Chapter 231 - 214: The Two of Us

Chapter 231: Chapter 214: The Two of Us

The armored car jolted through the mud, finally reaching a large intersection.

"Lin Fan, which way at the intersection ahead? Lin Fan?"

Ye Qingniao called out a few times from the driver’s cabin, her voice muffled by the thick armor plating. When no one answered, she squeezed into the rear compartment, opened the top hatch, and poked her head out into the rain.

"Lin—"

"PFFT—Go left, go left. East is to the left. You two... *sigh*..."

She had thought Lin Fan had fallen asleep. Sticking her head out into the rain, she didn’t see him. She had barely gotten a syllable of his name out when she heard his voice coming from the front of the turret.

"Oh..."

Just then, the effects of that painful yet blissful potion finally wore off. Ye Qingniao returned to her petite form. Hearing that Lin Fan’s voice was coming from the front, she gave a simple reply, closed the hatch, and ducked back inside.

KLUNK—CREAK—

A moment later, a small observation window in front of the gunner’s station opened again. Her drenched head popped out and looked left and right like a wary meerkat, and then she saw Lin Fan’s completely undignified state...

He was comfortably wedged into the guardrail at the base of the 30mm autocannon, with the tilted barrel serving as a perfect footrest for his bare foot.

He was lying flat on his back on the vehicle’s roof, his mouth open to catch the falling rain.

GURGLE GURGLE—Ptooey!

He rinsed his mouth, then spat the water out like a whale.

Aside from a few straggling zombies or dismembered ones that had toppled onto the road, the armored car had encountered no real obstacles on its journey.

To the eight 1.2-meter-diameter, military-grade, bulletproof off-road tires, the vibration from running over the occasional clueless zombie was less noticeable than rolling over a piece of rubble.

"Why... why aren’t you coming inside?"

Ye Qingniao poked her head out from beside Lin Fan’s hand. Seeing him lying so comfortably in the rain, she asked, puzzled,

"Is getting soaked really that comfortable?"

"It’s not bad... a little shower to wash off the stink."

Lin Fan glanced at the road, and after pointing them in the right direction, he closed his eyes again, peacefully blowing bubbles. While thinking, he answered her first question.

"I don’t want to go in, and I don’t dare to go in."

"Don’t dare? We’ve already driven at least..."

Ye Qingniao looked around and suddenly realized this was the same intersection where they had pushed through the zombie horde. To think they had come all the way back in just one day.

The other armored car was parked in the distance by the side of the road, looking like a black reef, but also like an Obsidian tombstone standing in the storm.

Her expression darkened for a moment before she quickly composed herself and continued asking,

"We’ve gone ten kilometers. The outer ring road should be up ahead, right? Is this the ’Tree’s’ old lair?"

"Who knows,"

Lin Fan said with his eyes closed. It wasn’t like he could see anything anyway. It was pitch black in the curtain of rain, with only a beam of white light shining from behind the bulletproof glass at the front of the vehicle, barely illuminating the road ahead.

"Why do you think it let Cheng Qi in?"

Lin Fan asked again.

Without waiting for Ye Qingniao’s answer, he reached out and ruffled her head, smoothing her rain-drenched, medium-length hair back to reveal her forehead.

Then, with a casual wave of his hand, an irregularly shaped piece of leather appeared in his grasp. He placed it over Ye Qingniao’s head. The meter-square hide completely covered the observation port, causing the rain to stream down the sides instead of pouring into the vehicle.

"Ngh... What’s this? Oh..."

Ye Qingniao’s vision suddenly went dark, giving her a fright. She then reached up with one hand to prop up the animal hide, realizing it was a "rain cover" Lin Fan had made for her.

"...Thank you."

A warmth spread through her heart. She adjusted the hide over her head and settled into a more comfortable position, leaning on the windowsill. Lin Fan’s hand, which he hadn’t pulled back, was now also enclosed within this tiny, sheltered space.

The sound of the torrential rain DRUMMING on the leather became muffled and distant. In the small space, all that remained was the sound of Ye Qingniao’s own breathing and the faint smell of leather mixed with the dampness of the rain.

’Why let Cheng Qi in?’

She rubbed her cheek against the back of Lin Fan’s hand, murmuring the question.

Even though Lin Fan had been lying in the cold rain for a long time, his palm was still warm. Feeling that warmth, she spoke naturally:

"Because he’s a normal person. It let him in to be a sitting duck..."

"Hey, I heard you badmouthing me..."

Having driven this far, Cheng Qi had started to relax. Hearing Ye Qingniao’s less-than-flattering remark from the driver’s seat, he immediately protested.

"So what if I am! Just drive the damn car!"

Ye Qingniao ducked her head down and shouted into the cabin,

"Next time you report to the afterlife, remember to bring a map!"

"...Okay."

Startled by Ye Qingniao’s shout and recalling her previous size, Cheng Qi meekly shrank back and focused on driving.

Ye Qingniao had already used tape and some miscellaneous items to prop the high-powered flashlight against the glass, allowing it to serve as a makeshift headlight. Besides, the armored car wasn’t moving fast; they just needed to stay on the road.

Seeing that Cheng Qi had fallen silent, Ye Qingniao poked her head back into the little "tent," waiting for Lin Fan to continue.

"You’re half right,"

Lin Fan felt Ye Qingniao’s head pop back up, his fingers brushing across the slightly raised scar on her face.

The skin on her face was ice-cold, but the scar itself was warm.

"But the ’duck’ wasn’t him. It was me..."

Lin Fan said with a sigh.

"Didn’t you notice? When its cage first trapped us, it was getting smaller and smaller. But after I lunged at it from both sides and landed two hits, it started getting bigger and bigger... It did that to stop me from getting any leverage. The roots only have so much strength. If I’m darting back and forth, the smaller the cage, the bigger my advantage becomes."