Luo Xiaole clutched her small pocket and walked towards the small shop.
From afar, she heard the younger brother's loud voice, "Boss! The supplies we got today are even more than yesterday! This is enough for us to eat for ten days."
Luo Xiaole happened to pass by the window of the small shop and saw a scene that surprised her.
Zuo Ran was silently approaching Mo Chen.
With a confident smile, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, slowly moved to Mo Chen's side, and sat down.
Then, shyly, she whispered something to Mo Chen.
Mo Chen leaned against the wall, his head tilted.
Not only did he not move away, but he even nodded his head in agreement.
Then, for some reason, Zuo Ran's face lit up with joy.
She skipped away with small, cheerful steps.
Big Pompadour, along with others, entered the shop.
"Zuo Ran, I heard you like chocolate? I specifically went to find some for you today," he said proudly, pulling out a complete gift box of chocolates, looking quite magnificent.
By this time, Luo Xiaole had slowly reached the entrance of the shop.
Leaning against the door, hands clasped, she watched the commotion inside with great interest.
She and Luo Shu had already swept through the chocolate section before, and most of it had been taken by them.
It was just that this kind of gift box, she felt, took up too much space and didn't contain many chocolates.
By the standards of the apocalypse, it was a bit ostentatious, so she hadn't taken it.
She hadn't expected Big Pompadour to be so excited to pick up the leftovers.
But Zuo Ran, who had been very gentle before, no longer had an enthusiastic expression.
She glanced at Mo Chen casually.
Then, she politely refused, "Sorry, I don't really like chocolate."
Big Pompadour was taken aback. Didn't girls like such flashy things?
And Zuo Ran's attitude today seemed a bit different from before...
Luo Xiaole seemed to have figured something out.
Had Zuo Ran found a satisfactory strong backer and started looking down on other potential supporters?
Shaking her head, she slipped into the room through a gap.
She was even a little worried that Mo Chen might have actually been fooled.
To her surprise, when she looked up, she saw Luo Shu and Zhou Xiaojun squeezed together, looking like they were earnestly gathering information.
"Xiaole, come here!" Luo Shu waved excitedly at her.
"The survivors in this airport are more numerous than I expected! And there's plenty of gossip!" Luo Shu said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Luo Xiaole couldn't help but laugh and cry. How could these two not do anything serious?
"What, whose gossip has stirred your heart this time?" Luo Xiaole asked helplessly.
"Do you remember the people from the convenience store? They said Li Xiaotian has been acting strangely lately... He dislikes cooked food, is often irritable, and keeps running around looking for people," Luo Shu said, her eyes wide with shock.
"And the girl from the convenience store, along with another guy, took all the weapons you sold them and ran away together!"
"They haven't come back yet."
"And also, and also!" Luo Shu finally revealed something useful, "We just happened to overhear Qin Mingyang and the others saying they're heading to the military base these days."
Luo Xiaole nodded with concern.
Last time, Qin Mingyang had been trying to activate the ring, and she wondered what the progress was now.
After all, the activation methods and functions of these two rings might be different.
"Did he say anything else?"
"No," Luo Shu shook her head obsequiously.
"Okay, I understand."
Luo Xiaole finally sat down cross-legged with relief.
Before she could uncover Qin Mingyang's secret, he absolutely couldn't discover that she also had a ring...
"Oh, right," Luo Xiaole also sat down next to Mo Chen, "How are you feeling today?"
After all, this was her strong backer!
If the strong backer was injured, how could she not ask about it!
"Xiaole, don't disturb him, Mo Chen hasn't woken up yet!" Luo Shu's voice blared.
What?
Still sleeping?
Luo Xiaole looked down and indeed saw Mo Chen with his eyes closed, breathing steadily, his aura calm, like a silent mountain forest.
So just now... Zuo Ran was... talking to herself?
And Mo Chen was just... nodding off?
Remembering her excited departure, Luo Xiaole couldn't help but laugh.
She probably never imagined she would be so easily fooled by Mo Chen.
...
Perhaps because they had found a lot of supplies these past two days, everyone was very excited.
Big Pompadour's group brought out many good things, and that night they gathered in small groups to celebrate a little.
"Brothers, we explored the supermarket these past two days, and it's indeed safe. From now on, we'll move the remaining supplies from this supermarket back bit by bit, and we'll never have to worry about supplies again!"
"Today is a rare occasion for everyone to be happy, so everyone can eat well! We even have canned food!"
"Since the apocalypse, I haven't had a decent meal! Today is awesome!" everyone in Big Pompadour's group was excited.
"Of course, all of this is thanks to the young master on the third floor. If he hadn't cleared out the zombies, we wouldn't have so many supplies to get." someone else chimed in.
"You're right! We should thank him when we have the chance!"
Zhu Hui, hearing Qin Mingyang being praised, felt as if she herself was being praised and was very pleased.
She happily sat down to chat with them.
She even shared some of the food she had saved in her backpack.
Big Pompadour, seeing Zhu Hui sharing freely and Zuo Ran and the others chatting with everyone,
suddenly felt that that bean sprout was an eyesore.
She really didn't know how to fit in!
"By the way, we haven't asked all these days, what's wrong with him?" Big Pompadour pointed to a boy beside him and asked curiously.
That boy, ever since he followed Zuo Ran and the others into the small shop, had seemed listless and dejected, but he didn't have a fever.
Everyone had been checked upon entering, and they had no obvious zombie bites.
Naturally, they let down their guard.
"He probably hasn't eaten properly lately, maybe he has low blood sugar," Xu Lingyan glanced over.
That boy had helped them before near the back gate of the school.
It didn't seem right to just ignore him.
Xu Lingyan pouted, picked up the food Big Pompadour had placed in the middle, and handed it to him.
The person mumbled "Thank you" and began to eat, scratching his neck from time to time.
Ever since he had shielded Zuo Ran and Xu Lingyan from zombies at the back gate of the school, he felt a strange itch on his neck.
And perhaps due to the intensity of their activities these past few days, he felt extremely weak.
But there was no other abnormality.
He himself didn't pay much attention, thinking it was probably mosquito bites.
"Come, come, come, today the boss even found two bottles of red wine in the beverage section. Opportunity knocks but once, brothers, let's have a small celebration..."
A brief carnival belonging only to humans came and went quickly.
Before long, everyone was a little tired from the festivities.
They found their own beds and fell asleep.
...
They slept soundly until the middle of the night.
"Swish!" Several sharp gusts of wind seemed to sweep through the air.
"Wake up!" someone in Big Pompadour's group got up to relieve himself and, hearing the sound, became frightened and woke up the others.
"Listen, is that a Stalker again?" his voice was filled with terror. He had personally witnessed a Stalker tear a companion to shreds.
Unexpectedly, Big Pompadour was unusually calm.
"What's there to be afraid of? The powerful person who dealt with the Stalker once can deal with it again. Go back to sleep!"
"That's true... but I still feel uneasy..."
Meanwhile, Luo Xiaole was also woken up from her sleep.
A warm hand gently shook her shoulder.
She opened her eyes in a daze, and a pair of eyes as calm as a deep well met hers.
Mo Chen, at some point, had woken up.
"What is it?" Luo Xiaole knew Mo Chen wouldn't act arbitrarily. If he called her like this, something must have happened.
She said, got up, and prepared to check the situation.
Unexpectedly, Mo Chen suddenly grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"Don't go near the door," a low voice said.
Her wrist was again held by a burning hot hand. Luo Xiaole thought back carefully.
She had definitely felt this sensation somewhere before...
It wasn't until a stench of zombie decay wafted over...
That she was startled and suddenly remembered. In front of the supermarket, there was a pervasive smell of death, and she had faced death head-on.
It seemed to be a pair of hands like those of a god that had saved her and helped her escape...
Could it be that...
Luo Xiaole's heart skipped a beat.
Was it Mo Chen who had saved her before?
But she and Mo Chen didn't know each other before. He had dodged the cries for help from other women, so why would he have saved her, whom he didn't know well at the time?
An illusion, this must be an illusion.
But the stench in front of her was not an illusion...
Luo Xiaole's mind snapped back. She sniffed with her nose like a puppy.
This stench, why did it seem to be getting closer?
As if it were heading towards the small shop.
She quickly woke up Luo Shu and Zhou Xiaojun.
She gestured for them to stay still, that danger was approaching.
After all, according to survival tactics in camps, as long as no sound was made, zombies would generally not find people inside.
But this time, everyone seemed to be wrong.
Luo Xiaole's stiffening body was triggered without warning at a certain moment.
Simultaneously, a blinding red light erupted from the door of the small shop.
That was... the mark of a fire attack.