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墨書 Inktalez
Returning to the dilapidated house, Wu Yi plopped down and had no intention of getting up again. However, he noticed Xiao Qiang entering, heading straight for a pile of debris. He stood there, seemingly lost in thought for a few seconds, then squatted down and began to rummage through the rubble with intense focus.
"What are you looking for, Qiangzi?"
"I'm looking for someone."
"Is someone down there?" Wu Yi's curiosity was piqued, and he forced himself to get up to see what trick Xiao Qiang was playing.
After clearing away a haphazardly covered pile of rubble, a square wooden board was revealed. Ignoring Wu Yi's skepticism, Xiao Qiang suddenly lifted the board and shouted into the hole below, "Gui Ye, stop hiding and get out here!"
Xiao Qiang's shout reverberated in Wu Yi's ears, making them buzz. He looked down at the dark opening revealed by the lifted board and suddenly understood; Gui Ye hadn't gone to the warehouse but was hiding down there.
"If you keep stalling, I'm coming down!" Xiao Qiang issued his final ultimatum with a firm tone. Wu Yi felt anxious beside him; he thought it would be more satisfying to just go down and give Gui Ye a good beating rather than issuing warnings.
Xiao Qiang snorted coldly and raised a finger to signal for silence before continuing to shout into the hole, "Are you even a man? A real man should be open and straightforward; what’s with all this hiding?"
After several shouts with no response from below, Wu Yi began to suspect that Xiao Qiang might be overly sensitive; perhaps there really wasn’t anyone down there. As this thought crossed his mind, he felt restless and wanted to check it out himself but was stopped by Xiao Qiang's hand.
Xiao Qiang motioned for Wu Yi to crouch down and listen carefully.
Sure enough, after a rustling sound from below, a muffled cough followed by some mumbling could be heard. "Cough cough... I’m not hiding; you have no idea about those things..."
Gui Ye’s voice emerged as a dusty head peeked out from the dark hole. He looked somewhat nervous, glancing around before slowly extending his hand to support himself at the exit ground, finally revealing his full body in front of Xiao Qiang and Wu Yi.
If it weren't for Xiao Qiang holding him back, Wu Yi would have genuinely wanted to claw Gui Ye's life away.
Gui Ye seemed to fear Wu Yi as well; after emerging, he kept as much distance as possible from him.
"Are you guys starving?" he asked Xiao Qiang while keeping a wary eye on Wu Yi, afraid that he might pounce on him in a fit of rage...
"Bring out the food."
"There's a roasted chicken down below. I'll go get it," Gui Ye said, glancing at the door. "You should really keep the door closed." With that, he went down to fetch the food.
Xiao Qiang instructed Wu Yi to stay put, but he silently followed Gui Ye down into the cave.
Gui Ye, walking ahead, seemed to know Xiao Qiang would follow. He slightly turned his head, and they exchanged a glance that conveyed mutual understanding. They descended together—one to choose weapons, the other to retrieve a stored roasted chicken from a wooden crate, along with a bottle of wine of unknown vintage.
Xiao Qiang weighed the weapon in his hand, his discerning gaze sliding over the array of weapons. It was almost as if he were talking to himself, or perhaps asking Gui Ye, "What happened here last night?"
"Zombies. It was terrifying—worse than the Bioengineered Human attack from long ago," Gui Ye replied, his hands trembling so much that even the roasted chicken shook in his grip. "It was like a contagion; one infected another... they all got infected."
"How come you weren't affected?" Xiao Qiang asked, his scrutinizing gaze fixed on him.
"Well, I saw them tearing each other apart. What could I do?"
"So you hid down here alone?"
"...What else was I supposed to do?" Gui Ye's skin quivered as he spoke, his lips trembling as he desperately sought justification for his cowardice.
"Alright, let's talk about it upstairs." Xiao Qiang reached out and took the shaking food from Gui Ye's hands without looking back as he climbed up the stairs. Left alone, Gui Ye stood there for a moment, recalling last night's events, shivering involuntarily before hurriedly following after him.
They split one roasted chicken among three people and took a few pieces of bread along with it. After a ravenous meal and a sip of wine, their noses flushed like those suffering from rhinitis. With newfound strength and two more companions, Gui Ye began to speak more freely.
He stared at Xiao Qiang, swallowing the chewed chicken with a gulp of fiery wine. A flicker of fear crossed his eyes as he said, "I crawled out from a pile of corpses; I consider myself one of the Living Dead—fearless..." At this point, he glanced nervously at Wu Yi, particularly at his fingernails, then lowered his head as if contemplating something.
After waiting for a while, Xiao Qiang realized what Gui Ye wanted to say but was hesitant to provoke Wu Yi. Finally unable to wait any longer, he urged, "Go on."
With Xiao Qiang present, Wu Yi dared not act out; there was an unspoken tension in the air that made him wary.
Gui Ye hesitated, glancing at the two of them before whispering, "Just as you were heading to the hospital, after we buried Dick Qiang, and were about to leave after tidying up here, someone saw two people standing under the peach tree, staring blankly at us inside the house."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Qiang felt a chill run down his spine, secretly astonished: could it be... but he feigned nonchalance and asked calmly, "What is it?" After speaking, he fixed his gaze on Gui Ye, keenly observing any change in his facial expression.
As the conversation progressed, the horror was just beginning. Gui Ye's complexion changed dramatically, an inexplicable fear clearly written on his face. He seemed a bit anxious and lowered his voice as if he had seen a terrifying ghost. He stared wide-eyed at Xiao Qiang and Wu Yi and said, "They are Dick Qiang and Martin. Do you believe it?"
"How is that possible? Didn't you two stab them to death with a shovel and tear their faces apart?" Wu Yi couldn't help but express his skepticism.
Gui Ye nodded mechanically like a chicken pecking at grains. "That's exactly it. They had no faces; their exposed facial bones were just staring straight at us."
"Oh my..." Xiao Qiang felt a cold shiver run through him and couldn't help but ask, "What happened next?"
"The problem was our carelessness. We thought there was nothing to fear with so many people around; they were just two homeless men trying to mooch off us. So we went over to check them out while cursing. But when we saw their true forms and wanted to retreat, it was already too late. Just like that... terrible things happened. They lunged at me like they had gone mad, biting at me..."
Xiao Qiang gazed at this tough man, knowing he was terrified. His own heart was not at ease either; instead, it was filled with tension, fear, and helplessness. It was a sense of powerlessness in the face of a situation spiraling out of control—who could ignore the brutal reality of watching their subordinates being torn apart right before their eyes, infected by a virus that mutated them into flesh-eating monsters?
No one could. The pain in Gui Ye's heart was something Xiao Qiang could deeply empathize with. He had no extra words of comfort; instead, he thought about Xiao Wu Yi and asked flatly, "How is the child doing?"
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