Picking Up My Ex-Wife in the Apocalypse - Chapter 16

As they stepped out of the house woven from mutated vines, Si Qi turned to thank the plant. The greenery looked wilted and drained of energy, but it managed to give a sluggish wave of its leaves.

The sky wasn’t particularly bright; a pale, greenish sun hung like a cheap ornament, offering no warmth to the snow-covered wasteland. Si Qi tightened her coat and looked at Si Ruxu.

Today, Si Ruxu had changed into a charcoal-grey overcoat. A few stray curls tucked behind her ears, and her gaze was distant, as if she were sifting through a library of complex thoughts. Gentle, slow, soft… Si Qi tried to pin a label on her, but none of them seemed to fit the danger that pulsed beneath the surface. Following this woman was a constant gamble with death.

There were fewer Awakened on the road now. Some recognized Si Ruxu from a distance but chose to keep their heads down rather than approach. Si Qi lingered a step behind, trying to eavesdrop on their hushed whispers, when she felt a firm hand grasp hers.

“Why are you lagging so far behind? Are you a child?” Si Ruxu’s words sounded like a scolding, but her tone was brimming with amusement. She tilted her head, leaning close to Si Qi’s ear, and left a butterfly-light kiss on the lobe.

“Shh. They don’t dare come forward. Don’t worry.”

Si Qi’s brain felt like it had been flooded with hot blood, short-circuiting her ability to think. After several seconds of stunned silence, she gave a dazed nod. Si Ruxu’s smile didn’t fade; she watched the girl with shimmering eyes.

“Hm? Awake now?”

Si Qi nodded frantically, mentally categorizing the kiss as an accidental brush while whispering. She kept her head down and marched forward. Her gaze fell to their intertwined fingers, her thoughts turning thick and syrupy before she snapped back to reality and steadied her heartbeat.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped slightly ahead of Si Ruxu and adjusted their grip so her hand was firmly cupping the other’s. It made it look like she was the one leading Si Ruxu.

“Deliberately showing them how ‘intimate’ we are… is there a tactical reason for this?” Si Qi asked, trying to sound as cold as possible.

“Mm… perhaps I just want them all to know you’re mine.”

“I’m part of your squad, you mean?”

“Maybe you’re the person in my heart. Who’s to say?”

“Hmph.”

Si Qi didn’t believe a word of it. She simply upgraded her internal ranking for herself in Si Ruxu’s mind: from “partner” to “incredibly useful tool.” She had been discarded once; she held her guard high against every ounce of Si Ruxu’s kindness.

*****

As they entered the base’s territory, alarms blared. Red lights flashed across the walls. Si Qi narrowed her eyes. “Is your base really this wealthy? Even in this era, you’re using this much power for alarms?”

“It’s likely because of my S-rank bounty,” Si Ruxu said with a laugh. She didn’t seem to care. After surviving the Purge, who would waste the lives of dozens or hundreds of Awakened just to take her down? Besides, the base didn’t yet know what Si Qi was capable of.

True to her prediction, no one blocked their path. They reached the headquarters unchallenged. Si Qi looked around; the outer base was familiar, but the Core Zone was entirely encased in metal. People in white coats hurried about, some even pausing to nod politely at Si Ruxu. Every wall was fitted with acoustic panels made of some reinforced alloy.

“That was the outer core, where high-rankers take missions,” Si Ruxu explained. “This is the inner core. Only top researchers and elite Awakened are allowed in.”

Si Qi suppressed her urge to gawk, following behind with a practiced, mature silence.

Si Ruxu scanned her face at a high-security door and walked into a lab. Five Awakened stood guard inside. In the center was a man with a jagged scar across his face, tinged with a faint, greenish hue.

“That’s the Base Commander,” Si Ruxu whispered. Si Qi gave a curt nod but didn’t say a word.

“Well, if it isn’t Miss Si. I thought you’d run off with the base’s resources,” a young man nearby said snidely. He looked at Si Qi with disdain. “And you brought back… whatever this is? You think the base is a shelter for strays?”

Si Qi looked at him coldly. With a flick of her hand, she threw a space blade that shaved the man’s head clean, leaving only enough hair to spell out two characters: “DUMB ASS.”

The man felt his head go light. He touched his scalp, and clumps of hair fell into his hands. “Who—who attacked me?! My hair! Do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain a hairstyle in this hellish world?!”

Si Ruxu squeezed Si Qi’s hand, then said softly, “Is it so hard to believe that karma finally caught up to you?”

“You…!” The man lunged forward, but the scarred Commander stopped him.

“Enough. It’s good that you’re back. You know as well as I do that few people could actually take you down; the bounty was just to ensure you returned.” The Commander’s gaze shifted to Si Qi, searching and suspicious. “But you know the rules. No unauthorized personnel in the inner core. Are you openly defying regulations?”

“We entered the first Great Purge,” Si Ruxu said flatly. She noted the group in the room; two people were missing.

The first Purge had cost the base two of its top elites. Across all bases, nearly ten thousand Awakened had perished. The Commander knew exactly how valuable a survivor of the Purge was.

His eyes flickered. “Introduce her.”

Si Qi frowned. She truly detested that commanding tone. Perhaps because her strength had grown, her backbone had stiffened along with it.

Si Ruxu’s thumb stroked the back of Si Qi’s hand, a silent signal to keep her cool. Si Qi looked away from the Commander and scanned the other three. There was the now-bald man, a cold-faced woman, and a pleasant-looking man. Si Qi had a bit of face-blindness; she didn’t know them, and her gut told her none of them were particularly “good” people.

Si Ruxu asked Si Qi for the clue from the Purge. Si Qi reread the note one last time to burn it into her memory before handing it over.

Si Ruxu teased, “Afraid we won’t give it back?”

“I trust you,” Si Qi said. “But I don’t know the base.”

The Commander’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t stupid; he understood Si Qi’s meaning perfectly—she wasn’t under the base’s control. She only listened to Si Ruxu. In a world starved for talent, this realization forced him to suppress his irritation. He couldn’t eliminate Si Ruxu if it meant losing Si Qi.

“Follow me to the inner chamber,” the Commander told Si Ruxu. “The rest of you, introduce yourselves properly to our new friend.” He emphasized the word “properly.”

*****

Once the leaders left, Si Qi sat on a stool and used the credits on the watch Si Ruxu gave her to buy a carton of milk from a vending machine. She noticed the machine had snacks she’d never seen before—likely new research. These people certainly knew how to enjoy themselves despite the apocalypse.

The pleasant-looking man stepped forward. “Hello. I’m Li Peng. The cold one over there is Gu Youlian, and the one without hair is Luo Qingyu.”

Si Qi nodded. She had no desire to memorize their faces. If they were important, she’d see them again; if not, there was no point.

“Si Ruxu said you survived the Purge,” Li Peng said, fishing for information under the guise of casual chatter. “What was it like in there?”

The other two stopped what they were doing and moved closer.

Luo Qingyu, still mourning his hair, glared at her. “Where was Si Ruxu all this time? Everyone thought she’d run off. The base almost couldn’t keep up with the supply demand, did she know that?”

Si Qi glanced up. “A third of the resources and you ‘almost couldn’t keep up’? Maybe skip the salon visits and you’ll be fine.”

Luo Qingyu choked on his rage and went silent. Gu Youlian’s gaze shifted. She had never believed Si Ruxu was a traitor, but the fact that Si Ruxu had told this stranger exactly how many resources she carried spoke volumes about Si Qi’s importance.

Li Peng waved a hand. “You haven’t answered me. What was in the Purge?”

Si Qi thought for a moment. “Ten thousand people. Only Si Ruxu and I survived. There was sky fire, mudslides, a beast tide, and then the dead coming back as living corpses to hunt us.”

The room fell into a tomb-like silence. The Purge was clearly designed to be a total wipeout, yet they had come back. Li Peng wanted to ask more, but Si Qi was already done talking. Dealing with nosy humans was exhausting; she hated socializing.

“We can confirm that the Purge only takes Awakened,” Li Peng continued, noticing Si Qi’s ears twitching as she listened. “Our base lost over two thousand people—the highest loss of any base. That’s why we’re so desperate to secure supplies and level up our remaining members.”

Si Qi nodded. “I see. And do you still provide food for the ordinary people?”

Li Peng’s expression turned awkward. He said nothing.

Si Qi let out a soft, mocking scoff. She turned her attention to the closed door of the inner chamber, focusing her senses to eavesdrop on the conversation inside.

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