Picking Up My Ex-Wife in the Apocalypse - Chapter 21

“Boss, are we really packing up and leaving? We’ve been searching this forest for so long.” Deep in the woods, a group was gathering their gear, hacking through the brush as they beat a retreat.

“Yes. Rumors are spreading that Si Ruxu never lost her powers. A Level 6 Awakened was shredded into mist in the blink of an eye.” The lead woman’s gaze was heavy. She scanned the surroundings while clearing a path through the thorns.

“What if they’re lying? And why aren’t we taking the path we already cleared?”

“I’d rather believe a lie and live than doubt the truth and die. Si Ruxu has already made her move; she’s likely looking to make an example out of a few more squads. It’s not worth our lives for a few measly points.”

The voices of the squad faded into the distance. Si Qi leaped down from a high branch, her eyes scanning the tracks left behind. She crouched and picked up a charred bounty poster from the forest floor.

“What are you thinking about?” Si Ruxu asked softly, watching Si Qi’s profile. “Are you planning to turn me in for the reward?”

Si Qi looked at her with genuine confusion. “Do you really think those points are worth more than you?”

“Mm… I don’t know. It depends on what’s in your heart.” A faint, hollow smile touched the corners of Si Ruxu’s eyes. Looking at her, Si Qi felt she looked less like a powerful elite and more like a kitten lacking any sense of security.

Si Qi tilted her head. She had noticed Si Ruxu asking these kinds of questions lately—dreaming of abandonment, asking what Si Qi wanted from her.

“Are you… afraid?” Si Qi asked.

Si Ruxu froze. A soft flush crept onto her ears. She stepped closer, hooking her arm around Si Qi’s neck, her voice dropping to a velvety whisper. “Yes. I’m afraid. Will you leave me behind?”

At her core, Si Ruxu didn’t trust anyone. She knew Si Qi might love her, but she also knew that love was a volatile thing; fragile when faced with survival and absolute profit. Yet, the fact that Si Qi wanted nothing from her made her uneasy.

Si Qi didn’t take this as flirting. She looked Si Ruxu in the eye and said, with absolute finality, “I will never leave you. Not as long as I’m breathing.”

Si Ruxu’s grip tightened briefly, then relaxed. She nodded. Her goal was achieved, yet the unease remained, a flood crashing against a wall that had no visible cracks.

****

Within days, the number of hunting squads in the area dwindled. After weeks in the dark forest, the rare, bright sunlight felt like a gift. Si Qi stretched lazily, but they remained on the move, taking the long way toward the Research Institute.

“The people at the Institute are reclusive. I’m not sure what price they’ll demand for their help,” Si Ruxu shared, her voice laced with worry. “And… what if they want to take you for study?”

“They won’t. We have to try everything.” Si Qi smiled to comfort her. Si Ruxu’s core was too damaged; even a minor use of her power could be fatal. Whatever the cost, Si Qi was determined to fix it.

Si Ruxu had to live. It wasn’t just about love—the woman was so obsessed with ending the apocalypse that Si Qi felt she deserved to see the sun on the day it finally ended.

As evening fell, they lit a campfire. The warm glow danced on Si Ruxu’s thick lashes. Even though it wasn’t particularly cold, she held her hands over the fire until they turned red. Si Qi took her hands, feeling the scorching heat, and pulled her away from the flames.

The fall from grace was hitting Si Ruxu harder than she let on; she was hiding her fragility behind a mask.

The crackle of the wood was suddenly joined by the sound of slow, rhythmic footsteps. A tall, lean young man stepped out of the shadows. One side of his face was illuminated by the fire; the other remained in darkness.

Si Qi’s eyes sharpened. In the same breath, a space blade whistled past the man’s head.

“We’ve met before. I’m Luo Fenghe.” The young man raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised that Si Qi would strike so quickly.

Si Ruxu looked up, her gaze clinical. Si Qi frowned, struggling to place the name.

“Don’t know you,” Si Qi said. She’d seen too many faces lately; if she’d only seen someone once or twice, she forgot them the moment she turned around.

Luo Fenghe went silent for a beat. “We met near the base. You said you were hunting Si Ruxu. I invited you to join my base.”

Si Qi instinctively glanced at Si Ruxu, meeting her “I told you so” smirk. Si Qi looked away, her pinky reaching out to catch Si Ruxu’s sleeve in a silent, pleading apology.

“I should have known…” Luo Fenghe said, a glint of calculation in his eyes. “How could a Level 5 survive out here alone? You were always together. Your former base… their methods were disgraceful. Everyone knows they used people as meat shields.” He paused, searching their faces for a reaction.

“I know Si Ruxu’s condition. Her core. My base can solve it.”

Si Qi stood up, brushing the dust from her clothes. “Why should I believe you?”

Luo Fenghe’s gaze swept over the silent Si Ruxu. “I want to recruit you. Fixing her core is a gesture of sincerity. Besides, she’s a top-tier asset; I have no reason to lie.”

He looked at their travel route. “You’re heading for the Institute, aren’t you? Their price for treatment is monstrous. Her core is already spider-webbing, isn’t it?” He pulled a blank jade token from his pocket. It radiated a bone-deep chill. “This is an Institute token. A few months ago, a friend of mine was mortally wounded. I went to the Institute, but by the time I got the token back to him, he was already dead.”

He spoke with a smile, showing no trace of grief, as if he were discussing a stranger’s business.

“So, you want to buy our lives with that token? Is that it?” Si Ruxu looked up. Her voice was flat, but Si Qi could feel a suppressed, explosive energy beneath it. It was the first time she’d seen Si Ruxu truly angry.

“It’s a fair trade.”

“Luo Fenghe, what happened back then was a mistake. But I paid the price, didn’t I?”

Before he could say more, Si Qi stepped in front of Si Ruxu, her body radiating an icy threat. “Leave. Now.”

She cared about Si Ruxu’s life, but she would always choose the path that aligned with Si Ruxu’s heart.

Luo Fenghe sighed. “I’ll be waiting outside the Institute.” He knew better than anyone how impossible their terms were. He was the only one who had ever passed their test, yet he had lost the race against time.

*****

The moon climbed high. Si Qi tossed a small stick into the fire, watching the flames consume it.

“Si Qi,” Si Ruxu murmured, leaning her weight against the girl. “Aren’t you going to ask why I won’t take his token?”

“Will you tell me?”

“Years ago, two people had their cores shattered. One was my friend. When I reached the Institute, they told me they could only repair one core per month. So I went to find Luo Fenghe.”

Si Ruxu had originally just wanted to borrow a bit of the token’s power to extend her friend’s life. When she found Luo Fenghe, he was standing before a small mound of dirt on a rainy night, his hands dripping blood.

He had looked at her with eyes that were almost bleeding. “You want the token?” his voice had been a raspy ghost of itself.

“He wasn’t a leader back then,” Si Ruxu continued, her voice like bitter wine. “He was just an ordinary Metal-type.”

“Did he give it to you?”

“He told me to kill for it. I went to a small cabin in the woods. There was a child inside. Or rather… a small zombie.”

Si Ruxu described the cabin—spotless, with the small zombie wearing a bite-guard, snarling in its cage. “People used to keep them back then, out of love or grief. But they aren’t people anymore. They’re just shells. I was horrified.”

“Did you kill it?”

“Yes. Quite easily.”

A long silence followed. Si Ruxu looked at Si Qi with a transparent, fragile smile. “Am I cruel?”

Si Qi shook her head. “No. Survival of the fittest. If you were the one in danger, I’d do the same.”

Si Ruxu felt her panicked heart being cupped by gentle hands. “He lied to me. When I went back, he was gone. I spent weeks looking for him while carrying my friend. My friend died on the road.”

Si Ruxu was hurting. Si Qi had seen her in many states, but never like this.

Suddenly, Si Qi remembered the day her mother died, years before the apocalypse. The sun had been bright, shining on the truck that hit her mother, and on the teenage Si Ruxu standing across the street, watching without a single emotion on her face.

Si Qi had always told herself it was normal, that you couldn’t feel the pain of a stranger. She had smiled for Si Ruxu during the day and fought with her father at night to give her mother a proper burial. Si Ruxu had never once hurt for her.

Seeing that same grief on Si Ruxu now, Si Qi’s voice turned thick and hollow. “Si Ruxu… when the apocalypse ends, maybe the dead will come back. Your friend will return.”

“I promise.”

It was the first time Si Qi had ever lied to her. She realized then that deception was easy. She wasn’t afraid of the truth coming out; she had a mental hourglass, counting the seconds of her own life.

She didn’t believe she would live to see the end of the world.

Support