Half an hour later, Xie Chiyuan repaired the car and got back on the road.
"You must protect yourselves."
Yu An sat in the car, waving to the students: "You must find the base! If you run into trouble, you can mention my name and Xie Chiyuan's name!"
The students nodded, their energetic faces beaming with hope.
They will try their best to survive!
Yu An turned her head and kept looking at them until they were completely out of sight before turning her gaze away and sitting down again.
In Yu An's pocket were several IOUs written by the students for the items they had just received. At the bottom of the IOUs were the signatures of all three students.
Yang Xiaohui, Chen Nan, Chen You.
Yu An put away the signed note, looking forward to seeing them again in the future.
The car is very durable; the slightly flattened front end does not affect driving at all.
With Xie Chiyuan barely resting and driving at full throttle for two days straight, they finally arrived at the no-man's-land.
As soon as he got out of the car, Yu An began searching.
He crouched in the grass, trying to find any tiger cub fur. It was the season for tiger cubs to shed their fur.
Xie Chiyuan grabbed him by the back of his collar and lifted him up: "Good boy, now that you're here, you can't run away, you little tiger."
His gaze swept around, while he held Yu An in one hand and Qiu Qiu in the other: "Instead of looking for your tiger cub's fur, you might as well look for the mark Pei Si left for us."
If Pei Si came here, she would definitely try to leave a mark for them.
Yu An and Qiu Qiu were taken away at the same time.
Xie Chiyuan hid the car, took his weapons and a simple bundle, and stepped into the no-man's-land.
Chuchu also received a handgun.
"If you encounter danger, shoot, or come to me." Xie Chiyuan pinched the tip of his wing, ignoring his wide-eyed stare, and then cheekily rubbed it.
Chirp huffed and puffed, then folded its little wings in a flash: "I can fight!"
Xie Chiyuan thought about his poor little wings that had been tormented, and wondered if they had healed yet.
He clicked his tongue: "Your older brother doesn't want to see you fighting."
Upon hearing this, Yu An echoed, "That's right, you can't fight without Big Brother's permission."
With her eldest brother's personal instruction, Qiuqiu had no choice but to agree.
The two cautiously entered the no-man's-land, and Xie Chiyuan didn't forget to take credit: "An'an, did I act like a parent just now?"
Yu An: "..."
Yu An: "You're so childish!"
After walking for an unknown amount of time, the two stopped at the same time. Chirp, nestled in Yu An's arms, also perked up its little ears alertly.
They all heard it!
Xie Chiyuan pulled Yu An and quickly hid in the low bushes behind them. The three of them held their breath, listening for the slightest movement around them.
The sounds became increasingly clear.
It wasn't until they got closer that Yu An realized they were a group of humans who had just killed the zombies and were dragging their corpses.
These men, shirtless and dragging zombies, were still chatting and laughing: "We can finish work early today. When we get back, we can rip their heads off and exchange them for a lot of good stuff."
"Yes, with Grandpa around, these zombies are like dumb geese. We can slaughter as many as we want!"
The group spoke highly of Grandpa, saying that without him, they probably wouldn't have been able to kill so many zombies.
Yu An and Xie Chiyuan exchanged a glance, and both had an idea.
They slowed their pace and followed the group.
After walking for a good thirty or forty minutes, Yu An and Xie Chiyuan followed these people and met the old man they were talking about, an old man who was wrapped up tightly from head to toe.
This old man wasn't actually that old; after all, he still stood up straight, and his face didn't look as aged and frail as other elderly people.
However, his full head of silver hair and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes clearly indicated that he was not young.
"Grandpa, this is the zombie we brought back today. Do you want us to knock its head off?"
"Thank you for your help."
"It's no trouble at all."
The zombies' heads were knocked off one by one. The old man took out food from the room and distributed it to them, then watched them leave.
After the man left, Yu An clearly saw the old man eat the crystal cores, still covered in brain matter, one by one.
His coat accidentally came undone, revealing his neck covered in bite marks and his arms that had turned blue.
Yu An stared in astonishment, turning her head to look at Xie Chiyuan.
Xie Chiyuan pinched his mouth shut, preventing him from making a sound.
When Qiuqiu saw that her older brother's mouth was being pinched, she immediately tried to pry Xie Chiyuan's arm off.
None of the three made a sound. After the old man entered the house, they quietly moved to a secluded spot some distance away from the house.
Now that everyone was gone, Yu An was finally able to speak: "That old man was a zombie."
He speculated uncertainly, "I just don't know if he's a zombie king like Sun Mo."
The Zombie King has the ability to control and command other zombies. There might not be even one Zombie King among ten thousand ordinary zombies.
Xie Chiyuan's analysis was quite rational: "He's not as good as Sun Mo. If Sun Mo wanted to eat, he only needed to stay in place and other zombies would come to his door to deliver food."
This old man still needs someone to bring him takeout.
Even if this old man is weaker than Sun Mo, he is certainly not a simple character. Furthermore, he chooses to feed on the crystal cores of his own kind, not human flesh and blood.
From this perspective, perhaps he, like Sun Mo, harbored no ill will towards humanity.
There were many living people in this no-man's-land, and the number of zombies was significantly less than in other places. Moreover, when they encountered the zombies head-on, the zombies strangely did not rush at them, but just stood there like dumb geese.
One zombie even turned and ran away after witnessing them snap the necks of other zombies.
Looking at the fleeing zombies, and then thinking about the old zombie who didn't eat people, Yu An couldn't help but say, "Xie Chiyuan, I don't think this place is that scary."
Xie Chiyuan rubbed his head and reminded him, "Don't let your guard down."
Night fell before we knew it.
Xie Chiyuan found a temporary place to rest, an abandoned wooden house, which was very simple.
The cabin contained only a table and a bed; nothing else.
Xie Chiyuan rummaged through his backpack and took out some basic equipment. After tidying up the bed, he told them to go to sleep: "I'll stand guard at the door, you guys sleep."
Yu An thought for a moment and said, "We'll take turns. I'll take over the night shift."
Xie Chiyuan leaned over and kissed his forehead: "Okay."
He said that, but Xie Chiyuan didn't actually intend to wake Yu An. He could stay awake, but his An'an needed to get a good night's sleep.
Sitting on the made-up bed, Qiuqiu didn't even notice her older brother and Xie Chiyuan's movements.
Since arriving here, Chiu Chiu has had a strange feeling. He can't describe it, but it makes him very uncomfortable.
"Big brother."
Chirping called to Yu An, pleading, "Come sleep with Chirping."
Yu An responded and went over to sleep with him.
The bed was small, so the two of them squeezed together, with Qiuqiu curling up her arms and legs. In the dim light of the night, Qiuqiu whispered to Yu An, "Big Brother."
Yu An hugged him tightly; "What's wrong?"
Chirp chirped softly beside him, "Meow meow is here. Big brother, do you like Meow meow or Chirp chirp?"
If both babies were present, Yu An would probably treat them equally and reply, "I like them both."
But right now, only Chiu Chiu is there. So Yu An coaxed Chiu Chiu: "I like Chiu Chiu, I like Chiu Chiu, Meow Meow likes Chiu Chiu too, everyone likes Chiu Chiu."
Chiu Chiu was finally satisfied with this answer.
Just when they thought everything was calm, deep in the no-man's-land, a lab technician in a white lab coat was smiling as he touched the zombie in front of him.
This zombie was none other than the one that had escaped from Xie Chiyuan and Yu An.
"Good boy."
The lab technician, wearing white gloves, touched the zombie's head. He said, "You did a great job. Now, as a reward, you can go and enjoy some fresh food."
After roaring and delivering the message, the zombie excitedly went to eat.
The lab technician chatted with his colleague, laughing, "We didn't expect anyone to come looking for us while we're living here. Xie Chiyuan, A05... Is the one with wings A10?"
His interest grew stronger: "Send A05 away. Those high-order aberrations have always been close. If you provoke one of them, it will easily attract the others."
Xie Chiyuan, or rather A10, were their prey.
His companion hummed in agreement and casually asked, "If it's really confirmed to be A10, and A05 is involved, won't our attempt to capture A10 provoke him?"
"Won't."
The lab technician in the white coat chuckled, "The early aberrations of the A sequence don't seem to have much compassion. Go ahead and finalize the capture plan."
"OK."
They had barely finished speaking when A05 approached. Standing next to him was a ramrod-straight man who raised an eyebrow at them and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm A05's brother—"
As soon as he finished speaking, he was slapped on the back.
Pei Si almost coughed up blood from the slap, but he calmly supported the tiger beside him and changed his words, saying, "I am A05's younger brother, A4."
Pei Si, A4.
He even took A05's surname directly; that's a huge sacrifice.
A05 glared coldly at the man spouting nonsense, letting out two low growls as a warning. He had never seen such a presumptuous human being; in just a few days, all his patience had been completely exhausted by this man.
Faced with A05's warning, Pei Si smiled slightly and lowered her voice to persuade him: "Brother, my dad is truly a one-in-a-million good man. He's strong and loves his wife. It's not shameful for you to come and acknowledge my dad with me."
"Shut up."