“Chen Ye, did I say you could leave?”

Chen Ye had just started to rise when the pink-haired girl snatched at his pant leg, anchoring him to the spot.

He frowned slightly.

He wasn’t the type of man who lost the ability to walk just because a woman looked at him. Even if Nana was cute, and even if she was useful, his patience had limits.

But when Chen Ye looked down, he froze.

Nana’s large, watery eyes were brimming with unshed tears.

Under the crimson glow of the blood moon, she exuded a strange, pitiful beauty. It was a chaotic, intoxicating aesthetic—a lethal blend of wide-eyed innocence and raw, magnetic allure.

She wasn’t like the cold Zhou Xiaoxiao, nor the calculated Xu Lina.

To borrow a popular term from the internet era, she was the “Pinnacle of Pure Desire.”

Chen Ye had never seen this side of her.

Captain Chu Che, watching from the side, instantly perked up. His eyes, usually indifferent and calm, suddenly lit up like a starving dog spotting a meaty bone.

Chen Ye could practically see the flames of gossip roaring in the man’s pupils.

“Ahem… well… you two take your time chatting. I’m sleepy. I’ll go back and rest first.”

Damn it, Chen Ye thought. That was my line.

“Captain Chu, it’s not… it’s not what you think…” Chen Ye tried to protest.

“You old bastard…”

Chu Che chuckled, his expression ambiguous and knowing. “I understand. Don’t worry, no one will disturb you.”

“Chu Che, fuck off!”

Chen Ye tried to pry his leg free, but the girl was clinging to his thigh with the grip of a vice. He couldn’t leave without dragging her through the sand.

He suppressed his rising impatience.

She’s a teammate. She’s the convoy’s top fighter. She might be useful later.

Fine. I’ll be patient. Just for tonight.

“Nana, you’ve had too much to drink…”

“I haven’t… it’s not that much…” she slurred, her voice thick. “Chen Ye… listen to me…”

The girl struggled to prop herself up, leaning heavily against his shoulder. She reeked of alcohol. She hadn’t eaten much during dinner, choosing instead to drown whatever sorrows she was hiding.

And as everyone knew, when a drunk person started a sentence with “Listen to me,” there was a story coming.

“Chen Ye, do you know? Actually… actually, my name isn’t Nana. I’m Qianqian. Nana was my sister’s name. Sun Na…”

The moment Chu Che sensed a secret in the air, the outwardly upright but inwardly gossip-hungry Captain felt like eight hundred ants were crawling over his skin.

Captain Chu loved secrets.

Secrets often meant gossip.

However, Chu Che didn’t like hearing gossip face-to-face. He preferred to be an observer, not a participant.

He loved eavesdropping.

Listening to the hidden truths of others without their knowledge was his ultimate nourishment.

Chu Che made sure to tell Uncle Abao to keep everyone away from Chen Ye and Nana. Then, he retreated to his own off-road vehicle, locked the doors, and turned on his Eavesdropping Radio.

He even had time to brew a pot of Pu’er tea.

“Chen Ye, do you know?…”

Perhaps the battle with the Human-Faced Scorpion had torn open the scars of the girl’s deepest, darkest trauma.

Chen Ye didn’t speak. He sat quietly, playing the role of the listener.

But as the story unfolded, even his hardened heart was shaken.

Nana’s real name was Sun Qianqian. “Nana” was her older sister’s nickname.

If the apocalypse hadn’t happened, Sun Qianqian would be a freshman at a top university right now, living a carefree life in an ivory tower.

She came from a blissful family. Seven people living under one roof: grandparents, parents, her older sister, herself, and a little brother. They were wealthy and respected, living in a three-story European-style villa.

Her parents had high-paying jobs. Her sister was a graduate student with a bright future. Her little brother was mischievous but adorable.

It was a life anyone would envy. Sun Qianqian had felt blessed every single day.

Until the world changed.

She had received her university acceptance letter just the day before.

The next morning, she woke up to find her entire family crowded around the front door, staring at something in horror.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, wearing her cute bear-patterned nightgown, Qianqian joined them.

What she saw was a tree.

A colossal, nightmarish tree had grown in their front yard overnight. Its trunk was so thick it completely blocked the main entrance. The canopy smothered the entire villa in shadow.

Qianqian recognized it. It was just a landscape tree her grandfather had planted. But it shouldn’t have been this big.

Her father tried to climb out a window to get help.

That was the scene Sun Qianqian would never forget.

As her father dropped into the yard, the tree opened a massive maw on its trunk. Amidst her screams and the frozen gazes of her family, it swallowed her father whole.

“That tree… it was alive!”

“It… it ate him… it ate my…”

Tears the size of beans rolled down the girl’s cheeks. Her body trembled violently against him.

Chen Ye reached out, awkwardly patting her pink hair.

In his mind, however, gears were turning.

A tree again?

First the Great Willow in Longevity Village, and now this man-eating tree… Was there a connection?

The pink-haired girl lifted her beer can with shaking hands and took a massive gulp. Yellow liquid spilled, sliding down her fair neck and soaking the front of her shirt.

“That tree…”

After devouring her father, the Anomaly activated fully.

Its branches uncoiled like pythons, drilling through the walls and invading the house.

Grandmother. Grandfather. Mother. Little brother.

One by one, the branches ensnared them.

Like a patron at a buffet, the tree leisurely devoured her entire family right in front of her eyes.

Only she and her sister were left, huddled in a corner, shaking.

Qianqian’s mind had gone blank.

But her sister, Sun Nana, realized a cruel pattern: while the tree was chewing, it didn’t attack.

That realization led to a decision.

When the branches finally came for them, Sun Nana shoved her little sister away and let herself be taken.

She sacrificed herself to buy Qianqian the only chance of survival.

Watching her sister disappear into that maw, Qianqian broke. She stood there, stupidly, waiting to die.

But the tree stopped.

Instead of a branch, it extended a fruit. A fruit as bright red as fresh blood.

The enticing fragrance was overwhelming.

According to Qianqian, she didn’t know why, but she grabbed the fruit and devoured it like a beast.

“I tasted them…” she whispered, her voice trembling. “In that fruit… I tasted Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad… my sister… my brother…”

It was a grotesque description, but she swore it was true.

“Chen Ye, do you know why all of you are Sequence 1, but I am Sequence 2?”

By now, the girl was weeping uncontrollably, her face buried in her hands, her body limp as mud.

Chen Ye had already guessed the answer.

The fruit.

Inside the eavesdropping vehicle, Captain Chu Che’s face turned grim.

He was certain now. Nana—no, Sun Qianqian—had advanced so quickly because she had consumed the concentrated essence of her own blood kin.

“Heh… it was that fruit!”

“Chen Ye… I… I ate my… my whole family…”

Tears fell like rain.

She collapsed completely into Chen Ye’s arms, drained of all strength.

Chen Ye remained silent. He wasn’t good at comforting people. He never had been.

But saying nothing felt wrong.

After a long silence, he opened his mouth, his voice dry.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s the apocalypse. We’re all the same… everyone has lost people.”

It was a clumsy attempt at solace.

“I hate alcohol,” she sobbed. “I never touched a drop before. But if I don’t drink… I think. Every minute, every second, their faces are right in front of me!”

She looked up at him, her expression wretched.

Chen Ye wracked his brain. Comfort didn’t work. He needed something else.

“What’s the use of crying?” he said suddenly, his voice hardening. “The most important thing for you now isn’t sadness. It’s revenge!”

“Get strong. Then go back and chop that tree into firewood!”

In the distance, Chu Che face-palmed. Who comforts a crying girl like that?

But Sun Qianqian suddenly froze. She lifted her head.

The word “revenge” had never crossed her mind. The murderer was a tree. It seemed like a force of nature, inevitable and invincible.

But Chen Ye’s words kicked open a door in her mind.

Yes. So what if it’s a tree? Why can’t I kill it?

It ate my family. I can chop it down!

The light in Sun Qianqian’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, igniting like stars in the dark sky.

“Chen Ye! To the vehicle…”

“Huh?”

“You…”

“…”

The bloody moon in the sky seemed to shy away, hiding its face behind a drift of clouds.

Suddenly, the door of the pickup truck flew open.

Little Yu, the short survivor who had been sleeping nearby, scrambled out of the vehicle, cursing under his breath. His face was beet red.

“Damn it,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes furiously. “I’m gonna get a sty in my eye… I need to wash my eyes with bleach…”

Meanwhile, in the off-road vehicle.

Captain Chu Che ripped the headphones off his head as if they were burning him. He slammed the Eavesdropping Radio off, his expression twisting into one of utter scandal.

“My ears! They’re dirty! They’re tainted!”

“Bastards! Chen Ye, Sun Qianqian… you two… shameless! Absolute dog couple!”

Outside, the other survivors reacted differently.

Some chuckled coldly, understanding exactly what was happening.

Some wore lewd, knowing grins.

Only Xu Lina sat by the dying fire, her face so gloomy it looked like it could rain thunder and lightning.

As for Chen Ye?

For him, this was perfectly normal.

Sun Qianqian was over eighteen. She was an adult.

He wasn’t a saintly gentleman, nor was he Liu Xiahui, the man who could sit with a woman on his lap without a disorderly thought.

He was a man. She was a woman seeking release and connection.

Come morning, they would just act like this never happened.