Shuijing Bay—far from the city center—was a scenic area filled with luxurious villas. Each estate, with its own private courtyard, exuded grandeur and wealth, a clear display of its owner’s power and status.
Yet this once-envied neighborhood now lay in ruin. Corpses were strewn crookedly along the roadside, and bloodstains could be seen everywhere on the walls.
Expensive cars had been abandoned at random along the streets. Zombies dressed in costly clothes roared madly inside the vehicles or wandered around in search of prey.
On the lawn, a Tibetan mastiff the size of a cow bit off half of a zombie’s body in a single bite. When it saw the approaching car, it kept its distance.
The road leading into the villa district seemed to have been cleared, and with the pressure released by Xi Zhou, they quickly drove inside.
Li Ge stared out the window expressionlessly, feeling that things might not be as smooth as they seemed. Perhaps she was just overthinking.
“—Screech!”
With a sudden brake, the car stopped in front of a villa.
Her body lurched forward from inertia, and Li Ge braced herself against the glass with her arm to avoid hitting her head. Xi Zhou slammed the car door shut and stood in front of the villa.
The gate was tightly closed. It was eerily quiet inside, as if no one was there.
“This is Bai Sui’s house?”
A four-story building made of pure white marble—truly extravagant.
“Yeah, this is it.”
Xi Zhou paused for two seconds, then unceremoniously blasted the gate open with a fireball. With a gloomy expression and dangerous eyes, he strode inside.
Despite the commotion, no one came out to check. Instead, faint noises came from the villa next door on the right.
Li Ge rubbed her chin thoughtfully, ignoring the oddity beside her. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she followed him in.
“No one’s here. Either we came too late, or they heard something and hid in advance.”
There wasn’t a single person in the house, yet everything inside was neatly arranged. There were plenty of valuables, but no food left. Whoever left didn’t do so in a rush.
The answer clearly leaned toward the former.
Xi Zhou’s expression immediately turned extremely grim. “They left in an orderly way, only taking food and emergency supplies. They were probably picked up.”
“Could it be that rescue from the Eastern Base arrived?”
The villa district was far from the city center, and the people living here were either rich or powerful. It wouldn’t be surprising if rescue teams arrived here first.
Don’t talk to her about equality—just like how even the sun favors certain places more, humans, with all their subjective factors, are no different.
A shadow fell over Xi Zhou’s face. His expression grew dark and frightening as he sneered.
“The Bai family has complicated connections. Before the apocalypse, they had ties with high-ranking officials from five different bases. It might not necessarily be the Eastern Base.”
The upper echelons of the bases had all held important positions before the apocalypse. Saying Bai Sui had no connection to them would be a joke.
So Bai Sui had dealings with all five major bases. Li Ge had thought she was a helpless little girl—turns out she was just pretending to be weak while hiding her strength, and Li Ge herself had been the fool who fell into the trap.
“The broadcast mentioned the locations of the bases that day. Let’s go to the nearest one to ask around. Do you know how to get there?”
Li Ge could only confirm that the closest was the Eastern Base, but as for the exact location, she only had a vague idea.
Xi Zhou shot back, “What do you think?”
Other than a few familiar places, who doesn’t rely on navigation now? Asking him to memorize a route dozens of kilometers away—was that even realistic?
He couldn’t even speak properly without sounding sarcastic.
Li Ge spread her hands helplessly and tactfully found an excuse to leave, giving him space to brood alone.
Throwing her backpack onto the sofa, she said, “Forget it. Calm down first. I’ll look around nearby—maybe I’ll find something.”
As soon as she stepped out, the sound of tables and chairs being kicked over echoed from the living room. Xi Zhou was clearly in a terrible mood.
But Li Ge didn’t like his tone. Though her own temper wasn’t perfect either, they were at least on the same side now.
If she’d picked up a disobedient zombie king, she could slowly train him. Right now, she needed to find out whether Bai Sui had gone to the Eastern Base.
In the apocalypse, information was scarce—she couldn’t afford to miss any opportunity to gather it.
The neighboring villa had a courtyard full of flowers and plants. Unlike Bai Sui’s luxurious home, this place felt warm and lived-in.
To avoid alerting anyone inside, Li Ge dragged over a chair and climbed over the wall, gripping a fruit knife in her palm just in case.
“Woof! Woof!”
The moment her feet touched the ground, a powerful force lunged at her, accompanied by a loud bark.
Li Ge was prepared. She raised her knife horizontally to block the charging Tibetan mastiff.
But this wasn’t an ordinary mastiff—it was the same one she had seen earlier, as big as a cow. Its teeth were longer than a person’s fingers, and it crushed her blade into pieces with a single bite.
She had seen this mastiff fight zombies before—biting off half a zombie’s body like it was nothing.
One of its paws pressed down on her shoulder, and a foul stench hit her face.
Mastiffs were already ferocious animals, and after being infected by the zombie virus, their strength had multiplied.
Li Ge once saw a mutated snake kill a Level 2 earth-type ability user—human strength was negligible in comparison.
And right now, she wasn’t even an ability user. The gap between them was enormous.
As one blade was destroyed, Li Ge instantly drew another and thrust it mercilessly toward the mastiff’s eye.
But the mastiff was even stronger than she expected. With just a slight increase of force from its paw on her shoulder, she stumbled backward uncontrollably, nearly falling to the ground.
Its sharp fangs followed immediately. If she hadn’t dodged in time, things would have ended very badly.
After missing twice, anger flashed in the mastiff’s eyes. It growled lowly and prepared to pounce again—
Just then, a boy about eleven or twelve years old ran out from the living room.
“Dahei, stop! She’s human!”
Hearing the familiar voice, the mastiff stopped obediently, though it still knocked over several flowerpots.
The boy didn’t dare approach Li Ge right away. Only after the mastiff returned to his side did he close the door and carefully walk down the steps.
“Big sister, did Dahei hurt you?” he asked worriedly. He knew very well how strong the mastiff was.
“I’m fine. I just startled it by appearing suddenly.” Li Ge stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes, shaking her head.
Facing a mutated animal, getting away with just a fall and a sore shoulder was already incredibly lucky.
If she had known there was a mutated mastiff here, she definitely wouldn’t have come alone so recklessly.
The boy let out a sigh of relief and smiled brightly. “I’m sorry, big sister. I’ll keep a better eye on Dahei next time. Please don’t blame him.”
Li Ge was momentarily dazzled by his innocent smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the mastiff beside him—only now did she realize one of its legs was injured.
“Is this mastiff called Dahei? What happened to its leg?”
It looked like a gunshot wound. Firearms were heavily restricted before the apocalypse—ordinary households wouldn’t have them. Li Ge felt that this trip had been worthwhile.
The boy lowered his head sadly. “Dahei got hurt protecting me. Brother Rui’an shot him. Big sister, can you save Dahei? He lost a lot of blood…”