The moment Li Nan opened his eyes, they were filled with pain and fear. Everything that had happened over the past few days was enough to destroy the worldview of a ten-year-old child and change his entire life.
“Xiaonan, let’s take your dad and leave this place!” Quan Xiaoyu said gently. He had no way to comfort him. The only thing he could do for him was to get him away from here as quickly as possible, taking him somewhere safe.
“Dad…”
Li Nan looked at his father, who lay motionless beside him. Quan Xiaoyu had washed his face very clean. Perhaps because he had been able to fulfill his final wish before he died, his expression looked peaceful.
“Xiaonan, he hopes that we’ll all live well. That was his wish.”
This was the most comforting thing Quan Xiaoyu could say.
“His wish? Dad’s wish…”
Remembering the loving and gratified look in his father’s eyes before he left this world, Li Nan’s tears began rolling down his cheeks again.
After a moment, he wiped his cheeks, climbed out of bed, and said to Quan Xiaoyu, “Brother Xiaoyu, you’re right. We have to live well. We have to live better than all of them.”
By the time he said the last sentence, there was already a gritted-teeth quality to his voice.
Quan Xiaoyu did not know what the father and son had gone through over the past two days, and he was unwilling to ask about it at a time like this. After three years of the apocalypse, he already had a certain understanding of the degradation of human morality.
Right now, the most important thing was to take the father and son back to the villa, and then give Li Shunwei a proper burial. In this apocalyptic world, being able to have a peaceful place to rest after death could already be considered a blessing.
He crouched down so that he was at eye level with Li Nan, then took the dagger from his clothes.
“This belongs to Uncle Li. Keep it safe. It’s very sharp. When necessary, you can use it to…”
He did not finish the sentence.
When necessary, what could he use it for?
Killing zombies, killing monsters, and also killing… people…
Li Nan took the dagger and tightly clutched it against his chest without saying a word.
Quan Xiaoyu then hoisted Li Shunwei onto his left shoulder, grabbed the baseball bat he had dug out earlier with his right hand, gestured for Li Nan to follow him, and strode out of the room and downstairs.
Only after leaving the room did he hear the howling coming from the first-floor corridor.
It was Yellow Hair’s voice.
Quan Xiaoyu frowned and tilted his head to glance down from the third-floor corridor.
Sure enough, the howling had attracted quite a few zombies. They had gathered outside the metal door, smacking their hands against the iron bars again and again.
Perhaps Yellow Hair’s howls had been too miserable. Eventually, someone opened a crack in one of the doors and cautiously peered outside.
Then a female voice rang out. It belonged to a young girl.
“Everyone in the building, listen carefully. Gather on the first floor within five minutes. Otherwise, I will immediately open the main door and let the monsters outside in.”
After the girl’s voice sounded, Quan Xiaoyu’s mind went hazy for an instant, but he quickly came back to his senses.
Li Nan, who was following behind him, became dazed. He lifted his leg and began walking downstairs.
Quan Xiaoyu immediately pulled Li Nan back, slapped his cheek a few times, and under the stimulation of the pain, Li Nan quickly regained consciousness. His eyes became clear again, and he stared at Quan Xiaoyu in astonishment.
Quan Xiaoyu made a gesture for silence and signaled for him to stay close behind him and wait to see what happened.
Not long after the girl finished speaking, doors throughout the building opened one after another. Everyone who was still alive came out of their rooms and gathered on the first floor.
Most of these people had varying degrees of dullness in their eyes.
What powerful mental strength!
Quan Xiaoyu could finally confirm that the girl who had spoken was a mental-type ability user. Her ability should be “Control.”
Mental-type abilities were also divided into several categories, such as “Attack,” “Control,” “Shielding,” “Detection,” “Precognition,” and so on.
If mental abilities were used well, one could kill someone without them even realizing it. It was an extremely powerful type of ability.
Of course, exactly how powerful it was also depended on the ability user themselves.
And this was precisely what surprised Quan Xiaoyu.
There were very few mental-type ability users who could control this many people at once in the early stages of the apocalypse.
Moreover, Quan Xiaoyu could clearly sense that the girl’s ability was not yet well developed. She should have awakened it only recently. It was even possible that she herself had not realized what her ability was.
This building was truly strange.
Three ability users had suddenly appeared here, and none of them were weak. Abilities weren’t something that grew on trees.
If all of them could survive until the later stages of the apocalypse, once their abilities leveled up, they would probably become outstanding among ability users, practically elites among ordinary people.
Five people came down from the two floors above. There were both men and women, of different ages.
A middle-aged man also came out of the apartment next to the Li family’s. He followed the crowd downstairs in a daze.
Li Nan looked at this neighbor with an extremely complicated expression.
Quan Xiaoyu looked at Li Nan doubtfully.
A cold smile that was completely inappropriate for such a young child appeared on Li Nan’s little face.
“The person who spoke is his daughter. The people you killed… bullied her!”
After all, he was still young. There were some words that, although he understood them, he simply could not bring himself to say. After thinking for a while, he used the words “bullied her” instead.
Quan Xiaoyu understood what he meant.
“Dad couldn’t stand watching anymore. He opened the door because he wanted to save that sister, and then…”
There was a slight tremble in Li Nan’s seemingly calm voice.
Then, there was no need for him to say anything else.
Quan Xiaoyu understood.
The man had hidden inside his apartment, not even daring to save his own daughter. He had coldly watched someone else die, without the slightest guilt or pity toward the neighbor who had tried to save his daughter.
Even though he clearly knew that someone next door was bleeding, he had kept his door tightly shut and had not dared to take even a single step outside.
Quan Xiaoyu’s expression became extremely cold.
The apocalypse had only just begun, and human nature had already become this terrifying… and disgusting?
Quan Xiaoyu took Li Nan and followed the crowd downstairs.
He did not know what the girl wanted to do, but it was certain that she had not gathered these people with good intentions. Otherwise, she would not have threatened them.
Of course, he hoped there would not be any conflict.
After all, killing people was different from killing zombies.
Once everyone had gathered on the first floor, the corridor was packed with people.
On the floor lay Yellow Hair, who was screaming in agony. A fruit knife had been stabbed into a certain part of his lower body.
He clutched his wound and curled up on the floor, howling miserably, crying as though his heart were being torn apart.
There were also two corpses on the floor.
They were Weiguang and the strong man.
No one knew when they had been dragged into the corridor.
A girl stood on top of the corpses, coldly looking at the people gathered on the first floor.
Very good. They had all come.
A smile appeared on the girl’s face.
The smile pulled at the wounds on her face, making her expression look somewhat ferocious for an instant.
Soon, the girl saw Quan Xiaoyu standing in the stairwell.
Her eyes met his dark, deep eyes.
He stared at her with a gaze that was cold and calm.
He was a handsome young man she had never seen before. He was not a resident of this building.
Then the girl saw Li Shunwei on his shoulder and Li Nan behind him.
The girl’s expression softened somewhat.
She thought for a moment, then looked directly into Quan Xiaoyu’s eyes and asked, “Did you kill them?”
She stomped her foot, indicating the people beneath her feet.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded without saying anything.
“You came looking for Li…”
She paused.
“Uncle Li and Li Nan?”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded again.
“You’re going to take them away?”
The girl continued asking.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded once more.
“Do you know what happened here over the past few days?”
Quan Xiaoyu finally shook his head.
The girl did not continue questioning him. She nodded lightly and said, “Then you should leave. Since you were able to kill these two people, you shouldn’t be afraid of the monsters outside the metal door either, right?”
She tilted her head and glanced at the zombies packed outside the metal door.
The others could not get out, but that young man probably could.
“What do you want to do?” Quan Xiaoyu finally spoke.
The girl gave a miserable smile. The ferocity had disappeared from her face as she answered, “What can I do? I’m merely treating others the way they treated others. People who do wrong always have to pay a price. Don’t you think so?”
“You’re going to kill them?” Quan Xiaoyu asked.
There was doubt in his voice.
The girl smiled.
“No. I won’t kill them. If they all died, how lonely would I be?”
“They like watching people die without helping. They like helping evil people do evil. Then I’ll grant their wish.”
“I will take the place of…”
She stomped her foot again, forcefully stepping on Weiguang beneath her, and continued:
“I will take this person’s place and properly discipline them.”
Quan Xiaoyu understood what the girl meant.
She wanted every single person here to live in hell every day.
Those people might even include her own father.
He thought about it, but still could not help saying, “You can leave.”
If she left this place, with a mental-type ability, it was not necessarily impossible for her to live a good life.
The girl was very intelligent. She also understood Quan Xiaoyu’s goodwill.
She smiled and replied, “Thank you. If… if I have the chance in the future, I’ll leave. But right now, I want to stay with them.”
Stay together.
With the flames of hell, destroy everything in this building.
Perhaps what would be destroyed would include herself as well.
Quan Xiaoyu stopped trying to persuade her.
That was her own choice.
He nodded at her, parted the still-dazed crowd, and walked toward the metal door.
“Oh, right.”
He suddenly turned back.
“The ability you’re using right now is a mental-type ability called ‘Control.’ You… take care of yourself.”
The girl smiled and nodded.
Then she looked at Li Nan again.
Li Nan’s expression was extremely complicated as he looked at her. In the end, he could not help saying, “Sister Yuning, if you get the chance, you should still leave this place. Those people… aren’t worth it…”
“Okay.”
The girl nodded. The smile on her face did not change.
“Xiaonan, you take care too.”
Her agreement was actually a rejection.
She had already made up her mind to do what she wanted to do.
Quan Xiaoyu sighed inwardly.
The moment the metal door opened, he swung the baseball bat, driving the zombies away from the entrance.
He took Li Nan and left.
The girl locked the metal door again.
When she turned around, she saw the familiar faces around her whose eyes had already regained their clarity.
She smiled brightly.
Quan Xiaoyu and Li Nan soon found the car he had parked outside.
After settling Li Shunwei’s body, the two of them sat in the front seats.
Before the car started, Li Nan turned around and took a long, deep look at the building where he had lived for ten years.
He asked Quan Xiaoyu, “Brother Xiaoyu, do you want to know what happened there?”
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. The people who deserved to die are dead, and the people who deserve punishment are about to receive it. You and I are still alive and well. That’s enough.”
Li Nan fell silent.
After a while, he asked again, “Will Sister Yuning leave?”
“Probably not. But that’s her own choice.”
“Then… was Dad right or wrong to rush out of the door and save her at all costs?”
Quan Xiaoyu was silent for a while too before slowly saying, “I can’t tell you whether it was right or wrong. But Xiaonan, as a man, you should have at least a little courage and backbone. As a human being, you should have at least a basic conscience.”
“And your father had both.”
Li Nan looked at his father, who was lying quietly in the back seat.
As if he understood, yet did not fully understand, he nodded and leaned back against the seat without saying another word.
Quan Xiaoyu stepped on the accelerator and completely left this place behind.
The car sped away, heading toward the villa district in the suburbs.
Author’s Note: Two updates today. I’m amazing!