On the sixth floor of Rencai Community, the atmosphere in the apartment was suffocatingly bleak.
Fu Hu and Cheng Du had already returned, having successfully brought back the needed supplies.
Yet the backbone of their group was still missing.
Fu Qingdai's face was etched with anxiety as she kept glancing toward the doorway.
The night was already well into the small hours, but Su Jin had not appeared.
Reasonably speaking, he should have been back by now...
Fu Hu cast a couple of glances at his daughter, slapped his thigh, and stood up. "How about I go out and look for Director Li?"
"Are you out of your mind?!" Sun Ya snapped with a cold scowl. "Don't you have any brains at all? Are you incapable of surviving without Xiao Li?
"Going out in the pitch black... What can you do besides serving yourself up as a dish for the zombies? Sit your ass down!"
"Do you think... Director Li might be dead?" Cheng Du mumbled, burying his face in his hands.
No one in the room dared to answer.
If he had not shown up by this hour, he could not be far from dead.
Yet no one wanted to admit that reality.
In the end, Sun Ya spoke up. "Even if he is dead, the rest of us have to keep moving forward. We've got the supplies, so let's not let his painstaking efforts go to waste. The rest of you should get some sleep early. Rest and recuperation matter more than anything right now."
"Old Sun is right," Wei De chimed in. "He and I still need to make some arrangements for the experiments. If you don't have anything else to do, get some rest early. You don't need to worry too much about Xiao Li, either. He's not an ordinary man—he's different from us. He definitely has his own tricks and won't go dying out there so easily.
"Maybe when you wake up tomorrow and open your eyes, you'll see him right there."
The moment the words left his mouth, a knock sounded on the front door.
Everyone's eyes lit up in an instant. Fu Qingdai sprang to her feet and rushed straight to the door.
She yanked it open, and the sight of the figure standing there brought tears to her eyes. She threw herself into his arms.
Su Jin smiled faintly and gently stroked Fu Qingdai's hair before looking toward the others.
"Not asleep yet? Sorry for worrying you. There were a few twists along the way, but nothing serious."
With that, Su Jin lifted the plastic bag in his hand.
"On the way back, I spotted a rather high-end bakery. They had vacuum-packed cakes, so I brought some for you."
All eyes shifted to the plastic bag. The corners of Sun Ya's mouth twitched upward. "You little rascal! Still in the mood to scavenge cakes? Get in here!"
"Director... you even found the time to change your clothes!" Cheng Du marveled, looking Su Jin up and down in disbelief.
Su Jin had swapped his clothes for a clean white tracksuit, complete with white socks. He had undoubtedly swiped them from some clothing shop, and they gave him a remarkably sharp look.
"All right, let's eat something first and relax."
Candlelight illuminated the sixth floor as all eight of them gathered around the table.
A small plate of cake sat before each person. Frosting smeared their mouths as the sweet indulgence warmed their hearts.
No one spoke, only exchanging glances from time to time.
Eating cake by candlelight, a brief, precious sense of happiness rippled through the small space.
Sun Ya was enjoying his share as well. He turned to glance at Su Jin, who was watching everyone with a faint smile.
Fu Qingdai had nearly finished the cake on her plate. Su Jin casually slid his untouched piece over to her.
"Brother, aren't you going to eat?" Fu Qingdai asked, looking up with frosting clinging to the corner of her mouth.
"I'm not fond of hydrogenated vegetable oil."
"*Cough, cough*... I'm not full yet, either," Cheng Du muttered with his head down, sniffing.
Sun Ya shot Cheng Du a sidelong glance. "You expect to fill your belly on this stuff? There are dried noodles in the kitchen. Go boil some yourself."
Cheng Du twitched his mouth and said no more.
Su Jin said, "Once everyone is done, clear the table. I found another flesh bulb, and I plan to let Qingdai use it first this time."
Hearing that, everyone immediately began clearing away the plates.
Soon, the round, plump flesh bulb was placed in the center of the table.
Su Jin looked at Fu Qingdai, his heart tense.
She was the client handpicked by the Company—or perhaps, she was likely the Savior!
Although Fu Qingdai had not displayed anything extraordinary so far, he firmly believed that once she absorbed this flesh bulb, her uniqueness would reveal itself.
Fu Qingdai pressed her lips tight, her breath quickening despite herself.
She cupped the flesh bulb in her hands, and Su Jin reached out to pierce it.
Fu Hu had already positioned himself behind her. As expected, his daughter fainted, and he caught her securely before carrying her into the bedroom.
The others let out a collective breath of relief.
"We'll wait until tomorrow. Everyone should get some rest. I have a few things to discuss with Elder Sun and Elder Wei," Su Jin said, waving the others away.
Before long, the living room was cleared, leaving only the three of them.
"Xiao Li, did you make an important discovery?" Sun Ya asked.
"Yeah... Are there any issues with the lab equipment? Were you filled in on what happened before I got separated from Fu Hu and the others?" Su Jin countered.
"The equipment is fine, and we can begin testing tomorrow. Just tell us what you found."
"All right." Su Jin nodded. "After I got separated from Fu Hu and Cheng Du, I noticed two strange things. Back on the street, I spotted four dark silhouettes on a rooftop. In that chaotic moment, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But thinking back, in the state I was in, I shouldn't have had that kind of hallucination."
"Were they survivors?" Wei De asked.
"If they were survivors, there'd be nothing to talk about," Su Jin said. "Those four were standing right in plain sight on the edge of the roof with the horde swarming below. Then they vanished in the blink of an eye, and they certainly didn't jump. That is not how survivors behave. That's why I suspect they were likely covert mutants, and they might even possess supernatural abilities.
"Zombies attack covert mutants too. Without serious confidence and power to back them up, they wouldn't be standing there so brazenly.
"I suspect these covert mutants have already formed a squad, which means they possess a degree of teamwork. But how high is their coordination? That remains an open question."
"Hmm..." Sun Ya's brow furrowed. "Anything else?"
"I also ran into a zombie that was deliberately protecting its heart. Its intelligence had risen beyond my imagination; it was evolving far too quickly," Su Jin sighed. "We need to speed up our operations. We must organize our people into units immediately, form a convoy, and head for the military district to establish a firm foothold.
"Once we're settled in the military district, I believe we should waste no time in assembling a heavy-firepower force. Then we can use noise to draw in hordes, wipe out waves of zombies, and harvest enough flesh bulbs to build a superpowered legion. From there, we can work toward our next goals step by step. If you two have other plans, I'd like to hear them."
"Bad news after bad news from this outing. It's too grim..." Sun Ya sighed heavily, though he quickly regained his composure. "I was thinking along different lines. My thought was to rest and regroup at the military district first, then try to modify a radio station to broadcast a signal. The electromagnetic environment is very clean right now, making signals easy to pick up. Submarine units and underground bunker personnel should still be safe. We could wait to establish communication with regular military forces before taking further action."
"That won't work," Wei De said, shaking his head. "Old Sun, that idea is a dead end. The suburban military district doesn't have the necessary conditions. To achieve an ideal broadcast range, we'd need to erect new radio towers, and we don't have the specialized personnel for that. If marine life can be infected, their mutation would be the fastest of all, meaning submarine crews have almost certainly been wiped out. While submerged, the massive kinetic energy of propellers would attract countless zombies, and pump-jet propulsors would get clogged with shredded corpses.
"As for small ground units, don't even bother hoping for them. They lack supplies, and without experimental data, they won't dare touch flesh bulbs. On top of that, there's a high probability they've run into animal zombies. I don't think there's much hope there. Ironically, cities are safer. Right now, I fully support Xiao Li's plan. This is the only path forward for us.
"Let the first to evolve bring along the rest, achieving collective evolution, and then restart industry!"
Chapter 57