Wu Ming and the other two kept watch until 12 o’clock midnight, after which He Jin woke up for the second half. When He Jin got up, Gong Lixin also opened his eyes and he wasn’t disorientated despite the darkness.

  The two that took over the guard shift first went to take a look at the three meter wall and at the zombies still roaring from time to time. When they saw that none of the zombies could scale the wall, the two men relaxed slightly and returned to the first floor hall. He Jin offered for Gong Lixin to continue sleeping but Gong Lixin waved his hand and said, "No."

  The child was barely able to convince him and this made him show his displeasure. However, his heart was more selfish. Obviously, everyone here was also a child but with Gong Lixin, he didn’t see any arrogance or selfishness. Compared to Lu Yun, the difference was so stark it was like heaven and earth. It was quite worrisome.

  The lobby was empty and the gray concrete wall was bare and exposed, giving off a heavy dusty smell. There were no lights in the building due to the lack of electric wiring, making it quite dark. The only light came from a small flashlight in He Jin’s hand. Of course, even if there were lights, they didn’t dare turn on the lights. The zombies were sensitive to sound and were as equally sensitive to light.

  The night was long, the zombies were noisy outside while there was silence inside the hall. He Jin turned towards the child and whispered, "Why didn’t you go to the army with your father? Otherwise, you would not have been left behind now."

  "He might have been afraid that, since I am young, I would add chaos to the situation. The people in the army were gathered and guns were distributed but it was not as safe as staying at home." Gong Lixin was exceptionally intelligent and could understand Gong Yuanhang’s pains with little thought.

  "I see!" He Jin sneered, his expression extremely dissatisfied. "He leaves you home alone and calls it safe? If it were me, I would take you with me at all times."

  Gong Lixin waved his hand and denied, "No, my sister was also at home."

  "Your sister still let you go out of the house?" He Jin’s brows scrunched up so tight that his face became darker than the night sky outside.

  Gong Lixin’s jaw dropped open in surprise. His eyes drooped as well and he didn’t talk anymore after that. He didn’t want to complain to anyone about Gong Xiangyi intentionally hiding this fact. After all, the other party was his sister. Moreover, she just let him go out and hadn’t done anything to directly harm him. This was still within his level of tolerance. It was just slightly more troublesome to get to safety.

  The child’s eyelashes cast two fan-like shadows under the illumination of the flashlight, covering the emotions in his eyes. But inexplicably, He Jin could feel his despair and disappointment from his huddled body.

  He heard that the child and his sister had the same father but had different mothers. The blood was separated by a degree and the relationship also didn’t seem to be that good on the surface. He Jin made up his mind, stretched his hand towards the child and patted his back with care while the surrounding darkness hid the coldness in his eyes. He hadn’t even met the other party but He Jin’s impression of Gong Xiangyi already hit rock bottom.

  He doesn’t want Gong Lixin to wallow in his sadness so He Jin sighed and told stories of some of his adventures when he was still a mercenary. The sixteen-year-old teenager was very interested in these types of heroic stories. Gong Lixin couldn’t help but listen to them and soon, his spirit lifted.

  Unconsciously, an hour passed. He Jin stopped talking and took out two bottles of coffee from the plastic bag and handed it to Gong Lixin, taking two for himself.

  At the same time, the homeless man who was cowering in a corner slowly sat up and looked at the two people from afar before walking over to Gu Nan’s and Ma Jun’s side.

  When he walked to where the two people lay, he looked back at He Jin and Gong Lixin. He saw that they were just watching him with cold eyes but didn’t move. This gave him courage to reach out and touch Gu Nan’s grocery bag. The grocery bag made a rustling sound and the beggar’s movements halted. He fixed his eyes on the two sleeping people.

  Gu Nan turned over but didn’t wake up while Ma Jun lay on his back, snoring. The homeless man relaxed; he slowly and carefully took out a box of biscuits from the bag before slowly stepping back to his original position. He then broke open the bag of biscuit, impatient to dig in.

  Before the apocalypse, he still had a prosperous life. Even when the beggar went through the trash can by the roadside, he could always find something to fill his stomach, making it harder to go hungry than his peers from decades earlier. His peers had it rough. He had slept for three days under the sun and when he woke up, he was chased and was almost killed by his zombie companion. He managed to get through such a thrilling moment. Now, it was the middle of the night and he was so hungry his chest hurt. The food was in his hand so it was inevitable that he moved with eagerness, making a big ruckus in the process.

  Regardless of the danger, the homeless man shoved biscuits into his mouth, unafraid of the noise he made. At the same time, Gu Nan and Ma Jun were awakened by the crisp sound of a bag of biscuits being opened. With their flashlight beam, they saw the beggar in the corner. They immediately got angry and rushed towards the man.

  "Fuck! I was reluctant to make a move on you and look what I get. You dare to steal in the middle of the night! I am going to kill you!" Ma Jun originally had an impulsive and easily irritable temper. With the sudden arrival of the apocalypse, he became even moodier and more short-tempered. Seeing the beggar steal the food they brought back after risking their lives, he turned red from anger. He rushed up and grabbed the biscuits before punching and kicking the beggar.

  Gu Nan just stood on the sidelines and looked on. All the despair and violence suppressed in his heart rushed to the forefront and he strode up to the beggar to give him a fierce kick. He seemed calm but he was fiercer than Ma Jun. His foot kicked the beggar’s vitals, as if he was trying to kill the person.

  It was a common practice to get beaten after touching the king’s meal. The beggar thought that after the two of them had enough, they would let him go and walk away, their heads held high. However, it was obvious Gu Nan’s and Ma Jun’s hits were getting stronger, their eyes fierce, clearly trying to kill him. He became afraid as the pain got more and more intense. He opened his mouth and screamed out loud.

  Wu Ming, Wang Tao, and Lu Yun woke up one after another, frowning at Gu Nan and Ma Jun who obviously lost their minds to commit such atrocities. Yet, when they turned toward He Jin, they saw him sitting in the same place as before, ignoring the whole thing. They were not sure whether to go up and help or not. The walking corpses with sharp ears also heard the noise inside the building and approached in groups of twos and threes.

  Gong Lixin’s ear moved slightly. He knew that he had to stop their quarreling. With two fingers, he picked up a stone and shot it at Gu Nan.

  The stone brushed past Gu Nan’s cheek lightning fast, leaving a thin blood trail. It moved past Gu Nan’s head, embedding itself in the concrete wall behind him with a dull thud.

  Gu Nan turned his head to look incredulously at the small hole piercing the wall before he touched his slightly stinging cheek, feeling a warm and thick liquid there.

  A stone, just a stone, but in the youth’s hand it was even more powerful than a bullet. If this stone was just a little bit off, what would have happened to his head? Gu Nan did not dare think of the possibility. He stiffened in place, his limbs beginning to quake in fear of death.

  Ma Jun had long been scared stiff and became white as a paper. When he saw Gong Lixin’s indifference, he couldn’t help but twitch. The legendary martial arts master actually existed! That one thought kept repeating in his mind. When Gong Lixin broke the Tang blade, he also imagined the kind of power held in those fingers. He didn’t expect Gong Lixin to turn his imagination into reality. The shock it brought exceeded his comprehension. .

  He Jin was stunned by the young boy and thought: Lixin’s shot didn’t look like an ability user’s power but more like the skill of a legendary martial artist. However, as far as he knows, modern masters of hidden sects were not that good and were unable to do so much. Moreover, Lixin’s palms were smooth and it was obvious at first glance that he was not a person who practiced martial arts since childhood. It seemed that Lixin’s ability was likely to be some sort of power class. If it was the power ability, then one could jump a few meters high and throw stone as if it was a bullet.

  Wu Ming, Wang Tao, and Lu Yun had already seen Young Master Gong’s sharp shooting before, but they were still constantly being shocked by the sight and thus, repeatedly worshiped Young Master Gong. Currently, all three people were completely awake and ran towards Gu Nan and Ma Jun, pulling them away. They surrounded the small hole. Lu Yun even reached out towards the hole and tried to dig out the stone to make it into a memorial.

  Gu Nan and Ma Jun let themselves be moved. They couldn’t summon their violent anger from before. They just kept looking at Gong Lixin with both shock and fear, their bodies secretly quaking. The beggar also stopped whimpering, licked the blood and water from his nose, and looked on with fear and reverence towards the small shadow.

  "It’s better to leave this kind of feeling to killing zombies." The voice of the youth rang out in the hall. "Wrap his wounds. The zombies are very sensitive to sound and the smell of blood. Now, there’s at least a wall of hundreds of zombies waiting to bite your flesh."

  The youngster’s words fell on everyone’s ears and everyone noticed the roar of the zombies had become several decibels higher than before.

  Gu Nan’s and Ma Jun’s sense had already returned and the teenager’s words made them feel ashamed and awkward. They quickly stepped forward, taking the simple medical case handed to them. This was from Wu Ming’s loot from the small pharmacy on the street in the previous afternoon.

  Ma Jun pulled out two bandages and quickly covered the wounds on Gu Nan’s palm and cheek. When they had met Young Master Gong, Gu Nan got injured in action twice. After Gu Nan had been bandaged, he saw the state of the beggar’s nose and silently pushed the medical box to the other’s side.

  "Wasn’t it just two biscuits? Why fight to death for it? We were almost besieged by zombies! Tch, so petty!!" Lu Yun didn’t get the stone out but he stopped and turned to sneer at Gu Nan.

  Gu Nan and Ma Jun didn’t dare complain at this point. Their only remaining pride had already been ground into dust by Young Master Gong and could not be recovered anymore.

  Lu Yun felt bored so he took a bottle of milk and a piece of bread from his bag of food and threw it in front of the beggar. He said, "Hey, I’ll give this to you. Eat it and get energy! If you can endure getting beaten up, why don’t you go find food for yourself? Starvation is death, and death is death but if it were me, I’d choose a cool method to die! Be a man!"

  Lu Yun’s words were very annoying to listen to so the beggar ignored them all. He held the milk and bread with both hands and looked towards Lu Yun and Gong Lixin. He opened his mouth to say ’Thank you, two young masters’ but his eyes got blurry instead. Tears rushed down his face creating two deep grooves.

  He was already desperate, waiting for the zombie beggar that was killed to take his life. But not only was he still alive, his heart was also alive, and even his silent soul was alive. He had never been so eager to stand up for his own, make a better man of himself, and not carelessly disappoint the two young masters.

  The apocalypse was like Pandora’s box. Not only did it bring with it darkness and destruction but hope as well. One just had to know how to choose.

  The beggar stuffed his bleeding nose with cotton wool and then looked at the bread and milk. He gratefully stared at Gong Lixin for a while before slowly approaching him and opening with caution, "Young master wants to leave here through the sewers to head towards the military district compound? I know how to go there. I used to live in the underground pipeline for two years so I am familiar with its inner workings."

  When he had woken up, he heard the five people talking about how to leave. The beggar was not familiar with them at the time so he had remained silent. Now, it was important to repay Lu Yun and Gong Lixin for their help.

  Everyone heard his words and their eyes immediately lit up.