Ordinary People’s Dwellings

Once past the city gate, Ren Anhua felt as if she had entered another world.

The lively sounds of people were instantly extinguished, leaving only the boundless, desolate dark night.

The world of the third-ringers was a silent and dangerous one.

Although the area outside the city gate could barely be considered a human residential area, it was, in fact, constantly facing the threat of zombies.

Only within the city, under the protection of the towering city walls, could humans revel at night without worrying about zombie infestations.

With a wall in between, the sound of human voices would transform from the revelry of prosperity into a guiding beacon for zombies in the dark.

But in a way, this was more in line with the way humans should live in the apocalypse.

The atmosphere of the third ring area was not much different from that of the Mutual Aid Society after nightfall.

Perhaps the humans living here were not doing too badly.

Although they did not have the right to enter the city, it was better than the refugees wandering outside.

Although in the eyes of the Su City people, they were also refugees.

The high walls of the second ring seemed to bring them some sense of security.

A large number of third-ringers lived in the area clinging to the second ring wall.

When the houses were full, some temporary shacks would appear.

Ren Anhua saw many such shacks.

She thought this was a very stupid act.

She felt that instead of building such a flimsy shack, it would be better to go a little further and find a house made of concrete.

In any case, a concrete house was always better than a temporary shack when zombies attacked.

Those thin wall panels could be pushed down by just a few ordinary zombies, let alone the advanced mutant zombies.

Ren Anhua’s group, of course, would not be looking for such shacks.

With their strength, they did not need to get close to the city wall to gain a sense of security.

They drove outward, found a relatively distant residential house, and settled down.

In a place like Su City, even in the relatively poor suburbs, it was difficult to find a detached house with its own courtyard.

They found a rather old community, with doors that were still made of wood and had brass locks.

The conditions of such a residence were relatively poor, but there was an advantage: it was convenient for moving around.

The main door could face the three cars they had parked, and even from inside the house, they could easily guard their supplies.

However, even if it was convenient, they would no longer all leave the cars to sleep in the house as they had at the beginning.

After the incident with Liu Weimin’s mustard gas, the group finally decided to use manpower to guard.

Although the mustard gas was effective, it was too inhumane.

And in a way, such a mechanism was not secure.

It was a one-time thing.

After the first trigger, it could cause a wide-ranging poison kill, but after that, the supplies on the three cars were equivalent to being unprotected, for anyone to pick and choose.

So now they usually had people sleep in the three cars to guard the supplies.

The personnel responsible for guarding were fixed: Chen Shu, Shi Mu, and Ren Anhua.

These three all had strong individual combat capabilities and were quick to react.

Even if suddenly attacked, they would not be killed on the spot.

As long as there was a breath left, Ren Anhua could quickly provide them with healing support.

Having them on guard could be said to be very stable.

As for the others, they could sleep anywhere they liked, even in the cars.

The choice was very free.

Of course, this freedom was also limited.

For example, Ren Anhua wouldn’t let anyone on her car.

She insisted on sleeping alone, for reasons unknown.

Shen Dinghui had quite a few complaints about this; she really wanted to sleep while hugging Ren Anhua.

There was no need to worry about the lodging of the three main combatants, but the other members still needed to tidy up.

Ren Anhua took the lead and broke a lock, taking on the role of a scout.

Although she considered herself the leader of the team, she wouldn’t put on airs for such scouting matters.

After all, it was a small group now, so the risk had to be minimized.

Among this group of people, she was the one who was least afraid of being beaten.

Taking the most vicious beatings and receiving the most healing, that was Ren Anhua.

However, this scouting trip was fortunately without any danger.

They found a house that had not been invaded by zombies.

“This will do. Let’s get through tonight first, and deal with those other matters tomorrow,” after confirming that there were no problems, Ren Anhua hurried back to sleep.

Finding a house had taken a lot of time.

By her count, it was already past nine o’clock.

Whatever needed to be thought about could wait until the next morning.

However, just as Ren Anhua walked out of the door with the broken lock, a commotion came from inside the house.

“Wait, wait! Don’t use your knives, we’re human, we’re human! Not zombies!” A strange male voice, a tone Ren Anhua had never heard before, she was sure it was not an acquaintance.

“What’s going on?” Ren Anhua held a machete in her hand.

Her treasured soul-bound blade had been broken, so she had to make do with one from Chen Shu’s side for now.

Although that was said, this machete was much sturdier than her old broken watermelon knife.

Using the word “make do” was not very appropriate.

To be precise, she was just making do with whatever knife she used.

“Xiao An, there were already people living here. We probably stumbled into someone’s nest,” Shen Dinghui quickly understood the current situation.

She took a look and confirmed that the two people begging for mercy in front of her were ordinary people.

Ordinary people wouldn’t launch a sneak attack.

Near Su City, ordinary people didn’t dare to fight with others because they couldn’t tell who was an Awakened and who wasn’t.

If they accidentally kicked an iron plate, life and death could be a matter of an instant, and near Su City, there were too many such iron plates.

“Someone’s living here? What the hell, there are people living in this place,” Ren Anhua had almost gotten used to the name ‘Xiao An.’
It was all because of Shen Dinghui calling her that.

Although she preferred to be called Brother Anhua, Shen Dinghui just liked to call her Xiao An, Xiao An.

Ren Anhua felt the name was too girly, but she couldn’t really correct others’ speech.

“No, no, no, no one lives here, no one lives here. We’ll get out, we’ll get out right now,” the two ordinary people showed a strong desire to live at this moment, without any temper at all, as if they had abandoned all their dignity.

“Wait, come back,” Ren Anhua looked at the two’s attitude and felt a strange feeling in her heart.

She didn’t know much about the living conditions of ordinary people in this era, especially the ordinary people in a place like Su City.

In her mind, ordinary people at most lacked combat power, but there were also many outstanding individuals who could face the apocalypse head-on, such as Chen Shu, although Chen Shu was not an ordinary person now.

Back in Pingding County, there were also many ordinary people in her survivor camp, and they were mostly like that.

Even if some were not good at fighting zombies, they at least lived with their heads held high.

In Ren Anhua’s mind, ordinary people should not be so lowly, should not have such a fearful attitude from the bottom of their bones like these two people in front of her.

Ren Anhua didn’t know what they had been through, nor what had caused the current phenomenon.

She was simply annoyed to see someone cowering like this in front of her.

Speaking of which, Ren Anhua was also a difficult person to serve.

If you were too arrogant in front of her, she would cut you, but if you were too cowardly, she would be very annoyed.

In short, if someone went to extremes in front of her, she would find it unbearable.

Ren Anhua shone the flashlight in her hand toward the two people.

The sudden beam of white light in the dark night made the two instinctively cover their eyes with their hands.

“Don’t cover them. Let me see you.”

“Big brother, no, no, big sister, Awakened big sister. Please let us go. We’re just two ordinary people who found a random place to sleep. We don’t have anything.”

“I don’t want your things. What are you panicking about?” Ren Anhua slammed the flashlight on the cabinet next to her, casting a fan-shaped beam of light that happened to envelop all three of them.

“What on earth are you afraid of? Do I look terrifying?”

Ren Anhua saw the two’s faces clearly.

They were a man and a woman.

The man had been the one speaking all along; the woman hadn’t made a sound.

The man should be in his late thirties, wearing a pair of glasses, and looked scholarly.

The woman’s appearance was unclear; her face was dark, and her hair was messy.

If it weren’t for the two lumps on her chest, Ren Anhua wouldn’t have been able to tell she was a woman.

And it was at this time that the two had their first chance to see Ren Anhua’s appearance.

After all, they had been blinded by the flashlight earlier and couldn’t see the person clearly.

Ren Anhua’s appearance could be said to be quite outstanding.

In any case, it couldn’t be associated with the word ‘terrifying.’

Although she herself was quite terrifying, just based on her appearance, she couldn’t be described as terrifying.

It was also at this time that the man discovered that the person talking to him was a little girl, but he still didn’t dare to let his guard down and maintained that cautious look.

“Not terrifying, big sister… uh, little… little sister, you’re very beautiful,” the man had just wanted to call her big sister, but suddenly thought that one shouldn’t call a woman older.

But calling her ‘miss’ didn’t feel right either.

‘Sister’ was on the tip of his tongue, but he changed it to ‘little sister.’

“I’m a man.”

“Ah!”

“Let’s skip this for now. You can just call me Tiezhu. May I ask what your name is, brother?” Ren Anhua didn’t want to get entangled in the gender issue.

As long as the other party didn’t constantly remind her of her female identity, like Yue Chang’s calling her ‘miss’ or ‘lady,’ which would make Ren Anhua very annoyed.

Ren Anhua’s polite attitude obviously made the man very uncomfortable.

He had never seen an Awakened who treated ordinary people with such respect, and for a moment, he felt flattered.

“My humble surname is Zhang, with a long bow for Zhang, and my name is Youlai. I was a teacher. Oh, not anymore. Now I’m just a stinky…”

“Alright, then I’ll call you Teacher Zhang. So, Teacher Zhang, let me ask you, how did you know I was an Awakened?” Ren Anhua was not interested in hearing this man belittle himself and directly interrupted him.

“At this time, who would dare to drive a car and use a flashlight outside if not an Awakened? Only the Awakened would dare to make a commotion in a place like this.”

“Very good. Then I’ll ask the second question. Why are you so afraid of the Awakened?”

“This… this…” the man’s face looked a bit troubled, but he finally told the truth.

“How can one not be afraid? When an Awakened approaches an ordinary person, it’s never to help them. It’s either to vent their anger by beating and scolding, or to plunder resources, or to snatch… snatch women.”

When he said this, Ren Anhua finally saw a trace of ruthlessness on the man’s face, but this trace of ruthlessness was well concealed by him.

“I don’t do those things. We came here today just to find a place to rest. You are the master of this place, understand?” Ren Anhua was not displeased by the trace of ruthlessness the man showed.

On the contrary, she felt a little comfortable because of it.

To have this trace of ruthlessness meant that he was not as bad as she had imagined.

“You are the masters, we are the guests. You don’t need to have this attitude. Just allowing us to stay is enough.”

That night was probably the most restless night Zhang Youlai had had since the apocalypse began.

Because an Awakened team was sleeping on the sofa and floor of his house, and he was actually sleeping in his own bed.

What was the origin of these Awakened?

Had the plan already been exposed?

Zhang Youlai couldn’t sleep a wink all night.