Picking Up My Ex-Wife in the Apocalypse - Chapter 18

Early the next morning, a frantic pounding on the door jolted Si Qi awake. She struggled out of bed and, before Si Ruxu could even open her eyes, used her ability to blink the person outside directly to the bedside.

It was a woman, perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six, and strikingly beautiful. Her long hair fell loosely around her shoulders, but it was her eyes that Si Qi noticed first. They were like hooks, captivating and sharp. Yet, the woman’s current expression of utter bewilderment made them look as clear and startled as a mountain spring.

“Mm… what’s going on?” Si Ruxu had just woken up. Her voice was lazy and raspy as she naturally leaned half her weight against Si Qi. It had taken considerable effort to haul the dead-asleep Si Qi into the bedroom last night, and she had stayed up late.

The woman standing by the bed looked restless and out of place. It took a long moment for Si Ruxu to fully clear the fog of sleep. She fixed her amber eyes on the visitor, waiting in silence.

The woman’s gaze darted to Si Qi’s face, and she let out a soft, knowing laugh. “Word was you brought someone back with you, but nobody mentioned she was your bedmate.”

Si Ruxu’s fingers curled slightly. She stole a glance at Si Qi, who was looking down at her, the girl’s clear eyes reflecting Si Ruxu’s own silhouette. A sudden, sharp pang of guilt shot through Si Ruxu’s heart—a sensation so brief she almost mistook it for a glitch in her own heartbeat.

“What is it?” Si Ruxu’s voice was flat. The woman before them was the deputy of her squad—someone she had scavenged from the ruins. She refused to give a full name, saying only that her surname was Lin. After Si Ruxu rejected her tenth attempt to name herself “Lin Ruxu,” the woman finally settled on Lin Xu.

Lin Xu was meticulous, gentle, and possessed a rock-solid temperament. She was the most composed member of the squad; unless the entire base had vanished, Si Ruxu couldn’t imagine what would cause her to pound on the door at dawn.

“You survived the Purge… with this little sister here?” Lin Xu’s eyes crinkled with a mix of curiosity and calculation.

Hearing the word “sister,” Si Ruxu did the math. They had fallen in love at seventeen, stayed together for five years, and had been apart for two. Si Qi was twenty-four—two years younger than the twenty-six-year-old Lin Xu. The label wasn’t wrong.

“You’re rarely this idle… I didn’t want to disturb you,” Lin Xu said, watching Si Ruxu’s face for any sign of distress. Seeing her captain remain calm, she let out a sigh of relief. “But something happened. The squad was disbanded last night. Everyone except for me has resigned.”

“Mm. The old fossils finally made their move,” Si Ruxu said dismissively. “People who leave for a few scraps aren’t worth keeping anyway. Let them go.”

As Si Ruxu and Lin Xu exchanged intel, Si Qi listened in silence, mentally organizing the state of the world. Several powerful bases had formed a coalition, absorbing smaller ones until resource wars had mostly ceased, replaced by a system of merit-based distribution. Some bases were even building “memory vaults” and cryo-pods, preparing to freeze human civilization in case the apocalypse proved terminal.

How ridiculous, Si Qi thought. With disasters striking from the sky, sea, and ground, how did they plan to protect a bunch of metal boxes? It would be better to invest those resources into making humans stronger.

She remained disinterested until Si Ruxu revealed to Lin Xu that the Purge was actually a glimpse into the future world. Si Qi studied Lin Xu then. Si Ruxu hadn’t told the Commander this, meaning Lin Xu was more trustworthy. She began categorizing everyone as “Good” or “Bad” based solely on Si Ruxu’s treatment of them.

As Lin Xu prepared to leave, she threw a teasing look at Si Qi. “It’s the first time I’ve seen the great Si Ruxu acting so soft and delicate in someone’s arms. Did you two know each other before?”

Soft and delicate? Si Qi thought Si Ruxu had been acting nauseatingly affected, as if she were performing “intimacy” for an audience.

“She’s my ex-wife.”

Before Si Qi could answer, Si Ruxu’s voice rang out from behind. She had finished freshening up and was holding two pieces of toast,親近地 holding one to Si Qi’s lips.

Si Qi bit into it instinctively. The soft, buttery texture was a revelation. She took the rest of the slice and chewed slowly, but her brain was buzzing. Ex-wife. Why acknowledge her now? Before, they had passed each other like strangers. After Lin Xu left with a knowing smirk, Si Ruxu closed the door, only to be immediately pinned against it by a warm, solid body.

“Ex… wife.”

The words were ground out between Si Qi’s teeth, carrying a dangerous, low edge.

Si Ruxu didn’t pull away, even though the grip was loose enough to break. She looked up at Si Qi, her right hand reaching up to cup the girl’s cheek. She saw the faint redness in Si Qi’s eyes.

Leaning back against the door, Si Ruxu looked gentle, almost dazed, as if she were drowning in the sensation. “What are you thinking about?” she whispered. Her voice trembled slightly, giving the illusion that she was the one being bullied.

Si Ruxu thought: If Si Qi has this kind of desire for me… if this is what it takes to make her mine completely… then she can do whatever she wants to me.

She tilted her head slightly, her lips drifting closer to Si Qi’s in a silent invitation. She could feel Si Qi’s ragged breath, but at the last second, Si Qi jerked her head away. Only her flushed ears gave her away.

Si Qi looked at her, her eyes searching. “Si Ruxu,” she whispered, “do I finally have the ‘qualification’ to be used by you?”

The words hit Si Ruxu like a physical blow. A sharp, stinging ache—one she hadn’t anticipated—spread through her chest.

Suddenly, Si Ruxu remembered the first time she had seen Si Qi years ago. A teenage girl in a grey-and-white school uniform, crouching at the dorm entrance in the rain. She had been holding an umbrella, not over herself, but over a stray kitten taking a nap.

The girl was thin, but the cat was well-fed.

After years of looking down on Si Qi’s kindness and “weakness,” Si Ruxu realized she had forgotten that this was exactly what she had fallen in love with: a girl who was always gentle, who never got angry, and who used a soft heart to face a world of sharp edges.

Si Qi’s gaze grew dark. She slowly let go. For a second, panic flared in Si Ruxu’s chest. She reached out to grab Si Qi’s sleeve, but her fingers curled back as she hesitated. A crushing sense of impending loss flooded her.

Si Qi let out a silent breath of relief. After being tortured by this obsession for so long, she realized today that she didn’t want Si Ruxu as much as she thought. She might still love her, but she didn’t want her. Some wounds, even after they scar over, still ache when you press down on them.

She picked up the milk on the table and finished her toast. Si Ruxu didn’t need to worry about betrayal; as long as she kept Si Qi well-fed and housed, Si Qi would never leave. It was that simple.

*****

They sat across from each other in a silence neither dared to break. Si Ruxu, noticing Si Qi was still hungry, spread some jam on more toast and handed it to her.

Si Qi smiled her thanks. But just as she was about to take a bite, the apartment plunged into total darkness.

She reacted instantly, stuffing the bread into her mouth and bolting to the window to tear back the curtains. Sunlight flooded in, revealing a third person in the room—a masked figure in black.

The three of them stood in a tense, eerie standoff.

Si Ruxu’s lightning coiled into a whip, lashing out to bind the intruder’s hands. “Si Qi! Now! Take off the mask!”

Si Qi blinked forward, but the moment her fingers hooked the fabric, a massive force repelled her. She held on tight, only to be hurled backward. Her waist slammed into the edge of a table with a sickening thud, and she coughed up a spray of blood.

Her face went ashen as she struggled to rise. She looked up, seeing the man behind the mask. He had a scarred face—a face that looked like the man who had been discarded in the snow, and exactly like the Base Commander she had met yesterday.

Si Ruxu forced herself to look away from the injured Si Qi. She glared at the man. “So it really is you.”

The man let out a chilling, raspy laugh. “I underestimated you. When did you start doubting me?”

“You knew my energy was depleted,” Si Ruxu said, her eyes flashing. “That’s why you felt safe enough to dismantle my squad. Aside from Si Qi, the only person who knew I was vulnerable was the person who ambushed me.”

The Commander hadn’t gone on a mission in years; no one knew his true strength. With Si Qi injured, they were at a terrifying disadvantage. Si Ruxu tried to buy time.

“I’m curious,” she said, feigning a casual air. “Why go to all this trouble just to kill me?”

The Commander caught Si Ruxu’s lightning whip with his bare hand. The smell of charred flesh filled the room, but he didn’t flinch. He crushed the lightning in his palm, a twisted, predatory smile on his face.

“Why? Because you’re too ‘righteous.’ All this talk about rebuilding order and equality… it’s the apocalypse! Might makes right. I want everyone on their knees before me.”

His expression turned bloodthirsty. In the corner, Si Qi felt a dark, restless power beginning to boil in her own veins.

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