With a joint effort by Huo Zaiyuan and Long Zhanye, the pair ties the party of eight up with several lengths of rope, locking them in a room. Presently, their temporary hideout is once again safe. Returning to the canteen, Huo Zaiyuan checks on his still unconscious childhood friend, brow wrinkling.
"Why has this brat become more and more lazy?"
Standing aside, Long Zhanye laughs lightly as he hears Huo Zaiyuan's mumbled words. Walking over to the boy sleeping on the table, he leans in and sniffs.
"Knockout drugs? Little Yuan, your friend has been drugged. Feed him more water to dilute the substance in his bloodstream and he will be fine."
Hearing Long Zhanye's observations, Huo Zaiyuan waves his hand, taking out a box of bottled mineral water from within his space. Opening a bottle as though sacrificing it for a greater cause, with no mercy painted on his face, Long Zhanye's heart sweats as he watches. If he doesn't know beforehand that the two youths are childhood friends, he would be wondering what sort of grudge the youth could have against the unconscious person. Tsk, tsk…sure enough, one mustn't provoke a child.
"Uh…cough, cough…urgh - " Following a violent coughing fit, the unconscious person abruptly opens his eyes, sits up and vomits a mouthful of water over the edge of the table.
"Once he vomits it out, then everything will be fine." Long Zhanye looks at the incessantly dry-heaving youth and states lightly. Who knows where he manages to procure a packet of cigarettes but a stick is already lit and in his mouth, faint white smoke rising from the tip, a strong odour settling around him.
Glancing at the man standing in the doorway and smoking, Huo Zaiyuan seems to be thinking something over as he reaches out and pats his childhood friend's back to ease the heaving.
"Hah…hah…" In the end, he stops vomiting and stays sprawled at the edge of the table. Slowly, he raises his head and sees an extremely familiar face. "Little…little Yuan?"
"Eh…un." Huo Zaiyuan replies at his friend's call. "Are you all right? Where is Qin Jun?"
"Uwah…"
Just as Huo Zaiyuan finish asking, the youth who very recently regained conscience scrunches his forehead, the pair of dark eyes fill with glistening tears. Throwing himself into Huo Zaiyuan's bosom, he begins crying loudly, sobbing miserably enough to move the world and shake the heart, as though he can express all his fear and grief through his tears.
~~~
Still bearing two red eyes and lashes wet with teardrops, Li Qing uses a napkin to wipe his continuously flowing tears, clearly still traumatized by the events he experienced.
"Stop crying, it makes you look ugly. Here, eat something and save your strength." Huo Zaiyuan says as he holds out a plate full of mantou[1] in front of his friend. "You still haven’t told me why Qin Jun is not with you."
The mantou in his hands wobbles slightly as a desolate expression crosses Li Qing's face, tears rolling down his cheeks again. "I broke up with him. He has nothing to do with me anymore, so why would I be following him n - aiya…ouch! Why did you hit me for?!"
"Nothing." Huo Zaiyuan answered blandly, taking a mantou from the plate and biting into it.
"Little Yuan…that person…is he your…this?" Li Qing glances meaningfully at Long Zhanye who is currently out in the corridor fiddling with the few guns he took off their captives. Then shifting his gaze to Huo Zaiyuan, he slowly extends his pinky[2].
Staring at the pale, slender pinky, Huo Zaiyuan quirked an unamused eyebrow before reaching out and raps his knuckles on Li Qing's head.
"Ah - it's really painful!"
"Scram! And don't stop[3]!"
"Boohoo…you're becoming more and more violent." Cradling his aching head in his hands, Li Qing turns pathetic eyes on him. "You suddenly vanish for an entire year, what happened? I was just about to go crazy trying to find you. Also, why is there an arrest warrant for you on the web ah…"
Hearing him mention the arrest warrant, Huo Zaiyuan immediately rushes forward, clamping a hand firmly on Li Qing's collar, a grave expression on his face. "My name now is Zi Yuan, not Huo Zaiyuan. You better remember that clearly. This has something to do with my previous situation." Saying this, he also makes a zipping motion across his lips.
Li Qing doesn't know why his childhood friend who suddenly went missing for an entire year before re-appearing again to save him has changed so much, but he knows that it is connected to something bigger, something concerning Huo Zaiyuan that the other doesn't want to talk about. In addition, looking at the almost unfamiliar but yet so familiar face of his best friend, Li Qing feels that the youth before him has become more reliable than before.
"Little Yuan…" He calls the other's name lowly, expression difficult.
"Hmm?" With a mouthful of mantou, Huo Zaiyuan mumbles. "If you have something to say, then say it. It's unlike you to hesitate."
"Your friend looks like someone really capable, can I request his help to send me home, please?" Saying until here, Li Qing's eyes redden again. "I came to Z City to visit my mum. A few days ago, I suddenly realise a lot of people turned into monsters. Mum and I hid in our house and didn't dare go out. But early this morning, these people suddenly intrude in our home and snatch away all the food. They injured mum and kidnapped me. I'm worried about her…"
Huo Zaiyuan knows that his childhood friend is not the birth mother of next door's Madam Li, but the illegitimate son of Board member Li and his mistress. Hence, from a young age, Li Qing was constantly bullied and laughed at by other kids. A the age of three, in the residential area's public park, he happened to see someone pushing Li Qing into the sandpit, causing him to scrape his knee, blood dripping from the wound. Huo Zaiyuan's mother was holding his hand for a stroll in the park. Seeing this, she brought Li Qing back home with them to bandage his wound. From that time onwards, the two boys became good friends.
Later, when Huo Zaiyuan's mother passed away, Huo Zaiyuan quietly shed tears whereas Li Qing sobbed loudly, much more miserably then the actual son. Soon after the funeral, his father brought his mistress and illegitimate son back, angering Huo Zaiyuan to the point of leaving home. In the heavy downpour on the day he ran away, it was Li Qing who braved the rain and searched for an entire night, eventually coming down with a high fever. From that point, their friendship deepened even further.
Moving out of the Huo house to live alone outside, Li Qing will come over for a visit from time to time, looking for him to play computer games together, or to go somewhere together. Because Huo Zaiyuan's circle of friends contains quite a few dissolute companions, Li Qing will also come by when it's close to exam period to revise together, making sure Huo Zaiyuan doesn’t slack off.
When Huo Zaiyuan recalls the past, he often thinks that when his mother died and his father brought in his mistress and her son, without Li Qing, he would have gone mad a long time ago.
"Come on, I'll talk to older brother Long. You can eat and walk at the same time." Stuffing the plate of mantou into Li Qing's bosom, Huo Zaiyuan stands up and heads out the canteen.
Although he has never seen Li Qing's birth mother personally, from the framed photo he often glimpses in Li Qing's room, she is a slim woman who doesn't possess a remarkable appearance, the complete opposite of her son's pretty and delicate features. Li Qing’s appearance is more like his father, the five facial points gentle and soft, while his figure is all his mother's.
Since childhood, he knows that Li Qing doesn't like the Li family, but Madam Li is infertile, which is why she puts up with Board member Li bringing his illegitimate son into the household. But Li Qing has always been rather dependant on his birth mother, not failing to talk on the phone with her at least once a day. When they were young, Huo Zaiyuan always jokes that Li Qing reports back to his teacher every day.
Hearing Huo Zaiyuan's words and staring at his back, Li Qing's face relaxes into a small smile, clasping the plate tightly and quickly following behind.
"Older brother Long." Walking out to the corridor, Huo Zaiyuan notices that Long Zhanye has already reassembled the guns and placed a full magazine in each one.
"Un." Long Zhanye holds out two pistols to him. "I've already readjusted them, the feel of it is pretty good."
Taking one of the pistols, he passes the other to the person behind him, shocking Li Qing greatly, who obviously has never touched a gun in his life.
"Older brother Long, little Qing's mother is still in their home, so…"
"Un, I was just about to rust staying here. It's about time we go out for a walk." Long Zhanye shoots him a brief smile, his gaze shifting to Li Qing. "Hello, I'm Long Zhanye."
Hearing Long Zhanye's greeting, Li Qing's eyes brighten, a smile lighting up his face. "Hello, I'm Li Qing. Thank you very much, older brother Long." Following his friend's example, Li Qing decides to call the man 'older brother' as well.
"Older brother Long, when we leave this place, what shall we do with these people we tied up?" Huo Zaiyuan's gaze is cold as he regards the eight men.
Reaching out to rub his (HZY) hair, Long Zhanye smiles faintly. "Just go ahead and dismantle the array on the second floor. Not long ago, they threw grenades over the wall. Those surviving zombies within this district will undoubtedly be attracted by such loud explosions. They will take care of these guys. We wouldn't even need to dirty our hands."
"Un, that's true." Huo Zaiyuan consents to the plan, then turn and leaves to start taking down all the arrays on the second floor.
Having gone through the apocalypse once before, he understands that there are times one needs to be vicious and merciless. Right now, all sorts of morals and ethics are useless. Met with this kind of hopeless situation, the darkness dwelling within a human's heart will begin to surface.
Huo Zaiyuan is not bothered by killing and taking lives, but he is not some bloodthirsty murderer. If given an opportunity to not dirty his hands, he will take it gladly. This group of people are not good-hearted, bounded and helpless as they are, with the door of the room locked tightly, they will need to expand immense effort to loosen the ropes and unlock the door. The amount of time spent doing all that will be sufficient for the remaining zombies to surround the building. And as time goes by, the zombies will become more and more active. Without the warding arrays, the undead will have no trouble reaching the second floor. Thus, even if these people do not fall victim to the zombie infection, without weapons to kill their way out, they will starve to death, trapped within that small room.
Footnotes :
[1] Don't think I need to explain what a mantou is, but for those who are new to the term, it's basically a steamed bun.
[2] Li Qing is asking is Long Zhanye is Huo Zaiyuan's lover/significant other.