Chapter 28 - Melancholic Woman

Yan Fei shifted from looking outward to the area behind him. The balcony grew a variety of crops, the leeks were grown and  could be harvested again.

In the room there were many stacked, unmarked boxes, he did not know when the various materials appeared. Dried chicken, duck, bacon and sausage hung from the ceiling fan. In the kitchen there were two full rows of pickling jars on the ground!

The outer row of transparent glass jars were filled with various kimchi pickled peppers. The inner row of jars held a variety of pickles as well as fermented bean curd, kimchi, pickled cabbage, soy sauce, mayonnaise and so on.

Yan Fei had no idea where Luo Xun got all these things from. DId he rob a nearby pickling workshop? Or did he make all this himself?

In the nursery room next to the kitchen there was mushroom wood, nursery boxes, earthworm boxes, mealworm jars and other planted crops. The whole house was like a hamster's nest.

Before Luo Xun went away, Yan Fei promised himself he would not worry about these things, that if something went wrong he would deal with it immediately. What to do when water ran out, how to charge if electricity stopped, which broken things to throw away, which things could be recycled…

Now that he thought about it, it was like a instruction manual!

"Ugh…" His spirit was a little tired, Yan Fei's eyes showed a trace of confusion.

This obviously warm place suddenly became empty just by missing a single person.

He walked step by step to the second floor, there were not many crops on the terrace, a few large empty shelves, empty boxes and some trash in the corner. Luo Xun had said there was rice and wheat at home, maybe they could be used in the coming year to make a field or rice paddy…

Shoot! He started to resemble more and more like a sulking homesick wife!?

A few steps to the side on the terrace and he could still clearly see downwards. To reiterate, those people arrived on base the night before, went to live in a temporary hall the same day – supermarkets, banks and shopping malls were converted into temporary lodging for those without powers and those without points to live.

The next day they moved into this neighborhood. The people who were able to move into the area now had to have an ability along with enough strength to qualify.

ALong with these people, the other building also had newcomers and they all seemed to be together. Were they a gang?

If Luo Xun did not come back…if he did not make it back…

Yan Fei's eyes flashed with murderous intent, he did not understand his current tumultuous mood but one thing was clear – he cared not for the lives of these new people.

If Luo Xun really was in an accident, then their lives would be forfeit.

"It's almost done." A soldier sighed at the nearby intersection. There were no active zombies in their field of vision.

"Right, these things are useful. Just need to persevere down the road to our side. Luckily right now they only react to sound. If they could see or think, we would be finished."

"Fortunately not, otherwise many people would have long committed suicide."

Several soldiers joked after being paid to clear the zombies around the security area. These days zombies had crowded around the other side of the north gate and gave many people heart attacks.

Fortunately these zombies were not followed, after a wave of annihilation, the door outside should be temporarily safe.

Temporary surveillance points were cancelled five days ago when the zombies gathered. All the people who needed to wait were temporarily placed in a safe area near the door. As expected, the vast majority of those injured by a zombie turned into one. The soldiers were prepared to eliminate them on the spot.

"I heard we have to expand the security area." A veteran held a gun and leaned against a newly built steel wall behind him.

"Expansion? Just built a wall and already going to expand?"

"Just heard two days ago the north gate was blocked by zombies. Heard that a bunch of trucks went out the west gate and brought back a lot of concrete, steel and so on. Sounds like the base is expanding."

"But the safe zone is already pretty big?"

"Where are we? How many people are there in the entire A-city? In the safe there are at most sixty to seventy thousand that can be housed, which also counts the barracks. Heard that the higher ups wanted to rescue more people, where would the new arrivals live?"

"Right with so many people if even one infected person is missed, it would be a large catastrophe."

"Yeah, just don't know how they will find a way…Wait what's that? A car?"

"It's a truck…an army truck! Maybe it's the one that went out looking for supplies."

"Oh my God, we've returned alive…"

Several young men cried tears of joy as they neared the safe area fence.

Luo Xun also breathed a sigh of relief. A steel fence? The wall was completely built and at least the outer wall in sight had become metal. There was a possibility of rust due to the materials but slippery enough to be unclimbable.

The ability to direct the flow of metal ensured robustness, a suitable defense against primary zombies.

"So many zombies on the ground?"

"Not really? We all met more there."

Honestly the group had wanted to hide in the mall for a few more days and wait for the zombies to leave. However by the fourth day, the number of wandering zombies had lessened but somehow the zombies had developed a sense of smell. A couple of zombies moved towards the building material market.

Dozens of zombies surrounded the metal gates, the door was broken down in three hours. There was no other way, fight or be killed. Fortunately for the sake of safety the soldiers had brought a lot of guns and ammunition.

Li Tie and the others had iron bars as weapons along with Luo Xun's homemade metal crossbow. There were unexpectedly zero casualties killing off the zombies.

Since the gate was broken, they did not wait for death. They drove towards the base, dealing with zombies on the side. On the road, they dealt with more zombies before safely returning to base.

No one was bodily injured, upon returning they needed to wait half a day in the designated quarantine area. In general, after five hours people were given free reign of movement. Luo Xun and the others had brought back a lot of supplies since they were working with the army!

The troops took their half portion, the remainder belonged to their group! They also brought back other materials, the market had a grocery shop and a small restaurant inside. The goods inside had been collected and brought back.

Li Tie's group had a fruitful harvest this time.

For Luo Xun, although he also took things, he had no shortage at home but he avoided taking too much as a precaution. He traded some of the food for metal materials, to let Yan Fei have ingredients for conversion.

Five hours later, the group drove the truck back to Hong Jing district. On the street there were a lot of market stalls. It took nearly half a month to form the market, starting with private mutual inquires to spending 35 days creating street stalls.

Luo Xun and the group's car attracted envious stares from people on the street. If not for some soldiers at the back with guns, some of the bolder people would try to find out what was loaded in the car. Even so, a large number of people trailed behind the car seeing if it would unload something, many bedding or food?

"Eh!? There's electricity?" The people carrying things into the seventh building corridor exclaimed.

He Qiankun's face flushed in excitement when he found the elevator had electricity.

"The day before yesterday but only two times a day. We seize the time otherwise we miss the chance and have to take the stairs."

A soldier who understood the situation explained, greet everyone and told them to hurry up.

The young lads and two more soldiers helped, everyone quickly unloaded the things. After the car was emptied, the crowd hurried to the elevator.

Seeing a bunch of boards but no food, the onlookers felt disappointed. Some also asked Han Li what they would do with these things.

"What are these? Where did you get this? What's the use?"

"A bed." Han Li spouted nonsense while pointing at the wrapped solar panels.

The packaging hid the item's true identity. "We were sleeping on the ground, the flooring in the house isn't finished."

A person paused and looked at the PVC pipe on the floor. "What about this pipe? What are you doing with this?"

"Got to repair the toilet in the apartment."

Wu Xin kept the elevator door open while Han Li complained. "Hurry up how can I keep this up? So heavy!"

The group hurried to carry things and fill up the elevator. It took a total of three trips to bring all the things up. All of it was temporarily in the corridor, Luo Xun brought up the rear. He took out his key to open the door, the key was just inserted when the door was opened from the inside.

A face of ice stared at Luo Xun. He paused then smiled nervously, when he arrived on the floor he seemed to forget greeting Yan Fei.

"Uh…then…how were you these past few days"

There was no shortage of food or water, even if Yan Fei could not cook dumplings, steamed buns, frozen and fast food could all be heated. The solar battery was fully charged so there should still be power.

Then why was his face so thunderous?

"Luo Xun, are these yours? Be careful, we don't want to accidentally take it away and then have to return them…" Upon seeing Yan Fei, Wu Xin stopped wide eyed and speechless.

"Holy cow! This is your cousin?" He Qiankun glared enviously at Yan Fei's waist.

Yan Fei had been inside recuperating. Luo Xun's house had been partially made into a greenhouse so the temperature was high. Inside he was only wearing casual lounge wear when he heard a sound in the corridor and walked over.

When Luo Xun returned, Yan Fei was wearing a gray sweater, that waist, that height, those looks with troublesome handsome face! Not just He Qiankun, anyone else unless professionally trained would drown in jealousy!

Yan Fei nodded and smiled chillingly. "I am Luo Xun's cousin Yan Fei. Thank you for taking care of Luo Xun for me."

While speaking he raised his hand and intimately rubbed Luo Xun's head as if he was a puppy.

There was killing intent! For some reason, Luo Xun felt the hair on the back of his neck rise up. With his instincts honed from a decade in the apocalypse, he felt that Yan Fei was very dangerous right now!

But…Luo Xun could not run! There was no way to escape!

Yan Fei declined help from Li Tie and the others to move things. He would use his powers to easily move the metal. Luo Xun exerted effort to move the remainder of their things home.

There were quite a few materials, a trip with Luo Xun would not come back empty handed. The puppy was not in the cage and heard her owner come home. However the two were busy moving things so she could not approach. The puppy shook her tail, waiting for someone to come over and play.

The metal and other items were put away, Luo Xun felt relieved. He secretly looked at his roommate, since starting he had not spoken to him at all, other than the greeting to Li Tie outside.

What was going on? Did something happen at home?

The puppy…was as usual, very energetic. Was there something wrong with the food? Did some of the plants mutate or something?

Yan crankily asked. "Did you bring back everything you needed?"

"Ah? Oh, still need some basics…"

"Are you going out again?"

"…Not for the time being."

He wanted to rest for at least two days. Li Tie and the others said they would go out again after a few days. They were going to the farmer's market to find some seeds to grow. Also find some bedding since they had none, plants for home cultivation and some housing materials for next door.

Luo Xun was lost in thought when Yan Fei suddenly pinned him to the wall. Yan Fei was very strong, could have been influenced by his transformation…wait what was going on? Was he going to kill him!?

Luo Xun instantly judged that in a head to head confrontation, he was definitely not Yan Fei's opponent. He was about to beg for mercy when he was pierced with a chilling gaze.

"You said you would be gone for how many days?"

"…One, half day…"

"And the lastest you would return?"

"Two or three days…"

"What day is it now?"

"...Fifth day."

Luo Xun looked blankly at Yan Fei. Their faces were very close, his eyes subconsciously focused on the other's eyes and mole. Luo Xun's heart pounded in his chest, getting heavier and louder, as if it might burst from his chest at any moment.

The puppy wandered over to see the action. She abruptly froze and blinked at Yan Fei. How could he rob her of playtime with owner!?