In the dense forest, it was dim and humid. The towering trees blocked out all the light, and a thick fog filled the air. The frost that had condensed in the air dripped down from the branches.
Bai Qingqing opened her eyes, feeling intense pain all over her body. She didn’t know if any of her bones were broken, but she vaguely remembered being blasted away by Shen Mingxuan.
She turned her head and saw a man lying not far away. The dim light made it difficult to see his figure clearly, but she desperately hoped that it wasn’t Shen Mingxuan, who despised her to the extreme. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a way out.
After lying there for a while, she regained some strength and got up to take a closer look.
In the faint light that filtered through the gaps in the leaves, she saw the man’s face. He had a tall nose bridge and exceptionally handsome, deep-set facial features that made it hard to look away.
Bai Qingqing was slightly stunned. She didn’t expect the man to be Fu Chen.
Fu Chen had a violent and eccentric temperament. How could he risk his life for someone else? Did he save her?
Bai Qingqing got up and hurriedly ran over, kneeling beside him and gently patting his face with her right hand. “Fu Chen, wake up, wake up…”
She remembered the task given by the system and silently prayed that Fu Chen wouldn’t die.
Fu Chen’s camouflage uniform was stained with dirty blood, and he remained unconscious, his handsome face flushed with an abnormal redness, indicating serious injuries.
Furrowing her brows, Bai Qingqing first placed her hand on his forehead to test. His forehead was burning hot, beyond the normal body temperature.
She didn’t know if a high fever could kill an ability user, but she couldn’t just leave it be.
Bai Qingqing scanned her surroundings but couldn’t determine her location. She knew she had to get Fu Chen out of there. The forest was full of dangerous plants and wild beasts, not to mention the constantly changing crisis of the post-apocalyptic world.
She hadn’t tried controlling plants with her abilities yet, so it was a good opportunity to see if she could use her powers.
Bai Qingqing stood up and approached a tree, checking the trunk for anything unusual before attempting to sense it by placing her hand on it.
The tree was ordinary and didn’t convey any useful information to her. As she turned around, she witnessed a shocking scene. A vine had wrapped around Fu Chen’s leg and was dragging him in a certain direction.
Without thinking too much, Bai Qingqing lunged forward, grabbing Fu Chen. The vine didn’t hesitate and tightly entwined both of them, quickly dragging them away.
After an unknown period of time, the vine finally stopped its frenzied movement. Bai Qingqing looked up towards its source.
This must be a plant mutation from the early stages, surpassing human knowledge of plant species. It somewhat resembled a vine monster from an animation, tightly entwining the two of them and suspending them in the air.
Bai Qingqing noticed many animal bones around them, and she even saw a human-like skull. These were probably remnants of creatures that the vine couldn’t digest.
She had no idea what level of mutation this plant was and whether she could control it with her abilities. If she couldn’t successfully control it, both she and Fu Chen would become its prey.
Taking a deep breath, Bai Qingqing reached out and grabbed the vine, unleashing her mental control.
The mutant plant sensed the forced intrusion, wildly thrashing its vines and emitting monster-like roars. It realized that Bai Qingqing was causing trouble and tightly wrapped its vine around her fair neck, tightening more and more.
Bai Qingqing’s breathing became increasingly difficult, her face turned pale, and she furrowed her brows, continuing to use her abilities.
It was probably a mutant plant of the second rank or higher. After several minutes of stalemate, she still couldn’t gain control over it, and she was running out of breath.
With a loud boom, a bolt of lightning exploded. The mutant plant let out a miserable roar as the vine suddenly loosened. Bai Qingqing started coughing violently, looking at Fu Chen in front of her.
“Don’t be afraid, Qingqing,” Fu Chen protected her with one hand and unleashed another bolt of lightning towards the core of the mutant plant, causing it to burst apart.
Bai Qingqing lay against his chest, anxiously asking, “Brother, how are you? Are you feeling better?”
Fu Chen endured the intense pain and discomfort in his body. His deep voice sounded somewhat hoarse as he said, “I’m fine, as long as I rest for a while…”
His tone carried a peculiar gentleness.
The man’s words weren’t finished before he fainted again. His handsome face turned pale, indicating a precarious situation.
Bai Qingqing’s eyes welled up with tears as she gritted her teeth and painfully got up. She reached out with her hand once again to test his forehead and found that it was even hotter than before.
She heard rustling sounds nearby and looked up, pouncing to grab a purple grass that was attempting to escape.
“Ying ying ying, let me go!” The purple grass unexpectedly made a sound—it was also a mutated plant.
Bai Qingqing stared in astonishment at the incessantly squeaking purple grass and directly used her ability to control it, gaining some information.
As it turned out, if they walked out of this forest, they would reach a road built by humans. Two kilometers away, there was a mountain village, and it would take an ordinary person about an hour to walk out of the forest.
People unfamiliar with the mountains would get lost in the fog and even encounter unpredictable dangers.
Bai Qingqing looked at Fu Chen lying unconscious on the ground. She had to carry a man out of there, which would probably take at least two or three hours.
She tied the still squeaking purple grass to her side with a rope and took out some medicine from her space to deal with Fu Chen’s wounds. However, feeding him the medicine was a troublesome task.
She didn’t care anymore.
Bai Qingqing suppressed her embarrassment and murmured, “Don’t blame me for this. It’s still my first kiss,” as she pried open his teeth with the medicine and used her tongue to feed it to him.
Even while unconscious, Fu Chen resisted, and she couldn’t feed him successfully the first time. She firmly held his chin and forced it into his mouth, using her hand to support his delicate jaw and prevent him from spitting it out.
After feeding him the medicine, she lay against his chest and exhaled a breath.
She had never imagined experiencing such absurd things and having to find ways to stay alive.
The purple grass was forced to lead the way, and Bai Qingqing endured the pain as she lifted Fu Chen’s tall figure onto her back. Step by step, she carefully walked in a certain direction.
Time slipped away bit by bit, and the sunlight broke through the white fog of the forest, making the light slightly brighter.
After half an hour of walking, Bai Qingqing was exhausted. She threw Fu Chen to the side and sat on the ground, feeling drained.
At this moment, she didn’t care about cleanliness. The first thing to do was to escape from the forest as soon as possible. She didn’t want to die there.
Feeling tired, she closed her eyes.
When she woke up again, Bai Qingqing realized she was lying on someone’s back. Instantly startled, she heard the deep voice of the man who noticed the movement. “You’re awake.”
So, she had fallen asleep just for a few seconds of rest. She hugged the man’s neck, her voice filled with joy. “Brother, you’re better now.”
“Mhm.” Fu Chen’s voice was faint as he said, “I’ll get you out right away.”
“I trust you, brother.” Bai Qingqing obediently lay on his back.
…
Fu Chen’s original family wasn’t happy. His father was exceptionally strict, and his mother was excessively cold, leading him to not understand how to love from a young age.
Due to his obedient yet eccentric personality, he had almost no friends. Some people tried to enter his world and be friends with him, but he later discovered that they were only interested in his family background. As a result, he mercilessly repaid them with his means.
Since then, his solitary and eccentric nature earned him the reputation of being a little monster. Adults and children alike looked at him with strange and disgusted eyes, as if his existence was a mistake.
He didn’t care and continued to be alone, indifferent to the various harsh mockery and strange glances he received.
Perhaps, deep in his heart, there was still a pure land, or perhaps, the more unattainable something was, the more he desired it.
During the apocalypse, he met several people on his journey—Xiao Yang, Liang Zhiyu, Shen Mingxuan, and Cheng Rui. They became his comrades and subordinates, fighting side by side to sweep through the zombies and establish a base.
However, later on, they fell into chaos due to their pursuit of Bai Tiantian, causing divisions among them. Perhaps this was the splintering of humanity.
He originally wanted to build a new world in the apocalypse with them, but one by one, they became infatuated with Bai Tiantian and lost their lives, manipulated by the zombie king.
Bai Tiantian was a woman who only submitted to the strong. She didn’t belong to any of them and had somehow joined forces with the monstrous zombie king.
In the later stages, all of them were indeed powerful, as long as they didn’t lose their sanity due to Bai Tiantian, there was still hope for them.
After his rebirth, he intended to distance himself from Bai Tiantian. Initially, he only planned to use Bai Qingqing to control that strange infatuation, but unexpectedly, she brought him more and more surprises.
Fu Chen carried the girl on his back as they walked through the forest. He listened to the shallow breaths coming from behind him, his expression dim, feeling a strange sensation welling up inside him.
While walking, he couldn’t help but think about how her slender and fragile body had carried him for quite a long distance. She truly regarded him as her dependent brother.
Although she had lost her memories and mistook him for her real brother, which made her wholeheartedly good to him, it didn’t diminish his joy. In the future, he would treat her as his little sister and protect her in this apocalyptic world.
The sunlight cast elongated shadows of the two figures, blending harmoniously together.
Fu Chen quickened his pace with the girl on his back. They didn’t encounter any danger along the way, and they were just a few hundred meters away from leaving the forest.
When they emerged from the forest and saw the scene in front of them, they both breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there was a road, they would have a chance to reunite with the others.
Fu Chen slightly turned his head and asked softly, “Are you feeling any pain in your body?”
Mistakenly thinking that he didn’t want to carry her anymore, Bai Qingqing hurriedly pushed his shoulder and said, “No, brother, you can put me down.”
Fu Chen gently set her down from his back, holding her delicate arm. “Are you really not feeling any pain?”
She had injuries on her body to begin with, and although he did his best to protect her when they fell down the mountain, she was still a delicate girl who could have gotten hurt.
Bai Qingqing shook her head. “Really.” She looked into the distance and pointed in a certain direction. “There’s a mountain village over there. Let’s go and take a look.”
Fu Chen looked at the small village in the distance, his expression obscure and unclear. It was no wonder he found the surroundings familiar. They had arrived at Zhou Village, a place he had experienced in his previous life.
Under the deliberate manipulation of the three women from the Thunder Squad, they had come to this village and nearly the entire team was wiped out. He and Bai Qingqing had unexpectedly gone missing, and the others would probably return to Zhou Village.
Fu Chen held onto Bai Qingqing’s hand and said in a low voice, “Once we enter the village, don’t wander around or look around randomly. You must stay close to me.”
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