Of course, Chu Tian was not going to dig into it at a time like this. Given their current relationship, if he insisted on asking questions, all he would get in return would be a pile of lies. Why bother?
“Mm.” Quan Xiaoyu nodded. “He saw Brother Zheng’s people killing someone, so he hid in the basement.”
“Smart kid,” Chu Tian praised.
Speaking of Brother Zheng, Quan Xiaoyu finally asked, “What happened afterward? How did you deal with it?”
Chu Tian told him everything that had happened after Quan Xiaoyu left, including the stories about Tao Zheng and He Gang.
“That He Gang even specifically mentioned you. He recognized you and said you were cold and heartless.” Chu Tian brought it up with a smile.
Quan Xiaoyu frowned. Although he did not care what other people thought of him, hearing those words from Chu Tian’s mouth made him inexplicably unhappy.
“How does someone that selfish have the nerve to call other people cold and heartless?” Bai Mingxi was the first to complain. He held He Gang’s character in extreme contempt and could not get over the fact that He Gang had abandoned his wife.
“Yeah. Some people are just like that. Whether you help them or not, they can always find a reason to condemn you. And if you do even one thing that wrongs them, it becomes an earth-shattering grudge.
“When you’re stronger than them, they’ll choose to bow their heads. But the moment you give them an opportunity to take advantage of you, they’ll immediately turn against you and take a vicious bite out of you.” Chu Tian smiled as he spoke.
Hearing them say this, Quan Xiaoyu felt somewhat better before saying, “There was one other person among the people from the hospital whom I also knew.”
“Oh?” Chu Tian looked at him doubtfully.
Quan Xiaoyu’s gaze when looking at those people had not seemed like the gaze of someone looking at acquaintances. Could this be another He Gang?
Quan Xiaoyu remembered what had happened back then and smiled. “He’s a robber. Before the apocalypse happened, he robbed me of my money in the park and slashed my neck.”
He had been so desperate for money and had appeared at the hospital. Perhaps he really did have a family member who was sick.
Quan Xiaoyu did not resent him. After all, if it had not been for that slash, Quan Xiaoyu would not have accidentally obtained his space. And without the space, he definitely would have mutated yesterday too, right?
“There was something like that?” Bai Mingxi exclaimed noisily. “Looks like there really are all kinds of people in this group!”
At this moment, Li Nan had already brought down the backpack and medical kit.
Quan Xiaoyu took them from him. He sat down beside Chu Tian, lifted Chu Tian’s injured leg, and placed it across his own lap before beginning to unwrap the bandages.
This position made Chu Tian somewhat embarrassed. Quan Xiaoyu, on the other hand, was perfectly fine with it. In the past, he had often done things like this for his teammates.
“There’s a needle here. I can stitch it up for you now. It might hurt quite a bit. Do you want a local anesthetic? I think I have some in my bag.”
As Quan Xiaoyu spoke, he carefully wiped alcohol over the wound to disinfect it.
“No need. I can endure it.”
It was better not to rely too much on anesthetics. The days ahead would only become harder, and who knew how many more injuries he would suffer in the future?
He should not make himself too delicate.
“Okay, then I’ll start.”
Quan Xiaoyu also did not recommend using an anesthetic. It could cause some damage to the nerves. But the injured person’s own wishes still needed to be respected.
Chu Tian nodded and softly said, “Mm.”
Bai Mingxi could not stand watching this kind of scene. Chu Tian did not think it hurt, but Bai Mingxi felt like it hurt terribly just watching. The thought of a tiny needle repeatedly poking into someone’s flesh was enough to give him goosebumps.
So he loudly announced that he was hungry and, acting as though they were old friends, dragged away Li Nan, who had wanted to stay and learn, making him go find something for Bai Mingxi to eat.
Good boy Li Nan had no choice but to lead him to the kitchen.
“Tell me what happened afterward. How did the doctor deal with those people?”
To distract Chu Tian’s attention, Quan Xiaoyu took the initiative to bring up the subject.
Chu Tian understood his good intentions. In truth, he did not care much about this little bit of pain, but he still accepted Quan Xiaoyu’s kindness.
“The doctor killed Brother Zheng and several of the minor leaders on Brother Zheng’s side. He kept the underlings alive. They’re still tied up and haven’t been released.
“The people who came with us from the hospital and the people who were originally here were settled according to the arrangements Brother Zheng had made before.
“I always feel that what the doctor wants to do is probably similar to what Brother Zheng wanted to do. It’s just that he’s on a much higher level than Brother Zheng.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded. He thought the same.
“Did you figure out what that doctor is all about?”
Chu Tian shook his head. “We only know that his name is Xiao Ziran.”
Quan Xiaoyu suddenly raised his head. The hand holding the needle trembled slightly, causing him to prick Chu Tian hard enough to make him grimace.
“What did you say his name was?”
“Xiao Ziran. What’s wrong?” Chu Tian did not understand why Quan Xiaoyu was reacting so strongly.
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head. “Nothing. It just sounded somewhat familiar when I first heard it.”
Xiao Ziran!
That lunatic doctor was actually Xiao Ziran.
Quan Xiaoyu did not even know what to say.
No wonder he had been encountering so many rare-type ability users lately. So there was actually a major powerhouse here.
Perhaps S City really was a blessed place.
Three years after the apocalypse, Xiao Ziran would become the person in charge of the Central Plains Base, one of the three major survivor safe bases.
He would be a Level Five rare plant-type ability user, as well as one of the earliest powerhouses to reach Level Five.
Opinions of this person in the outside world were mixed. People said all kinds of things about him.
After gathering information from various sources, Quan Xiaoyu had once reached the following conclusion about him:
This person was not a good man, but he was not truly a bad man either.
Without a doubt, he was a powerful person, but his way of doing things had a somewhat morally ambiguous quality. He liked killing people in extremely perverse ways, yet he was not someone who acted entirely on impulse without any bottom line.
The Central Plains Base he established had its own set of rules for doing things. It was somewhat unconventional, and he also had a group of fiercely loyal subordinates.
During the three years after the apocalypse, he established a safe zone and took in survivors. He never turned away the elderly, the weak, the sick, or the disabled.
Although some of his rules were strange and harsh at times, there was no denying that he had saved countless people.
The number of people he saved far exceeded the number of people he killed.
Therefore, it was difficult to simply evaluate this person as either “good” or “bad.”
“Oh.”
Chu Tian obviously did not believe that explanation, but since the other man did not want to say anything, there was nothing he could do.
“By the way, Xiao Bai and I came here today because we want to move into the house next door to you. I don’t really want to stay mixed in with those people, and the doctor may not like us getting too close to him either.”
He was referring to his mental-type ability. The doctor had shown considerable wariness toward it.
Since that was the case, he might as well move farther away. That way, he could have some company with Quan Xiaoyu’s side while also staying away from the doctor and avoiding unnecessary suspicion.
“Has the house next door already been cleared out by Brother Zheng’s people?” Chu Tian asked.
“Mm.”
Quan Xiaoyu answered.
The couple next door had one been taken away and the other killed, so the house was indeed empty. Brother Zheng’s people seemed to have conveniently taken away whatever useful supplies had been inside as well.
“Well…” Chu Tian said somewhat awkwardly. “Could you lend us some daily necessities and food for now? We just went over to take a look, and a lot of things had already been taken.
“Xiao Bai and I plan to live here for a while. Once the situation outside becomes clearer, we’ll make further plans.”
He paused before adding, “I know supplies are very precious right now. We’ll find a way to pay you back.”
“Okay.”
Quan Xiaoyu agreed immediately without hesitation.
This was not a difficult thing to do. For one thing, he trusted Chu Tian’s character. For another, Chu Tian was probably no ordinary person himself. He was merely a dragon stranded in shallow waters at the moment.
It was only a small favor. Why not do it?
“Thank you so much.”
Chu Tian smiled, revealing a row of bright white teeth.
After treating the wound, Quan Xiaoyu and Li Nan kept the two of them for a meal. Then Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi returned next door to tidy up the house.
Only after the two of them left did Quan Xiaoyu rummage through his space and take out a pile of daily necessities and enough food for two adults to eat for ten days.
Together with Li Nan, he delivered everything to the house next door.
Li Nan was a good kid. He had never once questioned Quan Xiaoyu’s decisions. He happily went next door and even helped them clean up the house.
Two months later.
The villa community.
It was a warm and sunny day.
Several off-road vehicles drove up to the entrance of the community.
An armed security guard poked his head out of the window. Seeing that familiar people had arrived, he hurried outside to help open the tightly closed gate.
In the past, this gate had been electronically controlled, but the electricity and water had been cut off as early as two months ago.
After the leader found someone to modify it, it could be opened and closed manually. Only then was the gate put back into use, becoming the first line of defense for this small safe zone.
The driver of the first vehicle also stuck his head out and waved at the security personnel guarding the entrance as a greeting. Only then did he drive straight inside.
The driver was Bai Mingxi.
As he drove, he talked excitedly and nonstop about what they had obtained that day.
Chu Tian, Quan Xiaoyu, and Li Nan were also sitting in the vehicle.
Ever since Chu Tian and Bai Mingxi had moved into the house next door, the two households had removed the barriers between the buildings to make it easier for the two families to come and go.
The two households interacted frequently and gradually became familiar with one another.
Then, one month ago, they went out as usual to collect supplies. At a supermarket, they encountered three Level Two Zombies.
The four of them fought bitterly and finally managed to kill the zombies.
Originally, everyone should have been celebrating.
But just after Quan Xiaoyu had extracted the crystal cores from the zombies’ brains, a group of people suddenly emerged from hiding and tried to forcibly seize the supplies in the supermarket.
It turned out that this group had been watching that supermarket for a long time.
They had only been deterred by the powerful Level Two Zombies inside. Every time they went in, one person died, so they had temporarily given up and continued hiding nearby, secretly watching and waiting.
Only after Quan Xiaoyu and the others killed the zombies did they jump out and attempt to snatch the supplies, hoping to profit as third parties from the conflict.
How could Chu Tian and the others agree?
They had been the ones who fought the battle, while these people had not helped at all. And after doing nothing, they still wanted to steal the goods?
Over the past month, Chu Tian had seen plenty of people trying to take advantage of others in their moment of crisis, so by now, he had gained quite a bit of experience dealing with them.