Chapter 404: Suicide
In her foresight, Su Tao saw the moment Hua Pi found her backpack. A look of joy flashed across Hua Pi’s face as she clutched the bag tightly and brought the zipper to her nose, greedily inhaling the scent of blood.
Her body was still covered in wounds, with large areas of red blotches on her face that hadn’t faded. A gaping hole in her chest made even walking difficult. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and gazed toward Taoyang with a shadowy, ominous expression.
The backpack accompanied her to the Shou’an Base, where she spent three or four days recuperating.
Su Tao’s breathing quickened as she observed the vision, trying to memorize every detail. These few days at the Shou’an Base were the best opportunity to capture Hua Pi.
Just as she was about to end her foresight, the scene shifted—and to her shock, a familiar figure appeared.
Lei Xing.
Lei Xing was at Shou’an?!
Su Tao focused her mind and examined the vision again—there he was, with his golden short hair and his usual arrogant expression. It was undeniably him.
Hua Pi’s gaze followed Lei Xing closely, filled with a greedy desire—not the desire between a man and a woman, but the hunger of a predator eyeing its prey, a “collectible.”
Su Tao’s heart sank, her limbs growing cold.
However, Hua Pi didn’t act immediately. Instead, she focused on recovering, leaving the base frequently—probably to “feed.”
Once she had healed about sixty percent, she met with someone—or rather, something—a mutant zombie named Siren.
Contrary to Su Tao’s expectations, Siren was a male zombie. He had sallow, ashen skin, a wiry frame, and sharp, vulture-like eyes that gleamed with malice.
At their meeting, Hua Pi placed the backpack on a nearby chair, and Su Tao felt as though she were sitting with them, bearing witness to their gruesome plans against humanity.
When Hua Pi outlined her plan, Siren readily agreed—but they disagreed on the details.
Siren wanted to recruit two more mutants, seize the largest southern base, Xindu, before advancing north toward Changjing, and finally target Taoyang.
Hua Pi refused. She wanted to strike Taoyang first—she craved revenge against Eyes Burial for betraying her. For her, destroying Taoyang was the key to humanity’s downfall.
Siren, unimpressed, accused her of pursuing a personal vendetta. The risk of attacking Taoyang was too great, and he refused to support her plan.
Their meeting ended in a tense stalemate.
The vision shifted again. Hua Pi planned to revisit Siren in a few days to negotiate. Meanwhile, after healing to about eighty percent, she somehow saved a mutant named Huo She, gaining the trust of Leopard Path’s group and temporarily joining their ranks.
At that moment, the foresight abruptly ended—three months was the limit of her ability.
Su Tao collapsed to the ground, her head splitting with pain, limbs too weak to move.
Just then, Zhuang Wan burst into her office without knocking, her face deathly pale.
“Boss! Jiang Yu—he shot Tongtong!”
Su Tao froze in disbelief. She tried to stand but fell back down repeatedly. “Help me up!”
The nightmare from her foresight had come true.
For a brief moment, despair gripped her. Her foresight hadn’t changed fate—what was destined to happen still did.
By the time she stumbled back into the blood-soaked room, she arrived just in time to hear Shen Wencheng’s furious outburst:
“You tried to kill her?! Are you insane?! Do you have any idea how valuable she is? I—You—”
He was shaking with rage.
Zhong Gaoyi pulled him aside. “Enough. Look—she’s still alive. A regular bullet can’t kill her.”
Relief flooded Su Tao, but it was accompanied by a deep ache.
When she saw Jiang Yu lying motionless on the ground, her heart clenched painfully.
She understood his reasons—Jiang Tong’s current suffering was worse than death. Killing her would have freed her from endless agony.
After all, Jiang Yu was only a young man in his early twenties—barely more than a child before the apocalypse.
Taking a deep breath, Su Tao steadied herself and approached Jiang Tong.
A bullet hole marred her forehead, but compared to her other injuries, it was nothing.
Her lips moved faintly, whispering, “Brother… Tongtong is saying goodbye…”
Before Su Tao could react, Jiang Tong raised her skeletal hand and plunged it into her own skull.
A brilliant burst of light filled the room—something shattered.
Shen Wencheng’s shriek pierced the air: “Her crystal core! No! Nooo—”
He fainted on the spot.
Su Tao stood frozen, watching as the last flickers of light faded away. On the blood-soaked bed, the fragile, broken girl lay still—completely lifeless.
The world seemed to fall silent.
Jiang Yu, still sprawled on the floor, started to laugh—a broken, hysterical sound. He laughed until he choked on blood, his entire body convulsing with pain and grief.
Su Tao couldn’t move, her mind numb from the shock. For all her foresight, she had still been powerless to stop this.
She didn’t know how she got home or how much time had passed before she came to her senses.
When she did, the first thing she saw was Lin Fangzhi’s worried face.
She couldn’t let herself fall apart—Hua Pi had to be captured at Shou’an Base before she reached Lei Xing.
“Ling Yu! Take the bag back—quickly!”
The bird, mid-bite on a strawberry, froze.
Meanwhile, Su Tao frantically dialed Lei Xing’s number, but the signal wouldn’t connect. Checking his location, she realized he was traveling through a signal-dead zone toward Shou’an.
She ordered Zhuang Wan to call Lei Xing the moment he re-entered a service area.
Finally, she instructed the capture team to stake out the location from her vision. With over ten elite ability users—especially Xiong Tai and his “cage” power—they had a strong chance of subduing a weakened Hua Pi.
Even with all these measures in place, Su Tao’s heart remained heavy.
Jiang Tong’s death haunted her, a stark reminder of how even knowing the future could not always change it.
