“The food and water are under our control now!” Zhang Pi swung the stick in his hand, looking arrogant and domineering. “Don’t you get it? We call the shots here!”
“If anyone has a problem with that, then get the hell out!” Li Dan added coldly.
All the remaining supplies—water and food—were piled up behind them in a corner of the restaurant, and no one else was allowed to go near. Even the two barrels of water Tang Cheng had brought yesterday had been taken over by these two.
In desperate times like these, the selfishness and ugliness of some people were fully revealed.
“W-Why should you be in charge? Looks like you just want to hog it all! That food and water weren’t even yours to begin with!” The woman who’d been kicked yesterday, Liu Hong, about forty years old, shouted back, her voice laced with fear.
“You stinking old hag! Want another kick?” Li Dan, standing beside Zhang Pi, raised his leg threateningly as if ready to strike again.
Liu Hong immediately shrank back against the wall, tears streaming down her face. She didn’t dare say another word.
The balding man who’d been beaten up yesterday was curled up in a corner, his face bruised and swollen, not daring to speak either.
Veterinarian Wu Mei stood silently with her head lowered, lips parted as if wanting to say something, but in the end, she too remained helplessly silent.
“Cough… cough… water… I’m so thirsty…” The bespectacled uncle who had been injured was finally awake. Weak and frail, he leaned against the wall, begging pitifully.
“Give us some water! We’ve got an injured person here!” Tang Wanyue, a student council executive, mustered up her courage and confronted the two aggressive young men despite her fear.
“You asking for a beating?” Zhang Pi raised his right hand arrogantly.
Tang Wanyue instinctively closed her eyes in fear, bracing herself for the hit she knew was coming…
But at that moment—crash!—the sound of shattering glass echoed through the room.
Tang Cheng had just kicked through the thick glass at the entrance, sending shards raining across the floor.
Zhang Pi froze mid-swing, staring in horror at the furious youth storming through the broken glass door.
“It’s that zombie kid!”
“B-Bro, the zombie’s barged in!” Li Dan gripped his stick with trembling hands, equally terrified.
“I dare any of you to lay a hand on her!” Tang Cheng strode forward coldly. His rotting zombie-like left face was already frightening enough, and now it terrified nearly everyone in the restaurant.
“C-Classmate…” Tang Wanyue’s eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at him, knowing he had once again come to her rescue.
“Ahhh! A zombie’s in here!” Wu Mei and a few others panicked, fleeing deeper into the restaurant, convinced Tang Cheng had turned into a zombie and was attacking.
“S-Save me…” The injured uncle by the table scrambled away in fear, desperate to survive.
Tang Cheng couldn’t help but feel a little helpless watching the chaos.
“Bro, he doesn’t have a gun! L-Let’s take him down now!”
“Then why is the left side of my face still so ugly?”
Holding up the mirror, he saw that the zombified half of his face hadn’t changed much at all. The rotting appearance scared even himself. Damn, wasn’t this just a full-blown zombie?
“No wonder they were so afraid of me. Honestly, who would want to be around a monster like this?”
A deep sense of despair crept over him. Dying wasn’t the issue—but how was he supposed to show his face to others looking like this? Isn’t there a saying? The head can be severed, blood can flow, but the face must remain unblemished!
“Chu Ruoyun!”
“Damn it, you better hope this zombie doesn’t find you!”
Tang Cheng slumped onto the couch in the book café and wearily closed his eyes. Maybe by tomorrow, he really would be a full-on zombie.
And just like that, he slept through the night…
*****
The next morning.
The sound of an argument came from next door. Groggy, Tang Cheng opened his eyes, relieved that he was still alive today…
“What’s going on over there?”
He pushed open the door of the book café and walked over to the entrance of the steakhouse.
Inside, a dispute was breaking out.
“Hey! You two again? Why are you hogging all the water and food?” Tang Wanyue was confronting the two young men, clearly upset.
“Yeah, let’s take him down! What an eyesore of a zombie!”
Zhang Pi and Li Dan’s eyes glinted with malice. Whether or not this teenager was an actual zombie didn’t matter—so long as they killed him!
The fat one, Li Dan, raised his stick and swung it hard at Tang Cheng’s head. He clearly intended to kill.
Tang Cheng ducked swiftly, then drove a powerful punch straight into the fat guy’s stomach. Yesterday he’d noticed his strength had increased dramatically. Today was the perfect time to test it out!
But it seemed he hadn’t even used full force—Li Dan let out a yelp and flew backward, crashing into tables and chairs before slamming against the wall. Foam sprayed from his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold!
“Damn, my strength is really that crazy?” Tang Cheng was shocked. That guy must’ve weighed 200–300 pounds, and yet he flattened him with just one punch!
Whether his genes had mutated from the zombie virus or not, one thing was clear—his strength was no longer normal!
Had he turned into some kind of super-strong zombie?
Everyone in the shop was staring at him in stunned silence, unable to process what just happened.
“Amazing…” Tang Wanyue stared at Tang Cheng with wide eyes, joy flickering in her heart. She’d been so worried something might happen to Xiaolu, but she hadn’t expected his strength to be this terrifying.
Tang Cheng looked calmly at Zhang Pi, who was still holding a stick. “Come on then. Weren’t you going to kill me?”
Zhang Pi’s hands trembled as he clutched the stick. His legs felt like they were filled with lead—he couldn’t lift them at all. He looked at the fat guy passed out by the wall, then at Tang Cheng with his half-zombie face, and immediately fell to his knees.
“Boss Zombie, I was wrong! I was wrong! Please… please spare me!”
“What the hell? You chickened out that fast?”
Tang Cheng stared at the young man in disbelief. Just moments ago he’d looked ready to kill, and now he was groveling like a puppy. Apparently, the more someone acts tough, the more spineless they really are.