Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Jinxia… What are you doing…?”
“I… I can’t catch my breath… cough…”
“Cough… Cough…”
Yang Jinxia stood in the dark, quietly looking at the young girl on the sickbed with tears falling from the corner of her eye. The scene suddenly zoomed away into the distance and disappeared into the darkness.
She opened her eyes and immediately felt that something was amiss. This wasn’t her room.
Where was this? What was she doing here?
Had she been abducted?
She looked at the gray sky above her, and her heart sank. In the few seconds that it took her to sit up from the ground, she had prepared herself for the worst.
However, the sight surrounding her shattered all her previous predictions, and her face turned white at that moment.
These were the ruins of a city.
A building had collapsed, becoming nothing more than a pile of bricks and rubble before her eyes. At her feet stood an aluminum window frame that was deformed at an odd angle, swaying gently in the howling wind.
This was a deathly apocalypse!
That thought suddenly jumped into her mind, and for that moment, she could only feel a deep chill rising from her heart. Fear poured out of her eyes uncontrollably and her body began to tremble.
“Thud!”
A sound of stone colliding suddenly sounded behind her.
Wha… what…
That light sound was like a thunderbolt to her ears, and she whipped her head around.
Not far behind her, she saw a man on the ground climb to his feet.
There was somebody else there!
The appearance of this person saved her from the bottomless pit of her fear. To her, living alone in a dead and quiet world was the most frightening prospect.
At that moment, she recovered her wits and immediately weighed her pros and cons. Seeing that the man was standing motionless with his back towards her, she silently scurried over to hide behind a half-fallen brick wall and continued to watch him through a thin gap.
Given that the man’s identity was unknown, she didn’t want to rush to make contact.
He was dressed very ordinarily and was approximately 1.75 meters in height. He didn’t look very strong. She appraised him in her mind and was somewhat disappointed.
Wait a minute! Considering how quickly he had recovered his wits after the shock, it was clear that his receptive abilities were pretty high.
What was he looking for?
There was a corpse?
She looked in the direction the man was facing and was surprised to find out that she hadn’t realized them earlier.
She thought about it for a while and found that the corpse was right in her blind spot. It was only normal that she hadn’t seen it.
She saw the man pick up a gun that had been lying next to the corpse. He opened the magazine and took a look at it before putting it back. The way he cocked the gun next made it look like it was second nature to him.
Was he a policeman?
She rejoiced inwardly. Based on the individual’s skilled movements, he had to be someone familiar with a gun. In China, policemen and army personnel were the only two groups who fit that description. This man did not look like he came from the army.
She felt infinitely lucky to be able to meet a policeman under such circumstances!
However, she did not rush out to meet him impulsively. Instead, she decided to observe him for a little longer.
The man then held the gun and walked vigilantly towards a building ahead. Seeing this made Yang Jinxia even more confident in her speculation. The man was very likely a police officer indeed!
She followed behind the man quietly. His attention was focused in front of him, and he hadn’t realized her presence.
Later, she found that that traces of a battle lined the whole building. Evidently, a fierce battle had just taken place here. From where she stood, she could see a few corpses.
The man in front of her searched around for a while. He was wearing a strange mechanical armor. Half of it was broken, and only half remained on him. Next, he displayed the power of his mechanical armor by lifting a concrete pillar off the ground.
She was flabbergasted. That concrete pillar weighed at least a few tons! He had lifted that weight solely with half of that strange armor? She was fairly certain that the world’s technology was not at the stage to be able to create such a thing!
Her company had invested in some high-tech industries. As a result, she had some knowledge of cutting-edge technologies. If such a product existed, it was impossible for her not to know of it.
Just as she was caught in a confusion of thoughts, the man suddenly turned around and fired the gun with a bang.
What had happened?
She was taken aback. Why had he shot for no reason? What followed next was a series of gunshots.
She couldn’t resist sticking her head out a little, and finally saw a monster in front of the man. They had run into danger.
Rightfully speaking, he shouldn’t have had any experience firing against enemies.
She noticed some things in the man’s reaction and guessed that he was a new recruit. Judging from his side profile, he looked relatively young as well.
However, his marksmanship was extremely good. Although his actions looked unsophisticated, every shot hit the monster in its head.
He had to be a recently graduated recruit who had just joined the police force not too long ago. He was a policeman who possessed good marksmanship but lacked experience dealing with major crises.
Yang Jinxia silently profiled the man in her mind.
After some time, the man finally defeated the monster. He seemed to find something on the scene before leaving swiftly.
She hurried to catch up with him but didn’t dare to make a sound. She had concluded that this man wasn’t a threat to her.
However, she surmised that his nerves would still be in a state of heightened sensitivity. In such a condition, it was possible that he might shoot her out of reflex, and she didn’t want to waste her life that way.
The man’s running posture was very unusual. He was limping, but at the same time, he was very fast. In the blink of an eye, he entered another building.
She followed him into the building, and at the entrance to the stairs, she heard the thundering sound of footsteps rise before disappearing to the roof.
Why was he running to the rooftop?
She found it bizarre, but after giving it some thought, she decided not to rush after him. Instead, she looked around the building.
Finally, she found a mirror that was fairly in one piece in one of the rooms. She blew the dust away from it, faced it, and began to organize her appearance.
She was wearing a pair of green pajamas and didn’t have an ounce of makeup on her face. She had taken off all her makeup before going to bed, and her face was now bare. However, her little chase had resulted in a face full perspiration that was marred by dirt.
She carefully wiped the dirt off her face and straightened her clothing. In her mind, she simulated the scene of meeting the man in her mind.
She knew that under the current circumstances if she wanted to have a chance of living at all, she would have to rely on the man on the rooftop.
It was fortunate that he was a young police officer, and she didn’t have to worry that he would do her any harm.
The only skill she possessed to help her convince him now was the female wiles that she had been born with.
Her target was a low-ranking, ordinary-looking police officer who had been born to a common family. She began to formulate her plan—what she was going to say when she finally met him, and what her attitude and tone were going to be. She had gotten them all down pat.
After rehearsing the meeting scene twice in her head, she made her way up the stairs.
The roof was on a very high level. She took a few breaks along the way up; she didn’t want to perspire too much and have the perspiration affect her image.
Finally, she reached the last flight of stairs.
She stopped to primp herself for the last time and headed out.