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

Chapter 310: Don’t Go Too Far

The news of Pei Xiqing’s pregnancy was temporarily kept under wraps. Aside from the villagers and Zhang Tian, the rest of the base remained in the dark.

She truly had no intention of letting everyone know. The villagers meant well, of course, but human nature was unpredictable. In a closed, desperate environment like this, there could easily be people with ulterior motives watching from the shadows.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with keeping a low profile. The pressure of expecting her first child was already overwhelming enough; she didn’t need the added stress of the entire base monitoring her every move.

Bringing a child safely into the world amidst apocalyptic natural disasters was going to be an incredibly difficult task, and there were so many things she and Duan Xiaolin still needed to figure out.

As for their next move, Duan Xiaolin’s decision had been simple: stay.

And so, she chose to stay.

They would remain at the Sixth Base. Since fate had dragged them through that lethal magnetic field and deposited them here, she would trust that it was the right place to be for now.

Besides, traveling to the new headquarters now would only distract the Franlun forces from their critical infrastructure reconstruction. Rebuilding a base from scratch was already a massive, grueling project. Forcing them to divert manpower and resources just to take care of her really wasn’t worth it.

She had already spoken to San She over the comms, confirming that everyone had arrived safely at the new site. As long as they gave the vanguard forces time to repair the facilities, there wouldn’t be any major issues.

In light of all that, she could just stay here with peace of mind, focus on her health, and avoid causing unnecessary trouble for others.

However, her most pressing priority was figuring out what exactly was happening with Duan Xiaolin. She needed to understand why his supernatural abilities carried such horrific, rebounding side effects.

That mystery was the most important thing right now.

Over the next few days, Pei Xiqing focused on resting. The villagers practically drowned her in meat and rich broths. Almost every single meal included a massive bowl of heavily nourishing chicken soup. She would eat, fall asleep, and wake up only to find several aunties knocking on her door, carrying yet another pot of some specialized, restorative stew.

After five or six days of this relentless over-nourishment, Pei Xiqing experienced her very first spontaneous nosebleed.

At first, she hadn’t even noticed. She had been lounging leisurely in a recliner when Zhang Tian came by to drop off some water. Zhang Tian had taken one look at Pei Xiqing’s blood-stained chin and cheeks and nearly panicked enough to drag the base doctor over by force.

Pei Xiqing had been completely helpless to stop her. She had already suspected that she was taking in way too many rich supplements lately; she had been feeling unusually hot and irritable. But she certainly hadn’t expected it to culminate in a literal nosebleed.

After quickly cleaning herself up and pinching her nose to stop the bleeding, she decided the best way to avoid the aunties and their endless bowls of soup was to simply go find Duan Xiaolin.

At this time of day, he was usually out in the main sector, instructing the local engineers on structural stabilization and the core design principles needed to maintain the underground facility.

She honestly hadn’t expected him to be so knowledgeable about architectural engineering.

It seemed this underground base might have been able to deceive the arrogant elites at the old headquarters, but it certainly couldn’t hide its secrets from Franlun. She suspected Franlun had always known about this place’s existence.

She found him standing with a group of engineers. He had dropped the imposing, terrifying aura of the Chief Judge. Dressed in simple, plain clothes with a calm, focused expression, no one here would ever associate him with the ruthless executioner who had broken countless hardened criminals and possessed a terrifyingly cold psychological edge.

But the fewer people who knew his true identity, the better. Revealing it would inevitably cause unnecessary panic and trouble.

As Pei Xiqing approached, the man immediately noticed her. He handed the blueprint he was holding to the engineer next to him. “Proceed with these adjustments. If you encounter any structural difficulties, come find me.”

“Understood, Mr. Duan! We’ll get started right away. Thank you so much for your guidance. If you hadn’t pointed out those stress fractures, we really wouldn’t have known how to properly maintain the main supports.”

The surface was too chaotic and unstable. The relentless natural disasters were causing constant, violent shifts in the earth’s crust, leaving the underground bunker at constant risk of a catastrophic cave-in. The engineers had been terrified for months, losing sleep over the creeping structural damage. They never expected that “Mr. Duan” would be able to effortlessly solve their most complex engineering problems.

As the engineers dispersed to their tasks, Duan Xiaolin walked over to her.

His tall figure approached, blocking the dim overhead light and casting her in a comforting shadow. “Bored?”

Pei Xiqing held a tissue to her nose.

Duan Xiaolin frowned slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve had way too many tonics,” she complained, her voice muffled by the tissue. She tilted her head back slightly to stop the bleeding. “I’ve never eaten so much rich food in my life. It’s so potent that it’s causing my internal heat to flare up. I really need to eat something cooling to clear the heat, otherwise, I’m just going to keep getting nosebleeds.”

Duan Xiaolin reached out, gently wiping a stray drop of blood from her neck. His frown deepened. “I will handle the villagers and put a stop to the excessive tonics starting tomorrow. But you still need to maintain a nutritious diet.”

“It just feels like such a waste of their precious resources,” she sighed, rubbing the tip of her nose. “I’m genuinely touched by everyone’s concern, but if this keeps up, I’m afraid I’ll start having nosebleeds in the middle of the night.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he promised softly.

Pei Xiqing stood on her tiptoes, peering over his shoulder at the construction site. “I didn’t know you were an expert in all this too. Is the base in serious trouble right now?”

“Nothing critical. If they begin the reinforcements now, the structural integrity won’t be heavily compromised by the shifting ground conditions above.”

“That’s good.” She had indeed been feeling a bit stir-crazy cooped up in their room. Taking his hand, she pulled him along as she wandered around the work site, looking at the various supports and asking questions whenever she didn’t understand something. After listening to him patiently explain a barrage of complex engineering concepts, she couldn’t help but be amazed. “This underground base really is incredible. It manages to sustain a fully functioning ecosystem. The original designers and builders must have been incredibly capable people.”

“The old central headquarters actually had a massive underground bunker as well,” he noted.

“Really? They did?”

“Yes. But an underground facility like that must be activated and sealed before a catastrophic event. They were too arrogant. By the time they realized the severity of the floods, they had missed the window. At that point, the bunker was nothing more than an inaccessible tomb.”

“No wonder.” Most of the elites at headquarters had been blindingly arrogant, fully confident that their surface defenses could withstand anything. Who would have thought that sheer hubris would be their ultimate downfall?

As she continued to stroll casually around the site, a sudden, deafening rumble echoed from the ceiling above them.

The ground violently shook. Pei Xiqing nearly lost her footing.

Duan Xiaolin instantly caught her, his eyes darting upward to inspect the reinforced ceiling. “I’ll take you back to the room first.”

Pei Xiqing shook her head. “I’m fine. The residential sector isn’t that far; it only takes me about ten minutes to walk back. What was that? An earthquake?”

“It’s likely the thunderstorm’s magnetic field passing directly overhead. The intense energy fluctuations are causing localized seismic shifts in the crust.”

“Is it serious?” Pei Xiqing placed her hand against a nearby support pillar, feeling the faint, residual vibrations traveling down through the concrete.

Looking around, she noticed that the base residents seemed entirely used to it. None of them showed any obvious signs of panic. They simply glanced up at the ceiling for a moment before returning to their work.

“It doesn’t seem too serious,” she observed, answering her own question. “Then I won’t rush back just yet. I think I’ll walk around a little longer. If you’re busy, go ahead and finish up here. I’ll meet you at the supply store up ahead.”

“Don’t wander too far,” he warned.

Pei Xiqing smiled, her eyes curving playfully. “The base is only so big. How far could I possibly go? Just hurry up… By the way, Brother Duan, how exactly have you been contacting San She and Qiu Chao these past few days?”

“Franlun utilizes several classified communication methods. Why the sudden curiosity?”

“Because I genuinely want to know,” she pressed. “We’re deep underground, and all standard traffic and radio signals are completely blocked by the rock and the magnetic field. How are you communicating with them thousands of miles away?”

“Telepathy?” he suggested dryly.

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

Duan Xiaolin leaned in and chuckled softly near her ear. “I gave you the communication override codes, remember?”

“Oh! Right, I remember now!” Pei Xiqing coughed, turning her head away awkwardly. “I didn’t forget! I just… it didn’t click right away.”

She could clearly hear the teasing amusement in his tone.

Her cheeks flushed bright red. “Right. I understand now. I’m going to head out first. Be careful, and come back early. I’ll wait for you so we can have dinner together.”

Duan Xiaolin stood in place, a knowing glint in his eyes as he watched her hurriedly walk away.

Chapter 311: Stupid Genius

Pei Xiqing strolled around the base. It was only about a twentieth the size of the central headquarters, but it seemed there was much more unexcavated space deeper underground. The facility was far from fully developed.

Overall, the usable area was extremely limited. The corridors were designed to be incredibly narrow, with most only wide enough for a single person to pass through at a time.

Rooms were densely packed along both sides of the hallway in a strict, uniform layout. Walking down the corridor, you could clearly hear the muffled sounds of people talking and cooking through the thin walls.

Being here made her feel as though she had wandered into the cramped, old-style tenement buildings of Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou—the crowded havens for the struggling working class. They squeezed every possible ounce of utility out of every inch of space.

Staying in such a claustrophobic layout for too long would inevitably leave a person feeling breathless.

Navigating the crowded alleys, Pei Xiqing encountered a group of unfamiliar women. They were dressed much better than the average base resident, and their attire was noticeably more revealing.

It was quite cold inside the base, and most people bundled up tightly. Even Pei Xiqing was wearing a thick leather coat. Yet, this group of about ten women all wore oversized, slightly worn black coats that clearly didn’t fit them. From what Pei Xiqing could see, beneath their coats, they appeared to be wearing nothing but sexy lingerie.

Since the corridor was narrow, Pei Xiqing stepped aside to let them pass.

As they walked by, the woman at the very back of the group slowed down and stopped. She turned her head, her gaze locking onto Pei Xiqing.

Recognizing her features, the woman raised an eyebrow.

Pei Xiqing noticed the reaction and quickly sifted through the original owner’s memories. Her recollection of these people was a bit hazy.

The woman spoke first. “…Aren’t you that girl?”

“?” Pei Xiqing looked at her calmly.

The woman covered her mouth and laughed. Her eyes revealed a tacky, bone-deep coquettishness. “Your sister used to be a friend of ours. Back when you were bullying her, I was the one who slapped you. Have you forgotten? Pei. Xi. Qing.”

She gritted her teeth as she enunciated the last three syllables.

She turned sideways, leaning against the corridor wall, and casually pulled a cigarette box from her worn coat. It was clearly a man’s cigarette case, originally meant for strong tobacco, but the original contents were long gone. Now, several slender women’s cigarettes were stuffed inside. The outer packaging looked like it had been handled countless times, the casing worn and faded.

“Oh, so you’re bringing up the petty drama from before the apocalypse,” Pei Xiqing said, catching onto the key details as the memories surfaced. She stared at the woman. “That was almost six months ago, and you still remember it so clearly. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I genuinely would have forgotten.”

The original owner had so many petty grievances and memories that Pei Xiqing could barely keep track of them all. Still, she retained some lingering impressions of the days before the world ended.

This woman, Li Wei, had been good friends with Pei Yanting. Whenever the original Pei Xiqing deliberately bullied Pei Yanting, this woman would always stand up for her. Indeed, before the apocalypse, the original owner had mocked Pei Yanting for being too harsh, and Li Wei had slapped her across the face in public. It had been incredibly humiliating.

Li Wei took a deep drag of her cigarette. The smoke she exhaled smelled acrid and foul.

Pei Xiqing frowned as Li Wei sneered, “What’s the matter? Where’s Yanting? Why isn’t she with you? Oh, that’s right. Your sister is a true genius, while you’re just an internet celebrity who plays the clown. You two sisters are worlds apart. One is a prodigy, and the other is a fool.”

As she spoke, she took another drag, letting the smoke sit in her lungs. Just as she leaned in, preparing to blow the foul smoke directly into Pei Xiqing’s face, she was shoved hard.

Li Wei slammed against the wall, momentarily stunned. “Pei Xiqing! What the hell is your problem? Did I strike a nerve with the truth? Or are you just feeling guilty?”

Pei Xiqing calmly fished a mask out of her pocket and put it on, leaving only her cold, sharp eyes visible. Mirroring Li Wei, she leaned against the opposite wall, keeping a safe distance from the secondhand smoke. “So what if I’m a genius or a fool? It doesn’t matter what anyone was like a year ago. What matters is who can survive the apocalypse today.”

“What do you mean by that?” Li Wei demanded. “What did you say?”

“Don’t you know yet?” Pei Xiqing’s eyes curved into a cold smile. “Pei Yanting died underground half a year ago.”

“You killed your own sister?!”

“I know you have a bad impression of me, but jumping straight to labeling me a murderer is a bit of a stretch. It makes me wonder if you’re just projecting because you can’t let go of the past.”

Li Wei scoffed. “Pei Xiqing, I haven’t seen you in months, and you’ve only gotten sharper with your tongue. I just wonder if your ability to find a man to support you has improved as much as your mouth.”

“Is there a point to this?” Pei Xiqing had lost all patience for the conversation. She just wanted to get to the supply store, sit down, and use Duan Xiaolin’s override codes to check in with San She and Qiu Chao.

“Why did Pei Yanting die? How did she die? Who else would kill her but you?! I bet you were just jealous because she was always better than you!”

“In a way, aren’t you the one who is jealous of me?” Pei Xiqing replied mildly, completely unbothered. She looked Li Wei up and down. “I haven’t seen you in a year, and you seem to have aged terribly. What exactly have you been doing to survive? And why are you here dressed like that?”

“What do you care?!” Li Wei snapped, inexplicably triggered by the jab at her appearance. She threw her cigarette to the ground and stomped on it.

The woman next to her quickly pulled her arm. “Alright, alright, forget about her. We have important business to attend to… We still need to collect our material subsidies, and the clients might come looking for us soon… Don’t delay our work.”

Li Wei had a pretty face, but deep, fine lines had already formed at the corners of her eyes, becoming glaringly obvious the moment her expression twisted in anger.

She glared venomously at Pei Xiqing. “I’m going to investigate Pei Yanting’s death. If I find out you killed her, I’ll make sure you’re buried right alongside her.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Pei Xiqing replied breezily.

She watched the group of women walk away and simply shrugged. It didn’t matter.

However, the stench of Li Wei’s cheap cigarette was truly repulsive. It was best to avoid people like that in the future. The secondhand smoke wasn’t just bad for her—it was bad for the baby—and it left a lingering, awful smell on her clothes.

Pei Xiqing quickly made her way to the supply store.

Everyone working in the store already recognized her, as she had been coming by frequently. The shop was decently sized, about as large as four standard rooms combined, with tables and chairs set up near the front for customers to rest.

The clerk greeted her warmly. “Miss Pei! What would you like to buy today?”

“I’m just going to sit for a while,” she smiled politely. “I’m waiting for someone.”

“Of course, take a seat!”

Pei Xiqing sat down, pulled out the communicator, and carefully typed in the override instructions she had memorized.

About two seconds later, the encrypted connection was successfully established.

Chapter 312: The One Tipping the Scale

“Brother,” a familiar voice crackled over the comms.

“Ling Lang?” Pei Xiqing asked.

The person on the other end seemed to pause. “…It’s me.”

He frowned. “Why is it you?”

“I have something I need to tell you.”

“Go ahead.”

Pei Xiqing pondered for a moment. “Actually, could you please help me find Brother Qiu Chao? He might know more about this specific matter… By the way, I heard you got injured during your last deployment. Are you okay?”

“I’m almost fully healed.” Because he possessed high-level supernatural abilities, ordinary injuries couldn’t seriously harm him, and he could heal himself in a short amount of time.

“That’s good.”

Ling Lang was sitting in the cockpit of his flying transport. Hearing someone approach from behind, he swiveled his chair around and gestured for the person to come over.

“Thank you for helping us out,” Pei Xiqing added over the comms.

“I never thought I’d hear something like that coming from you,” Ling Lang replied, crossing his legs and leaning back lazily. “With this apocalyptic natural disaster bearing down on us, I was wondering if you’d finally get scared to death and start cowering in a shell like a turtle.”

“It’s called a strategic retreat to bide our time and prepare for the ongoing disasters,” she retorted smoothly.

“Really? So, you’re just playing house at the Sixth Base?”

“It’s alright here.”

“Am I welcome to visit?”

“Of course,” Pei Xiqing said. “But you’ll have to be very careful if you come.”

“It’s only been a short while, and you’re already siding with them… It sounds like they’ve been giving you a lot of trouble,” Ling Lang remarked dismissively. “At least you’re safe. It’s a good thing I didn’t just sweep through and take the place over back then.”

“Oh? You know about this place?” Pei Xiqing leaned back in her chair, a smile playing on her lips. “It seems you also knew about the hidden underground passage beneath the base.”

“Of course I did.”

“Well, it’s barely safe here right now, so come over if you want,” Pei Xiqing said. “But honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t just charge straight into the base and slaughter those syndicate thugs hiding in the tunnel.”

She had only discovered the truth about the passage over the last few days. The horrific, corpse-filled tunnel she and Duan Xiaolin had waded through had actually been a recent hiding spot for fleeing black market criminals.

It was located directly beneath the Sixth Base. If Ling Lang had happened to pass by and decided to clean house, he would have easily wiped out a large group of dangerous fugitives. However, doing so would have inevitably dragged the innocent residents of the base into the crossfire. Furthermore, the massive troop movements required for such a purge would have quickly broadcasted the existence of the hidden Sixth Base to the rest of the apocalyptic wasteland.

But whether Ling Lang intervened or not, those syndicate thugs were dead men walking anyway. An underground tunnel was a miserable environment, and the residents of the Sixth Base weren’t fools; they would never easily let such dangerous people inside their sanctuary.

Ling Lang pursed his lips. “I am a commanding general, after all. I’ve seen plenty. Don’t think I’m blind to the petty little tricks the people at that base pull.”

He knew about most of the situations down there, but he was simply too lazy to care.

“How are things going on your end?” she asked.

“Nothing major, you don’t need to worry. Though, those two kids kept saying they wanted to go look for you. I chased them away.” Ling Lang’s voice was completely flat and emotionless. “Annoying brats.”

“Really?” Pei Xiqing raised an eyebrow, a teasing lilt in her voice. “If you hate children so much, then I suppose I’ll just have to avoid you the next time we see each other.”

“What the hell?” He sounded genuinely puzzled. “What kind of crazy ideas are brewing in your head now?”

“Who’s making things up? I’m telling the truth. Didn’t you just say you hate children?”

“What does it matter to you if I hate them?”

Holding the communicator, Pei Xiqing laughed so hard she slumped forward onto the table. Before she could explain, it seemed someone else had taken over the other end of the line.

Qiu Chao, still wearing his white lab coat, hurried over and snatched the communicator right out of Ling Lang’s hand. “What do you need from me?”

“Are you busy?”

“Not particularly. Just that while we were trying to repair the new base’s foundation, a section collapsed.”

“What happened?!”

“Don’t worry, about ten people got injured, but nobody died down there. Still, they always blame me for every little thing that goes wrong. With Brother Duan gone, I’m the one forced to manage Franlun’s daily operations. It’s exhausting.”

“Thank you for your hard work,” Pei Xiqing said sympathetically. “I’ll keep this brief.”

She quickly explained her doubts and confusion regarding Duan Xiaolin’s injuries and his inability to use his powers.

Qiu Chao hesitated for only a fraction of a second before answering with a dry chuckle. “Honestly, Brother Duan understands his own situation better than anyone.”

“I know that, but… he only gave me a very vague explanation. I need to know the full details. Please, tell me.”

“I suppose I can tell you.” Holding down the comms button, Qiu Chao patted Ling Lang on the shoulder, gesturing for him to get up from the pilot’s seat.

Ling Lang shot him a dark glare.

Qiu Chao immediately pointed at the communicator. “I have something incredibly important to discuss with her. Can you afford to delay this?”

Without a word of protest, Ling Lang pulled his chair back and stood up. “Is your eyesight failing you? There are plenty of other empty chairs around.”

“Stingy bastard,” Qiu Chao scoffed.

“Hmm?” Pei Xiqing asked over the line.

“Nothing,” Qiu Chao said, sitting down. “Are you in a secure place right now? I need to explain this slowly. It might take a while.”

Pei Xiqing looked up. The clerk was busy organizing a shelf on the other side of the room, and aside from him, the store was completely empty. “It’s safe here. Tell me.”

Qiu Chao narrowed his eyes. “This is going to sound completely bizarre. Do you still remember Xiao Yue?”

“I do.”

“Right before he died, he cursed Brother Duan and spouted a bunch of bitter, unwilling nonsense,” Qiu Chao recounted disdainfully. “But that didn’t matter. Let him talk; a dead man is nothing to be afraid of. However, this sudden wave of catastrophic natural disasters… seems to be directly connected to him.”

“An entire apocalyptic natural disaster is tied to one person?”

Before Pei Xiqing could process that, Ling Lang, who was still listening nearby, couldn’t help but interrupt. “Qiu Chao, are you sure you aren’t joking? That guy was a defeated loser who died eight hundred years ago. His bones have probably already turned to dust. How could he possibly be connected to a global natural disaster? You have to be kidding.”

Qiu Chao clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Can you please stop interrupting and just listen to me? What do you mean I’m talking nonsense? I’m incredibly busy right now, remember? I don’t have the time or the energy to sit here and tell ghost stories.”

His tone turned serious. “I have conducted specialized research and extensive experiments. I am speaking based on factual data.”

Ling Lang raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips. “Alright, fine. Just pretend I didn’t say anything. Go ahead.”

On Pei Xiqing’s end, the line fell silent for a moment.

Very few people would ever believe Qiu Chao’s theory that a global natural disaster could be triggered by the death of a single person. But as someone who possessed the memories of the original novel’s plot, she actually found it entirely plausible.

Xiao Yue had been the designated protagonist. It was perfectly understandable that after the protagonist’s premature death, the fundamental rules of the world would shatter, plunging the natural order into chaos and triggering apocalyptic disasters.

“Brother Qiu Chao, how did you discover that Xiao Yue might be the catalyst behind the natural disasters?” she asked.

Qiu Chao tapped his fingers against the console. “From a strictly materialistic standpoint, I shouldn’t even be proposing this. The truth is, I don’t have direct, concrete evidence to prove it. Currently, it is just a hypothesis. However, there are other anomalies that heavily support my theory.”

“What did you find?”

“I found the connection through Brother Duan,” he explained. “I personally extracted the very first high-grade crystal core directly from a human chest, and I was the one who surgically implanted that core—and all the subsequent ones—into your body. Aside from you, I am the person who has interacted with those crystal cores the most. And every single time I handled those specific cores, I could read a fragmented memory from them… I have no idea what context those memories hold, but what I can confirm with absolute certainty is that the original owner of those memories was Xiao Yue.”

Finding a stray memory in one or two cores could be written off as a fluke. Discovering it in ten or a hundred was a statistical anomaly worthy of study. But finding nearly identical residual memories in every single high-grade crystal core they harvested?

That explained a terrifying amount.

Who were those crystal cores originally supposed to belong to? Who was meant to claim that power?

The universe wasn’t naturally benevolent or fair. Memories couldn’t just be randomly transplanted into physical objects after the fact. So how could it be that the most powerful, vital energy sources in the entire world seemingly “belonged” to only one person?

Qiu Chao was a man of science; he didn’t naturally believe in such mystical nonsense. But he couldn’t ignore the impossible memories he had consistently extracted from the cores. Back then, his only priority had been saving Pei Xiqing’s life, so he had forcefully suppressed his findings and pushed forward with the procedure.

“Don’t you think it’s utterly outrageous?” Qiu Chao asked grimly. “These mutated crystal cores actually contain the latent memories of a dead man—Xiao Yue. But it gets even more absurd. Brother Duan’s powers are somehow fundamentally opposed to the energy within those specific crystal cores. Whenever he uses his supernatural abilities, the residual energy from those cores violently rejects him, causing his powers to backfire on his own body with ten or a hundred times the force. Furthermore, from a multi-dimensional perspective, those crystal cores are actively influencing the trajectory of the apocalypse.”

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.

“The catastrophic apocalypse we are enduring right now is actually directly tied to the crystal cores currently residing inside your body.”

“It’s as if… the fundamental balance of this apocalyptic world was invisibly shattered, and the scales began to violently tip. The one tipping the scale in your favor is you… and the one being crushed under the counterweight to keep you balanced is Brother Duan.”

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