Chapter 8: Dual Search
“But… but I still want to go find my dad.” Mibao hesitated for two seconds before speaking again in a timid voice. “I… I miss my dad…”
As she spoke, her big eyes quickly filled with tears, and she couldn’t help but cry.
She was so useless.
But she really, really missed her dad.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t cry!” Chaolu panicked when she saw Mibao burst into tears. She didn’t know how to comfort kids—
She was still a kid herself!
Besides…
“Your dad doesn’t even want to see you, so why would you still—”
“Waaaah—”
The moment Mibao heard that, she cried even harder.
Chaolu: “…”
Okay, just pretend she didn’t say anything.
Chaoyang, who was standing nearby, clearly wasn’t any better at comforting kids, but seeing how earnestly Mibao was crying, he stiffly raised his hand and patted her on the head. “Don’t cry. We’ll take you to find your dad.”
The moment she heard the words “find your dad,” Mibao stopped crying, sniffled, and looked up at Chaoyang with her face full of hope. “R-really?”
Chaoyang blinked, then looked over at Chaolu.
Chaolu: “…”
Chaolu: “Why are you looking at me?”
“To get your approval,” Chaoyang said. “I agree. What about you?”
Seeing the two baby-faced kids looking up at her—one with big watery eyes, the other completely expressionless—Chaolu’s mouth twitched. “What can I do? I can only agree.”
Two against one, after all.
Although she thought adults were all no good and whether they found the dad or not didn’t matter…
Mibao was still young. Her mom had died when she was little, so it was natural for her to cling to her father.
“Thank you, big sister!” Mibao happily threw her arms around Chaolu. Chaolu only felt a soft little bundle hug her, and her heart just about melted.
Tilting her head, Mibao happened to see Chaoyang, so she flashed him a sweet smile too. “Thank you, big brother!”
Chaoyang blinked and felt his mood lift a little.
Mm…
Having a little sister wasn’t bad at all.
…
…
When Ji Ruwen woke up, his head was still aching a bit.
He slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself inside a fully enclosed metal vehicle, with several strangers in black jumpsuits and carrying guns sitting nearby.
Memories from last night gradually came back—he remembered now. These people were the ones who had saved him.
“Hey, you’re awake.” The dozing Xiao Bai saw Ji Ruwen open his eyes, lifted a hand, and waved in greeting. “Does your head still hurt?”
Ji Ruwen shook his head. “It’s fine. Thank you for…”
But mid-sentence, he suddenly remembered why he had risked going outside in the first place. His expression instantly tightened. “Wait—where’s this car going?”
“We’re heading to the capital. You’re lucky we happened to run into you…”
“The capital? Wait, no, I’m not going!” Ji Ruwen quickly unbuckled his seat belt, about to get out. “I need to go back!”
“Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?” Xiao Bai hurriedly grabbed Ji Ruwen and yanked him back into his seat. “Sit down! If you go out now, are you trying to deliver yourself to the zombies?”
It had taken a lot of effort to save him—if he died now, wouldn’t all their work last night have been for nothing?
“But my daughter’s still back there!” Ji Ruwen’s eyes reddened, panic written all over him. “She’s only five years old!”
When Ji Ruwen said that, everyone in the vehicle froze.
Uh…
So this was what the guy had been trying to say last night?
The group exchanged glances for a few seconds before Xiao Bai looked at the captain and asked blankly, “Captain, what do we do?”
He really wanted to say, ‘At this point, wouldn’t a five-year-old kid already be dead?’
But blurting that out would be way too cruel—and he was afraid if he said it, this guy might pin him to the floor and beat him to a pulp.
“According to our plan, we can’t stop…” The captain frowned deeply, clearly troubled.
Ji Ruwen immediately grew anxious. “You don’t need to stop—just drop me off here, I’ll find my way back myself!”
“Drop you off here? You’ve got nothing on you—going back is basically asking to die,” Xiao Bai said firmly. “Man, if you hadn’t run into us last night, you’d already be dead, you know that?”
Of course Ji Ruwen knew. How could he not know…
But he couldn’t just leave and abandon Mibao.
What if Mibao was still alive?
What if she was curled up in some corner right now, calling for him in fear?
Just imagining it made Ji Ruwen feel like his heart was shattering.
The whole vehicle fell silent.
After several long seconds, the captain finally spoke. “Turn around. We’re going back.”
Xiao Bai stared at him in surprise. “Captain, you…”
“We can’t abandon him—and he can’t abandon his daughter,” the captain said solemnly, sweeping his gaze over everyone. “Just as we can’t abandon any civilian.”
Ji Ruwen’s eyes immediately turned misty. “Thank you… thank you so much!”
…
…
“Is that the place?”
Perched in a tree, Chaolu peered through a pair of binoculars at the distant villa complex.
“Mibao, your family must be rich!”
Mibao didn’t really understand what rich meant. She just tilted her head in confusion and nodded. “I… guess so?”
Clinging to the tree trunk beside them, Chaoyang looked exasperated. Seriously? At a time like this, can we talk about something important?
“The problem now is—how do we get over there?” Chaoyang steered the conversation back. “There are a lot of zombies in that area. Getting inside won’t be easy.”
Chaolu rubbed her chin in thought. “We’re all just kids, and none of us can drive… How about I give it a try?”
“Forget it. I’m afraid we’d die in a car crash before the zombies could even get to us.”
Chaoyang rejected the idea with a completely expressionless face.
Meanwhile, Mibao took the binoculars from Chaolu and began looking toward the villa complex herself.
As she scanned the scene…
She spotted a car parked at the front gates of the villas.
That was…
Her dad’s car!
“I see my dad’s car!” Mibao said excitedly. “He must have come to find me!”
Otherwise, why would his car be parked right there at the gate?
But… the car hadn’t come back out. Could it be that her dad couldn’t get out?
Then how could they get inside?
“I’ve got an idea—want to give it a try?” Chaoyang suddenly spoke up.
“But I’ll say this first—it might not work, and it could be dangerous.”