Chapter 104: Another Victim Appears
Sister Qin was the first to react, clenching her fists and rushing out the door.
“Who’s there!” Sister Qin was on high alert. Having lived in this world for a few months, she knew that uninvited guests rarely brought good intentions.
In the corridor, a haggard middle-aged woman was surrounded by children. Panicking, she looked helplessly toward Song Yuqing.
“That’s…” Song Yuqing recognized her immediately. This middle-aged woman was one of the travelers who had come to God’s Supermarket with Xiaoyi. She was the only one besides Xiaoyi who had watched a future screening alone.
“Song… Manager Song…” Tears instantly burst from the woman’s eyes.
“It’s you!!”
Meeting each other’s gaze, they instantly confirmed they were from the same world. Song Yuqing hurried forward to support the middle-aged woman, whose knees were buckling.
“Ah—” The moment her hands brushed Song Yuqing’s arms, the woman sobbed uncontrollably, clinging to her like a lifeline and slumping her entire weight against her.
Song Yuqing stood there, taking the weight. Sister Qin awkwardly unclenched her fists and looked toward Liu Xiaona in confusion.
Liu Xiaona swallowed hard and asked, “Could it be that she was also swallowed by Lin Han and flung here?” He had a vague impression of this middle-aged woman; among the large group that had arrived, she was the oldest.
“It’s okay, everyone go back and play,” Sister Qin said, quickly dispersing the gathering children.
They returned to Sister Qin’s office and closed the door. The middle-aged woman was still clutching Song Yuqing’s hand tightly, her shoulders shaking with heavy sobs.
Liu Xiaona couldn’t hold back his curiosity and opened his mouth to ask what happened several times, but Sister Qin stopped him each time.
“Why won’t you let me ask?” Liu Xiaona whispered.
Sister Qin gave him a gentle pat. “Can’t you let her cry it out first? What are you so anxious about?”
“Ah? Do we really need to wait…”
Though they were whispering, the middle-aged woman still caught their voices. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to stop crying.
“They… they clearly know where my daughter is, but… but…” The woman exhaled in short, sharp breaths to steady her voice.
“Take your time,” Song Yuqing said, gently patting the woman’s back. “Tell us slowly, how did you get here?”
Gaha was also incredibly perceptive. She took a cup, gestured for Liu Xiaona to fill it with water, and handed it to the middle-aged woman.
“What is your name?” Sister Qin asked softly.
The middle-aged woman looked up at Sister Qin and forced a fragile smile. “My last name is Peng. I’m a space esper from Base 30.”
“Aunt Peng, you’re a space esper too?” Song Yuqing couldn’t help but feel surprised.
“Hehe, maybe everyone with spatial abilities is just a magnet for trouble?” Zhu Wu, who had been sitting quietly beside them, piped up with a small joke.
“You!” Sister Qin reached out and tapped Zhu Wu’s forehead. “Mind your manners.”
Aunt Peng looked a little self-conscious. “As a space esper, I’ve really only ever played the role of a pack mule… I’m nowhere near as capable as Manager Song.” If she were as powerful as Song Yuqing, she definitely would have been able to protect her daughter.
Before the apocalypse, Aunt Peng was just an ordinary factory accountant waiting for retirement. She had gotten divorced at thirty-five, and her daughter had been forced to stay with her ex-husband.
For years, she had tried to take her daughter away, but failed. She had tried to visit her daughter, but failed. She had even tried to catch a secret glimpse of her daughter from afar, but it never worked out.
Every single time, her ex-husband would block her path. Under the constant manipulation of her ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law, her daughter grew to resent her, fully believing she was a heartless woman who had abandoned her own family.
But in reality, she simply had no choice but to get a divorce.
As the painful memories flooded back, Aunt Peng couldn’t help but weep again. Song Yuqing squeezed her hand tightly, silently encouraging her to keep going. Everyone let out a collective sigh, deeply moved by Aunt Peng’s plight, while secretly anticipating that her story might unlock a crucial breakthrough.
On the afternoon the meteorite shower struck, Aunt Peng had taken advantage of her vacation to visit her daughter and deliver a birthday present. However, before she could even see her face, disaster tore the world apart. Aunt Peng awakened her spatial ability that very night and banded together with other survivors to stay alive.
While fighting for survival, she desperately used every avenue to locate her daughter. Yet, as the months dragged on, she turned up absolutely nothing. Haunted by the terrifying thought that her daughter might have already turned into a zombie, she volunteered to join the combat ranks alongside the younger operatives, pushing herself to become a zombie hunter.
Every single time she defeated a mutant, she would let out a massive sigh of relief after confirming the corpse wasn’t her daughter.
Her teammates constantly urged her to look on the bright side, but she simply couldn’t. She clung to the hope that a miracle would occur, that she would find her daughter safe and sound. Even a microscopic clue would have sufficed.
Then, word spread about God’s Supermarket and its mystical theater that granted glimpses into the future. Her hope was instantly reignited, and she became utterly determined to travel with the young hunters to find the store.
She actively hid her failing health from the group. Though she possessed superpowers, the extreme weather of the apocalypse had taken a brutal toll on her body, and she was no longer as resilient as she used to be. The journey was grueling, leaving her with agonizing back and leg pain, but she endured every mile.
When she finally stepped into the Future Cognition cinema and watched her ten seconds, she was met with a reality she completely couldn’t accept. She had envisioned dozens of bitter reunions with her daughter, but she had never imagined that she would die at her own child’s hands.
Hearing this, a chill ran down Song Yuqing’s spine. She couldn’t help but think of her own parents, wondering if she was trapped in a similar boat.
Aunt Peng let out a bitter, hollow laugh. “Those ten seconds I saw on the screen… they were focused entirely on my daughter. The moment I ran forward to hug her, she reached out and twisted my neck.”
“What does that mean?” Zhu Wu asked cautiously. “Did your daughter turn into a monster?”
“No, she didn’t turn into a zombie. She still looks completely like a normal person! She looks perfectly human!” Aunt Peng grew agitated again, her hands tightening around Song Yuqing’s.
“If she’s still human, why on earth would she murder her own mother?” Zhu Wu’s small face puckered in confusion.
Liu Xiaona chimed in, “Yeah, the daughter you saw in the vision—did she seem to recognize you at all?”
Aunt Peng froze, her expression turning blank. “She… she should have recognized me.” She honestly wasn’t sure. It had been so long since they last spoke; perhaps her daughter really wouldn’t recognize her anymore.
“Then what happened next? How did you end up flinging into this world?” Sister Qin asked, steering the conversation back to the crucial puzzle.
“I…” Aunt Peng lowered her head. “In the vision, I saw that my daughter and I crossed paths in a vast desert. She was accompanied by two men who looked incredibly dangerous. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I decided I had to go to that desert to search for her…”
“Hold on! You tried to head into the wastes entirely by yourself?” Liu Xiaona gasped.
Aunt Peng nodded. “I asked the hunters which base was located deep in the desert…”
“Base Zero,” Song Yuqing muttered, her brow furrowing.
“Yes. So I planned to make the trek to Base Zero alone. But the young men in my squad worried it would be suicide for me to go by myself, so they strictly forbade me from leaving…”
“They were entirely right,” Song Yuqing said calmly.
“But I wasn’t afraid of the danger. So, I waited until the dead of night when everyone was asleep, secretly hot-wired a car, and set off for Base Zero on my own.” Aunt Peng had been so consumed by the burning desire to see her daughter that she had driven at a reckless speed.
“And then?”
“Then I ran into a massive cluster of zombies on the highway. They had completely surrounded a modified car. I had no intention of playing the hero, so I tried to quietly slip past them. But the people trapped inside the vehicle spotted me, and the driver actually smiled. He broke through the horde and started chasing my car. Strangely, the zombies didn’t attack him at all; they just trailed behind his vehicle like a loyal pack. I was terrified, so I slammed on the gas. The man kept gaining on me until he suddenly threw a massive black hole at my car…”
“And you materialized here today?” Song Yuqing already knew the answer.
“Yes. The second I recovered consciousness, I spotted you guys walking along the road,” Aunt Peng said, looking at the supermarket crew. “But it was all so incredibly bizarre that I didn’t dare call out to you. I just quietly followed your tracks until we hit this shelter.”
So that’s how it is…
Song Yuqing and Sister Qin exchanged a subtle, understanding smile.
