Bonus Bonanza (6/10)

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All their plans had been derailed!

Lu Yao stared in disbelief for a few seconds, then turned to look at Jiang Xingrui: “Someone stole your bike and my gas!” Jiang Xingrui had been frowning in thought, but upon hearing Lu Yao’s words, he blurted out, “You sure know how to keep things separate.” Yes, the motorcycle belonged to Jiang Xingrui, and the gas in it was what Lu Yao had filled up yesterday.

Lu Yao said matter-of-factly, “Yeah, these days people even do prenuptial agreements before marriage—not to mention we haven’t even officially become a couple yet.” Jiang Xingrui nearly choked on his breath.

He exclaimed, “Take out the word ‘yet’.”

Lu Yao paused for a moment, then looked bashful. “That wouldn’t be quite right—are you proposing already?” 

Jiang Xingrui: “……”

Jiang Xingrui exclaimed, “You’re really a bit of a weirdo, Lu Yao! Do you have a daily KPI to drive your teammates crazy?”

Lu Yao: “Well… I guess I do. I just want to bring everyone as much joy as possible…” Jiang Xingrui refused to discuss the matter further with Lu Yao.

However, after exchanging just a few words, Jiang Xingrui’s anger had subsided considerably. He had originally planned to start tracking the bike while still seething with rage, but now he could at least think things through calmly.

As for the gas Lu Yao had put in Jiang Xingrui’s motorcycle yesterday, it was, of course, a gift from the system. In fact, Lu Yao had drawn this can of 95 octane gasoline during his very first week with the system.

When Qin Ye saw the can of gas, his eyes lit up with excitement: “Boss, with this gas, can we steal a car and drive it? Just like in those post-apocalyptic novels—driving a luxury car!”

Lu Yao asked thoughtfully, “What do you think it takes to drive a car?”

Qin Ye: “Um, gas?”

Lu Yao shook his head and said solemnly, “No, to drive, you need a driver’s license.” 

Qin Ye: “……”

Qin Ye took a step back, then another.

Back then, Qin Ye had yet to fully master that ability to take everything in stride and accept it with equanimity; he still experienced basic emotional fluctuations. So when he heard Lu Yao say he needed a driver’s license, Qin Ye burst out laughing on the spot.

Lu Yao said calmly, “I do have a driver’s license, but it’s expired. I have to renew it before I can drive.” 

Then Lu Yao looked at Qin Ye and asked, “Can you drive?”

Qin Ye didn’t—he was still a college student.

The scene cuts back to the present.

Lu Yao wanted to renew his driver’s license, but since the DMV was too far from his home, he still couldn’t drive.

As for why Jiang Xingrui didn’t just ask a zombie on the side of the road to borrow a car and drive them straight back to Torch Dragon, the reason was simple—just look at the chaotic streets.

Roadblocks, abandoned cars, and construction debris blocked the roads leading out of the city, and various obstacles frequently appeared on the streets, hindering vehicle movement—but once outside the city, a car was still useful.

Jiang Xingrui ran his hand over the hilts of his twin blades, and Shen Yang said, “Do as I say. You two go back first; I’ll go after the bike.”

Lu Yao asked, “Is that your plan?”

Jiang Xingrui: “What else could it be?”

Lu Yao looked Jiang Xingrui up and down. “Usually, I’m the one who shocks you, but now you’re the one who’s shocked me…”

Ten minutes later, Lu Yao and Qin Ye, fully armed, strut out onto the street.

They weaved through the streets accessible to motorcycles, the sunlight spilling over the collapsed skyscraper—its glass curtain walls, once so bright they reflected dreams, now lay shattered on the ground.

They passed a subway station where half a corpse was stuck on an escalator. Qin Ye covered his mouth, nearly screaming in horror.

Lu Yao glanced at Qin Ye and said, “If we’re unlucky, we might have to kill someone later, Qin Ye.”

Qin Ye gripped the axe handle tightly; the sweat in his palm soaked the cloth wrapped around the handle, leaving a dark stain: “Ah, I know, boss.”

Lu Yao: “Good to know. Just don’t get nervous when the time comes.”

Qin Ye fell silent for a moment, then whispered in a low, trembling voice, “Boss, do you think I… do you think we can go back to the past?” His voice was so low it sounded as if it might shatter at any moment.

Lu Yao’s eyes widened: “You’re making this sound like some scumbag who’s changed his mind is trying to keep me around—and you’re asking if we can go back to the past.”

Qin Ye himself thought that sounded a little strange; he scratched his head and laughed: “Ahahaha…”

Lu Yao saw that Qin Ye had recovered a bit and continued to ramble: “If the apocalypse were over, what would you do?”

Qin Ye: “I’d finish college first.” He thought for a moment. “If I had superpowers—like enhanced physical abilities or teleportation—I’d deliver food! Make a fortune!”

Lu Yao: “Hahahaha, you’re such a self-proclaimed workhorse. But seriously, even if you had teleportation abilities, you couldn’t teleport that far, could you?”

Qin Ye thought for a moment, then said confidently, “Then I’d just be a server. I’m familiar with that—I used to work at a hot pot restaurant.”

Lu Yao: “If I go eat there, do I get the employee family discount?”

Qin Ye thought for a moment longer, then proposed a solution with even greater confidence: “The place where I used to work offers the best discounts, but you could just eat and run—that way, the boss will let me pay 30% off.”

Lu Yao couldn’t help but burst out laughing: “Hahahaha, 30% off—what a great deal!”

Qin Ye: “Yeah!”

The two of them chatted happily in the alley, just as if it were any ordinary afternoon. Deep in the shadows at the end of the alley, three pairs of eyes were watching them.

A sudden gust of wind swept past them, wiping away the thin sheen of sweat on their bodies. Lu Yao narrowed his eyes, as if he were the most perceptive of them all. He even continued chatting casually: “So it’s settled, then. When the time comes, I’m going to your place to eat the employee-discount meal.”

Just then, two men appeared behind them—one with a rugged, burly build and a face full of acne, the other holding a cleaver and a kitchen knife—and they swung them viciously at Lu Yao and Qin Ye’s backs.

Almost at the same moment, a sliver of bright light fell from the sky onto the two men. Jiang Xingrui appeared like a ghost, emerging from the gap between shadow and light.

He struck from the side, his twin blades opening and closing. The tips traced sharp, icy arcs through the air, precisely pressing against the two men’s Adam’s apples. The blades brushed their necks; the cold seeped through their skin, making their hairs stand on end.

The two men froze, their cleavers and kitchen knives suspended mid-air as if they’d been petrified.

Jiang Xingrui stood before his enemies, leaning forward slightly like a feline crouching to ambush its prey. His short silver-gray hair was gently ruffled by the wind, and his amber eyes shone with a crisp clarity at the boundary between shadow and sunlight.

“Count me in then,” Jiang Xingrui replied casually, as if making small talk. “I like hot pot, too.”

The burly man couldn’t believe they were still making small talk; his rage flared up instantly, and without a second thought, he swung his knife.

Jiang Xingrui kicked the inside of his opponent’s knee; the joint twisted, and the man lost his balance. Immediately afterward, he spun halfway around and delivered a clean, sharp elbow strike to the back of his opponent’s head. The burly man let out a muffled groan, dropped his knife to the ground, and collapsed as darkness engulfed his vision.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, so Lu Yao seamlessly picked up where Jiang Xingrui left off: “Alright.”

Qin Ye uttered only one word—Lu Yao’s last one: “Ah!!!!” Well, maybe it wasn’t so much a word as a scream.

“You, you guys…” The guy with acne trembled uncontrollably; he was so nervous he was shaking.

What was going on? Had he run into a tough opponent this time? How had these two taken him down so effortlessly?

Lu Yao reached out and patted the acne-faced man on the shoulder, saying warmly, “Have you ever heard the saying, ‘While the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole snatches it away’?”

Beads of sweat trickled down the acne-faced man’s forehead. Yes, that was Lu Yao’s simple plan.

They were supposed to act as bait, wandering around completely unsuspecting, while Jiang Xingrui lurked behind them, waiting.

After letting out a scream, Qin Ye felt a bit embarrassed—after all, he’d already heard the boss explain the specific plan—but when someone crept up to slash at him, he still got so scared he screamed his head off.

…Actually, if he’d called out right away, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but he was a split second too late—which made it even more awkward. So Qin Ye circled around behind the guy with acne and, mimicking a “hand blade” move from a wuxia movie, raised his hand and slashed at the side of the guy’s neck. The guy with acne screamed in pain.

Lu Yao: “What are you doing?”

Qin Ye: “Um, well… martial arts novels say you can knock someone out with a single hand blade…” He looked a bit sheepish.

Lu Yao: “It’d be easier to dislocate someone’s cervical spine with osteophytes than to do that.” This reminded Lu Yao of a news story he’d read before, about a thief who tried to use a “hand blade” to knock out the sleeping homeowner while breaking in, only to end up waking him up instead…

Jiang Xingrui seemed to find it amusing for a moment. He raised his hand and knocked the pimply man unconscious, then grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back into a shop by the roadside.

Lu Yao and Qin Ye carried the unconscious, burly man over as well.

The shop sold accessories; the lighting inside was dim, but they could vaguely make out that the decor had a cute style.

Lu Yao picked up the sign from the floor, flipped the “Open” side over to reveal “Owner Out,” and hung it on the door. All right, that’s taken care of.

Qin Ye took a rope out of his bag and tied the burly man to a chair. Since they were going to interrogate him next, Jiang Xingrui was particularly rough with him.

The burly man woke up while Qin Ye was tying him up, but with Jiang Xingrui holding a knife to his throat, he didn’t dare make a move.

Lu Yao hung up the sign and saw that Qin Ye had already finished tying him up. He eyed the burly man up and down with a blatantly lecherous gaze, then, with a devilishly handsome smile, began unfastening his belt as he walked.

To be honest, the gesture was actually quite cool—the metal buckle on his belt glinted coldly against his hip as he moved, and the faint clink of the buckle striking itself was crisp and clear. This added a subtle tension to the entire scene, but……

The burly man screamed in terror.

Jiang Xingrui also screamed in fright.

Qin Ye stood nearby, hesitating, unsure whether he should scream along with them.

Jiang Xingrui: “No way, Lu Yao! Don’t do this! This kind of interrogation isn’t allowed here! Torch Dragon doesn’t allow it, and neither do I! Aaaah!”

Lu Yao shot Jiang Xingrui a withering glance: “What kind of person do you really think I am?” Then, his expression changing in an instant, he turned to the burly man with a savage yet beautiful grin and said:

“To interrogate someone like this, you should whip him with a copper-tipped belt until he spins like a top!”

Jiang Xingrui: “Uh…”

Jiang Xingrui: “…Then go ahead and whip him.”

Then Lu Yao started snapping: “Are you going to tell me or not! Are you going to tell me or not! Answer my question! You’re not going to tell me, are you!”

Smack, smack, smack, smack.

The burly man howled like a demon as he was slapped: “You’re the one asking all the questions!!!” Smack! Smack! Smack!

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll make you experience what it’s like to wish you were dead!”

“Why don’t you ask first!”

Smack! Smack! Smack!

“You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you! You’re a tough nut to crack! Well, then I’ll have to get serious!”

The burly man wept bitterly: “I beg you, just ask me first…”

Jiang Xingrui had originally intended to stop Lu Yao’s interrogation.

After all, stealing a motorcycle was a minor offense; the real problem was that they’d ambushed them with the intent to kill.

The way they carried it out so skillfully showed that this wasn’t the first time these two had ambushed and tried to kill survivors.

So whatever they did to them was the least of their worries. …Except for the other reason he’d unbuckled his belt. He’d actually steeled himself for the possibility that Lu Yao might act with extreme cruelty.

But this… this, this, this… this and that… Jiang Xingrui watched, his scalp tingling.

Lu Yao took a moment to look at Jiang Xingrui: “I can’t even knock him out with one punch. Xingrui, give it a try.”

Jiang Xingrui walked over blankly and knocked the burly man completely unconscious. Then Lu Yao dragged the guy with acne over to the burly man’s side, intending to wake him up.

“Actually, on TV they usually splash water on someone to wake them up, but water is a precious resource in the apocalypse. We could try something else…”

Jiang Xingrui watched as Lu Yao reached out his hand instead of taking the opportunity to pull down his pants, and let out a long sigh of relief. He’d really been afraid Lu Yao would use a different kind of liquid to wake the guy with acne up.

Lu Yao wanted to slap the guy with acne, but when he looked at the guy’s face, he was afraid it would burst, so he grabbed the guy’s shoulders with both hands instead and shook him violently.

The guy with acne gasped sharply and sprang up from his daze.

The first thing he saw was the terrifying sight of the burly guy’s face covered in blood—and in close-up, no less.

The scene was quite shocking. He wanted to scream, but the sound was choked off in his throat—because the cold, hard muzzle of a gun was already pressed deep against his throat.

It was Lu Yao’s tranquilizer gun. Although the tranquilizer gun doesn’t work on humans, it’s still very effective for scaring people.

Lu Yao held the acne-faced guy’s head down to keep him from moving, and then Qin Ye, following Lu Yao’s earlier instructions, forcefully pulled back the acne-faced guy’s eyelids, forcing him to look at the blood-soaked face of the burly man—the very blood Qin Ye had painstakingly smeared on him just moments ago.

“Do you want to die? Or do you want to live?” Lu Yao’s voice was low and menacing.

The guy with acne’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he nodded.

“Your friend has already confessed most of it. Next, I need to verify if the information is correct, so I’ll ask the questions, and you answer,” Lu Yao said.

Staring at such a terrifying face up close for so long took a heavy toll on his mental state. The acne-faced man had a weak will to begin with—which was also why Lu Yao had chosen him—and now he was nodding like a chicken pecking at grain.

Lu Yao said in a calm yet eerie tone: “Oh, let me give you a heads-up. Actually, shoving a gun barrel into your mouth like this isn’t a particularly safe method of hostage-taking. Because if I fired right now, you might still be alive. The bullet would just tear your mouth apart, sever your tongue, and damage your cervical spine… but you’d still have a chance of surviving.So remember, if you want to commit suicide, definitely don’t choose this method.”

Lu Yao’s expression was terrifying as he said this, and Yang Yin’s tone grew increasingly chilling.

Qin Ye, standing nearby, asked at just the right moment, “So, boss, what’s the most reliable way to kill yourself?”

Lu Yao gave a strangely eerie smile: “The safer option is…” He pulled the gun out of the acne-faced guy’s mouth and aimed it at his chin. “This is the preferred way to commit suicide with a gun.”

After this little performance, the guy with acne was so terrified he was nearly out of his mind.

Meanwhile, Jiang Xingrui’s gaze toward Lu Yao grew increasingly suspicious.

No way. Dude, what exactly did you used to do? How come you look so skilled at this? “Reevaluate”—he was already sick of saying those words. Under Lu Yao’s interrogation, the guy with acne confessed to a lot of things.

It turned out the “Acne Guy” wasn’t actually called “Acne Guy”—his name was Qi Jiu.

(……?)

In any case, he and the burly guy were brothers; the burly guy’s name was Qi Ba.

They had a small gang of five members. Among them, Qi Shi was an ability user; his ability was to harden specific parts of his body, making them impervious even to a knife. In addition to scavenging for supplies, their gang had also ambushed and killed quite a few passersby.

Ironically, Qi Jiu didn’t think much of it, so he just came clean.

They had indeed spotted Lu Yao and his group yesterday. The plan was to sneak up on them at night and kill them, but something unexpected happened when they went out that evening. 

Jiang Xingrui: “What happened?” Could a third party have intervened? Jiang Xingrui frowned even deeper; he never imagined that a small place like Linchuan could be so complicated… Qi Jiu said, “We ran into a huge horde of zombies, so we came back.”

Jiang Xingrui:“……”

…Alright, he was overthinking it.

But are you guys really part of the same gang? How come this plan failed in such a… amusing way… “It’s about on par with my own planning skills,” 

Lu Yao said. “Who stole our bike?” 

Qi Jiu: “Kong Shi. As soon as he saw it, his eyes lit up—he said the bike was super cool.”

Jiang Xingrui flashed a slightly smug expression, but when he noticed Lu Yao staring at him, he coughed once to hide it. Qi Jiu continued, “Qi Shi told him not to steal it, saying he was afraid it would alert you guys, but he snuck out and stole it anyway.” Man, they’re really not on the same page.

“All right, point me in the right direction,” Lu Yao said. “I’m going to negotiate with your leader—I want to trade you guys for our motorcycle, and get some supplies in return.”

Jiang Xingrui couldn’t help but correct him: “It’s a motorbike.”

Lu Yao: “That comment just ruined the momentum I was building. It’s like when someone who isn’t in the know mentions watching cartoons and suddenly jumps in to say it’s ‘anime,’ not ‘cartoons’…”

Jiang Xingrui cleared his throat: “But there is a difference between a ‘motorcycle’ and a ‘motorbike.’”

Lu Yao shot him a sidelong glance.

Jiang Xingrui had no choice but to say, “…All right, go on.” He knew he was in the wrong.

Lu Yao let go of Qi Jiu, who immediately scrambled back a few steps, gasping for breath.

Being forced to stare up close at a person covered in blood just now had been truly terrifying.

Once he’d caught his breath, Qi Jiu hurriedly repeated everything he knew about the locations and personnel, afraid that if he left anything out, he might lose his life.

In fact, upon hearing that Lu Yao intended to use this information for negotiations, Qi Jiu had been extremely cooperative, eager for Lu Yao to wrap up the talks with Qi Shi as soon as possible. He didn’t want to spend another moment with that terrifying guy, Lu Yao.

Lu Yao escorted Qi Ba and Qi Jiu to Qi Shi’s base. Their arms were bound with rope; as ordinary people, they certainly didn’t possess the kind of ability seen in secret agents—the ability to run like the wind even with their hands tied.

Qi Ba and Qi Jiu didn’t look happy, especially Qi Ba, who had just been beaten.

He’d heard from Lu Yao that they were to be used as bargaining chips in negotiations with Qi Shi, and had already resolved to have Qi Shi capture them as soon as the negotiations ended. As it happened, Lu Yao and his group were quite good-looking, and it had been a long time since anyone had been held in their little dark room…

“Oh, right,” Lu Yao said. “You’re still my prisoners. Let’s do something.” 

“What is it?” Qi Ba asked.

Lu Yao: “You two move apart a bit. I’ll stand between you.”

“W-what are you going to do?” Qi Jiu’s voice trembled; he still hadn’t fully recovered from the interrogation just a moment ago.

Lu Yao: “You two are going to give me a blowjob.”

Qi Ba and Qi Jiu: “……”

Jiang Xingrui turned his head inch by inch toward Lu Yao: “What are you talking about…?”

Lu Yao: “Here’s the thing—today is a perfectly ordinary day during the Labor Day holiday. I just want to catch some fresh air, zone out a bit, and enjoy the simple joys of everyday life. But the wind is so weak today, so I’ve asked our prisoner to blow some wind my way.”

Jiang Xingrui’s mouth dropped open, and he couldn’t close it for a long time. Wait, “blowing wind”? Is that what “blowjob” is supposed to be like?!?!?!

Every time he thought he had a decent grasp of Lu Yao, Lu Yao would effortlessly break through his defenses.

Qi Jiu’s pupils fluttered violently twice; the flame of his soul in his eyes was about to go out.