What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms

Chapter 262: Show Me Some Mercy

As he spoke, he snatched the box from Pei Xiqing’s hand and tossed it aside.

Pei Xiqing hurriedly reached for it, not entirely sure why she was in such a panic to get it back. Perhaps she was just feeling flustered and needed something to do with her hands to calm her racing heart.

Before she could grab it, the box hit the ground, sending the foil packets scattering all over the floor.

He didn’t even glance down at the mess, simply asking, “What do you think?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do I think’?” she shot back. “I don’t care what I think. I just want you to stop acting like such a beast.” Eight times… an ability user could definitely manage that, but she couldn’t. She would die of exhaustion.

Duan Xiaolin caught her hand and gently pulled her close, letting her rest her head against his chest. “How is your recovery going? How do you feel?”

“I feel alright…” Honestly, after waking up from her long sleep, she didn’t feel anything unusual. The chronic aches and pains in her body had completely subsided, and the terrifying sensation of her senses being constantly peeled away had vanished.

“Then,” he murmured softly, “shall we just let nature take its course?”

Pei Xiqing’s long eyelashes trembled. Nestling deeper into his embrace, she gave a small nod. “Okay.”

He smiled, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her up a little closer.

Pei Xiqing pushed lightly against his chest, asking, “You never wanted to live in this house, so why did you bring me back here?”

The man lifted a strand of her dark hair, gently pressing his lips against it. “Some dark things happened here in the past. But I still wanted to bring you back… so that the person who once lived here would know that I have a wife now.”

Pei Xiqing instantly understood. He was talking about his mother.

Her heart softened. She leaned forward, returning his embrace with a gentle touch. “Okay.”

They held each other in quiet tranquility. However, as they pressed together, Pei Xiqing quickly sensed a very distinct, physical shift in him. She immediately stiffened and leaned back, instinctively putting some distance between herself and the source of danger.

Duan Xiaolin’s eyes were dark with undisguised desire. After a long moment of heavy silence, he let out a low chuckle and released his grip on her. “Get up. I’ll let you off the hook for the next few days. Take good care of yourself and focus on your recovery.”

Pei Xiqing narrowed her eyes playfully. “Brother Duan really does care about me the most.”

The man reached out to stroke her cheek. “I’m taking pity on you right now, so I hope you’ll show me some mercy later, too.”

He heavily emphasized those last few words.

Pei Xiqing choked on her own breath, her ears burning furiously at the blatant implication. “We’ll… we’ll talk about that later.”

A short while later, he got out of bed and headed into the bathroom. He completely ignored the “traps” scattered across the floor.

Pei Xiqing scrambled out of bed to pick them up, carefully stuffing the foil packets into the bedside drawer one by one.

They might come in handy eventually, she reasoned to herself.

By the time she had changed her clothes and tidied herself up, the man had emerged from the bathroom. Wearing a set of comfortable pajamas, he went straight downstairs to the kitchen to start cooking.

Because Pei Xiqing had fallen ill and been rushed into the underwater tunnel before being transferred back to the village, she hadn’t seen her dog, Xiaobai, in a long time. She had to ask around before finding out that Xiaobai had been sent over to Ling Lang’s compound.

“Are you guys seriously trying to use him as a military dog?” Pei Xiqing couldn’t help but laugh as she leaned against the kitchen counter. “He’s really going to be trained into something else entirely.”

“It’s not a bad thing for him to get more exercise,” Duan Xiaolin replied calmly.

“But Xiaobai is so clumsy. I think he’s going to struggle with most of the things military dogs are supposed to do.”

Duan Xiaolin was stirring a pot of soup. Hearing her defense of the dog, he walked over to grab some ingredients and took the opportunity to pinch the tip of her nose. “A doting mother always spoils her son,” he teased.

“What the hell! Don’t make such ridiculous comparisons!” She laughingly slapped his hand away. “You’re so annoying.”

Still, with Xiaobai gone, the house felt unusually quiet. It was rare to have this much peace, but she missed the feeling of him constantly crawling around her feet.

Pei Xiqing stayed in the kitchen, helping him finish preparing the meal.

Just as she took her first bite of the rich seafood porridge he had made, a knock sounded at the door.

She slipped on her slippers and jogged over to answer it.

Qiu Chao stood in the doorway, looking absolutely listless.

“What’s wrong?” Pei Xiqing asked in surprise. “Are you just exhausted? Come in and have something to eat.”

“I was drained dry by those crystal cores,” Qiu Chao groaned, stepping inside.

“Ah?”

“Those cores are seriously dangerous!” Qiu Chao looked at her with intense curiosity. “How on earth are you completely unharmed? I absorbed the energy of just a few of them, and I feel like my body has been completely hollowed out. I desperately need to replenish my nutrients. I could smell the food from a mile away.”

Pei Xiqing was dumbfounded. “The crystal cores emptied your body?”

“Yes.” He walked further into the house, his eyes full of a strange, helpless euphoria. When he recalled the feeling, he even seemed to savor it. “It’s so incredibly addictive. The rush of gaining so much power for free, without having to work hard for it… it’s amazing.”

“You don’t just look drained,” Pei Xiqing observed wryly. “You look so satisfied by those crystal cores that you’re practically floating on air.”

Qiu Chao smiled weakly. “I suppose I am a bit. But it’s genuinely exhilarating. It’s no wonder Xiao Yue’s strength improved by leaps and bounds back then.”

Pei Xiqing went to fetch him a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. “So, how are you feeling overall?”

“Fantastic. I feel like I could eat ten bowls of rice right now.” Qiu Chao looked up at her as he took the bowl. “What about you? You absorbed far more than I did. Aren’t you even more satisfied?”

Pei Xiqing shook her head blankly. “I don’t think I feel anything.”

When she woke up, aside from the disappearance of the agonizing virus symptoms, she felt absolutely no different.

“That’s impossible…” Qiu Chao rubbed his chin in deep thought. “With the sheer volume of crystal cores channeled into your system, how could you not have a reaction? Logically speaking, your physical baseline and your abilities should be off the charts right now, easily surpassing the progress of even the most gifted operatives in Franlun. How could nothing have happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Pei Xiqing replied. “Those crystal cores might be highly effective for you, but for me… maybe they just aren’t that useful.”

Duan Xiaolin walked out of the kitchen, carrying the last dish. “As long as there are no unexpected negative side effects, the current situation isn’t a problem.”

Qiu Chao, however, was brimming with regret.

“Those cores are truly priceless treasures. I was hoping they could do more… maybe they could have even been the key to dealing with those parasites—”

“Are you here to eat?” Duan Xiaolin interrupted him coldly.

Qiu Chao blinked. “Yes.”

“Then eat quietly.”

Qiu Chao rubbed his face, finally snapping out of his scientific daze. “Right. Okay.”

Chapter 263: A Qualified Wife

Pei Xiqing was now living within the central headquarters, far from the low-slung detention blocks she had visited earlier. Their current residence didn’t quite mesh with the towering skyscrapers and glaring neon lights that dominated the capital’s skyline. Instead, it stood slightly apart—a dark, imposing detached villa that seemed to belong to a different era, radiating an aura of quiet mystery.

However, that was only from the outside perspective.

Within just a few days of Pei Xiqing moving in, the originally oppressive, dark, and somewhat desolate mansion had been thoroughly crammed with her and Xiaobai’s belongings.

She hadn’t owned much initially, but as the old saying goes: “Since we’re already here, we might as well settle in.”

When she had first arrived at headquarters, she had been plagued by the parasite crisis and her own deteriorating physical condition, leaving her with absolutely zero energy to explore the capital. But now, with those anxieties resolved and the parasite swarms no longer breaching the seawalls, she finally felt free. She had swung by Ling Lang’s compound to pick up Xiaobai, taking the dog out to explore the sprawling commercial districts surrounding the military center.

The central headquarters truly lived up to its legendary reputation. The towering skyscrapers represented the absolute pinnacle of human prosperity and technological brilliance in the apocalypse.

There were over a dozen massive shopping complexes of varying sizes scattered across the grid, but she had only managed to visit a single one. Her legs felt like they were going to snap from all the walking. If she had been wearing a step counter, she estimated she would have logged fifty or sixty thousand steps just navigating that single mall.

Furthermore, the commercial hubs here showed absolutely zero signs of apocalyptic decay. Compared to the grim, utilitarian markets she had visited at other survivor bases, the headquarters remained as vibrant and prosperous as any major city before the outbreak.

The neon signs flashing from the storefronts on both sides made her feel as though she were wandering through a dazzling, impossible mirage.

Then, inevitably worn down by the relentless sales pitches of the robotic shop assistants, she ended up buying quite a haul. By the end of the trip, both of her hands were full, and even Xiaobai was trotting alongside her with a shopping bag clamped firmly in his jaws. They were definitely over the weight limit, though she had lost track of exactly how much they were carrying.

After wandering aimlessly for hours, she finally made her way back to the villa, only to find Duan Xiaolin already sitting on the sofa, casually flipping through a stack of documents.

And surrounding him on all sides were mountains of shopping bags—the exact same items she had merely glanced at, which Shadow had apparently intercepted and sent back to the house in advance.

The spacious living room was now completely choked with clutter. There was barely anywhere to step when she walked through the front door.

Pei Xiqing honestly had no idea how Duan Xiaolin had even managed to navigate his way to the sofa.

Leading Xiaobai by the leash, she stumbled and bumped her way through the maze of bags, hurriedly dropping her own purchases onto the pile. “Wait a minute… I didn’t even plan on buying half of these things! How did they all beat me back here?”

She had merely window-shopped most of these items without any actual intention of purchasing them. How had they materialized in her living room in the blink of an eye?

She turned to look at the man signing the papers. “Brother Duan, how can you even focus on your documents while sitting in the middle of this mess? Doesn’t it block your view?”

Duan Xiaolin closed the file smoothly. “I was just waiting for you to come home, so I skimmed through a few reports to pass the time.”

“When did you get back?”

“A little earlier than you.”

She immediately launched into an animated description of just how unbelievably massive the mall was. “My legs are practically giving out. I walked all day, and when I finally checked the map on my way out, I realized I had only covered a third of the complex!”

Duan Xiaolin listened quietly, the corners of his thin lips parting into a faint smile. “The commercial sectors have internal transit systems. If you rely entirely on walking, it would likely take you two or three full days to explore a single mall.”

“That is terrifying…” she muttered. And that was just one of over a dozen malls. What was the difference between this and navigating a sprawling tourist resort?

The man stood up, helping her clear some space on the sofa. “What did you end up buying?”

“So many things. And apparently, a lot of things I didn’t even plan on buying were delivered anyway. Did you orchestrate this behind my back?” Utterly exhausted, Pei Xiqing flopped down next to him. She kicked off her shoes and collapsed into the cushions, casually draping her legs over his knees.

He set his documents aside and immediately began massaging her sore calves. “It’s rare to see you so eager to go shopping.”

“I never thought it was necessary before.” Back then, mere survival had been a daily struggle, and she had to constantly, carefully conceal her identity as a zombie. She had zero time to dress up or accessorize, forcing herself to maintain the lowest profile possible every single day.

Lying back on the sofa, she unwrapped a small chew toy she had bought at the mall and tossed it to Xiaobai.

The dog instantly pounced on it, gnawing on the rubber like a real bone before dragging it off to a corner to play.

The pressure of Duan Xiaolin’s hands on her legs was perfect, incredibly soothing. She could feel the exhaustion of the day slowly melting out of her muscles.

However, as the massage continued, the focus gradually shifted in a decidedly improper direction.

He started at her calves, but his hands slowly, deliberately worked their way higher. She was right on the verge of drifting into a peaceful nap when she was suddenly jolted awake by the sensation of his hand quietly slipping along the inside of her thigh.

Pei Xiqing coughed loudly and quickly kicked her leg out to stop him.

He merely smiled and caught her ankle smoothly.

She tried to pull back, but the man’s large hand easily encircled her ankle, his thumb shifting to gently press against the acupoints on the sole of her foot.

Pei Xiqing was incredibly ticklish. She reflexively jerked her foot every time he pressed down, but eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Brother Duan, stop… I can’t stand it…”

Duan Xiaolin finally released her, leaning back against the sofa cushions. “Did you find the headquarters entertaining?”

“…It’s alright,” she admitted. “I didn’t really go out with the intention of having fun. I’ve just been a bit bored cooped up here these past few days, and honestly… it feels like your house is missing something.”

She had specifically gone out to buy things to inject a little life and warmth into the sterile environment.

“There are many unexpected, interesting sectors within headquarters. You can explore them later.”

“No thanks.” She hadn’t been particularly interested in this place from the start, and even if she wanted to explore, she had no desire to do it here again. Every time she walked the streets of the capital, the pedestrians around her felt eerily numb, their faces completely devoid of expression. It was genuinely unsettling.

She actually preferred the gritty chaos of Base Three. At least there, when she visited the vegetable markets, the people felt vibrantly alive compared to the robotic citizens of the capital.

“Lost interest already?”

She sat up, pulling her pant legs back down to her ankles. “We’ll talk about it later. I don’t want to spend all my time exploring this fortress; I want to see the outside world.”

There were still so many places in this world she hadn’t seen. No matter how massive or powerful the headquarters was, it was still just one small corner of the earth.

Duan Xiaolin casually picked up one of the shopping bags resting beside him. “What’s in here?”

Pei Xiqing took it and peered inside. “Oh, this is a dress I saw in the mall earlier. I wasn’t actually planning to buy it, but who knew you would just purchase it for me anyway…”

It was glaringly obvious who had funded the shopping spree.

Still, it was undeniably a dress she really liked. The only reason she hadn’t bought it herself was that she hadn’t brought many crystal cores with her. There were so many things she wanted to buy that she needed to carefully budget and compare prices before finalizing any purchases.

She stood up, preparing to organize the haul. “You bought way too much. I probably won’t be able to wear all these clothes even if I try for several years.”

He laughed softly. “We have many years ahead of us. If you can’t finish wearing them now, you can take your time.”

“There’s just too much stuff,” Pei Xiqing sighed. “Let’s unpack it together.”

The man stood up, casually rolling up his sleeves, and helped her sort through the mountain of bags.

It took the two of them three or four hours to finally organize the living room. By the time they finished, the once lifeless, sterile mansion finally radiated a warm, habitable atmosphere.

As part of her haul, Pei Xiqing had also bought a fresh bouquet of flowers. She walked upstairs and gently placed them by the door of the permanently locked room on the second floor.

Noticing her actions, Duan Xiaolin walked down the hall and smoothly pushed the door open.

“Why are you leaving flowers out here?” he asked.

“Because I want to let your mother know that I am a very qualified wife,” Pei Xiqing replied softly.

The white chrysanthemums she had chosen were elegant and unassuming, though leaving them out in the hallway did feel somewhat out of place with the overall architecture. The man held the door open, gesturing for her to step inside. “Then put them on her table. She’ll see them there.”

“Okay.”

This was Pei Xiqing’s first time actually crossing the threshold into this room.

It was quite spacious, and she could vaguely tell that it had once been a luxurious master bedroom. The natural lighting was excellent, and the original layout was grand, but the space was completely choked with miscellaneous military equipment and stacks of archives that had been gathering dust for years.

To bury the agonizing sorrow this room had once caused him, he had chosen to let time—and bureaucracy—erase its history.

There were absolutely no photographs or traces of human life left inside. If Shadow hadn’t explicitly told her, she never would have guessed his mother had once lived and died here.

Seeing that Duan Xiaolin had gone back downstairs to the kitchen to start cooking, Pei Xiqing fetched a bucket of water and a rag, doing her best to roughly clean the dust from the room’s surfaces.

Wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead, she finally placed the vase of chrysanthemums squarely on the antique desk.

She honestly didn’t know what to say. After all, she had never met his mother, nor did she know anything about Duan Xiaolin’s family dynamic before the outbreak. She simply arranged the petals neatly and whispered into the quiet room, “I will live a good life with Brother Duan. You don’t need to worry about him anymore. He is doing well, and we are going to build a better future together.”

After speaking her piece, Pei Xiqing turned around—only to find Duan Xiaolin leaning quietly against the doorframe, watching her.

Chapter 264: Pretentious

The man’s gaze behind his glasses was dark and unfathomable. It seemed he had been watching her for a long time, his eyes reflecting a complex mix of nostalgia and… a profound indifference toward this place.

“Let’s go downstairs for dinner,” he finally said.

“Coming,” Pei Xiqing replied.

She carried the bucket of dirty water out of the room and headed downstairs. She had barely taken her seat at the dining table when a knock sounded at the front door.

Pei Xiqing opened it to let Qiu Chao in. “Are you still high on crystal cores?” she asked as they walked into the living room.

“You can’t phrase it like that. I was simply enjoying myself,” he replied, swaggering inside. He sat down familiarly in a chair, his eyes sweeping across the living and dining areas. “Wow, it feels like this house is packed with a lot more stuff now. Who picked out that pink painting? Not bad taste.”

“I picked it out. Isn’t it great?”

“It’s a bit abstract, but overall, it’s not bad.” He frowned, looking at the canvas confusedly. “Why does it look like a… pig to me?”

“Because it is a pig. A pink pig.”

“Did you commission someone to draw it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s a good idea. Very good,” Qiu Chao nodded approvingly.

Throughout the meal, Qiu Chao continued to praise the new additions to the house, expressing his strong agreement with Pei Xiqing’s aesthetic choices.

“Honestly, I never would have imagined that the home of Franlun’s Chief Judge would end up looking like this,” he said cheerfully. “I’m definitely taking some pictures later to show the rest of the guys.”

Duan Xiaolin addressed the threat calmly: “I don’t mind, but you should mentally prepare yourself first.”

“Prepare myself for what?”

“Prepare to be locked out of this house permanently.”

Qiu Chao coughed awkwardly. “Don’t take it so seriously, Brother Duan.”

After dinner, Qiu Chao showed no signs of leaving. It was obvious he had business to discuss with Duan Xiaolin, so Pei Xiqing leashed Xiaobai for a walk to give the two men some privacy.

Right before stepping out, Xiaobai dawdled by the doorway, giving her a chance to overhear snippets of their conversation. She caught heavy words like parasite, Marshal, and crystal core.

While things at the capital might seem calm on the surface, the parasite threat had never been fundamentally resolved. The recent swarm attack at headquarters had been deliberately orchestrated and swiftly neutralized. Given the intense defense mechanisms and military capabilities here, even if the parasites grew rampant again, they would never dare breach the streets as boldly as they had before.

But for the other survivor bases, the reality was entirely different. The situation out there was undeniably grim and complicated. The outside world was still a living hell.

She pulled the door shut and stood on the porch for a moment, lost in thought, until Xiaobai’s eager tug on the leash snapped her back to reality.

After walking outside for about half an hour, Xiaobai was still wandering around with boundless energy. Pei Xiqing, on the other hand, was so exhausted from her shopping spree earlier that she could barely maintain her grip on the leash.

Just as the dog prepared to lunge forward again, someone suddenly stepped into their path, grabbing the rope and easily pulling the energetic dog back.

Ling Lang stood there, holding his military cap in his free hand.

“Are you done with your work?” she asked, surprised.

Ling Lang nodded. “More or less.”

“You must have been having a tough time lately.”

“It’s alright,” he said nonchalantly. “This level of difficulty is nothing to me.”

“That’s good to hear.”

After a brief silence, he looked at her. “How are you feeling?”

“My recovery is going well.”

Ling Lang glanced her over. Even from a distance, he had noticed her rosy complexion, though he also saw her discreetly rubbing her tired legs. He was certain there was nothing seriously wrong with her health anymore.

“I can tell,” he said simply.

“You need to take care of yourself, too,” she scolded gently. “You should rest when you need to and not overwork yourself. And you need to eat three actual meals a day. You military guys always like to cram all your meals into one.”

Ling Lang tilted his head, his tone defensive. “Can you stop worrying about me all the time?”

Pei Xiqing sighed. “…You said it yourself, so fine, I won’t bring it up again.”

Ling Lang immediately looked away, his jaw tightening. “That won’t work either.”

Pei Xiqing chuckled, amused by his contradiction. “So what exactly do you want, then?”

“Whatever you want.” He remained as arrogant and aloof as ever.

Pei Xiqing just shook her head helplessly.

Up ahead, Xiaobai had his nose to the ground, sniffing out a trail.

Ling Lang took a few steps forward, then suddenly lowered his voice and murmured, “If even you stop caring about me, then no one else is going to nag me about these things.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

Pei Xiqing genuinely hadn’t heard him. Ling Lang, meanwhile, was too lazy to repeat himself—saying it again would just make him feel pretentious.

Instead, he took his frustration out on the dog. He scruffed Xiaobai’s neck, forcing the dog down, and threatened, “If you dare cause trouble again, you’re finished, you hear me?”

Xiaobai whimpered a few times, flattened himself against the ground, and went completely still.

“There’s a trick to military dogs,” Ling Lang told her, handing the leash back. “If you can’t control him sometimes, just use the standard tactical unit commands. He’ll listen.”

“You definitely have more experience.”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of these stupid dogs,” he chuckled.

He turned to leave, but after taking a step, he paused. With his back still to her, he said, “Pei Xiqing… I’m leading the vanguard out to battle in a few days, and I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back. So… while you’re here, just stay put. Do not leave the headquarters.”

Even if the rest of the apocalyptic world was completely overrun by zombies and parasites, he was determined to protect this final sanctuary for her.

Pei Xiqing parted her lips in surprise. “Why is it you going?”

“Who else would it be?” he scoffed disdainfully. “I’m the only capable young general they have left. Do you really expect me to rely on that useless coward, Gu He?”

“That’s not what I meant. I just didn’t expect you to personally lead the army out to the front lines.”

“It’s only natural,” he said quietly. “I’m the only one who can do all of this for my brother.”

Seeing him start to walk away, Pei Xiqing quickly chased after him. “Wait a minute, Ling Lang…”

He stopped in his tracks and looked back. “What?”

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