Rather Than Complaining About the Darkness, Carry a Lamp and Move Forward

Fifth floor.

The man struggled, but the ropes were tied so tightly that no matter how hard he fought, it was useless.

"Damn it, what kind of lunatic is this? Can't you just mind your own business, you son of a bitch?"

He tried to bite through the ropes, sweat pouring from his forehead in his panic. He had no idea what was going to happen to him, but he hoped he could wriggle free before the other man came back.

Footsteps sounded.

He looked up and saw the lunatic walk in from outside.

"We've got no grudge between us. What the hell do you want?" The man was so furious he wanted to hack the guy to death.

He was definitely sick in the head. Seriously sick.

"What do I want? Nothing. You know better than anyone what you deserve for what you did." Lin Fan had taken the woman back to her own apartment. It was the best place for her.

"What's the big deal? I saw a pretty woman and had my way with her. That's a crime? Fine, fine, even if it is, so what? What are you going to do to me now? Keep me here with your self-righteous sense of justice and torture me?"

"You're just jealous. You envy me."

The man roared. He knew the guy in front of him was a lunatic.

"I'm taking you to the police station." Lin Fan grabbed the rope and dragged him downstairs.

The man was dumbfounded. "Are you fucking crazy? What have I ever done to you? Did I sleep with your mother or kill your whole family? What I do has nothing to do with you!"

"Let me go, you son of a bitch! I'm warning you, if I get the chance, I'll kill you!"

Though the man hurled insults at him, Lin Fan had no intention of doing anything to him. He was only doing what he could, and what was right.

Dragging and hauling him along, he soon got the man downstairs.

The empty surroundings were a little eerie.

The man's heart lurched. Downstairs was too dangerous. Who knew if a zombie might suddenly come running out?

"This is your last warning. Let me go," the man said in a low voice.

Lin Fan ignored him and kept dragging him toward the police station.

The road was quiet. The man was nervous and didn't dare shout, but he kept warning Lin Fan in a low voice.

Before long, the man noticed something: the lunatic wasn't worried at all. He was completely calm.

"Fuck, which damn mental hospital left its doors open and let this psycho out?" the man cursed inwardly. He was furious. As far as he was concerned, every lunatic in the world should be killed. If they were allowed to stay in society, they would only hurt other people.

He saw several dismembered corpses, flies buzzing over them. The sight made his heart grow colder by the second.

Zombies...

Just thinking about those terrifying things scared him.

There was definitely no one at the police station.

What would happen if this lunatic took him there?

There'd be nobody around. They'd be trapped there, and if there were zombies, they'd be dead.

The man steeled himself, his voice low and menacing, ready to risk everything. "I'm warning you. Let me go now, or we can both die."

"If I've caught you, I'm not letting you go," Lin Fan said without fear.

"Aren't you afraid of dying?" the man asked.

"Of course I am. Everyone's afraid of dying. But sometimes, if being afraid of death makes you let someone go and that leads to even more people suffering, then when you think about it, maybe death isn't so terrible."

The man stared at him in disbelief. "Why are you so determined to catch me? Can't you mind your own business and live for yourself?"

"Do you know how to be yourself?" Lin Fan asked.

"???"

"You don't know how to be yourself. There are always two sides to a person's heart, one dark and one bright. Which side will you choose? The dark side, or the bright side? Being yourself isn't about doing whatever you want. It means moving toward the better side of human nature and doing your best to suppress the darkness within you. That's what it means to be yourself." Lin Fan spoke slowly. "So when something like this happens, I have to catch you."

"Ah... It's the apocalypse! We're in the apocalypse! Do you even get it? Before the outbreak, I obeyed the law too. But this is the apocalypse! If I don't do it, someone else will." The man was dumbfounded. He felt an indescribable helplessness.

Lin Fan stopped and looked at him. "Rather than complaining about the darkness, carry a lamp and move forward. Does it matter whether this is the apocalypse or not? It doesn't."

The man stared blankly at Lin Fan.

He was truly furious now. A deranged young man had caught him and was taking him to the police station. Who knew what the place was like now? But one thing was certain: it was dangerous.

"Are you going to let me go or not? This is your last chance."

"No."

"Fine. I'll scream. I'll draw the zombies over, and then we'll both die. I don't care. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm not afraid of anything anymore."

"Oh."

Hearing that simple "Oh," the man's face turned red with rage. He truly couldn't figure out what was wrong with this guy.

Was he stupid?

Or did he really not care about dying?

If he really attracted the zombies, they'd be as good as dead.

In the end,

by the time they reached the Huang City Police Station, he still hadn't screamed.

In the end, he was afraid after all.

The gate stood open. There were bloodstains nearby, along with bloody footprints.

The man struggled. It was obvious that things were bad here.

There was no one inside. It was terribly quiet, the kind of quiet that made you afraid.

"What the hell are you trying to do? It really is the apocalypse. They've all run away. There's no one here. Even if you bring me here, it won't do any good," the man shouted in a low voice.

"No, you're wrong. There is someone here."

Lin Fan stood there, looking ahead.

The man looked at Lin Fan, then followed his gaze. Two bodies lay there. One was a zombie, and the other was a uniformed police officer. He was leaning against the wall, with a gun beside him.

"Look. They didn't run away. They subdued a zombie. See his arm? A chunk of flesh has been bitten off. He must have known he was going to turn into a zombie. Afraid he'd cause irreparable harm to the people and the public, he took his own life."

Lin Fan sighed, deeply impressed.

The man's breathing grew ragged. He wanted to roar at him: could he stop making things up in his head?

"What are you doing?"

Suddenly, the man saw the lunatic press him down onto a chair, then pick up a pair of handcuffs and lock them around him. His face went pale with shock.

"Nothing. I'm leaving you here, handcuffed so you can't escape." Lin Fan busied himself with the task.

He went over to the police officer. As a good citizen, he had to do what needed to be done.

"Officer, I'm Lin Fan, a good citizen. I came across a criminal outside and brought him here. What happens after this has nothing to do with me."

He spotted paper and a pen on the desk and wrote down the crime, location, and time.

He also added at the end:

"I, Lin Fan, am the informant and take responsibility for what I've said."

"Address: Room 704, Unit 2, Building 2, Sunshine Residential Complex."

"ID number: ..."

"Contact number: ..."

"All right, goodbye."

Lin Fan waved and headed outside.

A small notice on the wall caught his attention. He stopped to take a look.

Be steadfast and seek achievement!

Cultivate virtue and build character!

Be discerning and calm your heart!

Study diligently and increase your wisdom!

Lin Fan smiled as he stepped out the gate and looked up at the sky. Though the surroundings were quiet and strange, the world he saw was growing brighter and brighter.

Look... There was a ray of light.

"Fuck! Fuck!" The man struggled, trying to find a way out. But now he was tied up and handcuffed. Did they really think he could escape like this?

Suddenly, he spotted the handcuff key and the paper-cutting blade on the desk. Hope surged in his heart—a chance to survive.

Gradually,

a smile appeared on his face.

"Lunatic, when I get out, you're the first one I'm killing," the man growled angrily.

Thump, thump!

Though his legs were bound, he could still touch the floor. Using his body's momentum, he slowly scooted the chair toward the desk.

The chair legs scraped against the floor, making a bit of noise.

But he didn't care. They'd only been inside for a little while, and he hadn't seen any zombies. It should be safe.

"Damn it, it's the apocalypse. What's wrong with me having my way with a woman?"

The man was consumed by wild thoughts. Once he escaped, he'd kill this guy first, then find some tools and leave Huang City for a city full of celebrities.

He really wanted to meet those so-called stars.

When the apocalypse came, they'd lost their glamour and were just pretty ordinary people, completely helpless.

He wanted to have a beauty on each arm and get every celebrity he'd once only fantasized about on TV.

Those had once been nothing but fantasies, but now... everything could become reality.

"Damn it, I need to get out of here first."

Suddenly!

A chilling growl rang out.

Then came a creaking sound.

The sounds made the man go pale. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

He fearfully looked toward where the sounds were coming from.

A zombie in a uniform appeared in the doorway.

"No way. How could there be zombies here?" The man trembled, his body slick with cold sweat. It was as if his punishment was finally coming. All he felt was fear, without a shred of remorse.

Roar!

The zombie spotted him, opened its blackened, bloody mouth, and let out a ferocious howl before lunging at him.

"Fuck—"

The man screamed in despair.

With a wet crunch,

the zombie bit deeply into his neck. Blood sprayed everywhere. The terrible pain made him thrash violently, trying to break free, but he couldn't.

"I don't want to die!"

If Lin Fan had been there, he would have said...

Look, even after turning into a zombie, he was still standing guard here, punishing the criminals who had done evil.

Thanks to Little Man Mua for the 10,000-yuan tip.

Thanks to SEASONO4, Meng Ganning, Your Brother Yun, Raven 2018, De Xian Kan Kan, Brother Dabin of Xiaoxiao, and all the other generous readers for the tips.