Chapter 97: Healing Up
Lu Weiyi put away a car. Fortunately, they still had a truck left, and it wasn’t difficult to fit so many people in it, but the truck was damaged and needed constant attention, plus no one knew what the road ahead would be like.
Ning Yuan drove, Lin Yimu directed with a map, and the rest of the people all went to the back of the truck to take care of the injured and also to watch out for any approaching zombies.
In the truck, besides the unconscious Lu Weiyi, Li Zhuang had overused his ability, Liu Rui was still enduring the pain brought by the zombie energy, Gu Qingji had been shot in the shoulder, and the other person shot was Zhuang Mingxu. He had been leaning against the back of the truck bed, and a bullet had pierced through the truck bed and directly through his arm, then going into Lu Xi’s abdomen.
After passing through two people, it didn’t go any further, only piercing a section of his stomach. Gu Qingyue directly pulled it out with his hand and tore off a piece of clothing to bandage the two of them slightly.
A truck full of patients, and no one was in the mood for lunch. Even Zhuang Ai Yi, who was still hiding in the back seat, didn’t say he was hungry. It was Lin Yimu who realized the child might not be as resilient as them adults, searched through the backpack in the cab, found two chocolates, and gave them to Zhuang Ai Yi to tide him over.
Their combat power was low, and they didn’t dare to rest in crowded places. It wasn’t until the afternoon that they finally found a clearly dilapidated village.
The village was on a small hillside beside the highway, a distance from the road. It wasn’t big, looking like only a dozen households. Antonio and Lin Yimu went out to scout and returned saying that only two households had been inhabited, but they had become zombies. The other courtyards probably hadn’t been lived in before the apocalypse, with weeds growing wildly and the houses dilapidated.
“Let’s rest here for the night, we’ll continue on our way tomorrow,” Li Zhuang rubbed his temples and jumped off the truck. “Get the gasoline out, let’s leave the truck here. No one’s going to pick up the broken tires.”
Those who could carry the injured did so, those who could move things moved things, the division of labor was clear. They walked for over ten minutes and arrived at the inhabited house. Two elderly zombies were lying in the courtyard, already dealt with by Antonio.
An old courtyard with mud-plastered walls, many places had gaps. There were a total of three cave dwellings in the courtyard, a small vegetable garden, and on the edge was a slope with a plum tree and several peach trees halfway up, laden with fruit.
The middle cave dwelling had old bedding laid out, probably where the two elderly people lived. The left one had cabinets and a kang (heated brick bed) but no bedding, and the furnishings were relatively new, probably waiting for the children to come back to live. The other room was full of agricultural tools and a small amount of grain.
Gu Qingyue was the first to look around and decided to settle in the middle room first.
The bedding had a unique musty smell of old people. No one had been in the room for probably half a month, and the air had a dusty smell. There was also a layer of dust on the table.
Dean and Lu Xi shook out the bedding and had them first settle the injured on the kang. They then found a bedroll from the cabinet and spread a layer on the earthen kang next door.
Antonio and Lin Yimu went around the surroundings again and found no traces of zombies. They picked a basket of apples and pears from the nearby fruit trees and returned. Seeing Zhuang Ai Yi picking vegetables with Xi Shi in the courtyard, Antonio took one, wiped it on his clothes, and said, “Ai Yi, come eat an apple.”
“Thank you, Uncle Mu,” Zhuang Ai Yi took it and handed it to Xi Shi, “Grandpa eat first.”
“Ai Yi can eat it,” Xi Shi was old and also liked children. Plus, since he was always responsible for cooking, he often took special care of Zhuang Ai Yi, so Zhuang Ai Yi was quite familiar with him.
“Where did you guys find these?” Xiong Jie took a pear Antonio tossed him, didn’t even wipe it before taking a bite. It was juicy and crisp. “Pretty sweet.” He reached out and caught another one Antonio threw, then handed it to Xi Shi. “Quench your thirst.”
“There’s an orchard not far away, about a dozen trees, with a lot of fruit,” Lin Yimu said. “We took a look around. No one lives here, and there aren’t many zombies. It’s pretty safe. There are quite a few fruit trees though. We’ll all go pick some after we rest.”
“Alright, let’s pick some vegetables first and see what we can cook. We’ll eat before it gets light and then go,” Xiong Jie said, a pear in his mouth, as he bent down to continue picking vegetables with Xi Shi.
Inside the cave dwelling, Liu Rui had recovered. Xu Sa had held him and slept for a while on the way. Now, apart from being a bit pale from blood loss, he felt no discomfort. Li Zhuang’s ability had also recovered. Only Lu Weiyi was still asleep on the kang, and Zhuang Mingxu sat beside him, staring at him without moving.
“Brother Mingxu, can you wake Weiyi up first to get some medicine? Qingji was shot, and the bullet is still in his body.” Gu Qingji had been unlucky; the bullet was lodged in his shoulder. It couldn’t be dealt with without removing it. He had been bleeding all the way, and now he had a bit of a fever. Gu Qingyue was worried that if they delayed any longer, his arm would have problems.
Zhuang Mingxu looked up at him, then his gaze shifted to Gu Qingji. After a moment, he gently touched Lu Weiyi and said softly, “Xiaoyi, wake up… wake up first.”
Lu Weiyi was just fatigued from blood loss and overusing his ability. He hadn’t slept deeply. Plus, he was naturally alert. Zhuang Mingxu called him twice, and he woke up. He looked around warily, confirmed it was safe, and rubbed his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Weiyi, do you have any surgical instruments? Qingji was shot, and I need to take the bullet out for him,” Gu Qingyue said anxiously.
Lu Weiyi shook his head. “But… see if there’s anything in here.” Lu Weiyi turned sideways and placed all the medicines he had taken from Lin Fei’s space in the courtyard, forming a small pile.
“Anesthetics, anti-inflammatories, antivirals, anti-infectives…” Gu Qingji stepped forward and quickly flipped through them, muttering the names of the medicines he saw. Finally, he shook his head. “No surgical instruments.”
“Use a dagger then, I’ll assist you.” Li Zhuang took out a palm-sized thin dagger from his body. “With anesthesia, he won’t feel anything.”
There was no better way at the moment. Gu Qingyue nodded. “Alright.”
Antonio helped Gu Qingji to the cave dwelling next door. Gu Qingyue and Li Zhuang went to assist with the “surgery.” Lin Yimu and Li Zhuang found disinfectant gauze and hemostatic medicine among the pile of medicines and re-bandaged Lu Xi and Zhuang Mingxu’s wounds, then also dealt with the wounds on Lu Weiyi’s back and Liu Rui’s arm.
“How do you feel? Still uncomfortable?” Zhuang Mingxu lowered his head and asked Lu Weiyi gently, his usually sharp eyes now so soft they could drip water.
“I’m fine.” Apart from being a bit dizzy, Lu Weiyi felt he needed to replenish his blood. “Brother Mu, is there anything in there that replenishes blood? I feel a bit dizzy.”
“Let me see.” Lin Yimu said, rummaging through the pile of medicines again. He wasn’t a professional, so he still looked at the instructions for some medicines. Lu Xi directly picked out several boxes of Ejiao. “Brother, is Ejiao okay?”
“Okay.” Lu Weiyi was dumbfounded seeing the slabs in the opened box. “How do you eat this stuff?”
“That’s Ejiao blocks. You have to boil it into Ejiao paste and drink it with water, or directly make it into Ejiao cakes and chew it like candy.” It was Xi Shi who answered Lu Weiyi’s question. “If you want to eat it, I can boil it for you, but it requires quite a few ingredients.”
“Alright, then make Ejiao cakes. Give some to everyone who’s injured. What ingredients do you need?” Things that replenish blood would only become more and more expensive later on. Whether it was ability users or ordinary people who lost blood after being injured, they would need this stuff. Lu Weiyi looked at the twenty-odd boxes Lu Xi had sorted out.
“Yellow wine, rock sugar, walnuts, red dates, longan, black sesame seeds. Take whatever you have, it’s not a requirement if you don’t,” Xi Shi said.
It was quite a coincidence. When they were in Wutong City, they had been to the vegetable market twice, and the dried goods shops inside had all these things. Lu Weiyi quickly laid them out on the ground. “First, let’s make…”
Lu Weiyi glanced at the dozen or so iron boxes and thought that when they returned to Qingyuan, they could visit more pharmacies. “Make as much as you can. We’ll divide it later and store it ourselves to eat.”
“Alright,” Xi Shi replied, giving Xiong Jie instructions to shell the dried longan. “Let’s cook first. Later, they want to go pick the fruit trees nearby. What do you guys want to eat?”
“I want to drink chicken soup.” Lu Weiyi felt he needed to replenish his nutrition. After throwing out the generator, pots, pans, and seasonings, he also threw out two chickens, along with a piece of meat.
“The generator is too loud, let’s use the gas cylinders first.” There were quite a few people slowing them down now. If they really attracted attention, they would easily suffer losses. Lin Yimu said to Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi nodded and exchanged for two gas cylinders, as well as the corresponding gas stove.
“Weiyi, actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you. Did you know all along that ability users wouldn’t turn into zombies after being bitten?” After Lu Weiyi said that, Xiong Jie had a strong intuition, especially after Li Zhuang was bitten before, the random concoction of water he had made, and when they were about to get out of the car to deal with the zombies, he had immediately moved the ordinary people to a safer car compartment.
Lu Weiyi immediately remembered the last time he had tricked Li Zhuang. He turned his head and saw he wasn’t there, made a “shush” gesture, and whispered, “I saw it once when I went out alone to find supplies in Wutong City.”
“No wonder, don’t worry, I won’t blab,” Xiong Jie said. “Tell us about this kind of thing in advance next time. We were all scared to death just now.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Lu Weiyi saw Li Zhuang return from the toilet, responded vaguely, and quickly lay back on the bed.
“Everyone, let’s eat some pancakes and steamed buns first, a simple meal. While it’s still light, let’s go collect things nearby. How about we stew soup and stir-fry vegetables when we come back at night?” Lin Yimu looked at everyone and changed the subject appropriately.
The others had no objections and decided on this. Over there, Lu Xi found a few boxes of oral liquid that could be drunk directly and gave them to Lu Weiyi. Lu Weiyi gave one box to each of the injured, telling everyone to replenish their blood.
Over on Gu Qingji’s side, the bullet had just happened to lodge below his collarbone. It had also lost momentum after piercing through the various items in the trunk, barely managing to embed itself in the flesh. It was removed surprisingly easily, but without tweezers or similar tools, the cut made was a bit large.
Just as the group had finished eating and were dividing into teams to go out and collect supplies, the operation was already complete. Li Zhuang came out with a tissue, dabbing the blood on his hands with water. After asking what they were doing, he said, “I’ll go too, wait a moment.”
He went inside, grabbed four steamed buns, took a big bite out of one, and went out with the others while eating.
Thank you for the new chapter