Living with My Aloof Ex-Wife After the Apocalypse - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Where Are You Going?

When Chen Sheng and his group had forced Qing Meng to go out and place the radio earlier, they were treating her as a scapegoat. From the very beginning, they never intended for her to make it back alive.

Qing Meng didn’t care to dwell on it, but someone eventually needed to settle that score for her.

Jiang Ping’an, however, had no idea what Xing He was thinking. She was simply speechless—at a time like this, this woman could actually manage to smile.

“Listen, big sister, do you realize that if Chen Sheng and the others leave and don’t come back, the patients will stop believing those kinds of excuses? By the time we actually want to go out and find a rescue team, they won’t let us leave.”

Xing He nodded in agreement. “That’s true.”

Once a large group of people huddles together, their individual capacity for reasoning weakens. Various thoughts, whether correct or biased, eventually homogenize into a single voice. People don’t care if that voice is right or wrong; they simply need to align with it to feel a sense of belonging within the crowd.

If Chen Sheng didn’t return, even if the doctors present hadn’t participated in the abandonment, the remaining patients would inevitably lose trust in them. Xing He didn’t want unnecessary sacrifices caused by the irrationality of a mob, so she didn’t plan on notifying them at all.

Her watch showed that it was already 1:00 PM. The rescue team should be arriving soon, and this mission only required two people.

“We leave in twenty minutes to find the rescue team. Qing Meng and I will go together.”

“What about me?” Jiang Ping’an pointed at herself.

Xing He patted her shoulder. “You stay here to soothe the patients. They rely on you doctors the most. They don’t know me or Qing Meng at all; it won’t matter to them if we leave.”

What kind of plan is this? How is it any different from a suicide mission?

Jiang Ping’an looked at Qing Meng angrily, hoping her friend would take her side and give Xing He a piece of her mind to wake her up.

Qing Meng acted as if she hadn’t even heard Xing He’s words. Her face remained expressionless, and even her eyelashes only flickered imperceptibly. Though she looked normal on the surface, Jiang Ping’an knew at a glance—Qing Meng probably only processed the part about “going together.”

Jiang Ping’an shot her a frustrated look of “disappointment in a friend.” This woman didn’t realize how dangerous this was. “I don’t agree. It’s too dangerous outside. If we go, all three of us go. If not, then nobody goes. At worst, we just wait here.”

Jiang Ping’an sat back in her chair with her arms crossed, looking ready to throw a tantrum if necessary.

Xing He understood that Jiang Ping’an was worried about Qing Meng’s safety, and she felt exactly the same way. When two hundred patients are gathered in a small set of rooms, every bit of malice and greed is magnified; the line between helping each other and mutual destruction is paper-thin. In Xing He’s mind, compared to the zombies outside, the variables inside this room were actually more dangerous.

Xing He didn’t want to test human nature. She could only feel at peace if she kept Qing Meng by her side. Although she felt somewhat sorry for Jiang Ping’an having to face the danger alone, Qing Meng was special. Xing He was only willing and able to take her.

“Okay.”

Qing Meng agreed directly. Her expression was as calm as if she were accepting an invitation to dinner rather than an invitation to fight through a swarm of zombies barehanded.

Deep down, Qing Meng felt a touch of reckless madness; she felt that even if she died, it would be alright. After all, she would be with Xing He—just the two of them. However, since being alive offered more possibilities, Qing Meng quickly shifted back to a rational state of mind.

She leaned closer to Xing He and whispered, “How sure are you of this?”

Since she had to protect another person, Xing He gave a conservative estimate. “Ninety percent.”

Qing Meng’s eyebrows arched, and her pale pink lips parted slightly. Clearly, she was shocked.

If she didn’t have her superpower, the chance of leading Qing Meng through the horde to the parking lot would be 70%. But with an ability that specifically countered zombies, the 90% figure was only because Xing He was naturally cautious.

Aside from being limited by physical stamina and mental strength, superpowers usually had no side effects, but Xing He didn’t yet know how long the effect lasted or how large the range was. To be safe, she would wait until the critical moment to use it.

Seeing Xing He’s confidence, Qing Meng didn’t ask further. She stood up and pulled Jiang Ping’an aside. No one knew what they whispered to each other, but when they returned, though Jiang Ping’an was still reluctant, she no longer tried to stop them.

Twenty minutes later, Xing He led Qing Meng and crept down to the fourth floor. Their movements didn’t attract anyone’s attention. The door Xing He had closed to block the horde was still shut tight; the zombies inside hadn’t noticed them and were still aimlessly crowding the stairwell.

She didn’t see Chen Sheng’s group, but Xing He didn’t care. They worked here; it wasn’t strange for them to know some internal passages.

She turned her gaze downstairs. Thanks to that female zombie from earlier, nearly half the zombies in the hospital were gathered here. Zombies with twisted limbs and faces covered in dried blood were mere inches away. Qing Meng felt an instinctive surge of fear. But she didn’t want to affect Xing He. Even though her face lost its color and her fingers gripped until her knuckles were white, she tried her best to remain calm and collected.

Xing He didn’t plan on going down the stairs; the space was too cramped and the zombie density was too high. She climbed out a window and stood on an extended ledge to observe the first floor.

The elevator lobby, which had been packed with zombies earlier, now only held two. She guessed the rest had either followed the female zombie into the stairwell or wandered elsewhere. On the open ground between the building and the back gate, there were only a few scattered zombies.

Below the window at an angle were two air-conditioning units. Xing He planned to use them to jump from the second floor to the first, then help Qing Meng down. Before that, she needed to clear the zombies below.

The stairwell was only separated from this area by an ordinary door. If there was any loud noise, the zombies inside would burst through. Fortunately, the ledge outside the window was wide, and the angled outer wall blocked the view from the stairwell. The area outside the zombies’ line of sight was relatively safe.

Qing Meng waited on the ledge while Xing He successfully descended to the first floor. Although she tried to be as quiet as possible, the sound of her landing still caught the attention of two nearby zombies.

Xing He didn’t hesitate. She kicked the head of the closer zombie away and swung her blade to decapitate the other. She handled them quietly enough that the surrounding zombies remained in their original positions.

Once it was temporarily safe, Xing He stood below to assist, and Qing Meng made it down from the upper floor successfully.

“Liu Yan and Fan Wei?”

Hearing the surprise in Qing Meng’s voice, Xing He took a second look at the two zombies on the ground. They were indeed the two who had left with Chen Sheng. Their end was exactly as Xing He had expected; she just didn’t know where Chen Sheng had run off to.

Without lingering, Xing He and Qing Meng hugged the walls and hurried toward the outpatient building. Level 1 zombies were a minority after all; most of the ones they encountered were slow-moving, dull-witted ordinary zombies. Xing He’s long blade solved all these small troubles.

Compared to Xing He’s composure, Qing Meng’s emotions were more complex. Although she had been close to the horde before, it was only after leaving the inpatient building that she saw how dire the situation outside truly was.

The ground was littered with severed limbs, food mixed with vomit, and the once-grand, solemn buildings were now covered in shattered glass and debris from zombie destruction. With zombies roaming everywhere and not a single living person in sight, it truly felt like the end of the world.

Can the rescue team really save us? Where can we go even if we find them?

Qing Meng didn’t know. She could only follow behind Xing He, instinctively grabbing the hem of her shirt as if clutching the only small boat in a violent storm.

When Xing He and Qing Meng finally reached the vicinity of the outpatient building, the entrance was already swarming with zombies. The only fire escape leading to the second floor was also surrounded. Xing He suspected that Chen Sheng had attracted the horde when he came here, causing the entire outpatient building to be “wrapped” by zombies.

With such a large number of zombies, she couldn’t guarantee that her “Lure” ability would be completely effective. Xing He had only looked at the hospital map briefly and didn’t know if there were other routes. She began to worry.

Seeing Xing He’s silence, Qing Meng seemed to know what she was thinking. “The outpatient building only has two entrances: the fire escape and the elevator. It’s probably impossible to get to the B1 level through here now.”

“But when I took a taxi here this morning, I noticed you can enter the underground garage directly from outside the hospital.”

Xing He looked thoughtful. You can enter the garage from the outside? If that was true, things became much simpler. They would leave the hospital first and then make their next move.

Xing He led Qing Meng carefully around the swarm and didn’t take long to reach the front gate. There weren’t many zombies here, and the Wrangler was still parked exactly where it had been in the morning, completely undamaged.

Qing Meng had ridden in Xing He’s car many times before, so even before getting in, she easily noticed that the vehicle seemed a bit different from how it used to be. Although the destination wasn’t far, having a “metal shell” as cover was much safer than being exposed.

Following Qing Meng’s directions, Xing He drove near the parking lot entrance. The situation wasn’t as optimistic as hoped; groups of zombies were wandering in front of the entrance, though it was still better than the situation inside the hospital.

She parked the car in a relatively safe spot. Xing He got out first and immediately locked the doors behind her. Now that they were out of the hospital, the inside of the car was currently the safest place. To prevent anything from happening to Qing Meng, she planned to go into the underground parking lot alone.

Inside the car, Qing Meng was about to get out when she heard the sound of the locks clicking. She tapped on the window urgently. As Xing He had expected, Qing Meng was stubborn and would never agree to let her take the risk alone. Xing He sighed and rolled down the window.

Qing Meng immediately reached out and grabbed Xing He’s hand, as if afraid she would run away.

“Where are you going?”

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