Chapter 177: Family, Lover, and Partners

They maintained an eerie distance, unable to get close, merely following along. The sound of their wheezing breaths merged into one, sounding exceptionally ghastly in the whistling wind.

At the end of the line, an exceptionally tall "living dead" suddenly stumbled.

It seemed to have suffered a severe head injury while alive; half its skull was sunken, and black-yellow pus oozed from its rotting ear.

The sound waves from the bronze bell drilled into its damaged ear canal, but only stirred up a sharp ringing.

Being unable to hear the bell meant it had broken free from control. A flash of dazed, ferocious light flickered in its murky eyes, only to be swallowed by instinct immediately after.

"Hah—!"

Its stiff legs erupted with astonishing power. Like an out-of-control beast, it shoved aside the staggering peers in front and lunged straight at Su Mian.

Su Mian's pupils constricted. She quickened her pace, forcing herself to stay calm, tracking the living dead's movement trajectory to dodge.

However, her feet slipped. Just as she was about to be thrown into the field, a pair of hands grabbed her, taking the bell from her hand. Su Mian's body spun in the air.

The living dead lunged over. At the critical moment, a feathered arrow precisely nailed into the monster's left eye socket as it surged up.

Su Mian turned back in astonishment.

She saw Tiffany kneeling on the ground behind a haystack not far to the side. The string of the antique-looking longbow in her hand was still vibrating; it was the bow she had switched to in her desperation.

Tiffany's face was pale, staring fixedly this way. She didn't know how much mental preparation she had needed to shoot that arrow. If it had been off by even a little, it might have hit...

She didn't dare think further. She followed the main group closely and let out a fierce sigh of relief upon seeing Su Mian caught by A Si.

Further back, Qiao Yinuo had moved a huge, ultra-bright LED light from somewhere. Gritting her teeth, sweat streaming down, she struggled to turn the light head toward Su Mian's path ahead.

The blinding, snow-white beam of light was like a sharp sword, suddenly cleaving through the dim fields, illuminating the winding path ahead of Su Mian.

"Li Meili!!! Keep going, we're right behind you!!!"

Her arms felt weak from holding it, but she didn't dare let go at all. Tiffany aimed at the living dead that might break free from the bell's control at any moment; her spirit couldn't relax for a second.

A Si sized Su Mian up, and only after confirming she wasn't injured did he continue holding her and walking forward.

"Your little partners are very capable."

He shook the bell, and the living dead followed immediately. Su Mian sniffled, feeling a bit cold, and hugged A Si tighter.

Right now, the safest person was actually Su Mian.

In fact, the Su Mian of the past hated taking responsibility—any responsibility. Taking responsibility meant accepting all kinds of evaluations from the outside world, which made her anxious and uneasy.

Yet, when it was truly time to discuss who would become the bait, she stood up without even thinking.

Because of her ability, she became the character burdened with this heavy responsibility.

Experiencing too much had turned her from that cynical little character into a leader who took everything for granted. She began to enjoy leading to victory.

The glory brought by solving problems, however, had made her somewhat forget that there were still many, many people by her side.

Family, lover, and partners.

"Sorry, I dealt with some things and arrived a bit late."

Su Mian opened her mouth and suddenly felt a chill on the tip of her nose.

"It's raining."

She spoke, looking up at the sky. Bean-sized raindrops smashed down, immediately merging into a curtain of rain. Su Mian lifted the huge red bridal veil in her hand and covered both their heads with it.

She hadn't worn the red veil because only the color was needed to attract the monsters, but she had put it on just in case. Now, it had actually come in handy.

"You guys go back quickly, it's raining!"

Su Mian turned her head and shouted to the people behind her.

Qiao Yinuo's face was drenched by the rain to the point where sweat and rainwater were indistinguishable. She shook her head violently.

"No! It's too dark, you guys can't see the road."

Tiffany was also unusually stubborn and unwilling to leave. "I... I bought this prop with points, it would be a waste not to use it."

She smiled, just like the Tiffany of before—no matter the emotion, she always had a gentle appearance.

So Su Mian pursed her lips, silently noting this down, and stopped struggling with it.

It had to be said that A Si's arm strength was truly astonishing. Carrying her with one arm while walking on a mountain road, and shaking the bell with the other, he didn't show a hint of a frown even after walking for nearly half an hour.

She supported the veil with both hands, the golden tassels on the red edge of the veil gently brushing against the man's face, as if constructing a small world belonging only to the two of them. Su Mian's eyes curved.

"I actually quite want to see what you look like when your veil is lifted."

An unprovoked sentence. A Si raised an eyebrow and looked back at her.

"Do you want to see, or do you want to lift it?"

Su Mian blinked, not answering, but her slightly reddened ear tips had already exposed the owner's true thoughts.

A Si raised his hand and shook the bell again. Perhaps only these two could be so relaxed at a time like this.

A Si didn't expose Su Mian's thoughts, just looked at her with a fiery gaze. Those eyes were deep and bottomless, often containing a smile, but at this moment, they were incomparably serious.

"Of course you can."

A Si looked forward. "Mian Mian doesn't often make requests of me. If you have one, I will naturally satisfy it unconditionally."

He didn't think there was anything strange about that remark just now. Perhaps the girl was just having a sudden whim, or perhaps she liked him, which was why she wanted to do that. He would satisfy her, because she was his, and he was hers.

What Su Mian couldn't stand most was this gentle appearance of his; she could never handle it. She spoke as if to change the subject.

"These living dead... where did they pop out from?"

A Si shook his head. "Not clear. They are relatively low-level aliens. I dealt with them once a while ago; I don't know how so many were born again today."

Su Mian, however, suddenly grasped the key point in A Si's words. She repeated it. "A while ago?"

"A while ago... how long was that?"

She brought it up as if casually. A Si's footsteps paused, and he answered, "Last week."

Hearing his answer, Su Mian's hand hidden inside her sleeve tightened abruptly. Her throat felt tight, and she tried her best to control her expression.

"Oh..."

Su Mian nodded and didn't ask again.

The closer they got to the hall of Ya Shan Village, the dizzier Su Mian's head became. The calling she felt earlier when looking at the red wedding dress was now even louder.

But it was more of a murmur, a urging. Su Mian couldn't hear it clearly, only feeling her brain go dazed and her ears ringing incessantly.

A clap of thunder, and she stepped onto the ground, her body swaying.

A Si was gone.

The bell fell back into her hand. She turned back abruptly.

Aside from the monsters imprisoned by her bell, Tiffany and Qiao Yinuo were also gone. Except for the sound of the wind, the rain, and the monsters' hissing, it was abnormally quiet here.

The world became somewhat doubled. She shook the bell and felt a thread gently guiding her to walk forward.

Many shadows appeared around her, looking like ghosts, or perhaps something else. ===== CHAPTER 178 =====