Chapter 222.3: Apocalypse Survival (26)

***

Bonus chapter! Thank you to Fai for the donation! ^^

***

Ruan Qing paused with the bread he hadn’t bitten into yet, stood up, and slowly walked towards the corner, then handed the bread over.

The woman with short hair looked at the bread in front of her dumbly, seemingly unable to react.

Ruan Qing directly stuffed the bread into the little girl’s hands, said nothing, turned around, and walked back to his previous spot.

The woman with short hair finally reacted. She held back her tears for a long time before they finally streamed down. She stuttered out towards Ruan Qing’s back, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Because he needed space for the gun, Ruan Qing didn’t bring much food. He only brought those two loaves of bread.

Although he was also hungry, he hadn’t reached the point where it would affect his actions; he could manage without eating.

Ruan Qing returned to his position, took out the gun from his bag, and handed it to Jiang Shuyu. “Can you use this?”

Jiang Shuyu was startled and waved her hands anxiously. “You, you hold on to it. I might not aim well.”

“Not aiming well means you can,” Ruan Qing replied.

Ruan Qing tugged at his backpack, filled entirely with guns. “I took a lot. You keep this for backup.”

Jiang Shuyu looked at the bag full of guns and swallowed hard. With trembling hands, she took the gun from Ruan Qing.

Originally, a few people over there had eyed the food held by the mother and daughter pair, thinking of grabbing it directly. However, upon seeing Ruan Qing’s bag of guns, they suppressed their thoughts once more.

Although the little girl was only three years old, she was very sensible. After eating a few small bites, she handed the bread to the short-haired woman, saying, “Mommy, eat.”

The short-haired woman smiled gently at the little girl, “Mommy’s not hungry, you eat.”

The little girl seemed to understand that her mom, like her, hadn’t eaten, so she insisted that the short-haired woman eat.

The short-haired woman’s eyes reddened further; she took a tiny bite of the bread. Only then did the little girl continue eating.

The short-haired woman’s bites were tiny, just a sliver each time, but the little girl was too young to notice. They finished the bread, each taking small bites, one after the other.

This wasn’t a safe place. After Ruan Qing packed up the guns, he shouldered his bag to leave.

Jiang Shuyu immediately picked up Ruan Qing’s previous bag and stood up. The two headed toward the supermarket entrance.

Others wanted to follow suit but ultimately gave up.

After all, outside was crawling with zombies; at least here was a place to hide, much safer.

The short-haired woman hesitated upon seeing this. She looked at her well-behaved little girl in her arms, then gritted her teeth and carried the little girl, walking in the direction of the two at the door.

However, Ruan Qing and Jiang Shuyu had barely reached the door when they retreated.

Because a large group of zombies had surged in from outside, and someone had also lured zombies inside.

They probably couldn’t make it back to the car in time if they went out now; the zombie horde would overwhelm them.

But staying here would only result in being surrounded by zombies, especially since the supermarket door was flimsy and would be broken down by zombies sooner or later.

Ruan Qing hesitated for less than a second and then directly opened the supermarket door.

Jiang Shuyu held the gun tightly in her hands and charged out without hesitation.

The woman with short hair followed closely, holding a little girl in her arms.

Ruan Qing, seeing the woman with short hair trailing them, did not stop her but instead tossed a gun to her.

At least it provided her with some means of self-defense.

Seeing this, the woman with short hair bit her lip tightly and gratefully thanked Ruan Qing.

The three of them proceeded in the direction of the car while firing the guns.

However, there were too many zombies; they were flooding in directly from the neighborhood gate, and they seemed even more excited than usual upon seeing Ruan Qing.

Despite continuously firing the guns, it was becoming difficult for them to safely reach the car.

Just as Ruan Qing was taking out a small knife, preparing to cut his palm again, the woman with short hair pushed the little girl towards him.

She then directly charged into the crowd of zombies, using her body to block them.

Because the aisle was not very wide, and the woman with short hair didn’t know where she got the strength from, she actually managed to block the zombies.

Ignoring her own body being torn apart by the zombies, the woman with short hair spoke to Ruan Qing, “Young master, please take her.”

“Xinxin is very well-behaved. She won’t cry or make trouble. You just need to... give her something to eat...”

“Please... I beg you...”

The woman with short hair had a piece of flesh bitten off from her neck by a zombie, and her speech became intermittent until she couldn’t speak at all in the end.

As if she would choke in the next second.

But she didn’t scream or cry out; her eyes were filled with restraint and pain as she looked at Ruan Qing with pleading.

She had already been infected with the zombie virus and could no longer protect the little girl.

Originally, she had wanted to die together with the little girl.

But her daughter was still so young, too young to have seen this world properly, too young to even know what death meant.

She wanted to fight for her daughter one last time.

The little girl was still a bit slow to react when she was taken out of the arms of the woman with short hair. Upon seeing her mother being eaten by the zombies, she immediately cried out and tried to rush over, “Mommy, mommy.”

“Xinxin wants mommy.”

Jiang Shuyu grabbed the little girl, unable to bear looking into her eyes, and also covered the girl’s eyes.

Ruan Qing looked at the despairing yet hopeful short-haired woman and paused. Before the woman could gasp her last breath, Ruan Qing softly said, “Okay.”

The short-haired woman, with only a breath left, smiled gently and tenderly.

She reluctantly glanced at the little girl and silently opened her mouth towards Ruan Qing.

Thank you.

The short-haired woman finally closed her eyes, but there was no regret in them.

An invisible pure white light emerged from within the short-haired woman and entered Ruan Qing’s body.

Even Ruan Qing didn’t see it.

But Ruan Qing suddenly felt better, and his breathing was not as weak.

However, the system saw it all.

The system widened his eyes directly, a bold and horrified guess surfacing in his mind.

Could it be... the power of faith!? 

Yes, that was undoubtedly the power of faith.

The system suppressed his astonishment and immediately checked Ruan Qing’s soul.

It was slightly stronger than before.

Although it was a tiny improvement, almost negligible, it was definitely not a figment of the system’s imagination.

It was indeed stronger than before!

In other words, that woman believed in Ruan Qing without knowing his identity!

The power of faith was fundamental to a god and was also the most easily accepted.

Even though Ruan Qing’s soul was too weak to withstand any power, it could endure the power of faith.

Perhaps that was the only power Ruan Qing could endure.

To prevent Ruan Qing from being harmed and for their selfish reasons, they always kept ordinary people away from him.

But they didn’t expect that letting him interact with ordinary people was the right thing to do.

Because of their special identity, even if they believed in Ruan Qing as that person’s avatars, it would not generate the power of faith. Only when ordinary people believe could that power manifest.

Their direction seemed to have been wrong from the beginning.

<Prev> <ToC> <Next>