IDMLA 23

It’s over, it’s over, Tang Tang thought to herself. She was probably never going to clear her name!

She had only just finished cursing at him, and now she had somehow ‘schemed’ to faint right into his arms?

She didn’t dare delay. Without even having time to meet Jiang Zhu’s gaze, she suddenly shot up from his embrace.

“Sorry, sorry! I suddenly got dizzy and lost my balance just now. I really didn’t fall into you on purpose!”

Even though she knew that apologizing at a time like this would convince no one, she still wanted to make it clear that this time she was truly, genuinely innocent. This was definitely caused by dizziness, absolutely not some kind of scheming!

But the credibility of those words, judging from her past ‘track record,’ probably wasn’t high. No, not just not high, it was nonexistent!

“Jiang Zhu, don’t believe her! Have you forgotten what she said about you back then and just now? Hmph! She’s definitely seen that you’ve awakened a powerful ability and wants to latch onto you in the apocalypse! Don’t let her use you again!!”

The guy with the blade couldn’t hold it in anymore. Even though Qin Zhang had told him everything that happened in their dorm, the moment he saw this woman, any possible trust went up in smoke.

He simply refused to believe that Tang Tang could be a good person!

Tang Tang pressed her lips together.

What happened before, and just now, although in essence she’d been forced into it, she’d still said those hurtful things, and the damage to Jiang Zhu had been done. She didn’t want to make excuses for herself.

But the dizziness thing, she was truly wronged!!

Tang Tang held it in for a long while, then still tried to fight for herself: “…That one’s real.”

The guy with the blade clearly wanted to say more, but Qin Zhang, who was right beside him this time, quickly covered his mouth and gave Tang Tang an apologetic smile. “Tang Tang, don’t mind him. This brat is just like Yan Chen, nothing good ever comes out of his mouth!”

When they’d first walked over, it had indeed been awkward. It was also the first time he’d heard Tang Tang speak in that tone, that condescending tone, full of arrogance and pickiness. If the voice hadn’t been exactly the same, he wouldn’t have believed it was Tang Tang at all.

But he trusted his own eyes more, and he trusted Yan Chen. If Yan Chen had held on with his last shred of consciousness just to wait for them to wake up and tell them to go save her, then she couldn’t possibly be someone you’d hate just from a few words.

Tang Tang was almost moved to tears. This silly kid, why was he still speaking up for her!

“Let’s go. To the supermarket.”

Since Jiang Zhu had spoken, no one else dared say anything more. Qin Zhang, terrified that the blade-wielding idiot might say something else, quickly pressed down on his shoulder and led him inside first.

Jiang Chi couldn’t make sense of what these people were doing. Seeing Qin Zhang and the others heading to the supermarket, he quickly led his group in as well. Zheng Xue paused at the entrance and glanced back at Tang Tang and Jiang Zhu, who were still standing outside, a strange smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Tang Tang and Jiang Zhu lagged far behind. By the time everyone else had gone into the supermarket, the two of them were still standing in the open area outside.

A fine drizzle was falling from the sky, beading lightly on their clothes. Aside from the strange fog, it seemed no different from any ordinary day.

“So, um… if I let you curse me back, will you let me go?” Tang Tang wrestled with it for a long time before finally voicing what she most wanted to say.

She really hated Zheng Xue and didn’t want to stay in the same team as him, but she was also afraid of Jiang Zhu! She didn’t really want to just join his male-lead squad either…

Jiang Zhu didn’t take up that topic. He started another one instead.

“Still dizzy?” He looked down at her and asked.

“Huh?” Tang Tang was stunned. She didn’t understand why he was suddenly concerned about her.

“No, it’s fine now. I don’t know what happened, it was just that one moment, and then it passed.” Mentioning it was awkward, so Tang Tang raised a hand to touch her head, only to end up patting the big helmet on it.

“Zheng Xue is very dangerous. Stay away from him,” Jiang Zhu said again.

Tang Tang nodded vigorously, completely agreeing with that. And once she agreed, she found herself talking a bit more: “His ability is those thin threads, but he can also release fire. I don’t know if he’s awakened two abilities. Also, I think he might have let you hit him on purpose just now, because I noticed he seems to have been hiding his strength all along!”

“How did you run into them?” Jiang Zhu asked.

“Bad luck,” Tang Tang sighed gloomily. “I don’t know if Yan Chen told you guys, but I got blown away by the wind. You know that kind of ability wind? It was so strong! It blew me straight off, that was Jiang Chi’s ability. And the one who made him use the wind for no reason? That was Zheng Xue! Isn’t that infuriating!”

“Infuriating.” Seeing that their dynamic was gradually returning to how it used to be, Jiang Zhu’s expression softened as well.

With no one else around, Tang Tang’s earlier awkwardness gradually faded.

Once the awkwardness was gone, Tang Tang poured out all her misfortunes from that day and night.

It felt so good to get it all out. She even let out an inexplicable sigh of relief, bottling it all up was just too unbearable!

But soon she started doubting herself, had she said too much…

They’d already broken up, hadn’t they? Why had their conversation suddenly become so smooth again??

Jiang Zhu stared at her, then suddenly raised his hand and patted the smooth top of her helmet. “Let’s go into the supermarket. If we wait any longer, everything inside will be gone.”

Tang Tang was about to nod when she noticed something wrong. “But I want to go by myself?”

“Can your wisdom ability keep you safe?”

When Jiang Zhu said the words ‘wisdom ability,’ his expression remained completely blank, as if this ability were entirely real. But Tang Tang thought that in this world, apart from that silly kid Jiang Chi, no one would believe her nonsense, right?

“Mm-hm! It can, it can! Look, aren’t I still alive and well?” Even if Tang Tang lacked confidence, she couldn’t show it now.

She blinked, signaling that she was telling the truth.

Actually, her thinking was fairly simple, since the two of them had already broken up, wouldn’t it be awkward to stay together? On top of that, Jiang Zhu had now stepped onto the main storyline, and his personality had turned cold and distant. He’d said so much just now, yet his expression hadn’t changed at all.

She didn’t have many demands, just staying alive was enough!

“Then come help us out, so we can live a little better too?”

Jiang Zhu suddenly said this, sounding like a joke, yet his expression was quite serious. But perhaps feeling it was abrupt, he added, “Stay, and I won’t hold it against you for cursing me behind my back.”

Tang Tang found this suddenly tempting offer quite appealing.

But actually…

“I’ve cursed you to your face too…” Tang Tang muttered quietly.

“You know that’s right.”

Jiang Zhu felt a knot of frustration in his chest, though he didn’t know exactly what he was angry about. Maybe it was that Tang Tang had betrayed him during his most painful moment, or maybe it was that there were clearly some misunderstandings between them, yet she always avoided them, and he could never find the answer to those misunderstandings.

So, until the misunderstanding was resolved, she wasn’t going to avoid him.

In the end, Tang Tang was dragged inside. Jiang Zhu directly grabbed her arm, wrapped her in his ability, and brought her in.

Only then did she get a clear look at what his ability looked like.

It wasn’t one of the common ones like fire, wind, or water. His ability looked like the starry night sky, especially a night sky without pollution, where a black canvas was dotted with countless stars.

Tang Tang was a bit stunned. This ability was way too beautiful.

It was hard to imagine that such a beautiful ability actually had extremely high destructive power.

Tang Tang marveled at it, staring intently at the meter-long ribbon of stars the whole way. Since she wasn’t speaking, Jiang Zhu, who had been keeping an eye on her, assumed she was upset.

“Yan Chen hasn’t woken up yet,” he began, trying to make conversation. “What have you two been up to these past few days?”

“Huh? Nothing much, just stabbing zombies together.” Tang Tang answered routinely.

“And?”

“We also swapped you guys to a different dorm.”

The two went back and forth, one question at a time, and soon arrived inside the supermarket.

The supermarket was pitch black due to the power outage. If it weren’t for Jiang Zhu’s ability still wrapped around her, those star-like things glowing, she probably wouldn’t even be able to see where Jiang Zhu was.

“I’m not going any further, can you put me down?”

When Jiang Zhu’s ability was wrapped around her, she didn’t need to walk at all,  her feet simply left the ground and she was carried in. It was certainly comfortable, but having no control over her own movements, especially in the dark, was also pretty terrifying.

Tang Tang’s request was answered, and her feet gradually touched the ground, finally landing steadily.

Sure enough, having your feet on solid ground felt much better.

But the next second, a pair of hands reached over and took hers.

“It’s dark here. Be careful.”

“Oh, okay.”

After answering naturally, Tang Tang froze.

This scene felt familiar. Back when she was following the storyline, there was a time the two of them went out on a date, and on the way back, the lights lining both sides of the road suddenly all went out.

Back then, Jiang Zhu instinctively grabbed Tang Tang’s hand and said the same thing: “It’s dark here. Be careful.”

She wasn’t actually afraid of the dark, but seeing how nervous he was, she let him have his moment and replied, “Oh, okay.”

She drifted off for a moment, and by the time she snapped out of her memories, the two of them had already arrived near the male lead’s group.

Qin Zhang saw them coming and hurried over: “It’s too dark here. None of us have an ability that can provide light.”

Jiang Zhu nodded, slightly raising his hand. Suddenly, many small, warm yellow specks of light burst from his palm. Those little lights scattered quickly at first, but gradually they all gathered together again, eventually forming a larger sphere that glowed all over.

Tang Tang was amazed again.

This light was different from the starry backdrop from before. What was going on? Did Jiang Zhu have more than one ability?

So jealous.

Once the area lit up, Tang Tang could finally see the scene inside clearly.

The supermarket shelves that had once been neatly arranged were now toppled or empty. Bodies of zombies lay scattered on the floor, and there were even people who had already stopped breathing.

Sure enough, this was a disaster zone.

After days of stabbing zombies, Tang Tang had long since managed to hold back her nausea, but watching such a scene, she still couldn’t help feeling a pang of sorrow.

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on such thoughts. On the other side, Jiang Chi and the others had already started walking toward the warehouse, so they couldn’t afford to wait around either and hurried over as well.

But when they arrived, they discovered that the warehouse door, which they had assumed to be sturdy, had already been torn open with a large hole. The edges of the hole looked rough, and some parts were even warped. Tang Tang roughly estimated that a person could crouch down and squeeze through it.

She hadn’t expected the ability to be this powerful.

It could even saw through a warehouse door like this.