Tang Cheng didn’t take the elevator. Instead, he walked through the corridor filled with zombies and began climbing the stairs toward the fifth floor.
“Uhh… uhh…”
A low zombie groan echoed up the stairwell. On the landing between the third and fourth floors, there was a zombie auntie holding a mop, sluggishly dragging it across the floor. She must’ve been one of the building’s janitors before she was infected.
As he continued upward, Tang Cheng found the fourth-floor stairwell door strangely locked. Inside, zombies were relentlessly pounding on the metal, producing a continuous bang bang bang that was deeply unsettling.
When he reached the fifth floor and pushed open the door, he found the lights still on — the power was miraculously still functioning. This floor housed a large supermarket, fully stocked with everything from food to household goods. The pharmacy section was set in the far back, located in the medical area.
Because it was a supermarket, the fifth floor was absolutely swarming with zombies. They staggered about in dense clusters, some still clutching shopping baskets as if they’d been attacked while browsing. Some were even pushing shopping carts, which continued to squeak and scrape against the walls despite repeatedly bumping into them. It was oddly comical… and horrifying.
Faced with the dark, swaying crowd of zombies, Tang Cheng instinctively drew in a sharp breath. If the people downstairs had tried to come up here for medicine, they would’ve been torn to pieces in seconds.
The aisles were a chaotic mess of toppled shelves and trampled merchandise, suggesting there had been a massive panic during the initial outbreak. The carnage spoke for itself.
Pushing aside any thoughts of sympathy or sentiment, Tang Cheng quickly made his way toward the pharmacy area. Predictably, no zombies tried to attack him along the way.
Just as he reached the pharmacy entrance, he saw through the glass door a young woman in a white outfit — a shop assistant. Her hair was tied in cute twin ponytails, and she stood before the medicine shelves, stretching to reach something on the top row.
“Huh? There’s still a living person in here?”
Tang Cheng hurriedly pushed open the heavy glass door and rushed inside.
“Uh… h-hi there!”
His voice trembled with excitement, accidentally turning his greeting into something that sounded like a clumsy pick-up line. Really? It’s the apocalypse — who still says ‘hi’ right now?
But the girl didn’t respond. She kept tiptoeing to reach the shelf, not turning around. Her slender, fair legs beneath her white angelic uniform looked almost too perfect to belong in this hellscape.
“Why’s she ignoring me?”
So awkward…
Tang Cheng hesitantly called again, “Miss? Shop assistant?”
Still no response.
“Don’t tell me she’s a zombie too…”
If she hadn’t reacted to anything by now, chances were high she wasn’t human anymore. But from behind, she looked so sweet — what did she look like from the front?
Curious and with a strange sense of anticipation, Tang Cheng walked around to see her face.
Sure enough, she was stunning — calm, ocean-like eyes, slightly parted lips tinged with pink, a soft and sweet kind of beauty. But on her left arm… several bite marks.
She had been infected.
Her appearance hadn’t changed at all from the virus infection. If it weren’t for the bite marks on her arm, she would’ve looked just like an adorable sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl.
“Mu Xiaoxuan, huh? What a cute name!”
Tang Cheng had spotted her name on the employee badge hanging from her chest — maybe she worked here part-time.
“Agh, what am I doing? I need to focus on saving lives!”
That old saying about beauty being food for the soul — he’d just caught himself ogling a cute zombie. If this were normal times and he stared at a girl like that, he would’ve been arrested for being a creep.
He spotted a medical kit hanging on the wall nearby. Opening it, he found a stethoscope and some emergency first-aid tools — without hesitation, he slung it over his shoulder.
Then he began searching for IV tubes, gauze, bandages, and anti-inflammatory medicine.
“‘Pi Yan Ping’… That sounds like it treats inflammation, right…?”
Hey! That’s for athlete’s foot!
Kidding, of course — just kidding…
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