Chapter 23 Part 2

Lin Xiaobao said seriously, “It’s probably Grandpa Zhang.”

“Dad will confirm it’s Grandpa Zhang, then you come over.”

“Okay.”

Lin Zao crept forward quietly.

He hid by the window, peeling back a slit in the cardboard to peer outside.

Phew.

Lin Zao relaxed and yanked the cardboard fully aside, calling back to Lin Xiaobao.

“Little Bao, come quick! It’s Grandpa Zhang!”

Lin Xiaobao dragged over a small stool, climbed on, and poked his head under the window, waving at the old man outside.

“Hello, Grandpa Zhang!”

Grandpa Zhang smiled at them, patted a bag of flour on the windowsill, and mimed pushing open the window pane.

Grandpa Zhang’s window was an old wooden frame painted pig-liver red, divided into small panes.

Theirs was a big sliding glass window.

Lin Zao slid it open at once and whispered, “Grandpa Zhang, you okay? No injuries from yesterday?”

“I’m fine.”

Grandpa Zhang grinned, his wrinkles layering like a dried plum.

Lin Xiaobao leaned on the sill, watching Grandpa Zhang, and suddenly clutched his cheeks.

Oof… so sour! Sour enough to tingle his baby teeth!

Grandpa Zhang glanced at Lin Xiaobao, not knowing what he was thinking, and just said, “Sorry to worry you.”

“Good to hear.” Lin Zao asked further, “House still livable? Safe?”

“No problem. Thanks to your Fu Cheng—he swapped in a sturdy garage roller door for me. It didn’t break, just got bent and jammed shut. Can’t open it anymore.”

“That’s for the best.” Lin Zao chuckled. “You can’t get out, and no one can get in. Use the back door from now on.”

“Right.” Grandpa Zhang nodded sagely.

Lin Zao thought a moment, then said, “How was the pig head meat yesterday? There’s more in the fridge. Want some? I’ll pack it up now.”

“No, no.” Grandpa Zhang waved him off. “Haven’t finished yesterday’s. Tasted great, but it’s too much for one person.”

“Fair enough. Then…”

Grandpa Zhang patted the flour bag on the sill. “Take this bag of flour.”

“No, no.” Lin Zao refused instinctively. “We have food at home. Can’t take yours—keep it for yourself…”

“Not mine.” Grandpa Zhang cut him off.

“Huh?” Lin Zao paused. “Whose then?”

“Those robbers’.” Grandpa Zhang explained. “Didn’t I make them leave the minivan? This was in it.”

“One bag flour, one bag rice. Flour’s ten pounds, rice too. Not much. Neighbors all agreed—I should divvy it up.”

“You and Brother Fu put in the most effort last night, especially under such urgent circumstances. This whole bag of flour goes to you two. We’ll split the rice among everyone else.”

Lin Zao hesitated a bit. “But… Brother Cheng and I would be taking so much…”

Their family would get ten jin of flour all to themselves.

The remaining eight or nine neighbors would divide ten jin of rice—barely a little over a jin each.

It just didn’t feel right.

Grandpa Zhang’s face grew stern, his tone carrying an unquestionable authority. “Don’t talk like that.”

“You were the first one out there, and you did the most work. Without you, the others might not have come out at all.”

“Brother Fu only made it thanks to you. If you hadn’t come out last and pinned down that Baldy, who knows how things would have turned out.”

“This is what you deserve. If you don’t take it, who else will dare step up to help in the future?”

“Come on, lend a hand and carry the flour over.”

Grandpa Zhang had a point, so Lin Zao accepted it without further protest.

But ten jin of flour was a lot, and the bag was bulky.

The gaps in the anti-theft net were too small for it to pass through.

Grandpa Zhang said, “Hang on. I’ll carry the flour to the back door, and you can grab it there.”

“Okay.” Lin Zao nodded. “Thank you.”

Grandpa Zhang paused, looking a little embarrassed. He started to speak a few times but stopped himself.

“Little Lin, there’s one more thing I’d like to discuss with you…”

Just then, Lin Xiaobao’s eyes lit up. He pointed at Grandpa Zhang’s place and shouted, “Dad, traffic light!”

“What?” Lin Zao was puzzled.

“Traffic light!” Lin Xiaobao pointed at the doorframe behind Grandpa Zhang. “I saw it! Right there!”

“What thing?” Lin Zao frowned. “Little Bao, are your eyes playing tricks on you? Where would Grandpa Zhang have a traffic light in his house…”

Before he could finish, three heads—red, yellow, and green—poked out from behind the door.

“Red Hair? Yellow Hair? Green Hair?” Lin Zao’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What are you guys doing here?”

They were their neighbors.

The three spirited young guys renting in Building 5.

Red Hair was skinny as a rail, Yellow Hair was short and chubby, and Green Hair had a fairly even build.

They had helped out last night when the robbers showed up. Red Hair was so scrawny that when he tried to kick one, he just bounced right off.

From what they had said, they came from all over the place. They met surfing the web, became sworn brothers, and joined the same group.

Something like the Dark Night Family, followed by a string of flashy emotes—Lin Zao couldn’t remember it all.

They all worked at the nearby Auto Factory and rented a tiny single room right on the street.

The three of them were tight-knit, always together no matter what.

Side by side, they really did look like a traffic light.

But… why were they at Grandpa Zhang’s house?

Meeting Lin Zao’s puzzled gaze, the three flashed awkward but polite smiles and raised their hands in greeting.

“Brother Lin, hey Brother Lin.”

Lin Xiaobao stood on a stool, hands on his hips, chin raised high, his little face scrunched up.

What about me?

Red Hair tentatively called out, “Little Bao bro? Bao bro?”

Yellow Hair elbowed him. “What ‘bro’? ‘Bro’ is about seniority, not age.”

Green Hair cupped his fists in a salute and called out boldly, “Brother Bao!”

Lin Xiaobao couldn’t help but grin like an idiot and waved his little hand at them. “Hello, everyone!”

Lin Zao asked, “So, what’s going on?”

Grandpa Zhang explained, “These three kids don’t stock up on food or cook. All they’ve got at home is two cases of instant noodles.”

Red Hair raised his hand. “We’re sick of eating them.”

Yellow Hair nodded. “Even my pee tastes like instant noodles.”

Green Hair chimed in. “We just can’t take it anymore.”

Lin Zao frowned. “That doesn’t mean you come mooching off Grandpa Zhang…”

Grandpa Zhang clarified, “They didn’t come asking me for food. They wanted to borrow my car.”

“Borrow the car?”

Right—Grandpa Zhang had confiscated two minivans yesterday.

Heading out to scavenge, a minivan would definitely be safer and more convenient.

After all…

The three of them only had one modified electric bike.

It was decked out with skull stickers, colorful LED strips, speakers, and they’d even amped up the engine noise.

Every morning when they got back from the night shift, Lin Zao would wake up to the racket.

When they rode, the heaviest one, Yellow Hair, drove, with the lightest, Red Hair, squatting up front and Green Hair in the back seat.

Expecting them to take that thing out and tangle with zombies head-on was a tall order.

“That’s great,” Lin Zao said after a moment’s thought. “Do any of you know how to drive?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Yellow Hair nodded eagerly. “We all work at the Auto Factory.”

“Perfect.”

“But right now…”

The three young punks hesitated.

Grandpa Zhang spoke up for them. “Going out means running into those things for sure, and maybe fighting other people for food too. They don’t even have a kitchen knife at home, let alone anything for self-defense.”

The three nodded in unison. “Yeah, yeah, exactly.”

“We figured Brother Fu runs the repair shop, so he’s got tons of tools there.”

“So… we wanted to ask Brother Lin and Brother Fu—oh, and Brother Bao—to lend us some weapons. Iron sticks, wooden clubs, anything.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Lin. We’ll write an IOU! We’ll return them good as new, and we can negotiate interest—rice or flour works fine!”

Lin Zao suddenly understood.

So that’s what this was about.

No wonder Grandpa Zhang and these three colorful heads had been acting all awkward and shy.

“No problem. I’ll grab some weapons for you. Wait here.”

“Awesome!” The Tri-Colored Trio perked up, cupping their fists at him nonstop. “Thanks, Brother Lin!”

“You’re the big brother we never had!”

“Your great kindness—we’ll never forget it!”

They were young, dropping out of middle school to work, so they didn’t always think things through.

But they had good hearts.

Lin Zao took Lin Xiaobao to Fu Cheng’s repair shop.

After some rummaging…

Lin Zao grabbed a long-handled wrench and two steering wheel locks, then returned to the window.

He passed the weapons through.

“Here. The wrench is heavy, so Yellow Hair, you take it.”

“The steering wheel locks are lighter, but the heads are iron—they’ll hurt if you smash with them. Red Hair and Green Hair, you two use those.”

“They’re all long weapons. If you run into one of those things, keep your distance. Whatever you do, don’t let them grab or bite you.”

“If it comes to it, just ram them with the car. You can always grab another vehicle, but you’ve only got one life.”

The Tri-Colored Trio thanked him profusely. “Thanks, Brother Lin. Got it.”

Looking at their youthful faces under those dyed heads, Lin Zao couldn’t resist adding more advice.

“Robbers are already showing up, so things must be chaos out there. By now, supermarkets and malls are probably cleaned out.”

“You’re young and not that strong. You might not win a fight against folks outside.”

“When you need to run, run. Hide in the car and drive straight back—that’s your safest bet.”

Just then, Grandpa Zhang finished writing up the IOU at the table behind them.

Wearing his reading glasses, he held two sheets of paper, squinting as he read them over, then shuffled over slowly.

“Today, borrowing from Lin Zao and Fu Cheng the following items…”

“Borrowing interest: one bag of ten jin rice or flour.”

“Come here, you three. Sign and thumbprint.”

“When you borrow something, be grateful. Return it exactly as you got it. If you break it, make it right—and pay interest too.”

The Tri-Colored Trio lined up, hands clasped politely in front, nodding obediently.

“Got it, Grandpa.”

Lin Zao waved it off. “No need for an IOU or interest.”

“It is needed.” Grandpa Zhang gave him a look. “Without one, they won’t feel the weight of it.”

Grandpa Zhang handed the thumbprinted IOUs to Lin Zao. “You sign too.”

“Alright.” Lin Zao took the paper and pen, signing his name neatly.

Grandpa Zhang pushed up his reading glasses. “I’m the middleman here, so I need to sign as witness.”

Lin Xiaobao tiptoed forward curiously, trying to peek at what the grown-ups were signing. But he was too short and could only fret on the sidelines.

What were they writing?

Why wouldn’t they let him see?

He wanted to look too!

Lin Xiaobao raised his hand high. “I wanna sign too! Dad, I wanna sign!”

Lin Zao sighed and pinched his little cheek. “But Little Bao Bao, you can’t write yet.”

It hit him like a bolt from the blue!

He’d forgotten—he was a little illiterate who couldn’t even write his own name.

Lin Xiaobao wobbled and flopped dramatically against his dad.

He’d fainted!