Chapter 25: Not a Bad Guy
Not only was Song Chengshu stunned—even Zheng Jiahe himself looked completely dumbfounded. Just moments ago, he’d felt weak in both arms and legs and hadn’t used much strength at all. He’d only instinctively grabbed the stool to block the zombie, never expecting such a result.
Zheng Jiahe stared blankly down at his own palms, as if he still couldn’t quite process what had just happened.
“Looks like a strength-type enhancement,” Zhan Yun said with a smile. “That’s pretty good.”
Zhan Yun had heard from Su Ruizhe that the abilities awakened in the apocalypse were extremely diverse, and strength-type abilities were among the more common ones. Considering that Su Ruizhe’s ability couldn’t be exposed easily, and that neither Song Chengshu nor he himself had any abilities yet, bringing this person along would improve their overall safety.
When Su Ruizhe met Zhan Yun’s gaze, he immediately understood what he was thinking. In the early stages of the apocalypse, strength-type ability users were very useful. If this person’s character was passable, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take him along.
“You—” Zhan Yun was just about to ask about his plans when they suddenly heard someone screaming while sprinting past the pharmacy entrance, followed closely by the low growls of zombies.
“Tch! We need to go—now! We can’t stay here!”
Sure enough, the next moment, loud bang bang bang sounds of pounding echoed from outside the door.
The pharmacy’s doors and windows were all glass. Even though Zhan Yun had blocked them with cabinets and tables, they wouldn’t hold off the zombies for long. They had to leave immediately.
The four of them rushed toward the restroom at the back of the pharmacy. It was very cramped, and the ventilation window was only big enough for one person to pass through.
“You go first—I’ll cover the rear!” Zheng Jiahe lifted a metal rack and snapped off a section with a bit of force, gripping it as a weapon.
Zhan Yun exchanged a look with the other two. They didn’t waste time on words and immediately began climbing out through the vent. Zhan Yun went first—he needed to check the situation outside. If it was dangerous, he could use his gun to clear some threats and buy time for the others.
Zhan Yun slipped through the vent smoothly. Song Chengshu was next; with Su Ruizhe’s help, he managed to climb out awkwardly. Su Ruizhe was third. Just as he started climbing, the pharmacy’s glass door shattered, and several ferocious-looking zombies stretched their arms inside, trying to force their way in.
“Hurry!” Su Ruizhe shouted to Zheng Jiahe as he climbed up to the vent.
Zheng Jiahe leaped hard and managed to grab the edge of the vent. As Su Ruizhe turned and jumped out, Zheng Jiahe followed right after him. But when he landed, the wound on his leg began bleeding again, making him grimace in pain.
Drawn by the scent of fresh blood, several more zombies on the street began staggering toward them.
“Tch—run!” They had no choice but to sprint for their lives.
However, Zheng Jiahe’s leg injury meant he couldn’t run fast. Song Chengshu tried to support him, but Zheng Jiahe refused.
“Go! Don’t worry about me!” Zheng Jiahe raked a hand through his messy hair and stopped, gripping the metal pipe tightly with both hands, prepared to die together with the monsters. Injured as he was, he couldn’t help Zhan Yun and the others—he’d only slow them down. It would be better for him to draw the monsters away and give them a slim chance of survival. The blood on him would attract the monsters more anyway.
Zhan Yun glanced at the five or six zombies chasing them from behind, then said to Su Ruizhe, “You stay with him. Old Song and I will go find a car.”
In this situation, they had to get a vehicle. With an injured person, they wouldn’t get far on foot.
“Okay,” Su Ruizhe agreed without hesitation.
“How can that be?!” Zheng Jiahe protested anxiously, but Zhan Yun and Song Chengshu were already sprinting across the street, leaving him and this teenage-looking kid behind to face the approaching zombies.
For a moment, Zheng Jiahe genuinely wondered if Zhan Yun meant to abandon the two of them as dead weight. After all, Su Ruizhe looked too young and slender, seemingly with no combat ability at all.
His unease peaked when Su Ruizhe suddenly pulled a toy gun out of nowhere.
But the very next moment, he realized how spectacularly wrong his guess had been.
Su Ruizhe aimed at the zombie running in front and pulled the trigger. After three shots, the zombie’s head exploded. He fired a few more times, taking down two more zombies.
Su Ruizhe didn’t have much experience using guns, and hitting moving targets wasn’t easy. Fortunately, he had plenty of bullets—aiming at the zombies’ heads and firing continuously, he eventually landed his shots.
Zheng Jiahe: …
By the time Zhan Yun drove up in a nearly new Buick minivan, Su Ruizhe had pulled off a miraculous performance—killing four zombies with a “toy gun”—while Zheng Jiahe had only managed to take down one.
“Get in!” Song Chengshu opened the back door and waved them over.
Su Ruizhe quickly helped Zheng Jiahe into the car. Zhan Yun didn’t wait for them to settle before flooring the accelerator and speeding off.
Zhan Yun drove like a bat out of hell back to the villa district, pulled straight into the garage, and entered the house through it. All of them were a mess—covered in blood and sweat—and utterly miserable.
“Little Zhe, go wash up upstairs first. Old Song, you guys use the downstairs bathroom!” Zhan Yun turned on the living room air conditioner, then casually stripped off his filthy clothes and flopped onto the sofa, unwilling to move.
While there was still water and electricity, they had to make full use of it.
Seeing Zhan Yun’s well-built upper body, Su Ruizhe’s face flushed uncontrollably. He hurried upstairs, not daring to look any longer.
Song Chengshu shot Zhan Yun an annoyed glare, then said to Zheng Jiahe, “Go take a shower. I’ll wrap your wound with some plastic wrap and find you some clean clothes.”
“Okay! Thank you!” Zheng Jiahe was covered head to toe in blood—some from zombies, some his own—now dried to a dark brown, which really was unpleasant to look at.
Song Chengshu quickly fetched a few clean clothes from his room and wrapped Zheng Jiahe’s wound with plastic wrap. Once he finished showering, Song Chengshu would clean and treat the injury properly.
“How do you think he is?” Zhan Yun raised an eyebrow and asked Song Chengshu after Zheng Jiahe went into the bathroom.
“I think he’s a decent guy,” Song Chengshu replied. Judging from Zheng Jiahe’s earlier behavior, he seemed pretty good.
Zhan Yun nodded. He also felt that Zheng Jiahe was alright. If he didn’t have anywhere else to go, letting him stick with them would be fine. They couldn’t hide in this villa district forever. Cheng Qi and Cheng Jiao were still in A City—he had to go find them, and then… figure out a safe place to settle down, preferably a base established by the military. The number of zombies would only continue to grow, and there was no way the three of them alone could hold out against that.
Su Ruizhe had said that after the apocalypse, many bases of varying sizes would gradually be established, including several large ones built by the military. Unfortunately, they were far away. Back then, Su Ruizhe had been dragging along such a big group of dependents that he simply couldn’t make the trip, and in the end, he’d been tricked into going to a place crawling with danger…
At the thought of this, Zhan Yun’s brows knitted deeply. In this life, he would never let Su Ruizhe repeat that mistake.
Su Ruizhe soon finished showering and came downstairs. His fair skin had been steamed pink by the hot water, making one want to pinch it.
“Brother Zhan, you can go wash up now.”
“Okay.” Zhan Yun stood up, and as he passed by Su Ruizhe, he leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Caught off guard and force-fed a huge dose of PDA, Song Chengshu felt like his eyes had been assaulted.
Su Ruizhe’s small face instantly turned as red as a monkey’s backside. He tossed out a quick “I’ll go cook” and bolted away.
Left alone in the living room, Song Chengshu boredly turned on the TV. As expected, it was nothing but static. In the current situation, television stations simply couldn’t operate normally.
The impact of the zombie virus was global. Just last night, nearly one-third of the world’s population had turned into zombies at the same time. After that, countless people, caught completely off guard, had been attacked by their own family members, friends, or even colleagues. The number of zombies was skyrocketing. According to Su Ruizhe, one year into the apocalypse, only a little over six hundred million humans would remain alive worldwide—less than one-tenth of the total global population.
Thinking of this, Song Chengshu couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. The situation at the hospital must be even worse. If not for Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe, he might already have joined the ranks of the zombies himself. This was only the first day of the apocalypse, yet it had already been so harrowing. Who knew what the days ahead would be like?
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