Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

A few men with hands covered in chilblains stepped forward to collect the Iron Arrows from the ground. Their gazes, filled with mockery, flickered toward Xie Ning and Beichen.

It was the way one would look at a pair of white mice that had fallen into a trap.

Xie Ning quietly reassured Beichen, ”Zhong, don’t worry. They won’t dare to do anything to us. They already know my father is Huang Zhaosheng, the chairman of the base committee. They...”

Her voice dropped even lower, and only a few fragmented words drifted into the ears of the burly man in the white down jacket and his companions.

The members of the CityArrow Club exchanged inscrutable glances, their lips twitching as they suppressed their laughter.

’What a truly naive and sheltered little missy!’

A hothouse flower cultivated in Golden City Base. Instead of staying safely in her greenhouse, she just had to venture out into the cruel world. How utterly ridiculous.

”Let’s go. Our vehicle is over there.”

Xie Ning put on a curious expression. ”You guys have a vehicle?”

Ten minutes later, Beichen sat on the tractor, his long legs scrunched up and his face devoid of expression. He secretly shot daggers from his eyes at the damned woman beside him.

’This woman is cunning as hell. Going back with the CityArrow Club members... she must be cooking up some inhumanly wicked scheme.’

’Those fucking idiots from the CityArrow Club are letting a wolf into their house. They’re going to be crying their eyes out soon.’

Xie Ning sat obediently beside Beichen with her legs curled up, her body swaying gently with the CHUG-CHUG-CHUG of the tractor.

The tractor drove remarkably steadily through the frozen, snow-covered landscape, its performance rivaling that of a top-tier off-road vehicle...

Xie Ning glanced at the semi-new tractor with envy. She sincerely felt her farmstead Space was probably missing an accessory like this.

’Since it’s a rustic farmstead, a tractor should be a must-have.’

’It’s like someone handing you a pillow the moment you feel sleepy. All my gear comes from looting, and my luck is just through the roof.’

”Miss Huang, you probably don’t know this yet,” the short, curly-haired woman said with a malicious smile, staring at Xie Ning opposite her. ”The road back to your Golden City Base is now completely cut off by the ruins of Canghua Home.”

”It’s impossible to return to the base the way you came. The buildings in Area One and Two have collapsed, and on top of that, the road is sealed by snow and ice. Without a helicopter, it’s impossible to get through on foot.”

Xie Ning’s wide, misty eyes stared at the curly-haired woman from behind her mask. ”So, you were lying to me before? When you said you’d take me back to the base?”

”Of course we didn’t lie to you, Miss Huang.” The burly man in the white down jacket laughed heartily. ”We will definitely do what we promised you.”

”Although it’s not really possible to return to Golden City Base the original way, we can take a detour.”

”A detour?” Xie Ning quickly put on a joyful expression. ”Which way? Ma, please tell us.”

The burly man in the white down jacket, Martin, spoke with a smile. ”We’ll detour through Chaoyang Base, of course. The route is a bit longer, but there’s more flat ground. Getting back to your Golden City Base is just a matter of time.”

Acting like a complete novice, Xie Ning thanked Martin profusely. ”Ma, are you all from the same club?”

Martin nodded with a smile. ”After the apocalypse began, we happened to end up in the same club by chance. We’ve been through thick and thin together, so you could say we’re sworn brothers who’ve faced life and death.”

”That’s really not easy,” Xie Ning said, flattering them a bit, then deliberately emphasized again just how powerful and influential her father, Huang Zhaosheng, was.

As long as the club members delivered her safely back to Golden City Base, they would surely receive a handsome reward.

A look of understanding appeared on the men’s faces. They exchanged glances, the dark glint in their eyes growing more intense.

Xie Ning, pretending to be an idiotic rich girl, started to get drowsy from the constant jostling of the tractor.

When her big head flopped onto Beichen’s shoulder, he subconsciously wanted to shove the damned thing away!

But when he saw several pairs of eyes across from him staring, he silently gave up the idea.

’After all, my current identity is the loyal pup, Zhong, Miss Huang’s brain-dead lackey.’

’A lackey is supposed to obey his missy’s every command. How could I possibly push away the young miss’s precious head?’

Xie Ning’s large helmet was heavy, and it remained slumped against Beichen’s shoulder for over an hour.

The tractor CHUGGED-CHUGGED-CHUGGED forward at a steady, but incredibly slow, pace.

Just when Beichen felt he could no longer keep a straight face, the burly man in the white down jacket across from them came to his rescue.

”We’re here,” Martin called out, smiling as he was the first to stand up.

Beichen reached out and gently tapped Xie Ning’s helmet.

”Hmm?” Xie Ning woke up in a daze. She looked up ahead, her head feeling heavy.

With a taut expression on his handsome face, Beichen reached out and helped straighten her large helmet.

Seeing that Martin and the others had already gotten off one by one, Xie Ning lazily got to her feet and let Beichen help her jump down from the tractor.

”After you, Miss Huang,” one of the men with chilblain-covered hands said, giving Xie Ning a malicious grin.

Holding her helmet, Xie Ning looked up and saw a dilapidated sign hanging next to a door, swaying as if it would fall over in the wind. An arrow was painted on the wall.

Xie Ning’s spirits lifted, all traces of sleepiness vanishing in an instant.

”This is... the Kowloon Warehouse Mansion residential complex.”

So, the CityArrow Club’s base of operations was a shop in the underground garage on the B1 floor of Kowloon Warehouse Mansion.

Next to it were a milk tea shop, a stationery store, and a car wash center.

Kowloon Warehouse Mansion truly lived up to its name as a luxury residential area. The surrounding facilities were well-built, and the buildings were spread out, not crowded together like the dozens-of-stories-high towers in the commoner districts.

All the buildings here were fifteen-story high-rises, and there were supposedly a dozen or so townhouses further back. It was clearly designed for the high-end, wealthy clientele.

Xie Ning and Beichen followed the group from the CityArrow Club into the B1 level.

The temperature here was slightly higher than on the surface, but at two or three degrees below zero, it still felt damp and chillingly cold.

”YEAHHH! YEAHHH! YEAHHH!”

The moment the two of them stepped into the underground level, they were surrounded by a crowd of people in ragged clothes.

A girl of about fourteen, wearing a dusty gray cotton-padded jacket that looked like a refitted adult’s old coat, was dressed more warmly than most of the others present.

She stepped forward, touched the sleeve of Xie Ning’s down jacket, and called out with an innocent-looking face, ”Dad, is this a lamb you caught? She looks so fair and tender. Can I have her scarf and gloves?”

Xie Ning sneered internally but pretended to be startled, snatching her sleeve back and glaring at Martin. ”Ma? What is the meaning of this?”

Martin put on an embarrassed look, pulled his daughter over, and patted her on the head. ”My apologies, Miss Huang. She’s just a child who doesn’t know any better and talks nonsense. Please don’t take it seriously.”

”Everyone, gather ’round! Let me introduce you all to the daughter of the Golden City Base’s committee chairman, Miss Huang!”

”Today, to welcome Miss Huang and her servant, we’re throwing a wild party!”

”YEAHHH! YEAHHH! YEAHHH!” The crowd roared in unison, the sound deafening.