Seducing and Flirting with Boss O While Stockpiling in the Apocalypse (GL) - Chapter 40

Nan Chu’s jaw nearly hit the floor, her pupils quaking for several seconds. Her brain couldn’t quite process what was happening, and there was no time to think, but fortunately, her reflexes were fast enough. Almost instinctively, she turned and bolted.

She swung the trash bag in her hand, slamming it directly onto the heads of the two freakish figures. The leftovers inside scattered everywhere, mixing with the metallic scent of blood to create an exceptionally foul stench.

She didn’t know what she was facing, nor what had happened to those two people—she hadn’t even seen their faces clearly. It was only the primal instinct for danger deep in her bones that drove her to run for her life, as the cold aura of terror loomed over her.

She had a premonition: if she were caught, she would face death.

Qiao Bai and her girlfriend followed suit at top speed, not daring to pause for a single heartbeat. All three tapped into the kind of speed used for a hundred-meter sprint in a track meet. The low, hoarse roars behind them were like a death knell, making them run frantically up the stairs without daring to look back.

By the time they reached the fifteenth floor in one breath, Nan Chu felt like her lungs were about to explode. Her heart hammered against her ribs as she gasped for air, pounding violently on the door of 1501. She had left it ajar when she went down, but perhaps the wind had blown it shut; now, the reinforced door was sealed tight, and no one inside responded.

Reaching the top floor, Qiao Bai and Yang Suitong also had nowhere left to go. Qiao Bai’s chest heaved, her whole body trembling, but she pinned her last hope on this door. She raised the blood-stained wooden stick in her hand and began to bash the door alongside her girlfriend.

For a moment, the hallway was filled with a chaotic bang-bang-clang.

The roars behind them were drawing closer. Nan Chu had never been this anxious or tense in her life. In the freezing weather, sweat poured off her forehead. She threw herself against the door, pounding with everything she had, tears nearly spilling over. “Luo Sheng!!! Nan Shuwan!!! Open the damn door!!! If you don’t open up, I’m a goner!!!”

That shout drained the last of Nan Chu’s strength. Just then, the two monsters emerged from the stairwell. Hearing the noise, they seemed even more excited; continuous growls vibrated in their throats as they bared sharp nails and charged at the three people by the door at terrifying speeds.

Nan Chu closed her eyes and muttered a prayer to Buddha. At that hair-raising moment, the door finally swung open, and the three people leaning against it fell straight inside.

The next second, the door slammed shut with a heavy thud, completely sealing out the monsters outside.

The three of them lay prone on the floor, gasping for air. It took several seconds before Nan Chu, still shaken, flipped over to lie on her back, feeling the overwhelming relief of a survivor.

Luo Sheng, who had just been summoned from the space by Nan Chu’s shouting, was baffled by the scene. Her brow furrowed as she reached out to pull Nan Chu up into a sitting position, her face full of questions. “What… what happened to you all?”

Before she could answer, Qiao Bai pressed a finger to her lips, signaling for silence. She lowered her voice to an extremely soft, thin whisper. “Everyone, don’t make a sound right now!”

The atmosphere instantly went still. For a moment, the only sound in the living room was the synchronized, heavy breathing of the group.

Soon, the sound of thumping and low, hoarse roars from the door reached Luo Sheng’s ears. She realized then that something was very wrong. After exchanging a look with Nan Shuwan, the latter crept to the door and pressed her eye to the peephole. She witnessed a shocking sight.

Seeing Nan Shuwan’s expression turn to one of pure shock, Luo Sheng curiously leaned over to look as well. Moments later, she wore the same expression.

What… what are those things?

Qiao Bai covered her mouth and shook her head, signaling for absolute silence. The others took the hint and followed suit. Luo Sheng slowly crouched down, her ear pressed against the door to track the movement outside.

An unknown amount of time passed—perhaps ten minutes, perhaps half an hour—until finally, the silence outside returned. Luo Sheng stood up and checked the peephole again. Confirming the coast was clear, she exhaled in relief and waved everyone over to the sofa.

Nan Shuwan poured a glass of water for Nan Chu, looking at her with concern. “So, what exactly happened? What on earth are those things outside?”

Nan Chu drained the glass in one go. Letting out a long breath, she finally felt as if she had come back to life. She wiped her mouth, stating she didn’t know either, then pointed to Qiao Bai and Yang Suitong, who were huddled in the corner of the sofa. “Better ask them.”

Luo Sheng turned to Qiao Bai, arching an eyebrow as a signal to explain. Qiao Bai placed the wooden stick on the floor and, with a grave expression, began her account.

The story went back over an hour.

After waking up, Qiao Bai and Yang Suitong had been busy in the kitchen chopping vegetables. Food in the house was becoming increasingly scarce; the supplies brought back from the last scavenging trip had been mostly consumed within days.

Because they had to share with Sun Cuifen’s family, the food vanished rapidly. That family was exceptionally stingy, always focused on eating more for themselves. Ever since that trip, Qiao Bai had been ruminating on what Luo Sheng told her; seeing the family’s attitude now, her heart grew colder and more regretful.

With no power and only a few coal briquettes left from last winter, she took out a head of cabbage and a handful of dried noodles, preparing two simple bowls of cabbage noodles. Yang Suitong was helping with the prep when He Shugen suddenly complained of a stomachache and hurried past the kitchen to the bathroom.

Yang Suitong shot him a disgusted look. He Shugen still hadn’t emerged by the time the water boiled and the two bowls of noodles were served.

They hadn’t made a portion for them anyway; Sun Cuifen’s group usually handled their own food after the distribution. They had only eaten together a few times, so Qiao Bai didn’t mind and sat down with Yang Suitong to eat.

Though the flavor was bland, it filled their stomachs. In these extraordinary times, one couldn’t ask for much.

They had only taken a few bites when Sun Cuifen’s son started wailing again—his voice was incredibly loud, like a megaphone. It grated on Yang Suitong’s nerves, and she picked up her bowl, intending to eat in the bedroom, but Sun Cuifen suddenly shouted in alarm, “Son, what’s wrong with you?!”

Qiao Bai and Yang Suitong looked over simultaneously. He Fei was sitting in a chair, vomiting uncontrollably. A thick, green liquid flowed from his mouth onto the sofa, emitting a sour, putrid stench. Sun Cuifen immediately pulled He Fei into her arms, patting his back with one hand while calling out anxiously, “Why are you throwing up everything you ate? Oh my, did you eat something bad!”

But He Fei showed no sign of stopping; his condition worsened by the second. His body shook and convulsed as he vomited, a sight that made their hearts race with fear.

Sun Cuifen had experienced her son having a febrile seizure once before; this looked similar, and she assumed he had another fever. In her panic, she paced around aimlessly with him in her arms, trying to get him to the bathroom to finish vomiting, but He Shugen was still inside. Enraged, she kicked the door violently. “Are you dead in there?! Our son is sick again, get the hell out and look!”

Yang Suitong could no longer eat. Between the noise and the way this family was trashing the furniture, she couldn’t help but tell Sun Cuifen to take it easy and not break the door. Instead of stopping, the woman seemed to go into a frenzy, kicking with such force the door panel looked like it was about to crack.

Qiao Bai wanted to help search for fever medicine, but Yang Suitong suddenly shuddered and grabbed her arm. “Look… look at them!”

Her voice was trembling, unsteady and filled with deep dread. Qiao Bai turned in confusion, only to see the bathroom door open. The three members of the Sun family were crouched on the floor, their backs to them, convulsing. Their joints twisted with a sickening creak, the sound of bone grating against bone.

Qiao Bai was stunned, terror filling her eyes. She pulled Yang Suitong back several steps, but she still managed to stammer out a question, “Auntie Sun… Uncle He? What’s wrong with you…?”

The moment the words left her mouth, the three turned around simultaneously. Their faces looked as if they were rotting, flesh peeling away. Their eyeballs were white, and they let out frantic roars as if they had lost all consciousness before pouncing toward the two of them.

The sheer horror of that image would likely stay with Qiao Bai for the rest of her life.

“And then?” Luo Sheng asked, her heart racing at the description. She recalled the two figures she had just seen through the peephole; though their faces were mangled and their mouths were stained scarlet, she could still recognize He Shugen and Zhang Dajiu. “You’re saying they suddenly… mutated?”

“I grabbed Suitong and ran out of the apartment, grabbing a rolling pin from the table on the way. There were already quite a few people in the hallway who had turned into those monsters. I don’t know what happened…” Qiao Bai’s voice shook, trailing off into a sob. The lingering fear made her nearly burst into tears.

She blamed herself for ignoring warnings and insisting on taking that family in. If something had happened to Suitong, she would have regretted it forever. At that thought, she gripped Yang Suitong’s hand tighter.

Mutations… monsters?

Luo Sheng’s expression turned heavy. She was certain that in her previous life, aside from the natural disasters, no such thing had happened. Why were these things appearing in this life?

She clenched her fists, her mood hitting rock bottom. Luo Sheng knew nothing about this, which meant the difficulty of their survival had just drastically increased. It was a terrible disadvantage.

Nan Shuwan pondered for a moment before asking, “Did they show any symptoms or eat anything specific before they turned? And were the people you saw in the hallway also turning inside their homes?”

Qiao Bai fell into deep thought, trying to recall everything from the past few days, but nothing seemed unusual. However, Yang Suitong suddenly remembered something and spoke up: “Maybe it was… the fish?”

Luo Sheng looked up. “What fish? Be specific.”

Yang Suitong explained slowly, “During the last scavenging trip, He Shugen brought back several black fish. Sun Cuifen was stingy with them, so the two of us didn’t eat any, but He Shugen seemed to have shared some with other residents…”

“And not everyone turned inside their homes. I saw…” Yang Suitong took a deep breath before continuing, “I saw He Shugen bite someone who had just stepped into the hallway. That person lay there for a short while, and then they turned into a monster just like him…”

As she finished, everyone’s heart skipped a beat. A long, heavy silence followed.

In that silence, Luo Xiaoli suddenly emerged from the bedroom with a yawn, her hair messy as if she had just woken up. Her bleary eyes widened at the sight of so many people in the living room. “??? Why are there so many people? Do we have guests?”

Luo Sheng: “…”

Luo Xiaoli was pulled over to the sofa, and Luo Sheng gave her a brief summary of what had happened.

Nan Chu, who had been silent, seemed to think of something. she fumbled in her pockets and pulled out a cigarette to light, though her hand was still shaking slightly. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of ‘zombies’ before…?”

All eyes turned to her. Nan Chu paused before continuing, “I’ve seen it in books and movies. Hearing how they described it, it sounds a lot like zombies. Once a person is bitten, the infection spreads incredibly fast, and they turn into one soon after.”

“It does sound like it. Those two I saw through the peephole had no trace of a living person about them; they were totally unconscious, driven only by an instinct to attack…” Luo Sheng nodded gravely. “In reality, they are already dead. Their brains are being controlled by some kind of virus—the walking dead. Those are zombies.”

After hearing the two of them, the others felt a chill run down their spines. The fact that zombies had appeared in the real world was terrifying.

The atmosphere lapsed back into an eerie silence, but Luo Sheng suddenly looked at Qiao Bai and pointed to a very small wound on her arm. Her eyes turned cold, and her tone became sharply hard.

“Have you been bitten?”