Chapter 34
Chapter 34
Chen Yuhui stood a few steps from the gate, still clutching the crossbow tightly in her hands. She watched Qingshui walk back with perfect calm, several bright red specks of blood splattered across her cheek.
The scene kept replaying in her mind: the spray of blood, the body crumpling to the ground…
“Qingshui…” Chen Yuhui’s throat was dry, and her voice trembled. “You… You killed him.”
It wasn’t a question, merely a statement. There was no real point in saying it, but she had to get the words out, as though the image would remain lodged in her throat otherwise.
Qingshui stopped and looked at her. Her gaze was calm, without panic or any irritation at being confronted. She simply looked at Chen Yuhui in silence.
“What else was I supposed to do?” Qingshui shot back. “Let him start the fire? Or let them in so they could take all our food, then wait and see how they planned to ‘go easy’ on us?”
She carried the gasoline can toward the villa. As she passed Chen Yuhui, she paused and turned her head. “Yuhui, this isn’t the time to talk about laws and morality. Those people out there weren’t neighbors coming to borrow food. They came to rob us, kill us, and take away what we need to survive.”
She paused, sweeping her gaze across everyone’s pale faces. “If we let them go today, they’ll come back with even more people tomorrow. And when that happens, we’ll be the ones who die.”
With that, she continued straight toward the villa and put the gasoline can away.
Silence blanketed the courtyard.
Li Wei’an was the first to move. She straightened from where she had been crouching in a corner of the second-floor balcony, slowly lowered the crossbow in her hands, and let out a long breath. Looking down at Chen Yuhui, who still stood there in a daze, she went downstairs and gently patted her shoulder.
“Yuhui,” Li Wei’an said quietly, “Qingshui was right. That man really did have a lighter in his hand. If Qingshui hadn’t acted so quickly, the entire house might be burning by now.”
She paused, her voice softening. “I know you’re scared. I am too. But… we have to survive.”
Chen Yuhui closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, fear still lingered in her gaze, but reason had begun to return. She nodded and said nothing more.
An Xiaolin also emerged from her hiding place. Her face was even paler than everyone else’s, and her lips were pressed into a tight line. She had seen everything that happened outside, including the moment Qingshui killed the man.
Strangely, she didn’t feel the same fear or sense of unfamiliarity Chen Yuhui did. Instead… she felt a warped sense of relief.
When that crazed man in the shirt had lunged at her in the garage, she had stabbed him through the neck. She could still remember the sensation of the blade tearing through flesh.
Was killing a person actually easier than killing one of those madmen?
An Xiaolin walked over to Chen Yuhui. She said nothing and simply stood beside her.
Ji Feifan came out of the villa. He glanced at the corpse beyond the iron gate, then in the direction Qingshui had disappeared, his expression complicated.
He had to admit that Qingshui’s choice had been the most effective one under the circumstances. He might have done the same in her position, but he doubted he could have acted with such clean decisiveness.
He walked to the iron gate and surveyed the area through the bars. The group had indeed fled into the distance, but there was no telling whether they were hiding in the woods and watching. He turned back to the others. “We can’t leave him lying in front of the gate. He’ll attract other things, or… give those people an even better excuse to come after us.”
Zhou Shaocheng came out of the house as well. His expression was still grim, but he nodded. “We need to get rid of the body.”
“I’ll do it,” Ji Feifan said.
“I’m coming with you.” Zhou Shaocheng gritted his teeth.
Lin Hao swallowed. “Count… me in.”
The three men gathered shovels and burlap sacks, then opened the iron gate and headed outside. They disposed of the body quickly and in silence, dragging Li Jianping’s corpse to the edge of the woods far from the villa. There, they dug a shallow grave and buried him, then covered the bloodstained ground with dirt.
By the time they returned to the villa, the sky was already beginning to darken.
Qingshui glanced at the group who had returned after taking care of everything and nodded. “Good work.”
The atmosphere over dinner was even more oppressive than it had been over the past few days.
Fang Shuyao had cooked a large pot of noodles and added some canned luncheon meat. Normally, a steaming hot meal would have offered some comfort, but tonight, everyone ate distractedly.
Lin Hao kept his head down, stirring his noodles around for a long while before finally speaking in a low voice. “Um… Qingshui, what do we do now? Those people… They’re not going to let this go, are they?”
Qingshui swallowed the noodles in her mouth and looked up at him. “We carry on as before. We just need to keep a closer watch on the villas facing the mountain, in case someone tries to climb in through a balcony.”
After dinner, everyone quietly cleared away the bowls and chopsticks. Fang Shuyao took Pingping into the next room to rest, and Zhou Shaocheng went with them. Lin Hao began tinkering with the drone and charging equipment.
Chen Yuhui and An Xiaolin were still on night watch in the second-floor living room. They sat on the sofa without saying a word.
Qingshui lay in one of the small rooms upstairs, silently gazing at the sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling window.
She knew killing Li Jianping today did not mean the matter was over. At most, it would keep that group quiet for a while.
More importantly, a rift had formed within their own group.
She could understand Chen Yuhui’s fear. After all, for someone who had spent twenty years living in peacetime, suddenly seeing a companion slit a man’s throat without the slightest change in expression was bound to be a tremendous shock.
But understanding was one thing. She had neither the time nor the energy to soothe everyone individually. In the apocalypse, those who could not adapt to its brutal rules would die sooner or later. All she could do was hope Chen Yuhui would come to terms with it on her own.
Soft footsteps sounded behind her.
Qingshui turned and saw Li Wei’an approaching with a glass of water, which she held out to her.
“Thanks.” Qingshui took it and drank a sip.
Li Wei’an stood beside her and gazed out the window as well. “Qingshui,” she said softly, “thank you… for today.”
Qingshui looked at her.
“If you hadn’t acted decisively, a fight might have broken out by now.” Li Wei’an gave a wry smile. “With just the few of us, there’s no telling whether we would’ve come out on top.”
Qingshui was silent for a moment. “I did it for myself too.” Then she changed tack. “Still, you never know. When people are backed into a corner, they can do things even they never imagined themselves capable of.”
“I know.” Li Wei’an nodded. “It’s just… Yuhui…”
“I understand.” Qingshui set down the glass. “Yuhui will understand too.”
Li Wei’an smiled. “I understand too. We all do.”
Qingshui tipped her head back to look at her. After holding each other’s gaze for a moment, they both laughed.
Li Wei’an sat down beside her and followed her gaze toward the sky. Taking Qingshui by the wrist, she asked softly, “Qingshui, are you tired?”
Qingshui had always been the one leading them forward, always the one protecting them. Li Wei’an felt that something about her had changed. Then again, perhaps this was who Qingshui had truly been all along, and she had simply never shown them this side of herself before.
Qingshui lowered her eyes. “I’m not tired.”
“I want… all of us to survive together.”
Li Wei’an gently pulled her into an embrace, her voice muffled as she said, “We will. We’ll all survive.”
Leaning against her, Qingshui let out a helpless sigh. “Dorm Leader, you’re like a mom.”
When Qingshui had been reborn here two years ago, she had awakened in a hospital. It was Li Wei’an who had brought her back to the university when she knew nothing about this world.