20: I will be disfigured, I will commit suicide.

The car drove out of the Science and Technology Park and back onto the city streets.

The temperature was still terrifyingly low.

Qin Lin glanced at the outside temperature: -44°C.

At this temperature, any outdoor activity meant rapid hypothermia.

Most doors and windows of the buildings along the streets were tightly closed.

A few windows showed faint flickers of firelight.

The smoke rising from many houses didn't seem so lonely against the grayish-white sky.

When passing an old residential compound, Su Yuran suddenly sat up straight.

"Qin Lin, look..."

Qin Lin slowed down the car.

At the entrance of the compound, two men were dragging a woman out.

The woman was young, probably in her twenties, wearing a heavy down jacket, but her hat had been torn off and her long hair was disheveled.

She was struggling, but her strength was clearly no match for the two men.

One man covered her mouth while the other grabbed her arm.

They dragged her out by force, where a decent-looking car was parked.

It seemed it could still run.

"Let me go... Help..."

The woman's cries were particularly piercing on the silent street.

In the residential buildings, a few windows opened slightly; someone peeked out and then quickly closed them again.

No one came out.

No one helped.

The car door was open, and the interior was pitch black, like a mouth waiting to swallow someone whole.

Su Yuran's hand gripped the door handle tightly, her knuckles turning white.

"Qin Lin... they..."

Her voice was trembling.

Qin Lin watched expressionlessly.

He had seen too many scenes like this.

In his past life, after order completely collapsed, women and children became the easiest resources to plunder.

Food, medicine, fuel... then bodies, and finally, lives.

The Law of the Jungle.

Survival of the fittest.

"Qin Lin, we..."

Su Yuran turned her head, her eyes full of pleading.

"Can't we... can't we help her? Like last time..."

"We can't help," Qin Lin's voice was calm. "Look around."

Su Yuran looked around.

In the residential buildings, at least a dozen households were still occupied.

Chimneys were smoking, and windows had faint light.

But no one came out.

Why?

Because those two men might have weapons.

Because they might be a gang, with accomplices in the shadows.

Because stepping in to help might invite retaliation.

Because... in the Apocalypse, self-preservation is the primary instinct.

"There are only two of us."

Qin Lin continued: "If those two men dare to kidnap someone in broad daylight, they're either desperate criminals or they have backing."

"If we rush over, we might not save her and could end up getting dragged into it ourselves."

Su Yuran's tears fell.

"Then... then we just watch her be..."

She didn't finish.

But the woman's fate was easy to imagine.

Because the car door had already closed.

The two men jumped into the car, the engine started, and it quickly drove away.

The woman's final cries were cut off by the car door, vanishing into the wind and snow.

Silence returned to the compound entrance.

Only the snow fell silently.

Qin Lin shifted gears again, and the car slowly drove past the entrance.

Su Yuran kept staring at that building.

Her gaze shifted from pleading to despair, and then to a cold anger.

"Why..."

She murmured to herself: "Why is it like this... it's only been a few days... and people aren't acting like people anymore..."

Qin Lin didn't answer.

He was thinking about the same question.

In his past life, he had thought about it for a whole year and still hadn't figured it out before he died.

Why did some people's moral bottom line collapse in just a few days?

Was it because they never had a bottom line to begin with?

The car drove on for a while.

Su Yuran suddenly spoke: "Qin Lin, tell me... if I hadn't come to find you that day, what would happen to me now?"

Qin Lin's heart tightened.

He looked at her.

The girl's face was turned toward the window, tears still hanging from her eyelashes.

"You would go home," Qin Lin said.

"What if I couldn't make it back?"

Su Yuran turned her head and looked at him.

"If I were like that woman just now, trapped here with no one to protect me..."

She paused, her voice even softer:

"I'm... so beautiful. In times like these, does being beautiful... instead become a disaster?"

Qin Lin remained silent.

In his past life, he actually had seen her once.

Her face was smeared with black soot, and she was wearing a filthy men's padded jacket.

He had recognized her and wanted to call out to her, but she had hurried past with her head down.

But seeing how she had deliberately blackened her face, he could guess what she would do.

But Su Yuran had already said it herself.

"I would protect myself."

"If it really came to that, I would disfigure myself, or... commit suicide."

Su Yuran smiled, a very bitter smile.

"Qin Lin, do you know why I agreed to be your girlfriend back then?"

Qin Lin shook his head.

"Because you weren't like other boys who only looked at my face."

Su Yuran said: "When you were pursuing me, you would ask what books I liked to read, what music I liked to listen to, and what plans I had for the future."

"Even though those questions were old-fashioned, at least... you treated me as a person, not just a pretty object."

She looked at her hands: "I'd rather be ugly, I'd rather die, than be snatched around like an object by others."

Qin Lin's heart felt as if it had been gripped hard by something.

He remembered the girl with the blackened face from his past life.

He remembered the way she had hurried past with her head down.

He knew that while many people couldn't do what she said and would choose to compromise, she definitely could.

Qin Lin knew her character.

"You won't reach that point," Qin Lin's voice was a bit raspy.

"I'm here. As long as I'm here, I won't let you reach that point."

Su Yuran looked at him.

"Really?"

"Really."

Qin Lin gripped the steering wheel tight.

He said word for word: "This is my promise."

Su Yuran looked at him for a long time.

Then she gave a soft "mm" in response, leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes.

Tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, but she didn't wipe them away.

The car continued forward.

Qin Lin's heart, however, was not as calm as it appeared on the surface.

Su Yuran's words just now were like a thorn pricking his heart.

He would never let her experience those things again.

Never.

He would upgrade the RV, become stronger, and hold up a safe sky for her in this godforsaken Apocalypse.

Even if it was just for this promise.

It was worth risking everything.

The System's numbers were flickering.

Qin Lin took a look.

Soon.

Once he gathered enough fragments, upgraded the RV, and unlocked the System Store.

When that time came, he would use every means possible to arm himself and protect her.

Outside, the snow began to fall heavily again.

The world turned white, covering all traces on the street.

It also covered the crime that had just occurred.

But some things cannot be covered by snow.

Like the darkness in people's hearts.

Like the increasingly clear determination in Qin Lin's heart...