Chapter 35: Seeing Uncle Again
When the box van reached the roadblock, several people emerged from the bushes and quickly dragged the barriers aside, letting the van drive through.
Before they could put the roadblocks back in place, Zhan Yun slammed on the accelerator and followed right behind the van, charging in as well.
Those people chased after the SUV for a couple of steps, seemingly cursing as they ran.
Thinking of the zombie horde close on their heels, Zheng Jiahe opened the rear hatch and shouted at them, “The zombies are coming! Get out of here, now!”
The group instinctively looked toward the distance down the road and indeed saw many dark figures shambling in this direction.
They screamed in alarm and immediately jumped into a small car hidden behind the bushes, speeding off in pursuit.
The box van in front drove straight along the road for nearly a kilometer before finally stopping at the gate of a factory.
Seeing the familiar factory building, Su Ruizhe narrowed his eyes slightly.
The factory’s iron gate slowly opened, and several young men carrying flashlights and iron rods walked out.
The van doors opened as well. A skinny, monkey-like man got out of the front seat and bowed and scraped toward the young men, saying something to them. He then opened the rear cargo compartment and carried down several cases of bottled water and a few bags of powdered milk.
The young men nodded, took half of the supplies, and only then allowed the skinny man to drive the van inside.
After that, they headed toward the SUV. When they saw what kind of vehicle it was, their eyes lit up. Even before the apocalypse, they hadn’t seen many luxury cars like this. With such thick steel plating, it looked especially sturdy.
The young man leading them rolled his eyes thoughtfully and whispered a few words to a lackey beside him. That lackey immediately ran back into the factory at full speed, clearly going to report to someone.
Then the young man put on a friendlier smile and walked over to the driver’s side, asking Zhan Yun, “Are you here to join our safe zone?”
“This is a safe zone?”
The young man looked at him like he was some country bumpkin. “You didn’t know? Then how did you even get here?”
“We followed the car in front. They somehow led a bunch of zombies here and almost crashed into us. We had no choice but to follow them this way.”
At the mention of zombies, the young man’s expression changed slightly. He gestured for another lackey to go inform people inside, then said in a businesslike tone, “No matter how you got here, this is a safe zone established by Brother Zhang. If you want to enter, you’ll have to pay an entry fee.”
“How much?”
“Per person—supplies equivalent to five jin of food. Food or water both count.” He glanced into the car and gently shook his head. “You’ve got quite a few people… If you can’t pay, using the car as payment is also acceptable. Brother Zhang just happens to be looking for a vehicle.”
“The Brother Zhang you’re talking about is…?”
“You don’t even know Brother Zhang? He’s an ability user! Incredibly strong—he can tear zombies apart with his bare hands! This safe zone was built by Brother Zhang!”
“Oh? An ability user? Sounds pretty impressive,” Zhan Yun replied casually. “So how many ability users are there in your safe zone?”
“You think ability users grow on trees?! You can just grab a bunch whenever you want?” the young man snapped. “Of course there’s only Brother Zhang! He’s so strong that having just him is enough!”
Zhan Yun and the others snorted inwardly. These people really were frogs at the bottom of a well…
At that moment, the small car behind them caught up. The people who had been guarding the roadblock stuck their heads out in panic and shouted, “Hurry, hurry! The zombies are here! Get inside! Get inside!”
With Zhan Yun’s SUV blocking the way, their small car couldn’t get in, so they urged them on dability userately.
The young man had already faintly heard the zombies’ characteristic snarls. Panic flashed across his face, and he no longer bothered negotiating with Zhan Yun’s group. He hurriedly directed them to drive into the factory and then had the iron gate shut.
After locking the gate with seven or eight heavy locks, the young man seemed to relax a little. Only then did he start sizing up the people who got out of the car.
Aside from the two tall, burly men who came out of the driver’s seat and passenger seat, the rest didn’t look like they had much fighting capability—especially the young man holding a child of about three, and the woman with her hand wrapped in bandages.
Heh. Two men leading a group of women, children, and the wounded…
Out of the seven, only two were of any use. The young man found them even more of a burden, and a trace of disdain crept into his gaze. It was only because of that luxury SUV that he managed to suppress some of his contempt.
The zombies arrived in the blink of an eye, pounding wildly on the factory’s iron gate, forcing their claws through the gaps in the bars and frantically scratching, trying to grab a tasty “meal.”
Many torches were planted around the factory, lighting the small compound brightly. Hearing the commotion, quite a few people came out of the buildings and gathered in the open space at the center of the factory, staring in terror at the ferocious-looking zombies outside.
And with a single glance, Su Ruizhe spotted two familiar faces mixed in among the crowd—his uncle Su Qiming and his aunt Chen Huizhen were indeed here. Only this time, without his protection, they looked far worse off than in his previous life.
Chen Huizhen’s once-plump figure had noticeably slimmed down; her cheeks were hollow, her hair disheveled, and she looked utterly drained. Su Qiming’s back had hunched over, and his hair had turned gray.
In his previous life, after Su Ruizhe was bitten by a zombie, it was also Zhan Yun who rescued him and brought him here. Back then, Zhan Yun had used this factory as a temporary base—after all, it was a food processing plant with some food stock on hand, and its location made it easy to defend and hard to attack.
After waking up and awakening his ability in that life, Su Ruizhe had enjoyed a great deal of preferential treatment thanks to his status as an ability user, and his uncle’s family had been the biggest beneficiaries.
But in this life, they were just ordinary people with nothing to rely on. They had probably paid food just to be allowed into this base. Seeing how poorly they were doing now, a faint sense of satisfaction rose in Su Ruizhe’s heart.
As the saying goes—
“Seeing that you’re not doing well puts my mind at ease.”
Zhan Yun’s group stood near the gate, with a luxury car behind them. Su Ruizhe, with his fair skin, stood out quite a bit. Chen Huizhen spotted him at once. The moment her eyes met Su Ruizhe’s, she immediately turned away in disgust, pretending she hadn’t seen him at all.
After all, Su Ruizhe was his lover. Out of habit, Zhan Yun always paid a bit of extra attention to him, so he quickly noticed that something was off. Following Su Ruizhe’s line of sight, he also saw Chen Huizhen and immediately understood.
At this moment, a burly man with a cigarette in his mouth and a full beard, surrounded by a crowd, slowly walked out from the separate dormitory building behind the factory.
“Brother Zhang!” Upon seeing the bearded man, the young man immediately plastered on a flattering smile and hurried over, telling him about the zombie situation while pointing in Zhan Yun’s direction.
Following the direction of Sun Ming’s finger, Zhang Maorong spotted the conspicuously eye-catching luxury vehicle at a glance, and then the group standing in front of it. Unlike Sun Ming, however, he wasn’t so shortsighted. Although this group looked weak, they were clean, and their overall bearing was very different from the people in his safe zone. In particular, their eyes were calm—so calm it was as if the zombies howling outside the iron gate simply didn’t exist.
“My name is Zhang Maorong. How should I address you all?” Zhang Maorong stopped in front of Zhan Yun and the others.
“Zhan Yun,” Zhan Yun replied flatly, with no intention of introducing anyone else.
Zhang Maorong could tell that Zhan Yun was the one calling the shots in this group, so he didn’t mind. He casually took a wooden stick as thick as an arm from one of the men behind him and, with a single burst of strength, snapped it in half.
“Could it be that you, too, possess some kind of ability?”
This was both a show of force and a probe.
Zhan Yun curled his lips into a faint smile. “I don’t have any particularly special ability.”
At those words, the warmth in Zhang Maorong’s eyes instantly cooled. If he wasn’t an ability user, then he was useless.
“But I have this.” As he spoke, Zhan Yun reached to his lower back and pulled out a gun.
Zhang Maorong’s expression changed at once. Even if he was a strength-type ability user, he was still flesh and blood—he could still be injured, bleed, and die. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t withstand bullets.
He dability userately tried to reassure himself that maybe the gun was just a bluff. He didn’t know how the other man had gotten hold of it, but ammunition was always limited. In that regard, his ability should still give him the advantage.
As if to prove that the gun wasn’t just for show, Zhan Yun casually fired a shot at one of the zombies by the gate, accurately blowing its head apart.
“Got lucky and picked up a gun. Plenty of bullets, too.”
“Hahaha, that’s really great,” Zhang Maorong said with a dry laugh. “With Brother Zhan’s help, we’ll definitely be able to wipe out these zombies.”
Just like that, they were already “brothers.”
Zhan Yun neither agreed nor objected, simply giving a slight nod. No matter what, these zombies had to be dealt with.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
