Chapter 251 Extra: Parallel Space (VIII)
After driving away from the resort, they didn't actually walk very far. Shi Xingchen's wound had been infected for a long time, and it was not easy to delay until now. Not long after getting in the car, he fell into a semi-comatose state and needed treatment as soon as possible. There were supermarkets, banks and some residential houses near the resort. When driving by, several people found that the door of the supermarket was wide open and almost emptied. The area near the bank was also in a mess. It was probably because someone took advantage of the chaos to rob at the beginning of the apocalypse.
If it was a month ago, there would be a large number of zombies wandering around on such roads at all times of the day and night, and they would pounce on anyone passing by with their fangs and claws bared. But now, the streets are empty, and there is no sign of human activity except for some abandoned vehicles and corpses. Instead, some cats and dogs are freely running around in the middle of the street, and some are even gnawing on corpses on the ground. Hearing the roar of the engine, they habitually jump onto the steps or cars on the side of the road to avoid it, and then stand on both sides of the road, watching the SUV passing by with the eyes of a predator.
"Why aren't there any zombies?" Zhou Jing looked out the window and said anxiously. She didn't want to encounter zombies, but seeing such an empty street, the danger seemed to be hidden in the darkness, which made her even more worried.
"All the people have fled, why are there still zombies?" Rong Yuan said. He had expected this situation, which was why Rong Yuan had to wait for more than a month before setting off.
Chasing living people is the nature of zombies. They have infinite patience and inexhaustible physical strength. They will always follow the last living person they found, unless there is a new prey that makes them change their target. They will not always stay in a place without people and wait for food to fall from the sky. Therefore, after a month and a half, the zombies' initial scattered distribution has gradually gathered together. They will be like raindrops that merge into streams, and streams that merge into rivers, rushing to the safe base where a large number of humans gather in tens of thousands. The cities that were abandoned by humans at the beginning because they were too dangerous will now be gradually abandoned by zombies, and have become relatively safe places.
When people are escaping, they always try their best to search for all available resources. Therefore, most of the houses seen on the road have been smashed and robbed. The open doors and windows are dark, as if there are countless monsters hiding inside, spying on them. Zhou Jing rubbed his arms, feeling very uncomfortable, and always felt a little hairy in his heart.
Rong Yuan looked at Shi Xingchen's condition in the rearview mirror. Perhaps because the environment was relatively safe, his physical condition deteriorated immediately after he relaxed, or all the symptoms that were forcibly suppressed were released. Although he still wanted to hold on consciously, his body could no longer hold on. He tried hard to sit up, but only moved his fingers slightly, and uttered a few unclear mutterings.
The car stopped in front of a relatively clean second-hand bookstore. In the apocalypse, no one came to such a place. Even the glass on the windows was still intact. Rong Yuan pried open the door, pulled Shi Xingchen out of the car and carried him into the bookstore, placing him on a long table piled with books. His movements were not gentle. Perhaps because of the wound being touched, Shi Xingchen groaned and woke up again. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling hazily. It took a long time for his eyes to move.
Rong Yuan took the medicine box from the car to treat Shi Xingchen's wound, and asked Zhou Yuan and the others to boil some hot water and get some food. His car and trunk were filled with all kinds of supplies, and every bit of space was fully utilized when placing them. Once opened, it was like a department store. Zhou Jing and the others hadn't eaten a full meal for a long time. When they saw the colorful instant noodles packaging, their mouths were filled with saliva, and they couldn't bear it anymore. The two took out a few packs of instant noodles, hesitated for a while, and took out a pack of pickled mustard and two sausages. When Zhou Jing went to get the alcohol lamp again, he was stopped by Zhou Yuan.
The fat girl holding a bucket of purified water said, "Let's save the alcohol. Don't we have ready-made materials here?"
She felt that she had the lowest status in the car and didn't dare to speak at first, but when she saw that Zhou Jing didn't know how to cherish the supplies, she couldn't help but stop her. After she finished speaking, she felt something was wrong and looked at the capable and beautiful female police officer in front of her with trepidation.
Zhou Jing slapped her head and said in annoyance: "Oh, you're right, I forgot about it!"
Zhou Yuan raised his eyes and smiled at her, with a hint of cautious flattery, but not in an annoying way.
During the time they spent together at the holiday villa, Zhou Jing was exhausted from just watching over Shi Xingchen and preventing him from doing anything bad, and from guarding against others having bad thoughts towards her. She didn't have much communication with Zhou Yuan, but she saw everything Zhou Yuan did, and had a good impression of this chubby but hardworking girl, and Zhou Yuan was actually the same. The two locked the car and returned to the bookstore while talking quietly. Rong Yuan stabbed Shi Xingchen in the outer room of the bookstore, and they went to another room inside where best-selling books were sold to boil water. But looking around, they were surrounded by the crystallization of human wisdom and precious cultural heritage, which might be of great use in the future and could not be easily destroyed. In the end, they picked a few romance novels to burn.
When the water boiled, Rong Yuan walked in while wiping his hands with a wet towel. He was clean without a drop of blood. Zhou Jing was stunned and asked, "How is that guy?"
"You can go and have a look for yourself." Rong Yuan was too lazy to explain. He threw the wet wipes into the trash can, sat down next to Zhou Yuan, and took the bowl of noodles she handed over.
When the cold fingertips touched each other, Zhou Yuan's body trembled. He suddenly shrank his hand and clenched his fist on his leg. He rubbed the back of his fingers with the hand hidden in his sleeve, and his heart was beating wildly.
Looking at her eyes, Rong Yuan knew that this girl still liked him in this world, or rather, still loved him deeply. Jin Yang had reminded him of Zhou Yuan's mood, and Rong Yuan himself had more or less noticed it, but he actually didn't quite understand the mechanism of the emotion of "love", nor did he understand how it was different from family and friendship. Because it had a mysterious power that could make people live and die for it and whose IQ dropped to 60, Rong Yuan had always been cautious and in awe of it, but was absolutely unwilling to get involved. Therefore, he neither responded nor rejected Zhou Yuan, and treated her no differently than others, waiting for the day when she would figure it out and give up or fall in love with someone else.
Zhou Jing went outside and took a look. She saw that the wound on Shi Xingchen's leg had been treated. The bandage was wrapped in a spiral. The error between each fold was probably not even a millimeter. It was so perfect that it looked like a work of art. Shi Xingchen's condition had stabilized. His breathing was even. His face was calm and a little rosy. He had fallen into a deep sleep.
"You're amazing!" Zhou Jing couldn't help but exclaimed after returning. While blowing the hot air out of the bowl, she asked, "When did you study medicine?"
"I've never learned it before. This is my first time." Rong Yuan said.
"You're lying!" Zhou Jing immediately expressed her disbelief. "How can you do it so well if you haven't learned it? No, how dare you use a knife on someone if you haven't learned it?"
"Read more books." Rong Yuan said calmly, glancing at her at the same time. Zhou Jing immediately felt that her IQ had been damaged by 10,000 points. She looked at Zhou Yuan, but saw that the girl looked like "Rong Yuan is omnipotent and you actually question him, are you stupid?"
Zhou Jing: “…Hehe.”
When friendship is gone, the boat capsizes, and I feel tired and no longer loved.
…
Shi Xingchen slept until noon the next day, and recovered quickly. He had a good physique and paid attention to exercise. In less than a week, he was able to run and jump again.
All the way north, Rong Yuan has been collecting detailed maps of various places. The radio plays all kinds of private or official messages 24 hours a day. There are some red crosses marked on the map, which are the locations of various security bases.
Rong Yuan collected these, but not to join a certain base, but to calculate the safest route based on the location of the base, the distance from the city, the distribution of the surrounding villages and other factors. When the end of the world comes, people seem to be running away in panic. Some safe bases built using prisons or banks seem to be very accidental, but in fact all behaviors have traces. Wandou used the optical computer to build a calculation model, and through this model, he can calculate the route with the least traffic and the least zombies. Sometimes they will not even encounter a zombie after driving for a whole day. If you are lucky, you can also find a lot of supplies that have been overlooked.
Shi Xingchen and the others didn't know about the existence of the pea and the optical brain. They just thought that these were all deduced by Rong Yuan based on the limited information on the map. They admired him with all their heart and had no second thoughts. Although they didn't know Rong Yuan's purpose yet, they were full of confidence in him and their eyes were full of hope. Infected by their demeanor, some people who met by chance on the road joined the team without any obstacles, and under Zhou Yuan's unremitting propaganda, they had great respect and trust for Rong Yuan, the cold-faced and taciturn leader.
Now their first off-road vehicle has been eliminated because of its fuel consumption and small space, and has been replaced with two large trucks. Although it still consumes fuel, it can carry more supplies. The skilled people even renovated the interior of the truck to look like a well-decorated house, and the various supplies were organized and summarized very well. Even Rong Yuan couldn't find any faults. The front car mainly carries people, and the back car is piled with half a car of potatoes and vegetables, which they dug together when they passed by an abandoned farmland.
Now, in addition to the original four people, there are also pregnant women, old professors, several elementary school students, several teenagers, a couple, three farmers... Other teams may not be willing to accept the people who are accepted in this car, so Rong Yuan, who is willing to take him in, seems extremely kind in their eyes. Before the end of the world, many people like to curse the saints and saints, use microscopes to find flaws in great people, and use the greatest malice to speculate on various good deeds in the news. But when you are in such a precarious situation and can't get anything you ask for, you will know how great a blessing it is to meet a kind person.
One day when they were taking a break after a meal, someone said this with gratitude, which immediately resonated with everyone, and Shi Xingchen, who was sitting on the side, smiled meaningfully .
If he was such a kind person, Shi Xingchen would not choose to follow him. He would stay here because he knew Rong Yuan's true face was not that kind.
The reason these people who originally had low survival ability were able to survive until now was naturally because they originally had some other protectors. Those people were either very cruel to them, or just regarded them as food reserves. When they met Rong Yuan's team, which was obviously stronger and more promising, they found that they could not seize it by force, so they naturally chose to join.
The environment of the end of the world is a naked law of the jungle, and the dark side of human nature is maximized. Especially for those who control the team, many of them were just at the bottom , but became the masters of a group of people after the end of the world because they are stronger and more fierce. The sudden change of the poor to rich makes it easy for people with bad mentality to become arrogant and self-centered. Bullying, insulting, killing, and stepping on the corpses of others to survive have become the norm, but such people are not allowed to exist in Rongyuan's team.
So soon, they will "accidentally" encounter a group of zombies. Naturally, the fighters will go first, and then if they are not careful, they will be scratched or killed because of some "accident".
They met about sixty or seventy people along the way. After repeated screening, only about one-third of them were left.
What Shi Xingchen admired most was Rong Yuan's ability to judge people. He could tell the loyal from the treacherous at a glance, and after a few simple conversations, he could tell what the person was best suited for. After choosing a direction, with a little training, the guy who was originally considered a waste suddenly became useful and reliable. They carried several boxes of books in their car, covering various technologies such as cooking, planting, breeding, smelting, and repair. Rong Yuan sometimes seemed to casually hand a book to someone, and soon, there was an "expert" in the team.
There were a few people that Shi Xingchen originally disapproved of Rong Yuan accepting, but later on, Rong Yuan continued to discover their shining points and guided them without making a fuss. When Shi Xingchen suddenly realized the difference, he found that those people were almost like different people, and even someone as picky as him had to give them the word "good".
Panning for gold in the waves is nothing; being able to turn stones into gold is the most rare thing.
…
"There's a deer farm ahead. I think we can hunt a few deer to improve our food, and catch a few fawns to raise later. Do you think it's feasible?" Shi Xingchen pushed his glasses and asked with a smile. Although his tone was respectful, his attitude was calm and equal, and he didn't give people a sense of flattery or servility.
Rong Yuan frowned slightly and said, "Just make the arrangements as you see fit."
"I understand." Shi Xingchen stopped the car and called a few people to surround him with homemade pistols and crossbows. Soon, cheers and laughter were heard.
In the carriage, Rong Yuan rubbed his forehead, wondering why he seemed to have traveled through time and space just because he had slept. The people around him were all strangers, but their attitudes towards him were very familiar. Fortunately, they were all very obedient and respectful, and even the most dangerous guy seemed loyal, which made Rong Yuan feel that the current situation was not too bad, and the tension after waking up was relieved a little.
He tried to search for any objects around him that could provide him with clues. As soon as he moved his body, he felt something strange - there was a palm-sized hardcover notebook in his trouser pocket. Rong Yuan took it out and just opened the first page when his face turned strange.
——So, what the hell is a parallel space?! When did time travel become a convenient express train that sells round-trip tickets? ?
