Chapter 092: Apocalypse 7

Ke Yuandao and Li Qing were both powerful ability users at the base. Beyond their own formidable strength, the members of the teams they led were all elites as well.

Lin Jingyu naturally knew them, and Li Qing knew him too. She greeted him with a smile. “Good morning, Young Master Lin.”

“Morning, Team Leader Li, Team Leader Ke.”

At first, he had thought they had come to discuss something with General Xia. Unexpectedly, Li Qing strode forward and threw herself at Le Yixian, hugging her as she said happily, “Memei, we meet again! Did you miss me?”

As she spoke, she rubbed cheek to cheek with her hard enough to make an emphatic nuzzle, sighing in admiration. “Ah, it really is so smooth and soft. Feels amazing.”

Le Yixian: “...”

“You’re here to see my dad, aren’t you? He’s not here.” She glanced toward Ke Yuandao standing by the door, who seemed to be in a rather bad mood.

She had been a little surprised to see the two of them appear together, and her heart sank slightly. She wondered if their relationship had improved.

“We’re here to see you, Memei, not General Xia.”

“To see me? For something?”

“Yes. We’re planning to go out on a mission in a few days, and we wanted to invite you to join us,” Li Qing said.

“Me?” Le Yixian pointed at herself. “I don’t have an ability suited for killing zombies. Are you sure?”

“It’s fine if you can’t kill zombies. You have that, don’t you?” Li Qing gave her a wink.

“That what?” Lin Jingyu suddenly cut in from the side.

Li Qing turned her head and only then noticed that he still hadn’t left.

“Oh, nothing. Just a secret between us girls,” Li Qing said with a grin, not revealing a single word about Le Yixian’s healing ability.

Le Yixian always felt that this heroine’s personality was a little odd. During the trip back, she had not interacted much with Li Qing, yet this girl was acting as if they were very familiar.

It felt a bit like Li Yue from the real world.

Seeing this, Lin Jingyu found it hard to ask further. He held out the bouquet of roses and said with deep feeling, “Memei, are you free tonight? Let’s have dinner together?”

Le Yixian rejected him outright. “No.”

“Memei, don’t be like that.” Lin Jingyu smiled, ignoring Li Qing and Ke Yuandao standing nearby. His gaze stayed fixed on her, gentle and devoted. “I’m courting you. Surely you can give me a chance.”

“What, Young Master Lin, you’re pursuing our Memei??” Li Qing’s jaw nearly dropped.

“Yes, I am pursuing her.” Lin Jingyu nodded, then looked at Le Yixian with a face faintly touched by shyness. “Of course, I hope Memei can accept me.”

Li Qing watched in fascination. In the base, many of the second- and third-generation heirs, now that the apocalypse had come and their families had some resources and power, had been living recklessly.

But this one had never provoked anyone. She could not help asking, “Why do you like our Memei?”

“Well, of course it’s because she’s beautiful!”

Li Qing had not expected such an answer. Her mouth twitched. “Young Master Lin, you fell for our Memei just like that??”

“That’s right.” Lin Jingyu nodded vigorously, his eyes bright as he looked at Le Yixian. “Memei, can you accept me?”

“No,” Le Yixian said. She refused this ugly one.

After being rejected, Lin Jingyu left in great sorrow.

Once the unrelated people had gone, Le Yixian invited Ke Yuandao and Li Qing to sit.

Ke Yuandao sat on the sofa farthest from Le Yixian, wearing an expression that said he wanted to keep as much distance from her as possible. He stared at the tea she had brewed for them, his face already dark as ink, frighteningly so.

“Miss Xia Memei, we sincerely want to invite you to join our team. This mission is more difficult than the last one, so with a healer like you beside us, we’ll feel much more at ease,” Li Qing said after taking a sip of tea.

“Your team?” Le Yixian caught a few key words from her sentence.

“Yes. Team Leader Ke and I. We’re cooperating for this mission and forming an alliance,” Li Qing said, covering her mouth with a smile. “After all, Team Leader Ke is a partner worth trusting, isn’t he, Team Leader Ke?”

Ke Yuandao lowered his head and looked at the steaming teacup before him without replying. He looked as though he wanted to bore holes straight through the cup with his gaze.

Le Yixian asked, “If I join your combined team, what kind of compensation can you offer me?”

Although she wanted to join immediately and stop her beloved from developing feelings for the heroine of the original story, she had no intention of being sold off like an idiot. She had to make the benefits and treatment clear.

“We’ll prioritize all supplies for you, and there will also be dedicated protection around the clock,” Li Qing said. “Also, if our team finds any neutral cores, they’ll all be yours.”

“No need for round-the-clock protection,” Le Yixian said, waving a hand. The other two conditions were indeed tempting.

All supplies prioritized for her, and neutral cores.

Any ability user could absorb a core without an attribute. In the apocalypse, aside from training and advancing through one’s own efforts, the faster method was the glittering core inside a zombie’s head.

Le Yixian’s ability was special—no, it could even be said to be an ability never seen before. If she wanted to absorb cores to advance, only neutral cores would do.

“No, round-the-clock protection is absolutely necessary,” Li Qing said firmly. “Memei, you don’t understand. Back when I played online games and led a raid, the enemy always targeted the healer first. Right now, you’re our healer. If not you, then who?” She paused, then added, “Besides, whether the people going on this mission are even truly human is hard to say.”

“I’m not used to someone watching over me while I sleep.”

“At night, I’ll sleep with you.”

“That works too.” Le Yixian thought it over. Life mattered more.

“So that means you agree to join?”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Wow, Memei, you’re really straightforward.”

“The neutral cores and supplies are all things I need.” As Le Yixian said this, she paused slightly and let her gaze settle on Ke Yuandao, who had been staring silently at his teacup the whole time. Her lips curved faintly. “And your Team Leader Ke is very handsome, so of course I should agree.”

“Cough!!”

Ke Yuandao was choked by his own saliva on the spot.

“No way, you like Team Leader Ke? That guy is cold to people.” Li Qing was astonished.

“He’s handsome,” Le Yixian summed up in three words.

After Le Yixian agreed to join, Li Qing let out a relieved breath.

When she came out of the Xia residence, she stretched lazily and glanced at the silent Ke Yuandao beside her, narrowing her eyes. “Having a handsome man around really does make things easier.”

Ke Yuandao shot her a cold look. No one noticed that beneath his black hair, the tips of his ears had already turned red.

Lin Jingyu sat on a bench, his fingers drumming on the table again and again.

The person beside him grew a little irritated by the sound. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing much. The little healer I had my eye on was stolen away,” Lin Jingyu said with a sigh.

“???”

Little healer? What kind of thing was that?