Chapter 69

As the floor captain of Building Three, Nie Kuizhang actually rather liked Peng Ze.

Or rather, among the people on the residents’ committee who knew Peng Ze, no one disliked him.

Peng Ze wasn’t a young man with any particularly outstanding qualities. He wasn’t as handsome and capable as Song Jingshuo, who could get along with everyone and handle any situation. Nor was he as burly and forceful as Li Jiangbing or Nie Kuizhang, with their imposing presence. And unlike Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan, he didn’t have any professional skills that could directly benefit the complex.

But he was always the first to throw himself into action. He responded enthusiastically and supported every decision without hesitation.

Anyone who took part in group operations with him quickly got to know him and came away with a good impression.

He was the kind of person everyone was happy to team up with.

After the incident in which Nie Kuizhang harassed He Tian, whenever the girls in Building Three needed something, they went to Peng Ze instead. None of them sought out Nie Kuizhang anymore.

The girls all trusted Peng Ze’s character, too.

No one had expected him to be the first one injured.

Everyone in the room stood where they were, weapons in hand. No one moved.

They all knew what would happen after being bitten, and they knew how it had to be handled.

The Youth Apartments had been very secure, and even the people who frequently went out on missions had managed to avoid injury. Injury, forced quarantine, and death were things they had gone through only a little over a week ago. Yet in their memories, it all seemed so distant.

And now, suddenly, Peng Ze had been injured.

“Peng Ze...” Nie Kuizhang called.

Peng Ze looked up at him.

Nie Kuizhang’s eyes said everything. He even glanced at the people around him.

Peng Ze gave a bitter smile.

“Old Nie,” he said. “Don’t waste your breath. I won’t be going back.”

Forced quarantine in the complex was meant to prevent people from turning and injuring others—one bite becoming two, two becoming four. But they weren’t at the Youth Apartments now.

Everyone looked toward Nie Kuizhang.

Nie Kuizhang felt awful, too.

He had become the captain of Building Three because he was big, brave, and ruthless enough to command respect.

A week and a half ago, on the Sunday and Monday when the zombies had first appeared, he had been able to drive the injured to the property management office or lock them inside their own apartments with firm, merciless resolve. At that time, everyone had barely had the chance to get to know one another.

But things were different now. They had all grown so familiar.

Peng Ze was exceptionally diligent. Jiang Cheng liked him. Song Jingshuo liked him. Li Jiangbing liked him. Nie Kuizhang liked him, too.

He took part in everything, without missing a single thing. He was always busier than everyone else, and he never once complained.

As the captain of Building Three, Nie Kuizhang dealt with Peng Ze practically every day and was often by his side.

Affection grew out of time spent together.

Everyone present was from Building Three. Since they lived in the same building, they practiced formations together, fought zombies together, and joined group operations together.

So they were all very close to Peng Ze.

They looked at him, each of them struggling with the pain of it.

Nie Kuizhang’s lips moved. “You...”

Peng Ze sniffed, steadied himself, and said resolutely, “Call security. Tell them I can’t go back into the complex. Everyone from the property office knows me. They’re all familiar with me.”

That way, everyone could put their minds at ease.

Jiang Cheng and Su Yu, Li and Song...

Nie Kuizhang pulled out his phone and called the property office. “Little Yang? Notify the guards at both the east and west entrances. Peng Ze from Building Three has been injured. If they see him, don’t let him in.”

Yang Xinyan was on duty at the property office. She was stunned. “Peng Ze?”

“Yes, Peng Ze. You know him, right?”

“Y-Yes, I know him.”

“Notify the guards.” Nie Kuizhang paused, then added, “And call Jiang Cheng, too. Tell her Peng Ze isn’t coming back.”

Yang Xinyan hung up and stood there blankly for several seconds before tears began to fall.

Master Luo and Aunt Pan had gone out today, too. So many people had gone.

She had been assigned to remain at the property office.

She knew there was no way everyone could come back unharmed. It was inevitable that someone would get hurt.

But she hadn’t expected it to be someone she knew so well.

The property office had always been short-handed, and sometimes Yang Xinyan had to do physical work as well. Whenever Peng Ze saw her struggling, he would lend a hand or help out.

That was another reason the girls all had such a good impression of him.

Yang Xinyan wiped her eyes and notified the guards first.

Over the radio, the guards sighed as well. “Peng Ze...”

They all knew him.

Yang Xinyan then called Jiang Cheng.

Song Jingshuo was standing beside Jiang Cheng. When he heard her phone ring, he turned to look—and saw her expression stiffen for an instant.

“Who is it?” Jiang Cheng asked.

Yang Xinyan could only repeat what she had been told. “Peng Ze. Nie Kuizhang said Peng Ze isn’t coming back.”

It was the first time Song Jingshuo had seen Jiang Cheng reveal such a stunned expression.

Jiang Cheng was extremely good at managing both her emotions and her facial expressions, something Song Jingshuo had always admired.

But at that moment, Jiang Cheng’s emotions slipped through. Song Jingshuo suddenly felt that this was rather good, too. It made her seem more human.

He watched Jiang Cheng put away her phone. “What happened?”

Jiang Cheng slipped the phone back into her pocket. After a brief pause, she answered, “Peng Ze was injured. He isn’t coming back.”

Peng Ze?

All of Song Jingshuo’s superfluous, useless thoughts scattered at once. He understood what had caused Jiang Cheng’s expression just now.

His lips moved, and his heart was filled with pain.

In the midst of the crowd, he and Jiang Cheng met each other’s eyes for a moment.

Jiang Cheng rotated her wrist, twirling the fire ax in a flourish, then turned around. “Let’s go.”

Song Jingshuo silently followed.

Inside the commercial-residential building, Peng Ze held out the steel pipe. “I should return this, right? I won’t have any use for it anymore.”

Nie Kuizhang didn’t take it. He sighed. “Keep it. We’re not short one pipe.”

“All right.” Peng Ze pulled it back. “Then I’m leaving.”

Nie Kuizhang stepped aside.

The others stepped aside as well.

Peng Ze walked out of the office.

There were people in the corridor, too. When they saw the blood covering Peng Ze’s ear and face, they were shocked, and someone instinctively raised a weapon.

Nie Kuizhang followed him out and shouted, “Let him go! Let him go!”

The others exchanged looks, then cleared a path.

Peng Ze passed through the crowd. When he reached the stairwell, he turned back for one last look. Everyone was watching him.

“Everyone, be careful,” Peng Ze said at last. After thinking for a moment, he added, “If you run into me again, make it quick.”

He said it with a smile, trying to make one final joke.

Unfortunately, no one else laughed.

He looked a little disappointed, then turned and went downstairs.

Once he left the building, Peng Ze’s smile disappeared, leaving him only bewildered.

Where was he supposed to wait for death?

He turned and looked around. Farther south along the road, he saw several zombies.

Forget it. He might as well kill a few more before he died and save everyone else some effort.

Peng Ze gripped the steel pipe and walked south toward the zombies. His body was completely relaxed. Now that he had already been injured, he wasn’t afraid of being hurt again.

But as he approached, the zombies only swayed slowly toward him. They didn’t lunge.

Peng Ze paused, startled.

He stood still. The two were clearly ordinary zombies. They shambled right past him.

They treated him as though he were nothing more than air.

So that was it.

With a bitter smile, Peng Ze touched his wound. Now he understood.

By the time he had come downstairs, the virus had already invaded his body, even though he had not yet begun to mutate. The zombies now recognized him as one of their own.

Peng Ze turned around and smashed the heads of the two zombies.

He headed in that direction, killing any zombies he encountered along the way. The zombies did not attack him. Even two second-generation zombies left him alone. At that moment, fighting zombies was nothing more than a one-sided slaughter for him.

After walking for a while, he turned around and looked back. He was already some distance from the mixed-use building.

He sat down on the curb by the roadside and stared blankly into space for a long time, until he heard some noise. He stood up and looked into the distance, where he saw a crowd of people.

They were residents from another housing complex.

Without a second thought, Peng Ze turned and ran.

Why was he running? He could not explain it himself.

Was he afraid that he would mutate and hurt others, or was he afraid that people would see his injuries and come to eliminate him?

Perhaps it was both.

He spotted a car parked at an angle by the roadside, its door hanging open. When he went over to check, he found that the key was still in the ignition.

Peng Ze climbed inside, started the engine, and stepped on the gas.

He did not know where he was going. In any case, he decided to head away from the city center and away from the crowds.

The farther, the better.

The car left the Technology New District and headed north—north, then farther north.

By the end of the day, as dusk approached, the streets around Jixiang Jiayuan, Qingnian Apartments, Yujing Xiangyuan, and MaiduoDuo had been more or less cleared of zombies.

Jiang Cheng and Zhou Wang discussed it and decided to meet with the people in charge of Yujing Xiangyuan to work out how everyone should cooperate or divide up the work the following day.

However, they soon discovered that Yujing Xiangyuan had no single person in charge. The residents were divided into several groups, and no one knew exactly how they had organized themselves.

After considerable effort, they managed to find several representatives, and the three housing complexes sat down together to discuss what to do the next day.

“Let’s go to Lekang Jiayuan,” Zhou Wang proposed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Zhou Wang said calmly, “Since everyone’s already willing to risk their lives, let’s save them. We’ll save as many as we can.”

Lekang Jiayuan was in the worst condition of all the nearby communities. Its residents could barely leave their apartments; in many buildings, they could not even make it downstairs.

More than one person had already committed suicide out of despair.

In the past, everyone had only looked after themselves. But now that they had answered the nation’s call and were willing to risk their lives killing zombies, they could no longer stand by and do nothing.

Several people from Jixiang Jiayuan appeared to have no objections to Zhou Wang’s proposal. It seemed that Zhou Wang now commanded considerable respect within the complex.

The few representatives from Yujing Xiangyuan exchanged glances.

Representing Qingnian Apartments were Jiang Cheng, Song Jingshuo, and Wu Jiancheng.

Jiang Cheng was somewhat surprised that Zhou Wang’s first thought had been to save people.

She actually had another plan. Saving people was not her top priority. She had already discussed it with the key members of the temporary committee in the group chat the previous night.

Jiang Cheng fell silent in thought.

“Little Jiang, what do you think?” Zhou Wang asked.

He had asked Jiang Cheng first.

After all, it was Jiang Cheng who had originally led the residents of Qingnian Apartments to help Jixiang Jiayuan. Without them, Jixiang Jiayuan might have ended up in the same state as Lekang Jiayuan.

Jiang Cheng said, “Lekang Jiayuan isn’t very large. We don’t need residents from all three complexes to go. Besides, they must be desperately short of food. If we help them clear out the zombies, what happens afterward? Are we going to give them food?”

It was a serious problem.

Food was a red line—an extremely sensitive issue.

The residents of both Jixiang Jiayuan and Yujing Xiangyuan had gone hungry before, and people had died over food.

The representatives from Yujing Xiangyuan exchanged glances again.

Zhou Wang had dealt with Jiang Cheng for quite some time and knew she was a woman with her own ideas. He asked directly, “What do you have in mind?”

Jiang Cheng did, in fact, have a plan. She pulled a map out of her shoulder bag—from beneath Mo Li, who was sitting on top of it—and spread it across a roadside flower bed.

She had already had an idea the previous night. Zhou Wang’s proposal to help Lekang Jiayuan did not interfere with it; they only needed to make a few adjustments.

“We don’t need people from all three complexes, but it wouldn’t be fair to send only one complex’s residents. I suggest that all three of us organize a team to rescue Lekang Jiayuan. As for everyone else...”

A stretch of road on the map had already been marked with a line in permanent marker.

Jiang Cheng moved her fingertip along the line. “The others can split into a vehicle convoy and a foot team. The convoy goes first, with the foot team following behind, and they clear this route. That way...”

Their shoulders pressed together and their heads crowded around the map. Now they could all see it clearly.

“It’ll connect us to the Fifth Ring Road!”