After the group left, Pei Huaiye casually pushed open the door to an office. Inside, a thin layer of dust had settled, but there were no signs of zombies or anything of the sort.
The office looked quite high-end, and walking further inside revealed a temporary rest room. Equipped with a bed and a quilt, it was good enough to get by for the night.
However, Pei Huaiye didn’t have the habit of using other people’s old belongings. With a flick of his hand, the quilt on the bed fell onto the reasonably clean floor, exposing the high-end mattress underneath.
He pulled out clean bedding from his spatial storage to replace it, then said to Ning Ran, “Go lie down and sleep!”
Ning Ran shook her head like a rattle drum: “Sleep with Brother!”
“Be good, or else no candy for you.” He bestowed his rare good temper entirely upon the little idiot.
Upon hearing there would be no candy to eat, Ning Ran ran faster than a rabbit, zooming into bed and lying down neatly, even casually pulling up the quilt to cover herself.
“When everyone gets back, I’ll call you when it’s time to eat. Go to sleep.” Pei Huaiye left the door open and walked out to sit on the sofa in the office.
The sofa wasn’t clean, but as luck would have it, his clothes weren’t clean either.
By the time Han Chao and the others returned, an hour had already passed. Each of them appeared on the tenth floor looking worse than the last.
Particularly Lin Yao in the team—her clothes were torn to shreds, though luckily she hadn’t been bitten by zombies.
“Boss, where’s the little idiot?” Han Chao looked around, and seeing no one, opened his mouth to ask.
“There’s a temporary rest room inside; I had her go in to sleep.” The little idiot had already been nodding off like a chicken pecking at rice when coming upstairs, and now, brushing against a soft bed, she was sleeping soundly.
“Grab a quick byte to eat, and we can set off again tomorrow morning.” Pei Huaiye took out food from his space and placed it on the office desk.
Han Chao looked at the food, then at himself, and silently walked into the adjacent bathroom to clean up.
Fortunately, there was still usable water around. The few of them quickly tidied themselves up and went back to grab food to eat.
As night fell, the entire tenth floor was cast into darkness.
Pei Huaiye used thick vines to seal the security entrance, allowing the group to rest boldly and peacefully.
The quilt he had discarded on the floor became Lin Yao’s source of warmth against the cold, while the others had no choice but to endure the night.
“Boss, at least give us something to ward off the cold. You aren’t afraid of us freezing to death, are you?” Having eaten and drunk his fill, Xu Sui began asking for supplies—after all, the Boss had plenty in his spatial storage and certainly wasn’t short on them.
On a April or May night, it was still quite chilly. Pei Huaiye shot him a glance, pulled out quilts and thin blankets, and distributed a set to each person.
Having received her share first, Lin Yao shot Pei Huaiye a look with a face full of constipation, said nothing, and went off to find a spot to rest on her own.
In the dead of night, Pei Huaiye stood alone by the window, gazing at the dead-silent city outside. The ruins under the moonlight resembled the skeletons of giant beasts, sending chills down one’s spine. The occasional roars of zombies shattered the stillness of the night even further.
Thump—
Thump—
Outside the window, unknown objects smashed against the glass of the building, then slid down along it. Just as he wanted to take a closer look to see clearly, he felt his hem being gently tugged. Turning his head, he saw that Ning Ran had woken up at some point, staring up at him with wide eyes.
“Brother, hungry—” She rubbed her flattened tummy. He had originally intended to call her when it was time to eat, but seeing how soundly she slept, he didn’t have the heart to wake her, only for her to be awakened by hunger now instead.
“If you’re hungry, eat.” He had more than enough supplies in his space to eat at any time.
Pei Huaiye pulled her over to sit on the sofa, pulling out canned food and bread. Before he could even tear open the packaging, Ning Ran was already impatiently trying to shove it into her mouth.
“How can you eat it without tearing it open?” Pei Huaiye felt a bit of a headache looking at the silly Ning Ran, thoughtfully tearing open the outer wrapper and handing it to her.
“What a total idiot!” Seeing her eat with such gusto, Pei Huaiye felt hungry as well.
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Ning Ran hugged Pei Huaiye’s arm and fell into a deep sleep.
Thump—
Thump—
Thump, thump, thump—
Outside, unknown birds hurled themselves frantically against the building’s glass windows. The glass, which already had cracks, instantly fractured into a spiderweb pattern.
“Boss, what’s going on?” The noise clearly woke the others outside as well.
“Not sure,” Pei Huaiye shielded Ning Ran by his side, frowning as he looked outside.
Clatter— A crisp sound caused everyone’s hearts to leap into their throats instantly.
The glass shattered, falling from high above along with the corpses that had slammed into it.
Thump—
Thump—
Nearby, small figures whose shapes couldn’t be distinguished continued to crash into the glass.
Time after time.
“They’re… committing… suicide…” Han Chao watched in utter disbelief.
Pei Huaiye kept his eyes locked outside. Right as a shadow was about to collide, he rapidly used a thin vine summoned through his superpower to snag one inside.
With the aid of the flashlight’s beam, he discovered it was a bat, its eyes glowing with an eerie, blood-red light at this moment.
Under the restraint of the thin vine, the bat twisted frantically, exposing its sharp fangs as it let out piercing shrieks.
“It says its head hurts really badly, which is why it wanted to hit the wall.” Ning Ran poked the raving bat, her eyes still heavy with sleep.
“What? Its head hurts?” Han Chao and Xu Sui shouted out in unison.
“Little idiot, how do you know that?” Pei Huaiye channeled some superpower along the thin vine, and sure enough, the bat stopped struggling, the red light in its eyes dimming significantly.
“A voice inside my head told me. The voice said their heads hurt so, so badly that they couldn’t stand it anymore.” Ning Ran spoke incoherently, but the general meaning was still clear enough to understand.
“Boss, the little idiot can understand bats.” Xu Sui stared with wide eyes at Ning Ran. He had originally thought they had picked up a useless fool, but unexpectedly, she actually had some capability.
Now it didn’t feel like a loss at all.
“Like you need to say it!” Han Chao chimed in, then followed up with a question: “Then how do we help them?”
Ning Ran shook her head: “Can’t help. Brain mutated, won’t survive!”
Hearing this, the several people in the office fell silent. The bats’ suicidal crashing was merely the beginning; in the future, more and more unimaginable problems would emerge.
“Benefactor, what do we do?” Ji Hengyuan opened his mouth to ask.
Pei Huaiye glanced at him, then waved his large hand to channel superpower vines to tightly seal off the broken glass: “Everyone rest first, we’ll talk tomorrow.”
After this incident, no one dared to sleep too scattered apart, silently moving their quilts into the main office.
At a time like this, there was no room to fuss about male-female distinctions. However, as one of the only two females in the team, Lin Yao successfully landed a spot on the sofa to sleep on, while the others slept on the floor without being overly picky.
Pei Huaiye led the little idiot into the inner room and closed the door, shutting out the breathing sounds from outside: “Go to sleep quickly. No dozing off while walking tomorrow.”
Ning Ran gave an “Oh”, lying obediently on the bed, not forgetting to leave a large portion of the space for “Brother.”
Pei Huaiye wasn’t overly particular either, lying on the bed fully clothed, and quickly drifted off into dreamland.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, everyone woke up, consciously going to the bathroom to wash up.
Having gone to sleep late, the moment Pei Huaiye opened his eyes, he saw a big face with a wide, toothy grin right above him—even the sleep in the corners of her eyes was clearly visible.