Chapter 23 Don’t Throw Me Down
Seeing her depressed expression, Si Xu stopped, thinking that she was still envious of Gu Yunqing.
"Si Xu?"
"Want to fly?" The young man touched the top of her head, then leaned over and picked her up sideways under her puzzled gaze. "I'll take you to the rooftop to see the city."
Jiang Ran: “Hey? Wha…what? Wait…”
Before she understood what Si Xu meant, the girl screamed at the sudden feeling of weightlessness and hugged the young man's neck tightly.
"Wow! Si Xu!" In her sight, the ground was getting farther and farther away from her. Jiang Ran was so scared that she closed her eyes to avoid screaming.
There was the sound of wind whistling in her ears. She felt dizzy and heard Si Xu's smiling voice: "Jiang Ran, open your eyes."
"No!" Jiang Ran yelled, disobeying a man for the first time, "I'm afraid of heights!"
"Jiang Ran." Si Xu didn't get angry. After jumping over the rooftops of several buildings, he stopped at the highest rooftop. "If you miss the scenery along the way because of your own cowardice, you will definitely regret it when you look back on it later."
Feeling the young man stop, Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes, glanced down, exclaimed again and hugged Si Xu tightly: "Si Si Si Xu, I will listen to you, don't throw me down!"
He had her hanging on the edge of the rooftop. If he let go, wouldn't she fly into the wind and smash into a pulp?!
The little girl curled up in his arms, wanting to wrap her arms and legs around him. Si Xu found it funny and pretended to let go: "Jiang Ran, if you don't open your eyes, you're going to fall."
"Ah wow wow! No!" Jiang Ran tightened her grip around his neck, her voice trembling, "I, I'll just take it slow, it'll be fine slowly..."
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
The snow had stopped, and a thick layer had accumulated on the ground and on the roofs of the buildings. The moon was bright in the sky, and the silver light fell on the snow, which was a bit dazzling.
On the first snowy night of the first winter after the disaster, even the boundary between heaven and earth was blurred in the snow and moon.
The wind carried the miserable howls of mutant beasts, and the wind blowing on her face was bitingly cold. She couldn't see the scenery on the road clearly, but she didn't look away.
"This human city is now completely decaying." Si Xu seemed to be sighing. "Before this disaster, humans might never have imagined that one day, they would be driven to extinction by their own foolish actions and greedy desires."
His tone was sarcastic, without a trace of regret or sadness. Jiang Ran licked his lips, unsure how to continue the conversation.
"Take one last look at this city and remember what it looks like. We probably won't be coming back here in the future."
"...You'll never come back?"
"Although the Xiling base can still maintain basic living conditions on the surface, if we can't develop an antidote to the virus, zombies, mutated plants, and mutated animals—how long can the base withstand these threats?" Speaking of the base's end, Si Xu spoke calmly, "Maybe the end will come tomorrow—everyone will be dead, so how can there be a chance of returning? Isn't that right?"
Jiang Ran looked at him quietly.
It's not just others, this guy also takes his own life so lightly, and speaks of his own end in a nonchalant tone.
There were words that almost came out of his mouth, but after hesitating for a long time, he swallowed them back.
He might just be sighing on a whim. If I keep saying it too much, I'll probably be laughed at.
She was in his arms, and when she looked up, she could see the cold moonlight and the young man's face hidden in the shadows - the well-defined facial lines, because of the cuts of light and dark, were sharper than usual, only his eyes were a gentle light brown.
"Si Xu..." She wanted to respond to what he had just said, but as soon as she opened her mouth, a terrified scream came from the street below her feet.
Jiang Ran: “!!!”
The woman's scream was like pressing a switch, and the quiet street suddenly became lively.
"Is there anyone down there?" Jiang Ran asked in astonishment, "Didn't they say that this city..." There couldn't be any survivors?
"Let's go down and take a look." Si Xu hugged her tightly again, "No matter what happens later, don't leave my side."
"Yeah, I know."
…
He Ru felt that she had never been so happy since the disaster.
Watching her teammates fall one by one and the wandering zombies getting closer and closer, she let out a long breath and felt a sense of relief.
She originally had a happy family with parents and relatives who loved her, but because of the sudden disaster, her road to a bright future turned into hell overnight.
Having lost my parents and loved ones, as an ordinary person, I became a plaything for those men...
You have to be careful with your words and actions at all times, be careful to please them, and be fully focused on guarding against other women...
Enough is enough.
That’s it, let’s all die, let’s die together.
Put an end to all this sin and her sinful life.
However, as she watched the men who had bullied her fall one by one, the resentment deep in her heart still surfaced.
Is she going to die here? After finally escaping the torture of those guys, is she still going to die here?
How can I accept this? I can’t accept this! I can’t accept this!
Finally, after the last teammate fell in the pile of zombies, she raised the gun in her phone and pointed it at her temple.
Rather than being bitten to death by zombies, it is better to...
Before she could pull the trigger, a sharp light rose from the ground and formed a wall around her.
The cold white ice wall reflected a dazzling light, and she subconsciously raised her hands to shield her eyes.
The ice wall exploded, and the zombies surrounding her were cut into a pile of broken limbs by the flying ice blades.
She looked up blankly at the front. The young man and the girl landed lightly not far away. A silver light flashed, and he swung his knife to chop off the head of the last zombie.
She stared at him blankly.
Look at his tall figure bathed in the moonlight, look at him smiling gently at the girl beside him after putting away the knife, look at him holding the woman's waist and walking towards her, stepping on the moonlight and snow, and stopping a few steps in front of her.
"These people..." she heard him say, his tone casual, "are they your teammates?"
As if she had lost the ability to think, she replied stiffly: "Yes."
"Where are you from?"
“We’ve always lived in this city.”
"Always? Ever since the disaster?"
"right."
"...You have your own base?"
"It's gone now." After a few questions, she came to her senses, lowered her head, and said in a hoarse voice, "It was just destroyed by zombies."
"Are you the only one left in your team?"
"...Yeah." They had escaped from the base as a group, and now she was the only one left.
"Do you know this city?"
"Yes, I know it well—I grew up here."
"Okay." The young man raised his chin, "Follow me."
"Varied……"
"Our team will go into the city tomorrow to collect supplies. If you can give us some useful advice, I can have them take you back to Xiling Base. What do you think of this deal?"
"You mean, you can take me to the new base?" He Ru's eyes were filled with eagerness. "Really?"
"The premise is that you can make a difference."
"I can do it! I can do it!" The hope of life made the girl's voice tremble involuntarily, "As long as you can take me with you..."
"The team will take you."
At this point, Si Xu began to grow impatient. His hand on Jiang Ran's waist tightened subtly. He stopped looking at the woman's anxious face and whispered to Jiang Ran, "Let's go back. It's almost time."
Jiang Ran withdrew his gaze from the woman and nodded.
…
Captain Gu and Professor Si went out and brought back a survivor from the city, who was a beautiful woman. The men waiting at the base expressed a warm welcome to He Ru in accordance with the principle of gentlemanliness.
Seeing so many people, He Ru's face turned pale. She looked at the nonchalant Gu Yunqing, then at the cold and distant Si Xu, and finally chose to move closer to Si Xu.
"Si, Si Xu, I..." the girl said timidly, "I, these people..."
"Hmm?" Si Xu frowned, disgusted by the woman's sudden approach without permission, "Don't come any closer."
Startled by the man's cold tone, He Ru subconsciously stopped.
Ignoring the woman's embarrassment, Si Xu glanced at Gu Yunqing. Gu Yunqing understood and immediately came over to pull He Ru aside: "Hey, sister, if you have any questions, just ask me. I'm their captain, and they have to listen to me in everything."
He Ru could only follow Gu Yunqing to the side.
…
By the time of dinner, He Ru had already learned the basic situation of the team from Gu Yunqing, and also knew that she didn't need to exchange her body for anything here like she did with the previous team.
"Of course, if you want to have a relationship, that's fine too."
Gu Yunqing added this sentence at the end.
During dinner, He Ru was arranged to sit next to Luo Rui. The girl chatted with her very politely, which effectively relieved her stress of having just arrived.
"Did you come back with Professor Si?" Luo Rui noticed that the girl's eyes were intentionally or unintentionally glancing at Si Xu, and she said with a hint of meaning, "My savior..."
Feeling that her thoughts were seen through by the girl, He Ru blushed and replied: "Well, thanks to Professor Si, I was able to survive."
"My savior, what's the saying? You have to pledge your love to me."
"Ruirui, don't talk nonsense." The girl's face turned even redder. "Professor Si has a girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Zhou Jian smiled coldly upon hearing the conversation between the two. "What girlfriend? She's just a toy."
He Ru's heart skipped a beat, and she feigned surprise: "Ah? A toy?"
"That's right." Zhou Jian glanced at Si Xu who was picking up some food for Jiang Ran and said sarcastically, "How could a man like Professor Si, who is used to being superior, be interested in Jiang Ran? He just thinks she's pretty and keeps her around to relieve his boredom."
He Ru was able to maneuver among a group of grown men and maintain her favor for a long time, so naturally, she could easily see through Zhou Jian's thoughts at this moment.
Knowing that Zhou Jian and Jiang Ran didn't get along, He Ru took the opportunity to say, "I think Ranran seems to be an ordinary person..."
"Yes, just like you, she hasn't awakened any special abilities." Luo Rui said, "Ranran was originally a member of our team, but later Professor Si took a fancy to her and asked her to come over."
"Is that so?" It turned out that the woman, like her former self, also relied on men to survive. He Ru sighed, "I think Si Xu treats her very well. She must be very favored."
"She's pretty after all." Luo Rui chuckled twice, then suddenly stared at He Ru and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, now it seems you're pretty too, He Ru. Ran Ran used to be the most beautiful girl in school. You're almost as pretty as her. You must be very popular in school, right?"
Being praised for her beauty, which she was so proud of, He Ru was very happy and quickly said modestly: "Fortunately, it's not as exaggerated as being the most beautiful girl in the department."
"Well, did Professor Si tell you what to do next?"
"Well, he asked me to go into the city with the team tomorrow to collect supplies."
"Wow." Zhou Jian whispered, "He trusts you so much?"
"No way. I'm more familiar with this place." Seeing Si Xu's position in the team, He Ru was very vague and did not tell her the exchange conditions that Si Xu gave her.
Zhou Jian and Luo Rui exchanged a glance. Zhou Jian smiled faintly and sighed, "As expected, pretty girls always have an advantage—Professor Si has never trusted us this much."
"Hey, Zhou Zhou, don't joke with me."
(End of this chapter)
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