Chapter 52: Mouth Strong King Appears
“You have an ability?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“Ability?” Liu Rui shook his head blankly, completely not understanding what it meant.
“How did you fight zombies on the road?”
“Knife,” Liu Rui picked up a triangular knife lying beside him.
“Anything else?”
“This,” Liu Rui reached out towards the empty doorway, and a stream of fire instantly shot out. Everyone in the hall was immediately shocked. The men who had been snatching things earlier were so scared they almost curled into a ball. Li Zhuang and the others, however, came over with great interest and even discussed and studied it with Liu Rui.
This was much stronger than Fang Ke’s fireball.
And he was covered in injuries while protecting Xu Sa so well. Lu Weiyi sighed inwardly, it really wasn’t easy for them.
The rain outside showed no signs of stopping, so the group decided to eat first and leave directly after the rain stopped.
Lu Weiyi let Liu Rui join them. When they left in the morning, Gu Qingji had filled a thermos with millet porridge, originally intending it for Gu Qingyue, whose stomach wasn’t good, to drink on the road. Now, it directly benefited Xu Sa.
The group ate egg pancakes with tomatoes and cucumbers, occasionally enjoying a crisp and sweet apple or pear. The men on the other side kept swallowing their saliva, but seeing the difference in strength several times, they didn’t dare to snatch and were too embarrassed to ask.
“Mommy, Mommy, I want to eat an apple,” the adults were embarrassed, but the children had no such pressure. The little girl spoke to the woman holding her first.
“Mommy, I want to eat too,” another little boy’s voice was even louder.
“That’s someone else’s apple, not ours,” one of the women comforted them.
The little boy was clearly unhappy with this answer and immediately shouted to the other side, “Grandma, I want to eat an apple, I want to eat an apple.”
The old woman, who had just been stubbornly holding onto someone else’s bag, immediately looked at the group opposite them. “You big strong lads, aren’t you ashamed to eat right in front of such young children? Just watching the kids drool? You can even eat while listening to the kids cry? Do you have any morals? Did the dogs eat all your sympathy?”
Having experienced all sorts of extreme people in the past few years of the apocalypse, Lu Weiyi didn’t take this little scene to heart at all. However, the others were a bit stunned. So, eating my own food is morally corrupt?
“What about big strong lads? Did big strong lads grow up eating your rice and drinking your water? You yourselves are shameless for bullying the weak and just robbed other people’s things, yet you have the nerve to call others immoral? You have morals? Where were your morals when you were robbing things and hitting people? Where were your morals when you were eating stolen goods while the person was still sick and struggling? I didn’t steal or rob anything. Why should I be embarrassed?”
Although they knew this person was shameless, their group consisted of someone who didn’t care, a retired soldier, someone who couldn’t understand at all, a foreigner who was only slightly better at communicating, a laid-back person, a stutterer, someone unconscious, a peacemaker, and a big star who would rather not speak if he didn’t have to. They hadn’t planned on arguing with him from the start. Who knew a verbal combat master would emerge among them?
Everyone stopped what they were doing and simultaneously looked at Gu Qingji, who seemed the least likely to speak up. This person was almost non-existent except for necessary communication. No one expected him to be so eloquent at a critical moment.
“Didn’t see that coming, we’ve got a verbal combat master here. Impressive,” Li Zhuang held a cucumber and still didn’t forget to give Gu Qingji a thumbs-up.
“Our Qingji has been reciting tongue twisters since he was little without stopping,” Gu Qingyue, the doting brother, seized the opportunity to show his presence.
“Cough…” Gu Qingji’s face turned a little red. “Just used to arguing with haters online.” He actually quite liked to talk, but as a celebrity, he had to be careful in everything he said, afraid of saying too much and making mistakes, so he gradually became more taciturn.
“Support you, go,” Antonio understood, but if he had to argue, he probably could only say, “Fuck.”
“Continue.”
“Go on.”
With the group acting like this, Gu Qingji became even more embarrassed.
The old woman on the other side, seeing that she hadn’t achieved her goal but had instead been pointed at and scolded, her face red and neck thick, spoke again, “How can a grown man talk like that? Didn’t your parents teach you respect for the elderly and love for the young? Everything you learned…”
It was the usually good-tempered Gu Qingyue who erupted. He picked up the steel rod beside him and rushed out before anyone could react.
Pointing the steel rod at the old woman, his face was unprecedentedly ugly. “What did you just say? Say it again?”
The man sitting on the side suddenly stood up, holding a kitchen knife, but before he could point it at Gu Qingyue, Gu Qingji, who had followed closely, kicked him hard, sending him two steps back. The remaining men on that side also gathered around, while the group on this side unhurriedly took their respective weapons and stood beside the Gu Qingyue brothers.
“You… you… you still want to hit people?” Seeing the situation was not good, the old woman put her little grandson behind her and shouted fiercely at Gu Qingyue.
“No… I kill people!” Gu Qingyue’s face was so cold it could freeze.
“You…” The old woman was probably frightened. She stammered for a while, then turned to the man beside her, crying and wailing, “Boss, are you just going to watch your old mother be bullied like this? Did I raise you for nothing?”
The two children were clearly frightened by this situation and began to cry loudly.
The man frowned and looked at Gu Qingyue. “I apologize to you on her behalf.”
“Boss…” The old woman seemed to want to say something, but a man beside her whispered a few words in her ear. She snorted coldly and turned her head away, no longer trying to stir up trouble.
“I can’t even count the zombies that have died under this rod. If you can’t control your mouth, I’ll make you the first human to die under it,” Gu Qingyue said, staring at the old woman, then gave the man a warning glance and didn’t press the issue.
Some people lowered their heads, and the tense confrontation eased for a moment. The group returned to continue their lunch. Gu Qingyue sat down, rubbed his face, and returned to his usual gentleness, chatting and laughing with everyone as if the earlier change of face was just an illusion. However, after only a few bites, he excused himself to check if the supplies were leaking and went out.
“Sorry, our parents passed away early, and my brother hates it the most when people mention that,” Gu Qingji said to everyone, as an explanation and also a reminder. After all, they still had several days of travel ahead, and it wouldn’t be worth it to fall out over a taboo.
The others nodded, indicating they understood.
Gu Qingji took an apple and went out to find Gu Qingyue.
The group on their side had eaten their fill, while the few men on the other side had divided two or three pieces of compressed biscuits, not even enough to stave off hunger. Moreover, Liu Rui himself was thirsty, and there was naturally no water in the bag, so they set their sights on the heavy rain outside.
Summer rain wasn’t cold even if you got soaked. Two of the men directly ran out and stood in the rain. One even opened his mouth and looked up to catch rainwater to drink. Lu Weiyi was stunned by this incredibly suicidal behavior.
Just as he thought this, he saw the Gu Qingyue brothers walk in, each holding a bottle filled with water. When they set off, each person had a bottle of water in their backpack. After a whole morning, it was impossible for them to still be full.
“Where did you guys get water?” Lu Weiyi stared at the bottles in their hands.
Gu Qingyue shook his bottle, looking very pleased with himself, and said, “The water accumulated on the tarpaulin covering the truck, I just collected it in the bottles. It’s been raining for a while, so it’s quite clean. Do you guys want to collect some too?”
Before the others could speak, Lu Weiyi asked the two of them with a complicated expression, “Are you tired of living?”
“What’s wrong?” Gu Qingji asked nervously.
Before Lu Weiyi could speak, a scream of “Ah!” came from the yard outside. The group looked out and their expressions changed simultaneously—the man who had been drinking the rainwater was grinning and lunging at another man. His protruding eyeballs and stiff movements indicated that he was no longer alive.
“Third brother…” The old woman’s wail broke the silence.
“Old Li…” a woman cried out.
“Papa? Papa?” The child cried helplessly, asking the person beside him, “Has my papa become a monster that eats people?”
Amidst the chaos, Gu Qingji was suddenly shocked and looked at Gu Qingyue beside him. “Brother, the… the water you just drank…?”
“No, it was the original water.” Gu Qingyue had been thinking of drinking it all to free up the bottle to hold more. Once again brushing past death, he also broke out in a cold sweat.
Gu Qingji breathed heavily, grabbed the man’s arm forcefully, and snatched the water bottle from his hand, intending to throw it away.
“Don’t, pour it out first before throwing it, in case someone else drinks it,” Gu Qingyue said, pulling his brother outside to pour out the water while comforting him.
On the other side, the man being chased ran directly towards the door. Li Zhuang stood at the door, blocking the way, and said to the leader on the side, “Go out and deal with it,” implying that if they didn’t go out and deal with it, he wouldn’t let the one outside come in.
The leader simply went out and killed the man, then brought the other one in. The old woman cried and wailed, asking what had happened, and slapped the leader, blaming him for killing his own brother. The woman held her son and sobbed softly.
Amidst the chaotic atmosphere, Li Zhuang asked Lu Weiyi beside him, “Little friend, how did you know rainwater couldn’t be drunk?”
Lu Weiyi glanced at him. “I’m smart.”
Li Zhuang’s lips twitched, but he still continued to ask, “Smart little friend, how did you figure it out?”
Of course, it was from his experiences in the previous life!
Lu Weiyi thought to himself, then seeing the others looking over, he explained, “Just a guess. Land animals have mutated, so water animals might too. No one can say for sure that the water is fine. Rainwater comes from the evaporation of seawater and land water, so we also need to be vigilant.”
After speaking, Lu Weiyi glanced outside and nodded to himself, as if confirming his explanation. “Now it seems the water outside definitely can’t be drunk either.”
The others all nodded as if that made sense. Only Antonio repeated it quietly to Dean in English, while thinking to himself that this person indeed knew something in advance, and he must build a good relationship with him in the future.
“However, showering should be fine,” everyone’s gaze turned to the other man who hadn’t turned into a zombie. The first thing he did when he went out was take off his clothes and wash himself under the rain.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone’s eyes instantly lit up. After all, their drinking water was limited, relying only on what they had scavenged, barely enough for drinking and cooking, let alone showering.
The group went out in twos and threes for a refreshing wash and even changed their clothes, immediately looking energetic.
A cool breeze blew in the rain, which normal people found refreshing, but it was a bit too much for the sick Xu Sa. He started shivering after a short while. Liu Rui moved him to a sheltered spot, but it still didn’t help much.
They had only brought food and necessities in the car. They figured they would definitely find blankets and such on the road, or at worst, they wouldn’t need them, so they hadn’t brought any. Lu Weiyi did have some in his space, but taking them out in front of so many people would obviously be impossible to hide.
“I’ll go upstairs and see if there are any blankets or anything,” Lu Weiyi said, wiping his hair as he got up, preparing to casually wander into a room and take a blanket out of his space.
“I’ll go with you,” Lin Yimu said, grabbing a knife and closely following him.
Lu Weiyi could only silently search each room.
Fortunately, in the half of the building that hadn’t collapsed, they actually found two not-very-thick blankets and also took two sets of clean clothes for Liu Rui and Xu Sa.
It wasn’t until the afternoon that the rain gradually stopped, and the sun immediately came out again. Their group prepared to set off.
“We’re going to Qingyuan. Do you have a destination?” Xu Sa had a mother who would trade him for a better future, far away in the Capital. Now that he was so sick, Lu Weiyi definitely had to take him along.
Having eaten, bathed, and changed into clean clothes, Liu Rui looked particularly small. He shook his head and looked at the person Lu Weiyi was carrying. “I… I’ll go… with Brother Sa.”
“Alright, get in the car.”
