Although Ruan Ning felt somewhat surprised by this matter, she only casually asked for the classmate’s name because Zhou Yu had brought it up herself. She did not really take the matter to heart.
That was because she did not remember the original owner having any close classmates. The original owner had been timid and introverted by nature, and she had transferred to First high school. She had basically barely spoken to the classmates in her class.
Besides, even if there really had been a classmate or friend she had been close to, to Ruan Ning, that person was no different from a stranger. In the end, she was not the original owner herself, and would not develop any special feelings for that person because of this. She also could not take extra care of a stranger just because of a little classmateship.
However, she did not know what Zhou Yu’s purpose was in bringing that person into the base. Ruan Ning also did not want to inexplicably owe someone a favour. If that person really was the original owner’s classmate, then since Zhou Yu had brought her in from outside the base, Ruan Ning could help that classmate return the supplies needed to enter the base to her. As for wanting anything more, there would be nothing else.
Ruan Ning was not stupid to that extent yet.
Since the afternoon before yesterday until now, strictly speaking, this was only the second time the two of them had met.
To say that their relationship was good enough that Zhou Yu would help someone just because that person claimed to be her classmate—Ruan Ning would not believe it no matter what. She simply did not know why Zhou Yu was being so attentive toward her.
While Ruan Ning was thinking about Zhou Yu’s intentions, she heard Zhou Yu say, “She said her name is Chen Ying’er. She said she was your classmate, and that the two of you were both third-year students at First high school in S City.”
In order to gain favour with Ruan Ning and have her recommend her to join their team, Zhou Yu deliberately changed her wording and said that she had seen the woman outside the base looking pitiful. After learning that she knew Ruan Ning, she had felt compassion and brought her in. She left out the fact that she had first heard the woman calling Ruan Ning’s name from behind, developed an idea, and only then brought her into the base. Otherwise, how could she possibly take the initiative to get to know a filthy, foul-smelling woman?
After bringing that woman back yesterday, Zhou Yu naturally had to make full use of her and let her play her role, so she had questioned her about many things overnight. Of course, she had not forgotten to ask the person’s name. After all, she could not possibly, as an ability user, drag around an embarrassing ordinary person every day in the base. She only needed to remember the name. If she happened to meet Ruan Ning, saying the woman’s name would naturally let Ruan Ning know whether she was her classmate or not.
When Ruan Ning heard this familiar yet unfamiliar name, she froze for a moment.
What? Chen Ying’er?
Wasn’t Chen Ying’er the culprit who had pushed the original owner into the zombie horde at the school gate in the previous life, causing her tragic death? How could it be her?
After hearing Chen Ying’er’s name, a trace of indignation flashed through Ruan Ning’s heart. Only after several seconds did she recover her calm.
In this life, after replacing the original owner, she had been anxious to collect supplies and had not even had time to attend class before immediately leaving the school. So she had not experienced being trapped at school like the original owner had in the previous life, finally escaping with difficulty only to be pushed into a zombie horde by a classmate.
Ruan Ning truly could not like someone who could do something like pushing a classmate into a pit of fire.
And perhaps because she had the original owner’s memories, she had a very deep impression of the scene in the previous life where Chen Ying’er pushed the original owner. Because of that, she disliked this person too.
Back when Ruan Ning had been in S City’s safe zone, she had thought about whether she should teach Chen Ying’er a lesson on behalf of the original owner, who had died so miserably. After all, she had occupied the original owner’s body, and this person was the culprit who had killed the original owner in the previous life. Although she would not lose her reason and kill this person because of what had happened in the original owner’s previous life, giving her a little lesson was still possible.
However, before Ruan Ning could encounter her, she soon heard from Qin Renhao that Chen Ying’er had already left S City’s safe zone with her rich second-generation boyfriend and gone elsewhere. Huaxia was so large, and it was the apocalypse. How easy would it be to meet again? Therefore, Ruan Ning could only let the matter go.
She had not expected to receive news of Chen Ying’er today at Yancheng Base. Even more unexpectedly, Chen Ying’er had been unable to hand over supplies and enter the base, and it was only because of her that Zhou Yu had been drawn into bringing her in.
She really did not know whether to sigh that this was a rotten fate or that the world was unpredictable.
However, she had to admit, this Chen Ying’er really did have a tough life. Like her, she had travelled all the way from S City to Yancheng Base, and even though she no longer had the supplies needed to enter the base, she had still managed to survive such a long journey.
Ruan Ning thought a lot in her heart, but on the surface, she only showed a puzzled expression and said, “Chen Ying’er? I don’t really seem to have any impression of that name. She probably isn’t my classmate.”
When Zhou Yu heard the person opposite her say this, her expression changed several times. That woman had actually dared to deceive her?!
It was not that Zhou Yu had never considered the possibility that this person might be lying to her. But she had thought Chen Ying’er should know what the consequences would be if she was discovered to have deceived an ability user.
Zhou Yu did not care whether Chen Ying’er really was Ruan Ning’s classmate or not. If the other person could not even remember her name, then even if she really was a classmate, they probably had not been close. It was even very likely that she had only known this person’s name.
But Zhou Yu remembered that yesterday afternoon, that woman had clearly told her that the two of them had been very close at school. In order to prevent Chen Ying’er from starving, Zhou Yu had even given her half of her own dinner.
Zhou Yu had never imagined that one day she would be deceived by an ordinary person. Now she was furious. She gave Ruan Ning a perfunctory smile and said, “Is that so? So that’s how it is. Then that person probably recognised the wrong person. Oh, right, I suddenly remembered that there’s something I need to deal with in my team. I have to go back early today, so I’ll leave first. You two can continue browsing slowly.”
After saying that, Zhou Yu hurriedly left the market.
Seeing Zhou Yu’s reaction, Ruan Ning knew that her plan to drive a wedge between them had most likely succeeded.
Yes, Ruan Ning had deliberately said that.
She did not want to dirty her hands over someone like Chen Ying’er. But she also did not want to let her off so easily and allow her to use Ruan Ning’s name to gain benefits. Rather than that, it was better to borrow Zhou Yu’s hand to teach her a lesson.
Ruan Ning could tell that Zhou Yu was not a kind person either. Her purpose in approaching her was not pure.
Zhou Yu had brought Chen Ying’er into the base because she thought Ruan Ning knew Chen Ying’er and probably wanted to get some benefit from Ruan Ning through Chen Ying’er. But once that goal could not be achieved because of someone else, then the person who had deceived her would definitely not receive any benefits either.
By doing this, she could conveniently get rid of both of them at once. It was killing two birds with one stone.
**
After Zhou Yu left, Ruan Ning and Lin Yang had also almost finished shopping. Just as they were preparing to carry the things they had bought and head back, they suddenly discovered a commotion coming from a stall not far from them. Immediately afterward, they heard a woman scream from the crowd over there. The people around scattered in all directions, one after another running backward, terror on every face. The goods from several nearby stalls were knocked to the ground and scattered everywhere.
At that moment, a man wearing a grey jacket rushed out from the crowd, his eyes blood-red.
The direction he came in happened to be exactly where Ruan Ning and Lin Yang were standing.
“Sister Ruan Ning, be careful!”
Lin Yang was carrying things in both hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an unfamiliar man who looked as if he had rabies charging over from the side. He immediately abandoned the things in his hands, quickly used his ability to block the man’s steps, and while the man was trapped by his ability, he stretched out his right leg and kicked him.
Although the charging man looked fierce, his body was thin and weak, with barely any flesh on him. Lin Yang used a great deal of strength in the emergency. On top of that, he was an ability user, so his strength was already greater than that of an ordinary man. The man failed to dodge the attack. After being kicked in the shoulder, he immediately flew backward several metres and finally fell flat on the ground, limbs sprawled.
Only after Lin Yang dealt with the man did he turn to look at Ruan Ning and ask with concern, “Sister Ruan Ning, are you alright?”
Just now, this man had mainly been rushing toward her, but Lin Yang had blocked him. Ruan Ning glanced at the person on the ground and shook her head. “I’m fine. Brother Lin Yang, what about you? Did he hurt you anywhere?”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine too,” Lin Yang said. “This person looked quite fierce, but he’s actually just a paper tiger. I only kicked him once and he can’t get up anymore.”
After the man was kicked to the ground, his limbs began twitching. White foam came from the corners of his mouth. His face turned ashen, and the exposed skin on his body was also an abnormal bluish-purple.
As Ruan Ning looked at him, she realised that the man’s symptoms did not seem like rabies, as she had assumed. Why did they look so much like a human who was about to turn into a zombie?
She had once seen a survivor who had been scratched by a zombie. After being infected, the symptoms before turning into a zombie had been exactly like his. It was just that this man’s mutation speed was obviously a little slower. He had not fully turned into a zombie yet, but she could guarantee that she had not seen wrongly.
“He looks like he’s about to turn into a zombie,” Ruan Ning said to Lin Yang beside her.
“I think so too. Sister Ruan Ning, be careful standing there. I’ll go over and take a look.” Lin Yang moved closer, squatted down, and pulled out a rope from the things he had bought. He used it to tie up the man on the ground, preventing him from suddenly jumping up and hurting someone.
Ruan Ning stood to the side, her gaze sweeping over the surrounding onlookers. After they heard the word “zombie,” quite a few sharp inhales immediately sounded around them.
Some people retreated several more steps. From the look of them, they were probably ordinary people without abilities. They were likely afraid that the infected man in front of them would hurt them and make them become like him.
Ruan Ning was not afraid of the zombie virus. However, what puzzled her was why someone inside the base was about to turn into a zombie. That was what they should be concerned about the most right now.
Whether it was because there had been negligence in the base’s management, allowing someone already carrying the zombie virus to enter the base, or because a zombie had run in from outside and infected an ordinary person who had not originally been carrying the virus, either possibility was a very serious problem.
If a safe base was no longer safe, and a zombie could suddenly rush out and bite you while you were walking on the road, then what difference was there between this safe base and the outside? The authority and credibility of the safe base in everyone’s hearts would also be greatly reduced.
Ruan Ning’s team would not continue staying in Yancheng Base either. After all, no one wanted zombies to suddenly break into the base while they were asleep, burst into their house, and injure or even kill their people.
After a while, a five-person team in uniform arrived at the scene of the incident. They were patrol officers inside the base.
“Where did something happen? Why is it so noisy?”
The man leading the team understood the situation briefly. Looking at the man tied up on the ground, who was still struggling and making muffled sounds, he instructed the people beside him to take the man away. “Sorry for frightening everyone. We’ll take this person away now.”
Lin Yang stood forward with a serious expression and stopped them from taking the man on the ground away. “We were indeed frightened. And precisely because of that, I hope the base can come forward and explain to everyone why this man suddenly turned into a zombie in public. If you don’t explain it clearly, then you won’t be taking this person away today.”
When many people around heard Lin Yang’s words, they felt that he made sense and echoed him one after another.
“That’s right. We all handed over supplies to get into this base. The base should be responsible for our safety!”
“And me! The things on my stall were damaged because this person suddenly went crazy. I risked danger to bring all these things back from outside the base. If you take him away, who’s going to compensate me for my goods?!”
“Who knows whether there are other people like him in the base besides this one? If there are several more, won’t I have to live in fear every day even inside the base?”
“Just now, if I hadn’t run fast and he had caught me, I might have turned into a zombie too. I don’t care. The base must give me an explanation today.”
“We hope the base gives us an explanation!”
“We want an explanation!”
“Yes! We want an explanation!”
Seeing that this matter had already caused the people to distrust and become angry with the base, the patrol captain naturally had no way to resolve this as an ordinary patrol team leader. He could only have his subordinates quickly go find someone from the upper levels of the base to handle it.
He looked nervously at the crowd surrounding him and tried to soothe them. “Everyone, please don’t panic. As you can see, we’ve only just arrived too, so we also don’t know exactly what happened with this person. Please give us a little time. I’ve already had someone report the situation to the higher-ups. They will immediately send people over to investigate. When the time comes, they will definitely give everyone an explanation.”
Ruan Ning and Lin Yang exchanged a glance. Both decided not to leave yet and to first see how the base would handle this matter.
While waiting, Lin Yang also conveniently picked up from the ground the things he had thrown away in the panic just now. No matter what, these things had been bought with their crystal cores. It would not be good to waste them like this.
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