Chapter 31
"Didn't I tell you not to look? Why did you peek?" Nan Shao asked, carrying the little boy on his shoulders.
"I didn't peek." Zhang Ruiyang immediately shook his head in denial, but then felt a little guilty and added in a tiny voice, "I only looked a little bit."
"Were you scared?" Nan Shao asked helplessly.
Zhang Ruiyang shook his head, but quickly realized Uncle Pumpkin couldn't see him, so he said, "No. I've even seen monsters eating people, and Daddy killing monsters." When Zhang Yi had been unconscious with illness, he had often carried a little stool over to the window to watch the zombies gnawing on people outside. Later, when Zhang Yi had carried him out of the county town on his back, such scenes had been all the more unavoidable. He was still young and couldn't understand what any of it meant, so even his fear was very limited.
Hearing this, Nan Shao finally realized he had been a little precious about it. Of those still alive now, adults and children alike, how could anyone survive long if they were afraid of even bloodshed? He suddenly thought of Nan Wei, and a faint worry stirred in his heart. He had protected him so thoroughly before; now that he was gone, how would Nan Wei survive? Then he gave a wry smile. He had already died once. Why worry about these things anymore? Given how much Nan Wei hated him, he would presumably rather die than accept his care.
"Uncle... Uncle Pumpkin, what's wrong?" When Nan Shao said nothing for a long time, Zhang Ruiyang grew uneasy, thinking he was angry with him.
The sticky little hand touching his face, along with that name that left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry, instantly swept away the distress that had just surfaced in Nan Shao's heart. He reached up, caught the little hand covered in sugary water, and moved it away from his face, reiterating, "It's Uncle Nan Shao."
"Oh." Zhang Ruiyang clearly hadn't taken it to heart. His gaze shifted, and when he saw what lay ahead, he grew excited. "Look, Uncle Pumpkin! So many people!"
Nan Shao was speechless, but they had reached the trading market, and he no longer had time to keep correcting him.
More and more teams were returning to town now, so the trading market was even livelier than before. From food to all kinds of daily necessities and weapons, it had everything, showing just how capable ability users really were-they could get their hands on anything. Nan Shao struggled through the crowd with Zhang Ruiyang for quite a while before finally finding someone trading candles.
The days were long now, with late sunsets and early dawns. Since people also had to leave town to hunt zombies during the day, they generally went to sleep when it got dark, and few had any use for candles. Several large packs sat there without attracting any interest at all. Nan Shao traded a single Corpse Crystal for the whole lot. Just as he was about to leave with Zhang Ruiyang, a fist-sized black stone on the stall caught his attention.
"What's this?" he asked, pointing at it.
The stallholder was an ordinary person, so none of the things he had brought to trade were particularly useful. Following Nan Shao's pointing finger, he couldn't help giving an embarrassed smile. "I don't know. I picked it up in the woods outside town. If you like it, just give me two crackers... One's fine too."
Apart from a few Corpse Crystals, Nan Shao had no food on him, but he could sense fluctuations of life energy inside the black stone and really didn't want to pass it up. Just as he was considering trading a Corpse Crystal for it, something moved at the edge of his vision. Zhang Ruiyang, sitting on his shoulders, held out a hand with a cracker clutched in it.
They successfully acquired the black stone, but only after leaving the crowd did Nan Shao ask, "What else have you got on you?" First candy, now crackers-he suddenly had the urge to search all the child's pockets.
"Nothing else!" As if sensing what he was thinking, Zhang Ruiyang turned out all his pockets of his own accord and spread his little hands.
"I'll give you a whole bag of crackers next time," Nan Shao promised, suddenly feeling guilty.
"Okay." Zhang Ruiyang showed no hesitation in accepting.
By the time the two returned home with the candles, as well as the water and bran cakes they had traded for, it was already dark. The light was on inside-a sixty-watt incandescent bulb that wasn't particularly bright. On top of that, lowering her head blocked the light, forcing Li Muran to keep turning her head aside to wipe away sweat and rub her slightly blurred eyes.
Seeing how many candles Nan Shao had brought back, Zhang Yi immediately had him light several around them, barely managing to achieve the effect of a shadowless surgical lamp.
"Good thing you're fat. The thick layer of fat absorbed some of the bullet's impact, so it didn't damage the bone." After probing carefully inside the incision with her fingers, Li Muran let out a breath of relief and spoke to Meat Tower Chen, whose face was likewise covered in sweat and deathly pale. With inadequate anesthesia available, she had only used the two ampoules of lidocaine included in the wound care kit for local infiltration anesthesia. The suffering he endured was easy to imagine.
Meat Tower Chen grinned and panted, "Of course... all this meat... couldn't have grown for nothing... right... ha ha..."
Li Muran said nothing more. Her gaze returned to her hands as she carefully extracted a small bullet fragment from inside. Because it had been an expanding handgun bullet, it had burst apart upon entering the flesh, leaving the internal damage far worse than it appeared on the outside. The fragments weren't all in one place, and she needed to find every one. Otherwise, even one or two left inside would be enough to make Meat Tower Chen suffer.
No one knew exactly how long it took. By the time Li Muran finally inserted a drainage strip and finished, the electricity had gone out, a second round of candles had been lit, and Zhang Ruiyang had fallen asleep sprawled on the bed.
After mopping the soaking-wet floor twice, the exhausted group hastily ate a little food and went to rest. That night, Meat Tower Chen slept on the sofa, while Li Muran shared the bedroom bed with Zhang Ruiyang. Zhang Yi and Nan Shao found a sleeping mat in the house and spread it out in the courtyard to sleep.
In the middle of the night, Zhang Yi opened his eyes alertly and found Nan Shao lying beside him with both hands behind his head, his eyes open and not the least bit sleepy.
"What is it? Can't sleep out in the open? Once we tidy up some more tomorrow, we can sleep inside."
His voice was a little husky from sleep and sounded inexplicably sexy in the dark night. Hearing it made Nan Shao's heart give a slight flutter, and he couldn't help turning his head to glance at him. Rather than answer the question, he said quietly, "I was wondering how much chance we have of surviving if things go on like this."