The words of agreement were on the tip of her tongue when a sudden stabbing pain pierced Jiang Ying's temples. Her mind instantly cleared. Realizing what she had just been about to do, a wave of delayed fear washed over her.
She quietly took a step back, shielding Jiang Xiaoxin even more securely behind her.
"Feng Qingqing, you know in your heart whether you pushed me or not, and I know it too. The comrades who were present that day have eyes as well. There is no need for you to come to me and force an admission, nor should you expect me to cover up for you." Jiang Ying's expression was cold.
"Don't forget that I am now a superpowered individual, just like you. I am no longer someone you can bully at will." Jiang Ying shifted the conflict between herself and Feng Qingqing onto the broader conflict between the superpowered and ordinary people.
In this era, the oppression of ordinary people by the superpowered was all too common. Even though the Sunrise Base had been trying hard to smooth over the relations between the two groups, it couldn't completely eliminate these issues.
The chain of discrimination still existed, though compared to other bases where the superpowered acted as local tyrants and ordinary people were treated like cattle, the situation here was already vastly better.
Among the many superpowered individuals, Feng Qingqing belonged to the group that looked down on ordinary people. She never verbally abused anyone, but she looked at ordinary people as if they were ants. When going on missions together, she disdained communicating with them, sometimes not even bothering to spare them a glance.
Ordinary people had tempers too. Though they didn't speak up, it would be a miracle if they had a good impression of Feng Qingqing in their hearts.
Furthermore, the incident where Feng Qingqing pushed Jiang Ying into a horde of zombies that day happened in broad daylight, in front of everyone, without any concealment. Now she was here turning black into white—who could tolerate that?
Right then and there, a few of the more capable ordinary people in the crowd spoke up.
"That's right, Miss Feng, you can't just oppress us ordinary people because you have superpowers."
"Exactly, we all saw what you did back then. Gagging Jiang Ying won't work; you can't silence everyone."
With someone taking the lead, more people began to chime in. After all, the law doesn't punish the masses. Feng Qingqing might be able to shut one person's mouth, but could she silence everyone?
Listening to the overlapping voices that instantly turned the scene into a noisy marketplace, Feng Qingqing's face literally darkened for a moment. Her eyes shifted into far more obvious vertical slits, and black-and-white scales faintly surfaced on her face.
Feng Qingqing did not notice this, but Jiang Ying and Jiang Xiaoxin, standing right opposite her, saw it clearly. Jiang Xiaoxin revealed a "just as I thought" expression, while Jiang Ying was horrified!
A storm of thoughts instantly surged in her mind. When she first saw Feng Qingqing and Shangguan Xu, she knew she had transmigrated into a post-apocalyptic novel she had once read.
Because the male and female leads in that novel had overly cliché, melodramatic setups, she had only patiently read up to the point where the male lead unified the Sunrise Base before dropping it.
Anyway, all the plotlines revolved around this crazy couple slapping the faces of various supporting characters. All the characters that appeared seemed to share the same face.
The women were jealous of Feng Qingqing for having Shangguan Xu's love, and the men were jealous of Shangguan Xu for having such a gentle and beautiful wife like Feng Qingqing.
To gain the love of this deranged couple, those supporting characters acted as if they were severely ill, doing all sorts of things that defied common sense.
It was fine to turn off one's brain and read one or two similar plots, but reading too many identical storylines would inevitably lead to reader fatigue.
Therefore, Jiang Ying hadn't read the subsequent plot. Could it be that in the unread half of the book, Feng Qingqing's true colors were revealed, and she actually wasn't human?
"Qingqing, what are you doing here? Come back with me!" Shangguan Xu appeared at this moment. Upon seeing him, Feng Qingqing's expression instantly became gentle and amiable.
She tilted her head to look at Shangguan Xu, blinked, and tears fell. Her eyes seemed to convey many things, yet at the same time, nothing at all.
Shangguan Xu's gaze landed on her, and his heart began to soften. He sighed softly, stepped forward to hold her hand, and said, "I'm sorry, Jiang Ying."
Then, he pulled Feng Qingqing and turned to leave. Feng Qingqing looked at his back, a smile curling on her lips, the look in her eyes so tender it could melt ice.
As Shangguan Xu walked outward, he increasingly felt that the road ahead was bleak. He felt he must love Feng Qingqing; otherwise, he wouldn't tolerate her reckless behavior regardless of time and place.
But the more he knew he loved Feng Qingqing, the more a trace of uncontrollable agony would occasionally sprout in his heart. Just as he had felt countless times before, he shouldn't have this kind of personality, nor should he have become such an unprincipled person.
With Feng Qingqing pulled away, the people who had just spoken up for Jiang Ying chatted with her for a few more sentences before dispersing.
Entertainment was scarce in the apocalypse, so no one would miss a chance to watch a spectacle. However, once the show was over, no one wanted to stay outside.
The arrival of the apocalypse had not only changed humans and plants but also the climate. Since the day the apocalypse descended, spring and autumn ceased to exist; there were only two seasons left in the year: summer and winter.
Summer was deadly hot, and winter was bitterly cold. But those who had survived the apocalypse were already accustomed to these seasons. To protect themselves, people now habitually wore long sleeves and pants no matter where they were.
Those who wore dresses like Feng Qingqing were exceedingly rare.
Wearing long sleeves and pants was still unbearably hot. Even by evening, there wasn't a trace of a cool breeze, so no one wanted to stay outside.
Jiang Ying and Jiang Xiaoxin exchanged a glance. Jiang Ying silently pulled out a toolbox from the base of the wall and, in a few swift moves, reattached the door panel that had been torn away from its frame.
After closing the door, light filtered in through the window, though the evening light was no longer very bright.
Jiang Xiaoxin took Jiang Ying's hand and pulled her to another small cubicle that Uncle Xu had partitioned off with cloth. Against the wall lay a wooden board, topped with a straw mat found from who knows where and a summer quilt whose original color was no longer discernible.
Jiang Xiaoxin pulled open the curtains to ensure that if anyone came, they could be seen at first glance. Jiang Ying was used to this.
In this era, children knew how to protect themselves from the moment they were old enough to understand things.
Jiang Xiaoxin quickly returned to Jiang Ying's side.
"Sister Yingying, do you believe in rebirth?" Jiang Xiaoxin twisted the hem of her shirt, her eyes fixed intently on Jiang Ying's expression.
Jiang Ying paused. Of course she believed in rebirth; after all, transmigrators existed, and many of her group mates had even seen reborn individuals.
"I believe it," Jiang Ying nodded seriously.
Jiang Xiaoxin let out a massive sigh of relief and then smiled as if a heavy burden had been lifted. She sat next to Jiang Ying, took her hand, and placed it in her own palms.
"Sister Yingying, I was reborn." She didn't look at Jiang Ying.
She really, truly liked Jiang Ying. If Jiang Ying hadn't narrowly escaped death this time, she wouldn't have told her about being reborn.
But she was also genuinely afraid that once Jiang Ying knew she was reborn, she might use her or hurt her.
Jiang Ying squeezed her hand. Being a transmigrator herself, she knew exactly how much courage it took to reveal one's trump card to someone else.
She simply plopped down on the freezing ground so that Jiang Xiaoxin could clearly see her expression.
Sensing Jiang Ying's consideration, Jiang Xiaoxin smiled as tears streamed down her face. In a very soft voice, she said, Sister Yingying, you might not believe me when I say this, but I am actually you, and you are me.
Hearing this, Jiang Ying was truly shocked. Her eyes widened, but Jiang Xiaoxin ignored her reaction and continued.
Before I was reborn, I died at the age of twenty-five. I was constricted to death by Feng Qingqing.
What?! Jiang Ying had harbored some suspicions when she saw the scales popping up on Feng Qingqing's face.
She hurriedly pressed, She really isn't human?
Jiang Xiaoxin shook her head, then nodded. She is, but she also isn't. She was parasitized by a snake.
As Jiang Xiaoxin's words fell, a layer of goosebumps erupted on Jiang Ying's arms.
She had thought Feng Qingqing was a demon, or perhaps some kind of monster, but she never imagined she was a parasitic host. And to a snake, no less.
Ever since she was little, Jiang Ying had loathed creatures like snakes the most. Just thinking about their densely packed patterns and their slippery bodies made her uncontrollably nauseous.
Unable to control herself now, she reached out and rubbed the standing hairs on her arms.
Before the goosebumps could even subside, Jiang Ying suddenly recalled what Jiang Xiaoxin had just said—that she was her. A thought surged into her mind, and she immediately looked at Jiang Xiaoxin.
Jiang Xiaoxin nodded at her, confirming that her thought was correct. Remembering how she hadn't concealed her true self in front of Jiang Xiaoxin at all recently, Jiang Ying instantly gave up on trying to hide anything.
She let the matter go, deciding not to make things difficult for herself, and asked about another matter first.
Tell me exactly what's going on. How did Feng Qingqing get parasitized? Jiang Ying felt like she had read that novel for nothing.
The whole time, all she had seen was Feng Qingqing and Shangguan Xu acting out a melodramatic romance and repetitive face-slapping plots with different character names.
Jiang Xiaoxin adjusted her sitting posture. Do you know of the Qingfeng Biotechnology Group?
Jiang Ying shook her head; she truly had no idea what that was. Jiang Xiaoxin had expected as much.
Or rather, after getting to know Jiang Ying, she had keenly discovered that this Jiang Ying was not the 'her' she knew.
The Qingfeng Biological Group is a conglomerate dedicated to biotechnology research. I had heard before that they were conducting human experiments, combining the genes of various animals with human genes to create an entirely new species.
This group is closely connected to certain national biological organizations in Europe and America. They share a joint biological research institute built in a lawless zone. Feng Qingqing is the daughter of the head of that institute. A month before the virus outbreak, she paid a visit to that research center.
Three years later, a piece of news will spread across the globe through a hard-won communications network: this apocalypse was caused by a virus leak from that very biological laboratory.
Before Feng Qingqing left that biological research institute, all the people and test subjects inside had already died. Feng Qingqing was the only person to walk out of that lab. Or rather, she had also died in that institute, and the 'person' who walked out was an absolute monster. It's just that the 'monster' possessed all of Feng Qingqing's memories.
Jiang Ying found it hard to believe that Feng Qingqing could be so formidable. After all, judging from the two months she had spent with her, Feng Qingqing was undeniably completely love-brained.
Jiang Xiaoxin knew Jiang Ying wouldn't believe it. In her past life, she hadn't believed it either until she saw Feng Qingqing turn into a monster with a human head and a snake's body. She touched the ribs that had been the first to be crushed in her previous life and said, In my past life, I heard Feng Qingqing say that before it was taken away for experiments, it was Shangguan Xu's pet.
What the fuck!
