Mad Qiang

"Little niece, do you think the authorities will come?"

"Call me Li Moxiao!"

"Hm? Aren't you my little niece? Then you won't be getting any food from now on."

"Uncle! I'm your genuine niece, even if we're related by eight degrees! Food isn't the point—the family hierarchy can't be messed up."

Ah. That felt good.

Shen Jin found it pretty amusing to tease the little niece he had picked up for free.

He had decided!

He wouldn't watch anime tonight.

Shen Jin lay on the bed with one leg crossed over the other, while his little niece lay on the couch, secretly reading romance novels again.

"You still haven't answered my question."

"I think the authorities will come fight their way here. It might just take longer for them to reach us."

Seeing Li Moxiao absorbed in her book, Shen Jin did not press further and instead recalled the broadcast.

Humans, Gene Locks, Superhuman abilities.

The Zombies were evolving. Would humans begin evolving again as well?

Then where exactly had his Blockify Ability come from?

Who was that space? And who was that ethereal female voice?

Over the past three months, Shen Jin had thought about those questions every night after finishing his games, anime, movies, and novels.

There might not be an answer now, but Shen Jin believed he would understand it someday.

"Purr, purr, purr~"

Shen Jin looked at Li Moxiao in surprise. One hand still held her novel, but she was already making soft purring sounds like a cat.

(__).ﾟ zzz

He looked at Li Moxiao's wrinkled, filthy clothes with disdain.

"Her clothes are so dirty. They probably smell sour already."

He found Li Moxiao a suitable set of clothes in Room Seven of the "Yellow" section and placed them on the bed.

He casually draped a blanket over her, then tiptoed back into the Secret Room.

In Room One of the "Yellow" section, surrounded by monitors, he peacefully drifted off to sleep.

"Ah~ Another peaceful day."

The third floor of Wanyu Group's building, dormitory area.

Lu Qiang, whom everyone usually called Uncle Security, was actually only forty. When he was young, he had dropped out before finishing middle school and followed his big brother around.

He did all kinds of work—fighting for people, guarding venues, whatever needed doing.

Later, he crippled someone in a fight with a machete and was sentenced to fifteen years.

When he got out, he was disconnected from the world. He did not even know how to use a smartphone and had been completely left behind by the rapidly developing society. The old ways he used to survive in the underworld no longer worked.

He still remembered his mother picking him up after his release, tears in her eyes.

She had told him to live honestly for the rest of his life and be a decent man.

His family pulled some strings to get him a security guard job. Two years passed, and just when he thought he would spend the rest of his life as a coward like this—

The apocalypse came.

Fortunately, he was skilled and physically strong. With Zombies all over the company, he had managed to run to the third floor and hide with everyone else.

In the dormitory area, he had a room all to himself, while everyone else had a companion.

They were all coworkers, but he had been isolated. He knew they had never truly respected him, though he had not cared before.

Because he thought he was useless too.

But today, he discovered that the food distributed in the company dormitory had been reduced again.

Once everyone realized they were trapped, the general manager named Shang Qian had gathered all the food and water together.

She said it was to distribute everything according to a plan and ensure absolute fairness and impartiality.

Lu Qiang did not know much about workplace relationships, but he could tell Shang Qian was capable.

Like the big brother he used to follow, she knew how to handle people and manage affairs.

But without food or water, people could not survive.

While everyone was discussing the commotion outside that afternoon, he secretly slipped into Shang Qian's room.

Originally, he had only wanted to find something to eat. Even if he died, Lu Qiang did not want to starve to death.

But he had not expected to see that there was still quite a bit of food left—enough to feed all of them for at least another week.

There was a handwritten chart on the table. The moment he saw it, his blood surged to his head!

It felt as if his mind had exploded!

The food allotted to everyone else was not written down, but his own portion for today had been cut in half compared to yesterday.

"No wonder Shang Qian said she would deliver food to the rooms today. She didn't want me to find out she'd cut my rations in half."

"Heh heh." Lu Qiang forced out two words through clenched teeth.

Lu Qiang sat in Shang Qian's room, his expression shifting repeatedly.

Slowly, his fists clenched and his back straightened.

The honest, docile air around him faded, as though he had returned to the youth who dared chase people through eighteen streets with a machete.

Back then, people on the streets called him Mad Qiang.

"Mom, your son can't listen to you anymore. I can't be a good man."

Several huge tears slid down his face. This forty-year-old man, disconnected from society, knew that his mother was most likely no longer alive in this world.

He took two bags of Compressed Biscuits, a bag of braised chicken legs, and a bottle of Bottled Water from the room, then secretly returned to his own.

Tonight, he would eat his fill and regain his strength.

He would let those people who bullied him know just how mad Mad Qiang could be!

"Director Shang, is it? Tomorrow, I'll make you kneel and beg me to spare you. I'll make you wag your tail like a bitch!"

The others knew nothing of this and were still discussing the Zombies' strange behavior that afternoon.

Balding Director Wang in particular finally reached a conclusion: no one had entered the company through the front entrance that afternoon. If anyone had come in, they could only have climbed over the surrounding walls or burrowed up from underground.

Everyone burst into laughter and simply assumed the Zombies had gone mad.

Then someone suddenly suggested, "Could we take back the second floor? If we search through it, we could definitely find a lot of food."

Qi Tong, a young married woman and the administrative supervisor for the second floor, knew the offices best.

"Every office on the second floor has some snacks stored away, and each office has one or two large jugs of water."

Just as everyone enthusiastically discussed what food they might find—

Balding Director Wang sighed. "The Mid-Autumn Festival benefits I had people purchase are still in the first-floor warehouse. There are more than three hundred sets."

Someone asked, "What's in them, Director Wang?"

The male employee who had once sent Shen Jin pictures to show off remembered best. "Mooncakes, vacuum-packed cooked meat, Jianlibao, and tea."

Everyone's minds wandered, and they all felt that buying holiday gift boxes was far better than handing out festival bonuses!

"Director Wang is awesome! (Voice cracking)"

If they could make it to the first floor, those supplies would last them a long time—probably until the authorities rescued them!

Shang Qian looked at this group of white-collar workers who had never done physical labor. She wanted to sneer, but held it back and merely said flatly:

"Then who dares to fight the Zombies?"

Everyone looked at each other.

The next day, Shen Jin woke up and first checked the surveillance footage. After confirming there was no danger outside and that his little niece had not done anything strange, such as stealing things—

"Li Moxiao, don't disappoint me."

For the first time in three months, Shen Jin wanted to take someone in. Of course, this had absolutely nothing to do with Li Moxiao's fair skin, soft voice, and long legs!

Nor was it because he had recently watched too many Japanese two- or three-person plot films.

He simply found being alone boring and wanted someone to bicker with during meals.

Without comparison, how could he highlight the happiness of his own life?

He ate lobster and steak here every day. Without someone to envy him, the sense of happiness was cut in half.

Even if this conflicted with his cautious principles and might expose some of his system's secrets.

After all, one more person meant one more bond.

Uh... and one more mouth to feed. His future grandson would not have such abundant supplies then.

"Wait!"

Shen Jin suddenly realized a serious problem today! He had only focused on gathering supplies and calculating how many years they would last his descendants, but he had forgotten one crucial issue:

First, he needed a wife.

Of course, a sixteen-year-old "belt contestant" was not under consideration for now.

He did not want one who was too smart either. After all, when certain places got bigger, the brain tended to shrink.

Shen Jin suddenly remembered his first secret love from university. Back then, he had even thought of names for their future children.

He remembered she was from this city. He wondered whether she was still human now. Had moss grown on her body yet?

How wonderful it would be if he could pick her up and make her his wife.

Right! University!

University life was great!