Chapter 21 Mining Crystals
Jiang Ye looked at the naive high school girl before him with a complex expression, conflicted about whether to expose her on the spot. But what would happen if he did? Would he tear off the mask and leave her here? Would Bai Tao be able to escape safely as she had in his previous life? He had no way of knowing.
Since there was no deep-seated hatred between them, Jiang Ye decided to pass the choice on. He shrugged at Bai Chenzhu, tossing the trouble to him, "I don't care, but I only guarantee your safety. As for others, ha, I don't care. If you're going to take them, you'll be responsible to the end."
After saying that, he went inside to find supplies, ignoring the two people at the door.
Is he really not going to care? Bai Chenzhu's gaze followed Jiang Ye, only to see him go to find water to drink, leaving behind his back.
The legendary deep affection and weathering storms together? How come she's become less welcoming now that she's younger? A questioning glint flashed in Bai Chenzhu's eyes as he looked at Bai Tao, only managing to utter a single word: "You..."
Bai Tao looked at him innocently, her mind working incredibly fast. She happily clasped her hands together in a prayer-like gesture and said fluently, "Thank you, both of you brothers!"
Bai Chenzhu: ...
Most men enjoy this kind of title that implies protector and guide, as it satisfies their self-esteem, and Bai Chenzhu is no exception.
At least for this moment, Bai Chenzhu felt a little soft-hearted. Of course, he didn't consider himself a good person, and even if he felt soft-hearted, he wouldn't add any burden to himself.
But this is a white peach.
He couldn't help but glance at Jiang Ye inside the house again, always trying to see something interesting in a person's face.
The relationship between the male and female leads is merely a delicate balance. Bai Chenzhu isn't a helpful matchmaker. What's more important to him is that the future Bai Tao is a very capable superhuman, and if they befriend her beforehand, it might come in handy sometime in the future.
"Which hotel do you want to go to?" Bai Chenzhu frowned.
Bai Tao understood his meaning and quickly said, "Kexi Cola Hotel! It's near the highway station!"
"Is this some kind of destiny?" Bai Chenzhu thought to himself. "Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?" Bai Tao's mother's workplace was the hotel where they were staying.
There were two people when they came, but three people left.
Jiang Ye walked ahead with a cold face, carrying a baseball bat, while Bai Chenzhu and Bai Tao followed behind with their bags, not daring to say a word.
Bai Tao tugged at Bai Chenzhu's sleeve and whispered, "Does that big brother really dislike me?"
Who knows? Jiang's ambitions are like a needle at the bottom of the sea. Bai Chenzhu shook his head, gesturing for her to follow.
The little girl carried a bulging schoolbag, kept her eyes down, and moved quietly and stealthily. When she saw something scary, she would cover her mouth, but even when she was frightened, she could still keep up with the pace in front of her.
Bai Chenzhu even felt that Jiang Ye was easier to manage with her than with himself, since he wasn't as quick and efficient.
Perhaps because of the addition of Bai Tao, Jiang Ye clearly had no interest in teaching him anything more, and walked ahead without saying a word, calculating the time for rest and travel.
Fortunately, although the return journey was a bit winding, it went relatively smoothly. They did not encounter any more groups of monsters, and the three of them got into the car before dark. The environment was safe, and Bai Chenzhu and Bai Tao both breathed a sigh of relief.
Bai Chenzhu glanced at the person in the driver's seat several times, hesitating to speak, but then tried to start a conversation, "Are you alright?"
"Are you talking to me?" Jiang Ye wiped the blood off the baseball bat casually. "Why don't you ask Miss Bai how she is?"
Bai Chenzhu rubbed his temples and sensed that Jiang Ye was inexplicably annoyed, but at least the annoyance wasn't directed at him, so Bai Chenzhu remained silent.
The car was very quiet.
Bai Chenzhu leaned against the window with his arms crossed, closing his eyes to rest. Something poked his arm and was then tossed into his lap. Bai Chenzhu opened his eyes and saw a pink lollipop tucked between his arms.
Bai Chenzhu's first thought was that Jiang Ye had given it to her, and she looked up at the driver's seat.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Ye also had a lollipop in his arms, but he was focused on driving ahead and seemed not to have seen it at all.
Bai Tao squeezed between the two seats in front, and the dog cautiously peeked out, looking left and right, and raised its hand to swear: "Brothers, please don't be angry for me. I'm just taking a ride. After I get off, I promise I will absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not trouble you two."
With a smile, she said ingratiatingly, "I saw you two eating candy when you went upstairs, so I guessed you like lollipops, so I specially brought some out from home as a small bribe."
Jiang Ye looked at her bright face in the rearview mirror and saw not a trace of gloom; it was the unique clarity of a high school student.
He turned his gaze back to the front, skillfully driving past the zombie with its outstretched arms, when he suddenly realized that the people behind him didn't actually know anything. His frustration gradually dissipated.
Forget it, why should he argue with a clueless little girl? With this helpless thought, Jiang Ye's tense lips relaxed, his attitude softened, and he just gave an ambiguous snort, "Fine, I'll take the bribe. Sit back and fasten your seatbelt."
Bai Chenzhu was always more reserved in front of strangers, and only politely said, "Thank you."
He twirled the small plastic stick, gazing at Bai Tao in thought: This girl is quick-witted, intelligent, decisive, and surprisingly thoughtful.
The round trip took less time than planned, which should have been a good thing. Both of them were a bit tired and planned to go back and take a hot shower to get some rest.
However, an uninvited guest arrived at the hotel.
As dusk fell, an unfamiliar van brazenly blocked the entrance, completely ignoring the yellow lines indicating the parking space.
Two people were standing guard at the hotel entrance. When they saw the SUV approaching, they came up with two stun guns in their hands.
Bai Chenzhu's first reaction was that his house had been raided.
Jiang Ye had the same idea as him, and he roughly swerved to a stop in front of the hotel, grazing their clothes as he passed by, which gave them quite a fright.
Bai Tao's eyes darted around, and she quickly bent down to hide herself.
"Hey, get out of the car!" The man pounded on the car door aggressively, pulled on the lock, and brandished a stun gun in a threatening manner.
Jiang Ye turned his head to the side and said, "You two don't get out of the car."
After saying that, he pushed open the door and got out, closing the car door behind him.
The car windows were tinted with privacy film, and Bai Chenzhu watched Jiang Ye negotiate with the two men. He didn't know what Jiang Ye said, but the two men, who had initially seemed indifferent, gradually changed their demeanor and stood up straight.
A little while later, one of them even ran towards the hotel.
Shortly after, four men came out of the hotel. The one in the middle was clearly the leader, about forty years old, wearing a security guard uniform, with a burly build and a disdainful expression.
He sized up the lean Jiang Ye, suspecting the man was lying, and then let out a disdainful laugh, "So you're saying you've awakened a superpower too?"
Jiang Ye sniffed, keenly detecting the scent of blood. He frowned, scrutinizing the man before him, and nodded, arms crossed. "Brothers, there's always an order to things. I heard you were all preparing to flee, and the highway is just ahead. Why did you suddenly change your minds?"
"Who's your brother?" the security chief spat, glared at his talkative underling, and resolved to cut his tongue out as soon as he turned around. "Mind your own business! You can talk after you can beat me!"
To intimidate, the security chief yelled and adopted a typical fighting stance, bending his knees, turning his legs inward, and leaning his body to the side, occasionally jumping up and down.
He looked like a toad. Jiang Ye stared at him expressionlessly, and the security chief, thinking he was frightened, was secretly pleased. He shouted, "Give me your life!" and pounced on him!
"Watch out!" Bai Tao exclaimed softly, casting a pleading look at Bai Chenzhu, who was watching the scene unfold.
Bai Chenzhu shrugged. From what he had observed over the past few days, Jiang Ye was not the kind of person who spoke without reason.
With a loud bang, the earth shook violently.
Bai Tao's pupils constricted as she watched Jiang Ye kick the man over, pin him to the ground, and twist his arm backward.
"Wait, brother, let's talk this out!" The security chief squealed in pain.
His four henchmen followed behind, too timid to come to his rescue. They exchanged glances and reached a consensus: "Even our boss, who is so powerful, lost. If we go, we'll just be easy prey!"
The closer they got, the stronger the stench of blood became. Jiang Ye's expression turned cold, and he retorted, "Who's your brother?"
Jiang Ye held his arm in place, pressing it into a position that caused him pain but wouldn't dislocate it. "My sister lives on the top floor. Have you seen her?"
The head of security looked pale, whether from pain or remembering something, he mumbled, "We just arrived, how could we have had time to go up to the top floor?"
"You have blood on your hands," Jiang Ye stated bluntly.
"No!" the security chief protested vehemently. "What do you know, you son of a bitch? These are zombies! We're just doing our duty to rid the people of this menace!"
"Yes, yes, it's all a misunderstanding." The four henchmen cautiously approached. "Boss, please let our boss go."
As soon as the words were spoken, the four men instinctively pulled out stun guns from behind their backs and charged forward with ferocious expressions.
Jiang Ye quickly released his grip on the security chief, took two steps back, and the stun guns missed their mark.
Just when one's fists are no match for four hands, the car window opened a crack, and Bai Chenzhu tossed a baseball bat out of the car with a clean and crisp motion. The window slowly rolled back up, and only Bai Tao gave a small, encouraging shout, "Go for it!"
Jiang Ye was almost amused by Bai Chenzhu's antics.
In less than fifteen minutes, several people were lying on the ground. Jiang Ye grabbed the head of security by the collar and dragged him into the hotel like a dead dog.
Bai Chenzhu got out of the car with Bai Tao and quickly followed.
The hotel lobby was a mess, and the strong smell of blood almost made Bai Chenzhu vomit as soon as he entered.
All he could see were shattered limbs and remains, blood everywhere on the floor. What made him even more horrified were the shattered heads, a chaotic mix of white and red that was unsettling to humans.
Like a living hell, Bai Tao, who had just been carefree and bouncy, was terrified and stood there trembling.
It took her a long while to realize what she was seeing. Her face turned pale, and she cried as she tried to pry open the heads of the people in hotel uniforms, calling out, "Mom? Mom—"
Even Jiang Ye hadn't expected these people to dare do such a thing. His face was grim, and he punched the security chief, who had just fainted, a few times, "Eliminating a scourge for the people?"
The head of security shook his head, unmoved by the horrific scene in the hotel lobby, and shouted righteously, "We're just ridding the people of a menace! These are zombies roaming around the hotel. If it weren't for us, they would have been eating people long ago! Since they're monsters, what's wrong with killing them!"
"Why are you digging out their brains?" Jiang Ye's dark eyes were icy as he gripped the security chief's collar tightly, almost strangling him to death.
The security chief struggled fiercely, his face flushed, gesturing excitedly as if he had gone mad. "You're an ability user now, don't you know that? Evolution and leveling up! Doesn't that all require the crystals from zombie brains? You're stronger than me, you must have eaten a lot of crystals!"
Jiang Ye's dark eyes were icy. "Did you find the crystal?"
The security chief immediately shrank back like a quail, and said in a gruff voice, "It's their fault for being too low-ranking; they couldn't find it."
Bai Chenzhu, radiating malice, stepped forward and stomped hard on the security chief's ankle. He didn't pull back, and after a cracking sound of bones breaking, the security chief screamed in pain. Bai Chenzhu pressed down harder, and the sound of bones cracking could be heard clearly again.
Jiang Ye held on tightly, and the head of security couldn't escape no matter what he did; he writhed wildly like an eel.
"To hell with your 'eliminating evil for the people' nonsense!" Bai Chenzhu demanded, pointing at the blood-soaked sofa. "Why did you kill the receptionist?! Was he a zombie?!"
They had only been gone for a day, less than a day. The receptionist greeted them politely when they left, but when they returned, their bodies were dismembered.
The security chief loudly argued, "He's a zombie! He has a fever, how can he not be a zombie? It's my right to kill zombies!"
Wait, a fever? Bai Chenzhu and Jiang Ye exchanged a glance, a bad feeling creeping into their hearts.
Bai Chenzhu rushed forward and opened the elevator, while Jiang Ye dragged the head of security inside.
Just as the elevator doors were about to close, Bai Tao rushed in, her face streaked with tears.
She searched the entire lobby, covered in blood, but couldn't find him. In this situation, she would definitely head to other parts of the hotel, and following the two men was the safest option at this moment.
Bai Chenzhu considerately pretended not to see her disheveled state.
As the elevator ascended floor by floor, the atmosphere inside grew increasingly somber.
The security chief struggled violently to escape, accidentally injuring Bai Chenzhu and Bai Tao several times while punching and kicking them.
"Tsk." Bai Chenzhu walked over and impatiently stomped on the center of the pants.
Amidst the screams, the security chief finally quieted down. Jiang Ye looked at the familiar scene, clearly recalling something he didn't want to remember, and his eye twitched.
The door opened, and Bai Tao was the first to rush out, shouting, "Mom—"
There was no response.
The door to the penthouse suite was covered in knife marks and bloodstains. Bai Tao pounded on the door, calling out her mother's name in a hoarse voice.
Jiang Ye quickly knocked out the security chief and threw him aside. He ran over and knocked on the door, his eagerness no less than Bai Tao's, "Sister, it's me, Jiang Ye, I'm back."
The door opened, revealing a bloodless face behind it.
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