Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Meanwhile…
Lin Hao stared at the possible supply locations marked on the map, unable to shake his unease. He picked up the drone controller and decided to conduct one more thorough sweep while he still could.
The drone rose into the air and flew steadily toward the neighborhood at the foot of the mountain.
He sent it farther out, searching for somewhere secluded that might still have supplies. Lowering its altitude, he studied the streets on the screen, trying to get a clearer view.
Just then, a figure flashed across the camera. A madman darted out from around a corner and looked up at the drone.
Lin Hao’s heart tightened, but he didn’t think much of it. He guided the drone a little higher, dodging the debris the madman hurled at it, and continued his survey.
It wasn’t until the drone’s feed began shaking violently that Lin Hao realized something was wrong. He swiftly increased its altitude and angled the camera downward.
Dozens of madmen had already gathered below. They were running in the same direction as the drone and trying to knock it out of the sky!
No, it wasn’t just them.
As the camera turned, Lin Hao saw another line of madmen emerging from an alley. They, too, stared up at the drone, waving their arms excitedly as they moved in the same direction.
Cold sweat beaded on Lin Hao’s palms. He changed course, steering the drone to the left. Sure enough, the madmen on the street below turned with it.
They weren’t attacking it.
They were… tracking it?
“Q-Qingshui!” Lin Hao’s voice trembled. He turned around, his face deathly pale. “Something’s wrong… Those madmen, they… they seem to be following the drone!”
Everyone in the living room froze.
Qingshui immediately walked over and looked at the screen. Seven or eight madmen had already gathered in the street, all staring upward, their eyes filled with bloodred craving.
“Take it as high as it can go,” Qingshui said coldly.
Lin Hao obeyed. He pushed the control stick forward, and the drone rapidly climbed until the streets below became thin lines and the people turned into blurry specks.
Then they saw something even more horrifying.
The camera pulled back, widening their field of view.
On the main road leading from Cuihu Mountain Resort to the neighborhood below, the very mountain road they had driven along during their escape, a twisted “line” was now winding its way upward.
A dense mass of figures was slowly advancing along the road.
Even at a rough count, there had to be at least several dozen!
They weren’t moving quickly, but at this pace, they would reach the foot of the mountain by the end of the afternoon at the latest.
And then what?
Would they keep following the mountain road upward?
Would they find them? Torture them?
Lin Hao’s hand went rigid on the control stick. The image on the screen seemed to freeze. The living room was deathly silent, save for the faint rush of wind transmitted by the drone.
Qingshui stared at the ever-lengthening “trail of ants” on the screen, her breathing growing heavy.
“Bring the drone back,” Qingshui said, her voice terrifyingly calm. “Take a roundabout route.”
Outside the window, the sky remained clear and the mountain forest silent.
“We have to go. Right now!” Zhou Shaocheng’s eyes went wide. He shot to his feet and roared.
Fang Shuyao clutched Zhou Yaping in her arms, breathing heavily.
Everyone had seen the screen. A dense horde of madmen was making its way up the road. If they didn’t leave now, they would all die here!
An Xiaolin’s face was deathly pale. “How could this happen? Have they already finished eating all those people?”
“That’s impossible!” Lin Hao said. “Even if they had, why would they just happen to come this way?” He paused as a thought occurred to him, and terror instantly filled his eyes. “Do they know I’m here?!”
Of course. These madmen were human too! How hard could it be for them to figure out that a human was controlling the drone?!
Qingshui closed her eyes for a moment. “Contact Li Wei’an and Ji Feifan! Tell them to come back!”
Chen Yuhui immediately pulled out her phone and hurriedly tried to text Li Wei’an and Ji Feifan.
But it was as though every possible misfortune had decided to strike at once. None of Chen Yuhui’s messages would go through. She cursed and tossed her phone onto the table.
“I can’t send anything! There’s no signal!”
She raked a hand through her hair and gritted her teeth. “We have to go find them!”
An Xiaolin paced anxiously back and forth, her voice turning shrill with panic. “What if they’re already on their way back? What if we miss each other? We’ll be finished!”
“We can’t wait any longer.” Fang Shuyao’s chest heaved, her voice trembling uncontrollably. “Those madmen are heading up the mountain! At that speed, they’ll reach the foot of it soon! Then we’ll be trapped here.”
“We wait,” Qingshui interrupted. “We don’t abandon anyone, and we don’t give up on anyone.”
She said coldly, “If it were you, would you want me to leave right now?”
Everyone fell silent.
Qingshui said, “Half an hour. If we still haven’t heard anything by then, I’ll go find them.”
“Now, everyone, pack everything up!”
No one said another word.
Fang Shuyao and Zhou Shaocheng began packing the supplies, while An Xiaolin and Chen Yuhui searched for anything useful and carried it to the vehicle.
Time ticked by, second by second.
…………
Meanwhile.
After freeing themselves from the ropes, the two had searched nearly every inch of the small room without finding a way out. Just as they were on the verge of despair, the door opened.
“Still full of energy, I see.” A calm female voice rang out.
The two of them warily retreated a few steps.
A woman stood before them, her skin pallid and her gaze dark. The moment they saw her, Li Wei’an and Ji Feifan came to the same realization.
This woman was the captors’ true leader.
“Hello.” The woman tilted her head, curiosity in her eyes. “What would you like to know? How many of us there are? How much food we have? Or… when we’re going to make our move against you?”
Without waiting for an answer, she continued, “There are twenty of us, three times as many as your group. As for food, we probably don’t even have a third of what you do.”
“But making a move against you… Honestly, I wasn’t planning to do that.”
Li Wei’an remained expressionless and said nothing.
Sister Li smiled. It was a faint smile, but deeply unsettling. “It’s fine if you don’t want to talk. I don’t actually care why you came here.”
She stood up and walked to the center of the room. “The only thing I care about is how much fun you can give me.”
Her gaze drifted slowly from Ji Feifan to Li Wei’an and back again.
“I have a rule here,” Sister Li said, her tone as casual as if she were discussing the weather. “Anyone I catch has to play a game with me. Of the two of you… I only need one to make it back alive.”
Ji Feifan’s pupils contracted.
“I’ll give you some time.” Sister Li headed for the door, the two knife-wielders following behind her. “The door won’t be locked. You can work together and try to escape, but you’ve already tried that, haven’t you? Other than this door, there’s no other way out of this room.”
She paused, then glanced back with a knowing smile.
“Decide for yourselves who gets to live.”
The door closed.
Dead silence descended over the room.
Li Wei’an took a deep breath. Her eyes narrowed as she clenched the hand hidden behind her back and looked at Ji Feifan. “We have to escape together. Our only choice is to go out there… and take our chances.”
Ji Feifan slowly raised his head. There was something strange about his expression, something deeply unsettling. “All right.”
“I’ll count to three. I’ll open the door, and you stand in the doorway while I ambush them from behind.” Li Wei’an approached the door and positioned herself behind it.
“One.”
“Two.”
Before she could say “three”…
Li Wei’an’s left hand shot out, stabbing straight toward the neck of the person behind her!
The strike was swift and vicious, without the slightest hesitation.
Shnk…
In the deathly silence, the sound of a blade slicing through flesh rang out with terrible clarity.
Ji Feifan’s breath caught. In his daze, he felt a sharp pain at his neck. But when he looked more closely, he realized it was the blade in his own hand that had sunk deep into the other person’s neck.
They both froze.
Li Wei’an turned her head slightly. A sharp fruit knife was buried to the hilt in the left side of her neck.
Time seemed to stretch and warp.
Her mouth gaped as she struggled to breathe, but all that emerged was a wet, wheezing rasp. Warm blood gushed from the wound, soaking her collar.
She stumbled backward and hit the cold wall. Her vision began to blur.
Ji Feifan’s pupils constricted. Three seconds later, he came back to himself and forced out a strained smile.
“Sorry. I just want to live too.”
His hand trembling, he released the knife’s handle and backed away two steps, his face dazed.
He had never expected Li Wei’an to try to kill him as well. If his knife hadn’t been longer, he might have been the one with his throat pierced through.
Li Wei’an raised her hand futilely, only for it to fall again. She stared at Ji Feifan and opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but only a few broken breaths escaped.
“…Qing… shui…”
Her voice was as faint as a sigh.
In her final moments of consciousness, countless images flashed before her eyes: her parents’ concern, her friends’ smiles, and the bewildered girl she had seen at the hospital.
I’m sorry, Qingshui.
It looks like… I’m leaving first.