Song Zi Qiao shouted loudly, his voice so loud that even Chen Yu Jie, already lying down, couldn’t help glancing over.
“Shhh! Why are you yelling so loud!” Shi Zuo An quickly gestured for him to lower his voice, then nudged Xia Ao’s side, signaling him to take a Huozha bomb out of the bag for a demonstration.
Song Zi Qiao immediately recognized the bag as the new one Xia Ao had gotten yesterday.
He had said it was too heavy, so he had given the previous lighter bag to Song Zi Qiao to carry.
Xia Ao pulled out a plastic bottle with a fuse from the bag and handed it to Shi Zuo An.
“Huozha bomb, pretty impressive, right?”
“?”
“What did you just say?”
“Huozha bomb! Can’t hear well, huh?” Shi Zuo An leaned close to his ear and shouted again, very thoughtfully.
“Huozha bomb??!!” Song Zi Qiao repeated it like a broken record.
Finally, under the threatening gazes of the others, he managed to say something else.
“How did you even get your hands on such illegal stuff?!” He was incredulous. This was an item strictly controlled and punished by the state for being highly flammable and explosive.
Shi Zuo An rolled his eyes at him. “What are you thinking? I made it myself.”
“…So when you said you make Huozha bombs that day, you were serious?”
…Idiot.
Helplessly, he could only nod.
Xia Ao, who already knew, and Jiang Si, who had reacted first, both looked at Song Zi Qiao’s stupidity with amused fondness.
Song Zi Qiao excitedly grabbed Shi Zuo An’s hand and examined the bomb carefully.
Which boy wouldn’t be interested in such a hot weapon?
“No way, this is so cool!” After touching it, he started rummaging through the bag. “How many did you make? Can I play with one?”
As he reached to grab one and stuff it into his own bag, Xia Ao, watching him closely, stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“Kids aren’t allowed to play with dangerous items,” Xia Ao said coldly, taking the bomb from his hands, putting it back in the bag, and zipping it up.
Song Zi Qiao exploded: “Who’s a kid! I’m only one year younger than you, Xia Ao!”
Finally, after being tortured by Song Zi Qiao’s noise, he at last got his way and took one electronic Huozha bomb.
The condition was that while carrying Xia Ao’s originally heaviest backpack, he was not allowed to complain once.
After two consecutive nights of interrupted sleep due to various issues, the group finally put aside their worries and took a proper turn sleeping.
Excluding Chen Jian Hua and Chen Yu Jie, they hadn’t rushed over to join.
The huge waiting hall seemed divided into two factions, both groups ignored each other and didn’t interfere.
By late afternoon, as the sun was about to set, everyone had slept enough, grabbed some food casually, and began packing their belongings.
Chen Jian Hua knew they were preparing to leave. He said nothing, but when Xia Ao kept loading water into the bags without pause, he couldn’t help speaking up.
“You’ve got enough. The water isn’t even yours to take—”
“Dad!”
Chen Yu Jie, holding her belly, came over and tugged at her father’s sleeve. But given the difference in strength, she couldn’t pull him.
Instead, she almost lost her balance and began to fall sideways, but Jiang Si supported her.
Chen Jian Hua wanted to say more, but meeting his daughter’s accusing gaze, he couldn’t bring himself to speak another word.
He turned silently and returned to his previous seat, staring blankly out the glass window.
Once Chen Yu Jie steadied herself, she gave Jiang Si an apologetic smile.
“I’m really sorry. My dad did go a bit too far,” she said sincerely.
Seeing Jiang Si filling the bag with biscuits, she went over to help hold it open.
“All this food was gathered by you, and the zombies in the waiting hall were also driven away by you. My dad and I just took advantage of your effort,” she said with an embarrassed laugh. “Take whatever you can carry.”
The group paused, looking at her.
Finally, Shi Zuo An, unable to bear it, said, “We’ll only take enough food for the four of us for one day. The rest will stay in the waiting hall… Miss Chen, your dad is younger than my dad, so I’ll address you like this for now.”
“Before you leave, one piece of advice: don’t be a mindless do-gooder. Fight for what you should fight for.”
After Shi Zuo An spoke, her face turned pale. Her fists clenched at her sides, but, facing the vast imbalance of power, she had no choice but to relax them again.
The atmosphere was tense. Seeing her trembling, Jiang Si pressed his hand against her back and offered a few comforting words.
“Miss Chen, he speaks harshly, but his intentions are good. Don’t always worry about what others think. You’re pregnant now, and it’s not easy for your dad to take care of you alone. You both should save up some supplies.”
“…I know.” After hearing Jiang Si, Chen Yu Jie finally couldn’t hold back her tears and sobbed. “But he taught me since I was little to be kind and to share what I have… I just haven’t accepted that our world has turned into this mess.”
It was precisely because of her kindness that she was willing to leave the extra food in the dining car, giving the next person fleeing by a chance to rest, it was also why she felt ashamed when her father tried to secure more supplies.
The father and daughter didn’t seem to have done anything terribly wrong.
One was forced by survival to reveal years of hardship and struggle, while the other persisted in her inner idealism within an airtight protective bubble.
The four-person team finished packing and planned to leave at ten o’clock that night, heading to the nearby construction site.
After making a big commotion, they would sneak into the mall in one push.
For this, Xia Ao had deliberately emptied a 24-inch suitcase and placed three backpacks inside.
By then, one person would pull the suitcase while the remaining three carried the backpacks. If they filled the backpacks with small but calorie-dense food, it would be enough to sustain them for at least a month.
The moon had climbed halfway into the sky, illuminating the steps in front of the station entrance.
Each of the four slung their backpacks on and stood before the glass doors.
Chen Yu Jie came over specifically to say goodbye, giving Jiang Si a hug before leaving.
“Thank you all. I understand now. Once the food runs out, if no rescue arrives, I’ll go out with my dad to find food,” she said, blinking. “No matter how much he tries to stop me this time, I won’t listen.”
The radio was too large to carry, so Shi Zuo An simply left it behind for them.
Jiang Si finally said, “Okay. Stay safe here. The doors and windows are all glass, so be extra careful.”
“Got it!”
Everyone waved goodbye.
Returning to the place they had visited three days ago, they were already familiar with it.
This time there were no troublesome cans, and they made their way through the corridor back to the car smoothly.
After a few days, the SUV was splattered with dirty bloodstains.
Jiang Si took a towel from the trunk, and the group took turns wiping the blood off the windows.
After placing the suitcase and backpacks in the trunk, they all took their seats.
Jiang Si was still the driver. Song Zi Qiao had wanted to stick to his vow never to give Xia Ao and Shi Zuo An a chance alone, but seeing Jiang Si’s side profile from the front passenger seat was too tempting.
This time, he let it slide.
He grinned and fastened his seatbelt.
“Ah Si, I’m coming!”
…
In the back row, Shi Zuo An got in first. Before he could settle into his seat, a hand reached in and rested next to his hand, which had sunk into the seat.
Xia Ao braced one hand against the seat cushion as he sat down, and with the other closed the car door.
When he turned his head, he met Shi Zuo An’s gaze, which had been fixed on him.
“What is it?”
“…I was thinking, aren’t you sitting a bit too close to me?”
Shi Zuo An was sitting properly by the window, but he didn’t know whether to complain that Xia Ao’s butt was too big or what.
Their hands were pressed tightly together, skin to skin. The moment Xia Ao sat down, his knee had bumped into Shi Zuo An’s thigh, flattening the fabric that had bunched up at the bend of his leg.
The spot Xia Ao had chosen didn’t feel like the window seat at all, it was more like he’d deliberately picked the middle position in the back row.
There wasn’t even a fifth person with them. Why did he have to sit that close?
Xia Ao fell silent for a moment and looked back at Shi Zuo An.
Inside the unlit car, everything was pitch-black, yet he could still see the other man’s eyes.
On those beautiful glassy surfaces, his own reflection seemed to appear clearly, and yet it also seemed like there was nothing there at all.
“Sorry. It’s too dark, I didn’t see clearly.”
Yeah, right. As if he’d believe that.
Shi Zuo An was just about to give that intrusive leg a kick when the people in the front started protesting.
“Are you two done yet? Can you put away that little bit of flirty ambiguity, okay? There are so many people here, have some shame, ow!”
Song Zi Qiao was being sarcastic up front, only to get pinched on the arm by Jiang Si.
“You’re the one who never shuts up! Didn’t we already talk about this last time? Why is it always you with the most to say!”
“But Xia Ge—”
The instant Song Zi Qiao spoke, Xia Ao awkwardly looked away and shifted his hips back to where they should have been in the first place.
The warmth where the backs of their hands had touched withdrew, leaving only cool air behind.
“…,” Shi Zuo An also felt a bit awkward.
Ignoring the bickering in the front, he cleared his throat softly and steered the conversation back to business.
“When we get to the construction site, just drive straight in. Now that we have the bombs, we can use them to draw the zombies out first.”
He thought it over, now that they had bombs, they could detonate one from about ten meters away inside the construction site, then immediately turn the car around and drive in the opposite direction.
Once the zombies were lured out, they could drive straight in.
The only question was, once the car drove in, how would they get out?
Song Zi Qiao agreed with the plan but had a doubt: “If we can already use the bombs to lure the zombies out from inside, why don’t we just go to the supermarket entrance? Why not set it off there?”
He had a point, but…
Xia Ao took over, explaining for him: “A warehouse-style supermarket is huge. Not only is there a lot of space, but there are several entrances just at the front. It’s already difficult to gather this many bombs from the materials at the high-speed rail station, and the noise they make wouldn’t be enough to lure most of the zombies out.”
The zombies hiding deep inside the supermarket might not even hear the commotion outside.
To be safe, it would be more effective to create a big disturbance at the construction site.
After finishing the discussion, they started executing the plan.
Under the cover of night, the car approached the construction site gate. The blue-and-white barricade had long since been lifted.
The zombies, attracted by the sound of the engine, gradually moved closer, trying to block their entry.
But Shi Zuo An’s bombs had already been thrown out ahead of them.
They were deliberately timed in succession, one wave triggering another. As the zombie horde became restless and began to gather,
“Bang—”
Bright flashes erupted, gravel flew, and smoke rose.
A few of the closest zombies were hit and fell headfirst to the ground, motionless.
The rest, drawn by the noise, shifted their attention and moved toward the new target.