Chapter 31
Guanguan pumped his little legs and ran back home.
The house was quiet. The little black dog trotted over, tongue hanging out as it acted cute. “Woof woof woof!” Let’s play, let’s play!
Guanguan suddenly remembered that Brother had gone to buy tools, so he scooped up the puppy and ran straight back outside.
The silly little dog, its tongue still flopping out, gave a confused, “Woof?”
“Brother! Brother!”
Wei Cheng was in the hardware section picking out snow shovels. Hearing Guanguan call him, he hurried out from behind the shelves. From a distance, he saw one little Guanguan hugging coal-ball Little Apricot and huffing his way over.
Sensing that something was wrong, Wei Cheng quickly went to meet him. “Guanguan, slow down. What happened?”
“Brother!”
Guanguan’s little face was flushed red, and he was panting. “Knocking, knocking! Someone’s there!”
Someone was knocking!
Wei Cheng did not doubt him just because he was little. His expression tightened. “Was it only knocking? Did Guanguan hear anyone talking, or any monster sounds?”
Guanguan waved his little paw in its cashmere glove, frowning in concentration. “Dong dong dong. Only dong dong dong!”
So was it a zombie, or a survivor?
Wei Cheng thought for a moment, then called up the system panel and opened one of the four main sections: [Twisty Car Safehouse Section].
On the right side, a low, dark little car shaped like a tank slowly rotated. On the left side was a high-definition real-time monitoring screen of the entire safehouse. If you tapped the bright red dot in the upper-left corner, it would display their full stockpile inventory. In the center, a line of numbers constantly changed:
[200 hours 15 minutes 34 seconds]
They could still stay continuously in the safehouse for about eight more days.
He said, “Guanguan, for the next two days, you and Little Apricot are not to leave the safehouse for even one step.”
Guanguan immediately got anxious. “What about Brother!”
Wei Cheng patted him. “Don’t worry. Brother will stay with you in the safehouse as much as possible. The storage room has a generator, and there’s still some coal and our things in the old house. Brother just needs a little time to deal with it.”
They still did not know what exactly was happening outside, so it was best not to act rashly.
Wei Cheng put the snow shovel back, then led Guanguan and the puppy back into the safehouse.
The two brothers had been dressed heavily for shoveling snow outside. The moment they came back into the constant-temperature little home, they started sweating from the heat. Wei Cheng hurriedly peeled off Guanguan’s little down jacket and wool sweater layer by layer like peeling an onion. Guanguan obediently cooperated, though his snowy, plump cheeks drooped slightly, as if something were weighing on his mind.
Feeling a little guilty, Wei Cheng thought he should not have let Guanguan play in the snow alone. Gently, he asked, “Guanguan, don’t be scared. Whether it’s a person or a monster outside, they won’t be able to get in any time soon.”
Guanguan nodded his little head. “Okay!”
Wei Cheng asked again, “Are you hungry? What do you want to eat? Brother will make it for you.”
Guanguan stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Brother’s neck, speaking in a tiny voice, “Brother, Guanguan hates bad guys and monsters!”
That knocking seemed to have shattered the brothers’ quiet, warm little life.
Wei Cheng let out a soft sigh.
In the apocalypse, with zombies everywhere and all kinds of demons and monsters crawling out, where could there really be true peace and stability?
“Brother hates them too.” Holding Guanguan, Wei Cheng said, “You and the puppy just stay home and play. Brother will go make you some meat in a little while.”
From the window of the cozy home, they could only see the snow-covered courtyard, not what was happening beyond the walls.
Wei Cheng did not go out right away. Instead, he waited until nightfall and only quietly slipped out after coaxing Guanguan to sleep.
The night sky was dark and heavy, without starlight or moonlight. The thick snow on the ground had frozen hard like ice, and every step he took was difficult.
Wearing night-vision goggles, he climbed up the wall using the tall ladder. Everywhere he looked was a glaring expanse of white. It was impossible to make out whether there were any human or zombie tracks.
Wei Cheng sniffed the air and immediately changed direction. Looking toward the old dried-up water bridge, he saw that the chimneys of the row of village houses there were all billowing thick smoke.
In the countryside, stove chimneys became damp, and after not being used for a long time, once they were lit again, they gave off a choking, heavy smoke.
So survivors had entered Sun Village.
Wei Cheng had long expected that one day people would come to Sun Village to seek shelter. That was also why he and Guanguan had not taken away the villagers’ rice, flour, and coarse grain. The more they took, the worse it would be for them.
He had just not expected this day to come so soon.
Silently, Wei Cheng climbed back down the ladder and stored it in the safehouse storage area.
Before going back inside, he looked once more toward the gate of the old house.
—
Guanguan woke up very early today.
He slowly pushed himself up from his warm little bed, but halfway up he got tired, so he paused in that position for a while.
Then with a plop, the whole chubby little cub fell back onto the bed again, and the two lumps of meat on his cheeks jiggled.
It seemed like he could still sleep a little more.
“Guanguan?”
Wei Cheng had heard movement on the bed while he was in the bathroom. He came out smiling. “Why did you flop like that? You’re awake?”
Still drowsy, Guanguan yawned a little. “Brother, Guanguan still wants to sleep a bit more.”
Wei Cheng tossed the face-wiping tissue into the trash can, then leaned against the bedside and patted Guanguan. “Mm, then sleep. It’s still early.”
Guanguan clutched the edge of the blanket in his little hand. “Brother…”
“What is it?”
Guanguan shook his head again. “Maybe it’s nothing now.”
Smiling, Wei Cheng said, “If you can’t sleep, do you want Brother to show you something fun?”
The moment he heard the words something fun, Guanguan popped right out from under the blanket and stretched out his arms. “Carry Guanguan to go see it!”
“Okay!”
Wei Cheng carried Guanguan downstairs to the kitchen. He opened the double-door refrigerator and pulled open the unused bottom compartment. “Look.”
“Little ducks!”
Guanguan’s eyes went round as he wriggled excitedly in Brother’s arms like a big carp. “These are the little ducks Guanguan clipped!”
The whole bottom compartment was filled with round little duck snowballs.
“Brother, I think there are more now!”
“More? I don’t think so.”
Wei Cheng did not mention that last night he had secretly made five more for Guanguan to round the number up.
“There are more!”
Suddenly thinking of something, Guanguan’s eyes lit up. “Guanguan knows! The big ducks gave birth to little ducks!”
Then he clasped his hands over his heart, his eyes full of stars. “Will they have more tomorrow? And the day after tomorrow too? With so many little duck snowballs, how is Guanguan supposed to play with them all!”
Wei Cheng coughed lightly. “Probably. Since they’re snow ducks, they can only have little ducks when it snows.”
There was no way he would be able to clip ducks for Guanguan in the middle of summer.
“Wow, really?”
Guanguan picked up one little snow duck and said, “You’re so amazing, so great, Mama Duck.”
Afraid he would get cold, Wei Cheng coaxed him, “All right, put it back now. Mama Duck misses her little child.”
Guanguan obediently nodded. “Okay! Then Guanguan will come back to see them later!”
He wriggled down from Brother’s arms. “Guanguan wants to wash up and brush teeth!”
Looking at Guanguan’s lively, happy little back, Wei Cheng’s mood also improved a lot.
Guanguan had been so down yesterday probably because of these little snow ducks. The child had worked so hard clipping ducks all morning, but before he could even properly play with them, he was told he could not go outside anymore.
Even so, Guanguan had not cried or fussed. He had just obediently stayed inside, playing with toys and listening to storybooks.
Guanguan was already very obedient and sensible.
Looking at the fridge packed full of vegetables, Wei Cheng suddenly thought of something and called out, “Guanguan, how about we have hot pot for lunch?”
Guanguan’s little head popped out. “Hot pot! The kind where we can eat lots and lots of meat?”
“Yes, that hot pot.”
A snowy day was exactly the right time for a steaming hot pot meal.
As for that group of survivors…
For now, Wei Cheng had no intention of leaving Sun Village.
There would be heavy snow again in a couple of days. He did not want to risk taking Guanguan out, and besides, all the preparations they had made early on were precisely to guard against a situation like this.
More importantly, they now had guns and crossbows in hand. If that group came to harass them again, then he would not be polite.
