Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Cheng Jing gave Zhao Lei a look:

"You take this one."

Then he helped the girl's father climb up.

"..."

The girl stared at Cheng Jing in surprise. Zhao Lei grabbed a towel blanket from the rescue team, bundled her up, and scooped her into his arms, saying:

"He’s married and *allergic* to women."

Cheng Jing shot him a glare but stayed silent.

"..."

The girl was so stunned she even forgot to cry, then stammered out a thank-you.

The smell of blood and human screams drew more zombies.

The rescue team and uninjured survivors ramped up their search for people and supplies beneath the collapsed bridge.

After handing the survivors over to the medical team, Cheng Jing and the others returned to the ruins.

A blast of thunderfire rained down, obliterating a group of zombies. As the ground shifted, several buried people were forced out from the cracks.

Ice spikes froze the zombies, while metal chains dragged aside the rubble, pulling out more people—some alive, others not.

After handing a young child to the medical staff, Jiang Nian found a young woman near the bridge pier, unconscious with a steel rod piercing her calf.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, gorgeous, dressed to impress, and even wearing lipstick—clearly someone who was thriving in the apocalypse.

She had been shielded in the arms of a burly, muscular man, probably a Superpowered with brute strength.

Unfortunately, the man had died from a crushed cervical spine, his head bloodied—no signs of zombie bites, so no chance of turning.

But near the woman’s leg wound were smears of black blood, likely splattered from a killed zombie.

Jiang Nian pulled the steel rod from her calf, checked no one was looking, wiped away the black blood with a tissue, and carefully used his purification Superpower to treat it.

After quickly bandaging the wound with a small roll of gauze, he carried her to safety.

By the time they reached the surface, the rescue was wrapping up—those who could be saved had been, the rest were beyond saving.

The woman woke up, gazed dazedly at him. Jiang Nian suddenly felt awkward and gave her the rundown before setting her down on a clear patch for the medics.

"..."

She barely reacted to his words but snagged his trench coat as he turned to leave:

"You can’t go. You saved me—you owe me."

"..."

Jiang Nian was dumbstruck. A masked medic nearby shot her a *what-the-hell* look.

When Jiang Nian didn’t respond, the woman added:

"My boyfriend's dead, I'm hurt, and I don’t have any other family. You saved me, so you’re responsible for me now."

She paused, flipping the hair off her face.

"I’d be fine dating you."

With her boyfriend gone, she needed someone else—how else was a woman supposed to survive in a world like this?

"Pfft..."

Jiang Nian snorted at her warped reasoning, his warm demeanor vanishing instantly. He yanked his coat back from her grip and snapped coldly:

"I helped you out of basic human decency—you don’t get to bite the hand that feeds you. I’m married, okay? Hitting on a married man? That’s trashy! And your boyfriend died protecting you. Jumping to the next guy already? Cold."

He thought he had good manners and always treated women respectfully—he didn’t want to embarrass anyone in public. But this woman was pushing it. Way too hard.

"If you didn’t want to take responsibility, why save me? What’s even the point of me living… *sob*…"

Seeing the ring on his finger, she started wailing in earnest, her pretty face a mess of tears, playing up the pity angle.

People nearby started whispering, survivors rubbernecking with curious glances.

"I was just scared—I needed help—"

"You're seriously this cruel...?"

"..."

She turned on the waterworks, milking the sympathy card.

Jiang Nian scowled. He'd wasted his superpower cleaning her wound—should’ve hosed down her brain while he was at it!

He almost walked off, but then some do-gooder peanut gallery started chiming in:

"'Be a man,' they nagged, 'stop being such a jerk—just babysit her already!'"

Emboldened, she lunged for his coat again, tears now a weapon.

"Back off!"

Jiang Nian barked, stepping back sharply. His icy glare swept over the nosy crowd:

"Easy to volunteer my time, huh? You could guilt-trip a zombie into feeling bad for biting you. Weren’t you all screaming for help earlier?"

The busybodies shut up fast. He fixed the girl with another sharp look:

"Let’s make this simple. Lie back down, and I’ll bury you six feet under."

"Pfft—"

"Hahahaha!"

Even the nurse patching her up snorted. A few mocking chuckles rippled through the crowd—normal people still outnumbered the weirdos.

A rifle-toting rescue squad guy stepped over, but Jiang Nian wasn't done yet:

"Life’s a bitch—death’s a shortcut."

"You—!"

The woman's face flushed red then pale as she glared at Jiang Nian, about to argue further when another voice cut in:

"Live or die, nobody gives a shit!"

Cheng Jing strode over with the others, his tone icy and expression grim.

He'd only taken his eyes off him for a second, and his husband was already getting hassled by some con artist.

She glared back but wilted under his piercing stare.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Cheng Jing removing his glove, revealing a ring on his ring finger identical to Jiang Nian’s. Putting two and two together, she shut her mouth.

"We don’t want your thanks, but if you keep bothering us, we’ll feed you to the zombies! I mean it!"

With that, Cheng Jing pulled Jiang Nian back to their group.

The rest of the group threw dirty looks before falling in behind them.

Liao Yu, still fuming, turned back after a few steps to issue another warning:

"If you can’t talk right, hand your mouth over to the zombies. We don’t hit women, but we don’t pull punches with morons!"

Ignoring the soldiers’ stares, he stormed off.

What a shame—a pretty face wasted on starting drama the second she showed up. What kind of dumbass tries to scam his 'godfather'? Pathetic!

Li Kaiyun and his son exchanged a knowing look and shook their heads, silently acknowledging how lucky they were to have Jiang Nian’s help.

The woman watched them leave, her eyes burning with resentment.

These people weren't from the base’s rescue team, and judging by their well-kept appearance, they were clearly strong and well-supplied. She figured her rescuer would be a pushover—turns out he was gay!

Back with the group, Liao Yu ran his mouth about what happened to Huang Qian and the other two girls.

Not just Huang Qian and Li Shuhui—even Xiao Ya could tell that woman had ill intentions.

She probably thought Jiang Nian looked like an easy target, only to end up breaking her own foot. Got what she deserved!