"Basket-Carrying Granny! Fuck, out of all these people, you always have to run into me, huh?" Su Nian hurriedly lit the red candle.
Hao Ren had given him the candle to use while driving. Otherwise, the engine noise would definitely attract supernatural entities. There was no saving this candle.
Su Nian flicked the paddle shifter... then floored the accelerator. The V8 engine roared to life, its exhaust belching white smoke as the truck brutally shoved aside the two cars blocking its way.
Screeeech-bang!
The tires scraped against the ground with an ear-piercing screech.
"Child, why are you in such a hurry...?"
That aged, kindly voice, as relentless as a disease clinging to his bones, bored straight into Su Nian's mind again. "Have dinner before you go. Granny made your favorite pork and scallion dumplings... your grandpa is waiting for you at home."
"Eat my fucking ass, you stupid old hag! Whose granny do you think you are? Your grandson's been fucking dead for how many years, and you're still claiming random people as family!"
"Am I the only survivor in all of Happiness County? Why do you keep chasing me, you stupid... [censored] [censored]!"
Su Nian cursed Basket-Carrying Granny and eighteen generations of her ancestors. Whether the entity understood him or not, all that mattered was how good it felt.
He had wanted to curse her out earlier, but he couldn't respond to Basket-Carrying Granny. Now that the candle blocked her killing rule, he would get his kicks first.
The Raptor raced down the road, weaving in an S-pattern as it smashed through the central guardrail, dodged the vehicles along the way, and sped toward the outskirts.
Within his field of vision, Basket-Carrying Granny kept leaping between shadows.
"Child, Granny isn't a bad person... come back."
As the Raptor passed through the shadow between two tall buildings, two pitch-black handprints struck in an instant, slamming into the front of the truck from either side. They hit not the steel body, but the protective dome of candlelight.
A segment of the candle burned away instantly, roughly the length of a finger.
Su Nian's heart tightened. With no cars ahead of him, he pressed the accelerator even harder.
Another slap landed, consuming another segment of the candle. Many stretches of this road were covered in shadow.
He finally understood. This old hag was deliberately refusing to let him go. Even supernatural entities placed extra value on people they couldn't have, as persistent as the "simps" from before the apocalypse.
"Child, you won't get out," the kindly voice said.
"Stupid old hag. Want to kill me? Take it up with my Door God."
The candle hadn't burned out yet, so Su Nian simply pressed the Door God against the window to see whether their defenses would stack.
One plus one didn't always equal two.
Golden light flowed across the Door God's image, and the figure seemed to come alive. Its golden halo merged with the candlelight.
[Ding! Spend 200 survival points to upgrade the red candle?]
"Upgrade!"
At Su Nian's mental command, the dwindling candle's flame shot upward unnaturally. Its burned-away body restored itself just as eerily, becoming half again as long as it had been when Hao Ren first gave it to him.
Su Nian had wanted to lift the candle up for Basket-Carrying Granny to see, but on second thought, provoking her would do his survival points no favors.
Su Nian concentrated on driving while Basket-Carrying Granny occasionally struck out to block him.
The scenery outside the county town came into view. Basket-Carrying Granny let out an unwilling roar, her kindly appearance vanishing as she became as hideous and terrifying as before.
Black blood seeped from her face. Her chest, scorched earlier by the blazing sunflower, looked like black charcoal.
Most of her basket had burned away, and it still hadn't recovered.
"Child... you can't escape..."
Her venomous screams chased the Raptor until they faded away.
Su Nian couldn't understand how he had offended Basket-Carrying Granny enough for her to hate him so much.
He hadn't done anything. Could it really be that what you couldn't have always haunted you?
So annoying!
[Ding! Escaped the Void Frame Ghost's pursuit. Gained 800 survival points.] [Survival points: 2,150]
Hmm! Actually, Basket-Carrying Granny was pretty nice for a ghost. I haven't even spent all of the last eight hundred, and here comes another eight hundred.
Being chased by supernatural entities isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I'm the one benefiting, after all. If she chased me eight or ten more times, I might even find a way to kill her.
Then I'll teach Basket-Carrying Granny why you shouldn't pursue a desperate enemy.
Su Nian checked the fuel gauge. Eighty percent remained.
The Raptor left Happiness County, passing a road sign as it pulled into the convoy's staging area.
Su Nian extinguished the candle, and the engine's rumble gradually faded into the air.
Hao Ren's driver, Zhang Ping, had already begun taking a head count. Hao Ren and Gong Qing had not returned yet.
Zhang Ping looked at Su Nian and gave him a slight nod before returning to his work.
"Tang Zhou, has your brother Tang Chen come back?"
Tang Zhou was organizing the supplies in her three-wheeler. She pointed at the neighboring field. "My brother's already back. He said he was going to look for food with a high starch content."
Zhang Ping nodded and turned to a heavily pregnant woman who was craning her neck expectantly.
"Su Yue, has your husband Fang Cheng come back?"
Judging by her expression, he definitely hadn't, but Zhang Ping asked anyway. Who knew? Maybe she was just admiring the scenery today.
This job let him eat his fill without risking his life gathering supplies. He treasured it and never cut corners.
"Soon. He'll be back soon." Su Yue clenched her fists, her body trembling uncontrollably as tears welled in her eyes.
Zhang Ping nodded. He had seen plenty of joy, sorrow, reunions, and farewells... He drew a circle in his little notebook and walked toward an elderly couple.
Tang Zhou looked toward the Raptor. This was the man who had asked about pot soot earlier today, and he had actually driven such a huge vehicle out.
Her brother had told her that anyone hoping to drive out of the city needed incredibly good luck.
Otherwise, it was a death sentence.
The noise would attract dormant supernatural entities.
Su Nian opened the Raptor's truck bed and sorted through his supplies. Quite a few people came over, eagerly trying to get friendly with him and secure a ride, but Su Nian turned them all down.
Having a companion in the vehicle would be a good thing. He could get some rest while they drove. But how could he ensure they wouldn't stab him in his sleep?
He would have to take his time choosing someone reliable. Once he finished organizing the supplies, he put a week's worth of food in the back seat, along with two 25-liter cans of gasoline.
He hadn't expected to find two cans of gasoline in the Raptor's bed. For now, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of fuel.
After closing the truck bed cover, Su Nian thought for a moment, then loaded the tricycle on top anyway.
What if it comes in handy?
"You bitch! What did you do to me?" A shrill, furious roar rang out.
Su Nian looked over.
A somewhat pale man with a buzz cut charged, his eyes bloodshot, toward an attractive woman wearing a tight spaghetti-strap top and blue jeans.
Su Nian had seen this woman before. She was the one who had tried to seduce him on a bluestone-paved road.
His blood eye opened. The strange ligature marks on the woman's wrists and ankles had disappeared.
Instead, something was wrong with the buzz-cut man chasing her. There were ligature marks around his neck.
The woman ran straight behind Zhang Ping.
"Zhang Ping, he's trying to kill me!"
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