Chapter 7
“I-I thought it was a zombie. So it was a person.” It was an obvious lie.
The thin, weak-looking man forced out a smile, but that smile looked extremely strained.
“Is that so? Then how do you explain those zombies at the door?” Xia Chenxi crouched down in front of the man. “And where did the convenience store owner go?”
The thin man’s face turned pale.
“What owner? I don’t know. I was the only one here when I came.” Another lie.
Xia Chenxi nodded. The chilling aura radiating from him made Ye Xuan feel somewhat terrified.
“Some people, when they’re alive, are selfish and self-serving. They contribute nothing to society, waste air, waste food, waste water, and even after they die, they waste land.” From an angle Ye Xuan could not see, Xia Chenxi showed the man a cold, sinister smile, like an evil ghost that had crawled out of hell. “But now, even after people die, they can run all over the streets without eating or drinking. Tell me, wouldn’t a selfish person like that be better off dead?”
The man was so frightened that his phone fell to the floor.
Xia Chenxi withdrew his smile and stood up. With one stomp, he crushed the phone. The music stopped abruptly, leaving only the breathing of the three people in the cramped space.
“I was wrong. I was wrong. I really know I was wrong. Please let me go, please.” The man dropped to his knees in front of Xia Chenxi with a thud, crying until tears and snot covered his face. Again and again, he kowtowed to Xia Chenxi.
Xia Chenxi looked at him coldly. His eyes were filled with disgust and a trace of anger.
He grabbed the man by the back of his neck and carried him to the window.
Ye Xuan blocked Xia Chenxi’s path.
“Xia Chenxi, have you thought this through?”
So far, they had only killed zombies. They had not killed a single person.
“Don’t stick your nose into other people’s business.” Xia Chenxi pushed Ye Xuan aside, opened the window, and without the slightest hesitation, threw the man outside. Then he closed and locked the window again.
“I was wrong! I was wrong! I was the one who locked the owner outside! I was the one who wanted to kill you! It was all my fault! I know I was wrong! I won’t do it again! Let me go!” The man slapped the glass in panic while looking around him.
Xia Chenxi crossed his arms and remained completely unmoved by his pleas.
Besides the man’s begging, Ye Xuan also heard another sound.
The sound of zombies.
Realizing it was useless to beg any longer, the man instantly changed from his cowardly expression. He slammed hard against the window, his face full of hatred and distortion as he roared at Xia Chenxi and Ye Xuan through the glass.
“I’ll kill both of you! Neither of you will die a good death!”
The next second, the man was pounced on by several zombies. After a burst of miserable screams, the zombies scattered again.
Ye Xuan walked to Xia Chenxi’s side and saw that the man, whose face had been bitten beyond recognition, twitched a few times before standing up stiffly. His eyes stared blankly ahead as he walked away step by step.
“Xia Chenxi…”
“The one who killed him wasn’t me. It was himself. It was his own extinguished humanity that killed him.” Xia Chenxi looked at Ye Xuan, his eyes calm and without the slightest ripple.
Ye Xuan suddenly really wanted to know what was hidden behind those eyes.
“I’m not blaming you. You have your own values and worldview, and he was the one who tried to hurt people first.” Ye Xuan bit his lower lip, but in the end, he still asked the doubt in his heart. “From just now, you’ve been very concerned about the convenience store owner. What’s your relationship with him?”
A ripple appeared in Xia Chenxi’s eyes. Ye Xuan keenly caught a trace of sorrow in them.
“Ye Xuan, I’m a poor student.”
“The convenience store owner sponsored me for ten years.”
“Just now, I saw him from the roof.”
In Ye Xuan’s impression, the convenience store owner was a very kind, slightly chubby middle-aged man. When he walked around the counter, his left leg was not very nimble and always lagged half a step behind.
Once, Ye Xuan had accidentally dropped his student ID here. That kind, chubby man had actually chased after him all the way to the dorm entrance.
When that round face smiled, all his features squeezed together, looking both funny and honest.
Those rough fingers pinched Ye Xuan’s student ID and handed it to him.
His mellow voice rang out. “Aiya, student, why are you walking so fast? Hurry and take your student ID back. For your sake, I even closed the store for a while.”
“Xia Chenxi…”
Ye Xuan wanted to say a few words to comfort him, but he did not know what to say. He did not have the right to, either.
So he went to the shelves, found a lollipop, tore open the wrapper, and handed it to Xia Chenxi.
Xia Chenxi took it, then turned around and stuffed the lollipop into Ye Xuan’s mouth instead.
“I’m not a kindergarten kid.”
Ye Xuan bit the candy and glared at Xia Chenxi.
Before night completely fell, the two of them finished dinner.
To save his phone battery, Ye Xuan turned off his phone and sat with Xia Chenxi in the darkness. Neither of them said a word, so the footsteps of the zombies wandering outside became especially clear, making the already gloomy environment seem even more terrifying.
Ding-dong.
Ye Xuan’s phone rang.
Ye Xuan turned on his phone and found that he had received a text message.
Xia Chenxi walked over and sat beside Ye Xuan. His own phone had already sacrificed itself gloriously.
Ye Xuan opened the message.
[Hello, survivor. We know how difficult it has been for you. If you are still alive, please send your location to this number. We will send people to rescue you.]
Ye Xuan’s hand trembled with excitement as he held the phone. After so many days and nights, they had finally waited until rescue arrived.
He impatiently typed the school’s address onto the screen, even specifying the convenience store and the route from the school gate to the store.
“Wait.” Xia Chenxi stopped Ye Xuan. “Look carefully at this sentence. The person sending the message only said they would send people to rescue you, but they didn’t say what kind of people they would send.”
“So what? It’s already good enough that someone is coming to save us. The food in the convenience store will run out too. We can’t be trapped here forever,” Ye Xuan retorted.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
“We’ll die here, Xia Chenxi. The government still hasn’t taken action, which means the world outside has already changed. If we miss this chance, will we ever get another one?”
Xia Chenxi rubbed his temple helplessly and said, “Forget it. Do whatever you want.”
Ye Xuan tapped send.
The topic ended there, and the room fell quiet again.
The entire day of fleeing had exhausted Ye Xuan. He leaned against the wall, and before long, he fell asleep.
In his dream, there was a snake chasing him from behind. No matter where he ran, even to the ends of the earth, it would not stop chasing him. Suddenly, it sprang up and bit his neck.
Ye Xuan opened his eyes and felt that his body was very heavy. His neck hurt too.
!
“Xia Chenxi, what are you doing?”
The dim morning light fell on Xia Chenxi’s face, blurring his features, but those crimson eyes were especially clear.
Xia Chenxi was biting his neck!
“Xia Chenxi! Hurry up and let go. It hurts. Are you trying to bite me to death?”
Xia Chenxi did not let go. Ye Xuan could not bear it anymore and slapped him across the face.
Ye Xuan used all his strength in that slap, and it made his palm go numb.
Xia Chenxi slowly released his mouth and lowered his head. His slightly long bangs covered his eyes, making it impossible for Ye Xuan to see his expression clearly.
“Xia Chenxi, are you okay?”
Ye Xuan reached out and waved his hand in front of him.
Xia Chenxi grabbed his hand and said to Ye Xuan in a hoarse voice, “Sorry.”
