Villain Boss Chapter 198
Translated by Digitalian (ko-fi)
Chapter 198: The Luo Family of Nanjun
Should she accept the bet? Should she take a chance with the honor of the first team to get hold of the rumored virus data left behind by Jiang Yize...
After only a moment's hesitation, Huo Lingyin slammed her hand on the railing and shouted, "I'll accept the bet!"
The captain had accepted the challenge, which meant the battle was decided in one fell swoop.
Jiang Ran was pleased.
"Everyone, disperse." She smiled like a sly fox. "I'm taking these people with me. There's nothing more for you here. See you at Beichen base, bye-bye."
Huo Lingyin, "..."
See us at Beichen base? Hah, you'll have to make it to Beichen base alive first.
……
Leading the group of elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people out of the base, Jiang Ran stopped at the entrance to think about what to do next.
Those people didn't expect things to develop like this. Everyone followed Jiang Ran. When Jiang Ran stopped, they stopped too, holding their breath, afraid that Jiang Ran would change her mind and abandon them outside.
"Where are you taking them?" The young man, having quickly bandaged his arm wound, ignored Si Xu's warning look and walked to Jiang Ran's side. "Zombies hunt using their hearing and sense of smell. Nighttime isn't a good time for them to move about."
"I know." Jiang Ran didn’t think much of it and pointed to the nearby house. "We’ll rest there tonight."
The others naturally had no objections, nodding repeatedly. "Okay, okay."
"Fine, I'll go in and see if there are any zombies." She turned and glared at Si Xu, her tone sarcastic. "Professor Si, you don't need to force yourself to come with me. Go find your pretty lady, humph!"
Si Xu, "..." He didn't say anything, but was still inexplicably glared at. Suddenly, he felt a little wronged.
After Jiang Ran finished speaking, she went straight into the house.
The young man wanted to follow, but Si Xu glared at him fiercely. "You stay here to protect them, or I'll throw them out to feed the zombies!"
"..."
Because Huo Lingyin's team was stationed here, the surrounding zombies had already been cleared out. The house wasn’t large to begin with, so Jiang Ran took no time to finish inspecting it.
She stopped at the doorway and glanced at the person behind her.
Behind her, Si Xu tugged at her clothes, his charming eyes full of accusation.
Jiang Ran glanced at him. "What are you doing following me?"
Si Xu said, feeling wronged, "Why are you being so fierce?"
Jiang Ran, "Why didn't you ask me what I was doing when you were looking at the moon with that girl?"
Si Xu, "I didn't look at the moon with that girl. Besides, you were making a bet with them and having a lot of fun. I was watching."
Jiang Ran, "..." She continued walking forward angrily.
Tugging at her clothes, Si Xu was forced to move along with her.
"Jiang Ran, why did you save those people?" After asking, he concluded in a way that would surely set Jiang Ran off, "With your abilities, it's impossible for you to escort those people safely to Beichen base."
"..."
"You have no car and no food. Are you planning to walk to Beichen base? And roughing it? You..."
He was still muttering to himself when Jiang Ran turned around and gave him a cold look.
He suddenly realized that his words would only anger Jiang Ran further, and his forgotten survival instinct crept in. "It's okay if you don't have anything, because I do."
You had... you had nothing at all! You bastard!
"Jiang Ran." She didn't respond, so he pressed his advantage, "Give me a kiss, and I'll lend you my car and food, and even help you become their leader."
Jiang Ran laughed exasperatedly, and cursed, "Idiot." Then she turned to leave.
"Jiang Ran, I’m serious. Give me a kiss and I’ll help you." He tugged at her hem. "It’s a very good deal."
Annoyed by his nagging, Jiang Ran turned around, pinned him against the wall, and bit his lip until it bled.
"Hiss..." Si Xu's eyes widened. Jiang Ran! You’re getting more and more violent! Who taught you that?
……
Jiang Ran and Si Xu didn't come out for a long time, and the people waiting by the roadside gradually became uneasy.
"Nothing bad has happened, right?"
"They haven't come out yet..."
"Could they have been..."
"No." The young man, who had been resting with his eyes closed due to exhaustion, opened them upon hearing his teammates' discussion and said coldly, "That man's ability level is very high. He'll be fine. Don't imagine things."
"Eh?"
This young man with the sharp eyes of a wild wolf had joined their group a few days ago. Although he risked his life to protect them tonight, the people still held him in awe.
The young girl who had bandaged his wound walked up to him, took a bottle of water out of her bag, and asked, "Would you like some water?"
He glanced sideways at the bottle of water, avoiding it. "No need." His attitude was extremely cold.
Sensing his rejection, the girl felt a little embarrassed but still said, "Thank you for protecting us tonight."
"No need to thank me, I'm just repaying the kindness you guys showed me."
He had walked for a long time, and was tired, hungry and thirsty. When he could no longer walk, he simply lay down by the roadside to rest. These people thought he had fainted due to exhaustion. Even though they could barely fend for themselves, they still gave him water and food and brought him along while he was half-conscious.
Tonight, risking his life for them was simply to repay a debt of gratitude.
"My name is Xing Xiaoyu. What's your name?" After spending several days together, this guy always sat alone to the side, looking unapproachable, so no one dared to ask his name.
Not good at communicating with people, the young man uttered only three words, "Luo Yuting."
Luo Yuting? Luo? That wasn’t a very common surname.
As the girl was thinking this, the person traveling with her called her name quietly. She glanced at the young man and returned to her companion.
……
After being bitten, Si Xu was a little unhappy. He licked the cut on his lip and grumbled, "Jiang Ran, I get it now. You're jealous again."
Jiang Ran was somewhat pleased after biting him, and looked at him with a smile. "Now you know how terrifying my jealousy is, right? Let's see if you dare to chat with girls so casually again."
Jiang Ran's exaggerated gestures were truly adorable, and Si Xu couldn't resist ruffling her hair, pulling out a single strand of hair that stuck out.
"Si Xu." Ignoring his fiddling hands, Jiang Ran pulled him to a corner, pointing to a blurry figure in the distance. "Do you know who that man is?"
Knowing who she was referring to, Si Xu smirked, "I don't know who he is, but I do know that if Huo Lingyin continues playing around today, their team might not have a chance to return to Beichen base."
That man's superpower level wasn’t low; a preliminary estimate suggested it was above Huo Lingyin's.
At least, after he concealed his superpower, no one in Huo Lingyin's team discovered it.
Sure enough.
Jiang Ran nodded. "That man's name is Luo Yuting. He's Luo Rui's brother."
"Luo Rui?" Si Xu mused, having almost forgotten about that woman. "I remember, she and her man left the base, most likely heading towards Beichen."
"Definitely." Jiang Ran recalled what Huo Lingyin had said when she met Huo Lingyin that morning. "They’ve probably met Huo Lingyin."
"Perhaps the cooperation didn't go through." Huo Lingyin had a thing for handsome men, and although she didn't want to admit it, Xie Chengzhi did have outstanding looks.
"So, they missed the chance to meet Luo Yuting."
Luo Rui was, after all, the female protagonist, and her background was kept secret in the original novel.
In the post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, mankind established four major bases, each headed by one of four prominent families—the Shen family of Xiling, the Pei family of Dongchao, the Huo family of Beichen, and the Luo family of Nanjun.
In the original novel, Luo Rui's legs were normal. She was ordered by the Shen family to go to Beichen base for inspection. On the way, she encountered Huo Lingyin's team and thus met her brother, Luo Yuting.
However, in this present timeline, neither of them knew the other's identity, because Luo Rui had been abducted as a child and grew up in her current family.
Sigh, these days, if one didn’t have a tragic or complicated background, one would be almost embarrassed to call oneself the female protagonist.
