Author Archives: Thingyan

The area was surrounded by zombies, slowly converging toward the group in the center. Their movements were sluggish, but the sheer number made the threat overwhelming.

In just a few minutes, the dozen or so survivors would likely be torn to pieces—not even enough to satisfy the horde’s appetite.

Under the crushing pressure of imminent death, Chen Xin’s screams failed to garner any sympathy or concern. Instead, it served as a metaphorical hammer, striking the already fragile nerves of the group.

Upon seeing the bite wound on the back of Chen Xin’s left hand, the others instinctively stepped back, quickly distancing themselves from him.

As a team captain, Chen Xin’s combat skills were formidable. If he turned into a zombie, it would be nearly impossible for ordinary people to take him down.

Regular zombies moved slowly and lacked higher cognitive functions, relying purely on instinct to locate humans through sound, scent, and the smell of blood. However, a person’s body weight, height, and physical attributes could still influence the zombie’s attack strength and movement.

The surviving members of the two scavenging teams subconsciously moved closer to Lu Mingxiao and Lu Yao. No one knew the exact nature of their relationship, but the ease with which Lu Yao had dispatched the mutated zombies left a deep impression. Staying near them seemed like the safest option.

Gradually, the team members widened the gap between themselves and Chen Xin, inching toward Lu Mingxiao and Lu Yao. Even Chen Yu and An Xia subtly shifted closer.

An Xia’s gaze at Lu Yao was complex, her attention falling on the woman’s wrist. In just a few seconds, the small knives attached to the red cords had returned neatly to their sheath.

The last time they met, Lu Yao hadn’t been wearing that knife harness. Those small blades were terrifyingly sharp, severing the mutated zombies without even touching them.

“It’s not her,” An Xia thought. “It’s that weapon.”

Her eyes briefly flickered with a calculating gleam as she observed the knife sheath strapped to Lu Yao’s leg.

For Lu Yao, this reunion brought an unfamiliar sense of joy. She clung to Lu Mingxiao, reluctant to let go. Seeing him dazed, she leaned in again, giving him two quick pecks on the cheek, her smile growing even brighter.

Lu Mingxiao snapped back to reality, meeting her sparkling gaze. His expression remained calm, but he lowered his eyes, the hand that had thrown the “potato” curling into a fist before dropping to his side. His voice was flat and emotionless: “Get down.”

Lu Yao, now familiar with his awkward restraint and inner turmoil, kept smiling. “Then let me go.”

Still holding her with one hand, Lu Mingxiao turned his head away, refusing to meet her eyes. “…Get down yourself.”

The scavenging team was thoroughly confused.

“The instructor doesn’t seem very willing. Is their relationship not what we thought? Did we misunderstand something?”

An Xia and Xie Yu exchanged a glance. At this moment, there was no sense of hierarchy between captain and vice-captain; instead, there was a subtle undercurrent of rivalry.

No matter the relationship between the instructor and Lu Yao, they both resolved to survive by staying close to the duo and using any means necessary.

Meanwhile, the zombies continued to close in. Zhao Ye, baffled by the humans’ lack of urgency, raised his voice to remind them, “Boss, the zombies are closing in. Shouldn’t we hurry up and leave?”

The scavenging team members grew excited upon hearing this. “There’s a way out? Just who are these people?”

The Dream Fulfillment System, silent until now, chimed in with a grumble: “Stop spoiling that guy. Look at him, acting all high and mighty with that sour face.”

For some reason, the system found Lu Mingxiao increasingly irritating.

Lu Yao jumped lightly to the ground, glancing around the area. That’s when she noticed An Xia, Xie Yu, and the team members behind them.

In a good mood, she greeted them, “Fancy seeing you again.”

An Xia and Xie Yu nodded awkwardly, recalling their previous attitudes toward Lu Yao. A sense of unease crept into their hearts.

“She wouldn’t just leave us behind, right?”

Lu Yao tilted her head to look at Lu Mingxiao. “We’re about to leave. Are you coming back to the shop with me?”

At that time, they hadn’t expected to use it so soon. Given the unstable environment, they were merely preparing for the future, thinking it might come in handy later.

This afternoon, they once again reached the Golden Tower to collect supplies. Passing by a smashed gold counter, a few members casually took some more items.

Zhao Ye was responsible for accounting and collecting the gold, while the scout sparrows, took out business cards from a cloth pouch and handed them to teammates who had paid.

Lu Yao pulled out three pens from the same pouch and passed them over. “Hurry up.”

An Xia and Xie Yu were pushed aside, feeling awkward, regretful, and anxious—a mix of complicated emotions.

Despite passing by the Golden Tower’s gold counter several times yesterday and today, neither had considered taking a piece to hide on themselves, which might have been useful.

At this moment, a young team member handed over a gold bracelet. “Team Leader An, Deputy Team Leader Xie, would you like to place an order?”

The expressions on An Xia and Xie Yu’s faces turned indescribably complex.

This member had only recently joined the team and had been scolded harshly by An Xia earlier that day for being slow when moving supplies at the Golden Tower.

Faced with his kind gesture, An Xia lowered her head, unable to utter a word.

Xie Yu, without hesitation, accepted it and expressed gratitude. “Thank you.”

The team member scratched his head. “It’s nothing. I saw the seniors taking some earlier, so I grabbed a bit too. There’s plenty anyway. Let’s just get out of here quickly. I really want to return to the base.”

The gold bracelet he gave to Xie Yu weighed seven to eight grams, enough for both him and An Xia to place their orders.

Other team members also shared gold with their teammates, ensuring no one among the remaining dozen was left out.

Except for Chen Xin.

While still conscious, the skin around his zombie bite had begun to fester. It was only a matter of time before he fully transformed.

No matter how much he pleaded, members of both the Seventh and Tenth Squads avoided him.

Self-preservation is an instinct of all living creatures, and humans are no exception. Chen Xin, bitten and infected, was no longer seen as one of them.

With the zombie horde closing in, customers were wrapping up their orders.

Lu Yao unsheathed a short sword from her back. Holding the blade in her left hand, she instructed Zhao Ye, “I’ll take the lead. You cover the rear and ensure the customers’ safety.”

Zhao Zhaoge retrieved three pitch-black triangular boomerangs from the pouch.

These were magical weapons crafted from deep-sea black iron, a gift from Lady Jiao. Sharp and precise, they were simple to wield, making them perfect for a young demon like him, just beginning to learn the ways of cultivation.

As the store owner cleared the way up front, Zhao Ye focused on handling any stragglers in the rear.

The task wasn’t difficult. Even with the zombie tide in pursuit, once they started moving, they would quickly leave the horde behind.

Despite hiring a courier service, the search team remained pessimistic about their chances of survival.

They could tell the courier’s survival skills far exceeded theirs, but with zombies surrounding them on all sides, cutting through the horde seemed almost impossible.

Chen Xin had been injured simply by a falling potato that broke his skin. Now they had to actively charge into the zombie swarm. Their survival rate seemed perilously close to zero.

All those who had placed orders silently prayed, beseeching the heavens and all deities to see them through this ordeal.

After forming up, Lu Yao charged into the zombie crowd without hesitation, left hand wielding a sword and right hand controlling a dagger.

Her speed was so fast that it left afterimages. Wherever she passed, it was as if a lawnmower had swept through—zombie heads rolled like peeled potatoes.

An Xia was the first to rush out, sticking close behind Lu Yao for fear of being left behind.

Xie Yu followed half a step slower, frustrated at himself as he hastened to catch up. The other team members finally snapped out of their daze.

With a wide and flexible attack range, the crimson dagger cleared a broad path. Lu Yao followed up with precise strikes using the sword in her left hand to finish off any stragglers.

Lu Mingxiao stayed half a meter behind her on her left side, clearing fallen corpses to prevent them from touching her clothing.

Zhao Ye, at the rear, found little opportunity to act and focused instead on urging slower customers not to fall behind.

In just a few dozen meters, the mindset of the customers had shifted drastically.

Though part of a search team known for a survival rate many times that of the average person, they had never witnessed such a brutal and efficient breakout. Walking in the middle of the formation felt like being guarded by dozens of bodyguards; the grotesque, clinging zombies couldn’t even touch their clothes.

In under two minutes, the nearly twenty-person team successfully broke free from the pursuing zombie horde and arrived in the spacious information hall, now just thirty meters from the hospital’s exit.

Lu Yao suddenly stopped in her tracks, raised her hand, and made a “stop” gesture.

The group stopped without needing any further explanation, as they had already seen the horrific scene ahead.

Chunks of torn flesh were scattered across the center of the consultation hall, and a tall zombie dressed in a white lab coat was bent over, greedily devouring the pile of flesh.

There were a few scattered zombies wandering around the consultation hall, twisting their heads, staring blankly at the bloody and stinky pile of meat, but none of them approached to join in the “feast.”

The members of the seventh team recognized the clothing fragments hanging from the meat. The deep blue denim was especially noticeable, and they shouted in shock, “Brother Gao and Brother Li, how could this happen!!!”

Lu Yao frowned. “When I entered, those three men were following behind. I warned them at the door, but it seems they didn’t take it seriously.”

In fact, when those three men caught up, they had ill intentions from the start.

Lu Yao had heard plenty of foul language but still patiently warned them once more.

Zhao Ye’s face darkened. “The one we encountered on the sixth floor was him. He was incredibly fast and strong, completely different from ordinary zombies. It seems now that the mirror signals were probably one of his hunting methods.”

Lu Yao said, “While he’s eating, we…”

Before she could finish her sentence, a nearby green-skinned zombie lifted its head and slowly stood up.

As it walked toward the group, it continued chewing, its teeth grinding through raw flesh and thick blood, producing a wet “slap slap” sound. Paired with its blood-soaked half-face, it was enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle.

It wore glasses, with gray, unfocused pupils, yet it walked directly toward the group with precision.

Xie Yu looked at the exit, only a few dozen meters away, the hope of survival so close yet feeling as unreachable as a distant shore. His emotions were on the verge of breaking down. “What do we do?”

Lu Yao sighed, got into position, and hid her right hand behind her back while raising her left hand with the short sword. “Don’t scream, and don’t run around.”

Even though the green-skinned zombie was much faster than regular zombies, Lu Yao could easily track its movements.

She hid the red-line dagger in her right hand, stepped forward, and gradually distanced herself from the guests behind her.

Her left-hand short sword acted as bait. As the green-skinned zombie leaned back to avoid the sword strike, Lu Yao controlled six short knives to fly from all four directions, aiming to first disable its limbs.

Once it lost its ability to move, she threw the final short knife. With a light flick, the thin blade flew horizontally and made a shallow cut along the zombie’s weak neck.

The green-skinned zombie seemed stunned for a moment, its lips about to curl into a smile, as if preparing to mock her.

Before it could even raise its smile, its vision suddenly became distorted. The green head rolled across the ground, and it saw its own body tipping forward, collapsing straight down.

Lu Yao retracted the seven short knives and the short sword, slowly exhaled, clapped her hands, and turned to call the guests, “Let’s go.”

The stunned search team snapped back to reality, unable to believe they had just survived the life-or-death crisis.

What kind of monsters are these couriers?

After successfully walking out of the hospital’s front door, the group collectively let out a breath.

The suppressed emotions from earlier exploded. Some people raised their hands and wailed loudly, running wildly into the street, only to stop after a few steps, raising their hands to cover their mouths, nervously glancing around in fear.

Zombies are especially sensitive to sounds at night.

Lu Yao, Lu Mingxiao, and Zhao Ye were at the back.

In just a few minutes, they successfully completed seventeen errands, and they hadn’t lost out.

Lu Yao had been busy all day, her mind highly focused. Once she relaxed, she felt incredibly exhausted. She shook her head forcefully and pointed to the road: “The car is across the street. Finally, we can head back.”

Zhao Ye was a bit worried about Lu Yao and kept glancing back to observe her condition.

Lu Mingxiao silently walked to Lu Yao’s side, leaning his shoulder against hers and gently supporting her.

Lu Yao couldn’t help but smile.

The three of them walked slowly against the night wind. The people at the base were standing by the side of the road, as if waiting for them.

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

After finishing the urgent conversation, Zhao Ye ended the call.

Lu Yao prepared to head straight to the hospital.

Xia Huaisong and Li Mi, who had been watching her closely, noticed her sudden self-talk and blocked her from both sides as she tried to leave.

Li Mi said, “Sorry, but please wait a little longer. They’ve been inside for a while; they should be coming out soon.”

Xia Huaisong added, “If we let you go, it’ll put us in a tough spot.”

Lu Yao felt the grip on her wasn’t strong and struggled lightly. “Are you two freeloaders? So weak. Let go, and I won’t make a fuss.”

Their expressions shifted subtly, and both released her at the same time, looking at her with an odd mixture of surprise and disbelief.

Too focused on her task, Lu Yao didn’t pay much attention and continued toward the hospital.

At that moment, three men stepped out of one of the parked vans. Leading them was a tall, sturdy man who said, “This hospital and its supplies are now under Hope Base’s control. Don’t even think about it, and stop playing your little tricks. Or, if you want to join Hope Base, you’re welcome to stay and head back with us later.”

The man in a denim jacket standing beside him looked Lu Yao up and down, smirking. “You’re just my type. How about being my girlfriend?”

The Dream Fulfillment System chimed in, annoyed: “Ugh, these people are so irritating.”

Before Lu Yao could respond, Li Mi grabbed her wrist and dragged her away, saying loudly, “Li-ge, Gao-ge, please watch over the supplies. Xia Huaisong and I will deal with her.”

Lu Yao tried to resist, but Li Mi’s grip suddenly tightened, pulling her along at a quick pace. In a lowered voice, Li Mi warned, “Don’t talk. Just follow me. Don’t tell me you’re actually considering being that guy’s girlfriend?”

Xia Huaisong trailed behind, adding quietly, “Those guys are different from us. They’ll really make a move. Be smart and leave. Forget about the hospital.”

Lu Yao shook Li Mi off with surprising strength, causing her to stumble and almost fall. Lu Yao turned and briskly headed toward the hospital. After a few steps, she stopped, looked back, and kindly warned them, “I just got a message from my colleague. He’s in the hospital, and things inside don’t seem good. If you have more people outside, you’d better be ready for a rescue.”

Li Mi stared at Lu Yao, caught off guard by her strength. The men lounging by the vans burst into laughter, making no move to stop her as they leisurely followed behind.

Xia Huaisong stayed by the roadside, watching Lu Yao leave. Then, turning his gaze toward the overgrown grass across the road and briefly glancing at the sky, he said hollowly, “What if we just ran away?”

Li Mi raised her head sharply, the night wind lifting strands of her hair. Memories flooded her mind as she softly shook her head. “It’s the same wherever we go. Chen Xin said people like me would only end up worse outside, and I think he’s right.”

Xia Huaisong removed his glasses and rubbed his temples. His eyes landed briefly on Li Mi’s bright, beautiful face before he averted his gaze. “Let’s just get back to the van.”

As they walked toward the van, they noticed a flyer lying on the roadside.

Li Mi bent down to pick it up. “Lu Yao’s Courier Shop… What’s this?”
…

Wanyi Hospital, Basement Level 1, CT Room

Zhao Ye and over a dozen Hope Base members were hiding in the CT scan room. An Xia and Xie Yu crouched beneath the glass window, carefully observing the situation outside.

Zhao Ye had entered the hospital earlier than the Hope Base group. After finishing his flyer distribution in the afternoon, he was heading back to the shop when his three sparrow companions suddenly chirped loudly, saying someone upstairs in the hospital was signaling for help with a mirror.

The sparrows, having seen similar scenarios in movies, immediately felt like the protagonists of an epic rescue. They begged Zhao Ye to go with them to investigate.

Remembering Lu Yao’s warnings, Zhao Ye hesitated and didn’t act immediately.

The sparrows, however, pulled out all the stops—pleading, whining, and throwing little tantrums.

Born and raised in the mountains, the sparrow demons had roamed freely for over two hundred years. Their real exposure to humans only began after the internet café appeared on Baixian Mountain, so they didn’t share humans’ ingrained caution or fully grasp the importance of Lu Yao’s instructions.

Zhao Ye’s resolve was weak, especially after the sparrows’ incessant coaxing. Curiosity got the better of him, and he reluctantly stopped his bike and approached the hospital.

Before entering, he took some precautions, leaving six sparrows outside as lookouts. If he didn’t return quickly, the sparrows were to head back to the shop and report.

Inside the hospital, Zhao Ye climbed the stairs to the floor where the mirror signals had been spotted. However, he found no one in need of rescue—only a particularly terrifying zombie.

This zombie wore a white lab coat and silver-rimmed glasses with shattered lenses. Its face showed almost no external injuries, but its skin was a sickly greenish hue. It was several times faster than a regular zombie and incredibly strong, capable of lifting a hospital bed with one hand and throwing it several meters.

Zhao Ye engaged it several times but couldn’t find an opportunity to destroy its brain.

Amid the chaos, two of the sparrows were caught and nearly devoured.

Panic set in, and Zhao Ye was forced to use his demonic powers. With his limited cultivation and the near-total absence of spiritual energy in the modern world, he had to rely on the power of the Regulation Rod to perform a spell, rescuing the two sparrows. His curiosity was extinguished in an instant as he fled downstairs with the sparrows in tow.

He had intended to leave the hospital immediately, but the lower floors were a maze of long and short corridors. He became disoriented and couldn’t find the exit, only to run headlong into a terrified group from Hope Base’s scavenging team.

Hope Base had sent two teams: Team Ten, led by Captain An Xia and Vice-Captain Chen Yu, and Team Seven, led by Captain Chen Xin and Vice-Captain Li Mi.

Li Mi was stunningly beautiful but had mediocre skills—in truth, a “vase” of a team member. However, as Chen Xin’s girlfriend, she had been placed in his team as vice-captain and was always kept by his side.

Xia Huaisong was another “vase,” though his “handler” wasn’t part of Teams Seven or Ten but was out on a different mission. His girlfriend had good relations with Chen Xin, who had promised to look after her boyfriend.

Before entering the hospital, Chen Xin and An Xia had agreed to leave a few capable team members outside to guard the supplies in the vans, leaving Li Mi and Xia Huaisong among those stationed outside.

The two teams comprised 31 members, plus Instructor Lu Mingxiao, making 32 in total. However, only 27 people entered the hospital.

The captains divided their teams into three groups to search different areas for medical supplies, compact medical devices, and injectable medications or tools for treating minor injuries.

The groups were led by An Xia, Xie Yu, and Chen Xin. Each secretly hoped that Lu Mingxiao would join their group, leading to a brief dispute in the hospital lobby.

Their argument was cut short as patient-clothed zombies began swarming from all directions.

When Zhao Ye encountered the scavenging team, they were fleeing through the payment hall with a large horde of zombies in pursuit. The front ranks of the horde included several zombies in tattered lab coats and nurse uniforms, moving noticeably faster than the patient-clothed zombies.

Both groups ran in chaotic loops around the first-floor corridors. Six members of the scavenging team were lost before they were cornered with nowhere to go. They spotted the stairs leading down to the basement and rushed toward them, clattering down the steps to the first basement level.

The basement appeared to be a medical examination area, with fewer zombies than upstairs. Zhao Ye and the scavenging team began clearing out the wandering zombies while searching for a place to hide.

The waiting hall seemed deserted, with a few zombies in nurse uniforms drifting through the consultation area. The waiting area itself had several rows of long benches, but only a handful of zombies lingered at the edges.

The scavenging team lingered in the hall for about five minutes but still couldn’t clear out all the surrounding zombies.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling echoed from the escalator area. Someone ran to check and returned pale-faced. “The zombies from the first floor are coming down!”

Xie Yu wiped his face with force, muttering angrily, “We shouldn’t have come here. If we’d just brought those camping supplies back, we’d probably already be at the border by now.”

Another team member, struggling to fend off zombies, regretted it just as much. “The zombies in this hospital aren’t like the ones outside—they’re so much faster, and they can even go down stairs. Are we even going to make it out of here?”

The initial wave of zombies hadn’t displayed any intelligence—just a mindless horde of creatures craving human flesh. They had no vitality, no thoughts, and no emotions.

But Xie Yu, recalling the spider zombie they’d encountered at the Golden Tower, felt his panic deepen. “It might be a mutated zombie.”

An Xia’s team had returned to the base early in the morning after encountering the spider zombie but hadn’t had a chance to report it before setting out again. Except for Chen Yu, no one else had connected the two encounters yet.

Chen Xin, after slashing down several zombies in a row, leaned against the wall to catch his breath. “This hospital is too big. Everyone who stayed behind has turned into zombies. Who knows how many are still lurking in the shadows? There aren’t enough of us, and we’re running out of stamina. Let’s find somewhere to hide, wait for things to calm down, and then figure out how to get out.”

They had entered the hospital with 27 people. Six were lost on the first floor, and two more had been bitten after reaching the basement.

Those two weren’t dead yet, but their transformation into zombies was only a matter of time.

That left 19 survivors, plus Zhao Ye, making 20.

Zhao Ye, after taking out a few zombies, had stealthily retreated to the CT room. He crouched in a safe corner to contact Lu Yao.

Just after ending the call, the Hope Base members also entered the room to hide.

The fast-moving zombies from the first floor had now reached the basement and were roaming the outer hall, hunting for any isolated humans.

Zhao Ye shrank further into his corner, keeping his distance from the Hope Base members.

Xie Yu spotted Zhao Ye and crouched down to move along the glass window until he reached Chen Xin. After whispering something to him, Chen Xin, who was sitting against the wall to rest, turned his head to look at Zhao Ye.

A moment later, Xie Yu waved at Zhao Ye.

Curious, Zhao Ye glanced at Lu Mingxiao, standing in the background, then reluctantly got up and walked over.

Xie Yu’s first question was blunt. “That red-haired girl, Tina—isn’t she with you?”

Zhao Ye didn’t like Xie Yu, but he still answered. “Our training ended, so we’re not working together anymore.”

Disappointment flashed in Xie Yu’s eyes. “I see. I thought she might be nearby.”

Zhao Ye replied, “Tina doesn’t cover this area. But today’s our lucky day. The boss happens to be passing through. I just contacted her, and she’ll be here soon.”

It took Xie Yu a few seconds to process. “The boss… is that the engineer?”

Zhao Ye didn’t understand the term “engineer,” so he simply said, “The boss is the most capable person in the shop. She knows everything.”

An Xia, noticing Xie Yu sneaking off, turned to see him talking with Zhao Ye. She moved closer just in time to hear Zhao Ye’s comment and scoffed. “That girl called Lu Yao? How capable can she really be? Isn’t everything just relying on that little girl named Tina?”

At that moment, two sparrows suddenly burst out of Zhao Ye’s hoodie, fluttering their wings as they dropped two splatters of black-and-white goo squarely onto An Xia’s face.

For a brief moment, An Xia’s vision went dark. When she blinked and reached up to feel her face, her hand came away covered in a warm, sticky mess. The sensation confirmed her worst fears.

After spending last night scrubbing her hair multiple times, this was the last thing she needed. Though the sparrows’ attack didn’t cause much harm, the sheer disgust, combined with the fact that everyone had seen it, sent her into a rage. Furious, she reached out to grab the sparrows.

The resting team members stared, stunned, unable to believe what they were witnessing.

“Why are there sparrows flying out of his hoodie?”

“Where did this kid even pull out a whole nest of those little things?”

Before anyone could figure that out, they were already recalling the sparrows’ precise attack on An Xia. The memory made some of them want to laugh.

“Are these sparrows… enchanted? How could they aim so perfectly?”

One sparrow fluttered up and perched on Lu Mingxiao’s head, while the other landed on his shoulder, giving off a distinct air of arrogance, as if flaunting its backer.

Zhao Ye immediately put on a serious face and sincerely addressed An Xia. “Apologies, sparrows are simple creatures—they can’t hold it in.”

An Xia refused to let it go, snapping angrily, “Nonsense! They clearly did it on purpose!”

Zhao Ye maintained his earnest expression. “No, really. They do like the boss very much, but they wouldn’t do something like this just because you said something bad about her. They’re just sparrows—how could they have bad intentions? It was purely an accident.”

An Xia’s face turned bright red with anger.

Around them, some teammates couldn’t help but turn away, stifling their laughter.

“Sparrows? Malicious? Of course not.” But the boy? He was definitely provoking her on purpose.

Chen Xin, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke up with a sly smile. “That girl named Lu Yao—what does she look like? Is she pretty?”

The members of Team Seven immediately caught on to Chen Xin’s intentions. They all knew his reputation. Despite having a stunning girlfriend like Li Mi, he still enjoyed stirring up trouble wherever he went.

Nowadays, most people were just trying to survive day by day, with little energy left to criticize others.

Though Chen Xin wasn’t a complete slouch—during training and assessments, his physical prowess and combat skills ranked among the best of the team leaders.

The members of Team Ten had all seen Lu Yao before, but they only chuckled at Chen Xin’s question and refrained from answering.

Zhao Ye, still a relatively naive sparrow demon, failed to pick up on the veiled malice hidden in their knowing laughter.

An Xia rolled her eyes and interjected dismissively, “Not much to look at. Let’s stop wasting time on this nonsense and focus on figuring out how to get out of here.”

Lu Mingxiao, leaning silently against the wall and watching the group with thinly veiled boredom, suddenly straightened up. After a glance at Zhao Ye, he walked toward the door.

Zhao Ye found his behavior baffling but noticed the sparrows were still perched on him. He stood up and followed.

The rest of the team, though unsure of Lu Mingxiao’s intentions, had great trust in their instructor. His cold demeanor and exceptional skills had earned their respect during training.

Someone asked cautiously, “What’s the instructor up to?”

Lu Mingxiao observed the area outside through the glass window for a moment before turning back. “The zombies are gone.”

An Xia and Xie Yu quickly joined him at the window and saw that the hall outside was indeed empty.

Lu Mingxiao added, “Let’s move. Now’s the best chance to leave.”

Still skeptical, An Xia voiced her concern. “They disappeared too quickly. Could this be a trap?”

Ignoring her, Lu Mingxiao pushed open the door and walked out. He turned back and motioned to Zhao Ye. “Let’s go.”

After a brief hesitation, Zhao Ye followed, a growing suspicion in his heart that this man might truly be the reincarnation of Demon Sovereign Zeyuan.

The others assumed Lu Mingxiao’s gesture was meant for them and began to follow.

The zombies that had been swarming the basement were indeed gone. The group cautiously climbed the escalator back to the first floor. Initially on high alert, they gradually relaxed upon realizing the floor was also devoid of zombies.

Feeling emboldened, Chen Xin revisited his earlier plan. “I memorized where the pharmacy is—it’s on this floor. The traditional Chinese and Western medicine sections are right next to each other. Let’s split into two groups and at least bring back a few boxes of supplies.”

Suddenly, Zhao Ye broke away from the group, walking quickly toward a corridor behind them. Just as abruptly, he stopped, turned around, and called out to Lu Mingxiao.

“I heard Xiao Shisan’s voice. The boss is here. Do you want to come with us to meet her?”

As soon as Zhao Ye’s words fell, everyone turned their heads.

A short-haired woman was sprinting full speed from the end of the corridor, with a horde of zombies chasing her. These weren’t ordinary zombies—they were the same high-speed mutated zombies the team had encountered earlier.

The group instinctively tried to run, only to realize that all the surrounding corridors were blocked, packed tight with the same zombies that had disappeared earlier.

The scavenging team huddled together back-to-back, like small, powerless animals in the wild.

“It’s a trap! How did this happen?”

“Could it be that woman’s fault?”

“We’re going to die here—I don’t want to die!”

An Xia looked to Lu Mingxiao with desperate hope. “Instructor, what do we do?”

The team members might not fully grasp his abilities, but as captains, An Xia, Xie Yu, and Chen Xin were well aware that Lu Mingxiao’s strength was unfathomable.

During training and missions, it was evident that he never used his full power.

Right now, their only hope was the instructor. An Xia didn’t care what others thought—she would do whatever it took to survive.

Both Xie Yu and Chen Xin quickly caught on to An Xia’s thoughts, turning to look at Lu Mingxiao as well.

They didn’t want to die either.

Lu Mingxiao remained silent, his vivid, blood-red eyes fixed on the approaching figure.

Lu Yao spotted him, and a smile instinctively appeared on her face, as if the horde of mutated zombies at her heels didn’t matter at all.

She focused solely on running, closing the distance until she could make out the youth’s short silver hair, vivid red eyes, delicate nose and lips, and the faint frustration, reluctance, and awkwardness hidden beneath his calm exterior.

“Lu Mingxiao!!!”

She shouted his name, and the moment he looked up, she leaped into the air, landing securely in the faintly lotus-scented embrace of his arms.

Yes, it was him.

The scavenging team was utterly baffled.

Who is this woman?

What’s her relationship with the instructor?

And now? Hugs and kisses? Is this seriously allowed in this situation?

Their emotions swirled between shock, awe, and confusion, all while the rapidly approaching zombie horde loomed in the distance.

The sparrow companions that had followed Lu Yao flew back to Zhao Ye, perching neatly in a row along his arm. Zhao Ye, apparently forgetting the danger, seemed entirely absorbed in watching his boss.

The mutated zombies chasing Lu Yao were almost upon them when An Xia yelled in frustration, “Instructor, what are you doing?!”

The Dream Fulfillment System simply said, “Here it comes.”

Lu Yao raised her right arm, adorned with several loops of red cord. With a single thought, seven daggers shot out from her sheath.

She lightly flicked her wrist, sending the daggers flying. The red cords instantly tightened, and the thin blades spun through the air, slicing cleanly through the mutated zombies before they could get close. Heads and bodies separated in an instant.

The six leading zombies, all moving at high speed, were decapitated in a single strike—none survived.

The foremost zombie, lunging with great momentum, managed to get its head within five centimeters of Lu Yao’s hair. Her strands brushed against its decayed cheek just as the severed head fell.

The zombie’s head, like a sprouting potato, dropped—but was caught by a hand that lightly tossed it far away.

After confirming the threats were neutralized, Lu Yao refocused on the man in front of her. Unable to resist, she leaned forward and nipped at his lips.

Lu Mingxiao’s expression froze instantly.

At almost the exact same moment, a scream erupted behind him.

Chen Xin clutched his left hand, dropping to his knees, his cries filled with terror.

The potato-like zombie head that Lu Mingxiao had casually thrown had hit Chen Xin by sheer coincidence.

In his frantic attempts to dodge, Chen Xin’s left hand was grazed by the zombie’s teeth, scraping off a piece of skin.

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Lu Yao gave the short sword to Ding Qing and switched to a new set of weapons for her solo outings.

She found the long swords commonly used by cultivators from the Floating World Continent unwieldy—too difficult to carry and cumbersome to draw. Instead, she chose a short sword with a blade only 60% the length of a regular one. It was light to carry on her back and easy to draw when needed.

Qiu Yu gifted Lu Yao a set of seven palm-sized daggers, each with a red cord attached to the hilt. The cords allowed the daggers to be retrieved by pulling on the thread after throwing.

The red cords were forged from Qiu Yu’s own blood, making them highly durable—impossible to cut, burn, or break—and capable of stretching and retracting at will.

The daggers, imbued with dragon breath and demonic energy, were far more powerful than ordinary weapons. For ordinary people, using them carried the risk of backlash.

However, as Qiu Yu’s contract master, Lu Yao was immune to any negative effects.

After work last night, Lu Yao practiced with the daggers for seven to eight hours in her mustard seed space, using her willpower for control. Surprisingly, they felt natural and easy to handle.

Emerging from the space, she encountered a craftsman coming to browse the internet. She purchased a custom sheath from him, designed to hold all seven daggers and strap comfortably to her leg for easy access.

With the dagger sheath strapped to her right leg, a small cloth bag slung over her shoulder, and the short sword on her back, Lu Yao prepared herself and rode out on her electric bike.

The destination was Mingtai Community on Xingmo Road, part of Zhao Ye’s flyer distribution area for the day. The delivery address was seven kilometers from the courier shop.

With no traffic on the streets and the system optimizing her route, it took just over ten minutes to reach the location.

The journey went smoothly. Occasionally, she encountered small zombie swarms, but the system warned her in advance, allowing her to avoid them.

The Xingmo Road area consisted of older residential complexes with fairly complete infrastructure—small supermarkets, pharmacies, barber shops, fruit stores, and an underground mall connected to a subway station. Now, all were in ruins, reduced to rubble.

Mingtai Community was an aging residential complex. Its gate, a wrought iron structure, was secured with heavy chains and a large padlock.

Unable to enter through the gate, Lu Yao climbed over the wall. The buildings in the community had no elevators, with the tallest structures reaching just eight floors.

Mingtai Community had over a dozen unit buildings. The customer who placed the order lived on the third floor of Unit Nine.

The Dream Fulfillment System indicated that this area housed more people than Peaceful Neighborhood, which they had visited before.

Lu Yao located Unit Nine and entered the stairwell.

Three men sat on the steps at the base of the stairs: a bearded middle-aged man and two young men in their early twenties, all smoking.

As soon as Lu Yao stepped in, one of the young men let out a lewd whistle.

The other young man stood up, smiling as he approached. “Haven’t seen you around before. The gate’s locked—how’d you get in?”

Lu Yao took a step back, irritation rising. She was all too familiar with people like this, common in the chaos that followed the collapse of societal order.

The man who had whistled noticed the dagger sheath strapped to her leg but didn’t take it seriously. His grin grew even more brazen. “Careful, she’s armed. Don’t want to hurt your hand on that.”

The middle-aged man extinguished his cigarette on the ground, leaving half the stub intact. Reluctant to waste it, he tucked it behind his ear, stood up, and walked over with an impatient expression. “Cut the nonsense. Hand over your food and supplies, and you can leave.”

The whistling man stood as well, smirking. “Brother Hui, no need to be so rigid. She’s just a little girl. Even if something happens, no one cares these days.”

He stepped past the middle-aged man and quickly closed the distance to Lu Yao. Reaching out to touch her face, he sneered, “Blame yourself for wandering into a place like this.”

Seeing these men reminded Lu Yao of Ding Qing. Some people, no matter the circumstances, always sought to bully the weak to satisfy their base desires.

Irritated by the delay to her task, Lu Yao decided to end the situation quickly. Grabbing the man’s wrist, she twisted it outward with force. The sharp crack of breaking bones was drowned out by the man’s sudden scream.

The two men behind him recoiled in shock, stepping back in confusion. They hadn’t realized what had happened, their faces filled with disbelief, yet they didn’t dare move forward.

Lu Yao kicked the man in front of her aside and strode toward the remaining two.

The man who had whistled was sent flying out of the stairwell, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. His face twisted in pain as he writhed on the ground, unable to speak. It took over ten seconds before he could prop himself up on his right elbow, clutching his chest with his left hand. His face turned ashen as he gasped for breath, feeling as if something was blocking his chest.

It was only then that his two accomplices realized they had picked the wrong person to mess with.

Panic setting in, they turned and bolted upstairs. Lu Yao caught up in an instant, grabbing them both by the collars and dragging them back down. She pummeled them until they were kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy. Only then did she stop.

“If I see you again, I’ll feed you to the zombies! Now get lost!”

With the troublemakers dealt with, Lu Yao dusted off her hands and headed upstairs to deliver the package.

She stood at the door of Apartment 301 for a long time, knocking, but no one answered.

The Dream Fulfillment System informed her that someone was inside.

Lu Yao called out, identifying herself, and after waiting several more minutes, the door finally creaked open.

A woman in her thirties stood cautiously behind the door. She peeked out and, seeing that Lu Yao was alone, didn’t fully open the door but instead handed out a gold bracelet through the gap.

The woman had ordered ten courier business cards.

Lu Yao explained briefly that she had encountered some thugs downstairs, which had caused a slight delay.

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. “Those men didn’t give you trouble?”

She went on to explain. Those three were former factory workers who used to live in the complex when the factory rented apartments here as dormitories.

Since this was an old complex with no elevators, the rent was relatively cheap. Even before the zombie outbreak, the three men were known for their rowdy behavior, often drinking and causing trouble at the gate, harassing tenants as they passed by.

The woman, Su Ling, also used to work nearby and had to deal with these men often when commuting through the complex.

After the outbreak, the factory was abandoned, and most of its workers fled. The dormitories were left empty.

But those three didn’t leave. They holed up in the vacant dorms, sleeping all day and refusing to go out to gather supplies.

When they ran out of food, they wandered the complex, waiting for others to return with supplies so they could rob them.

The two younger men, especially, were idle troublemakers. They frequently knocked on residents’ doors for fun, targeting people who lived alone.

They knew the layout of the complex well, including which apartments housed solitary tenants. If someone didn’t answer their door, they would stand outside jeering and insulting them until they grew bored and left.

Su Ling despised those men.

She was a single, working woman who had felt relatively safe when society was functioning. But with all order gone, the complex was no longer secure, and she hadn’t dared leave her apartment in a long time.

Lately, Su Ling had been growing increasingly anxious as her food stores dwindled. Between the zombies outside and the thugs in the complex, she was at her wit’s end. Her hair was falling out in clumps, and she was barely eating or sleeping. She felt like she was on the verge of losing her mind.

Then, during one of her spirals of despair, she spotted a flyer stuck to her door handle.

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have trusted such a suspicious-looking piece of paper. But she was desperate. If she didn’t figure out how to leave soon, she was going to starve to death.

Su Ling read every word on the flyer carefully. She hesitated for hours before finally deciding to place an order.

The moment she finished writing down her address, she regretted it. She found herself laughing at how foolish it was to expect someone to respond to an address written on a flyer. This wasn’t a phone or the internet.

Feeling resigned, she tossed the flyer aside and lay on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

But to her astonishment, less than half an hour later, someone really showed up.

Lu Yao pulled out the gold-devouring pixiu, which snapped through the gold bracelet as she replied, “I gave them a good beating. They’re behaving now.”

Su Ling was stunned. “You can handle them all by yourself?”

Lu Yao replied with a playful tone, “If I couldn’t even do that, I wouldn’t qualify as a courier.”

For the first time in a while, Su Ling felt a deep sense of relief.

The couriers were truly reliable.

Lu Yao counted out ten business cards and handed them over.

Su Ling carefully examined the cards, reading the instructions on how to use them. She still found it hard to believe. “So if I place an order with this, a courier will come straight to my door?”

Lu Yao nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

Su Ling hesitated before asking, “If I go out to search for supplies, can I hire a courier to act as a bodyguard?”

Lu Yao explained, “Strictly speaking, that doesn’t fall under the scope of courier services. However, if it’s just accompanying you from one place to another, treating you as the delivery target, the shop can take that order.”

Su Ling then asked cautiously, “How many female couriers do you have?”

Noticing the anxiety in Su Ling’s eyes, Lu Yao smiled reassuringly. “Rest assured, all of our couriers, regardless of gender, are highly professional. If you need help, feel free to place an order.”

After saying goodbye to Su Ling, Lu Yao descended the stairs.

The small-time thugs from earlier were nowhere to be seen.

The delivery had taken longer than expected, and the sky was starting to darken. Setting up a signal receiver now was cutting it close.

Lu Yao felt a twinge of frustration. She didn’t like leaving plans incomplete.

Climbing over the wall of Mingtai Community, she hesitated for a moment on her electric bike before deciding to push forward. She aimed to cover ten kilometers outward, then run five kilometers along the boundary, setting up two signal receivers on the way back.

If it got too late to return, she could always call Harold to pick her up. There was no need to overthink it.

The journey to install the signal receivers went smoothly, though zombies became more frequent as night fell, forcing her to take alternate routes at times.

After completing the setup of two receivers, Lu Yao took a different route back. Passing the main road in front of a hospital, she noticed a row of over ten vans parked by the roadside. Some still had people sitting inside.

Lu Yao stopped her electric bike. “That’s a lot of vans.”

The Dream Fulfillment System chimed in, “They’re all filled with supplies. Judging by the contents, these look like they were taken from that mall yesterday.”

Lu Yao suddenly got off her bike and walked toward a ditch by the roadside.

The Dream Fulfillment System sounded exasperated. “Are you even listening to me?”

Ignoring it, Lu Yao crouched down and inspected a small electric bike lying in the grass. “This looks like one of our shop’s bikes. What’s it doing here?”

The Dream Fulfillment System replied, “It’s Zhao Ye’s.”

Lu Yao jumped into the grass to pick up the bike, muttering under her breath, “Why would Zhao Ye leave the bike here?”

The people in the vans had noticed Lu Yao by now. A man and a woman stepped out of the first van.

The man was tall and thin, wearing black-framed glasses.

The woman was very beautiful, with her hair tied in a bun. She wore a loose grayish-white shirt and black trousers.

The man stood silently by the roadside.

The woman crouched down and asked Lu Yao, “What are you doing?”

Lu Yao leaned the bike against the roadside, climbed back onto the road, and gestured for the woman to step back. Then, bending down, she lifted the electric bike effortlessly.

The woman jumped in shock and quickly backed away several steps, her delicate features full of disbelief. “What the—are you serious? Xia Huaisong, did you see that?! Did you SEE THAT?!”

Xia Huaisong, the bespectacled young man, adjusted his glasses. Though just as surprised and puzzled as Li Mi, his expression remained as composed and steady as ever. “I have eyes.”

Lu Yao parked the bike properly and approached the two. “Hello, I’m Lu Yao. That’s my colleague’s bike, but I don’t know why it’s lying here. Have you seen a short-haired boy with chestnut-colored hair and two moles under his eyes nearby?”

The young woman, Li Mi, shook her head. “The bike was already there when we arrived. But our team leader was in a rush to park and accidentally knocked it over.”

Lu Yao bent down to inspect the parked vans more closely. “Are you from Hope Base?”

Li Mi was startled.

The base is already this well-known?

“You know about Hope Base?”

Lu Yao replied, “Yesterday, I ran into people from Hope Base at another mall. When you mentioned your team leader, I just guessed.”

Xia Huaisong tilted his head slightly and rolled his eyes. Sharp as she usually is, she loses all her caution outside. Doesn’t she realize how dangerous that is?

After exchanging a few more words, Lu Yao realized these two didn’t have any useful information. She turned and moved her electric bikes across the street, positioning them away from the row of vans. She affixed gravity and barrier talismans to the bases before heading toward the large hospital by the roadside.

The Dream Fulfillment System had just reported detecting Zhao Ye’s sparrow companions in the open area outside the hospital.

Li Mi and Xia Huaisong hurried to stop Lu Yao.

Lu Yao paused, confused. “What is it?”

Xia Huaisong said, “Our team just entered that hospital. Our task here is to block anyone else from going in.”

Lu Yao asked, “Did you buy the hospital?”

Xia Huaisong knew how unreasonable their demand sounded but stood firm. Medicine was a critically scarce resource.

Their two teams had come all the way from Jinyao City. After loading their vans with supplies from Wanxin Mall, they stumbled upon this hospital on their return trip. Their leader decided to discard some of their current load to make room for medical supplies and equipment.

As members of Hope Base’s scavenging team, it was their duty to prioritize the base’s needs. A well-developed base meant better living conditions and safety for its members.

Compared to some of their peers, Li Mi and Xia Huaisong were already being relatively polite.

Lu Yao explained, “I’m not interested in the hospital’s supplies. I just need to find someone—my colleague, the one I mentioned earlier.”

Xia Huaisong remained skeptical.

Li Mi smiled faintly. “Times are tough. We understand. Why don’t you wait for our team to come out, and then you can go in?”

Lu Yao, already feeling irritable, decided she wasn’t in the mood to argue further. Just as she was about to use force to deal with the two, a message came through from Zhao Ye.

“Boss, where are you?”

Lu Yao replied, “I’m passing by Wanyi Hospital. I saw your bike by the roadside. Where are you?”

Zhao Ye exhaled audibly. “I’m inside the hospital. Things are a bit off here. Can you come get me?”

Without another word, Lu Yao walked past Xia Huaisong and Li Mi, heading straight for the hospital entrance. “Alright. Tell me your exact location.”

Zhao Ye didn’t provide a location but instead shared an unrelated piece of information: “I ran into a group of people here and saw a man who looks a lot like Demon Sovereign Zeyuan.”

Lu Yao’s steps faltered slightly before continuing forward. “What kind of man?”

Zhao Ye replied, “Short silver hair, red eyes, wearing clothes common to this world. His features don’t entirely resemble the Demon Sovereign’s, but he’s wearing earrings identical to the ones you gave us with the Regulation Rod. Could he be the Demon Sovereign reincarnated?”

Dusk had fallen, and the autumn wind carried a biting chill.

Lu Yao stood on the desolate roadside under a crescent moon hanging in an empty sky. The cold night was starless and silent.

She asked softly, “What’s his name?”

Zhao Ye replied, “I heard the people with him call him Instructor Lu.”

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Lu Mingxiao: “The person who gave you this flyer.”

Xie Yu grabbed a towel and immediately turned back toward him. “Instructor, do you know them?”

Leaning slightly against the chair, Lu Mingxiao didn’t answer directly. Instead, he asked coolly, “What did you encounter in Gaosheng City?”

Xie Yu was surprised. If the instructor knew Tina and Lu Yao, perhaps he could persuade them to come to Hope Base. Sitting down, he began recounting, “We didn’t face any issues on the way there—it went smoothly. But when we arrived at the supply point, there was a problem. The location was occupied by a massive white spider the size of a human, and the area was covered with webs. We didn’t notice at first, but when we tried to leave, we couldn’t find the exit.”

At this point, Xie Yu remembered how they might still be trapped if they hadn’t encountered Tina and Lu Yao.

He still hadn’t figured out why the escalator disappeared or why the spider zombie had taken over that location. Looking back, he was increasingly impressed by Tina’s abilities.

Before leaving, he’d observed the massive white cocoons hanging from the ceiling. Based on the spider’s feeding habits, those oval-shaped cocoons likely contained its “stored food,” already turned into ready-to-eat “nutrient packs” for the spider zombie to consume at any time.

Lu Mingxiao showed little interest in these details but didn’t interrupt.

Lu Yao hadn’t shown up at the expected time, and the world had undergone an unexpected upheaval. After investigating the cause, he decided to stay at the base and wait for her arrival.

But when she didn’t appear at the designated location, Lu Mingxiao realized their connection was weakening.

Despite his impatience, he listened to Xie Yu’s account of their journey with remarkable patience. Most of Xie Yu’s focus, however, was on Tina.

He repeatedly described the red-haired girl’s astonishing capabilities—how she punched an alien zombie into oblivion and kicked the massive spider ten meters away with a single strike.

Finally, Lu Mingxiao pinched the bridge of his nose, his tolerance running out. After a few seconds, he interrupted, “Who else was with the red-haired girl?”

Xie Yu glanced at the earring dangling from Lu Mingxiao’s right ear. “There was a short-haired girl with an exaggerated earring and a chestnut-haired boy with teardrop-shaped moles under his eyes. The boy wasn’t particularly notable, but the short-haired girl might be an engineer. They’ve opened a courier shop and somehow use communicators to stay in touch. We invited them to the base, but unfortunately, they declined.”

Lu Mingxiao, having gathered the information he wanted, stood and headed for the door. “Thanks for the report. Get some rest.”

Xie Yu sensed something ambiguous in the instructor’s expression and followed, asking, “Instructor, do you know them?”

Without turning back, Lu Mingxiao replied, “No. Rest.”

The sound of a door opening and closing came from the next room. An Xia straightened, frowning in thought.

The instructor had initially said to Xie Yu, “You met her.”

Did he know Lu Yao? Or Tina?

A few minutes later, An Xia’s frown relaxed before deepening again.

Lu Mingxiao knew Lu Yao.

…

The next morning, An Xia was jolted awake by the sound of running water. The dorm’s poor soundproofing meant she could hear everything from the next room, including someone washing their face or flushing the toilet.

She glanced at the alarm clock by her bed. It was just past seven. She immediately lay back down, ready to get more sleep.

They had returned in the early hours of the morning with a significant haul of supplies, completing their mission successfully. They could rest for two or three days before heading out again.

An Xia fell back asleep, half-aware of the sound of a door opening and Xie Yu speaking to another team member.

“Just ran into the instructor. He’s requesting leave from the director to handle personal matters in Gaosheng City.”

Xie Yu: “The instructor wants to go to Gaosheng City alone?”

Team member: “The director didn’t allow it. He said if someone’s going to Gaosheng City, they might as well take a team and revisit the mall we went to yesterday.”

Xie Yu frowned. “Which team is the director sending?”

Team member: “Looks like it’ll be Team Seven.”

Xie Yu said, “Go call Captain An. We’re going too.”

The team member pulled a grim face, already regretting sharing the news. “But we just got back, barely slept a few hours, and haven’t even recovered.”

Xie Yu replied, “Once Team Seven clears out the supply point and claims all the allocation benefits, you won’t feel like slacking anymore.”

Hope Base was established quickly after the zombie virus outbreak. To attract more people, it implemented a relatively comprehensive welfare system.

These benefits were sustained entirely by the scavenging teams. Currently, Hope Base had nearly 30 such teams, which took turns going out to locate and gather resources.

In return, scavenging team members enjoyed far better living conditions than regular residents. This included improved housing and the best food supply.

However, these perks were tied to their performance. The base assessed each team every 15 days, and the more resources a team brought back, the more abundant their living supplies.

The supply point in Gaosheng City was discovered by An Xia’s team after multiple reconnaissance trips, which even cost them a team member. It would be a significant loss to let another team reap the rewards.

Hearing this, An Xia’s sleepiness vanished. She sat up, agreeing with Xie Yu—they couldn’t let Team Seven claim the spoils.

With the instructor accompanying them, there was less worry about encountering trouble on the road.

Ten minutes later, An Xia and Xie Yu went to the director’s office, volunteering to accompany Lu Mingxiao and Team Seven on the return trip to Gaosheng City.

…

Gaosheng City, Guanyin Road

The courier shop had just opened when four new orders came in. The closest one was in Guanyin Community, with two more from Golden Crown Residences.

The four young dragons barely had time for breakfast, grabbing bread and milk before rushing out to run errands.

The morning’s orders reflected the results of their recent flyer distribution. Considering Zhao Ye’s efficiency—helped by his sparrow companions—Lu Yao assigned him to distribute more flyers in nearby neighborhoods.

After two days of canvassing and errands, Lu Yao noticed that simply handing out flyers didn’t significantly increase orders.

Even if potential clients learned about the courier shop through the flyers, they had no immediate way to place orders. They needed the shop’s business cards to do so, which required visiting the shop in person.

In a zombie-infested city, venturing outside was a challenge in itself. For those far from the shop, the trip required considerable courage.

To address this, Lu Yao had the Dream Fulfillment System print a new batch of flyers overnight. The new flyers were made from special paper sourced from the Floating World Continent.

This paper, used by cultivators for recording spells, was infused with several spiritual plants, making it flexible, water-resistant, and fireproof.

Lu Yao imbued the flyer’s surface with a thin layer of willpower, giving it a functionality similar to that of the business cards.

Clients could now place orders by filling out the address and quantity in the designated order section at the bottom of the flyer.

Within the coverage of the Willing Network, the Courier System would read these orders in real-time and dispatch employees for work.

The cost of these new flyers increased, so Lu Yao adjusted the pricing. Delivery orders placed via the flyers were charged double the usual fee, with in-store staff handling the deliveries.

Ding Qing, who was temporarily living at the shop, needed IV therapy for three hours every afternoon but rested or watched the shop during the rest of the day.

After discussing it with her, Lu Yao assigned her to handle delivery orders within a three-kilometer radius of the shop.

Ding Qing was delighted to start working so soon. The conversation seemed to ease her overall mood considerably.

Orders beyond the three-kilometer range were temporarily assigned to Zhao Ye.

Zhao Ye’s work schedule remained flexible. If he received an order requiring card delivery, he could prioritize it over flyer distribution and complete the task first.

Lu Yao also took orders during her free time.

Yesterday, the team completed a total of 27 deliveries, bringing the two-day total to just over 30 orders.

With only five days left to complete the mission, they still needed more than 200 orders.

Based on the number and quality of the errand runners, completing 200 orders in five days wasn’t a difficult task. The challenge lay in finding enough customers to place orders.

This once-bustling modern city, home to hundreds of thousands of permanent residents, had seen its population density plummet with the rapid spread of the zombie virus. Human civilization had shrunk at an unimaginable rate.

To expand their customer base, Lu Yao planned to extend the Willing Network’s coverage to a 50-kilometer radius. She used the Regulation Rod to create 24 additional signal receivers and sent several electric bikes to the Alexander Continent and Floating World Continent, where non-human staff and craftspeople modified them using magic and spellwork to forcibly enhance their speed and battery life.

…

The day’s mission for Lu Yao was to install the signal receivers and complete the Willing Network’s expansion as quickly as possible.

As she left the shop, she ran into Tang Anqi’s team, who were heading to a nearby building materials market to find supplies to replace their broken doors.

The four of them had spent the previous night huddled together, taking turns keeping watch, barely managing to get through the night.

They decided that Jiang Yifei would stay behind to clean their new residence and guard their supplies while the other three went to the market for materials.

Lu Yao sped off on her electric bike, aiming to install at least six signal receivers by noon.

With a coverage radius of 50 kilometers, the bike could barely make a round trip on its current maximum battery life.

However, Lu Yao had a backup plan. She had four fully charged electric bikes stored in her portable warehouse. If one ran out of power, she could switch to a fully charged bike in a hidden spot and continue.

Although there were other ways to improve efficiency, the electric bike remained the simplest and least conspicuous option.

The Dream Fulfillment System scanned the terrain along the way, collecting data and optimizing her route. The morning’s work went smoothly.

On her way back, Lu Yao received a call from Zhang Shu. The staff at the DIY Workshop reported an issue on Ghost Street. Something seemed to have malfunctioned, and it was beyond their abilities to fix, requiring Lu Yao’s immediate attention.

Sensing the urgency, Lu Yao contacted Harold and asked him to open a space-time portal to pick her up.

Harold had just finished an errand and was available. Within half a minute, he transported Lu Yao back to the courier shop.

From there, Lu Yao headed straight to the Ghost System’s main server room to assess the situation.

Song Qingshan and He Bi, visibly stressed, were relieved to see her return so quickly. They immediately reported the anomaly on Ghost Street.

Song Qingshan said with confusion, “We’re not sure what’s happening. The system suddenly detected dozens of unidentified signals. They appear to be new players, but they didn’t log in through Ghost Street.”

He Bi added, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Lu Yao asked the Dream Fulfillment System, “Do you know what’s going on?”

After negotiating with Mingshi City’s official representatives, Lu Yao continued operating the DIY workshop on Ghost Street.

New customers occasionally came to purchase Ghost Bracelets, but the numbers were low—just a few in the past couple of days, and at most ten on busier days.

The DIY workshop was now operating in self-service mode. There were no customers or crafting events, only the sale of Ghost Bracelets.

When a customer signed a contract, the contract was automatically generated. After the customer signed, the document was sent to the system’s backend, where Song Qingshan and He Bi organized them in shifts and submitted them to Lu Yao at the end of each day.

With such a relaxed operation model, Lu Yao couldn’t figure out what could have caused the bug.

The Dream Fulfillment System replied, “Go to the shop and contact Pei Qi directly. This is their doing.”

With no other option, Lu Yao headed to the DIY workshop.

Upon entering, she saw four or five people sitting in the main hall. They glanced at her as she entered but said nothing.

Recently, none of the customers who had bought Ghost Bracelets had seen Lu Yao, nor did they know she was the owner of the shop.

Scanning the room, Lu Yao asked directly, “Are you new players who just logged into Ghost Street?”

One person stood up. “Who are you?”

Lu Yao replied, “I’m Lu Yao, the owner of this shop.”

The person’s eyes lit up with excitement as they walked over. “You’re the owner? Finally, we get to meet you!”

Lu Yao, puzzled, asked, “What’s the matter?”

The person turned back, pulling a boy sitting at the table to his feet. “This is my younger brother. Until today, he was stuck in a game called Horror Homestay. I used the Ghost Bracelet to enter that virtual world, found him, and brought him here through a virtual channel created by the game company. He seems to be in shock, dazed and unresponsive, and doesn’t want to leave. The administrator emailed us, saying we could come to the DIY workshop for classes to potentially awaken his consciousness. We came here, didn’t see any staff, and were at a loss about what to do. Then you showed up.”

Virtual channel?

Lu Yao was perplexed when her Ghost Bracelet, stored in her portable warehouse, pinged with a new message notification.

The sender was Pei Qi.

In his office, Pei Qi saw Lu Yao come online and immediately contacted her.

Pei Qi explained that the virtual channel was a rescue method devised by dozens of top electronic information engineers from Mingshi City.

With the Polaris project no longer reliable, and limited time and manpower to locate and deactivate every logout device in virtual spaces, the engineers settled on a compromise: creating new exits.

However, after numerous attempts, they found that these virtual worlds often contained warped and folded spaces, making it harder to open doors than find existing exits.

Eventually, the Polaris research team proposed the virtual channel solution. They identified worlds with similar configurations to Ghost Street and restructured their programs to link the two.

Rescue personnel wearing Ghost Bracelets would enter the target virtual world and guide lost players into Ghost Street. From there, players could log out safely.

Today was their first attempt at building a virtual channel, connecting the Horror Homestay world with Ghost Street. To their surprise, they successfully rescued six players in one go.

However, all six players were in a state of deep disorientation, requiring their consciousness to be reawakened.

For this task, Pei Qi could only think of Lu Yao and her DIY workshop.

After spending a few minutes processing the information, Lu Yao had only one question: “Now that Horror Homestay is connected to Ghost Street, is there a chance the monsters from over there will come here?”

Pei Qi froze. “…Sorry, we didn’t consider that.”

Lu Yao’s concern was entirely valid. This was just the first virtual world they had connected, and they planned to link Ghost Street with more worlds in the future.

Pei Qi apologized again. “I’ll report this issue immediately.”

Lu Yao cut him off. “I don’t mind, as long as you’re not afraid.”

Pei Qi: “…”

We’re terrified!!!

Lu Yao even began to muse, “This way, my DIY workshop might become a hub connecting countless worlds. No shortage of customers anymore.”

Pei Qi, already mentally and physically exhausted from dealing with Ghost Street, felt his anxiety spike.

Every virtual world similar to Ghost Street was filled with eerie, dark imagery. What kind of creatures would emerge from those places? Just imagining it quickened Pei Qi’s heartbeat.

Lu Yao asked casually, “Did you get in touch with my former staff?”

Pei Qi snapped out of his thoughts. “Yes. Jiang Lin and Cai Yuxing are preparing to retake their exams. Ji Linkai and Gan Qing haven’t outright declined—they’re still considering it. Liu Jing and Chen You said they’d work here again if the pay wasn’t in Ghost Coins.”

When Liu Jing and Chen You were mentioned, even Pei Qi couldn’t help but admire the mental resilience of these two women.

Lu Yao said, “Then please notify them to log in. I’ll be at the shop for about two hours this afternoon, so we can have a face-to-face conversation.”

The DIY workshop now conducted all transactions with players in Moon Coins, the universal currency of Mingshi City.

Lu Yao also paid her employees in Mingshi City with Moon Coins as their wages.

Half an hour later, Lu Yao met Liu Jing and Chen You again on Ghost Street. They discussed the terms of the contract and compensation, signed the agreement, and re-hired the two as staff for the DIY workshop.

That afternoon, the DIY workshop officially resumed operations.

There weren’t many customers that day. With one of them manning the front desk and the other serving as an instructor, it was a relatively light workload.

By the time the DIY workshop affairs were handled, it was already past 3 PM. Lu Yao returned to the shopping street to give Song Qingshan and He Bi a brief explanation of the situation on Ghost Street. Without pausing, she hurried back to the courier shop.

Zhang Shu greeted her upon arrival, beaming as he reported, “This afternoon, six or seven customers came to the shop to buy business cards. They were all from Guanyin Community and the residential area across the street. In total, we sold 43 cards.”

Lu Yao walked over to review Zhang Shu’s sales record. At that moment, the Courier System notified her that a customer had just filled out a flyer.

Two minutes earlier, the system had also received an order placed via a flyer. Zhao Ye had already taken the task and was on his way to deliver.

The doctor from the shopping street had arrived late today, so Ding Qing was still receiving her IV treatment.

Lu Yao carefully examined the address on the order and said, “I’ll take this one. I haven’t been to that area yet. After delivering the goods, I can also set up a signal receiver while I’m there.”

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Lu Yao didn’t plan to explain. She responded with a simple “Mm,” as an answer.

Xie Yu couldn’t help but press on. “What equipment? The circuits and networks in Gaosheng City should have been destroyed too. How are you still able to use communicators?”

Zhao Ye replied, “The network and system of Courier Shop were personally built by the shop owner, so they’re naturally unaffected by Gaosheng City’s situation.”

Xie Yu froze. At first, he hadn’t paid much attention to Lu Yao. Tina’s performance in the mall had been dazzling, instantly capturing everyone’s attention.

When An Xia spoke to Tina, Xie Yu subconsciously glanced at Lu Yao. It felt a bit awkward, and he secretly hoped Tina would join them back at the base.

In an era overrun by zombies, those with high combat prowess drew attention.

The more capable individuals a base had, the safer it would be.

To strengthen their base, they provided generous incentives to recruit talent, and scavenging teams were eager to bring on strong companions.

Xie Yu felt An Xia could use a softer approach when negotiating with Lu Yao’s team, but truthfully, he didn’t think much of Lu Yao or Zhao Ye.

The flyer about the Courier Shop wasn’t convincing. In the mall earlier, Lu Yao and the boy guarding outside had only done menial tasks while Tina did all the heavy lifting.

They’d seen plenty of people like this—too afraid to venture out for supplies, relying entirely on the base’s basic survival resources.

As a member of a scavenging team, Xie Yu had no fondness for such freeloaders.

But Lu Yao’s calm attitude exuded a subtle arrogance, as if she didn’t think much of them either.

At that moment, Xie Yu noticed Lu Yao suddenly step to the side and speak in a low voice, as if talking to someone.

He scrutinized her and spotted a tiny communicator in her ear.

Networks and communication signals had long been cut off when the zombie outbreak began. People, once accustomed to the convenience of advanced tech, were now forced to revert to the most primitive ways of living.

At first, it was tough.

Many would instinctively reach for their pockets to check the time or open an app for messages.

Later, with city cables destroyed and no electricity for charging, people gradually adjusted to life without electronics.

Their base had undergone multiple repair missions, led by Instructor Lu, who ventured out five times to acquire power equipment and resources. They’d only managed to restore intermittent power supply, providing electricity every two days for one hour between 7:30 PM and 8:30 PM.

Recently, a scavenging team had traveled 30 kilometers to a tech mall and brought back several brand-new computers. However, with signal towers down and limited power, they remained offline.

Xie Yu hadn’t expected the seemingly ordinary girl to be a tech expert. A trace of embarrassment arose within him, but he quickly suppressed it. He stepped past An Xia and said to Lu Yao, “Lu Yao, why don’t you join us at Hope Base? We’d be happy to welcome you and your companions.”

An Xia furrowed her brows slightly but didn’t object.

If Lu Yao was truly a tech expert, she would be a rare asset for the base.

Lu Yao replied, “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t plan on leaving Gaosheng City for now.”

She then called out to Tina and Zhao Ye, “Let’s go. Harold’s team has already completed four or five orders; we need to pick up the pace.”

Tina turned and picked up the client’s backpack, feeling a sense of urgency. “Four or five orders? That means Si Jin and Qiu Yu are already taking on tasks solo.”

Zhao Ye clenched his fists, brimming with determination. “We can’t let them outshine us.”

Lu Yao’s team mounted their electric bikes and left.

An Xia’s team turned back and prepared to search for more supplies upstairs.

As they passed the gold counter, one team member asked, “Should we grab some gold too?”

An Xia, in a foul mood, snapped, “You can’t eat it or use it—what’s the point of taking it?”

The team member awkwardly touched his face. “I just thought it might come in handy someday.”

An Xia pulled the flyer for the Courier Shop out of her pocket, crumpled it, and tossed it on the ground. “Its range is only ten kilometers. What use is that? We’re better off hauling more supplies upstairs since we’ve come all this way.”

Xie Yu stepped forward to calm her. “No need to vent your anger on them.”

An Xia couldn’t help but complain, “So many people want to get into the base and can’t. Some relax their standards and still get ungrateful responses. I just can’t stomach it.”

Xie Yu sighed. “Let it go. They’re not the only capable ones out there. Don’t stress yourself out. Anyway, the zombies upstairs have been cleared. Let’s just bring more supplies back.”

Back on the sixth floor of the mall, the team gathered around the remains of a spider-like zombie.

“I’ve never seen a zombie in this form before. This is a first.”

“We need to report this to the base—non-human zombies are appearing now.”

“It was smashed to pieces. That little girl is seriously fierce.”

“Shame she won’t join us.”

Hearing this, An Xia felt another pang of frustration.

…

Lu Yao’s team escorted Xu Xiumei and Li Heping back to their home.

The family of three reunited, overwhelmed with emotion. Xu Xiumei hugged her husband and son tightly, crying uncontrollably. Her sobs grew so loud that the upstairs neighbors leaned over the stair rails to see what was happening.

When they saw Xu Xiumei’s family crying at the doorway with a few young people standing nearby, they thought something serious had happened and couldn’t resist coming down to ask.

After hearing Xu Xiumei explain, one of them turned to Lu Yao. “I’d like to buy a few of your cards too.”

Lu Yao handed him a flyer.

He went upstairs and soon returned with a large gold bracelet, purchasing ten cards.

Not long after, two more households who’d overheard came down, each buying ten cards from Lu Yao.

The scene of Xu Xiumei’s family passionately endorsing the service was highly persuasive. Since purchasing the cards only required gold and didn’t consume supplies, everyone who read the flyer hesitated little. Even Xu Xiumei’s family bought an additional ten cards.

…

Harold ended a call and casually shook off the child clinging to his leg, sending the boy flying into his grandmother’s arms.

The elderly woman, sobbing and pounding the ground, instinctively caught the child as he flew toward her.

The little boy, stunned and wide-eyed with tears, forgot to cry for a moment.

After a few seconds, the grandmother came to her senses, glared fiercely at Harold, and started cursing him.

Harold had restrained his strength, so neither the boy nor the grandmother was actually hurt.

However, this act lit a fuse. The middle-aged man and woman standing nearby also began berating Harold.

Turning to Si Jin and Qiu Yu, Harold said, “Lu Yao said not to engage. Collect the cards, issue refunds, and compensate each household with five grams of gold.”

Si Jin’s scales practically bristled at the last part. “We’re compensating them too?”

Qiu Yu fumed. “I’d rather throw them straight into a zombie horde.”

Harold exhaled lightly. “You’ve never worked with Lu Yao before, so you don’t understand. Running a business isn’t like fighting. There are many things to consider and handle carefully. Words and actions matter a lot, and brute force isn’t an option. I think this approach is appropriate. If you don’t want to handle it, take another order—I’ll deal with this.”

Harold furrowed his brows and approached the middle-aged man holding the card. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried clearly through the noisy environment, reaching everyone present.

“My sincerest apologies. Our shop’s capabilities are limited and we cannot fulfill your request. We will reclaim the cards you purchased, issue a full refund, and compensate each household with five grams of gold.”

The middle-aged man who had been ordering Harold around, the woman who was shouting at him, and the grandmother wailing on the ground all fell silent. They stared blankly at Harold, completely unprepared for such a “soft blade” response.

The couriers refused to take any more orders. With zombies swarming downstairs, how would these people ever leave?

The middle-aged man, who had loudly berated Harold for tossing the child earlier, had assumed they had the upper hand. The couriers all appeared to be teenagers, inexperienced and thin-skinned, unlikely to withstand such scolding.

In a way, he was right—they couldn’t tolerate it.

So, they canceled the orders.

The man gripped the card in his hand tightly, refusing to let go, still unwilling to back down. “With an attitude like this, you dare run a business? Don’t you know the customer is always right?”

Qiu Yu had had enough of their nonsense. Raising a hand, she struck the concrete railing with a single blow.

The solid brick and concrete barrier shattered, crumbling into pieces that tumbled downstairs, crushing a row of zombies.

The hallway fell utterly silent.

Even the bystanders, who had been watching with curiosity, were stunned. Their understanding of the couriers’ strength deepened.

Those who had been hesitant to place an order quickly returned to their homes to write cards.

Harold, saying nothing, calmly retrieved the card from the man’s hand and collected the remaining cards from the others.

Si Jin and Qiu Yu brought out their gold-devouring pixiu. The little creature spat out small gold nuggets.

The pixiu would collect scattered bits of gold during transactions, store them in its mouth, and fuse them into one-gram nuggets before swallowing them. At night, back at the shop, the nuggets would be poured out and counted.

In the warehouse, Lu Yao had placed a clear storage jar specifically for holding the gold nuggets.

There wasn’t any particular reason for this—she just liked money, gold, and all things prosperous. The new shop didn’t stock goods; it only hoarded gold nuggets.

Meanwhile, three or four more households in Peaceful Neighborhood placed orders for couriers.

After handling the cancellations, Harold’s team split up to carry out the remaining tasks.

Little Dragon, holding a grudge, no longer cleared zombies from the neighborhood while escorting clients. He focused solely on ensuring the clients and their goods were safely delivered to their destinations.

Having learned their lesson, no customers dared to make trouble after that.

By the time Harold’s team completed all the orders at Peaceful Neighborhood, the number of zombies gathered nearby hadn’t decreased and showed no signs of dispersing.

The only ones left in the building were the five families who had caused trouble earlier. Now trapped, blacklisted by the couriershop, they turned on each other, assigning blame.

The middle-aged man who had led the charge against the couriers found himself under constant verbal attack. His head hung low in shame, but it was too late.

They were now stranded in the building. No one would come to rescue them, leaving them to figure a way out on their own—or die there.

…

As the golden sun set, the long day of training for the new recruits finally ended.

Harold’s team and Lu Yao’s team returned to the courier shop almost simultaneously. Six electric bikes converged at the storefront.

Ding Qing sat under the shop’s eaves, a thin blanket draped over her shoulders. A strip of tape was plastered over the back of her right hand, where she had just finished an IV drip.

The courier shop’s storefronts were flanked by two other shop spaces. Though small, they were a mess when Lu Yao opened her business, with their doors smashed and debris scattered everywhere.

The shop’s tables, chairs, and tools had mostly been rendered unusable.

Upon returning, Lu Yao heard noises coming from either side of the shop. After asking Zhang Shu, she learned that two families had moved into the vacant shops on either side.

They turned out to be the same clients Harold’s team had delivered to earlier that morning.

Before Lu Yao could check out her new neighbors, four college students came over to introduce themselves, bringing along some now-precious snacks as housewarming gifts.

The rookie couriers were in the office exchanging first-day experiences with Harold, their senior, while Lu Yao greeted the four visitors in the main hall.

Seeing Tang Anqi and Jiang Yifei, Lu Yao was a bit surprised. “So, it’s you.”

Tang Anqi handed over a black plastic bag containing a bag of chips, a box of cookies, and a rare treat—drinks. Jiang Yifei brought a package of pork jerky, two cans of fruit, and several more drinks.

Lu Yao hadn’t planned to accept the gifts. She wasn’t short on supplies, and these items were life-saving treasures to residents of the Golden Kingdom. However, looking at the youthful, earnest faces, she felt bad refusing. She silently decided to prepare a more generous return gift later.

The college students were quite curious about the courier shop but didn’t linger long. After chatting briefly with Lu Yao, they returned to their new residence.

Their new home wasn’t large but had a loft with a bed and furniture, suitable for storage and temporary living. The only problem was the smashed doors of both shopfronts, which left security severely compromised. Still, they couldn’t bring themselves to give up the prime location right next to the courier shop.

After witnessing the power of the shop owner and the three small dragons, Tang Anqi, Jiang Yifei, and their group agreed on one thing: the couriers were immensely strong, and the courier shop was a golden opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

With no ties in Gaosheng City, they figured staying close to the courier shop would bring them peace of mind. But the broken doors had to be dealt with. For their first night, the four of them planned to sleep together, barricading the doors with discarded shelves and boards. They would search for proper materials to replace the doors the next day.

Under normal circumstances, they’d never dare sleep in a place without proper doors.

After moving in that morning, the group had scouted the area and became even more convinced that the courier shop’s surroundings were safer than most places. This sealed their decision to stay.

…

In the early hours of the next day, three vans crossed the city boundary, returning from Gaosheng City to Jinyao City.

An Xia’s team had an unusually smooth return trip, encountering no major zombie hordes. After crossing the city demarcation line and traveling for another three hours, they arrived at Hope Base at 4 a.m.

The three vans drove straight into the base, taking over ten minutes to reach a row of low buildings where they finally stopped.

Hearing the engines, the personnel in the duty room turned on the gate lights (reserved for scavenging teams) and came out to greet them.

Seeing the fully loaded vans, the duty officer smiled warmly and greeted An Xia, “Captain An, you’ve worked hard.”

An Xia’s expression wasn’t great. She exchanged a few pleasantries with the officer, ensured all supplies were stored, and then headed to the dorms with her team to rest.

The scavenging team had their own dedicated dormitories, typically two people per room, which were among the best accommodations in the base.

There weren’t many women on the team. An Xia’s roommate was still out on a mission and hadn’t returned yet.

Upon entering her room, An Xia immediately prepared to shower. The trip back from Gaosheng City had been especially unlucky—a flock of birds had flown overhead and, to her horror, dropped their excrement all over her head. She couldn’t find a place to clean up at the time and had been furious about it ever since.

After her shower, An Xia came out and heard voices coming from the next room.

In these chaotic times, having a private room was already a luxury. The soundproofing, however, was non-existent, and there were no separate dorms for men and women.

The room next to An Xia’s belonged to Xie Yu and the leader of another team. That leader was part of her roommate’s squad and was still out on a mission, meaning Xie Yu was alone. The only person likely visiting him could be the instructor.

An Xia quietly walked to the wall, bent down, and pressed her ear against it, trying to catch what they were saying.

In the next room, Xie Yu had just finished showering. His hair was dripping wet as he searched for a towel.

Lu Mingxiao sat on a chair, his silver hair slightly disheveled, his blood-red eyes fixed on a flyer for the courier shop in his hand.

“You met her,” Lu Mingxiao said.

Xie Yu turned around. “Huh? Who?”

…

Thingyan: Welcome back, Xiaoxiao.

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Lu Yao was slightly taken aback. “Are you saying that a zombie has developed self-awareness?”

Tina shook her head. “It’s probably just a heightened predatory instinct. Occasionally, magical creatures also produce unique individuals. For example, Mumu is a unique variant among slimes, possessing special abilities and evolving in a way ordinary slimes cannot.”

This discovery was beyond expectations. If zombies had the potential to evolve, the survival environment for humans would only deteriorate further.

Moreover, it raised new questions about how zombies should be defined and regarded in the future.

Lu Yao felt a vague sense of chaos and uncertainty. “The line between humans and zombies is becoming blurred. It’ll make work much more complicated.”

Tina shrugged. “Humans often have peculiar ethical theories. I think, for now, there’s no need to worry about that.”

Lu Yao asked, “What do you mean?”

Tina explained, “Edward mentioned during a casual chat that Mumu was a unique individual from birth. But it was only after meeting you that it began to develop human-like consciousness and emotions. The evolution of consciousness is far rarer than physical evolution and must require a specific catalyst. In my view, these walking puppets are no different from the slimes, goblins, or pig-people commonly seen in the valley. Even if there’s suddenly a unique individual with special abilities, just take it down.”

Tina’s reasoning partly convinced Lu Yao, though she still had her doubts.

The zombies that had been aimlessly wandering nearby began to gather toward the direction of the crowd. Lu Yao temporarily put aside her thoughts and said, “Let’s focus on completing the task first.”

Tina’s gaze shifted to the group clustered at the store entrance. “What about those people?”

Lu Yao replied, “During working hours, if anything happens, our priority is to fulfill the task. Since we accepted the clients’ order, we have a responsibility toward them. Priorities matter—let’s handle what needs to be done first, then consider the rest.”

The dragon race was born strong. Often, a casual gesture from them could change a human’s life.

But even in a world without dragons, humans were nearly at the top of the food chain.

Lu Yao didn’t intend to turn her courier shop into a “hero agency.” She enjoyed the freedom of running a business without imposing too much responsibility on herself.

The human heart harbored countless dark, complex, and twisted feelings. Most of the shop’s runners were powerful, enthusiastic, and young, but Lu Yao always worried they might encounter irreversible trouble during work.

By emphasizing the importance of their tasks repeatedly, she hoped to provide a guiding principle for them to rely on when making future judgments.

Xu Hongmei and Li Heping finished packing and walked toward Lu Yao and Tina.

The members of An Xia and her squad watched quietly. They didn’t step in to help, nor did they stop them, giving off a faint air of spectatorship.

Lu Yao positioned the two behind her while Tina approached the glass barrier.

The small sparrow perched on Lu Yao’s shoulder flew to Tina.

As Tina examined the area around the glass barrier, the sparrow occasionally let out a raspy chirp.

When Tina extended her hand forward, the sparrow became visibly excited, calling out sharply.

Sparrows didn’t have melodious voices, and its harsh, grating cries were particularly jarring in the suddenly silent space.

Tina clenched her fingers into a fist and punched the spot the sparrow had indicated.

Crash!

The transparent wall cracked like a spiderweb, and chunks of white debris fell to the ground like snow. Behind the opening, a faint outline of a black staircase emerged.

Tina retracted her hand and shook it off. “This is much harder than when we first came in. Looks like it’s trying to close its net.”

Lu Yao approached and picked up a piece of debris from the edge of the opening, rubbing it between her fingers. “When we came in, there was indeed a momentary unnatural resistance—it does feel like a spiderweb.”

The sparrow returned to Lu Yao’s head, but suddenly spread its wings and flapped violently. Its neck craned upward as it let out a series of sharp, urgent cries.

Xu Hongmei and Li Heping’s eyes widened in shock, pupils constricting as they instinctively stepped back several paces.

An Xia and her team also caught sight of the massive creature above Tina and Lu Yao. Their expressions reflected both astonishment and confusion, as if they had just witnessed something utterly beyond their comprehension.

“What… what is that? Is it a zombie?”

“I’ve never seen a zombie take on that form before. Could insects also get infected by the zombie virus?”

“Insect? Something that size can’t still be called an insect. Compared to it, we’re the bugs.”

An Xia shouted, “Above! It’s right above them!”

A gigantic white spider, roughly the size of a human, clung to the webbing above Tina and Lu Yao. When it revealed itself, the ceiling seemed to explode in a flurry of white threads, covering the shop shelves and filling the entire area with spider silk. From the roof, more than a dozen large white cocoons dangled ominously.

The spider’s body was entirely snow-white, save for its head, which was pitted and hollow like the shriveled shell of a decayed insect. Its mandibles trembled incessantly, while remnants of a human leg, shriveled and drained of all fluid, hung from its mouth like a deflated balloon.

This creature had just been feeding.

Lu Yao frowned slightly, her first time encountering such a peculiar zombie.

She tapped into the system. “Is that a zombie too?”

The Dream Fulfillment System answered, “Yes.”

Lu Yao: “It’s ridiculously large.”

System: “As Tina mentioned earlier, this is a unique entity among zombies. The cause of its mutation is untraceable now. I analyzed its silk earlier—there’s a trace of neurotoxin. Any creature touching the web experiences gradual paralysis of visual nerves, making it increasingly difficult to perceive the real environment around them.”

Lu Yao: “The fact that we couldn’t see the exit earlier can’t just be attributed to the poison.”

Even for her, let alone Tina, the toxin’s effect would be negligible.

For humans, such a neurotoxin required prolonged exposure to take effect. For a dragon, it was practically harmless.

Tina, a young fire dragon, had a particular fondness for eating toxic magical creatures that lived on volcanic cliffs. Sometimes, she even brought cooked portions back to share with Lu Yao as a delicacy.

For humans, eating such meat required meticulous preparation to remove poison sacs and skin.

Dragons? They’d simply grab, roast, and devour—skin, bones, and all.

The system continued, “The silk has another property: under light, it’s nearly invisible. The spider spun layers of it around the escalator, leaving just a thin, weakly covered opening to entice prey. As soon as prey entered and tore through the web, they’d be coated in silk. Once inside, the spider would quickly reseal the entrance, waiting for the next victim.”

Lu Yao sighed, “For this spider, this mall is the perfect hunting ground.”

System: “Too bad it ran into us.”

The zombie spider, enraged at these intruders trespassing in its self-made buffet, launched a direct attack. Its assault was surprisingly straightforward—it leapt from its web, mandibles spread wide, targeting Lu Yao directly below.

This spider moved far faster than any regular zombie, closing a three to four-meter gap in the blink of an eye.

Lu Yao barely had time to take in the sight of its hairy mandibles and the putrid stench of decay emanating from its body before a wave of nausea hit her, forcing her to retch uncontrollably.

Before it could reach her, Tina intercepted it with a devastating punch to the head, sending its head flying clean off. She swiftly pulled Lu Yao out of the way with one arm while kicking the now-headless spider’s body aside.

The force of Tina’s strike sent the spider’s body hurtling across the room, smashing into a storefront sign with a wet splat. The impact was reminiscent of an overripe tomato bursting open, spraying its insides all over the ground.

Behind them, Xu Hongmei, Li Heping, and An Xia‘s team stood frozen in utter disbelief. For a solid half-minute, they remained rigid, unable to utter a single word.

Lu Yao calmly retrieved an alcohol wipe from her bag and handed it to Tina. “Here, clean your hands.”

As the webs around the escalator crumbled, the previously vanished escalator gradually reappeared.

Zhao Ye stood at the escalator entrance. “Handled?”

Tina nodded. “A minor magical creature, slightly stronger than a slime.”

Lu Yao, already calling Xu Hongmei and Li Heping to follow, turned back at Tina’s comment. “Mumu would cry if he heard that.”

Tina replied firmly, “Mumu is different.”

Once they exited the Golden Plaza, sunlight hit their faces. Only then did Xu Hongmei and Li Heping finally shake off their daze, the weight of their near-death experience catching up with them. They almost broke down into tears of relief.

Lu Yao’s team’s electric scooters were parked 300 meters away along the roadside outside the plaza. Tina and Zhao Ye carried the travel bags, while Xu Hongmei and Li Heping leaned on each other for support as they prepared to leave.

Behind them, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed. An Xia and her squad had followed them out.

Now that the spider zombie was destroyed, the sixth floor had reverted to normal, and the squad was no longer trapped.

An Xia stood at the plaza’s entrance and shouted toward Tina, “Hey, red-haired sister, wait a moment!”

Lu Yao’s group stopped and turned back.

The squad quickly approached, with An Xia and Xie Yu at the front.

An Xia bypassed Lu Yao and Zhao Ye, walking straight up to Tina. “You’re incredible. Why don’t you come with us to Hope Base in Jinyao City? With your abilities, you could join and instantly become a team leader.”

Xie Yu glanced at Lu Yao nervously. They hadn’t expected Tina, who looked so young, to be so powerful—she was clearly professionally trained.

Back on the sixth floor, the sharp aura Tina had exuded was strikingly similar to their white-haired instructor back at the base.

As luck would have it, their instructor also had a pair of blood-red eyes like Tina’s.

After defeating the spider zombie, An Xia and her squad had hurriedly scavenged some supplies upstairs before An Xia suggested recruiting Tina to their base, leading them to give chase.

The short-haired girl beside Tina didn’t seem nearly as exceptional in comparison, lacking any value for recruitment. However, it was obvious she held authority within the trio, making An Xia’s direct approach feel a bit heavy-handed.

Zhao Ye glanced at Lu Yao, his brows furrowed, and glared at An Xia.

The little sparrows perched on his hair and shoulders also turned their sharp gazes toward her, chirping pointedly.

Lu Yao, well acquainted with the mischief of these small creatures, lightly patted Zhao Ye on the back and reached out to stroke the head of one of the sparrows on his shoulder.

Tina’s expression didn’t change, but she asked with mild curiosity, “What’s Hope Base?”

An Xia immediately launched into a detailed explanation of Hope Base’s benefits. “Hope Base is the largest survival camp in Jinyao City. For just 50 grams of food, you can get a residence permit. The base regularly provides food and water to meet basic survival needs and offers a safe place to live. Our base has the most skilled instructor in Jinyao City. With his training, even ordinary people can join the search teams. But you? With your abilities, you wouldn’t even need training—join us, and you’d immediately become a team leader.”

Tina listened patiently and, when An Xia finished, shook her head. “Thank you for the invitation. But being a courier sounds much more fun. Besides, I don’t need food or water, and I never feel unsafe.”

“…” An Xia was left momentarily speechless. She had expected Tina might hesitate, but she hadn’t anticipated such a blunt response that outright dismissed all her terms.

Frustrated yet unable to express her anger toward someone as capable as Tina, An Xia’s gaze shifted to Lu Yao and Zhao Ye. Suppressing her irritation, she softened her tone and made another offer. “Fine. How about this? If you’re willing to come with me to Hope Base, we’ll let your two companions come along too.”

Zhao Ye immediately declared, “I have already sworn allegiance. I won’t leave the shopkeeper’s side for anywhere else.”

An Xia‘s squad members exchanged odd glances, their eyes darting between Lu Yao and Zhao Ye, as if they had just uncovered a juicy secret.

Before they could process this, Tina added, “I’ve signed a symbiotic contract with the shopkeeper as well. My wish is to protect her until the end of her days. Since your base already has capable individuals, I doubt you’d need me.”

The squad’s expressions turned even stranger as they stared at Lu Yao.

What was this girl doing—cosplaying as a protagonist in some fantasy story? Swearing loyalty and talking about contracts? The whole thing screamed middle-school syndrome.

At that moment, Lu Yao received a message from Zhang Shu, informing her that Harold’s team had encountered some trouble during their task.

She focused on the report, entirely unaware of what Tina and Zhao Ye had just said.

The Dream fulfillment System overheard everything but decided not to alert her. Not like it’s a big deal, the system thought. Besides, the real issue seemed to be with Harold’s team.

…

After completing tasks for Tang Anqi and Jiang Yifei, Harold’s team returned to Ping’an Community.

Harold had grown significantly over time, enough to persuade Si Jin and Qiu Yu, despite their grumbling, to go back to Ping’an for more work.

The three young dragons managed to sell over twenty business cards in Ping’an Community. However, just as they were preparing to start their tasks, trouble arose.

A group of residents from five different households, totaling nearly twenty people, tried to exploit them. They claimed to be relatives, demanding that Harold’s team transport all of them along with their numerous suitcases to a safer location—all while only wanting to use two business cards.

Harold firmly refused.

But within the group were elderly individuals and young children. The elders sat on the ground, wailing and pounding the floor, while the children clung to Harold’s legs, crying loudly and creating a scene.

Following Lu Yao’s guidance to avoid overreacting, the three dragons found themselves at a loss.

Harold’s hand trembled with suppressed anger as veins bulged along his knuckles, barely holding back the urge to fling the clinging child away.

Meanwhile, residents from neighboring units who had legitimately purchased business cards began peeking out from their apartments to see what was happening. Si Jin and Qiu Yu crossed their arms, their tempers barely contained, trying to keep their frustration in check.

Ignoring the troublemakers risked souring their reputation with legitimate customers, but giving in to the absurd demands went against their pride as dragons. The sheer injustice of it all left them seething.

When Lu Yao was updated about the situation, she immediately reached out to Harold.

“It’s me,” Harold said in a low voice, clearly struggling to hide his frustration.

Lu Yao calmly instructed, “Retrieve the cards. You don’t need to take any tasks from those five households. Refund the gold they’ve paid and, as compensation, gift each household an additional five grams of gold. Tell them the shop regrets its inability to meet their expectations and apologizes sincerely.”

Harold was taken aback. “Won’t this harm the shop’s reputation?”

Lu Yao chuckled softly. “Running a business isn’t always about profit without loss. Sometimes, taking a hit is unavoidable. Indulging customers like that will hurt us more in the long run. A runner’s job is to handle tasks—not to tolerate unreasonable demands or be subjected to moral coercion. Do what needs to be done without overthinking.”

With that, she ended the call and looked up to find everyone staring at her.

Lu Yao addressed the group, “Harold’s team ran into a bit of trouble, but it’s been sorted. If we’re done here, let’s get back to work.”

An Xia wore a conflicted expression, while Tina nodded, saying, “Let’s go.”

But before they could leave, Xie Yu suddenly blurted out, “Were you just communicating with someone far away?”

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Golden Tower Mall, Sixth Floor

After Chen Limin fell, the tense atmosphere didn’t ease up.

A group of over ten people huddled near the entrance of the outdoor camping gear store. Among them were Lu Yao’s clients, Xu Hongmei and Li Heping.

Half a month after the zombie virus outbreak, the gas supply in the Jintai Royal Garden neighborhood was cut off. Less than two weeks later, the electricity failed as well.

Li Heping, an avid outdoor enthusiast, had stocked up on various camping supplies at home—portable stoves, spare gas canisters, a barbecue grill with smokeless coal, and solar panels. They rationed carefully, cooking only one meal a day. With their supplies dwindling, the stockpile lasted barely a month.

As their provisions ran low, Li Heping suggested to his mother that they venture farther to gather resources. They had already tried scavenging nearby areas, but everything had been looted—supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, even discarded plastic bags were hard to come by.

From the beginning, Li Heping had his eyes set on the outdoor camping gear store on the sixth floor of the Golden Tower Mall. A regular customer of the store before the outbreak, he knew the store was well-stocked and catered to niche camping enthusiasts. He hoped it wouldn’t be on others’ radar.

The main obstacle was the store’s location: in a commercial district, several floors up, with the risk of encountering hordes of zombies along the way. After days of deliberation, Li Heping and Xu Hongmei decided to take the gamble. They packed two backpacks, a coil of rope, and two fruit knives before heading out.

What was once a ten-minute walk to the Golden Tower Mall took them half a day of sneaking and hiding to reach. It took another half-day to climb from the ground floor to the sixth floor, avoiding zombies. Luckily, the higher floors of the Golden Tower Mall had fewer zombies than other malls.

They wore thick masks to minimize exposure and avoided direct confrontations with zombies, fearful of triggering a larger horde they couldn’t escape from.

Initially, their ascent to the sixth floor seemed uneventful. The massive mall appeared untouched, with shelves fully stocked and no zombies in sight. Exhausted but elated, the pair felt their struggles had paid off when they reached the camping store. They eagerly tore off their backpacks and began stuffing them with supplies.

The store carried everything from camping gear to military-style rations. Li Heping swept an entire shelf of compressed biscuits into his backpack. The rations, though unappetizing, were filling, long-lasting, and a lifeline in worsening conditions.

The mother and son worked quickly, filling their packs in under half an hour. Still daylight, they planned to leave immediately, hoping to make it back home before nightfall.

However, as they tried to retrace their steps, they discovered the escalators they had used earlier had disappeared. Where the open stairways once stood was now solid, seamless flooring. Even the glass railings at the edges of the escalator shafts were intact, enclosing what was now an unbroken expanse of flooring.

Perplexed and increasingly uneasy, they searched the floor multiple times but found no way down. As night fell, the lack of lighting plunged the area into darkness.

Soon, unsettling noises began to echo around them: chilling growls, the creaking of bones, and slow, deliberate footsteps.

Desperate, Li Heping and Xu Hongmei huddled beneath the store’s cash register, barricading themselves with unopened tents and cardboard boxes. They braced themselves, trembling, and endured the terrifying night.

As daylight broke, the unsettling noises gradually subsided.

The mall remained eerily empty, but Li Heping and Xu Hongmei still couldn’t locate the staircase to descend.

Another day and night passed before they encountered An Xia and her squad from Jinyao City this morning.

An Xia’s squad, a group of sixteen people with three vans, had traveled across the city to reach Wanxin Mall, aiming to retrieve supplies from the sixth floor of the Golden Tower.

The man who fell earlier, Chen Limin, was one of their members.

Initially, they thought this mission would be like any other: clear out zombies, collect supplies, and leave. But they quickly realized something unusual was happening.

After gathering supplies and deciding to take along the two stranded locals, they discovered they couldn’t find the escalator they had used to ascend.

To make matters worse, during their search for an exit, a squad member was bitten by an unexpected zombie.

That person was Chen Limin.

An Xia’s Squad was well-known in Jinyao City for its high survival rate. On average, they might lose one member out of ten missions, so a bite was rare and alarming.

When the team saw Chen Limin’s injury, they immediately recognized the danger they were in.

The sixth floor of the Golden Tower seemed to be a strange, one-way space. After Chen Limin was bitten, it felt as if some hidden mechanism had been activated—zombies lurking in the shadows began to emerge.

The scattered team members hurriedly regrouped at the entrance to the camping store, discussing how to deal with the crisis.

Oddly, the zombies didn’t pursue the group but instead targeted Chen Limin.

Everyone watched helplessly as Chen Limin was cornered against the glass railing. At that moment, the faint outline of the escalator reappeared.

Chen Limin, pushed to the edge, lost his footing and fell over the railing.

As his body disappeared, the escalator’s boundary blurred once again. No one dared to move closer.

Xu Hongmei and Li Heping stood at the back of the crowd, their gaunt faces etched with fatigue and despair.

The arrival of the search team had briefly rekindled their hope, only for it to be shattered once again. A wave of deeper despair engulfed them, threatening to crush their spirits.

They only wanted to survive. Why was it so hard?

Xu Hongmei sighed heavily and murmured, “Looks like we’re not going back. Your father must be so worried.”

Li Heping was wracked with guilt. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have dragged you here.”

Meanwhile, one of An Xia’s squad members, overwhelmed, squatted down, clutching their head. They wanted to cry and scream but feared attracting zombies, so they buried their face in their knees and gripped their hair tightly.

The squad leader, An Xia, furrowed her brows, repeatedly reviewing past experiences to find a way to break the apparent maze they were trapped in. A steadfast, indifferent face suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Seeing her tense expression, Xie Yu whispered, “Thinking about the Instructor?”

An Xia’s shoulders stiffened slightly, and she shot him a glare. “Is this the time to talk nonsense?”

Xie Yu, looking innocent, replied, “I was just wondering how the Instructor would handle this situation. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying you’re incapable.”

An Xia growled, “Shut up. If you can’t say anything useful, don’t say anything at all.”

Xie Yu promptly fell silent, looking sheepish.

Suddenly, a team member exclaimed, “Someone’s coming in!”

An Xia and Xie Yu looked up toward the direction where Chen Limin had fallen. The space there warped and distorted, and two young women stepped through.

They were both very young. The taller one had black hair and dark eyes, with a striking golden earring on her left ear. Perched on her shoulder was a fluffy black object.

As they approached, everyone realized it was a small, feathered sparrow.

The shorter woman had eye-catching curly red hair, pinned with an exquisite emerald-and-pearl hairclip. Her ruby-red eyes sparkled, and her features were impossibly refined.

Xie Yu’s gaze locked onto her, awestruck. “She’s gorgeous—like a porcelain doll.”

Anxia focused her attention on Lu Yao. “Why is there a sparrow here?”

The rest of the team was equally puzzled. The timing, location, and manner of these two women’s appearance were all exceptionally odd.

Lu Yao and Tina walked a few steps further before stopping, turning back to look at the direction they had come from. The escalator had vanished.

Tina remarked, “There’s definitely something unusual here.”

On their way up, both Tina and the Dream Fulfillment System had noted the strange spatial anomalies on this floor.

The trio decided to leave Zhao Ye downstairs while Lu Yao and Tina, accompanied by one of the little sparrow scouts, ventured to the sixth floor.

Lu Yao raised her hand and rubbed her fingers together, sensing a faint, sticky residue.

Tina said, “I’ll look for an exit.”

Lu Yao nodded. “Then I’ll find our clients.”

She raised her voice as she moved closer to the crowd. “Is Xu Hongmei or Li Heping here?”

The group gathered at the store entrance remained wary, with no one responding.

Lu Yao repeated herself, “Xu Hongmei or Li Heping? We’re couriers sent to get you out of here.”

Xie Yu couldn’t help but interject, “You think you can get out?”

An Xia pointed behind Lu Yao. “The way you came in is already gone.”

Lu Yao turned to the two of them. “And who might you be?”

Xie Yu deadpanned, “I’m Li Heping.”

An Xia lowered her head slightly, attempting to hide her unease. “Xu Hongmei.”

Hiding at the back of the crowd, the real Xu Hongmei and Li Heping widened their eyes in shock, unsure of what to do.

Lu Yao looked at Xie Yu with a smile. “Your mother looks very young.”

Xie Yu’s face turned red, his expression awkward.

An Xia flicked her head irritably. “I’m An Xia, leader of the 10th Search Squad from the Jinyao City Hope Base. And who are you?”

Lu Yao countered with her own question, “What is Hope Base?”

She certainly understood the concept of a base but was surprised that a city had already established one with a search squad of such size.

Anxia insisted, “I asked first. You answer.”

Lu Yao, remaining patient, took a stack of flyers from her bag and handed them out to An Xia and Xie Yu before distributing them to the rest of the group, including the real Xu Hongmei and Li Heping, who were hiding at the back.

An Xia only read halfway before raising her head in disbelief. “You’ve opened a running service here and only accept gold as payment?”

The rest of An Xia’s squad also found it hard to comprehend. In a world like this, running errands seemed even more dangerous than their search missions, and these runners didn’t even ask for supplies—only gold, which was practically worthless now.

What was the point?

Lu Yao didn’t explain but called out again, “Xu Hongmei, Li Heping, your family contacted us and placed an order for us to get you out of here.”

Xu Hongmei hesitantly pulled Li Heping along, stepping out from the side. Her voice trembled. “I’m Xu Hongmei, and this is my son, Li Heping.”

Li Heping looked somewhat awkward, trailing a few steps behind his mother. Once closer, he stared at Lu Yao for a moment before asking in a low voice, “Did my dad send you?”

Lu Yao nodded. “We were sweeping the Gold Tycoon Residences when Mr. Li learned of us and placed a run request to have us come and get you.”

Xu Hongmei broke into tears upon hearing this. Ever since Lao Li injured his leg, he had become withdrawn, his temperament souring significantly. He always believed he was a burden to her and their child.

She never imagined that Lao Li would hire someone to come and rescue them.

Li Heping, after hearing Lu Yao’s explanation, found all the details matched. His wariness decreased, but the strange nature of the sixth floor made him uneasy again. “This floor is weird. Once you come in, you can’t leave. It’ll be the same for you.”

Tina returned after making a round, having familiarized herself with the floor’s layout, and approached Lu Yao.

Tina: “When do we leave?”

Lu Yao: “Got it all figured out?”

Tina nodded. “It’s nothing too complicated.”

Lu Yao raised a hand with a “wait” gesture and turned back to Li Heping. “Don’t worry. Do you have anything you need to bring? Pack it up; we’ll leave shortly.”

Li Heping hesitated, still skeptical. These women weren’t even listening to his concerns. Could they really get them out?

Xu Hongmei, however, didn’t overthink it. Grateful for the opportunity to escape, she turned and dragged out the pre-packed travel bags she had hidden in the shop. Worried about carrying too much, she began to take out a few items.

Lu Yao stopped her. “Two bags are fine.”

Li Heping remained unconvinced, but there was no better alternative. They had been trapped for two days, and these self-proclaimed runners seemed like their only hope.

Lu Yao pulled Tina aside to talk.

Tina: “This floor has a unique zombie, akin to a special entity in magical creatures. It’s likely treating this space as its hunting ground, setting traps for its prey. Everyone who enters becomes part of its reserve stockpile.”

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Qiu Yu, unfazed by Harold’s annoyance, turned around and called the two clients over to settle payment, confirming their request: “So, you need us to help the four of you, along with your luggage, move out of this complex?”

Tang Anqi replied, “Yes, we’re relocating, and the destination for the second errand is Guanyin Road.”

Si Jin perked up. “That’s really close to our shop.”

Jiang Yifei had been observing Harold, Si Jin, and Qiu Yu’s eyes. Ignoring their unusual hair colors, their eye colors—bright red, deep blue—were rare and striking, giving them a mysterious appearance. Although they didn’t look like people from the Golden Kingdom, they spoke without any noticeable accent.

Hearing Si Jin’s voice, Jiang Yifei instinctively chimed in, “Yes, we want to move somewhere closer to the courier shop.”

Harold walked into the room to assess their luggage, finding it lighter than expected.

Two suitcases, four large backpacks, and three cardboard boxes tied together with transparent tape.

Zhou Mingyang rushed to explain, “We can carry the backpacks ourselves. We just need you to help with the suitcases and boxes.”

Harold glanced at his frail frame with undisguised disdain. “Later, you’ll follow Qiu Yu and Si Jin. I’ll carry the stuff. Qiu Yu’s the girl with black hair; the blondie is Si Jin.”

Si Jin, hearing the comment, immediately bristled. “Who are you calling blondie?!”

Harold ignored him.

As the senior, Harold naturally took the lead in assigning tasks.

“Qiu Yu, with her wide-range weapon, will lead to clear the path. The clients stay in the middle, and Si Jin will bring up the rear to fend off any zombies coming too close again.”

The luggage wasn’t heavy but bulky. Without tools, it was impossible to carry everything in one trip.

Harold had no intention of making two trips. He wrapped the four backpacks together with a bedsheet, subtly secured them with magic, slung them onto his back, grabbed a suitcase in one hand and the boxes in the other, and followed Si Jin.

He wasn’t afraid of being bitten by zombies. Any undead foolish enough to approach would be sent flying with a single kick.

As they prepared to descend, Song Xu and Zhou Mingyang hesitated. The thought of rushing into a horde of zombies with no protective gear made their scalps tingle.

Qiu Yu overheard their murmuring, walked over, and casually placed an arm around Tang Anqi and Jiang Yifei’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you get bitten. We’ll be out of here in just a few minutes.”

Song Xu and Zhou Mingyang felt increasingly dubious. The entire courtyard below was teeming with zombies; escaping unscathed seemed impossible, let alone within a few minutes, as she claimed.

Harold finished securing the packages and noticed the group still frozen in place. Irritated, he snapped, “Let’s go. Once this job’s done, we still have to head to Jinbo Road to hand out flyers.”

At the second-floor staircase, a few zombies immediately started wailing at the sight of the group, their hoarse cries grating and chilling.

Qiu Yu moved swiftly, her needle-sharp sword piercing one zombie’s forehead with precision before skewering the rest like candied hawthorns, clearing the staircase in one go.

With a flick of her wrist, the skewered zombies tumbled from the second-floor balcony to the ground below.

The four college students, trembling a moment ago, were now stunned into silence.

What kind of speed and strength is this?

The staircase below the second floor was densely packed with zombies. Looking down, their round heads resembled fried, unpeeled potatoes.

Qiu Yu’s blade spun like a buzz saw—quick and silent. By the time she moved past, it took several seconds for the zombies’ heads to topple off their decayed bodies one by one.

Qiu Yu’s clean-up was so efficient that Si Jin and Harold, following behind, found no fun in the job at all.

The clients, who were initially trembling with fear while descending the stairs, gradually felt reassured, and by this point, they were practically numb to the situation.

Was it something wrong with them? Or were these couriers just that extraordinary?

Was this even clearing zombies? It felt more like sweeping trash off the streets.

As the group neared the entrance of the Ping’an residential complex, about five meters away from escaping the zombie horde, voices suddenly called out from the building behind them.

“Help us! Please, save us!”

“There are residents in Unit 2 on the seventh floor! Don’t leave, help us!”

“Building B, Unit 3, we’re still here! Save us, the zombies are about to reach the third floor!”

From behind, Harold said matter-of-factly, “Let’s get the clients to safety first.”

Neither Si Jin nor Qiu Yu paid attention to the cries for help, focusing instead on escorting Tang Anqi and her three friends safely through the zombie-infested area to their parked e-bikes.

By then, the people calling for help upstairs had started hurling insults, their words turning vile and harsh.

The university students frowned, annoyed at the unnecessary rudeness. How could people be so thoughtless?

Even if they didn’t understand the couriers’ intentions, they should at least recognize how effortlessly they had just navigated the zombie horde. The streets below were teeming with zombies, yet walking between two errand runners had felt as casual as a stroll down the road.

Now wasn’t the time to hurl abuse—they should be humbly pleading for help, given the current state of the world.

By now, Tang Anqi and her friends had pieced together what was happening. The couriers had been capable of clearing out the zombies earlier but had deliberately chosen to locate their clients first. Their abilities were indisputable, but they clearly weren’t naïve or overly compassionate saviors.

Realizing this, the students felt oddly reassured.

While Harold’s team was on their errand, Lu Yao’s team had just finished sweeping the Jintai Royal Gardens and was now heading back to Wanxin City to locate the camping equipment store mentioned by the clients.

At the heart of Wanxin City was Wanxin Plaza, surrounded by towering malls, small street shops, two subway entrances, and several bus stops.

As a bustling commercial hub with heavy foot traffic and numerous transit points, it had been a high-risk zone when the outbreak hit, leading to significant casualties and a large population of wandering zombies.

Lu Yao, Tina, and Zhao Ye returned to Wanxin Plaza via the pedestrian avenue, but something felt off.

Earlier that morning, when they had circled the area on their e-bikes, the plaza had been teeming with zombies. Yet now, within just an hour or two, it seemed a group had passed through and cleared out the zombies.

Corpses of the undead littered the plaza, attracting carrion birds that fed on the rotting flesh. As Lu Yao walked along the eaves of a nearby shop, some birds, clutching intestines in their beaks, fluffed their neck feathers in a menacing display.

Zhao Ye bared his teeth at the birds, making them squawk in fright and scatter, dropping chunks of rotting meat they didn’t dare retrieve.

The little sparrows perched on Zhao Ye’s shoulders tilted their heads, watching curiously. They clearly enjoyed the show.

The sparrows of the internet café had all modeled their humanoid forms after a sketch Lu Yao had drawn of an anthropomorphized sparrow. While their features bore some similarities, their individual appearances and temperaments varied.

Zhao Ye’s humanoid form was that of a small youth with chestnut short hair, round dark eyes, symmetrical black moles under his eyes, and a height barely reaching Lu Yao’s ear.

Unquestionably, Zhao Ye earned his role as the leader of his sparrow gang by being the boldest and cheekiest of the bunch. Like Xiong An’an, he excelled at playing cute to adults while secretly being mischievous and sharp. Scaring off a few witless scavenger birds? A piece of cake.

The scout sparrows returned one after another, chirping to Zhao Ye in rapid succession. After a short exchange, Zhao Ye informed Lu Yao that they had located the camping equipment store.

Lu Yao vaguely remembered glimpsing a sign for such a shop earlier during their first visit but hadn’t paid it much attention.

Thanks to the sparrows’ swift reconnaissance, they had their location pinpointed in minutes. As “scouting chickens,” the little sparrows were impressively efficient.

Unlike Lu Yao, who had the Dream Fulfillment System to assist her, Zhao Ye truly relied on his flock of sparrows. They were indispensable to him.

The little sparrows led the way, with the three following behind.

Zhao Ye exchanged a few more chirps with his little followers before turning to Lu Yao and Tina. “They said the store is crowded with people, but our mission target wasn’t spotted.”

Tina glanced around. “These roadside shops are completely empty, not a single soul in sight.”

Lu Yao explained, “Those people might share the same goals as our clients’ relatives. In a city, life is inseparable from utilities like water, electricity, and gas. Without these, cooking and daily routines become very difficult. Modern cities have long abandoned primitive solutions like firewood, wells, and oil lamps. When urban infrastructure collapses, people are forced to revert to primitive survival methods. Items sold in outdoor camping gear stores—like portable stoves, solid alcohol, and solar-powered outdoor lights—were once niche but are now incredibly practical.”

Tina and Zhao Ye’s understanding of modern cities was limited to what they had gleaned from comics and the internet. While not entirely unfamiliar, they still found many things novel and fascinating.

Gaosheng City, however, was far from a functioning modern metropolis. It was more like a ruin of human civilization left behind after being ravaged by a strange and cruel virus.

The sparrows landed in front of a glittering high-rise building. The side of the building displayed a massive poster of a celebrity adorned with opulent gold jewelry, perfectly matching the building’s name: Golden Tower. The name was as blunt as it was ostentatious.

The first five floors of the building were dedicated to gold jewelry stores, but Lu Yao’s team’s destination was the sixth floor.

A signboard at the entrance listed the shops on the sixth floor: outdoor camping gear, adventure equipment, and small stores selling bags, knives, and leather goods.

The elevators were out of service, so they had to either take the stairs or climb the now-motionless escalators in the mall.

The Dream Fulfillment System noted, “The escape stairwells are packed with zombies, likely people who tried to flee but didn’t make it—crammed in there like sardines.”

The mental image made Lu Yao grimace. “We’ll take the mall escalators.”

The system chimed in, “With Tina and Zhao Ye around, you don’t need to overexert yourself. Training the employees’ abilities is part of a store owner’s responsibilities.”

Lu Yao mused that the system must have recently taken a course on high-EQ communication; even slacking off was now dressed up in polished rhetoric.

The mall appeared to have been cleared. As Lu Yao’s team entered through the main entrance, they didn’t encounter a single zombie.

However, behind the counters and on the floor lay a few headless corpses. The surrounding splatter of bodily fluids hadn’t yet dried, and the stench was overpowering.

Some of the display cases on the first and second floors showed signs of forced entry, with several of the cases shattered. Surprisingly, many cases still held more than half their gold jewelry. Dust had settled on the velvet-lined displays, indicating that the damage wasn’t recent. Gold, it seemed, had already begun losing its value in this world.

Nowadays, people passed through this vast golden emporium without a second glance at its exquisite metal treasures, heading straight upstairs to scavenge survival supplies.

Tina and Zhao Ye, however, lingered over the dazzling display of jewelry, their eyes filled with curiosity.

Tina stopped in front of a display case, unable to tear her gaze from a stunning, intricately crafted gold necklace.

Zhao Ye, standing beside her, carefully chose his words. “Do you like any of these?”

Tina casually pointed at several pieces. “They’re designs I’ve never seen before.”

For dragons from the Alexander Continent and the little sparrow demons of the Floating World, the jewelry here truly offered novel and rare designs.

They were just admiring it, without any ulterior motives.

Tina suggested that the next time they crafted jewelry, they should mention these innovative styles to their artisans—it would surely astonish them.

Suddenly, the Dream Fulfillment System chimed in, “You… don’t feel like a little ‘zero-cost shopping’ spree?”

Lu Yao frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, no one’s watching right now,” the system pressed. “Even if you took a few pieces, no one would complain. A handful of these would be worth months of running errands.”

Lu Yao’s tone turned suspicious. “Are you testing me?”

“No… just making conversation,” the system backtracked quickly. “You love money and gold so much, doesn’t this tempt you even a little?”

Lu Yao sighed. “Wealth is tempting, sure. But I’m not lacking it. It’s this world’s people who’ve lost their rules—not me.”

The system muttered, “Feels like you’ve become even colder than before in the past few months.”

Lu Yao waved it off. “An illusion, an illusion.”

…

The lower floors had been cleared, and as they climbed to the fifth floor, they only encountered two or three zombies. Dressed as store clerks, they were trapped behind a row of glass cabinets, aimlessly circling the same spot. Lu Yao chose to ignore them.

When they reached the escalator to the sixth floor, a piercing howl echoed from above. A bloodied figure tumbled down from the upper floor, crashing onto the ground below, lifeless.

The situation upstairs looked grim. Lu Yao immediately quickened her pace.

As Lu Yao’s group climbed toward the sixth floor, Zhao Ye’s little sparrow scouts suddenly began chirping frantically.

She turned her head in alarm. The “corpse” that had just fallen and seemed dead was now slowly rising. Its blank eyes stared into nothingness.

The figure sat motionless for a few seconds before sluggishly getting up and shambling aimlessly around the mall.

Its face bore a gaping wound, still oozing blood, with a large chunk of flesh bitten away.

Lu Yao’s brows furrowed. Wasn’t this transformation a little too fast?

In movies, zombies typically took hours to fully transform after being bitten. Could this person have been infected long before falling?

Her gaze snapped back to the stairs. Just a few more steps to the sixth floor.

What exactly was happening up there?

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

Previous

Lin Ning Side Story: Catching a Husband

Chen Kang had that familiar dream again.

Three years ago, not long after his father died, he had the dream for the first time.

In the dream, he was a little older, seemingly going to the prefectural city to take the examination. But at the entrance of an inn, someone stole his money pouch.

Without money, he could not stay at the inn. He crouched blankly in a corner and nearly had his luggage stolen by a blind-eyed beggar.

While they were arguing, a fairy-like ge’er helped him.

That fairy-like ge’er was beautiful, covered in an air of wealth and nobility, yet unlike other wealthy ge’er, he did not carry any prideful distance. Instead, he was approachable, even carrying a little warmth and kindness.

Chen Kang heard him mutter softly,

“Tsk, he’s strangely good-looking. I’ll just count this as me rescuing a beauty.”

The fairy-like ge’er found him an inn, paid his room fees until the exam ended, left him some silver for food, and then left.

Only after finishing the exam did Chen Kang unexpectedly discover that the ge’er was from the magistrate’s household.

Magistrate Lin had brought several servants and was watching every student who had passed the exam, seemingly considering catching a son-in-law beneath the榜 list. But that had nothing to do with Chen Kang.

He had failed.

Holding the small amount of silver the fairy-like ge’er had given him, he returned to the village in disgrace.

Then the dream ended.

After waking, Chen Kang thought to himself that he was becoming like those sour scholars who loved dreaming. His learning was not particularly good, but every day he fantasized about being favored by some rich young lady, beautiful fox spirit, or alluring ghost.

His own dream was even more useless. He did not even dare dream of interacting more with the fairy-like ge’er. Once he failed the exam, he simply returned home in shame.

He sighed, went out to carry water, and on the road met the village matchmaker.

When the matchmaker saw him, her eyes shifted guiltily, and she pretended not to see him before quickly leaving.

Before his father died, he had asked the matchmaker to arrange a marriage for him. But just as things were nearly settled, his father fell gravely ill. The illness not only drained all the family’s money, but his father could not be saved either.

After that, the other family never sent word again.

Seeing the matchmaker act this way now, Chen Kang understood even more clearly. Originally, he felt a little bitter about it, but when he remembered last night’s dream, that bitterness somehow faded away.

Unexpectedly, the next night, he had the exact same dream again.

By the third time, Chen Kang sensed something was wrong.

In front of the inn, he clenched his money pouch tightly. At the same time, he felt another force tugging it outward. He turned his head and came face-to-face with the thief.

The thief had not expected to be caught red-handed. He pulled out a knife and viciously stabbed at him.

Chen Kang woke with a start in the middle of the night.

This time, he had not even seen the fairy-like ge’er.

Had he been stabbed to death by that thief in the dream?

Still shaken, Chen Kang touched his chest and abdomen. They did not hurt.

When he fell asleep again, he had no more dreams that night.

Several days later, he had the familiar dream again.

This time, Chen Kang decisively changed inns. As a result, he was not robbed and safely settled in. But because he had not been robbed, the fairy-like ge’er naturally did not come rescue him either.

Standing by the road, he watched the fairy-like ge’er walk past with several friends, chatting and laughing. But perhaps it was his imagination, Chen Kang felt the fairy-like ge’er’s gaze quickly sweep across his face.

Chen Kang touched his face and suddenly remembered that in his first dream, the fairy-like ge’er had said he was strangely good-looking.

During the exam, the questions were exactly the same.

He failed again.

After the exam results were posted, he secretly followed Magistrate Lin from a distance. He saw Magistrate Lin happily patting a young man on the shoulder, unable to hide the smile on his face. Perhaps he had caught a satisfactory ge’er-son-in-law.

Chen Kang felt a little sour inside.

At dawn, he lay in bed and listened to the increasingly loud rooster calls outside. Then he turned over, got up, and wrote down the examination questions from the dream.

He did not know whether repeatedly having this dream meant he had become entangled with some beautiful ghost or spirit.

But if…

If he could change the fate of his money pouch being stolen, could he also change the outcome of the imperial examination?

If he passed, would he have a chance to be caught as a son-in-law by Magistrate Lin?

He knew very well that in reality, he absolutely did not have the fortune to marry into the magistrate’s household.

But in a dream, could he not at least try once?

…

There were three hundred sixty-five days in a year, and Chen Kang dreamed that dream for three hundred of them.

He studied bitterly, took the questions, and visited nearby xiucai scholars. He also went to the county school to ask teachers for guidance.

Finally, at the end of the second year, he barely passed in the dream.

Excited, he raised both arms and shouted,

“I passed! I passed!”

Then he quietly edged toward Magistrate Lin and his servants.

But Magistrate Lin did not look at him.

Before long, he was caught by some merchant family and even had a large red flower hung around his neck.

Chen Kang woke up in anger on the spot.

Why didn’t they catch him?!

Was his exam result still not good enough??

In the middle of the night, Chen Kang lit the oil lamp and started studying again.

By the third year, his ranking was already quite good, but Magistrate Lin still did not come catch him.

So this time, Chen Kang did not take the examination. Instead, he went all over the prefectural city asking around, only to learn that Magistrate Lin was not catching a son-in-law at all.

Magistrate Lin was concerned about how his clan nephew had done in the exam.

In another dream, Chen Kang decided to recommend himself.

…

Yet when his three-year mourning period finally ended and he truly set out for the exam, he discovered that Haozhou Prefecture was exactly the same as in his dream.

From far away, Chen Kang looked at the familiar thief lingering sneakily near the inn entrance, as well as the obvious shape of the knife in his pocket. Shocked, he turned and ran.

This dream…

It was not merely a dream?

And after entering Haozhou Prefecture, he never had that dream again.

At the place where he had first been robbed in the dream, he saw the fairy-like ge’er he had long yearned for walking past with friends, chatting and laughing.

Chen Kang took a deep breath and bought himself an outfit perfectly suited to that fairy-like ge’er’s tastes.

Before leaving home, he had already caught Magistrate Lin’s eye in the dream and had met the fairy-like ge’er several times. Through daily accumulation, he had more or less learned what the fairy-like ge’er liked.

If he had known all of this could become real, he should have asked Magistrate Lin for more scholarly guidance in the dream…

When the exam began, he opened the test paper and saw the familiar questions. He let out a deep breath of relief.

…

Magistrate Lin chased after Lin Ning while nagging him.

“Just go meet him. Your father already caught him and brought him here… Besides, do you think I don’t know you? You’ll most likely be satisfied with this boy. He’s handsome!”

Magistrate Lin had noticed that boy in the examination hall.

He had not paid much attention to the exam paper, but the young man truly had an excellent appearance. More importantly, he looked clean and energetic.

The examination cubicles had terrible conditions, cramped and stuffy. Even a healthy person would wilt after staying there for a day. Yet this boy was one of the few who still looked pale, clean, and fresh when handing in his paper.

Everyone in the Lin family valued appearances.

Magistrate Lin had looked at him several extra times then and thought that if Lin Ning saw him, he might very well take a liking to him.

Only, the boy did not look especially young. With a tongsheng title and such good looks, he probably already had an engagement.

Magistrate Lin was not the sort of person who would make his ge’er fight another person for a husband or become a co-wife. So he merely looked a few more times and sighed inwardly, without actually trying to catch him.

Who would have expected that after the results were posted, this boy did not go look at the list and instead came over to Magistrate Lin himself.

“This boy is named Chen Kang. He’s one year younger than you. His family is from a village below, farmers for generations, so he won’t look down on us for being newly rich from poor origins…”

“He was once being discussed for marriage, but it happened to coincide with the death of an elder in his family, requiring him to observe mourning, so it was dropped. The marriage had never been formally settled.”

But Magistrate Lin did not simply believe one-sided words.

“I checked his household registration. He truly has not married. If you take a liking to him, I’ll send someone to his village to investigate further. I doubt he’d dare deceive me…”

“This time he passed the examination, twenty-sixth in Haozhou Prefecture, ranked even higher than Xiao Song. I’ve read his essay. Though not brilliantly talented, it is practical, cautious, and thorough.”

“The key point is, his appearance will definitely suit your tastes!”

“Why do you make me sound so lustful?”

Lin Ning pretended to be annoyed, but inwardly he had already begun to stir with interest.

This person’s conditions really did sound quite good. Most importantly, even his father said he was handsome. Just how handsome was he?

Lin Ning cleared his throat and said somewhat coyly,

“Since you already caught him and brought him here, we shouldn’t make him come for nothing. I’ll first look at him from behind the screen. If he truly is good-looking, we can talk about meeting. If not, send him back.”

Unexpectedly, he really was very handsome.

His father had not deceived him.

Lin Ning sneakily hid behind the screen and peeked out.

Who would have thought that the man seemed to know he would be there watching? Chen Kang raised his head and smiled brightly at him.

Lin Ning sucked in a sharp breath and abruptly retreated three large steps.

Handsome.

Truly handsome.

Those peach blossom eyes, that high straight nose, that smooth jawline, and that outfit, not luxurious but clean, simple, and elegant.

Every detail struck Lin Ning’s heart perfectly.

He could not resist and peeked out again.

As a result, Chen Kang once again seemed to know he would look back. He obediently sat there watching him, waiting for him to come look.

Lin Ning did not know that Chen Kang had already experienced this scene more than thirty times in his dreams…

When Lin Ning would turn back to look at him, what appearance of his would make Lin Ning smile, every move had long been carved into Chen Kang’s heart.

“How was he?”

After leaving the main hall, Magistrate Lin hurriedly grabbed his ge’er and asked.

Lin Ning coughed lightly.

“He’s alright… He is quite good-looking.”

His scholarly title was good too. His family members were simple. It seemed he had no reason to refuse.

Lin Ning turned his head and glanced back again.

“Why do I feel like… I’ve seen him somewhere before?”

Magistrate Lin himself had grown up with his fulang in the same village as childhood sweethearts, so he did not want his own ge’er to have a blind marriage.

He frequently invited Chen Kang over and also called Song Kaiji along. On the surface, it seemed like he intended to take Chen Kang as a student and discuss scholarship together, but in reality, he was creating more opportunities for Chen Kang and Lin Ning to spend time together.

Yet after meeting a few times, Lin Ning felt increasingly strange.

Chen Kang was very good. Everything about him seemed perfectly suited to Lin Ning’s heart.

But some of that goodness was a little too coincidental.

The moment Lin Ning was about to drink water, Chen Kang had already handed the cup to him.

Before a flower falling from the tree could land in his hair, Chen Kang had already raised his hand, ready to brush it away.

Every time Lin Ning looked toward him, Chen Kang always happened to turn back at exactly the right moment.

Lin Ning was confused.

But Chen Kang was anxious.

Because he was about to “show his true form.”

Before coming to Haozhou Prefecture, his dream had stopped on this day.

Magistrate Lin invited him to the estate, and he chatted about scholarship with Magistrate Lin’s clan nephew. Magistrate Lin had not been very satisfied, neither with Chen Kang nor with his nephew. He thought Chen Kang’s learning was too rigid and his nephew too unmotivated.

Afterward, in the little garden, Chen Kang met Lin Ning, who had brought a group of maids and attendants along.

Of course, they could not possibly be allowed to be alone, one unmarried man and one unmarried ge’er.

They spoke for a while beneath an osmanthus tree by the pond, and then the dream ended.

Now Chen Kang suspected that his beautiful dream was about to end too.

From this point forward, he would know nothing about the future. Reality was not like a dream, where he could try again the next night.

He was afraid the fairy-like ge’er would not like the real him at all.

“You… you really don’t seem like a farm boy. How do you do everything so thoughtfully?”

Looking at the stone Chen Kang had kicked aside in advance, Lin Ning tugged at his fingers.

But his father had indeed sent people to Chen Kang’s village to investigate. Chen Kang had grown up in that village from childhood to adulthood. Before this, the farthest place he had ever gone was the county town to study.

Chen Kang scratched his head, not knowing how to answer.

In the dream, Lin Ning had never said this to him.

Lin Ning bit his lip.

He felt some things should be said clearly first.

He seemed to like Chen Kang a little.

Or at least, Chen Kang’s face.

Fortunately, only a little.

He did not want things to become like his little uncle, with such problems exploding only after marriage.

While he only liked him a little, it was better to say it now.

“Our family also used to live in the village. I was already fairly grown when my father passed the juren exam. All told, I’ve only been an official-family ge’er for a few years.”

“There are some things I may not do as thoroughly or properly as you…”

Chen Kang snapped back to himself and hurriedly waved his hands, shaking his head.

“No, no, no. In my heart, you are the best fairy-like ge’er!”

He showed a rare moment of panic, even seeming a little silly. But the words he spoke were sincere, and that made Lin Ning’s face feel even hotter than Chen Kang’s usual thoughtfulness.

Chen Kang took a deep breath and quietly tugged at Lin Ning’s sleeve.

“Actually, I’m not clever either. Passing the xiucai exam was purely luck. In the future… I probably won’t be able to pass higher exams.”

He knew in his heart that he had only passed, and even ranked decently, largely because Heaven had revealed the questions to him. In the first dream, he had failed completely.

“I’m very stupid. The reason you think I’m thoughtful is… because I secretly practiced it dozens or even hundreds of times…”

But he did not want to give up.

“But I want to beg you to give me a chance. In the future, I’ll keep learning, keep practicing. I… I…”

“I truly like you.”

He looked into Lin Ning’s eyes, wanting to hold his hand but not daring to.

He truly wanted to beg Lin Ning.

Please save me, alright?

Could you “rescue the beauty” one more time?

At this moment, although Chen Kang had become clumsy, he seemed to have broken free from a shell of excessive thoughtfulness. He appeared much more alive, and the faint unease in Lin Ning’s heart dispersed considerably.

This time, flowers from the tree were blown down by the wind, rustling as they fell onto Lin Ning’s head.

Chen Kang failed to brush them away in advance. Instead, he hurriedly and carefully helped him remove them.

Lin Ning turned his head aside and smoothed the slightly disheveled hair at his temples.

Then he said softly,

“Then… then let’s try.”

Finding a perfectly flawless, thoughtful marriage and partner was not easy.

But if there was a great deal of sincerity and love, then it was worth trying.

Full Text End

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Lian Ou Side Story: Finale

Because of what happened to Lian Ou, the old Lian family became the first household in Lantang Village to split the family while the parents were still alive and both brothers were present.

It could not exactly be called a blessing in disguise, but after escaping the eldest branch and the increasingly deranged Wang-shi, Miao Hexiang’s family all breathed a sigh of relief.

Wang family’s nephew was not sent to the authorities. He paid compensation and was beaten according to village rules, breaking one leg. Afterward, he lay in bed for several months, dragging things out and unable to stand.

Because of this, Wang-shi’s elder brother and sister-in-law also looked at her with nothing but anger and disgust. Her relationship with her maiden family was essentially broken.

Lian Ou did not need to worry about any of these things. He obediently hid at home for two months, waiting for the storm to pass.

After all, there were still some loose-tongued people in the village gossiping about him. Some had sons who had never been able to reach high enough to marry Lian Ou, so now they kicked him while he was down for satisfaction. Others were simply gossipy by nature, loving to discuss every household’s affairs without caring whether the person involved lived or died.

Yet after hiding from the rumors for two months, Lian Ou discovered that Miao Hexiang no longer allowed him to go sell at the temple fair.

Lian Ou grew anxious.

“Mother, how would people in Miaoqian Village know about our village’s matters? Nobody will spread it randomly. And even if they do, I’m not afraid. I don’t want to marry anymore. In the future, I still need to make stall-selling into a proper livelihood. Are you really going to have my brother support me for the rest of my life?”

Even now, when Miao Hexiang thought back to that day, lingering fear remained.

Over the past two months, she had thought a great deal and discussed it with Miao Chunlei too. Now she said,

“It’s not that I won’t let you make a living. But your Chunlei Auntie, Qing-ge’er, and I have all discussed it. Setting up a stall still can’t compare to working in a shop.”

“Back then we were careless. Your brother escorted you only twice and then stopped, which let that Wang bastard find an opening. But your brother also can’t abandon field work every day just to take you there and bring you back.”

Miao Hexiang scraped the end of her needle lightly against her hair.

“You’ve already trained yourself well at the stall. Qing-ge’er told me too. Right now he’s heavily pregnant and doesn’t have the energy, but once the child in his belly is born, he’ll send you to work in his county shop. It’ll be safe and respectable.”

“After a couple years, once this matter fades, maybe we can even find you a good husband’s family in the county.”

Lian Ou felt anxious.

Why had the conversation turned to his marriage again?

He had not seen Huiming for two months. Earlier, the Lian family had carried gifts to Miaoqian Village to thank Huiming, but they had not let him go.

Now they wanted to send him to the county shop…

For the first time, Lian Ou truly did not want to go to the county, did not want to be ambitious.

“Mother, I already said I don’t want to marry anymore… Because of that incident, I feel sick whenever I see men now. I… I don’t want to go to the county either.”

He leaned against Miao Hexiang’s knees and whispered guiltily,

“If I go to the county, how could I stay beside Mother every day?”

Miao Hexiang felt sweet and comforted from being coaxed by her own ge’er.

But in her view, saying a ge’er would not marry was only acceptable if there was no other choice. If he could marry, especially into a good family, then marrying was still best.

“You were just frightened. You’ll recover after some time.”

For a young ge’er, having a home, having a man who knew warmth and cold and could be relied upon, then giving birth to children and living lively days, that was what counted as complete.

She stroked Lian Ou’s head and said,

“Right now, if you go to Miaoqian Village, I truly can’t rest easy. Our family and the old Wang family have become enemies now. If they block you again on the road, your father and I won’t even have a place to cry.”

“If you find home too boring, go to Qing-ge’er’s place and keep him company. The county magistrate’s young son often comes to play with Qing-ge’er. You and Rong-jie can accompany the young master around the nearby mountains, pick fruit, and play around.”

Now Lian Ou could no longer find any excuse and could only reluctantly agree.

But after accompanying Lin Ning up the mountain a few times with Lian Rong, he unexpectedly saw Huiming.

Lian Rong widened her eyes at him.

“Master, why are you in our village?”

Lian Ou’s face felt a little hot.

Everyone knew Huiming had saved him. Even if he exchanged a few words with Huiming, it should not be anything strange.

But in front of Lin Ning and the others, he truly could not say a single word. He only let his eyes circle over Huiming several times.

Huiming’s throat felt a little dry.

“I… came to gather some medicinal herbs. I heard this kind of herb grows near your village.”

His basket did indeed hold several medicinal plants.

Lian Rong wanted to help him search, but after looking at the plants a few times, she scratched her head in confusion.

Did their village have this kind of thing nearby?

“No matter,” Huiming said calmly. “If you have matters to attend to, go ahead. I’ll search by myself.”

“Oh, oh…”

Lian Rong answered. After hesitating, she still said,

“Master, if you can’t find it, maybe go look somewhere else. Our village might not have it. I’ve never seen it before. If you get tired, you can come to our house to rest and drink some water.”

She pointed toward the foot of the mountain.

“There, that new house on the west side is ours!”

Huiming nodded but did not leave.

Once they had walked far away, Lian Rong said,

“Ge, why didn’t you talk to Master?”

Lian Ou gave two little hums and did not answer.

Lin Ning, however, looked back several times.

“Don’t say, that master is actually quite good-looking. What a pity he’s a monk.”

Isn’t that right?

Lian Ou secretly thought the same.

It was a pity he was a monk.

…If only he were not.

After that, whenever they went up the mountain to play, they ran into Huiming seven out of ten times.

Lian Rong was truly full of questions.

What medicinal herbs did their village have that she had never seen before?

Lian Ou leaned against a tree to rest. Some leaves had piled up near the roots. He quietly searched through them and felt a small jar.

He hid it inside his sleeve and brought it home.

Lately, Huiming often sent him things like this. Sometimes it was scented balm for his hands, sometimes a small pair of scissors for trimming nails, sometimes little trinkets that were useless but pretty.

This time, it was a small jar of honey.

He dipped a fingertip in and put it in his mouth.

The sweetness sank straight into his heart.

Only later did he learn that the hot water the temple provided to vendors did not contain honey. Only his and Lian Rong’s bowls had it.

These days continued until the day Shen Qing gave birth.

Zhao Youwei brought villagers to make trouble. Lian Rong went to the county to ask Lin Ning for reinforcements, and halfway there she ran into Huiming.

“I was so tired then I could barely breathe, and I didn’t explain clearly. Master thought something had happened to you again.”

Lian Rong knew nothing and grinned foolishly.

“He must’ve been thinking, why does our family have so many problems?”

Lian Ou rolled his eyes at her and pierced the blister on her foot in one swift motion.

Lian Rong cried out and hissed in pain.

“Hurry and sleep. Aren’t you tired after running all day? You still have energy to think about this and that?”

He applied medicine to Lian Rong’s foot, then stuffed her entirely into the quilt and tucked her in properly.

“I’m not sleepy at all.”

Perhaps too many things had happened that day. Although her body was tired, her mind was unusually excited.

Lian Rong rolled twice inside the quilt and lowered her voice.

“Ge, Qing-ge’s baby is so ugly and wrinkled. What do you think Qing-ge’s husband looks like? Qing-ge wouldn’t choose someone ugly, right…”

“You hurry up and shut your mouth. Is that something you should say? Newborn babies are all red and wrinkled. They look better once they grow. When you were just born, you were even uglier than that!”

“Really?”

Hearing this, Lian Rong became somewhat happy.

Her Qing-ge was so good-looking. If he had an ugly child, she truly would feel sad.

If he had an ugly husband, she would also feel sad.

Even though it was Qing-ge’s business and had nothing to do with her, she would still meddlesomely feel sad.

Lian Ou: “………”

However, at that time, they had not expected to see Qing-ge’er’s husband so soon.

He was a tall man, half his body covered in blood, carried down the mountain on Shen Qing’s back.

Shen Qing ran too fast for them to see the man’s face clearly. They only saw a furry head.

Like the head of someone whose shaved hair had only recently begun growing back…

Lian Rong stood at the courtyard entrance, her eyes wide with shock.

“T-this… Qing-ge’s husband is a monk? A monk who returned to secular life? Why is his hair like that?”

The word “monk” struck Lian Ou’s heart hard.

Miao Hexiang slapped the back of Lian Rong’s head.

“What nonsense are you saying? Control that mouth of yours!”

But whether because this idle comment was overheard or because someone else thought the same thing as Lian Rong, the rumor that Shen Qing’s husband was a monk who had returned to secular life truly spread.

The story became vivid and detailed.

They said the monk had betrayed Buddhism for Shen Qing, but his sect would not allow it. He had his legs broken by an old monk, was expelled from his order, and clung to his final breath just to see Shen Qing one last time…

They said that although this love was not tolerated by the world, it was still moving enough to touch heaven and earth…

Shen Qing was guarding the unconscious Song Kaiwu and had no energy to handle outside rumors, so the story spread just like that. Even Huiming in Miaoqian Village heard it.

That night, Huiming knelt in the main hall for the entire night.

The next day, he secretly packed the money he had saved over the years and went to Lantang Village.

Shishu watched his sneaking figure and sighed.

“That boy can’t be kept.”

The abbot did not even open his eyes.

“Weren’t you the one who said as long as he doesn’t return to his birth parents, if he finds some girl or ge’er, starts a family, and has a few children, you’d be happier than anyone?”

“Of course I’m willing.”

Shishu chuckled twice.

“Anyway, if he leaves, no one will take over your work, so you can just keep doing it for a few more years. What does that have to do with me?”

Then he leaned over and patted the abbot’s shoulder.

“Say, that one from their village, whatever temple he came from, wasn’t he too ruthless? Breaking someone’s legs… Isn’t it just returning to secular life and getting married? How big of a deal is that? When the time comes, just lecture him a little. Don’t make things hard for the child.”

The abbot could no longer tolerate it and drove this chatterbox out.

“Do I need you to tell me?”

In this temple, every single person hoped Huiming would live well.

They hoped that ge’er and his family could accept Huiming.

They hoped that people like them, once abandoned and without families, could once again have a home, and family who would accompany them for life.

End of Lian Ou Side Story

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