The scared young man on the ground was stunned for a moment after hearing that question.
'Why does this voice sound so familiar?'
He wondered, and then he raised his head to steal a glance at Ling.
"Wooo- You… are you, Jane Ling?" He asked excitedly
At that moment, Ling deactivated her power and reverted back to her human form. Ling had a small and straight nose, thin lips, neat short hair, and sharp knife-like eyes. Seeing her face, the man got a sense of familiarity and happiness. The feeling he got after the long absence of intimacy dispelled some of his fears.
"Yeah." Ling nodded, while she was yet again startled. She had long discarded the name Jane, and n.o.body had called her that for a long time. She looked at the young man in front of her, and many memories flooded her mind.
Liao Feng, the young spectacled man before her, was entirely different from the one she knew when they were in school. Actually, Ling didn't have any good memories regarding Liao Feng. In the past, Liao Feng had been the student union's president, and his parents had been the bosses of Ling's parents. Liao Feng had been courting her for a long time, but she had always rejected him.
After doomsday, Liao Feng had changed a lot. He was no longer a domineering.
"You scared me! I didn't expect my cla.s.smate to become such a powerful paranormal!" Liao Feng smiled and let out a long sigh. In his mind, even though Jane Ling had rejected him several times, she was a very kind and shy young woman. As a result, he thought that meeting Jane Ling was indeed a good thing.
"Where did you go after doomsday, Jane Ling? I asked many cla.s.smates about your whereabouts, but n.o.body knew where you were. I was very worried. I feel really good now that I know you're okay," Liao Feng said happily. And then he stood up and patted dust on from his b.u.t.tocks.
"Why are you ambus.h.i.+ng people here? How many people do you have?" Ling ignored Liao Feng's question, and she asked instead. She wiped the blood from the dagger in her hand and tried to maintain her calm appearance. However, when she saw Liao Feng's smile, she thought of what he had been like before. She was eager to erase that pretentious smile from his smug face as soon as possible.
Liao Feng was stunned when Jane Ling simply ignored him. "Hey, Jane Ling… This is probably a misunderstanding-"
Ling interrupted Liao Feng right away, "I go by the name Ling now." Her tone was icy.
Liao Feng was irritated by Ling's current behavior as he was not accustomed to it. She preferred her when she was a shy girl.
Before doomsday, even Jane Ling's father would be respectful to him when he saw him. Jane Ling, unexpectedly, had become a paranormal. There was a huge gap between the two of them now.
A strange gleam was flickering weakly in Liao Feng's eyes, and a sly smile appeared on his face. "Ling, please listen to me. It's a misunderstanding. After the virus' outbreak, I escaped with several unknown fellows. Initially, we wanted to go to Qin s.h.i.+ County, but when we reached this place, we fought against a group of people who had laid an ambush. Thankfully, our leader was a paranormal, and we fended them off. As a result, we stayed here. We were just staying guard here. You know that we should all be careful…" Liao Feng explained carefully.
'D*mn you Ling. You actually made me reveal some things!'
Liao Feng cursed in his mind.
Naturally, Ling didn't believe even half of what he said. She could clearly see that the abandoned vehicles' colors differed from each other. Some of them had been there for a long time while the pa.s.sage of time had yet to touch others. Not to mention that Ling had listened to their conversation earlier.
"I believe you, but let me ask. I killed four of your teammates. What are you going to do? How will you explain it to your boss?" Ling asked. At first, she wanted to kill Liao Feng, but she changed her mind.
Liao Feng was a crafty individual, so Ling wanted to lure all his teammates and kill them in one fell swoop.
Hearing her words, Liao Feng calmed down and thought that Ling still cared about him. As a result, Liao Feng started scheming in his mind. "You are a paranormal. Although you killed my comrades, my boss won't be able to deal with you. I'll go back and say that…" suddenly Liao Feng paused and then continued to ask, "Where would you like to go? Why did you come here?" Liao Feng looked at the minibus and wondered how they could have gotten their hands on such a new car in this post-apocalyptic world.
However, Ling didn't answer his questions at all. She just put the dagger back in its sheath. "You should hurry to leave. I'll talk about your matter with our Captain." Leaving this sentence, Ling turned to the minibus.
'What? Ling also has a captain?'
Liao Feng's face was full of shock.
Ling was about to leave, but Liao Feng's said again in a low voice. "I would like to keep calling you Jane Ling. You're the only person I cherish. You're one of the reasons I struggled to survive. I always carry with me the M9 bayonet you gave me."
Hearing his words, Ling turned around slowly. She indeed saw an M9 bayonet. Actually, Ling's parents had given Lio Feng that bayonet. They knew that Liao Feng liked things like that, so they had specifically found one for him in order to strengthen their relations.h.i.+p with Liao Feng's parents.
"You can keep it," Ling answered coldly.
Ling's reaction left Liao Feng astounded. And then his expression changed as he walked to a place behind the hill. Above the hill was a cave hidden behind a huge rock. The cave had a natural hollow hole from which one could see outside. Currently, there were a few people in the cave. One of them was a bald man with a s.h.a.ggy head, holding a pair of binoculars in his hand. He was observing the minibus. In the corner next to the man were six naked women.
"Well, this time, a fat sheep has come. I have never seen such a luxurious minibus before. Hey! A beautiful girl… Why isn't the minibus moving?" The man shouted.
At first, he couldn't see inside the minibus because of its nontransparent gla.s.s. But when a girl stretched her head out, he took a glimpse inside and took note of how luxuriously decorated its interior was.
At that moment, Liao Feng returned with an expression of sadness and anger.
"Boss Shang! Boss Shang! It's terrible! Our comrades are dead!" Liao Feng said with an ugly face.
"What? They are all dead? Then how are you still alive? What is going on?" Boss Shang was furious. Their team was already small. How could he not be angry after losing four of his members just like that?
"I... the person who killed our comrades is my former, but she is a paranormal..." Seeing Boss Shang's terrible face, Liao Feng repeated everything that happened carefully.
"Someone was using a pair of binoculars to spy on us from the cave on the hillside," Jiang Lius.h.i.+ said lightly.
At the same time, the minibus' door was opened, and Ling quickly entered.
"Ling, did you let someone leave?" Jiang Lius.h.i.+ asked. Ran Xiyu had shared her spiritual vision with him, so he was able to perceive the five dots behind the cars. Four of the dots had disappeared, leaving only one. Jiang Lius.h.i.+ found that strange as he knew that Ling was not an irresolute person.
"I met my former cla.s.smate," said Ling quietly.
Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was a bit surprised, but it was a coincidence. Then he thought that before she followed them to North Jiangsu, Ling had indeed mentioned that there were some of her cla.s.smates in northern Jiangsu.
"Captain, I let him go back on purpose. He also has a boss. They will probably retaliate in a while."
Jiang Lius.h.i.+ looked at Ling and then nodded. "I trust your judgment." Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was very confident about s.h.i.+ Ying Squad's overall strength.
'Uh?' Through the front window, he saw a man walking down the hill. The man was very young and handsome. He held something in his hand and walked towards the minibus. He proceeded all the way carefully, constantly looking at the minibus.
"Ling, isn't that your cla.s.smate?" Jiang Lius.h.i.+ suddenly said.
 Ling quickly rushed to the front of the carriage and looked at the direction Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was pointing at.
"Captain, you are right. He is my cla.s.smate." She pulled out her dagger calmly.
"Go down and a.s.sess the situation."Â
"Yes." Ling nodded and quickly rushed out of the minibus.
Liao Feng, to tell the truth, was scared. He had witnessed Ling transforming from a cat-girl to a beautiful girl. And he had also witnessed the b.l.o.o.d.y and terrible scene earlier. He was reluctant to come in contact with that murderous cla.s.smate of his again. However, Boss Shang's threat had forced him to do so.
One hundred meters away from Jiang Lius.h.i.+'s minibus, Liao Feng slowed down. He wondered why Ling had yet to come down to see him. As a matter of fact, he didn't want to meet with other paranormals anymore. When ordinary survivors met paranormals, it was like white rabbits were in the presence of tigers.
Suddenly, he felt a cold and sharp edge pressing against his throat. It was a dagger, and he could feel its coldness pa.s.sing into his skin. Liao Feng was terrified, and his body turned stiff.
"Do you want to die? Didn't I let you leave?" Ling's cold voice came from behind Liao Feng.
"I... I wanted to see you for the last time," Liao Feng explained. After a pause, the dagger at his throat disappeared. Liao Feng secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Ling said coldly, "Liao Feng, what do you want to do?"
Liao Feng set his mind straight. "I ... I ... our boss listened to everything I told him, and he ordered me to come and tell you that he doesn't want to become enemies with you. As your old cla.s.smate, I brought some dried meat for you. I hope you can accept it." Then, Liao Feng handed the bag.Â
"We don't need it!" Ling said directly.
'What?' Liao Feng was totally shocked. How could she not care about so much meat!?
"No, this is what our boss has prepared. If you don't accept it, I can't go back," Liao Feng said.
Ling turned around and looked at Liao Feng, pa.s.sing the meat to Liao Feng, and said coldly, "You take a bite first."
Liao Feng nodded, without hesitation. And then he took a bite and chewed."Rest a.s.sured, it's not poisoned. We share such a deep relations.h.i.+p, but why can't you trust me?"
Ling just nodded but did not speak.
After a pause, Liao Feng added, "It's getting dark, and it's raining. You can drive the car to the northeast, where there is a stream of clean water and fish. Its terrain is open and easy to camp." Liao Feng's remark made Ling feel that their goodwill was too good to be true.
"Okay, I'll talk with our captain," Ling said.
"Okay, then I'll go back first."
Seeing Ling collecting the bag of meat, Liao Feng was relieved and turned away.
Ling didn't move and just stared at Liao Feng's back. Then she suddenly said, "You seem to be very afraid of me."
Liao Feng turned back and shook his shoulders, "How can you say that? I'm so happy after meeting you again. The atmosphere is humid, so you shouldn't keep the meat out for a long time. Quickly, eat it."
"Yeah." Ling bowed her head and turned to leave. She had nothing more to say, but her face seemed colder than usual. She wanted to know what Liao Feng was really planning.
Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was standing next to the window. After his brain's evolution, not only his eyesight had become sharper, but also his hearing had improved. He had clearly listened to their conversation.
'
Uh?'
Suddenly, he frowned. He noticed that someone in the cave was still using the pair of binoculars to spy on them.
Jiang Lius.h.i.+ sneered.