He turned his head and noticed Yuan Yi sitting on a chair by the bedside. She was staring out the window, her mind drifting elsewhere, and her expression was vivid. It was different from her usual cool demeanor, and it was only noticeable if one looked at her eyes carefully.
She was quiet, looking out the window, thinking about something. Her eyes seemed to glisten with some emotional sadness, as the wind from outside blew and touched her silk-like hair softly. The breeze brought a waft of her fragrance towards Zhang Xiao Qiang's nose. It was likely that she was reminiscing about her life in the past, chasing those memories.
"What time is it?" Zhang Xiao Qiang murmured, stirring her out of her stupor. She immediately turned to face him, her eyes regaining their usual cool.
"It's one o’clock, you've been sleeping for barely an hour!"
Zhang Xiao Qiang noted that Yuan Yi had resumed her nonchalant and cool attitude, and felt vexed. It was like she was putting on a facade in front of him. He couldn't be bothered about whether she was proud or shameless since she's on the team, and already is a member, why would she put on a facade? For who?
"If you feel that it isn't suitable for you here, you can leave, I won't force you." Zhang Xiao Qiang kept the blanket and sat up, looking for his clothes. He absolutely did not mind her leaving, he had come to an understanding, it was still better for his own people to watch out for one another.
Yuan Yi heard his words and her face turned pale. She knelt down by his bedside, looking at him and not speaking. Her eyes began to well up with tears, as she bit her lips, her face putting on a look of grief.
"Alright alright, forget it. If you want to stay on, you'd better start acting like a proper member of the team!" Zhang Xiao Qiang found her expression of being abandoned slightly amusing.
Yuan Yi quickly nodded her head and used the back of her hands to wipe away the tears. She then brought his clothes for him to change into. Zhang Xiao Qiang realized that she wasn't unhappy about helping him with his clothes, and he truly felt that she was truly something else. When the D2 had appeared, she had not moved, even when she saw how big and strong it was, she should have known she wasn't a match for it. Yet, she had insisted on staying behind. Her actions and thinking were truly hard to wrap his head around.
After their meal, Zhang Xiao Qiang walked out with the rest of the women behind him. The pair of sisters watched on as Zhang Xiao Qiang began to pour fuel over the door of their house. The elder sister gritted her teeth and stood silently until she could not endure it anymore and pulled her sister to kneel down, overcome by grief. The younger sister stared at the dancing flames and pyro show in wonder, as though there was something strangely enchanting and magical about the dancing cinders.
The Hummer drove past the huge pit that was charred black from the flames earlier and came to the bridge. Yang Ke'er saw the layer of flesh and bones on the bridge and was stunned silly. Even Yuan Yi who was usually stoic turned green, while Su Qian covered her mouth with one hand and trying to calm her rising nausea with the other. As for the sisters, the elder sister hugged her younger sister and closed her eyes, not daring to look.
Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the remnants of the fire pit and thought back to how the S2 should have been lured together with the rest of the zombies. Why did it not get attracted? It was bullshit if someone were to say that lure of blood was not strong enough. The zombies relied on it to evolve. So what was the reason?
Zhang Xiao Qiang was immersed in his thoughts when a gust of wind blew his hair. That was when it hit him. It was the wind. The wind had carried the scent of blood to a distance, and hence the S2 had been attracted towards the marketplace. However, the burning fire had overwhelmed the scent of blood, hence the S2 had stopped in the market until Zhang Xiao Qiang appeared.
"Ahyaya! Hubby, I get a headache when I see those things. Can we use another route?" Yang Ke'er could not take the sight of the meat paste on the bridge anymore, and looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang, putting on a begging look.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was reluctant to use this path as well, furthermore, it might not be possible to get the car across. "Let's find another way." He then turned to the sisters.
"Do you know if there are any other roads to the market? Not near the highways if possible!"
"There's one downhill, it allows the transport trucks for the market to move." The older sister pointed to the direction of the river.
Upon entering the market, this time, Zhang Xiao Qiang did not dare to be careless. He looked carefully at the surroundings. Only after making sure there were no visible dangers did he go back to the Hummer.
Yang Ke'er and the other women began to pick and choose clothes from the stores that sold women's wear. Yang Ke'er had just put on the leather coat, with a pair of sunglasses she got from God knows where, and her mouth was even sucking on a lollipop, as though she was some rich princess that should not be messed with.
Looking at all the different pop-up stalls, Zhang Xiao Qiang was tempted to move all of them back. However, it was not practical. He could not load everything up in the Hummer even if he packed the Hummer full, and if he packed any lesser, it would be losing out. That would mean that he had killed the D2 and S2 for free because if someone else came along and realized there were no zombies here, they would be able to take everything away! At his expense!
Zhang Xiao Qiang was truly a miser, the most vexing thing would be having some random stranger taking advantage of what he had already done. He walked around the market, vexed, but he could not just set fire to the entire place too! It was truly depressing.
A large blue dump truck drove slowly towards the entrance of the market. The doors opened, and Zhang Xiao Qiang jumped down from the high driver seat. Su Qian also stepped on the side of the door and came down gingerly. Yang Ke'er stared at the dump truck, her expression dumbfounded as she muttered: "Oh my-my, how many times must I move to fill this thing up?"
Zhang Xiao Qiang had found the blue dump truck in the backyard of some small hostel, and after opening it up and dealing with the 7 or 8 zombies within, he then searched the entire place and found the key under a pillow in one of the rooms.
Eyeing the dump truck, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt a little smug. At least now, he didn't feel like he would be at a loss. As for Yang Ke'er's thinking?
"What're you staring at? Hurry and move it! Little kids will grow faster by exercising more!"
Zhang Xiao Qiang used this excuse that was not much of an excuse to get Yang Ke'er to move, while he began to search for treasures around the area. He weaved in and out of different shops, ignoring those that sold handphones. He came to a shop that dealt with agricultural machinery and seeing the different shapes and types of tools, he was a little excited, never seeing any before.
There were those that assisted in planting, some in reaping, some even helping with the menial side of labor. There were some items that he could not understand what they might be used for, and as he looked closer, he discovered a nameplate: "XXX Drilling Machine."
The machine was orange-red in color, and was a miniature drilling machine, about as tall as a person, and it seemed that operating it was simple and convenient. Zhang Xiao Qiang thought to the small base near the vehicle garage, where there was a small area with no cement, and the ground seemed to be moist, with lots of moss. There might be a water vein there, who knows, what if he brought this to install a well there?
He then went into a shop that sold seeds, where the majority seemed to be vegetable seeds. These seeds were all packaged in small plastic bags, sealed tightly shut as they were placed on the different shelves. Seeing these bags of seeds, Zhang Xiao Qiang was excited, they were more precious than money and gold anyway, as gold couldn't be eaten nor worn.
Only seeds were the true treasure, with seeds, there would be harvest. With harvest, there would be hope, and to the humans of the current apocalyptic world, nothing could excite them more than hope.