Chapter 24: Are You Not Afraid Anymore?
Pei Xiqing reached up to touch the corner of her lips. Her fingertips came away with a faint trace of blood. She quickly wiped it off, forcing a casual smile. “It’s nothing… I probably just accidentally bumped into something while I was asleep.”
Long Yan gave her a deeply meaningful look. “Then you better be careful. Try not to ‘bump’ into anything else next time.”
Her sudden laughter caught the attention of the two men in the front. Ling Lang, who was focused on navigating the ruined road, hadn’t noticed the fresh wound on her mouth. Hearing Pei Xiqing’s excuse, he scoffed lazily. “I didn’t expect you to actually injure yourself while napping. I’m up here driving through a warzone, and you’re back there snoring so hard you give yourself a bloody lip? The road ahead is only going to get worse, so you better watch out, or you’re going to get hurt again.”
“This time you just busted your lip. Next time you fall asleep, you might knock your own teeth out.”
Pei Xiqing glared at the back of his head. “If you don’t know how to speak properly, you don’t have to speak at all. Just focus on driving.”
Ling Lang merely smirked, clearly amused by her irritation.
“I guess only an idiot like you could manage something like that.”
Pei Xiqing crossed her arms. “I said it was an accident.”
Hearing this, the man sitting in the passenger seat slowly turned his head, casting a sidelong glance in her direction.
Pei Xiqing met his gaze, her expression remaining completely unchanged. “What a surprise, right?”
She tapped the bruised corner of her mouth, maintaining her lie with flawless conviction. “I bumped into the window frame while I was sleeping and it started bleeding. I was half-asleep, otherwise I would have noticed it much earlier.”
Ling Lang sighed. “Alright, fine. I strongly advise you to buckle your seatbelt back there, because we’re about to hit a very dangerous stretch of road.”
Pei Xiqing adjusted her posture, pulling the belt across her chest. “I’m fine. Just drive.”
“And if you feel like vomiting again, you better hold it in. I’m going to have to accelerate soon, so don’t start looking for a place to throw up.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen this time.”
Long Yan continued to stare at her, her gaze shifting thoughtfully from Ling Lang in the driver’s seat to the bruised, swollen state of Pei Xiqing’s lips.
Pei Xiqing completely ignored her knowing look.
She quickly leaned toward the window, pretending to be deeply fascinated by the apocalyptic scenery. The road conditions ahead were rapidly deteriorating. The asphalt was severely fractured, littered with massive fallen rocks and deep craters left by artillery fire.
The G-Class maneuvered flawlessly, violently swerving to avoid rotting corpses and wrecked vehicles, but the ride was still bone-rattling.
Ling Lang tapped the brakes, gradually slowing the convoy to a halt. “The suspension bridge ahead looks like it’s on the verge of collapse. I’m not sure if the structural integrity can hold our weight.”
Long Yan hopped out of the vehicle to inspect the damage. She ran a gloved hand along the massive stone and steel pylons. “The foundation feels relatively stable; it hasn’t hit critical failure yet. And honestly, this bridge is our only route across the gorge. As long as the cables hold, we should be able to cross.”
The two heavily armored off-roaders pulled up behind them. The rest of the squad dismounted, looking warily at the churning, highly toxic black water rushing through the gorge below. “The infrastructure out here is an absolute nightmare,” Fu Feng muttered. “If this wasn’t the only viable route, I’d never risk crossing this.”
“We have to try,” Long Yan said, walking back to the convoy. “But prepare for a structural collapse. If the bridge gives way, be ready to use your abilities to tow the vehicles across the gap.”
“I’ll cross first on foot,” Fu Feng volunteered. “I’ll attach heavy-duty winches to the front bumpers. If the bridge snaps, I can use my telekinesis to yank the vehicles to the other side.”
“Good plan. Let’s lighten the load,” Ling Lang ordered. “Everyone crosses on foot first. Lu Xudong and I will stay behind and pilot the vehicles across one at a time.”
“Understood.”
Following the plan, the squad abandoned the vehicles and began a tense, single-file march across the groaning suspension bridge.
The structure swayed violently over the toxic river, but it held. Given the sheer weight of the armored vehicles packed with heavy munitions, it was definitely a precarious gamble.
Pei Xiqing walked alongside Long Yan, successfully reaching the opposite bank. Shortly after, Ling Lang and Lu Xudong successfully navigated both vehicles across the treacherous span.
Standing on the new riverbank, Pei Xiqing looked around in shock. The landscape here was vastly different. A sprawling, ruined metropolis stretched out before them. Almost every single high-rise building was scorched black from pollution and fire. The ecological devastation was absolute. If the previous sectors had sparse, dying forests, this side of the river was a barren, apocalyptic wasteland. The soil was a toxic, ashen black, utterly incapable of sustaining plant life.
“Welcome to City B,” Long Yan explained, noting her shock. “Before the outbreak, this was one of the largest Tier-1 metropolitan hubs in the country. Even the river we just crossed is saturated with the industrial runoff of City B. Now that we’ve crossed that bridge, there’s no turning back. We are officially inside the inner city limits.”
Ling Lang approached, tapping his tactical tablet. “Biometric scanners are picking up a massive concentration of mutants deeper in the city. Everyone stay sharp.”
He turned his head, glancing at Pei Xiqing, who was crouching safely behind a large concrete barrier. “Get back in the car.”
“I’m not afraid of zombies,” Pei Xiqing stated stubbornly.
“Is that right?” Ling Lang scoffed, slamming a fresh magazine into his assault rifle. “Then make sure you don’t cause us any trouble. If a firefight breaks out, I have to command the entire squad. I don’t have the time or the manpower to babysit you.”
“Just go do your job.”
She glanced back toward the G-Class. Duan Xiaolin was still sitting calmly in the passenger seat, his eyes locked on his tablet. He hadn’t moved an inch.
Ling Lang lowered his voice, dropping his usual arrogant tone. “Listen to me. If a horde actually breaches the perimeter, you run straight to my brother. But if you get scared and accidentally bite him in a panic, you are completely finished. Understood?”
“I know, I know.”
“Alright. Squad, form up on me,” Ling Lang ordered. “Thermal imaging shows another survivor team engaged in heavy combat with a horde about a mile out. Based on their signature, they’re a sanctioned military squad from the central base. We’re moving in to assist and extract.”
“Sir, yes sir!”
After the heavily armed squad marched into the ruined city, Pei Xiqing sat on the concrete barrier, swinging her legs idly. She secretly peeked through the tinted windows of the G-Class at the man inside.
He looked incredibly focused, completely untroubled by the apocalyptic environment outside.
The encrypted files on his tablet were likely real-time intelligence reports relayed directly from the central base command, requiring his analysis and response within a strict two-hour window.
A few minutes later, Pei Xiqing heard a wet, shuffling sound. Several rotting zombies had wandered into the makeshift parking area. She frowned, remaining crouched behind the barrier, and stared directly at the closest mutant.
The moment she locked eyes with it, the zombie let out a low hiss and raised its blood-soaked, decaying claws toward her.
Pei Xiqing didn’t flinch. She didn’t move a single muscle.
Sensing the lack of fear, the zombie suddenly froze. It tilted its ruined neck at a grotesque, unnatural angle, staring at her in sheer confusion.
She picked up a jagged piece of concrete and deliberately rattled it against the barrier. Startled by the noise—and seemingly terrified by the overwhelming, latent energy radiating from Duan Xiaolin inside the vehicle—the zombies immediately scrambled backward, tripping over themselves as they fled back into the ruins.
The moment they disappeared, the passenger window smoothly rolled down. Duan Xiaolin’s cold, calculating gaze fell upon her. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Pei Xiqing replied casually. “Just a few stray zombies. They ran away.”
The man lowered his heavy eyelids. “Are you truly not afraid of them anymore?”
Pei Xiqing shook her head.
“Get in the car.”
“I’d rather stay out here for some fresh air,” Pei Xiqing said, leaning comfortably against the door frame. “Brother Duan, you just focus on your classified work. I’ll act as your perimeter guard. If any more zombies show up, I’ll chase them off for you.”
Duan Xiaolin let out a low, incredibly rare chuckle. He casually swiped to the next page on his tablet. “Very well.”
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a pristine white handkerchief, and handed it to her through the window. “Wipe the corner of your mouth.”
“Hm?” Pei Xiqing quickly checked her reflection in the side mirror. A tiny bead of fresh blood had welled up at the corner of her bruised lip. Blushing furiously, she snatched the handkerchief and scrubbed her mouth. She couldn’t help but lick her lower lip; a sharp, stinging pain flared instantly.
It was definitely a bruise from when she had forcefully kissed him in the backseat.
After wiping her face, the two of them fell into a comfortable, quiet silence.
Ling Lang and his elite squad were effectively acting as a meat grinder a mile away, drawing the attention of nearly every mutant in the sector. Because of this, the parking area remained completely desolate. After waiting for half an hour, Pei Xiqing began to feel drowsy. Leaning heavily against the armored door, she let out a long yawn.
Suddenly, Ling Lang’s frantic voice crackled over the vehicle’s encrypted comms radio.
“Brother! The sheer volume of this horde vastly exceeds our initial biometric estimates! We are looking at a localized swarm event! They are going to completely encircle this city sector within ten minutes!”
Pei Xiqing’s eyes snapped wide open.
She had been traveling with this elite squad for days, but they had never encountered a full-scale horde event.
Up until now, they had only dealt with stragglers, small packs of rotting minions, or manageable swarms that Ling Lang could incinerate on his own. They had enjoyed a relatively smooth journey. But the moment they crossed the suspension bridge into City B, they had walked directly into a massive, apocalyptic siege.
Furthermore, her memory of the novel’s plot suddenly flared. City B was a crucial, central transportation hub in the wasteland. Almost every major survivor faction and military convoy had to pass through this city to reach the central base. Because of the constant influx of human prey, an unfathomable number of mutants had permanently migrated here.
Not only was the horde massive, but it was highly diverse. It was practically guaranteed that terrifying, high-tier mutated variants were leading the swarm.
Even the original novel described the Siege of City B as a grueling, near-impossible battle.
However, Pei Xiqing looked back at the ruined skyline of the city, a sinking realization settling in her stomach.
The protagonist’s squad, Team S1, was definitely currently engaged in this exact battle. According to the canon timeline, Team S1 would eventually arrive, join forces with the military, and obliterate the horde. This specific siege was a massive turning point in the novel—it was the battle where the male and female leads finally solidified their romantic relationship, and where their combined dual-abilities catapulted them to legendary fame across the wasteland.
She thought back to what Long Yan had mentioned in the car earlier.
A sanctioned military squad tracking us from a distance, led by a dual-ability user…
Pei Xiqing knew exactly who it was.
As a transmigrated character trapped within the confines of a pre-written story, she realized a terrifying truth: there were some canon events that, no matter how hard she tried to run from them, were absolutely unavoidable.
The day of reckoning had finally arrived.
![[Audio] She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo](https://i0.wp.com/redpanda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20240624205729_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "[Audio] She’s a Passerby, But Can See the Protagonist’s Halo")