Chapter 181

Chapter 181

The meeting concluded. As Chen Zui had mentioned, with so many wounded, even an offensive would have to wait.

After the meeting, Liang Yingzhang noticed Shen Que and Chen Zui entering the adjacent infirmary. Had their relationship gone public? Otherwise, why such open cohabitation?

He hadn't expected the townspeople to be so accepting.

Lao Lei: "Xiao Liang, let's go."

For a moment, Liang Yingzhang didn't realize "Xiao Liang" referred to him. After a brief pause, he followed Lao Lei. Glancing at the members of the Invincible Gang walking beside him, he mused on fate's strange turns. He never imagined he'd be allied with them, walking home together on a night like this.

Chen Zui and Shen Que skipped their massage treatment that night. Everyone was exhausted from a long day.

Chen Zui watched Shen Que emerge from the bathroom. Once the neighboring threat was resolved, this world would end.

"Brother Shen."

"Hmm?"

Shen Que quickened his pace, approaching him with an eager look.

"Have you ever seen the ocean, Brother Shen?"

Shen Que shook his head regretfully. "No, only in pictures. It's so blue, like the sky has fallen to the ground. Sometimes I look at the sky and rock my chair, and it feels like I'm watching the ocean."

Ao Tian: [Oh, look at the illiterate turning into a poet~]

Shen Que: "Have you seen the ocean?"

Chen Zui nodded, his gaze gentle yet tinged with a hint of reluctance. "Brother Shen, your eyes are the eighth ocean of this world."

Shen Que blinked, not quite grasping it. Why the eighth ocean? Couldn't he be the first? Chen Zui seemed to be saying his eyes resembled the ocean, but his eyes were black, and the ocean was blue.

Unable to comprehend, he let it go, asking instead, "Where did you see the ocean? Is it far from here?"

Ao Tian: [He didn't get your pick-up line.]

Chen Zui: "In a dream."

Shen Que blinked twice more, then suddenly adopted a fierce expression, lunging at Chen Zui. "Oh, you're teasing me? Just wait until I get my hands on you."

His large hands grabbed Chen Zui, beginning to tickle him mercilessly.

Chen Zui didn't stop him, letting him play, laughing uncontrollably from the tickling.

Ao Tian observed the scene. Chen Zui rarely laughed like this. Its Host looked quite handsome when he smiled. Even as a System, it could feel the happiness of the moment.

After a while, they finally stopped. Shen Que embraced Chen Zui. Honestly, from this angle, Shen Que really did look like the dominant one. "Chen Zui."

"Hmm?"

Shen Que rubbed his thumb over Chen Zui's shoulder. "You are the best gift in this world."

He yearned to unwrap the gift, to make it his own in some profound way. His possessiveness intensified, yet he still hadn't figured out how to make Chen Zui fall for him.

Chen Zui rested his head on Shen Que's chest, listening to his fervent heartbeat.

In this post-apocalyptic world, love would sprout like wild grass amidst the ruins.

——

The next day was another busy one. They had to guard against an attack from the neighboring group, so more people were stationed at every key point. Shen Que was out and about, while Chen Zui stayed busy in the infirmary.

The people from West Town treated him with respect. Even when they became guinea pigs for the students’ needle injections, they didn’t complain. The most common words they uttered were “thank you.”

Shen Que returned very late. After showering, he exchanged a few words with Chen Zui and fell asleep, snoring lightly—something he had never done before. It seemed he was truly exhausted.

Chen Zui changed into black clothes and left the infirmary, slipping out of the town without a sound.

After displaying his true combat skills last time, Shen Que had given him a gun. Now, armed with the gun and a dagger, Chen Zui ran toward West Town under the cover of night.

When he was still some distance from the town, Chen Zui hid behind a tree by the roadside. His eyes, darker than the night, calmly observed the two guards at the town entrance.

He raised his gun, which he had modified for silence. Squinting one eye, he aimed and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A headshot—blood from the victim splattered onto the face of the other guard.

The second guard froze for a second, and that second sent him to hell. He didn’t even have time to signal for help before a bullet pierced his left temple and exited through the right. His eyes seemed to bulge and deform in the process.

Chen Zui rushed out from behind the tree, his long legs covering several feet with each stride.

Before the second guard had fully collapsed, Chen Zui was already there, catching him.

Ao Tian: [Visual distortion activated. Duration: 30 minutes.]

Though Chen Zui didn’t remember it now, he had used this ability back when he rescued Xiao Momo.

Chen Zui tossed one corpse into a ditch by the roadside and propped the other against a tree, head bowed. From a distance, it looked as though the guard had fallen asleep.

He didn’t forget to praise Ao Tian: [You’re amazing. You must be the most powerful System in the Dark Transmigration Bureau. Thanks to you, I have the confidence to carry out this mission.]

Ao Tian: [No big deal~]

Ao Tian: [///_/// So embarrassed~]

Chen Zui swaggered into the town as if he owned the place. Patrols moved in pairs throughout the town. Not long after entering, he encountered one such pair. His sudden sprint caught their attention, and they raised their guns at him, only to lower them when they recognized him.

"Zheng He?"

"What’s wrong?"

Chen Zui feigned panic, panting heavily as he rushed up to the two men. "Th-there’s someone…"

In went the white blade, out came the red.

One man had his neck and throat pierced, his open mouth gushing blood without a sound. The other was shot through the heart.

Ao Tian: [Wow, you can kill two people at once!]

Chen Zui stopped panting, his expression no longer panicked. Calmly watching the shifting expressions of shock, anger, resentment, and fear on their faces, he said quietly, "Someone has broken in."

He yanked the dagger from the man’s neck, and blood spurted out.

It splattered onto his hand, warm with human heat.

He tossed the two bodies into a nearby corner and continued forward.

Killing as he went.

Ao Tian was inspired: [Ten steps, one kill; a thousand miles, no trace left behind.]

As time was nearly up, Chen Zui had just dealt with the two on night watch when his ears twitched. He swiftly grabbed the body of the man he had just killed and used it as a shield in front of him.

"Pop, pop—"

The sound of bullets hitting flesh echoed.

The corpse in his hands jerked with each impact.

He glanced out from behind the body, seeing a man ahead—clearly not on night watch, pants still undone, having run out to relieve himself.

Upon recognizing him as Zheng He, the man grew even more furious.

"Intruder! There's a traitor! There's—"

A bloody body was thrown toward him. He instinctively dodged, and Chen Zui narrowed his eyes, fired, dropping the moving man. The area erupted into chaos as Chen Zui sprinted toward the town entrance, pulling out a homemade grenade from his pocket.

When it came to weapons, he could proudly claim to be an expert. Chen Zui took his work seriously—after all, in a job where lives were constantly at risk, mastering such skills was essential.

After unlocking the "Medical Genius" skill, making grenades had become even easier and more intuitive for him.

Several people appeared behind him, firing simultaneously.

He used his teeth to pull the grenade pin and tossed it backward without a second glance.

A booming explosion followed, accompanied by flames that shot skyward. The bullets meant for him were consumed in the fire, and the pursuers were caught in the blast. Chen Zui didn’t even look back.

The ink-black night and raging flames were his backdrop.

——

Shen Que discovered that Chen Zui was gone in the middle of the night.

He searched the entire room, even checking inside the bedside drawer, but Chen Zui was nowhere to be found. Shen Que ran his hands through his hair in frustration and hurried out of the infirmary.

He even wondered if Chen Zui had slipped out again to treat another guy with stomach trouble.

But he had no idea who that patient might be.

He encountered a night patrol: "Boss, what are you doing up so late?"

"Have you seen Doctor Chen?"

The man shook his head, then asked anxiously, "Is something wrong with Doctor Chen?"

This time, it was Shen Que’s turn to shake his head. Just then, a loud noise echoed from afar, and he noticed the flames rising from the west side of town. A hazy idea came to him.

His eyes widened in alarm.

He rushed toward the town entrance.

As he reached the entrance, someone called out: "Boss, you here to bathe too? Doctor Chen just said he was going to the river to bathe. Is there some special reason to bathe this late? Absorbing the moon’s essence? Boss, are you and Doctor Chen secretly cultivating immortality or something?"

Shen Que caught the key detail. Even in his hurry to find Chen Zui, he gave the guy a jab. "Cut down on the novels!"

He ran toward the river.

Under the moonlight, Chen Zui, shirtless, like some kind of water spirit, was splashing water on himself. His pale skin glowed softly under the moon, as if draped in a hazy veil, droplets of water rolling joyfully down the grooves of his abs.

Shen Que reached the riverbank and glanced at the clothes lying on the ground.

A pungent smell of blood filled the air.

Beside them lay a gun and a dagger. It was clear what Chen Zui had been up to.

Chen Zui’s first thought upon seeing Shen Que was that he should have drugged him. He had assumed Shen Que was sound asleep and hadn’t expected him to wake up. Now his secret was out.

He stepped onto the bank: "Brother Shen, the moonlight is beautiful tonight."

Shen Que didn’t respond, only stared at him sternly, scanning him from head to toe—more like an inspection.

Chen Zui crouched down, picked up his clothes, swished them in the river, and pulled them on. The damp garment clung to him as Shen Que grabbed his collar and yanked him closer. "What were you doing?"

Chen Zui leaned into the motion, pressing himself against Shen Que’s chest, his wet clothes soaking Shen Que’s shirt.

"I went to kill a few people."

He answered directly, his eyes still gleaming with the adrenaline-fueled excitement that had now shifted into desire upon seeing Shen Que.

He had killed eighteen in total—a miscalculation on his part, since people weren’t exactly lining up waiting to be killed. He’d had to seek them out.

"Are you insane? What if something had happened to you, going out alone?"

Shen Que was both angry and anxious, all stemming from worry.

"It wouldn’t. I’m strong."

Chen Zui wrapped his arms around Shen Que’s waist. "I came back just fine, didn’t I? And if we’d faced them head-on, there would’ve been casualties. I know every person in this town matters to you, Brother Shen. This way, no one gets hurt."

"But you matter to me too!"

Shen Que practically yelled the words, he was still shaken. If anything had happened to Chen Zui, he didn’t dare think…

Under the moonlight, his pupils trembled with fear, and the hand gripping Chen Zui’s collar shook.

Chen Zui had never felt so profoundly cared for by someone. The feeling was unfamiliar yet deeply moving.

"I won’t do it again."

"Brother Shen, don’t be angry with me, okay?"

"I’m not angry with you… I’m worried about you, Chen Zui. I don’t want anything to happen to you."

"I understand."

Seeing him so agreeable, Shen Que couldn’t bring himself to say more. Anything else would feel like an unfair scolding—especially when Chen Zui had acted for the sake of the town.

"Let’s go home."

Chen Zui held onto him, preventing him from leaving.

Shen Que looked puzzled.

The hand around his waist slid lower. "Brother Shen, let’s begin tonight’s massage therapy."

"I’m already better. I don’t need treatment."

"But it only worked once. It’s hard to say it’s fully cured. How about you give it a try, Brother Shen?"

Chen Zui made a suggestion.

Shen Que didn’t think too much about it and got right to it, his initially confident expression gradually turning panicked.

It was still limp.

He shot a helpless look at Chen Zui.

Chen Zui wasn’t surprised at all: "Just as I thought, Brother Shen. It needs a couple more rounds to stabilize and get used to it. It’s like when a leg injury has just healed—you’re still not moving smoothly."

Shen Que trusted him.

He really didn’t want this thing to become useless again: "You’re right. I’ll follow your lead."

So, he was pulled into the small woods by Chen Zui.

Chen Zui, having thoroughly enjoyed killing, was now getting impatient.