Ouroboros

Chapter 16

“It is indeed my box of medicine. I always check before going out on a mission to make sure it is full.”

Ji Yushi said this very naturally, as if carrying a box of medicine around with him wasn’t a big deal.

“There are two missing. One was the one I took at the park management office and the other was the one I took after arriving at the bookstore and you tried to beat me up—–”

“What a minute, I tried to beat you up?”

Song Qinglan asked incredulously.

Ji Yushi paused and changed his wording a little, “——Alright, it was when you had a misunderstanding. The empty locations of the pills are exactly the same so that is indeed mine. Where did you find it?”

Song Qinglan decided to let him off. He explained the process and asked, “So why are there two boxes of medicine?”

Both thought of the car that was crushed by their spacecar earlier.

What if the people in that car weren’t survivors from this world?

“Cap Song, I have a question.” Ji Yushi was calmer than he thought he would be. He closed the book <Golden Crow No. 1: Propagation>, “The second time outside the convenience store, you and Tang Le came in last because you tried to save Tang Qi. Was the bitten site the same as the place he was bitten the first time?”

During the second round, Ji Yushi didn’t see the mutated Tang Qi.

Song Qinglan was puzzled but he answered, “Yes, it was the fingers on the right hand.”

Ji Yushi, “Any other injuries?”

Song Qinglan, “No.”

Ji Yushi: “Then I can understand how the zombie ‘Tang Qi’ appeared outside the bookstore that is twenty kilometres away from the convenience store.”

Song Qinglan waited for him to continue.

Whenever he talked about things in his memory, Ji Yushi seemed the be like a different person.

He was no longer the Ji Yushi who had no fighting spirit and would attend a class only to play games or just wanted to lie down and win. When he recalled and analysed, there was a strange feeling of fragile tenacity.

“That’s not Tang Qi.” Ji Yushi said, “Although I didn’t see whether that ‘Tang Qi’ outside the bookstore had any injuries to his fingers, he had a bloody hole in his neck, do you remember? Even if Tang Qi can really come this far, the wounds don’t match up. The only thing that matched up was ——- Last time when we were swallowed by the black wall, Tang Le’s neck was bitten by a zombie.”

In fact, Ji Yushi had recognised him but when combined with the situation at the time, he was very confused and didn’t put forward this thought of his.

Song Qinglan was surprised, “It’s Tang Le?!”

But Tang Le was still alive and well in the bookstore at the time so even Tang Le himself thought the person who appeared outside was Tang Qi. Putting that aside for the time being, just the fact that two Tang Le’s could appear in the same time and space like the two boxes of medicine didn’t make sense.

Song Qinglan raised a question, “But after Tang Le was bitten, he was immediately swallowed by the black wall. Theoretically speaking, there shouldn’t be a corpse.”

For example, the end of the broomstick also disappeared completely.

Ji Yushi nodded, “Similarly, the bookstore was also swallowed by the black wall at that time. Theoretically speaking, the box of medicine left behind last time also shouldn’t have existed.”

Song Qinglan fell into deep thought. His brows furrowed even more deeply, giving others an urge to smoothen it out.

“Cap Song!!”

Zhou Mingxuan’s voice suddenly sounded from the second floor.

Hearing his shout, Sing Qinglan’s temples throbbed.

Having arrived at this PU-31 and being forced to accept this task, every time Zhou Minguan shouted like that, it meant that the black wall must have arrived.

It had to be said, Song Qinglan suspected that he may develop PTSD towards Zhou Mingxuan’s shout when he returns from this place.

Zhou Mingxuan moved his face away from his sniper scope and saw the two men downstairs standing close together raise their heads at the same time. His pair of eyes seemed to crinkle up as who knows what thoughts entered his mind.

Fortunately, he was good at pretending to be serious and he immediately talked about business before his captain could get angry, “There are people outside calling for help. They’re civilians.”

Everyone downstairs was a little surprised when they heard this. Were there still civilians around in a situation like this?

Song Qinglan also found it strange.

But this time they had arrived at the bookstore much earlier than last time. Perhaps this was something that should originally happen at this time. He went up the stairs in twos and threes and looked through his binoculars.

Zhou Mingxuan asked, “Should we let them in?”

Through the binoculars, at the street corner twenty or thirty metres away from the bookstore, there were two civilians wrapped tightly in clothes looking like Arabs standing on top of a tram waving in their direction. Surrounding the tram was a circle of zombies.

“Let them in.” Song Qinglan said, “Go assist them. Be quick.”

“Yes.”

Guardians are not cold-blooded animals. Zhou Mingxuan had expected this reply from his captain and quickly aimed his sniper rifle at the group of zombies in the distance.

‘Bang, bang, bang.’ Shots were fired continuously. Almost as soon as the first shot disturbed the silence of the street, the group of zombies surrounding the tram was dealt with.

The two civilians were clearly very excited. They reacted very quickly and slid off the tram and ran all the way over.

Zhou Mingxuan was at ease. He easily shot down the remaining zombies chasing after them.

These civilians had developed their escape skills well and focused on rushing to the bookstore without turning back to look at the zombies who were shot down.

Tang Le and Tang Qi were are the door waiting. The two quickly rushed in.

“Clang!”

Li Chun closed the door to the bookstore.

Not knowing who these strangers were, the team members pointed their guns at them. The man on the left took off his robe and hood, revealing a standard square face, dark skin and an overall simple and honest appearance.

The other person also took off the black robe and hood. It was a woman in her thirties and under the robe was even a child three or four years of age with her arms wrapped around her neck. The cleanly dressed little girl looked at everyone fearfully.

It turned out to be a family of three.

Everyone put their guns away.

The two survivors instantly relaxed and cried out, “Thank you! Thank you for saving us!”

After giving them time to catch their breath, Song Qinglan asked unceremoniously, “How did you know that there are people in the bookstore?”

The dark-skinned man answered honestly, “We were hiding in the small shop on the other side of the street and saw the spacecar come here. We were almost out of food anyway and would starve to death if we stayed and would be bitten to death if we came out so we thought it would be better to come and try our luck.”

The family of three all wore black robes. They didn’t like a whole piece of fabric but one that was stitched together using many pieces of dark fabrics.

Sensing everyone’s assessing gaze, the woman licked her chapped lips, “Can you give me some water. There’s no water over there. The child has been thirsty for several days.”

“I’ll get it.”

Ji Yushi stood on the side.

Strangely enough, as soon as there were more people, his presence was almost non-existent. The survivors didn’t even notice that there was another person over there.

But as soon as he spoke, he immediately attracted attention.

In this group of tall and strong young men, the relatively thinner statured Ji Yushi looked very weak and frail.

Li Chun was curious, “Why are you dressed like this? With the weather so hot, you don’t find it uncomfortable?”

The dark-skinned man had a strange expression, “Used to it. Won’t be easily bitten by zombies like this.”

Li Chun then asked, “How long have the zombies been here? How many survivors are there in this city? Anyone coming to save you?”

The rapid fire of questions asked by Li Chun just happened to be questions everyone else wanted to ask as well.

The dark-skinned man said: “It has been almost a month. I don’t know about the other survivors, our family has always been in hiding We couldn’t contact the outside so we also don’t know if anyone is coming to save us…..You guys, with such good equipment, are you the police?”

Just as he asked that, Ji Yushi came over with the water.

The bookstore only had one bottle of water, plus the one Song Qinglan found at the park management office that was half drunk by him.

The woman received the water and gave it to the little girl to drink and Ji Yushi gave the other to the dark-skinned man.

But as soon as he handed it over, he felt an attack coming his way. The dark-skinned man’s expression suddenly changed, and he pulled him over.

Everyone immediately raised their guns. The dark-skinned man’s pocket-sized gun was already pressed against the back of Ji Yushi’s head, “Hand over the spacecar key!! Otherwise, I will kill him!!”

“Fuck!”

“Let him go!!”

Song Qinglan raised Shen Mian: “Do you think you can win?”

The woman had already brought the little girl to hide behind the dark-skinned man.

Three against a group, it was unknown why that man had the courage to do this.

The dark-skinned man smiled darkly, “It doesn’t matter. I only just met that woman and the little one isn’t mine. You can give it a try. At most, I can just drag this guy down with me. There’s nothing left to live for in this world anyway.”

“Advisor Ji!”

Although Ji Yushi was held hostage and he didn’t say anything, his hand was actually silently reaching for his Diamond Bird.

Song Qinglan’s expression was tense. He wanted to warn Ji Yushi not to make any rash decisions, but he was also afraid of making the situation worse.

The back of his head was knocked again. The dark-skinned man threatened, “Hurry up. Hand over the spacecar key or I will die together with him!!”

Pointed at by multiple guns, the woman trembled in fear.

The little girl slipped off her and stood in the centre with a look of confusion. She wasn’t aware of what was happening and just proceeded to take out a doll to play.

That doll had curly hair and wore a red dress. It was very pretty.

Ji Yushi let go of the Diamond Bird and suddenly said, “Cap Song, give it to them.”

Dark-skinned man, “Hear that?!”

Song Qinglan didn’t have any intentions to negotiate with the enemy. Seeing his expression, everyone knew that he was internally calculating the best way to attack.

Ji Yushi however spoke up again, “Do you still remember the movie <Dawn of the Dead>?”

Ji Yushi was held in a chokehold and his head was forced back. There were no blemishes whatsoever on his fair skin and his expression was natural. If one looked carefully, you would see that there was no tension in his eyes.

Or perhaps it was because this wasn’t his first time, and he was used to it.

The other teammates were shocked. Why was Ji Yushi talking about a movie at a time like this?

Ji Yushi’s voice was calm, “Trust me.”

Song Qinglan slowly lowered his gun. He then said to Duan Wen, “Give him the key.”

“Cap Song?!”

Tang Le exclaimed in disbelief.

But Duan Wen still obliged and took out the spacecar key.

The dark-skinned man grabbed the key from his hands, but he didn’t remove the gun. He said in Ji Yushi’s ear, “You seem pretty clever, but I’ll have to trouble you to accompany us. You people are not good to provoke. As long as no one comes after us once the car is ten kilometres away, I will find a safe place to throw you out.”

As he said this, he dragged Ji Yushi towards the door. He was pretty clever, “Open the door. Make sure we get to the car safely or I will blow his head!”

A wave of zombies had just been killed just now and the numbers are currently quite sparce. Hearing the sound of the door opening, the remaining ones rushed over.

“Grrrr—-”

Zombies fell one after another.

The woman followed the dark-skinned man. While holding the child, she turned her head back and whispered a small ‘sorry’. She also had no choice. It was the unfortunate state she was in right now.

The dark-skinned man dragged Ji Yushi over, the entire time not removing the gun from his head.

Reaching the spacecar and seeing that the zombies were almost all wiped out, the dark-skinned man whistled.

From various places, five or six other people wrapped tightly in patched up robes appeared, all carrying guns.

It meant that as soon as the dark-skinned man entered the bookstore, these people had been hiding nearby. Their original intention was to steal the car and the woman and child was just a bait for them to lower their guard.

With the two sides confronting each other, Song Qinglan suddenly said, “Wait.”

Everyone’s gaze focused on him.

The dark-skinned man cursed, “You’re changing your mind?!”

Ji Yushi looked at Song Qinglan’s deep eyes which carried emotions difficult to decipher.

Song Qinglan suddenly smiled, “Not changing my mind, just worried about him being thrown out onto the road alone. Why don’t you take along one more and throw them out together? If you agree, I’ll give you this gun.”

Shen Mian’s body was dark and sleek. With one glance, it was clear that it was a good weapon.

But how could there be such a good thing?

The dark-skinned man hesitated.

“Let him come along.” Ji Yushi said, “He’s my boyfriend.”

Song Qinglan, “…………”

Everyone, “……….”

Ji Yushi lowered his eyes and said helplessly, “Can’t you see that he’s gay?”

“It’s damn obvious!” The dark-skinned man spat on the ground and ordered his accomplices to take the gun away before signalling to the people behind Song Qinglan, “Tie up that gay guy!”

KK has something to say:

I actually laughed out loud HAHAHA