"Mom!" Ding Jia threw herself down beside her mother, quickly helping her up to examine her. Then she looked up in desperation. "My mom's in bad health—she needs blood pressure medicine! Supervisor Tan, do we have any medicine here?"
Tan Hui let out a helpless sigh. "This is a restaurant, we don't have that kind of medicine. Is there anything else you need? I'll do my best to get whatever else we have."
Ding Jia held her mother close and checked her over, a chill running through her whole body.
"Medicine... She needs medicine..." Ding Jia muttered under her breath. She looked toward the tattooed man and pleaded, "Brother, could I beg a favor from you? Right across the street is Longxing Grand Pharmacy! There's bound to be medicine in there. If you can help me get it, I... I'll do anything!"
The tattooed man turned his head away, brushed her aside, and silently walked over to sit at a distant table.
"Can anyone help me?! I'm begging you!"
Ding Jia dropped to her knees, pleading, but everyone in the hall kept their heads down, none daring to answer.
A few minutes later, Ding Jia got up through her sobs, wiping away tears as she walked stiffly toward the rolling shutter.
Everyone raised their heads, their gazes following her.
Just as she reached the entrance and tremblingly bent down, someone seized her arm and pulled her back.
Turning around, she was met with Yue Hao's face.
"I'll go," he said. "You're too slow."
"Th-thank you!" Ding Jia wept with relief, bending her knees to drop and thank him.
Yet she was caught and pulled up once more.
Yue Hao looked around the room. "I don't know how many days we'll have to hold out here, but the country has already abandoned us. We have to save ourselves. Sooner or later we'll have to leave this place, and down the road we'll definitely need all sorts of medical supplies.
"This time, I plan to bring back enough to last. The more people come, the better our chances. Who's willing to go with me?"
The crowd bowed their heads one after another once more. Only Tan Hui stepped forward.
"I'll go with you."
"Good," Yue Hao agreed crisply. He walked over to the window, parted the blinds slightly, and peered out at the street. "The situation isn't that dangerous. It's only across the street. Grab a few knives, and let's find a couple of long-poled weapons for defense. We'll be quick."
"Right, wait for me a moment."
"Thank you, thank you..." Ding Jia thanked both men repeatedly, afraid of seeming even slightly ungrateful.
"Go back and look after your mother for now," Tan Hui said, patting her shoulder before heading toward the kitchen. "Write down clearly what medicine she needs, and list anything else that might come in handy."
Just as Tan Hui reached the corner of the corridor, before he could step inside, the tattooed man called out, "Tan Hui!"
Tan Hui stopped and turned back.
"Maybe I shouldn't say this, but you saved my life, so I'm warning you—don't get dragged into this mess. Sooner or later, that old woman will only be a burden. If she passes now, it might honestly be a blessing for her. And that girl is a lunatic. Can you really trust the word of a madwoman?"
The tattooed man looked up and stared straight at Tan Hui. "Stop trying to be everyone's savior. In a world like this, your kind dies fastest!"
Tan Hui fell silent for a moment, then let out a strange smile. "The world is only going to rot further. If I do die, it might actually be a relief. At least before dying, I'll have lived as a decent human being... Thanks."
"I warned you. If you want to throw your life away, that's on you." Having said his piece, the tattooed man spoke no more.
A few minutes later, the two finished gearing up.
Unlocking the floor latch of the rolling shutter, Tan Hui tossed the keys behind him.
Yue Hao wanted to stop him, but was a beat too late—someone had already snatched the keys.
Clenching his fists, Yue Hao shouted, "Listen up! If the two of us go out and can't get back through this door, I'll lure every zombie out there straight to this place! Think about what you want to do!"
With that, Yue Hao stepped over to Ding Jia and whispered into her ear, "The rolling shutter makes a lot of noise. Go to the kitchen, grab five metal basins, and head to the third floor. Throw them down into the alley behind the restaurant, one every second. As soon as we hear them crash, we'll make our move. When we head back, cover us the same way. Understand?"
"Understood," Ding Jia nodded nervously.
Yue Hao forced a bitter smile.
Right now, he had no choice but to trust a psychiatric patient. The others were completely useless.
Returning to Tan Hui's side, Yue Hao said in a low voice, "I have a pretty good read on the situation outside. It shouldn't be too dangerous. Stick close behind me, and we'll cross in one go!"
Three minutes later, the dull clatter of metal basins crashing to the ground echoed behind the restaurant.
Hearing the noise, several zombies roaming the street stirred and rushed in that direction.
Watching through the gap in the blinds, Yue Hao sensed the moment was right. He crouched down and, together with Tan Hui, lifted the rolling shutter just enough to open a crack.
With a forward roll, they were out on the street.
At that exact moment, a hurried shout came from behind them:
"Shut the door! Quick!"
***
"Director, you said covert mutants might be lurking among the crowd, and since we're going to camp at the military base, weapons will definitely be handed out later. What if... I mean, what if Elder Sun and Elder Wei's method can't verify them with a hundred percent certainty? If a covert mutant gets their hands on a gun and shoots us in the back, what do we do?"
In the car, Fu Hu kept his eyes glued to the road ahead, his brow deeply furrowed.
Looking out at the utter devastation outside, Su Jin said, "It shouldn't be a problem. You have to trust their experiments. Excessive suspicion is the greatest threat to our group right now. Besides, everyone develops different abilities. There might be an ability that can detect anomalies in covert mutants without any tests at all... Old Fu, you know how special Qingdai is. I suspect she might awaken an ability like that."
Fu Hu fell silent. He didn't want his daughter getting too deeply involved in things like this.
Su Jin noticed his hesitation and was about to offer some words of comfort when Cheng Du spoke up from the back.
"Actually, even if moles really are hiding among us, handing out guns isn't the end of the world. I've got a plan to minimize that risk."
"Oh?" Su Jin's eyes lit up. "Let's hear it."
"Calibrate all the guns so their trajectories pull to the left. If someone tries anything funny, they'll miss their first shot, giving everyone else time to react."
"Genius!" came the reply in unison from the front seats.
The car sped forward. There weren't many zombies on the street, and with their high speed, the creatures posed almost no hindrance.
Yet as they drew closer, the relatively relaxed atmosphere inside the car vanished completely.
Along the street, trees lay toppled, bricks and rubble were strewn everywhere, buildings stood scarred and crumbling, and zombies roamed amid drifts of trash.
Compared to the neat, orderly society of before... it was a world apart.
Fu Hu and Cheng Du clenched their jaws tight as stone, sorrow welling in their eyes.
The wounds in their hearts were ripped open and left bleeding all over again.
The city where they had lived for nearly half their lives had been reduced to this in the blink of an eye.
The country was gone, their homes were gone, and the people were gone...
Su Jin rested his chin on his fist, staring blankly out the window.
He had spoken with Sun Ya and Wei De about the Cold Canopy missile strikes. The strike inside the city had only unleashed a fraction of the missiles.
Yet even that fraction had wrought such catastrophic devastation—and they weren't even in the core impact zone of the Cold Canopy strike.
That night... it had truly felt like the end of the world had arrived, both in reality and to the naked eye.
Another two hundred meters ahead, a gleaming golden skyscraper rose into view, towering majestically above the rest.
Su Jin's dull gaze finally shifted.
Longlin Tower, the landmark skyscraper of Longshan City. Even by the standards of Earth, its scale and grandeur would have been considered extraordinary.
"Longlin Tower is built tough," Cheng Du said in amazement. "At that height, not a single pane of glass on the top three floors is even cracked!"
Fu Hu chimed in, "Longlin Tower was originally a commercial building, but the top three floors were never rented or sold. Rumor has it they were reserved for prominent figures—money alone couldn't get you in. Did you know about that, Director?"
"Naturally. The specs on that glass are clearly different from the rest." Su Jin smiled faintly. "Keep your eyes open up ahead. We're about a kilometer from Longxing Grand Pharmacy. Let's get the medicine first."
Chapter 48