Mi Ling's Desperate Worry

Although Rice and the Dharma King had become much more intelligent, neither had received nine years of compulsory education.

Their Chinese wasn't very good. The language was vast and profound, and they had no idea what some words meant.

For example:

"Did you come? I came."

"Come on? Coming!"

"Coming again? No, I can't come anymore."

Hehe.

Rice simply thought it was fun and didn't understand what it meant. When she saw Chen Luo arrive, she blurted it out.

Chen Luo: "..."

Rice said, "I'll sleep with you tonight, then sleep with Mi Li tomorrow."

Oh, you're quite the little feline player, aren't you? You even know to spread your favors around.

Without another word, Chen Luo gave Rice a vigorous petting.

Rice really was lovable. She was pretty, well-behaved, and sweet-talking.

Though they had only met that day, Chen Luo had already grown very fond of Rice. Just how fond?

If Chen Luo lost everything and had only one dried fish left, he would probably go without and feed it to Rice.

You eat the dried fish, and I eat...??

Rice said, "Stop touching my tummy. It tickles!"

Let me see whether you're a boy or a girl. So you're a little girl kitty.

After playing with Rice for a while, Chen Luo began absorbing crystals. Naturally, Rice got her share too.

Rice, come cultivate with me in my arms.

To Chen Luo's pleasant surprise, Rice could absorb eight crystals, slightly fewer than the Dharma King.

He would ask Mi Li how many she could absorb tomorrow.

After finishing his absorption, Chen Luo assessed his progress. He would probably need another six or seven days to reach level four.

By then, the lowest-grade crystals would be useless to him.

That night, Rice slept curled up beside Chen Luo's hand. If he hadn't resisted so strongly, she would have insisted on sleeping firmly planted on his stomach.

How was I supposed to sleep like that?

The next morning, Ma Yu was the first to rise. She was responsible for making breakfast, after all.

Breakfast consisted of large meat buns she had made by hand, tea eggs, and rice porridge, with shredded cucumber on the side.

Ah, I couldn't ask for too much. It was the apocalypse, after all.

Chen Luo yawned and sat down at the dining table. Naturally, Ma Yu would clean up afterward.

Having meals served up without lifting a finger felt wonderful.

Chen Luo asked, "Mi Li, how many crystals can you absorb?"

Mi Li said, "Nine. Is that a little too few?"

As the Dharma King ate a large meat bun, he thought, It is a little low. One fewer than a dog.

Chen Luo smiled. Being able to absorb nine at level one already put her among the best.

After breakfast, it was time to play, of course. What else was there to do?

Chen Luo took out the storage batteries and study materials he had bought, then connected Mi Li's home electrical supply to the batteries. The refrigerator, television, and other appliances could now be used.

They would skip the air conditioner. The one in Mi Li's home wasn't a quiet model.

Su Dazhu continued watching his TV series, while Chen Luo took out a desktop computer and started playing its AAA games.

When it came to the experience, a desktop was still a little better.

Honestly, plenty of single-player games were just as entertaining as online games.

They didn't require an internet connection, either.

One big game could keep Chen Luo entertained for at least a month.

And Chen Luo had copied every game he could find on the market, with over a thousand game discs.

Sometimes Mi Li watched Chen Luo play, sometimes she chatted with Ma Yu, and sometimes she looked at her phone.

But every so often, she glanced out the window, worrying about Mi Ling.

If only her sister could come home safely, she would ask for nothing else.

Mi Li was in her final year of high school. The college entrance exams were in early June, so she had chosen to stay home and prepare in peace instead of going to school.

Mi Ling attended a local university, but she still had a dorm room there because the campus was far too distant from home. One was on the east side of the city and the other on the west, making the daily round trip take four or five hours.

When she had fewer classes, she went home. When she had more, she could only stay on campus.

When the apocalypse broke out, it was just after nine, and a class had just ended. Mi Ling had gone to the restroom. Had she still been in class, surrounded by people, her chances of surviving would have been slim.

When people suddenly turned into zombies, Mi Ling panicked too. But while the zombies were busy feeding, she ran out of the teaching building and hid in a small grove on campus.

Although the university district was on the outskirts, some distance from the city center, five universities stood together there. With the vendors and nearby residential neighborhoods, there were certainly no shortage of zombies.

In the grove, Mi Ling happened to awaken her flame ability. But she felt no joy; she was more concerned about Mi Li's safety at home.

Had Mi Li turned into a zombie? Had she encountered any danger?

Mi Ling was desperately worried. She wished she could sprout wings and fly straight home.

Mi Ling's fighting skills deserved a mention. She and her sister had only each other. Two vulnerable young women, both so beautiful, would have been in terrible danger without a way to defend themselves.

Mi Ling had trained hard and developed formidable self-defense skills. Before the apocalypse, without any abilities, Chen Luo would probably have been beaten to a pulp if he had faced her.

Mi Ling told herself she mustn't rush. It would be awful if her sister was perfectly safe, only for her to die in her haste to get home.

After two days, relying on her self-defense skills and ability, Mi Ling finally found a chance to escape the campus.

Her destination was home.

Going straight home from the university would take her through countless busy districts. That was undoubtedly suicide, so Mi Ling planned to make a wide detour outside the city to get home.

The route was over three hundred kilometers long.

As she left campus, Mi Ling encountered four fellow students, three men and a woman.

Naturally, they recognized Mi Ling, the campus beauty.

With her stunning, aloof beauty and a figure that could set hearts racing at the mere thought of it, Mi Ling naturally had many admirers.

All four wanted to escape the zombie-infested campus, but had no particular destination. Seeing that Mi Ling was going home, they naturally wanted to follow her.

Mi Ling didn't refuse. More people meant more helping hands, and she had no confidence that she could make it home alone.

The anxiety of the journey far exceeded anything Mi Ling had imagined.

The sedan Mi Ling found was nothing like Chen Luo's heavy truck. Whenever cars blocked the road, they had to get out and move them.

The roads outside the city weren't deserted wilderness. There weren't many cars, but there weren't few, either.

Where there were cars, there were zombies.

Mi Ling wasn't yet the Flame Empress she would become in the future. Even after advancing to level two a few days later, she still couldn't handle multiple zombies.

After fighting, she had to rest and replenish her mana bar. Otherwise, she couldn't use her ability. Was she supposed to fight zombies bare-handed?

The four students weren't much help, and they still had to split the food equally.

One man and the woman died, leaving only two male students, Zhang Zhen and Wang Xinwu.

Mi Ling also had to keep her guard up around them from time to time. It was truly exhausting.

Without navigation, the three of them actually took the wrong road...

Throughout the journey, Mi Ling lacked food and water, and she was constantly worrying about Mi Li. She became utterly haggard.

At one point, Mi Ling went an entire day without eating.

Mi Ling thought miserably, I'm barely surviving myself. How is fragile little Mi Li supposed to manage?

Has she already starved to death at home, or was she eaten by zombies while searching for supplies?

Because of this, Mi Ling often had nightmares.

Mi Li would have said, "Nonsense. I'm eating even better than when you were home before the apocalypse."

Home was almost within reach, but the hardest stretch through the city still lay ahead.

Mi Ling prayed silently, Mi Li, if you're still alive, hang in there. Your big sister saved a piece of chocolate just for you.