Eavesdropping

Healing Ability was a rare gift that every team in the apocalypse desperately wanted but could rarely find.

In the apocalypse, medicine was always in short supply, and Healing Ability became enormously useful.

Not only could it treat the injured without medication, but really, who wouldn't want a powerful healer as their solid backing when facing danger, allowing them to fight without restraint and to their heart's content?

As the leader of the team, Qin Feng had a little cleverness, but not much.

After Qi Xing displayed his ability and learned that he was a harmless Wood Healing Ability User, Qin Feng immediately changed his attitude toward him.

Qi Xing had a knack for saying the right thing to the right person. Using the alias Li Ronghua, he quickly got familiar with the three of them and even took out the various foods Jiang Zhaosu had collected during the day to share with them.

In exchange, Qin Feng had Cao Yuan bring out some clean water for Qi Xing.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill in the small room, Qin Feng told Duan Yuanyuan to clean up the trash. Then, in a sincere, earnest tone, he said to Qi Xing, "Brother Li, our team is short on a Healing Ability User. You seem like an honest man. How about joining our team?"

Qin Feng spoke firmly. "I guarantee that as long as you work hard, there'll be no shortage of food or water for you in the team."

Just as he expected, Qi Xing expertly played the part of an innocent, honest man with no guard against strangers. Smiling, he said, "Of course. I was worried that my ability has no offensive power. Whenever danger comes up, I can't protect my little sister."

He did not forget to flatter Qin Feng as well. "Brother Qin, you look like a Lightning Ability User. You must be incredibly strong!"

Qi Xing's appearance was far too deceptive.

Anyone meeting him for the first time would basically take him for some aloof, proud young master from an exceptional wealthy family.

Men all cared about their pride. A rich young master like Qi Xing, someone so high above them that he might not even have spared factory workers like them a glance before, was now looking at him with envy and admiration.

Qin Feng could not help feeling proud. A smug look appeared on his face, though he modestly said, "I'm all right. I'm a Rank A Ability User."

"Wow! A Rank A Ability User!"

Qi Xing's eyes sparkled as he exaggeratedly exclaimed, "I've never seen a Rank A Ability User before. Brother Qin, you're seriously amazing!"

Jiang Zhaosu, who was squatting in the corner of the room and silently playing with pebbles, heard that. "..."

That familiar, over-the-top tone.

The last person Qi Xing had praised like that had been torn apart and devoured alive by his own kind.

According to Qi Xing's introduction, Jiang Zhaosu had fallen ill as a child. Ever since then, her mind had not worked very well, and she could not speak clearly. Though she was already a teenager, her intelligence was still like that of a child.

Once they learned that she was mentally disabled and had no ability, the newcomers no longer paid much attention to her.

Except for Duan Yuanyuan.

Duan Yuanyuan did not have an ability either.

Whenever the other two discussed matters in the team before, she had never had the right to speak.

If she talked even a little too much, Qin Feng and Cao Yuan would find her annoying.

After cleaning up the trash, Duan Yuanyuan had nothing else to do, so she came over to the corner to chat with Jiang Zhaosu.

Jiang Zhaosu was playing a pebble-catching game.

Stiffly, she tossed the small pebbles into the air, grabbed the ones below with her hand, then immediately flipped her wrist to catch the pebble she had thrown up, using it to train her reaction speed.

She was having a great time when she suddenly heard Duan Yuanyuan beside her say, "Your name is Fortune, right?"

At first, Jiang Zhaosu had been afraid of Duan Yuanyuan, worried that she might be like Xiao Chuxi—appearing out of nowhere, kicking her to the ground, and stepping on her neck until it snapped.

But after seeing Qi Xing use his ability on Duan Yuanyuan and watching Duan Yuanyuan's reaction, as well as the others' indifferent attitudes, Jiang Zhaosu relaxed.

This woman probably had no ability and was not well liked by the others in the team.

When Qi Xing had suddenly attacked her, even the man she had first turned to for help had remained unmoved.

After the crisis was resolved, Jiang Zhaosu stopped paying attention to Duan Yuanyuan.

The woman was so skinny that she did not even have a few pounds of meat on her as reserve food. Unqualified.

Jiang Zhaosu was more interested in Qin Feng.

While they were eating, she had kept secretly glancing at him.

Qin Feng was big and muscular, and he was an Ability User too. His meat would definitely taste better than the slender Duan Yuanyuan and Cao Yuan.

Although Jiang Zhaosu could speak now, her pronunciation was strange. Any normal person would be able to hear that something was wrong.

So when Duan Yuanyuan tried to strike up a conversation, Jiang Zhaosu could not even be bothered to open her mouth. She simply continued playing with her little pebbles without reacting.

Duan Yuanyuan was used to being ignored, so she did not mind Jiang Zhaosu's coldness. It was as if she were speaking to Jiang Zhaosu, yet also talking to herself.

Afraid Qin Feng would hear, she lowered her voice and whispered to Jiang Zhaosu:

"Fortune, I envy you so much. You don't have an ability, but your brother is still willing to keep taking you with him and protecting you. He's gentle and handsome too. If only I had a brother like that."

Jiang Zhaosu silently continued playing with her pebbles, thinking, You wouldn't think that if you saw his true face.

Even now, whenever Jiang Zhaosu recalled the fascination in Qi Xing's dark eyes as he watched that Fire Ability User scream while being torn apart and eaten by a crowd in the basement, she still felt chills down her spine.

She was a zombie, yet even when she ate, she did not have such twisted tastes.

Still, Duan Yuanyuan had said one thing right.

Up to now, Qi Xing had indeed kept her with him, protected her, and had never shown any improper intentions toward her.

Perhaps Qi Xing played the role of a villain in this novel, but to her, he was a good person with only a few minor flaws in his morals.

In that regard, she was lucky.

The woman before her, however, was a little less fortunate.

The one-story house had three bedrooms.

When it was time to rest that night, Jiang Zhaosu naturally shared a room with Qi Xing. Qin Feng and Duan Yuanyuan took one room, while Cao Yuan stayed alone in another.

Qin Feng and Duan Yuanyuan's room was in the middle.

There was no door, and the thin walls of the house offered poor soundproofing.

Not long after they each returned to their rooms, muffled roars and moans that were difficult to listen to suddenly sounded from the middle of the house, carrying clearly through the thin walls.

Jiang Zhaosu did not need sleep, while Qi Xing had slept enough during the day and was not tired yet.

One zombie and one human, both exceptionally awake, sat on the bed and stared wide-eyed at each other as they listened to the heart-racingly suggestive sounds. "..."

Though Jiang Zhaosu was an adult, she had no experience in that area.

In her previous life, she had spent every day exhausted from studying and working. Where would she have found the energy to think about such things?

Now that she had become a zombie, she probably would not find a partner for the rest of her life or get to experience it.

At that thought, Jiang Zhaosu suddenly grew curious.

She would not have the chance in this life anyway. Couldn't she at least listen and learn something?

Jiang Zhaosu, who had originally been sitting on the bed, pressed both hands against the mattress and crawled forward a little. Sneakily, she pressed her cheek and ear against the wall, trying to hear more clearly.

Qi Xing had originally been sitting at the head of the bed, closer to the wall adjoining Qin Feng and Duan Yuanyuan's room.

When Jiang Zhaosu crawled over, Qi Xing suddenly moved.

A strange expression appeared on Qi Xing's beautiful, handsome face. He avoided Jiang Zhaosu and got off the bed with an unnatural look.

It was not because hearing a few moans that were clearly mixed with acting had made him crazed with desire for Jiang Zhaosu's utterly unappealing child-zombie body. Qi Xing simply felt awkward.

Qi Xing had no experience with such matters either.

Though he was already twenty-six, Qi Xing had never developed romantic feelings for any woman and had always been completely uninterested in such things.

Before the apocalypse, Qi Xing had been busy every day as well.

He was a project manager at a well-known company, with countless matters waiting for him each day. After his sister went missing, he had also been occupied searching everywhere for her.

Despite his outstanding looks and well-paying job attracting many admirers, Qi Xing had always given off a faintly sexually apathetic air and had never accepted anyone's confession.

As time passed, everyone began to think that he might have some unspeakable problem in that department.

Qi Xing had heard those rumors himself. But he could hardly grab everyone by the collar and tell them that he was not impotent; he simply had no interest in such base desires. Was that wrong?

Listening to the sounds from the other side of the wall now, Qi Xing could not help recalling those laughably pointless memories.

Life in the apocalypse had changed his personality in many ways, but one thing had not changed: he still found this sort of thing dull, even less pleasurable and exciting than slaughtering zombies.

He had not expected Jiang Zhaosu, a tiny little zombie no older than a child, to be so interested in this. She had her little butt in the air as she lay against the wall, listening with relish.

Standing on the floor, feeling annoyed by the noise and boredom, Qi Xing looked at Jiang Zhaosu secretly eavesdropping on the bed. As this little zombie's guardian, he felt it was necessary to promptly stop her immoral behavior.

Qi Xing rolled his eyes, suddenly came up with a bad idea, and called out loudly, "Fortune, why aren't you sleeping? What are you doing pressed against the wall?"