What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH20

Chapter 20: Idiot

Franlun was the syndicate commanded by the novel’s ultimate villain boss. Earlier, Duan Xiaolin had casually admitted that he knew the man.

And… a representative? She had never heard that specific title used in the novel.

Pei Xiqing leaned forward from the backseat, practically hanging over Ling Lang’s chair, her eyes sparkling with intense curiosity. “Can I ask what that means? Or is it considered classified base intel?”

Ling Lang, who was just about to put the G-Class into drive, caught her wide-eyed stare in the rearview mirror. He coughed awkwardly, quickly looking away to focus on the ruined road ahead. “Why are you… so damn curious?”

“Because I want to… get to know Brother Duan a little better.”

“…” Ling Lang stared at her reflection in utter disbelief. “What the hell did you just say?”

Even the man sitting in the passenger seat paused.

Through the gold-rimmed lenses, Duan Xiaolin’s dark eyes shifted, locking onto her in the rearview mirror. His gaze was entirely unreadable, a complex mix of calculation and scrutiny.

Pei Xiqing’s heart skipped a beat. Realizing how her words sounded, she frantically backpedaled. “I just meant that… I think Franlun is an incredibly mysterious organization, and I want to learn more about it! Since Brother Duan is a member, I thought learning about his role would help me understand the syndicate better!”

Ling Lang scoffed. “Please. You want to learn about Franlun? Have you decided you’ve lived long enough? If you actually want to stay alive in this wasteland, don’t ask questions you aren’t prepared to hear the answers to. That’s my genuine advice to you. The people on that council are absolutely not to be trifled with.”

Pei Xiqing slumped back into her seat, letting out a disappointed sigh.

Just as she resigned herself to the silence, Duan Xiaolin’s voice slowly cut through the quiet cabin. “My official title within Franlun is the High Representative of Negotiation and Interrogation. Why? Are you interested in the specifics of the role?”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes widened. “No, no, I’m not interested! I was just asking…”

She could vaguely understand “Negotiation”—likely settling faction disputes or brokering trade deals within the central bases. But the word “Interrogation,” spoken in his freezing, clinical tone, sent a violent chill straight down her spine. She shrank back into the shadows of the backseat, actively avoiding his gaze.

Ling Lang burst into laughter. “Coward! My brother just said one word, and you’re already terrified. What an idiot.”

“You’re the one who’s scared,” Pei Xiqing muttered under her breath. “You’re the biggest idiot here.”

Ling Lang pretended not to hear her as he shifted gears and accelerated the heavy vehicle.

But in the reflection of the driver’s side window, where she couldn’t see, the corners of his mouth twitched upward into a small, undeniable smile.

“Hold on tight. We’re moving out.”

Having completely shaken off the rogue scavenger team, the elite squad’s convoy hit the road with ruthless efficiency.

However, the journey proved far more treacherous than they had anticipated. The massive mutant horde migrations had utterly destroyed the primary highways. Entire overpasses were collapsed, forcing the convoy to either abandon the vehicles and proceed on foot, or take massive, multi-day detours through the ruined infrastructure.

Given the highly classified equipment loaded in the trunks, abandoning the vehicles was out of the question. Furthermore, they had Pei Xiqing with them. The operatives, with their elite military training and enhanced stamina, could easily march for days without sleep. Pei Xiqing could not.

After two grueling days of off-roading between shattered cityscapes and the freezing Gobi desert, Pei Xiqing was physically wilting.

She lay entirely limp in the backseat, feeling as though every bone in her body had been rattled loose. When the convoy finally stopped to refuel, she didn’t even have the strength to unbuckle her seatbelt.

I am not a special forces operative, she thought miserably. But I am definitely experiencing how special forces operatives fight and travel.

The detours had forced them through dense mutant territory. The armored vehicles violently rammed through packs of starving zombies gnawing on roadside corpses. The suspension of the G-Class was incredible, but off-roading at those speeds was ten times more violently bumpy than the stunt horses she used to ride on set. She felt like her stomach acid was going to be shaken right out of her throat.

She had nearly thrown up several times. Whenever she started gagging, Ling Lang would mockingly slow the car down just to laugh at her misery.

During one particularly violent bout of nausea, she had inadvertently glanced at Duan Xiaolin in the passenger seat. The man was a machine. Even in this high-pressure, violently shaking environment, he was calmly reading a classified dossier and periodically reviewing encrypted intel updates relayed from base command.

Compared to his absolute composure, she truly felt like pathetic dead weight.

Sometimes, in her delirious, motion-sick haze, she would unconsciously stare at his sharp profile for minutes on end. He would eventually look up from his tablet, a faint, almost imperceptible smirk playing on his lips. “Do you need to vomit again? If so, make it quick. We need to keep moving. We are scheduled to breach the next city sector within three days.”

Pei Xiqing genuinely felt like the sky was crushing her.

When the convoy finally stopped to make camp for the night, she was practically in shock from the motion sickness. The entire squad immediately dismounted, rapidly establishing a secure perimeter, setting up tactical tents, and preparing rations. She remained curled up in the backseat, her eyes squeezed shut, absolutely motionless.

In a groggy daze, she felt the heavy armored door swing open. The freezing desert wind washed over her.

She cracked her eyes open to see Long Yan peering in with a sympathetic smile. “Hey. You awake? Come on, get up and eat something. The boys are out sweeping the perimeter and clearing out any straggler mutants. Come down, get some hot food in you, and then you can take a shower.”

Pei Xiqing’s exhausted brain finally processed the last word. She immediately perked up. “I can take a shower?!”

“Yeah. While the boys were out hunting, I set up the mobile decontamination tent and heated some water. Come on, hurry up before it gets cold.”

Pei Xiqing practically scrambled out of the vehicle.

In the apocalypse, a hot shower was the ultimate, unimaginable luxury. She didn’t know what the living standards were like inside the central base, but out in the lawless wasteland, wasting clean water on hygiene was almost unheard of.

Over the past few days of intense, high-speed travel, she had only managed to wipe her face down with a damp cloth. Sometimes they drove for so long that she barely had time to drink water, let alone bathe.

Long Yan handed her a bundle of clean clothes. “The squad’s surplus gear is entirely men’s sizing. I didn’t pack many civilian clothes for this op. By the way, where did you get that heavy tactical jacket?”

“The scavenger team we met back at the ruins gave it to me.”

“No wonder,” Long Yan frowned, inspecting the fabric. “The more I look at it, the more I recognize the stitching. A military logistics convoy was ambushed in that sector a few weeks ago. They definitely looted it.”

“What?!” Pei Xiqing gasped.

Long Yan smiled reassuringly. “It’s fine. They stole it, but since they willingly handed it over to you, just accept it and move on. However, if you ever run into rogue factions like that in the future, never accept ‘gifts’. You never know if they’re just trying to lower your guard before they reveal their true, violent intentions.”

“Understood.”

“In the wasteland, everyone is out for themselves. Unprompted goodwill is almost always a trap. It’s safer to trust absolutely no one.”

Pei Xiqing nodded obediently.

Long Yan laughed softly. “Here, put this uniform on after your shower. It’s a men’s cut, so it’s going to be ridiculously oversized on you, but you can just cinch the waist with a tactical belt. Give me your dirty clothes when you’re done, and I’ll wash them. Oh, and give them to Ling Lang afterward so he can dry them.”

Pei Xiqing blinked in surprise. “Dry them? He does the laundry?”

“Ling Lang is our Captain. Have you guessed what his primary ability is yet?”

Pei Xiqing thought for a moment. “Fire?”

“Spot on. Just toss the wet clothes at him, and he’ll have them bone-dry in seconds,” Long Yan smirked. “But his pyrokinetics are just the surface. That’s not his only trick.”

“He’s a dual-ability user?”

Long Yan raised an eyebrow. “How did you know that?”

Pei Xiqing smiled mysteriously. “Just a lucky guess.”

“Well, his second ability is something you would never, ever expect.”

“What is it?”

Long Yan tapped her nose, playing coy. “That’s classified. The specifics of dual-tier abilities are fiercely guarded secrets. Only the user themselves, or the comrades they trust with their lives, ever know the truth. When he’s ready to tell you, you’ll know.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Ling Lang is a generational genius,” Long Yan continued, her tone turning serious. “To awaken dual abilities at his age is practically unheard of. His future in the military is limitless. Once you get to the base, you’ll see just how many high-ranking women throw themselves at him.” Long Yan winked playfully. “…You better seize the opportunity while you have him to yourself.”

Pei Xiqing stared blankly. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing. Let’s go shower.” Long Yan threw an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the decontamination tent.

Speaking of dual-ability users, Pei Xiqing thought as they walked. The male protagonist, Xiao Yue, is supposed to be the ultimate dual-user. But according to the timeline, he hasn’t returned to the central base yet. The military elite probably have no idea he even exists right now.

Inside the tent, the air was thick with hot steam. After Pei Xiqing and Long Yan finished washing, Long Yan dried off and slipped through the curtain first. “Want me to help you wash your clothes? That tactical jacket of yours is going to weigh a ton once it’s fully soaked…”

Standing outside, Long Yan called through the canvas. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

Pei Xiqing, wearing an oversized men’s undershirt that hung down to her mid-thighs, was squatting next to a heavy plastic bucket. “I’m fine! I can wash it myself. You just worry about your own gear, Sister Long Yan!”

“If you need help, just shout.”

“Will do.”

Long Yan hadn’t been exaggerating. The tactical jacket was lined with dense, heavy-duty thermal fleece. The moment it absorbed the soapy water, it felt like it weighed fifty pounds. It took her nearly five minutes just to lift it out of the bucket.

She scrubbed the fabric aggressively, her arms aching. Exhausted, she decided to wash her undergarments first and hang them on the drying rack before returning to wage war on the impossibly heavy coat.

She scrubbed for a long time. Fortunately, the squad’s portable filtration system was pulling a steady stream of water directly from a nearby river, otherwise, she would have felt incredibly guilty for wasting so much of their supply.

She was halfway through wringing out the heavy coat when she heard the heavy crunch of boots approaching the tent, followed by Ling Lang’s voice.

Feeling an irrational spike of panic, she frantically sped up, scrubbing the fabric with everything she had. She finally managed to wring the last bit of water out just as the tent flap flew open. As she stood up, she walked directly into Ling Lang’s solid chest.

Ling Lang had just returned from sweeping the perimeter. His tactical vest was off, and his tight black t-shirt was soaked in sweat from the intense combat. He pulled his mask down, running a hand through his messy white hair. As he looked up, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Standing in the center of the steaming tent was a slender figure, wearing nothing but an oversized men’s shirt that barely covered her thighs.

Pei Xiqing jumped back, terrified she had just bumped into a stranger. Recognizing him, she let out a massive sigh of relief and tried to scurry past him with her heavy bucket of wet clothes.

Ling Lang reached out, effortlessly blocking her path. He looked down at the bucket. “How long does it take you to wash a single jacket?”

“It’s incredibly heavy! Try lifting it if you don’t believe me!”

He scoffed, hooking a single finger under the bucket’s handle and lifting it with zero effort. “Heavy?”

Pei Xiqing glared and reached to snatch it back, but Ling Lang held it out of reach. “Aren’t you supposed to dry these?”

“…Right.”

“Then why are you grabbing it?”

Pei Xiqing looked up at him, her eyes wide with genuine curiosity. “Can I watch you dry it? I want to see your ability.”

Ling Lang: …

“You are such an ignorant idiot.”

“Would it physically kill you to stop insulting me for five minutes?”

“When I’m talking to you? Yes. Probably.”

He carried the bucket over to a metal folding table and dumped the wet clothes onto the surface. He shook the excess water from the heavy jacket. A sphere of intense, concentrated red energy instantly materialized in his palm. He held his hand inches above the wet fabric.

In less than ten seconds, a thick cloud of steam rose from the table. The freezing air in the tent became stiflingly hot.

“Whoa. That’s amazing,” Pei Xiqing praised honestly.

Ling Lang scoffed, completely unimpressed by his own power. “This is a parlor trick. You haven’t seen anything truly powerful yet.”

“Well, hopefully I survive long enough to see you go all out.”

…

Ling Lang turned his head, staring at her intensely.

Pei Xiqing blinked. “What?”

“…You better stay alive,” he muttered darkly. “Don’t die halfway to the base, or you won’t get to see anything.”

“Don’t worry. As long as you guys don’t execute me, I won’t die, even if I fully turn into a zombie.”

“You really know how to look on the bright side of a death sentence.”

Pei Xiqing smiled, her eyes curving into crescents. She reached out toward the jacket, wanting to feel the residual warmth of the fabric. But the moment her fingers brushed the surface, a surge of latent, scorching energy flared violently against her skin.

“Hiss!” She recoiled instantly, clutching her hand.

Before she could even inspect the burn, Ling Lang lunged forward, violently grabbing her wrist. He yanked her hand toward him, his brow furrowed in anger. “Are you insane?! Unawakened humans cannot touch raw elemental energy! You’ll burn your flesh off!”

Ling Lang stared down at her reddened, blistered fingertips. “Did absolutely no one ever explain this to you?!”

Pei Xiqing shook her head, wincing. “I’m sorry… I had no idea…”

The author never mentioned that in the novel! And the original owner was completely powerless, so she had no memory of elemental backlash!

“Tch…” Ling Lang stared at her blistered fingers, his expression twisting with genuine irritation and concern. “Come with me. I’m getting the medical kit.”

“No, no, really, it’s just a tiny burn. It’ll heal in a few minutes…”

“Superpowers are not a toy. Do not treat this like a joke.”

Standing this close to him, Pei Xiqing could tangibly feel the terrifying gap in power between them. The residual heat radiating from his palm felt like holding her hand over an open furnace. Feeling intimidated and uncomfortable, she tried to pull her hand back.

Ling Lang’s grip tightened like a steel vice, completely refusing to let her go.

He forcefully dragged her toward the exit of the tent.

But as he threw the canvas flap open, they both froze.

Standing directly on the other side of the threshold, his dark eyes fixed entirely on Ling Lang’s grip on her wrist, was Duan Xiaolin.

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