translator: xiin
editors: GlitteryPanda & serefina
The once bustling city had been transformed into a half empty city.
The reason why it was only half empty was because there were traces of animal activity.
After two years, any animals who couldn’t adapt to the environment had already died. So, it wasn’t surprising to everyone to see an ostrich running parallel with the truck for a while before turning right at the intersection and parting ways with them.
They raided several empty shopping malls. The food inside them hadn’t yet been cleared out, and the naturally chilly environment had extended their shelf life.
They also found toothbrushes, toothpaste, some winter bedding, pots, and pans, which they all packed up and took to the truck.
Yan Lanlan even girlishly took a box of face masks back.
After searching, they’d also found an astonishing number of unexpected surprises.
––There was a pile of intact boxes in the corner of a warehouse, and due to the high altitude of the storage area, it hadn’t been flooded by water.
When they opened them, they found that there were more than 100 sacks of corn kernels contained inside, with a net weight of two tons.
They hadn’t been able to grow live corn over the past two years. When they brought this pile of corn back, it would be enough to completely satisfy their cravings.
After finding enough food rations, they went to several hospitals in the city.
The team members were quite dejected after searching through them.
The three pharmacies had long been cleaned out, leaving only some small fish that had slipped through the net in the corners. Moreover, after two years, some of the drugs could no longer be used.
But Chi Xiaochi didn’t give up. He went tothe the largest central hospital, giving up the search for pharmacies and going straight to the medicine warehouse.
The door to the medicine warehouse was locked, and the lock was an old-fashioned pad lock.
Everyone had come up empty in their searches a few times, and then moved sacks of corn for a long time. They were all feeling dispirited at thate momentthis time.
Sun Bin suggested, “Captain Ding, maybe we should go. The animals in the city are scurrying around. What if we encounter a mutant monster…”
He was beaten up from all sides before he could finish speaking and dove straight to Sun Yan’s arms to hide.
Chi Xiaochi could see that the door to this medicine warehouse was very sturdy, thick, and wide. There were signs of smashing and even burning on the door.
He took a look at the keyhole and confirmed that the lock hadn’t been pried open. It was like a hard hickory nut; everyone knew that the kernel inside was delicious, but they could only look at it and sign.
He asked 061, “Liu-laoshi, help me check and see if there’s anything worthwhile inside.”
061 replied succinctly , “There is.”
With 061’s words as confirmation, Chi Xiaochi had basically obtained a pill of reassurance.
Chi Xiaochi took out a paper clip from his coat, bent it with his teeth, then poked it into the keyhole. First, he carefully removed the red rust inside the lock. Then, he readjusted the paper clip and inserted it deeper into the keyhole, grinning gently as he pressed his ear against the cold iron door and fiddled with the core of the lock.
The team members had long become accustomed to using electronic locks and couldn’t do anything with this strange, old-fashioned lock. They didn’t even understand what Chi Xiaochi’s current actions meant.
It wasn’t until the door creaked inwards that everyone finally reacted.
By the time they came back to their senses, everyone was surprised, “Damn, Captain Ding, that’s pretty good.”
Chi Xiaochi stuffed the twisted paper clip back into his pocket and said calmly, “Someone taught me before.”
When a warehouse full of drugs appeared in front of everyone, they all went crazy.
While everyone was carrying useful drugs back to their vehicle without even looking at the production dates, Chi Xiaochi found a frozen and dried iron-blue body in the corner of the warehouse.
The body was male, dressed in a worker’s clothes, with a staff card on his chest. It was the keeper of the medicine warehouse.
This kind of death from cold and hunger was something that everyone had seen often over the years and it was no longer surprising.
When entering, Chi Xiaochi had found that something was blocking the lock. It had been half of a broken key. After going through the pockets on the body, he found that there was another half of a broken key, along with a crumpled paper ball.
Chi Xiaochi unfolded the paper ball. It was filled with the names of various supplies. A horizontal line was drawn behind each item, followed by the name of the medicine that had been given in trade.
The traces left by the light blue ink pen were the same color as the ink between the fingers on the corpse’s right hand.
Chi Xiaochi speculated that this person had probably wanted to make use of the resources nearby and hoard them after the disaster struck, so he’d written a note for the people who wanted to come snatch up medicine, asking them to obtain materials for him according to the note.
However, at these critical moments between life and death, the constraints of law had already disappeared without a trace for these people. Who would be willing to talk to him about equal exchange?
When faced with looting, the medicine keeper had hidden himself in the medicine warehouse and locked the door with the key. Who could’ve known that he would use too much force? He’d broken the key inside the keyhole and blocked off his own path to survival.
After that, he’d likely remained at the edge of this medicine warehouse, spending the last days of his life in a panic, amidst the angry shouting and pounding at the door from the drug raiders.
Chi Xiaochi stretched out a hand and pressed down on his stomach, finding that it was cold, hard, and terribly swollen inside.
He then looked at the empty medicine packets and boxes scattered around him. It was clear that he’d become extremely hungry and swallowed a lot of the medicine nearby, ultimately ending up killing himself.
Chi Xiaochi sighed lightly. He picked up the paper that was filled with materials and covered the medicine warehouse keeper’s face.
They removed half of the medicine from the warehouse. These medicines basically filled up the heavy truck’s entire storage compartment.
The team members were so happy that they were smiling wide enough to see teeth but not eyes. They all wanted to take advantage of the fact that the sky hadn’t yet grown dark to start on the way back home and avoid unnecessary complications.
However, their Captain Ding insisted on going to a shopping mall near the medicine warehouse to see if there was anything there that could be used.
Everyone was used to listening to him, and what’s more, the supplies wouldn’t bite them. Naturally, the more supplies they had, the better.
So, nobody had any objections.
Yan Lanlan even added excitedly, “If we find more good things, we’ll have no place left to sit.”
Everyone discussed it and reached a consensus, deciding to toss out Sun Bin if they ran out of space. This decision panicked Sun Bin so much that he started to explain that he was thin and didn’t take up any space at all, making everyone laugh so hard they were rocking back and forth.
Chi Xiaochi thought to himself, there wasn’t much, they were just going over there to bring back a living beast.
Chi Xiaochi was currently sitting in the car, and two youths across from him were smoking.
He stroked the twisted paper clip in his pocket with one hand, and held the newly repaired semiconductor with the other hand. A faint smile appeared on his lips as he thought about the laoshi who’d taught him so many things.
After thinking about it for a while, Chi Xiaochi suddenly opened his mouth and spoke to the two youths, “Have any more cigarettes?”
The two people who were gnawing on their cigarettes were both stunned.
Yan Lanlan’s expression was also surprised, “Captain Ding, when did you start smoking?”
Just then, Sun Yan slowly stopped the car.
They’d arrived at the entrance to the mall.
Chi Xiaochi waved his hand, stepping over the Boss Coal who’d been lying down obediently by his side and smiling as he said, “Forget it, forget it, I was just asking casually.”
… It was just that he’d suddenly remembered himself when he used to smoke, that’s all.
With this thought, he lifted up the heavy curtain door of the truck.
When a loud bang rang out abruptly, none of them realized in time that it was the sound of gunfire.
Chi Xiaochi was pushed back two steps by the force. He looked down at the right side of his chest, his body shaking like a piece of paper before he fell forward, tumbling out of the back of the vehicle.
Before Chi Xiaochi fainted, he heard 061’s trembling call of “Xiaochi”, and following that, his voice was drowned out by the sound of rapid gunfire.
Sun Bin exploded in a rage, pulling over the Sun Bin who was in the co-pilot’s seat and wrapping his head in a down jacket, “Motherf*cker!! There’s an ambush here!!”
But even before he could pull his gun out from the tool box, he heard an almost crazed, violent roar that made his legs soften instinctively.
A pure black blade leapt out of the car, selected a waste car that was firing, and plunged inside.
They only saw flesh and blood fly out in all directions, and in a flash, the only three remaining windows of the wasted car were splashed with red.
Even before the screams could begin, a headless corpse was tossed out, smashing against the wall to the side.
A ghost-like shadow slipped out of the window, avoiding the powerless attacks from the ambushers, and quickly snuck towards the next point of attack.
When they saw the corpse spots on the decapitated body, the members of the team came up with a conclusion:
New humans?!
There was no time to think about why there were so many new humans hiding at the entrance of this seemingly dilapidated shopping mall. Sun Yan’s eyes were red, and he took down a new human that showed their head with each shot. He also took out a laser gun from beneath his seat and turned his head, yelling, “…. Lanlan!”
Yan Lanlan understood instantly. She lifted up the gun and directly started to return fire against their attackers.
No matter what, the ambushers had never thought that the other side would have overwhelming firepower that was far superior to theirs, as well as a ghostly, ferocious beast.
Chi Xiaochi woke up again from the pain. His head felt a little fuzzy, and his vision was covered in a stretch of black mosquito-like shadows.
He could feel himself being picked up.
Their vehicle was under heavy siege, and Yan Lanlan, who’d risked jumping out of the car, had no way to move him back into the car, and could only half support him as they fought and went for shelter, retreating towards the inside of the mall.
He didn’t know how much time passed before the gunfire stopped.
His ears were close to the ground, so he could hear the sound of familiar footsteps packing in from the doorway.
He barely managed to open his eyes, but the sight that greeted him wasn’t the familiar Boss that he knew.
––Against the afterglow of the setting sun, the black leopard’s mouth was covered with blood, its silver whiskers dripping with it, and the muscles at its waist stretched and quivered, flexing fiercely like a severed artery.
It had no time to be concerned about its appearance and instead rushed over to Chi Xiaochi and sniffed at his chest.
Chi Xiaochi endured the pain he felt and opened up the front of his clothing, “Don’t be scared… I’m not hurt.”
There was a piece of iron-plated clothing inside. It could be considered a simple bulletproof vest, and the bullet was stuck in the steel plate over his heart, distorting the metal.
Seeing that the bullet hadn’t gone in, the black leopard seemed to let out a breath of relief. It knelt down beside Chi Xiaochi, the misty blue of its eyes out of place with the blood red.
Chi Xiaochi stroked the fur over its spine that had raised up and bore with the pain as he coaxed in a low voice, “Boss, Boss.”
It lowered its head, not daring to use any force in case it hurt him. It only dared to bite at Chi Xiaochi’s hair.
While the man and leopard were clinging tightly to each other, a surprised male voice that held a trace of panic rang out from behind them, “Qiuyun?”
we have plot! also, happy 2021~