…Say, did you guess I would save you? Why didn’t you call for help?”
Tang Nai thought for a moment and whispered, “It would hear the sound. I was afraid it would find me.”
Jin Xiao’s fingertips paused, then gently brushed against the small wound on her lips: “Then weren’t you afraid… that I wouldn’t find you?”
The slight sting made Tang Nai’s lips tremble. She lowered her long lashes but didn’t struggle: “I knew you would find me, so I waited here for you.”
So trusting of him? If he had truly left in anger and never returned, if he hadn’t caught her scent and found her, if he hadn’t noticed something unusual about that zombie… If any one of those links had broken, she would have been devoured, not even bones remaining.
Jin Xiao’s fingertips trembled, and he slowly released her.
“One last time, why did you get off the vehicle on your own?”
Tang Nai said softly, “…Because I wanted cosmetics and clothes.”
Jin Xiao looked at her tank top and shorts: “Then what did you take?”
She blankly felt around, having been so focused earlier on how to get out of the car that she forgot to grab her bag. She looked at Jin Xiao and shook her head. Jin Xiao’s thin, pressed lips relaxed slightly. “So, were those things worth risking your life for? Worth it enough to… bite your lips until they bled without calling for help?”
His gaze shifted, landing on the wound on her knee and the nail marks in her palm. The crease between his brows deepened.
Tang Nai nodded. “It was worth it.” Anything was worth it for the mission.
Jin Xiao’s chest rose and fell once, as if he wanted to laugh or had nothing left to say. Whatever—he’d known what kind of person she was for a long time, hadn’t he?
He reined in all his emotions, returning to his weary indifference. “This is the last time, Meng Siyao. I took you along before out of respect for your father, but you keep breaking the rules. No matter what you want, I won’t give you another chance to act recklessly.”
With that, he turned to leave. Just as he was about to tell her to follow, he suddenly frowned and looked back. The zombie he had blown apart, now missing half its body, was crawling out again.
Normally, a zombie missing half its body would lose its desire to feed even if it was still “alive,” so Jin Xiao hadn’t bothered to finish it off. Yet this one was still emitting hoarse gasps, lifting its head and sniffing frantically as if searching for something delicious. The moment its nose pointed in Tang Nai’s direction, its entire body trembled. An unnaturally long tongue flicked in the air, and it scurried over like a gecko with a broken tail.
Jin Xiao instantly shielded Tang Nai behind him, frowning as he decisively blew its brains out. The zombie, now missing half its head, still stubbornly opened its mouth toward Tang Nai. Jin Xiao sensed something was wrong, but it was too late—the zombie suddenly let out a sharp shriek!
Damn, it’s a corpse shriek!
In an instant, the piercing sound spread in all directions. The display glass around them shattered, sending countless shards flying toward the two. Jin Xiao pulled Tang Nai into his arms, raising an arm to shield her.
Tang Nai caught the scent of rust on him and didn’t dare move. Once everything fell silent, Jin Xiao helped her up and glanced out the window, his face instantly tightening. “Let’s go!”
Down below, the zombies had heard the sound and swarmed toward them like insects returning to their nest, densely covering the area. In mere seconds, they engulfed the car Jin Xiao had parked downstairs.
Tang Nai’s face was still pale. Jin Xiao quickly led her downstairs, but zombies had already taken over the entrance, and the back door was blocked too. If Jin Xiao were alone, he could fight his way out, but Tang Nai was an ordinary person—she couldn’t leap from a high floor or survive a zombie bite…
For the first time, the leader of the superpower user squad found himself in such a tricky situation.
Tang Nai whispered, “The first floor is all cosmetics shops. Should we go back upstairs?”
He glanced at her, his nose twitching as he frowned. Tang Nai thought she’d said something wrong, but to her surprise, he suddenly threw all the perfumes and cosmetics onto the floor. Instantly, the first floor was filled with a chaotic mix of scents. The zombies in the distance, which had been drawn by the noise, immediately began sniffing in confusion.
Tang Nai understood—Jin Xiao was using the scents to confuse the zombies.
After turning the first floor into a suffocating perfume pool, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to the innermost shop. Pushing her inside, he immediately shut the rolling gate and kicked the legs off a few chairs, wedging them against the entrance. Even if the zombies caught their scent, it would take them some time to get in.
He moved swiftly and decisively, his jaw tight, the aura of killing intent around him growing even more intense. Tang Nai raised her arm to shield herself from the wood splinters, not daring to speak.
In an instant, only the confused howls of zombies could be heard from outside, while inside, the silence was terrifying.
Jin Xiao turned around, took out a cigarette, and bit down on it between his teeth. "I didn’t expect that zombie’s intelligence to exceed my expectations. It used its corpse howl to summon all the zombies. We’ll have to wait here overnight. If they don’t discover this place by morning, you and I will survive."
In other words, if they were unlucky enough to be discovered by the zombies, the only outcome would be being trapped here and devoured until not even a trace remained.
Tang Nai sat on the ground, thinking that if they were truly discovered, perhaps she could rush out first and hold them off for a while. According to the original story, Jin Xiao couldn’t die here. Even if the mission failed, at the very least, she shouldn’t drag others down with her.
Jin Xiao tossed the cigarette aside. Now was the time to scold her a little, but as he looked at the crown of her head, he slowly walked over.
As he walked, he took the rifle off his back. Tang Nai’s eyes widened, and before he even got close, she could feel the cold muzzle and the scent of gunpowder. She looked up, meeting his gaze without flinching.
Jin Xiao raised his arm, and the rifle landed in her lap. "Take this gun. Pull the fore-end back and pull the trigger. If any zombies come in, use this to shoot."
Tang Nai held the rifle. What about him?
Jin Xiao drew a dagger from his waist, gripping it in his palm.
"Don’t worry about me. If zombies charge in, they’ll go for the soft flesh first—there’s a sound calling me." With that, he sat down beside her, pressed his thin lips together, and closed his eyes.
Just like that, he fell asleep?
Tang Nai held her breath and leaned in, noticing his furrowed brow and tightly pressed lips. Even before getting close, she could feel his scorching breath.
Tang Nai froze, only then realizing that his arm wound had started bleeding again. For days, Jin Xiao’s wound had been inflamed, untreated due to the lack of medicine. Just now, while searching for her, he had reopened the wound, leading to a high fever. Yet he had acted as if nothing was wrong the entire time.
Tang Nai crouched beside him, biting her knuckle.
"Mr. Xi, he has a fever."
[In the original story, he also had a fever, but it was quickly treated once they got out. Now he’s semi-conscious, so the host must be careful on her own.]
Tang Nai shook her head. She wasn’t afraid of losing the male protagonist’s protection.
Suddenly, the sound of zombies approaching came from outside. She quickly covered her mouth, then thought better of it and placed her palm over Jin Xiao’s mouth and nose. His scorching breath sprayed against her palm, as if it could melt away a layer of her soft flesh at any moment.
Tang Nai’s arm trembled slightly. Jin Xiao’s brow furrowed, and amidst the suffocating scent of cosmetics, he caught a familiar, sweet fragrance. His brow relaxed slightly.
Once the zombie outside, having noticed nothing, moved away, Tang Nai let out a sigh of relief. Carefully, she moved the boxes from under the counter to block the door, figuring they would be more secure than the stool legs. However, while moving them, she came across a few particularly heavy boxes that felt unusually cold. Puzzled, she gently opened one.
Jin Xiao’s ear twitched, and he slightly opened his eyes. In his dazed state, he saw her opening the cosmetics and assumed she was still "hopelessly vain." Pressing his thin lips together, the haze in his eyes was replaced by indifference as he closed them completely.
Tang Nai, however, stared blankly at what was inside.
Inside a box, aside from foam, there was only ice. Beneath the ice layer, there were actually ten boxes of penicillin.
Tang Nai knew about it—with this, there was no need to fear infection or inflammation.
But how could a whole box, no, several boxes of medicine end up here?
【Your luck is quite good.】 The system analyzed: 【According to the original text, when the male protagonist's convoy arrived here, another superpower user squad had just left not long ago. Some superpower user squads are forced to hand over medicines or supplies they scavenge to the base. Meanwhile, other squads, in order to expand their strength, temporarily hide their supplies. The ice above was likely meant to withstand the upcoming abnormal temperatures. They just didn’t expect you to find it first.】
It could only be called fate. The superpower user squad had hidden it in a place most people wouldn’t enter—the cosmetics section—yet Tang Nai still discovered it.
With the medicine, Jin Xiao wouldn’t have to suffer from fever anymore. Just as Tang Nai was about to tell Jin Xiao, she turned around and found him with his eyes closed, sweat covering his forehead.
She carefully patted his arm, and he instantly collapsed, his head hitting the ground.
Tang Nai was startled.
【It’s obvious.】 The system said, 【He’s already delirious from the fever.】
Tang Nai bit her knuckle, took out two capsules, and tried to stuff them into Jin Xiao’s mouth. However, his teeth were clenched tightly. Just as Tang Nai was unsure what to do, he seemed to sense something, his thin lips pursed, instantly catching her fingertip, and the capsules were taken into his mouth.
Tang Nai quickly withdrew her hand, but after a while, Jin Xiao’s high fever still hadn’t subsided.
“Mr. Xi, why isn’t it working?”
【He’s dehydrated from the fever. You need to find water.】
Water?
Tang Nai thought of the ice in the box. This ice was created by a supernatural ability user and was exceptionally hard. Using a broken chair leg, she carefully chiseled out a small piece of ice, held it in her hand for a long time until her palm went numb, and only managed to melt two drops of water.
“Mr. Xi.” Her face was pale from the cold, and her fingertips were even whiter than human skin should be. “Is there a faster way to melt the ice?”
【Try using the warmest part of your body.】
The warmest part?
Tang Nai bit her knuckle.
Jin Xiao lay on the ground, frowning even in his unconscious state, tightly gripping a dagger in his hand, constantly tense and alert. His breathing was rapid, his breath scorching hot, as if he were trapped in a dry, feverish dream.
Tang Nai paused, placed the ice in her mouth, and slowly lowered her head toward Jin Xiao’s face.