The delicious scent of stewed pig feet soup wafted into the building through the exhaust fan. However no one could tell whose home the smell came from. They could only smell the mouth watering deliciousness, drooling and cursing who could eat so well during the apocalypse.
Luo Xun carried the food upstairs after he finished cooking the soup and side dishes. On the second time down, he vaguely heard sounds in the corridor. His heart raced, he vigilantly stood in the small entranceway.
Who would be visiting this floor? Currently no one else was living here on the highest floor with Luo Xun's home.
The screen clearly showed the situation in the corridor, two soldiers with guns escorted several young men to the 16th floor. The few people seemed like college students, a line of five people each carrying a backpack and a plastic bag in hand.
Climbing the stairs was tiring but the young excited faces had reached their destination.
"There are two vacant rooms on this floor and there are people in the two most innermost homes, leaving these two." One soldier pointed to the remaining apartment homes.
"We have five people. Brother Bing which of the two is bigger?" A clever young man hurriedly asked.
"1601, this has three bedrooms, the other one only has two bedrooms. If five of you want to live together you'll have to squeeze two in a room."
"Okay, two people in a room is crowded? Our school dormitory was how large? Four people in one room!"
"A college dorm counts for nothing! Our senior high school dormitory had eight people a room, that's a squeeze. At night the house was filled with the stench of feet."
"Chubby, living on the 16th floor you can definitely lose inches off your belly!"
"I think I've already lost a couple of pounds in the last two days."
"Soldiers, are the two who live on this floor pretty?" A man pointed at Luo Xun's door, eyes bright with curiosity.
"What do you think, heartstopping beauty? There are only men living there!"
The two soldiers did not know what kind of people actually lived in 1604, but deliberately dashed their hopes without mercy. Sure enough, the five bachelors were heartbroken and followed the soldiers in 1601.
Luo Xun was relieved to see the last person enter, five young and lively college students were preferable to gloomy elders. He turned around, closed the door and went back to the kitchen to get leftover food.
"There are now five college students living in 1601."
Yan Fei swallowed some fragrant pig feet soup and did not doubt that he would gain some weight from the food fed to him and bedrest. "Students? No one living next door?"
"It's empty with no one living there for now."
Today, few people visited building seven at all. Luo Xun did not know why the five college students chose to be here and on such a high floor.
"Tomorrow, when you're on your own, that's five college students you can try and get in touch with. You would be more secure than if alone if they are decent people."
Luo Xun turned in surprise at Yan Fei who smiled and winked.
"Yesterday there were looters in the area, its no harm making a friend."
True, they may not be familiar but better than being completely alone during a crisis. Yan Fei was now injured, even if his ability was powerful he could not go out right now. Luo Xun would not ask others to place their lives in danger, as long as it was peaceful with people cooperating, he thought shady characters would skip their group.
He nodded, said he understood and continued drinking soup. The little puppy was laying at the two's feet, happily gnawing on pig bones and barking. Even if there was no meat, the bones were so fragrant!
The alarm was set, tools, food and so on were ready for the next day. The two turned off the lights early to rest and slept until dawn. It was still dark when Luo Xun woke up.
He went up and down the stairs so that everything Yan Fei needed to use and eat were ready at the bedside table. Luo Xun opened Puppy's cage and filled up the bowls with milk and dog food. Then he checked the status of the crops in his home. Luo Xun with his clothes, backpack and baseball bat was ready to go out.
Fortunately, the five university students also came out carrying their own supplies. Perhaps they wanted to rendezvous and set up a meeting since they were few in number. After all, safety in numbers.
Luo Xun opened his door at the same time as the opposite room.
"Ah, are you from next door? We moved in here yesterday." One of the enthusiastic students greeted Luo Xun.
These five people saw that Luo Xun was of similar age to them, they relaxed when Luo XUn's face had no trace of wickedness.
"Yeah, not working is not good. Yesterday someone said that everyone on base musy do some work. Otherwise points will be fined if one does not participate in public construction after a certain period of time!" A fat boy explained.
Another suddenly asked, "Are you living alone? In your own home? Or were you placed during the past two days?"
"My home is here, just moved in not long before all this happened. What about you guys? Are all of you heading downstairs together?"
"We are from X-University, roommates and classmates."
"X-University? That's not too far from here."
A few people sighed in response to Luo Xun's comment. One in the middle remarked.
"We actually only knew of the zombie apocalypse when the night before a prediction post appeared online, saying the next day would be the last. Li Tie…that's him, he followed the post for several days and discussed. We wondered if it was true. Anyway the next day was Sunday, it was too dangerous at school with so many people to simply hideout. Instead we took a break, went to a supermarket to buy food and ran to a hotel."
Luo Xun froze and looked at the five people in surprise. "Post? What post?"
"How to make/use technology in the apocalypse." Li Tie was the second tallest and the thinnest of the group, also had a face of admiration and clasped hands. "I now believe the author must be able to predict the future! Or was someone reborn!"
"He is now a diehard fan of WasteWoodHouse."
Chubby guy motioned with his hands.
"You aren't a believer!?"
"A believer, a fan, definitely a diehard fan!"
Luo Xun's ears turned red. He had not thought anyone would believe his post and thus survive. He had a thought, held a trace of hope and asked.
"Why would you choose to live on such a high floor? It's inconvenient to move up or down. I have no choice since my house is on the 16th floor…"
The five looked at each other, it seemed that Luo Xun was not a bad person. He already had a room and would find out sooner or later so one of then whispered.
"Actually, we just wanted a room with good natural lighting. This building is the one with the most light right?"
"Right, even if that piece of open space is used to build something else, it’s unlikely to block 16 storeys."
The one named Li Tie patted Luo Xun's shoulder. "Now the whole world is crawling with zombies, the size of human living space will certainly shrink, resources unusable! We think in the future, green pollution-free energy will become the mainstream!"
"Right, you live on your own?" Another student asked.
"With my cousin." Luo Xun smiled and explained seeing their puzzled faces. "My parents died years afo and when my cousin went out scavenging a few days ago he fell from the stairs and injured his leg. He can't move at this time so he's at home housekeeping."
"Oh, is his leg alright?"
"Nothing much, a bit of fracture, the army checked two days ago. No dislocation so he just needs rest." Luo Xun explained since the group was worried about the source of injury.
There was no need to reveal that Yan Fei had actually been attacked and injured. After all, the person who had hurt Yan Fei was still in the area.
The two sides introduced each other as they all headed downstairs.
The diehard fan of WasteWoodHouse was called Li Tie, the fat one was named He Qiankun. The group joked that his belly was large enough to fit the universe. The tallest was named Han Li, Wu Xin had a face with acne and the last one was Wang Duo an honest looking guy. All were junior students, information engineering professionals.
The group of six came downstairs, the area had others walking around outside. Luo Xun and the five university students walked forward, one part leisurely chatting, one part observing the people around them.
Luo Xun's intention was to see if he would encounter the one who had attacked Yan Fei. He unexpectedly saw a few acquaintances instead. Most of those who had survived zombie mutation, water pollution, crop disasters, animal mutations and so on left an impression on Luo Xun.
At this time there were some familiar faces – those who had kept themselves alive. Along with three others, ones who Luo Xun wanted badly to forget…
A woman, even larger than He Qiankun of the students, her husband and son, all of whom had large waistbands. Luo Xun guiltily looked over, he had thought that the family of three would not appear since he had not seen them in the area.
Unexpectedly, they circled around and returned here. These three, in his past life had lived in room 1604 building seven.