☆、Leaving, meeting again
These past few days have been a constant journey, and Ye Xi has been intentionally or unintentionally distancing herself from Ethan's team. Although the team members are a bunch of carefree optimists who seem easygoing and approachable on the surface, that's just an appearance. Having survived together for so long and endured countless dangers and hardships, the survivor team has long since become an inseparable whole through countless collaborations. It's impossible for them to lose any one of them. Of course, truly becoming part of that whole isn't so simple either.
So, gradually, the playful banter turned into polite conversation. Ye Xi always had a cold face, and of course, they couldn't keep fawning over her. Their relationship grew increasingly distant, and Ye Xi became more and more like an outsider.
Ethan saw all of this, but there was nothing he could do. The team members were like family to him; he couldn't give them orders to do anything to Ye Xi, much less demand anything of Ye Xi. He could only try to appease both sides and close the distance between Ye Xi and them, but Ye Xi, determined to find a way to distance herself from the team, was not going to listen to Ethan.
Three days passed seemingly peacefully. After three days, the group entered Nevada. Ethan glanced at his watch, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said, "Let's rest first; it's lunchtime." Following the captain's order, everyone got out of the vehicle, took out some canned food, and began distributing it.
Ye Xi sat five meters away from them, glanced at them, took out a syringe and quickly and skillfully gave herself an injection, before taking out a few cookies from the nearly empty cookie box.
“You’ll become malnourished if you always eat this.” Ye Xi looked up, a little annoyed, as her cookie, which she had just taken a bite of, was suddenly snatched away. She squinted at Ethan, who was backlit. “Here,” he held out his can of food to Ye Xi, “Give me the cookie, and you can eat my can.”
Why isn't this guy giving up? His saintly nature is practically a match for Alice! Ye Xi, extremely oblivious in certain aspects, naturally had no idea of Ethan's feelings, simply regarding him as a pushover. "Caviar canned goods?" Ye Xi glanced at the can with disdain, ignoring Ethan standing in front of her, and turned around to take out another biscuit.
Ethan stood awkwardly in front of Ye Xi, his outstretched hand neither daring to be raised nor lowered. "You hate caviar? Uh... how about I get you something else?"
Ye Xi fell silent, the sweltering air making her even more irritable. "No, thank you," Ye Xi said muffledly, shoving the biscuit into her mouth and letting her gaze drift into the distance.
"But……"
"Boss!" The fat man's shout interrupted Ethan's hesitation. "Let's set up our schedule; the car's almost out of gas."
Ethan hesitated for a moment in front of Ye Xi, then bent down and placed the can of food next to her before running to his teammates. Ye Xi sniffed, glanced at the can at her feet, then at the team arguing, before finally looking away. Ye Xi had her own agenda; she couldn't bring herself to ask, so she just wanted to use this method to get them kicked out, hoping it would work this time.
Ye Xi rested her elbows on her knees, holding a biscuit, gazing at the endless yellow sand in the distance. The long white highway stretched into the distance, gradually disappearing into the yellow sand and withered plants. A silent, deathly atmosphere filled the air, carrying a dangerous oppression, carried away by the wind. This ominous feeling made Ye Xi's heart tighten. She put down her lunch, frowned, and looked around, no longer paying attention to what the people around her were talking about.
Ye Xi stood up. The endless yellow sand in the distance seemed to be getting closer and closer, and the instinctive warning grew louder. "Sandstorm... Ye Xi, hurry up, you don't have time to warn them and wait for them to get ready to escape." The cold voice of the O virus rang out again. Almost simultaneously, Ye Xi realized where the danger was coming from, and almost simultaneously, the moment the O virus's voice rang out, Ye Xi turned to look at the survivor team.
Indeed, telling them would take some time. Ye Xi knew what to do rationally. If it were only the first day she met Ethan and his group, Ye Xi would definitely choose to mount her horse and run away without hesitation. But now... the hesitation was only for a moment. Ye Xi gritted her teeth, picked up the canned food and biscuit box on the ground, turned around and mounted her horse.
"Sandstorm!" Ye Xi roared, then ignored them and lashed out with her whip. "I can't wait for them, but at least I can warn them of danger..." Ye Xi frowned. Whether they died or not was none of her concern.
"Ye Xi!" Ethan's shouts faded into the distance, but Ye Xi ignored them, continuing to rush forward without looking back. "Useless," the O virus grumbled coldly, then fell silent.
As the sun gradually set in the west, Ye Xi, who had been riding her horse all afternoon, finally stopped. She turned her head, and the oppressive yellow sand that had once filled the air was gone, replaced by a clear sky with a hint of fiery red on the horizon. Ye Xi sighed, rubbed her aching thighs, dismounted, and led her horse onward along the road that stretched to the horizon. There was no one else, no other vehicles; it felt as if she were the only person left in the world.
Undeniably, Ye Xi was in a particularly bad mood, especially when she noticed the approaching sound of motorcycles. Before encountering Ethan's team, Ye Xi would only meet one or two people every few months, or even half a year. Now, however, people were popping up in droves. Was that so-called blessed land of Las Vegas really that good?!
"Oh, I actually ran into a woman all alone." The motorcycle quickly arrived beside Ye Xi. She secretly counted, there were three motorcycles in total, one of which had a person on the back, so there were four people in total. So many... Ye Xi cursed her bad luck inwardly. Judging from the sound of the three motorcycles, it was not hard to tell that if they were running, her horse, which had been running all afternoon, would not be able to outrun them.
Three motorcycles circled around Ye Xi, blocking her path and trapping her in the middle. "Little girl, you know it's not easy being a woman these days. These days, aren't there always a bunch of men protecting one or two women? After all, when encountering those monsters, it's always the men who do the work," the first man to speak continued. He seemed to be the leader, riding a huge Harley-Davidson motorcycle, wearing sunglasses, sporting a thick beard, and with a somewhat obese body, wearing a grayish-white vest and jeans. His huge beer belly bulged out, and the smell of sweat from the three motorcycles made Ye Xi involuntarily cover her nose.
"So, little girl, haha, come with us." The voice on the other end chuckled lewdly, and the other three echoed it. Ye Xi, who had been keeping her head down, rolled her eyes. She knew perfectly well the status of women in this apocalyptic world, and she understood what these four idiots meant. Already annoyed, Ye Xi became even more irritable, and her tone instantly turned harsh: "Get lost if you don't want to die."
"You damn woman, you're pretty arrogant!" another man on a motorcycle sneered. "With your small frame, I'm worried you're not big enough for us. What can you do to us?"
Ye Xi's eyes turned cold. Her right hand had just reached for the knife at her waist, ready to cleanly finish them off, when she was interrupted by a familiar voice from afar—
"Jordi, I've brought a deer and some fruit." The voice grew closer, and Ye Xi frowned. Another person had joined them... Ye Xi quietly lowered her hands, preparing to observe the situation.
The man, riding a dilapidated motorcycle with a small deer on the back, frowned and said with some displeasure when he saw the four people surrounding a woman leading a horse, "Jody, what are you planning to do now?"
"Luckily you ran into a woman. If you're not interested, mind your own business." The leader, Jody, glared at the other man with an unfriendly tone. Ye Xi sensed something was off. Did they have a bad relationship? Tsk tsk, their relationship might not be good, but he was only one person, while Jody's side only had four people, and those four were all strong men. He wondered what would happen to this excluded person…
Ye Xi pondered for a moment, then slightly raised her head and turned to look back. Suddenly, her whole body trembled, and she immediately turned around to face the person who had approached. The man's expression was just as stunned as Ye Xi's, then a hint of surprise and anxiety flashed in his eyes. He immediately got out of the car and strode over to Ye Xi's side, pulling her behind him. He then gave the other four people a nonchalant smile: "Sorry, Jody, I know this distinguished young lady."
Upon hearing this, Jody and his three companions immediately flew into a rage. Jody, the leader, spoke with an even more dangerous tone: "You said that Utah woman who turned into a monster was your cousin, and now what about this one? Are you going to say she's your mother? Nikolai, don't think I can tolerate you any longer!"
Despite being threatened by four burly men, Nikolai remained unfazed: "Easy, easy, Jody, is this the last time? Consider it's because I finally managed to hunt a deer today. Of course, these vitamin-rich fruits are yours too; I'll just have some canned food."
Jody and his three men fell silent. They looked Ye Xi up and down, then at the deer on the back of Nikolai's beat-up motorcycle and the bag of fruit he offered. Ultimately, the allure of meat and fruit outweighed Ye Xi's seemingly delicate and pretty appearance, though her figure was anything but curvaceous. Jody snatched the fruit and ordered his three men to move the deer over and set up camp by the roadside. Standing quietly behind Nikolai, Ye Xi gave the bag of fruit a deep look, a strange smile flashing across her face.
Nikolai breathed a sigh of relief and immediately turned around to give Ye Xi a bear hug: "Long time no see, our young lady! Thank God you're still alive!"
Ye Xi hugged Nikolai awkwardly, saying, "Ni...Nikola? Loosen up...loosen up..."
"Oh, sorry." Nikolai smiled and released her hand, then carefully examined Ye Xi's arms from head to toe. His gaze finally settled on the numbers on Ye Xi's cheek, and his smile vanished instantly. Ye Xi immediately turned her face away, but Nikolai pulled her back: "This is... a trick by Broken Umbrella Company?!"
With an almost affirmative tone, Ye Xi nodded, patting Nikolai's arm reassuringly as his face paled. "I stopped caring a long time ago. Can't you see I'm perfectly fine now? I'm sorry, I used to..."
“No need for an apology.” Nikolai interrupted Ye Xi seriously. “Carlos and I have already forgiven you. Everyone knows that we have no choice but to do things to survive. Besides, you didn’t do anything to harm us back then. It was Alice who had a conflict with you, not us. We are good partners. Mercenaries value team spirit.”
Looking at Nikolai's reassuring smile, Ye Xi felt a pang of sadness, but she held back her tears. She suddenly realized that all these years, what she had been anxiously hoping for was simply forgiveness. She didn't care about anyone else, but the forgiveness from these two friends was worth more than everyone else's misunderstandings. "...What are you doing here?" Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Ye Xi quickly changed the subject. "Why aren't you with Carlos?"
“I was going to find my cousin in Utah, so I left. I never imagined she would become that kind of person, so I planned to go to Las Vegas with Jody and the other three I met on the road. But who would have thought they would be such scumbags? But it's precisely because they are scumbags that I was able to run into you,” Nikolai laughed, seemingly thinking he was very lucky.
Ye Xi also gave a mischievous smile and glanced at the four people: "So, you don't get along with them at all."
Seeing Ye Xi's eerie smile, Nikolai was startled, a bad premonition suddenly rising within him. "Wh...what's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing." Ye Xi tightened her grip on the Miao sword at her waist, and smiled innocently at Nikolai, "Nikolai, get ready, let's fight the zombies together!"
Author's Note: Suddenly realized there are still some readers who don't know the male lead... well, you can ignore the male lead thing, I'm not going to tell you it's Uncle Wei! Hmph, continuing to beg for comments and patronage, hehe~
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