“It’s not impossible for us to give you some food,” Lin Yang said.
The woman’s face lit up, thinking they were willing to give her something to eat.
“But we’re curious. We want to take a look at your child,” he added before she could celebrate too much.
The woman’s expression instantly turned panicked at his words. Her voice became hesitant and stammering, “This… my child is asleep. It might not be convenient. Can’t you ask for something else?”
“We just want to take a look. It won’t disturb the child’s sleep,” Lin Yang said. “As long as you agree, this bag of beef jerky is yours.”
In the apocalypse, beef jerky was even more popular than canned meat. Because it contained little moisture, it could last for a long time even after opening. It was chewy, tasty, and more filling.
The woman hadn’t eaten such a luxury since the apocalypse began. Now that the opportunity was right in front of her, not only did she hesitate, but she also looked torn. She clearly wanted the beef jerky but couldn’t bring herself to agree.
Exchanging a quick look at her child for a bag of beef jerky was a no-lose deal for anyone. Yet, this woman repeatedly refused, first claiming the child was asleep, then saying she didn’t want the jerky anymore.
Lin Yang, recalling a similar incident from the day before, grew impatient. He prepared to put the jerky away and drive off, leaving the woman to her act.
Seeing him move to withdraw the jerky, the woman suddenly snatched it from his hand. In the process, the quilt she was holding—the one supposedly containing her child—fell to the ground.
Ruan Ning, already suspecting what was coming, didn’t want to accidentally see something bloody. She gripped the male lead’s sleeve, squeezed her eyes shut, and leaned nervously toward him.
“Brother Gu…” she whispered anxiously, her brows furrowed.
Gu Yicheng glanced at the woman running off with the beef jerky, then looked down at Ruan Ning. Patting her shoulder soothingly, he said warmly, “Ningning, the child is fake.”
Ruan Ning didn’t immediately register his words. She let out an “Ah?” before sneaking a glance at the fallen quilt.
What she had imagined was nowhere to be seen. Inside the quilt lay a stuffed doll, about the size of a new-born, dressed in baby clothes. It had been disguised as the woman’s “child.”
With such a “child,” no wonder the woman had refused to let them look.
Seeing that it was only a stuffed doll and not something more horrifying, Ruan Ning felt relieved. She was grateful she hadn’t encountered someone using a real child to garner sympathy.
Someone like Ruan Ning, who had grown up in a peaceful era, couldn’t handle such scenes. Being suddenly thrown into the apocalypse was hard enough. If she had to witness such darkness, she feared her heart might grow cold and hardened.
What Ruan Ning didn’t know was that, while she had been napping the day before, the team had encountered a far darker version of this situation.
The woman they met in the city then had used a real child. Worse still, she hadn’t been acting alone. A group lay in ambush nearby. If any team stopped, the group would immediately surround and rob them of all their supplies. The men would be killed, while the women were kept—either for their twisted desires or forced into schemes like standing on the road to deceive others.
If vehicles refused to stop, the group had other methods. They scattered nails across the road, puncturing tires and forcing teams to halt.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, there were still many people with kind hearts. This group had taken advantage of that, deceiving and trapping countless survivors. Sometimes, they changed tactics, sending attractive women to seek help, baiting those with ill intentions.
Because Ruan Ning had been deeply asleep, she hadn’t noticed a thing. The team had also ended the battle quickly. Those men were weaklings—none of their abilities were strong. They never fought zombies, only preyed on humans, and didn’t even know the value of crystal nuclei. The team had taken them down easily.
After learning the full truth from the innocent women held captive by that group, the team had been overcome with disgust.
Out of consideration for Ruan Ning, they had tacitly chosen not to mention it when she woke up.
Lin Yang watched the woman disappear down the hill and asked, “Brother Gu, do we need to chase her?” The woman, who looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, had surprising strength to snatch the jerky and run off like that.
“No need,” Gu Yicheng replied indifferently.
It was just an ordinary bag of beef jerky. While it was harder to find than biscuits or bread, it wasn’t particularly rare for their team.
Lin Yang thought for a moment and agreed. He had seen the woman tear open the package and start stuffing jerky into her mouth as she ran. Even if he chased her down, there was no point in taking it back. It wasn’t worth roughing her up over something so small.
Meanwhile, Ruan Ning took advantage of the conversation to scoot back into her own seat, away from the male lead’s side. Looking at the calm expressions of everyone else in the car and comparing it to her near panic earlier—almost clinging to Gu Yicheng—she belatedly realized she had overreacted.
Sitting back in her seat, Ruan Ning grew more embarrassed the more she thought about it. She wasn’t sure if Gu Yicheng had taken note of her behaviour or what he might think of her. Thin-skinned as she was, she simply closed her eyes and pretended to sleep when the car started moving again.
Gu Yicheng noticed her every movement. A subtle, almost imperceptible smile flickered in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly before quickly smoothing out.
He had known from the start that the woman’s “child” was fake. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let Jiang Jingchao stop the car.
He simply wanted the girl beside him to understand the difference between the pre-apocalyptic world and the post-apocalyptic one. Not everyone in this world could be trusted.
As long as she trusted him, that was enough.
Gu Yicheng lowered his gaze, his thoughts unreadable.
Because their supplies were ample, Ruan Ning’s team didn’t rush their journey like others. As long as they could find a suitable place to rest before nightfall, they would settle down for the evening and enjoy a hot meal together.
The team’s last dinner before entering G Province was noodles.
Tomorrow, they would leave S City and enter the outskirts of B City in G Province. Once they found Jiang Jingchao’s family there, they would head north to the capital.
Having access to spatial storage made life infinitely easier. Cookware, tables, chairs—everything they needed was at their disposal. If not for the desolate, barren surroundings, they might have looked like they were out on a picnic.
“Ningning, eat a bit more,” Gu Yicheng said, frowning slightly as he looked at the girl beside him. She had barely filled half a bowl with noodles and was eating tiny bites.
“But I really can’t eat more,” Ruan Ning said hesitantly. She wasn’t hungry enough for more but didn’t want to waste food either.
After days of traveling, her weak body hadn’t adjusted well. Her appetite had shrunk, and the little weight she had gained back in the safety zone was gone. She even seemed to be losing weight again.
It wasn’t that she was underfed—if anything, her meals had only improved. Whenever she said she craved something, it would show up on the table the next day, sometimes even that same day.
Of course, this was all thanks to the male lead. Ruan Ning had neither the ability nor the resources to obtain such luxuries. Most of the supplies they collected along the way ended up in her space.
When food that rare started appearing openly in the team, Gu Yicheng no longer tried to hide his spatial ability.
With Gu Yicheng’s abundant resources, their life on the road—though exhausting due to travel, lodging, and zombie fighting—was otherwise far better than that of most apocalypse survivors.
After much pleading, Ruan Ning had even caught a glimpse of the staggering variety of items in Gu Yicheng’s space, leaving her both envious and amazed. At first, she worried that Gu Yicheng’s care for her would make her stand out and make others resentful. But seeing that everyone else’s meals were just as good, and that their attitudes toward her remained warm and friendly, Ruan Ning finally felt at ease enjoying the food.
Leave a Reply