Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Gambling a Life on Conscience

In her own way, Chi Wan was reminding Li Xingye that even the most powerful people have their limits.

After all, even a lion can’t always escape a pack of hyenas, and petty villains never specialized in direct confrontation.

Fortunately, Li Xingye had always been one to take advice.

He was certainly confident in his abilities, but having survived this long in the apocalypse, he understood better than anyone that caution was sometimes more important than strength.

Hearing Li Xingye’s words, Chi Wan relaxed. She went into her personal space, found a patch of grass to sit on, and hugged her knees while complaining helplessly, "I just don’t know who hates our family so much—so much that driving us to bankruptcy wasn’t even enough."

"Although my mom used to nag my dad about being too straightforward and refusing to compromise, it never got to the point of making enemies. Honestly, I’m more worried about the two of them than I am about myself."

"If only... I were a little more powerful."

It was rare to hear the usually vibrant Chi Wan sound so dejected, and Li Xingye found himself frowning in response. "Wanwan, you’re already wonderful. Don’t take the blame for other people’s mistakes."

"Sometimes, the reason you can’t find an enemy is... simply because your family doesn’t like to assume the worst in others."

He seemed to recall something and continued, "A few years ago, I was nowhere near as cold-blooded as I am now. Back then, I saved a man from a zombie horde. He gambled on my conscience with his own life—because there was a child, not even ten years old, pinned underneath him."

Chi Wan’s eyes widened in disbelief. "He... he didn’t just use his own life, he used the child’s life as well, to trap you?!"

’Is that guy a lunatic?!’

"Besides, who says you’re cold-blooded! You’re wonderful, too!"

Li Xingye just chuckled. "And he won his bet."

In truth, without the child, Li Xingye might not have saved him. The biggest lesson he’d learned while navigating the treacherous apocalypse was to not meddle in others’ affairs.

After all, stories of people being pulled into a zombie horde by the very person they were trying to save—only for that person to use their corpse as a stepping stone to escape—happened every day.

With his level of power, Li Xingye wasn’t worried about being dragged down. But rushing in to save someone with good intentions, only to discover they just wanted to use you as a scapegoat to die in their place, was a real blow to the spirit.

This was especially true when it became clear how hard food was to preserve. For a long time, incidents were common where people would act as bait to lure others in, only to backstab them and steal their supplies and food.

But something about the look in the child’s eyes reminded Li Xingye of himself at the start of the apocalypse—judging by his age, the boy had been thrust into a world of despair not long after being born. To have been protected and raised this far was truly no easy feat.

So Li Xingye saved them and took them in with his team.

Little did he know, he had nearly let a wolf into the fold.

"They were a group of roving bandits who specialized in using this tactic to exploit people’s sympathy. After gaining their trust, they’d kill them and take their belongings. Do you know who their leader was?"

When Chi Wan heard his question, an incredible thought flashed through her mind. "It couldn’t be... the child, could it?"

Li Xingye looked at Chi Wan’s astonished expression and couldn’t help but gently ruffle the top of her head. "You’re so smart, Wanwan. That kid’s superpower was changing his image in others’ eyes. As long as you locked eyes with him, he could make you see the one thing you couldn’t possibly refuse." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Perhaps fearing the story would weigh too heavily on her, Li Xingye adopted an indignant tone. "In reality, he was already in his twenties. He just used the fact that he was short and scrawny to pose as a kid and trick a *real* young guy like me. Outrageous, right?"

Sure enough, Chi Wan was amused. "That is pretty outrageous! But you had already established a base by then?"

Li Xingye nodded. "The base didn’t have many people back then, and our security measures were still incomplete. We took turns going out to hunt. Since I was a little stronger, I went with Brother Qiang, and we brought Qianqian with us."

"It was only later that we found out they’d been targeting us from the very beginning. The reason they chose us as their target was because he saw the way Brother Qiang took care of Qianqian when we were traveling."

Chi Wan was a little confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

As if recalling that moment, Li Xingye’s expression turned slightly cold. "Because his target from the very beginning was Qianqian. He said he hated how a ’useless waste of space’ like her, as he saw it, was so well-protected by us. He wanted to make Qianqian feel what it’s like to have no one to rely on."

"So after joining us, he used their supposedly similar ages as an excuse to play with Qianqian, claiming he would teach her how to fight zombies. But in reality, he was poisoning our base’s food supply on the one hand, and luring Qianqian outside on the other, planning to throw her to a pack of zombies."

Chi Wan was incredulous. "He... you had no grievance with him, and just because he was annoyed, he was going to harm an entire base of people?! He’s insane!!"

Li Xingye’s tone was placid. "The apocalypse infinitely magnifies the evil in human nature. Some people indulge it; others hold fast to their principles. Wanwan, I’m telling you this because I want you to understand that sometimes, people might target you for reasons that have nothing to do with a personal grudge."

"It’s like those people from your village. They didn’t have a grudge against you, did they? If anything, your dad had done them a kindness, but that didn’t stop them from causing trouble."

Chi Wan let out a soft sigh and gave Li Xingye a wide smile. "I understand. Thank you, Brother Xingye. I was getting stuck in a rut, thinking that our family was being targeted only because we’d made an enemy."

Her perspective broadened, and Chi Wan suddenly considered a possibility she hadn’t before. "I’ve been thinking... grudge or no grudge, whoever orchestrated such an intricate, interlocking plot must be someone powerful."

"And in our family, there’s only one person who might have even a tenuous connection to someone like that..."

*

The next day was bright and sunny. Chi Wan woke up early, which Song Yinghe found a little unusual. "Wanwan, why are you up so early today? Are you going out?"

Chi Wan gave a little laugh and hugged Song Yinghe. "Well, school’s about to start, so I have to get my sleep schedule back in order, right? Mom, I’m heading into the city today, so don’t wait for me for lunch, okay?"

As she spoke, she stealthily plucked a few strands of hair from Song Yinghe’s back and then rushed out the door like a whirlwind.

"Eat breakfast before you go! Honestly, this kid..."

Waving back, Chi Wan secretly tucked the hairs into a little bag. "I already grabbed something to eat!"

After getting out of the car, she made a beeline for Zhou Huai’an’s shop, planning to ask him to look into something for her.

But to her surprise, the moment she walked through the door, she saw someone who shouldn’t have been there.