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

Chapter 268: So Well-Behaved Today?

She pushed the door open.

Duan Xiaolin was sitting on the leather sofa in the study. The fountain pen in his hand moved steadily, writing across the file resting on his knee.

His fingers were long and slender; as he held the pen, entirely focused on his work, he exuded a natural elegance and composure. He wore a silk robe made of the exact same material as her nightgown, the black belt tied meticulously around his waist. It gave him an aura of distant, indifferent calm—utterly reserved and untouchable.

He was so engrossed that he seemed unaware she had even entered the room. His hand never stopped moving.

Sometimes, she really wished he would embrace high-tech solutions. What era was this, anyway? It was far more technologically advanced than the 21st century she had once lived in, yet he still insisted on using physical pen and paper.

Just as she thought this, the man raised his free hand and tapped the empty space in front of him. More than a dozen holographic split screens materialized instantly. He scanned the digital contents, and a fresh line of text magically printed itself onto the physical document in his lap.

She quietly closed the door, slipped off her slippers, and tiptoed closer to him.

The man’s eyelids twitched slightly. He glanced at the data on the floating screens and simply continued writing.

The leather sofa wasn’t large—just a single-seater—but its premium material and craftsmanship were obvious at a glance. She leaned in close, pressing her chest against his back and resting her chin on his broad shoulder.

“Brother Duan…”

Duan Xiaolin’s expression shifted slightly. After stamping a seal on his document, he hooked a foot around a nearby chair and pulled it over, gesturing for her to sit down.

In the past, Pei Xiqing would never have dared to bother him while he was working, let alone get this close. But this man truly was at his most charming when he was serious. It reminded her of how focused he looked when researching new recipes in the kitchen. His eyes and brows were calm, carrying that familiar, attractive hint of cold indifference.

She didn’t even bother looking at the files he was holding; she just stared at his face.

At first, Duan Xiaolin was too busy to pay her any mind. But a moment later, when his pace finally slowed, he lifted his gaze and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Pei Xiqing put on an aggrieved expression and said deliberately, “You’re ignoring me.”

He raised a single eyebrow.

Taking advantage of the opening, Pei Xiqing slipped into his arms, straddling his lap directly.

The thick document crinkled under her weight. The wet ink from the page instantly stained the fabric of her moon-white silk nightgown, but she ignored it. Pei Xiqing wrapped her arms around his neck, lowering her head to press soft, lingering kisses along his jawline before finally capturing his thin lips.

“I still have matters to take care of,” he murmured against her mouth.

“No, you don’t.” The more he tried to look at the files in his hand, the more she shifted upwards, deliberately blocking his line of sight and pressing the papers down so he couldn’t read them.

Duan Xiaolin finally freed his hands, surrendering to her rhythm.

The two kissed lazily, breaking apart and coming back together. The pleasant, fresh scent of mint toothpaste lingered between them.

But whenever Pei Xiqing tried to deepen the kiss, he would subtly pull back, becoming distant and elusive. He looked up at her, his dark eyes filled with a lazy, indulgent amusement. “So well-behaved today?”

His arm was casually draped over the back of the sofa, not even touching her. Yet, the impending storm hidden beneath his calm gaze felt as though it were already tracing every curve of her body.

Pei Xiqing cupped his face, kissed him hard, and then deliberately knocked his silver-rimmed glasses off his nose. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’m really going to get angry. If you just tell me the truth, I promise I’ll be very good from now on. Just like today.”

He let out a low laugh. “Little liar.”

She only ever acted this affectionate when she wanted something from him. His gaze dropped to her rosy, swollen lips.

When he had first met Pei Xiqing, she had been like a clumsy little vixen awkwardly fumbling through her first crush. She had thought she was being clever and manipulative, but anyone could read her thoughts at a single glance; she couldn’t hide a thing.

But the Pei Xiqing sitting in his lap right now was different. She was like a siren where absolute purity and raw desire perfectly intertwined. The allure she inadvertently exuded would be irresistible to any sane man. At the very least, his own formidable self-control was on the verge of crumbling instantly.

Pei Xiqing pouted coquettishly. “Hurry up and tell me! Otherwise, I’ll be sulking all night, racking my brain trying to figure it out. It’s going to be very, very hard to endure.”

“When have I ever kept things from you?” he asked smoothly. “Besides, even if I don’t say anything, there are plenty of others eager to show off in front of you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Qiu Chao, Shadow, Long Yan… and Ling Lang. Which one of them hasn’t spilled all their secrets the second you asked?” he noted calmly. “Why don’t you go ask them? I’m sure they believe they know much more than I do, and they’d be thrilled to tell you everything.”

Pei Xiqing swallowed hard. “It’s one thing to mention the others, but Ling Lang? He left days ago. Why are you bringing him up? If he were still here, I definitely would have asked him, but he’s not even at headquarters anymore.”

Duan Xiaolin lowered his eyes, staring at her in piercing silence.

Feeling a sudden wave of guilt, Pei Xiqing avoided his gaze, trying to look away. He casually gripped the back of her neck, forcing her to turn back and face him.

“You are getting bolder and bolder,” he observed quietly.

A chill ran down Pei Xiqing’s spine. “I didn’t do anything…”

“What happened to the crystal core you kept hidden?” he asked softly. “Did you give it to him?”

The man’s hand slipped beneath the hem of her nightgown, which had ridden up to her thigh. His fingers squeezed and thoroughly caressed her skin—half as though he were conducting a physical search, and half blatantly taking advantage of her. He didn’t stop until Pei Xiqing’s waist went completely weak and she gasped.

“Hmm?” he prompted.

Pei Xiqing finally understood why he had been acting so distant and refusing to answer her earlier questions. She grabbed his wandering hand to stop it. “…When did you find out?” she mumbled. She had hidden it so carefully.

Duan Xiaolin pinched her waist lightly, his tone dropping to a chillingly cold register. “No crystal core can escape my notice.”

Pei Xiqing hurried to coax him. “I’m sorry… I just thought that giving it to Ling Lang would put it to the best use. It can protect him on the battlefield. I know I should have told you sooner…”

It wasn’t an illusion. Lately, Duan Xiaolin truly had developed an obsessive, almost maddening attachment to the crystal cores.

Chapter 269: Cherishing Life

Duan Xiaolin leaned back, adjusting his posture to give her more room to move.

Pei Xiqing leaned almost her entire body weight against him. She tilted her head up to press soft kisses against his eyes, her lips eventually trailing down to deliberately graze his Adam’s apple.

When he gave her the cold shoulder like this, it usually meant one of two things: either she had done something genuinely wrong that had angered him, or she had accidentally stumbled across one of his unspoken taboos.

She coaxed him for a long time. Eventually, the man reached up and gently pinched her cheek, stopping her increasingly audacious, teasing movements. His narrow eyes lowered slightly. “You want to know? Let me see your sincerity first.”

“Isn’t this sincere enough?” she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.

Her slender, pale fingertips boldly traced the contour of his chest, sliding down to grip one side of his silk belt. With a sharp tug, she ripped the knot open.

Large, perfectly defined muscles were instantly exposed. She traced the lines of his chest little by little, her eyes lowered nervously, her breathing growing noticeably hotter from her own brazen actions.

Duan Xiaolin let her do as she pleased, keeping his dark eyes fixed on her expression. He reached up, grasping her slender shoulder and sliding his palm down to press firmly against the Qiong Snake totem etched into her back. “It’s not nearly as prominent as it used to be,” he observed calmly.

She had noticed it too. The totem on her back no longer burned with that intense, agonizing heat—the kind of heat that used to send her body into a frantic, feverish state of heat anytime, anywhere…

Right now, although the supernatural temperature was gone, her face was already burning furiously, and she couldn’t control the erratic pounding of her own heart.

“Can you please stop focusing on that?” she murmured.

Ever since she woke up from her coma, he seemed to have hyper-fixated all his attention on the mysterious Substance X and her biological mutations. He seemed deeply uneasy without its stabilizing presence.

“I won’t break out in those horrible necrotic corpse spots anymore,” she reasoned, looking up at him. “And I won’t be constantly tormented by those terrifying symptoms. I don’t even need serum injections just to safely sleep next to you anymore. This means I’m gradually transitioning back into a normal human being. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Do you truly believe that?”

“Whether you want it to happen or not, it doesn’t matter. Since some things simply can’t be preserved, there’s no point in dwelling on them.”

He was silent for a moment before finally speaking. “Within the next two months, a catastrophic natural disaster will strike. It will plunge this world into a hell ten times worse than the current apocalypse.”

“What?!”

A natural disaster?

She had never read anything about a catastrophic natural disaster in the original novel!

This was undoubtedly the butterfly effect—the catastrophic consequence of the plot derailing after the protagonist’s premature death.

“How do you know this?” she asked urgently.

“It was detected,” he explained calmly. “A week ago, the senior management at headquarters utilized their advanced satellite arrays and geological instruments to track anomalies. They detected severe global celestial phenomena, abnormal spikes in seismic wave velocity, and severe atmospheric gravity imbalances. Furthermore, they correlated these anomalies with the fluctuating power levels of countless high-tier ability users across the continent. But most importantly… they detected a massive, synchronized species mutation.”

“A mutation?” she repeated, confused. “Isn’t that happening constantly?”

“This one is different.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“This specific mutation is exclusively targeting ability users.”

“What does that mean? Can ability users be actively interfered with and forced to mutate? Will the standard serum’s efficacy be drastically reduced?”

“Not only that,” he said grimly, “but the ability users themselves will become highly advanced carriers, allowing the parasites and the zombie virus to mutate into an entirely new phase.”

He raised a hand, subconsciously reaching for the small round table next to the sofa. He picked up his silver cigarette case, extracted a cigarette, but didn’t light it. He simply rolled it between his fingertips as he continued in a low voice.

“To put it simply: originally, when ability users were infected by the virus, it led to one of two outcomes—death, or mutation into a mindless zombie devoid of self-awareness. However, once this new species mutation is fully realized, the infected ability users will no longer lose their self-awareness. Instead, they will be entirely replaced.”

“Replaced?”

“Yes.” The man nodded slowly. “Under these new parameters, the infected ability user will retain their human consciousness, but their physical behavior and supernatural abilities will be completely hijacked and controlled by the parasite or the advanced zombie strain. Simultaneously, their cellular structure will be violently rewritten in a terrifyingly short span of time, completely assimilating the original host.”

This was infinitely more vicious than simply dying from a viral infection!

Pei Xiqing’s head was spinning. “…How could they evolve like this? Replacing human consciousness… these species mutations are far too terrifying!”

What was even more chilling was that these were merely mindless mutated species—creatures driven entirely by the instinct to parasitize and infect—yet they had somehow evolved the biological sophistication necessary to hijack and replace human sentience.

This was completely beyond anything described in the original storyline.

“This new mutation only targets ability users,” he assured her softly. “Your artificial abilities have almost entirely faded from your system. You will not be affected.”

“But the Qiong Snake…?”

“The Qiong Snake was a supernatural ability I temporarily transferred to you. Biologically speaking, you are not a pure, naturally awakened ability user.”

Pei Xiqing grabbed his hand, gently biting down on his knuckles in frustration. “What about my blood? The ability that instantly restored your exhausted powers when I bit you back then? That won’t disappear too, will it? If your powers are drained again and I’m not around to act as a battery, what will you do?”

Duan Xiaolin let out a low laugh. “That can only be classified as a temporary, unique property of your blood chemistry at the time. It wasn’t a true ability.”

“But you explicitly told me it was a superpower.”

The man pulled her flush against his chest. “Just promise me you won’t try to become an ability user now.”

Pei Xiqing pressed her cheek against his bare chest, nuzzling against his smooth skin. “With so many ability users scattered across the wasteland, won’t they all be in extreme danger? Before, if someone was infected, they just lost their minds and started mindlessly attacking their comrades. Regardless of the chaos, we could easily identify the infected and administer the serum as quickly as possible. But now, if these new mutations are actively trying to hijack and replace them while preserving their consciousness… it’s going to be nearly impossible to identify who has been compromised until it’s too late.”

“It’s alright,” the man murmured. His breathing had grown noticeably unsteady from her constant, teasing friction against his chest. He closed his eyes, his large hand gently stroking the curve of her waist. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I don’t just want you to protect me like this. I want you to stay safe, too.”

“I will.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

The man chuckled, gently tugging at a lock of her hair. “When have I ever lied to you? Besides, aren’t you satisfied with how the recent ‘crisis’ was handled?”

“Satisfied my foot!” she huffed. “You lied to me about being pregnant, making me happy for absolutely nothing!”

“It’s not too late to get pregnant now.”

Before Pei Xiqing could retort, he added softly, his voice thick with emotion, “As long as you are here, I will always cherish my own life.”

Duan Xiaolin tightened his grip on her wrist. He turned his head and lightly bit down on the soft flesh of her arm. Seeing the raw, unmasked desire burning in his dark eyes, Pei Xiqing bit her lip, refusing to make a sound.

The man leaned in closer, staring intently at her flushed face. He coaxed her in a low, husky whisper, “I honestly have zero affection for children. But if you give birth to one, I swear I will raise it with the utmost care. However… I might not be able to exercise much self-control during the actual process of getting you pregnant. How about you learn how to enjoy it? Hmm?”

Pei Xiqing’s fingers curled into tight fists, her eyebrows twitching violently. “You absolute bastard.”

Enjoy it?

How was she supposed to enjoy it? The size discrepancy was absurd… it was genuinely difficult to truly enjoy the process when it felt so overwhelmingly bloated and intense. Unless he actively held back his immense strength and stopped being so relentlessly forceful, ‘enjoyment’ was a tall order.

His wicked smile practically overflowed with amusement.

Pei Xiqing couldn’t help but punch him lightly in the shoulder.

“What exactly is the source of these incoming natural disasters?” she asked, desperate to change the subject.

“I don’t know.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, hesitating slightly. After a long silence, she finally spoke. “I have a theory.”

“Tell me.”

“Do you think Xiao Yue’s premature death is directly related to all of this?”

The apocalyptic world order. The sudden arrival of unprecedented natural disasters. It all seemed violently connected to the invisible, karmic rules governing this reality.

“I have no idea,” he replied dismissively.

She thought about it a moment longer. “Are the high-grade crystal cores constantly regenerating in the world?”

“Yes.”

“Then it might be somehow related. That guy, Xiao Yue…”

Before she could finish her sentence, the man gently pressed his fingertips against her lips, silencing her.

The rough calluses on his fingers rubbed sensuously against the soft flesh of her mouth.

Duan Xiaolin’s eyes were cold, defiant, and laced with absolute contempt. Without his silver-rimmed glasses to conceal his true nature, he looked less like a military commander and more like the dark, undisputed master of this world.

“Nothing I have ever wanted in this life was obtained by compromising myself to fate,” he stated coldly. “If simply praying to Buddha or pleading with God could achieve one’s goals, then every single person in this wasteland would have already become a ‘Xiao Yue’ by now.”

He had survived the bitter coldness and rare warmth of human nature. He had clawed his way through brutal battlefields and weathered the vicious capriciousness of fate his entire life. He was, and always had been, a relentless fighter. He had never relied on the charity of others or the elusive favor of destiny. To lecture him about the ‘will of the world’ or predetermined fate now was utterly laughable.

This was the first time Pei Xiqing had ever truly brushed against the absolute core of the man’s deepest thoughts. She was stunned into silence for a few seconds. Then, overwhelmed by a surge of profound affection, she cupped his face and kissed him fiercely.

He was right. He wasn’t Xiao Yue, nor could he ever become someone as pathetic as Xiao Yue. Whatever he wanted, he took it with his own two hands, never relying on anyone else or begging for external miracles.

The kiss had started simply because she initiated it. But gradually, Duan Xiaolin dropped the unlit cigarette from his hand, his large palm sweeping up to tightly grip the back of her head. The kiss deepened rapidly, escalating from a tender, lingering touch into a passionate, consuming demand.

He effortlessly scooped her up from the sofa and carried her over to the heavy oak desk in the study.

His silk bathrobe fell open, fully revealing his perfectly sculpted, powerful torso. His tall, broad frame completely enveloped the woman in his arms. He pressed her back against the polished edge of the desk, his massive silhouette hiding her from the world until only a few strands of her dark hair remained visible.

“It’s so cold…” Pei Xiqing shivered as her bare skin made contact with the chilled wood of the desk. She couldn’t help but protest weakly between kisses. “Let’s go back to the bedroom… it’s freezing down here.”

Duan Xiaolin hesitated for only a fraction of a second before scooping her up into his arms once more. He strode out of the study and headed straight for the stairs.

Pei Xiqing sat securely in his arms, her body completely suspended in the air, her lips already bruised and cherry-red from his aggressive bites. The sheer lack of oxygen made her body tremble violently, as if a live electric current were running through her veins.

But the man didn’t even make it to the second floor.

Halfway up the grand staircase, he set her down on a wide step. He pressed her back against the banister, leaning in to kiss her earlobe before gently biting down on the sensitive flesh. “Want to try it right here?” he murmured huskily.

Pei Xiqing simply couldn’t bring herself to refuse him.

Terrified of falling backward down the stairs, she had no choice but to wrap her arms and legs tightly around him and hold on for dear life.

Chapter 270: If You Don’t Come Untie Me

Her wrists ached fiercely, feeling as though they had been bound captive for far too long. She was on the verge of losing all sensation in her hands.

Pei Xiqing sluggishly blinked her eyes open. Just as she tried to sit up, she discovered that she couldn’t move her arms at all.

She looked up.

A thick belt was looped tightly around her wrists, anchoring her directly to the heavy headboard.

Frowning, she tried to blindly unbuckle the leather strap, only to realize that a complex knot had been tied at the very top, completely out of her reach.

She was incredibly annoyed, but her body was far too weak to even properly vent her anger. All she could do was glare at the warm light spilling from the slightly ajar bathroom door and yell, “If you don’t come untie me right now, I’m genuinely going to get angry!”

Two minutes later, the man emerged from the bathroom. He was dressed in a fresh silk bathrobe, leisurely tying the belt around his waist.

A wave of cool, damp air washed over her as he leaned down to undo the restraints.

The moment her hands were free, Pei Xiqing pushed him away, intending to march to the bathroom herself. However, the exact second her feet touched the floor, her legs completely gave out. She collapsed right back onto the mattress, far too exhausted to take a single step.

Duan Xiaolin simply bent down and effortlessly scooped her up into his arms.

Frustrated, Pei Xiqing bit down hard on his chin.

“I need to use the restroom! Hurry up, or I’m going to burst!”

He lowered his dark eyes, amusement dancing in his gaze. “It’s not like you haven’t soiled the mattress before. I’ll just clean it up.”

“Shut up!”

Pei Xiqing was carried into the bathroom and hurriedly set down on the toilet. Seeing that he was still standing right in front of her, her face flushed crimson. “Get out! I need to clean myself.”

Duan Xiaolin had somehow managed to sneak a cigarette from his study into the bathroom. He casually lit it, his eyes locked onto her with a gleaming, predatory light. “Don’t fall. I’m pretty sure you’ve slipped in every single corner of this bathroom by now.”

Pei Xiqing covered her face, too embarrassed to argue, and obediently stayed put. “Just help me run the water. I want to take a bath, and don’t make it too hot.”

The man chuckled softly. He took a slow drag of his cigarette and turned to start filling the large bathtub.

Behind him, she flushed the toilet. She then slowly pulled her nightgown down to properly cover her thighs before shakily making her way toward the tub.

Before she could even take two steps, his hand snaked out and caught her leg.

She had absolutely nothing on underneath the nightgown he had haphazardly thrown over her earlier. The sudden grip on her leg caused Pei Xiqing to lose her balance, sending her tumbling forward directly into his waiting arms.

Duan Xiaolin dropped to one knee, catching her firmly against his chest. He raised his right hand slightly and casually crushed the burning cigarette out on a nearby tray.

As he lifted her into the rising bathwater, his large hands naturally slipped beneath the surface with her.

Pei Xiqing instinctively resisted.

He was using far too much force, and his presence was overwhelmingly intense.

“I’ll wash myself…” she stammered quickly. “I can wash it myself…”

Duan Xiaolin ignored her protests, his hands lathering up with soap. “Turn around. Let me look at the Qiong Snake totem.”

“Oh…” Pei Xiqing obediently did as she was told, turning her back to him.

The terrifying necrotic lividity that used to plague her skin was entirely gone. Her back was dazzlingly white and flawless, save for her delicate skin being heavily mottled with the red marks he had left behind. Duan Xiaolin’s eyes quickly scanned the bruises fading into her skin before locking onto the intricate totem.

“It seems that vigorous exercise actually makes the totem more pronounced,” he murmured, his voice turning dark and hoarse.

“Is it that obvious?” She tried to twist around to look over her shoulder but could only catch a tiny glimpse of her own back.

“How obvious is it? Hand me a mirror…” she urged.

Duan Xiaolin retrieved a hand mirror from the vanity drawer and handed it to her.

Pei Xiqing held it up, genuinely studying her reflection.

Seeing that the intricate pattern inked across her back had indeed deepened significantly—especially the vivid peach blossoms, which looked as though they were in full, vibrant bloom—she swallowed hard. “It’s practically burning!”

“Yes,” the man agreed quietly.

Pei Xiqing shoved the mirror back into his hands with a huff. “Hmph.”

Duan Xiaolin stood up slowly. “If you keep whining like that, we aren’t leaving this room today.”

Pei Xiqing bit her lip and ducked her head, keeping quiet. Her long, dark hair soaked in the warm water; with her slightest movement, the wet strands clung to her snow-white shoulders like delicate seaweed.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion of thunder suddenly shattered the quiet intimacy of the room.

Several blinding flashes of lightning violently tore across the once-tranquil night sky outside the frosted window. It looked as though the heavens themselves were being violently cleaved in two. The sky crackled and popped with raw electricity, creating an apocalyptic, terrifying spectacle.

A few seconds later, accompanied by another ground-shaking crack of thunder, a torrential downpour unleashed its fury, pounding viciously against the reinforced glass.

The storm had arrived with absolutely zero warning.

The military-grade villa was equipped with absolute security measures. The windows were hermetically sealed, preventing even a single drop of rain from seeping inside, yet she could still vividly feel the terrifying, earth-shaking tremors vibrating through the walls.

Duan Xiaolin narrowed his eyes, staring out at the torrential rain in dead silence.

Pei Xiqing shrank back, leaning closer to his warmth.

“Wow, that was fast! It looks like we won’t have to wait two months after all…”

This was the first time she had ever witnessed rain this unnervingly heavy. The sheer kinetic power contained within the downpour was terrifying, feeling as though the deluge could effortlessly wash away all remaining traces of human civilization.

It looked incredibly gloomy and freezing outside; she didn’t even need to open a window to know how bone-chilling the gale-force winds were.

The man grabbed a thick blanket from the bedroom, wrapping her up tightly in it, and carried her out of the bathroom.

As he placed her gently on the edge of the bed, he pressed a kiss to her wet hair. “Let me dry this for you first.”

Pei Xiqing nodded gratefully.

She slipped into a fresh set of dry nightclothes. Sitting quietly on the edge of the mattress, she patiently let the man blow-dry her hair section by section.

After about ten minutes of comfortable silence, the military communicator he had left on the nightstand suddenly began to ring incessantly.

“Is it Brother Qiu Chao?” Pei Xiqing asked, glancing at the blinking device. “The rain is so violently heavy out there, the rest of the base must be heavily affected…”

He picked up the communicator, his eyes scanning the encrypted caller ID. “It’s Franlun.”

“They must have an emergency that requires your attention,” Pei Xiqing said, running a hand through her newly dried hair. She looked up at him resolutely. “I’ll go with you.”

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