Chapter 46

Su Xing lay numbly under a roadside tree, her entire body feeling as if her soul had left and been yanked back. The scenery in her vision fractured into multiple overlapping images. Dizzy and disoriented, it took a long moment for clarity to return.

“Wen… Wen Ruyao.”

She opened her mouth, and upon seeing the person in her arms covered in blood, her heart violently clenched.

But she quickly realized she was bleeding in multiple places herself. Her whole body burned with searing pain. She could no longer tell whose blood it was.

Yet right now, she was awake, while Wen Ruyao was unconscious.

Su Xing’s throat tightened involuntarily. She raised her voice and called her name once more.

Wen Ruyao, don’t scare me. You’re the female lead—how could anything happen to you in a place like this?

“Stop shouting. Why not check if she’s still breathing first?” Plain-Face had somehow dodged away from the car and was now crouching behind them, completely unscathed.

“Don’t talk nonsense, how could she possibly—” Su Xing’s words cut off as she saw him reaching out to check Wen Ruyao’s nose. Her brow arched sharply, and she smacked his hand away. “Get that away from her.”

Plain-Face hissed, withdrawing his reddened hand. Seeing Su Xing’s cold glare, he looked aggrieved. “Why are you so mean? I was just trying to help you.”

“……”

Su Xing’s feelings toward this eccentric, schizophrenic man had gone beyond wariness. Holding Wen Ruyao, she moved away from him slightly and extended her own hand to feel near Wen Ruyao’s nose.

Although she had been certain from the start, feeling the steady breath and confirming Wen Ruyao was only temporarily unconscious still gave her a small measure of relief.

But her body was icy cold. Her temperature was abnormally low.

Su Xing frowned and looked up at the sky. It was heavily overcast today, gray and gloomy since morning, and the temperature had dropped significantly.

“Seems it’s not too serious then. But how strange. At this level, even you are fine, yet someone of her… type shouldn’t be this weak.” Plain-Face, unfazed by Su Xing’s attitude, crouched on the ground, staring at Wen Ruyao’s pale face. He rubbed his chin. “You two have been together this whole time, right?”

Su Xing nodded, considering it a reply.

Plain-Face clicked his tongue. “Eating and sleeping together?”

“…” Su Xing glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

“Then you’d probably know if she’s broken her fast?”

“?” Su Xing looked up at him with some confusion, finally looking him directly in the eye. Then she thought of something, her expression freezing slightly.

“Don’t tell me she still hasn’t eaten anything? My god, she can really endure it. No wonder she’s so weak.” Plain-Face marveled, his tone incredibly exaggerated. Staring at Wen Ruyao for a few seconds, he made an expression of great sacrifice, bit his own finger, and sighed. “Ah, forget it. For such a beautiful lady, a little sacrifice is nothing…”

Seeing him about to reach for Wen Ruyao again, Su Xing instinctively tightened her hold on the person in her arms and smacked his hand away a second time, frowning. “What are you trying to do now?”

“Feed her blood, of course. At her current rate of healing, if we don’t hurry, she’ll die of blood loss soon.”

“She…” Su Xing abruptly looked down. In her arms, Wen Ruyao’s cold, beautiful face was as pale as paper. Her fine, delicate brows were slightly furrowed, showing pain even in unconsciousness. The situation was indeed worrying.

But Wen Ruyao had told her just a few days ago…

“Tsk, stop dawdling. Quickly, let me give the beauty some blood—”

Su Xing’s eyebrow arched. She immediately turned her back to Plain-Face, who was chattering behind her, and without hesitation, bit her own index finger, gently placing it against Wen Ruyao’s lips.

After all, they were currently allies. With Wen Ruyao unconscious, feeding blood was not something she could let a strange, unknown man do for her. She would just have to make the sacrifice herself.

Perhaps she had bitten too hard in her agitation; a sharp sting radiated from her fingertip. A belated pang of regret hit her heart—how much would she have to eat to replenish this later?

Director Wen, remember you owe me for this. Make sure to pay me back someday.

“Oh, so you want to feed her yourself. No wonder then.”

Plain-Face made another flowery “tsk” sound from behind, which Su Xing found baffling. Annoyed, she turned her head and glared at him.

Just then, a tearing, bone-gnawing, excruciating pain suddenly struck her eardrums. She instinctively ducked her head, wanting to cover her ears to block out the piercing sound that had erupted so suddenly.

Fwoosh—

A subtle sound of air being sliced came from above her. Then she felt the light around her dim slightly, and the stabbing pain in her eardrums became less unbearable. Su Xing hesitantly looked up slightly and found the three of them encased within a barrier of crisscrossing, stacked white bones!

Those were… a pair of bone wings!

“This decibel level… we’re really running into all sorts of bizarre things today.”

Plain-Face’s casual voice sounded beside her ear. Su Xing abruptly turned her head, staring in shock at his back.

Those stark white bone wings had extended from his spine, enfolding the three of them within.

“Well? You have to thank me now, right?” Plain-Face picked at his ear, looking smug. “This wave of sonic attacks isn’t easy to handle. Haven’t gotten a clear look at what kind of monster it is on the other side. Wonder if that Zheng Xingjun can manage.”

Su Xing stared at the tightly sealed, oddly shaped white bones above her head, still stunned. In her brief daze, she felt the person in her arms stir slightly. Her gaze dropped down, meeting Wen Ruyao’s now-aware eyes.

Startled, Su Xing instantly withdrew her index finger from between the other woman’s lips, unconsciously rubbing it against her own waist area on her clothes.

“…”

Wen Ruyao’s expression was originally calm, but seeing Su Xing’s action, her slender eyes narrowed imperceptibly.

“Yo, you’re finally awake.” Seeing Wen Ruyao conscious, Plain-Face retracted his wings and stood up. “Help yourselves. I’m going to check out the situation up ahead.”

With that, his figure flashed and disappeared before their eyes.

“…”

In this apocalypse where everything from bizarrely mutated animals to mutated humans and all manner of “demons and monsters” roamed, Su Xing was only briefly surprised before calming down.

She looked ahead. On the bare, wide street, Zheng Xingjun was in a standoff with a burly man in black clothes.

Unlike Zheng Xingjun, who with his “three heads and six arms” clearly no longer looked like an ordinary person, the man opposite seemed outwardly no different from a normal human, except for slightly more developed muscles. No other remarkable features could be seen for now.

During her moment of hesitation, the man in black assumed an offensive posture and launched the first attack. He moved his mouth slightly, and Su Xing, hundreds of meters away, felt her skull splitting with agony once again!

She grunted in pain, biting her lip, instinctively raising her hands to cover her ears. But a pair of cool, gentle hands pressed against her ears first.

Su Xing blinked, staring blankly at Wen Ruyao, whose hands were now gently covering her ears.

But the moment those soft, slender hands settled on her, the surrounding sound seemed to vanish completely. Her head no longer hurt at all.

Though the timing was a bit inappropriate, looking up close at those coldly captivating, delicate features, Su Xing felt an inexplicable sense of awe strike her. Her spine stiffened. She quickly averted her gaze, focusing on Wen Ruyao’s small, fair earlobe exposed to the air. After a pause, she asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” Wen Ruyao said, shaking her head slightly. Her cool, clear eyes stared at Su Xing unblinkingly, though her emotions were unreadable. “I’ve temporarily shielded your brain’s neural… never mind, it might be hard to explain in a few words. There isn’t much time to go into detail now.”

Su Xing: “…”

Did she feel like her intelligence was just mildly insulted?

Unsure how long that man’s sonic attack would last, Su Xing, with Wen Ruyao’s hands still covering her ears, felt like a rabbit being held by its long ears. Her body was stiff with unnatural tension, unsure where to rest her eyes. She couldn’t meet Wen Ruyao’s gaze—that would be too awkward. She couldn’t look down too far either, so her eyes could only settle on Wen Ruyao’s lips.

Wen Ruyao’s complexion was no longer pale; her lips had also regained much of their color. Her sexy lip bead held a spot of especially vivid red—a trace of the blood from earlier. Just as Su Xing noticed this, a tiny, pink tip of a tongue slipped through the seam of her lips and gently licked away that bright crimson.

“…”

“This time, you initiated it.”

“?” Su Xing raised her eyes to meet Wen Ruyao’s gaze.

“I didn’t force you. So…” Wen Ruyao looked down at her, the corner of her lips curving up. “Are you still questioning my humanity?”

“…”

Director Wen really does hold grudges, doesn’t she?

Su Xing felt her face heat up, unsure if from urgency or anger. She said, “We’re still allies. You were starving to that extent. I just didn’t want to watch you die. It was out of necessity.”

“Oh. Then thank you.”

“…” The retort made Su Xing’s ear tips burn even hotter.

Wen Ruyao indeed still harbored resentment over Su Xing’s words today questioning her humanity. More than that, she cared deeply about the look in Su Xing’s eyes when she looked at her—that guarded look. Putting herself in the other’s shoes, Wen Ruyao could understand why Su Xing felt fear towards her after that night. But the physical transformation was not something she had chosen either; she was also a victim. Furthermore, she had been incredibly restrained with Su Xing. After that night, no matter how unbearable her body felt, she had forcibly held on and never again harbored any intent to harm her. So hearing those words from Su Xing had stung especially sharply. It made her feel as though all the dangers and near-death experiences they had faced together meant nothing to Su Xing.

However, now wasn’t the time to dwell on this.

Wen Ruyao released Su Xing’s ears and turned her head to look at the chaotic three-way fight in the distance.

The only working vehicle in the garage had been blown to ashes. Of the people in the car, only the weakest, the Madman, hadn’t escaped. His best brother dying filled Zheng Xingjun with a towering rage, making him go completely berserk against these hoodlums. He and the man in black were locked in a life-and-death struggle, while Plain-Face watched the spectacle from the sidelines.

All three were inherently unhinged to begin with, their behavior impossible to predict by normal human logic.

“The original plan was to wait until the two groups had worn each other down, then reap the benefits. I just didn’t expect all three of them to be much more troublesome than anticipated.”

Wen Ruyao lifted her eyes to the gloomy sky, her brow furrowing. “And in S City right now, you never know what you’ll encounter next. Those things should be passing by here soon.”

Hearing this, Su Xing’s heart tightened. She immediately followed Wen Ruyao’s gaze to the horizon.

Soon, at the far end where the road met the skyline, countless dense black dots rose up, speeding rapidly in their direction.