“I…I’ll go!”

These two words tumbled from Su Wan’s lips.

Lu Shiyan’s silence bore a heavy weight, pressing down on her, the invisible aura of bloodshed so thick it almost solidified.

She knew very well there was only one outcome for defiance—death.

Immediately, right now.

Outside the door, those roaring monsters, perhaps, still offered a glimmer of hope.

The living room was dead silent; the servants even lightened their breathing, watching Su Wan move.

Her face was ashen, every step like treading on knife-tips as she edged towards the constantly vibrating door, which seemed ready to burst open at any moment.

The onlookers’ gazes rested on her back, filled with pity, fear, and even a sense of relieved gratitude.

Fortunately, the person being pushed out to feed the monsters wasn’t them.

Lu Shiyan remained perfectly still, standing in the center of the living room, a perfectly measured distance away.

Su Wan stepped out of the villa, into the garden, and reached the main gate, her back pressing hard against the cold metal door.

Her palms were slick and cold, drenched in sweat.

Outside the door, the roars from decaying throats and the screeching of sharp nails scratching the door, each sound, each scrape, hammered at her eardrums and heart.

The Swiss army knife was clutched in her hand, but the sweat made the handle slippery, almost causing it to slip from her grasp.

Su Wan steeled herself, gritting her teeth, and abruptly pulled back the bolt!

“Whoosh—”

A withered, decaying arm was the first to reach in, its five fingers twisted, frantically clawing at the air.

Immediately following, a swollen, deformed face covered in purplish-black corpse spots squeezed through!

The stench of putrid flesh mixed with something indescribably foul rushed into her nostrils, instantly churning her stomach.

Su Wan desperately suppressed the urge to vomit and the drumming in her chest.

She caught the zombie’s extremely brief pause as it was squeezed through the door crack.

“Pfft!”

She unleashed all her strength, aiming the small Swiss army knife at the zombie’s hollow eye socket, and plunged it in with all her might!

A dull thud, accompanied by a splash of murky, foul-smelling liquid, splattered onto her face and neck.

The sensation was nauseating; her skin felt as if it had been scalded by something filthy, the stench shot straight to her head, and her stomach churned violently.

The zombie’s movements abruptly froze, a final, meaningless “ho-ho” sound escaping its throat before it slumped down.

But outside the door, there was more than one!

With hardly a pause, a second zombie, roaring even more ferociously, slammed into the door crack with greater force!

She tried to pull out the knife, but found the blade deeply embedded in the first zombie’s skull, stuck, and she couldn't pull it out for a moment!

The second zombie had already squeezed in half its body, its black, gaping maw open, foul-smelling drool dripping, lunging straight at her!

The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything else.

She subconsciously extended her empty left hand towards the lunging monster, with only one thought in her mind—push it away! Get lost!

An invisible force, extremely faint yet real, surged from her palm.

The zombie’s forward lunge actually experienced an almost imperceptible delay, as if it had hit an invisible, intangible membrane!

It was merely a flick of a finger!

Her body reacted faster than her thoughts.

Su Wan used that faint resistance to stumble back a step, taking out another Tang Dao from her spatial storage.

She gripped the Tang Dao with both hands, aimed at the second zombie’s other intact eye, and stabbed with all her might!

There was another teeth-grinding thud.

The second zombie also slumped, collapsing onto its companion’s corpse.

Two decaying bodies lay intertwined, completely blocking the door crack.

A thick, suffocating stench of blood and decay permeated the air, rushing to her head.

Her stomach churned even more violently.

Su Wan could no longer suppress it, bending over sharply, letting out a “wah” as she emptied the contents of her stomach, even retching out bitter bile.

Her legs felt like they were filled with lead, no longer able to support her body.

She slid down the wall, slumping onto the cold, dirty floor.

Her face was wet; she raised a hand to wipe it away.

It was cold liquid.

It turned out, she had been crying without realizing it.

Indeed, ever since transmigrating into this damned book, which day hadn't she struggled on the brink of despair and death? Her taut nerves had long become fragile.

Su Wan stiffly raised her head, looking towards the living room entrance.

Lu Shiyan had walked over at some point.

He stood a few steps away, quietly observing her disheveled state.

The gaze fixed on her seemed to hold something more than before, heavy, with scrutiny.

Su Wan leaned on the rough wall, trembling, barely supporting herself to stand.

Her legs were still uncontrollably shaking.

She lowered her head, avoiding his gaze, her voice hoarse from exhaustion and lingering fear: “…It’s handled.”

Lu Shiyan did not respond.

He stepped forward, walking directly past her.

He lifted his foot, clad in expensive leather shoes, and kicked the piled-up zombie corpses by the door aside, as if kicking away roadside trash, his movements casual yet disgusted.

He looked outside the door.

There, a few more zombies, hearing the commotion, began to shamble towards the gate, attempting to break in.

Lu Shiyan merely raised his hand.

There were no superfluous movements; one couldn’t even clearly see what he did.

A dazzling electric light suddenly flared, tearing through the air like a silver serpent, instantly engulfing the few lunging zombies.

It crackled and popped.

The smell of charring mixed with decay became even more intense.

When the electric light dissipated, those zombies had already turned into smoking char, lying on the ground, twitching slightly, then falling silent.

He reached out and pulled shut the already deformed, scratch-marked main door, producing a grating metallic screech.

He casually picked up a heavy metal bar leaning against the wall and forcefully propped the door shut from the inside.

“It seems you’re more useful than I imagined.”

He turned back, looking down at Su Wan, who was almost unable to stand.

His tone was flat, revealing no emotion.

Su Wan still kept her head down, cold sweat soaking the fabric on her back, clinging to her skin, icy and sticky.

She could feel his gaze on her, making her intensely uncomfortable.

There was a moment of silence.

Lu Shiyan’s voice sounded again, this time as soft as a sigh.

“For the child, you have to try to survive, don’t you?”

The gentle words fell, yet they sent a shiver down Su Wan’s spine.

He paused, then took another step closer.

He was almost directly in front of her, exuding an invisible sense of oppression.

His cold, crisp scent enveloped her.

“So, why did you lie just now?”

With a buzzing sound, something seemed to explode in Su Wan’s mind.

So, he knew everything.

Her clumsy excuse about being late earlier was merely a transparent performance in front of him; he had always known what she was doing in the room.

The two still-warm zombie corpses at the door were the punishment.

The punishment came so swiftly, so bloodily.

A chill crept up her spine, freezing her limbs and bones.

“So…have you learned your lesson?”

His voice was devoid of inflection, as if stating a simple fact.

Su Wan felt her throat terribly dry; she swallowed, but couldn’t make any sound.

She could only numbly nod.

Just then, outside the villa’s high wall, a clear roar of a car engine suddenly sounded!