Mutual Aid Association

In this world, there’s a curious rule: the more you deny a conclusion in front of the masses, the more they will affirm it. This is especially true when the conclusion is obvious in the eyes of the masses and highly aligns with what people want to believe, like “I didn’t cheat, I’m Lu Benwei,” “Creating Alibaba was my biggest mistake, I’m Jack Ma,” or “I only know a little magic, I’m Empress of the Competition.”

So, when the ignorant high school student called Ren Anhua a “little loli,” she didn’t offer any vehement rebuttals. She simply silently memorized his name, “Tang Yunxuan,” and made a mental note to reshape this kid’s worldview sometime.

Aside from being pulled into the car, Ren Anhua had no direct physical contact with the Mutual Aid Society members. The rest of the time, she sat on Shi Mu’s lap. Thanks to the training she had done while standing on Shi Mu’s head, she was now able to completely retract her healing field for a short period. However, this duration couldn’t be maintained for too long, just like holding one’s breath forever was impossible. At best, it could only be used in necessary, short-term situations.

For example, when that pretty lady suddenly grabbed her, Ren Anhua had almost reflexively retracted her healing field. After all, this ability was far too easy to expose. If someone were to discover that after merely touching this pink-haired loli, their injuries or even old scars completely vanished, anyone would become suspicious of the pink-haired one.

Fortunately, Shi Mu had gotten into the car quite quickly, giving Ren Anhua a place to sit. Although retracting the healing field to zero could only be maintained for a moment, Ren Anhua could still maintain a highly compressed field a few centimeters around her body for a long time. Reduced to this extent, she generally wouldn’t expose her ability unless someone insisted on touching her.

Shi Mu knew her inside and out.

He had been healed repeatedly while she was practicing her ability, so there wouldn’t be any problems.

Moreover, as a monk, Shi Mu, although a little strange in some ways, could indeed be described as someone with a pure and untainted mind.

Ren Anhua was very relieved about him and didn’t have to worry about him having any subtle thoughts about such “intimate” acts like other people might.

Although typically the back row of a car would comfortably fit three people, this off-road vehicle was exceptionally spacious.

Ren Anhua estimated that four adults could easily sit in it.

Moreover, there was also Ren Anhua in the back seat, and she only counted as half a person at most, so the space here seemed even more spacious.

This made that pretty lady feel a bit strange.

Why was this pink-haired girl still sitting on the monk’s lap when there was so much space?

But she couldn’t ask too many questions about other people’s affairs.

What if this pink-haired girl was the monk’s daughter?

Although it was a bit strange for a monk to have a daughter, it was the 21st century after all.

Surely the Buddhist community wasn’t as stubborn as it had been in ancient times; otherwise, who would join?

“Hello, my name is Liu Shi, and I’m a regular member of the Mutual Aid Society’s resource collection team,” the pretty lady introduced herself to Ren Anhua and Shi Mu, though when she looked at Ren Anhua, she had an expression like she was coaxing a child.

Because in her eyes, a pink-haired girl claiming to be a 25-year-old man was just a stubborn, strange child.

She just needed to coax her a little.

Ren Anhua didn’t care about these details.

Her mind was filled with the “Survivor Camp” and their boss named “Ren Anhua.”

However, although Ren Anhua didn’t respond to her, this woman named Liu Shi was very enthusiastic toward Ren Anhua, which didn’t match her cold and beautiful face at all.

Perhaps it was because women had a natural affinity for cute things, Liu Shi especially wanted to have a good relationship with Ren Anhua.

If she could hug her, touch her, and rub her, that would be the best.

“Xiao An, where are you from? Your hair is pink and so pretty, is it dyed? And your eyes are so cute, are those colored contacts? They look great on you.”

Liu Shi looked at Ren Anhua, seeming like she wanted to touch her but was too embarrassed to do so.

Hearing the name “Xiao An” triggered a reaction from Ren Anhua, reminding her of the RV team, of Bai Rui, Ke Xingmei, Ashe-wen…

Come to think of it, a large part of the reason why the RV team acted so rashly but never had anyone die was because they had a powerful healer like Ke Xiaoshan.

She wondered what the team would be like after she left.

Would anyone die as a result?

Thinking about this, Ren Anhua felt a sense of guilt.

She had left, but what she had taken was the only healing ability in their team.

Wasn’t this a bit too damaging to the team?

However, Ren Anhua quickly shattered these strange thoughts.

The team had kept her in the dark and deceived her for so long, even turning her into a girl, and also…

Yet now she was worrying about the team?

What was she doing?

She, Ren Anhua, wasn’t some saint.

If anything, it would be better if one or two of the team members died, so as to appease the resentment in her heart.

Forget it, they shouldn’t die.

The people on the team were actually quite to Ren Anhua’s liking; otherwise, she wouldn’t have chosen to join them in the first place.

If it weren’t for the deception, they might have become good friends.

Regarding the RV team, Ren Anhua was actually quite conflicted.

On one hand, she was a little worried that something might happen to the team because they didn’t have a healer.

On the other hand, she was extremely angry because of the team’s deception.

However, what she didn’t know was that Ke Xingmei’s biological ability also had a certain degree of healing effect.

Her worries were largely unnecessary.

“I used to work in the city. After the apocalypse broke out, I was a boss in the East Suburbs of Pingding County. Then I met a group of perverted Awakened, and then I became like this. My hair isn’t dyed, and my eyes aren’t colored contacts. They’re all the result of partial biological modification,” Ren Anhua briefly answered Liu Shi’s questions.

Liu Shi automatically skipped over the words “work” and “boss,” and then, based on Ren Anhua’s answers, imagined a whole drama.
A lonely and helpless girl.

After the apocalypse broke out, she barely managed to escape from the dangerous city to the relatively safe suburbs.

But then she was caught by a group of psychologically deranged Awakened, who performed all sorts of strange modifications on her.

The girl felt despair in her heart, but she still looked for opportunities to escape.

Finally, she met a monk who cultivated purity.

For her, such a person was the most reassuring, because, having been tormented, she could no longer easily trust anyone.

“How pitiful,” Liu Shi looked at Ren Anhua with a sorrowful expression, leaving the pink-haired girl in a daze.

Actually, it had to be said that Liu Shi’s sixth sense was quite powerful.

She had actually guessed about eight or nine out of ten things.

Especially the fact that the current Ren Anhua couldn’t easily trust others.

This was why Ren Anhua was being so careful not to reveal that she possessed a healing ability to the Mutual Aid Society.

In the post-apocalyptic world, getting injured was a common occurrence.

It wasn’t just the risk of being bitten by zombies; there were also struggles with people, injuries from falling while escaping, accidental bone fractures, and forced amputations.

The probability of these things happening in the apocalypse wasn’t low.

When encountering such people, would Ren Anhua help them or not?

If she helped one, there would be a second.

With a second, there would be a crowd of people.

In the apocalypse, even the smallest injury could lead to death.

No one wanted to survive the apocalypse with injuries.

Everyone wanted a perfectly healthy body.

They would swarm to Ren Anhua like locusts, seeking treatment, and then use human nature as a weapon to force her to spend a large amount of energy flow to repair their bodies.

Unless she provided treatment to people she trusted, it was likely to trigger a swarm of requests.

For example, Shi Mu.

He followed the rules and had no malice toward others.

Or rather, he was actually good by nature.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have helped clear the zombies that had surrounded them on the street.

At the very least, if it was convenient for him, he would choose to give others some help.

Apart from the fact that his way of “persuading people to do good” was a bit strange, and that he occasionally chased after others to deliver them to the afterlife, he was still a qualified monk.

If anything, these qualities he possessed should be considered strengths in this apocalypse, which was why he had gained Ren Anhua’s trust and was acting as her teammate.

But this kind of trust was difficult to give to others casually.

Another important reason why Shi Mu had gained Ren Anhua’s trust was that Ren Anhua desperately needed a strong teammate at the time to cope with potential human enemies, and Shi Mu just happened to fit this criteria.

His nature was also quite to Ren Anhua’s liking, which was why he had gained her trust.

Now that Ren Anhua already had a Shi Mu, and her ability was in the process of being steadily developed, the need to give trust to others had disappeared.

Unless a person appeared who could move her through sheer personality and behavior, the difficulty was quite high.

But Liu Shi didn’t know any of this.

She had simply shifted from wanting to have a good relationship with this cute girl to feeling pity for the tragic experiences the girl had faced.

Unfortunately, Ren Anhua was not someone who needed pity.

The off-road vehicle drove quickly, and soon they arrived at what Chen Shu called the “Mutual Aid Society Base.”

This was an old residential area, and most of the houses were single-family homes.

If the requirements were low, they could also be described as “villas.”

Of course, the cement houses built by ordinary people didn’t meet those standards in terms of interior decoration.

Various wooden planks were used as roads between the houses.

This was easy to understand.

In this post-apocalyptic world, there was a risk of encountering zombies whenever you went out.

For ordinary people, only within the walls was a safe zone.

The self-built houses used by the Mutual Aid Society were concentrated in one area, so that the various members could communicate with each other.

These houses were located around a place called the “Lifeng County Children’s Palace,” and each had wooden planks leading to this Children’s Palace.

The Children’s Palace occupied a large area.

Entering through the gate, there was a spacious courtyard, which was a place for students to do outdoor activities.

Following that was a five-story cement building facing the courtyard, with various childish drawings on the walls.

But it looked like it hadn’t been maintained or painted in a long time.

Many places revealed the original wall, and the patterns were stained with a layer of decay.

These things appeared in these childish drawings, creating a vague sense of vicissitude and sadness.

The people in the yard clearly recognized this vehicle and immediately opened the large iron gate after seeing it arrive.

“Ugh, we’re finally here. I was about to die holding it in. Quick, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Tang Yunxuan eagerly opened the car door and jumped out as soon as they entered the yard.

Seeing the urgent appearance of this stinky kid who had called her a “little loli,” Ren Anhua suddenly realized that an opportunity had come.

“Oh, perfect, I’m going to the bathroom too,” Ren Anhua followed him.