“Miss Ruan, your classmate has woken up.”
Shortly after Ruan Ning awoke, Xu Chi also regained consciousness.
In the abandoned building where they were staying, several battery-powered night lamps had been hung up. The lamps provided just enough light to see the ground without standing out too much in the darkness.
When Li Bao came over with the news, Ruan Ning was lazily sitting in a chair, chin propped in her hand, watching Gu Yicheng and Xue Chen study a route map at the table.
During the day, their route had already deviated to avoid the swarm of small zombies. On top of that, something had happened to the east—rubble blocked the streets, and the road was completely impassable—so they had to find an alternative route.
Changing routes on the fly was a common occurrence in the apocalypse. Until someone travelled a road, no one knew what condition it would be in.
Fortunately, everyone was prepared for this. After a brief discussion, they had already adjusted their plans for the next day.
Hearing that Xu Chi had woken up, Ruan Ning let out a sigh of relief.
Since Xu Chi had regained consciousness, it meant he hadn’t turned into a zombie. He even seemed to have awakened an ability. She was genuinely happy for him.
To be honest, Ruan Ning had been afraid she’d wake up to hear the news that Xu Chi had turned. It wasn’t because they were particularly close, but as fellow humans, seeing someone succumb to the infection carried an unavoidable sense of dread.
The thought of someone she knew turning into a zombie felt vastly different from hearing about it happening to strangers.
Following Li Bao, Ruan Ning walked over to their vehicle. In the last row of seats, a teenager with dyed yellow hair sat silently, rubbing his wrist. Scattered on the ground was a bundle of rope—Lin Yang had taken it earlier from their car to tie him up.
“Xu Chi, how are you feeling now?” Ruan Ning asked with concern.
She never wore a mask when she was alone with Gu Yicheng and the others.
Xu Chi froze for a moment when he saw Ruan Ning, as if he hadn’t recognized her at first. Then he said, “Just lost a bit of blood. Otherwise, I’m fine.”
When he had been scratched by a zombie and passed out from blood loss, he’d been prepared to die. He never thought he’d get another chance to wake up. For a moment, as he opened his eyes, he’d almost believed he was in the afterlife—until he realized he was inside a car.
He hadn’t died. He hadn’t turned into one of those monstrous zombies that now roamed the streets!
Before notifying Ruan Ning, Li Bao had already explained the situation to Xu Chi, so he understood why he had been saved and brought here.
Xu Chi and Ruan Ning weren’t particularly close. In fact, he hadn’t been close with anyone in Class 1 of their senior year.
Class 1 was the honours class. At First High School, where students were grouped by academic performance, Xu Chi had always been an outlier. Fighting, skipping classes—these were normal for him. Over the course of a semester, he’d hardly attended any classes, and even when he did, he just slept at his desk. His reputation had already spread far and wide since he transferred in sophomore year, and most people avoided him, including the original Ruan Ning, who was a model student.
Moreover, when Ruan Ning and Qin Renhao had gone to save him, she had been wearing a mask. That was why Xu Chi hadn’t immediately connected her face with her name.
“Thank you,” Xu Chi said, his tone a little stiff, as if he wasn’t used to expressing gratitude.
Ruan Ning hadn’t helped him to earn his thanks. If he suddenly started treating her differently because of this, she would feel even more uncomfortable.
However, what surprised her was that Xu Chi hadn’t awakened an ability!
“An ability? You mean I should have awakened one?” Xu Chi looked at his palm in confusion. Nothing appeared.
Typically, those who survived a zombie infection would awaken an ability. Ruan Ning was an exception; even she wasn’t sure if she counted as an ability user. But Xu Chi was even more unfortunate—there were no signs of any abilities at all.
Seeing that he seemed a little down, Ruan Ning refrained from bringing it up again and instead asked about his plans for the future.
Their team was headed to B City. If Xu Chi wanted to return to the safety zone, they would have to part ways the next day.
“I don’t know. Since I didn’t die at the hands of the zombies, I’ll just find a place to settle down for now,” Xu Chi replied. His parents had been abroad on a business trip when the apocalypse broke out. Even if they were still alive, with such a vast distance between them, who knew if they could ever return to China?
Hearing this, Ruan Ning fell silent. His situation was indeed difficult. She wasn’t particularly good at comforting others, so she ended their conversation, giving Xu Chi some space to himself.
…..
The next day.
Xu Chi’s condition had improved considerably. Young people recovered quickly, and the team’s medical supplies were top-notch. With a doctor in their group, his injuries had been quickly treated and controlled.
Ruan Ning had wanted to test her healing ability on him, to see if it worked on others as well. However, Gu Yicheng stopped her, saying that her healing ability hadn’t fully awakened yet and shouldn’t be overused.
Since the male lead’s advice was always sound, Ruan Ning reluctantly gave up on the idea.
In the end, Xu Chi decided to stay with their team, and Gu Yicheng agreed.
Curious, Ruan Ning asked Gu Yicheng about it. He didn’t hide the reason, explaining that he had heard of cases like Xu Chi’s—people who survived zombie scratches without awakening abilities. There was supposedly a way to help them, but they currently lacked the resources. That was why Xu Chi had decided to join them.
Ruan Ning suspected that Gu Yicheng’s “heard about it” referred to something he had witnessed in his past life. It might have been mentioned in the novel too, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time and now knew nothing about it.
…
To reach B City, the highways were completely out of the question.
Instead, the team travelled along smaller, lesser-known roads.
Ruan Ning had no idea where Gu Yicheng and the others got their information, but studying the maps to B City, she never would have imagined this route even existed.
With the team’s strength, as long as they didn’t encounter mutated zombies or large zombie hordes, they barely needed to leave the car. They either smashed through the zombies or used their abilities to clear the way.
The zombies they killed turned into one crystal nucleus after another, all stored in Ruan Ning’s space.
Holding so many crystal nuclei gave Ruan Ning a deep sense of satisfaction. To her, these weren’t just ordinary crystals—they were life-saving elixirs.
After another night passed and her body still showed no signs of turning into a zombie, Ruan Ning was completely relieved. It seemed she really wouldn’t turn.
Although her heart rate was still unusually high, it had dropped to around 150 beats per minute, much lower than before.
Since it didn’t pose any immediate danger to her life, Ruan Ning decided not to worry about it.
That afternoon, their group drove onto a gravel road—rarely seen in urban areas. The road was rough, but wide enough for their vehicles to pass through.
“Please, give me something to eat.”
At the entrance of a village, they saw a woman standing by the road. She looked to be around thirty years old and was holding a child wrapped in a quilt. Her clothes were filthy, and her face was smudged with dirt, making her appear pitiful and desperate.
Ruan Ning glanced around the car and noticed that everyone else remained completely indifferent. Some even seemed to be avoiding her, as if they found the situation repulsive.
She didn’t think this was a sign of heartlessness but rather found it strange. After spending so much time with the team, she had a general understanding of everyone’s personalities.
Even the group in the car ahead showed no reaction, which meant there was definitely something unusual about the situation.
She didn’t see anything particularly odd about the woman holding the child.
Noticing Ruan Ning’s confusion, Gu Yicheng said to Jiang Jingchao, who was driving, “Chaozi, stop the car.”
Jiang Jingchao glanced at the backseat in surprise but said nothing, immediately braking. An Yi, sitting beside Ruan Ning, yawned and muttered, “Why are we stopping?”
Because Xu Chi was riding in the other vehicle with Xue Chen’s team, Dr. An had no choice but to sit with them.
As soon as their car stopped, the woman holding the child hurried over.
Under Gu Yicheng’s signal, Lin Yang rolled down the window. The woman, seeing the supplies in the car, had a flash of greed and desire in her eyes. Swallowing nervously, she pleaded, “Little brother, my child and I haven’t eaten in days. Could you spare some food? I can manage without, but the child… he’s still so small. If he doesn’t eat, he’ll starve to death along with me…”
As she spoke, tears rolled down her face.
Ruan Ning, who hadn’t noticed anything unusual before, now began to see through the situation.
She glanced at the child in the woman’s arms. The child hadn’t moved the entire time. Even if he was unconscious from hunger, what kind of mother would cover her child’s entire face with a quilt? Wouldn’t that suffocate him?
Unless the child was already… The thought sent a chill down Ruan Ning’s spine.
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