In the end, Chen Li still could not hold on. Before the last trace of her consciousness sank into sleep, she ended her own life.
Rationally, Chen Xu told himself that this was the best choice. But emotionally, he simply could not bear to watch this person—possibly the only family he had left in the world—die in front of him, nor could he accept her leaving him just like that.
So when Chen Xu saw Chen Li about to pull the trigger, his first instinct was to stop her. But in the end, he halted when he saw the look of release in her eyes.
Yes, living like this really was more painful than death.
Chen Xu sat on the ground in a daze, looking at the lifeless person in his arms. Only after a long time did he finally let the tears fall, crying out loud.
The sound of his suppressed sobs made everyone who heard it feel weighed down.
When Chen Li was about to end her life, the members of the Morning Light Squad had all quietly left the stairwell and gone elsewhere, leaving the place to Chen Xu alone.
And Chen Xu did not need anyone’s comfort, because at a time like this, any words of consolation from others would only be pale and powerless.
…
Gu Yicheng helped Ruan Ning down to the dining hall on the first floor and found a relatively clean place for her to sit.
“Brother, if one day I died, would you be sad?” Ruan Ning suddenly thought of something. Blinking, she looked at Gu Yicheng and asked him this.
The tall man beside her fell silent for a moment—or perhaps not even that long—before saying flatly, “No.”
Ruan Ning: “…”
When the atmosphere was so good, even a little lie to comfort her would have been better than bluntly and coldly pointing out the truth of their flimsy plastic sibling relationship. The key thing was, she felt that they had actually been getting along quite well lately. At a moment like this, he should at least have phrased it more tactfully.
Ruan Ning’s heart was instantly filled with mixed emotions.
“Because that day will never come,” Gu Yicheng said, his voice low and magnetic. He handed her a bottle of water. “I want Ningning to live well.”
Ruan Ning’s emotions had been in turmoil, but the little bit of sadness that had just risen in her heart disappeared with his words.
To be honest, when she had just watched Chen Li try to end her own life and leave this world, a thought had surfaced uncontrollably in her mind. If one day she disappeared from this world too, would anyone remember that she had ever existed?
When Gu Yicheng had so decisively said he would not be sad, she had felt a little wistful for a moment.
But now that she thought about it, she was simply troubling herself for no reason. Setting aside the fact that she was still living just fine, even if she really did die, that would be something that happened after her death. She would not be around to see it anyway.
So whether anyone in this world remembered her or not did not seem all that important to her, did it?
Since Gu Yicheng had agreed to Chen Li’s request, he would not go back on his word.
He had Xue Chen and Da Cheng stay outside the school with Chen Xu, along with An Yi and Su Yunjin and the others whose combat ability was not very strong. They were to wait at the construction site where they had pitched their tents the night before. Once the rest of the group came out of the school, they would then find a place for Chen Xu to settle down.
Gu Yicheng planned to send Chen Xu to Base No. 3. At present, that was the most suitable place for him. Besides, regardless of whether they eventually found Chaozi’s family or not, their group would have to pass by that base anyway, so they could conveniently take Chen Xu along.
Although they had only encountered Chen Li during this trip to the cafeteria, it was enough for Gu Yicheng to confirm that there really were third-tier zombies at B University. And there was indeed more than one.
There were now also quite a few second-tier mutated zombies on the B University campus. This place was even more dangerous than he had guessed before coming. So bringing too many people along would only make things less convenient.
Ruan Ning had originally thought that she too would be left in the car with Chen Xu and the others. After all, in terms of combat ability, in this squad she probably only had a chance of beating Su Yunjin.
But what Ruan Ning had not expected was that Gu Yicheng actually decided to bring her along this time.
As for that result, Ruan Ning did not know whether she should be happy or worried.
If she continued exploring B University with the male lead and the others, that also meant she would face even more danger ahead. One careless mistake and she could end up in a zombie’s stomach. There were at least thousands of zombies on this campus. With her tiny body, even if each zombie only got a piece of her, there would not be enough to go around.
Still, Ruan Ning did not like the feeling of just staying in the car and waiting for people, either.
Xie Fei helped Chen Xu cremate Chen Li’s body.
Chen Xu knew very well that his sister probably would not have wanted her final appearance in death to be that of a zombie.
There was not much Ruan Ning could do, so all she could do was take out a small tied cloth pouch from her space, about the size of a palm, so that he could conveniently carry Chen Li’s ashes with him and keep something to remember her by.
“Thank you for what you did for my sister. Really, thank you so much. Especially you, Miss Ruan—you helped my sister and me tremendously. You let Lili leave this world without regrets.” Chen Xu took something out of his pocket. “By the way, these are the crystal cores. Before Lili left, she asked me to pass them on to you.”
There were two crystal cores inside Chen Li’s body.
One was a metal-element crystal core, about the size of a thumbnail. It was probably a second-tier crystal core.
The other was a strength-type crystal core. It was transparent, except that from time to time grey threads flickered through its centre. This was the third-tier crystal core. It was somewhat larger than the second-tier one, about the size of the sweet dates people used to eat before the apocalypse.
However, when Chen Xu saw the two crystal cores, he also found it strange. This was the first time he had ever seen such a situation. His sister had been a second-tier metal-type ability user. As for where the strength-type crystal core had come from, Chen Xu had no idea.
And besides, Chen Xu was still immersed in the grief of Chen Li’s death and unable to pull himself out of it. These crystal cores had also been picked out from his own younger sister’s ashes, so he had no mood to pursue the reason behind it.
Gu Yicheng accepted the third-tier crystal core. For this operation, even with his strength as a third-tier ability user, things were not entirely secure. It would be better to raise his ability level as soon as possible.
As for the metal-element crystal core, Gu Yicheng naturally gave it to Xue Chen, who was also a metal-element ability user in the team. Gu Yicheng had always trusted both Xue Chen’s strength and his character. Otherwise, he would not have entrusted An Yi, Su Yunjin, and the others to him. Since Xue Chen was staying outside the school with a group of people, if he could advance during that time, then even if some unexpected situation arose, he would be better able to protect the others.
Because of the delay caused by Chen Xu and his sister’s situation, by the time Xue Chen and the others escorted Chen Xu out by the wall, it was already eight in the morning.
More than two hours had passed since they had left the construction site.
There was no one in the second cafeteria that Gu Yicheng and the others were looking for, so the next place to go was the first cafeteria next door. Between the first and second cafeterias, there were only a few teaching buildings.
Now that Chen Li, the third-tier zombie, was no longer there to hold the second cafeteria, the moment the Morning Light Squad stepped out through the front entrance, they ran into several zombies.
Ruan Ning did not hide behind everyone else and slack off either. She forced herself to focus and joined in killing zombies. She could not handle mutated zombies, but she could still help deal with ordinary ones.
Although the team did not go up to investigate those teaching buildings, the situation did not look good. Broken glass from upstairs was scattered all over the ground around the buildings, and if you looked up, you could even see corpses hanging from the windows. Before dying, those people had clearly suffered immense pain; their faces were twisted in agony, and bright red blood flowed from the holes in their heads, running down the walls to the floor below.
At first glance, the bloody scene was truly terrifying. When Ruan Ning caught sight of the corpse, she did not dare look closely and quickly averted her eyes.
Everything Ruan Ning had seen and heard along the way made her fully realize that B University had truly changed from an ivory tower into a living hell. A chill rose in her heart, and she quietly edged a little closer to the person beside her.
It was always better to lean against a sturdy tree for shade. She might as well stay close to Gu Yicheng. As long as the male lead was beside her, she instantly felt much safer.
After leaving the second cafeteria, they did not encounter any third-tier zombies, nor did they run into any large hordes of zombies. For the Morning Light Squad, that was fortunate, and it allowed them to arrive smoothly at the first cafeteria without too much effort.
Unlike the second cafeteria, the two front doors of the first cafeteria were not only tightly shut, but also locked from the inside. Chairs had been used to block the parts of the doors that had been damaged, sealing the whole place tightly. This ensured that the surrounding zombies could not smell the presence of living people inside.
At this moment, Jiang Jingchao’s psychic ability also came in handy. “Brother Gu, there are people inside this cafeteria, and quite a lot of them.”
Jiang Jingchao gave an approximate number.
Since they did not know whether Jiang Jingyang was among those dozens of people, they obviously could not just stand downstairs shouting his name through a loudspeaker and risk drawing zombies with the commotion. So they would likely have to find a way to get inside and take a look.
“What are you all doing here? Oh right, let me tell you first—there isn’t any food left in the first cafeteria for more people to come in and take shelter. If you’re planning to hide from zombies here, I advise you not to even think about it. You’d better find somewhere else.” Not long after they appeared at the cafeteria entrance, a short-haired girl cautiously came to the front door and looked them over one by one through the double glass doors.
Perhaps afraid of attracting zombies, her voice was very soft, and with the door between them, it was hard to hear clearly.
Jiang Jingchao frowned and stepped a little closer before finally making out what she said. “We’re not here to take shelter. We’re here to find someone. As soon as we find them, we’ll leave.”
The short-haired girl looked at Jiang Jingchao—tall, broad-shouldered, and not looking like a bad person—but after biting her lip, she still showed no intention of letting them in. She only said, “Looking for someone? You can tell me who it is. Maybe I can help you ask around.”
Jiang Jingchao was not particularly dissatisfied with her refusal to let them in.
After all, his goal was not necessarily to enter the cafeteria itself. As long as he could find his younger brother, that was enough.
So Jiang Jingchao told her Jiang Jingyang’s age, class, and name.
“Alright, I’ve remembered it. I’ll go inside and ask for you first, but I can’t guarantee I’ll find out anything,” the short-haired girl said. Only after seeing that the people at the door really did not seem intent on barging in and taking over the place did she relax and go back inside.
After she disappeared from sight, Lin Yang walked over, slung an arm over Jiang Jingchao’s shoulder, and asked, “Chaozi, are we really just going to let her ask around and leave it at that? What if she says one thing to our faces and does another behind our backs?” If it were him in this situation, he would not bother with niceties—he would just force the door open first.
Seeing the eager expression on the person beside him, Jiang Jingchao immediately knew what he was thinking. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he said, “Lin Yang, don’t start causing trouble here. If you really force your way in and we still can’t find anyone, these people might really end up treating us like bad guys.”
Lin Yang also knew how important finding Jiang Jingyang was to Jiang Jingchao. Since Jiang Jingchao himself did not agree, he let out an “oh” and then waited listlessly by the door for the girl to come back with an answer.
After a while, the short-haired girl finally came out of the cafeteria again and regretfully told them that the person they were looking for was not there.
But after saying that, her expression turned hesitant, as though she was unsure whether she should mention what came next.
Her manner also stirred a trace of tension in Jiang Jingchao’s heart. “Classmate, if there’s something, just say it. We really want to find him as soon as possible.”
“There isn’t anyone named Jiang Jingyang here in the first cafeteria, but one of my classmates asked me to tell you that she saw him three days ago near the East District dormitories in the residential area,” the short-haired girl said. “But I really advise you not to go there. There’s a very powerful zombie in that area. A lot of students at our school have died in the East District. Several people here only barely managed to escape from there.”
Jiang Jingchao said, “We’ll decide for ourselves whether to go or not. But thank you for telling us this.”
Now that they had finally gotten news of Jiang Jingyang, they did not want to waste any more time and hurried toward the East District of the residential area. After all, the girl had said there was a powerful zombie there, and the longer Jiang Jingyang stayed in that place, the more dangerous it would be.
Watching the group leave, the short-haired girl muttered under her breath, “Honestly. Even after being told all that, they still want to go. Who goes willingly to their own death?”
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