Lin Wan clearly rejected Shen Ming, which means that this world has lost its male lead and female lead; everything that happens after this is unknowable.
After Shen Ming finished his confession, he did not pester Lin Wan; his moral character is actually not bad.
“I thought they would be able to cultivate to achieve the true fruit1, what a pity.”
Su Wenwen heard this sentence, subconsciously nodded, and said: “Indeed, Shen Ming is actually a good person, but feelings cannot be forced…”
“Oh, you were eavesdropping after all.”
Su Wenwen blankly turned her head, and seeing Luo Xi’s obscure and unclear gaze, she then realized that the sentence just now was said by Luo Xi.
Eavesdropping is quite immoral; Su Wenwen was caught in the act2, and her face immediately flushed red as she said: “Weren’t you eavesdropping too?”
Luo Xi just glanced at her, said nothing, and picked up the bowls and chopsticks that had been rinsed clean in the sink, wiping them with a clean cloth.
Su Wenwen pouted: “Why are you ignoring me?”
Luo Xi said: “I wasn’t eavesdropping, I just had a feeling that Lin Wan wouldn’t agree, that’s all. Haven’t you been paying too much attention to Lin Wan recently?”
Oh, the last sentence was the real point.
Seeing Luo Xi’s jealous look, Su Wenwen couldn’t resist pinching her little face with her wet hand, and said with a laugh: “What’s wrong3, she is a very important researcher, so I’m paying a bit more attention to her; it’s different from the attention I pay to you.”
Luo Xi frowned and slapped Su Wenwen’s hand away, then turned on the faucet, washed her face with cold water, and took a paper towel to wipe it clean.
Heh, she’s even disgusted.
Su Wenwen stopped washing the dishes and turned to chase Luo Xi to pinch her face, but Luo Xi was as nimble as a loach4 and didn’t let Su Wenwen catch her at all. There was a table in the center of the small room, and the two of them turned5 around and around it, actually having a happy time playing.
Before going to the Forbidden Zone to report, Wang Kelin and Chen Zixuan went to find Ji Qingshuang to collect their reward. Su Wenwen and Luo Xi, carrying breakfast, followed the two of them to Ji Qingshuang’s office.
Ji Qingshuang was as busy6 as ever, with all kinds of documents and endless phone calls. Su Wenwen placed the breakfast on the table: “Commander-in-Chief, eat something first, okay!”
Ji Qingshuang rubbed the spot between her eyebrows and said: “I’ll eat in a bit. Since you’re all here, let’s have you report on the mission process together.”
Since Su Wenwen and Luo Xi completed their mission first, they reported first, slowly telling Ji Qingshuang about the things that happened on the road.
The only things they didn’t mention were the matters of the recording pen and Doctor Liu. Su Wenwen didn’t know if she should say anything, but she chose to trust the decision Luo Xi had made. When the time was right to speak, Luo Xi would naturally say it, rather than her intervening again and again.
“Hey, you guys also encountered the faceless zombies, huh. We encountered them too. I didn’t expect that these zombies were actually birthed by a mother nest. No wonder their whole bodies are so smooth. Luckily, when we fell into the mother nest, we didn’t choose to go deeper, but retreated back instead,” Wang Kelin said.
Su Wenwen frowned. That ear-scratching and cheek-clawing7 feeling of having forgotten something suddenly emerged again, and it also made her particularly uneasy. So, like a person with a critical illness seeking any doctor they can find8, she asked the System if she had missed anything recently.
【For example?】
Forget it, with this kind of ethereal feeling, asking the System is pointless anyway. Su Wenwen turned and asked Wang Kelin: “After you fell into the mother nest, did you also see those sticky, soft walls that looked like skin and flesh?”
“Yes, we saw them. Just as we fell in, several team members were snatched away by something. By the time we rushed to rescue them, we found they were wrapped inside meatballs and were already long dead. I didn’t dare rashly give the command to advance, so I had everyone retreat the way they came.”
Su Wenwen said: “In other words, that mother nest is still alive. It’s estimated that soon, many, many faceless zombies will gather into a corpse tide9.”
Hearing this, Ji Qingshuang hurriedly stood up, picked up the communication phone, and dialed a number: “We must immediately have the Ao family contact the other bases. They have to prepare their defenses.”
Luckily, when she had Chen Zixuan send Helian Yun away before, she also had them take the communication machine out. Calculating the time, perhaps the other bases have also received their communicators.
【Ah, Host…】
What’s wrong?
【Host, do you remember that during your first mission outside after coming to the sea base, you actually also encountered a faceless zombie.】
Su Wenwen realized with a start and said: “Not good, there should be a mother nest near the base too.”
Ji Qingshuang, who was on the call with the Ao family, was suddenly speechless. It was the calm Luo Xi who asked: “Don’t rush, speak slowly.”
“When Lin Yu and I went to the village to carry out a mission, we encountered a faceless zombie. Calculating the time, the sea base’s mother nest has perhaps already matured.” Su Wenwen took a deep breath, then said to Ji Qingshuang, “Commander-in-Chief, I am applying for the mission to go out and exterminate the mother nest.”
Luo Xi said: “I am applying too.”
Ji Qingshuang looked at the two of them, her hands tightening. The first time she sent them to rescue Lin Wan, she couldn’t sleep day or night, terrified that they would never come back. And the mission to exterminate a mother nest was even more difficult than a rescue.
Although Su Wenwen had no blood relationship with her, Ji Qingshuang already saw her as her own child. As a mother, she was unwilling to let her child take risks.
But as the base’s leader, she needed to make the best decision, even if that decision could cost her child’s life.
“Commander-in-Chief, it brooks no delay,” Su Wenwen urged, since after all, no one knew what state the mother nest had grown to.
Ji Qingshuang pressed her lips together, glanced at the calm-faced Luo Xi, and finally sighed helplessly: “Alright. Take all the antidotes. You must return safely.”
Su Wenwen nodded.
The matter of assembling the team was still left to Su Wenwen and Luo Xi to handle. However, this mission was rather urgent, so there weren’t many personnel to choose from.
Firstly, a fire-type ability user was a must, and secondly, a defense-type ability user. Besides the earth-type ability users, there was one other person on the list who sparked a bit of interest in Su Wenwen: a crystal-type ability user. But this person was Tang Yue10.
The suspected accomplice in the murder of Father Luo.
If they brought this person along, Su Wenwen felt that in eight or nine cases out of ten11, the mission would not go smoothly, and she might even be stabbed with a knife from behind by this person.
Or perhaps, Tang Yue’s appearance was specially arranged by Luo Tianyang, with the goal of getting rid of Su Wenwen and Luo Xi through this mission.
Su Wenwen handed this person’s file to Luo Xi: “What do you think?”
Luo Xi said: “Bring him.”
Su Wenwen didn’t ask any more questions and checked the person’s name. Because the mother nest was near the base, this mission didn’t require too many supplies. Each person had one backpack, packed with mostly survival-use items.
There were no firearms, because firearms weren’t very effective against a mother nest. They only brought some explosive packs and crystal cores.
By the time the team set out, the sky was already dark12. Su Wenwen and Luo Xi only had time to gnaw on a piece of bread.
Luckily, it hadn’t snowed for the past two days. The moon in the sky looked dim and heavy. Everyone rode their snowmobiles, driving at high speed with their headlights on.
The team was not large, fourteen people, with two people riding one motorcycle, while Tang Yue was at the very back.
Su Wenwen sat on the back seat, her arms wrapped around Luo Xi’s waist, her five senses constantly fixed on Tang Yue at the very back.
As for this person Tang Yue, she had only seen him on the online news before. Seeing him in person just now, the difference from how he looked in the phone videos was quite large. His face was shiny with oil, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he didn’t have the slightest air of a wealthy young master; he was more like a middle-aged uncle13.
Su Wenwen glanced back. Although he was a bit far away and the lights were glaring, she could still see the gloomy gaze from under his eye mask14, which made one feel doubly uncomfortable.
“Why did you want to bring him, huh?”
Luo Xi said: “Always being on guard is too tiring. It’s better to lure the snake out of its hole15 and hold the initiative in our own hands. If he behaves himself and also abandons the dark to join the light16, I will spare his life. If he dares to stab with a knife from behind, then he can’t blame me for taking action against him.”
If the Tang family really participated in the murder of Father Luo, then it’s highly probable that, like Doctor Liu, they are tied to Luo Tianyang’s boat17; abandoning the dark to join the light is clearly impossible.
The Tang family should be Luo Tianyang’s last ally. If Tang Yue dies, Luo Tianyang would be forced to the edge of a cliff, with no choice but to fight to the death.
Luo Xi was waiting for this kind of initiative.
Su Wenwen already had a plan in her heart. When she looked at Tang Yue again, the feeling of unease had faded a lot. Compared to the mother nest, Tang Yue was really not enough to look at!
The crater at the entrance of the village that had been blown out by a missile was also covered in snow. The snowmobiles drove directly over it. The river in the village was also frozen, so there was no need to worry about undersea zombies popping their heads out.
Su Wenwen pointed the way for Luo Xi, arriving at the river she had fallen into. The body of the faceless zombie was still faintly lying there. Walking closer and digging away the thick snow, the zombie was already frozen dry.
“Let’s search the vicinity.”
The previous mother nest was hidden in an underground garage. Just looking from the outside, it wasn’t easy to distinguish the mother nest’s specific location. But the mother nest was extremely large, so everyone just needed to search in spacious places.
Spacious places were none other than hospitals, supermarkets, amusement parks, parking lots, and the like. However, a characteristic of the mother nest is that it won’t be exposed to the outside, so they had to search in places like hospitals and supermarkets, especially those with underground garages.
Everyone split up to act, in teams of two. If they found the mother nest, they would make contact using their walkie-talkies. Tang Yue stood to the side, silently awaiting orders.
“Luo Xi and I will go check the hospital. You guys go check the other places,” Su Wenwen said.
Everyone dispersed on their snowmobiles.
Speaking of hospitals, Su Wenwen, who often watched horror movies, would tend to associate them with ghosts. Especially when standing at the entrance of a lifeless hospital at night, when the cold wind blew, her body would uncontrollably break out in goosebumps.
Her gaze passed through the doors and windows; it was pitch black, and there was always the illusion of a ghost18 flashing by, it was gloomy and frightening.
Su Wenwen shuddered and quickly followed Luo Xi, holding her hand as they entered the hospital together.
Like the previous hospital, it had a strange, putrid smell. The ground was covered everywhere with frozen filth, broken glass, broken railings, medical equipment, and so on.
“This way.” Luo Xi pulled Su Wenwen across a doorway and into the corridor of the inpatient department.
As the light shone, before they had even climbed the stairs, they saw a zombie in a white coat turn and pounce towards them. Before Su Wenwen could even move, the zombie was pressed under Luo Xi’s foot, and even its mouth was sealed, unable to even let out a low roar.
Luo Xi handed the dagger to Su Wenwen: “You come supplement the blow19.”
Su Wenwen took it blankly, not expecting that Luo Xi would always remember the words she had once said.
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!