Why Does Qi Xing Smell So Good

The mountain wind whistled past their ears.

The two plummeted rapidly. Jiang Zhaosu's waist was tightly held by Qi Xing's arm. She frantically used her hands to support her head, which felt like it was about to break off and was being tossed about by the wind, just in case it fell from her shoulders.

Using vines as a buffer, they landed safely.

However, even Qi Xing, who was usually composed and calm, couldn't avoid rolling a few times after jumping from such a high mountainside. His black clothes were covered in dirt and grass clippings.

Jiang Zhaosu was even worse off.

Her face and body were covered in dust, making her look like she had just crawled out of a mud pit.

One person and one zombie lay on the ground, spitting for a long time, their faces covered in dirt.

Qi Xing looked up at the van still parked on the road halfway up the mountain, his eyes darkening. "The supplies I worked so hard to collect!"

Jiang Zhaosu also let out a long howl: "Aooo!"

Her head! Her flesh!

If she had known this would happen, she should have finished eating that square-faced man at noon!

With little time to complain, Qi Xing got up from the ground, grabbed Jiang Zhaosu's arm, and pulled her up from the ground. "Let's run first. Those two might still chase us."

His Ability was the same level as Xiao Yi's.

It was he who attacked first earlier, and Xiao Yi hadn't intended to kill him, which was why Xiao Yi seemed to be at a disadvantage.

If they were to fight seriously, with Xiao Chuxi added to the mix, he wasn't sure he could win.

Especially since he was carrying Jiang Zhaosu, a zombie who was dragging him down.

Qi Xing held Jiang Zhaosu and strode into the nearby mountain forest.

Places with lots of plants were his domain.

This way, even if Xiao Yi wanted to continue pursuing them, she would have to consider her sister's safety and temporarily stop the chase.

Although most of the plants in the mountain forest had withered, there were still plenty of dead branches and leaves.

The dry, slender branches intertwined, occasionally snagging Qi Xing as he moved quickly through them.

The hard, dry branches tore through the man's clothes, leaving light red scratches on Qi Xing's fair, jade-like skin.

A faint smell of blood drifted from these wounds, causing Jiang Zhaosu, whose head was buried in his chest, to let out an unconscious roar. It also attracted some beasts lurking deep in the forest.

Dozens of large Mutated Giant Rats ran towards them in a pack.

Each Mutated Rat was larger than an ordinary domestic goose. Their fist-sized black eyes emitted a faint green glow, their black and grey fur stood on end like steel needles, incredibly tough. Their sharp fangs protruded from their mouths, dripping foul-smelling saliva downwards, and their bulging cheeks made a teeth-grinding sound.

Some were missing noses or eyes, their flesh bloody and mangled. Others were covered in holes, with maggots festering inside, emitting a foul stench.

Qi Xing finally understood why Xiao Yi had come to this godforsaken place – to annihilate these things.

"Haha." Looking at the Mutated Rats that had somehow surrounded him, Qi Xing didn't know how to describe his feelings and could only give a wry smile.

These things were easy enough to kill, but they always appeared in large numbers, were disgusting, could swim, climb trees, and were particularly troublesome.

Every time he encountered such creatures, Qi Xing felt like he was rolling in a cesspool.

Even if he won, he felt a sense of powerlessness, as if he himself had been tainted.

Qi Xing looked down to check on Jiang Zhaosu.

Jiang Zhaosu in his arms had already lost consciousness due to severe injuries to her head and neck.

Mutated Giant Rats were omnivores; they ate not only humans but also zombies.

He couldn't just leave the little zombie behind.

There was no choice. Qi Xing had to hold Jiang Zhaosu and resignedly start fighting the Mutated Giant Rats before him.

In her unconscious state.

Jiang Zhaosu felt as if she had returned to the rental room where she lived before she died.

After graduation, she could no longer live in the school dormitory, and her job did not provide accommodation. Jiang Zhaosu had to spend a hefty sum of three hundred yuan to rent a small basement and live there temporarily while waiting for university to start.

Because the rent was cheap, the basement she rented had no furniture.

She was only staying for a little over two months, so Jiang Zhaosu couldn't bring herself to buy a bed. She found a stack of old newspapers to lay on the floor, then spread her bedding on top, making do with that.

The basement only had a very small window, tiny and narrow, cold and damp, with a strange smell.

However, Jiang Zhaosu not only worked as an NPC in the horror park but also did tutoring. She worked multiple jobs a day and always returned to the basement very late.

After washing up, Jiang Zhaosu would collapse tiredly onto her simple makeshift bed, browse her phone for a while, and then close her eyes to sleep.

When she first started working at the haunted house, she was always criticized by the boss for not being good at scaring people. The boss told her to read more zombie novels to get a feel for it.

It was then that Jiang Zhaosu read many apocalypse novels. Some protagonists in them she envied and admired, while others she found repulsive and detestable.

The protagonists Jiang Zhaosu disliked were usually the kind of favored children who had all their stats maxed out from birth.

Why should they have everything from birth, as if the world was serving them?

All the people struggling to survive in the apocalypse could only become supporting characters under their protagonist halo, becoming pitiful Cannon Fodder.

Every time she read novels of the Gary Stu and Mary Sue type, Jiang Zhaosu felt like her exhausted self, returning to her rented room after a long day of work to relax, was like a dog by the roadside, standing still only to be inexplicably kicked by the Male Lead or Female Lead passing by in a power fantasy story.

She remembered where she had seen the names Xiao Yi and Xiao Chuxi before.

It was in a post-apocalyptic zombie novel.

However, the protagonists of that zombie novel weren't Xiao Yi and Xiao Chuxi; they were merely members of the protagonist group, so Jiang Zhaosu didn't have a deep impression of them.

Jiang Zhaosu recalled that this pair of sisters, as positive characters, were quite popular in that novel.

During a mission, they were severely injured by the antagonists.

Xiao Yi lost an arm as a result, and Xiao Chuxi suffered brain death and remained in a coma.

Readers were furious at the villains at the time. One reader spoiled in the chapter comments: "Don't worry! Sisters, Chu Xi wakes up later! She cripples this man, skins him alive, and throws him into a zombie horde. So satisfying!"

Jiang Zhaosu preferred reading descriptions of zombies and didn't pay much attention to these side plots, nor did they evoke strong emotional responses from her. She usually just skimmed past them.

Later, the protagonist's cheat abilities became too powerful, constantly crushing Cannon Fodder with face-slapping moments. The plot became too cliché and brainless, boring Jiang Zhaosu, and she abandoned the novel before reaching the end.

Thinking about it now, the man Xiao Chuxi skinned alive... should be Qi Xing?

Holy crap!

As soon as she arrived in this world, she felt Qi Xing's behavior was like a villain's.

She never expected him to actually be the villain!

Qi Xing... didn't even have a name in that novel, he wasn't even a minor character, yet he managed to take on two major figures from the Protagonist Group single-handedly. Amazing.

Wait!

If she's following Qi Xing now, doesn't that mean she's following the villain and will eventually be eliminated by the Orthodox Sect?

This kind of thing is bad!

Is it still too late for her to distance herself from Qi Xing and abandon the darkness for the light?

Jiang Zhaosu panicked and suddenly opened her eyes.

Everywhere she looked were severed limbs and remains of unknown species, blood flowing like a river, emitting a thick, pungent stench.

Qi Xing lay not far from her, his eyes tightly shut, covered in dust and bloodstains. His handsome and beautiful face was like a pearl covered in dust, smeared with dirt, his complexion and lips as white as a corpse dead for three days.

What happened?

Jiang Zhaosu quickly got up from the ground, rushed to Qi Xing's side, and tremblingly brought her finger under his nose.

A gentle warm breath slowly sprayed onto her finger.

Thankfully, he was still breathing; he wasn't dead.

Jiang Zhaosu quickly grabbed Qi Xing's shoulder with her hand, about to shake him awake, but her stomach growled at that moment, most inconveniently.

The sun had long set, and the surroundings were pitch black. A cold wind blew, and the strangely shaped branches in the heavy night looked like grotesque skeletons, stretching their limbs amidst eerie whistling sounds.

Jiang Zhaosu's pupils faintly glowed red, and the bones in her unhealed neck made cracking sounds. While she was clearly worried about Qi Xing, her gaze involuntarily drifted to his neck.

So hungry.

She really wanted to bite him...

Qi Xing looked so delicious, could she just take a bite?