“Evidence? I actually do have some.”
The medic immediately turned toward the voice, only to find a young girl standing behind her. She recognized her at once—the girl who had stepped in to help during the fight earlier.
And now, that same girl was calmly declaring that she had proof.
The platoon leader noticed the commotion and hurried over just in time to hear her words. Surprise and delight flashed across his face.
“Miss Mo,” he asked quickly, “you can tell whether someone’s been infected with the zombie virus?”
Mo Chu nodded.
Of course she could. She was a healer—this was the most basic thing imaginable.
She might fight viciously now, but people seemed to forget that at her core, she was still a doctor.
Without another word, she stepped forward and grabbed the infected man’s arm. His father immediately tried to shove her away, only for Li Chen to seize him in an instant and pin him hard to the ground.
He didn’t want Mo Chu getting dragged into unnecessary trouble, so he restrained the old man without striking him.
A faint blue glow flickered to life at Mo Chu’s fingertips. Before anyone could even see what it was, she pressed the light straight into the man’s arm.
The blue radiance vanished soundlessly, like a stone sinking into the sea.
Then, beneath the thin line of blood around the wound, a sickly bluish-green color slowly surfaced.
Mo Chu stared at the discoloration, then lifted her eyes to the man’s face.
He seemed to realize what it meant.
His face turned deathly pale. Sweat beaded across his forehead in huge drops, and the arm trapped in Mo Chu’s grip trembled uncontrollably.
He looked at her pleadingly.
His father, still pinned to the ground, continued making muffled, desperate sounds. The man was nearly sixty years old, and the grief in his voice was pitiful to hear.
But Mo Chu felt no pity.
Just moments ago, those enthusiastic students had praised her for being gentle and patient. Yet now, her heart was colder than iron itself.
Not a shred of sympathy remained.
If this man transformed into a zombie in the middle of the crowd, who would pity the innocent people dragged down with him?
She raised his arm forcefully, showing everyone the bluish wound, and said evenly,
“This is a wound caused by a zombie.”
Two fully armed soldiers immediately rushed forward, pinned the man down, and dragged him toward the quarantine vehicle nearby.
The man let out broken sobs that sounded half like crying, half like wailing.
His father released a howl so grief-stricken it barely sounded human.
Mo Chu stood off to the side, watching it all with calm detachment.
This was the apocalypse.
The real apocalypse.
Most of the survivors around the man had already scattered earlier, but when they saw the soldiers forcing him into the quarantine truck, someone suddenly shouted in panic,
“Why quarantine him?! Just kill him already! What if he turns into a zombie and breaks out?!”
The platoon leader was already in a terrible mood. Hearing something so idiotic instantly ignited his temper.
“If he turns into a zombie and we kill him, that’s killing a zombie!” he barked back. “Right now, killing him would be murder! We haven’t even finished killing the zombies yet and you’re already thinking about killing people?”
The man who shouted immediately fell silent.
Listening nearby, Mo Chu thought he was absolutely right.
In her previous life, so many people had been like that. Before the zombies were even gone, they had already turned their knives on their fellow survivors.
It took the platoon leader quite a while to settle the chaos. But after this example—and with Mo Chu standing there as someone capable of detecting infection—the inspections moved much faster.
Still, every infected person dragged out came with resistance.
Because right now, infection was almost synonymous with death.
No one willingly faced their own mortality. So they hid among the crowds, deceiving themselves, even if it endangered everyone else—as though staying hidden might somehow let them escape fate.
Some people were even darker than that.
If I’m infected, then I’ll drag a few others down with me before I die.
Mo Chu had seen too many people like that in her last life.
She herself had nearly become one of their victims.
While she was lost in thought, arms folded quietly across her chest, Li Chen glanced at her.
Then, without a word, he took off the jacket draped over his shoulders and laid it gently over hers.
Mo Chu blinked back to herself, then looked down at the coat on her shoulders and laughed softly.
She turned to him. “What’s this for…?”
“I thought you were cold,” Li Chen replied.
She shook her head and handed the jacket back. “In this weather? How could I possibly be cold?”
Li Chen said nothing more. He simply nodded and accepted the coat.
Of course he hadn’t really thought she was cold.
He had only wanted to pull her out of that strange, lonely stillness she’d fallen into.
That expression didn’t suit her.
He slipped the jacket back on.
Then he heard her murmur softly,
“Thank you.”
Li Chen paused.
For some reason, the tips of his ears grew warm.
Watching the medics continue their tense work nearby, Mo Chu suddenly smiled faintly.
“Looking at it this way,” she said lightly, “my healing ability isn’t completely useless after all. At least right now, it’s pretty useful.”
She had only meant it as an offhand comment, but Li Chen answered with startling seriousness.
“Every powerful ability starts out weak.”
Mo Chu froze.
Every powerful ability starts out weak.
He had said those exact words before—back when she’d first discovered her power and fallen into despair because everyone believed it was useless.
Including herself.
But he had never believed that.
Even when no one else saw any value in her ability, he still did.
She stared at him for a moment before smiling softly.
“I think so too.”
Li Chen was stunned for a long while.
Then he smiled too.
The two of them looked at each other and smiled quietly, the atmosphere between them so gentle and intimate that no outsider could possibly intrude.
At least, that was how the platoon leader felt when he walked over intending to thank Mo Chu—only to abruptly slow his steps, suddenly convinced he had arrived at the wrong moment.
Unfortunately, he was far too busy to retreat now.
After hesitating for only a second, he forced himself forward with an awkward smile.
“Miss Mo.”
Mo Chu turned toward him, her expression largely unchanged.
But the platoon leader would swear that the moment she looked away, the man beside her—Li Chen—instantly turned cold, shooting him a distinctly displeased look.
The platoon leader: “…”
As if he wanted to interrupt them.
By then, Mo Chu had already asked, “Is there something you needed, Platoon Leader?”
“What else could it be?” he laughed. “I came to thank you. You helped us out tremendously again today.”
Mo Chu shook her head. “It was nothing. Just convenient.”
After exchanging a few more words, the platoon leader casually probed,
“An ability that can detect zombie infection… I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”
He was testing the waters about her power.
Mo Chu didn’t particularly mind.
“Hold out your hand,” she said.
Though confused, the platoon leader obeyed.
There was a deep gash across his palm—the result of fighting the second-tier zombie earlier. In the heat of battle, he had scraped his hand bloody against something sharp and hadn’t even noticed.
Another cluster of blue light bloomed at Mo Chu’s fingertips.
This time it was much larger, crystalline and deep in color like the ocean itself.
She pressed the light into his palm.
Before everyone’s eyes, the terrible wound began healing at a visible speed. Flesh knitted together rapidly, the torn skin smoothing over within moments until the injury disappeared completely.
Only the tender pinkness of the newly healed skin remained, proof that there had ever been a wound there at all.
The platoon leader stared with wide eyes the entire time, utterly dumbfounded.
He flexed his hand unconsciously.
The pain was gone.
Only the bloodstains around the wound remained.
Then he heard the young woman say calmly,
“I’m a healing-type ability user. We naturally have some sensitivity toward the zombie virus. It’s nothing extraordinary. Any healer should have this ability.”
The platoon leader’s thoughts raced, and the question burst from him almost immediately.
“Then can healing abilities cure the zombie virus?”
Mo Chu looked at him quietly for a long moment, until he gradually calmed down again.
Only then did she answer.
“Not right now. At the moment, I can only heal ordinary injuries. But whether that’ll change in the future… I can’t say. After all, even now, I can already sense the virus.”
The platoon leader steadied himself, a trace of disappointment surfacing before he silently laughed at his own foolishness.
Of course.
If healing abilities could already cure the virus, then earlier she wouldn’t have pulled infected people out of the crowd.
She would’ve simply healed them on the spot.
But he was an experienced soldier. The disappointment lasted only an instant before his mind began turning rapidly again.
Healing abilities might not cure the virus, but the ability to detect infection alone was already invaluable if used properly.
And more importantly—
After witnessing Mo Chu’s astonishing healing firsthand, another thought surfaced in his mind.
If first-tier healing abilities were already this effective, then what about second-tier? Third-tier?
During these endless rescue missions, he had slowly realized something grim:
In this era of collapsing medicine and dwindling supplies, soldiers weren’t dying from zombies alone. Accidents, untreated injuries, infections—the fatality rate from those was nearly just as high.
And what about later?
When all existing medicine ran out? When factories stopped producing more?
At that point, a simple injury could become just as deadly as a zombie bite.
Healing-type ability users…
They might one day replace half the role of doctors.
Not to mention the words Mo Chu had just spoken—
“Not now. But maybe in the future.”
All these thoughts passed through his mind in mere seconds.
By the time he looked up again, he had already made his decision.
The military needed to recruit and protect healing-type ability users at all costs.
Coming back to himself, he apologized sincerely.
“I let my emotions get the better of me earlier. Sorry if I offended you.”
Mo Chu shook her head, unconcerned.
Truthfully, she had intentionally shown him all of this.
She knew very well that even before reaching third-tier, healing abilities could already do a great deal. Minor injuries, fevers, illnesses—there were healing users capable of treating nearly all of it.
If utilized properly, they could greatly ease the desperate shortage of medicine in the apocalypse.
But because healers couldn’t cure the zombie virus, they were overlooked.
And by the time humanity finally realized how important they were, countless healers had already died.
That was why she had deliberately revealed her abilities today.
Why she had deliberately spoken those words.
If people began valuing healing-type users sooner, then maybe more of them would survive long enough to reach third-tier.
She was fighting for them.
Fighting for even a few more chances to stay alive.
Then the platoon leader suddenly said,
“When you leave later, why not ride in the lead jeep with us? I feel like we really hit it off. Let me give you two a ride.”
Mo Chu was just about to refuse when, from the other side, the helicopter sent to pick up Xie Jinyuan and the others finally arrived.
Xie Jinyuan personally led the students over and invited her warmly.
“My helicopter’s here as well. If you don’t mind, would the two of you like to travel with this old man?”
Both men looked at her expectantly, clearly assuming she was heading to the survivor base in Lin City like everyone else.
Mo Chu suddenly realized the misunderstanding had grown far bigger than she thought.
She glanced between the two of them, then slowly shook her head.
“If the platoon leader really wants to help,” she said, “then lend us a vehicle instead.”
The platoon leader blinked. “That’s because…?”
“We’re heading south,” Mo Chu replied calmly. “To Sea City. We’re not going the same way.”
Disappointment immediately spread across both men’s faces.
Ying Yi even let out a startled, “Ah?” her expression full of disbelief.
Mo Chu smiled faintly.
“The world is vast,” she said. “If fate allows it, we’ll meet again.”
