Chapter 29: Repayment, A Well-Meaning Reminder

She spoke purely in the tone of a realist woman—admiring the strong, investing in the strong, and happy to attach herself to the strong.

The man outside the door was hesitating. If this woman opened the door too easily, could it be a trap? After all, she hadn’t even acknowledged Awen earlier—Awen being the one who’d called for help and then flew into a rage. But if she refused to open the door, was he really going to break it down?

But as soon as he heard her words, he understood: this woman wasn’t compassionate, but she was pragmatic. That made her easier to deal with.

He glanced at his own body. Although his strength had surged overnight, his muscles didn’t look much different—at a glance, he didn’t appear to be some powerhouse. He’d have to convince her to open the door first. Thinking of all the food behind that door and the constant aroma of hot rice wafting out since before dawn, he couldn’t help but drool.

The man looked around, then gave a subtle signal to his companion Awen, who was crouched by the door, ready to act. He walked over to the stairwell window, grabbed a steel pipe, and with a show of strength, snapped it in half before the peephole. “Miss, I may not look strong, but I’m very powerful,” he said.

Bian Changxi raised her eyebrows slightly. Another strength mutant. What about the other one? Or even a third?

Worrying too much was pointless. If she didn’t open the door, they’d break it down anyway. The apartment had already been stripped bare by her; she couldn’t let anyone see that, nor did she have any interest in wasting time with them.

She said, “Looks like you’re telling the truth. All right, come in.”

She unlocked the three deadbolts one by one. As the last one clicked open and she pushed the door outward, a woman’s voice urgently shouted, “Don’t open it!” At the same time, a figure lunged through the crack, grabbing the doorframe, trying to force his way in with a vicious look.

Bian Changxi recognized him instantly as the one who’d called for help. She smiled faintly, raised her fire axe, and brought the blunt side down hard on his skull.

Awen collapsed to the floor without a sound.

Bian Changxi kicked him aside, slipped out the door, and slammed it shut behind her. Only then did the strength mutant at the door react, lunging at her with the two halves of the steel pipe. Bian Changxi spread her fingers; a vine shot out, wrapping around his ankles. She dodged aside, and he fell face-first onto the spot she’d just vacated, his forehead slamming into the security door with a resounding crash.

Bian Changxi walked over with a smile and said to the dazed man, “Rob me? Maybe in your next life.”

She straightened up and brought the axe down. The man screamed and passed out, eyes rolling back. In truth, Bian Changxi’s axe landed on the tile floor next to his neck.

She curled her lip. With that little courage, he dared to run around causing trouble?

She waited a moment. No one else came out from upstairs or downstairs. It seemed these two had no other accomplices. She turned to look at the door to 304 across the hall. The warning shout had come from inside. She remembered that 304 housed a family of four, and they’d somehow survived both waves of the zombie outbreak.

Bian Changxi felt it would be rude to just leave after their kind warning. She knocked on the door. “Hello, thank you for the warning just now.”

After a while, a man’s voice replied, weak but trying to sound steady, “No problem, no problem. We saw their movements through the peephole, so my wife called out. Hope you don’t mind us meddling.”

Bian Changxi pointed at the two unconscious men on the floor. “They’re just knocked out for now. When they wake up, they might take it out on you. And since they didn’t get anything from me, they might start harassing the neighbors. Be careful.”

With that, she locked the door to 303 with her key, which slipped into her pocket—actually, into her jade bracelet—and turned to leave. Suddenly, the door to 304 opened a crack. A boy of about thirteen or fourteen, eyes bloodshot and wide, looked at her. “Big sister, are you leaving?”

Bian Changxi nodded. She could tell the boy was badly dehydrated.

“You’re not coming back?”

“No.”

“Where are you going?”

Bian Changxi didn’t answer.

The boy grew nervous and stammered, “We—we’re almost out of food and water. My parents want to go out and look for supplies, but they don’t know what to do. Big sister, you’re strong. Do you know how to deal with those monsters? Where should we go?”

His parents quickly pulled him back, opening the door a bit wider. Bian Changxi saw a young couple and a little girl of seven or eight hiding behind them, clutching a doll and her father’s shirt, eyes blank with fear. All of them looked exhausted, but the children’s faces were a bit better off—clearly, the parents had been saving food and water for them.

The couple bowed their heads apologetically. “Sorry, our son’s always been a handful and tends to bother people.”

Bian Changxi found the adults less composed and courageous than the children, which made her a bit annoyed. In seven years of the apocalypse, people like this—timid and shrinking—were always at the very bottom. Judging by their clothes, they’d never even gone out to fight zombies. It was already the fourth day; even if not for themselves, they should’ve tried to adapt for their children’s sake.

But they hadn’t. It wasn’t just about courage—it was about responsibility.

She looked at the little girl clutching her doll, eyes hollow and terrified, and sighed inwardly. “To deal with zombies, first you can’t be afraid. The goal is to cut off their heads. The danger is that if you’re bitten or scratched, you’ll get infected and become a new zombie. As for where to go, the government broadcasts are telling survivors to head to the new resettlement zones. If necessary, the army will lead people to the base in Sucheng.”

She paused, looking at the boy. “If you’re going to act, do it soon. The number of zombies will only increase. This place will soon be a sea of corpses. The government and army won’t wait for everyone, and you shouldn’t expect anyone to come save you. The world has changed.”

The boy seemed to ponder her words. He looked at her hopefully. “Big sister, are you going to the new zone too? Can you take us with you?”

Bian Changxi shook her head coolly. “I don’t travel with the incapable.”

The family flushed with embarrassment, but Bian Changxi walked away without a second thought.

With those words, she’d repaid their warning. She hated owing favors, and always repaid more than she received. Besides, their family was hardly unique—there were billions suffering just as much. Bian Changxi wasn’t one to pity the world, but having seen them with her own eyes…

Fine. Zhu Yunhua had once said she was cold and decisive, always repaying both kindness and enmity, but sometimes her compassion flared up at the most inopportune times—a frustrating flaw.

His betrayal had drained even more warmth from her eyes, but it hadn’t erased that flaw. On reflection, Bian Changxi decided it wasn’t such a bad thing. She’d offer advice, but she’d never foolishly take those four with her. As for not leaving them any food—first, her hands were empty and she couldn’t take anything out of her jade bracelet; second, the two unconscious men probably had some supplies on them. If the boy couldn’t get them, there was nothing she could do. As long as she kept her boundaries, a little humanity wasn’t a bad thing.

There were no zombies in the hallway, nor any signs of fighting. That so-called strength mutant had clearly been bluffing.

Bian Changxi took a black hiking backpack from her jade bracelet, stuffed some food in for show, then discreetly took out her motorcycle. There were plenty of zombies wandering the complex, but she had no time to tangle with them. She rode out of the building, skillfully broke through the encirclement, and sped toward her first destination."