These people could have hidden in the supermarket and lived perfectly well, yet they’d insisted on provoking her.
Truly stupid and vicious both.
“Strength in numbers” wasn’t a phrase that carried any weight in the apocalypse. Cross the wrong person, and no matter how many of you there were, you’d all end up dead.
Only by lying low and keeping your head down could you survive for long.
Taxue had raked several long bloody gashes across Zhang Qiang’s face, from his temple to the corner of his mouth, the skin peeling back and oozing blood.
The other half of his face had been struck by Meng Shiwan’s trowel, swollen up like half a pig’s head.
Sprawled on the floor, dizzy and nauseous, he couldn’t get up at all.
Zhang Qiang strongly suspected he had a concussion. Facing Meng Shiwan’s icy stare and interrogation, a thick dread welled up in his heart.
This woman really would kill him.
Zhang Qiang shrank back. “No, I didn’t, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have walled you out. I just wanted you to go somewhere else, I never meant to hurt you. Let me go, I really do know I was wrong.”
Meng Shiwan didn’t believe a word of it.
Even when supplies were plentiful and everything was safe, he’d banded together to give her grief.
Once clothing and food ran short later on, this was absolutely not a man who’d stay good.
She stood, found a rope, and bound Zhang Qiang’s hands and feet.
Dragging him by the collar at the back of his neck, she headed for the far side of the supermarket.
Hauled across the floor, Zhang Qiang shrieked in terror.
“What are you doing? Where are you taking me? You can’t kill me, a killer pays with their own life…”
Taxue trotted after them, and, fed up with his yelling, jumped onto Zhang Qiang’s chest.
Every time he shouted, Taxue landed a claw on his mouth, one shout, one claw.
The sharp nails split the corner of his mouth, and Zhang Qiang no longer dared make a sound.
Lin Qian, watching the situation from her corner, was rattled to the bone.
She was even gladder she’d never provoked Meng Shiwan. Her fighting strength was off the charts, downright terrifying.
She glanced at the crowd Meng Shiwan had beaten flat, now playing dead on the floor, and quietly shrank back.
Following the advice Meng Shiwan had given her earlier, she went on stockpiling supplies in the little office where she’d been hiding.
Meng Shiwan dragged Zhang Qiang to the other side of the supermarket.
There was an escalator here leading up to the second floor.
The first time she’d come, she had crudely barricaded it with a cabinet.
Now several layers of shelving had been added outside the cabinet, these people must have reinforced it again.
She tied Zhang Qiang to a shelf, positioned squarely facing the mouth of the stairs.
An overwhelmingly bad premonition rose in Zhang Qiang’s heart. He was panic-stricken. “What are you doing? What do you want? Let me go.”
Meng Shiwan didn’t answer, turning away to look for tools.
Taxue flicked its tail, hopped onto Meng Shiwan’s shoulder, and went along with her.
The few dozen people who’d been playing dead at the passage mouth now clambered up cursing, clutching their injuries.
“That woman can really fight. There are so many of us, and we still couldn’t beat her.”
“She took Zhang Qiang away. Do you think she’ll kill him?”
“What do we do now? Should we go rescue Old Zhang?”
The supermarket lights suddenly flickered from a bad connection.
When they came back on, that death-dealing black figure was standing not far off, watching them.
The whole crowd jolted in fright and scrambled backward, terrified of getting too close, this time it wouldn’t be a beating, it would be their lives.
Pinned by Meng Shiwan’s gaze, their backs went cold.
Someone forced himself to speak. “The fire messed with the wiring. I’ll go see where the problem is.”
“I’ll go find some medicine, if the wounds get infected, we’re in trouble.”
They cast about for excuses to escape Meng Shiwan’s death stare.
Just then her voice rang out, cold. “If you don’t want to die, don’t appear in front of me again.”
The crowd scattered like startled birds and beasts, as if they’d broken into a sprint.
Compared to their own lives, what was Zhang Qiang’s life worth?
Meng Shiwan pushed a shopping cart around, found the tool room, then made another circuit of the supermarket.
When she reappeared at the stairs, the cart was heaped full.
Zhang Qiang, bound tight, was too wretched even to cry. “What on earth do you want? Can’t you just tell me straight? You’re scaring me like this.”
Knowing you’d die, or knowing you’d live, either one was at least a little steadying.
It was only this, not knowing whether you’d live or die, that was the most spine-chilling of all.
Meng Shiwan still ignored him. She looked around: about ten meters past the stairs stood a bubble-tea shop.
She wheeled the cart over, took an induction cooktop out of it, set it on the counter, and pulled out a split hot-pot pot. [1] a “mandarin duck” pot divided into mild and spicy halves jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2841312_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2841312_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Mineral water in it, hot-pot base in it, ribs in it, half a small chicken in it, meatballs in it…
She lit the burner to get it going, then took out the vegetables, sliced meat, fruit, small beers, and hot-pot noodles she’d gathered and laid them on the counter.
Zhang Qiang craned his head with all his might, and caught sight of Meng Shiwan busy cooking hot pot.
His heart and gut quivered with fear. “Sis, can I call you Sis? What are you tying me here for? Surely it’s not to treat me to hot pot and bubble tea?”
He would soon learn exactly what Meng Shiwan was doing.
Once the hot pot was simmering, Meng Shiwan wheeled the cart over beside Zhang Qiang, took out an oversized helmet, and clamped it over his head.
Then she lifted a small jigsaw from the cart.
Zhang Qiang recognized this power saw, it was made specially for cutting metal.
There were also two logging chainsaws in the cart, the kind that worked well for cutting wood and planks.
His whole body began to tremble uncontrollably. He pressed Meng Shiwan, who was tugging at a power strip, “Sis, you’re not going to hack me into a thousand pieces, are you? Surely not, I only barricaded you out, that’s no capital crime.
“Besides, there were so many people who walled you out. Why saw only me?”
Meng Shiwan silently rolled her eyes. Now he knew to be afraid, where was all this earlier?
She hefted the saw, walked to the shelving and cabinets blocking the escalator mouth, and got to work.
The shriek of saw teeth grinding through metal was piercing and ear-splitting, enough to drive a person mad.
Zhang Qiang seemed to guess what Meng Shiwan was doing and went completely to pieces. “Sis, saw me, really, just kill me outright, stop torturing me.
“With all this racket you’re making, the zombies upstairs will definitely hear it. Once they smash through the cabinets, I’ll be bitten to death by zombies, you may as well just finish me off.”
Taxue hopped onto the shelf and gave the helmet on Zhang Qiang’s head two solid punches, telling him to be quiet.
You think you need to teach my poop-scooping servant how to do her job? [2] “poop-scooper”, cat-owner slang for the human who serves the cat jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2841312_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2841312_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Meng Shiwan cut a hole through the shelving and cabinets, just big enough for one person to pass.
As she broke through the last layer of cabinet, the escalator was already packed with zombies, all drawn over by the commotion on this side.
Meng Shiwan hurriedly pulled back, took up the larger logging chainsaw, mounted it at about a meter and a half high, and lashed it firmly to the frame with rope.
When a zombie came charging through the hole, its whole head was sawn off as it passed the blade.
Blood sprayed out, splattering onto Zhang Qiang’s helmet, filming his view in red.
References[+]