58: Chapter 58 "Since we're just killing time anyway, I'll take you to Qianmen to see a monkey show."

The official "stay-at-home" notice was still flickering on everyone's phone screens.

But everyone's gaze was fixed on Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan ignored their reactions.

He walked over to the sofa and sat down, tapped his fingertips lightly against the armrest, and casually conjured a glass of milk.

"As long as you are loyal enough."

Lin Yuan's voice was very soft, "In this apocalypse, you too will have the chance to awaken your own Superpower."

He didn't explain where the Superpower came from, nor did he mention the existence of the system.

"Superpower?"

Qin Yumo suddenly lifted her head, her wild eyes instantly burning with a longing for ultimate power.

Did this mean she could defeat that old woman?!

She could even feel the muscles in her arms trembling slightly.

Tang Qiqi was so excited she nearly jumped out from behind Qin Yumo, muttering chuunibyou lines like "Magical girl transformation" under her breath.

As for Su Xiaonuan and Wang Ya, the way they looked at Lin Yuan could no longer be described as mere worship.

It was the look of believers gazing up at their one true god.

Lin Yuan's gaze finally landed on Su Muxue at the stairs.

The materialist worldview of this Ice Empress had been crushed into dust in those few seconds.

She gripped the stair railing, her face pale, lips slightly parted, but she couldn't utter a single word.

"There are rooms on the second floor, go choose for yourselves."

Lin Yuan's tone was as casual as if he were assigning quarters for servants.

The women dared not raise any objections.

Qin Yumo dragged the dazed Tang Qiqi and went upstairs first.

Wang Ya and Lin Motong followed behind.

Su Muxue hesitated for two seconds, but eventually, she moved her stiff legs and followed.

In the corridor, as door after door was opened, Lin Yuan strolled behind them leisurely.

Qin Yumo and Tang Qiqi chose the largest guest bedroom at the end of the second-floor corridor.

Lin Yuan walked to the doorway, his thoughts shifting slightly.

Swish!

A set of pink, princess-style bunk beds, complete with matching lace bedding, appeared out of thin air and slammed heavily into the center of the room.

Following that came a massive wardrobe, a vanity table, and even an entire wall of game discs and figure display cabinets.

Tang Qiqi let out a stifled shriek and dove straight onto it.

Qin Yumo's mouth twitched as she inwardly complained that his bad taste was truly hopeless, yet a warm, indescribable feeling welled up in her heart.

[Ding! Target Tang Qiqi (Beauty 86), Favorability +1%! Current Favorability: 4%!]

[Ding! Target Qin Yumo (Beauty 85), Favorability +1%! Current Favorability: 23%!]

Lin Yuan did not linger.

Wang Ya and Lin Motong chose the room next door.

Swish!

Another full set of furniture.

However, the style had changed to a composed, dark color scheme, and an entire set of unopened Math Olympiad competition problem books even appeared on the desk.

Finally, only Su Muxue remained.

She chose the smallest, dimmest room next to the medical room.

Lin Yuan stood at the doorway, not acting immediately.

Su Muxue looked at him, her eyes complex.

Lin Yuan looked back at her, and after a moment, his thoughts moved.

A simple single bed, a bookshelf, and a set of office desk and chair.

No extra decorations.

Su Muxue actually breathed a sigh of relief.

Room assignments were complete.

Lin Yuan turned and walked toward the master bedroom located at the end of the corridor, which was also the largest.

He didn't look back, nor did he say another word.

Only when passing by Su Xiaonuan and Wang Ya did he naturally take Su Xiaonuan's hand with his left hand, and smoothly wrap his right arm around Wang Ya's soft waist.

Under the complex gazes of the women, the three of them pushed the door open and went inside.

Bang.

The heavy alloy door slowly closed.

At the corner of the corridor, Su Muxue watched that tightly shut master bedroom door.

She couldn't clearly explain what she was feeling right now.

She only knew her palms hurt, but she didn't let go.

[Ding! Target Wang Ya (Beauty 88), Favorability +2%, Current Favorability: 57%.]

...The next morning.

The dense acid rain that had tormented Jiangcheng for days finally stopped.

A ray of long-lost sunlight pierced through the thick clouds and shone onto the massive bulletproof glass of Tiangong No. 1.

"The sun! The sun is out!"

Tang Qiqi was the first to notice.

Wearing her nightgown and barefoot, she rushed to the floor-to-ceiling window, jumping and dancing with excitement.

"Great! It looks like that flu thing has passed!"

In the lobby, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, wearing long-lost smiles on their faces.

Only Lin Yuan, wearing a black bathrobe and holding a cup of coffee, sat in the main seat.

"It's just a final flare-up."

He said faintly.

"What do you mean?"

Qin Yumo frowned.

Lin Yuan didn't answer.

He walked to the wall and pressed the switch for the giant screen.

The surveillance access Jiang Xiaowan had given him was now proving useful.

The massive screen was divided into dozens of small grids, clearly displaying the scene within ten kilometers of Cloud Top Palace.

On the once-bustling streets, abandoned vehicles and scattered trash were everywhere.

Outside supermarkets and pharmacies, the queues of people had long disappeared, replaced by pools of dried, blackened blood.

Several community workers in simple protective suits were dragging a twisted corpse toward a burning site, their movements numb.

The hellish scene made the smile on Tang Qiqi's face instantly freeze.

Lin Yuan's fingers slid across the controller, finally enlarging one surveillance feed to the maximum.

—City Center Hospital.

Su Muxue's pupils shrank violently.

At the hospital entrance, the security guards who had originally maintained order were long gone.

In their place were field army soldiers in camouflage combat gear, fully armed with live ammunition.

Circles upon circles of barbed wire and sandbag fortifications surrounded the entire hospital, making it impenetrable.

"Director Li... Dr. Zhang..."

Su Muxue's lips trembled.

She saw several figures she was intimately familiar with, hiding behind an ambulance, their faces filled with terror.

Those were her colleagues who had fought on the front lines of the emergency department with her.

The next second.

Director Li in the footage seemed to have made a decision; he suddenly dashed out from behind the ambulance, rushing madly toward a gap in the barbed wire.

"Don't shoot! I'm a doctor! I want to go home!"

However, the response he received was a merciless tongue of fire.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Amidst the roar of automatic rifles, Director Li, who usually added appointments for patients who traveled from afar, had his body blasted into the air like a broken sack, then slammed heavily into the muddy water.

The other doctors were terrified out of their wits and turned to run toward the inpatient building.

But the order the soldiers had received was clearly "kill on sight."

The ruthless bullets caught up with them.

The gunfire ceased.

Several lives that had been vibrant not long ago were now incomplete corpses in a pool of blood.

Su Muxue watched all of this with her own eyes.

Watching the colleagues who had once fought side-by-side with her to save patients.

A surge of heat suddenly shot up from her lower abdomen.

But her strong willpower made her hold it back, so she wouldn't make a fool of herself in front of everyone.

If, yesterday, Lin Yuan hadn't used that extremely rough, even humiliating way to pin her firmly to the sofa, then at this moment, the corpse in the surveillance footage that had been riddled with bullets would be her.

[Ding! Target Su Muxue (Beauty 90), emotional fluctuation reached the extreme!]

[Favorability critical hit +6%! Current Favorability: 14%!]

...Noon.

Second-floor study.

Lin Yuan was planning the strategic deployment after the first Red Moon descended on the whiteboard.

He didn't have any electric-type Esper on hand to support an energy shield right now, but fortunately, the Mutant strength in the early apocalypse wasn't strong either.

Knock. Knock.

The door was gently knocked.

"Enter."

The door was pushed open.

Su Muxue walked in carrying a lunch Wang Ya had just prepared.

She had changed out of the slightly damp nightgown she wore this morning and was wearing a soft, beige loungewear set, her long hair draped casually over her shoulders.

The Ice Empress, once as cold as a high-mountain flower, was now filled with exhaustion.

She walked to the desk and set down the tray.

Then, she lowered her head slightly, and that slender, fair neck, for the first time in front of Lin Yuan, revealed a fragile curve.

"I'm sorry."

Her voice was a bit dry, "Yesterday... I was wrong."

She lifted her head, looking straight into Lin Yuan's eyes.

"Thank you for saving me."

[Ding! Target Su Muxue (Beauty 90), Favorability +3%! Current Favorability: 17%!]

Lin Yuan leaned back against the chair, his thumb slowly rubbing the cap of the marker in his hand.

He didn't rush to speak, just letting his gaze fall on Su Muxue's lowered eyelashes.

The walkie-talkie on the desk suddenly sounded.

"Boss, there's a situation on the perimeter."

Lu Yan's voice came through.

Lin Yuan pulled up the feed from the high-altitude drone.

The once-bustling Jiangcheng Avenue was now devoid of private cars; only the sharp sirens of ambulances and police cars echoed over the city.

However, in stark contrast to the dead silence of the city, the plaza outside the main entrance of Cloud Top Palace was unusually lively.

A supply truck marked with the words "Official Special Supply" was parked in the center of the plaza.

Dozens of wealthy and prominent homeowners gathered together, their faces devoid of any fear of the apocalypse.

They each held red wine glasses, chatting in small groups, complaining about how the lockdown had ruined their multi-million dollar deals and discussing which cigars were better to smoke.

A bald man even pulled out a microphone, passionately calling on everyone to establish a "Cloud Top Palace Epidemic Self-Governance Committee."

He proposed that everyone bring out their good wine and cigarettes to share and overcome the difficulties together.

The absurd scene made even Su Muxue frown.

Lin Yuan watched this group of "upper-class people" in suits and ties, who were on the brink of death and didn't even know it.

He turned off the screen and extinguished the cigarette in his hand.

"Let's go."

He stood up, "Since we're idle anyway, I'll take you to the front gate to watch a monkey show."