In the vast living room sat a set of classic-style fragrant rosewood and huanghuali furniture, with a chandelier shaped like a peony in full bloom.
On either side of the rosewood tea table beneath the chandelier sat two people on one side and one on the other, facing each other in silence.
Xiao Xingzhi never would have imagined that Zhang Xiangyi could go out for one trip and come back with a person.
“Where’s your brother?”
The girl shook her head. She didn’t expect to arrive before her brother either, and barging into someone’s home when she barely knew them made her uneasy, she looked a little bashful. “My brother came to find me, and we had nowhere to go, so we figured we’d come find you. But after the instance ended, we ran into a zombie swarm. My brother covered me so I could get out and told me to come find you first.”
And then, just like that, the two of them got separated. If she hadn’t run into Zhang Xiangyi, she might well have become a member of the zombie army by now.
Under the girl’s starry-eyed gaze, Zhang Xiangyi got up, deeply uncomfortable, and said coldly, “I’m going to go sort out the supplies first.”
“Wait—” Xiao Xingzhi reached out a hand, only for Zhang Xiangyi to dodge it. He could do nothing but watch her go.
Xiao Xingzhi: “……” He barely knew her either…
He’d only met her a few times.
“You…” Xiao Xingzhi looked at the girl, his so-called “aloof and lofty” act restored, and gave her a cool glance. “You just wait here for your brother.”
His roommate’s little sister, at a time like this, he could hardly throw her out.
Xiao Xingzhi sighed and went to find Zhang Xiangyi. This could not be allowed to be misunderstood.
“She’s just my roommate’s little sister. I met her a few times before, when she came looking for him. I don’t even know her name, you have to believe me.” For every step Zhang Xiangyi took, Xiao Xingzhi took one after her, his mouth running nonstop. “That roommate of mine is on the school sanda team, so he probably won’t die. When he gets here we can take the chance to make him our muscle, and as for her… we don’t have to worry about it. Just feed her and that’s fine.”
“Zhang Xiangyi, you have to believe me.”
Zhang Xiangyi took a deep breath, set down the box in her hands, and looked at the anxious person before her. “You don’t need to explain all this to me. Just don’t bring me any trouble and it’s fine.”
Who she was, what did that have to do with Zhang Xiangyi?
She meant it sincerely.
As far as she was concerned, as long as the girl didn’t cause trouble, it was all fine. As for the food she ate and the supplies she used here, she could get those from her brother herself. Just like Xiao Xingzhi said, her brother could be the muscle, so letting his sister stay here a while wasn’t out of the question.
She didn’t understand why Xiao Xingzhi had so much to say.
Wasn’t it something a single sentence could settle?
Caught off guard by Zhang Xiangyi’s puzzled, uncomprehending look, Xiao Xingzhi felt a little weary, not sure what to say.
Tell Zhang Xiangyi plainly that he liked her?
He could guarantee that Zhang Xiangyi would say he was sick in the head and then keep her distance from him.
That wasn’t what he wanted to see.
“Where’s the basement?” Zhang Xiangyi pointed at the pile of supplies on the left. “Put all this in the basement. I only kept a small portion up here, enough food for the three of us for three days.”
“I’ll carry it. You rest a bit.”
Zhang Xiangyi watched him for a moment. He worked hard, but very quietly, no extra expression on his face, the whole person silent, and very much not himself.
In the spirit of being teammates who ought to care a little about each other’s feelings, Zhang Xiangyi picked up a case of milk and followed him. “Xiao Xingzhi, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“This isn’t like you.”
She grabbed hold of the person hauling the suitcase. “You’re upset?”
“About what?”
“That girl?”
“I’ll throw her out.”
With that, Zhang Xiangyi set the box down and headed for the living room. As far as she was concerned, there was no need to keep someone her teammate disliked in the house.
Even though she felt that throwing someone out was pretty immoral.
But there was nothing for it, he was unhappy.
“Wait—”
Xiao Xingzhi immediately set down the suitcase, chased after her, pulled her back, and explained earnestly, “No need, really, no need.”
Zhang Xiangyi frowned, her gaze dropping to her wrist, very uncomfortable, but she said nothing.
“Then why aren’t you…” happy?
“I’m just a little tired.”
Really tired. Mentally tired.
How had he never noticed before that Zhang Xiangyi’s emotional intelligence was… this low?
“Then you rest. I’ll do it.”
Watching the someone laboring to haul things down to the basement, Xiao Xingzhi: “……”
He sat in the living room for a while, not because he wanted to stay there, but because Zhang Xiangyi had told him to entertain the guest.
Entertain the guest. Mm. That meant they were one family.
At that thought, his mood improved a great deal. All in all, Zhang Xiangyi did care about him.
Otherwise why else would she want to throw that girl out?
It was all for his feelings!
Zhang Xiangyi still cared about him!
In a much better mood now, Xiao Xingzhi even asked, “What’s your name?”
The girl had been sitting in her spot for quite a while. She really didn’t expect that the first thing Xiao Xingzhi asked when he came back would be this.
She remembered that the last time she’d come to find her brother, he’d introduced her by name, hadn’t he?
“My name is Lin Lingmeng.”
Lin Lingmeng sat there as well-behaved as could be, terrified that one wrong move would get her thrown out to wait for her brother outside.
When would her brother get here? This roommate of his was really hard to deal with, no wonder he was Jiang U’s famous aloof campus god.
But what was his relationship with that older sister?
Lin Lingmeng smiled. “My brother should be here soon too. I barely ran into any zombies the whole way over, and with his combat power, he should be even faster.”
She wasn’t the least bit worried about her brother’s safety. If she could make it here alive, so could he.
If he couldn’t… then he wasn’t her brother.
Lin Lingmeng took the long view: worst case, she’d stand in for their parents and disown her brother’s entire branch of the family.
Mainly, it’d be embarrassing.
As for her parents… she was even less worried about them.
Her brother’s combat power was this high, and even he got beaten down without mercy.
The weakest one in the family was her.
Xiao Xingzhi grew even more uncomfortable, but thinking of his buddy, he asked, “Where did you two get separated?”
“I don’t know.”
Xiao Xingzhi: “……” Not exactly said with a guilty conscience, was it.
“Aiya! I’m bad with directions. My brother led me here, and I actually took a lot of wrong turns along the way, which is why I didn’t expect him to still not be here.” If she weren’t directionally challenged, if she hadn’t dawdled, she’d have arrived ages ago.
Xiao Xingzhi pressed his lips together. How had he forgotten, Lin Huizhou had no sense of direction either…
They really were siblings.
He took a deep breath and said, “You stay here for now.”
Lin Lingmeng nodded, as well-behaved as anyone could possibly be.
He went off to find Zhang Xiangyi again and help carry the last few items down to the basement. After telling her everything he’d just learned, he said, “I’ve decided to go out and look for Lin Huizhou. Relying on him alone, he might not even find this place before the next game opens.”
“Sure, let’s go together.” Zhang Xiangyi agreed without overthinking it. More people meant more strength, and humans were social animals after all.
She wasn’t worried about people being low-quality, either.
“No need. I’ll take Lin Lingmeng out in the car to look for him. You can stay home and figure out which room you want, the master bedroom, right? The master’s bigger, and the mattress is the best, comfy to sleep on.” As Xiao Xingzhi spoke, he started daydreaming. “I’ll forage for supplies while I’m out, grab some extra clothes and dresses and stuff, fill up your wardrobe…”
“Dresses really aren’t necessary…”
“How are they not necessary!”
“Don’t worry, I know my limits.”
Zhang Xiangyi: “……” She wasn’t all that reassured.
“Take plenty of your own stuff too, I had a look earlier, and you’ve only got the one change of clothes. And bring as much water as you can, no telling whether the tap water will keep running. And also…”
It was the first time Zhang Xiangyi had given instructions at such length. Xiao Xingzhi listened very carefully, a hair away from taking notes.
After Xiao Xingzhi left with the girl, Zhang Xiangyi went over the entire villa again, and only after confirming every door and window was locked did she run some water and start cleaning.
The villa was huge, but she was a neat freak, so she still cleaned in earnest. While wiping down the front gate, it suddenly occurred to her that she could beef up the security a bit more.
She went to the living room sofa, picked up the jacket she’d shed, dug out her phone from an inner pocket, and used the “Survive” app to call Xiao Xingzhi.
She honestly really didn’t want to admit she knew Xiao Xingzhi, much less that he’d actually named himself “Tall, Rich, and Handsome.”
It was so embarrassing.
Xiao Xingzhi answered quickly, even while driving.
“Need me to bring anything?”
Zhang Xiangyi cut to the chase. “See if you can find any doors or materials. I think we can add a few more layers to the doors and windows for better security, plus soundproofing material, insulation material, and so on. Grab as much of that as you can.”
“Got it, anything else?” Xiao Xingzhi turned in the direction Lin Lingmeng was pointing. Out there they occasionally ran into a few zombies, or a few people, but neither of them bothered with any of it, at most they’d stop to ask whether anyone had seen Lin Huizhou.
“That’s all. Stay safe.”
“Got it. You rest first. We’ll clean together once we’re back, the villa’s so big, you’ll wear yourself out doing it alone, don’t—” Beep, beep, beep, beep…
Xiao Xingzhi: “……”
Sitting in the passenger seat playing quail, Lin Lingmeng shrank her presence as small as it would go. Having just glimpsed another side of the aloof campus god, was she going to get silenced for good?
Brother!
Brother, where are you!
Lin Lingmeng was on the verge of tears, peering out the window even more intently. Fortunately, heaven leaves no one without a way out, she suddenly slapped her own leg excitedly: “There! There!”
Her habit was actually to slap whoever was next to her, but now… well…
She knew her limits.
Xiao Xingzhi looked over and steered the car in that direction.
Lin Lingmeng rolled down the window and bellowed, “Brother! Over here! Brother!”
It was rousing, stirring stuff, she was as thrilled as if she’d spotted her idol, even waving her arms so Lin Huizhou would notice them better.
Lin Huizhou had searched for ages, asked tons of people, and somehow not a single one of them knew where Yuting was. He’d been there a few times, going by his old memory, and after taking who knew how many wrong roads he still hadn’t found it.
He’d met no shortage of people: some asking him for supplies, some begging him for help. The ones he could save, he gave a hand, the surplus, he ignored.
He was a little worried about Meng-Meng. That girl was directionally challenged just like him, and worse than him at everything else, all she could do was cry.
Sigh…
Just as he was lingering at the crossroads, he suddenly heard his sister’s voice, and figured it had to be a hallucination!
In a place this dangerous, would his sister have the guts to shout that loudly?
No.
She’d want nothing more than to curl up in a corner and play quail.
But the voice seemed to be getting closer and closer. Was it really his sister?
He looked toward where the sound was coming from, squinting, and saw a battered old van driving toward him.
It really was Lin Lingmeng!
She was doing better than him!
She even had a car!
Lin Huizhou felt a bit indignant. When the car pulled up in front of him, he couldn’t help walking over to the passenger side. “Lin Lingmeng! Where’d you score the car?” Even more impressive than me!
“Brother! Wahhh, wahhh, wahhh, wahhh…”
When the sister he and she found mutually unbearable suddenly threw her arms around him and burst out sobbing, what was he supposed to do?