Chapter 90: The End of Days 5 (Two-in-One)

“Say that again?” The moment she heard those words, Xia Linlin practically exploded.

Le Yixian was not the least bit afraid of her. “I said you may be tall, and older than me too, yet you still don’t know how to act your age. No wonder Father has been worrying himself sick over you.”

Xia Linlin: ...

“You’re asking for it.” As soon as she finished speaking, flames burst from her body and shot straight toward Le Yixian.

“That’s enough!” At General Xia’s sharp rebuke, a metal shield swung up before Le Yixian and blocked the searing fire for her.

“Dad!” Seeing what he had done, Xia Linlin stamped her feet in fury. “Why are you helping her?”

“She is your younger sister,” General Xia said with a stern face, then turned to the calm Le Yixian beside him. “Meimei, you’re tired. Go back to your room and rest.”

Le Yixian nodded and went upstairs.

Her steps were unhurried, her back straight, her figure from behind graceful and pleasant to the eye.

Xia Linlin glared after her, nearly spitting fire herself.

When Le Yixian disappeared up the stairs, Xia Linlin turned back and asked her father in great displeasure, “Dad, that woman is completely useless. Why are you keeping her here?”

“Linlin, I’ll say this one last time. She is your sister,” General Xia said gravely. “The end of the world has come. We are her only support.”

Xia Linlin was about to say more when her brother, Xia Liang, stopped her. “Linlin, listen to Dad.”

Xia Linlin had never expected even her own brother, who always sided with their father, to say such a thing. She stamped her foot. “I don’t have a sister like that!”

With that, she spun around and stormed out.

Xia Liang wanted to go after her, but General Xia stopped him. “Leave her alone.”

“Dad,” Xia Liang said helplessly, “it’s not impossible to tell her the truth.”

“Forget it. Linlin is too impulsive and can’t keep her mouth shut,” General Xia said with a wave of his hand.

Xia Liang thought about it and nodded. Then he heard his father say, “Go pay more attention to Meimei these days. Her temperament... has changed quite a bit.”

“Okay. I’ll watch her more closely.”

Le Yixian returned at an unhurried pace to the room Liu Ma had just brought her to. Once inside, she locked the door behind her.

Then her legs went weak, and she sat down hard on the floor.

Good heavens, they just burst into flames if they didn’t like what they heard?

Luckily, that old man seemed to value the information in her hands and shielded her.

Otherwise, she might already have turned into a roast...

No, why a pig?

Shaking her head, Le Yixian did not think further. She rubbed her numb legs, rested for a while, and then got up.

The room was extremely simple: a plain bed, a bookshelf with a few books on it, and a chair. Nothing else.

Le Yixian walked around once and found no surveillance cameras or anything of the sort. After washing up, she fell into bed and soon slept deeply.

The bed was very comfortable.

She roughly organized her thoughts about this world.

The original owner was General Xia’s illegitimate daughter. In fact, the novel had never mentioned this, so it seemed the world itself had filled in the missing plot.

And then there was the fact that her lover actually hated her.

What should she do? If she never got close to him, how could she wake him up?

Thinking and thinking, she drifted off in a haze.

After entering this world, she had been resting outdoors all the time. The outside was crawling with zombies, and she had not slept well at all.

When she opened her eyes again, it was still daylight.

A knock sounded at the door, and Liu Ma’s careful voice came from outside. “Miss Meimei, are you awake?”

Le Yixian turned over and gave a muffled reply.

Hearing her voice, Liu Ma let out a breath of relief. “Lunch is ready. The general and the young master and young lady are not coming back to eat, so please have your meal while it’s hot.”

“All right,” Le Yixian answered again.

Only then did she react.

Wait, lunch?

Hadn’t she just finished eating before sleeping?

She got out of bed and immediately heard her stomach protesting.

Then, from Liu Ma, she learned that she had slept from yesterday afternoon until now—an entire day and night.

“The general said you were tired and told me not to disturb you,” Liu Ma said briskly beside the dining table. “I finished cooking and checked the time. I thought you ought to be waking up soon.”

“Please eat while it’s hot!”

“If you’re bored after eating, you can walk around the trading market south of the base. There are quite a few interesting things there.”

Liu Ma had prepared three dishes that day: boiled fish, braised pork, and pea shoots in broth. Not many dishes, but enough.

Still, from these dishes and from yesterday’s meal, one could tell how strong this base was.

Not only was there meat, there were vegetables as well. She remembered that in the novel, fruits and vegetables were rather rare.

Le Yixian ate with gusto, finding Liu Ma’s cooking perfectly suited to her taste—almost exactly like the meals Ke Yuandao used to cook for her in the real world.

At a regular meeting, Ke Yuandao sneezed.

He rubbed his nose, then looked up and found the team members staring at him in shock.

“What?” he asked.

The others shook their heads.

“If there’s nothing else, the meeting is over. You worked hard on the last mission. Rest well for this period, and don’t cause trouble in the base,” Ke Yuandao instructed them.

Everyone agreed.

As people left in twos and threes, Ke Yuandao caught a few stray words from the conference room.

“Holy crap, the boss can sneeze??”

“Yeah, scared me to death.”

“What are you talking about? No matter how amazing the boss is, he’s still a person. Of course he can sneeze.”

“In my heart, the boss isn’t human anymore.”

Ke Yuandao: “...”

Why was he not human?

After sitting in the conference room for a while, he stood and walked out.

On the last mission, he had obtained quite a number of crystal cores, most of them low-grade. Low-grade cores were of little use to him, so exchanging them for food would be fine.

The base had a dedicated trading market, with some people setting up stalls and others bargaining in front of them.

Ke Yuandao exchanged crystal cores for several kinds of food and an apple. Just as he was about to head back, he unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.

Le Yixian was crouched in front of a stall, holding a ring that was dusty and muddy, set with a sapphire, and studying it for a long time without letting go.

The stall owner was a shrewd-looking man. After taking in Le Yixian’s clothing and appearance—the white dress clean and spotless—he immediately understood she was not someone to be trifled with.

In this apocalypse, people who could remain so clean were few and far between.

Though she looked fair and delicate, like a little rabbit, this harmless-looking person was likely far more dangerous than she appeared.

“Miss, you have a great eye. This ring is sterling silver, and the stone set in it is a rare starlight sapphire. Just look at how beautifully it shines,” the stall owner praised his merchandise.

Le Yixian shifted her gaze from the ring to the man. “Who are you trying to fool? What starlight sapphire? It’s obviously broken glass.”

Hearing that, the stall owner bristled. “How could it be broken glass? I brought this ring out of the shop myself. I even have the certificate.”

Before the apocalypse, he had worked in a jewelry store. When customers suddenly turned into zombies and chaos broke out, he had taken a large amount of jewelry in the confusion.

Seeing him indignantly produce the appraisal certificate, Le Yixian remained unmoved. “Can you guarantee the certificate refers to this ring?”

The stall owner: “...”

“I quite like it. Name your price,” Le Yixian said. “No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like sapphire. Besides, who would care about such a thing in the apocalypse?”

The stall owner felt wounded, but since there was money to be made, he could not let it slip away. So he held up two fingers.

Le Yixian glanced at them. “Twenty yuan?”

“Spit! What twenty yuan? Twenty first-tier crystal cores!” the stall owner cried, nearly spitting in irritation, then suddenly felt a chill. Would this woman tear him apart because of his attitude?

Le Yixian: ...

Le Yixian: ...

Right. In this apocalyptic world, money was no longer currency.

Gold, silver, and jewels could still be used in rare cases, but the main currency was the sparkling crystal cores in the zombies’ brains.

Because crystal cores of different attributes could attract people with the same attribute, and once attracted, that person’s powers would improve to a certain extent.

“Miss, twenty first-tier crystal cores is already very cheap,” the stall owner said softly after she had remained silent for a long time. Seeing still no reaction from her, he thought for a moment and added, “How about fifteen first-tier crystal cores?”

Le Yixian silently put down the ring in her hand, stood up, and sighed at the stall owner. “Forget it. Too expensive.”

With that, she turned and left.

She had no money, and no crystal cores.

“Hey, miss, wait—ten first-tier crystal cores. No, five...” the stall owner called after her, but the beauty did not look back and ran off. Watching her figure vanish into the crowd, he muttered, “Three would have been fine too.”

The stall owner looked dejectedly at the goods on his stall and sighed. Why had he not gone upstairs to the supermarket to snatch more bread and biscuits, and instead brought these useless jewels?

Suddenly, three glittering red crystal cores were tossed before his eyes. The stall owner looked up and saw an handsome man bend down and pick up the ring from the stall.

“Three first-tier crystal cores, right? I’ll take it.”

With that, he picked up the ring and left.

The stall owner: “...”

Damn it. I should never have set the price so low.

Le Yixian sighed as she looked around. Most of the stalls in the trading market were selling food, and the prices were very high.

For example, a bag of expired instant noodles was priced at a third-tier crystal core.

One third-tier crystal core was equal to one hundred first-tier crystal cores.

Thinking of that, the ring at twenty first-tier crystal cores did not seem expensive at all.

The reason she had wanted to buy it was that it looked very much like the one Ke Yuandao had given her when he proposed.

A ring made of sterling silver, set with an expensive starlight sapphire.

Back then, when Li Yue and the others saw it, they were astonished.

They simply could not understand why the band was not gold or platinum, but cheap sterling silver instead.

Ke Yuandao had told her directly that the reason it was a silver ring was because silver had to be cared for and cherished with attention; wearing it on her finger would remind him that this love had not come easily.

Forget it. It just looked similar, that was all.

Le Yixian was dressed beautifully, and she was also very pretty.

But no one dared to provoke her. Even though she looked unfamiliar, anyone who could keep herself this way in the apocalypse either had real strength or had powerful backing.

Le Yixian naturally noticed how more and more gazes were falling on her, both openly and covertly.

“Meimei.”

Suddenly, someone called her.

Le Yixian turned and saw the original owner’s bargain-bin brother walking toward her with several others.

“What are you doing out here on your own?” Xia Liang looked at her outfit, frowning slightly.

“Liu Ma said if I was bored, I could come out and look around,” Le Yixian replied.

At that, Xia Liang frowned even more. He looked around. “I’ll take you back.”

“Brother Liang, who is this?” one of the young men beside Xia Liang whistled and asked with a grin. “She’s really beautiful.”

“Yeah, introduce us.”

“A new woman?”

“This is my younger sister, Xia Meimei,” Xia Liang said, straightening his expression and warning them with his eyes. “My father cares a great deal about Meimei.”

With General Xia brought up, the malicious expressions on the faces of the others stiffened.

“Haha, we’re just joking,” said the young man who had spoken first. With his charming eyes and a carefree smile, he said to Le Yixian, “Little Meimei, my name is Lin Jingyu.”

“Hello,” Le Yixian nodded.

“Since this is our first meeting, let me give you a small gift,” Lin Jingyu said, taking a lovely pendant chain from his pocket. “I saw this in a jewelry store before. It’s for you.”

Le Yixian looked at the pendant in his hand. The pendant was a blue gem, and in the sunlight the sapphire shimmered with tiny points of starlight.

She: ...

Le Yixian looked up at Xia Liang beside her. The latter said gently, “Take it. It’s just something worthless.”

Le Yixian said thank you and accepted it.

When she took the pendant, she saw that two small letters were engraved on the tiny tag along the chain: YK.

They were the initials of her name and Ke Yuandao’s.

Her hand trembled slightly.

Then that meant the ring was also...

“Brother,” Le Yixian called out, looking up.

Xia Liang lowered his head to look at her, and heard her ask, “Can I borrow five first-tier crystal cores?”

Xia Liang thought he had misheard. Le Yixian repeated herself, “Can I borrow five first-tier crystal cores?”

“Sure,” Xia Liang said, searching through the bag of crystal cores at his waist, though he did not find any first-tier cores.

He was already a fourth-tier ability user. When going out to hunt zombies, he generally did not bother picking up first-tier cores.

“I have first-tier cores,” Lin Jingyu said from the side, handing Le Yixian three crystal cores.

She thanked him and took them, then ran back to the stall from before, following her memory.

“Oh, miss, you’re back. What would you like?” the stall owner said, brightening at the sight of Le Yixian rushing over like a gust of wind, with the base’s two well-known figures behind her.

“The ring I was just looking at—where is it?” Le Yixian asked.

“The ring?” The stall owner thought for a moment. “That ring was sold just now.”

“What?” Le Yixian felt a little disappointed, then asked again, “What did the person who bought it look like?”

“This,” the stall owner hesitated, glancing at the two men behind her. After being glared at by one of them, he recalled, “Very tall, a little dark-skinned, and quite handsome.”