Chapter 45
Day broke.
After a simple breakfast, Guanguan and his brother hid together beneath the pharmacy checkout counter.
Wei Cheng bought a child carrier from the mother-and-baby section. Yesterday, while carrying Guanguan, he had nearly fallen, and when he replayed it in his mind afterward, he was left badly shaken.
He settled Guanguan into it and fastened the thick shoulder straps on both sides. When he stood up, he did so a little slowly.
Guanguan pressed tightly against his brother’s chest and lifted his little chubby face under the helmet. “Brother, is Guanguan heavy?”
“Not heavy.” Wei Cheng finally straightened up.
Just a little forty-plus-jin watermelon spirit, that was all.
“Do your eyes still hurt?”
Guanguan touched his windproof goggles. “They don’t hurt!”
Before sleeping last night, Wei Cheng had not forgotten to put a cold compress on Guanguan’s eyes, so when the child woke in the morning, they were neither red nor swollen.
The street was littered with car wrecks, and only around twenty zombies wandered aimlessly around.
In the early hours before dawn, intense gunfire had erupted from Baolong Tower, drawing most of the zombies from this street over there.
Holding his small crossbow, Wei Cheng leaned sideways in the doorway of the pharmacy and observed Ren’ai Hospital across the street.
At the dinner table, he had heard the two uncles say that their team had come to Yu City Ren’ai Hospital to transport a batch of equipment and look for large quantities of medicine.
They had driven here in a big truck, so first they had to find that truck.
And Ren’ai Hospital had both an above-ground and an underground parking lot.
Given Yi Qi’s cautious nature, he would probably have parked the truck underground.
If chaos broke out above ground, it would attract zombies from all directions. But once in the big truck underground, if they ran into a horde, they could simply crush them into meat paste.
Wei Cheng raised the small crossbow and shot at the nearest zombies.
The distance was short, and the hit rate was extremely high.
In no time at all, a dozen or so zombies went limp and collapsed without drawing the attention of the others.
Wei Cheng adjusted Guanguan at his waist and whispered, “Don’t be afraid. Brother will definitely bring you to Uncle Shen.”
“Baby will protect Brother!” Guanguan shook his little boxing gloves rhythmically as he spoke.
He was like a tiny boxer cat who could kill with cuteness alone.
Wei Cheng moved lightly out of the pharmacy, inevitably stepping on broken glass scattered across the ground. Several zombies lingering in front of the dumpling shop raised their heavily decayed heads and sniffed around, stumbling toward the source of the sound.
Seeing this, he dashed forward two steps and bent low behind a black sedan that had crashed into a landscaping tree. Just as the zombies were about to reach him, he straightened slightly and rapidly fired the crossbow.
The next second, he spun around decisively and took out two zombies that had been trying to ambush him from behind.
Guanguan’s little heart pounded wildly, his big eyes darting here and there.
Suddenly, behind the black car hiding them, a zombie face with almost all its hair rotted away slowly rose from the back seat, baring its bloody mouth and hissing at Guanguan.
The car door trapped it so it could not get out.
Guanguan’s breathing quickened a little, but in that moment, his desire to protect Brother broke through both his fear and the confusion of childhood.
He raised one little boxing glove, already stuck with bits of broken glass, and punched the zombie hard in the face.
Eat Guanguan’s punch!
The zombie was knocked backward. Its rotten face became embedded with glass fragments, black blood pouring everywhere, and it let out an enraged shriek.
Just then, Wei Cheng had already finished off the remaining zombies. Hearing the noise, he turned swiftly and shot at once, ending the zombie’s life.
The crossbow dropped to the ground with a pa.
Wei Cheng’s face turned deathly pale, cold sweat covering his forehead. Trembling, he inspected the custom-made little boxing gloves he had prepared for Guanguan. Only after seeing there was not a single wound on his hand did he find his voice again. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Brother was scared to death.”
“Guanguan not scared. Guanguan wants to protect Brother! Protect friends! Protect uncles!” Guanguan’s big eyes shone with excitement. He did not feel scared at all. This felt even happier than eating an apple-flavored lollipop.
Wei Cheng knew this was not the time to get emotional, but his heart still went soft and sore.
After everything they had been through, Guanguan had first adapted to the apocalypse, then stopped fearing zombies, and now he could even fight zombies.
“All right, let’s go.”
Wei Cheng picked up the crossbow and hurried across the long street with Guanguan, carefully entering Ren’ai Hospital.
Strange. There were not many zombies in the parking lot outside the hospital.
Could it be…
Bang bang! Bang bang!
Intense gunfire erupted from inside the hospital building.
The slowly wandering zombies seemed to hear a battle horn. All at once they surged toward the hospital entrance.
Within moments, the revolving glass doors were packed solid.
Seeing more zombies appearing on the street, drawn by the noise, Wei Cheng’s eyes narrowed. Off to one side stood an ambulance with its doors wide open.
He ran several quick steps, dragging Guanguan with him as they clambered into the ambulance compartment and quickly locked the door.
Oxygen equipment, monitoring devices, medical kits, support braces… two blue-covered seats stained all over with blood, and a zombie strapped to the gurney.
It had dried up into a rotting skeleton, yet still cocked its skull-like head and hissed at them.
“Shut up.” Wei Cheng’s face was expressionless as he shot it straight through the forehead.
Guanguan cried out, “Brother, look!”
Through the ambulance’s glass window, they saw the zombie horde smash through the revolving doors, sending broken glass all over the floor.
But almost twenty grown men in black riot gear, face-covered and helmeted, were wildly and crazily mowing them down with long guns.
Their evil laughter was even more grating than the zombies’ howls.
Every one of them carried a bulging pack.
The shelter had never equipped hunters or managers with guns, much less with such excellent gear.
It was the Watcher Community—something Wei Cheng knew all too well.
Knowing how ruthless that group was, Wei Cheng immediately turned and pulled all the curtains closed, leaving only a tiny slit in each window.
“Guanguan, into the safehouse.”
The brothers quickly entered the safehouse.
Not long after, they heard someone shout, “Brother Ding, there’s an ambulance here. Are we taking it or not?”
Then came wave after wave of deafening gunfire again.
“Forget it. Hurry up! Old Dog brought the truck. Let’s get on!”
A large truck stopped in front of the hospital entrance.
It was Highland Shelter’s truck!
Did that mean the hunters from Highland Shelter, and Uncle Shen and the others, had already…
Luckily, the engine’s roaring hum when the truck started drew a large number of zombies after it.
Ten minutes later, Ren’ai Hospital fell silent once more.
At the window, Guanguan stamped his little feet anxiously. “Brother, Brother, where are Uncle Shen and the other uncle!”
“Don’t panic.”
Wei Cheng fell silent for a moment, his gaze settling over the entire parking lot above ground.
In only a short time, he had already formed a battle plan.
He took the empty water bottles he and Guanguan had used and went down into the basement.
This was where they stored the black coal and gasoline they had found on the road.
He filled all five bottles with gasoline.
Then he pushed open the stockroom door and took several long guns hanging on the wall along with four handguns, checking the magazines one by one before packing a small medical kit, ammunition, and the gasoline bottles into a crossbody bag.
When he turned around, he found a little clingy Guanguan right behind him.
Wei Cheng rubbed Guanguan’s helmet. “Wait in the safehouse for Brother. Brother will definitely bring Uncle Shen and Uncle Yi back.”
Guanguan took off his helmet. His little curls stuck out like a fluffy lamb’s wool, and his eyes were red-rimmed. “Brother…”
“Be good.” Wei Cheng rubbed his little curls. “If I run into danger I can’t handle, I’ll come straight into the safehouse to find you.”
The safehouse had only one drawback: wherever a human entered, that was where they had to come back out. Animals and goods were exceptions.
Since Guanguan had entered the safehouse through the ambulance, the only place he could emerge again was the ambulance.
As for Wei Cheng, even inside the hospital, he could return to find Guanguan at any time.
The safehouse still had more than nine days of residency left, and they also had plenty of Twist Coins now, so they could extend that time whenever needed.
Wei Cheng was confident he would not be trapped in the hospital for long.
Guanguan lowered his face and said gloomily, “Guanguan will wait at home for Brother!”
“Guanguan is a good baby.”
He rummaged on the shelf and found two small recording devices. Opening them, he held one toward Guanguan’s mouth. “Come on, say it. Uncle Shen.”
Guanguan stood on tiptoe and obediently leaned in close, shouting in an extra-loud voice, “Uncle Shen!”
“Now say Uncle Yi.”
“The other uncle!”
Wei Cheng wrapped both recorders in foam and stored them in the satchel, then deliberately put on a stern face. “Little Private Guanguan, can you stay home obediently with Guard Little Apricot and wait for Brother?”
“Yes, Commander Brother!” Guanguan’s little face instantly tightened with seriousness, both little chubby hands snapping to his trouser seams by reflex.
What a promising little soldier Guanguan was!
Holding back a laugh, Wei Cheng slowed his speech, afraid the child would not understand. “I’m going to bring the two uncles to the ambulance. At that time, come out of the safehouse a few seconds early. Can you do that?”
Guanguan shouted in his milky little voice, “I can do it!”
Though his voice was loud, the moment he actually saw Brother jump out of the ambulance, his eyes turned red again.
“Woof!” The little black dog scampered over.
Guanguan scooped it up and pressed his cheek against it, muttering gloomily, “Brother and Uncle Shen and the other uncle have to come to the ambulance safe safe super safe!”
The little black dog barked twice, as if repeating Guanguan’s words.
Without having to carry such a huge watermelon-can Guanguan in his arms, Wei Cheng worked much more efficiently.
He tossed one of the foam-wrapped recorders into a car farthest away from the ambulance, and the instant Guanguan’s bright childish voice started playing, he quickly slid under a nearby car and crawled rapidly, then rolled away from the area.
At once, many wandering zombies pounced toward that car.
Wei Cheng repeated the same trick with the gasoline bottles, throwing them into different locations. Then he waited for a while beneath a vehicle at the hospital side entrance, watching pair after pair of stumbling zombie ankles pass in front of him.
When the timing felt right, he climbed out with his gun in hand and sprinted into the hospital.
Second floor, blood purification room.
Shen Zheng’s face was paper-white. Sitting on the floor, he held his bleeding shoulder.
He truly was lucky to be alive.
The bullet had clearly been aimed at his heart, yet in the end it hit only his shoulder.
At the time, not only had he been shocked—even the shooter had frozen.
And in that split second, the shooter was pounced on by a zombie, while Yi Qi dragged Shen Zheng here.
“Uncle Shen!”
“Uncle Shen!”
“The other uncle!”
Shen Zheng’s breathing burned hot. He shook his heavy head. Was he hallucinating?
How could he possibly be hearing Guanguan’s voice?
If he could hear Guanguan before dying, that alone would make it worthwhile.
Shen Zheng felt like crying. In truth, he had liked this child from the first moment he met him.
But he was underage and still single, so he had never qualified to adopt a child.
Even though management work in the base was exhausting and busy, his one expectation at the end of the day was returning home to have a soft, plump little child call him Uncle.
A few years ago his parents had died one after the other, and his only remaining relatives had perished on the escape route.
During the time he had spent with Guanguan and Chengcheng, with his old ten-year friend Yi Qi also by his side, he had once again felt the warmth of a home.
He truly wanted to live. He wanted to watch Guanguan and Chengcheng grow up…
“Shen Zheng! Shen Zheng! Wake up!”
Shen Zheng groggily opened his eyes and saw Yi Qi and… Chengcheng?
His face burned with fever. In his excitement he nearly pulled open the wound again, gasping from the pain. “Chengcheng, why are you here? Where’s Guanguan?”
“Guanguan is very safe.”
Wei Cheng took a small medical kit and a handgun out of his satchel and said concisely, “Bandage him. One gun each. Come with me.”
Only then did Shen Zheng notice the long gun slung across Wei Cheng’s back.
His brain suddenly felt like it could not keep up. “How… how do you have a gun…”
Yi Qi shot Wei Cheng a look, then quickly opened the small medical kit and started bandaging Shen Zheng’s wound.
The moment the medicine touched the injury, a piercing pain shot through Shen Zheng’s shoulder, and all his questions and curiosity vanished behind clenched teeth.
What had happened was this:
Not long after entering the hospital lobby, Wei Cheng ran into a wave of zombies and quickly gunned them down. Then he suddenly heard the sounds of struggling and fighting from the stairwell.
Using the barrel of the gun, he carefully nudged the door open and saw three zombies pinning Yi Qi to the ground.
That was the first time Yi Qi realized his own strength could become so great, and he could only attribute it to the instinct to survive.
Using both hands, he wrestled with the zombies for four or five minutes, stubbornly managing not to let them bite him.
Wei Cheng coolly raised the gun and shot the zombies dead.
Only then did he learn that Yi Qi had been searching for bandages and fever medicine for the injured Shen Zheng.
Wiping the black blood from his face, Yi Qi asked, shocked and bewildered, “Your gun… how can a child know how to use a gun…”
Wei Cheng shoved a gun into his hands. “Don’t ask. Save him first.”
After being bandaged, Shen Zheng’s scent of blood was not as strong anymore.
With his high fever, he needed Yi Qi to support him. Wei Cheng took point in front, constantly firing and killing zombies.
“Wait…”
Shen Zheng glanced at the vending machine cabinet by the elevator, looking weak as he said, “There’s juice there… for Guanguan…”
Yi Qi sounded helpless. “Your brain’s fried from the fever! At a time like this, what are you talking about with juice!”
Shen Zheng gave a bitter smile. “Guanguan’s probably never had any, right?”
The gunshots drew the zombie horde in the above-ground parking lot back toward the revolving doors.
So the three of them went downstairs by the emergency stairwell and carved a path of blood out through the hospital’s back entrance.
At one point, Yi Qi’s bullets ran out. Just as several zombies were closing in on the feverish Shen Zheng, a gun suddenly flew toward him from the side.
He caught it firmly and immediately pulled the trigger, killing those zombies.
Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at the cold, agile boy ahead of him and felt strangely that perhaps in another life, he had fought side by side with this child just like this before.
The price of leaving from the back entrance was that they now had to circle halfway around to get closer to the ambulance.
More and more zombies were closing in, surrounding the three of them from all sides.
![The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]](https://i3.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20250902175028_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]")