Chapter 4#

The Past#

Riding in the military vehicle toward the survivor base, Zhao Wanzhi was lost in thought the whole way, not even noticing the subtly ambiguous atmosphere between the two in the backseat.

“Gu Cheng, do you think we offended a lot of people in our past lives, and that’s why they’re all coming after us?”

“Yeah.”

“…But I feel like the three of us aren’t really the type to go looking for trouble.”

Zhao Yanzhi raised an eyebrow. “Wanwan, please take a look at yourself in the rearview mirror, then look at me and Gu Cheng’s faces.”

Zhao Wanzhi: “…”

Okay, she got it instantly. Their looks attracted people. Even if they didn’t court trouble, trouble would come to them.

Since the distance wasn’t far, and someone had already cleared the streets, they reached their destination in just over half an hour.

Though it was called a survivor base, it wasn’t a place built from scratch. There was no way to construct a base in such a short time.

Because this city had been developed early, there was a university town not far from the city center. Of course, the new campus was far out in the suburbs, but this was the old campus, full of lush trees and buildings that clearly carried the mark of their era.

But now, walking in, they found many of the trees already withered, exuding a decadent, rotting atmosphere that made the whole campus seem gloomy.

Gu Cheng watched silently. Those trees that hadn’t withered would likely teach humanity a lesson soon enough.

After all, it wasn’t just humans being affected by the radiation and evolving.

The soldier leading them in kept stealing glances at Zhao Wanzhi. Compared to the same sex, there were still more heterosexuals after all. No matter how handsome Gu Cheng and Zhao Yanzhi were, in the eyes of these young, hot-blooded soldiers, they couldn’t compete with Zhao Wanzhi’s bright beauty, slender waist, and long legs.

“The commander said we’re only stopping here temporarily. Eventually we’ll head to the military district in the suburbs—it’s safer there.”

Some things really couldn’t be disclosed to outsiders so quickly, but it wasn’t easy to keep secrets in front of a beautiful woman of the opposite sex.

Zhao Wanzhi wore a faint smile, her bright, vivid red lips forming a perfect curve. “I see.”

Actually, she didn’t care much about the transfer.

She had come along temporarily just to see the situation. Before the apocalypse arrived, the three of them had already agreed not to get too close to others.

Humans were social animals, as Gu Cheng had said. In their past lives, they had also tried hard to blend in with the crowd.

In a post-apocalyptic scenario, people’s psychology tended to gravitate toward the collective. During peacetime, there might be some homebodies who feared crowds, but in the apocalypse, dependence on group living actually increased.

Reality wasn’t like in novels, where protagonists were strong enough to go it alone. The collective did provide a sense of security.

So this temporary survivor base had quite a large number of people.

“There are quite a few Gnawers in here, aren’t there?” Zhao Yanzhi said softly.

Gu Cheng squinted. “Yeah.”

In appearance, Gnawers were no different from ordinary people—they had heartbeats and breathing, and even if they had lost consciousness, they hadn’t lost their ability to move.

After such a great disaster, many people probably thought this numbness and dullness was just “trauma from the shock.”

Logically, now that half the population had died, most of the remaining half were Gnawers, one-fifth were ordinary humans, and—a tiny minority were New Humans.

After the fever, New Humans had already sensed something: their strength, agility, stamina, and recovery abilities were all far stronger than before.

Of course, at the beginning of the apocalypse, New Humans weren’t absurdly powerful, but they certainly knew their own bodies had changed.

It was just that everyone had read too many apocalypse novels, expecting it to involve supernatural abilities. These New Humans couldn’t conjure fire or lightning. Most of them just quietly hid among the crowd, not thinking their changes were anything special.

Of course, there were also those eager to show off. But the ones in power now were the military, and the soldiers… had guns. So even if someone felt they were different from ordinary people, they couldn’t get too arrogant; they had to hold back.

People from peacetime times always had some fear of guns.

This squad of soldiers directly led them to the school’s gymnasium. Since the gym was large, almost everyone gathered there during the day, and only in the evening did they head to the dormitory building behind the gym to rest.

There was danger outside, and staying in a group gave people a certain sense of security.

When the three were led inside, the already somewhat noisy gym fell silent for a few seconds.

People who looked like that were visually striking at first glance. Even those farther away and unable to see their features clearly could still tell from their nearly perfect figures and unique aura that these newcomers were outstanding.

Every day, scattered survivors were brought here, but never before had anyone so… dazzling, even standing in a spot with light behind them.

There was a slight stir in the crowd before it slowly subsided.

“Xiao Wu?” A rugged man walked over. He was wearing a camouflage uniform, his muscles straining against the fabric that was by no means tight. His hair was cut very short, a prickly crew cut, revealing features that could be considered handsome. Because of his tall, imposing build, just standing there gave him a strong presence, his masculine aura practically overflowing.

The young soldier standing next to Gu Cheng immediately straightened up. “Captain Feng.”

“Mm,” his gaze fell on the three of them. “Take them to Mansa to register.”

“Yes, sir!”

Gu Cheng raised an eyebrow and glanced subtly at this Captain Feng. On the way to registration, his eyes settled on a young man standing among the crowd, smiling at them.

If Gu Cheng and the others stood out like cranes among chickens wherever they went, their beauty giving them a spotlight effect no matter how low-key they tried to be, this man had a strange quality of blending in. No matter where he stood, he seemed to effortlessly merge into the crowd. He had clear brows and elegant features—objectively very handsome—yet if you didn’t look deliberately, he seemed hardly noticeable at all.

Perhaps it was because the man’s smile was so gentle that it blurred the advantages of his looks, making him appear very approachable.

Just by appearance, Gu Cheng also seemed extremely gentle, but his tenderness was like spring breeze and drizzling rain—charming and enchanting, making people blush at one glance. It was completely different from this young man’s friendly warmth.

The three kept their faces neutral but opened the team channel, a chat mode that could block outsiders so only they could hear each other.

“Who among this group should we watch out for?” Zhao Wanzhi asked with a frown.

The gym was packed with people, sitting in messy clusters. The lighting was poor, and most looked quite disheveled—after all, with the water cut off, just getting enough to drink each day was a challenge, so personal hygiene naturally suffered. There was a lake on campus, but after someone had two toes bitten off by a fish in it, few dared to go near. The smell now was indescribable.

She gave a cursory glance and asked Gu Cheng directly.

Gu Cheng answered quickly. “In our past lives, we never came to this base. Actually, we don’t need to worry about it—this base won’t last more than a few days.”

Back then, when he had encountered Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei, this base had already ceased to exist. “As for people to note, that Captain Feng who came over is called Feng Nanyun. He was originally the captain of the local SWAT team. Even in the military, he was in a special unit—very skilled. Now that he’s a New Human… he’s even stronger. Plus, he has his soldiers and their guns, so he’s quite dominant in the early stages.”

Zhao Yanzhi glanced at Feng Nanyun, who was walking away, and noticed his gaze seemed to follow them. Following the direction of his eyes—tsk, he was checking out Wanwan?

Sure enough, they didn’t court trouble, but trouble didn’t need an invitation.

“And there’s one more person. Look over there—the one in the white coat. Don’t mistake him for an ordinary doctor.” Gu Cheng didn’t move his gaze, not looking again. “Yang Junfei. He’s a professor at this school’s medical college. Everyone thinks he’s a doctor, but he’s actually a psychology professor, from a prestigious foreign university. The police once flagged him as a person of special interest—a suspect in a murder case. But they never managed to convict him. In the apocalypse, someone like him is even more dangerous than Feng Nanyun.”

Zhao Yanzhi chuckled softly. “Seems like he and us aren’t on good terms.” Just from Gu Cheng’s tone, no matter how objective he tried to be, there was caution in it.

“Yeah. He screwed us over twice. Both times we ended up in a bad state.” Gu Cheng said calmly.

“Oh, so this time, should we strike first?”

Hearing Zhao Yanzhi’s words, Zhao Wanzhi couldn’t help but glance at her cousin.

They had time-traveled, and unfortunately, this world had become an apocalypse. But Zhao Wanzhi considered herself a normal, mentally mature adult woman. She wasn’t yet capable of being as cold-blooded as Zhao Yanzhi seemed to be, casually deciding someone’s fate.

She just wasn’t the saintly type trying to save the world either.

Her cousin had been the “child of other people” since childhood—top grades, great looks, good at sports. He just had a cold personality, which adults saw as a minor flaw.

Everyone said he was an unapproachable “high mountain flower,” but Zhao Wanzhi felt he wasn’t really looking down on others—he deliberately kept his distance.

His thinking seemed to have a bit of an antisocial tendency.

Gu Cheng seemed to know Zhao Yanzhi well and didn’t react to his words, just answering, “No need. I got revenge in the past life. He died even worse.” He paused. “Just make sure Wanwan doesn’t get fooled by him again.”

Zhao Wanzhi: “…”

“Fooled how? Emotionally?” Zhao Yanzhi asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Gu Cheng said. “In the end, he really fell for Wanwan.”

Zhao Wanzhi: “…Hey hey hey, whose story are you two talking about?”

“But Wanwan didn’t want to play some angsty love game with him. He almost got us killed twice. The first time, Wanwan almost died too. After that, he couldn’t bear to hurt her anymore.” Gu Cheng laughed. “In the past life, Wanwan, you were the one who killed him.”

Zhao Yanzhi looked at his cousin in surprise.

“Not just a single stab,” Gu Cheng said with a half-smile. “He was tortured to death by Wanwan. He suffered for about two days before he died.”

Zhao Wanzhi: “…………………………”

So it wasn’t her cousin who had the antisocial tendencies—it was her.