Li Shunwei and his son still had no idea what was going on. Quan Xiaoyu was worried about them, so he did not want to waste any more time here.
Quan Xiaoyu took a step forward. The bald man and the glamorous woman seemed to be frightened again and retreated several steps, clearing the way to the stairs.
Ignoring their panic, Quan Xiaoyu carried the girl’s boyfriend and strode into the stairwell, heading downstairs.
The girl said nothing and followed closely behind Quan Xiaoyu.
Perhaps because it was not tourist season, there were not many guests staying at the hotel. The stairwell was relatively clean. On the way down, they encountered only five zombies, all of which Quan Xiaoyu dealt with easily.
In fact, after Quan Xiaoyu left, the middle-aged couple also followed behind him with their child. The bald man and the woman secretly followed as well.
Quan Xiaoyu simply pretended not to see them.
Actually, if they had spoken to him properly like the girl had, he really would not have minded taking them along. He was already taking two people with him, so adding a few more would not make much difference. All he had to do was leave the hotel anyway.
They arrived at the hotel entrance without incident.
It happened to be noon. Quan Xiaoyu knew that this was the time when zombies were at their weakest, which was why the streets appeared unusually quiet.
Not far away, several cars were scattered haphazardly across the road.
Quan Xiaoyu stopped and turned to ask the girl behind him, “Where are you going?”
The girl froze, her face blank.
Yes. Where could she go?
She and her boyfriend had come from another city for a trip. They wanted to go home, but this city had suddenly turned into a living hell, and they could not contact their families either.
How could they get home?
Quan Xiaoyu sighed and asked again, “Can you drive?”
The girl nodded blankly.
Quan Xiaoyu handed her boyfriend over to her and had her support him. The girl took him in a fluster, moving her lips as though she wanted to say something, but after a long while, she could not get a single word out.
Quan Xiaoyu walked to the roadside and picked a car that looked intact.
The doors were unlocked. The owner had probably abandoned the vehicle and fled when the accident occurred, and even the keys were still in the ignition.
He sat in the driver’s seat and started the car successfully.
His luck was good. The car was undamaged, and the gas tank was full.
Quan Xiaoyu returned to the girl and helped stuff her boyfriend into the back seat. Then he said to her, “Avoid the cars in the street and keep driving north. If you encounter a convoy leaving the city, leave with them.”
In his previous life, Quan Xiaoyu had been homeless. It was when he was trying to leave the city that he encountered a convoy. He had gradually gotten to know those people, whom he had once believed were companions he could entrust his back to.
Following the convoy would keep the girl safe for the time being. Once her boyfriend woke up, he would possess an ability user to protect her. After that, their fate would be their own. There was nothing more he could do.
“Then… what about you?”
The girl still seemed somewhat lost. She nervously asked in a quiet voice.
“I only promised to bring you out,” Quan Xiaoyu said coldly.
“I’m sorry.”
The girl quickly lowered her head, then took a deep breath and climbed into the driver’s seat.
When the car started, the girl poked her head out of the window and called to Quan Xiaoyu,
“Thank you!”
Quan Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment. Then he gave the departing girl a faint smile.
He raised the water pipe in his hand and smashed the right window of a nearby car. Reaching inside, he opened the door from within.
This car had probably been parked here before the apocalypse. Its exterior had suffered some minor dents from being hit by other vehicles, but the rest of it was basically intact.
This time, Quan Xiaoyu was not as lucky.
There was no key, so he could only find a way to start it.
Fortunately, starting a car without a key was practically an essential skill that everyone in the apocalypse had to know.
After spending some time on it, he successfully started the car.
Through the window, Quan Xiaoyu glanced toward the hotel.
The middle-aged couple who had followed him out of the hotel were also smashing the window of a car, imitating him.
As for the bald man and the woman, they seemed to have better luck. They had found the vehicle they had parked in front of the hotel.
Quan Xiaoyu only glanced at them before stepping on the accelerator and quickly driving away.
However, as he left, it seemed that a black shadow flashed out from inside the hotel.
When the car reached the area near Li Shunwei’s home, it could go no farther.
This was an old residential district with poor planning and narrow roads. Several wrecked cars were parked in the street.
There were actually not many cars here, but the road was simply impassable.
Quan Xiaoyu could only abandon the car and continue on foot.
The situation here looked much more tragic than on the streets.
Perhaps it was because residential areas had denser and more complicated populations. There were clearly many more zombies here than outside.
Even though it was the middle of the day and the sunlight was glaringly bright, quite a few zombies were still wandering around.
There were many bloodstains on the ground. Some were pooled into puddles, while others showed signs of being dragged. Most had already dried and congealed.
From the bloodstains alone, it was clear that no one had died here for at least a day.
People had probably recovered from the panic and confusion of the beginning of the apocalypse and started hiding inside their homes, afraid to go outside.
Quan Xiaoyu quietly approached the building where Li Shunwei lived, doing his best to avoid the zombies.
Although he was not afraid of them, if he attracted a whole group of them, it would be too troublesome.
When he reached the bottom of the building, he discovered that the entrance, which was normally left unlocked, had been secured with a large iron padlock today.
It was a very old-fashioned building, only five stories high. Each floor had two apartments on either side of the staircase, four apartments lined up side by side, with a long and narrow corridor in front.
The staircase entrance directly faced an iron-barred gate. Unlike newer buildings, the entrance could not be opened with an access card or password.
When Quan Xiaoyu’s hand touched the iron lock, he instantly had a feeling that he could twist it apart without any effort.
He forcibly suppressed his urge to test it. Instead, he lightly tapped the entrance door several times with his water pipe and softly called inside,
“Is anyone there? Could you open the door?”
A faint sound came from one of the rooms on the right.
Quan Xiaoyu remembered that it was the home of the old woman who had sarcastically insulted others that day.
While waiting, he remained alert to his surroundings in case a zombie suddenly pounced on him and took a bite.
He carefully observed the staircase.
There were no bloodstains.
He was slightly surprised.
Could it be that no one in this building had mutated?
It should be.
Otherwise, the place would not be this clean, and they would not have locked the large iron door from the inside.
But if not a single person in the entire building had mutated, that would be far too strange.
After waiting for a while, no one came out.
Quan Xiaoyu had no choice but to repeat himself,
“Is anyone there? Could you open the door?”
Still, no one came out.
Quan Xiaoyu decided to call out a third time. If no one came out after that, he would have no choice but to twist the lock apart.
So, after repeating those words for the third time, he added,
“If there’s no one here, I’ll have to break the lock.”
“Fuck!”
The room where he had heard the noises finally opened.
A young man with dyed yellow hair came out, one hand holding up his pants and the other gripping a steel pipe, cursing angrily as he walked out.
Quan Xiaoyu recognized him.
He was the young delinquent who had cursed out the old woman for disturbing him while he was playing games.
However, Quan Xiaoyu remembered that the young man lived next door to the old woman.
Yet now, he had walked out of the old woman’s apartment.
Furthermore, the moment the door opened, a strange smell drifted out.
That smell made Quan Xiaoyu extremely uncomfortable.
The young man with yellow hair walked over angrily, raised his steel pipe, and cursed,
“You fucking—”
But when he saw Quan Xiaoyu’s appearance clearly, the word “die” that had been about to leave his mouth was immediately swallowed.
His eyes darted around.
Then he suddenly smiled ingratiatingly and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
The young man’s gaze made Quan Xiaoyu even more uncomfortable.
Suppressing the irritation rising inside him because of that discomfort, he maintained his usual tone and said expressionlessly,
“I’m going to the third floor, the Li family’s apartment.”
Upon hearing “the Li family,” the young man froze slightly.
But a moment later, an extremely fake smile appeared on his face.
“Wait here. I need to tell the boss. He’s the only one who has the key.”
As though afraid Quan Xiaoyu would leave, he deliberately added,
“Wait, okay? I’ll be right back.”
“The boss?”
This building was becoming more and more wrong.
This was supposed to be an ordinary residential building. There should not have been any gangsters here.
Otherwise, no matter how much Li Shunwei missed his deceased wife, he would never have left his villa and chosen to live here with his son.
Yet now, everything here seemed wrong.
The clean and silent stairway seemed as though time had stopped before the apocalypse arrived.
The young man who should have lived next door had come out of a neighbor’s apartment.
An ordinary residential building now had some kind of “boss.”
And if Quan Xiaoyu was not mistaken, the smell on the young man after he came out of the room just now was the distinctive scent of a man after intimacy.
There was also that strange, lecherous look in the young man’s eyes when he saw him, as though he had just spotted prey.
Quan Xiaoyu’s sensitive nerves told him that something was wrong here.
And that this place was dangerous.
But he could not leave.
He needed to know whether Li Shunwei and his son were safe.
Sure enough, only a short while later, several more people emerged from the apartment.
Leading them was a middle-aged man who looked rather refined.
His clothes were neat and clean, and there was no strange smell on him. He wore a warm, amiable smile.
If not for the yellow-haired young man following behind him with an obsequious expression, along with another strongly built man whose eyes carried a faint hint of viciousness, Quan Xiaoyu would never have connected him with the “boss” the young man had mentioned.
“Young brother, are you here looking for someone?”
The boss smiled warmly at Quan Xiaoyu.
He looked extremely gentle and friendly, but Quan Xiaoyu still caught a fleeting trace of calculation in his gaze.
Quan Xiaoyu looked directly at him, nodded, and said nothing.
“Then come inside and we’ll talk. It’s too dangerous outside. There are all those man-eating monsters everywhere.”
As he spoke, he took out a key and unlocked the door.
Then, pretending to be concerned, he asked,
“It’s such a mess outside. Young brother, how did you get here?”
Quan Xiaoyu pretended not to notice his probing and answered calmly,
“I live nearby. There isn’t any food left at home, so my dad told me to come find Uncle Li. There weren’t many monsters on the way. There seem to be more around here. I’m not afraid. I have this.”
He waved the iron pipe in his hand, putting on an innocent expression.
So, he was a relative’s child who had come seeking help!
The middle-aged man looked at Quan Xiaoyu’s exceptionally youthful face and smiled with satisfaction inwardly.
Beautiful. Frail. Innocent.
He was practically a gift sent down by God especially for him.
His heart itched unbearably.
How long had it been since he had encountered such a perfect specimen?
A certain part of his body seemed to be burning.
Yet on the surface, he continued maintaining what he believed was a sincere and friendly smile.