EOTWR Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Soon, online public opinion was covered with positive energy. Everywhere, people were encouraging each other, sharing information on how to protect themselves, urging each other not to take risks, and not to cause trouble for the country.

The government also sent people to build new Safe Zones. The modeling diagrams and site selections for the Safe Zones were posted online, immediately attracting attention from across the entire network.

Watching the Safe Zones being built up little by little each day had become a daily ritual for many people.

Ai Wei had originally worried that after the Safe Zones were completed, they would become new gathering places for people, prone to zombie outbreaks. But after seeing the planning and management of the Safe Zones, he dismissed the idea.

The walls of the Safe Zones were tall and thick, covered with two layers of high-voltage power grids to prevent mosquitoes, insects, and birds. The interior was evenly divided into more than a dozen small districts, each sealed off. Even if a zombie outbreak occurred in one district, the zombies would only be able to roam around in their own district, unable to go to other districts.

Moreover, before the zombie virus disappeared, everyone would have to live in isolation. Meals would be provided collectively by the district’s restaurant and distributed to the people in the district on time every day. The district would be disinfected at high temperatures at least once a day, and everyone would be encouraged to pay attention to any abnormalities around them to ensure everyone’s safety.

The internet in the Safe Zones would also remain smooth. After arriving at the Safe Zone, ordinary people only needed to stay in their residences every day, playing on their mobile phones and computers. Of course, the Safe Zone would provide everyone with the most basic living conditions, but if they wanted to live a better life, they would still have to earn money and work for the Safe Zone.

As for what kind of work? There were many types, such as the canteen aunties who served food to everyone daily, or the workers who built houses and fortifications.

Just as Ai Wei was cultivating, dating, and waiting for the Safe Zones to be completed, Shao Ziqian received a call from his subordinate.

“We’ve found their car, in xx Residential District!” “Damn it, they dared to threaten us! If I don’t kill them, I’m not Shao Ziqian!” Shao Ziqian hung up the phone and called other hooligans: “Yellow Hair, we’ve found them, in xx Residential District… Hurry over there.”

Ever since the last time they robbed Ai Wei, Doctor Li, and Han Lu, but were instead threatened by Ai Wei with Yellow Hair, Shao Ziqian and his gang had been searching for Ai Wei and the others.

The suburbs were not small, and Ai Wei’s car was parked in the yard, so these people had been searching for five days before finally finding Han Lu’s car.

Since Ai Wei had cut his neck last time, Yellow Hair had been thinking about taking revenge on Ai Wei. When he heard that his companions had found the car, he immediately rushed over.

More than a dozen young hoodlums drove and gathered outside the gate of Doctor Li’s house.

Yellow Hair pointed to the white car inside the smashed gate and said, “Boss, that’s the car! They’re in that building!”

“Boss, how should we teach them a lesson?!”

“Why don’t we go up together and kill them!”

“Yeah, let’s give them a lesson!” Shao Ziqian took a puff of smoke and said, “The world is in chaos now, it’s our chance to rise. In the future, we will rule the world together. Today, I’ll take you to see blood, kill those two men, and practice your skills. As for that woman, we’ll snatch her away for the brothers to have some fun with.”

The young hoodlums were all teenagers in their rebellious phase. Now, hearing Shao Ziqian say that they would rule the world, kill men, and snatch women, they immediately shouted excitedly. Carrying cleavers and sticks, they rushed into the yard, ransacked the first floor, making a mess of everything, and soon went up to the second floor. Long before they smashed the gate, the people in the villa had noticed their arrival. They all knew that the visitors were not friendly. However, the other party had a large number of people and came too quickly. Ai Wei didn’t even have time to carry Xia Junchi to the rooftop before he saw the people below coming up.

Doctor Li was holding Li Xiaxia, Han Lu was holding a vase, and Ai Wei was carrying Xia Junchi. Naturally, their speed was not fast. By the time they finally ran to the attic, they were caught up before they could close the attic door.

Ai Wei ran at the back and slammed the attic door shut. But someone’s hand had already reached out from the door, trying to grab him.

Ai Wei used all his strength, but there were too many enemies behind the door, and he was still being pushed back little by little. Seeing this, Han Lu quickly turned around and used the vase in her hand to smash the hand reaching out from the door. Xia Junchi also came down from Ai Wei’s back, put one leg on the ground, and helped push the door.

Doctor Li was holding Li Xiaxia, and when he turned around and saw this scene, he hesitated a little.

They and his daughter had already run to the edge of the balcony, half a meter away from the balcony of their neighbor’s house, which was the eaves of the neighbor’s house. As long as they ran to the neighbor’s rooftop, they could escape for the time being. After all, with the strength of the few of them, they definitely couldn’t beat those dozen or so hooligans.

Moreover, according to Han Lu, the leader of these hooligans was a murderer who had cruelly killed and dismembered his classmate. If they fell into the hands of such a person, they didn’t know what would happen to them.

However, if he just left like this, Ai Wei, Xia Junchi with a broken leg, and Han Lu would definitely not be able to hold on for long. They could be considered to have gone through thick and thin together. He couldn’t bring himself to leave them behind and run away by himself.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally made up his mind. He threw Li Xiaxia onto the roof of the neighbor’s house, told her to find a place to hide, and turned back to help Ai Wei and the others block the door.

The few of them held the door together, but they were at a great disadvantage in terms of numbers. Although Ai Wei was relatively strong, he wasn’t outrageously strong. The few of them still couldn’t resist the pushing of the people behind the door. The stainless steel door was being pushed back continuously. “This won’t work! If this continues, we won’t be able to hold on for long,” Ai Wei said.

At this moment, a small figure ran over and used all her strength to push the door. It was Li Xiaxia.

When Doctor Li saw that his daughter had actually run back, he was shocked and shouted, “Xiaxia, go hide!”

They were about to lose their grip. If Li Xiaxia hid, she might be able to survive this calamity.

Li Xiaxia shook her head vigorously, refusing to leave. “Han Lu, take Xiaxia and escape from the balcony!” Doctor Li said to Han Lu.

“Daddy, I’m not leaving!” Li Xiaxia shouted.

“Han Lu, take her away. There are more than a dozen of them. If we fight later, we will have to take care of you,” Ai Wei also said, “Xia Junchi, you go with her too. We will block them at all costs. Hurry up!”

The situation was precarious. Even if they all stayed, they probably wouldn’t be able to defeat the enemies. If Xia Junchi could escape, it would be worth it even if Ai Wei died here. Han Lu was petite, only 1.6 meters tall. Compared to the teenagers, she could barely be considered a fighting force, but Li Xiaxia was completely useless. If the two of them stayed here, Doctor Li would inevitably be restricted in protecting Li Xiaxia once they fought.

It was better to let Han Lu take Li Xiaxia away. At least they might be able to escape.

Han Lu hesitated a little. Doctor Li shouted, “Hurry up! Don’t waste time!”

Han Lu was startled by his shout. She let go of the door and went to hug Li Xiaxia.

Without Han Lu, the pressure on Ai Wei to push the door increased greatly. The door was pushed open by the width of one foot, and the voices of the hooligans came from outside the door: “It’s open! Push harder!”

“Damn it! After killing the men, I’m going to be the first to rape that woman!”

“I’ll be the first one!”

“Stop arguing! Push quickly! There’s also a little girl inside. I want to be the first to rape that little girl!”

Damn it! A bunch of scum! They wouldn’t even let a little girl go! Ai Wei cursed inwardly.

“Xia Junchi, hurry up and leave. I’ll block them even if I die!” Ai Wei shouted to Xia Junchi.

Xia Junchi looked at his flushed face and thick neck. Although he was touched that Ai Wei was willing to risk his life to protect him, he was also inexplicably unhappy.

Did Ai Wei think he was the kind of person who would abandon his companions in a crisis? Of course, he wasn’t!

However, if they continued like this, they wouldn’t be able to hold on for long.

Xia Junchi quickly thought about what to do. Suddenly, he thought of something and reached into Ai Wei’s pocket, taking out a pocket knife.

Ai Wei had asked Han Lu for this knife when they were at Han Lu’s house. At that time, Ai Wei’s hands were needed to carry Xia Junchi, so he couldn’t hold a large knife. He put this pocket knife in his pocket as better than nothing. Since then, Ai Wei had been carrying this knife with him.

Today, these hooligans had come too quickly. Ai Wei only had time to take Xia Junchi, and Doctor Li only had time to grab his daughter and run. Everyone didn’t have time to bring any weapons. Instead, this pocket knife became their only sharp weapon.

Xia Junchi looked at the blade of the knife, which flashed with a sharp edge, and gritted his teeth. He moved to the door, supported himself with one hand on the wall, and stabbed the knife into the hand of one of the hooligans reaching in.

“Ah…” The hooligan who was stabbed screamed, followed by a series of curses: “It hurts, it hurts so much… I’m going to kill you…”

“Damn it, blood has been shed. We must make them pay with blood!”

“Avenge our brother! Kill them all!”

The hooligans clamored, making Ai Wei’s heart tremble. Xia Junchi’s eyes showed a murderous intent. He had originally been reluctant to do it. After all, he wasn’t the kind of person who liked to be violent. Using a knife to stab someone was already him steeling himself.

However, these hooligans looked like they wanted to put them to death. If they didn’t take action, they might really lose their lives today.

He gritted his teeth, his eyes turned red, and he raised his hand and brought the knife down, cutting the neck of the closest hooligan and severing his carotid artery.

Instantly, blood spurted out from the hooligan’s neck like a fountain, splattering the white wall next to him with blood.

The hooligan had just squeezed in, intending to wreak havoc, but suddenly his neck was cut. His face was full of disbelief as he looked at Xia Junchi, who was holding the knife. He reached out a hand, covering his bleeding neck, and made a “gurgling” sound in his mouth, unable to speak. Then, he fell to the ground with a thud, twitched a few times, and stopped moving.

The air suddenly seemed to freeze. Everyone’s eyes were drawn to the spurting blood and the hooligan lying on the ground. Ai Wei looked at Xia Junchi and suddenly felt a chill in his heart.

Although he also had the idea of fighting these people to the death just now, he naturally felt uncomfortable when he actually saw a living person being killed in front of him.

Xia Junchi didn’t miss the momentary fear in his eyes, and his heart sank.

But he had already made a move, so he didn’t plan to regret it.

He stood there, tall and strong, giving off a heavy pressure. He held a blood-stained blade in his hand, and a few drops of crimson blood splattered on his gloomy face, setting off his cold, murderous eyes, making people feel a chill down their spines.

The hooligan at the front looked at him, suddenly screamed, and pushed away his companions behind him and ran.

As if a switch had been flipped, the frightened hooligans all turned around and ran. The arrogant attitude of shouting about killing men and snatching women was gone, as if demons were chasing them from behind.

The hooligans were all teenagers. Before the apocalypse, they relied on their young age and wouldn’t be severely punished for their crimes, so they acted recklessly. After the apocalypse, they relied on their numbers and had always been the ones bullying others, never suffering any losses themselves. But because they had always been in a superior position, they had a false sense of invincibility. Now that one of them had been killed by the other party, they realized that they might also be killed, and their heated brains were immediately frightened.

On the other hand, it was also because Xia Junchi was tall and had a strong aura. Adults were inherently more intimidating than teenagers in terms of aura. In addition, Xia Junchi’s murderous expression was really scary.

The hooligans were scared away for a moment, not even noticing that Xia Junchi had a broken leg. There wasn’t much emotional connection between them. They had only gathered together because of the zombie outbreak. They hadn’t been getting along very well in the past few days, so naturally, they wouldn’t risk their lives to avenge their dead companion.

When Ai Wei saw that the enemies were gone, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He panted heavily, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and stepped forward to help Xia Junchi, asking, “Does your leg hurt? Quick! Doctor Li, come and take a look at him!”

Xia Junchi had been worried that his killing behavior would scare Ai Wei. Seeing that he not only didn’t show any strangeness, but was also so worried about his leg, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Doctor Li had originally thought that there would be a big battle today. Seeing that those people had run away, he was relieved and quickly came over to check Xia Junchi’s leg.

Seeing that Xia Junchi’s face wasn’t very pale, he took Xia Junchi’s pulse while asking, “Do you feel any pain or bone cracks?”

“It hurts a little, but it should be fine,” Xia Junchi said.

Doctor Li nodded and said that it should be fine. Ai Wei was relieved. The few of them went downstairs and looked at the messy room and the broken door lock that had been ransacked by the hooligans, and couldn’t help but frown.

Although they could use furniture to block the door, they still felt uneasy living here without the lock on the stainless steel door.

Han Lu pursed her lips and said, “We can’t stay here any longer. Those people are dangerous. Today, we had no grudges with them, and they still came to kill us. Now that we’ve killed one of them, they probably won’t let us go even more. This time, they attacked us with knives, and we still had room to fight back. But what if they bring guns next time, or simply find a way to bring the zombies nearby to surround us?”

As a news reporter, Han Lu had seen many sensational cases and didn’t dare to underestimate the wickedness of such dangerous people.

Everyone frowned. Ai Wei said, “Indeed, although those people were scared away this time, it doesn’t mean they won’t come back later. Even if we call the police, we won’t necessarily have the police protecting us 24 hours a day.”

Those hooligans were indeed troublesome. Everyone felt uneasy being targeted by such a group of people.

“Unless we can completely solve those people, we should leave,” Xia Junchi said.

Ai Wei looked at Xia Junchi’s leg. Xia Junchi’s broken bone had just been reset. Moving around at this time might not be good for his recovery.

But if they continued to stay here, constantly disturbed by those hooligans, Xia Junchi probably wouldn’t be able to recuperate in peace.

Ai Wei weighed it in his heart and finally decided to leave. He said, “Then where should we go?”

Han Lu’s eyes suddenly lit up. “My parents have a small villa in the suburbs of B City. We can go there.”

Her family rented a house in A City. Given their financial situation, they couldn’t afford to buy a house in A City. Therefore, Han Lu’s parents, who were about to retire, took a step back and bought a small villa in the suburbs of B City.

Although it was a villa, the price of a villa in the suburbs wasn’t necessarily more expensive than an apartment building in the city center. The economy of B City was far less developed than A City, so villas were even cheaper. A three-story villa with a total of 500 square meters including the yard cost only a little over one million. However, the scenery there was pleasant, close to rivers, schools, hospitals, and other facilities, making it a good place for retirement.

Everyone’s eyes lit up when they heard this. Xia Junchi asked, “Do you have photos of that house?”

“Yes.” Han Lu took out her mobile phone, swiped a few times, and handed the phone to Xia Junchi. “This is a photo of that house.”

Xia Junchi took the phone and saw that the photo was a selfie of Han Lu. It could be seen that the house in the background was a three-story building, built in the Nordic log style, which looked very sturdy.

Moreover, the building had a yard. The walls of the yard were four meters high, and the solid iron gate was indigo blue, making people feel very safe at first glance.

Xia Junchi nodded and said, “This is good. The walls are high enough, and the building is high too. You can see the situation in the distance from the rooftop. The space is large enough for us to store a lot of supplies. Moreover, the traffic is convenient. There is a main road outside the door. If we encounter any situation and want to leave, there won’t be any traffic jams.”

Ai Wei and Doctor Li also looked at the photos and thought they were good.

Just as Xia Junchi said, there was a wide asphalt road outside the house in the photos, and the traffic was very convenient.

“I think it’s good to go here,” Ai Wei said.

Doctor Li and Xia Junchi agreed. So, the few of them began to pack their things, preparing to leave as soon as possible.

They didn’t know if those hooligans would come back again. For safety’s sake, it was best to leave while those hooligans were scared out of their wits.

The few of them packed all the food, medicine, daily necessities, gasoline, and weapons. Now, there were plenty of supplies at home, and the packed items filled the two cars to the brim. Ai Wei possessed the ability and could use his mental power to explore the surrounding situation, so he took the initiative to run a few more trips, carrying the supply bags downstairs and putting them in the car.

Ai Wei, Xia Junchi, and Han Lu sat in Han Lu’s car, and Doctor Li drove a car with Li Xiaxia. The few of them left the suburbs together.

The roads outside the suburbs weren’t very wide. Every time they drove a distance, they could see car accidents happening. Near the car accidents, there were also zombies wandering, making people feel a little heavy.

Han Lu drove for forty minutes and arrived at the place she mentioned. However, at the intersection about to enter the village, she suddenly slapped the steering wheel with some irritability.

“Damn it! Traffic jam!”

On the road ahead, there was a large car accident. More than a dozen cars had crashed into a pile. Some of the car windows faintly showed figures shaking.

In this situation, their cars obviously couldn’t pass. When those figures saw their cars, they immediately became agitated. The figures in the cars were hitting the car windows hard, trying to get out, while the figures wandering on the road immediately pounced on them.

“Reverse quickly!” Ai Wei said.

Han Lu was already reversing without him reminding her. Seeing this, Doctor Li in the car behind also reversed. Only when the cars left the traffic jam area and shook off the zombies did the few of them breathe a sigh of relief.

“We can’t take this road. Do you remember any other roads?” Ai Wei asked Han Lu. “Yes, let’s try it. I hope there won’t be any more traffic jams,” Han Lu said.

However, their luck was obviously not good. They changed roads and were still blocked.

The sky was gradually getting dark. Continuing to wander around in a place with zombies wasn’t a wise choice. Moreover, driving like this was very fuel-consuming.

“It seems we can only find another place. Let’s spend the night in the car tonight and find a place to live when it gets light,” Ai Wei said.

Besides that, there was really no other way. So, the few of them parked their cars on the side of the road and turned off the engines.

The place they chose to stop was far away from human settlements. They couldn’t see a single zombie around. However, for safety’s sake, they decided to take turns keeping watch.

Ai Wei took the initiative to say to Doctor Li and Han Lu, “You’ve all been driving for several hours. Let me keep watch first. I’ll keep watch until dawn, then we’ll switch to someone else, okay?”

It was only a little after 9 pm now, and it would be dawn around 5 am. The time to keep watch wasn’t short. But Ai Wei could use his mental power to observe the surrounding situation, while others couldn’t see in the dark. If anything happened, others might not be able to detect it quickly. So, he could be more at ease if he kept watch himself.

After arranging the time, the few of them closed the car windows, put the seats down, and nestled in their respective seats to sleep.

Although it was still early, the few of them had experienced a life-and-death crisis, and had been driving vigilantly for several hours. At this time, they couldn’t help but feel a little tired. They weren’t in the mood to do anything else, so they simply went to sleep to recharge.

Ai Wei sat in the car, opened a crack in the car window, paying attention to the outside movements to prevent danger from approaching.

However, the place where they parked was far away from the town. There were only large trees by the road and empty fields around. Not to mention people, they couldn’t even see a house. There shouldn’t be any zombies approaching.

Ai Wei was initially vigilant, paying close attention to the surrounding movements. However, after a few hours, sleepiness gradually came over him. He tried to open his eyelids, reminding himself not to fall asleep. Although there were no zombies here, who knew if there would be any hidden mutated plants and animals. After all, humans could possess abilities, so it was difficult to guarantee that plants and animals wouldn’t also mutate.

He pinched his arm hard, which made him a little more awake.

Suddenly, he seemed to feel that something was wrong. However, he couldn’t think of what was wrong for a moment. This made him feel some fear and tension in his heart. He took two deep breaths and vigilantly paid attention to his surroundings.

Then, he finally discovered what was wrong. It was too quiet around. Besides the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves, he couldn’t hear a single insect chirping.

Ai Wei had been to farmhouses several times and was deeply impressed by the insects chirping in the fields on summer nights. Now, it was summer night, why were the insects so quiet, as if they had disappeared?

Ai Wei suppressed the fear rising in his heart and released his mental power to expand to the surroundings.

His mental power covered every flower and every blade of grass on the ground to check if there was anything unusual in them. Gradually, he found that in the direction of ten o’clock, the further out he expanded his mental power, the more difficult it became. It seemed that his mental power was encountering some obstacles. Mutated pitcher plant At first, Ai Wei thought it was because the area of ​​mental power expansion was too large, but he soon realized that this was not the case.

Mental power expanded much more easily on the left than on the right, as if there was something on the right that could affect his mental power’s magnetic field.

Discovering this, Ai Wei calmed down instead.

He looked out the car window and saw that to his right was a wide field, with no houses, no trees, and no one in sight.

There was no one here. Could it be that the thing that could affect his mental power was an animal? Or a plant? After all, humans probably wouldn’t even eat insects, right? It hadn’t reached the point where they were short of food and had to eat insects.

If plants and animals really had abilities, Ai Wei wouldn’t believe that he, a primate, would lose to them.

He took a deep breath and expanded all his mental power to the right, carefully searching the fields and bushes to see if there was anything unusual.

Suddenly, he heard a “creaking” sound in his ear.

He couldn’t help but be distracted, and the released mental power uncontrollably retracted.

He turned to look at the place where the sound came from and saw Li Xiaxia sitting in the passenger seat of Doctor Li’s car, opening the car door.

Finding that it wasn’t zombies coming, Ai Wei couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He got out of the car, walked to the outside of Li Xiaxia’s car window, and asked, “Xiaxia, what are you going to do?”

After saying that, he thought of it. What could Li Xiaxia do in the middle of the night? It was nothing more than wanting to go to the bathroom.

He was a man, and it wasn’t good for him to follow a little girl to the bathroom. But it was very dangerous outside now, and he didn’t feel at ease letting Li Xiaxia go alone.

While he was struggling with whether to wake up Doctor Li or Han Lu to accompany Li Xiaxia to the bathroom, Ai Wei found that Li Xiaxia seemed to be a little strange.

It was just opening the car door, why hadn’t Li Xiaxia opened it after so long?

Ai Wei couldn’t help but become vigilant and called Li Xiaxia again: “Xiaxia, what’s wrong with you?”

Li Xiaxia still didn’t respond. He only heard a “click” sound, and she finally opened the car door.

She got out of the car and walked slowly to the other side of the car without closing the car door. When she turned around, Ai Wei found that she was actually walking around with her eyes closed.

Ai Wei immediately felt a chill down his spine. He reached out and patted Doctor Li’s shoulder with some trepidation, wanting to wake Doctor Li up and ask if Li Xiaxia was sleepwalking. However, Doctor Li didn’t move after being called for a long time.

Seeing Li Xiaxia walking towards the direction that had affected his mental power, Ai Wei had no choice but to get out of the car and bring Li Xiaxia back first.

In the moonlight, Li Xiaxia, who was walking with her eyes closed, looked very strange. Ai Wei felt a little creepy and didn’t dare to wake her up while she was sleepwalking. He just wanted to hug her back into the car. Who knew that Li Xiaxia would suddenly resist while sleepwalking.

Li Xiaxia was just a little girl, but she was very strong at this time. Ai Wei used seven or eight points of his strength to drag her into the car.

But before he could settle Li Xiaxia, he saw Han Lu was opening the car door.

Han Lu’s movements were slow, her slightly raised face was expressionless, and her eyes were tightly closed, giving people a strange sense of horror in the night.

Ai Wei couldn’t help but have his heart skip a beat, but saw that not only Han Lu, but even Doctor Li was also opening the car door slowly. The two of them looked exactly like the sleepwalking Li Xiaxia.

If only Li Xiaxia was sleepwalking, it might be a coincidence. But now that three people had simultaneously shown the characteristics of sleepwalking, something must have influenced them.

Thinking of this, Ai Wei suddenly felt a bad premonition in his heart. He quickly looked towards the back row and was relieved to see that Xia Junchi was sitting there safe and sound. Xia Junchi’s leg had just been reset. If he also sleepwalked with them, he might injure his leg.

However, he soon realized that he was relieved too early.

He saw Xia Junchi’s head move, and then he turned to touch the car door handle.

Ai Wei’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t care about anything else and quickly let go of Li Xiaxia and pressed Xia Junchi back on the back of the chair. He also pressed down on Xia Junchi’s injured leg to prevent him from moving his broken leg. Xia Junchi was originally strong, and after sleepwalking, he was more than twice as strong as usual. Ai Wei almost couldn’t hold him down.