Chapter Thirty-Six: Truly, or Pretending?

So, it turned out to be a test for supernatural abilities. Xu Nuo let Sheng Ming examine her without any hesitation.

“Tch.” Sheng Ming turned his face away in disgust. This woman was filthy from head to toe, her face so ugly as to be almost unrecognizable. Every extra second spent in her presence felt like an affront to his eyes. And yet she still dared to simper and pose before him!

The old butler asked, “Young Master, how should we handle this woman?”

Sheng Ming replied impatiently, “Throw her out. Continue the interrogation.”

“At once, Young Master.”

Xu Nuo called out, “Wait, Master Sheng, I truly mean you no harm. If you want to ask anything, just ask. There’s no need for torture and trouble—whatever you wish to know, you can ask me directly.”

“Tch.” Sheng Ming really didn’t want to look at this woman a moment longer; even one more glance was a form of suffering.

Xu Nuo realized that her appearance was anything but appealing, so as she brushed the dust and debris from her body, she continued, “Master Sheng, the survivors in this city nearly met their end today. I was fortunate enough to encounter you and to be taken in by your generosity. Otherwise, my situation would have been dire indeed…”

With every motion, the fragments and dust she dislodged floated through the previously spotless room, soon forming a grimy circle around where she stood.

Sheng Ming’s blood pressure soared. “You—”

“Master Sheng, my home is gone and my younger brother is missing. I truly have nowhere to go. Won’t you shelter me?” Xu Nuo softened her voice, holding her soot-blackened face in her hands, blinking beseechingly. “Please?”

“Bang!” Sheng Ming, unable to endure any longer, slammed his fist into the wall.

“Eek!” Xu Nuo cowered as if frightened.

007 sighed: [Host, please stop this. The target is really angry.]

The audience in the live broadcast room was highly entertained: [Xu the Queen’s acting is top-notch.]

[Ha ha ha, just look at that boy’s face. Xu the Queen deigns to act coy for you and you put on airs? You really don’t know what’s good for you!]

[Xu the Queen, put on another show for that boy!]

007: [All of you, stop giving the host ridiculous ideas.]

Xu Nuo clutched her chest as if terrified. “Please, Master Sheng, take me in. I’m homeless now, and only you can help me. I could serve you as a servant—bring you tea, do your laundry, cook your meals…”

“Get out!” Sheng Ming snapped. Don’t force me to slap you. If he weren’t a man who didn’t hit women, he would have beaten her ten times over by now.

“You, serve me tea and do my laundry? You?”

Her dowdy, unkempt appearance, vulgar manners, and the aura of sheer stupidity that clung to her—how could one like her possibly be fit to serve him?

His words, cold and merciless, chilled Xu Nuo to the bone, her heart breaking in two.

“Boo hoo hoo…”

Disgusted, Sheng Ming could not bear to look at her again. “Take her away. Give her a room as far from mine as possible.”

“No need to drag me, I’ll go myself.” Xu Nuo obeyed meekly.

True to his word, the butler placed her in the most remote corner of the house—not so much a room as a storeroom without even a window, cramped and oppressive.

The old butler dutifully questioned this woman of unknown origin, but the process was pure torment.

“Where is your place of household registration?”

“I used to live in the countryside. It was lovely back then—so many melons and fruits in the summer. I used to pick fruit in the fields every day.”

He adjusted his glasses. “…I meant your precise address.”

“Oh, locals call it Bald Mountain. I don’t know what it’s called in standard speech. I think it’s either south of the Yangtze or in Jiangbei Province…”

The butler set down his pen, scrutinizing this woman whose words never matched his questions. In the end, he couldn’t tell if she was pretending or genuinely clueless.

“Fine, let’s continue. What’s your identity? Where did you live when the apocalypse came? Why did you come here?”

“I’m… Well, people call me Xu the Girl from the Xu family.” Xu Nuo looked thoughtful. “Before the apocalypse, I lived at home with family. Afterwards, I lived in the city. I escaped and ended up here.”

The butler was speechless.

This interrogation left him utterly drained. He had always considered himself patient, steady, and respectful toward women, a true gentleman. But in front of Xu Nuo, he nearly lost his composure.

Whatever he asked, she answered—obediently, even eagerly—but her replies were always off-topic, her thoughts zigzagging in ways he could hardly follow. In short, she simply didn’t understand what he was saying.

Talking with children had never been this exhausting.

Worst of all, after all this time, he still couldn’t discern whether she was feigning ignorance or genuinely so.

Did such people truly exist in the world?

After leaving that stifling interrogation room, the butler couldn’t help but sigh at the moon.

A servant noticed and offered comfort: “Sir, she seems to be just an uneducated country girl, very naive and inexperienced. Compared to your own education and morals, she’s from another world entirely. If she doesn’t understand you, it’s her problem…”

The butler, soothed by these words, nodded. “You’re right.”

After several rounds of questioning, during which Xu Nuo gave essentially the same information, the butler finally left her alone—releasing both Xu Nuo and himself from further torment.

“You say you have a younger brother with supernatural abilities?” He looked at the dossier, finally pieced together, and breathed a sigh of relief. “We can’t promise to find him for you. But if he comes looking and wants to join us, he’ll be welcome. In the meantime, you may stay here and we’ll send you to the southern safe base when we go.”

After much weary questioning, the butler had pieced together her story: a country girl who hadn’t finished her compulsory education, worked with her parents, and had a younger brother. After the apocalypse, only the siblings remained—the younger brother, gifted with fire powers, had protected her well.

When the army organized the recent purge of zombies, for some reason the siblings hadn’t been notified. Her brother used all his strength to send her here, even smashing through glass to get her in, then vanished himself.

“Aren’t you worried about your brother?” The butler couldn’t help asking as he looked into her calm face.

“He told me he’d be fine, that he was going to find the army, and I should stay with Young Master Sheng. But…” Xu Nuo’s voice faltered, her expression growing forlorn, “I don’t know where he went. He’s disappeared.”

The butler couldn’t help feeling a little sympathy for the foolish girl. “Stay here for now. Perhaps your brother is somewhere safe but can’t reach you.”

“Mm.” Xu Nuo’s eyes brimmed with tears, her face full of gratitude. “You and Young Master Sheng are such good people!”

“…Go wash up first,” the butler said, for even looking at her, covered in soot and debris, was offensive to the eye.