Her voice broke off there, and she could not finish the sentence.

The child, hearing the word thank you, suddenly looked up with tearful eyes and said in a tiny voice, "Thank you, big sister."

Bai Li’s expression stayed cool, but her eyes softened a little. The taller woman quickly introduced herself after catching her breath. Her name was Xu Wei, and the smaller woman was her wife, Shen Qiao. The child was their daughter, Xiao Yu. They had both worked in a small private design office before the apocalypse. Xu Wei handled operations and logistics, while Shen Qiao worked in illustration and visual design. They had been together for years, and after struggling through family pressure, gossip, and all the ugly looks that came with being a couple who did not fit other people’s expectations, they had finally built a small life together. Xiao Yu was their adopted child, a little girl they had taken in from a relative who could no longer keep her. The three of them had not lived an easy life even before the zombies. They had already learned how to survive other people before the world ended. Now they were just trying to survive the dead too.

Hearing that, Bai Li was quiet for a moment.

She did not usually help strangers on the street. In a world like this, kindness had to be weighed against danger. But this time felt different. Maybe it was because they were both women, and Bai Li could see at a glance how hard they had been trying to protect each other and the child. Maybe it was because the way Xu Wei stood in front of Shen Qiao and Xiao Yu reminded her of some quiet kind of loyalty that did not need words. Bai Li did not fully know why, but she had made the choice already, and she did not regret it.

She bent down and reached into her bag. From inside, she took out two kukri and handed them to Xu Wei. Then she pulled out two bottles of water and a bag of snacks and put them into Xu Wei’s arms.

Xu Wei stared at the things for a second, then hurriedly took them with both hands. Her eyes went red immediately. "This, this is too much. We cannot take all of this."

"Take it," Bai Li said flatly. "You need it more than me right now."

Shen Qiao hurriedly bowed her head too. "Thank you. Really, thank you. We will remember this forever."

Bai Li looked at Xu Wei and said, her voice still cold and calm, "If you can, go to the military base or any other safe place. Do not keep wandering outside. This world is not stable anymore. If you want to live, you have to get stronger. You cannot rely on other people for survival."

Xu Wei nodded seriously while clutching the bottles and weapons. Her eyes were still wet, but the look on her face had changed. It was no longer only fear. It had become the look of someone who had just been handed a reason to keep going. She clearly loved Shen Qiao very much, and the way she kept one arm around her wife and one hand on the child made that plain enough. She listened to Bai Li with complete attention, not missing a single word.

Bai Li glanced at the child, then back at the two women. "Also, do not trust other people easily. Not strangers, not neighbors, not even people who act nice. Especially you two. You are women. Men will see you as easier targets. That is how it is in this kind of world. You need to be careful."

Xu Wei’s jaw tightened a little, but she did not argue. She nodded again, more firmly this time. Shen Qiao also nodded, holding Xiao Yu close. She had probably already seen enough of the world to know Bai Li was not being cruel. She was being realistic.

Bai Li was quiet for a second longer. Then, maybe because she had already started speaking, maybe because she felt a strange kind of kinship, she decided to tell them one more thing.

"There is something else."

Xu Wei and Shen Qiao both looked up immediately.

Bai Li said, "After killing zombies, you may find a crystal core in the zombie brain. If you consume it, it can make you stronger. If you have the right potential, it may even awaken a power. Do not tell this to other people. Not a single word."

The two women blinked in surprise. Shen Qiao looked at Bai Li with wide eyes, then looked at Xu Wei, clearly wondering if she had heard correctly. Xu Wei, on the other hand, only took one breath before nodding with absolute seriousness. She did not look skeptical at all. She looked more like someone who had just been given a secret that could save their lives, and she intended to guard it carefully.

Bai Li saw their reaction and found it a little surprising, but also a little reassuring. Smart people could usually tell when someone was lying to them, and these two clearly understood that Bai Li had no reason to joke around at a time like this. They believed her immediately because the world itself had already become unbelievable. A rule that sounded crazy in the old world might be the difference between life and death now.

Xu Wei bowed her head deeply. "Thank you. We will never tell anyone."

Shen Qiao also nodded and held Xiao Yu tighter. "We believe you."

Bai Li looked at them for a moment longer, then turned her gaze toward the road ahead. She would not usually have gone out of her way to save people like this. But maybe it was because this was the first lesbian couple she had seen since the apocalypse started, and maybe it stirred something in her that felt close to recognition. She understood what it meant to live as people other people might judge before even knowing them.

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TO BE CONTINUED.