Chapter Four: The Half Jade Pendant

Qin Yu gazed at the broken jade pendant in her hand, a bitter ache rising in her heart.

After chatting with her for a while, Xiao Meng had been pulled away by the doctor. Qin Yu gritted her teeth and let a few drops of blood fall onto the pendant, but nothing happened. Could everything Li Mo told her have been a lie...? She quickly dismissed the thought—she knew Li Mo well. Arrogant and proud, he wished the whole world could witness his skills. Especially in that situation, he had no reason to deceive her. So where had things gone wrong...?

Staring blankly at the jade pendant, Qin Yu tried to recall Li Mo’s odd behavior in his previous life.

Damn it! Nothing came to mind.

She felt a little defeated. Without a stasis space, no matter how many supplies she gathered, there would come a day when they spoiled. Gradually, her eyelids drooped. In a daze, she seemed to hear a voice murmuring, “When fate ends, fate is broken, when fate begins…” “I… soul… open… blood…”

When Qin Yu awoke again, the world outside was shrouded in darkness. On the bedside table, the porridge Xiao Meng had bought was still warm, and a note was left behind: Eat the porridge when you wake up. I’ll visit you tomorrow. Please rest well.

Qin Yu glanced out the window, her mind returning again and again to those mysterious words she’d heard in her half-sleep. Taking out the broken jade pendant, she caressed it carefully. Was it her imagination, or had the texture improved? The color seemed more vivid, too.

Recalling the strange words, Qin Yu found herself, almost involuntarily, dripping blood onto the pendant once more, softly murmuring, “I… soul… open…” Almost as soon as she finished, the jade pendant emitted a faint glow—gentle, not blinding. Qin Yu couldn’t help but smile at the radiant pendant, her spirit surging forward to envelop it eagerly.

Gradually, she saw a vast expanse—far grander than the three football fields Li Mo had described. It was endless, stretching beyond sight.

Qin Yu’s confusion only deepened. Not only had Li Mo somehow opened this space, but its size was entirely different. Had he lied to her...? She shook her head again. Perhaps something had changed with her rebirth. Whatever the case, the larger the space, the greater her hope of surviving the apocalypse. For now, gathering supplies was the most important thing.

Over the years, she had managed to save over a million yuan from her job. Though Li Mo was an illegitimate child, his father had never been stingy—if anything, he’d always been generous. That was why Qin Yu had over a million in her bank account. If she sold her house, she could net another million or so, though it was the last thing her parents had left her.

But with the apocalypse looming, even if she didn’t sell the house, it wouldn’t survive in the end. She remembered that City B was the worst zombie disaster zone, bar none. Stranger still, City B also had the highest number of ability users. Was this the duality of nature?

Qin Yu almost admired herself for still thinking about such things. Her health had mostly returned; she could be discharged in the morning. But before that, she should finish the porridge Xiao Meng had brought—what a shame it would be to waste it. Now that she’d finally opened the space, the weight in her heart was gone.

Focused on eating, Qin Yu didn’t notice that the glow from the broken jade pendant had faded. Yet a trace of blood-red shimmered within, faintly sinister.

In a luxurious villa in City S, a man sat on the sofa, holding a jade pendant in his hand—the other half of Qin Yu’s pendant. At that moment, the pendant in his hand glowed softly. As if recalling something, the man frowned and stared intently at the jade. Gradually, the glow faded. He sighed, stroked the pendant helplessly, and pressed it close to his heart.

“Yu’er…” With a lingering sigh, the name hung in the air.

Meanwhile, in a secret base in City B—

“Hurry! Hold him down! Inject the serum—don’t let him wake up!” A frantic voice echoed through a room filled with machines.

“Doctor Jing, the experiment was going smoothly—why did he suddenly wake up?” someone asked.

“How should I know? Stop talking and go check on him!” Jing Yang waved impatiently at his companion and strode out of the room.

In another room—white, all white—a woman lay on a bed. Jing Yang stood beside her for a long while, sighing before he left. Because of this, he didn’t see the woman suddenly open her eyes, a strange glint flashing through them. Slowly, she closed her eyes again.