Rong Hua’s sowhat long hair strands were brushed aside, and a face that should have been strikingly handso now bore a sense of withered desolation from having not shaved for a long ti.
"Impossible, I just searched that room thoroughly."
But Zhu Li felt she couldn’t have heard wrong, so she turned back and continued to search the children’s room. After a long search, she still found nothing.
Just when she started to think she was hallucinating, a cough ca from the direction of the floor. This ti, not only did she hear it, but the other two did as well.
After knocking on the wood panels, they quickly pried up a piece of flooring from underneath the desk and opened it to find a five- or six-year-old boy, weak and frail, hidden inside. Zhu Li imdiately thought of sothing.
"It looks like, in her panic, his mother hid him here to take refuge. Do you rember what it looked like when we ca in?"
The boy and his mother must have been normal people who had just awakened, but unfortunately, in their confusion and before understanding what was happening, they were frightened by the crazed actions of this family. In a panic, the mother hid the child here, but she herself was... by the relatives outside...
When they had arrived, all the others had no external injuries—only the mother’s body was terribly mutilated, covered in fresh flesh and blood, looking exceedingly tragic.
Rong Hua bent down and carefully checked the boy’s body, finding no visible wounds, but he appeared to have a fragile constitution.
As he checked the child with professional skill, Zhu Li asked, "I forgot to ask you, what did you study in university?"
Rong Hua sighed, "If it weren’t for the accident this sumr, I might be a third-year clinical dicine senior at Shanghai Jiao Tong University by now."
Zhao Yun chid in as well, "Yeah, if not for this disaster, I might be weaning children and working as my nurse supervisor by now."
Zhu Li was startled by Zhao Yun’s words: "Sis, you studied nursing?"
Zhao Yun nodded, "I am the head nurse of the respiratory departnt at the City Children’s Hospital."
Respiratory departnt? This departnt always gave her an odd sense of hocoming. On reflection, it seed like eons since she had been through the cycles of reincarnation.
"Lili, what about this child...?"
Sohow, from sowhere along the way, Zhu Li had beco the backbone of their group, probably due to her strong subjective consciousness.
Zhu Li looked towards Zhao Yun and the others with a slight sense of helplessness: "Big sis, second brother, since we’ve found him, let’s take him with us!"
Considering they needed to go back and give the child a thorough check-up, they decided to head ho early today. But just as they left the house, they saw several people, like them, in protective gear walking towards them. It was a purely male group, the oldest in their thirties or forties, the youngest only in their teens, totaling seven or eight mbers. Judging by the power in their walk and the confidence they exuded, they likely were superpower users too.
This was the first ti Zhu Li and her group had seen fellow hunters like themselves—axes, baseball bats, iron rods, and boxes appeared to be their preferred ans of protection.
The man leading the group, seeing the females carrying the young and the males carrying the grown, along with one carrying tools, kindly stepped forward to ask.
"Have you just escaped? Would you like to join our group?"
Zhao Yun apologetically shook her head at them.
"Sorry, my child is still small, prone to crying and making noise, which might bother you all. But thanks anyway."
As this was the crux of the matter, no one else spoke. They just nodded at each other and walked away.
After making sure they had left, Zhu Li moved forward cautiously: "Sis, bro, do you know what’s the scariest thing in the apocalypse?"
"It’s not those transford walking dead, but the seemingly kind-faced people who do treacherous and murderous deeds behind closed doors!"
Her words made the siblings stiffen up; they slowly turned around: "Lili, do you an that we’ve been marked?"
"Sis, rember, never reveal your space, especially when we know nothing about the outside world. Be cautious. And my Water Elent and wood system are also very important. We mustn’t expose our superpowers unless absolutely necessary. We have to be wary of everyone outside our group!"
Even if everyone’s superpowers had already awakened, they needed a trial period to adapt, so no one dared to act rashly at this ti. Because at least now food was still findable. But when the ti ca that people would fight over a single expired sausage, there would likely be fights and struggles over food every day—and this would, at most, take a year to co to pass.
After returning ho, they imdiately barricaded the doors and windows with cabinets—a daily ritual, as glass was fragile. Should anything happen, at least the doors and windows could provide a temporary barrier to give them ti to escape.
After a thorough check-up to ensure the child had no major issues, just a psychogenic faint due to excessive fright, they knew everything would be all right as soon as he woke up.
Despite having at, they decided against stir-frying it, considering there were still humans roaming outside. Instead, they opted for boiling a pot of at noodles, consuming everything down to the last drop of soup.
Right after finishing the al, the child awoke and instinctively recoiled from them.
"Don’t be afraid, kid. We’re people, normal people, not those monsters."
The child was incredibly pretty and dressed fashionably; clearly, he was a well-off second-generation rich kid.
Once Zhao Yun promptly explained their identities, he looked each of them over and glanced around, seemingly unable to find a face he recognized. Then his tears started to fall.
"What’s your na? How should we address you?"
"An Nuo, my na is An Nuo. Did you save ? My mom is already dead, isn’t she? And my dad, he won’t co back either, will he?"
The boy held back his tears, but the more he spoke, the more upset he beca, and soon he couldn’t control himself and began to cry aloud.
"Since you’ve gone through this, you should know that the outside is full of those monsters. And we’re among the lucky few who haven’t been infected because we have more important things to do. An Nuo, do you know what that is?"
The child, with misty, tearful eyes, shook his head bewilderedly. Zhu Li sighed deeply.
"Our purpose is to live well, especially to honor your mother who sacrificed herself so you could have a second chance at life."
An Nuo, being only five, seed to understand a lot but couldn’t express it. However, Zhu Li’s words made sense to him because his life truly had been boughtwith his mother’s flesh and blood. He rembered her words, to hide underneath and not co out unless soone ca to rescue him. This was why, just before losing consciousness, he had kicked hard at the wooden plank layer above his head. If not for that, by the ti anyone found him, he may have been nothing but bones.
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