At present, Tian Xiaoyu still needed Zhang Hao as her teammate.
She couldn't guarantee her survival in this apocalyptic world all by herself.
So, even though Zhang Hao was someone she disliked, having him as a teammate at least meant there was someone to rely on.
But now, Zhang Hao was giving her an unexpected sense of unease.
Tian Xiaoyu couldn't shake the feeling that one day, Zhang Hao would try something with her.
Several times before, it was only because she had firmly refused that he hadn't acted.
Otherwise, Zhang Hao, who had always had impure thoughts, would have already taken advantage of her.
Today, things had almost come to a head, and it left Tian Xiaoyu feeling anxious.
If only her teammate were Chen Du instead…
Tian Xiaoyu opened the chat window with Chen Du and, almost instinctively, typed out a message: "Chen Du, it would be so much better if you were by my side."
…
For the past few days, Chen Du had been trading with other survivors for information.
Around the villa area, the number of survivors had been increasing, causing a sharp decline in the availability of resources.
That's why he had resorted to buying information.
The upside was that most of the intel being sold was about silver - tier supply crates or small groups of zombies, which suited Chen Du perfectly.
By trading some basic supplies—like bread and water—he could get information on silver - tier, or even occasionally gold - tier, resources. Chen Du didn't feel like he was losing out at all; in fact, he considered it a great deal.
However, gold - tier supplies were still too rare.
Since he had last acquired a gasoline generator, he hadn't come across any intel on gold - tier supply crates.
Of course, it was also possible that other organized groups had already gotten to them first.
After all, the survivor teams, with Sheriff's group being the most prominent, were everywhere now.
So, Chen Du was sipping on a drink, scrolling through the chat channel, carefully reading every message to make sure he didn't miss anything.
Ding!
A private message notification popped up—it was from Tian Xiaoyu.
Lately, Tian Xiaoyu had been keeping in touch with Chen Du.
She had been trading some of her limited supplies with him for daily necessities.
A bundle of firewood for twenty loaves of bread, two lighters for ten bottles of water, and so on.
The two of them had rekindled their old school friendship and were as familiar with each other as they had been in the past.
But when Chen Du opened the chat and saw the message, he nearly spat out his soda.
The ambiguous tone of the message caught him completely off guard.
It also made his mind wander.
Chen Du blinked, glancing subtly at Xie Li, who had just gone upstairs.
Then, with a straight face, he replied with a single question mark: "?"
The message was marked as read.
Almost immediately, Tian Xiaoyu's message was retracted.
When she had sent the message to Chen Du, almost as if in a trance, Tian Xiaoyu had been lost in thought, reminiscing about the past.
It wasn't until Chen Du's reply came through, with its notification sound, that she snapped out of it.
Seeing what she had sent, Tian Xiaoyu quickly hit the retract button.
Fortunately, the message hadn't been sent for long, so it could still be retracted.
If it hadn't been possible, she would have felt too embarrassed to face Chen Du ever again.
Blushing, Tian Xiaoyu sent an explanation: "Sorry, I typed the wrong thing…"
Chen Du couldn't help but find it amusing.
"Are you looking to trade supplies with me again today?"
Tian Xiaoyu pressed her lips. "Can't I just talk to you? Is our relationship only about trading now?"
Reading the message, Chen Du could almost feel Tian Xiaoyu's frustration.
It was kind of funny.
Chen Du quickly deflected with a joke: "Haha, of course not. We're classmates, after all. You can talk to me anytime. I can even be your emotional trash can sometimes."
"But it'll cost you extra."
Tian Xiaoyu sighed.
So, he really only sees me as a friend, huh…
But then again, that's what made Chen Du different from other guys.
She knew she was good - looking.
Tian Xiaoyu had been aware of that for a long time.
Since she was young, the boys in her class had been too shy to talk to her.
Love letters from boys in other classes had piled up one after another.
When she was younger, she might have felt a little proud of it.
But as she grew older, Tian Xiaoyu started to feel that the boys around her were too shallow.
She wasn't interested in them.
Until she met Chen Du.
He was the first boy who seemed completely indifferent to her.
Previously, there had been others who appeared indifferent, but they were just pretending to attract her attention.
At first, Tian Xiaoyu thought Chen Du was like those boys.
But as time went by, she realized that Chen Du really had no other thoughts about her.
Unfortunately, this boy seemed not to like her.
Coming from a poor family, he had no time for romance and only wanted to succeed.
Tian Xiaoyu remembered when she once asked Chen Du what kind of partner he planned to find in the future, and he just sent back a playful and self - deprecating animated sticker.
"I don't have time to listen to stupid love stories now. All I want to do now is make money!"