The basketball seemed to have a mind of its own, rolling right to his feet.
Holding the basketball, he pictured a certain scene: a dance with a basketball as a prop. But after thinking it over, he decided against it. His basketball skills were terrible.
He was just about to put it back when he thought of the elderly men and Feifei, who was still growing.
There weren't many recreational activities in the residential compound, so he might as well buy it and let them exercise. He put the basketball in his cart.
Just then, a low growl sounded. He looked up and saw a strange zombie that hadn't been there a moment ago. It crouched low, crawling like an animal.
It was a female zombie wearing a skirt. The bloodstains made it hard to tell what color the skirt had been. Her long hair hung loose, filthy and smeared with something sticky that looked like shredded flesh.
Roar!
The female zombie growled, her face twisted in a ferocious grimace. Unlike the other zombies, she didn't charge at the sight of a living person. She seemed more like a curious observer than a madwoman.
"Hello..."
Lin Fan raised a hand and waved. A friendly greeting was a way for people to communicate with one another. His companion was a zombie, but that didn't make a difference. People spoke normally when communicating with animals, and the animals often understood them.
He believed zombies could understand, too.
The apocalypse had arrived.
People these days were irritable and unfriendly. It left him feeling helpless.
As soon as he finished speaking,
Roar!
The female zombie growled and sprang into motion. She vanished from view in an instant. He could hear her racing along the other side of the shelves, and in the blink of an eye, she appeared in the aisle behind him.
"Wow, you're fast. Were you an athlete before?" Lin Fan asked.
He was chatting to the zombie as if he were talking to himself.
She hadn't attacked him, so naturally, he wouldn't attack her first.
He noticed that the strange zombie's legs were very slender. He knew women liked having slim legs, preferably long, thin ones like chopsticks.
Her arms were slender, too. Black veins showed beneath the exposed skin, giving her a strange appearance.
The female zombie leaped onto the shelves and crawled along them, baring her teeth and snarling from time to time. Then she darted off again, moving across the shelves as though they were level ground. Her balance was excellent.
"You're really fast. Faster than any zombie I've ever met." Lin Fan never skimped on praise. Compliments could easily put someone in a better mood.
That was why he'd once joined a praise group. Everyone there was so friendly. Every morning when he woke up, he'd find compliments posted in the chat.
They made the new day feel even brighter.
The female zombie seemed to be showing off her speed. She kept darting back and forth, racing from one side to the other and then back again.
He could see her clearly. No matter how she ran, he could follow her every move.
In fact, he felt he could run even faster than her.
But he didn't want to say so.
He wasn't an athlete, and being faster than her wasn't something to be proud of. Using his amateur skills to put down her professional ones—especially when he was even better than her—
would be hurtful. So he kept quiet.
"Hey, I know you're fast, but you should watch where you're going. You've knocked everything off the shelves. What you're doing—"
Roar!
He hadn't finished speaking
when the female zombie pounced at Lin Fan, swinging a clawed hand at him. Her fingers were long and black, and looked very sharp.
Thwack!
He swung his sword.
His expression was calm, touched with a hint of regret.
The female zombie seemed to freeze in place. A split opened at her forehead, and her body fell apart in two, blood splashing across the floor. Frostmourne seemed to have struck something hard. But he didn't think much of it. It was probably a bone.
[Killed an evolved Speed-type Zombie] [Points +3]
"The three bodies I saw earlier must have run into you. You cut their heads off. Those claws of yours are so sharp—they're really dangerous."
Lin Fan watched her and shook his head, then pushed his cart onward.
At the checkout counter,
"I'm ready. Could you ring me up?"
He spoke to the empty checkout counter as if to himself. There was nothing wrong with that. It was just a normal thing to do, like looking in a mirror and asking, "Don't I look handsome?"
He stepped behind the counter and scanned the food he'd bought.
The prices were split up. Some items were for Sister Li and her daughter; others were for the elderly men. He had all three of their bank cards, so he couldn't combine their purchases.
They might all seem to get along well.
But relationships often lasted only as long as things remained fair. If one person started feeling they were always getting the short end of the stick, the relationship wouldn't be far from falling apart.
Soon, he'd finished adding up the totals, paid, and left.
There was quite a lot of stuff, and carrying it all in shopping bags wasn't practical. He'd have to borrow the store's cart and bring it back after dropping everything off. It only meant a few extra steps, so it was no trouble at all.
He left the supermarket and pushed the cart down the street.
On the quiet street, his solitary figure bore the hopes of the residential compound's survivors. From time to time, he had zombies for company, adding a different kind of sparkle to the scene.
Lin Fan was in a great mood. He was happy. He liked being able to help people. Though he'd acted calm and casual when Sister Li and the four elderly men thanked him, he'd secretly felt rather pleased.
He was still a sensible young man, and of course he liked being praised.
Who didn't like being praised?
But Huang City still needed a lot of work. He believed it could return to the way it had been. He would keep working hard, earn money, buy a car, and live in a big house, moving toward a better life.
No matter how hard the wind blew or how fiercely the rain fell, no matter if the sky collapsed or the earth split open, no matter how many difficulties stood in his way, he wouldn't give up.
Just then,
he stopped.
He looked at two adjoining storefronts.
Xinhua Bookstore.
It had once been a famous bookstore, but as the city developed, it had gradually disappeared. Even if one still existed, it was usually just a small shop.
He stopped because the bookstore looked different from the businesses around it.
The shops nearby were a mess, with things scattered all over the ground and clutter everywhere. But the books inside the bookstore were arranged so neatly.
"Sure enough, book lovers won't lay a hand on books, even in the apocalypse."
Lin Fan remarked to himself.
Then he walked into the bookstore.
Thinking of Feifei, he knew she needed homework to do. It would also help soothe her feelings. After all, this was the apocalypse, and things outside were truly chaotic.
But he didn't want Feifei to be affected by the apocalypse.
He hoped she could keep living as she had before: studying, coming home from school, and doing her homework. So he picked out several sets of practice tests.
Math, Chinese, geography, history...
That should be enough.
Once Feifei finished these sets, he'd come back and buy her more.
It was a small expense, nothing worth mentioning. Seeing a child steadily improve her knowledge—wasn't that something worth being glad about?
He smiled as he looked at the tests.
He imagined Feifei seeing them.
She'd surely be thrilled.
He could tell at a glance that Feifei was a girl who loved studying.
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