Seeing that Chi Xin was silent, they didn’t dare to disturb her. But after waiting for a while, Yu Xiang poked her arm cautiously and asked: “Chi Xin, are you still angry?”
“Now that the misunderstanding was solved, everything is fine, isn’t it?” Chen Xing walked over nervously, shrinking his tall and powerful body and looking straight at Chi Xin, “Sister Chi, you won’t go, will you?”
Chi Xin looked at him and moved her gaze to the others. Jing Xiubai was watching her with serious eyes, worry was written all over Jiang Congyun and further away, although he didn’t come closer, Rong Feng was holding his rifle tightly and was about to break its barrel.
Looking at them, a warm feeling suddenly surged up.
“En1.” Chi Xin responded in a low voice but did not deny she was planning on leaving. According to the inevitability of the plot, even if she didn’t leave now, she would definitely later.
She didn’t want to make senseless promises.
Yu Xiang didn’t hear her deeper meaning and smiled as soon as she agreed. Jing Xiubai however frowned but stayed silent. It was time to go home.
When they reached the car, Han Yiyi, who had been unable to speak for a long time, ran up immediately. She stopped in front of the vehicle and gestured with eyes full of panic and anxiety.
“I forgot about her…” Yu Xiang muttered, “What should we do? Do we have to bring her back with us?”
Chi Xin wanted to point out it wasn’t Han Yiyi’s time to die yet. But with her personality, she didn’t want to take the initiative to bring her along either.
Her eyes swept her surroundings and she said: “Just wait a second.”
Everybody stopped and waited obediently to see what she was planning on doing. When it came to Sister Chi, no one was ever impatient.
Han Yiyi, who was on all four still trying to communicate, witnessed this scene and resentment flashed in her eyes. But because everybody was ignoring her, nobody noticed.
Chi Xin ran to the place she had stopped before. She bent down and dragged out… her little blue scooter.
Yu Xiang’s mind immediately went back to the city mall where they had gone to find cosmetics and he suddenly laughed out loud. Then he recalled how Chi Xin had desperately rescued him and the other soldiers. Why did she think that this issue from when they didn’t even know each other would matter to him? He couldn’t help but shake his head helplessly.
The others didn’t know anything about the scooter but as they watched the heroic and majestic Chi Xin push a small blue bike on the battlefield, they laughed too.
Chi Xin’s big black eyes glanced at them and handed the scooter to Han Yiyi.
“Here. Don’t say we abandoned you.”
She heard a chuckle. She looked back and saw Jing Xiubai with his elbow on the car window. He didn’t have his usually solemn look and was smiling cheerfully, instantly transforming from a movie hero to a real person.
He waved his hand: “Shall we go now?”
“Let’s go.” Jiang Congyun said.
The group got in the car and headed to the convenience store Jing Xiubai had mentioned before ransacking it and rushing back to the base.
“Chi Xin, you really aren’t planning on leaving by yourself, are you?”
Yu Xiang kept thinking about it and couldn’t let go in the end. He turned his head from the passenger seat and asked her with a serious face.
Chi Xin avoided his gaze and looked out the window. The others also watched her and she finally shook her head.
Yu Xiang turned back to the road suspiciously. He always felt that Chi Xin was making plans behind their backs.
“It’s indeed time to move on.” Jing Xiubai turned the steering wheel, “We have been delayed in Base L for a long time and now that the Zombie King has appeared, there is not much time left for mankind.”
The car became silent when his words fell.
“Should we continue to Country A according to the original plan?” Yu Xiang asked.
“I believe so.” Jing Xiubai answered in a deep voice, “All the ability-related drugs were from this laboratory, so should be the zombie ones. There may be serums or vaccines there, we can’t just give up this hope.”
The Base L plot was finally coming to an end. Chi Xin casually looked out the window again as she listened to their discussion.
The scenery was similar to her memory with dilapidated tall buildings, alleys, and streets. This plot had been only a short part of the movie but now that she had experienced it personally, she had found out it had been much longer.
These characters’ struggle to survive, their joy, anger, and pain… as a spectator, in front of a screen, she had felt everything had been exaggerated. But now that she was in there with them, she understood how difficult life at the end of the world was.
Without her attack buff she had asked for when she had first transmigrated, she most likely wouldn’t have survived. Even if she had survived by chance, she would have become one of the thousands of ordinary people struggling and depressed. How could that be considered living?
Chi Xin stretched out her hand and covered the coldness in her eyes. She would not allow anything that would hinder her will and right to survive. Not the zombies, not this world, and definitely not the system.
***
When they returned to the base, Chi Xin was worried about her trouble value and did not dare stay too close to the protagonist group.
When the others went to report the situation to Cao Yan, Chi Xin headed straight to her room instead. But before taking a few steps, Rong Feng stopped her.
“Chi Xin.”
He didn’t call her Sister Chi like the others, nor was he using Yu Xiang deliberately carefree tone. He just called her name softly and she subconsciously waited.
This was the first time he was actually calling her name.
After hesitating whether to go or not, Chi Xin decided to wait for him.
“Yes?” She turned around.
Chi Xin returned to her room confused. She took off her clothes and soaked them in the water, before pouring half of a bottle of detergent. She had just replenished her inventory and had a lot left but the former young miss of the Chi family didn’t know how to do laundry and only rubbed her clothes until bubbles covered the entire floor.
As she washed, Chi Xin thought about what to do now that the “incident exposure” plot had been used. How could she break away from the team now?
She looked at herself in the mirror and saw the pendant-shaped mark on her collarbone, suddenly feeling that the color was darker than before.
She thought she was seeing wrong and lowered her head to observe it more carefully.
It wasn’t an illusion. The faint emerald imprint had changed into a dark green and it no longer blended with her skin. It didn’t look like a birthmark anymore but was slightly protruding, just like a brand.
Chi Xin touched the mark and the uneven touch made her think.