"What?" Ling Ye hadn’t reacted yet when he was already pushed inside.
Su Mo directly closed the door from the outside.
Su Niang, who had hurried over because she was worried, felt her heart rise to her throat. She wanted to rush over and rescue the child but was pulled back by Li Qian’s firm grip, "Don’t go over there."
"But the child is innocent, even if you don’t like him... you can’t just," Su Niang’s eyes reddened.
"He won’t die," Li Qian sighed. "If Su Mo wanted him dead, why wait until now?"
Only then did Su Niang gradually calm down, indeed, she had known Miss Su for a long time, and someone as good as her couldn’t be that kind of person.
Lu Chen walked to Su Mo’s side and raised his eyebrows as he looked at the shrinking figure behind the glass.
"Doesn’t this scene seem familiar?" Su Mo looked up at him with a smile.
Lu Chen cleared his throat and then said, "It’s for your own good."
"So now I have to do what’s best for him," Su Mo kept her gaze fixed on the child’s movements behind the glass.
The zombie wasn’t fast either, and Ling Ye kept playing hide and seek with it.
"Auntie... don’t come over," Ling Ye kept backing away. The office was only so big, and there wasn’t much room to run.
The middle-aged zombie stretched out its hands, the sharp claws continuously reaching for him, with disgusting mucus dripping onto the floor, accompanied by a hissing roar.
Eventually, he was cornered against the wall, and the zombie, moving in a twisted gait, lunged towards him.
Ling Ye glanced at a Tang Blade on the ground and finally mustered the courage to crawl out from under the zombie, scrambling to grab the blade.
The Tang Blade was quite light, and it wasn’t very difficult for a child to wield. Holding it in front of his chest, he tried to threaten the zombie that kept closing in on him.
"Do you think he can do it?" Su Mo asked uncertainly upon seeing his hesitation.
"If he wants to live, he will," Lu Chen rubbed her head and said softly. "If he wants to die, you don’t have to bother with him."
He looked up at Ling Ye, who saw undisguised disdain in his cold eyes.
In a moment of distraction, he was knocked to the ground.
Su Mo’s hand, reaching to open the door to help, was caught by Lu Chen, "Wait a bit longer."
She had no choice but to stand outside the door.
The putrid smell and the zombie’s sharp teeth were exposed right before Ling Ye’s eyes. Suddenly, a crystal-clear realization hit him - if he didn’t fight back, he would die.
He eventually thrust the protecting Tang Blade forward.
His strength was weak; the blade only stuck a few centimeters into the zombie’s face, slicing one of its pale eyeballs in two. He pulled out the blade and crawled from under the zombie, continuously yelling, "Stay away!"
The zombie, as if deaf, lunged at him again, even faster this time.
Ling Ye had no choice but to close his eyes and hack at it several times.
Even though his gut spilt out from the blows, the zombie was still determined to attack him.
"Why... won’t it die," Ling Ye’s gaze began to drift as he remembered everything from Happiness District, picking up the truths he had been unwilling to admit.
Sharp teeth, rotting flesh, pale pupils... how could this be human.
He had always known that grandma would die from leukemia, and "rebirth" was just an unspoken wish in everyone’s heart; that’s why his mother told him not to blame them, the wrongdoers, weren’t they after all.
"Monster," he muttered softly, "It’s a monster."
When Su Mo let him out, the zombie’s body was haphazardly severed in two, held together only by a thin layer of skin.
He handed the blade back to her, and Su Mo received it and directly cut off the zombie’s head.
"You didn’t fulfill the requirement," Su Mo said to him softly.
"I knew it was a zombie," Ling Ye lifted his head, unable to restrain himself, he said to Su Mo, "If there ever comes a day, can I, bury my mother with my own hands?"
Su Mo’s heart softened, and she smiled, "You can."
Having faced zombies directly, Ling Ye was undergoing no small change inside.
At least, his great hostility towards Su Mo had disappeared.
Seeing him return unharmed, Su Niang hurried over and took him into her arms, patting his back gently, "You must have been scared, child."
Ling Ye’s eyes reddened, and a feeble whisper, "Grandma," brought tears to Su Niang’s eyes.
Rong Bai came down with a middle-aged man, pushing him forward to stand in the middle of the hall, "Tell us how to get out, don’t waste my effort."
The man was very thin, at least in Su Mo’s eyes, like a walking skeleton. A gentle push seemed to unbalance him.
Lu Chen frowned, and a bag of biscuits appeared in his hand, tossed over to the man who immediately caught it and started to devour it hungrily. Even when he choked, he would cover his mouth to prevent crumbs from flying out.
While eating, he said to Lu Chen, "My name is Zhang Jun, a Level 2 Spiritual Ability User, the chief engineer of Yan City’s underground pipelines."
"Talk about your route," Lu Chen said coldly.
After finishing the biscuits and feeling somewhat better, he shakily took out an old pipeline map from his pocket; several people gathered around.
"Is there no other way to go on the surface?" Rong Bai asked with a tense face.
"No," Su Mo shook her head, "I think half of Yan City’s zombies are there."
"Then after leaving the city, we will have to travel on foot. Brother, about your and sister-in-law’s ’Space’..." Rong Bai trailed off, his eyes carrying a hint of hope.
Lu Chen refused decisively, "At most, I can carry two."
This sprawling fleet of over twenty vehicles, being three times the original ’Level 3’ Space, amounts to a bit over a hundred square meters. Considering the living supplies already taking up space, at most two or three vehicles could fit; it simply wasn’t possible.
Su Mo summoned her panel and glanced over it roughly. It was filled with a lot of tea, the body of Ling Ye’s mother, food, and a bunch of miscellaneous items. With only fifteen slots, she had no empty ones left to store vehicles, and she too shook her head, "The same here, it’s full."
Rong Bai didn’t press further. Looking at the line of large vehicles outside, he increased his estimate of potential casualties.
Zhang Jun pointed out the pipeline route towards the city exit, which would go through a vast network of electric cables. The passages within were intricate and complex, making it easy to get lost if one wasn’t careful.
Li Qian examined the map for a while and asked Zhang Jun in a soft voice, "Have you encountered mutated spiders?"
Zhang Jun shook his head honestly, "No, my companion and I have been trapped on the twelfth floor for nearly a month. There are too many zombies below; we couldn’t descend."
He couldn’t help but feel saddened at the thought of his companion who had starved to death.
Su Mo glanced at Li Qian and then at Lu Chen, feeling a bit heavy-hearted.
"Are the electrical wires in the pipeline still usable?" Lu Chen suddenly asked.
Zhang Jun nodded, "Although they can’t supply power to the city, there is still some residual electricity."
"Where is the gas pipeline?" Lu Chen asked again.
"Most of it is above the power lines," Yang Jun explained as he pointed them out on the map.
"Hmm," Lu Chen stood up, took Su Mo’s hand, and walked outside, "Let’s leave the city before it gets dark."
After a series of questions, Li Qian, shrewd as he was, had already guessed what Lu Chen was planning. Rong Bai, seeing Lu Chen’s demeanor, knew he must have a plan and breathed a sigh of relief.