“Forgot my knife.”
Lu Chen felt that something was wrong with him today. It was only after he went downstairs that he realized he had forgotten to bring his knife.
Uncle Zhao glanced at him.
“The child’s mother came back. She just went downstairs. You didn’t run into her?”
“No! She probably took the other staircase down.”
Lu Chen walked to the window and looked outside.
In the alley, a woman carrying a child on her back had just turned into another alley and disappeared from sight.
“A woman taking care of a child alone isn’t easy. I asked her to stay, but she refused.”
Uncle Zhao pointed at the supplies Su Nian had left behind.
Lu Chen turned around.
“Pack up. We’re leaving.”
When Su Nian carried Xingxing back to the tenth floor, it was already almost dark.
The zombie corpses in the stairwell were still there. The black blood had dried and stuck to the ground, making her shoes feel slightly sticky whenever she stepped on it.
The large iron door here was sturdy, and since the zombies in the stairwell had just been cleared out, there would not be any zombies coming for the time being.
She pushed open the door, placed Xingxing on the bed, then turned around and closed the iron door. From her storage space, she took out a new chain and lock, securing the door with three locks from both inside and outside.
Su Nian sat beside the bed and took out the prescription.
She held it under the flashlight and studied it for a long time, but she could only recognize a few words.
Xingxing coughed twice, and her heart tightened.
“Ah… help…”
Someone upstairs was shouting for help.
She walked to the door.
A man’s voice roared.
“Hand over the food!”
Then came a woman’s scream.
Su Nian tightened her grip on the machete but did not open the door.
She could not go. She could not leave Xingxing alone again.
The sounds upstairs grew louder.
A woman shouted. “Please, my child is still young…”
Before she could finish speaking, a loud slap sounded.
Immediately after, there was the sound of fabric tearing.
Su Nian’s hand trembled. She bit her lip and did not move.
“Hurry up! We still need to search the other floors for supplies later…”
Su Nian tightly gripped the doorknob.
Would they come to the tenth floor afterward?
No, she had to take advantage of the moment when they were distracted…
“My child is still young…”
Thinking of those words, Su Nian hesitated for two seconds. She took out two bags of cement from her storage space and blocked them behind the door. Then she quietly opened the door and went upstairs.
The door on the twelfth floor was open.
Inside the room were three men. Two of them were holding a woman down on the floor, while the other was tearing at a girl’s clothes.
The girl was only around ten years old. She had two braids, but they had already come loose. Her face was covered in tears.
A man was lying on the ground nearby, his face covered in blood. He had been kicked into the corner and could not get up.
Bastards!
Su Nian rushed in immediately.
She slammed the back of her machete into the back of the nearest man’s head. The man let out a muffled groan and fell forward.
The other two men suddenly turned around.
One reached for the dagger at his waist, while the other swung a fist at her.
Su Nian turned sideways and dodged the punch. She kicked the back of his knee, causing him to collapse. Then she struck his shoulder with the back of her machete.
There was a cracking sound from his bones, and he fell onto the ground screaming.
The last man released the girl and climbed up. He held a dagger in his hand, pointing the blade toward Su Nian.
Su Nian did not move.
She stared directly into his eyes and changed the direction of the machete in her hand, pointing the blade forward.
The man looked at her, then at his two companions lying on the ground. He slowly stepped backward.
“Who the hell are you? Why are you interfering?”
Su Nian said nothing. She held two machetes and stared at him coldly.
The man looked at the miserable state of his companions, then at the blades in Su Nian’s hands.
“You just wait!”
The man grabbed a large bag of supplies and ran away. The other two men also got up and limped after him.
Su Nian chased them to the doorway and watched them go downstairs.
She took the wardrobe she had just stored in her storage space and placed it at the ninth floor staircase entrance, blocking the way.
When she returned to the twelfth floor, the woman was tightly holding the girl in her arms. Both of them were trembling.
The injured man was desperately crawling toward them. His lips were swollen, and one of his eyes had turned black.
Su Nian stood by the doorway without saying anything.
The woman raised her head. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and there was a slap mark on her face.
“Thank you.”
Su Nian shook her head.
“Are you from this building?”
The woman nodded, then shook her head.
“No. We came back to look for medicine. My husband is a doctor. We were robbed on the way…”
“He was injured, so we hid here…”
“Doctor? He’s a doctor?”
Su Nian’s heart jumped, and she quickly asked.
The woman also stared at Su Nian. Suddenly, her eyes widened.
“You… are you…”
She pointed at Su Nian.
“You gave us water and bread, and even a shovel…”
Su Nian remembered.
On the provincial road, she had left behind supplies and a military shovel. It was them.
The woman excitedly stood up, but her legs went weak, and she almost fell.
“It’s you… It really is you…”
She turned around and shouted.
“Husband, it’s her! The kind person who gave us those things!”
The man supported himself against the wall and walked over. Looking at Su Nian, his eyes reddened. He reached out his hand but quickly pulled it back. In the end, he gave her a deep bow.
Su Nian stepped back.
“Don’t do this.”
She looked at the injuries on his face.
“You really are a doctor?”
The man nodded.
“Yes! The clinic across the street is mine.”
He covered his chest and coughed twice.
Su Nian took out the prescription from her pocket and handed it to him.
“Can you help me look at this prescription? My son has a high fever, and fever medicine isn’t working.”
The man took it and moved closer to the light coming through the window. His fingers were swollen, making it difficult to hold the paper.
A few seconds later, he raised his head.
“I wrote this prescription.”
He took out a pen from his pocket and wrote a line on the back of the prescription.
“You need these six medicines. Follow this dosage. Do you have the medicine?”
Su Nian took the paper and glanced at the names of the medicines.
“I have them, I…”
She suddenly felt a little embarrassed.
After all, she had practically “looted” his clinic.
“I have the medicine. Can you come and check my son?”
“Of course.”
Han Zhongping limped downstairs with Su Nian. After checking Xingxing’s condition, he immediately wrote a new prescription.
“Get the medicine and come upstairs to find me.”
After closing the door, Su Nian took the medicines according to the names from her storage space and quickly ran upstairs.
Han Zhongping checked each bottle’s label carefully and nodded.
“Yes, these are the right medicines.”
He prepared the medicine within a few minutes.
“Give him half first, then the rest after two hours. His fever should go down.”
Su Nian took it from him. Her hands were trembling as she carried the cup to the door. She looked back at them.
“There is another empty apartment on the tenth floor. Stay there for now. The door can still be locked, so it’s safer. You can figure things out tomorrow.”
They followed Su Nian to the tenth floor. She checked the lock, and it was still usable.
After returning to her room, Su Nian took out a large bag of supplies and a machete from her storage space.
“Doctor Han, thank you. Take these for now.”
The woman grabbed her hand tightly. After trembling for a long time, she finally managed to say one sentence.
“You will definitely be rewarded with good fortune.”
Su Nian returned to her room, locked the iron door, and walked to the bed. She held Xingxing in her arms.
Xingxing’s breathing gradually became calmer. It was no longer as rapid, but she was unsure if it was only her imagination. When she touched his forehead, it was still hot.
She stood up and walked around the room a few times.
Outside the window, the sky was completely dark, and nothing could be seen. The wind poured in, so she closed the window, leaving only a small gap.
When she returned to the bed, Xingxing turned over, and the blanket covering him fell away. She bent down to cover him again, and her hand touched his face.
Warm! Not burning hot.
Su Nian’s fingers paused. She touched him again.
It was still warm.
Her tears suddenly rushed out. Without making a sound, she crouched beside the bed and buried her face against it, crying for a long time.
After releasing the pressure and fear that had built up over the past few days, she wiped away her tears.
Her storage space could preserve items, so she had asked Doctor Han to prepare plenty of fever medicine and other medicines. From now on, she would never have to worry again.
Returning to the bed, she saw that Xingxing’s face was no longer as flushed, and his breathing had stabilized.
She measured his temperature.
36.9 degrees.
The fever was gone.
Su Nian tucked in the blanket, sat on the edge of the bed, leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes.
She did not know how much time had passed when a dull sound came from downstairs. In the silent night, it was especially noticeable.
Su Nian immediately opened her eyes and reached for the machete.
She walked to the window and looked outside.
The light from flashlights downstairs swept upward.
There was more than one person.
Someone had entered the building.