"Is anyone there?"
"That can’t be right, I see her every day, and now I can definitely feel her presence in there. Could it be she’s had a sudden illness, collapsed on the ground, unable to move, in mortal danger? I can’t just stand by and do nothing; it looks like I’ll have to smash the glass and break in."
The muttering words reached Su Xiaoxiao’s ears without missing a single letter.
Smash the glass and co in.
At that thought, Su Xiaoxiao fiercely grabbed the knife on the table, went to the window, hid the knife behind her, lifted the curtain, and bravely t the gaze of the pervert outside.
She saw the pervert holding a brick at first glance.
He really wanted to break the window.
Lin Fan put down the brick, his smile revealed, he had planned to shatter the glass with a punch, but seeing a brick at his feet, since he had the tool, why use his fist?
"Hello."
His voice was very soft, the other’s emotions were unstable, their spirit had been impacted by the end of days, certainly calm at tis, and fiercely irritable at others.
From her eyes, he could tell she was very anxious.
"What are you doing?" Su Xiaoxiao held the knife tightly in her hand, ready to fight at a mont’s notice.
Lin Fan said, "I have a ten-year-old kid over by my place, today is her tenth birthday, and I was hoping to order a cake for her. Do you have any?"
Ten years old?
A child?
Cake?
Su Xiaoxiao didn’t speak, instead she kept silent, appearing to be in a daze, but actually, her mind was constantly thinking.
She was analyzing what the other person ant by those words.
And what should she respond in turn?
That was what troubled Su Xiaoxiao.
Tell the other person there’s no cake here.
Then there might only be one outco, which is that he wouldn’t believe it without checking for himself, and by then, it would surely be very dangerous. Despite having a knife, the physical strength between a woman and a man is different; she might not be able to protect herself.
"I have."
Su Xiaoxiao could only respond like this, as it was a matter of no choice.
The materials in her shop were plentiful, which was the foundation for her survival up to this point. Making a cake wasn’t a troubleso matter; her answer now was to stabilize the other person.
If he wanted food, then she would give him food, but letting him inside was absolutely out of the question.
She wouldn’t trust anyone.
"How much?" Lin Fan asked.
Su Xiaoxiao was thinking again.
He was asking how much to charge, and what was this routine? After thinking it over, she couldn’t co up with anything and just said, "Whatever you want to give."
Money?
In these end tis, she just wanted to know what money could do. If money could return peace to the past, she would be willing to give it all away without taking a single cent.
"Alright then, I’ll co to pick it up this afternoon."
After finishing speaking, Lin Fan leapt down from the second floor; as for Su Xiaoxiao, she kept her gaze on his figure until that silhouette disappeared into the distance.
She suddenly slumped to the ground, taking deep breaths.
The pressure was really trendous.
For a weak woman like her, facing the unknown circumstances of today without breaking down in tears already proved her inner strength was formidable.
She decided to make a cake for him, with no other thought than to hope for a turn toward the better.
...
"Whatever you want to give?"
Lin Fan thought about the price of the cake; the other party hadn’t ntioned a price and had told him to give whatever he wanted. After thinking about it, he realized that even the cost of cakes was actually not cheap – it couldn’t be just a few dozen yuan, it had to be at least over a hundred, with two to three hundred being cheap.
He took out seven hundred yuan from his pocket, the agent fee for renting out the house to the grandfather and granddaughter. He had intended to pay back the old man seven hundred yuan first, but now it seed impossible.
Suddenly.
While riding the electric bike, he passed by a fishing equipnt shop and when he saw the items inside, a thought struck him.
Fishing?
This was a good idea, provided there were fish in the river.
There should be so, right?
The abandonnt of the produce market, the absence of fish, it was no longer possible to buy fresh live fish; maybe fishing on his own was the only way to catch fresh live ones.
He entered the shop.
"Boss, are you there?" Lin Fan called out to the shop.
It was everyone’s habit, no matter if soone was there or not, to start with this greeting.
The shop was very quiet, not a sound to be heard.
Apart from the displayed fishing equipnt, there was nothing else.
Looking at the price tags of fishing rods, he was shocked by the first glance at the ones costing several thousand; he quickly rubbed his eyes and shifted his gaze to other fishing rods, breathing a sigh of relief only after finding ones for a hundred or two hundred yuan.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
He almost went blind looking at them.
He didn’t know what he needed to prepare for fishing, but when he saw a booklet on the table, a fishing manual—it should be called a fishing equipnt manual, really—he flipped through it, examining it closely.
The first piece of equipnt for fishing was a fishing rod...
Nonsense, even a fool would know that.
The next sentence imdiately increased his good impression of the store.
For beginners, a fishing rod of a hundred or so dollars would suffice, there was no such thing as instant success, gradual progress was best.
Sound advice, which he gladly accepted.
He thought hard about whether he was truly determined to fish because once he bought the equipnt, he probably couldn’t return it, and the gear would just gather dust at ho.
He pondered for a mont.
Finally, he made a decision.
Buy.
Picking out his gear, he spent over two hundred dollars in total. The tools were very comprehensive, and the price was reasonable; he chose a fishing rod that cost eighty-eight dollars.
The Chao River, also known as Yang River, was a natural watercourse ford by the erosion of lake water, stretching over several places, with a length of more than three hundred kiloters, a watershed area of over seven thousand square kiloters, ultimately draining into the sea as the largest natural dry river.
He had seen many anglers fishing there.
Now, he had co here, looked at the surroundings—an empty expanse with not a soul in sight, once a bustling fishing hotspot, now completely deserted.
"Let’s start from here then."
He didn’t know if he could catch any fish, but he still had so trust in himself.
With fishing rod in hand, he stood by the river, fishing.
Ti passed, and there was no sign of a catch.
But at that mont, he saw a boat appear in his line of sight. A person was standing on the bow of the boat, who seed startled upon seeing Lin Fan standing by the shore, and then appeared to say sothing to the pilot cabin.
The boat changed direction, heading towards Lin Fan.
"A survivor..."
This was the second ti he had seen survivors on the river.
Soon, the boat gradually approached the shore, but stopped three to four ters away, clearly staying alert.
"Hello there."
Lin Fan waved to the person standing at the bow of the boat. As it neared, two young people erged from the cabin, about his age, while the person always standing at the bow appeared to be the oldest at about forty-five.
The middle-aged man said, "What are you doing here?"
He was astonished.
A city overrun by zombies.
There was a young man daring to co outside, an act no different from seeking death.
"Fishing," Lin Fan wiggled the fishing rod in his hand, "Where are you going?"
To the three survivors, the behavior of the man before them seed peculiar—his composure didn’t seem feigned, but genuinely serene.
They were a bit puzzled.
The middle-aged man said, "The city has been taken over by zombies; it’s no longer livable. We plan to follow the current downstream, enter the sea, and head to the nearby islands. There should be no zombies there."
He didn’t hide anything; it was a normal plan. One needed a boat to go to an island and good wilderness survival skills, all of which they had.
Staying in the city was waiting for death.
Too dangerous.
There was no need.
"Do you want to co with us?" the middle-aged man asked.
It wasn’t out of great compassion, but because survival in the wilderness required hands, preferably males. There were four of them in total, and even if this young man before them had any ulterior motives, he wouldn’t be able to cause much trouble.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I’m fine here," Lin Fan said in gratitude.
In an apocalyptic situation, to offer a helping hand was comndable, and he felt the people before him were decent.
"Heh... Raaagh."
Just then—
The low growl of a zombie could be heard.
The middle-aged man exclaid in alarm, "Zombies! Quick, jump into the water, we’ll pull you aboard, or you’ve got no choice but a dead end."
They had seen just how formidable zombies could be.
Ordinary people were no match for zombies.
Lin Fan smiled.
"No worries, I’m strong, and you don’t need to worry about ."
As the zombies approached—
The survivors on the boat were powerless; they couldn’t take the risk to rescue Lin Fan and could only watch helplessly. Ah... it seed the city would have one more zombie.
For those still alive, that was one more danger.
They were already prepared to start the boat and leave.
But soon—
The scene before them utterly dumbfounded them.
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