018 Personal Care

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A moment later, Zhang Su brought the woman into the living room and helped her sit down. Clutching a tissue in her hand, she sobbed pitifully like a wronged young wife.

She was still wearing the same silk pajamas. Her slightly long, softly wavy hair spilled over her shoulders, and her delicate, slender figure was curvaceous in all the ways men admired and women envied. A pleasant fragrance of perfume lingered about her.

Her skin was extremely well cared for, but her manner and bearing suggested that she was around thirty—in other words, what people commonly called a mature young woman.

“Um… you two are amazing. You actually killed that monster in the corridor. Could you tell me what happened?”

The woman voiced the question that had been troubling her, genuinely admiring Zhang Su and Zheng Xinyu. Watching the two of them fight the monster earlier had nearly scared her into wetting herself.

Zhang Su’s expression turned cold. “Don’t just worry about asking questions. Start by telling us what happened to you!”

He did not want to deal with the woman, but if she continued making a fuss and the noise grew any louder, she might attract zombies from the more distant floors.

“Handsome… I, I am…”

The moment she began speaking, the woman faltered, as though she had some difficulty she could not bring herself to mention.

Seeing her hemming and hawing, Zhang Su grew irritated again. He pursed his lips and said, “Actually, I don’t have anything to tell you either. You can go back. Just don’t make any noise. Those monsters can locate people by sound.”

With that, he waved his hand and moved to send her away.

“No, wait, brother—handsome…”

Seeing his displeasure, the woman hurriedly waved her hands. She rose at once, grabbed Zhang Su by the arm, and forced a coquettish smile.

“Don’t get handsy. Tell me your name, age, and occupation. I remember that no one lived in 802. Where did you come from?”

Zhang Su pulled his arm free. He had no patience for the woman’s clinging behavior. It was a different matter when he was the one taking liberties.

“My name is Zhong Xiaoshan. I’m twenty-nine. I… I…”

Seeing Zhang Su’s expression darken, Zhong Xiaoshan quickly continued, “I used to be a nurse at the Third Hospital. Now, I’m… I’m a private caregiver…”

Her voice grew quieter as she reached the end, and she was clearly feeling guilty.

“A private caregiver?”

Zhang Su narrowed his eyes, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile. “That sounds pretty high-class. You mean a mistress, don’t you? Xiaoshan, Xiaoshan—you certainly live up to your name.”

“Pfft…”

Zheng Xinyu had not expected Zhang Su to be so vicious with his words. She puffed out her cheeks, desperately trying to hold back her laughter.

“Heh, heh…”

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Zhong Xiaoshan gave an awkward, embarrassed laugh.

“Is 802 your place, or the place belonging to the person you care for?” Zhang Su continued questioning her.

Since matters had come this far, Zhong Xiaoshan stopped pretending and answered frankly. “It’s Director Hu’s apartment. It was my first time coming here…”

Thinking about it made Zhong Xiaoshan extremely depressed. On her very first visit, she had happened to run into this ridiculous monster incident. It was enough to give anyone a headache.

“The Director Hu you mentioned—is he around fifty, tall and thin, with thick glasses and a fairly strong prescription?”

Zhang Su took out a cigarette and lit it, looking at Zhong Xiaoshan through the smoke.

“Director Hu doesn’t wear glasses, handsome. Are you sure you haven’t mistaken him for someone else?” Zhong Xiaoshan replied after a slight pause.

Zhang Su nodded inwardly. He knew that the man he had seen long ago was probably the Director Hu Zhong Xiaoshan was talking about. He had deliberately added the glasses to his description in order to test her.

“Maybe I have. Where is Director Hu now?”

“Yesterday afternoon, Old Hu gave me the key and asked me to come here and wait for him. Then last night he called to say there was something going on at the hospital and he had to work overtime. One thing led to another, and he ended up working through the night. When I got up, I couldn’t reach him anymore…”

As they went back and forth, Zhong Xiaoshan’s emotions gradually settled. She instinctively tried to cross her legs, but after seeing the man opposite her, she forcibly drew back her fair, shapely leg.

“So, you came here intending to spend the night with him, but failed to get what you wanted and ended up trapped here instead, is that it?” Zhang Su asked, eyeing Zhong Xiaoshan with amusement.

“No… I really am here to provide care. I wasn’t here for that…”

The expression on Zhong Xiaoshan’s face was strange. She thought the way he had put it was absurd.

“Handsome, what exactly happened? The internet is gone, the water is gone, and suddenly there are all these monsters that bite anyone they see. It’s just like a zombie movie. It’s terrifying.”

As she spoke, Zhong Xiaoshan folded her arms across her chest and pressed them together slightly.

Watching the extremely feminine Zhong Xiaoshan, Zheng Xinyu secretly pouted. She had felt somewhat sorry for the woman earlier, thinking that facing such a catastrophe alone must have left her helpless. But seeing her now, striking poses and showing off, Zheng Xinyu suddenly found her rather infuriating.

Zhang Su calmly looked at Zhong Xiaoshan. “Sis, stop pushing them together. At a time like this, who has the mind to look at that? Can they block zombies or something?”

Pfft…

Zheng Xinyu finally burst out laughing. She hurriedly pressed her lips together, but still could not stop herself from laughing again. She stared strangely at Zhong Xiaoshan, who no longer knew where to put her hands, and thought to herself that Zhang Su was truly awful.

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“You said it yourself—it’s just like a zombie movie. We think a zombie virus has broken out too. As for where the virus came from, why it broke out, or how it spreads, we have no idea at all. In any case, everything is a complete mess right now!”

Zhang Su spread his hands helplessly.

“Then… do you know how far this zombie virus has spread? Everything around here seems to have fallen into chaos. Could it be that the entire Harbor District has been affected?”

Zhong Xiaoshan asked nervously.

Zhang Su licked his lips, picked up the water, and took a small sip. “Prepare yourself mentally. The outbreak has spread far beyond the Harbor District.”

“Ah…”

Zhong Xiaoshan drew in a sharp breath, looking incredulous. “Could it be the entire Qin City…?”

Zhang Su nodded without elaborating. If Zheng Xinyu’s phone had not briefly regained network access, and if there had not been so many netizens reporting from all over the world, he would not have known the exact situation either.

Knowing something did not mean he had to share it.

“No wonder I’ve only heard two police cars and two waves of helicopters after all this time. So the entire Qin City has descended into chaos…”

Clutching her nightdress, Zhong Xiaoshan grew paler and paler. She leaned weakly against the sofa, her face turning ashen. Some answers had actually existed in her heart all along; she simply had not been willing to admit them. She had needed someone else to spell them out before she would face reality.

“You’re very observant,” Zhang Su said.

What he was really thinking was: You’re pretty impressive. You heard police sirens twice. I haven’t heard them even once.

“Fortunately, my parents are in the countryside. The population density in their village is low, so they should be relatively safe, right…?”

Zhong Xiaoshan seemed to be talking to herself, yet also appeared to be asking Zhang Su and Zheng Xinyu.

Zhang Su waved his hand. “Miss Zhong, I’ve told you everything I can. You’ll have to find out about your parents yourself.”

“Um, you two…”

Zhong Xiaoshan knew that Zhang Su was dismissing her, but she did not get up. Her eyes wandered around until they landed on the container from a self-heating meal in the trash can. She swallowed.

“Do you have any food left? I… I’d like to buy some, if that’s okay. To be honest, I… I haven’t eaten anything for quite a long time.”

To maintain her figure, Zhong Xiaoshan had always insisted on eating two nutritious meals a day, carefully planning a balanced diet. In plain language, it amounted to birdseed. From yesterday until now, she had gone twenty-seven hours without eating.