No Trespassing

Lu Bai hadn't chatted with Wu Ya for long before he saw Ke Jiangni and Tian Wang walking toward the tent with their meal trays.

"Lu! I didn't expect you to be here too."

Tian Wang was just as excited to see Lu Bai.

Even setting aside Lu Bai's incredible combat prowess, simply running into someone he knew in an unfamiliar place was enough to lift his spirits.

Tian Wang handed the tray in his right hand to Wu Ya, then slapped his forehead. "You haven't eaten yet, have you, Lu? I should've grabbed another tray."

Lu Bai waved off the offer. They weren't particularly close, but he had spent some time with Ke Jianghao and the others.

He looked at the three of them, all with their arms and legs intact, and sighed. "So it's just the three of you now."

Tian Wang let out a long sigh too, his round face clouding with dejection.

"I should've been braver back then."

Lu Bai reached out and patted Tian Wang on the shoulder twice.

As he did, he noticed Ke Jiangni keeping her head bowed the whole time, but he didn't know what to say.

After all, family and classmates meant different things.

Trying to comfort her would feel a little like talking from a position of ease.

Perhaps sensing the somber mood among them, the loudspeaker overhead crackled to life.

"Notice: all movement will be prohibited in ten minutes. Citizens are reminded of the regulations during this restricted period. The restriction will last one hour, during which facilities will be inspected and cleaned, and tents disinfected... Please avoid moving around during the restricted period. I repeat..."

A week had passed since the Zombie Virus outbreak, but people still knew very little about it. They could only rely on the safest, most conventional precautions.

As for how effective disinfection actually was, nobody knew.

The surviving citizens didn't seem to mind, though. Seeing medical workers in protective suits coming and going every day at least put them a little more at ease.

"I'll be going, then."

Lu Bai smiled warmly and added, "If you need anything, you can come find me in District 7."

The entire temporary shelter, converted from a military base, had now taken in tens of thousands of surviving refugees.

For easier management, the shelter had been divided into forty districts where citizens could stay. Even so, each district held more than a thousand people, bringing the temporary shelter close to its capacity.

For that very reason, the staff in each district couldn't possibly remember who belonged there.

Lu Bai understood.

He used the same trick to slip past the soldiers enforcing the curfew and made it back from District 21 to District 7 without a hitch.

With the temporary ID card issued by the staff, he found the tent assigned to him.

Of course, under the circumstances, he could forget about having a room to himself.

Lu Bai walked into the tent and glanced around.

The tent had about ten square meters of floor space, but six beds had been laid out inside.

With a small folding table set up as well, he could barely find anywhere to stand.

A Frail Youth was sitting at the small table, carefully eating the food on his tray.

Three other men, all looking like thugs and bare-chested, stood around the Frail Youth, seemingly supervising his meal.

Some new kind of bullying?

Lu Bai couldn't make sense of it, so he simply picked an unused bed and sat cross-legged at its edge.

Just then, the man with an Over-the-Shoulder Dragon tattoo, clearly the leader, impatiently slapped the tabletop. "Can't you eat any faster?"

The Frail Youth flinched and hurriedly began shoveling down his food.

At the sight, the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon rolled his neck. A moment later, he flipped over the tray in front of the Frail Youth. "When someone asks you a question, you answer."

The other two men snickered, grinning as they watched the Frail Youth's reaction.

"O-okay. I... I understand."

"Haah..."

The Over-the-Shoulder Dragon pressed down on his shoulder, then grabbed a handful of rice from the Desktop and swiftly slapped it into the Frail Youth's face. "Don't waste food. Show it some basic respect, would you?"

When he was done, the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon stood up and brushed the grains of rice off his palm.

As if he had only just noticed Lu Bai, he turned around in surprise. "Well, well. A newcomer."

"Your acting's a little over the top," Lu Bai remarked with a smile.

The Over-the-Shoulder Dragon didn't seem to mind. He ambled over and crouched in front of Lu Bai, pointing back at the Frail Youth without turning around. "That kid's got no sense. He only got one meal when he went to get food. That kind of selfishness won't do."

Lu Bai kept his harmless smile as he met the tattooed man's gaze.

His attitude seemed strange, and the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon fell silent for a moment. "Hey, little brother, you haven't eaten either, have you? Go get a few more meals for us."

The other two thuggish men came over as well.

Hearing the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon's words, one of them casually draped an arm over Lu Bai's shoulder.

"Get moving."

"Isn't movement prohibited right now?"

Lu Bai scratched his head, his smile never changing.

With that fixed expression, like a mask of human skin, and his calm tone, he looked eerie enough to send a chill down someone's spine.

The Over-the-Shoulder Dragon abruptly raised his hand. From the movement alone, it was hard to tell if he meant to intimidate Lu Bai or actually hit him.

Suddenly, the corner of the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon's eye caught sight of a group in protective suits outside the tent. He smoothly lowered his hand.

"Haha, we can wait a bit before getting food."

Two medical workers in protective suits entered the tent. They paid no attention to what was going on inside and set about disinfecting the place.

A man dressed like a staff member followed them in.

He glanced around the tent, frowned, and went over to help the Frail Youth to his feet.

Then he turned and scolded the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon. "Gao Pangzi, are you trying to cause trouble again?"

"Of course not, Brother Zhou. I'm a law-abiding citizen."

The Over-the-Shoulder Dragon grinned. "I was just joking around with the kid."

Zhou Zongming kept a stern expression. "Behave yourself! Cui Qing, if they bully you again, come find me."

The last sentence was directed at the Frail Youth.

Faced with Zhou Zongming's promise, Cui Qing only nodded shakily.

Lu Bai propped his chin on one hand, watching the little drama with interest without trying to draw attention to himself.

The unpleasant smell of disinfectant gradually filled the tent.

The medical workers were already well practiced in the disinfection procedure. In less than a minute, the two of them had packed up their equipment and moved on to the next tent.

Zhou Zongming reassured Cui Qing before leaving soon after.

He was responsible for more than a thousand people in District 7 and had plenty of trivial matters to deal with. He couldn't spend all his time on one person.

After watching them leave, Gao Pangzi—the Over-the-Shoulder Dragon—sat down beside Lu Bai with a smile.

"Little brother, let's continue our chat."