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"I want to team up with you," she said without the slightest attempt to be roundabout. Before the apocalypse, she had still been a student, and she had never been good at dealing with people. After the apocalypse, she had become even worse at it. After a moment's thought, she added, "I won't hold you back."

"Have you thought this through?" Zhang Yi and Nan Shao had both seen her kill zombies, so they naturally knew she was telling the truth. Working together would benefit both sides, and since she had brought it up herself, they had no reason to refuse. As for trust, never mind trusting her-even Zhang Yi and Nan Shao did not trust each other absolutely. In times like these, trust was a luxury. Common interests were enough to bring people together. Besides, because she was a woman, both men were willing to look out for her where they could.

"Yes," Li Muran answered without hesitation.

And just like that, it was settled.

"I'll be taking Yangyang out with us tomorrow." After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yi spoke. He was not consulting them, but making an announcement. When they decided to team up with him, they should have understood that he might keep Yangyang with him at any time. If they were unwilling to accept that, there was still time to go their separate ways.

Everyone around them now knew about Yangyang, and he dared not take any more risks. Now that there were three of them, he had considered leaving someone behind to watch Yangyang and the things they brought back. He and Nan Shao were men, so neither could stay behind. The only one who could was Li Muran. Yet while Li Muran might just about manage to protect herself, having Yangyang there might make things difficult. After turning it over in his mind, he could only decide to keep the boy with him. That way, he could watch him at all times and let him get used to this life sooner. He also would not have to stay cooped up in the shack and the hole in the ground every day. Sooner or later, that would cause problems.

At his words, Nan Shao grunted in acknowledgment. Li Muran sat cross-legged with her head lowered and showed little reaction, evidently having no objection either. Each had their own difficulties; none of them should complain about the others being a burden.

"Since we've decided to stick together, we'd better find a way to rent a place as soon as possible. Then we can bring back more food and store it. If this weather keeps up, I'm afraid it won't be long before there's nothing left to eat." Nan Shao inserted sticks into gaps in the shack and propped woven sacks over them, putting together a makeshift awning to block the sun. Only then did he sit beside Zhang Yi and speak.

In truth, all three knew that however much they stored, it could not sustain them for long. With no rain, the water level in the river separating Wangyang Town from the opposite bank had already fallen to a third of its original level. If things continued like this, not only would growing grain and vegetables be impossible, but even purified water might become unavailable. Water-type ability users alone could not possibly meet the drinking-water needs of Wangyang Town's tens of thousands of people. When that happened, there would likely be a second wave of deaths following humanity's mutations. Yet even knowing the reality, they had no choice but to do their best to make plans. Even if it was like an ant trying to shake a tree, it was better than doing nothing.

"You don't need to ask my opinion. Whatever you say we should do, we'll do," Li Muran said bluntly. She had little to tie her down and no ambitions. Her only goal was to stay alive. As long as they did not cross her bottom line, she did not care about anything else. And her bottom line was, first, she would not sleep with men, and second, they were not to send her to her death.

Nan Shao paused, and for the first time, he felt that working with this woman might not be so bad after all.

The three had only recently met, and there was no need to exchange insincere pleasantries as they would have before the apocalypse, so they soon ran out of things to say. After sitting for a while, Li Muran stood. "If there's nothing else, I'm going back to sleep. Call me when you leave tomorrow morning." With that, she turned and left without hesitation. Less than two minutes later, however, she came back and tossed Zhang Yi two individually sealed braised eggs. "For the kid." She had taken them when she entered the little supermarket, while the others were not looking. Apart from sanitary pads, these and two Corpse Crystals were all she had gained from yesterday's trip to the street of small shops.

Without waiting for Zhang Yi to thank her or decline, she dropped off the eggs and returned to her own shack, just as it had never occurred to her to thank them.

"Put these away for me," Zhang Yi said, handing the braised eggs to Nan Shao. Neither man liked discussing people behind their backs, and their own relationship had not reached that point anyway, so they said little about Li Muran after she left.

Nan Shao rose and went into the shack, putting the braised eggs with their other things. When he came out, he saw Zhang Yi holding a bottle and feeding Zhang Ruiyang little sips of water. Zhang Ruiyang was fast asleep, his head drenched in sweat despite the shade over him. After a moment's thought, Nan Shao went back inside and fetched the soup bowl and a towel.

He poured a bottle of water into the bowl, wet the towel, wrung it out lightly, and handed it to Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi thanked him quietly and stopped worrying about whether this was wasting water. Holding Zhang Ruiyang in one arm, he used his other hand to gently wipe the boy's head, face, and body with the towel. The little fellow was filthy. Even after two bottles of water, the towel still came away black, but at least he was much cooler than before.

"I'll go exchange for another two bottles," Nan Shao said, standing.

"Do you know where to exchange them?" Zhang Yi asked. Remembering that Nan Shao had only arrived yesterday and he had not yet had a chance to show him around town, he added, "Hold Yangyang for me. I'll go."

"It's hardly a big place. I'm not going to get lost." Nan Shao smiled. "Your leg still hurts, doesn't it? Get some rest." As he spoke, he went into the shack, took a few Corpse Crystals, picked up the empty bottles, and left.

Zhang Yi was a little surprised by the man's attentiveness. After straining his leg yesterday, even a night's rest had not fully restored it. On top of that, he had run around again just now, and the pain showed faint signs of worsening, so he accepted the kindness.

As Nan Shao walked along, he noticed quite a few ordinary people in the shantytown who had not gone out hunting. There were few elderly people or children among them; almost all were men and women in their prime. They were emaciated, dressed in rags, filthy and foul-smelling. Many men were so hot that they lay outside their shacks wearing nothing but underpants, while the women cast flirtatious glances at the men passing by, posing and preening in an attempt to get a little food through certain means.

Only after leaving the shantytown, which had once been farmland, did he see the main road running through the entire town, with buildings beginning to appear beside it. Old redbrick houses, adobe houses, newer homes built by the townspeople themselves, workers' dormitories, and apartment buildings stood interspersed, scattered loosely along both sides of the road all the way to the foot of the bare hills. Convoys drove toward the town's exit from time to time, carrying spirited ability users who radiated a fierce killing aura. They were clearly heading out either to hunt zombies or to search for supplies. Even the people walking along the road looked far more vigorous than those in the shantytown.