The moment the tip of the knife touched Eve's neck, Seven moved. He roared at the shadow that controlled Eve, and his arched back was like a black panther ready to pounce.

But Eve raised a hand.

"Seven," she said quietly, "Shut up."

After all, Qi was just a zombie and could not speak human language. All that came out of his mouth was a discordant roar. Fortunately, Fan Ming and the attacker were now focused on the current situation and did not notice anything wrong.

Qi paused slightly and lowered his head unwillingly, but his dark eyes were still fixed on the back of Eve.

"I... I'm saying..." Fan Ming looked at the knife that was about to pierce Eve's skin and said incoherently, "We are all companions! Let's talk it out..."

"Companion?" the attacker asked again. "Are you sure?"

Eve blinked.

The incident happened suddenly and the attacker spoke very quietly, so she didn't notice it. Now she heard that it was a woman.

Fan Ming obviously heard it too, and a look of astonishment appeared on his face: "You...how could you be..."

"What?" He didn't finish his words. The woman hiding in the shadows seemed to have understood what he meant. She said with a bit of impatience, "So what if I'm a woman?"

In her excitement, she failed to control the strength of her hand, and the knife cut a mark on Eve's neck.

Qi stood up instantly, blood crimson crept into his eyes, and his stern face was as cold as ice. However, he remembered Eve's order and his foot got stuck halfway through his move.

Eve gave him a warning look, then touched her neck and said softly, "It hurts."

"Shut up!" The woman noticed her movements and said angrily, "Don't move!"

Having said that, the knife quietly moved forward a few inches, trying not to get close to Eve's neck.

Seeing this, a smile flashed across Eve's eyes.

——This is a person with an impulsive temper, but also a very soft-hearted person.

A plan gradually took shape in her mind. She deliberately raised her head and looked at the woman: "Miss, can't you let me go?"

"No," the woman flatly refused. "You're a hostage now. If you move again, I'll be rude to you!"

"I see," Eve said slowly, "but—"

"What if I just want to move around?"

The next second, she suddenly leaned forward, and her fragile neck rushed straight towards the tip of the woman's knife. The latter gasped and subconsciously put her hand away, but Eve's action was so sudden that the woman had no time to react. The knife still grazed her neck, leaving a deep wound.

Eve didn't care about the wound on her neck. She rolled forward and stretched out her hands: "Seven."

Without any surprise, she fell into a cold embrace.

Qi picked up Eve and retreated quickly.

"You..." The woman glared at her in shock and anger, "Are you crazy...?!" How could someone voluntarily run into a knife edge?!

Eve leaned lazily in Qi's arms and said softly, "How could it be—didn't you fail to kill me?"

She casually fiddled with the wound, and bright red liquid slid down the slender, snow-white neck. The contrast between red and white brought out a feeling of the extreme splendor of a blooming rose.

The woman puffed out her chest as if offended and gritted her teeth: "I won't do it again next time!"

Eve chuckled, "But there won't be a next time."

Just as she uttered the last word like falling beads, Qi suddenly disappeared from his original position. The next moment, he suddenly appeared behind the woman, grabbed her shoulders and slammed her to the ground.

"Bang!"

With a muffled sound, the woman was pinned to the ground by him, unable to move.

"Miss, the situation has reversed now," Eve slowly walked up to the woman, her eyes narrowed into crescents, "I advise you not to move. Qi is not like you—he will actually kill."

Qi's eyes slid across Eve's bleeding neck, and he tightened his grip on the woman's hand suddenly, as if it were a silent warning.

Fear flashed in the woman's eyes, and she said hoarsely, "What... do you want to do?"

"Don't be afraid," Eve hooked her finger, motioning the frightened Fan Ming to come closer, and she found a clean place to sit down, "I just want to ask you a few questions."

The woman understood the difference in strength between herself and them, and said softly, "Ask."

Talking to smart people saves effort. Eve expressed her relief and asked Qi to relax a little to avoid strangling the woman. "First, what did you mean by that sentence just now?"

Fan Ming was stunned. He had long forgotten what the woman had said. "What did you say?"

"'Companion? Are you sure?'" Eve imitated the woman's tone, holding her chin and looking at her, "What do you mean? Are we going to hurt you again?"

To be fair, with Qi's hand still around the woman's neck, Eve's words were a little unconvincing. But after all, her life was in his hands, so the woman had no choice but to say, "You attracted so many zombies here, didn't you get scratched?"

Hearing this, Fan Ming asked in surprise: "How do you know there are zombies outside?"

The rolling door was semi-blocking and quite soundproof. In addition, the lighting in the mall was dim, so even though there were more than twenty zombies gathered outside, they could only vaguely see the outlines of the first few.

The woman paused, seemingly unwilling to speak. Eve gave Qi a look, and the latter pressed the woman's neck hard. Only then did she reluctantly speak: "This is my special ability - I can see at night."

"No wonder you can count the number of zombies!" Fan Ming suddenly realized.

Eve beside him also said: "I see, so you have teammates?"

Fan Ming: “……?”

Did he fast-forward through the plot? How did Eve suddenly come to this conclusion?

The woman was shocked: "How did you know?!"

"You don't have combat abilities, yet you dared to enter the mall and even made it to the second floor unscathed," Eve said slowly. "This means you had teammates protecting you, but for some reason, you were separated from them, or abandoned, leaving you stranded in this small shop."

And judging from the woman's frightened state, the latter is more likely.

Sure enough, the woman bit her lip and said, "That's true, but..." She chuckled to herself, "I'm not really a teammate. I just happened to take on a mission, and I'm not capable enough, so I deserve to be left behind."

Fan Ming wanted to say something but stopped when he thought of his sacrificed teammates.

Eve gestured for Seven to let go of the woman. "It's been so long, and none of us have mutated. So, I think we can be considered your 'companions', right?"

She deliberately put emphasis on the word "companion".

The woman stepped back cautiously until her back hit the wall, then she said, "Whatever you want."

Eve looked at her with a smile: "Name?"

“…Ling Ning.”

"Ling Ning," Eve slowly read the woman's name, "Want to make a deal with us?"

Although Ling Ning didn't say anything, his eyes did not move away from Eve.

Eve turned her head and let Qi bandage her neck. She said, "We'll get you out, but in return, you have to draw a map of the mall for us."

Ling Ning and Fan Ming were both stunned.

Fan Ming shouted first: "Don't you have me?" Does Eve not trust him?!

Ling Ning said, "Do you... know how many zombies there are out there?"

"A few dozen or so," Eve said casually, as if saying, "It's a nice day today." She waved her hand and said, "It's okay. I can take you out."

Then he turned to look at Fan Ming: "Can you remember all the stores?"

Fan Ming opened his mouth, speechless.

Although he was very familiar with this shopping mall, it was impossible for him to know every corner of it. No wonder Eve wanted to use Ling Ning's night vision ability.

Eve looked at the two people with very different expressions and smiled slightly.

"Then...it's settled."

***

A quarter of an hour later.

Ling Ning agreed to Eve's proposal, but said that he would only draw a map for them if he wanted to get her out of the mall.

Now three people and one zombie are huddled in a corner of the store, with a safe escape door in front of them.

Fan Ming asked nervously, "Can we really take this road?"

"Sure," Ling Ning also lowered his voice, "I tried walking through it before, and it led directly to the escalator, which just happened to bypass most of the shops."

Ling Ning was trapped in the store for several hours and found this extra escape exit. However, although it was a shortcut, there were zombies wandering in the escape passage, which made it impossible for her to leave.

"Are we really leaving?" Fan Ming was a little scared. After all, no one knew whether he would run into a zombie after opening the door.

Ling Ning was also a little hesitant.

Eve said, "Get out of the way."

The other two people quickly made way. Eve gave Qi a look, and the latter broke the lock on the escape door in a few seconds. Eve's slender white fingers grasped the door handle and turned it gently.

The door opened.

A zombie was half-crouching at the door. Hearing the noise, he turned around confusedly and looked at Eve.

Zombie: “?”

Eve: “…”

Before the zombie jumped up, she picked up a marble ashtray on the table and smashed it at him, slamming the door shut. The other two rushed over in a panic and propped up the door with a chair.

"Damn it!" Fan Ming was sweating profusely. "I told you this was a bad idea!"

"Don't talk after the fact," Ling Ning said, "Just shut up."

Eve didn't say anything. Fan Ming turned around and found that she grabbed a handful of nuclear crystals and absorbed them all like frying candy beans.

"?!" Fan Ming was shocked, "What are you doing?!"

"There are still zombies in the passage," Eve said. Because of the commotion just now, they must have all rushed over. "Get ready, we're going to force our way in."

“Force…force your way in?!”

Before Fan Ming could react, Eve had already grabbed Qi's arm and asked him to stand in front: "Qi, lead the way."

Seven nodded.

For some reason, his body temperature was not as cold as before. When Eve pressed her fingers on it, she actually felt a slight warmth.

But this thought only lasted a moment, and then passed away like a wisp of smoke. Eve turned around and said to the other two, "Come on?"

The back of the shop was full of zombies, and staying there was useless. Fan Ming and Ling Ning looked at each other and said through gritted teeth, "Let's go!"

"...Wait," Ling Ning suddenly called out to Eve before she opened the door, "Are you... okay with your wound?"

Eve: “?”

Ling Ning's gaze lingered on her neck, and Eve remembered that she still had a bandage wrapped around her neck. She smiled and said, "It's okay."

The bandage was just a cover-up; she had already used magic to heal it.

Ling Ning was still a little hesitant, but Eve had already opened the door, so she could only gather her thoughts and rush out with the others.

As the most skilled among them, Qiyi took the lead. As soon as the door opened, he rushed out like an agile cheetah and stepped hard on the head of the zombie. With a snap, the zombie's spine broke.

Several zombies in the passage smelled the scent of humans, roared, and rushed towards them.

Eve: "Follow Seven. He won't come to rescue you if you fall behind."

Upon hearing this, the other two did not dare to be careless at all and hurriedly caught up with Qi, who shuttled among the zombies like a black wind, blocking the attacks for them.

Eve fell behind by half a step. She took out her knife and dug out the zombies' core crystals, but she had only taken a few when Fan Ming's cry suddenly rang out from the front: "Seven? What's wrong with you?!"

Eve seemed to sense something and slowly raised her head.

“Plop!”

Qi's fallen figure came into her sight—he fell heavily among the zombies like a kite with a broken string.

The author has something to say:

Do you want to guess what happened to Seven?

Anyway, no one can guess it (laughing with hands on hips)

By the way... please don't make me fat QAQ, I feel like fewer and fewer people are watching...!