Chapter 45: Little Brother
"Hey, I've already warned you. It's completely up to you how you choose to proceed!"
The young man waved his hand, showing a disregard for the old man's advice.
Before long, they arrived at an underground warehouse heavily guarded by multiple individuals.
Opening one of the rooms, they stepped inside with the Baiyin.
The warehouse had lights, and a generator hummed above the ground.
---
There were many wooden crates ahead, all filled with food resources, stacked up to half the room's height.
Beside them lay an electronic scale, likely used to weigh the food.
Baiyin began selecting food items from the various supplies.
During this process, the young man rummaged through the crates, curiously examining their contents.
"Hey, is it just you and your brother now?" the young man suddenly asked.
Baiyin nodded, saying, "Yeah, he's sick, malnourished, so I need to bring back some nutritious stuff for him."
"You're really good to your brother!" the young man remarked, as he found a box of sausages and discreetly stashed a few in his pants.
Baiyin noticed this action and looked surprised.
The young man, giving Baiyin a glance, said, "What are you looking at? Take what's yours!"
"Oh, okay..." Baiyin continued searching, while the young man's heart started to feel uneasy. He added, "Um... about the cigarettes, don't tell anyone. And also, keep quiet about me taking stuff. As a trade, you can take more things with you."
"Alright, thank you!" Baiyin continued searching for the food he needed.
Seeing Baiyin being cooperative, the young man relaxed a bit.
As they searched through the crates, the young man began to open up, saying, "I used to have a brother too. We were close, but then he passed away!"
"Passed away?" Baiyin inquired.
"Yeah! Not long after the zombie outbreak, he was killed by someone. Guess how he died?"
"Did he get into a fight with someone?"
"No."
"Accidental death?"
"Neither. Sigh! You'll never guess!"
The young man took a deep breath and continued, "He was eaten by someone!"
"...!"
"I wanted to leave for a few days to settle some things. It was busy those days, so I didn't come home. After leaving him some food and telling him to stay home, he... when I came back..."
"I found he was gone. Only bones were left in the house. And some... forget it, I won't say anymore, don't want to disgust you!"
As he spoke, the young man's cheerful tone turned heavy, and he fell silent, no longer initiating conversation.
Baiyin asked, "How old was he?"
"Ten, a year younger than me, my family's second child!"
"What about your parents..."
"They died early, the day before the zombie outbreak, in a car accident. Just the two of us left."
"I'm sorry..."
"It's okay, it's all in the past, I've moved on!"
But had he really moved on?
If he had truly moved on, why would he bring up such a tragic topic upon learning about Baiyin's brother?
"You're a good brother, unlike me! So you must not leave your brother at home for too long. Otherwise... it'll be a disaster like mine!"
As the young man spoke, a self-deprecating smile appeared on his face.
"I'll take care of him!"
---
Baiyin had already selected the food: canned noodles, two salted ducks, enough to weigh fifteen pounds when placed on the scale.
"Uh... seems like I took too much!" Baiyin chuckled awkwardly at the young man.
The young man didn't react much, just said, "It's okay, not much extra anyway!"
He then handed over a bag of dehydrated vegetables, saying, "Take this too, cook it in soup, it's nutritious and will help your brother recover faster!"
"Thank you, sir!" Baiyin accepted it and put it in his bag.
Then he zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, saying, "I'll be going now!"
"Yeah, wait for me in a while, I'll go with you!"
The young man handed the key to Scar, then led Baiyin to the exit.
On the way, he reminded, "Once you're out, run straight ahead, don't look back. Don't let them snatch your things. Those people are weak from malnutrition, they shouldn't be able to catch up with you!"
"Okay, I got it!"
The young man stopped at the exit and kept his eyes on Baiyin.
---
As Baiyin emerged from the warehouse, he could clearly feel everyone's eyes on the bag on his back. Even those who were crying when he arrived fell silent.
The sudden quietness of the scene was eerie.
---
He started walking faster for a while, then suddenly broke into a run. The people behind him, originally trailing slowly, picked up sticks and weapons and chased after him.
Before long, they chased him into a cluster of buildings, completely out of sight from the young man.
"Phew..." The young man let out a long breath, murmuring to himself, "Good luck to you..."
---
---
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"Clang, clang, clang!!!"
Even in a state of hunger, people would go all out to survive. Therefore, these "malnourished" individuals, as described by the young man, were far from being useless.
Indeed, their physical strength wasn't great, but there were many of them.
In the end, under the final encirclement, over a dozen people managed to corner Baiyin into a rented building.
It was a building over twenty meters tall.
Under the relentless pursuit of these hunters, Baiyin finally ran to the rooftop.
"Pant, pant..." The hunters gradually arrived at the rooftop from the staircase, panting heavily. They encircled Baiyin, driving him into a corner against the wall.
A middle-aged man holding an iron rod pointed at Baiyin and said, "Kid, if you want to live, hand over the stuff. Otherwise, we'll kill you!"
Baiyin leaned against the rooftop's railing. Glancing behind him, he estimated that jumping from this height would be certain death.
With a dozen people forming a circle around him, none of them dared to approach him for the moment.
Instead, he calmly picked up a wooden stick from the ground.
Pointing to the nearby TV antenna receiver, he said, "If any of you dare to come closer, I'll smash this thing and attract all the zombies here!"
This statement immediately made some of the timid individuals show fear.
But the middle-aged man remained confident, sneering, "You won't dare, because then you won't survive either!"
"Oh, really?" Baiyin smiled lightly, and in the next moment, in front of everyone's eyes,
"Bang!!!"
A stick struck the TV antenna receiver.
Instantly, the thunderous sound made everyone's heart tremble.