Lin Qi looked at the four pink good luck tires lying quietly in the trunk. His tightly knitted brows finally eased. At a time like this, who cared what they looked like, as long as they worked?
"Lin Qi, I never would've guessed you had such a girly side."
Wang Feng walked over to Lin Qi and couldn't help marveling at the sight of the pink tires.
"All right, cut the chatter. Help me change the tires too."
Too drained to argue, Lin Qi found some supplies and handed them to Wang Feng, then returned to the driver's seat.
Wang Feng and his group worked quickly. Before long, the windshield was repaired, and the four pink tires were neatly fitted on either side of the off-road vehicle.
Lin Qi sent Wang Feng away, wanting to see how the vehicle felt with its new tires.
But just as he started the vehicle-
"Today is a good day..."
"Everything you wish for can come true..."
Loud singing suddenly blasted out without warning, making Lin Qi stiffen in the driver's seat.
Lin Qi: ????
Lin Qi practically shot out of the vehicle, staring in disbelief at the good luck tires, which were still singing!
The sudden singing drew the gazes of all the nearby survivors.
Their eyes held confusion and bewilderment, but understanding soon followed.
"Buddy, are you trying to copy Jiahao too? That won't work. You're still way behind the times."
A survivor nearby looked as though he had seen through everything. Hearing his words, the other survivors all understood what was going on.
Lin Qi ignored them and shut off the engine, utterly exasperated.
Like hell he was copying Jiahao. If he'd known the good luck tires would play freaking music, he wouldn't have bought them even if someone beat him to death!
It wasn't that he felt embarrassed. In the darkness, the louder the noise, the easier it was to draw the pursuit of eerie entities.
Just imagine the convoy being chased by eerie entities while his vehicle brazenly blasted "Good Luck Comes." It would practically be provoking them. Who would they go after if not him?
"What a damn waste."
Looking at the pink tires, Lin Qi nearly ground his back teeth to pieces.
Just as he was about to remove the nauseating good luck tires, a virtual screen popped up out of thin air.
Lines of information quickly appeared.
[Good luck tires' price: loud singing.] [To remove the price, please pay 1,000 Ghost Cash!]
Lin Qi: ...
Lin Qi stopped in his tracks, his gaze darting back and forth between the virtual screen and the good luck tires.
"Damn it, I already spent a thousand Ghost Cash buying them..."
Gritting his teeth, Lin Qi obediently took out another thousand Ghost Cash.
After all, he'd already bought them. He really couldn't accept leaving them unusable.
Lin Qi returned to the vehicle and started it again.
This time, the good luck tires were exceptionally quiet, and some of his anger finally faded.
The windshield had already been repaired. Though the repairs looked rather ugly, it could at least keep out the wind and rain.
Lin Qi had barely leaned against his seat for long before falling fast asleep.
When he opened his eyes again, the sky was beginning to brighten.
The pain in his body had also eased considerably since the previous night.
Just as Yi Xue had said, the convoy showed no intention of moving on today. Tents had even been pitched around the Transcendent Squad's vehicles up ahead. From the look of things, they would be resting for quite some time.
Lin Qi got out of the vehicle. The weather was lovely today, with a clear blue morning sky and the occasional cool breeze brushing his face.
He found some standing water in the nearby abandoned vehicles and gave himself a quick wash, then began rummaging through the trunk for supplies to light a fire and cook.
Because of the vehicle's prolonged jolting, his efforts to collect rainwater yesterday had ultimately come to nothing. He hadn't managed to save any.
Lin Qi had barely eaten yesterday. That morning, he cooked an entire bowl brimming with dried noodles, yet it only left him about seventy percent full.
After eating and drinking his fill, he began doing some simple exercises.
Not long after Lin Qi finished tidying up, the survivors began waking one after another and going about their own business.
A night's rest had left many of them looking considerably more refreshed.
What was more, Jiahao becoming an Extraordinary had given the survivors new hope.
After all, the Transcendent Squad's members had already been Extraordinaries before meeting them, so the survivors hadn't thought much of it. But they had watched Jiahao become an Extraordinary with their own eyes, naturally stirring the flame that had lain dormant within them for so long!
Jiahao was as energetic as ever that morning, leading his roommates in exercises from an early hour.
Jiahao hadn't joined the Transcendent Squad after becoming an Extraordinary. He still mingled with the ordinary survivors.
As far as Jiahao was concerned, how could joining the Transcendent Squad offer as much of a sense of accomplishment as staying among ordinary survivors?
Lin Qi exercised for an hour or two. Only when the air grew noticeably warmer did he carry a small folding stool into the vehicle's shade to rest.
"I feel like I've forgotten something..."
With time on his hands, Lin Qi's thoughts began turning. He scanned his surroundings, and his gaze soon settled on the students' bus, its curtains tightly drawn.
He remembered now. Yi Xue had taken his clothes, so why hadn't she hung them out to dry yet?
He'd already given her the supplies. Taking supplies without doing the work crossed Lin Qi's bottom line.
Seeing that the bus curtains were still closed, he put aside the idea of going to find Yi Xue for now.
It was perfectly normal for college students to sleep in.
With a rare day off today, perhaps they all wanted to sleep a little longer.
Lin Qi looked away. He wasn't in a hurry to get his change of clothes back.
He stopped paying attention to the bus and sat in the shade, contemplating life.
There wasn't much entertainment in the apocalypse, and he didn't like joining other people's gatherings. Aside from contemplating life by himself, there wasn't much he could do.
While he was sitting alone, Wang Feng walked over with a cigarette between his lips and handed one to Lin Qi. "What are you thinking about, Lin Qi?"
"Nothing in particular." Lin Qi accepted the cigarette and lit it.
Wang Feng leaned against the vehicle and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Lin Qi, how should I put this? You're too withdrawn. I've heard about what happened to you, but sometimes you still need to make a few friends. Otherwise, sooner or later, you'll bottle things up until you go crazy in this apocalypse."
"Mm." Lin Qi nodded gently. Of course he understood Wang Feng's sincerity, but besides the hurdle in his heart, he also had a secret he couldn't expose.
"Ah, the convoy will be passing through City S soon. I wonder if I'll ever see my family again." As Wang Feng spoke, his eyes dimmed, but he soon smiled again. "Actually, perhaps it's better not to see them. Not seeing them is the best news..."
Lin Qi said nothing, simply listening quietly as Wang Feng talked to himself.
Wang Feng didn't care whether Lin Qi responded. What he seemed to need right now was a listener. He knew his teammates too well, so well that there was little point in telling them these things. Instead, Lin Qi, whom he only half knew, was the best person to listen to his rambling.
"Even if my wife finds another man in the apocalypse, I'll accept it. Without anyone to protect them, I really don't know how she and our child could survive..."
Wang Feng was still talking when a commotion suddenly broke out in the crowd ahead.
The two looked up almost simultaneously. The moment they saw the source of the commotion, both their expressions began to change slightly.
Wang Feng flung away his half-smoked cigarette and hurried forward.
Lin Qi slowly rose and looked toward the far end of his field of vision.
Down the road, over a hundred filthy survivors in ragged clothes, looking like refugees, were slowly drawing closer to the convoy...
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