Chu Liuyue froze for a moment.
Soon after, she burst out laughing.
"I know."
She tilted her head slightly.
Her eyes carried a hint of doubt and confusion.
She stared straight at him.
Li Xichen scratched his head, looking away in embarrassment.
A faint blush crept up his cold, hard profile.
"I mean, could we..."
From the back seat, Yan Qingdu maliciously interrupted, "Xiao Chen, no one said you aren't a man."
His lazy voice was incredibly punchable.
If Li Xichen hadn't been driving, he would have turned his head to glare at him long ago.
Zhou Yu'an had been resting with his eyes closed, but upon hearing their conversation, the corners of his lips couldn't help but curl up slightly.
He opened his eyes.
His amber eyes were brimming with gentleness.
Suddenly, he pointed at the rearview mirror.
And spoke:
"Look, Mimi is still there."
Looking through the rearview mirror, Chu Liuyue realized that the zombie black cat, Mimi, was relentlessly chasing behind the car.
Their journey to Jingdu was a long one.
Considering various factors.
They had originally left Mimi near the survivor base in Jiang City.
But they didn't expect it to follow them anyway.
Chu Liuyue spoke up, "Stop the car."
Li Xichen stepped on the brakes.
The off-road vehicle came to a halt.
Seeing the car stop, the zombie black cat also halted its steps, acting like a child who had made a mistake.
It paced uneasily behind the car.
Chu Liuyue shot it a helpless glance and said softly:
"Mimi, our journey this time is very dangerous."
"Wouldn't it be better for you to stay in Jiang City?"
The zombie black cat couldn't understand. It let out a purring sound from its throat, its black python-like tail wagging vigorously from side to side.
Zhou Yu'an said in a gentle tone:
"It wants to stay by your side."
"Why don't we just take it with us?"
Chu Liuyue took another look at the zombie black cat.
"Alright, but remember to run away if there's danger."
The zombie black cat wagged its tail again.
It purred happily a couple of times.
Just like that, their group gained an agile zombie black cat.
This little interlude also disrupted Li Xichen's original plan.
In the evening, the car pulled into a dilapidated gas station in the neighboring city.
There were already two or three survivors here, who revealed terrified expressions upon seeing the zombie black cat following behind them.
It wasn't until Zhou Yu'an spoke up to explain that they became half-believing and half-doubting.
"You guys came from Jiang City?"
"That's really impressive."
"If you're heading to Jingdu, can you take us with you?"
"I heard there is a huge survivor base in Jingdu, established by the government."
The few of them chattered away all at once.
Unexpectedly, they also knew about this news.
Chu Liuyue asked in confusion, "How did you know there was a survivor base in Jingdu?"
"Oh, this."
One of them pointed to an old-fashioned black radio placed in the room.
Although there was no electricity or internet now, they could still receive scattered information through the radio frequencies.
The person explained:
"The staff on the radio said that the zombie virus has now broken out nationwide. All cities have fallen, leaving Jingdu as the only safe location."
"They told everyone who heard the message to head to the Jingdu survivor base."
Late at night.
The four of them spent the night in another small room at the gas station.
Gnawing on dry bread and drinking milk.
"Should we take them with us?" Zhou Yu'an asked gently.
Li Xichen immediately retorted:
"Of course not. We're in a hurry, we don't have the spare time to take them along."
"If they mess up on the road, they might even drag down our journey."
Yan Qingdu, on the other hand, remained silent.
His gaze simply fell on Chu Liuyue.
His tone was slow and unhurried.
"What do you think?"
Chu Liuyue rested her chin on her hand, deep in thought.
After a moment, she finally spoke.
"Why are we going to Jingdu?"
Everyone froze.
Zhou Yu'an was the first to answer, "To go to the Jingdu Research Institute, in order to completely destroy that thing."
Yan Qingdu: "To restore this world back to normal."
Li Xichen didn't even think before speaking up immediately.
"I'll accompany Sister Xiaoyue anywhere."
The other two men shot him a sidelong glance.
Was this the time to show off?
Shouldn't you answer the question properly?
Chu Liuyue's almond eyes curved as she nodded.
"Right, so this trip to Jingdu is too dangerous. Even we can't guarantee that we'll come out unscathed."
"So, why should we bring them along?"
"I'm not Zhang Cheng. I don't need ordinary people to stand in front as meat shields and cannon fodder."
The next morning.
Chu Liuyue and the others prepared to leave, cleanly and straightforwardly rejecting their proposal.
Upon hearing this, the survivors' expressions changed drastically.
They cursed and grumbled:
"We were kind enough to spare a room for you yesterday, but when we just ask you to take us to Jingdu with you, you're not willing?!"
"Exactly, exactly. Good deeds really go unrewarded."
"Forget it, let's just consider it as running into ungrateful wolves."
Some of the more extreme ones even silently spat on the ground with a sound of disgust.
Seeing this, Li Xichen couldn't help but want to make a move, but he was stopped by Chu Liuyue.
It wasn't until they were back in the car.
That he angrily smacked the steering wheel.
"These people are really something! They can't even tell good from bad."
"If we were bad people, we could have just taken them on the road with us and pushed them out to take the hit whenever we encountered a dangerous situation."
"Do they really think Jingdu is some great place?"
Speaking of this.
Chu Liuyue suddenly realized something.
"The radio said that all survivors who have the means should head to the Jingdu survivor base."
"The message being passed to everyone is that it's a good place."
"Anyone with capabilities will go there."
"What does this sound like?"
Zhou Yu'an and Yan Qingdu exchanged a glance.
They fell silent.
After a long while.
They finally spoke in unison:
"A trap."
Yes.
It was a trap.
Along the rest of the journey, they passed through several cities.
In some, they encountered survivors, while in others, they didn't.
Everyone they met would mention that they had also heard the news about the Jingdu survivor base on the radio, saying it was their hope for survival.
It was the hope for life.
Half a month later.
Their car successfully arrived at the outskirts of Jingdu.
Everyone noticed a problem.
That was, the number of zombies here was several times higher than in other cities.
Just today alone, they had spent the entire morning clearing out zombies.
Li Xichen was on the verge of exhaustion from using his abilities.
It was only because Yan Qingdu smoothly fired a backup shot that the zombie behind him didn't manage to grab him.
"Thanks," Li Xichen said with a taut face, glancing at Yan Qingdu to express his gratitude.
Yan Qingdu maintained his careless expression, smiled, and said, "It's nothing, I'm a man."
Li Xichen glared at him furiously.
Chu Liuyue immediately interrupted.
Furrowing her brows.
"Enough, Senior Yan. If you keep teasing Xiao Chen, believe it or not, I'll feed you to the zombies."
The teasing expression on Yan Qingdu's face instantly vanished.
Meanwhile, Li Xichen, who had been furious just a moment ago, immediately turned his anger into a smile, grinning at Yan Qingdu as he said:
"You might even become a male zombie."
