Chapter 20: Scratched
Suddenly, Jiang Jue froze in his tracks.
Looking down at his left arm, his pupils contracted sharply.
His sleeve was torn, revealing a jagged, one-inch wound beneath the fabric. The edges of the torn flesh flared outward, tainted with an unnatural, sickly color.
Chu Yang was still chatting cheerfully ahead of him on the stairs: “Brother Jiang, once my power levels up and I hit Level Two, you can handle the frontline combat while I back you up with ranged support. With our teamwork, we’ll definitely—”
He talked for several paces without hearing a single word in response. Sensing something was off, he stopped and turned around.
Jiang Jue stood motionless in the dim shadows of the stair landing. One hand was pressed firmly against the concrete wall, the veins across the back of his hand bulging with strain. A fine sheen of cold sweat covered his forehead, and his breathing came heavy and ragged.
“Brother Jiang?” Chu Yang’s heart skipped a beat, and he rushed down the steps. “What’s wrong? You’re so pale—are you hurt?”
Jiang Jue shook his head, his voice raspy and strained. “It’s nothing. Let’s get inside first.”
He tried to take another step upward, but his knees buckled, and he nearly tumbled backward down the flight of stairs.
Chu Yang caught him in time. The moment his fingers brushed against Jiang Jue’s hand, he felt only a freezing, clammy chill.
“You call this nothing?!” Panic gripped Chu Yang, his voice rising sharply.
Hearing the commotion in the stairwell, the apartment door swung open, and Wang Rui stepped out with Zhao Dayong and Li Wen.
“Brother Jiang, you’re ba—” Zhao Dayong froze mid-sentence. His eyes went wide, locking onto Jiang Jue’s left sleeve, which was torn and stained with a dark, oily residue.
“Your arm!” Zhao Dayong pointed a shaking finger at it. “Wh-what is that?!”
Wang Rui leaned in for a closer look, his face darkening instantly. “It’s a scratch! Jiang Jue, did a zombie scratch you?!”
Li Wen jumped back in sheer terror.
Three men, six wide eyes, all staring at that injured forearm in naked horror. Instinctively, they scrambled backward several paces, tensing as if they expected Jiang Jue to lunge forward and tear into their throats at any second.
Chu Yang felt as if an icy fist had clenched around his heart. With trembling hands, he slowly rolled back Jiang Jue’s torn sleeve.
The wound was fully exposed now. The laceration was pitch-black, and the surrounding veins had turned a horrifying shade of deep blue-black, with the dark discoloration steadily creeping further up his arm.
“How could this… happen…” Chu Yang’s throat tightened, his voice shaking in pure disbelief. “When did this happen? Weren’t you completely fine just a second ago…”
His mind raced, frantically replaying every second of the courtyard battle.
While they were clearing out the horde, a zombie had ambushed him from his blind spot. It was Jiang Jue who had pulled him back by the collar and decapitated the monster with lightning speed.
Could it have happened then?
Jiang Jue had taken the hit because he was protecting him!
The realization hit Chu Yang like a physical blow. With Jiang Jue’s elite reflexes and extreme caution, how could he have gotten scratched if he hadn’t stepped in to save him?!
“Jiang Jue’s been scratched by a zombie—he’s turning for sure!” Wang Rui gripped his iron rod with white knuckles, a vicious glint in his eyes. “Old Liu downstairs got scratched, and he didn’t even last three hours before he changed!”
“He didn’t just tear apart his own wife and kid! He even attacked Old Li from across the hall when the poor guy opened the door to check on the noise!”
“We cannot let him back inside! If he comes in, we’re all dead!”
Zhao Dayong nodded in frantic agreement, his voice trembling with panic. “Yeah! Brother Jiang… Brother Jiang is so strong. Once he turns, every single one of us is done for! We have to do it now… while he’s still human… while we can still handle him…”
He didn’t finish the thought, but the murderous intent was plain as day: strike while he’s weak and finish him off!
The three exchanged a silent look and shifted their stances, completely barricading the apartment entrance, their crude weapons raised toward Jiang Jue.
“I dare any of you to lay a finger on him!” Chu Yang snapped, stepping firmly in front of Jiang Jue to shield him. “Take a good look at yourselves! Where the hell is your conscience?!”
“All the food and clean water you’ve been eating these past few days—who risked their neck to drag it back through the snow?”
“It’s freezing outside and crawling with monsters—who gave you a roof over your heads to hide under?”
“Now that he’s hurt, instead of helping him find a way through this, your first thought is to murder him?!”
“Are any of you even human?!”
Zhao Dayong flinched at the outburst, but the mention of a “conscience” made him bristle with defensive indignation. “Cut the crap, Chu Yang! You’re telling us we don’t have a conscience? You and Jiang Jue lock yourselves in that warm bedroom, feasting on good food and running the heater in total comfort! What about us?!”
“We’re stuck out here gnawing on whatever scraps fall through your fingers, shivering in an apartment that feels like a walk-in freezer! What kind of great favor is that supposed to be?!”
Wang Rui chimed in with a sneer. “Exactly! Don’t act like you’re our saviors, Chu Yang. You two enjoy the high life in private and toss us a few crumbs, and we’re supposed to bow down in gratitude? If you’re so noble, why didn’t you bring the heater into the living room? Why didn’t you split the supplies equally? Quit acting like some righteous hero—you’re just a hypocrite!”
Watching these ungrateful cowards twist the truth, Chu Yang shook with pure fury. These absolute bastards!
If Brother Jiang hadn’t shown them mercy, they would have frozen or starved to death on the streets days ago! And now they had the nerve to throw it back in his face?!
Chu Yang took a sharp breath, forcing down the urge to smash their faces in, and spat through gritted teeth, “Bullshit! Every single scrap of food we have was brought back by Brother Jiang and me, risking our lives out in the cold!”
“When we asked you to come with us and pull your own weight, what did you say? ‘It’s too dangerous,’ ‘Let’s wait it out,’ ‘Maybe the army will rescue us!’ You hid in the back like cowards, too terrified to lift a finger!”
“And now you have the nerve to demand equal shares?! Don’t you know how useless you’ve been? What right do you have to stand there and talk about equality?!”
The more he spoke, the hotter his anger burned. He pointed a finger right at their chests. “If I fed a stray dog, it would at least have the decency to wag its tail! You lot aren’t even as good as dogs! Even a dog knows to protect the hand that feeds it!”
Wang Rui’s face turned beet-red with humiliated rage. “Chu Yang, you’re asking to die—”
“Shut your mouth! You’re the most pathetic of the bunch!” Chu Yang glared at the bleached-blond thug, his gaze dripping with disgust. “When we brought supplies home, you were the first to kiss his ass, calling him ‘Brother Jiang’ sweeter than anyone else, acting like you wanted to adopt him as your own father!”
“Now that he’s down, you turn on him the second you think he’s weak. With how fast you flip your face, it’s a crime you aren’t doing theatrical mask-changing on stage!”
Just as Chu Yang finished his rant, a low, pained groan came from behind him.
His chest tightened, and he spun around. Jiang Jue’s complexion had turned a sickly ashen gray, his lips tinged with dark purple. His tall frame swayed precariously on the stairs, on the verge of collapsing.
“Brother Jiang!” Chu Yang lunged forward, throwing his arms out to catch him as Jiang Jue’s full weight bore down onto his shoulders.
Seeing Chu Yang struggling under the burden, Wang Rui’s eyes narrowed. Seizing the opening, he stepped forward, raising his iron rod as he hissed a low threat: “Chu Yang, are you really going to throw your life away for a walking corpse? Think long and hard about what happens next!”
Behind him, Zhao Dayong and Li Wen tightened their grips on their weapons, inching forward to back him up.
