Chapter 60: Beg Me!
Lu Weiyi’s group didn’t enter the village to stay. They still chose a small courtyard outside the village near the highway. Fortunately, rural courtyards were large enough to accommodate three cars.
An old couple lived in the courtyard, and they had both turned into zombies. They wandered around the courtyard without going out and were quickly dealt with by Antonio, who was scouting the way. Lu Weiyi, who followed closely behind, collected a crystal core.
It was already dark. The group lit a few torches and patrolled the surroundings before barricading the main gate. Xu Sa and Liu Rui went around and carried out a jar of pickled vegetables and more than half a bag of flour. “There are still dozens of bags of unthreshed wheat and a whole pile of corn in the other room.”
“There are also a lot of green vegetables in the vegetable garden,” Gu Qingyue said happily, holding a full embrace of tomatoes, followed by Gu Qingji carrying cucumbers.
“There’s a water tank full of water!” Xi Shi, who was busy behind the stove, was also pleasantly surprised. In the current situation, water was more precious than food.
“Water?” Lin Yimu and Li Zhuang walked over at the same time, looked at the clear, cool water in the water tank, exchanged a glance, and hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Xiong Jie asked as he came in carrying a bundle of firewood.
“Don’t know if it’s drinkable,” Lin Yimu said, telling him about the heavy rain that day. Xi Shi, who was listening, looked terrified and grabbed Xiong Jie’s arm, saying with lingering fear, “Luckily, I didn’t let you drink it.”
Xiong Jie was also shaken. He patted Xi Shi’s hand to comfort him. “I won’t do anything you tell me not to do in the future.”
Xi Shi nodded. Xiong Jie looked at the full vat of water, feeling it was a pity to waste it. He said to the others, “Since we’re not sure, let’s not try it. We still have a lot of water and drinks from the supermarket. We might as well use this to wash up. It’s so hot, we’ve all sweated a lot. A wash will cool us down.”
“That sounds good,” Antonio said. “One washbasin per person.”
“Okay,” Xu Sa replied readily, calling to Liu Rui, “Stutterer, come on, let’s give you a bath.”
“Then, after you’ve all washed up, I’ll heat up the food.” There was still a lot of food left from the morning, but they were all meat dishes, and a layer of oil had congealed on top after cooling, making them look a bit greasy. Seeing the stove, Xi Shi planned to light a fire and heat it up.
“Alright, bath time…”
The easily satisfied group happily lined up to wash. Although they were all men, their attributes were different, so they tacitly divided into groups.
There were only three washbasins in the house, so eleven people would have to take turns many times. They simply divided into three teams: one team washed, one team defended, and the other team searched the courtyard for anything else edible. As for the two extra people, they became Xi Shi and Xiong Jie, the only two who knew how to use the earthen stove. Xi Shi kneaded some dough and planned to steam some buns with the vegetables from the courtyard, and Xiong Jie helped him.
The stored water was limited, so they only dared to use one bucket, a two-tiered steamer. They stopped after steaming three times. The others had also finished washing and changed into clean clothes. A row of washed clothes was draped in the corner of the courtyard, waiting for Xi Shi and Xiong Jie to wash up before they ate.
Li Zhuang sat on the jujube tree in the courtyard, chewing an unripe green jujube boredly, keeping watch for the two of them while also surveying the surroundings. In the middle of the courtyard, several people were discussing whether to take the wheat and corn and how to take them. Lu Weiyi never participated in these discussions. Dean pulled him to the vegetable garden, holding a torch to light his way.
Children probably hadn’t been to vegetable gardens before. Dean asked curiously about everything he saw, asking if this was ripe and how that should be eaten. The poor little chatterbox couldn’t communicate fluently with others, and now that he was with Lu Weiyi, who wasn’t in the mood to talk much, he was quite happy just muttering to himself.
Li Zhuang watched Lu Weiyi, who had become a tool person, and found it amusing for a moment. He picked a green jujube and threw it over. Lu Weiyi deftly dodged it and quickly pulled Dean back two steps, looking around vigilantly.
“What’s wrong?” Dean also looked around alertly, didn’t see anything, and asked Lu Weiyi.
The slightest movement here immediately alerted Antonio, who was constantly paying attention. He asked what had happened and quickly walked over, while the other people also became vigilant.
“Little friend, good alertness,” Li Zhuang said, seeing that things had escalated and that Lu Weiyi was also looking over, and readily admitted to causing the trouble.
Under the flickering torchlight, Lu Weiyi rolled his eyes coldly and said, “Childish.”
Knowing that nothing was wrong, the others continued their heated debate.
“Heh, I was just exercising…” Li Zhuang’s voice suddenly stopped. He raised his hand and quickly waved it to the left. The messy branches blocked the swung knife, and the rustling of falling green jujubes, twigs, and leaves mixed with the sound. He only felt a pain in his arm. Li Zhuang cursed inwardly and jumped down from the tree, shouting to the others, “Be alert!”.
The few people in the courtyard immediately stopped their discussion and formed a circle, looking around vigilantly. Antonio protected Dean and Lu Weiyi, moving towards the larger group of people, while asking, “What is it?”
“Didn’t see clearly.”
“Cat.”
Li Zhuang and Lu Weiyi’s voices came at the same time.
“Cat?” Several people who had seen zombie animals immediately reacted. “Zombie cat?”
“Mmm.” The thing was agile and small, indeed difficult to deal with. Lu Weiyi used his mental power to pinpoint its location. “On the courtyard wall behind the jujube tree.”
The group looked over and saw, in the dim torchlight, a small animal on the wall crouching down and suddenly attacking Li Zhuang, who was closest.
With a “clang,” the triangular knife in Li Zhuang’s hand struck its attack path, blocking its assault. The zombie cat rolled on the spot and immediately turned towards the people behind. Antonio, who was holding an eggplant, immediately threw it, hitting the zombie cat directly on the head and knocking it to the ground.
Only then did everyone see clearly. The cat in front of them shouldn’t have been more than a few months old. Its oily black fur was falling out in patches, and the rest was a dirty mess. A piece had fallen off its mouth, revealing sharp teeth. As it crouched down and howled, it looked terrifying.
Lin Yimu was about to go up and help but was pulled back by Lu Weiyi.
The smaller the zombie animal, the harder it was to deal with. Researchers had once said that if insects also became zombified, then humans would basically have no way to survive. Even if a swarm of zombie insects couldn’t zombify a person, they could gnaw him down to the bones.
Lu Weiyi remembered encountering zombie cats in his previous life. The difference was that it was a mother cat and two kittens, three zombie cats in total. Near the place where they were about to reach Qingyuan City, they lost more than twenty people trying to resist those three cats. It was also at that time that Zhuang Mingxu was bitten by the head of a zombie cat, which had its body broken, and they realized that even if a zombie only had its head left, it could still bite if its head wasn’t blown apart.
Fortunately, there were four ability users in their group. Surrounding and intercepting it shouldn’t be too difficult. Even if someone was bitten, an ability user’s body wouldn’t be invaded by the zombie energy at this stage. At most, they would feel uncomfortable for a while, which was much better than dying.
“Antonio and Liu Rui stay, the rest go back inside,” Lu Weiyi said, gripping his watermelon knife and slowly stepping forward.
The others behind him, although they didn’t understand the reason, clearly noticed that the four who remained were all ability users. “Be careful,” they instructed, and quickly retreated back into the room.
The zombie cat shrieked and lunged towards Lu Weiyi. Lu Weiyi had already locked onto its movement with his mental power, and now he immediately swung the watermelon knife. The small cat twisted nimbly, only losing a section of its tail. Using the force of its tail, it changed direction and went for Liu Rui beside him.
Liu Rui had come over in a hurry, only holding a stick. He swung it, but the cat rolled on the spot and dodged it.
This was why such small and agile animals were the most troublesome.
No one knew much about zombie cats, so no one dared to rush forward. The four of them took turns attacking, causing a lot of injuries, even chopping off a leg, but they couldn’t land a fatal blow.
“I’ll control it, you guys directly chop off its head.” Lu Weiyi could cover himself with a layer of mental energy to protect himself, but the others couldn’t. If this continued, they would inevitably get hurt. As he spoke, he directed the little green branch to approach the zombie cat.
Under the light of several torches, the little green branch was invisible, but the zombie cat seemed to sense it. It turned its head towards the branch’s direction, pausing with curiosity and wariness. In that instant, Lu Weiyi immediately directed the little green branch to tie the zombie cat up securely. “Now!”
As soon as he finished speaking, various weapons smashed down, and the small cat instantly became a pulp, splattering some rotten flesh.
Liu Rui cautiously poked it with his stick, confirming it was dead beyond any doubt, and breathed a sigh of relief. “A… animals… all be… becoming zombies.”
“So disgusting.” Antonio glanced at the few drops of black blood that had splattered on his pants, looking disgusted. He had just changed his clothes, and he didn’t have any more clean ones to change into.
“Is it dead?” The people hiding in the room asked, hearing the commotion.
“Yes,” Antonio walked towards the door. “You can come out now.”
While retracting the little green branch, Lu Weiyi also obtained a crystal core from the zombie cat’s brain. He used his mental power to check that there were no more of these things around before turning and following Antonio towards the room.
“Li… Brother Li…” Liu Rui’s stammering voice shouted in surprise from behind, “You… you’ve been bit… bitten!”
As if someone had pressed the pause button, the group’s gazes went straight to Li Zhuang, who was standing at the back. They were stunned, surprised, and incredulous. But in just an instant, they recovered. Antonio immediately turned around and walked over, seeing the three short scratches on his arm. He asked, “Scratched by the cat?”
Among the four who had stayed behind, the two most skilled were definitely Antonio and Li Zhuang. If Liu Rui or Lu Weiyi had been attacked, Antonio wouldn’t have been too surprised. But the fact that it was Li Zhuang made it seem unbelievable.
“Brother Li,” Gu Qingyue didn’t know what to say for a moment.
“What does it feel like?” Gu Qingji asked.
Dean also stood silently to the side, looking at Li Zhuang with a bit of sadness in his eyes.
These few people had been together the longest. Although it had only been half a month, the bond of relying on each other was different.
“It might not necessarily turn into a zombie. Antonio was bitten before and he was fine, wasn’t he?” Lin Yimu glanced at the darkening wound on his arm, the comforting words not even convincing himself.
“It’s okay.” Li Zhuang pulled back his arm, which was being stared at, and looked around with a half-smile, still the same carefree and laid-back person. “If I turn into a zombie, remember to just give me one to the head.”
Lu Weiyi couldn’t stand his nonchalant attitude, as if everything was under control. He looked at Li Zhuang and raised an eyebrow. “If you beg me, I might consider saving you.”
Thank you for the chapter!!!