Chapter 29, The Last Bullet
This was the first time Gu Yunqing had heard Si Xu speak in such a tone since the Pei Wan'er incident. He subconsciously glanced at his subordinate, who had his head lowered, and gave him a heavy kick, cursing, "Si Xu, I'm asking you a question! Tell me, how long has it been since Ranran fell?"
"Hmm..." Song Rong came back to his senses with a pain in his calf and quickly replied, "Ten... ten minutes or so."
"Ten minutes?" Si Xu nodded and took two steps forward.
A powerful spiritual pressure rushed towards him, and his body instinctively wanted to escape, but Song Rong resisted the urge to take a step back. "Professor Si, it was my negligence. I'm sorry."
"Your negligence?" Si Xu's face showed no emotion, he just replied, "I understand."
Got it? What does this mean? Song Rong wanted to continue apologizing when she heard Gu Yunqing's voice, a little anxious: "Si Xu, are you crazy? Jiang Ran has been down there for ten minutes! If you go down now, there's no way you can pull her out! Besides..."
Gu Yunqing hurriedly took two steps forward to grab Si Xu and said sternly: "Neither you nor I know what's in the water. Jiang Ran, an ordinary person, fell in and didn't drown, so..."
"She was eaten." Si Xu continued in a calm tone, "I know, she was eaten."
"Then why are you still moving forward?!" If you take another step, wouldn't you be going down with Jiang Ran?
Gu Yunqing was a little crazy: Although he liked Jiang Ran very much, this liking was completely based on Si Xu's liking for her - an ordinary person, no matter how beautiful she looked, was not worth Si Xu risking his life for her.
"I'll go down and take a look." Si Xu's expression remained unchanged. "If she's dead, I'll bring back her body. If she's been eaten, I'll bring back her bones."
Meeting the young man's light brown eyes, Gu Yunqing was stunned for a moment, then slowly let go of his hand: "Si Xu, I'll go down with you."
He knew very well that it didn't matter if everyone died, Si Xu had to return to Xiling Base alive - no matter what the cost, he was the only one who had to survive.
"No need." Pushing away his friend's hand, Si Xu said, "If nothing unexpected happens, Su Qin's team will arrive tomorrow. You should gather the supplies in the city as soon as possible. If I don't come back in seven days, you should leave first and return to the base."
"But..." Gu Yunqing wanted to say something else, but a figure flashed before his eyes and the young man jumped off the bridge.
The moment he approached the water, the calm river surface seemed to open a door, the water flowed to both sides, the white figure fell into the "door", and the river water returned to its original position, as if nothing had happened.
"That is..." Luo Rui narrowed her eyes and muttered, "Water-based ability?" It seems that Si Xu's dual abilities are water and space.
However, even if he was a water-based mutant, it would be impossible to bring back Jiang Ranran who had fallen into the water for ten minutes.
No one knows what kind of monster will be born under the water after the virus spreads.
Jiang Ranran was an ordinary person without any special abilities, and she fell into the water from such a high place. Even if she didn't die, she would have become food for underwater creatures.
Jiang Ranran is dead.
Si Xu turned a blind eye to the fact that everyone knew and still jumped down to find her... Could it be that he really liked Jiang Ranran?
Haha? Is that even possible? Of course not. For someone with special abilities like that, even without Jiang Ranran, they could still have someone else. Just like He Ru, whose appearance and character were no less impressive than Jiang Ranran's... Thinking of this, Luo Rui looked at He Ru and saw an unconscious smile on her lips.
Haha, she felt that Jiang Ranran falling into the water was a bit strange. It turned out that she was the one who did it - this woman was really cruel to achieve her goals.
…
If she died, could she return to her original world? If she really died, would Si Xu be sad? Would he... soon find another woman?
This was Jiang Ran’s last thought before he lost consciousness.
…
The cold air choked his throat, and Jiang Ran suppressed his coughs and carefully searched the ward, trying not to make any noise.
It's a pity that she didn't die.
Even if she fell into the water, even if she was an ordinary person, she did not die.
When I woke up again, I was lying on the steps by the river, my clothes were soaked and my whole body was cold from the river.
There were no zombies or mutant beasts around, only her.
She struggled to get up, but before she could figure out where she was, she was chased by a zombie and hid in a building on the street.
She hid in a hospital, shot a zombie to death, and smeared the zombie's rotten flesh and blood on herself to cover up her own smell.
With this method, she avoided the zombies active in the hospital all the way and came to the current ward, where she found the clothes that the patient did not take away when he left.
After locking the door and checking the room to make sure there were no zombies inside, Jiang Ran quickly changed his clothes and dried his hair to avoid catching a cold.
While drying her hair, the girl sat on the bed, thinking about what to do next.
He Ru pushed her down, and he must have thought that she was going to die.
It's really strange. She could imagine a hundred ways of dying from such a great distance and falling into an unknown river... Now that she's alive like this, I don't know whether to say it's lucky or unfortunate.
Will Si Xu come to see her? Thinking of this, Jiang Ran laughed at herself: When did she become so dependent on him? In this situation, she should wake up.
No one would believe that she was still alive. Si Xu knew the most about this apocalypse, so he must be the one who was most certain that she was dead.
Besides, even if she was really still alive, Si Xu had no need to look for her specifically - an ordinary person, without any contribution value and no value. Among the many people he knew, he could easily find someone to replace her.
If that's the case, why did he come looking for her? Looking for a woman who was nothing more than a plaything to him?
Her mind kept telling her that this was the truth, but she still harbored a small hope in her heart, hoping that the man would come looking for her, hoping that she would have the chance to meet him again.
Jiang Ran smiled bitterly: The saying "the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment" is probably a warning to greedy people like her.
After drying his hair, Jiang Ran looked at the gradually darkening sky, moved the tables and chairs to reinforce the locked door, then pulled up the quilt and huddled in the corner.
Even late at night, it was not quiet outside the door.
There were zombies moving back and forth, and occasionally the howling of terrifying beasts could be heard.
Jiang Ran tightly grasped the gun Si Xu had given her, wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, and stared at the door, not daring to close her eyes.
After arriving at the end of the world, I spent the first night alone and couldn't sleep.
It would be nice if Si Xu was around.
This thought popped up in my mind more than once. I had been thinking about keeping that person away from me every night before... Jiang Ran's eyes slowly turned red.
It turns out that when I was with that person, I got much more than I felt.
If there is a chance to meet him again, I must say thank you to him.
…
The moment he touched the river water, Si Xu knew that Jiang Ran was not in the water.
Ten minutes wasn't a long time. Where could Jiang Ran have been washed away? Or perhaps, had he been eaten?
Even if she was eaten, he should be able to sense the remaining scent of her flesh and blood in such a short time.
No. Nothing.
Jiang Ran is not in the water.
Was it washed ashore? Or was it swept away by the undercurrent?
Since Jiang Ran was not eaten by the mutants in the water, does it mean that he is still alive?
Still alive...
"The little girl is very fragile. If she is not taken care of properly, she will die easily."
Thinking of what Gu Yunqing said last night, Si Xu jumped out of the water irritably and walked downstream along the river bank.
…
The first ray of sunlight in the morning poured into the room through the window. Jiang Ran stood up and stretched his limbs, preparing to leave the ward and find a way out.
It was impossible to hide here forever. All she could do now was to figure out her location and get as close as possible to the street where Gu Yunqing and his team were searching.
Only in this way can there be a possibility of survival.
Just like yesterday, after killing a zombie and smearing its flesh and blood on his body, Jiang Ran checked his down jacket one last time and took out two White Rabbits from his pocket.
Ah, it was the candy Si Xu gave her as a reward, but she didn’t have time to eat it.
The soft candies soaked in river water were somewhat deformed. Jiang Ran tore one open and put it in his mouth, trying to fill the emptiness in his stomach with the small candy.
I walked out of the hospital with my body stiff. Just as I was about to leave, a voice suddenly came from the door.
"roar!"
The low roar attracted the surrounding zombies to approach this side.
Looking at the mutant beast that appeared at the door, Jiang Ran's whole body stiffened.
The creature in front of him looked more like a wolf than a dog—a tall body, long black fur, sharp fangs, and a pair of emerald eyes staring intently at Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran raised the gun in his hand without hesitation.
At the same time, the mutant beast rushed towards her.
It was very fast and kept changing its running route. After Jiang Ran fired two shots and missed, he decisively turned around and ran.
Pulled by the mutant beast, the zombies seemed to smell the scent of living people and chased Jiang Ran madly.
It's a nightmare.
Not knowing how many floors he had climbed, Jiang Ran looked up and saw zombies swaying and moving down from upstairs. He broke open the security door, shot and killed the zombies in the corridor, and pushed open the door of the nearest ward.
The door opened and a figure rushed towards her. Jiang Ran was caught off guard and was knocked to the ground.
Without giving her a chance to react, it bit her arm.
"Ouch!" Jiang Ran felt pain and struggled hard to shake off the zombie that was pressing on her.
Fortunately, like her, the zombie was a young girl. She had obviously suffered inhumane treatment in her life, and her body had long been broken.
The moment the zombie was kicked away, the security door was knocked open and the moving corpses rushed towards the girl on the ground.
Jiang Ran practically crawled into the ward, slammed the door shut, and leaned his back against it.
The persistent slapping and banging lasted for who knows how long before it finally became quiet outside the door.
Jiang Ran turned around and looked out through the thick glass, just in time to see a pair of green eyes.
Mutant beast.
It stared at her in the hallway.
Instead of breaking in directly, it was enjoying the final dying struggle of the prey in its mouth.
After realizing this, Jiang Ran fell into deep despair, and suddenly understood the meaning of Si Xu's words.
Keep the last bullet for yourself.
(End of this chapter)
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