Cheng Jing stood there, stunned. She never imagined Jiang Si would tell her to go die.

’She couldn’t understand. They were both women, so why didn’t Jiang Si have an ounce of sympathy? How could she be so vicious!’

Cheng Jing gritted her teeth, unwilling to give up so easily.

’The men on the boat aren’t interested in me, which means they’re decent people. As long as I can get on board, they definitely won’t bully me.’

’Jiang Si is only telling me to die because she’s jealous of my looks. She’s afraid I’ll get on the boat and steal her thunder.’

’If I just show them I have the guts to die, they’ll have to look at me with new respect!’

Cheng Jing clenched her fists and ground her back teeth, spitting out a threat at Jiang Si. "Fine, then! I’ll die right here for you to see!"

Jiang Linhai frowned. Worried that Jiang Si would feel guilty if Cheng Jing actually died, he asked in a low voice, "Sisi, why don’t we just run her off and be done with it?"

Jiang Si had seen plenty of these parasitic types in the apocalypse. She shook her head. "She’s not going to die."

Since Jiang Si was so certain, Jiang Linhai decided to drop it.

Cheng Jing walked into the water, step by step. When her eyes met Jiang Si’s mocking gaze, she felt utterly humiliated. Gritting her teeth, she waded a few more meters forward.

She wasn’t very tall, and there was silt underfoot. When the water reached her waist, a disorienting feeling of weightlessness washed over her, and her fear was plain to see.

The daytime temperature had been in the twenties, but now that it was almost dark, it had plummeted to the low teens. The water was even colder. After just a little while, Cheng Jing was shivering uncontrollably.

She hugged herself, repeatedly casting helpless, pitiful glances toward the handsome Qin Shen.

To Qin Shen, she was just an eyesore. He’d rather be cutting up feed for the little animals.

He glanced at Jiang Si, confirmed he wasn’t needed, and turned away without a second thought. In that instant, Cheng Jing’s heart shattered like glass.

Cheng Jing had a stubborn streak, though. Deciding to go all in, she dunked her head under the water.

’She refused to believe they could really be so unmoved.’

To make her "suicide attempt" more convincing, Cheng Jing thrashed and struggled with all her might, trying to arouse everyone’s pity.

The splashing and the bubbles rising to the surface were indeed an agonizing sight.

Jiang Si remained unmoved, and the others were even less inclined to meddle.

She held her breath to its absolute limit. A crushing sense of suffocation pressed on her chest. Hating Jiang Si with every fiber of her being, she shot out of the water with a WHOOSH, pointed a finger, and wailed, "You’re just too cruel!"

Jiang Si scoffed, raising her gun to scare her. "You don’t even know what true cruelty is!"

The killing intent in Jiang Si’s eyes was all too real.

Cheng Jing suddenly lost her nerve. True, she was living in a thatched hut, but ever since she’d been with Qiu Lei, he had done his utmost to give her the best of everything. He made sure she was well-fed and warmly clothed, protected her from being bullied, and even let her order others around. She enjoyed the same treatment as a chieftain’s wife.

With Jiang Si about to kill her, Cheng Jing suddenly decided she didn’t want to die. She began scrambling for the shore, screaming, "Help! Help! Qiu Lei, hurry and save me—"

The silt under her feet gave way, trapping her.

She was stuck, and the more she struggled, the deeper she sank.

Big Black suddenly bared its fangs and let out a vicious roar, as if about to tear its prey to shreds.

This time, Cheng Jing was truly frightened into tears. She looked up and pleaded with Jiang Si, "I was wrong! I don’t want to get on the boat anymore, just let me go—"

’She was terrified that Jiang Si would kill her before she could even get to her feet.’

Jiang Si narrowed her eyes and briskly chambered a round. Cheng Jing’s heart seized. Just as despair set in, Qiu Lei burst out of the reeds, jumped into the water, and swept Cheng Jing into his arms. He coaxed her in a voice as soft as water, "Jingjing, don’t be afraid. I’m here, I’m here..."

The two of them, clinging to each other in the water, looked like a pair of star-crossed lovers.

Jiang Si looked at Cheng Jing cowering in the man’s embrace and found the sight deeply ironic.

Lu Zhifeng must have also seen Qiu Lei as a fool who’d fallen for the wrong person, because he shouted, "Control your woman! Not everyone is hers to seduce!"

Cheng Jing’s face went from red to white, as if she’d just been slapped, the shame stinging hot.

Terrified that Jiang Si would use the gun to call her out, she didn’t dare say a single word of protest.

Qiu Lei either didn’t believe Cheng Jing was that kind of person, or perhaps he simply didn’t have time to sort out the truth. He picked her up and ran back.

The reed leaves scraped Cheng Jing’s skin raw, but she was afraid Qiu Lei would settle the score with her later, so she gritted her teeth and didn’t make a sound.

Back at their camp in the reeds, Qiu Lei, panting, carried her into their reed-thatched shelter. In the dark, he checked her body. "Are you hurt? Why did you run over there?"

Qiu Lei’s rough hands on her delicate skin sent a tingling shiver through her. Cheng Jing hugged him tight and murmured coquettishly, "I’m cold..."

Qiu Lei quickly took off her reed clothes and cupped her ice-cold hands, pressing his powerful body against hers to warm her up.

Qiu Lei treated her as tenderly as ever. Cheng Jing, slightly relieved, pressed against his chest and sobbed like a kitten. "That woman on the boat, she kidnapped me... She bullied me for fun... And the men just stared at me... They said I was trying to seduce them... I wasn’t... I really wasn’t... Qiu Lei, you have to believe me... Please don’t leave me..."

Qiu Lei’s heart ached for her. He hugged her as tightly as he could, as if she were a priceless treasure he had just recovered.

Cheng Jing could barely breathe. She pounded on his chest with her fists, complaining resentfully, "What took you so long? I almost died!"

Qiu Lei kissed her. "It’s okay now, it’s okay..."

"How is it okay? That woman is vicious! This time, she played with us like mice and let us go, but what about next time? What if you’re late again? Darling, I’m so scared..."

Qiu Lei wanted to avenge Cheng Jing, but those people had guns; they couldn’t afford to provoke them. All he could do was make empty boasts. "One day, I’ll make them regret what they did today!"

A cold glint flashed in Cheng Jing’s eyes. In a voice that sounded utterly harmless, she said, "Darling, I noticed there aren’t that many of them. It’s not like there’s no way to make them regret this right now!"

Qiu Lei froze. "What way?"

"It’ll be dark. We can find a way to burn their boats, force them out, and then lead them into the traps we dig. That’s the only way to guarantee we won’t just be lambs to the slaughter here."

"Once they fall into the traps, we’ll have their guns. Then, if anyone ever dares to mess with us here again, we won’t have to take it!"

Qiu Lei hesitated. He was worried it wouldn’t be that easy to set the fire, and he also lamented the loss of the yacht and the steamboat. They might have a lot of supplies on them; it would be a terrible waste to burn them.

Cheng Jing mumbled, "If we burn the boats, some things on board might still be salvageable. If we don’t, we’ll have nothing, and our lives will still be in their hands."

"Do you really want to see me get bullied? Do you even love me?"

Qiu Lei looked like he wanted to tear out his own heart to prove his love. He gritted his teeth. "Alright! We’ll do it your way!"

Satisfied, Cheng Jing provocatively traced her fingers across Qiu Lei’s chest. ’When I get my hands on Jiang Si, I’ll make her pay back today’s humiliation twofold!’

Since Jiang Si’s group planned to settle there, they needed to scout the local terrain.

Qin Shen went out for a look and quickly got a clear picture of the surrounding reed beds.

The makeshift village, led by Qiu Lei, had a total of over thirty people. There were fifteen young, able-bodied men, and the rest were women, children, and the elderly—all survivors from the surrounding towns.

Everyone has the right to survive. As long as they minded their own business, Jiang Si was willing to coexist peacefully.

But some people were just asking to die.

Qiu Lei was leading his people to dig traps everywhere, acting as if Jiang Si’s group were completely oblivious.