A raging fire rose within the courtyard, and the night sky was illuminated by the towering flames.
A car drifted neatly and stopped at the entrance. Li Ge slammed the steering wheel.
“There are people coming. Get in the car!”
The tall, slender man crossed through the flames without blinking, his well-defined fingers pulling open the car door.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced inside. More than ten men were lying on the ground, rolling in pain, and the smell of burning flesh in the air grew even stronger.
“Drive slower. Let them chase!”
“Are you joking?” Li Ge picked at her ear. “There are at least thirty people following us.”
The window rolled down. Xi Zhou extended one finger and casually pointed toward the neighboring courtyard. Half his face was hidden in shadow, unreadable.
“Forget it. If they catch up, you deal with them.”
Li Ge eased off the accelerator slightly, maintaining a distance between the car and the villagers behind them.
Soon after, the people in the courtyard extinguished the fire and also gave chase. Forty to fifty people chasing a single car was no joke.
Unable to understand what he was thinking, the man leaned lazily against the seat, casually looking at the stars. Li Ge quietly pressed the accelerator again.
“That’s enough. Speed up.”
She stepped on it, and the car shot forward like an arrow.
In the courtyard next to the village chief’s house, the zombies locked on the first and second floors seemed to receive some kind of signal. They forcibly broke free of their restraints, and the fragile wooden doors shattered instantly.
The village was not large. Driving from one end to the other took only a few minutes. The villagers did not give up because of the sudden acceleration. Led by the village chief, they continued the chase relentlessly.
Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared in front of the moving car. Li Ge instinctively slammed the brakes, stopping just before hitting her.
“Li Ge, Xi Zhou, please, I beg you!”
Sister Yan dropped to her knees, and the little girl Yuan Yuan, who she was holding, also fell to the ground.
“Sister Yan, what do you mean?” Li Ge’s expression darkened.
Behind them were forty to fifty people chasing with knives, while the only road out was covered with shattered glass and nails.
“I had no choice!” Sister Yan cried hysterically, holding her head. “If you leave, they’ll hand me over. In another month it’ll be Yuan Yuan’s turn. She’s not even five yet—how could I let that happen?”
They selected women and children first. No wonder there were so few women and children left in the village.
“You could ask us to take you and the child with us,” a deep, magnetic voice said.
But as Li Ge prepared to get out of the car, Sister Yan shook her head.
“I can’t let Yuan Yuan starve. Please, stay… stay for her sake. Just do a good deed.”
A mother’s resolve to protect her child—she was willing to give everything. The little girl hugged her arm, trembling and crying silently.
“So for your child, you want us to die?” Li Ge pressed the horn impatiently, a mocking smile curling her lips, her tone cold.
“People who don’t resist and only endure will die sooner or later, even if they survive today.”
Sister Yan froze, then suddenly looked up, her voice turning hysterical.
“How do you know I didn’t resist?! So many men—I couldn’t protect Yuan Yuan even if I risked my life! If you’re so capable, go kill them all yourselves!”
“Heh. You had time to drug us, but not them?”
She had slipped something into their dinner so smoothly.
At that moment, two men rushed out of the gate with kitchen knives—brothers Qin Yi and Qin Bo. One pressed a knife to Sister Yan’s neck, the other grabbed Yuan Yuan.
“If you dare leave, I’ll kill them.”
Qin Yi, who usually looked honest and simple, now wore a ferocious expression, using his own wife and child without hesitation.
Qin Bo raised his knife triumphantly. “Get out of the car! Or we’ll do it!”
In the rearview mirror, the furious villagers were already close. Ahead were broken glass, nails, and four hostages blocking the road. They were trapped.
Li Ge released her grip on the steering wheel, almost laughing from anger.
“You softened?” Xi Zhou asked calmly. “Using women and children as leverage—they really know where to strike.”
Li Ge reached toward the door, but instead grabbed the seatbelt.
“They’re not even human. Hold on—we’re going through.”
“Yan Jie, live or die—it’s up to you.”
With a mocking voice, the car surged forward.
Just before impact, Sister Yan somehow found the strength to roll with the child to the side of the road.
Bang! Bang!
The two men were knocked flying, and the approaching villagers were hit by the car’s exhaust.
The humiliation made the village chief furious. He rushed forward, then hesitated and retreated, instead kicking Qin Yi, who lay collapsed on the ground.
“You useless trash! Since you let them escape, you’ll take the punishment instead. You’re useless anyway.”
The group dragged Qin Yi and Qin Bo away, while Sister Yan quickly grabbed Yuan Yuan and hid back inside her house.
The dark car sped along the night road, fields stretching endlessly on both sides.
Once they were far from the village, Li Ge pulled over and moved to the back seat.
“I’m tired. You drive.”
Xi Zhou calmly moved to the driver’s seat, his gaze deep.
“So you did soften.”
“No. There was no need.”
“Oh? Actually, my suggestion was good—you could’ve taken them with you.”
Just like he said, they could have taken Sister Yan and Yuan Yuan away from the village. But only he had thought of it.
Li Ge rolled over in silence and turned her back to him.
“You can just look at what’s along the roadside.”
It was a completely abrupt sentence.
Xi Zhou got out of the car. The countryside air was fresh and refreshing. He removed his sunglasses—his blood-red eyes could still see clearly even at night.
From inside the car, the girl’s crisp voice came through, and the one asking the question ended up answering it herself.
“Fields. Land filled with vegetables and fruit. This isn’t a city packed with concrete buildings—there’s an abundance of food here. So tell me, in a place like this, would people really starve to death?”
The man leaned against the car and took a cigarette from his spatial storage. Smoke curled around him, carrying a faint tobacco scent.
“Under extreme fear, human nature becomes distorted. Under oppression, people create an illusion of pre-apocalyptic peace. But living like that is no different from being dead.”
Even people who had been kind for twenty years would still choose self-preservation when faced with danger. Those who couldn’t adapt to the apocalypse would eventually be eliminated.
The deep night was like a huge black hole—both he and they would be pulled into this massive vortex with no way out.
A trace of sarcasm flashed in his eyes. Between his fingers, the cigarette burned steadily, tiny sparks flickering in the night sky.
As a zombie—and a future Zombie King—Xi Zhou’s mentality was quietly beginning to change as well.