"How did you manage it?" Ding Yao asked Han Yanyan.
Han Yanyan was puzzled.
"Everyone knows that breaking through your limits can enhance your abilities. It's no secret," Ding Yao explained. "The problem is, not everyone can do it. Most people are exhausted before even reaching their limits and can't use their abilities at all. Pushing past the limit isn't something you can do just because you want to."
Han Yanyan was stunned, realizing that this was also something the electronic voice had done for her. Without revealing anything, she said, "I don't know, I thought everyone could do it."
Ding Yao didn't press further on that topic, only asking about the results.
Han Yanyan hesitated, "I feel there's some improvement, but the attack power..." The destructive power was still weak, lacking sufficient attack strength.
"Do you want to become stronger?" Ding Yao asked.
"I do," Han Yanyan said, staring into his eyes.
Ding Yao lit a cigarette, looking at her, "Next time we go out, you'll come along."
The squad regularly went out to search for supplies. Sometimes the management committee would issue tasks, like the time with the machinery, which was something the committee requested. The team exchanged such things with the committee for large quantities of supplies.
As the leader of the strongest squad in Nanling City and one of the three major forces there, Ding Yao maintained a good relationship with the management committee, but things were tense with the other major force— the army.
Though they called it the army, it wasn't the same army it used to be. The management committee was actually the former government, and the army was the troops stationed nearby in the past. After the apocalypse, the government held the city together with its authority and influence, supported by the troops at the time.
But as the difficult times persisted, people's hearts began to drift. The government went through several internal struggles, and the victorious side renamed itself the Nanling City Management Committee. By that time, the army was already showing its disloyalty, purging internally as they took in new people. If it weren't for Ding Yao's rise to power, the army might have already overthrown the committee and taken control.
The Thunder Strike Squad, being powerful in their abilities, held the balance. But the army had numbers, weapons, and mostly professionally trained soldiers, putting both sides on equal footing. The committee mediated, maintaining a tripartite stand where Nanling City seemed peacefully stable.
When Ding Yao took Han Yanyan out with him, it caught the attention of the squad members.
The rivalry among women ultimately ended in Han Yanyan's victory. She continued living in the penthouse, while the woman from the third floor finally gave up on Ding Yao and settled for another man. So people knew Ding Yao genuinely liked Han Yanyan, but they didn’t expect him to take her along on outings.
Nanling City was hit by an infectious disease, and after some negotiation with the committee, Ding Yao led a group to find medicines. They targeted two places: the hospital and a local pharmaceutical company producing the medicine.
Ding Yao handed Han Yanyan a knife and threw her into the hospital.
When Han Yanyan staggered out of the hospital alive, her hands were trembling. Ding Yao hadn't helped even once, and she had encountered a mutated zombie. It was by her own strength that she survived. Walking out of the hospital, her eyes had changed.
Watching this new Han Yanyan, Ding Yao laughed.
It was the first time Han Yanyan saw him laugh like this. When he smiled, he revealed his white teeth—it was both good-looking and terrifying.
When they were safe and set up camp, Ding Yao was more passionate than ever during their intimate moments. Han Yanyan felt as if she had finally grasped something essential about Ding Yao.
When Han Yanyan returned to Nanling with Ding Yao, Qi Tongtong felt like Han Yanyan had become a different person.
Qi Tongtong advised her not to take risks anymore. Even with Ding Yao around, there were always casualties during missions. They only had one life, and accidents were unpredictable.
Han Yanyan merely smiled back, asking, "What kind of person is Ding Yao?"
Qi Tongtong looked at her as if she were an idiot, "You're asking me? You're the one who's his woman!"
"I can't see through him, " Han Yanyan replied.
"If he was someone you or I could see through, he wouldn't be Ding Yao," Qi Tongtong said. “Out of the hundreds in the squad, all skilled, why do they listen to him? How much must be going on beneath the surface for that to happen?”
"If it weren't for him, the committee wouldn’t be in charge of Nanling now. That army officer, Captain Qi, is a ruthless man. If no one was keeping him in check, half the people in Nanling would be dead by now."
"Han Yanyan, is it that you still don't understand just how awesome Ding Yao is?" Qi Tongtong stared at her.
And with a dreamy murmur, Qi Tongtong ended the conversation. “If there’s a next life, I’d want to be someone as awesome as that.”
Han Yanyan and Qi Tongtong were eating in the base's cafeteria. After finishing their meal, they got up to leave. Suddenly, a person carrying a bowl of hot soup stumbled towards them. Han Yanyan instinctively dodged, and the steaming soup was about to splash onto Qi Tongtong right behind her.
Qi Tongtong was too scared to move.
But the soup landed on her face—hard, cool. It shattered into icy pieces upon hitting the ground. Qi Tongtong turned to look at Han Yanyan with her mouth agape.
Han Yanyan let out a sigh of relief.
"Sorry, my hand slipped," the person apologized insincerely, "I heard you're an ability user. Didn't expect you to be so good."
The girl was quite pretty, the same one who had lost to Han Yanyan in the competition for Ding Yao's attention. Qi Tongtong, hot-tempered as she was, was about to lash out, but Han Yanyan held her back.
"You'll be surprised by many things," Han Yanyan smiled.
The girl shrugged and went back to get more soup.
Han Yanyan pulled Qi Tongtong away. Qi Tongtong fumed, cursing Han Yanyan, "Let me go, let me..." Before she could finish, something flashed in her view, heading for the girl’s ankle.
The girl, holding a bowl of soup, fell forward unexpectedly, dipping an arm into the soup bucket. She yelped in pain.
"Let's go," Han Yanyan said.
Qi Tongtong's jaw dropped.
"Your abilities have improved so fast!" She exclaimed.
"Nearing death, the desire to live can make you explode with power," Ding Yao said from the bedside. "But it's not something everyone can do. Most can't and simply die."
"What about me?" Han Yanyan asked. "How did you know I could manage?"
"When you first used your abilities, it took over ten seconds to form an ice ball. But later, when your life was on the line, you made ice appear on someone’s face instantly. The hardness of the ice you used that time was far superior to your initial display. That was your first true breakthrough."
"I see," Han Yanyan realized.
Ding Yao moved rhythmically, and Han Yanyan was tossed about, her breathing chaotic.
"Ding Yao! Ding Yao!" Han Yanyan clung to his neck, gasping on his shoulder, "Can I become as strong as you?"
Ding Yao paused to look at her, "Do you really want to?"
"I do!"
He laughed quietly, his chest vibrating.
"Do you know when you’re most alluring?" He tugged her hair back and bit her lip. "It's when your eyes are burning with the desire to survive."
It was a cold winter. People were starving and freezing in Nanling City. Han Yanyan only remembered Ding Yao's relentless presence, drenched in sweat.
Utterly tantalizing.
During winter, they had fewer missions. Most people stayed inside buildings. Though Nanling was in the south and didn’t have central heating, the locals said this winter was colder than any they remembered, and they'd never seen such heavy snow in Nanling before.
On days without missions, Ding Yao took Han Yanyan to the training room. It was actually a banquet hall in a hotel, which squad members had converted into a gym. Electricity-powered treadmills weren’t available, but there were many mechanical workout machines. The most important thing was that someone taught how to use knives.
The Thunder Strike Squad had guns and ammunition, but with scarce supplies, people preferred cold weapons like knives. An individual's abilities were limited, and physical combat was often necessary. These team members, having crawled through life-and-death situations, understood this well.
Ding Yao personally trained Han Yanyan. In the training field, he acted as if he harbored a grudge against her, showing no mercy. When Han Yanyan lay on the ground, exhausted and sore, it was Ding Yao's cold gaze that forced her to struggle back to her feet.
That gaze made Han Yanyan feel afraid.
Clearly, the man was known for pampering her. Clearly, he couldn't get enough of her body. Clearly, when she asked for small luxuries, he agreed with a lazy demeanor and seldom disappointed her. Yet in the training field, Han Yanyan dared not defy him.
When he coldly ordered her to stand, she would crawl to her feet, despite the pain.
Later, she asked him if he had been in the military, but he denied it.
"Office worker," he said. "In foreign trade."
Han Yanyan was surprised. Ding Yao had an iron-blooded demeanor starkly different from others—something that couldn't be cultivated without years in an army barracks or on the front lines.
She couldn't reconcile Ding Yao with the "office worker" identity. It felt as though she had assigned a character a particular background, but the character's actions and behaviors didn’t fit what she had envisioned.
Sometimes, Qi Tongtong saw the bruises on her from training and clucked her tongue. "Boss Ding is too harsh!"
Han Yanyan held a cup, inside was hot milk mixed from scarce powdered milk. She blew the steam, lost in thought, "He seems like the kind of person... if you fall behind, he wouldn't wait for you. He’d leave you far behind to fend for yourself."
Qi Tongtong was silent for a moment, then said, "That’s similar to what Sister Ling once told me."
"Back then, I was set on being with Ding Yao. Several people liked me, but Sister Ling advised me to find someone truly sincere," she recalled. "She said someone like me would always be a plaything to someone like Ding Yao. In danger, Ding Yao might save comrades but not playthings. If I wanted to survive well, I'd be better off finding someone whose heart had room for me, someone who might not abandon me at crucial times. Sadly, I didn’t listen."
She tucked her hair back, "I remember how Sister Ling seemed... afraid of Ding Yao too. But then, who isn't? It's because everyone fears him that they follow him."
Sister Ling, or Lin Ling, was married to Sun Lijun, a healing branch ability user. When the apocalypse came, the virus claimed the weakest, turned the second weakest into zombies, left the somewhat strong as ordinary humans, and granted abilities to the lucky ones, strong or weak. Sun Lijun and Lin Ling both gained powerful abilities, which was extremely lucky.
However, Lin Ling, who was a housewife before, ended up with a formidable earth-based combat power.
The Thunder Strike Squad was large, split into several teams. Ding Yao led one himself, and Lin Ling was the captain of the second team, not only because she was strong but also because they were amongst the earliest to follow Ding Yao.
Talking about Ding Yao sometimes made those closest to him instinctively fearful.
Han Yanyan thought that perhaps her fear of Ding Yao was normal, after all.