[Hello guys, I have completely corrected the previous Chapters and made huge changes. Please read again from Chapter 67 to get a better idea of the Chapters.]

So Bai Li quickly looked away and shifted her gaze toward the rest of the room, pretending that she was simply staying alert and not at all affected by the fact that a beautiful woman was leaning in very close and wiping her face for her. That was only half true, and she knew it. Her heart was still hammering, and she was trying very hard not to let that show.

The six people in the room were still busy blocking the doorway. Five of them were moving furniture and stacking it against the door in layers, while the last one remained in the chair and watched everything with a stiff, uncertain expression. Bai Li glanced at the kukri beside her, then at the door, then back at the people. None of them looked like a real threat to her. Not in the way a zombie horde was a threat. Not in the way a knife fight or a rope descent was a threat. But she still did not trust them. She had no reason to. If any of them dared to come too close, she would fight back without hesitation. In fact, if it came to it, she would not even feel bad about adding a few more bodies to the list of people she had already killed. In this apocalypse, trust was not something you gave out for free. Especially not to strangers.

Yan Cijin continued wiping Bai Li’s neck, and then her chest, carefully cleaning off the dark streaks of zombie blood that had dried there. The sight was enough to reveal just how many zombies Bai Li had actually killed the night before. The blood had spread in uneven smears across her skin, and as Yan Cijin’s hands moved, the original pale whiteness of her neck slowly reappeared, clean and sharp against the dark clothes she wore. There was something almost strangely beautiful in the contrast, and Yan Cijin could not help noticing it. Bai Li’s body was tall and slender, but not in a weak way. Not thin. Not fragile. Her arms and shoulders had that lean, powerful shape that only came from real training and real strength. The muscles in her arms were firm and well defined, but not bulky. They moved under her skin smoothly when she shifted even a little, and that made them look both strong and surprisingly graceful at the same time.

Yan Cijin could not stop looking.

It was a little embarrassing, because she knew she was noticing too much. She knew she should probably not be staring so hard. But her eyes kept drifting back anyway. Bai Li’s biceps and triceps had that hard, controlled shape that made it obvious she was built for real combat, and the way those muscles tightened when she moved made Yan Cijin’s heart stir in a way she could not quite ignore. It was not just the arms either. Her neck was also very well defined, the line of it clean and elegant, especially now that the blood had been wiped away. Yan Cijin’s gaze followed that line for a second too long, then moved back up to Bai Li’s face, and for a brief moment she became aware of how strange this all was. Bai Li was clearly trying to avoid looking at her. She was deliberately turning her face slightly away, focusing on the other people, acting like nothing was happening. But that only made Yan Cijin want to tease her more, because the awkwardness was too obvious to miss. Bai Li was trying so hard to keep a cold and composed expression that the slightest red on her ears stood out even more.

Yan Cijin found that amusing.

Very amusing.

But at the same time, she also found it endearing in a way she had not expected. Bai Li was clearly not used to this sort of close attention, not from another woman, and maybe not from anyone at all. She handled zombies without blinking, handled dangerous climbs without hesitation, and could threaten someone so coldly that the room froze around her, but being gently wiped down by someone who cared about her wounds seemed to hit her in a completely different place. Yan Cijin saw that immediately. Bai Li’s awkwardness only made her look more human, more alive, and weirdly enough, that made Yan Cijin’s own heartbeat shift a little too. The feeling was subtle, but it was there, enough to make her chest warm and her fingers slow down just a fraction as she continued cleaning her.

Bai Li felt all of it.

The closeness. The attention. The soft brush of the wet wipe. The way Yan Cijin leaned in so carefully, as if she was afraid of hurting her. Bai Li’s heart was pounding harder now, and her first instinct was to look anywhere else. She forced her eyes toward the other people in the room again, toward the doorway being blocked, toward the ugly furniture piled against it. Anything except Yan Cijin’s face. She pretended to be focused on the room, but in truth, her whole body had gone slightly stiff. The woman in front of her was too close. Too gentle. Too attentive. Bai Li had faced gunfire, blades, zombies, and dead bodies without flinching, yet right now she was quietly fighting the urge to clear her throat or shift away. She did neither. She stayed still because she knew moving too much would only make it more obvious.

Yan Cijin noticed that too, and the corner of her mouth lifted a little more. She did not say anything. She simply continued cleaning Bai Li’s arms, then her wrists, then returned again to the neck and chest. Bai Li’s skin slowly became visible again where the blood had been wiped away, and Yan Cijin’s gaze lingered a bit longer each time she revealed another piece of her. There was something very strong and very controlled about Bai Li’s body, and the more Yan Cijin looked, the more she understood why Bai Li moved the way she did. Those arms were not just for show. They were built for power. Built for action. Built for fighting and surviving and doing whatever was necessary. It made Yan Cijin’s fingers tighten slightly around the wipe for a moment, not because she was nervous in a bad way, but because there was a strange heat in her chest that kept building the more she stayed this close.

Bai Li could feel that heat too, or at least she thought she could. Her own heart felt like it was beating louder than the sound of the zombies banging outside. She tried to push the feeling away by focusing on the others, but even that did not help much. She glanced at the kukri beside her, then back at the door, and that was enough to remind her to stay alert. But her attention kept slipping back to Yan Cijin no matter how hard she tried to avoid it. And the more she avoided looking directly at her, the more obvious it became that she was doing exactly that. Yan Cijin could probably tell. In fact, Bai Li suspected she could tell very easily. Which made the whole thing even more embarrassing, because Yan Cijin was still calm enough to pretend she was only cleaning wounds, while Bai Li felt like her whole face might be warming up any second now.

The room itself stayed tense and quiet, but inside that quiet there was a very strange little world building between the two of them. Bai Li sat there all bloodstained and exhausted, pretending to be cold and indifferent, while Yan Cijin carefully wiped her face, neck, and arms with soft and steady hands. Every now and then her eyes moved over Bai Li’s body again, and every time they did, Bai Li felt a fresh wave of awkwardness rise in her chest. Yan Cijin’s attention was not loud or dramatic. It was not the kind that demanded anything. It was just there, quietly focused, and somehow that made it stronger. Bai Li kept telling herself to calm down, but every time Yan Cijin leaned in a little closer or shifted the wipe over her skin, the pounding in her chest grew worse. The silence between them was not empty. It was full. Full of tension, awkwardness, and a strange pull that neither of them was naming out loud yet.

On the other side, Zhang Fan and the others had already dragged and shoved every piece of furniture they could find toward the doorway, making the room feel even tighter than before. Chairs scraped hard against the floor, the long table shook when they finally pushed it into place, and for a little while the only real sounds in the room were the rough thuds of wood hitting wood and the faint pounding from outside the door. Once they were done, they all slowly moved back toward Wang Bo’s side, breathing a little heavier now, and naturally their eyes fell on Bai Li and Yan Cijin again. The room was not large to begin with, and because of the barricade, everyone had to stay within the same cramped space, which only made the atmosphere feel more awkward and more tense. That was when Zhang Fan’s expression changed, because he noticed Yan Cijin still carefully wiping the blood off Bai Li. The sight hit him hard. Yan Cijin was the kind of person many people in the hospital had looked at from a distance for a long time, the kind of cold and aloof beauty who always seemed to stay a little apart from everyone else. She was beautiful in a way that made people hesitate before speaking, and because of that, rumors had long since spread through the hospital. Some said she might be a lesbian. Some said maybe she was bisexual. Some people believed one thing, others believed another, and because nobody really had a clear answer, the entire hospital seemed to treat her like some untouchable mystery. It had even become a quiet thing in the background of the hospital, where many men and even some women thought of each other as competitors in some hidden race for Dr. Yan’s attention. Zhang Fan himself had once been one of those people who wanted to say something, maybe even confess, but after seeing how coldly she turned down a few people, that courage had already died long ago. And yet, now, seeing her so close to Bai Li, wiping the blood off her face so gently, his thoughts started moving again in the worst possible way. The little bit of jealousy he had buried came back immediately, and before he could stop himself, he started walking toward Yan Cijin.

Bai Li noticed the movement right away. Her hand was still near the knife beside her, and the moment Zhang Fan took another step closer, she grabbed it instantly and pointed the tip of the blade straight at him. Her voice was cold, flat, and sharp enough to freeze the room. "Back off." There was no extra emotion in it, no warning tone that left room for misunderstanding. It was simply a command. Zhang Fan froze in place immediately. Bai Li’s eyes were so cold and emotionless that they sent a real chill down his spine, and for a moment he forgot even what he had wanted to say. But then his gaze shifted to Yan Cijin beside her, and whatever self-preservation instinct he had managed to summon earlier suddenly became weaker. He was scared, yes, but he was also unwilling to back down so quickly in front of the woman he had secretly admired. His legs almost gave out under him, yet he still forced himself to speak. "W w who are you? Dr. Yan and I are colleagues. Can’t I even say a few words?" The words came out shaky, and they sounded far less confident than he probably wanted them to. Bai Li stood up at that moment, knife still in hand, her posture straight and her presence suddenly more imposing. There were some people in the apocalypse who only became dangerous after they turned. Bai Li was different. She had the kind of dangerous aura that came from real experience, the kind that did not need to be announced.

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To be continued.