Chapter 139: Your Doom Has Been Delivered (22)

"Why does she call you Brother?"

He didn't seem like the kind of person who would casually hand out such endearments to just anyone.

Take him, for instance... After all this time, she mostly called him by his name, and on rare occasions, Mr. An.

When would she ever use a title as intimate and sweet as "Brother"?

Jiang Xunchu shook his head. "I don't know. That's just what she called me from the very beginning."

At first, he wasn't used to it, but after hearing it a few times, he seemed to have accepted it.

The young girl possessed a uniquely soft and gentle voice, and when she called him Brother, it sounded just like coquettish pleading, making anyone's heart melt along with it.

Yet she didn't call him Brother every time, only occasionally...

An Changjing: "..."

"Are you guys really not biological siblings?"

"No."

An Changjing: "Then what kind of... relationship do you two have?"

Jiang Xunchu did not answer the question.

He couldn't answer it.

...

City H.

Ling Qiong had to play through several card draws, successfully passing all the trials and tribulations before finally arriving in City H.

Jiang Xunchu came to City H to find his father.

His father's last workplace was right here.

Ling Qiong retrieved a map of City H. "Do you know where to look for clues?"

Jiang Xunchu pulled an access control card out from his pocket. "I found this at home."

Ling Qiong didn't take it, just glancing at it for a few moments.

The access card was engraved with the words "Third Research Institute."

The map did not mark the Third Research Institute, and there was no internet available to search for it now.

Trying to find the Third Research Institute would be a bit difficult.

If the research institute happened to be mysterious and built underground, she would probably search until the day she died without ever finding it.

Still, since they had already come all this way, they might as well go in and take a look.

After all, she had drawn a card for this.

She certainly wasn't going to let that card draw go to waste.

"Let's go." Ling Qiong tossed the map into the car. "Let's go take a look inside."

"You're going in?"

"Of course, I can't very well let you go in alone, can I?" Ling Qiong opened the car door, gesturing for him to get in.

Jiang Xunchu said, "This is my own business; you don't need to take risks with me. You and An Changjing can go to the base first, it should be safer over there."

Ling Qiong leaned forward, moving close to his ear. "Brother, I like taking risks with you."

Jiang Xunchu's ears grew slightly warm, accompanied by a flush spreading across his face.

He shifted away, getting into the car first, and pulled the door shut himself.

Ling Qiong curled the corners of her lips into a faint smile, humming an unfamiliar tune as she walked around to the other side.

...

City H, Central Plaza.

The Central Plaza seemed to have been the site of a massive battle; many buildings were destroyed and collapsed, and the ground was riddled with pockmarks and craters.

At this moment, several people were swiftly cutting across the plaza.

Everyone was tense, observing their surroundings.

"Brother Mu."

Crossing the plaza, someone was waiting in a corner. Seeing them return, they immediately stepped forward to meet them.

The man addressed as Brother Mu stood nearly one meter ninety tall, towering visibly over the others as he stood among them, exuding an arresting aura.

Mu Chen made a hand gesture, and the group cut through an alley to board the vehicle parked outside.

The car moved forward along the road.

Mu Chen sat in the back, unfolding a map. While marking on it, he asked the others, "Did you find anything?"

"No, we finished searching the east side today."

"We found some supplies, but there were zombies over there, so we came back first."

"We saw signs of human activity, but didn't see any living people."

Mu Chen had divided the people into four groups, each responsible for searching the east, west, south, and north directions.

Mu Chen pondered for a moment and said, "Let's go get the supplies first."

...

Mu Chen led the men to retrieve the supplies. From the outside observation, it had seemed there weren't many zombies, but once they went inside, the place was swarming with them.

The group was chased into a miserable state, surrounded by zombies, and only managed to carve out a bloody path with great difficulty.

Mu Chen led his men running wildly out from inside.

Because the zombies pursued them too closely, Mu Chen's team split into two groups.

Mu Chen and three others barely managed to shake off the zombies, and as they rushed out of an alley, they were almost hit by a car.

Had Mu Chen not pulled one of them aside, the person would likely have been sent flying on impact.

That car sped quite a distance ahead before coming to a stop.

Someone poked their head out to look. "Damn, they're humans."

The car slowly reversed.

Mu Chen signaled his two companions to stay on guard.

"Brothers, if you'd run any faster, you wouldn't have made it at all." An Changjing was startled; he had thought they were zombies just now.

Turns out, looking at them from behind, they weren't.

Of course, even if they weren't, An Changjing hadn't planned on stopping.

After all, nobody knew what kind of temperament the current survivors had.

However, the person in the back told him to back up, so he had no choice but to reverse.

"Are you guys alright? I didn't mean to do that just now."

Mu Chen: "We're fine."

The rear car door opened, and a young girl stepped out from the vehicle. Her clean and pretty appearance startled even Mu Chen.

The young girl closed the car door, looking at Mu Chen with a faint smile. "Mu Chen, hitching a ride?"

Even when the male lead looked dusty, he still exuded an extraordinary charm.

Tsk, tsk, tsk...

Too bad this fine piece of grass was just for looking at.

Mu Chen was somewhat uncertain. "You are... Xu Wuyan."

"Mmm-hmm."

"..."

Mu Chen didn't have a deep impression of Xu Wuyan, but the Xu Wuyan in his memory definitely didn't look like this.

"Why are you here? Didn't Xiaomiao come with you?"

Lin Miaoru had grown up with him, so Mu Chen regarded her like a younger sister.

When they got separated last time, he had gone back to look for her.

In the end, when he truly couldn't find her, he had no choice but to proceed according to the original plan.

Ling Qiong didn't answer the question. "Do you want a ride or not?"

Mu Chen: "..."

When Mu Chen got into the car, he discovered that besides the bearded young man driving, there was also a handsome young man.

He turned his head and gave a slight nod in greeting.

Mu Chen and his two companions got into the car. There was barely enough room for one more person to squeeze in the back, but Ling Qiong had no intention of squeezing in with them.

Jiang Xunchu assumed she didn't want to sit with those dusty-looking people in the back, and unbuckled his seatbelt with the intent of moving to the back himself.

To his surprise, Ling Qiong pushed him back, climbed right into the car, and settled directly onto his lap.

Jiang Xunchu: "..."

An Changjing: "..."

Mu Chen glanced at Jiang Xunchu a couple more times, but didn't ask anything.

He and Xu Wuyan weren't all that familiar with each other.

Other people's business was not his place to manage.

"Drive, what are you looking at?" Ling Qiong nestled into a comfortable position, pulling Jiang Xunchu's idle hands around her waist.

Jiang Xunchu looked down at her, and Ling Qiong smiled up at him. "I'm afraid of falling."

"..."

Jiang Xunchu let out a silent sigh.

He felt like he had completely fallen into this young girl's hands.

Ever since he learned that these two weren't siblings, An Changjing didn't find it strange anymore and silently started the car.

Well, this was the apocalypse, after all.

If it were pre-apocalypse times, it would be a miracle if the two of you didn't get pulled over and lectured by traffic cops.

"Do you want to know where Lin Miaoru is?" Ling Qiong leaned against Jiang Xunchu, tilting her head to look at the people in the back.

Mu Chen met Ling Qiong's gaze and frowned slightly. "Where is she?"

What's with Xu Wuyan's attitude... Weren't she and Xiaomiao very close before?

"I don't know. But she probably isn't dead yet, rest assured."

Mu Chen: "..."

Ling Qiong rested her chin on Jiang Xunchu's shoulder, tilting her head to reveal half of her fair, delicate face. "However, I know another matter. Do you want to know?"

For now, she could only lodge a petty complaint with the male lead.

If they were back in the pre-apocalypse world, she could have really set the male lead up for a fall.

What a pity...