Chapter 8: Gunshots — Two Days Later.

Two days later.

Su Ze had just pulled the kitchen cleaver out of a mutated creature’s body when he heard several gunshots.

His eyes brightened. He hurried to the door and held his breath, listening—and finally, a dozen-odd seconds later, two more shots rang out. He determined the sound was roughly three blocks away.

That area bordered the High-Tech Zone, where the municipal government and other key institutions were located. If the municipal government and police rescue services had begun rescue and clearing operations, starting from there made perfect sense.

Only… the pace seemed a bit slow…

Su Ze returned to the dead mutated creature, observing its grotesque, horrifying appearance while part of his mind projected the government rescue timeline.

The High-Tech Zone was a development park Liyang had built to attract investment, close to the provincial capital Longchang City—almost entirely factories and incubator parks, vast and sparsely populated. Logically, it should have been fairly easy to clear.

But the municipal government had taken two days just to advance to the new zone where Su Ze lived—genuinely a bit slow.

Then again, factoring in the many worker dormitories in the factory zones, and that Liyang had no stationed troops—relying solely on the police’s meager firearms—two days perhaps wasn’t slow at all.

And judging from their direction of advance, they’d clearly abandoned the city center for the time being—possibly also a consideration of ammunition reserves.

Who knew when the army stationed in Longchang would push through to Liyang… Su Ze used the cleaver to lift one of the creature’s legs, examining the utterly deformed foot and the thick, stiff bristles covering it, brow arching slightly.

No wonder it could run on walls.

Tossing aside the mutated creature—part dog, part spider, roughly half a person’s size, with ten legs—Su Ze rose and walked to a massive white cocoon, tearing it open with his bare hands.

Inside was an unconscious woman. Her face was pale and bloodless, her breathing faint. A chunk of flesh had been bitten off her shoulder, but fortunately the wound had healed, and she showed no signs of mutation.

Su Ze lifted the woman out of the cocoon and laid her on the ground, then walked to another white cocoon that had fallen silent. Carefully tearing an opening at the top, he leaned in to look.

Inside the white cocoon was a half-melted corpse. Judging from the skull still hung with sloughing flesh, the corpse belonged to a Mutant.

Su Ze paused briefly, then tore open the remaining cocoons one by one, finding only one that held a little girl, long dead—the rest all contained half-digested Mutants.

Su Ze pressed his lips together, glanced back at the still-unconscious woman and the motionless mutated creature on the ground, as if understanding something.

After a spider hunts, it wraps its prey in spider silk, spits out digestive fluid, and finally drinks down the liquefied prey. But clearly, the woman he’d rescued had never gone through the immersion step.

Looking around, Su Ze quickly found a phone. The screen was shattered and the residual battery low, but it still woke, revealing a lock-screen photo: a family of three and their beloved dog.

Setting down the phone, Su Ze walked back to the white cocoon holding the dead little girl and fell silent, looking at the clear tooth marks on her neck.

At this point, the whole picture had become clear.

Su Ze sighed, took a bottle of mineral water from the shelf, walked to the woman’s side, helped her up, and carefully fed her water.

A minute later, the woman finally came to. At the sight of Su Ze she flinched in horror, curling up and trying to flee—but her limbs had no strength, and she failed.

Su Ze pressed the mineral water into her hands, soothing her in a gentle voice: “It’s all right. I’m not a monster and I’m not a bad person. I just came in looking for something to eat.”

That was heartfelt and true—genuinely the reason Su Ze had entered this convenience store.

Over these two days he’d covered every nearby street on his own two feet without finding anything to eat. Not because the local mutated creatures had all died off—but because most of them, he couldn’t bring himself to put in his mouth.

Take yesterday: in a residential complex, he’d come across a Mutated Boston Ivy, plump and thriving, blanketing an entire building, its trophies stuffed between every branch and leaf.

With the mutated wutong, Su Ze could talk himself into gnawing on roots that had never drained a human. But a mutated creature like the Boston Ivy, which hunted with the spines across its body—even washed clean, it would conjure images of human blood running down its leaves. Deeply appetite-killing.

After two fruitless days of searching, Su Ze had chosen to try his luck in this convenience store with its shattered doors and windows and low activity. Who knew that the moment he entered, spider silk would cocoon him head to toe, and a jet-black thing—part dog, part spider—would speed toward him, claws raised for him.

Recalled from his thoughts, Su Ze let go, allowing the woman—recovering a bit of strength—to retreat into the corner, and asked quietly: “Do you know what’s happened these past few days?”

The woman drifted in a daze for a moment, then her expression turned anguished. “I… know… Black Bean… saved me…” Her voice was hoarse, carrying the exhaustion and numbness left in grief’s wake.

Su Ze was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry. I killed your dog.”

The woman closed her eyes in pain and said nothing.

Su Ze glanced around, then stood: “The municipal government has started rescue operations. I’ll pull the shutter down for you. There’s plenty of food here—you can wait for rescue with peace of mind.”

As he walked toward the white cocoons to carry them out, the woman’s husky voice reached him: “The first and second from the left… are my husband and… my daughter… Could I trouble you to… take care of them?”

Su Ze looked at the woman laboriously pulling herself up by the wall, nodded, and took down those two cocoons, sealing their openings with spider silk and setting them aside. Then, by the same method, he took down the remaining three cocoons and tossed them into the green belt outside the door.

The woman, meanwhile, staggered over to the mutated dog. Looking at its body—so warped that nothing of its original form remained—she wanted to hold it but couldn’t bring herself to, and in the end could only cover her face and weep.

After discarding the other cocoons, Su Ze stood beside the woman, thought for a while, then said: “Let me wrap Black Bean in spider silk.”

The woman covered her face, and only after a long moment answered in a low voice: “…Yes. Thank you.”

The convenience store was covered in the spider silk Black Bean had spun—highly adhesive, clumping together at the slightest squeeze. Su Ze quickly gathered a pile, kneaded it like putty into one large mass, and wrapped Black Bean within.

Watching Su Ze place the cocoons in the corner of the store, the woman spoke again: “Thank you… take whatever you need from here. Consider it my thanks…”

Su Ze looked up at the woman. Thinking of what he’d seen while outside discarding the cocoons, he asked tentatively: “Excuse me—is that electric motorcycle outside yours?”

The woman seemed not to have expected the question. She glanced outside: “It was my husband’s. You want it?”

Su Ze nodded. “Mm. I can’t drive a car—this would make things easier.”

A reminiscent look crossed the woman’s face. Then she walked to the cash register, fished a key from the drawer, and handed it to Su Ze: “No telling how much charge is left.”

“Thank you,” Su Ze said, taking the key. “Let me pull the shutter down for you.”

The woman’s lips moved a few times, but in the end she nodded and said okay.

Su Ze walked out of the convenience store and pulled down the shutter under the woman’s indescribable gaze.

Before starting the electric motorcycle to leave, he glanced back at the store one more time. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the woman would roll that shutter back up the very next second—and walk out to meet her destruction.

Withdrawing his gaze, Su Ze rode the electric motorcycle back to the Pingyuan Residential Complex.

The complex had changed slightly in his absence. Wooden boards now reinforced the main gate, which was shut tight and secured with several extra locks. Thin wisps of smoke curled up from the small courtyard, where several Mutant corpses burned in a pile, a few human remains mixed among them.

A few men stood by the fire, huddled together whispering, glancing at the flames now and then with expressions of fear and relief.

Su Ze didn’t enter the complex right away. Instead, he wheeled the electric motorcycle into the emptied convenience store next door to charge, then fished out a large handful of keys and began undoing the locks.

By the time he opened the complex’s iron gate, the men had gathered at the entrance, waiting for him with delight on their faces.

“Little Su’s back! Home early today, huh!”

“How was it, Little Su? Anything new happening out there?”

“Little Su, you going out again later? See, my kid’s formula’s almost out—could you bring back a few tubs for your big brother?”

Su Ze glanced at them and headed straight for his own building: “Formula and I aren’t acquainted. You can go find it yourself—the surrounding blocks are safe during the day.”

“Easy for you to say, but I’ve got elderly parents and little kids at home—if anything were to happen…”

“We’re running low on food too. Little Su, if you’re going out for formula anyway, could you grab a few bags of rice for me?”

“We’re almost out of cooking oil too…”

“That’s enough out of you three!” Before Su Ze could answer, a man strode out from a nearby building, glaring daggers at them. “Little Su has already cleared every monster in the complex for you. What more do you want from him? He doesn’t owe you a thing!”

Wielding a pole with a kitchen cleaver lashed to its top, he walked to Su Ze’s side and shoved the others back: “If you want something, go get it yourselves!”

The three men seethed but didn’t dare speak, slinking back to the fire, sneaking glances this way and muttering who knew what.

Having driven the others off, the man with the improvised weapon looked at Su Ze: “Little Su, I’m thinking of checking out the supermarket nearby. Anything you need me to bring back?”

Su Ze shook his head, then after a thought reminded him: “Stay in the sunlight as much as you can.”

The man nodded solemnly. He’d just turned to leave when Su Ze added: “The municipal government has started rescue operations.”

Joy flashed across the man’s face at once, and he hurried to ask: “Really? When will they reach us? Will they set up a base?”

Su Ze made a quick mental estimate: “A day or two. I don’t know anything beyond that.”

Relief washed over the man’s face. “As long as rescue is coming. Thank you, Little Su. I’ll be off then.”

Su Ze watched the man go, then turned and headed upstairs.

Back in Su Qiuyu’s home, he took out the backpack he’d brought when returning to Liyang, packed in his meager change of clothes and some toiletries, then wrapped the last Mutated Wutong Tree Root in a plastic bag and placed it on top.

Afterward, he gathered the remaining food in the apartment, bagged it up, shouldered his backpack, and went out once more—hanging the bag of ordinary food on the doorknob across the hall, rapping on the door twice as he passed, then heading straight downstairs.

When he reached the courtyard, the three men were still huddled together, muttering their complaints.

“That guy from Building Three is such a fucking busybody. Little Su didn’t even say anything, but HE just had to shoot his mouth off, like he’s so damn capable!”

“Exactly! We’re not like him and Little Su—nothing holding them back, one mouth fed and the whole family’s worry-free! Some of us have elderly parents and little kids to think of. Shouldn’t we be a little more careful?”

“Right! Like the old saying goes—the capable should carry the load. We’re all neighbors here. What’s wrong with lending a hand? It’s not like we’re forcing him!”

Backpack on, Su Ze walked out the gate. As he turned to lock it, he took one last look at the weathered old complex through the gap in the door, his eyes showing no emotion at all.

The monsters within the complex had been cleared out, the food in the ownerless homes distributed. The surrounding blocks held no real danger anymore—aside from the Mutants hiding from daylight in the dark.

He had done all that decency demanded. It was time to set out on his own journey.

He snapped the last lock shut, turned, and walked into the convenience store. Before long, he was riding the electric motorcycle toward the main road leading out of the city.

That road ran straight to the countryside Wu Chengzhi and the others were headed for—and on to Changling Mountain, one of the three great primeval forests of Hua State.