Chapter 56

This residential building had been modified by the survivors—the entrance on the ground floor was piled with hundreds of walls moved from various rooms. They were in disarray, serving only to block the advance of the zombies. A few water pipes had been cut through the middle with a drill, turned into simple communication devices linking each floor. In emergencies, the guards downstairs only needed to bang on the pipes, and those upstairs would hear. However, the sound transmission was useful not just in dangerous times; even in normal situations, if the voices downstairs were a bit louder, those upstairs could hear clearly.

Lu Tao had been in the team for several months and was well aware of these things. Although the bald man did not say it outright, his facial expressions and gestures were filled with a strong warning.

Is there danger?

Lu Tao's heart suddenly tightened, and he subconsciously gripped the knife in his hand. Seeing these actions, the bald man's brows furrowed even more, and he shook his head vigorously, putting his fingers to his lips, his fingertips and eyes pointing upward. Although he did not speak, his gestures conveyed an increasingly strong sense of danger.

Clearly, he wanted Lu Tao to leave quickly.

The upper floors were very quiet, with no one speaking or walking. This indicated that the danger did not come from the zombies sealed above the sixth floor but from another source.

The survivors in this residential building formed a team, but it did not necessarily mean they were safe. The environment magnified the ugliest parts of human nature—almost every hour, the building witnessed robberies, rapes, deceptions, and tricks. If not for a special purpose, no one would leave their room.

Reason told Lu Tao that he must leave immediately.

After about half a minute of silence, he did not turn to leave but instead tightened his grip on the knife and took a step into the building.

The bald man became anxious, grabbing Lu Tao's arm and pulling it, while glaring and baring his teeth, making a throat-cutting gesture with his right hand.

He still did not speak, his tightly clenched teeth and open lips forming a terrifying expression.

It was the word "death."

A brief, heart-wrenching silence.

Lu Tao's mind raced with countless thoughts.

Undoubtedly, someone was waiting upstairs to deal with him. The safest and most prudent course of action would be to leave immediately and seek help from Su Hao's camp.

But he had to go up—other things in the room could be left behind, but the photo album he brought from home could not be lost. It was something his father had asked him to bring on the day of the arranged meeting. The parents of the other party and his own parents were good friends, and they all wanted to see Lu Tao's childhood photos. From birth to now, over two hundred photos recorded happy moments.

Without them, Lu Tao did not know what meaning life would have.

He was worried that the things in the room would be ransacked. The most ruthless people in the team would do anything. Lu Tao had to do everything to protect the last precious things in his life.

Leaving now and finding help to come back later would undoubtedly be the safest and most prudent course of action.

However, if those people knew he had been back, they might burn everything in the room.

Lu Tao did not dare take that risk. On the scale of life and belief, he had to choose the latter.

Lu Tao smiled at the anxious bald man, patted his shoulder, and walked up the stairs.

...

The hallway was dimly lit, and Lu Tao's body was tense as he cautiously ascended step by step. With each floor, a few shadowy figures would appear in the corridor. They held various homemade weapons, gathered around, and watched Lu Tao with mocking, cold eyes, following his footsteps.

Lu Tao soon reached the door of his room. He saw a tall, muscular man standing nearby, holding a wooden stick with many nails at the top, his face twisted with an evil smile.

Lu Tao recognized this man—his surname was Xie, and his name was forgotten, but he had a nickname, "Scorpion."

No one knew what Scorpion did before, but they knew he was very strong, and no one in the building could match him. Many people were willing to partner with him for outings, and gradually, Scorpion gathered a group of survivors, mostly strong men and some young women who were good-looking but lacked the ability to go out and find food.

Lu Tao never provoked trouble and kept his distance from Scorpion and his group, having no conflicts with them. Thinking about this, he felt puzzled, wondering why they would set up such a targeted formation against him?

Lu Tao switched the knife in his right hand to his left, took out the key from his pocket, and prepared to open the door. As he inserted the key into the lock, he glanced at Scorpion, noticing that the man's smile grew even colder, and the people in the corridor and on the stairs gathered closer.

After a moment's thought, Lu Tao turned the key and opened the door. He did not rush in but stepped aside, making enough space, and calmly said to Scorpion, "Is there something you need?"

Scorpion was slightly surprised, clearly not expecting Lu Tao to speak to him. He looked at the young man, who did not show any hostility, and then grinned without a trace of warmth, striding into the room and casually looking around before sitting on the sofa. The others quickly followed, surrounding him like stars around the moon.

Lu Tao was the last to enter the room. He silently observed the situation, his mind racing with various emergency thoughts.

"College student, you're living quite comfortably!"

Scorpion picked up a backpack full of food, unzipped it, and took out a pack of Oreo cookies, tearing it open and stuffing it into his mouth. He chewed and sneered, "Our brothers are almost starving, but you have plenty of food. Hmm! Let me see what good things you have."

As he spoke, he turned the backpack upside down, and everything inside spilled out. On the floor, several cans of fermented bean fish, a few packs of pickled vegetables, compressed biscuits, and braised eggs, as well as some well-packaged sausages, rolled out.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk!"

Scorpion's eyes gleamed with greed. He picked up a can that had rolled to his feet, grabbed another backpack, and grinned with anticipation and malice, "Hehe! All bottled water, so much. College student, you must be quite diligent! You've quietly gathered so many good things. Look! So much, enough to feed us for several days. Maybe we should have a feast tonight."

Lu Tao carefully observed the expressions on everyone's faces.

He confirmed again that he had no conflicts of interest with Scorpion and his group, and had never had any conflicts. Especially the words Scorpion just said, which slightly lowered his previously high-strung heart.

"You're right. I shouldn't be hoarding so much food by myself."

Lu Tao put down the backpack, walked to the wardrobe, opened the door, and took out a can of stored candy, then dragged two bags of rice from under the bed. Finally, he brought out several pieces of cured meat stored in the wind-protected area of the balcony, covered with a raincoat, and placed them in front of everyone.

He was indeed very frugal and diligent. As the various foods piled up in the center of the floor, the crowd's mouths opened in surprise. Some gasped, some shook their heads, and some had eyes that shone with greed, eager to grab the food for themselves.

Finally, Lu Tao dragged out a basin of flatbreads from under the bed, spread his hands, and said very sincerely to Scorpion, "These are for everyone."

Scorpion narrowed his eyes, looking at him, and the nail-studded stick in his right hand tapped against his left palm.

Lu Tao's behavior was unexpected.

According to the original plan, Scorpion intended to teach this young man a lesson and take everything in the room.

He had done this many times, targeting those in the team who went out most frequently and brought back the most. Although resources were abundant outside, the area was full of zombies, far less safe than inside the building. It was better to "hunt" within the team than to work hard to find food outside. Especially the look of fear and helplessness on the victims' faces always gave Scorpion a special thrill.

Scorpion thought Lu Tao would resist, struggle, and fight back—Lu Tao was no match for his group, and Scorpion planned to cripple him, break his limbs, and throw him off the building.

Many people in the building had recently become less obedient, bringing back less "tribute" after outings. Scorpion needed to kill a few people to establish his authority and make the schemers understand the true meaning of "rules." He wanted them to know who was in charge in this building!

Lu Tao was very reasonable, handing over all the food and showing a sincere attitude.

This impeccable behavior made Scorpion feel a bit awkward—clearly, the college student had not hidden anything. The flatbreads in the basin had a bite mark on one, indicating they were meant to be eaten later.

Scorpion stroked his smooth chin, his eyes dark as they roamed over Lu Tao.

The situation was different from what he had expected.

Since the other party had already handed over the items and did not resist, continuing to beat or kill him would be against the rules. Otherwise, others would think he was ruthless and avoid him.

Lu Tao walked to the bed, lifted the mattress, and took out the cherished photo album, holding it tightly.

This action caught Scorpion's attention.

He took the photo album, flipped through it, found it uninteresting, and threw it back to Lu Tao, half-threatening and half-mocking, "I like dealing with smart people like you. Very nice, you understand the situation well, much better than those stubborn ones. Hahaha... looks like your college education wasn't wasted."

Lu Tao did not argue, just stood to the side, coldly watching the intruders grab the food, divide it up, and leave happily.

When the hallway returned to silence, Lu Tao walked out of the room. He locked the door as usual, put the photo album in his backpack, took his weapon, and silently walked down the stairs.

The bald man was still guarding the entrance on the first floor. He looked at Lu Tao with pity, bent down, and took a corn and soybean bun from a nearby cabinet, handing it to him.

"I told you not to go up... but hiding isn't a solution, you'll have to come back eventually. It's good you didn't fight them. If you lose something, it's just a loss. A wise man doesn't fight a losing battle. There are many places outside where you can find food, it just takes more time."

Lu Tao forced a smile, took a bite of the bun. He had been out with Wei Wenyuan since morning and had not eaten anything on the way. The scene that just happened was intense, and only now, as his nerves relaxed, did he truly feel hungry.

The bun was hard, but for the very hungry Lu Tao, it tasted delicious.

He chewed hard and asked, "Why did Scorpion suddenly target me?"

"He will target everyone, just a matter of time and order."

The bald man cautiously looked around, lowering his voice, "How did you offend Li Jie? Don't you know that woman is a promiscuous and aggressive slut?"

"Li Jie?"

Lu Tao suddenly looked up, his face full of surprise.

"Yes!"

The bald man continued, "She went to Scorpion yesterday, offering to sleep with him for free in exchange for him breaking your legs or cutting off your hands. Scorpion asked why, and she said you slept with her but were too stingy to give her even a cookie. Everyone in the building knows what kind of person Li Jie is, and Scorpion didn't believe her, so he took off his pants and brutally raped her, then slapped her a few times."

"What happened next?"

Lu Tao asked expressionlessly. He knew the matter was not that simple.

"This morning, Li Jie found Scorpion again. This time, she changed her story, saying you had a lot of food in your room, enough for a dozen people for five or six days. She was afraid Scorpion wouldn't believe her and would beat her again, so she counted it out for him on her fingers."

"Counted?"

Lu Tao chewed the dry bun, asking in confusion, "How did she count?"

"Counted the time and frequency of your outings and returns."

The bald man smacked his lips, his voice becoming even lower, "That woman is crazy. She secretly watched you, recording the number of times and the duration of your outings over the past few weeks. She said your frequency was higher than anyone else's, and you always brought back at least two full backpacks each time. Scorpion has been looking for someone to target, and with Li Jie's information, he naturally chose you. Fortunately, you were smart enough not to cling to those things. Otherwise, Scorpion would really have killed you. Li Jie is both promiscuous and crazy, and Scorpion is not much better."

Lu Tao stuffed the last piece of the bun into his mouth, chewed it fiercely, and swallowed it. He shook off the crumbs from his hands, looked at the bald man, and said seriously, "I know a place..."

"Are you talking about cigarettes and alcohol?"

The bald man quickly interrupted, looking around worriedly, and whispered, "We'll talk about this in a few days. We don't have enough to share with Scorpion's group yet. I don't want to..."

"No, that's not what I mean."

Lu Tao corrected the bald man, "I know a survivor team with many people. They have weapons, food, and water, and their defenses are very secure. Most importantly, they are united and don't have people like Scorpion."

The bald man's eyes lit up, "Really?"

Lu Tao nodded, opened his backpack, and shook the photo album inside, saying, "If it weren't for this, I would have stayed there already. Let's go together! Living with a bunch of lunatics, we'll end up dying at their hands."

The bald man hesitated, his face showing difficulty, "Leave now? It's going to be dark soon, and there are zombies everywhere outside."

Lu Tao fastened the straps of his backpack, his tone firm, "Staying overnight is not safe. Zombies only have teeth and claws, but lunatics have knives."

The last sentence made the bald man think of Scorpion's ruthlessness. He felt cold sweat on his back and nodded subconsciously.

A few minutes later, the two of them moved the furniture blocking the building's entrance, came out, and found bicycles in the green belt.

Looking at the bicycles, Lu Tao instinctively thought of his target from this morning and asked, "Where's Wei Wenyuan? Why haven't I seen him?"

The bald man replied, "I don't know. He hasn't come back since he left."

...

Despite the survivors using felt to cover the windows, a faint light still seeped through the edges. In the dark night, these blurry lights gave the small bank building a faint outline.

Wei Wenyuan stood in a small clothing store on the street. Through the broken glass door, he could see a tricycle parked outside.

The store was about a kilometer from the small bank building, in a secluded area with no zombies nearby.

In addition to Wei Wenyuan, there was another man in the store. He lay in the corner, his hands and feet tightly bound, seemingly asleep.

Wei Wenyuan looked at his watch, approached the unconscious man, took out a knife, and patted the man's face to wake him up. The man's reaction was slow, angering Wei Wenyuan. He gripped the knife and slashed the man's face, cutting off his entire ear.

The sudden pain jolted the man awake, and he instinctively tried to scream but found his mouth tightly bound with a strap.

In the dim moonlight, the man finally saw Wei Wenyuan's old, sinister face.

"Old... Old Wei?"

His words were muffled, but the man's meaning was somewhat clear.

He and Wei Wenyuan were both survivors in the residential building.

This afternoon, the man met Old Wei in a square in the south of the city. He greeted him as usual, wanting to invite him to nearby stores to see if there were any unexpected finds. But he never expected Wei Wenyuan to hit him from behind with a stick.

Then... it was now.

Wei Wenyuan held the knife, his smile unsettling.

The man's eyes nearly bulged out. He struggled desperately, writhing on the ground like a seal.

He couldn't understand why this old man, who had been fine before, suddenly became like this.

What was he going to do with the knife? Kill him?

This thought grew stronger, and Wei Wenyuan stood silently, coldly watching the man. He saw the man's face full of fear, his complexion turning pale, his breathing rapid, and his muffled "uh uh" sounds coming from his bound mouth.