Chapter 13 Mental Power

Unable to come up with a solution, Zhou Zhuohua turned around and glanced at Bai Chenzhu, only to find her eyes meeting Bai Chenzhu's, who was secretly watching the two of them.

"Ah, you're awake?" Zhou Zhuohua asked in surprise.

"You're awake." Bai Chenzhu took off the clothes that were blocking the light from his face, sat up, and the car was passing through acres of farmland.

As dusk fell, the car stopped in a deserted area near the highway. Zhou Zhuohua went to relieve herself around the corner. The two waited where they were. Jiang Ye smoked a cigarette, the light flickering in the darkness.

Bai Chenzhu's gaze lingered on the dirty car exterior for a moment before he tried to snatch the cigarette from his hand, saying, "It's bad for your health."

"Come on, if you don't smoke now, you won't have any later." Jiang Ye blocked him with one hand, flicked off the ash with the other, and said nonchalantly.

Bai Chenzhu leaned against the car window, looking into the dark distance, and asked softly, "I still don't know where you're going."

Jiang Ye paused, then casually took two puffs of his cigarette, slowly exhaled a smoke ring, and mumbled, "Where else can we go? Fuyun City, which you want to go to."

"Oh?" Bai Chenzhu turned his head and stared at him, his dark phoenix eyes containing a hint of a smile, trying to see something from his expression.

However, Jiang Ye remained unmoved, and Bai Chenzhu did not notice anything unusual.

After going around in circles, I still ended up going there.

“Fuyun City, huh?” Bai Chenzhu slowly approached, his eyebrows raised, his crimson lips curving upwards, his voice melodious and teasing, “Who was it that said ‘I’m not going to Fuyun City’ back then?”

Jiang Ye quietly looked at him. At close range, Bai Chenzhu saw that the arrogant face had lost some of its sharpness and appeared unusually peaceful.

The cigarette butt burned his fingertips, and Jiang Ye snapped back to reality. He stubbed it out, straightened up, and took a few steps forward, his voice rising in a very enthusiastic tone: "Sister, are you all better?"

Bai Chenzhu chuckled, not revealing the other person's intention to avoid the situation.

Zhou Zhuohua walked over, vaguely sensing the strange atmosphere between the two. She nodded, "It's getting late. Shall we continue on our way or find a place to rest?"

The journey wasn't actually that long, but some roads had collapsed along the way, so we had to take a detour.

Moreover… Zhou Zhuohua looked at the tattered SUV. They had encountered some mutated creatures on the road. Jiang Ye crashed into them without batting an eye. Zhou Zhuohua was still shaken and pale.

Bai Chenzhu let the person go, a smile playing on his lips as he relaxed by the car, arms crossed, "Whatever."

Zhou Zhuohua looked at him and suggested, "Shall we continue? But Jiang Ye and I have been driving all afternoon and we're a bit tired. Why don't you take over?"

Bai Chenzhu was standing on the ground, looking around. Hearing this, his gaze fell on Zhou Zhuohua, and he said with considerable regret, "I can't drive."

Zhou Zhuohua choked, looking at Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye clearly hadn't expected this situation; he frowned deeply: "You can't drive?"

Bai Chenzhu responded calmly, "My family is poor, so I work part-time to support myself and don't have enough money to learn to drive."

The reasoning was so reasonable that no one could question it.

Actually, he had a driver's license years ago, but later he worked in a big city with constant traffic jams, and since he didn't own a car, his license became useless, and he had long forgotten how to drive. He's not much different from someone who has never learned to drive.

But if I say that, I'll definitely have to explain how many years ago "early years" he is, since he's only 21 this year. It can't be when he was a minor, right?

The car was parked on the side of the road, and a construction site was not far away, with a yellow excavator and a huge pit that was half-dug. The surrounding area had been cleared, and as far as the eye could see, there was only flat dirt.

Zhou Zhuohua smoothed things over, "It's alright, let's all rest tonight and let the car rest too, the tires are all hot. We haven't seen any zombies here, it's safe, and there's almost no cover, so it's easy to drive away quickly if there's any danger, it's very suitable. Jiang Ye and I will take turns driving tomorrow morning. Fortunately, we're not far from Fuyun City, we can get there in another day."

There were too many obstacles on the road. They would swarm towards the car like moths to a flame. The car had only been driven for a day, but the exterior and tires were already filthy and riddled with small dents.

To prevent those things from getting stuck in the tires, the three of them used whatever they could find and spent a lot of time cleaning themselves up, ending up covered in blood.

Jiang Ye was already used to it and remained expressionless. Bai Chenzhu's face turned pale as she tried to convince herself that it was all 'fake'. Zhou Zhuohua, on the other hand, reacted violently, vomiting several times before she could get used to the sight of the severed limbs, and her face was still ashen.

Zhou Zhuohua couldn't help but complain, "Who is actually studying medicine?"

Jiang Ye straightened up, stretched, sniffed the car smell on his clothes, squinted at a certain direction, pointed to the spot next to the excavator, and asked with eager anticipation, "There's a tin shack over there, is there temporary water supply?"

Zhou Zhuohua and Bai Chenzhu looked in the direction he was pointing.

In the pitch black, they couldn't see the outline of the temporary building, but Jiang Ye's confident tone suggested that he really could.

Zhou Zhuohua asked suspiciously, "When did your eyesight become so good? I didn't see anything."

Jiang Ye clicked his tongue softly and said matter-of-factly with his hands in his pockets, "You're nearsighted, so of course my eyesight is better than yours."

Zhou Zhuohua then looked at Bai Chenzhu, who wasn't wearing his glasses, and asked, "Did you see that?"

Bai Chenzhu shook his head. "I didn't see it, but I feel like there really are houses there."

"Feeling? Seems like? Don't take that seriously. It's so dark there, what if we encounter danger?" Zhou Zhuohua said cautiously. "Jiang Ye, just bear with it. We'll find a water source when it's light, and you can wash however you want."

"Do you know where the next water source is?" Jiang Ye said nonchalantly. "There's no signal right now, and we can't see any electronic maps. We're just following the highway. What are the chances that there's a river or lake next to the highway?"

Zhou Zhuohua was somewhat helpless. She pushed up her glasses and said to Bai Chenzhu, "You stay here? Jiang Ye and I will go over there..." Jiang Ye interrupted her.

Jiang Ye waved his hand impatiently, "Alright, he can't drive and he's weak, what can he guard? You two stay here, I'll go by myself."

Before the two could react, he took a long stride and disappeared into the night.

Zhou Zhuohua followed for a couple of steps, but eventually returned to the car.

One of them was Jiang Ye's childhood friend, and the other was Jiang Ye's friend. When the person who served as the intermediary temporarily left, the two of them were speechless.

Zhou Zhuohua smiled politely at the person by the car, and Bai Chenzhu nodded politely. Neither of them spoke.

After a while, Zhou Zhuohua took two bottles of water out of the car, handed one to Bai Chenzhu, and took the initiative to break the unbearable silence.

Bai Chenzhu was thirsty, so he took the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and drank a few sips. He kneaded the bottle and suddenly asked, "Why are you planning to go to Fuyun City?"

Judging from their previous conversation, it seems that the two had already made plans before they even met him.

Jiang Ye lied to him. Thinking of Jiang Ye, Bai Chenzhu frowned and downed the entire bottle of water in a few gulps.

Zhou Zhuohua glanced at Bai Chenzhu, "Because my home is there."

Bai Chenzhu was somewhat surprised, and countless thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant, finally settling on the affection between the two.

Zhou Zhuohua sighed, climbed onto the hood of the car and sat cross-legged. She was bored and felt that this was not a big deal, so she explained in more detail, "My dad is the Jiang family's family doctor. When I was a child, he often took me to his house to play. His parents didn't care much about him and were always flying abroad, so I became his playmate."

“Fuyun City is my hometown. I plan to go home and pick up my sister before society completely falls into chaos. Jiang Ye’s parents are not in the country, so he has nowhere to go and said he would come with me.”

Bai Chenzhu gripped the empty bottle tightly in his hand, squeezing it flat, lost in thought.

He tilted his head slightly, smiled gently in Zhou Zhuohua's expectant gaze, and said, "In that case, we're from the same hometown. I was also planning to go to Fuyun City. Luckily, you gave me a ride."

"Yes, what a coincidence." Zhou Zhuohua leaned closer, trying to build rapport with him. "You're still a student, right?"

Bai Chenzhu, who was already a corporate slave, nodded and tried to search his mind for information about the original owner of the body. "He is a junior this year and in the same year as Jiang Ye."

Zhou Zhuohua asked a question that elders often ask: "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Caught off guard, Bai Chenzhu's face went blank for a moment.

"Pfft, hahaha!" Seeing his helpless expression, Zhou Zhuohua laughed even more without restraint, instantly tearing away the facade of distance. It was as if she had finally gotten back the pent-up frustration of being suspected by Bai Chenzhu of having an affair with Jiang Ye, and felt extremely relieved.

Bai Chenzhu didn't answer, and Zhou Zhuohua didn't press the matter. She braced her arms behind the car hood, looked up at the night sky, which was moonless but filled with twinkling stars. "I wonder how my sister is doing."

Suddenly, Bai Chenzhu tilted his head, his eyes turning cold and sharp, as something gently touched 'him'.

At first, he thought it was a hallucination, but the feeling grew stronger and stronger. Bai Chenzhu suddenly stood up straight and listened intently. The rustling sounds came from afar and came closer.

Because of his action, Zhou Zhuohua jumped off the hood of the car, looking as if facing a formidable enemy. "What's wrong?"

The thing seemed to understand human speech and stopped moving. Bai Chenzhu sensed it for a while, then whispered warily, "Something's coming."

“How could that be? This is all flat ground. If any zombies came, we would see them immediately.” Although Zhou Zhuohua said this, he quickly took out two baseball bats from the car and handed one to Bai Chenzhu.

“It’s not a zombie.” Bai Chenzhu closed his eyes. He couldn’t describe his current feeling. It was similar to his previous 'soul’ leaving his body. Something had entered his area and touched his 'soul'.

No, that's not right. There is only one soul, and its perception is three-dimensional space. If you really have to use something to describe it... Bai Chenzhu suddenly thought of a word: spirit.

His spiritual power was beyond his control, spreading out like a net around him in a certain area. Something slowly approached, touching his dispersed spiritual power, and Bai Chenzhu was startled.

As the two were looking around back to back, mounds of earth suddenly appeared, flashing through the mud under the car and rushing toward their feet.

"Squeak squeak squeak—"