Xu An shook her head, casting aside all unnecessary thoughts from her mind.
Although by current calculations, she was only in her early twenties, having graduated from university not many years ago.
However, it wasn't just the ravages of the apocalyptic crisis that forced her into premature maturity.
Within the body of this 25-year-old Xu An, resided a soul that had lived two lifetimes.
If one were to truly count, Xu An's age could easily make her Qin Chuan's mother.
Speaking of romantic feelings, Xu An truly had no such thoughts in her heart.
But from their first meeting, Xu An never imagined they would have so many interactions.
Even Zhou Haimei had noticed Qin Chuan's affection for her.
However, Qin Chuan hadn't openly expressed it.
Even if Xu An wanted to refuse, she couldn't find a reason.
She couldn't just rush up to Qin Chuan and say, "I will never fall for you, you'd better give up." Something like that.
So, there was little she could do now, but it felt like she couldn't do anything at all.
And so, these two, one under the guise of unrequited love, the other trying every means to reject the other,
had somehow continued their push and pull until the end.
An abandoned factory.
Qin Chuan found an opportunity, leaped up, and stepped onto a relatively high machine, then sat down cross-legged on it.
He tried calling Xu An again, but the result was the same: no answer.
If the communicator wasn't directly implanted as a chip, Qin Chuan would have suspected Xu An had lost it.
Qin Chuan sat there, pulled out a compressed biscuit, and without a second thought, shoved it into his mouth. Only after swallowing did he realize it was wasabi flavored.
The spiciness made Qin Chuan's eyes water involuntarily. "Damn it, who made these compressed biscuits? Why would they research a wasabi flavor? Which dog designer developed this product? I must give them a bad review when I get back."
Despite his grumbling, Qin Chuan took out a bottle of mineral water from his backpack and, with tears in his eyes, grudgingly finished his lunch with the wasabi-flavored compressed biscuit.
Because this operation was so sudden, many team members were temporarily drafted to participate in the mission.
Therefore, many of them didn't have time to prepare their own rations. The food Qin Chuan had in his hands was prepared by those old guys from the Quartermaster Department.
The moment Qin Chuan saw the supplies, he almost exploded.
If they weren't in a hurry and needed to race against time, Qin Chuan would have gotten into a fight with those old guys.
The supplies in his backpack were extremely scarce, barely enough for the most basic needs for three days, not even an extra meal's worth.
Not only that, but everything inside was dry compressed biscuits.
There wasn't even the most basic purified water. Qin Chuan's anger soared to the peak.
"You're giving us this to fool me and my team? If we eat this, are we going to kill zombies or deliver ourselves to them? I think you don't even need to give us this food, just feed it to the dogs."
"I think you've all been fed too well to do such brainless things."
Qin Chuan didn't wait for the person delivering the supplies to speak before launching into a barrage of sharp criticisms.
For a soldier going into battle, it was a matter of life and death. Yet, these people wanted the horse to run without feeding it grass.
Many of Qin Chuan's subordinates came from ordinary families.
The work under Qin Chuan was never easy. On the contrary, no one was in more danger than those following Qin Chuan.
However, by the same token, Qin Chuan's team also had the best treatment.
There's a saying that risk is accompanied by reward. Without high risk, one certainly wouldn't receive generous compensation.
Knowing how hard these team members worked, Qin Chuan never made them pay out of their own pockets when going on missions. Sometimes, he would even use his own money to purchase some necessities for the team.
But the mediocrity of this batch of supplies made even Qin Chuan, who usually turned a blind eye to such matters, unable to stand it.
After scolding those old guys.
Qin Chuan ended up using his own money to equip each team member with the necessary supplies.
However, this time, Qin Chuan retaliatorily used his grandfather's name.
Those people's jaws nearly dropped when they saw Old Master Qin's name.
Later, when Old Master Qin found out that his grandson had used his name to charge a large amount of supplies, he was so angry he blew his beard out.
But that's a story for another time.
Now, Qin Chuan sat atop the machine, looking at a few snarling zombies below.
He couldn't contact Xu An, and he hadn't found the person he was looking for. He had followed a small group of zombies to this place.
He thought the man with a scar on his face looked somewhat familiar.
The man was accompanied by a young girl in a skirt.
The moment he saw the girl, Qin Chuan's brows furrowed deeply.
He had never seen someone being chased by zombies still wearing a skirt.
Although the girl's skirt had long since lost its original color.
He didn't know what the girl was thinking, why she didn't find a place to change out of her skirt quickly.
Women were at a disadvantage in terms of explosive power, and this girl was clearly being dragged along by the man beside her.
On the surface, the woman seemed to be a burden to the man, but the man's actions actually allowed the girl to break free and follow him unconsciously.
Qin Chuan immediately sensed something was wrong, so he quietly followed them.
But he hadn't even managed to catch up and tell the girl to change out of her skirt when he saw the scarred man shove the frail girl into the horde of zombies.
It was then that Qin Chuan finally got a clear look at the scarred man's face.
His pupils suddenly widened. This was Sun Er, a notorious wanted criminal from Lighthouse.
He had been leading a team to capture Sun Er for a long time, but Sun Er had escaped every time.
Qin Chuan had long suspected something was amiss, so during a recent capture attempt, he went alone without telling anyone.
As expected, Sun Er's usual ability to escape, as if he could predict the future, had completely disappeared this time.
Qin Chuan knew there was a problem within his team, but he was too lazy to figure out who the traitor was.
Many people coveted his position, and almost every time someone tried to place their own people in.
After refusing too many times, Qin Chuan became annoyed. Later, on missions, only a few core members would participate.
But this time, even the core members had problems.
Qin Chuan once again confirmed the face, confirming it was Sun Er.
He immediately understood why Sun Er could always escape safely.
It was because Sun Er had connections from above.
After all, Qin Chuan himself had captured Sun Er half a year ago, and he had personally watched Sun Er being exiled from Lighthouse.
But now, he saw Sun Er's face again.