Chapter 17
Even in such abnormally extreme heat, the workers from the building materials market still delivered the glass and aluminum foil window film the orphanage had ordered yesterday.
The security guard helped unload the truck. Wiping away sweat, Teacher Xiaomei said, “Uncle, was this aluminum foil film a gift from the boss? We didn’t buy it!”
The shirtless delivery man, drenched in sweat, shook his head. “I don’t know either. Maybe the boss gave it to you.”
“So much of it? Your boss is so kind!” Teacher Xiaomei was pleasantly surprised.
Who would have thought that in a city like Huan City, with its mild winters and cool summers, the temperature would one day approach 50°C, and heat-insulating window film would actually become useful in people’s homes?
The man used the towel on his shoulder to wipe his sweaty face and smiled simply. “The boss is a really good person. In this awful weather, nobody wanted to make deliveries. I said I’d do it, and he gave me twenty extra yuan!”
The delivery man helped remove the orphanage’s broken windowpanes and install the new ones. The security guard, Teacher Xiaomei, and Wei Cheng all helped out however they could. Replacing glass was no easy job, after all—someone had to help lift the panes and hand over tools.
As for Chen Sheng, he hid in the dining hall the whole time, enjoying the air conditioning and never coming out.
After everything was installed, Teacher Xiaomei saw that the delivery man worked efficiently without a single complaint. After replacing the windows, he had even carefully helped them apply the window film too, which had clearly delayed his other deliveries by quite a bit. So she hurriedly pulled two hundred yuan out of her pocket and tried to force it into his hand.
The delivery man refused again and again. “No, no, I can’t. This is an orphanage—a place where you use your own money to raise children. When the children grow up, there’ll be so many places where money will be needed. I can’t take it, I can’t!”
“Please take it, Uncle. This can’t be easy for you either. Hurry and take it. This is my own money, not the orphanage’s,” Teacher Xiaomei said. She knew every ordinary person had it hard, but seeing a man about the same age as her own father come all the way out here just for twenty extra yuan truly made her feel miserable inside.
The man insisted, “No need, no need. I already made money on this trip!”
The security guard went to walk him out. Suddenly, Wei Cheng said, “Teacher, can I walk this grandpa out too?”
Teacher Xiaomei glanced out the window, where waves of heat were rolling outside, and shook her head. “Teacher knows you’re a good child, but it’s just too hot outside. A child as young as you could get sunburned. You’d better not go out.”
Wei Cheng said, “Teacher, if I wear a jacket, I won’t get sunburned.”
Teacher Xiaomei knew this child always had his own mind, so she reached out, pulled up the zipper of his jacket, and placed her own hat on his head. “All right, then. Go on.”
It was already hot enough inside, but outside was even more suffocatingly hot.
The delivery man and the security guard were smoking in the security booth. Wei Cheng looked left and right, then walked one full circle around the delivery truck and tossed a package of something onto the passenger seat.
Once the window film was up and the air conditioner was turned on, the indoor temperature dropped noticeably.
Guanguan, Mingming, and Wang Xiaotiao were all fast asleep on the little bed.
Last night had been unbearably hot, and after all that tossing and turning, the children had not slept well. Even the noise of replacing the windows and applying the film earlier had not woken them.
“Brother… hot… thirsty…”
Guanguan rubbed his eyes and sat up. Seeing how dark the room was, he jumped a little in fright. “Is it nighttime?”
“No, it’s not nighttime. The window film is up now.”
Wei Cheng took out a bottle of sour plum drink from the safehouse and said, “Drink.”
Guanguan hugged the cup and gulped down several mouthfuls. His little face was flushed from the heat. “Brother, last night Guanguan felt like he was about to get cooked.”
He patted his chest with his little hand. “It felt like there were lots of stones in here.”
Yesterday, the child had been so overheated that he had trouble breathing.
Wei Cheng had not felt well either, but his heart still ached for Guanguan. “Did you still feel bad after going into the secret base? What about now?”
Guanguan shook his head. “The secret base felt sooo comfortable. And now the room feels a little cool too. Guanguan doesn’t feel bad anymore!”
Wei Cheng sighed. “This heatwave will pass soon.”
Mingming and Wang Xiaotiao woke up too, and Wei Cheng gave each of them a cup of cold drink as well.
Wang Xiaotiao’s eyes widened again. “Brother Chengcheng, in weather this hot, you went out to buy drinks again?!”
There was some confusion in Mingming’s eyes.
Wei Cheng knew Mingming was a very clever child. If Wang Xiaotiao had managed to survive in the previous life, it definitely would not have been without Mingming taking care of him.
He only said, “Don’t ask. Just drink.”
“Puppy! Puppy!”
Guanguan bent down to look at the little dog lying under the bed, limp from the heat. It had flattened itself into a little dog pancake, its ears drooping, its limbs thin and tiny, but its fluffy belly round and full.
Covering his mouth, Guanguan giggled. “Brother, the puppy looks like chicken-wing stuffed rice!”
Wei Cheng laughed. “You still haven’t given your puppy a name yet.”
“That’s right. Guanguan’s brain got all mushy from the heat!”
Tilting his head, Guanguan said, “I don’t know what name to pick!”
“I know! I know!”
Wang Xiaotiao said, “Look how black it is. Calling it Xiaohei (Little Black) would sound great!”
Guanguan waved his hand solemnly. “It can’t be called Xiaohei. It’ll get an inferiority complex! Guanguan has to think slowly, think carefully!”
“You even know what an inferiority complex is?”
Wei Cheng laughed and rubbed his little head, only to find his hand full of sweat. “Guanguan, your hair’s making you hot. Why didn’t you say anything? Want Brother to cut your hair?”
Guanguan said righteously, “If you cut Guanguan’s hair, Guanguan will get an inferiority complex too!”
Wei Cheng asked Wang Xiaotiao and Mingming, “Do you think Guanguan would look even more handsome with a haircut?”
Mingming nodded vigorously, and Wang Xiaotiao said too, “Yes, yes!”
Wei Cheng continued sweet-talking Guanguan. “Look, the weather is so hot right now. The kids outside have all gotten roasted into buckwheat buns, but Guanguan is still an oat bun! That proves a hairstyle can’t decide your looks!”
“Oat drinks are tasty!”
Guanguan lifted his little face slightly, his plump cheeks full of secret delight. “Right, that’s exactly it. Guanguan is the prettiest bun!”
Wei Cheng said, “Do you want Teacher Xiaomei to cut it, or Brother to cut it?”
Guanguan thought for a moment. “Brother cuts it!”
Wei Cheng puffed out his chest, feeling a bit proud. Guanguan really trusted him.
Guanguan then kicked his little feet happily and added, “If Brother cuts Guanguan’s hair ugly, Guanguan can bite Brother. But Guanguan can’t bite Teacher Xiaomei.”
Wei Cheng: “…”
All right then.
Wei Cheng borrowed some tools from Teacher Xiaomei. When she heard he wanted to cut Guanguan’s hair, she immediately tried to stop him—Guanguan really hated other people touching his hair. Even after hearing Wei Cheng promise that he really knew how, she still did not feel reassured and followed along anyway.
Unexpectedly, the one cutting hair really did look like he knew what he was doing, and the child getting his hair cut was especially obedient.
Guanguan had very pretty features, and his face was soft, plump, and round. Even shaved into a tiny buzz cut, he was still adorable.
In the end, a little kiwi fruit was successfully born, making Teacher Xiaomei snap dozens and dozens of photos.
—
On the first day of the heatwave, everyone thought the temperature would drop at night. When it did not, people still did not panic. They began hoping the temperature would fall the next day. But when the heat continued rising on the third day, reaching levels close to a certain tropical country that was hot all year round, and the news began reporting heat deaths in the hundreds, everyone started to panic.
Work suspended, classes suspended, the whole population told to stay home and keep cool!
By the fifth day of the heatwave, mountain fires had broken out in many places. Villages at the foot of the mountains urgently needed rescue. Even Huan City’s famous Jianfeng Mountain was not spared. The whole of Changyang Town was filled with a sharp, smoky, rotten smell.
People were trying to prevent heatstroke and fight fires at the same time. For a while, the whole population was gripped by panic!
The news kept reporting extreme weather conditions all over the world. It was said that in one country alone, a hundred thousand people had died from the heat in just five days!
Voices on self-media platforms grew more and more chaotic.
[Is the world really about to end? Why did this suddenly happen?]
[Don’t spread panic! The weather forecast says the temperature will go down in two more days!]
[The temperature will go down? Then why haven’t I felt even the slightest cooling at all? It’s been this hot every day. If it suddenly cools all at once, do you really think that means anything good?]
[If you haven’t felt it, that’s your problem. You’re not the weather forecast!]
[I suggest arresting all these people spreading end-of-the-world theories!]
[I’m seriously speechless. There are still people who refuse to admit this heatwave and these wildfires are weird! A few years ago, one country had already started building underground bunkers on a massive scale!]
Some people online still firmly believed the heatwave would pass soon, while others were deeply pessimistic and kept posting that Blue Planet was about to be destroyed.
Under this kind of panic, city prices were soaring.
Fortunately, the orphanage had already stocked up on rice, flour, grain, oil, eggs, and frozen meat. Otherwise, they probably would not have been able to afford the goods whose prices had been hiked on the spot.
As soon as midnight passed, August 26 arrived.
Wei Cheng, who had not slept at all, noticed that the temperature inside the room was dropping rapidly. It would probably soon return to what the season’s temperature was supposed to be.
He immediately grabbed the air conditioner remote and turned it off.
The leftover cold from the AC was enough to wake everyone in the room from the chill.
“It’s cooling down?”
Teacher Xiaomei was a little dazed. She quickly got up and said, “I’ll find the thick quilts for you.”
The children were all still half asleep. Even after being covered with thick quilts, they had no idea what was happening.
Teacher Xiaomei smoothed down her messy hair, so excited she was on the verge of tears. “It’s finally cooling down!”
She took out her phone and was about to call home. “The weather forecast said it would cool down today. I didn’t expect it to really cool down!”
“What? There’s heavy fog outside?”
Teacher Xiaomei stood up and peeled back one corner of the window film. Outside, it was dark in a terrifying way. Even the streetlights not far away had their glow swallowed by the black fog, which showed just how dense it was. It felt as if the whole world had fallen into dead silence.
At that moment, Wei Cheng could not care about anything else. “Teacher! Don’t let Yuanyuan and Uncle and the others come into contact with the black fog!”
Teacher Xiaomei was startled by his voice. “What’s wrong, Chengcheng?”
Wei Cheng parted his lips. “I… I saw on TV that this kind of fog might be smog from the mountain fires. If people inhale it, they could get seriously sick!”
Teacher Xiaomei suddenly understood. “That makes sense. Otherwise how could there be such heavy fog all of a sudden?”
She hurriedly said into the phone, “Then don’t go to work for the next few days. Tell Dad and Mom not to go out to buy groceries either. If the food you’ve stocked at home is enough, then that’s enough. Yuanyuan is still too little—don’t let her come into contact with this smog. Director Wang should be back soon. Once he’s back, I’ll go home immediately…”
After seeing Teacher Xiaomei hang up, Wei Cheng added, “Teacher, we shouldn’t go out for the next few days either. Let’s stay inside the building as much as possible. Don’t tear off the window film either—wait until the fog clears before removing it. Does the orphanage have masks?”
Teacher Xiaomei thought for a moment. “We do have masks, but they’re all adult sizes. No children’s ones.”
Wei Cheng said, “I do.”
He pulled open his suitcase from the cabinet. Inside was a pack of children’s medical protective N95 masks.
Teacher Xiaomei froze. “Where did you get those?”
Wei Cheng answered calmly, “When my grandma was hospitalized, I stayed with her at the hospital. There was a patient on the same floor with severe flu and pneumonia. The nurse was worried I’d get infected, so she gave me a pack of these.”
Seeing that they really were children’s masks, Teacher Xiaomei did not become too suspicious.
“That’s wonderful,” she said. “Now that this black smog has come, mask prices are probably going to go up again. Even if we went out right now, we probably wouldn’t be able to buy any.”
Then she added, “Be good and go to sleep. Teacher’s going back to sleep in her own dorm tonight. Then I’ll go remind the security guard uncle and Doctor Chen, since they’re sleeping in the dining hall.”
Before leaving, she noticed that Wei Cheng still had not lain down.
She walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “These past few days, you’ve always looked worried. But you’re only eight years old. Don’t worry about things adults should be worrying about, okay?”
Lying on the little bed, Wei Cheng looked at Teacher Xiaomei. “Teacher, do you want to go home?”
Teacher Xiaomei paused, then sighed. “How could I not want to?”
“These past few days, I’ve been so worried about Yuanyuan. Luckily, with your help on the livestream, Teacher earned quite a bit of money and stocked up on lots of milk powder and medicine. Even the air conditioner at home was replaced with the best one. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to stay here at the orphanage with such peace of mind.”
Wei Cheng lowered his lashes. “Teacher, tomorrow morning, wear your mask properly, put on long sleeves, and drive home.”
Teacher Xiaomei shook her head. “Silly child. If Teacher leaves, what will happen to all of you? That Xiao Chen can’t be relied on—he can’t even cook for you.”
“I can take care of my little brothers!”
Teacher Xiaomei insisted, “This is my job. I can’t just throw it aside like this.”
She tucked in his little blanket. “You’re just a child, go to sleep. Otherwise you won’t grow tall.”
But Wei Cheng was not sleepy at all. The moment Teacher Xiaomei left, he quickly pulled up the system page.
The Twisty Car’s upgrade had succeeded!
[Congratulations! Twisty Car Beginner Form upgrade successful!]
The Twisty Car had changed from a two-person bicycle into a two-door, four-seat, four-wheeled car. Its exterior was dark, glossy black, low-key and beautiful, full of mechanical appeal. It was no longer in toy-car form, but a real metal mini car.
No boy disliked cars. Wei Cheng was filled with delight as he observed this successfully upgraded escape vehicle.
[Twist Coin Balance: 8600 Twist Coins (8.6 million RMB)]
[Safehouse Stockpile Amount: 100 (can reside in safehouse for 100 hours, cooldown 24 hours)]
[Twisty Car Upgrade Level: Beginner Form 100, multiplayer escape unlocked (maximum four people), skills: supports self-driving, 100 km/h! Gains navigation function, Defense Level +10 (can kill ten zombies each time), Indestructible Level +10 (unafraid of extreme heat, severe cold, and toxic gas, duration 10 hours), invisibility duration 10 minutes, cooldown 24 hours]
[Reminder: Please stockpile as soon as possible. When safehouse stockpile reaches 2000 and Twisty Car Intermediate Form reaches 2000, multiplayer escape (maximum ten people) can be unlocked. Skills: supports self-driving, 200 km/h! Gains precise navigation function (can predict whether zombies or humans are approaching within a 2000-meter range), Defense Level +200 (can kill five hundred zombies each time), Indestructible Level +200 (unafraid of extreme heat, severe cold, and toxic gas, duration 500 hours), invisibility duration 200 minutes, cooldown 24 hours]
To upgrade to Intermediate Form, they needed to reach 2000 stockpile points?
It had cost them nearly four million to gather 100 stockpile points—that was 4000 Twist Coins! Wouldn’t 2000 stockpile points require eighty million yuan, or 80,000 Twist Coins?!
Looking at their balance of just over 8,000 Twist Coins, Wei Cheng could not help feeling troubled. In the apocalypse, how were they supposed to complete enough missions to save up 80,000 Twist Coins?
Forget it. The Beginner Twisty Car was enough to help them flee to the countryside. The urgent issue now was how they could leave the orphanage safely!
—
The unease this foul-smelling black fog brought humanity was no less than what the three days of violent rainstorm and the seven days of unending rising temperatures had caused.
Because visibility in the thick fog was simply too low, some black-hearted companies and factories still demanded people come to work. Early in the morning, the crowded roads were already seeing a large number of traffic accidents.
The orphanage’s windows were tightly shut. The children, wearing masks and hiding upstairs, could still hear the shrill blaring of horns and the sounds of ambulances on the streets.
Yet on television, the news anchor still wore a neat suit and kept a smile fixed at the corners of his mouth. “Good morning, citizens. Due to the effects of the recent high temperatures, mountain fires have been occurring frequently around the country. After the sudden cooling in the early hours of the 26th, severe smog has appeared both within the city and in the surrounding areas. According to environmental departments and expert monitoring, this smog mainly originates from smoke produced by nearby mountain fires. Our country has already launched the highest level of emergency response. Citizens, please do not panic. Be sure to reduce outdoor exposure. If travel is necessary, please wear medical protective masks and protective clothing, keep doors and windows shut, drink plenty of water, and please believe that tomorrow we will see…”
Chen Sheng grabbed the remote and turned the TV off.
“Sister Liu, I’ve got something I want to say to you.”
Teacher Xiaomei nodded. “Go ahead.”
Chen Sheng said, “Tomorrow I’m going back to my hometown with some fellow villagers. Pay me my salary and bonus for this month right now. I’m quitting and going home.”
“The community has already said we should keep the doors and windows shut and not go outside. Right now everyone’s afraid to go out. Staying here at the orphanage, you’re not in danger, and you don’t have to worry about food or drink. Why do you have to go home at a time like this?”
Chen Sheng snapped irritably, “Don’t worry about it. Just pay me right now!”
Teacher Xiaomei took a deep breath. “You should ask the director for your money.”
Chen Sheng roared, “The director’s phone is off! I’m telling you to pay me my salary right now! Don’t tell me you’ve got no money in your hands!”
Teacher Xiaomei sighed. “Xiao Chen, I’m not stopping you from leaving because of the money. I’m doing it for your health. Haven’t you seen the news saying that some people who inhaled the smog have started coughing? What could possibly be so urgent that you have to leave right now? Can’t you wait until the fog clears? You studied medicine—you should know that once something happens to your lungs, it can last a lifetime. You’re still so young. Aren’t you going to think about your future?”
“After saying all that, you’re still just unwilling to give up the money, aren’t you?”
“Xiao Chen, why can’t you understand good intentions?”
Teacher Xiaomei took out her phone and transferred him the money. “If you want to leave, then leave. I’ve already transferred the money on the director’s behalf.”
Only after glancing at the transfer notice did Chen Sheng leave with a cold face.
Teacher Xiaomei shook her head and took out her phone to call Director Wang. The line kept showing that the phone was switched off.
The children playing with the puppy in the classroom knew nothing about the argument between the two adults, but Wei Cheng had taken every word to heart.
In the previous life, Chen Sheng had been the same—almost like he had gone mad, desperate to leave the orphanage. Back then, however, Director Wang’s daughter-in-law had stirred up trouble in the middle of it. Teacher Xiaomei had long been wary of Li Yun, and by herself, how could she ever have argued against two people? In the end, those two had taken quite a few masks and left the orphanage.
In another two days, many people would begin showing symptoms of fever, ulceration, and violent madness. Then the community would come to transfer the children from the orphanage.
Wei Cheng thought that perhaps when that time came, it would be their best chance to leave.
But that very night, a sudden change still occurred.
Half asleep, Wei Cheng vaguely heard arguing downstairs.
The little black puppy beneath the bed stretched up its tiny neck and barked a couple of times.
Wei Cheng gently nudged the cardboard box with his foot. “Shh.”
The little black puppy gave a tiny little bark. “Woof!”
Wei Cheng looked at the three sleeping children, put on his mask, then put on thick clothes and a hat before pushing open the door and walking out.
The argument had stopped on the first floor.
“Chen Sheng! Who told you to open the door for them?!”
“Sister Liu, you can’t just leave them to die! These four brothers are all my fellow townsmen. They came to the factory to look for work, but who knew the factory wouldn’t be hiring now!”
Chen Sheng shouted, “The fog has already thinned a lot. Tomorrow morning, once it clears completely, I’ll go back to my hometown with them!”
“If they don’t have anywhere to go, they can stay at a hotel. Why did you bring them to the orphanage?!”
Teacher Xiaomei’s voice trembled with anger. “Xiao Chen, take them back out right now, or I’m calling the police!”
“Go ahead and call them! Hotels aren’t open right now. The orphanage has empty space, so why can’t they stay here? The orphanage was built with public funds too. Even if the police came, they’d still have to find a way to house them. Or do you want to see them keep inhaling smog out there? Liu Meizhen, how can you be so heartless!”
“I’m heartless? You’re the one acting out of selfishness! I saw that these four men came in a big truck. Aren’t you just trying to hitch a ride back home with them?”
Chen Sheng had been hit right where it hurt. He looked obviously guilty. “They’re just borrowing this place for one night. Tomorrow morning, whether the fog clears or not, we’ll leave right away!”
The bald man in front coughed through his mask and said, “Miss, just let us stay one night. We didn’t expect to get stranded in Changyang this long either. We’ve already spent all our money. Hotels won’t take us in. We definitely won’t cause trouble. We won’t touch anything in your orphanage. We’ll just stay the night quietly and leave immediately.”
Teacher Xiaomei took a few steps back. Fortunately, she was wearing a mask too. After thinking it over, she said, “You’re only allowed to make do in the first-floor classroom for one night. You’re not allowed to go up to the second or third floor, or I’ll call the police immediately!”
The moment Wei Cheng heard that bald man coughing, he frowned.
Then his gaze fell on one of the others. Although that man was wearing a mask, the exposed skin was abnormally flushed. His eyes were dull, and his other hand was viciously scratching at the ulcerated patch on his arm as if he could not feel pain at all. Purple-red flakes of skin were falling to the floor in strips.
This is bad!
That person had already started turning into a zombie!
Normally, the incubation period for this virus should have been at least two or three days. That man must have stayed too long in the toxic fog, and because his immunity was low or because he already had an underlying lung condition, the excessive inhalation had quickly damaged his lungs. The zombification was already showing on his skin!
Even after ten years in the apocalypse, seeing zombification again still made Wei Cheng’s heart pound in fear.
“Teacher!”
Wei Cheng shouted, “Teacher, come upstairs for a moment! I… I don’t feel very well!”
“Chengcheng? Wait a minute, Teacher’s coming right away!”
Teacher Xiaomei glanced at Chen Sheng and said, “Xiao Chen, you brought these people here, and the security guard uncle isn’t here. So tonight, you stay with these people. You don’t have any objections, do you?”
Chen Sheng shook his head. “No objections.”
Only then did Teacher Xiaomei feel at ease enough to go upstairs. “Chengcheng, why are you still awake? Where do you feel unwell?”
“Teacher, come with me.”
Wei Cheng grabbed Teacher Xiaomei’s hand, led her into the dorm room, and locked the door behind them.
“Teacher, those people seem sick.”
Teacher Xiaomei frowned. “I heard them coughing too, but after thinking about it, I felt maybe we should just let them stay downstairs for one night.”
“Teacher, they can’t stay! They… they look like bad people!”
There was no way Wei Cheng could say the word zombie. He could never expose himself to anyone other than Guanguan.
So he said, “Teacher, lend me your phone. Let’s call the police and drive them out!”
Before Teacher Xiaomei could react, Wei Cheng had already snatched the phone from her pocket. But no matter what he did, he could not get through to the community police station.
Little by little, Wei Cheng’s heart turned cold. “No one’s answering.”
If no one was answering, that meant the outside world had already descended into chaos.
Teacher Xiaomei panicked. “How could the police station not answer? The security guard uncle said this afternoon that his legs weren’t feeling well, and his son took him to the hospital. I’ll call him.”
This time, the security guard uncle’s phone would not go through either.
Hospitals were always the worst-hit places for zombification.
The town itself had limited police manpower to begin with. Most likely, they had already all been sent to support the suddenly chaotic hospitals.
Just then, Teacher Xiaomei’s phone suddenly rang. It was not the security guard uncle, nor the community police station, but her husband.
The moment she answered, an anxious voice came from the other end. “Meizhen! Are you still at the orphanage right now? My classmate at the hospital told me that people who inhaled large amounts of smog are showing symptoms like fever, coughing, and ulceration all over their bodies. And these people quickly lose their minds, almost like they’ve got rabies. They even go crazy and bite people. The city hospitals are in chaos now. How’s the orphanage? How are you? I’m coming to pick you up right now!”
Teacher Xiaomei’s mind went blank. It took her a long while before she could even process her husband’s words.
“Don’t come pick me up. Take care of Yuanyuan! Everything here is fine. No one is sick. Don’t come.”
Wei Cheng turned around and woke the children.
“Guanguan, wake up.”
“Mingming, Wang Xiaotiao, wake up. All of you, wake up. Put your clothes on, put your masks on. Hurry, hurry!”
Just then, a miserable scream suddenly came from downstairs.
“Ahhh! Help!”
“Help!”
“Help!”
Someone came scrambling and crawling up to the third floor.
Heavy pounding sounded on the dormitory door. “Sister Liu, Sister Liu, open the door! Save me! Save me!”
Teacher Xiaomei had already been frightened half out of her mind by the miserable screams. Instinctively, she reached for the door handle when Wei Cheng shouted, “Don’t open the door!”
Seeing Wei Cheng quickly helping Guanguan put on his clothes, she finally stumbled back to her senses and hurried to help Wang Xiaotiao and Mingming get dressed.
“Brother?”
Guanguan had not even opened his eyes. “Is it morning already?”
Wei Cheng picked up Guanguan’s little backpack, then turned around and stuffed the whimpering puppy inside. “Guanguan, from this moment on, listen to Brother. Do you hear me?”
Guanguan blinked in confusion. “Brother…”
“Teacher, why do we have to get up so early?” Wang Xiaotiao swayed sleepily where he stood, yawning over and over. “Where are we going? It’s so noisy outside!”
Teacher Xiaomei did not answer him, because she herself did not know where they should go.
For some reason, at this moment, her gaze fell on an eight-year-old child.
After putting Guanguan’s mask on and helping him put on his backpack, Wei Cheng calmly pulled a toy box out from under the bed, rummaged through it, and took out tape and a utility knife. Then, with one hand, he removed the iron rod on the wall that was used for hanging towels.
“Chengcheng!” Teacher Xiaomei cried out.
Wei Cheng swiftly used those three things to make a simple weapon.
At that moment, the miserable screams outside suddenly stopped.
Wei Cheng stood up. “Teacher, stay in the dorm and take care of Guanguan and the others. I’m going out for a moment.”
“No, it’s too dangerous outside. I’m going with you!”
Then another heart-rending scream rang out.
Guanguan’s little face was full of terror as he clutched his brother’s sleeve tightly. “Brother…”
“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. Brother will be fine.”
Wei Cheng touched Guanguan’s head, then looked at Teacher Xiaomei, whose face was deathly pale. “Teacher, I can handle it. I just need you to help me calm Guanguan down.”
“Chengcheng…”
Only at this moment did Teacher Xiaomei realize that this child had been like this from the very beginning.
Once he had decided something, no one could stop him.
“Don’t make a sound. No matter what you hear, don’t make any noise.”
Wei Cheng glanced again at Guanguan, whose little face was stretched tight, then opened the door with incredible agility and slipped out.
The hallway was covered in blood and scattered intestines.
Not far away, a bald man was crouched there, doing something.
No—he could no longer be called a man. He should be called a zombie.
The bald zombie suddenly lifted its head. Its eye sockets were filled only with whites, its face was bluish purple, and its mouth was smeared with bits of flesh and blood. In its hand, it was pulling at the eyeball of the person on the floor.
That person’s abdomen had been torn open into a gory hole. Their internal organs and intestines were scattered everywhere.
Roaring, the creature rushed at Wei Cheng.
Wei Cheng quickly judged the distance between them. Just as the bald zombie opened its bloody mouth and lunged at him, Wei Cheng twisted aside and plunged the utility knife in his hand straight into its eye socket.
The bald zombie could not feel pain. It only let out an enraged, hideous roar. Relying on its greater height, it tried to pounce again. Wei Cheng decisively abandoned the utility knife. A small crossbow appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and with a sharp whoosh, the steel arrow shot directly into the zombie’s brow.
The bald zombie fell to the ground on the spot.
Expressionless, Wei Cheng pulled the makeshift weapon out of the zombie’s eye socket, then used a scrap of cloth from the dead man’s torn clothing to wipe the blade clean.
He turned to look at the person whose body had been ripped open and half eaten.
The truth he had learned fastest in the apocalypse was this—
If people do not court death, they will not die.
He carefully searched the surrounding area, and on the second floor, he used the straight knife from the safehouse to chop off the head of a zombie that was gnawing on its companion’s corpse.
The severed head rolled across the floor and was still opening and closing its bloody mouth with hissing noises.
Coldly, Wei Cheng raised his hand and shot an arrow straight into the top of its head.
Chen Sheng had brought back four people from outside. Including himself, that should have made five.
But right now, there were only two zombies and two corpses in the orphanage.
Which meant one zombie had already gotten out.
The orphanage, once filled with childish innocence, was now covered everywhere in blood and shredded flesh.
Wei Cheng looked at several brightly colored drawings taped to the wall on the second floor.
One of them was Guanguan’s drawing of a little sun.
The little sun above was green, and the grass below was yellow.
Just like the world now, everything was about to be overturned and reset.
He reached out, took the drawing off the wall, carefully folded it, and placed it into his pocket.
Zombies had already appeared in Changyang Town. There was no time to waste—they had to leave quickly.
He hurried upstairs and knocked lightly on the door. “Teacher, it’s me. There’s no danger outside anymore.”
The door opened from inside, but it was Guanguan who squeezed out through the crack. It seemed the child had been standing guard there for a long time. His little face was red from crying. “Brother! Brother!”
Wei Cheng glanced at the blood on his own body. He did not pick Guanguan up; he only patted his little backpack. “Don’t cry. Look, Brother is fine.”
Teacher Xiaomei and the others came out. Suddenly, she cried out in alarm. “Someone’s dead!”
Wei Cheng said, “They’re not people. They’re monsters.”
When Mingming saw the blood, flesh, and intestines all over the floor, he immediately vomited.
Wang Xiaotiao and Guanguan also turned their heads, wanting to look, but Wei Cheng stopped them. “Closing your eyes is what good children do!”
The two children shut their eyes in perfect sync.
Wei Cheng looked at Mingming and Teacher Xiaomei, both of them pale as paper and trembling with fear.
He said, “From now on, if we want to live, we can only rely on ourselves.”
Just then, urgent braking sounds suddenly came from outside.
Teacher Xiaomei and Wei Cheng both became alert. They walked down a little and then heard Director Wang’s aged voice. “Meizhen, quick, quick, bring the children out!”
“The director’s back!”
Teacher Xiaomei hurriedly put on her mask and ran outside, her hands shaking as she opened the main door. Tears streamed down her face. “Director, you’ve finally come back!”
After not seeing him for a month, Director Wang looked much older.
The old man panted heavily as he walked and said, “Quick, quick, pack up the food, wake the children, have Xiao Chen and the security guard carry the rice and flour. We have to leave right away!”
“The security guard uncle is at the hospital. Xiao Chen… Xiao Chen, he…”
“What happened to Xiao Chen?”
At that moment, Director Wang stopped too, because he had seen the large pool of blood on the first floor.
“H-he… Xiao Chen went mad too?”
Teacher Xiaomei quickly told him everything that had happened tonight.
The children also came running down from the third floor. “Director Grandpa! Director Grandpa!”
Seeing that not a single child was missing, Director Wang finally relaxed, the weight on his heart at last falling away. “Good, good, good. You’re all fine. Fine is good. Grandpa will take you all home.”
“Meizhen, my son’s neighborhood is very close to your home. I’ll take you home first when we get there.”
As soon as she heard that, tears welled up in Teacher Xiaomei’s eyes again. “Thank you, Director!”
“All right. Let’s hurry now and load up all the food from the orphanage that we can take.”
Back to the city center?
Wei Cheng frowned, but a plan had already formed in his mind.
Director Wang’s vehicle was a small freight truck, and there was plenty of room in the back. The rice and flour from the basement were pushed out in several trips on a cart. Things like compressed biscuits and frozen meat could simply be thrown into plastic bags and packed up together.
Other than food, Director Wang did not let them pack anything else.
When the orphanage lights were turned off and the main gate was locked, perhaps none of them would ever come back here again.
The fog outside had fully dispersed, but a new kind of panic had appeared.
Before getting into the truck, Wei Cheng suddenly said, “Director Grandpa, can we take the southern highway?”
Director Wang looked at the navigation app and found that the southern highway was more than ten minutes faster than the northern one. The only downside was that after getting off the highway, they would have to drive five minutes on a dirt road.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “All right. We’ll go this way.”
The drive from Changyang Town to the city should have taken two hours, but Director Wang got off the highway in just one hour.
And thankfully they had taken that route—only a few minutes after they exited, the navigation app showed an accident on the highway.
Outside, it was pitch black. On both sides were fields left in ruins by the violent rainstorm.
Wei Cheng, who had been watching the route the whole time, suddenly said, “Director Grandpa, please stop the car.”
Director Wang slammed the brakes. “What’s wrong?”
Ordinarily, the children should have all been sleeping soundly at this hour. But now every child had their eyes wide open, filled only with fear of the unknown, without the slightest hint of sleepiness.
Wei Cheng said, “Can you unlock the doors?”
Director Wang unlocked the doors. “Do you need to use the bathroom?”
Wei Cheng jumped out of the truck, then lifted Guanguan out as well, mask still on his face. Standing outside the car, his voice was extremely calm. “Director Grandpa, Teacher Xiaomei, my countryside hometown is very close to here, so Guanguan and I won’t be going with you to your home in the city.”
He would absolutely never take Guanguan back to the city center again. In the previous life, that was exactly where he had lost him.
Director Wang froze for a second. “What do you mean, child? You asked me to take the southern highway because you wanted to go back to your hometown?”
“Now that things have come to this, if you still question my ability and my decisions because of my age, then I suppose none of the things I did to help you earlier stayed in your hearts at all. Yes, I’m taking Guanguan back to our hometown in the countryside, and no one can stop me. Given Huan City’s current situation, the city center is more dangerous than the town. The safest place is the countryside, where there are fewer people. But I know your families and Teacher Xiaomei’s family are in the city, so you have to go back. You have no choice. But we do have a choice. We have the right to choose how we survive, and we don’t have to pay the price for your choices—or for your selfishness. But please don’t worry. I will protect Guanguan, so we will not be going with you.”
Those words sounded somewhat cold-blooded, yet they were also the truth. Director Wang and Teacher Xiaomei both fell silent.
Their desperate eagerness to go home was indeed because their families were in the city center. They had not considered at all that home might now be even more dangerous than Changyang Town. Even if danger was waiting there, they still had to go back.
Wei Cheng was truly not an ordinary child. He was too smart, too calm. The more one thought about it, the more frightening it became.
An eight-year-old child had actually killed two raging monsters with terrifying strength?
Director Wang sighed. “Then where exactly is your hometown? Is it in the village down below? I’ll get out and walk you there. Do you have food in the countryside? Should I leave you some?”
But Wei Cheng said, “There’s no need to leave us anything. You know me. Since I’ve chosen to stay in the countryside, then there must definitely be enough food there. When I went back this year, I saw that the family grain store still had grain from previous years. Director Grandpa, you should leave now. I also just saw that there was an accident on the highway. Very likely there are crazed people there too. Your families are waiting for you. If you can get back quickly, then hurry back.”
Teacher Xiaomei pressed her lips together. She felt conflicted and ashamed. She truly wanted to get home and see her daughter as soon as possible. Deep inside, part of her resented Chengcheng for not obeying her and the director’s arrangements and for delaying their return home. But at the same time, she was genuinely worried about these two children…
“Director Grandpa doesn’t need to worry about Guanguan!”
Guanguan yawned and scratched at his little hand. “Brother is amazing. He’ll protect Guanguan and the puppy!”
Then he lifted his head again. “Brother, can we take Xiaotiao and Mingming with us?”
Wei Cheng looked at the two pale-faced children in the truck. “Do you want to come with us to the countryside and shelter there?”
Wang Xiaotiao said nothing. Mingming lowered his head too.
Their reaction was normal. If it had been the Wei Cheng from the previous life, he too would have stayed by the side of the adults he trusted more.
Just then, Teacher Xiaomei’s phone suddenly rang.
“Meizhen? Where are you now?”
Yuanyuan’s crying could be heard through the phone too. “Mama, Mama…”
Teacher Xiaomei’s eyes turned red, and through gritted teeth she said, “Director, let’s go!”
Director Wang gave the two children one last look, then raised his hand and started the truck again.
At that moment, a tremendous explosion suddenly rang out from the highway in the distance. A burning vehicle rolled down off the overpass.
At that instant, the order humanity had maintained for thousands of years completely collapsed.
“Guanguan, let’s go!”
Author’s Note:
Don’t worry, they’ll reunite with Mingming and Xiaotiao!
