Meanwhile, ignoring the chaotic crowd bustling around over there, Xiao Ziran gathered his own people together and prepared to hold a small internal meeting.
Xiao Ziran briefly explained his plan to have the group rest and recuperate in the church for a few days. His tone was as uncompromising as ever, with absolutely no intention of pretending to be some benevolent leader like the leaders of other groups.
Then he went over their planned route for the future.
Only at the very end did he say, “All of you followed me all the way here from the villa district, so you all know exactly how many supplies we brought out with us. We don’t have a spatial ability user. As we head north, besides avoiding all kinds of dangers, we’ll also have to be self-sufficient, collecting supplies as we move forward.”
He paused. His long index finger rose and pointed in the direction where Lei Shi was standing behind him.
“They’ve offered generous terms. Anyone who wants to leave can go now. But remember…”
Xiao Ziran’s eyes suddenly turned dark and menacing.
“If you leave now, I won’t stop you. But once you decide to stay, don’t let me catch any of you making suspicious moves. You all know what I’m capable of.”
Immediately afterward, his tone became lazy again.
“I’m not some great philanthropist. I don’t know anything about responsibility. There’s no democracy here, and there’s certainly no protection. I only need absolute obedience, even if it means death. Like I said before, I don’t keep useless people.”
He swept his gaze over everyone.
Of course, “everyone” did not include Chu Tian and the other three.
These four were not people he could control. Right now, they were merely traveling together, and sooner or later they would go their separate ways. The doctor had long since come to terms with that.
“Boss Xiao, no need to say anything else. I’m following you.”
Old Wu was the first to state his position.
In this apocalypse, he had no special ability. Whatever skills he had possessed before the apocalypse seemed insignificant in the face of the countless ability users who had emerged.
But he was unwilling to resign himself to that.
Even if he was going to remain an ordinary person, he refused to live a pathetic life.
Old Wu firmly trusted his ability to judge people. If he wanted to establish a foothold among all these ability users, then following the doctor was definitely the right choice.
That Lei Shi, in his eyes, was nothing more than someone on Zheng-ge’s level. He might be extremely influential right now, but who knew how far he would actually make it?
“Boss Xiao, I’m following you too.”
The water-type ability user Zhao Bufan immediately voiced his decision as well.
He had followed the doctor out of the hospital, so to some extent, he understood the doctor’s temperament.
The doctor certainly wasn’t a good person, but neither was he someone who acted recklessly on a whim.
He had ability and ideas, and he also had the support of Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu. On top of that, Li Nan had recently revealed that he had been secretly hiding a healing ability.
Their group might not necessarily be inferior to Lei Shi’s.
Besides, they had been together for more than two months. Surely they couldn’t be worse than Lei Shi’s ragtag bunch.
And judging by Lei Shi’s principles, once ability users joined him, they would still be responsible for protecting ordinary people and providing clean water for so many people every day. They had to burn themselves out without even being allowed to complain, because complaining would mean violating the group’s principles.
Zhao Bufan knew he wasn’t that kind of saint.
It was more reliable to follow the doctor.
As for the others, although they didn’t say anything, it was fairly obvious that they intended to stay.
Only the parents of the girl in the family of three exchanged glances, hesitating as though they had something to say.
“Go ahead. I already said that anyone who wants to leave should hurry.”
Xiao Ziran was far too perceptive. He immediately noticed their hesitation.
The girl’s parents didn’t dare look directly at Xiao Ziran. Her father lowered his head and stammered,
“Boss Xiao, we… we’re just ordinary people. We’re getting old, and we also have a daughter. We can’t really contribute anything to the group. Just now, Captain Lei said that ordinary people would be protected equally… We… we were thinking…”
“Fine!”
Xiao Ziran nodded without hesitation.
Then he said to Old Wu, “Give them some supplies and let them leave.”
Old Wu nodded and immediately carried out the order, going to get some suitable supplies.
“Dad, Mom, what are you talking about?!”
The girl became anxious. She had never considered leaving the group at all, so her parents’ sudden decision shocked her.
Her mother immediately grabbed her hand, signaling for her to stop talking while bowing her head and repeatedly thanking Xiao Ziran.
Xiao Ziran ignored them completely and turned to ask the others,
“Anyone else? Hurry up. Don’t waste time.”
“Dad, Mom, why are we leaving? It’s fine here. We’ve always…”
The girl was extremely anxious and tried to persuade her parents, but they immediately stopped her.
It was obvious that the girl was usually very obedient to her parents. They had always doted on her and protected her well.
Under her parents’ insistence, she had no choice. In the end, she submitted to their decision and stopped speaking.
Originally, leaving the villa district had also been her parents’ decision.
Her parents had always felt that the way some of the men looked at her was wrong. While the doctor was around, no one dared to cause trouble, but they were afraid that after the doctor left, those men might do something bad to their daughter.
So when the doctor said he was leaving, they had decided to follow him.
At the same time, however, they had already planned to leave the doctor’s group as soon as they found an opportunity.
After all, they didn’t trust the doctor either.
They had once witnessed him kill someone without hesitation, so they certainly didn’t consider him a good person.
Now was the perfect opportunity.
Lei Shi’s principle of protecting ordinary people had deeply appealed to them.
Moreover, Lei Shi’s group had a spatial ability user and supplies. Now, so many people were willing to join Lei Shi’s group as well.
With so many ordinary people among them, they could receive protection from the ability users in Lei Shi’s group. That was much safer than following the unpredictable doctor.
As for their daughter’s opinion, they had always ignored it.
They firmly believed they were capable of protecting their naive daughter, and they also firmly believed that their decisions could never be wrong.
So they took the supplies and left immediately.
Only the girl kept looking back reluctantly.
Perhaps she was the only one who still believed that her former teammates weren’t bad people—and that they were capable of protecting her family.
The departure of the family of three did not shake the others’ decisions. No one expressed any intention of leaving.
Only then did Xiao Ziran nod and begin assigning everyone their tasks.
Regardless of what the other people in the church thought, the small zombie horde from last night had reminded them that the church was not absolutely safe.
So Xiao Ziran had Old Wu take Xiao Ming, while Zhao Bufan took Lin Ziqiang. They would split into two groups and take turns keeping watch at night, closely monitoring the activity around the church and sounding the alarm immediately if anything seemed wrong.
Ma Jingjing and Lu Jie would be responsible for organizing the supplies and handling internal affairs, guarding their own little corner.
The doctor would be responsible for dealing with the interpersonal relationships inside the church, including persuading the priest to leave.
Originally, the task of dealing with people and persuading the priest had belonged to Chu Tian.
But Chu Tian insisted on taking the doctor’s task of going outside to scout instead.
His reason was that he and Quan Xiaoyu had been working together for two months and were already used to it. He was afraid the doctor wouldn’t be accustomed to working with Quan Xiaoyu, so he insisted on going himself.
The doctor had no way to deal with him.
Chu Tian’s intentions were as obvious as Sima Zhao’s!
Tsk, tsk.
So he had no choice but to swap tasks with him.
Normally, whenever Chu Tian and the others went outside, they always brought Bai Mingxi and Li Nan along.
This time, however, they found an excuse to leave the two of them behind at the church.
Li Nan had always been obedient and didn’t voice any objections.
Bai Mingxi, on the other hand, looked at Chu Tian with such a wounded expression that he looked exactly like an abandoned wife.
Naturally, Chu Tian ignored him.
“Waaah, Xiaonan, Tiantian doesn’t want me anymore.”
Bai Mingxi half-crouched and buried his face against Li Nan’s shoulder, pretending to cry.
Li Nan was both amused and helpless, and could only comfort him gently.
Quan Xiaoyu couldn’t quite describe the feeling in his heart.
Chu Tian had seemed like a completely different person these past two days.
The frightening thing was that Quan Xiaoyu didn’t dislike or reject this version of Chu Tian at all.
So when Chu Tian forcefully demanded that the doctor arrange for the two of them to go outside together, Quan Xiaoyu didn’t object in the slightest.
As usual, he simply accepted it in silence.
When they set out, Chu Tian drove while Quan Xiaoyu sat silently in the passenger seat.
Chu Tian turned his head and glanced at him.
“Are you unhappy? Because I made the decision on my own?”
“No.”
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head. He glanced at Chu Tian, then looked out the window.
“I’m just… seriously thinking about it, like you asked me to.”
Chu Tian froze for a moment.
Then he suddenly burst out laughing.
He reached over and rubbed Quan Xiaoyu’s head, his movements carrying a hint of tenderness.
“Didn’t I already say it? I’m taking back what I said yesterday. I’m not making you think about it anymore. I’ve already made my decision.”
Quan Xiaoyu still shook his head and said seriously,
“I still need to think it through.”
“Oh?”
Chu Tian’s hand slid from Quan Xiaoyu’s head to the back of his neck. He gently hooked his fingers there, forcing Quan Xiaoyu to face him.
“Then tell me. What have you decided after thinking it over?”
Quan Xiaoyu still refused to look at him. He lowered his head slightly, his long eyelashes fluttering.
After waiting for a while, he finally said,
“I… don’t hate what you’re doing.”
Seeing him like this, Chu Tian felt as though a cat had lightly scratched at his heart, leaving it unbearably itchy.
Almost without thinking, he leaned over and kissed the corner of Quan Xiaoyu’s eye.
The unexpected kiss seemed to startle Quan Xiaoyu.
Although he had offered no resistance before, he suddenly pulled free and moved to the other side, farther away from Chu Tian.
He turned his head toward the window and refused to turn back.
Chu Tian felt a little disappointed.
“Do you hate this?”
Quan Xiaoyu remained facing the window and didn’t turn around.
For a long time, he gave no answer.
Disappointed, Chu Tian pressed down on the accelerator, and the car gradually drove away from the church.
The two remained silent for quite some distance.
Then Quan Xiaoyu suddenly said,
“I don’t hate it.”
Chu Tian froze.
Then his mood suddenly brightened.
The car immediately slammed into a zombie that came sprinting out from the roadside, sending it flying as they sped forward.
Outside the church, not long after Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu left, two more vehicles also drove out, one following the other, heading in the same direction as Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu.
Author’s Note:
Updated! Making up for yesterday’s chapter. Something came up and I got home really late.