Published: February 5, 2025
Qin Yu waited outside the door, feeling a bit anxious, but he dared not show any dissatisfaction. He smiled and nodded at the two guards at the entrance.
There was no choice; before the apocalypse, he was just a mid-level official in a government office. In a municipal center where higher-level officials were everywhere, he was an inconspicuous small figure.
If he had to say what made him stand out, it was that he had a good father and a beautiful wife, who was also quite famous for her beauty.
His wife was an exceptionally outstanding female armed police officer who had received many awards and accomplished numerous feats.
Because of this, even the provincial governor knew his name.
However, after a while of showing off, Qin Yu began to feel something was off. When others introduced him, they would always add, "Xia Lei’s husband."
Before marriage, when introducing Qin Yu, they would say he was the eldest son of Secretary Qin. After marriage, it changed to "Xia Lei’s husband."
This feeling of being overlooked made Qin Yu uncomfortable and eventually drove him a bit mad.
Before the apocalypse, he wanted to get rid of this appendage to his identity, but before he could achieve anything, the apocalypse struck.
On that day, his father mutated into a zombie, and his wife was on duty at the armed police headquarters. Suddenly, both of his halos disappeared, and Qin Yu felt an unprecedented sense of relief. However, reality crushed him.
He realized that without his father and wife, he was truly nothing.
He no longer enjoyed the privileges his father brought nor the envy his wife garnered. He was utterly powerless, struggling even to find food.
Fortunately, he understood how to build relationships. By doing odd jobs for one of Director Wang’s trusted subordinates, he managed to scrape together some food and water.
But Qin Yu's life was far from good. That subordinate treated him with disdain, constantly hitting and berating him. In peacetime, that subordinate was just a temporary worker, lacking the qualifications to even speak to someone like Qin Yu, a mid-level official. Now, he had become an evolver and Director Wang's trusted aide, deriving pleasure from torturing Qin Yu.
Qin Yu endured humiliation not only in this aspect; it was the same outside.
As magic crystals were continuously obtained, the number of evolvers in the base increased. These evolvers wielded absolute power, enjoying the best food and treatment, treating ordinary people with contempt. They would tease others when in a good mood and resort to violence when in a bad one. In the past few days, Qin Yu had been beaten three times. Although the evolvers didn’t go all out, he was left with bruises all over, almost no good place on him.
Qin Yu decided to venture out, hoping to acquire some magic crystals or at least find some food and water—a full meal would do.
However, after his first outing, he discovered something significant: he saw hope for obtaining Evolution Potions.
Unfortunately, after arriving there full of hope to meet the top leaders of the base, Director Wang and Chef Jin, he was told to wait outside while Meng Fangcai entered alone.
Though disappointed, Qin Yu felt there might still be hope. After all, he and Meng Fangcai had discovered this together, so any rewards should include him.
After a while, Meng Fangcai came out. Seeing Qin Yu still there, he looked at him oddly, nodded slightly, and left coldly. This left Qin Yu a bit bewildered, wondering what had happened; they hadn’t exchanged a word.
He gritted his teeth and decided to go in to meet the two leaders. He had always been good at flattery, and the harrowing experiences of the past few days had made him forget about being shy.
After handing over a crumpled pack of cigarettes to the guards, the two agreed to report inside. Qin Yu rubbed his hands in hope, and just half a minute later, the door opened again. The guards came out, along with Director Wang’s trusted aide, who immediately slapped Qin Yu, sending several of his teeth flying and causing him to fall onto a chair in the corridor.