CH 124

Chapter 124 - Aren't I great? Want to be my girlfriend? (2)

There was a counter after passing through the door, and then a door that led into a hallway.

Lu Xingchi led the way with his crossbow. He had Bei Nuan and Fang Chen follow behind him as he searched each room in the hallway.

Unfortunately, Lu Xingchi's prediction had come true. There really were zombies here, and there were a lot of them too.

Lu Xingchi carried forward with clearing out the zombies in each room until he found a locked room. He opened the door.

The room looked like an office. It had several desks. There were several motionless fallen people on the ground. They looked like employees of the bank.

"Dad!" Fang Chen called out and rushed forward, only to be stopped by Bei Nuan.

Lu Xingchi walked over and carefully examined the people on the ground before signaling for them to come over. "It's okay. They're not zombies."

Fang Chen threw himself on a middle-aged man and bawled. "Is my dad dead?"

Lu Xingchi checked his dad's pulse and calmly said. "Not yet, but if you keep pressing down on him like this. He really will die."

Frightened, Fang Chen quickly let go of his dad and squatted beside him in a well-behaved manner. He stretched his head out to look.

The middle-aged man was motionless and didn't open his eyes, but he was still weakly breathing and had a pulse.

Lu Xingchi looked around and concluded, "They're trapped here with no food or water."

Anything that could be eaten or drank was gone from the room. The cups were empty, and the snack bags on the ground didn't even have crumbs. The tea container was open and empty too.

There was only one flower pot left on the table, and it was stripped bare. They couldn't tell what was originally planted in it.

With zombies roaming outside, the bank staff were trapped in the room.

Who knows how long they had been in desperate straits. If they had come here a bit later, it would probably be too late for Fang Chen's dad.

Du Ruo wasn't here, and Bei Nuan didn't know what to do. She helped Fang Chen's dad into a sitting position and only dared to feed him a little bit of water.

The middle-aged man moved slightly, but he still didn't open his eyes.

Fang Chen clutched his clothes, trembling all over. He waited with bated breath, lest he do something to harm his dad again.

While Bei Nuan was helping Fang Chen's dad drink water, Lu Xingchi had already checked over everyone in the room and found another living person. It was a young man, and he had lasted until now too. Lu Xingchi asked Bei Nuan for a bottle of water and fed the young man the water.

The young man's condition was much better than Fang Chen's dad's. After drinking that water, he coughed and opened his eyes.

Lu Xingchi carried the two men back to the jeep and drove back to Fang Chen's home.

Seeing that they had brought his dad back, Fang Ye jumped up with a whoosh. Forgetting that he still had a fever, he eagerly fumbled with helping Lu Xingchi put his dad down on the bed.

With Du Ruo taking over, Bei Nuan didn't have to worry anymore. She opened up the taskbar.

"Fang Chen (2 out of 3 completed)"

Bei Nuan thought; although Lu Xingchi was the one that fulfilled the wish, he had insisted on her asking him for help, so she had gotten credit.

The others were clustered around new people and bustling about. There was no place for Bei Nuan to help, so she left the room for space.

There was a small enclosed balcony from the living room. It was a place where they hung their laundry to dry. Bei Nuan stood by the window and looked out the window in a trance. Underneath the sun, it was deathly silent. The very picture of an apocalyptic scene.

"His dad woke up." Lu Xingchi walked over and stood behind Bei Nuan. He lowered his head to look at Bei Nuan. "What's wrong?"

Bei Nuan whispered, "Lu Xingchi, I really don't think I'm a good person."

Lu Xingchi seriously looked at her. "Why do you say that?"

"If I was their parent, knowing there were two children at home when the zombies broke out, even if I didn't know if they were still alive, just the possibility that they might be starving to death waiting for me to go back, I would do my best to survive."

Bei Nuan paused for a few seconds before continuing, "There really wasn't any water in that room, but… there was something he could have eaten."

She looked up at him with a tangled expression.

Lu Xingchi understood what she was saying. There were already two dead people in that room.

Lu Xingchi softly said, "Don't think so much. Water is more important than food for survival. Without water, eating anything is useless."

"But I can't help but think, if there was water in the room and only food was lacking, what would I do to keep living."

Distressed, Lu Xingchi reached out to hug her.

For once, Bei Nuan didn't evade him. She peacefully and obediently rested on his chest.

Lu Xingchi stroked her hair. "Do you know why there's a severe punishment for cannibalism even during famines when there's so many corpses everywhere?"

Lu Xingchi's voice was impartial, yet very gentle. "Because it's the bottom line. Once that bottom line is broken, the aftermath is even more horrific. If it's okay to eat dead people, then what about people close to death? If they're not close to death, but they're children that won't be able to survive, can they be eaten? And what about criminals? Can they be eaten? If you go a step further, can you eat anyone that can't beat you?"

"For a pragmatic person, the bottom line of not eating human flesh doesn't seem so absolute.  The reason why people have to have bottom lines and obstinately cling to it is to avoid that slippery slope."

After hearing him say all that, Bei Nuan said into his chest in a muffled voice, "So I'm a bad person, right?"

"You're not." Lu Xingchi's pleasant voice came from above her. "Stop having those crazy thoughts. You have me."

Lu Xingchi lowered his head to look her in the eyes. In a firm and serious tone, he said, "With me here, you'll never be in the predicament where you need to struggle over that kind of problem."

Bei Nuan looked up at him. She was very moved.

Lu Xingchi paused and followed up by asking seriously, "Aren't I great? Want to be my girlfriend?"

Bei Nuan: "..."