Chapter 55 A Hair-Trigger Moment

"Get away! All of you, get away!"

Lei Min shielded Wen Ling while frantically kicking at the rotting claws reaching underneath the car.

She bit her lower lip so hard it bled, a boundless wave of terror and despair surging through her heart.

"Those inhumane bastards! If I survive this, I swear I'll kill every last one of them... Sob..."

"How could I be so stupid? How could I have ever believed them..."

"Will I end up turning into someone like my cousin?"

At this thought, Lei Min's terror intensified. She looked a lot like her older cousin, and recalling the hideous, terrifying appearance of that thunder-type zombie she had seen earlier, Lei Min could no longer hold back her tears.

She now bitterly regretted having harbored naive hopes about Director Liu and the others, foolishly believing she had the ability to rescue Wen Ling. Looking at Wen Ling's swollen, bruised cheek, Lei Min felt as though her heart was being twisted into shreds.

The zombies continued their assault on the vehicle, causing the entire car to sway violently. Had one side not been braced against a wall, it would have been flipped over by the zombies long ago.

"Get away, all of you, get away!"

Lei Min thrashed her legs with all her might, finally managing to shake off the claw gripping her ankle. Just as she looked up, a decaying skull suddenly appeared right above her head.

"Ah! Ah!"

Lei Min screamed uncontrollably. Seeing the foul-smelling, gaping maw about to bite down on her, she thrust her hands out in desperation and pressed them squarely against the zombie's forehead.

The zombie possessed immense strength. Puring every ounce of her remaining energy into the push, Lei Min barely managed to keep its snapping jaws just three inches away from her face.

This zombie had only half an arm left, its torso heaving as it shoved forward relentlessly. The zombies behind it were blocked and unable to squeeze in, leaving them to howl incessantly and shove one another.

Lei Min felt a sense of utter hopelessness. As her physical strength drained away bit by bit, she knew very well that being bitten by the zombies was only a matter of time.

"Sister Lin..." she muttered to herself. "If only Sister Lin were still here..."

As if in a trance, the roar of a car engine drifted in from afar. The sound cut through the angry cries of the zombies, growing louder and clearer by the second.

She couldn't tell if it was just a hallucination.

When Lin Qingqing arrived, this was the exact scene that greeted her: Director Liu and his group had fled far away, while Lei Min was desperately trying to escape with an unconscious Wen Ling, only to be cornered under a car by a swarm of zombies.

How familiar this scene was. Seeing Lei Min and Wen Ling trapped among the horde felt just like seeing Dazhuang and Chuanzi back then.

Lin Qingqing felt she had never been this furious before.

With a deafening roar, Lin Qingqing slammed down on the accelerator. The vehicle sped forward, grazing right past the car where Lei Min was trapped, plowing through and sending a dozen zombies flying along the way. Even the zombie locked in a stalemate with Lei Min had its lower body crushed, suddenly robbing it of the momentum to push forward.

Immediately following the screech of sharp brakes, a familiar voice rang out:

"Lei Min! Wen Ling!"

She had brutally carved a bloody path through a horde of nearly a hundred zombies from a rear-flanking angle, leaving severed limbs scattered all over the ground. Lin Qingqing leaped out of the vehicle, twelve ice daggers condensing around her body, and hurled them directly at the heads of the nearest zombies trying to pull themselves up from the ground.

With a succession of soft thuds as the ice daggers pierced flesh, zombies began collapsing to the ground one after another centered around the car.

The sudden turn of events reignited Lei Min's hope for survival. Switching from pushing to clawing, she violently grabbed the hair of the zombie that had almost bitten her and slammed its head downward into the pavement.

Lacking both arms and the lower half of its body, the zombie had no room to resist. Its skull battered against the ground repeatedly like a pestle in a mortar.

"Let's see you bite me! Let's see you bite me!" Lei Min shrieked, her voice choked with tears. The already decayed zombie skull could not withstand such violent impacts; finally, its cranium caved in, and it went completely still.

"Are you guys alright? Are you injured?"

The hideous zombie in front of her was yanked away by a powerful force, and bright light poured back in. Crawling out from under the car, Lei Min felt as though she had caught sight of the gates of life amid the darkness, while the figure waiting for her outside was cast in a golden halo, resembling a holy angel.

The surreal sensation made her feel as though she had just crawled straight out of hell.

"What are you standing there for? Get out here already!"

That familiar voice—it was Sister Lin!

Flustered, Lei Min poked her head out from under the car. When she saw that the person standing guard in front of them truly was Lin Qingqing, a wave of ecstatic relief washed over her.

"Hurry out! Take Wen Ling and get out of here right now!"

Only upon seeing Lei Min safe did the heavy stone finally drop from Lin Qingqing's heart.

Hearing this, Lei Min hastily crawled out from beneath the car and then carefully lifted Wen Ling out after her.

"How is she?" Seeing Wen Ling's unresponsive state, Lin Qingqing's heart tightened once more.

"She's fine, she just passed out!"

That was a relief—

"Take her and climb over the fence on that side first!" Lin Qingqing glanced back in the direction she had come from, gesturing to Lei Min.

"Alright... Sister Lin, be careful!"

Hearing Lin Qingqing's instructions, Lei Min hoisted Wen Ling onto her back without hesitation, ran a few paces, and scrambled up the railing at the roadside.

The other side of the fence led straight into the neighboring residential compound. Carrying Wen Ling, Lei Min laboriously climbed to the top, where two live high-voltage wires were strung across. Lei Min brazenly grabbed them with her bare hands and shoved them apart, then tumbled over the railing with Wen Ling, rolling directly into the bushes below.

Fortunately, she was a thunder-type ability user, so those electric currents could not inflict any serious harm on her.

Seeing that the two of them had safely reached the other side, Lin Qingqing summoned four more ice blades to strike down the zombies closest to her, then quickly retreated a few steps.

Relying on the final set of ice blades to disengage from combat, Lin Qingqing sprinted toward the fence at top speed, passing through the gap Lei Min had just cleared to enter the enclosed area.

Witnessing Lin Qingqing slaughter so many zombies all by herself, Lei Min finally gained a profound appreciation of just how formidable she truly was. This strength wasn't merely a matter of a high ability tier; it was overwhelmingly reflected in her exceptionally rich combat experience.

Lei Min had no idea how many zombies Lin Qingqing had slain in the past, but judging solely by the fact that she could carve her way in and out of a horde of a hundred zombies single-handedly wielding nothing more than an ice blade, she could tell what terrifying heights Lin Qingqing's actual combat power had reached.

"Let's move! We need to get out of here first!"

Helping Lei Min support Wen Ling, Lin Qingqing took the lead and charged straight into an apartment building.

Finding a random apartment with the two of them, she smashed the door lock and hurried inside to hide.

"Are either of you hurt?" Lin Qingqing asked anxiously, gently laying Wen Ling down onto the sofa.

"No, you arrived just as the zombies were closing in!"

Lei Min shook her head, staring unblinkingly at Lin Qingqing as a torrent of unspoken words welled up inside her.

She had so many questions she wanted to ask: She wanted to ask why Lin Qingqing had left in the first place, and why she had come back now.

"And what about Wen Ling? What happened to her?"

Lin Qingqing pointed at the young girl's swollen cheek and asked again.

"Director Liu hit her," Lei Min said in a low, muffled voice. "It's all my fault. I didn't take good care of her. I thought I could take advantage of the situation to get her out of there, but I never imagined those people could be so cruel. I'm sorry."

The more Lei Min spoke, the more aggrieved she felt, until her voice finally broke into sobs.

"I'm not blaming you. I'm sorry, I underestimated the shamelessness of those people."

Lin Qingqing sighed, feeling a quiet wave of relief in her heart: Fortunately, she had managed to return in time; otherwise, these two might truly have perished.

"Is Sister Lin going to leave again after coming back this time?" Lei Min pondered for a moment before asking the question she cared about most.

"I'm taking you both with me!"

"Really?"

"Mn, really."

"That's wonderful!"

Both of them tacitly avoided mentioning their previous separation, as if Lin Qingqing had merely stepped out briefly to take care of some personal business.