Chapter 20: Really treat her as a younger sister (1)
The majority of the people who entered the city looked tired and dirty, and the small space was filled with the smell of sweat and blood. Since the end had come, humans had been focused on surviving, finding safe areas to live and food to eat; there was no time to dress up or get clean regularly. Therefore, Bai Qingqing, who was charming and beautiful, looked particularly good in the crowd. The female soldiers who checked her stared at her several times and strange expressions passed through their eyes; a woman like her could not remain untouched in the last days unless she was either powerful or protected by someone very strong.
Beauty had its advantages and disadvantages during the apocalypse; beautiful women could use their charm to obtain resources but if they were unwilling to become playthings of the strong to survive, good-looking faces would only bring danger and tragedy to them.
Bai Qingqing ignored those slightly envious and jealous gazes and walked through the checkpoint. As she went, she looked at all the protective nets around, thinking to herself they were rather useful at this stage of the end of the world; they could be used to block large numbers of low-level zombies but once the zombies would start evolving and become more powerful, those protective nets would become obsolete and be of little use. Added to that, higher-level zombies were fast and weapons couldn’t penetrate their bodies easily. Only abilities could really fight against them. Humankind didn’t have much time left; if the vaccine wasn’t developed in the next half-year, they would probably not survive. Although evolved zombies had restored their human wisdom, they were different. Humans were just food in their eyes and who would choose to be friends with predators? Humans and zombies would never coexist, monsters and humans were not the same.
After being radiated with genetic testing equipment, Bai Qingqing finally stepped into the safe area of Wucheng.
Wucheng had been independent since the end of the world and had established a virus-free zone. Although the city had been mostly destroyed, it was in much better shape than the abandoned part outside the checkpoints.
Off-road vehicles were carrying well-trained soldiers on the street, who were patrolling around the city, indifferent expressions on their faces. There were not many people on the way; people who had just entered the city were directed to register before they could get the key to the residence from the registration office.
The people in Wucheng were divided into several levels; gifted people could get single rooms while ordinary humans had to squeeze themselves in shantytowns in low-level areas. Ability users had to go out to collect materials, hunt zombies, and get crystal cores or other random tasks to get food.
Bai Qingqing didn’t want to go register right away and found a place to wait for the rest of the Thunder Squad not far from the city gate. Portable space abilities were rare and exposing hers would definitely attract both attention and competition from everywhere.
Soon, the men of the team entered Wucheng one at a time. When Bai Qingqing saw Fu Chen, her eyes lit up and she immediately ran towards him.
“Brother.”
Fu Chen hugged her as usual and held her hand before glancing around; the gazes coming from everywhere quickly disappeared. Xiao Yang looked at Bai Qingqing’s hand in Fu Chen’s, trying to ignore the bitter feeling in his heart, and turned his eyes away.
Shen Mingxuan glanced at Bai Qingqing: “Where is Tiantian? Why isn’t she with you?”
“I don’t know.” Bai Qingqing got closer to Fu Chen.
Shen Mingxuan’s expression darkened: “Why aren’t you paying attention to your teammates?”
Bai Tiantian would still have gotten lost, even if she had been careful. Should she put a leash on her like a dog and keep her by her side all the time? Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but complain in her heart but put a pitiful expression on her face. She looked aggrieved and stayed silent.
“Bai Tiantian is not a child.” Fu Chen said, tightening his fingers around Bai Qingqing’s hand, “She was behind Qingqing, why should Qingqing pay attention to her?”
Shen Mingxuan wanted to keep saying more but held back his words. Liang Zhiyu added in an indifferent voice: “Let’s wait. If Bai Tiantian doesn’t come out, let’s register first and find a place to live before looking for her.”
Bai Qingqing tried to recall whether the novel had introduced Wucheng or not but regardless, she hoped Bai Tiantian hadn’t gotten into an accident or it would delay their stay in Wucheng.
Wucheng was different from most well-known doomsday bases. The environment here was chaotic and very unfriendly toward weaker ordinary people, especially women. Bai Qingqing didn’t like Bai Tiantian but didn’t want anything to happen to her either. Before the end of the world, Bai Tiantian’s innocent temperament and inability to understand rejection was very popular with men. But after the apocalypse, her kindness brought trouble everywhere and Bai Qingqing hated trouble the most.
After waiting about an hour for Bai Tiantian, she still did not come out of the inspection gate. The men went to ask around but because of the large number of people entering the city, there was no way to monitor it.
The Thunder Squad went to the registration office to inquire again and it took a long time to find that she had already registered herself and entered the city alone. It was fortunately a false alarm but the men felt conflicted; Bai Tiantian was usually too kind but timid and obedient and it was the first time she had acted alone. The men regarded her as a member of the team and if she acted recklessly, it meant they had to go rescue her if there was any danger.
The truth was that Fu Chen knew exactly why Bai Tiantian had suddenly disappeared. In his previous life, Bai Tiantian had encountered a child as soon as she had entered the city. After taking pity for the scrawny kid, she had been tricked into following him to the slum. Traffickers had then sold her to the auction house and she had been bought by a big shot of the city for a night.
The Thunder Squad had tried their hardest to find her and had rescued her in time before subduing the mob. But Bai Tiantian had pleaded with them to not kill them and they had been forced to let the boss go. As a result, the man and the leader of the city had formed an alliance and they had tried to manipulate the Thunder Squad into working for them. When they had refused, the enemies had tried to kill them; the Thunder Squad had won in the end and killed the man who had tied to force Bai Tiantian, but the girl had cried and accused everyone of killing indiscriminately, asking why they had killed them after they had begged for mercy.
This incident had been the moment Fu Chen had clearly realized Bai Tiantian’s brain was problematic. Their current world was now different from the one before the outbreak, yet Bai Tiantian seemed unable to see that; in her mind, they should not defend and counterattack when encountering criminals.
But because the men in the team had cared about her feelings too much, they had tried to coax and please her. And later, everyone had been somehow controlled by her and willing to give everything up for her.
In this life, Fu Chen did not want to let his teammates repeat the same mistakes.
The Thunder Squad’s members were all gifted; they hid part of their strength and registered level two abilities before getting the key to their residence.
Wucheng was divided into three major zones: Area A was where the high-level gifted and important people stayed, people with ordinary abilities and soldiers lived in Area B, and Area C was just a slum.
The upper level could provide a place for ability users to stay and people who didn’t plan on working could trade with money or crystal cores. Because the team was thinking of only staying for a couple of days, they paid when they registered and went to find a place to stay together. They did not have single rooms and decided to bunk together; Xiao Yang and Cheng Rui shared a room and Liang Zhiyu and Shen Mingxuan shared another. And while Bai Qingqing had not registered her ability, because her brother was Fu Chen, she could stay with him.
Zone B was located in the east of the city and it took the group about half an hour to walk there. They found living accommodations and when they opened the door to a dozen square meters house, everyone frowned. Everyone knew living conditions during the end of times were difficult but had not expected that even gifted people would live in such a small space.
The room was very simple with one bed, one stool, one table, and one simple wardrobe. There was a small bathroom linked to it and the community bulletin board said there was limited water supply for half an hour, at 8 pm.
Shen Mingxuan was worried about Bai Tiantian’s whereabouts and did not want to check the room while Cheng Rui, who had suffered hardships in military training did not care about the size.
Xiao Yang blurted out: “Might as well sleep in the car.”
Liang Zhiyu patted him on the shoulder and said: “You’re a big man, don’t be so delicate. Bear with it for two days.”
Xiao Yang glanced at Bai Qingqing instinctively: “Brother Liang, where am I delicate? I can lift two hundred pounds!”
Liang Zhiyu’s fox eyes narrowed and looked at him up and down: “Are you sure?”
Xiao Yang was very concerned about a certain person’s opinion of himself and he firmly clasped Liang Zhiyu’s shoulder: “Do you want me to lift you up?”
“Move.” Liang Zhiyu pushed him away.
Shen Mingxuan said: “Bai Tiantian is missing and you are still thinking of playing?”
Bai Qingqing had been running around for a day and had originally planned on going into the house to rest. When she heard this, she stopped and raised her eyes to look at Fu Chen.
“She’s fine, we will see her tomorrow.”
Liang Zhiyu looked at Fu Chen and asked: “Captain, do you know where she went?”
Everybody glanced at the man, waiting for his answer and wondering when he had found out where she had gone.
“She entered the city and I think that as long as she stays there, she won’t be in danger for the time being.”
During the battle with Zhang Qiang’s men last time, the Thunder Squad’s members had all learned that, on top of his lighting ability, Fu Chen had mental power. It was also the reason he had not been harmed by the so-called Sacred Tree’s pollen in Zhou village. And since their captain said so, everyone silently agreed.
Shen Mingxuan’s peach blossom eyes were cold and he slammed his door open before walking in. Liang Zhiyu followed him and stopped in front of him to talk.
Cheng Rui and Xiao Yang also went to rest and only Bai Qingqing and Fu Chen were left. She looked at the man, secretly thinking that with her female lead halo, Bai Tiantian would not endanger her life and she didn’t have to worry. But even if Fu Chen’s mental power was strong enough to sense her, why was he so sure she would not get in trouble?