"Wait...wait a bit." A thin woman with four fingernail scratches on each cheek said in a hoarse voice.

She wore more clothes than Lu Liwei, but only slightly more. She was the second least dressed and the second least fed among the survivors.

Xu Tingting used to be the third most beautiful woman in the garment factory; now she's the ugliest.

Xu Tingting's face had deep, bone-revealing nail scratches that were ulcerated, festering, and blackened. Even so, the condition of the wounds was much better than before.

Her wound was inflicted by Chen Baihua's scratch, but Zhou Han's gaze lingered on her for a while.

While Zhou Han was out looking for supplies, Chen Baihua attacked and scratched her face without saying a word. She had asked others for help, but no one helped her. Everyone was afraid that if they helped her, Zhou Han, Chen Baihua's boyfriend, would cut off their food supply. No one dared to take the risk.

She tried to resist, but having not eaten enough for a long time, she was no match for Chen Baihua, who ate much more than her. She was slapped by Chen Baihua in an instant. Then, Chen Baihua's left hand gripped her hair tightly, while her right hand formed a claw, with long, filthy nails slicing from her cheekbone to her chin.

What's most despicable is that after Chen Baihua scratched her left cheek, she kicked her to the ground and then said something in a very disgusted tone that she would never forget: "Xu Tingting, how are you going to make up for getting my hands dirty? How about I take pity on you and scratch your right cheek too?"

As Chen Baihua spoke, she disgustedly used her left fingernail to pick off the flesh and blood from Xu Tingting's face that was on her right fingernail.

To be fair, Chen Baihua does have a certain sense of symmetry; the nail scratches on Xu Tingting's face are indeed very symmetrical.

Chen Baihua was determined to destroy Xu Tingting's face. Ever since she noticed Zhou Han's gaze lingering on Xu Tingting for a long time, she had been plotting how to disfigure her.

During that period, Chen Baihua deliberately did not ask Zhou Han for water to wash off the dirt on her nails. In fact, she would secretly rub her nails on the cement floor every day to make them even sharper.

The apocalypse broke out in July, and Xu Tingting's face was disfigured in August. August is summer, and it's very hot. Wounds are most likely to become infected and fester during this season. During that time, the condition of the wounds on Xu Tingting's face was even more terrible. Yellow pus would ooze out every day, emitting a strong stench.

Xu Tingting wanted to ask Zhou Han for water to wash her wounds, but Chen Baihua refused, saying that there was a lack of water resources. "We don't even have enough water to drink right now, where would we get extra water to wash your face? You agree, right, Brother Han?"

Zhou Han saw Xu Tingting's completely ruined face and his eyes showed little interest, which was considered an admission of Chen Baihua's words.

At this point, Xu Tingting saw through the true colors of these people. She became taciturn, and people around her distanced themselves from her because of the stench on her face.

Xu Tingting saw it all and kept it in mind.

After being disfigured, Xu Tingting was depressed. Time is the best healer, and as time went by, Xu Tingting was healing herself.

Soon, the extreme cold weather arrived, and the frigid temperature suppressed the festering of Xu Tingting's facial wounds; in fact, the wounds even began to scab over!

The good news that the wounds on her face had scabbed over made Xu Tingting much more cheerful than before. Xu Tingting had come to understand many things, and she even began to think that being disfigured was not so bad.

Previously, because there were more men than women in the group, the men would seek out women to relieve their stress. She used to serve several men every day. After her face was disfigured, fewer and fewer men touched her. After her face started to fester and smell, the men didn't want to touch her at all.

Looking back, it's probably because there were a decent number of women in the group that the men didn't touch her. If all the women had died, the men would definitely have touched her.

Soon the extreme cold arrived, and Xu Tingting received another piece of good news: Zhou Han used the excuse of insufficient supplies to send most of the men in the team to feed the zombies. As the number of people in the team gradually decreased, Xu Tingting received more food and water.

Later, Zhou Han chose Lu Liwei and others to accompany him to find supplies. Lu Liwei was the first to jump out and express his dissatisfaction, "Why didn't those women go and search for supplies!"

Zhou Han claimed that he would not take girls hunting, and that girls should stay at home and wait for men to return from hunting.

After hearing what Zhou Han said, Xu Tingting felt fortunate that she was a woman.

Even a disfigured woman is still a woman. They wouldn't touch her normally, but would only touch her when she was almost gone. Of course, there's another possibility: once all the other men are dead, it will be her turn to search for supplies with Zhou Han.

Fortunately, she did not experience either of those outcomes, because other survivors arrived.

They said they would take them back to the base, including her, and they were going to take her back to the base.

She wasn't sure if this was salvation or another abyss, but the man's aura made her willing to believe him; that aura gave her peace of mind.

Because they were soldiers in military uniform.

Of the twelve people, ten chose to stay in the office building and wait for Chen Yunhao and the others to come out, while two of them, two girls, wanted to go home.

"We both want to go home."

No one stopped the two girls. They were in dire straits themselves, their futures uncertain, and they had no time to care about anyone else's whereabouts.

The office building fell silent again. After a long while, a young male voice rang out. Tang Xubai, dressed in military uniform and wearing a special forces riot helmet, revealed only a pair of resolute eyes.

"Do your delivery trucks go through this door?"

Tang Xubai was sent by Chen Yunhao ostensibly to inquire, but in reality, he was sent to check on the situation of these people. He was absolutely not to let them cause trouble, as this mission concerned the lives of many people and could not be taken lightly.

Back at Victory Base, the kind old lady who worked at the clothing factory had already told them everything she knew, so Chen Yunhao and his group knew which gate they could drive the car in through.

Xu Tingting felt that Chen Yunhao and the others were a salvation, so when the others were cowering, she was the first to stand up and answer Tang Xubai's question, "Yes, the front and back doors on the first floor of the office building can accommodate two trucks side by side."

Tang Xubai looked at the woman who answered; her face was quite frightening, but Tang Xubai remained calm and nodded to thank Xu Tingting.

Xu Tingting had been observing Tang Xubai's changing gaze. Good heavens, there was no change; it was as if he hadn't even seen her ugly face. Xu Tingting knew she had made the right choice.

Meanwhile, Ye Zhi and her group started a frenzy of looting supplies.