Chapter 14: A Good Head on His Shoulders
Liang Shaoqing stared at Ji Ruwen with a solemn expression.
From what they knew so far, anyone bitten by a zombie would turn in a very short time.
But…
That thing just now didn’t seem like a zombie.
So instead of immediately putting a bullet in Ji Ruwen, Liang Shaoqing chose to wait and observe.
Before long, the special squad noticed something odd—Ji Ruwen didn’t seem to be zombifying.
But his reaction wasn’t normal either.
His deathly pale face gradually flushed red, and now he lay sprawled on the ground, pupils unfocused, muttering something under his breath.
“Captain, let me check on him,” Xiao Bai said, unable to hold back. “I think he’s fine.”
Liang Shaoqing frowned. “Wait a bit longer.”
A few more minutes passed. When the time window for human zombification had already been exceeded, Liang Shaoqing finally gave Xiao Bai a small nod.
Xiao Bai cautiously approached Ji Ruwen and gave him a light nudge with his foot.
Ji Ruwen didn’t react at all.
So Xiao Bai leaned in, putting his ear close—and heard…
“Mibao… Mibao… wait for me…”
Mibao?
Was that his daughter’s name?
Xiao Bai blinked. Could this be… the power of fatherly love?
“Captain, he’s still conscious,” Xiao Bai called to Liang Shaoqing. “The wound hasn’t worsened either.”
Only then did the members of the special squad draw closer. Liang Shaoqing looked down at Ji Ruwen for a few seconds, then pulled out his special-issue phone and called his superiors.
“…Yes, I understand.”
After reporting Ji Ruwen’s condition, Liang Shaoqing hung up upon receiving his instructions.
“Tie him up just in case, then take him to Beijing.”
Xiao Bai blinked. “Captain, what about his daughter…”
“We don’t have time,” Liang Shaoqing said firmly. “Besides, we have no idea where his daughter is—there’s no way we could find her in a short time.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Ji Ruwen, but right now, looking for the girl was clearly unrealistic.
Even those murderers—they had no way of tracking them down either.
The situation in the capital was far more urgent. They had to get back immediately.
…
…
After leaving the area around the factory, the bald man and his crew quickly found several more vehicles, then drove toward the outskirts.
With the situation now changed, they no longer planned to leave the country.
Hell, with zombie mosquitoes appearing, wouldn’t going abroad be even more dangerous?
Rumor had it that wild animals overseas were ferocious as hell—if they ran into something like a zombie bear or zombie kangaroo, would they even survive?
This time, Chaoyang and Mibao weren’t stuffed into the trunk—they were put in the back seat.
Two little dumplings, each flanked by a burly man on either side—like the cream filling in an Oreo.
“Kid, that brain of yours turns pretty fast, huh?”
The one sitting next to Chaoyang was none other than the bald man. He hooked an arm around Chaoyang’s shoulder, smiling with ill intent.
Chaoyang turned his head toward him. “I’m just a child. Keeping us will do you no good—you’ll just waste food. Unless it’s your last resort, you wouldn’t want to eat people, right?”
Even if they were kept as “emergency rations,” rations still needed to eat to stay alive.
So why bother taking them along?
“Kid, you should consider it a blessing that I’ve taken a liking to your brain—so stop playing innocent with me.”
The bald man gave Chaoyang’s head a light smack in irritation, then thought better of it—worried it might affect Chaoyang’s intelligence—and instead patted him on the head.
This was a good head.
Meanwhile, the man nicknamed Monkey, sitting next to Mibao, grinned and tugged at her hair before turning to threaten Chaoyang. “Kid, you’d better behave. Your little sister’s still in our hands.”
“I’m not his sister,” Mibao said unhappily, glaring at Monkey. “I don’t like you, skinny big brother.”
He was the bad guy who pulled her braids.
Monkey, however, was delighted by this. “Boss, the little girl called me ‘big brother’!”
“As if that’s something to brag about,” the bald man rolled his eyes. “I don’t care if you’re real siblings or fake ones—quit yapping and use that smart little head of yours to figure out where we can settle down!”
As he spoke, the bald man pinched Chaoyang’s cheek.
Chaoyang: “…”
A few minutes later, Chaoyang circled a location on the map.
It was an abandoned factory by the roadside, far from the city.
And it wasn’t far from their current position.
With a destination in mind, the trip became simple. After a few hours’ drive, the group arrived.
The abandoned factory was empty, so the bald man’s crew quickly took it over.
Following Chaoyang’s directions, they soon set up designated areas, and then…
He and Mibao were locked inside one of the rooms.
“Kid, the patrol schedule for the factory isn’t sorted yet, so you and your sister stay put for now!”
Monkey called cheerfully from the doorway.
When he was done, he tossed a small bag of cookies through the slot in the door.
“Here, little girl—big brother’s giving you a snack.”
Mibao puffed up angrily. “I’m not eating cookies from a bad guy!”
Monkey’s eyes went cold. “You little—”
“Mibao, you should still eat it.” Chaoyang picked up the cookies and patted her head. “A wise person adapts to the situation.”
With Mibao’s current level of education, she didn’t understand what such a long sentence meant—but that didn’t stop her from listening to Chaoyang.
“…Fine.” She scrunched up her face. “Then… thank you, skinny big brother.”
Monkey immediately smiled again. “You’re welcome. But my name’s Monkey.”
“Thank you, skinny monkey big brother.” Mibao’s face wrinkled even more, clearly unwilling.
Monkey: “…”
No need to emphasize the “skinny” part that much.
Soon, Monkey left, and the room fell silent again.
[Mibao, if you don’t want to call him big brother, you don’t have to.]
At that moment, the system’s voice sounded in her mind.
Mibao opened her mouth. “Then what should I call him?”
Chaoyang, sitting beside her, looked puzzled. “What?”
“Brother Chaoyang, I’m not talking to you,” Mibao explained with great seriousness. But since she couldn’t reveal the existence of her “system big brother,” her chubby little face wrinkled up like a steamed bun. “I’m… I’m talking to aliens!”
Chaoyang: “…”
System: […]
Poor Mibao.
“All right, then you keep talking to the aliens.” Chaoyang chuckled. “I won’t disturb you.”
He just assumed Mibao was talking to herself.
Mibao thought Chaoyang had believed her story, so she happily went back to chatting with the system.
“So, when I meet a big brother I don’t like, what should I call him?”
[…You can call him ‘uncle’.]
The system coaxed her.
[It’s still polite—and given his age, calling him ‘uncle’ is perfectly reasonable.]
“Oh~” Mibao’s eyes lit up in sudden understanding. “Got it!”
[And Mibao doesn’t need to worry about going hungry. You stored up some energy earlier in the trunk, and big brother can exchange it for some things for you now.]
The system sounded very pleased with itself.
No way was his adorable little sister going to call some other man “big brother.”
His sister didn’t need to “adapt to the situation.”
…Though, that last part might not have sounded quite right.