As she took in the view of the warehouse, Su Su, who was mixed in with the crowd, was struck with a jolt of alarm.
Her brain had no time to think—her hand instinctively reached into her bosom to touch the little black snake—only to grasp at nothing.
Shock upon shock.
She glanced at Guo Yingjun, who was still frozen in place, and silently backed out of the crowd.
“Ah Xuan?”
“Ah Xuan?”
Su Su searched around the courtyard for a while before finally spotting the burly python gliding forward along a spacious road.
She let out a breath of relief, but her face quickly tensed up again.
“Ah Xuan.”
Upon hearing the familiar voice, the black snake, sluggishly slithering forward, finally turned its head and looked toward the approaching female.
“Hiss?”
In Su Su’s field of vision, the black snake, an expert at sneaking off, tilted its head as if pondering for a few seconds before finally turning around and slowly gliding toward her.
“Hiss~~~”
The black snake climbed up along the female’s calf.
Su Su lifted her pant leg and gave it a vigorous shake.
Thud.
The black snake fell to the ground, its groggy mind snapping fully awake.
Su Su furrowed her brows. “Why did you run off again without saying anything?”
Her angry, condescending stance was reflected in those vertical pupils, yet even so, she still looked incredibly appealing.
“Hiss~~~~”
The snake’s hissing grew increasingly sweet, and its body pressed against the female’s pant leg once more, attempting to climb up for some affection.
Su Su had no intention of indulging it.
After shaking off the “burden” clinging to her pant leg, she turned to leave.
“Hiss!!”
The black snake behind her grew anxious.
Su Su had barely taken a few steps when a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around her waist, lifting her up.
She was startled and instinctively looked around—
The street was empty. No one else was there.
In the blink of an eye, Su Su found herself being held tightly in Xuan Mang’s embrace, sitting securely within his exclusive armrest.
She gazed at that devilishly handsome face, which only became more captivating the longer she looked. Her arms honestly wrapped around his neck, yet her lips still muttered a small complaint:
“You changed too suddenly—what if someone else saw you?”
“Hiss—”
Xuan Mang reached out and poked the dimple that appeared on the female’s cheek, then leaned in and licked it.
“That tickles!”
Su Su covered his mouth, skillfully enduring the damp sensation of the snake tongue licking her palm. But when she met those fiery vertical pupils, she hastily averted her gaze.
After this small interruption, her earlier complaint was quickly tossed aside.
Forget it.
If others saw, then so be it. After all, Ah Xuan couldn’t hide forever.
But there was something she had to clarify.
Su Su tightened her grip around Xuan Mang’s neck, her tone becoming more serious. “Why did you sneak away?”
Xuan Mang took a long moment to react to this question.
Indeed.
Why had he slipped away just now?
It was baffling. Anyone who knew him even a little was aware that Xuan Mang was a domineering and clingy snake—so attached to Su Su that he might as well have been growing on her.
A dark light flickered through his vertical pupils.
Xuan Mang couldn’t explain the strange moment earlier. It was as if, without reason, he had suddenly drifted away from the female’s side, unknowingly gliding toward a certain direction.
“Hiss~~~”
He gently squeezed the female’s slender arm in reassurance, turned around with her in his arms, and continued moving forward in the direction he had inexplicably been drawn to.
Su Su gradually sensed that something was off.
Could it be that Ah Xuan had discovered something?
She softened her breathing, unconsciously tightening her arms around Xuan Mang’s neck. Leaning close to his ear, she murmured about her earlier findings.
“Ding Zhengyang and Luo Hong’s group seem really suspicious.”
“According to what they said, that Tier 7 zombie has already been killed, and the other zombies in the city center have been cleared out. By now, they should be following the original plan and luring the remaining zombie hordes to the neighboring city.”
“But instead, they’re settling down here… even showing us their so-called food reserves…”
After seeing that warehouse full of zombie remains, a shadow of unease had settled over Su Su’s heart.
“Ah Xuan, do you think they’re just trying to scare us into leaving early, or has something else happened?”
Xuan Mang hadn’t seen the entire warehouse of zombie remains earlier.
Before that, he had already wandered off in a daze. But after hearing the female’s account, his brows gradually furrowed.
Hiss—
A half-serpent being would flick its tongue when deep in thought.
Seeing this expression on his face, Su Su’s heavy mood lightened somewhat. Her fingers moved faster than her brain, and the moment his crimson tongue flicked out again, her thumb and index finger gently pinched it.
Xuan Mang’s train of thought came to an abrupt halt.
He and Su Su silently locked eyes for several seconds before he tentatively retracted his snake tongue—
The latter felt the slight tug and hurriedly withdrew her hand.
Awkward. Indescribably awkward.
Su Su averted her gaze, letting her eyes drift everywhere except toward Ah Xuan.
“Hiss—”
A familiar warm and damp sensation pressed against the corner of her lips again.
Xuan Mang was unexpectedly thrilled.
A snake’s tongue was an organ for sensing scents—and just now, he had caught a delicate fragrance from Su Su, even a hint of intimacy.
This was the female flirting with him.
Regrettably, there were more pressing matters at hand. He had to suppress the strong excitement and desire surging within him, unable to respond to her invitation.
Xuan Mang resolved to make up for it doubly at night. As for now… he could only hold Su Su tightly with a trace of guilt and quicken his pace toward the unknown destination.
Su Su didn’t pick up on his guilt.
Seeing that the moment had passed smoothly, she exhaled in relief.
No one would appreciate having their tongue suddenly grabbed mid-conversation. She must never do something that foolish again.
Both of them felt guilty, but for entirely different reasons.
The silence between them lingered until Xuan Mang arrived at a two-story building, where it slowly dissipated.
The modern European-style structure didn’t look much different from the other buildings in the courtyard—at most, it was just a bit more lavishly decorated.
Su Su turned to Xuan Mang. “Where is this?”
He shook his head.
He didn’t know either. But instinct had driven him to this unfamiliar building.
As for why… he couldn’t quite grasp the fleeting peculiarity in his mind.
Su Su studied the place for a while. Seeing that he was just as clueless, she finally said, “Since we’re already here, let’s take a look inside. Even if there’s a Tier 7 zombie, if we can’t fight it, we can still run.”
She still had her doubts about the claim that the Tier 7 zombie was dead.
“Hiss!”
The female’s command—Xuan Mang had no objections.
Carrying Su Su, he bent down and glided into the mysterious villa.
The first floor consisted of a living room, kitchen, and bathroom—nothing particularly special.
The second floor had five or six rooms, each containing traces of women’s belongings—makeup, curling irons, perfume… In one of the wardrobes, Su Su even found a black lace nightgown.
Xuan Mang glanced at it. Then looked again.
Su Su, however, was thoughtful. “Looks like this place was inhabited by a group of women before the zombie outbreak.”
In the apocalypse, women who still had the mind to put on makeup and dress up were most likely canaries kept in this “palace.”
Looking at the messy remnants in the room—when the zombie tide arrived, these people might have hurriedly escaped; or perhaps… they never made it out at all.
Su Su shut the wardrobe. “We still have one more room to check, right?”
“Hiss.”
Xuan Mang responded absentmindedly, his thoughts still lingering on the wardrobe from earlier.
By the time they reached the last room’s doorway, Su Su suddenly recalled Xuan Mang’s frequent glances and unusual reaction. A wave of anger surged through her.
“Speak!” She blocked the doorway, fuming. “Did you come to this villa just because you caught a whiff of perfume?!”
Otherwise, how else could she explain why he had inexplicably run straight into a villa that used to house women?
And even stared at someone else’s wardrobe for so long!
Su Su was so furious that her cheeks flushed pink. Her sharp gaze, like a blade, scrutinized every inch of the lustful snake’s face, as if trying to catch any trace of guilt.
Xuan Mang was completely wronged.
If he had a human tongue, he would have definitely defended himself. But all he had was a flexible snake tongue—useful for pleasing the female in the tent, but utterly useless for proving his innocence at this moment.
Su Su let out a cold huff.
Even with a stern face, she still looked stunning.
Xuan Mang wanted to lean in close, but she mercilessly pushed him away. “Go in and check.”
With no choice but to make up for his supposed mistake, he carried her into the room, hoping to shift her focus.
And the moment Su Su took in the scene inside, her attention indeed shifted—
A soft, comfortable wool carpet, pink lace bedding, airy and flowing floor-length curtains, and beyond the glass sliding door, a small open-air balcony.
All of this signified one thing: whoever used to live here enjoyed the best treatment.
“Put me down. I want to take a look.”
Once her feet touched the ground, Su Su paced around the room a few times.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual.
But for anyone with a keen eye, one detail stood out—there was no dust in any of the corners of the room!
This was shocking, considering that S City had been overrun for two months. The rooms they had inspected earlier had already accumulated a thin layer of dust on the vanity tables.
Su Su wiped her hand over the vanity table here—her palm remained perfectly clean.
“Someone is still living here.”
She voiced her suspicion instinctively, then looked at Xuan Mang.
The latter also circled the room twice. When he flicked his tongue, he caught a faintly putrid stench.
It was a scent too familiar—he identified it almost instantly.
Xuan Mang grabbed Su Su’s hand and traced two characters in her fair palm—zombie.
“Zombie?”
Su Su’s brows furrowed.
She pondered for a moment, then circled around the balcony, checking above, below, left, and right.
Aside from a dense cluster of climbing ivy extending up the wall to the second floor, she found nothing suspicious.
“Could it be that a zombie used to live here and was later killed by Ding Zhengyang and his people?”
That was a possibility. After all, the warehouse was filled with zombie remains.
But Su Su’s frown did not ease.
Finding traces of zombie activity inside the villa was not surprising. Even a zombie being killed here wasn’t out of the ordinary. What puzzled her was—why had Xuan Mang, who had never been here before, chosen this villa among all the buildings?
If she asked him, he would only trace three words in her palm: I don’t know.
Strange.
Everything was extremely strange.
“Forget it, let’s check out the other places.”
After they left, a long time passed.
The climbing ivy on the outer wall trembled slightly.
At this moment, if someone were to look, they would notice a small figure hidden within the vines.
It wasn’t concealed very well, yet it had been “lucky” enough to be overlooked.
The figure slipped out from the ivy and lightly leaped onto the balcony.
With quick, nimble steps, it returned to the room—only to suddenly freeze, staring at the dirtied carpet for several seconds, its expression twisting into fury!
“Roar—”
A hoarse, guttural growl echoed.
Like a trapped beast, it paced back and forth in the narrow room. Only after it exhausted itself did it finally stop in place.
It lifted its head, staring blankly toward the balcony.
The scene it had just witnessed while clinging to the wall replayed in its mind—a strange creature holding a human of its own size, gliding smoothly across the ground.
It looked… so fun!
As if realizing something, it suddenly let out an excited, chuckling growl.
…
Su Su led Xuan Mang in a full sweep of the massive “palace,” searching through every single building.
After finding no zombies, they returned to the original three-story structure.
The warehouse filled with zombie remains had already been sealed shut.
The foul stench made Xuan Mang, who had transformed back into a black snake, recoil in disgust. Without hesitation, he slithered into the female’s clothes, flicking his tongue to take in her familiar, refreshing scent, which quickly overpowered the rotten stench.
Su Su quickened her pace to leave the area.
She was planning to find Guo Yingjun and ask exactly what he had discussed with Ding Zhengyang during this time.
However, the moment she stepped into the hall, she found it packed with twenty to thirty people!
They neither returned to their rooms nor did anything else. Instead, every single gaze was locked onto her the instant she entered!
There were looks of scrutiny, wariness, even excitement… and among them, a few unfamiliar ability users fixed her with particularly icy stares.
Su Su’s heart sank.
Had she been exposed?
In the stifling silence, Guo Yingjun finally squeezed out from the crowd, his face lighting up as he eagerly stepped forward.
“Miss Zhou, you’re finally back! Haha, I’ve already introduced your ability to everyone—they all respect you very much!”
Su Su’s gaze turned ice-cold in an instant. “You told them my identity?”
“Of course!” Guo Yingjun still hadn’t realized what was wrong and continued cheerfully, “We’re going to be living here together from now on. If everyone knows you’re a Tier 6 ability user, they’ll feel more at ease and be more welcoming! Look, they even prepared a feast for you tonight!”
Su Su followed the direction of his pointing finger—
On the table, every bowl and plate was filled with zombie remains. The most horrifying “dish” was a plate of half-rotten zombie eyeballs.
Sitting at the table was Gao Yan, who had never accepted Su Su’s presence.
Without waiting for her to sit down, and without acknowledging the others, he picked up one of the zombie eyeballs and popped it into his mouth, chewing it with loud, deliberate crunches.
It was as if he was expressing his displeasure and complete disregard for her presence.
“Gao Yan!” Guo Yingjun was furious. He had always valued this Tier 6 speed-type ability user the most, but ever since Su Su arrived, he had completely shifted his attention to her. “Miss Zhou hasn’t eaten yet—get up!”
Gao Yan refused to budge.
Guo Yingjun broke into a nervous sweat.
No one else spoke either. They simply watched this absurd scene unfold in silence.
Su Su took in the sight before her…
Then suddenly bent forward—
And dry-heaved violently.