Chapter 207
Chapter 207
Eventually, Lin Su opted against listening to her English listening exercises. Instead, she watched movies with Xu Qiu, the two of them sharing a pair of earphones.
Meanwhile, Jun Zishu took turns playing Anipop on her phone with Ren Nanying, the two of them sticking very closely to each other.
After playing for a while, Jun Zishu started feeling a little sleepy. Noticing this, Ren Nanying suggested:
“Why don’t you take a nap first? You can lean on me and sleep.”
“Okay.”
If anyone else made her this offer, Jun Zishu would’ve rejected them without hesitation. However, she’d not need to refuse the offer if it was her.
Little Fairy quietly watched Jun Zishu’s transformation from her system space. She wasn’t sure if her host had noticed it, but her host used to be a cold and unapproachable person. It was the same even when the other party was Lord. Now, though, her host would no longer reject Lord’s approaches. On the contrary, her host had grown very fond of Lord’s presence.
Honestly, Little Fairy was quite glad of this situation. This meant that her host would actively seek to spend more time with Lord in the future, which, in turn, could mean that Lord’s awakening would be accelerated.
Since Jun Zishu was going to sleep, Ren Nanying did not continue playing with the phone. There was a power outlet beside her, so she pulled out a charger from Jun Zishu’s backpack, plugged it in, and set the phone to charge on the floor. Then, she stretched out her long legs and patted her thighs, gesturing for Jun Zishu to use them as a pillow.
“Will it be uncomfortable for you if I sleep on your legs?” Jun Zishu asked out of concern.
“No, it’s okay.”
Ren Nanying would never let others sleep on her thighs in the past. Now, though, she yearned for Jun Zishu to rest on her body.
After getting Ren Nanying’s assurance, Jun Zishu lied down on the cold floor and rested her head on Ren Nanying’s thighs. Her ponytail had become slightly disheveled after all the running she did, so she decided to just remove her hair tie and looped it around her wrist.
While Jun Zishu slept, Ren Nanying gently combed Jun Zishu’s long hair with her fingers, a gentle expression on her face.
The kitchen was very serene and quiet. Surrounded by this calming environment, Ren Nanying, Liu Manman, and the others gradually fell asleep one after another.
…
When everyone woke up, Xu Qiu sneezed, and Lin Su had a stuffy nose.
It was currently nearing the end of summer and the start of spring, so the weather outside was neither too hot nor too cold. However, that was only true during the day. During the early morning and nighttime, the temperature would grow a little too cold for comfort.
During the day, everyone could still huddle together and enjoy a comfortable nap. However, once night arrived, the temperature would drop, and the floor would become too cold to sleep on comfortably. Moreover, the female physique was a little more vulnerable to the cold. If they slept on the icy-cold floor for a night, they might end up sick tomorrow. It’d be terrible if that happened.
Thus, Jun Zishu brought up this problem and tried to come up with a solution with everyone.
“But this is the food court. There won’t be any quilts here,” Liu Manman said as she rubbed her cold arms.
“Why don’t we make do with what we have?” Xu Qiu said while wiggling her arms and legs. Her body had become a little stiff from sitting for so many hours.
“There’s an 80% chance that we’ll catch a cold tomorrow if we do that. If we are going to stay here for several days, then it’s certain that we’ll catch a cold,” Jun Zishu stated rationally. This was an inevitable outcome since spring was arriving. Even if they were in the middle of summer right now, their bodies would become sore if they slept on the cold, hard floor all night.
“Why don’t we sleep together and keep each other warm?” Ren Nanying suggested. She couldn’t really come up with any good solutions. They couldn’t possibly summon quilts out of thin air, after all.
At this time, Jun Zishu noticed that Lin Su had remained silent the entire time, the latter’s head lowered, looking like she was thinking of something. This wasn’t in line with Lin Su’s usual character. She would typically get involved in this sort of discussion.
“Did you think of something, Susu?” Jun Zishu asked.
“There should be quilts in the food court. I came here to have a late lunch some time ago. At the time, many of the stalls were already closed, and only the stall selling instant noodles was still open. When I walked up to the stall, I saw the auntie inside waking up from an afternoon nap,” Lin Su said as she tried to recall the fragments of memory in her mind.
“The auntie was sleeping on a military bedroll with a quilt on it. When I saw her, she just so happened to be packing up the bed and quilt and bringing them into a room. The room should be the one underneath the left stairwell.”
“But we can’t go outside.”
The food court had two entrances and four stairwells. The room Lin Su mentioned was a utility room located under the stairwell in the first floor’s upper-left corner. They were currently situated on the bottom-right corner of the food court. If they wanted to reach that utility room, they’d have to go through the other iron door in the corridor, walk past a bunch of stalls, and walk across the dining area to reach the upper-left stairwell.
This was going to be a challenging task. Setting aside whether they would attract any zombies’ attention on their way there, just the task of carrying the quilts back would be incredibly dangerous.
“I finally understand how precious our normal life was,” Liu Manman said, sniffling. Ever since the zombie apocalypse began, she started to realize more and more the value of the things she usually took for granted. Now, even finding a bed to sleep on and a quilt to cover herself with had become a luxury they had to risk their lives to obtain.
“Since we know there are quilts, let’s begin planning our next steps,” Jun Zishu said.
“Okay.”
Everyone readily agreed. They had already fled from their dormitory to this place. There was no way they’d be backing off now.
“We don’t need everyone to move. It’d paint a huge target on us. We also need people to coordinate with our return,” Jun Zishu stated. Then, she looked at her three roommates and continued, “Nanying and I will go. You three will stay behind to guard the door for us.”
“Huh? You two are going to take the risk again?”
“Is there any better choice? This isn’t the time to play hero or discuss fairness. Nanying and I are the strongest in our group of five. If we let the three of you go, what will you do if something happens?” Jun Zishu bluntly stated, causing her roommates to fall silent.
Unlike Lin Su and the others, though, Ren Nanying’s focus was somewhere else. In the past few days, Jun Zishu had always addressed her as “you” or “Cousin.” Never had Jun Zishu referred to her by name, much less referring to her without her surname.
Meanwhile, when Ren Nanying heard her name coming out from Jun Zishu’s mouth, she found it inexplicably melodious.
“Mhm, Zishu is right,” Ren Nanying said, casually mentioning Jun Zishu’s name. Although her lips briefly curved up in satisfaction, she quickly suppressed her smile and made sure nobody noticed it.
“Are you two going to move now?” Liu Manman asked.
After taking a look at the time and seeing that it was 4 PM already, Jun Zishu said, “Now is a pretty good time. It’ll become more detrimental for us to take action if we wait any longer.”
“Okay. We’ll keep a lookout for you two.”
After exchanging glances with each other, Jun Zishu and Ren Nanying promptly began making their move.
First, they quietly opened a small gap in the iron door, the gap just enough to allow one person to pass through. Then, Jun Zishu crept through the gap with Ren Nanying following behind her. Once the two were through, Lin Su and the others closed the door, leaving just a small gap so that they could hear what was going on outside.
After entering the stall area, Jun Zishu remained crouched as she inspected her mental map. However, even after seeing the swarm of red dots decorating the dining area outside, she remained unfazed as she crept through the row of stalls, slowly making her way to the left side of the building.
Meanwhile, Ren Nanying poked half of her head above the counter to peek at the situation outside, and what she saw instantly shocked her. There were easily hundreds of zombies outside. This meant that they would die a very quick death if they alerted the zombie army.
While Ren Nanying was still immersed in her thoughts, she noticed that Jun Zishu had already moved quite some distance away. So, she hurriedly moved to catch up to her.
They had sprayed themselves with a ton of Six God’s Power Mint before leaving the back kitchen. When Ren Nanying smelled herself, she couldn’t help but feel as if she was a walking bottle of cologne. However, this was still a better alternative than covering herself with a thick layer of Jun Zishu’s Chanel Lancome.
The journey to the left side of the building went smoothly, and they reached the side entrance there without startling any zombies. Afterward, Jun Zishu pushed open the door and walked out to the dining area in a crouching posture. Ren Nanying followed closely behind, but she did not close the door on her way out to give them an easier time when returning.
Jun Zishu and Ren Nanying came across a zombie sitting in front of a table shortly after walking out of the stalls. Seeing this, the two held their breaths and tried to make as little noise as possible as they shuffled past the zombie.
When the two reached the upper-left stairwell, they found that there was also a zombie loitering there. However, Jun Zishu didn’t hesitate for even a second before she stood up and sent her cleaver hacking at the zombie’s head, ending its life before it could even make a noise. Then, she promptly supported the zombie’s body with one arm and gently laid it down on the floor. The entire process didn’t last more than five seconds from start to finish.
When Ren Nanying saw how Jun Zishu dispatched the zombie so effortlessly, she couldn’t help but give the other party a thumbs-up.
Fortunately, the utility room wasn’t locked. Moreover, the door was even left wide open. So, Jun Zishu quickly saw the two bedrolls and two quilts laid out inside.
Jun Zishu pointed at the quilts, indicating that they should move those back first. The bedrolls didn’t look particularly heavy, either, so they could also come back for them later if they had time.
Afterward, Jun Zishu and Ren Nanying each carried a quilt and made their way to the distant side door.
Originally, Jun Zishu and Ren Nanying thought that everything would be fine if they were careful. However, just when they were about to reach the side door, a wandering zombie nearby suddenly decided to take notice of them. Then, the zombie let out an excited howl, instantly causing all of the zombies in the dining area to look over in their direction.
The feeling of having several hundred monsters excitedly looking at them caused the two girls’ scalps to grow numb.
“Run. Quickly,” Jun Zishu said without holding back her voice. Now wasn’t the time to be quiet anymore. It was more important that they fled for their lives.
Immediately, Ren Nanying ran into the side door, and Jun Zishu followed closely behind her. She also made sure to pull the side door shut on her way in.
The sound of zombies banging on the side door quickly came from behind the two girls. Ren Nanying also saw some zombies excitedly reaching for them through the windows of the kitchen stalls, their grayish hands and dark-purple fingers pulling and hitting the plastic panel.
Just when they thought they were safe, Jun Zishu saw that some of these zombies were even trying to crawl through the gaps between the plastic windows and countertops. Fortunately, the trays of rotten food placed on these countertops had hindered their advance to a certain extent.
“Hurry.”
The two quickly ran back to the right side of the building. Then, after they ran back to the corridor behind the stalls, Lin Su and the others promptly closed the iron door and locked it.
“How do the zombies even know how to climb through those windows?!” Ren Nanying complained as she threw the quilt on the floor and sighed in relief.
“That’s because instincts drive their actions.”
In other words, the zombies wouldn’t consider whether an action was harmful to them or not. So long as there was prey in front of them, they wouldn’t even hesitate to jump down a cliff.