Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 109: The smuggler’s route

Qingran smiled faintly at Lingquan’s indignant tone. Despite everything—despite the looming threat, the infection’s quiet spread, the creeping dread that tomorrow might be the turning point, his presence still grounded her.

Snark and all.

"Suit yourself," she murmured, voice trailing into a yawn. "But don’t complain if your system space starts feeling cramped."

[Cramped? Please. It’s cleaner and more peaceful than this hotel room.]

She laughed under her breath. "You really are petty."

Lingquan didn’t answer that. She imagined him sulking somewhere in the corner of his virtual domain, arms crossed, nose in the air.

The thought made her grin as she rolled onto her side and pulled the blanket up to her chin.

The hum from the city outside had quieted to something distant and eerie, too quiet for a city of Guyoung’s size.

Her hand tightened slightly around the edge of the blanket.

She wouldn’t say it out loud, but even with Lingquan and Haoyu nearby, it was starting to feel like she was walking into something bigger than she’d planned for.

The infection wasn’t just spreading, it was being allowed to spread. Like a slow leak no one wanted to patch.

And the capital... the capital held the answers. That much she was sure of now.

⸻

The next morning arrived without warning.

Not with the sun, which barely filtered through the smog-choked sky, but with the sharp trill of her internal alarm.

Qingran’s eyes snapped open before the sound fully registered, and within seconds she was on her feet, knife in hand, scanning the room.

Haoyu stirred on the couch, instinctively reaching for his gun. "We good?" he mumbled, voice hoarse from sleep.

"Yeah. Alarm." She relaxed a little and moved to the window, parting the curtains just enough to glance out.

It was quiet. Too quiet. She wondered for how long they were going to let the civilians stay inside their home.

She checked her phone. 08:12.

They had less than seven hours before the meet-up. She needed to move quickly.

"Wake up properly," she said over her shoulder. "We need to hit the black market in the lower sectors before noon."

Haoyu sat up slowly, rubbing a hand over his face. "Supplies?"

"No, just gathering intel. A lot of information flows in the black market. We just have to find someone that would spill."

Haoyu nodded and stood up, stretching slightly.

"Go take a shower. We’re leaving Chengdai by 3pm and heading to the capital."

Haoyu blinked at her, halfway through a stretch. "Already?"

Qingran didn’t look away from the window. "We’ve stayed long enough. The infection’s spreading faster than they’re reporting. If we don’t move now, we’ll be trapped behind barricades and quarantines."

He didn’t argue. Just nodded once and moved toward the bathroom, grabbing a towel on the way. Qingran listened to the door close, then turned back toward the desk and her open notebook.

She scribbled a quick update beside yesterday’s scrawl—notes on the checkpoints, drone patrols, shadowed figures on rooftops that didn’t move like survivors should. There was a rhythm to the city’s collapse, and she could feel the tempo picking up.

[You’re really leaving today?]

"Of course. This place is about to burn, Lingquan."

[You still haven’t found the lab.]

"We’ll find it in the capital. That’s where they moved the operation, isn’t it?" She flipped back to the earlier page, where she’d written ’shut-down research lab’ and circled it three times. "Everything here’s just misdirection."

Lingquan didn’t respond right away. When he did, his voice was quieter.

[You really think the capital will still be standing when we get there?]

She paused. Then, calmly: "It’ll be standing long enough for us to find what we need."

[You’re gambling.]

"I always have been."

The bathroom door clicked open, and Haoyu stepped out, towel slung around his shoulders, already moving with the kind of purpose that came with shared urgency.

"I’ll grab food for the road," he said.

Qingran nodded. "Meet me in the lobby at 09:00 sharp."

By the time he was out the door, she was already to the bathroom for a quick shower. When she came out, she quickly geared up. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

She wore a tight black shirt, reinforced boots, a fitted jacket lined with thin armor. She braided her hair back quickly, pulled on gloves, then checked the knives and gun at her waist.

A few minutes later, she was in the elevator, descending with the kind of tension that didn’t show on her face but lived in every breath she took.

The lower sectors of Guyoung were alive in the worst way.

There was still people about the hotel, she spotted Haoyu in the dinning area and headed there.

"You think these people know what’s going on here?"

Everyone was going about their day which was alarming.

"I guess they let the things roam at night and then make them disappear before morning. So on the outside it looks safe but in reality it’s not.."

"I guess, it’s all just one big cover up until it can’t be covered."

Qingran looked at the tray of food in front of them: hot congee, steamed pork buns, boiled eggs marinated in soy sauce, and a side of stir-fried greens.

"At least breakfast looks good. Let’s eat up and be on our way.."

[You’re both too calm for people walking into the jaws of a beast,] Lingquan grumbled, his voice flickering in the back of her head.

"Calm keeps you alive," Qingran said under her breath.

Haoyu didn’t notice. He was already pulling up a map of the lower districts on his phone, tracing one of the more run-down lines with his finger.

"Sector Nine might be a good bet," he murmured. "Old shipping district, low patrols, lots of unofficial activity. It used to be a smuggler’s route."

Qingran leaned in. "I’ve heard of it. Tunnels underneath the warehouse blocks, right? I think it’s still a smuggler route, they just hide it better."

Haoyu nodded as he placed his phone down and paid more attention to the food.

"If any place still has black market ties, it’s that."

She stood, finishing the last of her drink. "Then that’s where we go."