Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

”I really don’t know her,” Gu Chen quickly said. ”And I have no idea what’s going on. She’s... well, she’s just really strange.”

”You know about her. We found her at the Song Family Pavilion when we were searching for survivors.”

”She’d suffered a major trauma, and the military doctor diagnosed her with possible PTSD.”

”So for safety reasons, we kept her with the team for a few days of treatment. I don’t know what happened after that, but she just started acting overly familiar with us. I’ve said, at most, two sentences to her in total! I swear.”

”The first was, ’Take her away.’ The second was, ’Ask what’s going on.’”

”Strictly speaking, I didn’t even say those two sentences *to her*!!” The more Gu Chen spoke, the more he felt he was being wronged.

’He’d turned his head and said both of those things to Lu Wei...’

Song You’ai found herself wanting to laugh. Looking at the young man, then at her daughter, she broke into a silly grin.

”Ningning, please don’t get the wrong idea.”

Xie Ning glanced at him and nodded. ”You should get going.”

”So, you’re not mad?”

Xie Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ”What would I be mad about? Hurry up and go. Don’t you have team business to attend to?”

Gu Chen couldn’t tell if he was more disappointed or more pleased.

’Ningning not being angry... doesn’t seem like a good thing either...’

”I’ll come see you all later, then.” After speaking, Gu Chen said a quick goodbye to Song You’ai and hurried out the door.

Song Xue stood up from the corner. The ”Gu—” had barely left her lips when she saw a tall, slender figure dash away, vanishing from sight in an instant.

Tears welled in the corners of Song Xue’s eyes, and she nearly sobbed aloud.

As Song You’ai came over to close the iron gate, she immediately saw Song Xue, her eyes misty like a rainy fog, gazing at her with a pitiful, mournful look.

Song You’ai couldn’t help but sigh. ”Xiao Xue, you should head back if there’s nothing else.”

She shook her head, locked the gate, and went back inside, where she saw the old couple sorting a messy pile of T-shirts.

”Where did these clothes come from?”

”That boy Xiao Xian gave them to us. He couldn’t say where he found them, just some old clothes he picked up. I thought some of them still looked usable, so I wanted to sort them out for us to wear.”

”If not, we can cut them up to make cloth bags or just use them as rags.”

”Mom, where is that girl, Xiao Xue, living now?” Song You’ai asked.

”Sigh, that poor girl has had a hard life. She’s living with her uncle Song Kuang’s family now. But you know his wife. She’s a real piece of work—sharp-tongued, mean, and never lets anyone have the last word.” Old Mrs. Song shook her head. ”Sigh... in short, she’s not having an easy time.”

”That girl Xiao Xue looks like she’s lost a lot of weight. Sigh,” Song You’ai sighed.

Old Mrs. Song quickly waved her hand at her. ”We can’t just bring people home. It’s not worth the trouble if it disrupts the peace in our own house.”

”That’s right.” Song Yaoguo picked up a stack of old clothes and shook his head. ”If we brought Xiao Xue here, there’s no telling what kind of fuss her uncle’s family would kick up. It’d be way too much trouble.”

Song You’ai recalled the three rules her daughter had laid down for her and said with a smile, ”Mom, Dad, you two are the insightful ones.”

”Of course. I may be old, but I’m not senile.” Old Mrs. Song pursed her lips, looking pleased. ”Let me tell you, no family has it easy these days. We’re lucky to have Ningning holding things down for us. Even if we can’t help, we certainly can’t be making trouble.”

The mother and daughter shared a few private words, and then Song You’ai started helping the old couple sort the messy pile of T-shirts.

Xie Ning returned to the largest suite on the second floor. When she saw her younger cousin practicing her Fire Ability inside, she decided not to disturb her.

Even through the crack under the door, she could feel waves of heat from the flames, and the light flickered.

Xie Ning instantly felt unbearably hot.

But as a Fire Ability User who could control intense flames, Song Kexin’s heat resistance was obviously much higher than anyone else’s.

This was a good thing for her cousin.

After grabbing a bucket of superpower water from the terrace, Xie Ning planned to take a quick shower. But when she unconsciously shifted her focus to her personal Space, she jumped on the spot.

The personal Space had grown.

Before, this section of the Space had been packed to the brim with over two hundred crates of raw materials and over three hundred crates of instant noodles from the Su City factory, along with all sorts of seed packets for crops, vegetables, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal herbs. There had been virtually no room left.

Now, however, the personal Space was significantly taller, and the overall sense of spaciousness had increased.

Everything that had once been packed in so tightly was now piled in the center, with a large, newly expanded area surrounding it on all sides.

The small space that was once crammed full now looked incredibly spacious!

This personal Space was now probably a little over one hundred square meters.

Not including the new height, it was at least twice its previous size.

With that, Xie Ning completely forgot about her shower. She quickly threw on the sun shirt she’d tossed aside, flung open her door, and charged downstairs in a hurry.

Song You’ai and the old couple were still in the living room, sitting on the mahogany chairs and methodically sorting the old T-shirts.

They looked up just in time to see their daughter charging down the stairs like a cannonball.

The three of them jumped to their feet, their hands trembling in shock. ”Are there zombies??”

”Who, who?! Zombies? Where?!” Ji Taixian, who had been practicing his superpower in the adjacent tea room, burst out of the door like a gust of wind, completely on guard.

Xie Ning reached the bottom of the stairs and realized she was making too much of a commotion.

She slowed to a stop and glanced at Song You’ai and the others. ”It’s nothing, don’t panic. I-I’m just stepping out. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

Song You’ai and the old couple exchanged a look of confusion.

Xie Ning dashed out the iron gate and bolted toward the garage across the way like an excited puppy.

With her control over metal, she no longer needed anyone to close the gate for her; she could simply manipulate the metal to lock it herself.

’This was all my fault. After my Space leveled up, I was so focused on the new villa bedroom that I completely forgot about my little personal Space.’

’At least the Space is finally pulling its weight in this life. It’s no longer that measly, fixed two square meters.’

’I was just worrying about not having a place to store the RV, and now here it is.’

Xie Ning happily opened the garage door, pulled it shut behind her, and walked a full circle around her family’s RV.

’Not bad, not bad at all,’ she thought. ’Seeing how big the personal Space is now, it could fit three RVs with room to spare.’

The only problem was that the RV had been scraped up and was covered in mud and filthy blood. It even smelled foul.

So, Xie Ning decided to run back and get her mom, Song You’ai, to help wash the RV.

But the moment she stepped out of the garage, she saw Li Dawei and his sister leading a group of people, all running toward her anxiously and shouting, ”To the car, to the car! Xie Ning’s about to run for it!”

Xie Ning: ???

Li Xiang stopped in her tracks and yanked hard on her brother’s arm.

Xie Ning looked up to see Uncle Ge Liang flash her a toothy grin before turning to scold Li Dawei. ”What are you shouting for? With which eye did you see Ningning trying to run away?”

Li Dawei resentfully pulled back his hand, muttering indignantly, ”Why else would she be running to the garage?”

Xie Ning couldn’t help but frown.

’Do these two have nothing better to do all day than keep their eyes glued on me?’

’Being watched by Li Xiang all the time is making it really inconvenient to do anything.’