novelraw Chapter 265 - 256: Picked Up a Man
Chapter 265 - 256: Picked Up a Man
Qi Xiang never thought she’d find a man in a changing room.
A surprisingly handsome young man, at that.
Staring at the man lying on the floor, Qi Xiang froze. "..." ’Wait a minute. Why is my luck so... bizarre this time? Could it be that Lin’s bad luck has rubbed off on me?’
She subconsciously looked up at Lin Jin, her eyes full of suspicion.
Lin Jin’s expression immediately shot back a denial: ’It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. Stop talking nonsense.’
The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.
’What now?’ Qi Xiang glanced at the man on the floor, whose state of life or death was unknown, and asked Lin Jin with her eyes.
A man suddenly appearing in an underground commercial street that had been abandoned for decades... no matter how you looked at it, the situation was bizarre.
Lin Jin also felt this was probably not a simple matter. He suddenly thought about the zombies that had appeared after last night’s massive earthquake... ’I’ve heard that some High-level Zombies eventually revert to a completely human appearance. Could this one before us be a Zombie King that’s been buried deep underground for years?’
With that thought, he subconsciously pulled Qi Xiang back a step, then nudged the nearby Mutated Rat King with his foot. With a slight lift of his chin, he gestured, ’You go first.’
The Mutated Rat King glanced over with its beady red eyes, then its ears drooped and it began to play dead. ’Trying to get this king to work for free? No way.’
Just then.
"Gu Xi..." Qi Xiang turned and called out, only to see the Mutated Rat King, which had just been playing dead, suddenly shoot forward. It lifted a tiny paw and poked the young man on the ground.
Then it turned back to the approaching Gu Xi and squeaked a few times.
He’s alive.
And human.
Gu Xi frowned slightly. There was actually a living person hiding in this underground commercial street.
What was even stranger was that this person had somehow avoided her earlier spiritual power scan.
The Qin sisters walked over at this point and were also taken aback when they saw the man.
"Who is this?" Qin Yi asked, looking over curiously. "How did he end up here?"
As she spoke, a rose branch shot out from her fingertip. She expertly began to pat down the man’s clothes, searching every place he might have hidden a weapon. Beside her, Qin Shi took out a basic first-aid kit from her backpack...
"The wound is on his lower back, and it’s deep." After a basic examination, Qin Shi dusted off her hands, stood up, and reported to Gu Xi.
Qin Yi retracted her rose branch and added, "There are still traces of a Thunder Ability’s energy in his body..."
Speaking of the Thunder Ability, the first person Qi Xiang thought of was Ye Junhan. "Could he have run into Ye Junhan?"
If this man had been injured by Ye Junhan, then they definitely couldn’t save him.
Qi Xiang, having found a broken pipe from somewhere, poked the man with it. "From the looks of it, he’s running a fever."
"His wound is untreated, so a fever is normal." Lin Jin crouched down and carefully examined the wound on the man’s lower back. "Judging by the shape of the wound, it was made by a tri-edged military spike. But this model... is very common in the military."
Everyone turned to look at Gu Xi.
Gu Xi lowered her gaze to the unconscious man before her. ’Suddenly, the way this person appeared feels a bit familiar,’ she thought.
Back then, she had found Yun Ye in a pile of rubble in the very same way.
Gu Xi wasn’t sure if this was a coincidence.
’But since we’ve already found him, we have to save him, at least until we figure out who he is. If this is a trap, then his appearance means the trap has already been sprung, whether he’s alive or dead.’
And Li Ming had taught her that dead men can’t change the game; only the living have infinite possibilities.
Gu Xi looked down and tapped the small green sprout on her fingertip.
Beside her, Lin Jin saw the faint white glow emanating from the green sprout on her fingertip and pressed the button on his walkie-talkie.
A short while later, Wei Heng and Zhao Li received the message and hurried back.
Each of them was carrying a large, rusty barrel. Qi Xiang went over and peered into one. "Is this pre-apocalypse gasoline?" ’There’s quite a lot. I wonder how many abandoned cars those two had to siphon to get this much.’
She looked up at Wei Heng, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Can our current vehicle even use this?"
Wei Heng set the barrel aside. "We’ll have to modify it."
Gu Xi had already sat back down by the fire where the Qin sisters were bandaging the man’s wound. Wei Heng walked over to take a look, and upon getting a clear view of the man’s face, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.
Seeing this, Qi Xiang, who was poking the fire, felt a stir of curiosity. "What? You know him?"
"I don’t. But he looks a lot like a pre-apocalypse celebrity," Wei Heng said, pointing to another abandoned storefront in the distance. "There’s a poster of that celebrity hanging in that shop."
Qi Xiang was a little surprised. Zhao Li and Lin Jin were already heading toward the shop and quickly returned with a tattered celebrity poster.
The dust-covered face on the poster indeed bore a striking resemblance to the unconscious man before them.
Everyone felt there was something strange about this.
Gu Xi’s gaze fell upon the poster. "...This isn’t a sixty-year-old poster."
Qi Xiang froze at her words. She turned to look at the poster in Zhao Li and Lin Jin’s hands, then back at the man on the ground, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, this just got interesting..."
"It is interesting," Qin Yi muttered from the side. "But I don’t get it. What’s the point of them doing this? Just to give this guy the identity of a pre-apocalypse celebrity?"
’What’s the use of that?’
’To deliberately pique our curiosity?’
Qin Yi thought about it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out.
Qi Xiang poked the Mutated Rat King with the pipe. "Alright, spill it. You’re the one who found him..."
The Mutated Rat King, which had been lying at Gu Xi’s feet, instantly recoiled as if to say ’Don’t you touch me!’ and let out two squeaks.
’You were the one who chose that shop! Don’t even think about pinning this on me!’
Qi Xiang poked its ear. "You can squeak all day, but we can’t understand you. Why don’t you try speaking human for a change?"
The Mutated Rat King retorted with a squeak. "SQUEAK!" ’Listen to yourself! You call *that* speaking human?!’
Gu Xi had been silent the whole time. She stared at the Mutated Rat King for a moment, then rose and walked over to the unconscious man.
The man had what was commonly known as a "pretty boy" face. Looking at it, a certain suspicion formed in Gu Xi’s mind. A thin flake of ice condensed at her fingertip...
Beside them, Zhao Li, who was also an Ice Ability User, shot her a surprised look.
’From the initial Wood, Earth, and Space Elements, to the Healing System, and now Ice... Just how many abilities does this Miss Gu possess?’
’And she reveals them so openly in front of us. She really doesn’t see us as outsiders at all.’
’She’s just a naive young girl, after all. No wonder she was fooled by the captain’s face...’
Gu Xi was completely unaware of what Zhao Li was thinking. The ice flakes in her hand multiplied, and soon they covered the man’s entire body.
Qi Xiang watched her actions from the side, asking curiously, "Gu Xi, what are you...?"
Gu Xi replied, "Cooling him down."
Qin Yi was a little worried. "Isn’t that a bit much?" ’She’s not going to freeze him to death, is she?’
"Why not just make a whole ice coffin while you’re at it?" Qi Xiang suggested from the side. ’Placing them one by one seems like a lot of trouble.’
Only Qin Shi gave Gu Xi a thoughtful look. ’One more flake, and the man won’t be able to breathe.’
’Slowly induced hypothermia, gradually freezing blood, coupled with the encroaching feeling of suffocation... This method... where have I heard of it before?’
Just then.
The Mutated Rat King let out a sudden "SQUEAK!"—
The man, just about to be covered by a second layer of ice flakes, tremblingly opened his eyes.