Chapter 108: Welcome Back

Gao Yuan was crazily eating, Yu Shunzhou and the rest had taken out all the food, and Gao Yuan's only job was to eat, eat, and eat.

He really seemed like a starving ghost reincarnated with not only his eating manners but also with the endless feeling of hunger.

When Xiang Weiguo and others rushed back, what they saw was Gao Yuan crazily eating away. The food in Yu Shunzhou and Luo Xingyu's bags was supposed to be left untouched until an emergency situation arose, but now, all that was left of the compressed biscuits was the packaging, and all that was left of the canned goods were the empty cans.

Yet Gao Yuan was still hungry.

"What's going on here?"

Xiang Weiguo was surprised, yet found Gao Yuan's ravenous eating quite peculiar.

The most bothersome part was that there was a corpse lying on the ground.

Li Changfeng's head had been blown apart, but his body was left in the room, unattended, because everyone was busy trying to find more food for Gao Yuan.

Xiang Weiguo stood in front of Gao Yuan, looked into his eyes, then glanced at Li Changfeng on the ground, frowning, "It's good that Gao Yuan woke up, but what happened?"

Yu Shunzhou said anxiously, "Li Changfeng was with Er Long, and then, suddenly, Er Long ran to my position, saying Li Changfeng had disappeared. I guessed this kid was up to no good and was worried Xiaoyu might be in danger, so I immediately called Panxin to come back. And when we returned, we found him... nearly dead."

Panshin nodded, "Gao Yuan killed him."

Gao Yuan, without even looking up, said, "He tried to bully Xiaoyu, he deserved to die."

Xiang Weiguo let out a sigh, looking helpless, "This kid, he didn't seem like this kind of person before. I thought at most he had a crush on Xiaoyu, and it would have been okay if we had made it clear to him to keep his distance. I didn't expect him to be so bold as to come back and do this."

Gao Yuan swallowed a chunk of meat and asked, "How come you all weren't here and left Xiaoyu alone? Where did you go?"

Xiang Weiguo looked at Yu Shunzhou, who shook his head, indicating they hadn't had the chance to explain yet.

Xiang Weiguo said in a low voice, "The situation isn't good now; we're trapped here. There are zombies everywhere. For safety, we have to have people keep watch in all possible directions the zombies could come from, otherwise, we won't even know when they get here."

"How did we get surrounded by zombies?"

Gao Yuan was shocked, and he put down the piece of meat he was holding. He then asked Xiang Weiguo, "What about Xinghe? Wasn't he safely escorted away?"

Xiang Weiguo shook his head bitterly, "No, Panxin and Li Jingang tried to escort Xinghe out, but they were blocked halfway and had to return. We've been stuck here for sixteen days, and we still haven't found a way out."

"Sixteen days? It's been that long?"

Gao Yuan was astonished for he hadn't felt it had been that much time.

Luo Xingyu said quietly, "Yes, it's been sixteen days. You've been motionless the whole time, but I firmly believed that you would wake up."

Gao Yuan wanted to ask more, but his stomach was unbearably hungry, and he stuffed the last piece of wild boar meat into his mouth. He looked at Xiang Weiguo and asked, "Are there a lot of zombies?"

"Very, very many. The refuge has been breached, and now there are even more zombies. And instead of being concentrated in the cities, they are wandering everywhere now. We suspect the Serpent People are doing this deliberately."

"And Xinghe?"

"Xinghe went out too. Today was the first time we all mobilized to find a way to leave. Xinghe has very advanced scouting methods, so he went out as well. But now it seems..."

Xiang Weiguo shook his head and said softly, "The situation doesn't look optimistic."

Gao Yuan's mind was in disarray, but he was still very hungry. He had eaten a lot, but it felt as if he hadn't eaten at all.

Then, Xiang Weiguo looked again at Li Changfeng's corpse and frowned, "Why not take him outside? Wait a second, how could anyone end up in this state from fighting?"

Yu Shunzhou said gravely, "Gao Yuan did it with a punch."

Xiang Weiguo inhaled sharply, looking at Gao Yuan, "What's going on with you?"

"I don't know; I'm just really hungry, like, very, very hungry."

"You turned his head into this with one punch?"

"Yes, and I didn't even try that hard, actually I'm quite out of strength."

"And now?"

"Still hungry and still feeling weak."

Xiang Weiguo frowned in thought, then said to Panxin, "Knock down the message tree and call everyone back. There's still no news by now, so I guess there's still no way out."

Gao Yuan looked at Luo Xingyu and asked, "Is there still food?"

Luo Xingyu's face was troubled as he replied, "No more, you've eaten everything edible."

"What?"

"What?"

Gao Yuan and Xiang Weiguo were both shocked, and then Xiang Weiguo widened his eyes and asked, "Everything?"

Yu Shunzhou nodded and said, "Everything. He finished off all of Jia Weidong's stored food, our emergency reserves too. That's eight cans, ten boxes of compressed biscuits, and more than ten kilograms of meat. Yeah, we've got nothing for tonight."

Xiang Weiguo, dumbfounded, asked, "Xiao Yuan, what's going on with you? I'm afraid you'll burst from eating so much. Let's have Xinghe come back and see what's the matter with you."

Yu Shunzhou hurriedly said, "Uncle Xiang, look."

Yu Shunzhou picked up a can that was already squashed and showed it to Xiang Weiguo, saying, "When he took the can to eat, he accidentally crushed it like this. Gao Yuan, show Uncle Xiang a demonstration."

Gao Yuan took the can and casually squeezed it a couple of times, completely crushing it into a lump.

Hurling it casually, the can-turned-ball wedged into the wall.

Everyone fell silent.

Gao Yuan spread his hands and said with a puzzled face, "So, I've mutated, right?"

Yu Shunzhou looked at Gao Yuan with a face full of envy and said dreamily, "I wish I could mutate too..."

Xiang Weiguo scrutinized Gao Yuan for a while, then exhaled and said, "I would… too."

But he quickly added, "Consider the odds of one in a thousand surviving, okay?"

Yu Shunzhou retracted his head and said, "I wouldn't do it for one percent, let alone one in a thousand. That's suicide."

Just then, more people returned.

"It's still no use, there's no way through. What on earth has happened?"

Xinghe appeared outside the door, still in his Mecha. After looking at Gao Yuan from outside, he said with an excited tone, "Gao Yuan, hello."

"Hello, Xinghe."

Xinghe bent down and entered the room, looking down at Gao Yuan for a while, and continued in an enthusiastic tone, "I'm so glad you're back."

"I'm glad too, but can you tell me what's going on with me now? It seems like I've mutated."

Xinghe didn't answer Gao Yuan's question. Instead, he bowed his head and then slowly knelt down on the ground. After bowing to Gao Yuan, he placed his hands on his legs and said sincerely, "I can imagine the pain you've endured, so I'm glad you're back, and I respect you. You're a real powerhouse."