23: The school beauty is out delivering warmth again? I want to go too!

Su Chen reversed his grip on the screwdriver, his muscles instantly tensing.

The moment the curtain was lifted, a scent mixed with the smell of wet earth and cold rain drifted in first, diluting the ambiguous warmth that had been there before.

It wasn't a monster that crawled in, but a soaking wet "Persian cat."

Lin Mengyao was wrapped in the wool blanket she had swiped from the driver's seat, her normally smooth long hair now sticking damply to her cheeks.

Rainwater slid down her pale jawline, dripping onto the water treatment plant blueprint he had spread out, blurring a patch of ink.

Su Chen frowned.

Just as he was about to lash out, he saw that Lin Mengyao didn't have time to care about the boundaries between men and women; she leaned close to his ear, her breath fragrant but carrying a chill.

"The people from Class Two are collecting corpses."

Su Chen's eyes narrowed.

Collecting corpses? To use as rations?

No, those people might be crazy, but they weren't that hungry yet.

"They are conducting live human experiments."

Lin Mengyao's voice trembled slightly, whether from cold or fear, it was hard to tell.

"Just now, there was static on Zhao Wanting's walkie-talkie, and I heard a few words: 'filtration,' 'antibodies.' They discovered that when your blood drips into dirty water, it can purify a bucket of water instantly."

So that's it.

They're treating him like a human water purifier?

No wonder those bastards were biting at his heels like mad dogs.

A cold smirk curled at the corner of Su Chen's mouth; the creativity in this apocalypse was certainly abundant.

His gaze shifted downward, landing on the dripping hem of Lin Mengyao's clothes.

"So you got yourself soaked like this to avoid the thermal imaging on that modified vehicle?"

This woman, her brain turned fast enough.

"Not just that."

Two strange flushes suddenly appeared on Lin Mengyao's cheeks as she reached out with a cold index finger, lightly tracing the back of Su Chen's hand.

The moment their fingertips touched, Su Chen felt the Yang Energy in his dantian twitch uncontrollably, like iron filings attracted to a magnet.

At the same time, a faint, eerie glow appeared on a valve marking in the top right corner of the otherwise ordinary blueprint on his knees.

This is... a clue guide?

"My dad's lab logs mentioned this type of energy waveform."

Lin Mengyao stared at the glow, speaking extremely fast.

"The Extreme Yang Sacred Body is not just a power bank; it's also a wish-granting machine."

"But the prerequisite is that the provider must reach an 'emotional peak' in order to directionally manifest the supplies urgently needed at the moment."

After saying this, as if having made a certain resolution, she suddenly grabbed Su Chen's wrist and pressed it hard against her own left chest.

Under his palm, that heart was pounding frantically in her chest, like a frightened rabbit.

"My heart rate is at 120 now, and adrenaline is surging."

Lin Mengyao stared intently into Su Chen's eyes, carrying the stubbornness of a straight-A student conducting an experiment.

"Fear and nervousness are also types of emotional peaks. Is this enough to trigger the 'weapon box'?"

Su Chen didn't speak, only sensing the restless current of energy within him.

Following the resonance of Lin Mengyao's heartbeat, the Yang Energy was indeed surging.

Their vision seemed to overlap, simultaneously piercing through the iron roof of the bus.

In a gap in the luggage rack, an inconspicuous black iron box appeared out of thin air, faintly glowing with golden light.

A very light sound of footsteps came from outside the curtain; it was Qin Ya.

This Class Teacher was clearly not asleep yet and was pretending to adjust the curtains in the aisle.

Through the faint light filtering in from the gap, Su Chen saw Qin Ya holding a small notebook, her gaze fixed intently on the back of Lin Mengyao's neck, which was exposed outside the blanket.

She was recording data?

This teacher was certainly dedicated; she was still doing research at a time like this.

In the next bunk, Zhou Xiaomeng turned over and mumbled like she was sleep-talking: "The campus belle is going to 'offer warmth' again... I want to go too..."

Su Chen withdrew his gaze, looking at the pretty face close at hand.

Quantifying this kind of thing into data?

That was very Lin Mengyao, but he didn't like it at all.

He yanked his hand back, taking the opportunity to pull the black hair tie from Lin Mengyao's head, wrapped it around his fingertip twice, and then, without allowing any argument, wound it around her little finger and tied a dead knot.

"Don't use my golden finger as experimental equipment, and don't bet your life on the blind spots of thermal imaging."

Su Chen leaned in, his entire body almost pressing onto Lin Mengyao, his scorching breath spraying directly onto her sensitive earlobe.

Lin Mengyao stiffened all over; the "experimental spirit" of facing death without fear instantly collapsed, replaced by a panic called "shame."

"If you want to trigger resonance, relying on this kind of stiff fear won't work."

Su Chen's voice was low and hoarse, carrying a hint of wicked teasing.

"You have to make me want to kiss you first."

This sentence was like a spark falling into an oil drum.

Lin Mengyao only felt an electric current shoot from her tailbone straight to the top of her head; it was a strange sensation she had never experienced before, a mix of shame, anger, and palpitations.

In that very instant, Su Chen felt the Yang Energy in his body no longer surging in that stiff way as before, but erupting like a tsunami.

"Click."

A crisp metallic click sounded from above his head.

The black iron box automatically unfolded amidst the golden light, and two jet-black military combat daggers with blades gleaming with a ghostly blue cold light landed steadily beside Su Chen's hand.

Success.

Su Chen released Lin Mengyao, who had gone soft as a puddle of mud, casually picked up the daggers, and flicked his finger against one, a crisp sound like a dragon's roar echoing in the cramped space.

This was the correct way to open it.

He lifted a corner of the curtain; the rain outside had stopped.

By the faint light reflected from the daggers, Su Chen saw a thin, frail figure kneeling on the road beside the bus.

Zhao Wanting was holding a rag torn from who-knows-where, mechanically scrubbing away the bloodstains on the ground.

She seemed to sense the golden light that had flashed and vanished inside the bus, stopped her movements, and looked up at the window where Su Chen was.

Although separated by the glass and the curtain of rain, Su Chen still clearly saw her actions.

She pulled an old pocket watch from her bosom, her fingertips gently caressing a black-and-white photo inside the watch cover.

His enhanced hearing caught the whisper mixed into the sound of the wind.

"Mom... perhaps this time, I should trust a man."

Before the words had fully faded, dozens of blinding white lights suddenly and without warning lit up on the previously pitch-black horizon.

Su Chen's pupils constricted sharply.

They were high-powered searchlights.

A roar like thunder rolled over, and the ground began to tremble violently.

In the distant darkness, a fully armed armored convoy, like a torrent of steel, instantly tore through the night, closing in on the lonely bus in a fan formation.

That wasn't some ragtag modified vehicle like Class Two's.

That was the regular army!