Chapter 126: Your Doomsday Has Been Delivered (9)

Whether Ling Qiong’s technique was professional or not, Jiang Xunchu didn't know; his attention was occupied elsewhere the entire time.

Once Ling Qiong finished, Jiang Xunchu let out a long breath of relief and shifted backward. On his leg, where he had been bitten, was a neatly tied butterfly knot—a very girlish touch.

"Change the dressing a few more times. You can't let it get infected." Ling Qiong looked puzzled. "But why is your mutation progressing so slowly?"

"I don't know either." Jiang Xunchu pulled his rolled-up pant leg down, smoothed his clothes, and sat up straight.

Ling Qiong, meanwhile, seemed boneless, lounging lazily in her chair.

"Was the zombie that bit you different from the others?"

Jiang Xunchu shook his head. "It was too chaotic at the time; I didn't notice."

"Oh." Ling Qiong raised her eyes and smiled lightly. "Special people often have good luck."

In the context of the story, her 'baby' was clearly the protagonist! Well… or perhaps the villain.

Jiang Xunchu’s lips moved as he whispered, "Good luck, you say..."

Ling Qiong nodded repeatedly, her eyes darting around. "What were those people from before doing?"

"I don't know. I passed out on the way, and when I woke up, I was already in the truck."

Besides him, there were many other survivors in the vehicle, though they were effectively prisoners.

"Why were they killing the survivors?" They had been so brutal right from the start, not giving anyone a chance.

Jiang Xunchu replied, "I'm not sure."

When that group encountered survivors, they would sometimes kill them and sometimes not. No one in the truck understood why. The group consisted of men, women, the elderly, and children, and Jiang Xunchu couldn't discern any pattern. It seemed those people simply decided whether to kill based on their mood. Having spent less than a day with that group, he didn't know much.

Since Ling Qiong couldn't get any juicy gossip—or clues—she stopped discussing it and prepared to rest. For safety, they stayed in the same room.

Ling Qiong managed to dig up clean bed sheets, changed into pajamas, and was just about to apply a facial mask... well, she actually put one on. Jiang Xunchu had never seen anyone live so refined a life in the apocalypse. The real question was, where did she find all these things?

Ling Qiong occupied the bed entirely, leaving only the sofa for Jiang Xunchu. He moved to the sofa, and as soon as he sat down, the person on the bed said, "The bed is wide enough; I can share half with you."

"...No, thank you." In an environment like this, did she have no sense of caution?

The sofa was spacious enough that Jiang Xunchu wasn't uncomfortable, so it made no difference where he slept. However, in the sweltering heat, he couldn't fall asleep at all.

...

Outside the city, a truck was parked by the side of the road. Someone stood outside the vehicle, smoking, with the tip of the cigarette flickering in the dark.

"Brother Qian," a head poked out from the truck window. "How long are we going to wait? What if she can't get out?"

Fang Sanqian threw away the cigarette butt and ground it out with his foot. "Let's wait until tomorrow morning."

Ling Qiong had separated from them earlier. Fang Sanqian and his group had been lucky; the road they took was smooth, and they hadn't encountered many zombies, driving straight out. She hadn't asked them to wait, but Fang Sanqian had promised to wait for her outside the city. After all, they had shared hardships, and she had saved them; they couldn't just walk away.

...

As the sky began to turn a pale gray, chasing away the darkness of the city, Ling Qiong stood on the balcony, gazing at the distant ruins. However, what was actually unfolding before her eyes was the game interface.

She checked Jiang Xunchu's profile. In the original timeline, after being bitten, Jiang Xunchu didn't mutate. He was held captive by a group who realized his lack of mutation made him valuable. He had been in that same group, but he hadn't been as lucky as he was now encountering Ling Qiong. The group soon discovered his anomaly and locked him away, draining his blood and using him as a test subject, even injecting him with the zombie virus. He had struggled to find a chance to escape, only to meet even worse people on the road, eventually meeting a miserable end.

Jiang Xunchu (1/18)

Ling Qiong glanced behind her. The boy was lying on his side on the sofa, the light outlining his beautiful profile.

Sigh.

Since there was nothing to buy in the apocalypse anyway, she might as well... pull some cards. She had to make life a little better for her 'baby'.

Ling Qiong opened the card pool, where the ten-pull option had turned into a hundred-pull. Shanshan claimed to be serving the player very diligently. Ling Qiong only had a silent "he-he" for it. It was certainly diligent when it came to swindling money.

Ling Qiong pulled cards with a straight face. This lousy game insisted on showing every single one, just to let you see how infuriating the text on them could be. Even if you could skip the flipping animation, displaying so many still took a while.

[You didn't win anything~]
[Sorry, this is an empty card~]
[The God of Luck is about to descend!]

Ling Qiong: "..."

The God of Luck could go to hell!

Her expression grew numb as she mechanically repeated the pulls. Not getting anything was just... infuriating!

As the sun leaped over the horizon, painting the clouds in the sky, a card finally began to glow. Ling Qiong’s numb expression faded, her eyes cooling slightly. Well, she’d be damned, she actually got something.

The card slowly flipped. It showed a clean, bright laboratory with various instruments and tools neatly arranged. Below, a few small words were inscribed: [The Third Research Institute].

The Third Research Institute? Where was that? This was clearly an internal location... how was she supposed to find it? Ling Qiong scrutinized it for a moment and found a clue on a screen inside the laboratory. It was in City H. But where exactly?

Ling Qiong tugged at her hair, feeling deeply melancholy. She would just have to take it one step at a time.

...

Jiang Xunchu didn't remember when he fell asleep. He was woken up by the heat, his body covered in sticky, uncomfortable sweat. He turned his head and saw the person standing on the balcony, bathed in sunlight. In her clean, beautiful dress and high heels, she looked as if she were coated in a halo of light.

Jiang Xunchu propped himself up on the sofa. Hearing the movement, the person on the balcony turned around, raised an eyebrow, and smiled lightly. "You're awake."

"Yes..." Jiang Xunchu’s throat was dry, his voice slightly hoarse.

Ling Qiong entered the room and gave him water and food. Jiang Xunchu had seen a large trunk in her vehicle yesterday and assumed the food came from there, so he didn't think much of it. But when he saw the fresh water and clean clothes, he grew suspicious. Where did she get all these things? Clean clothes were acceptable; there were plenty of clothing stores outside. But so much clean water... After the apocalypse started, water and electricity hadn't lasted long before being cut off.

"Wash up and put on some clean clothes." Ling Qiong looked him up and down, smiling innocently. "If it's inconvenient for you, I can help you wash."

*I can totally give my baby a bath!!*

"..."

Jiang Xunchu felt he had encountered a pervert.

He declined Ling Qiong’s 'kindness' and went to the bathroom to wash up. When he came out in his clean clothes, Ling Qiong was gone—not in the room, nor in the living room. Jiang Xunchu searched every room, but couldn't find her.

Had she left?

Jiang Xunchu walked to the main entrance, intending to open the door and take a look, only to find that the door was left slightly ajar...