Chapter 39 — Beauty vs. Beauty
Half-conscious, Zhang Su felt someone carrying him, his feet bumping against steps—it seemed they were climbing stairs.
When they finally set him down, he struggled to open his eyes just a sliver. Those people who betrayed and abandoned him wouldn’t have come back to save him, not in a million years.
So when he saw a few unfamiliar faces, he actually relaxed, and closed his eyes again in relief.
“Hey, I think he just opened his eyes?” Han Li said uncertainly.
Wang Duo nodded. “Yeah, he did.”
“Then he fainted again?” He Qiankun had an almost irresistible urge to poke the man’s face—especially since that skin looked so flawless it didn’t even have visible pores. It made his fingers itch to leave a few fingerprints on it.
“Probably blood loss,” Luo Xun said after checking that there were no zombies on the second floor. Finally, he exhaled in relief.
Li Tie, meanwhile, wasn’t paying attention to the new pretty boy at all. He was rummaging excitedly through the room. “Brother Luo! Brother Luo! There’s so much stuff here we can take back!”
“Yeah! And these chairs, the beds—should we grab a few?” He Qiankun’s eyes lit up instantly. The moment he came upstairs, he’d already noticed the furniture. With this, they wouldn’t have to build everything from scratch back home!
“I’ll start collecting the good stuff. We’ll take it all tomorrow morning!” Wu Xin rolled up his sleeves and rushed toward a pile of bottles and jars.
Wang Duo chuckled, dousing his excitement. “You sure you can use hyaluronic acid for anything?”
“Who cares? I can use it as mouthwash if I want!” Wu Xin shot him a look and kept digging through the beauty products.
Yan Fei ignored their nonsense completely. He stood at the staircase, where the metal he’d stripped earlier from downstairs floated in midair. Under his control, the fragments fused, twisted, and reshaped into a smooth, slanted metal ramp. Then, at the top, he formed a solid railing—one strong enough to make a racket if touched.
“All done?” Luo Xun asked, coming over to check. Seeing the new “slide,” he quickly handed Yan Fei a small towel he’d somehow scavenged from the room.
Yan Fei calmly wiped the sweat from his temples—his mental energy had been overtaxed again. A pity… if only someone could help him wipe it instead. But no hurry. He wasn’t the impulsive type. Whether in negotiations or dealing with his own conniving parents, patience was his greatest strength.
So, he slung an arm casually over Luo Xun’s shoulder and said, “Let’s eat first. We can figure out what to take in the morning.”
Luo Xun’s attention immediately shifted to the supplies on the second floor. He wasn’t interested in Wu Xin’s stash of beauty products—he didn’t have that many stubborn pimples anyway. Nor in the chairs and beds that the others loved—he already had a sofa and a king-sized bed at home. But those thick blackout curtains and the sterilized towels in the cabinets? Those caught his eye.
Their shelter—a two-story beauty salon—was conveniently located in a commercial street, separate from residential areas. That isolation made it safer for the night.
Still, Luo Xun couldn’t help imagining how funny it would be to watch those five college boys one day roll off one of these salon beds in their sleep.
After pulling the heavy curtains tight to block all light, they began preparing dinner. Because of their injured guest, they even made some soup. Unfortunately for them, the handsome newcomer woke up right as dinner was finished.
“Here, have some porridge first,” Wang Duo said, eyes bright with curiosity, handing him a bowl.
It was corn porridge—made from a compressed corn cake Luo Xun had brought along. It was dry, compact, and long-lasting—his homemade “field ration.” He’d only eat it as porridge because dry, it was hard enough to choke someone to death.
Zhang Su accepted the bowl and looked over the group. They were all young, with clean, clear eyes—people who hadn’t yet harmed or killed anyone in this apocalypse. He relaxed slightly.
But when his gaze met Yan Fei’s, an odd feeling stirred. The man seemed… displeased with him. And to be honest, Zhang Su felt the same—someone that good-looking was just annoying to look at.
The two equally striking men quietly sized each other up as they ate. Surprisingly, it was Zhang Su—the newcomer—who was the first to let go of the invisible tension. Not out of gratitude, but because he realized something from the powerful, commanding aura radiating from Yan Fei.
They might both be handsome, but they were not the same kind of man. Not rivals. Not threats. No need to clash.
“Thanks,” Zhang Su finally said, handing his empty bowl back to Wang Duo with a pure, harmless smile that made all five college students shiver in unison.
Luo Xun glanced at that smiling, peach-eyed face and subconsciously took half a step back—straight into Yan Fei’s side, without realizing it.
Yan Fei immediately relaxed, his earlier wariness fading. He leaned slightly closer, voice low and pleasant. “Full?”
“Ah? Oh—yeah,” Luo Xun stammered, nodding quickly. You had to make sure to eat enough on the road. If you got dizzy from hunger when zombies showed up, that’d be a stupid way to die.
Zhang Su subtly looked over at the two of them, his smile deepening with some hidden meaning. Then he began introducing himself to Li Tie’s group.
When Luo Xun finally heard his own name mentioned, he came back to his senses—and froze. That name, that face—he remembered it clearly from his previous life. The nightmare second-in-command of Blaze, the storm demon himself, smiling politely at him like an old friend.
…The difference between memory and reality was so jarring that his head started to ache, and he had a sudden urge to close his eyes and pretend none of this was happening.
When Luo Xun fell back into confusion, Yan Fei sharply asked, “When we found you, we saw several motorcycles leaving that supermarket — but you were still surrounded by zombies. Why?”
Because the blood from Zhang Su’s wound was normal red, clearly not caused by a zombie bite, Luo Xun’s team had decided to bring him along. Otherwise, if it had been anyone else seeing a man covered in blood, they would never have dared to help.
Zhang Su’s expression froze, his smile twisting slightly.
Seeing his reluctance to talk about it, Yan Fei smiled meaningfully. “We came from the Southwest Base. What are your plans? Planning to stay here, or come back with us?”
Zhang Su took a deep breath, his eyes dark and bitter as he glanced at Yan Fei. “I didn’t expect things to turn out this way. I was injured and abandoned by my teammates.”
He knew Yan Fei was really asking whether his injury would cause trouble, so he skipped the part about whether they would take him along.
“What?!”
“No way!” Li Tie and the others exclaimed. They had vaguely considered that possibility, but their natural kindness — and the fact that they hadn’t seen clearly what happened at the supermarket — made them subconsciously dismiss such a dark thought.
Zhang Su’s face was numb, his eyes staring at the small campfire between them. His voice was flat.
“I don’t know what life is like inside your safe base after the outbreak, but outside… robbery, betrayal, and backstabbing between teammates are common. Especially this time — when we were surrounded by so many zombies, someone had to be the ‘bait’ to distract them so the others could escape.”
“So you were the bait?!” Wu Xin gasped, drawing in a sharp breath.
He Qiankun foolishly asked, “Were you… willing?” As if he’d sacrificed himself heroically for his team.
Zhang Su’s lips twisted, but before he could speak, Wang Duo smacked He Qiankun on the neck. “Are you stupid? Would you volunteer to be zombie bait?”
He Qiankun rubbed his neck, glaring back and muttering, “If we really couldn’t run away, maybe…”
That made Wang Duo freeze mid-swing, then instead of hitting him again, he ruffled his hair roughly. “Don’t be an idiot. Even if we’re in danger, there’s always another way for everyone to make it out.”
Zhang Su’s expression softened slightly as he looked at their still-naïve faces. He sighed inwardly.
“Where were you all staying before?” Luo Xun, who had been silent, finally pushed aside the memories of his previous life with this man, pulled out a map, and asked.
“Staying?” Zhang Su blinked at the map, then pointed.
“Here. In one of the high-rises in this neighborhood. We’d already emptied out most of the nearby stores and apartments. The survivors in that area mostly joined our group. It’s just that… the team I went scavenging with today ran into trouble.”
Luo Xun took out a pen to mark tomorrow’s route, while Li Tie suddenly thought of something.
“Wait, aren’t you a wind-type ability user? A really strong one, too. Why would they betray you?”
Could his entire team have been ability users? Otherwise, why waste someone so powerful?
Zhang Su smiled coldly. “Because none of them knew I was one.”
He had hidden his power from the start — and sure enough, that man had betrayed him again. This was the second time: once during the first days of the apocalypse, and again now. If he ever met that man again, he would not hesitate to use his wind to slice him apart — one cut at a time.
It was a beautiful smile — but a terrifying one. Luo Xun, who happened to glance up while planning the next day’s route, froze. That was exactly the same smile Zhang Su had worn in his past life when he slaughtered a group of people. Luo Xun shuddered violently and instinctively backed away — only to bump into something solid.
He turned — and found himself face-to-face with Yan Fei. Yan Fei’s lips curved into a smile too, one full of hidden meaning, making Luo Xun’s scalp tingle as he tried to back away again. But Yan Fei suddenly took off his jacket and draped it over him. “It’s cold. Once you finish the route, get some rest.”
Luo Xun: …Why do all the handsome guys’ smiles look so scary?! I just want to run back to base right now!
The others also found Zhang Su’s smile unsettling, but since they hadn’t seen the horrors Luo Xun had in his past life, they didn’t think too deeply. Instead, they all joined in to comfort the “pitiful, betrayed, and abandoned beauty.” Their earlier resentment toward this world’s obsession with looks was temporarily forgotten in a wave of sympathy.
That night, everyone took turns standing watch, except for Zhang Su, who still needed rest due to blood loss.
The business district wasn’t entirely safe — scavengers often attracted zombies from nearby housing blocks — but the number wasn’t overwhelming. And after Luo Xun’s group had killed a few earlier, the spilled zombie blood masked their scent quite well.
By early morning, confirming that only about a dozen zombies lingered outside, Luo Xun sniped them one by one from the window. Then Li Tie’s group eagerly began dismantling everything inside the building — especially fabrics and furniture.
Yan Fei disassembled the metal staircase, and under Zhang Su’s stunned and thoughtful gaze, calmly melted and fused the metal onto the vehicles’ outer shells — reinforcing the cars while keeping the materials removable for later. Efficient and clever, though it left him a bit dizzy afterward.
Once Yan Fei had made his “territorial display,” Zhang Su wisely climbed into Wang Duo’s truck instead. The others, except the exhausted Yan Fei who stayed behind to rest, ferried load after load of items from the beauty salon into the vehicles. By the end, the trucks were packed tight.
Li Tie and the others even managed to dismantle five full beauty beds and offered one to Yan Fei — who politely refused. So they stacked them on top of the container truck, secure with metal clamps Yan Fei welded in place.
It looked dangerous to haul that much stuff, but luckily, the Southwest Base wasn’t far. There were still zombies on the streets, but not enough to stop them from speeding through.
When they finally reached the base gates, the temporary waiting zone outside — a walled-off area for new arrivals — was already packed with survivors.
Relief washed over everyone.
Zhang Su had already separated from the group during registration. Although he’d been rescued by them and the points would go to their team, the base had its own system for handling rescued survivors — especially those who were injured. His wounds needed professional care, and anyone carrying injuries had to be observed longer.
“This waiting area’s full of people returning from scavenging missions, right?” Han Li asked, standing on tiptoe to scan the crowd but finding no familiar faces.
“Wonder if the people who teamed up with us last time made it back,” Wu Xin said absently.
“Who knows? At least we got home fast. Can’t wait to fix up the house — finally, real blankets!” He Qiankun hugged his huge bundle with bliss. Their trucks were parked in a designated area for decontamination, and once their waiting period ended, they could collect them and head home.
The materials they’d turned in were already recorded — and as expected, Yan Fei’s extra metal plating didn’t need to be submitted. Profit!
They hadn’t found any ready-made quilts (those were long gone from supermarkets), but they’d scavenged cotton and fabric from a textile store. A little DIY back home, and they’d have proper bedding — a must in this freezing weather.
“Yeah, just five more hours, and we’ll be back inside.”
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
