Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

Chapter 216: Anger.

So she stood at the door for a moment, quietly adjusting the backpack strap on her shoulder and making sure the space inside her was ready. She imagined the supermarket shelves in her head, imagined the boxes of instant noodles, the sealed bags of rice, the packets of snacks, the bottles of cooking oil, the cans of meat, and all the other things that normal people would have ignored before everything fell apart. Now those things mattered a lot. She even thought about small things like tissues and batteries, because once the power situation got worse, those would become surprisingly important too. Bai Li did not know how long they would have to stay in this place, but she knew it would be better to prepare like they might be trapped for a long time.

When she finally walked toward the apartment door, her steps were slow and careful at first, not because she was afraid, but because she was listening. The building had its own strange sounds now. Sometimes there was the soft scrape of something moving in the hallway. Sometimes there was a dull thud from far away. Sometimes there was silence so heavy that it made the skin at the back of her neck tighten. Bai Li had already gotten used to this kind of silence, but she never trusted it. In the past, silence had once meant peace. Now it often meant danger was nearby and waiting. She pressed her hand against the sword hilt, took one deep breath, and told herself to stay steady. No rushing. No panic. No useless thoughts. Just go out, check the path, take what she needed, and come back.

She was also thinking about Yan Cijin. If Yan Cijin had gone with her, the little girl would probably have tried to help in her own way, but Bai Li knew it would not have been good for her to keep carrying things back and forth all day. Yan Cijin had already done enough by staying close and not causing trouble. Bai Li had seen how hard the girl had tried to keep up, and it made her feel a bit softer inside, even if she did not show it much on her face. But this was still not the right time to drag Yan Cijin into another risky trip. The courtyard was open, and open places were not kind to anyone. If a zombie suddenly charged, or if a group came rushing out, a person with a tiny backpack and limited strength would only become a burden. Bai Li was not going to let that happen. She had her own methods, her own space, and her own plans. She would handle the dangerous work herself.

Meanwhile, Hu Xuecheng’s anger only kept growing. He had spent too much time being the kind of man who got his way, and now that he had met someone who did not flinch in front of him, he could not tolerate it. He kept glancing at his phone, as if Bai Li might suddenly send another message, one that would somehow make things easier for him to swallow. But the screen stayed quiet. That silence made him even more annoyed. He could practically imagine Bai Li’s face while she wrote her reply, calm and unhurried, like she had already decided that he was not worth much attention. That thought made his jaw clench hard. He hated being dismissed. He hated being made to feel small. In his world, people who annoyed him usually backed down quickly. They knew better than to keep pushing. They knew better than to laugh in his face or talk to him like he was some idiot. Bai Li, on the other hand, seemed to have no idea how dangerous that kind of attitude could be. Or maybe she did know and simply did not care. Either way, Hu Xuecheng could not accept it.

He looked down at the gun again and breathed out slowly through his nose. The weapon was cool, heavy, and very real in his grip. It was a comforting thing in its own ugly way. It reminded him that no matter how much someone mouthed off, the final answer in the world could still be force. That was the kind of thinking he liked. He rolled his shoulders once, then twice, trying to calm the heat in his chest, but it did not work. Instead, he began to imagine all kinds of ugly scenes in his head. He pictured Bai Li getting scared. He pictured her trying to run. He pictured her looking back at him with regret. None of those images made him feel kind. They only made him feel more sure that he needed to teach her a lesson. He was not going to wait around and let some girl embarrass him over and over again. He was not going to be laughed at in private and ignored in public. If he had to make an example out of her, then so be it. He would use whatever methods he had. He would make sure she understood what kind of man she had gone and crossed.

He took another look at the door, then the window, then the phone in his hand. The room felt too small for all the anger packed inside him. His breathing had turned loud and a little uneven, and the muscles in his arms were tight from how hard he was holding the gun. The more he thought, the more convinced he became that Bai Li had to pay. It did not matter whether she had backup. It did not matter whether she had gotten lucky killing a few zombies. In his mind, once he decided on something, it was already half done. He had lived long enough in dirty corners of the world to believe that violence solved a lot of problems faster than words ever could. So he lowered his head slightly, stared hard at the screen again, and let the anger fully settle in his chest, sharp and ugly and ready to break loose.

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TO BE CONTINUED.