Hard work paid off. Li Qiu really did find quite a lot of things.
Including but not limited to five packs of cigarettes of different brands, eight lighters, more than fifty sets of keys, over thirty wallets, more than a hundred mobile phones that had long run out of battery, one pack of chewing gum, two folding multi-purpose knives, one portable flashlight, one bottle of pepper spray, and one hundred-milliliter bottle of mineral water…
Li Qiu was very lucky. Aside from these miscellaneous items, she also found a filthy backpack in a corner.
The bag only looked dirty on the outside, but the inside was quite clean. It was perfect for carrying all the things she had found.
Li Qiu examined it carefully and discovered that the tags had not even been removed. It was probably something someone had just bought and had not had the chance to use before the calamity struck.
She shook off the dust and fallen leaves on the backpack and put it on. It was a nylon outdoor hiking backpack with a large capacity. Worn on her back, it looked like a giant shell. Fortunately, it came with a wide and thick waist belt that reduced the burden and made it more comfortable to carry.
Li Qiu also picked up an equally filthy scarf and wrapped it around her neck. The scarf covered the horrifying wound there and served as perfect camouflage.
As long as no one looked too closely, Li Qiu now looked no different from a human.
After tidying herself up, Li Qiu passed through an alley and arrived at another street.
A few scattered zombies wandered around this street. They had probably drifted over after the espers left. There were about seven or eight of them, aimlessly roaming the road.
Li Qiu patted her chest, closed her eyes, and softly said, “Don’t be afraid. You’re a zombie too now. Who’s afraid of whom?” After saying that, she suppressed her fear and slowly shuffled past them.
Fortunately, these zombies merely kept emitting low growls and listened to the sounds around them. They did not spare her even a single extra glance.
Doesn’t this mean I can search for supplies without restraint in areas where zombies are active? This might be the only good thing about becoming a zombie. Li Qiu laughed.
She had read so many zombie novels and learned countless survival and hoarding techniques from them. Who would have thought that she herself would end up becoming a zombie?
She laughed a little too loudly, and the sound quickly attracted several zombie brothers who were close to her.
They turned around sluggishly, and seven or eight zombies surrounded Li Qiu completely. There was no expression on their wrinkled faces, only endless desire for food.
With drooping eye bags and identical grayish-white eyes, they all looked at Li Qiu and crowded around to sniff her.
Now that they were so close, Li Qiu could even see the bloodstains and bits of flesh lodged between their teeth. One zombie had half of its face bitten away by something, leaving a huge hole that exposed rotten flesh and bone beneath.
Although she had just eaten one hundred and seventy-eight zombies to fill her stomach, dead zombies and living zombies were two entirely different matters. Tears immediately sprang into Li Qiu’s eyes from fright, and she covered her mouth to stop herself from vomiting.
After calming herself a little, she quickly closed her eyes and stood perfectly still, screaming in her heart, Leave! Leave! Leave!
Li Qiu could not help thinking that although she was also a zombie, even a zombie like her who retained human memories could eat zombies. Then wouldn’t these stupid zombies eat her too?
Cold sweat poured down her back.
Why hadn’t she thought of this just now?!
Fortunately, these F-rank Walking Corpses had excellent zombie morals. They were only interested in fresh humans. As for a “kindred spirit” like Li Qiu who made strange noises, they merely sniffed her and then wandered elsewhere.
Even if they would not eat her, they were enough to scare her to death.
Li Qiu did not dare make trouble anymore and pursed her lips as she watched the zombies disperse.
Afterward, she honestly began searching for supplies starting from the first shop.
The nearest shop to her was a barbershop of about twenty square meters.
Since this was an old street, the barbershop also looked very old-fashioned. There was no fancy storefront, not even a proper signboard. There was only a piece of red paper pasted beside the rolling shutter, and the writing on it had already become blurred: Haircut, 10 yuan, no distinction between men and women.
So cheap. Li Qiu sniffed. She remembered that in her city, even the cheapest barbershop charged at least thirty-five yuan, and a slightly nicer place started at fifty yuan. Ten yuan for a haircut was practically a price from ten years ago.
Li Qiu stood at the entrance and poked her head inside. There was no one there, not even a zombie. There were only overturned chairs, a broom lying on its side, hair that had not been swept up from the floor, and cobwebs in the corners.
Li Qiu happily walked inside.
The walls of the barbershop were covered with portraits of celebrities popular in the 1990s, some glamorous and some gentle. A few withered spider plants sat in the corners. It was obvious that the owner of the barbershop had been someone who truly loved life.
It was just unknown where they had gone after the calamity.
Li Qiu did not think too much about it. Her attention was drawn to the mirror in front of her. No girl could resist looking into a mirror, even if only half of it remained after being shattered. Li Qiu gathered her dirty hair and carefully examined herself in the mirror.
Her hair was black and shoulder-length. Because she had spent her time as a zombie exposed to wind and rain, it was now not only greasy but also tangled, with even some clumps of dirt in it, resembling a messy bird’s nest.
Only the changes in her teeth made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. She reached out and touched them, discovering that one tooth on each side had grown longer and become very sharp.
But what delighted Li Qiu was that she found her pupils were their normal dark brown color rather than the grayish-white of zombies.
Her mood improved even more. She still looked like a person.
That way, her parents would not be afraid when they saw her.
There was no water, electricity, or food in the barbershop, so Li Qiu could only give up her wish of washing her hair and drinking some water.
But there were things in the barbershop that she wanted.
Things like wigs and combs were practically useless to humans after the calamity, and no one had bothered to take them. Now they had all become bargains for her.
Li Qiu carefully selected a long wig with slightly curled ends and put it on. After that, she added a light brown sun hat over the wig.
She even found some clean towels and hats.
Three combs with different tooth spacing, a palm-sized mirror, and two clean towels were all carefully stored in her backpack. Once she found water, she would be able to wipe her face with the towels.
As she watched the supplies in her backpack steadily increase, Li Qiu felt delighted.
When she had nearly finished searching the main hall of the barbershop, she discovered another door beside it that was slightly ajar.
Li Qiu licked her lips. She knew that many owners of old-fashioned shops lived directly in their stores. This meant there might be things inside that she desperately needed.
She slowly pushed open the peeling green door. It emitted a harsh creaking sound from years of neglect, causing Li Qiu’s heart to jump.
The scene before her eyes was something Li Qiu would never forget for the rest of her life.
She knew where the owner of the barbershop had gone.
The owner’s hair had already turned white, and he looked about the same age as Li Qiu’s late grandfather.
A pair of barber’s scissors had been stabbed into his neck, which had already become slightly skeletal. His blood had spread all over the tiny room that contained only a single bed and had long since dried to the point that its original color could no longer be discerned.
Beside the owner lay an old-fashioned money pouch. The large bills inside had long been taken away, leaving behind only a few one-yuan notes.
The owner had not been killed by zombies.
He had died at the hands of humans.
Li Qiu stood at the doorway in a daze for a long while, her stomach feeling as though someone had punched it. This made her even more nauseated than seeing over a hundred zombie corpses.
After who knew how long, she finally walked over and picked up the blanket nearby, covering the owner’s body with it.
“Namo Amitabha Ye.” Li Qiu recited this sentence to the owner’s corpse. She felt somewhat guilty for not paying attention in class during university. This line came from the Rebirth Mantra. Their teacher had mentioned it once during an elective course on Buddhist culture, and this was the only line she remembered.
Then Li Qiu turned around and closed the door.
Searching the first shop had plunged Li Qiu’s improved mood to the very bottom.
No one understood the fear in her heart at this moment.
She was afraid that her parents might end up like this owner.
What nonsense am I thinking? Mom and Dad are definitely waiting for me at home.
Li Qiu comforted herself while baring her teeth. The sharp fangs pressed against her tongue and allowed her to cast aside the distracting thoughts that would not leave her mind.
Li Qiu’s movements in searching for supplies became faster.
Perhaps heaven was compensating her, because she found quite a few good things afterward.
Especially in a hardware store, where she found a handy all-metal wrench.
The wrench felt heavy in her hand. In the past, Li Qiu would have needed to put it down after holding it for only a few seconds, but now she only found it a little heavy and did not feel uncomfortable at all.
Maybe I became stronger after eating my fill, Li Qiu thought.
Aside from the wrench, she also found an entire set of repair tools in the hardware store. The toolbox itself took up too much space, so she stuffed the screwdrivers, pliers, electrical tape, tape measure, voltage tester, and various other items directly into her backpack to save space.
Although these things were useless now, and some of them she did not even know how to use, they might come in handy in the future. Little zombie Li Qiu firmly believed in being prepared.
After all, if she wanted to go home, she still had to travel more than seven hundred kilometers.
And if she happened to get lost, that number would increase even more. Just thinking about it made her scalp tingle.
An old street was never lacking in little restaurants.
These small eateries were generally opened by local residents and sold cheap home-style dishes. In one of these restaurants, Li Qiu found some moldy white radishes, sprouted potatoes, and a pile of rotten vegetable leaves that she could not even identify.
She curled her lips and threw them aside, then turned around and joyfully hugged a large basin of water.
The kitchen of the small restaurant contained the kind of large red plastic basin commonly found in agricultural markets. It was about one meter deep and covered with a plastic lid of the same color.
When Li Qiu lifted the lid, she discovered that the water inside was still very clear, so clear that it could even reflect her image. It was enough to make a person feel refreshed.
She licked her cracked lips.
Actually, the black blood flowing inside zombie corpses worked the same way as water for her, and she had already drunk quite a bit of it before. But Li Qiu simply wanted to drink water.
Drinking water to quench her thirst made her feel like a human.
She picked up a soup bowl nearby, rinsed the dust out of it, and began scooping water into it frantically. One bowl, two bowls, three bowls.
After the third bowl, Li Qiu stopped.
Her gaze fell upon the large basin of water, and she felt somewhat miserable.
So after becoming a zombie, even drinking water no longer brought the same refreshing feeling as before. As the clear water slid down her throat, she could not feel any of its sweetness or purity. It brought her absolutely no satisfaction.
Li Qiu even felt as though she had swallowed a stomach full of air, stirring up her body that had previously felt full and making her hungry again.
Hungry…
The voice in her heart said.
“I’m not hungry!” Li Qiu shouted loudly.
She looked around, still hoping to find some food that humans could eat. Unless she was starving to the point of no choice, she still did not want to eat zombies. It was not because she could not bear to do it. It was because it was genuinely disgusting! Just thinking about those wrinkled skins, those pale eyes, and those wounds leaking black blood… Li Qiu felt like she wanted to die.
But the rice bin and flour bin in the little restaurant were both nearly empty.
Li Qiu only found a dead fish in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. Perhaps because it had been frozen too hard and had practically become one with the refrigerator, the owner had not had time to take it away.
But now, after a month without electricity, the refrigerator had completely thawed.
The dead fish had become a completely rotten fish.
“Get away!” Li Qiu threw the dead fish as far as she could and sat on the ground, panting.
She was tired, truly tired.
So hungry.
She touched her rumbling stomach and could no longer ignore the sound.
She had clearly eaten her fill only this morning, yet after merely half a day, that feeling of hunger had already returned with a vengeance, along with a sense of dizziness and weakness.
If the feeling became any stronger, she would definitely become too hungry to walk again. By then, she would not be as lucky as before and have zombie corpses conveniently waiting by her mouth. Wouldn’t that simply be waiting to die?
From afar, Li Qiu looked at the dead fish she had thrown onto the street, its head and tail separated from the impact.
Under the sunlight, the dead fish emitted a moist, glossy sheen.
“Forget it. Take a step back and the world becomes wider.” Li Qiu stood up, walked over, picked the dead fish up, rinsed it with water, and then stuffed it into her mouth.
Surviving was nothing to be ashamed of.
After the dead fish entered her stomach, that terrifying hunger finally eased a little.
Li Qiu left the street with her heavy backpack. Some new supplies had been added to it, such as a small pot, a kitchen knife, and a large handful of shriveled pickled vegetables. She could not bear to throw away a single thing.
Li Qiu still held the large wrench in her hand.
She planned to head to the road first and smash a car for practice.