BC Chapter 14

By the time they reached the stairwell, Lu Ziming realized a woman was already waiting there for them. Her clothing was simple, and her appearance unremarkable. She was the type of ordinary woman who would likely go through life without wearing makeup if nothing major happened to her. Before she even spoke, Lu Ziming had already guessed—she must be the companion Wang Dong had mentioned earlier.

Mei Ting, of course, noticed the guarded expression on Lu Ziming’s face, but she still smiled and greeted her nonchalantly.

“Hi, we meet again. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t met me before, let’s go upstairs first.”

Fortunately, Mei Ting didn’t start talking incessantly as soon as they met, which earned her some points in Lu Ziming’s mind.

The two followed Mei Ting to the second floor, and after walking a short distance, they saw two young girls standing behind the glass door of a company called Tuoda—one wearing a T-shirt and short skirt with a layered bob hairstyle, her big eyes blinking and looking timidly at the three people outside; the other wearing short-sleeved casual pants, with a neat ponytail, significantly taller than the one with the layered bob. The two standing together looked like an older sister leading a younger sister, perfectly natural.

Seeing the three arrive, the ponytail girl immediately reached out and pressed the unlock button for the Tuoda company’s glass door, opening it.

“You’re back? Thank you for the hard work. Where’s Wang Dong?” The ponytail girl greeted Mei Ting and hurriedly asked. Fearing something dangerous had happened, she and the other bob-haired girl had been worried for a long time. Now that they saw Mei Ting finally bringing people back, they felt relieved.

“He’s fine, let’s go in first, he’ll be back soon.”

…

“I won’t waste words, hello, new teammates, I’m Hu Ying. This is my colleague, Huang Xiaolin.” After everyone sat down in the Tuoda office, Hu Ying spoke first.

“Uh… hello.” Huang Xiaolin didn’t expect Hu Ying to introduce her as well, so she could only smile shyly and greet them softly.

“To be clear, I didn’t escape here to join your team, but because I was forced to. But just now, that guy of yours saved the two of us, I’ll remember this favor, and I’ll repay it if I have the chance.” Lu Ziming had never been good with words, and always spoke directly. She was also afraid that if she spoke too tactfully, the other party would misinterpret her meaning, so it was better to be straightforward, so both parties could be at ease.

“…Yes, me too.” Seeing Lu Ziming say this, the mushroom head, who had never been good at thanking people, was afraid that Lu Ziming would abandon her to these people, so she quickly stated that she was on the same side as Lu Ziming, nodding in agreement.

“Ah… don’t say that! Having more friends is always better, especially in this situation. Shouldn’t we who are alive unite and help each other? The four of us gathered together because of this. As for wanting to bring you in, it’s just because we thought more people would mean more strength, and we can overcome all kinds of difficulties together.” Mei Ting, after hearing Lu Ziming’s words, felt embarrassed and scratched her cheek with her index finger, but quickly adjusted her emotions, put on a generous smile, and tried to persuade the two.

But obviously, Hu Ying, who was sitting opposite her, was also stubborn. Before Mei Ting could finish comforting the two newcomers who refused to join them, Hu Ying became unwilling.

“Then I’m sorry, we never intended to force you to join. Now that you’ve firmly rejected us, I don’t think it’s necessary. Since we’re not on the same path and can’t benefit each other, at least let’s not hurt each other. Since you don’t think our team can help you, you can leave at any time, and we won’t stop you.” Huang Xiaolin had been anxiously trying to stop Hu Ying from speaking, but Hu Ying had a personality that couldn’t hold back her words. Even if Huang Xiaolin thought what she said was inappropriate, she didn’t want to be stopped.

And Mei Ting, on the side, was even more embarrassed at this moment. She originally thought that she was the leader of this team, and everyone had silently acknowledged her position in their hearts, but she didn’t expect Hu Ying to not take her seriously at all, which inexplicably aroused her competitive spirit.

So, raising her voice, she said, “Okay, stop talking. Whether we will be together in the future is not something we need to argue about now. The door to the first floor has been locked by Wang Dong, we only found the lock in the security room, but we didn’t find the key, which means we have to stay together for a while. Even if we find the key by chance later, we can’t leave for the time being. The zombies outside have been attracted by you, nearly two hundred of them. Don’t even think about breaking through the zombie horde from the front, even if we have sixteen people here, not to mention we only have six.”

“What?! What’s going on? We can’t get out?” Hu Ying was not concerned about whether Lu Ziming and the other one agreed to join the team, but about the fact that they couldn’t leave the building for the time being. Compared to the matter of Lu Ziming and the others, her own affairs were more important.

Huang Xiaolin was also anxious after hearing Mei Ting’s words, and looked at Mei Ting with eager eyes, hoping for an answer.

“Yes, we can’t get out for the time being. There are about two or three hundred zombies surrounding the front door on the first floor.” Wang Dong walked in with narrowed eyes, pushing up his glasses with one hand and wiping the sweat from his face with the sleeve of the other. He had heard the conversation of several people outside the door, so he came in and directly answered for Mei Ting.

“We really can’t get out? But we only have that one backpack of food.” Hu Ying pointed to the backpack lying on the office desk, surprised.

“We couldn’t have predicted things would develop like this, no matter what, we can only save some food now.”

“Then what about them?” The unspoken implication was, you wouldn’t let us share the only food we have with those two, would you? They don’t want to join our team anyway. After understanding the meaning of the two, Hu Ying didn’t even look at Lu Ziming, just raised her thumb and pointed in their direction, asking Mei Ting.

“Let’s share…”

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll rest here for a while, and then leave.” Actually, Lu Ziming wanted to leave immediately, but when she turned her head and saw the mushroom head still panting and frightened, she temporarily changed her mind. It wasn’t hard to hear Hu Ying’s implication, and she had no interest in talking to such a person, so she just sneered in her heart and interrupted Mei Ting.

Putting everything else aside, Lu Ziming understood as soon as she entered the office that these people had no awareness that this was a long-term battle. They were probably still thinking that the government and those high-ranking officials who had gained benefits would save them. They hadn’t even prepared a handy weapon, let alone food. They only thought about hiding everywhere, and never thought about taking the initiative to attack. It was only a matter of time before such a team was destroyed.

Mei Ting actually understood Hu Ying’s meaning, but she had already placed herself in the position of the leader of this team, and she had to say some words to make things perfect. If she couldn’t bring teammates in, at least don’t make any more enemies, after all, dealing with zombies was hard enough. So she just wanted to say that they should share the food first, after all, Lu Ziming and the mushroom head didn’t bring any food with them in a situation where they couldn’t leave for the time being.

But Lu Ziming actually preemptively rejected her, which made her feel relieved while surprised. At least she had shown enough kindness, and it was Lu Ziming and the others who didn’t appreciate it, so she couldn’t be blamed. After all, the reality was here, how long they would be trapped here was a problem, and if one more person ate the food, everyone would have less time to hold on.

“Let’s… go.” Because of the fright just now, and the fact that she was wearing too little, the mushroom head’s legs had been shaking ever since she entered the door and sat down, but she wasn’t stupid, and her mind was very clear. She had heard everyone’s conversation word for word, and of course she could understand Lu Ziming’s answer. No matter what she would encounter outside this door, it would be much better than staying among these people. Hypocritical help was not as good as none at all. So the mushroom head reached out and grabbed Lu Ziming’s sleeve.

Lu Ziming just turned her head and glanced at the mushroom head, then grabbed her wrist and stood up. Actually, she was still thinking about whether to let the mushroom head join these people. Although they lived more conservatively, at least they didn’t have to risk their lives outside all the time like her, and might be killed by zombies if they weren’t careful. But now seeing what she meant, she knew that she was also a person who didn’t want to live that kind of life. So she didn’t say anything, just pulled the mushroom head towards the door, but when she passed Wang Dong, she paused slightly, and said softly, “Thank you,” and then went out.

“Just let them go like that?” Wang Dong put on his glasses and said anxiously.

“Hey… what else can we do? People just don’t want to join our team, you ran for nothing this time, you saved two ingrates.” Hu Ying raised her hand and brushed the broken hair beside her ear, sarcastically.

“Okay, Sister Ying. People just don’t want to burden us, now that they’re gone, let’s not talk about it.” Huang Xiaolin finally couldn’t hold back and spoke.

“Forget it, leave them alone, let’s take stock of our food first, and calculate how long we can last.” Mei Ting had already walked to the window after Lu Ziming and the others left, looking at the hundreds of zombies crowded in front of the door downstairs, frowning tightly.