The Beautiful, Strong, and Tragic Female Lead is Mine [Transmigration Into a Novel] - Chapter 74

At nine o’clock sharp, the black metal gate opened on time.

Tang Zhuoran started the car and drove smoothly into the jurisdiction.

The soldiers on duty at the gate registered the identities of the four people and then pointed out the way. They drove all the way into the jurisdiction, stopping in front of a building not far from the border.

The building looked weathered, with peeling paint on the walls, revealing the dark gray cement underneath. The building had five floors, and the glass in a few windows in the hallway was broken, letting in the cold wind. There were many cars parked in the open space in front of the door, probably belonging to soldiers from other jurisdictions.

Xie Zhitian looked at the building in front of her and frowned slightly. The man on duty just now said that this area was a high-risk area for alien invasions, so the residences for the modified people who came to support were also arranged here. But the living conditions in front of them were a bit too harsh.

Xia Fufeng stroked the big tail of the little fox in her arms and said indignantly, “Letting the soldiers live in a place like this, not to mention whether they can rest well, it’s not safe at all, is it? What do you think, Milk Cake?”

Xie Zhitian said, “That’s right, the front door is made of wood, it can’t stop the aliens at all… Wait, what did you just say? Milk Cake?”

“Yeah, that’s the name I gave it. I think it looks like a small milk cake.”

Xia Fufeng held the little fox up high and asked it, “Do you like this name?”

The little fox seemed to understand, gave a little cry, and rubbed its head against Xia Fufeng’s arm.

Xia Fufeng was always popular with animals, and Xie Zhitian was used to it. Milk Cake was fine, although it was a bit casual, as long as the little fox didn’t mind.

At this moment, there was a noisy sound from behind, and three young girls walked over. Everyone was holding weapons, their clothes and hair were slightly messy, stained with blood and dust. They looked like they had just been through a battle.

Seeing Xie Zhitian and her group, the girls were stunned for a moment, and then someone asked, “New here? Are you the modified people who came for support?”

The one who spoke was a cute-looking girl with short, ear-length hair, big eyes, and a small round face, who seemed very approachable.

Tang Zhuoran replied, “Yes, we just arrived.”

The short-haired girl smiled, “You must be tired. Go back and rest for a while.”

The other two girls nodded at them as a greeting. Although the three of them were smiling, the expressions on their faces were a bit tired, so they didn’t have much small talk. They said that the empty rooms upstairs were all available, told them to go find the apartment manager on the first floor first, and then each went upstairs with their weapons.

Luo Yang lowered her voice, “Tiantian, don’t forget that the leader of this jurisdiction is one of the Commander’s people. We have to be careful of all the management staff.”

Xie Zhitian responded, “We’ll talk to the manager later and see what his attitude is like first.”

The leader of Jurisdiction 33 was named Li Changhui, a man in his forties. After a series of previous investigations by the Queen, it had been confirmed that he was in close contact with the Commander. So Li Changhui’s purpose was clear, but it was unknown what means he would use.

The inside of the apartment looked better than the outside. It seemed to have been recently renovated. The walls were white, and the floor was covered with light-colored tiles, with little dust on them.

The manager’s room was at the end of the corridor on the first floor. Xie Zhitian raised her hand and knocked on the door. A hoarse voice came from inside, “Who is it?”

Xie Zhitian answered loudly, “We are modified people who have come to support from Jurisdiction 26.”

There was a “zila” sound, which was probably the person inside getting up from the chair. The door was then opened, revealing a weathered face.

It was an old man with gray hair, at least fifty years old, with a slightly hunched back and a face full of crisscrossing wrinkles. They say that one’s appearance is a reflection of one’s inner state. If judged from this point, this old man’s life must have been as hard as his face suggested.

“You’ve come all this way, you must be very tired.”

The old man said polite words, and his whole face was wrinkled with a smile. He stepped aside to make way, gesturing for everyone to enter the room.

The room was not big. There was a single bed against the window, a cabinet opposite, and a desk with a bookshelf on the side. On the desk were half a bowl of noodles that had not been eaten and a small dish of pickles. It seemed that the manager was having his breakfast.

The old man took a dusty notebook from the bookshelf and handed it over, “Please register first.”

Then he pulled out a drawer and took out a string of keys, “All the rooms have been specially renovated and are very clean. These are empty. Just pick the rooms you like. Although our jurisdiction has limited conditions, we will try our best to give you the best.”

Xie Zhitian’s eyes swept over the cover of the notebook. The name of the apartment manager was Wang Haibo. She flipped through it and found that all the people registered on it were within one month and were all from different jurisdictions, who were probably modified people who came to support, just like them.

She filled in the fake information they had prepared in advance for the four of them, and then flipped through the string of keys on the table. The keys had tags on them with room numbers, from the first to the fifth floor.

Xie Zhitian thought for a moment, chose two rooms on the second floor, and then returned the remaining keys to Wang Haibo.

She and Luo Yang would definitely live in one room, and she would have Tang Zhuoran and Xia Fufeng live together, both to protect Xia Fufeng’s safety and to create an opportunity for her love with Xia Fufeng.

Wang Haibo stuffed the keys into the drawer and said to everyone, “Hurry back to your rooms and get settled. The leaders from above will come to inspect every two or three days in the late afternoon. Before that, you should get a good rest.”

Xia Fufeng asked, “Inspect? What exactly do they do?”

Wang Haibo replied, “Nothing, don’t be nervous. The leaders are all very approachable. They just come to see how everyone is doing and sometimes arrange some work.”

His gaze fell on the little fox in Xia Fufeng’s arms, “Is that a pet? Does it bite?”

Before Xia Fufeng could speak, the little fox in her arms suddenly arched its body and bared its teeth at Wang Haibo.

Wang Haibo was startled and shrank back.

“No, no, it’s very well-behaved. It never bites.”

Xia Fufeng quickly stroked the little fox’s head, signaling it to calm down. She wasn’t lying. It was just that the “never” time was a bit short.

The group took their luggage from the car and carried it into the rooms. In fact, a lot of their luggage was in Xie Zhitian’s personal space, but since they had come from out of town, entering the rooms empty-handed would inevitably arouse suspicion.

The two rooms were next to each other and had private bathrooms. The layout inside was similar to the manager’s residence. Although the area was not large, it was clean and tidy and required almost no effort to clean.

An hour later, the rooms were mostly tidied up, and most of the supplies had been moved in and arranged properly.

At this moment, a clear female voice came from behind, “You’re living here? Then you’re my neighbors!”

Xie Zhitian turned her head and saw the short-haired girl she had met downstairs. She had already changed into loungewear and seemed to have just washed up, as the ends of her hair were still a bit damp.

The short-haired girl was naturally friendly and greeted everyone warmly, not even sparing the little fox in Xia Fufeng’s arms. Then she simply introduced herself, saying her name was Yu Ningning and that she had been there for two weeks.

Xie Zhitian and the others introduced themselves with their fake identities and then gave her a few freshly washed fruits.

Yu Ningning looked at the bright red apples, her eyes clearly showing a look of longing, but she was too embarrassed to take them and declined, “Don’t give them to me. You should save your supplies. It’s very inconvenient to buy things here.”

Luo Yang asked, “Why is it inconvenient? Isn’t there a market nearby?”

Yu Ningning replied, “This place is very remote. The nearest market is more than thirty kilometers away. Everyone is already very tired on a normal day and doesn’t want to move after coming back. They only go once in a while.”

At this point, she let out a small “ah,” “By the way, did you bring any sanitary napkins? Can you sell some to us?”

Xie Zhitian replied, “We did, but you don’t need to pay. We can give them to you.”

She bent down as if looking for something in the box, and actually took out two large packs of assorted sanitary napkins from her personal space. She looked up and asked, “Here, you can take these and share them.”

Yu Ningning’s eyes widened, “How did you bring so many?”

Xie Zhitian made up a random excuse, “I was in a hurry to leave, so I just grabbed them all.”

In this world, sanitary napkins, like toilet paper, were a daily necessity and were among the first products to resume production. Large markets usually had special stalls selling them.

However, if it was inconvenient to buy things, there were probably more people who lacked sanitary napkins than just Yu Ningning.

Xie Zhitian thought for a moment and asked, “Do you have a big, clean box? We can put the sanitary napkins in it and place it at the staircase landing between the first and second floors. The people who need them can just grab some when they go downstairs.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll go back and get one now.”

Yu Ningning was moved to tears, “You are really great people. When this period is over, I must treat you to a big meal.”

She ran into the next room and soon came out with a clean cardboard box, “Use this. Everyone is sleeping now. I’ll tell them when they wake up.”

While she was getting the box, Xie Zhitian took another two large packs of assorted sanitary napkins from her personal space and put them all into the box with the previous two packs.

Yu Ningning thought it was too many and wanted to stop her, but then she heard Luo Yang ask, “How many people live in this apartment? Are they all girls?”

“More than a hundred, all girls.”

Yu Ningning replied, “The male modified people’s physical fitness isn’t good enough to handle this kind of work.”

Luo Yang’s words reminded her. With so many girls, these few packs of sanitary napkins were not too many at all. She decided that when she had a chance to buy things, she would buy some small gifts with the others to thank them.

The girls chatted and laughed and placed the box on the staircase landing. Yu Ningning was afraid that someone might not see it, so she specifically nailed a thick cardboard to the wall with “Sanitary napkins inside, please help yourself” written on it.

At this moment, a series of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor on the first floor.

Wang Haibo, with his hunched back, slowly appeared in everyone’s sight.

He asked, “What’s wrong? What are you doing?”

He must have heard the sound of hammering in the room and came out to check.

“It’s nothing, sir.” Yu Ningning smiled and explained to him, “We put some sanitary napkins here for the girls to use.”

Wang Haibo was stunned for a moment. He looked at the sign on the wall and then lowered his head to look at the box, and his brows furrowed, “Something like this isn’t suitable to be placed in a public area, is it?”

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