Chapter 100: Seven People, and the Man Called Bald Qiang"":

Chu Hao was kind-hearted, but he had his limits. He would never bring back anyone who seemed troublesome. So, even though Granny Gu’s eyesight was poor and she couldn’t make out Bian Changxi’s features, she could tell this wasn’t a bad person. Smiling, she asked, “And this young lady is...?”

Bian Changxi had already made her way down the sloped field and replied, “Hello, Granny. My name is Bian Changxi. I happened to run into Chu Hao and the others. I had nowhere to go, so I shamelessly tagged along with him.”

When facing elders—especially those who showed her kindness—she never hesitated to show respect.

Granny Gu squinted, trying hard to see her. “You’re quite a pretty girl.” Then she noticed the bloodstains on Bian Changxi’s clothes and the weapon on her back. Suddenly, the old lady realized this wasn’t some helpless damsel, but someone capable.

In times like these, being capable or not made all the difference—especially for young, attractive women. She’d just been worrying about Bian Changxi a moment ago.

Now, she addressed her with a bit more respect: “Come in, come in, have a seat. Your face is all sunburned. Xiao Chu, you all go ahead and talk, don’t mind this old woman.”

Saying this, she wanted to go check on the watermelons, but Chu Hao beat her to it, picking the ripe one. There were still four or five left, varying in size. He covered them with some dry grass, set Granny’s umbrella over the cabbages, weighed down the handle with a clod of earth, then carried the watermelon and led the little girl over. “See? All done. No need to stand out here suffering, Granny. Let’s go inside and have some watermelon.”

“Watermelon, watermelon! Uncle Chu, are we really going to eat watermelon?” The little girl looked up at him. Bian Changxi noticed she had a cleft lip and a large bruise—or maybe a birthmark—on one side of her face. Her eyes sparkled with hope and joy, but her voice was cautious, as if afraid to say the wrong thing.

Chu Hao patted her head. “Of course! We’ve already picked it, and in this heat it won’t keep. Better to eat it fresh, right, Granny?”

Granny Gu sighed, glanced at Bian Changxi, and thought that with a newcomer, it was worth celebrating with something nice. She said to the little girl, “Anran, go call Sister Ye and Brother George.”

Bian Changxi followed the group into a low house. It was a brick building, but the cement had been slapped on roughly, with red bricks visible in places. The house was long and narrow, about twenty square meters, divided into two rooms by a few wooden boards. The inner room was hard to see; outside, there was a makeshift bed made from stools and planks, with a thick but dirty and stiff quilt folded neatly against the wall.

Nearby stood a rough wooden table. There was a gas stove, and a few pots, bowls, and utensils, all arranged on a long table.

Chu Hao came in, scooped some water from a bucket, and soaked the warm watermelon to cool it down. He said to Bian Changxi, “There are seven of us here. Granny Gu and Anran sleep in one room—we don’t feel comfortable otherwise. So Lao Liu and I sleep out here, and the women sleep inside. In the two rooms next door, one is occupied by a young couple. The man’s name is Wang Dezhou—his leg was crushed and his face is badly injured. The others didn’t want him, so he couldn’t leave with the convoy. His girlfriend, Ye Xiaojin, stayed with him. She has water powers, so all our water comes from her.

“In the next room is a foreign friend. He doesn’t understand Chinese. When the convoy came and left, he didn’t understand the broadcast and missed it.” Chu Hao chuckled. “He’s an ability user too, though a bit odd—something like wind, but not quite. But he’s a good-looking guy, hardworking too. Lao Liu goes out every day, so the two of us take turns going out—someone always has to stay behind to keep watch.”

Before he finished, the little girl Anran came in with two people. “Granny, Uncle Chu, Sister Ye and Brother George are here.”

A girl came in first, about the same age as Bian Changxi, with delicate, gentle features. Her clothes were old and worn, but clean. She looked thin and haggard from malnutrition and worry, but her skin was still fair and glowing.

That was the hallmark of water ability users—those nurtured by water powers rarely had the dry, cracked skin others did. Even their hair was softer and darker. Since water powers were usually found in women, they were especially sought after in the apocalypse.

Ye Xiaojin smiled kindly at Bian Changxi, then softly said to Chu Hao, “Brother Chu, Brother Chen is back.” She went over to the water bucket to use her powers.

Next came a tall, handsome foreigner with blond hair and blue eyes. Seeing Bian Changxi, he greeted her enthusiastically, “Hi, beautiful! You can just call me George.”

His accent was so odd it was almost comical. Bian Changxi shook his hand. “Hello, I’m Bian Changxi.”

“Bian, where are you from? What’s it like out there?” George dragged a small stool over to sit beside her. After being stranded here because he couldn’t understand Chinese, he now clung to the others, eager for news of the outside world. Though he had good companions, he couldn’t stay here forever.

Truthfully, Bian Changxi didn’t know much about the outside either. The two of them shared what little information they had, quickly becoming familiar.

Soon, Bian Changxi figured out the group’s situation. Chu Hao and Chen Guanqing were high school classmates. Chen had brought his new bride to her hometown, Longyue Town, for a wedding banquet, and ran into Chu Hao, who was working there. Tragically, the apocalypse struck on their wedding night—the bride turned into a zombie, and few relatives escaped. The two men stuck together after that. Granny Gu had been Chu Hao’s landlady before the apocalypse; her family was either dead or turned, leaving her alone. She and Chen Guanqing refused to leave, so Chu Hao stayed with them.

Later, they found little Anran, who’d escaped from an orphanage, then met Ye Xiaojin and George. There had been others, but the strong ones were recruited by “Old Baldy” and Chai Zhong, while the weak ones who went out never made it back. Only these seven remained, relying on each other for survival.

She learned that George desperately wanted to leave for the Su City base, but Granny Gu and Chen Guanqing were resigned to dying here. Chu Hao, the backbone of the group, couldn’t persuade them otherwise. Anran naturally followed them, and Ye Xiaojin, unable to protect herself and with her boyfriend disabled, stayed too. As for George, a foreigner who didn’t even know the way, he didn’t have the courage to set out alone.

Bian Changxi couldn’t help but marvel—such an odd mix of the old, the young, the weak, and the broken-hearted, yet they’d survived here so long. Chu Hao must have poured his heart and soul into keeping them safe.

No wonder he was known as the “number one good guy” in Su City.

Now that she understood the situation, Bian Changxi felt she could stay. She trusted Chu Hao’s character, and the others posed no threat. The only exception was Chen Guanqing, who seemed lifeless, his only hobby sitting under the trees outside or making two daily trips to the Wuzhou Hotel.

As she pondered this, the doorway darkened. Chen Guanqing led a tall, burly man inside. “Chu Hao.”

Chu Hao turned and greeted him warmly. “Bald Qiang, you’re here! Got anything good today?”

The newcomer was nearly two meters tall. Standing in the doorway, he blocked all the light. Bian Changxi saw a pair of sharp bronze eyes and a shiny bald head.

He glanced around the room, pausing briefly on Bian Changxi, then reached out his right hand to Chu Hao. In his hand was a rooster—much bigger than normal, two or three times the usual size, with bright, smooth feathers and a blood-red comb. It seemed to be unconscious.

Bald Qiang patted its head, and the rooster suddenly woke, struggling desperately. But with both wings firmly gripped in one of Bald Qiang’s hands, it could only scratch at the air with its claws. Suddenly, it turned and pecked his bare arm, but instead of breaking the skin, there was a dull thud, as if it had hit a rock, and the rooster shook its head in confusion.

Bian Changxi narrowed her eyes.

Bald Qiang said, “This chicken only eats grass, not human flesh. I cooked one this morning—tasted pretty good.”

Chu Hao examined it carefully, then nodded. “If you’ve eaten it and you’re fine, I’ll take it. What do you want in exchange?” He gestured for Ye Xiaojin to take the empty white plastic bucket from Bald Qiang’s left hand. She did so skillfully and went to fill it with water.

Bald Qiang knocked the rooster out again and set it outside the door. “This time I don’t want food. Give me a bucket of water and some hemostatic medicine.” He turned to show his back, which had three deep, fresh claw marks.

Seeing the wounds, Chu Hao instinctively glanced at Bian Changxi, but said nothing. He produced a packet of hemostatic powder. “Got this from the hospital. Never used it, so I’m not sure how effective it is.”

Bald Qiang nodded, said little else, and left once Ye Xiaojin handed him the full bucket.

As soon as he left, Anran cheered and ran to the rooster. “Uncle Chu, do we get to eat meat?”

The others smiled as well. Bian Changxi could tell at a glance that the rooster was edible. Some mutant beasts were safe to eat, others were poisonous. Back when Zhang Yuwen turned into that ghastly creature, it was either from dirty water or tainted meat.

It was easy to tell if a mutant beast was edible: if it looked healthy, with no pus, no peeling skin, and no strange lumps, it was probably safe. But “edible” and “delicious” were two different things. In her previous life, she could only afford mutant beast meat. Some people raised poultry to sell, but the price was high—luxury food for the elite. This just showed that mutant beast meat was a last resort for most people.

ps:

Thanks to Fei Linxi for a pink ticket! Thanks to Lan Caidie for a pink ticket!