The Main Urban District was flooded, and the suburbs were not faring any better.
A thin sheet of water still blanketed the ground, rising over the uppers of shoes and swirling into miniature eddies.
Cheng Ye walked northward for nearly four kilometers before finally spotting a bus parked at a stop.
"Sir, torrential rains damaged the power infrastructure in the Buffer Zone, so we've been notified that, starting today, the buses are officially ending free service and returning to the regular fares."
A middle-aged driver was wiping down the windows with a rag. Seeing Cheng Ye approach, he offered the reminder.
"Also, the bus will only depart once we have five passengers. If you want to leave without five people, you'll need to cover five times the fare yourself."
During the high-water season, the hydroelectric station had abundant power to burn through freely.
Now, however, the relentless downpour had left the station struggling to protect itself, forcing it to open its spillways to relieve the pressure.
As a consequence, the free bus service—which had barely lasted a month and a half—was brought to an abrupt end, returning to standard fare collection.
"How much per person?"
"Two coins."
"Let's go. I'll pay for five."
Cheng Ye glanced at the empty road behind him, pulled out a Happiness Coin with a face value of ten, and dropped it straight into the fare slot.
If the distance had been short, he would have simply walked, but both the North and South Stations were out in the far reaches of the suburbs, a good fifteen kilometers or so from the Main Urban District.
"All right, leaving right now."
The driver was merely following the rules of the Works Bureau. Seeing Cheng Ye act so decisively, he realized this was no ordinary commuter.
He swiftly stowed his rag, slipped into the driver's seat, waited briefly for the motor to warm up, and then shot out like an arrow from a bow.
Along the way, Cheng Ye saw several buses coming from the opposite direction, as well as lines of a dozen or more people walking toward the city for work.
Whenever the wheels rolled through standing water, they kicked up waves of spray half a person tall, drenching the pedestrians' raincoats and triggering a chorus of curses in their wake.
Yet even so, not a single person chose to board a bus bound for the Main Urban District.
"Was it like this in the past too?" Cheng Ye, sitting in the front row, could not help asking the driver.
"Back then? Back then was way worse than this." The driver paused his hands on the steering wheel and grinned. "Nowadays, at least people can get into the city and scrape together a bite to eat. In the old days, whenever a major disaster hit the Buffer Zone, streets cluttered with bodies were everyday business. A thousand people could vanish just like that."
As he spoke, the driver whipped the wheel around, drifting toward the middle of the road to dodge a deep puddle. The ceiling light flickered twice with the jolt.
Cheng Ye glanced out the window; that single small gesture earned the driver a thumbs-up from a refugee by the roadside.
"Back then, even body collectors had to line up by district. Where would you ever find happiness like today?"
Happiness?
Cheng Ye fell silent, his thoughts inexplicably drifting back to Edmond's dying wails.
Happiness. All a lie...
When every beautiful illusion in his mind was shattered, at that moment, he must have been in terrible agony, right?
The bus rattled over the pitted road, forging ahead until the Chemical Plant Staff Housing District blurred into a gray silhouette through the curtain of rain.
Suddenly, Cheng Ye's gaze narrowed.
"Sir, need to stop here?" Catching the change in Cheng Ye's expression through the rearview mirror, the driver asked.
"Yeah, pull over here."
The chemical plant compound was still about two kilometers from the North Checkpoint, but through the window, Cheng Ye had already spotted a familiar figure waiting eagerly by the roadside in the pouring rain.
He stepped off the bus, and the figure hurried over immediately, paying no mind to the muddy water splashing against her pant legs.
It was none other than Luo Xiaoxue.
"Sister Luo, what are you doing out here standing in the rain first thing in the morning? It's pouring. Yiyi must be terrified alone at home."
"Cut the nonsense. How could I sleep knowing you're going to North Station?"
Luo Xiaoxue's voice was hoarse, as though she had been up all night without a wink of sleep.
"North Station isn't a slaughterhouse. Didn't Brother B go on duty there plenty of times before?"
A surge of warmth washed over Cheng Ye's chest. In his previous life, he had been a rootless weed who grew up in an orphanage.
Though he had never lacked friends or people to talk to along the way, he had always quietly envied others whenever they spoke of family.
Reflecting on it now, family had to be something like this—someone who genuinely looked out for you and worried for you from the bottom of their heart.
"He is him, and you are you."
Luo Xiaoxue had been evasive and hesitant over the phone the previous night, even up to the moment she hung up.
Today, however, Cheng Ye saw only blade-sharp resolve on her face.
She was no longer an ordinary housewife; she had reverted to the warrior from eight years ago who fought tooth and nail against the infected.
"Everyone has their own fate—determined by heaven, but even more by oneself!"
"Everything you told me last night, I took as hot air. I didn't care to listen, and I didn't want to hear it."
"But today, I'm standing here waiting for you because I want you to look me in the eye and answer me directly!"
Luo Xiaoxue spoke word by word, her expression grave.
"Following heaven is easy, but defying it is hard. The path you've chosen is treacherous. Hanging over your head isn't just a mountain; it's a crushing boulder ready to grind you to dust at any moment."
"Walk into it today, and you face damnation; retreat half a step, and you face a fate worse than death!"
"If you want to survive, your only choice is to fight for your life."
"Cheng Ye, are you ready to fight to the bitter end?"
Fight for his life?
Luo Xiaoxue's barrage of questions momentarily caught Cheng Ye off guard.
Soon, however, he could not help but smile, the corners of his mouth curving slightly.
Over the past two months, he had stood on rooftops multiple times. What he had lacked was never the courage to die, but a reason that could convince him to give up.
Now, not only had he found no reason to give up, but he had also found a reason to strive and live.
Why should he fear... fighting for his life?
Besides, he was entirely on his own now. The people at the checkpoint each carried families on their backs, burdened by worries and calculating their own interests. Who among them would dare step forward to trade lives with him?
"Sister Luo, trust me!"
"Apart from the infected, no one at the checkpoint can touch me."
Patting the standard-issue sidearm at his waist, Cheng Ye's smile grew even more uninhibited.
An inspector did not hold a high rank, but in this Buffer Zone, very few people could take his life on a whim.
Conversely, if he wanted someone's life, all it took was raising his arm and gently pulling the trigger.
No qualms, and certainly no hesitation.
Worst-case scenario, he would become a fugitive across the wasteland, running alongside the infected and roaming the ruined wilds.
"Good, I trust you!"
Luo Xiaoxue nodded heavily, reaching into her shoulder bag.
She pulled out the Bison combat pistol Cheng Ye had planned to buy earlier. Judging by its condition, it had likely left the factory not long ago.
She had clearly gotten up before dawn and headed to the supply exchange store to buy it for him.
"That sidearm of yours is too weak. It's fine for scaring people, but not enough against the infected."
"Use this one. It packs real punch. If anyone wants your life, let them taste your bullets first!"
"All right!"
Cheng Ye took it gently and holstered it into the empty slot on his right side.
"I'm heading off, then?"
"Go. And remember—once your shift ends, I'll be waiting right here for you to come home."
"Yeah."
Nothing more needed to be said. That simple promise alone settled heavy and warm in Cheng Ye's chest.
Turning around, he found that the bus was actually still waiting right where it had stopped.
Seeing Cheng Ye look over, the driver waved with a smile. "You paid five times the fare, so it's only right I see you to your destination."
"Thanks."
Once Cheng Ye was back on the bus, the driver shook his head in wonder, as if struck by a thought. "Sir, you carry far too much killing intent. A faint-hearted man would probably be scared to death."
"And what if someone isn't afraid?"
"Then he probably has a death wish." The driver shrugged. "Back before I joined Happiness City and was still scraping by out there, I always gave people like you a wide berth."
"Oh? What did you do back then?"
"Don't laugh, but I used to be a... third-rate hitman?!"
The middle-aged driver chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Only later, once I got a wife and a son, having all those attachments in my heart felt like putting on shackles. I couldn't stay in the business anymore."
"So now, I'm even more terrified of folks like you."
"Afraid that an ordinary man pushed to wrath will leave blood splattered five paces around?"
"Not that. We all have worthless lives, unlike the big shots in the Inner City. There's no real point in tearing each other to pieces."
"Then what?"
"Can't say, can't say."
Cheng Ye slowly wiped the smile from his face, studying the middle-aged driver with a strange look.
The wasteland was vast, and nothing was too strange to exist within it.
If even a bus driver was this sharp, then surely no one at the sprawling North Station would be foolish enough to throw their life away, right?
Chapter 23