Chapter 178| Chapter 179| Chapter 180
Chapter 178: Love Unrequited, Lonely Death
He restrained her effortlessly. Before she could even blink, Pei Yanting was entirely shrouded in the man’s imposing shadow.
The Mother parasite controlling her body slowly turned its head to face him.
“I am human now,” it hissed, its voice grotesquely distorted. “I am inside a human body. You cannot kill me. If you kill me, she will die too.”
In the blink of an eye, the man’s hand pierced straight through her chest.
A massive spray of blood burst into the air.
He ruthlessly ripped the parasite out. The insect was a grotesque, bloated thing, soft and sickly pale. It had six glowing red eyes, resembling an overgrown queen ant dragged from the depths of a dark cave, but its gaping maw was lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth.
The monstrous insect squirmed and struggled in his grasp, but in the next second, he threw it to the ground and crushed it under his boot. A thick, creamy liquid splattered across the floor, instantly emitting a foul, nauseating stench.
It was the overwhelming smell of rotting corpses, thick and suffocating.
Xiao Yue’s eyes went bloodshot. “No!” he roared.
Long Yan immediately stepped forward to hold him back. “A person infected by a Mother parasite only has two outcomes: immediate death, or becoming a puppet. Once the Mother takes control of someone’s consciousness, the infection is absolute. The rest is just a matter of time. She had already become nothing more than a protective shell for the Mother. Her flesh would have been eaten away bit by bit until only an empty husk remained.”
Pei Yanting must have been infected much earlier, and there was absolutely no way to save her. By the time the symptoms became visible, it was already far too late.
“Is she going to die?!” Xiao Yue frantically gathered Pei Yanting’s collapsed body into his arms, pressing his hands tightly over the gaping, bleeding hole in her chest. “How could you do this? You just killed her!”
Long Yan crouched down beside him. “She was infected by the Mother half an hour ago. Did you really not notice anything wrong with her?”
“I didn’t know…” Xiao Yue’s hands were covered in her blood. “I didn’t know! How can I save her?”
Long Yan checked her pulse and shook her head. “She can’t be saved.”
The Mother parasite’s infection is incredibly aggressive and terrifying. Once infected, the host is essentially dead, fully replaced by the parasite itself. If Duan Xiaolin hadn’t acted so decisively and had allowed her to randomly bite people, she could have easily spread the infection just by touching an open wound. It would have been an endless cycle. Anyone injured in the ensuing chaos would have been infected by her alone.
“Impossible! That’s absolutely impossible!” Xiao Yue hugged Pei Yanting tightly, desperately trying to stem the bleeding.
Blood continued to spill from the corners of Pei Yanting’s mouth. Now that the Mother parasite had been forcefully removed from her body, she briefly regained a sliver of her own consciousness.
Weakly grasping Xiao Yue’s blood-soaked hand, she whispered, “It’s true… I was infected by the Mother when we first entered this place… It was so cunning. I accidentally touched a cluster of eggs on the stone wall…”
“No! You can’t die!” Xiao Yue choked out. “I’ll find a way to save you!”
“Cough… I can feel my body completely out of my control… the virus has already corroded me…” Pei Yanting slowly closed her eyes. “I’m afraid I won’t last much longer. Maybe… maybe this is my retribution.”
To stumble upon a Mother parasite like that was a one-in-ten-thousand chance of sheer bad luck.
“What retribution?!” Xiao Yue practically roared. “We did all of this for the future, for everyone! What kind of retribution is that? Even if karma exists, it should never fall on us!”
Pei Yanting weakly raised her hand to shield her eyes. Thinking of the zombie corpse spots she had seen crawling across Pei Xiqing’s body earlier, she let out a faint sigh. “Yes… everyone will eventually get what they deserve.”
Her own retribution had finally arrived. Surely, her younger sister Pei Xiqing wouldn’t be far behind. She let out a soft, morbid laugh, causing even more blood to bubble horribly from her lips.
Feeling her life rapidly slipping away, Pei Yanting slowly squeezed the hand Xiao Yue was holding.
“…I never believed in fate,” she murmured. “I always felt that I would never fall, no matter what. It was because of that absolute belief that I could reach the top. I also never believed you would die. You are stronger than anyone else… you can change everything. You are the only one. That is… that is one of the reasons why I have always stayed by your side.”
Tears streamed down Xiao Yue’s face. “Don’t talk nonsense. There is still hope.”
“Before she came back… I truly felt what love and friendship were from you. But some things… I finally understand now… they will inevitably change.”
“Yanting, please stop talking!” Xiao Yue pleaded desperately. “I’ll take you out of here. We’ll go find the rest of the team. I still have a crystal core—if I can just get it back, I can save you!”
Pei Yanting faintly shook her head.
“Yanting!”
Duan Xiaolin watched the tragic scene with chilling indifference, completely unmoved.
“You’re next,” he stated flatly.
Xiao Yue’s bloodshot eyes widened as overwhelming sorrow and burning hatred instantly consumed him. With a furious roar, he lunged upward, unleashing all three of his supernatural abilities directly at Duan Xiaolin.
Duan Xiaolin merely shifted sideways. With minimal effort, he completely evaded Xiao Yue’s full-strength strike, not even letting the surging energy graze the corner of his coat.
Covered in blood, Xiao Yue glared at Duan Xiaolin with pure, unadulterated hatred. “Duan Xiaolin! You and I are absolutely irreconcilable! I will avenge Yanting!”
The man looked at him slowly. “You want to kill me?”
“I am going to kill you!”
“Then let’s try it.”
Xiao Yue had no high-tier crystal cores left to draw from. Although his tri-elemental powers were inherently devastating, he was exhausted and lacked the focus to fully unleash them. In just two effortless moves, Duan Xiaolin ruthlessly knocked him to the ground.
Xiao Yue struggled to get back up, but he simply couldn’t withstand the crushing, overpowering weight of the man’s supernatural aura.
This man’s strength was entirely beyond his imagination. The last time they had clashed outside Base Three, Duan Xiaolin had clearly possessed no active abilities at all. It was completely illogical for him to possess such overwhelming, heaven-defying power in such a short period of time.
Those three supernatural abilities were the culmination of Xiao Yue’s life’s work. Now, the dark, phantom serpent coiled around Duan Xiaolin’s arm mercilessly channeled its curse into him. Xiao Yue could acutely feel the supernatural core within his own body being systematically destroyed.
Duan Xiaolin had absolutely no interest in stealing his unique abilities. If anyone else possessed such a devouring power, they would undoubtedly try to absorb the tri-elemental core for themselves. But Duan Xiaolin simply chose to destroy it—ruthlessly erasing all the agonizing hard work Xiao Yue had endured to build his strength.
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Yue’s supernatural energy dissipated into nothingness, draining away at a speed several times faster than Pei Yanting’s fading life.
“This kind of power…” Xiao Yue gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. “It shouldn’t even exist in this world. You abuse this ability, and sooner or later, you’ll face your own retribution. You killed her with your own hands, and you ruthlessly tortured the parasite connected to your own life. I look forward… cough… I look forward to seeing your miserable fate.”
“It’s a pity you won’t be around to see it,” Duan Xiaolin replied coldly.
“Yanting and I will be waiting for you in hell,” Xiao Yue spat.
Duan Xiaolin grabbed him by the throat with one hand, his dark green eyes gleaming like ice. “Then I’ll just turn you to ash. I won’t leave a single trace of your body behind.”
The phantom Qiong Snake slithered up Xiao Yue’s neck, its suffocating, oppressive aura completely cutting off his air.
Xiao Yue slowly closed his eyes. His memory flashed back to just a few days ago, when he had ruthlessly used his supernatural ability to test Pei Xiqing. It was the exact same familiar aura, the exact same power. That time, Pei Xiqing had taken the full brunt of his attack and coughed up blood.
He choked on a dry, bloody cough and couldn’t help but let out a bitter, mocking laugh.
Duan Xiaolin was an incredibly vindictive man. He had patiently harbored that grudge from that exact moment until now, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back.
This man was terrifyingly cunning. He had just casually crushed the Mother parasite to death, and the massive host parasite behind it was intimately tied to his own life force. There were definitely far darker, far more complex secrets hidden behind his actions.
Powerless to fight against the crushing grip of the phantom snake, Xiao Yue lay broken on the ground, a well of endless, burning hatred gradually filling his eyes.
“A supernatural being who wields the power of curses…” Xiao Yue rasped, his voice echoing with absolute malice. “The ending between Yanting and me is entirely unfair! So I curse you! I curse you and the woman you love to be separated forever! You will never see each other again, not in life, and not in death! Duan Xiaolin! I curse you with my very soul! May your love remain forever unrequited, and may you die entirely alone!”
Chapter 179: Really Not a Thing
Long Yan caught Pei Xiqing. Feeling her weak but persistent breath, she finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Ling Lang slowly stood up, clutching his aching arm. He felt like his bones were on the verge of breaking after pummeling Xiao Yue so ruthlessly. That idiot wasn’t just physically tough; he was like a cockroach that utterly refused to die.
“Brother Qiu Chao and the others should be here soon. They’ll definitely figure out a way to treat Pei Xiqing,” Ling Lang grunted. “Let’s get out of here first. I still have some things to take care of down here.”
Long Yan looked back toward the depths of the laboratory with lingering hesitation.
Brother Duan was still inside the ruined factory. She wasn’t entirely sure what he planned to do next. Just moments ago, he had only had enough time to hand the unconscious Pei Xiqing over to her and order them to leave, promising he would catch up soon.
Xiao Yue’s dying curse meant absolutely nothing. In this apocalyptic era, no one believed in so-called curses and fate. If fate were real, Brother Duan would never have made it this far.
Yet, despite knowing this, Xiao Yue’s vicious words still left an uncontrollable, lingering shadow in their hearts.
How did Xiao Yue possess such absurd luck? How did he stumble upon so much enviable, heaven-defying equipment and so many high-tier crystal cores?
Thinking of this, Long Yan sneered coldly. “Psycho.”
The man was truly wicked, desperately trying to mess with their heads right before the end. How naive.
Ling Lang stepped forward. “Let me carry her. You lead the way. I can move faster with her.”
Long Yan scoffed. “Oh, please. Your arm is severely injured, so just save yourself the trouble.”
“I still have plenty of strength.”
“I’m stronger than you anyway. Who are you looking down on?” Long Yan effortlessly hoisted Pei Xiqing onto her back and sprinted forward. “Hurry up!”
Ling Lang swallowed the metallic taste of blood in his throat and broke into a run to chase after her.
Before leaving the cavern entirely, he couldn’t help but cast one last look back at the ruined laboratory.
Brother, you absolutely cannot die.
Her head throbbed in absolute agony, and her chest felt as though it were being gnawed on by countless sharp-toothed insects. The pain was so dense and overwhelming that a layer of cold sweat broke out across Pei Xiqing’s forehead.
Her eyes remained tightly shut, but the original plot developments of this world began vividly playing out in her mind.
In the original timeline, after the host parasite was “justly” eradicated by the protagonist’s group, it brought a brief, fragile peace to humanity. At the exact same time, the villain, Duan Xiaolin, lost everything. The death of the parasite caused a devastating backlash, drastically altering his temperament. In his subsequent confrontations with the protagonist’s squad, he suffered a severe “drop in intelligence,” easily received his death sentence, and was inexplicably written out of the story.
The dreamscape shifted. She found herself standing directly in front of the protagonist’s group.
Team S1, led by Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting, grew stronger and more influential by the day, eventually forcing all the major human bases to bow to their absolute authority. Xiao Yue, blessed with his three supernatural abilities, perfectly integrated his powers and continuously upgraded them to their peak. He became the undisputed strongest existence in the apocalypse.
Pei Yanting stood proudly by his side. Although she was still slightly thin, when she took off her thick glasses, her features—enhanced by her powerful supernatural abilities—were striking. She looked like a proud, beautiful peacock.
Standing together, the two of them became the revered saviors of countless survivors, irreplaceable gods in the hearts of the people.
In another flash, the scene changed again. She was standing in the middle of City X, five years ago.
Terrified crowds fled in every direction, consumed by sheer panic. Families didn’t even have time to pack their belongings as they desperately tried to escape the city limits.
“The zombies are coming! The zombies are here!”
“I heard someone is trying to seal the city to stop the infection! Doesn’t that mean we’ll all be trapped inside?! I don’t want to die in here!”
“We have no choice! If we break the quarantine and escape, we’ll just infect the rest of the world!”
“It’s too late! It’s already spread everywhere!”
“Someone is stepping up! He’s draining all of his supernatural energy to freeze the city! Abilities are so rare right now—how can he dare to use it all at once? Throwing his life away for a bunch of strangers… it’s not worth it!”
“He’ll regret it!”
“But can he really hold it back alone? How could the defense architect just desert us?! Damn it, it’s all over! We could have controlled the outbreak, but that cowardly deserter ran away! Now all the women and children who managed to survive the initial wave have been infected!”
“Who could be so wicked?! What a piece of shit!”
The chaotic crowd kept running right through her. No one could actually touch her; she was merely a wandering soul observing the echoes of the past.
Suddenly, the image of a younger Xiao Yue appeared. He clenched his fists, furiously smashing them against a wall. “My uncle isn’t a deserter! He’s a hero! He’s the one who designed the capital base’s defense system!”
A faceless voice argued back, “If it weren’t for that cowardly deserter fleeing his post, the virus wouldn’t have spread so quickly, and the Chief Judge wouldn’t have been forced to consume his life force so drastically! He was forced to single-handedly freeze the populations of five consecutive cities, when he originally only needed to quarantine one! It was your uncle’s cowardice that caused the virus to spread to five, then ten cities overnight!”
“That was his own choice to play the martyr!” Xiao Yue screamed back. “It has nothing to do with my uncle!”
“You…”
“The virus was completely uncontrollable anyway! So why was he trying to act like a damn hero?! He shouldn’t have wasted his powers; it was a useless sacrifice! My uncle is the real hero who saved humanity. If he hadn’t survived to design the base’s defense grid, all of you would be dead! And in the future, I will be the ultimate savior! I will save all of you!” Xiao Yue roared.
He would prove it to everyone!
Even if no one stepped up to stop it, the virus was fundamentally uncontrollable anyway. Only by surviving, becoming stronger, and upgrading one’s own abilities could a person truly save this rotting world. He had dual superpowers, and he was constantly harvesting crystal cores and rare equipment. He had a long, glorious road ahead of him and was destined to make a massive impact.
Throwing one’s life away to save a doomed city was nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
The indignant, faceless accuser fell silent, and their figure gradually dissolved into the fog.
Turning around, Xiao Yue instantly locked eyes with Pei Xiqing’s ghostly figure. He frowned. “Why are you here?”
Pei Yanting materialized beside him, her expression cold. “Why is she here? Isn’t she already dead?”
“No,” Xiao Yue said grimly. “She’s already turned into a zombie.”
“Kill her, then.”
“I’ll kill you.”
The supernatural energy around Xiao Yue flashed violently, radiating a thick, murderous intent. A lethal blast of power struck Pei Xiqing squarely between the eyes.
There was absolutely no time to react. A sharp spike of agony flared through her body, and she collapsed to the ground.
Pei Yanting stepped over her condescendingly, her lips curling into a triumphant smirk. “There will be no more zombies or evil in this world,” she declared. “Under our global order, humanity will have a bright future.”
Someone crouched down beside Pei Xiqing, whispering maliciously into her ear: “Zombies and monsters have no right to touch anything that doesn’t belong to them.”
Pei Xiqing’s head throbbed, and her heart began to violently twitch in her chest.
She didn’t care about their verbal attacks. She had never truly belonged to this world in the first place. No amount of ridicule or self-righteousness could genuinely hurt or irritate her.
But she could acutely feel that their vicious hatred wasn’t just directed at her. They were targeting someone else.
—Duan Xiaolin!
Pei Xiqing’s eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright.
Her heart was palpitating so violently that she couldn’t catch her breath. It felt as though a massive, invisible weight was crushing her chest, forcing her to gasp desperately for air.
It wasn’t until a large, warm hand gently cupped her cheek that she finally snapped back to reality. She slowly turned her head, meeting a pair of deep, calm, and utterly composed eyes.
Chapter 180: You Are Bullying Me
Pei Xiqing’s eyes widened slightly. The moment she registered the unharmed man before her, she slumped heavily into his embrace.
Stripped of all her strength and having lost a little weight over the past few days, she fell easily into Duan Xiaolin’s arms. He caught her naturally, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to pull her securely against him while his broad palm gently stroked her back.
After resting in his embrace for a long time, Pei Xiqing finally raised her head. She stared at him for a few seconds in a daze before reaching out to pinch his cheek, pulling at the skin slightly just to make sure he was real.
Then, her hand trailed downward, tracing the firm lines of his chest all the way to his abdominal muscles. Just as her wandering fingers were about to venture even lower, he caught her wrist. With a gentle tug, he pulled her flush against him, making her lie directly on top of him.
Duan Xiaolin raised an eyebrow. “You’re already doing this right after waking up?”
Pei Xiqing looked down at him, her long eyelashes fluttering innocently. “Doing what?”
She had only just woken up from a severe coma. He had been the one meticulously caring for her over the past few days. The blood and grime that had coated her body were long gone, washed perfectly clean, and her clothes had been changed daily.
As she shifted on top of him, her loose collar slipped down. A few strands of straight black hair cascaded over her shoulder, and the slight movement exposed a generous glimpse of her delicate, pale skin.
He had personally tended to her every need—even carefully trimming and filing her newly grown fingernails. How could he not be intimately aware of the seductive curves hidden beneath that thin fabric? Over the past few days, he had simply forced himself to ignore them out of sheer concern for her life.
“I’m quite interested, actually. It just depends on how long you can hold out.” His dark gaze traced her features, moving slowly from her soft cheeks down to her delicate lips. His thumb brushed against her lower lip, pausing there ambiguously. “Should we find a position that doesn’t require any physical effort on your part?”
Pei Xiqing’s cheeks flushed a light pink, and she shot him a glare.
Was there even a position that didn’t require her to exert any effort? He made it sound as though she always just lay there and did absolutely nothing. He was tall, broadly built, and so incredibly heavy that he practically stole the breath from her lungs every time he pressed down on her.
“The person on the bottom has to work hard too, you know!” Pei Xiqing pouted in dissatisfaction. “If you think the person on the bottom isn’t contributing enough, then you can try being on the bottom next time.”
“Alright,” he agreed without a second’s hesitation.
Realizing the implications of what she had just brazenly suggested, Pei Xiqing lightly punched him in the chest. “No! Forget it, I was just talking nonsense!”
She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but after surviving the underground laboratory and seeing that terrifying nine-headed serpent parasite with her own eyes, she felt as though Duan Xiaolin had changed slightly. Looking deeply into his eyes now, she noticed his pupils seemed more and more like a snake’s—slightly narrower than an ordinary human’s, tending toward vertical slits, and as dark and fathomless as ink.
Duan Xiaolin gently gripped her slender shoulders. He simply let her hit his solid chest, completely unfazed. When she finally stopped, he stated lightly, “It’s too late to take it back.”
Pei Xiqing burned with embarrassment. He’s already teasing me the second I wake up. I might as well have stayed in a coma for a few more days.
She pushed lightly against him, rolled off his chest, and flopped back onto the mattress. Only then did she finally take the time to notice her surroundings.
They were in a bedroom—one decorated in a style that was completely different from the cold, rigid military aesthetic of the survivor bases.
Propping herself up, she looked around the room. The bedroom was a modest, comfortable size. The bed she had been sleeping in was massive, nearly two meters wide. On the left side of the room was a large bay window. A gentle breeze blew the red lace curtains inward, revealing a fresh, peaceful, and stunningly green village landscape outside.
The overall decor was simple yet undeniably exquisite. The neatly arranged items on the wooden desk and shelves, along with the clean clothes—both hers and the man’s—hanging side-by-side in the open closet, added a distinct touch of domestic warmth and softness to the space.
Pei Xiqing blinked in awe. She was just about to swing her legs out of bed to get a closer look out the window when a sudden, sharp ache in her chest paralyzed her, forcing her to sit back down with a gasp.
Duan Xiaolin immediately caught her shoulders, gently pushing her back down flat against the mattress. Without a word of warning, he began unbuttoning her shirt, parting the fabric of her pajamas.
“You’re taking advantage of me,” Pei Xiqing protested, mildly confused. “My chest still hurts.”
Duan Xiaolin smoothly brushed away her restless hands, a helpless expression crossing his face. “I’m just checking your wound. Even if I wanted to do something to you, I’d have to wait a few more days until you recover. Otherwise, I genuinely worry you might break while we’re in bed.”
Pei Xiqing let out a surprised laugh and stopped squirming, obediently letting him part her clothes to examine her.
The man leaned in, closely inspecting the horrific corpse spots that had previously spread across her chest. The sickly, necrotic color had dissipated significantly; now, the remaining faint marks just looked like fading bruises someone had pressed into her skin.
He gently traced the edges of the marks. “Besides the dull pain, what else do you feel?”
“Itches,” Pei Xiqing said, looking up at him with clear, bright eyes. “Everywhere you touch feels itchy. I want you to kiss me.”
Duan Xiaolin’s jaw tightened slightly. “Don’t mess with me right now.”
“Hehe,” Pei Xiqing giggled mischievously. “Fine, forget it.”
Duan Xiaolin pinched her chin, lowering his head to press a soft, lingering kiss against her lips. He applied a little bit of force with his fingers, but he didn’t dare deepen the kiss or stay for too long, knowing his own limits.
Pei Xiqing smiled, her eyes curving into happy crescents. Deciding to stop teasing him, she asked seriously, “So, what’s actually wrong with me? Am I finally going to mutate into a zombie this time?”
There was no regret or sorrow in her tone; instead, she sounded genuinely expectant.
Duan Xiaolin looked at her in amusement. “Do you want to become a zombie?”
“Of course! If I become a zombie, I’ll be invincible.”
“Haha…” the man chuckled softly. “Then I’m afraid I have to disappoint you.”
“Ah? Why?”
“You haven’t completely turned into a zombie, and you likely never will. The corpse spots that appeared on your body were simply physical symptoms of being infected by that apocalyptic host parasite.”
“Oh… I definitely don’t want to turn into a parasite,” she muttered, feeling a shiver crawl down her spine as she recalled the grotesque monstrosity in the underground lab. It was absolutely disgusting. The mutations were too extreme. They were abominations that simply shouldn’t exist in the natural world.
“You won’t,” he assured her. “The parasitic virus has already been purged from your system.”
“How did you manage to clean it out?”
“I used the Qiong Snake.”
“Oh?”
Duan Xiaolin nodded. “It will just take a few more days to completely eradicate the remaining traces.”
“The Qiong Snake is really that powerful?” Pei Xiqing sat up, pulling her pajama top closed. She pressed her hand flat against his chest, her expression turning inquisitive. “Wait, is the Qiong Snake related to that terrifying nine-headed serpent parasite?”
“Baby, you’re too smart.” The man let himself fall backward onto the mattress beneath her light push, casually resting his hands behind his head. “You guessed correctly.”
Pei Xiqing remembered the moments right before she passed out in the laboratory. Duan Xiaolin had specifically commanded her to focus her mind and connect with the Qiong Snake. Even in her hazy state, she had realized the connection. The Qiong Snake’s energy had been vital in suppressing the infection—that was why he had pushed her to use it. Just as she suspected, the phantom serpent was fundamentally linked to the apocalyptic parasites.
She leaned over him, her questions spilling out in a rapid rush. “What happened after I passed out? What did you do next? How did I get here? And where exactly is here? Why is it so beautiful outside? It looks like a literal paradise! Are we even still in the apocalypse?”
The scenery beyond the bay window was breathtakingly pristine. In a devastated, ruined world, this place was undeniably a heaven on earth. There were unpolluted green plants, towering ancient trees, and clear, winding streams. She could even spot a lush, thriving vegetable garden in the distance. If not for the physical sensation of Duan Xiaolin solid beneath her hands, she would have sworn she was trapped in a beautiful dream.
“Ask your questions one at a time,” he chuckled softly.
“Okay, first, tell me what happened in the lab. Did the host parasite die? Did you suffer any backlash or abnormalities in your own body?”
Duan Xiaolin calmly recounted the aftermath of the battle, though he conveniently omitted the gory, grotesque details of the “friendly exchange” he had forced between the two massive parasites.
Pei Xiqing’s mouth fell wide open in absolute shock. “…Wait. You killed Pei Yanting? And you killed Xiao Yue too?!”
“Yes.”
“Are they really dead?”
“Completely.”
Pei Xiqing was reeling. “No way… Oh my God, then… then what happens now…?”
Duan Xiaolin calmly observed her stunned, wide-eyed expression, inexplicably finding her utterly adorable. “What else do you want to know?”

![[Audio] She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo [Audio] She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo](https://i0.wp.com/redpanda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20240624205729_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215)