I'm... Awesome...

After successfully slaughtering the black bear, Jiang Zhaosu immediately began happily enjoying the fruits of her victory.

Evolution had indeed drained a great deal of her strength. She ate nearly half the bear meat by herself.

By the end, even Qi Xing jumped down from the tree, pinched her cheeks, then rubbed her belly, curious how someone so small could fit so much meat inside.

After eating her fill, Jiang Zhaosu's cheeks were puffed up.

Qi Xing watched her with interest for a while, then reached out and poked her cheek. "Open your mouth."

Jiang Zhaosu: "..."

Her blood-red eyes had already turned black again, and her temper vanished along with them.

Jiang Zhaosu reluctantly opened her mouth.

Qi Xing held her chin in one hand and lifted her little face, examining it carefully for a long while. Then, he actually slipped a finger into her mouth, the warm, soft pad of his finger tracing along her teeth.

The strange sensation made Jiang Zhaosu's scalp tingle, and she nearly bit down.

Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at Qi Xing, silently demanding to know what exactly he was trying to do!

Qi Xing lightly hooked his finger inside her mouth. Jiang Zhaosu nearly retched, and finally shoved him away before breaking into a violent coughing fit.

She coughed and spat at the same time.

All the meat stuffed in her cheeks fell out.

Only then did Qi Xing say, "You're not a hamster. Why are you hiding things in your cheeks? It looks like you're trying to act cute."

Jiang Zhaosu coughed until her eyes filled with tears, then glared at Qi Xing in embarrassment and irritation.

How was she supposed to know!

She had simply seen so much food and couldn't stop herself from wanting to stockpile more, so she instinctively stuffed it into her cheeks.

"Rats..." After she finished coughing, Jiang Zhaosu stammered to Qi Xing, "Listen... to... me..."

"Mm, maybe it's because one of the Crystal Cores you ate belonged to their leader. They took you as their new leader," Qi Xing answered.

Jiang Zhaosu nodded in sudden realization and proudly wiped her nose with a finger. "I... awesome..."

"Fortune's awesome."

Qi Xing turned to look at the bloody remains scattered across the ground, along with the few surviving Mutated Giant Rats that were eating the black bear, and ruthlessly crushed her pride. "But Rat King Fortune, it looks like your subordinates are nearly wiped out after one battle."

"Uh..."

Jiang Zhaosu hadn't thought that much during the fight. She had only prayed that she herself wouldn't die.

Before leaving, Jiang Zhaosu did not forget to dig the Crystal Cores out of the black bear's and Mutated Giant Rats' heads.

This black bear's Crystal Core was quite large, almost the size of a quail egg.

Qi Xing had said that it was best not to eat too many Crystal Cores at once. Otherwise, the pain felt during evolution would become increasingly intense, and there was a chance one might not survive it.

So Jiang Zhaosu decided not to eat it today.

Jiang Zhaosu treasured the Crystal Core and tucked it into her pocket, planning to swallow it once food was plentiful enough.

She and Qi Xing walked for nearly the entire night before finally leaving the mountain forest at daybreak.

In truth, the forest was not that large. The only reason they had walked for so long was entirely Qi Xing's fault.

She never should have trusted that damn man with no sense of direction.

Jiang Zhaosu was a zombie, so going without rest for a night was nothing to her. Qi Xing, on the other hand, was utterly exhausted.

He had barely slept the night before last, then stayed up all night again last night. Two huge dark circles had appeared beneath his coldly pale skin, and his fox eyes were nearly panda eyes.

By the end, even Qi Xing, who usually never stopped talking, had become listless and silent.

Only after the sun rose and its light shone over their heads did Qi Xing recover a little energy.

Unexpectedly, it was a sunny day.

Though the sunlight was not especially bright, it still gave them a little meager warmth.

The two walked out of the forest and into a stretch of farmland, where they found an old bicycle on a path through the fields.

Its owner had either fled or turned into a zombie. Maybe the owner had turned into a zombie and then fled. In any case, the bicycle now belonged to no one.

But whether it had an owner or not, Jiang Zhaosu and Qi Xing rode away on it without the slightest guilt.

Jiang Zhaosu pedaled while Qi Xing sat on the back.

After two nights without sleep, Qi Xing was nearly dead from exhaustion.

The zombie Jiang Zhaosu sat in front and pedaled hard, while Qi Xing leaned against her back, wrapped an arm around her waist, and dozed off. He no longer cared where she might take him.

A gentle breeze blew as Jiang Zhaosu rode along the concrete paths between the fields. Looking at the endless farmland around her, she felt as though she had returned to her middle school days.

She had attended middle school in town, while the orphanage that had taken her in was in a village two kilometers away from the school.

Every morning at dawn, little Jiang Zhaosu would put on her backpack and cross a vast stretch of farmland like this to get to school.

But back then, she had no money to buy a bicycle and had to run to school on her own two legs.

Sometimes, classmates on bicycles would pass by her. Every time, Jiang Zhaosu would watch them enviously for a long while.

Now she had a bicycle too. In a way, she had fulfilled an old dream.

As Jiang Zhaosu pedaled along, she inexplicably felt very happy.

If she could speak properly now, she definitely would have burst into song.

Although she could not sing, Jiang Zhaosu still howled twice to express her joy, startling awake Qi Xing, who had been dozing behind her.

Qi Xing opened his eyes. The first thing he did was tighten one arm around Jiang Zhaosu and pull the dagger hanging at his waist with the other.

He quickly and vigilantly scanned left, right, front, and back, but found no danger approaching.

In front of him was only a little zombie excitedly pedaling the bicycle and howling at the top of her lungs.

Qi Xing sheathed his dagger and wrapped both arms around Jiang Zhaosu's waist again. Helplessly, he said, "Fortune, you scared me to death."

Good. You should be scared to death.

Jiang Zhaosu ignored Qi Xing's teasing and continued happily howling out her tuneless song.

She felt Qi Xing, seated behind her with his cheek against her back, shake a few times as though he were quietly laughing.

After walking for another half hour or so, the two arrived at a village.

The village was remote and poor. Most of its houses were single-story buildings, and there were not many zombies inside.

Qi Xing killed several of them and smoothly entered one of the houses.

He searched the kitchen first and found a pile of pickled radish.

In the apocalypse, vegetables were precious, but Qi Xing did not look very happy.

Because this stuff was just too awful.

It was fine as a salty side dish with rice, but eaten on its own, it was simply torture.

Qi Xing tore off a few strips of pickled radish and chewed them for a long time as though chewing wax. When he finally swallowed, he choked so badly that he kept pounding his chest. After he managed to force it down, the salty-bitter taste made him want to vomit.

Seeing Qi Xing look as though he wanted to throw up but was forcing himself not to, his face utterly devoid of hope, Jiang Zhaosu could not help recalling how miserable she had felt the first time she ate a mutant. She felt a trace of sympathy.

These days, being either a zombie or a human was not easy.

After eating, Qi Xing's sleep deprivation made him even sleepier, and he kept yawning.

Seeing that Jiang Zhaosu was still full of energy and constantly looking outside, he said to her, "Fortune, I need to sleep for a while. If you're bored, go play outside, but don't go too far. Come back before nightfall, okay?"

Jiang Zhaosu nodded her little head.

Qi Xing went to sleep on the bed, and Jiang Zhaosu immediately ran outside in excitement.

She did not need to worry about zombie attacks, so she leisurely rode her bicycle around the village.

After spending so much time with Qi Xing, she had caught his habit of hunting for treasure. Whenever she saw a door, she wanted to go inside.

Jiang Zhaosu searched house after house, checking whether there was anything good inside. She even kindly found some more food for Qi Xing.

Jiang Zhaosu left the food outside the door of the house where Qi Xing was staying, then ran back out and happily rode her bicycle into the farmland to play.

Not until the sun was setting did Jiang Zhaosu remember what Qi Xing had said. She rode her bicycle back toward the village to see whether he had woken up.

But when she reached the village entrance, she unexpectedly spotted a group of people approaching from the other side.

They seemed to have seen her as well. One of them, a woman with a ponytail, tugged at her companion and pointed at Jiang Zhaosu.

The woman's hairstyle reminded Jiang Zhaosu of the nightmare Xiao Chuxi.

Jiang Zhaosu jumped in fright.

Afraid that there might be powerful Ability Users among them like Xiao Yi and Xiao Chuxi, people she could not defeat, Jiang Zhaosu hurriedly pedaled into the village to call Qi Xing.