Zhang Keqing usually lowered her head and smiled shyly, neither responding nor objecting.

That day, only Qiao Yanrou and Sister Lan were left in the kitchen’s preparation area.  She stopped chopping vegetables.

She said to Sister Lan, “Sister Lan, can I return to my previous workload starting tomorrow?”

Sister Lan was puzzled: “Why?”

“Is it possible?” She didn’t explain further.

Sister Lan stared at her for a few seconds, sighing deeply, also stopping her work: “Yanrou, I know you mind Zhang Keqing and Luohan being close, but… it’s been a long time since the apocalypse.  There’s no reason or order anymore, and your abilities…”

Sister Lan didn’t think Qiao Yanrou would willingly break up with Shen Luohan. After all, it was rare for a beginner esper to be with the base leader. Anyone would cling tightly to Shen Luohan.

“I advise you to turn a blind eye. If you make Luohan angry, it will be hard to fix.”

Perhaps she had heard too much gossip about Qiao Yanrou, Sister Lan thought she was trying to cause trouble, to attract or threaten Shen Luohan, so he would focus on her.

Qiao Yanrou looked at Sister Lan, suddenly feeling a little dazed. She knew that people’s hearts change, but seeing it firsthand still disappointed her, perhaps because Sister Lan was the first person to help her.

She insisted, “Sister Lan, it has nothing to do with Brother Shen. I want to return to my previous workload.”

Sister Lan looked at her with a complex expression: “…Alright, starting tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Sister Lan.”

Several espers came into the kitchen. Qiao Yanrou buried her head in her work, ignoring the occasional gossip.

Since Zhang Keqing’s injury, whenever Shen Luohan, Ji Yuanchen, and Bai Xiaoyan weren’t around her, espers would come up to her and say unpleasant things.

No matter what they said, she acted as if she hadn’t heard, only focusing on her work, completely ignoring those who deliberately approached her, infuriating them. How could she not care at all?

After dinner, Qiao Yanrou came out of the kitchen and heard Zhang Keqing acting cute towards Shen Luohan in the hall.

“Brother Shen, I want an apple, peeled like you did before.”

Shen Luohan didn’t say anything, silently peeling an apple.

“Why don’t you like the apples I peel? You only like the ones Shen Luohan peels?” Qiu Te teased her and Shen Luohan.

Zhang Keqing playfully smiled: “I only eat apples peeled by Brother Shen.”

The few espers sitting around laughed indulgently.

“Knowing your Brother Shen…” Qiu Te was about to tease them again when he saw Qiao Yanrou coming out of the kitchen and immediately fell silent.

Zhang Keqing glanced in the direction Qiao Yanrou was coming from, then continued watching Shen Luohan peel the apple.

The espers sitting around glanced disdainfully at Qiao Yanrou, feeling her presence was a damper.

Qiao Yanrou, as if she hadn’t seen the previous “harmonious” scene, turned towards the door and walked out.

“Yanrou,” Shen Luohan’s deep voice came from behind her.

She turned around and saw Shen Luohan holding a peeled apple, gesturing for her to come and eat it.

“Come and eat an apple. I peeled it for you,” he said.

Instantly, Zhang Keqing’s smile froze.

Qiao Yanrou didn’t hesitate: “Thank you, I won’t eat it.”  Then, she walked towards the door, her slender figure disappearing.

Shen Luohan looked at the empty doorway, his gaze slightly fixed.

“Brother Shen, I want to eat,” Zhang Keqing said without minding.

The peeled apple on the table was taken away. He frowned, his gaze still fixed on the door.

In a corner of the base, Qiao Yanrou turned several corners, finally stopping in a dead end.

After a while, a young man walked over. He looked surprised to see Qiao Yanrou.

But he didn’t ask much, taking a bottle filled with clear liquid from his storage space and handing it to her.

Qiao Yanrou took it and turned the bottle in her hand.

“This bottle is specially made. The liquid, once out of the bottle, will lose its effect after 24 hours.”

Qiao Yanrou nodded, placing a high-level zombie crystal core on his open palm. She still had many mid- and high-level zombie crystal cores left, all given to her by Shen Luohan.

Just as she was about to bypass him and leave the alley, the young man weighed the crystal core in his hand and put it into his storage space.

“May I ask what you need this colored liquid for?”  It was non-toxic and couldn’t harm anyone. He couldn’t figure out why she needed it.

Qiao Yanrou didn’t stop, leaving behind a sentence: “I have my uses for it.”

A couple of days ago, she learned from Bai Xiaoyan that there was an esper in the base with a unique ability: to turn water into various colors, a few drops could dye an entire lake in vibrant hues.

However, the ability didn’t last long, usually around 24 hours, after which the color would fade, returning to the lake’s original color.

Since traveling to the apocalypse, Qiao Yanrou had been thinking about how to hide her beauty without harming herself.

Bai Xiaoyan’s words gave her an idea. She asked Bai Xiaoyan to talk to that esper. She wanted yellow dye and offered high-level zombie crystal cores in exchange.

Bai Xiaoyan asked her what she needed it for, but she only said she was curious and didn’t reveal the specific use.

Qiao Yanrou also had a storage space, small, only a few square meters, where she put the dye, ready for use.

Qiao Yanrou exchanged the high-level zombie crystal core for the dye but didn’t return to the building where she lived.

Instead, she went to the residential area for beginner espers, where she had lived when she first arrived.

She found Sister Ni, who was in charge there, and knocked on her door.

Sister Ni opened the door and looked surprised to see her.

“What are you doing here?”  She was now the base leader’s woman, her status vastly different from when she first arrived at the base.