Picking Up My Ex-Wife in the Apocalypse - Chapter 22

The last traces of snow left by the Great Frost were swept away by the sun. In the distance, Si Qi saw the silver gates rising from the barren earth, their metallic sheen gleaming under the daylight.

Cloaked in her coat, she left a trail of footprints in the damp, muddy soil until the Research Institute’s gates groaned open. A wave of cold air mixed with the scent of machinery rushed out to meet them.

A humanoid robot scanned Si Ruxu several times, its screen flickering with static before a woman’s voice filtered through the speakers. “Enter. Follow it.”

Si Qi took Si Ruxu’s hand, passing through layers of reinforced steel until they stopped at a heavy bulkhead. The valve hissed open. The rhythmic click of high heels grew louder until a woman in a flowing red dress strolled toward them. She crinkled her flirtatious, fox-like eyes, and her red lips parted: “What could possibly be worth such a journey for you two?”

“My friend… her core is shattered. I heard you can repair them here. I want to… I’m begging you. Save her.”

Begging was common in the apocalypse, but it was a first for Si Qi. Her ears burned with the weight of the request. She quickly added, “Any price. I’ll pay whatever it costs.”

The woman in red tilted her head, evaluating Si Qi. After a long silence, she smiled playfully. “I have everything I need here. But you…”

She cast a predatory gaze over Si Qi. Two slender fingers reached out to lift Si Qi’s chin with an intimate slowness. The scent of jasmine wafted between them.

“Offer yourself to me for my research, and I’ll save her.”

Before Si Qi could even process the words, Si Ruxu grabbed her hand and pulled her back several steps. Her eyes were sharp with caution, and her voice was an absolute, non-negotiable rejection: “No.”

“Oh? Even if you have to die a slow, agonizing death as your core splinters piece by piece?” The woman withdrew her hand, the warmth in her gaze replaced by shrewd calculation and a poised smile. “Little sister, don’t you care about your own life?”

Si Ruxu frowned. She stared down the researcher, her voice cool and showing no sign of weakness.

“My death is a small thing. But Si Qi… if someone like you is interested in her, then keeping her here for your experiments would mean humanity losing its last shred of hope.”

Si Ruxu tugged at Si Qi, turning to leave, but Si Qi remained rooted to the spot. She kept her head down, silent and unmoving.

“Si Qi, we’re going home.”

When she was being hunted by the base, when she realized her core was dying, when she decided to give up on treatment—Si Ruxu hadn’t panicked for a single second. But now, looking at Si Qi’s face half-submerged in the shadows, her heart seized with a suffocating, numbing dread.

“I accept.” Si Qi broke Si Ruxu’s grip, prying her fingers away one by one. She looked at the woman in red and repeated herself, each word deliberate. “I agree.”

“Si Qi!” Si Ruxu grabbed her hand again, her voice heavy and urgent. “I told you, I don’t need you to save me. You have to live so the world has hope, do you understand?”

“I don’t understand.” Si Qi’s voice was hauntingly quiet. She raised her eyes—dark and bottomless—to meet Si Ruxu’s gaze. “Si Ruxu, I’m not like you. I don’t miss ‘home’ at all. I never liked the old world.”

Not the childhood spent in a leaky house where the sun never reached. Not the adolescent years defined by damp self-loathing and helpless fear. And certainly not the young adulthood spent losing the one she loved, left to struggle between life and death.

The world had never shown her much kindness. She didn’t love the world; she loved Si Ruxu. Therefore, Si Ruxu came before everyone else.

“Then what do you like? Tell me!” Si Ruxu’s voice trembled with rage. Losing her filter, she lashed out with a mocking laugh, poking at Si Qi’s softest vulnerability. “You couldn’t possibly like me, could you?”

The pain bloomed across Si Qi’s heart, thick and suffocating. She lowered her head, fighting to keep her expression from crumbling into a plea—praying Si Ruxu wouldn’t say another word.

“Si Qi, I need you to understand. We are just partners. Our partnership is built on ending the apocalypse. Beyond that, we have no relationship at all.”

It felt like a piece of her heart had been carved out. Si Qi hid her trembling hands behind her back, clutching the fabric of her coat. After a few agonizing seconds, she looked up and stared straight into those amber eyes.

“Mm. Keep going.”

Her voice was thin, her eyes a mirror of still water hiding a world of hurt. Si Ruxu suddenly went silent.

They rarely fought. Even in the past, they had always communicated rather than argued. Looking at that face—identical to the one in her memories but so much thinner—Si Ruxu felt something lodge in her throat, cutting into the flesh.

She looked away, standing firm but offering no compromise.

“Si Ruxu,” Si Qi sighed. “If researching me helps find a way to end the apocalypse… isn’t that better than us wandering aimlessly? If you give me to the Institute, the chances of your wish coming true are much higher, aren’t they?”

Si Ruxu stood there, the hem of her light trench coat fluttering in the draft of the air conditioner. Conflict flashed in her amber eyes. Her pale profile, reflected in the metallic surfaces of the lab, looked as though it were being swallowed by a thick, dark shadow.

I can’t. I won’t. I’d rather die.

She tried to find a way to refute Si Qi, but no reason came. What logic could she use to tell Si Qi she simply didn’t want her to go?

The researcher let out a light chuckle, breaking the tension. She fanned the air with her hand. “My, my. If you two don’t stop, you’re going to start a war in my little shack.”

“How about a compromise? You enter the Institute’s training chamber for one day. If you kill ten thousand mutated zombies, I’ll repair your friend’s core.” She looked at Si Qi with the smug confidence of someone who had already won.

Si Qi nodded before Si Ruxu could object. “That sounds fair.”

The air remained heavy. Si Ruxu followed Si Qi to a massive set of doors equipped with a monitor. Through the screen, they could see what lay beyond.

There were mutated zombies with multiple heads and limbs, twisted species that defied categorization, creatures with eyes covering their entire bodies, and flying monsters whose wings were matted with thousands of grasping hands.

“These are failed creations. The Institute has been struggling with how to dispose of them,” the woman said, feigning distress. “But their cores are all top-tier Level 7. I need you to solve this for me—and bring back the crystals.”

“Survive for one day, kill ten thousand of them, and I’ll save her.”

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