Shang You crouched like a cat on the windowsill, her deep eyes studying Tang Danqing in the stillness of the night.
She had never known where this mysterious person had come from.
But Shan Qing didn’t seem like someone who had been surviving through the apocalypse for very long.
The short sleeves and shorts of Shan Qing’s silk pajamas left most of her figure in plain view. Her shoulders looked trained, a little broader than most women’s, before narrowing at the waist. She slept with one arm raised, tugging her pajama top up to reveal a glimpse of her abdomen. Even there, faint ridges of muscle showed beneath her slender frame.
Her arms and legs were lean, marked by the signs of regular training. The muscles of her upper arms curved beneath the skin even at rest, soft but unmistakable. Her legs were just as trim, with no excess weight; her calves were straight and strong. Fine veins and tendons stood out faintly from the backs of her hands to her forearms.
A quiet, coiled strength seemed to rest beneath Shan Qing’s skin.
The marks of someone who had spent years fighting others were different—more defensive, shaped by necessity. Shan Qing’s balanced, almost elegant physique looked more like the result of a long regimen of systematic training.
So her old home must have offered more than enough food and water. She must have had good nutrition, a decent environment, and plenty of time for exercise.
Even before the apocalypse, most office workers couldn’t have hoped for conditions like that.
Shang You was puzzled.
Had Shan Qing come here from some other high-tech shelter?
If they’d only met by chance, why call themselves roommates and go to all the trouble of renovating this suite?
And if Shan Qing had already been living so well, why move here to find her?
Amid the dizzying sense of gain, Shang You felt unsettled, faintly anxious.
Tang Danqing had the distinct feeling that someone was watching her.
Everyone knew you could sense when someone had their eyes on you.
She hadn’t fallen asleep, and she still hadn’t received a quest-complete notification. After enduring the prickling sensation of a gaze on her skin, she finally opened her eyes.
The moment her vision cleared, she met the NPC’s gentle smile.
Tang Danqing blinked. “Were you watching me?”
The NPC smiled sweetly. “You asked me to sit here and keep you company while you rested.”
“No… that’s not what I meant.” Looking at the NPC’s innocent, flawless face, Tang Danqing laughed. “You don’t have to keep watch over me. I just wanted you to rest too, instead of going off to do something else.”
With a helpless smile, Tang Danqing sat up, ran her hand over the NPC’s soft hair, and tried to reason with her.
“We’re roommates. We’re equals. You don’t have to treat everything I say like an order, and you don’t have to keep thinking about what you can do for me. You live here, so do what you like. You only just had a stomach problem yesterday. You need to rest and get yourself back on your feet.”
Shang You tried to judge how much of that was sincere and how much was an act. On the surface, she nodded obediently.
If there’s nothing I have to do, why is Shan Qing giving so much to me for free?
That made no sense. There was no such thing as a free lunch.
But Tang Danqing didn’t have time to explain anything else. She glanced at the clock by the bed. It was already half past nine. Forget it. It was too late to rush through any quests tonight.
Tang Danqing patted the NPC’s head. “I’m heading out. See you tomorrow. I’ll be back, so take care of yourself.”
The next moment, Tang Danqing logged out.
She’d stayed up late the night before, and she already felt worn out. Tonight, she absolutely had to get to bed on time. Her health came first.
Tang Danqing slept like a log, thanks to years of sticking to a regular bedtime.
She was under the covers by ten. A few minutes later, she was asleep.
The next day at work went on as usual. Aside from the lively discussion at the script read-through, Tang Danqing spent most of the day drifting around like a ghost.
Rong Yu deliberately gathered a few younger colleagues in front of her and chatted away with them, as though he wanted to make her look like the one who didn’t fit in.
Tang Danqing worked a hand gripper, her face expressionless. People with no grace were hopeless.
As for the other colleagues who fawned on the powerful and looked down on everyone else, she was used to it. They were coworkers, not friends. In a cutthroat business, people looked out for their own interests. That was only natural.
Once she got off work, she could go home and renovate the place—
Tang Danqing kept her spirits up. The moment she got off work, she logged in.
[Achievement Unlocked: Day 4]
[Achievement Reward: 1,000 Survival Coins]
[Achievement Unlocked: Big Cleanup]
[Achievement Reward: 500 Survival Coins]
[Side Quest 5: Keep exploring and unlock 30 achievements. (28/30)]
The moment Tang Danqing logged in that night, she saw the diligent little robot vacuum working beneath the coffee table.
A nozzle in the robot’s casing sprayed cleaning solution as it hummed softly and rolled across the tiles, scrubbing them clean.
The kitchen lights were on. She could hear the faint hum of the range hood. Tang Danqing took a few steps toward it, then caught the sound of another appliance. A mixer, maybe.
She entered the kitchen and found the NPC wearing the brown apron with the bear-paw pattern. A bow was tied at her waist, and the two rounded halves of her bottom perked up beneath her pants like plump cloves of garlic.
Cute, cute, cute.
The NPC heard her footsteps and turned around.
Her face lit up. “You’re back.”
“What are you doing?” Tang Danqing walked over. A cookbook lay open on the counter, held to the page by a pen.
“I rested most of the day, and I’m feeling much better. At lunchtime, I refilled the robot vacuum’s cleaning tank. I made pumpkin porridge and steamed egg custard, and tonight I wanted to try something fun. I’ve been learning how to make a cake.”
Tang Danqing glanced at the mysterious mixture in the mixer and the eggshells in the trash. Then she looked at the cookbook. “How far have you gotten?”
She held the book open and leaned down to read. The NPC moved closer to point out the steps.
“Can you have cream right now?”
“I was going to make it for you to try… I can have some too. Just the cake base.”
“Sounds good.” Tang Danqing smiled and took her wrist. “I’ll help you in a bit.”
“First, let’s go see the living room. The robot’s cleaned it up, and a lot of the furniture was damaged by the cold. We need to replace it. What do you like?”
With a healthy balance and a dazzling selection of furniture in the Shop, Tang Danqing asked the NPC what she wanted.
“Should we get a wallpaper TV, a wall-mounted one, or a thicker television? Do you like huge screens? What about a vase? Should we put one out? Do you want flowers or bamboo? Do we need a fireplace? Would you play a piano? What about an inflatable chair? Should we add a wall-mounted cabinet or a floor shelf… Oh, right. Let’s put in a TV first. I can get you a game console to connect to it, so you’ll have something to do when you’re bored.”
Something to do when she was bored.
It was unbelievable. Four days ago, Shang You had been scrambling every second to find enough food and water to stay alive. Now she had so much free time she needed something to “keep her busy”?
