“Eat…” Ning Ran handed over the candy that Pei Huaiye had given her from her pocket.
Looking at Ning Ran’s harmless eyes, the woman lowered her guard slightly and put down the iron rod: “Thank you!”
She took the candy, peeled it open, and put it into the mouths of her two children, while merely moving her own lips. Having not eaten a proper meal for days, the children were already too weak from hunger to move.
“My name is Li Hongying, and these are my twin sons, Song Jiayan and Song Jiale,” the woman introduced herself. “We live in a village not far from here. What is it like outside? Are those monsters that bite people everywhere?”
The mother and her two children hadn’t dared to step outside, so they had no idea what the situation was like out there now.
During the earthquake, quite a few shelves had fallen, but luckily the building itself was fine. Even so, the family hadn’t run outside, staying put until they encountered this group.
“Yes, and there are even more of them!” Xu Sui explained plainly.
“Do you want to leave this place? If you want to leave, follow us.” After saying that, Pei Huaiye pulled Ning Ran along as he walked out.
“I do, I do…” Li Hongying hurriedly pulled her children along to follow. Seeing the ruins outside, the children were frightened into hiding straight in her arms.
“Yanyan, Leke, don’t be afraid. We’re going home!” Home was the place she considered safe.
“Which direction is your village in? We’ll give you a ride,” Ji Hengyuan spoke up.
“It’s over in the northeast corner,” Li Hongying pointed.
Squinting into the distance, they indeed spotted a small village two or three li away. The group unanimously decided to walk over on foot, as the motorcycles couldn’t seat so many people.
Twenty minutes later, the woman led the group to a small two-story building in the village.
The courtyard gate was wide open, and the two little ones opened their mouths to yell for their grandfather and grandmother—so fast that even Han Chao couldn’t stop them in time.
From inside the house, two elderly zombies darted out, lunging straight for the two children.
“Watch out—” Pei Huaiye was quick on his feet and sharp with his eyes. The energy in his palm summoned vines that firmly bound the two elderly zombies.
“Grandpa, Grandma—” The two little ones were frightened silly, crying out in quiet whispers.
Seeing this, Li Hongying hurriedly wrapped her arms around her sons’ heads, holding them tightly to her chest, looking at the bound zombies on the ground with a heart full of grief and anger.
It was precisely because of these monsters that bit people on sight that she had hidden in the storage room with her sons. She had never expected the two elderly folks at home to turn into this as well.
“They are no longer the family members you knew, but mindless zombies—incapable of anything except biting people. You guys go inside first and come back out after you’ve tidied up,” Han Chao said as he ushered the mother and her two children into the house. He then unleashed his Lightning superpower, striking down directly on the elderly couple to end their tragic existence.
Only after cleaning up the courtyard did the group step into the house.
Li Hongying appeared to be a neat and capable woman; her house was organized very tidily. However, having been uninhabited for many days, combined with the presence of two zombies, the living room looked quite messy.
“I’ll have it cleaned up very soon!” As she spoke, she pulled off the blanket covering the sofa, revealing its original appearance.
Dragging the removed blanket into the bathroom, she tried to wash it, only to discover there was no electricity. There was still water, however, which hadn’t been cut off yet.
The kitchen, on the other hand, was clean. The perishable food in the fridge had completely spoiled, and frozen items had thawed out into dirty, running liquid.
Staring at a home like this, Li Hongying could no longer hold back her tears. Her husband, her parents-in-law, her home—everything was gone…
The sobbing sounded heartbreaking to those outside. Pei Huaiye stood in the courtyard smoking, raising his eyes to watch Ning Ran walk step-by-step toward the woman: “Don’t cry, don’t cry…”
Li Hongying glanced at the foolish Ning Ran, and her crying grew even harder.
It took quite a while before she stopped her tears and set to work with swift hands and feet.
Before long, with the help of Xiao Jinyang and Wu Ci, the entire first floor, second floor, and guest rooms were restored to a fresh and clean state.
“Thank you!” Li Hongying dug out an unopened bag of rice from the cabinet and cooked a pot of rice porridge. She wanted to stir-fry some vegetables, but awkwardly realized that there wasn’t a single vegetable in the house—everything from the fridge had been thrown out by her earlier.
“There’s only rice porridge left!” She served each person a bowl, looking somewhat embarrassed. They had just saved the lives of her and her two sons, yet she couldn’t even afford to treat them to a full meal.
“This is plenty fine,” Han Chao didn’t mind at all. For a woman with two kids to offer the last of her remaining food to them was already quite commendable.
Ning Ran held her bowl of hot white porridge and walked outside to find Pei Huaiye, tossing the scalding bowl from her left hand to her right hand and right to left, yet refusing to drop it.
“Idiot!” Pei Huaiye stubbed out his cigarette butt and reached out to take the bowl of white porridge: “For me?”
Ning Ran nodded.
Pei Huaiye looked at her without speaking. Although the little idiot’s mind didn’t work well, she knew who was good to her and who was bad, and she even brought him porridge—she had a conscience.
“Go back inside and eat your own. I’ll drink mine later,” he said, the corner of his eye catching a few zombies stumbling over from outside.
He blew on the porridge in his bowl and drank it down without rush. Just as the zombies noticed him and were about to move inside, their limbs were bound by vines and dragged far away in the next instant.
“Eyesore!” he muttered, turning around to walk back inside.
Once the people inside finished their porridge, they consciously washed their bowls clean.
Afterward, they discussed how to pass the night.
“Boss, we’ve agreed on a plan: Xu Sui and I will take the first half of the night, while Ji Hengyuan and his teammates take the second half, setting off first thing tomorrow morning. But what about the lady and her two kids?” Han Chao asked as he walked up to Pei Huaiye.
“Staying here means certain death. Leaving food aside for a moment, an orphaned mother and her children won’t survive on their own against the zombies in the village.” In the apocalypse, even a single adult might not survive, let alone a woman with two young sons.
“Should we bring them along and drop them off at a base?” Han Chao asked tentatively.
Pei Huaiye pressed his tongue against his cheek without replying, his gaze falling upon Ning Ran, who was playing with the two kids. She had a smile in her eyes, looking as pure as a child herself.
“Then let’s take them to a base.” He remembered that the nearest Hope City was only about two to three hundred li away; if they could drive there, it would be best, and they could likely arrive in about half a day’s time.
The mother and her children could do what work they could inside to earn a bite to eat, ensuring they wouldn’t starve to death.
Having gotten the answer, Han Chao impatiently went to explain it to Li Hongying. Li Hongying agreed without a second thought.
Only she and her two sons were left in this family. If her sons were gone, her life would be worse than death; and if she were gone, her sons likely wouldn’t live long either.
Taking everything into account, it was best to follow their advice and leave.
The saying “listen to advice and you’ll eat your fill” held entirely true.
With people keeping watch downstairs, the mother and her children upstairs slept very soundly. So much so that when they woke up, they almost thought they were still in peaceful times, only to realize that everything had changed. They had to abandon this home they had lived in for decades and head toward a future where they could survive.
Early the next morning, when the mother and her children woke up, the table downstairs was covered with porridge, meat dishes, and baozi.
Seeing the mother and her kids frozen in surprise, Han Chao smiled and said, “We ate your rice yesterday, so today we brought out some meat dishes as compensation.”