Ma Jingjing refused him without the slightest hesitation, even mocking and ridiculing him for a while. Just then, something unexpected happened—a zombie suddenly lunged at Lin Ziqiang, who was standing by the door.
Lin Ziqiang’s reaction at a time like this was surprisingly fast. He grabbed He Gang’s wife, who was standing in front of him, and pulled her in front of himself as a shield, then shoved her hard.
He Gang’s wife let out a scream. The zombie’s teeth bit through her throat from behind. When Lin Ziqiang shoved her, she fell outside together with the zombie.
Lin Ziqiang, meanwhile, took Ma Jingjing and drove away.
He Gang wanted to save his wife, but he did not dare step forward to help her. His wife’s screams attracted the wandering zombies, which began gathering around them. He Gang had no choice but to carry his son and run.
He ran and hid along the way, and in between, he also encountered some kind-hearted people who let him ride in their vehicles. Later, his child began running a fever, so he took the child to the hospital to look for medicine. As a result, the child mutated, and he himself became trapped in the hospital until he encountered Chu Tian and the doctor.
“Bah! You’re not a good person either!” Bai Mingxi said indignantly after hearing everything.
Judging from the way this man had abandoned his wife and was too afraid to save her, he was simply selfish and self-serving, the kind of person who bullied the weak but feared the strong. More importantly, he refused to admit it to himself. He insisted on playing the role of a good husband and good father, blaming everything on others while completely washing his hands of any responsibility.
Most likely, the moment his child mutated, he had abandoned the child without even thinking about it!
People like this… tsk, tsk!
Bai Mingxi was somewhat indignant. Although he had long believed that he had seen through human nature, the things that had happened over the past few days still left him utterly astonished.
Those people who usually spoke sweetly and looked respectable were, at critical moments, not even as decent as the expressionless Quan Xiaoyu. Some were not even as decent as the doctor. Although the doctor was a lunatic, he at least had principles. Some people, however, did not have even the slightest moral bottom line.
Thinking about all this, Bai Mingxi also seemed somewhat dispirited.
He could not be bothered to pay attention to those people anymore. He ran over to Chu Tian and sat down beside him, asking, “Tiantian, what are we going to do next?”
Chu Tian finished bandaging his own wound before raising his head and looking out the window.
Because his wound had not been stitched, after all the tossing and turning along the way, the wound that Quan Xiaoyu had bandaged for him at the hospital had already split open. Fortunately, they had used anti-inflammatory medicine at the hospital, so the wound had not become infected or inflamed. That was very lucky.
“It’s too late today. We’ll make do here for one night. We’ll talk about everything else after daybreak,” Chu Tian said gently. He then turned to the doctor and asked, “Doctor, you don’t mind if we stay the night, do you?”
The doctor shrugged indifferently and made a gesture meaning “make yourselves at home.”
“Xiao Ziran.”
Chu Tian immediately nodded. “Brother Ziran.”
“Brother Chu Tian,” Xiao Ziran said with a smile, “I wonder if Brother Chu Tian could tell me exactly what your ability is?”
Although it was phrased as a question, Chu Tian knew that if he refused to tell him, this Xiao Ziran might turn hostile at any moment.
So Chu Tian answered, “It’s not quite the same as yours. You can’t see or touch it. It’s more like a kind of mental energy. I don’t know how to explain it to you.”
Xiao Ziran nodded. “Something like mental power?”
“Perhaps.” Chu Tian shrugged. He himself was not entirely sure.
“So you also gained your ability after the outbreak of the anomaly,” Xiao Ziran said almost certainly.
“That’s right.”
Xiao Ziran looked him up and down a few times. “And yet you were trapped in the hospital for so many days? And you even managed to get yourself into such a miserable state?”
He glanced at Chu Tian’s wound and spoke in a disdainful tone.
Chu Tian gave a bitter smile. “Hey, that was just an accident, okay?”
Xiao Ziran curled his lips and stopped paying attention to them. Leaving everyone behind, he walked away by himself, and no one knew what he was going off to do.
Chu Tian also stopped paying attention to those people. He only said to Bai Mingxi, “I’m going upstairs to find a clean room. We’ll make do for one night. You go look around and find something to eat, then come find me. I’ll be waiting upstairs.”
Bai Mingxi nodded, and the two of them went their separate ways.
Once everything was settled, Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi lay side by side on the bed, one on each side.
They had often slept like this when they were children. When they grew up and went to school together, they had also been roommates, so neither of them felt there was anything awkward about it.
“Tiantian, you were trapped in the hospital because you stayed behind to look after me. Otherwise, you could have escaped long ago, and you wouldn’t have gotten injured. Maybe you even could have run into the people from our families who came looking for us, and we would’ve already made it back to B City,” Bai Mingxi said somewhat guiltily.
“Nonsense! How could I leave you behind and run? If I went back to B City, what would I tell your parents?” Chu Tian threw a pillow at him, feeling a deep sense of despair over Bai Mingxi’s intelligence.
“I don’t know how my parents are doing either. Everything outside is already in chaos…”
“Don’t worry. They’re all old monsters who have cultivated to perfection. They’ll definitely be fine.” Although Chu Tian said this with his mouth, he was actually extremely worried in his heart. While comforting Bai Mingxi, he was also comforting himself.
“Why do you think you woke up after sleeping for only one day, while I slept for so long?”
That was why Chu Tian and he had been trapped in the hospital for so many days. Otherwise, with Chu Tian’s abilities, he would have escaped long ago.
“I don’t know. Maybe your ability is relatively special?”
It was also possible that people with lower intelligence simply slept longer. Of course, Chu Tian only thought the second sentence to himself and did not say it aloud.
“I feel like a lot of people have gained really powerful abilities. In the future, do you think we won’t need to hide our abilities anymore?” Bai Mingxi rolled over and turned his face toward Chu Tian, counting on his fingers. “The doctor, Quan Xiaoyu, Brother Zheng. Besides us, they’re not ordinary people either.”
Chu Tian shook his head. “I exposed my ability because the situation was urgent. You have to keep yours hidden. We’re different from them.”
Chu Tian sighed. If this mutation was happening on a large scale, then perhaps many people had gained special abilities. The world of the future might completely overturn the structure of the world as they knew it.
Perhaps these people who had gained special abilities would gradually become the ones who dominated this world.
“How are we different? There must be other people like us,” Bai Mingxi muttered unhappily.
“Let me put it this way. We’ll temporarily call their special abilities ‘abilities.’ You saw Quan Xiaoyu yourself—speed and strength. The doctor is plants. Tao Zheng is lightning. Their attacks are tangible. Other people can see them.
“But my mental power is intangible. Other people can’t see it, can’t touch it, and don’t know how powerful it is. Humans instinctively fear the unknown. Before something unknown can pose a threat to them, they’ll try to eliminate it.
“Look, the doctor definitely won’t stay in the same villa with us tonight.”
“He’s afraid you’ll secretly kill him?” Bai Mingxi thought about it before asking.
Chu Tian threw another pillow at him. He had already gained a profound understanding of how terrifying a useless teammate could be.
“Could you please not use the word ‘secretly’? I wouldn’t kill him either!” He almost wanted to strangle Bai Mingxi to death just to save himself the trouble. “And you—yes, you—”
Chu Tian pressed his fingertip against Bai Mingxi’s nose. “Space. Space! What an insanely powerful thing that is. Whatever you want to take, whatever you want to store, you can carry it away. You’re a walking mobile warehouse.
“Now that we’re in the apocalypse, shortages of supplies and food will happen sooner or later. If you expose yourself, it’s not that people will necessarily kill you. I’m just afraid they’ll lock you up and chain you down every day, making you into a human-shaped warehouse.
“Oh, right, just like that bald guy. You’re so soft and delicate-looking. Maybe some perverted big shot would even like you and come visit you every night…”
The more Chu Tian spoke, the more outrageous he became.
“Ahhh! Chu Tian, shut up!” Bai Mingxi angrily pounced on him, covering Chu Tian’s face with a pillow and beating him wildly.
Although he knew perfectly well that Chu Tian was talking nonsense, remembering the miserable state of the bald man, Lin Ziqiang, still made Bai Mingxi shudder.
He absolutely did not want to end up like that!
“Hey, hey! My foot, my foot! My foot, you idiot!”
Chu Tian did not dodge because he was injured, and the two of them began wrestling on the bed.
Only after they had made enough of a fuss did they lie sprawled messily across the bed and fall asleep together.
The next day, it was pouring rain.
The sky was an oppressive gray, and thick fog rolled everywhere.
Raindrops pounded against the windows with a sharp “patter, patter.” Water mist rose from the ground like a layer of smoke, while the torrents of rain washed over the ground with a rushing sound, as if trying to sweep away all the filth.
“Xiaoyu-ge, it looks like someone is coming this way.”
Li Nan, who had been bored and watching outside, said this to Quan Xiaoyu, who was sitting on the sofa reading a book.
Quan Xiaoyu’s plan to go out had been disrupted by this heavy rain. The moment the rain began falling, he knew that all living things in this world were about to undergo another round of mutations.
In his previous life, this heavy rain had been the starting point. The zombies began evolving. They became more agile, their skin became tougher, their teeth sharper, and their fingernails longer and harder.
Only at this point did they truly begin to pose a threat.
It was also from that point onward that they were officially classified as Level One Zombies. All of the initial zombies that failed to successfully evolve were devoured by the upgraded Level One Zombies. The true battle between humans and zombies only officially began at this moment.
It was also beginning with Level One Zombies that crystal cores appeared in their brains.
At that time, Quan Xiaoyu was on the road fleeing north. Many people developed high fevers because of this rain. Some gained abilities, some had their abilities upgraded, but even more people directly mutated into Level One Zombies and began attacking their companions.
Quan Xiaoyu did not know whether the rain contained some kind of substance, or whether the rain itself was merely a signal that “the time had come.”
In any case, he planned to observe first.
According to his memories, this heavy rain lasted for three days. Three days later, the zombies would evolve, and their numbers would increase. He also needed to make more preparations for that.
“Is someone coming toward our house?”
As Quan Xiaoyu spoke, he stood up and walked over to Li Nan’s side to look outside.
Very soon, he saw a familiar vehicle.
It was the same Jeep he had driven all the way back from the hospital.
Bai Mingxi had driven him back yesterday, and he knew the way, so the people inside were very likely Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi.
Quan Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should open the gate for them.
After struggling with the decision for a while, Quan Xiaoyu finally opened the main gate.
“Xiaoyu-ge, are the people who came your friends?”
Surprised by Quan Xiaoyu’s actions, Li Nan asked curiously.
Friends?
Quan Xiaoyu thought about it. They had always helped each other and were not enemies. In that case, they could probably be considered friends.
So Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
Li Nan said “Oh” and did not ask any further. He simply stood beside Quan Xiaoyu and watched the vehicle with curiosity.
After making a turn, the car drove into the yard and stopped in front of the gate.
The rain and mist splashing everywhere made the surroundings blurry. Even though Quan Xiaoyu could not see the people inside the car clearly, he still recognized them.
His guess had been correct. The people sitting inside were Bai Mingxi and Chu Tian.
Seeing the two of them getting ready to get out, Quan Xiaoyu quickly waved his hand, stopping them.
“Xiao Nan, go get an umbrella.”
Quan Xiaoyu lowered his head and said this to Li Nan.
“Oh, okay.”
Li Nan ran into the house and soon came back out with two umbrellas.
After ushering the two of them inside, Quan Xiaoyu closed the main gate again.
Bai Mingxi curiously looked around, then looked at Li Nan.
Li Nan was equally curious as he looked at the two people who had come inside.
Chu Tian smiled at Li Nan first before asking Quan Xiaoyu, “What? Is there something strange about the rain outside?”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded slightly, secretly praising his perceptiveness. From such a small action, he had already noticed something was wrong.
“What’s wrong with the rain?”
Although Chu Tian had also felt a trace of unease about the sudden change in weather before leaving, he had not been able to find anything unusual.
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head. “I don’t know. It just feels very strange. Avoid it if you can. Why did you two come here?”
He changed the subject.
Chu Tian did not press him further. “We came to check on you. You were acting far too strangely yesterday. Seeing that you’re fine, I’m relieved.”
He glanced at Quan Xiaoyu’s left shoulder. If he remembered correctly, there should have been a gunshot wound there.
But Quan Xiaoyu’s complexion was rosy now, and he did not look like someone who had suffered a gunshot wound at all.
Quan Xiaoyu was still not accustomed to being cared about by someone he had only known for a short time. Looking somewhat embarrassed, he invited the two of them to sit on the sofa.
“I’m fine now. But your leg—yesterday I forgot to give you the medicine.”
Seeing that messy bandaging once again, Quan Xiaoyu knew that the wound had probably split open. Chu Tian had treated the wound himself again.
“It’s fine. Coming to get it today is the same,” Chu Tian said with a grin.
“Xiao Nan, go bring my backpack and the medicine box from the house downstairs.”
Quan Xiaoyu said this to Li Nan.
“Okay.”
Li Nan answered and ran upstairs.
Chu Tian looked at Li Nan. “Is he your younger brother?”
He had assumed that the family member Quan Xiaoyu was worried about would be a sick person, which was why he had risked going to the hospital to look for medicine. He had not expected it to be a boy who looked perfectly healthy.
Although they had not spent much time together, Chu Tian had already sensed that there were so many mysteries surrounding this Quan Xiaoyu.
What kind of person was he, exactly?
He seemed to be able to know certain things in advance.
Could that be his true ability?
For the first time, Chu Tian became extremely interested in someone.