CH 5

Chapter 5: Surrounded

No matter what information Jing Xiubai wanted to get from Chi Xin, she looked away expressionlessly.

Chi Xin: Don’t look at me, I haven’t found an excuse yet!

She, the person who should have been escorted into the base as a sinner awaiting her trial, was calmly making her way toward the council room. The surviving soldiers surrounded her and even those who had other ideas didn’t dare to meddle with them. Chi Xin looked around her, trying her best not to expose it was the first time she ever put foot here. Although she had seen the appearance of Base L in the movie, walking on the road herself was very different from sitting in front of a screen.

According to the timeline of the movie, it had been three months since the world ended and the world was basically without any government. Base L was somewhat more fortunate; before the whole social system had entirely collapsed, the city had built giant and sturdy walls to protect its inhabitants and stop the zombies.

The person in charge of the base was Cao Yan, the one who had just tried to kill Chi Xin on the wall. He didn’t have the same madness in his eyes anymore and when the rest of the people made their way back into the council room, he took out an instrument: “Is everyone back? Let’s check.”

Chi Xin stared at the machine. In the movie, the reason humans were still managing to survive such a crisis was thanks to this detection device. It had been specifically built to detect whether someone was infected or not. After the outbreak, a company called Tuobila had created this machine at an extremely fast speed and had made considerable profits. The company had only been mentioned once or twice in the movie and Chi Xin had not paid attention to it as she watched; all of her attention had been focused on the romance of the protagonists and on their mission to kill the zombie king and eliminate the biological agent the hero had been injected with, in an attempt to create super warriors.

As she thought about it, Chi Xin realized that she still hadn’t met the heroine; she was not in good health, and right now, she was most likely unconscious because of a fever. She should wake up when the hero would get questioned by everyone and step forward to defend him, regardless of his abnormality and psychic ability…

“How did this happen? What have you all been through?”

A shout came from the door; Chi Xin looked up to find a tall, gentle-faced girl covering her mouth and staring at the people in the council room in horror. 

Since the protagonist group had come to the base, they had given a lot of suggestions for improvement and had taken the initiative to search for supplies many times. While Jiang Congyun had been sick through the whole attack, no one blamed her.

Seeing her, Cao Yan showed a gentle expression: “Sister Congyun, don’t come closer, nobody has been tested yet.”

Jiang Congyun’s gaze fell on Jing Xiubai and Yu Xiang and stood still after they both nodded. She then swept through the crowd and when she found Chi Xin standing in the middle of several soldiers, looking as much like a fighter as them, she frowned.

Chi Xin remembered she still had the portable space the original character had robbed from her and tried to search for it. This portable space was a huge advantage in the last days, whether to store food or weapons… Chi Xin’s expression froze. She didn’t find any essential items for survival but a messy pile of cosmetics; toner, lotion, foundation, lipsticks, even fake eyelashes… There were also all kinds of beautiful clothes, jewelry, diamonds, and other things that nobody needed during the apocalypse. Ah, really worthy of the vicious female character! The writers really had written this aspect of her personality everywhere. Chi Xin withdrew her consciousness in a daze. Let’s wait until she could dispose of all these things and find a way to return the pendant to the heroine.

Someone tested the survivors one by one with the instrument. The method was similar to using a thermometer; if the light displayed on the forehead was green, it meant there was no infection and if it was red…

“Bang.”

Chi Xin watched as someone who had just measured red was shot to death in a horrified scream and her heart skipped a couple of beats. Sure enough, this world was too dangerous!

The others looked numb and evacuated the body quickly, as if despite the headshot, they would still get up and bite.

It was Chi Xin’s turn. She retracted her gaze after looking at the corpse and her indifference naturally showed in her panic, shocking the person holding the device. The man froze for a while and unexpectedly explained: “This is the rule, you know that.”

Chi Xin: ? I didn’t stop you from testing.

But the hand of the man trembled as he reached her forehead as if he was afraid she would suddenly kick him just like she had severed the high-level zombie.

When the test was over, the infection had been detected on several people and their bodies were all dragged out; they would all be incinerated together afterward. This was one of the tragedies of the last days; even if the people infected had relatives, they could only hold back their cries and the atmosphere in the council room was solemn.

As soon as the inspection was over, Jiang Congyun rushed in and stood beside Jing Xiubai. There was obvious worry in her eyes when she looked at him and while the man didn’t say anything, he shot her a reassuring glance.

Witnessing this scene, Chi Xin couldn’t help but look at him. He was in trouble now, if his ability wasn’t explained correctly, he might be branded as a monster. In any case, if he showed too much concern for the heroine, he might implicate her and he deliberately pretended to be indifferent before separating from her.

Clever, too clever.

“I know everyone is tired and many people just lost relatives and friends. Everybody is grieving.” Cao Yan stood in front of everyone and looked at them, “But we are a community and if there is a problem in this community, it must be resolved right away.”

Some people were crying, some were numb, and some had just escaped death.

One problem was solved, the remaining one was naturally Chi Xing.

She didn’t show the slightest panic but looked back at everyone who looked at her with something close to worship. Her voice was not like the soft and arrogant they thought but was clear as water.

“You only huddle in this corner with some peace of mind, without looking at what is happening outside. In the end, you will only become complacent and be overrun by zombies.”

As soon as she opened her mouth, she accused everyone of being short-sighted. She poked at the deepest cowardice in their hearts; people became furious and some even shouted to throw her back into the pile of zombies. The soldiers tensed up and Chi Xin’s young follower stepped in front of her.

“I don’t know what you think she is guilty of, but she saved all of you. Aren’t you afraid of retribution?”

The crowd became even angrier.

“What retribution? She deserves to die!”

“Why didn’t she die in the attack?”