Yuche was already moving before Rouxi started to fall.

It wasn’t the fact that she had tried to kiss the ground with her eyes closed that made him move, it was the moment before it, when she looked up at him with a brief hint of panic in her eyes.

He had seen it before when his men were at their limit, when they couldn’t so much as lift an arm, let alone take a swing. So, by the time her knees actually gave out, he had already stepped in close enough to catch her against his chest.

But not everyone was appreciative of his efforts. The baby vine hissed violently at him the moment he touched Rouxi’s back.

Yuche looked down at the little monster curled around Rouxi’s neck and didn’t move an inch. He had seen what it could do to zombies, he wasn’t about to bet his life that it was harmless to humans.

He held his breath as its mouth opened wide enough to show too many white teeth for something that small. As if trying to prove a point, green venom started dripping from the tips of the teeth like the vine was fully prepared to make bad decisions.

For a long moment, Yuche thought it might actually try to kill him.

Then it stopped.

The vine’s leaves trembled once before it settled back against Rouxi. The plant might not have eyes, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still glaring at him like it was giving him one chance and one chance only.

"Smart choice," Yuche murmured as he adjusted Rouxi’s body so she was pressing even closer to his chest.

"Give her to me," Chenghai said immediately, already stepping forward.

"No," Yuche replied, his cold eyes turning toward Chenghai like he was tempting the other man to try and take Rouxi from him. But the word must have come out flat enough to make his point.

Chenghai stopped a few feet away.

Zhenlan’s expression changed too, calm shifting into something colder as his eyes moved from Rouxi’s unconscious face to Yuche’s arms around her. "Yuche."

Yuche lifted his gaze slowly. "We can either stand here arguing with each other," he started, his voice turning frosty, "or we can get Rouxi home and in bed. Where she should be after all this."

For a second, none of them moved.

Then Lingyun stepped between them with a crate of cores balanced against one hip and dried blood smeared across half his face. "As much as I enjoy the whole jealous caveman thing, he has a point. She just erased a battlefield, killed a giant laughing nightmare, made us dig through zombie skulls for shiny rocks, and then passed out. Maybe the cuddle rotation can wait until she is somewhere with blankets." He paused for a moment before he gave them a bone chilling smile. "And she can give consent."

Chenghai’s jaw flexed.

Zhenlan looked like he wanted to say something and was choosing not to.

Yuche didn’t care either way.

Rouxi’s head was resting against his shoulder, her breathing steady but too shallow for his liking. Up close, the exhaustion was easier to see. Her skin had gone paler than normal, and the faint line between her brows made it clear that even unconscious, she was still irritated about something.

Probably passing out.

That sounded like her.

"Get in the car," Zhenlan said finally.

Yuche carried her to the SUV without waiting for anyone else to decide anything. The baby vine stayed wrapped around her, watching all of them like a tiny guard dog from hell, and when Lingyun opened the back door, it snapped its teeth once in warning before allowing Yuche to settle in with Rouxi still in his arms.

Lingyun stared at it. "You know, I used to think you were kind of cute."

The vine hissed.

"I take it back."

"Stop antagonizing the murder plant," Chenghai muttered as he climbed into the front passenger seat.

"It started it."

"It has teeth and poison. Let it win. You aren’t losing by staying alive."

Lingyun looked like he wanted to argue, then glanced at Rouxi unconscious against Yuche’s chest and wisely shut his mouth.

Zhenlan started the SUV, and for the first few minutes, no one said anything. The crates of cores sat in the back, covered by a tarp they had found under the rear storage compartment, but the glow still leaked through in faint flashes whenever the vehicle shifted. Red, blue, white, yellow, orange, and that one black crystal Yuche still didn’t like thinking about.

"We need to get our story straight," Chenghai announced after they had been driving for several minutes.

His voice was low, controlled. "Wei Guang is going to have questions about what we did for the day, and I am pretty sure that none of us are going to want to tell him the truth."

"What truth?" Lingyun replied, his smile more teeth than humor. "That the girl they think is the weakest can kill them without trying? That if they turn off her internet or Netflix, he is dead before he knows what hit him? That he wouldn’t even have to dig his own grave? Yeah, I don’t see them believing that. Do you?"

Zhenlan’s hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel. "Then what will they believe?"

"Rouxi wanted to go shopping," Yuche said, looking down at the woman still sleeping in his arms. "But she was more in the mood for jewels than anything else. When we got done with the jewelry stores, we came home." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Chenghai didn’t argue with the story. The best lies had enough truth in them to make people overlook a lot of things.

After all, Rouxi had gone out for jewels. They just weren’t the kind anyone would put behind glass counters or in gold rings.

"And if they ask if we came across any zombies?" Chenghai asked. "We are covered in blood after all."

Lingyun leaned his head back against the seat, his expression going blank in a way that looked almost bored. "We dealt with them while Rouxi hid under a counter until it was safe."

Zhenlan’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. "Will she be okay if everyone thinks she is weak?"

Yuche looked down at Rouxi again. The woman had just made the earth swallow a battlefield and then complained about potholes. She had taken a Butcher’s core without looking at it, treated a Banshee like a fussy infant, and still somehow packed snacks like the worst thing that could happen was missing lunch.

"Oh yeah," he muttered. "If it comes down to being weak and watching TV or being strong and having to save the world, which choice do you think she’d pick?"

The four men chuckled softly under their breath even as Zhenlan started to slow the vehicle down.

They might not recognize this version of Rouxi completely, but even they knew not to mess with her dramas.

The military blockade came into view through the windshield, more crowded than it had been when they left. Floodlights swept across the road, catching on the SUV’s hood before sliding over the windshield. Soldiers immediately emerged from multiple points, their weapons coming up before they seemed to recognize the vehicle.

Wei Guang appeared a few seconds later.

He looked at the SUV.

Then at the blood covering all four men.

Then at Rouxi, clean and unconscious in Yuche’s arms.

His face went very still.

Zhenlan rolled down the window before Wei could speak.

"We need to quarantine you all and check for injuries," Wei announced, his eyes never leaving the bloody bodies of the four men.

"The fuck you are."