Chapter 39

Chapter 39

"That’ll do."

Cheng Jing signaled to Huang Qian and Jiang Nian, who got the hint and left.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

The woman kept muttering apologies. She felt her throat closing up as her voice turned rough and hollow.

Slowly closing her eyes, the faces of her daughter and husband faded from her mind...

Stepping out of the bedroom, Jiang Nian glanced at Xiao Ya, unconscious on the sofa. His eyes turned icy as he clenched his jaw, warring with himself:

Besides the woman in the room, this girl was also a murderer! Without proper judicial process, payback was fair play...

But she was just a 12-year-old child, her mother’s puppet, desperate to save her father, no say in any of it...

Jiang Nian bent down, his trembling hand dangling over Xiao Ya’s throat, but his fingers wouldn’t obey—no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to squeeze.

Suddenly, Huang Qian, who had wrapped up comms with the others, walked over. Her gaze flicked toward his hand as she said,

"Pulled my punch—she’ll live. Let’s go, this dump stinks."

Without waiting for Jiang Nian’s reaction, she bundled Xiao Ya into the blanket and carried her toward the door.

"..."

Jiang Nian clenched his fist, his throat working as he swallowed hard before calling out,

"Qian-jie (Sis Qian)..."

Huang Qian paused and turned.

"What is it?"

"I..."

Jiang Nian faltered, suddenly struggling to breathe.

*"I think we should kill her!" "I want to kill her!" "She deserves to die!" "She should pay with her life..."*

The words burned his tongue, but under Qian-jie’s stare and the sight of that pale little face in her arms, they refused to come out or be swallowed back down.

After a moment of silence, Huang Qian’s voice gentled.

"Jiang Nian?"

"...Let’s go," Jiang Nian finally let out a shaky breath and looked down.

Huang Qian turned, holding Xiao Ya close, and walked out the door.

Outside the apartment, Zhou Li’s crew was waiting. Huang Qian told them it was handled and they all headed downstairs together.

Minutes later, fire exploded from Unit 1805, accompanied by screams that clawed at the air, ripping through the entire complex from the reeking doorway.

Zhao Lei quickly wrapped up the mission and regrouped with the rest of the team downstairs, where they met up with the others. He noticed Xiao Ya in Huang Qian’s arms but didn’t ask any questions.

There was something oddly oppressive about Jiang Nian’s presence, making people hesitant to approach him.

Another ten minutes passed before Cheng Jing finally came downstairs after completely sterilizing 1805 with high heat.

After a quick discussion, Huang Qian suggested taking Xiao Ya back to her place—after all, it would be easier for girls to take care of each other.

The teammates had no objections, and Jiang Nian remained silent, watching them act naturally while quietly trying to calm his lingering agitation.

Cheng Jing instructed Zhao Lei and the others to escort Xiao Ya and Huang Qian back to the safe zone, then went with Jiang Nian to the command center to meet Zhou Li.

They shifted all responsibility onto Xiao Ya’s deceased parents and concealed the truth about Xiao Ya’s psychic powers.

Zhou Li thought for a moment before speaking:

“She’s only twelve, and the trauma must’ve been huge. At this point, we can’t investigate further… I’ll leave it to you.”

In the post-apocalyptic world, the collapse of order left them with little recourse in cases like this.

The perpetrators were dead—the matter could end here. Providing supplies as compensation to the grieving families was enough; there was no need to cast a child out and stir more chaos.

“Mm.”

Cheng Jing nodded. Jiang Nian clenched his jaw, saying nothing.

They left the command center, officially marking the mission complete. The rest—handling the PR cleanup—was left to the authorities.

...

Once everything was sorted out, it was already past midnight.

Lying on the bed, Cheng Jing pulled out two oval, thumb-sized superpower cores and handed them to Jiang Nian:

“These came from Xiao Ya’s parents when I neutralized them. The soft gold one is her father’s, the hazy white one is her mother’s.”

“Superpower cores, huh…”

Jiang Nian took them, feeling complicated. They’d already formed cores—their evolution was fast.

Looking closer, he noticed a black dot bleeding outward like ink spreading through water from the center of the hazy white core.

“Wait—?”

Thinking he might have misseen, Jiang Nian grabbed a flashlight from the bedside and beamed the light at the core. The black dot was real—spreading like ink in water, strangely mesmerizing. He couldn’t help but blurt out in shock:

“Did this… mutate?”

Cheng Jing leaned in to look.

“What do you mean?”

Jiang Nian furrowed his brow, staring at the core as he explained:

“Single-ability cores are solid-colored. Only hybrid cores like yours—with dual abilities—have two colors. Xiao Ya’s mother had pure psychic control. A black spot like this means mutation…”

He muttered to himself in disbelief:

“That can’t be right…”

Cheng Jing wasn't very familiar with Superpower Cores. Seeing him muttering to himself with some hesitation, he asked curiously:

"What's impossible? Can a mutated mental-type Superpower control zombies?"

"No..."

Jiang Nian shook his head, his brows furrowing deeply:

"The very concept of Superpower mutation is outrageous... Whether it can control zombies is beside the point."

"Let me put it this way—Superpowereds naturally have strong mental faculties. Once a Superpower awakens, its attributes stabilize. In my past life, research labs in every major base conducted experiments trying to force Superpower mutations, but none succeeded in the end."

Cheng Jing's interest was piqued.

"Tell me more in detail."

"Alright, here's the thing..."

Jiang Nian studied the Superpower Core, recalling the research he'd learned about, and spoke slowly:

Researchers back then proposed that if they could manipulate Superpowers into desired attribute types, humans would stand a better chance against the zombies, reducing casualties.

The theory was sound, so many Superpowereds volunteered. But all attempts failed.

Many even died during the trials, or had their cores rupture during extraction, reducing them to ordinary humans.

Eventually, the study concluded:

The energy attributes of Superpower Cores are too stable to be artificially controlled. Unless the energies achieved asynchronous resonance, a Superpower Core could never mutate.

As for how to trigger such resonance—that was purely a matter of chance.

...

After finishing his recollection, Jiang Nian sighed:

"Research teams from different bases tried countless methods to disrupt energy stability, but since they couldn't identify any consistent trigger, no matter what they did, the cores remained unchanged. So, they declared it unsolvable."

"I see..."

After hearing Jiang Nian's explanation, Cheng Jing had a better grasp and looked again at the black speck at the heart of the foggy-white core:

"So this is... a special mutation?"

Jiang Nian gave a dry laugh:

"More than just special. Based on the experts' research in my past life, this borders on miraculous."

...

Cheng Jing pondered for a moment before saying:

"This kind of mutation is probably influenced by the relationship between the Superpower Core owners—something like psychic compatibility. Mere interference with the energy of a single core wouldn't overcome its inherent stability."

"Very likely."

Jiang Nian nodded in agreement. Recalling the woman's desperate obsession to save her husband—even neglecting her daughter—and combining it with the experts' theories, he made a bold conjecture:

Perhaps it was because she had continuously used her Superpower to control him from the early stages of infection, never stopping even after he fully turned into a zombie. During his transformation, she wanted to keep her lover, and he, in turn, struggled to respond to her...

Driven by their tacit understanding and obsession, the couple caused the energy in the crystal cores to produce a mismatched resonance. The woman, wanting to continue communicating with her husband, unknowingly triggered a change in her superpower.

This is also why she could still control him and keep him calm even after he had clearly become a zombie.

Of course, this is only a guess. After all, mutations in something normally so stable are never caused by just one or two factors.

...

Pushing aside his jumbled thoughts for now, Jiang Nian handed both crystal cores to Cheng Jing:

"Anyway, let's keep them for now. They could come in handy someday. You're the better one to keep them safe, Brother Jing."

His own superpower wasn't strong enough, and if others found out, he might not be able to protect them.

"Alright."

Cheng Jing didn't refuse. In most cases, being unique meant being in danger, so it was best for him to carry them.

After putting away the crystal cores and turning off the flashlight, the room plunged into darkness.

In the quiet, just as Jiang Nian was about to say goodnight, Cheng Jing suddenly hugged him tightly.