8: The school beauty gave me a hand warmer at night? No, she came to peek at me while I was showering!

The heavy hubs of the survival bus ground deep furrows into the gravel, finally coming to a halt in front of a half-collapsed service area.

Su Chen jumped off the bus, his nostrils instantly filled with the scent of vegetation.

He rummaged through the trunk to find several thick tarps he had scavenged from a supply station, then deftly wrapped them around an exhaust pipe bracket at the rear of the vehicle, constructing a square, makeshift enclosure.

He worked extremely quickly; his family's traditional lashing techniques kept the scraps of cloth motionless in the cold wind.

He connected the simple water collection device he had just modified on the roof; the rainwater, filtered of impurities, carried a crisp, cold chill—a top-tier luxury in this apocalyptic world.

"Line up if you want to shower, five minutes per person, with Su Chen having priority."

Qin Ya stood at the bus entrance, looking like a stern matriarch.

But when she looked at the red mark on Su Chen's shoulder that had yet to fade, the heartache in her eyes nearly overflowed.

Su Chen did not decline; he truly needed to cool down physically right now.

After repairing the engine, the restlessness within his Extreme Yang Sacred Body felt like a ball of fire rampaging through his meridians.

He ducked into the enclosure and ripped off his sticky shirt. When the stream of icy water poured over his head, his body actually emitted a faint hissing sound—a strange phenomenon caused by the Extreme Yang Sacred Body instantly evaporating the high-heat moisture.

Just as he closed his eyes to regulate his breathing, attempting to suppress the rampaging Yang Energy, the waterproof curtain, which had been sealed tight, suddenly shifted.

A sliver of cold wind slipped in, followed immediately by a small, fair hand, so pale it was nearly transparent, gripping the corner of the curtain.

Su Chen snapped his eyes open; the pale gold in his pupils had not yet faded, appearing highly aggressive in the dim night.

He casually grabbed the coat draped over the crossbeam and threw it over his shoulders, meeting Lin Mengyao's eyes, which were filled with conflict.

The usually arrogant chaebol heiress had tips of ears so red they looked ready to bleed, and she was tightly clutching a heat pack that still radiated warmth.

"Something up?"

Su Chen's voice was hoarse, carrying a hint of damp, magnetic resonance after his shower.

"I heard you exhausted your vitality repairing the car..."

Lin Mengyao took a deep breath, as if making a great decision, and held the heat pack forward.

"This is for you to ward off the cold. Don't misunderstand; it's just to ensure you have the energy to drive tomorrow."

Su Chen curled his lips and deliberately pulled the curtain gap wider, water droplets sliding down his partially exposed, well-defined abdominal muscles.

He stared into her eyes and teased, "The campus belle delivering warmth to the only male student in the middle of the night—aren't you afraid that the girls outside will say there's vinegar added to tomorrow morning's breakfast?"

Lin Mengyao's nostrils flared slightly, and her gaze became dazed for a moment.

Just now, due to the close contact, she discovered that her vision had become exceptionally clear in the darkness.

She could even see through Su Chen's thin skin, observing clusters of pale gold energy currents surging through his meridians like swimming dragons.

"I... I need to confirm something."

She suddenly stepped forward, and before Su Chen could react, her cold fingertips accurately reached toward the artery on the side of his neck.

【Bond Amplification triggered. Target perception evolution: 20%】

Lin Mengyao's pupils contracted sharply as she felt a surge of intense heat rush from her fingertips into her consciousness.

In that instant, the world in her eyes changed color completely—Su Chen was no longer a person, but a blazing sun walking through the dark night.

"What, trying to molest your savior?"

Su Chen took the opportunity to grab her wrist; the force was not great, but it carried an overbearing quality that brooked no refusal.

"Clang!"

A harsh sound of a bucket overturning came from the side, breaking the ambiguous silence.

Tang Yurou, the arts committee member, was standing a few meters away, holding a basin of clothes ready for washing. Her naturally pale face looked deathly white under the flashlight beam.

She looked at the two of them entwined, especially Su Chen's hand gripping Lin Mengyao's wrist, her eyes filled with terror and a kind of shattered bitterness.

"I... I didn't mean to, I just wanted to..."

Tang Yurou retreated in a panic, but slipped on the accumulated water under her feet, crashing clumsily into an abandoned gas pump.

The commotion instantly alerted the people inside the bus.

Li Sisi, the study committee member, adjusted her glasses and stepped out of the bus with brisk steps.

She glanced at the blushing Lin Mengyao, then at the calm Su Chen, a rational, cold smile curling at the corners of her lips.

"Classmate Lin, if I remember correctly, your father stated in the very first game theory lesson he gave you that top-tier intelligence should be shared with the whole class. What's wrong? Are you planning to skip all public bidding and choose to take sides privately?"

Lin Mengyao was silent for a moment. She slowly pulled her hand back and looked at Li Sisi, her eyes showing a firmness that had never been there before.

"If it's him, taking sides isn't a bad thing. Sisi, your logical analysis should tell you that he is trustworthy."

"Trustworthy? It's just the baser instincts of men at work!"

Zhao Wanting had also followed them out at some point.

She was draped in a thick, army-green coat, originally intending to maintain her authority as class monitor, but when her gaze fell on Su Chen's wet black hair and his explosive chest and abdominal lines, her breathing hitched uncontrollably.

A dirty memory she had deliberately sealed away suddenly pierced through like a thorn—back when her father was still a high-ranking official, those gaudily dressed mistresses used to stare at that drunken man with this exact look at the bathroom door.

"Disgusting!"

Zhao Wanting turned around abruptly, seemingly wanting to cover up the momentary wavering in her heart, but because she walked too hastily, she stumbled and nearly fell into a mud pit.

The water bottle she dropped rolled to Su Chen's feet.

Su Chen lowered his head and bent down to pick up the aluminum water bottle; when his fingertips brushed the bottom of the bottle, he paused slightly.

There, a line of small text had been engraved with a steel needle: Seventh Logistics Department - Zhao Jianguo.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, a name Lin Mengyao had once mentioned flashing through his mind.

That defector officer who disappeared with a large amount of supplies at the beginning of the apocalypse seemed to be named Zhao Jianguo.

He looked at Zhao Wanting's disheveled retreating figure, a glimmer of deep thought flashing in his eyes.

This seemingly righteous class monitor likely hid secrets that were even more foul-smelling than this apocalyptic world.

"Stop looking at her."

Li Sisi's voice sounded exceptionally grave in the night; she did not look at Su Chen, but stared straight at the mist at the end of the road.

Su Chen followed her gaze, his previously relaxed mood instantly sinking to the bottom.

"Su Chen, have you felt it..."

Li Sisi's hand, holding the multi-tool, was trembling slightly.

"The vibration frequency of the ground is wrong. Although it's very far away, that rhythm is more like some kind of organized swarm moving."

Su Chen didn't speak; he closed his eyes and pushed his Sacred Body's senses to the limit.

In the distant darkness, countless red heat sources were pulsing wildly on the horizon, accompanied by low, sticky-sounding roars.

That wasn't the stampede of beasts; that was the Grim Reaper closing the net after catching the scent of prey.

The night wind had stopped at some point, and the surroundings were so deathly silent that it made one's eardrums ache.

Su Chen looked at the bus that had just been reinforced, a layer of cold sweat seeping from his palms.

Something seemed to have learned to find its way home by following the residual high heat left behind when the car was repaired.