BC Chapter 16

Zhou Yuanyuan’s movements weren’t particularly fast, but because she was following Lu Ziming’s rhythm, her actions unconsciously became more efficient. Lu Ziming was a woman of action; after quickly finding what she needed, she went up to the fourth floor without delay.

Just as the two of them reached the fourth floor, the mixed trio below arrived at the third floor.

As soon as they were on the third floor, Wu Hao, who was leading, waved his hand backward. Seeing Wu Hao’s gesture, the siblings behind him immediately stopped.

Wu Hao suddenly lowered his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep sniff with his nose, saying, “Someone was just here.”

“Wow, is this kid a dog? He can even smell that…” Yin Zhouhang widened his eyes and whispered in an exaggerated, low voice.

Hearing what Wu Hao said, Yin Suna also smelled carefully. Indeed, there was still a faint fragrance in the air that hadn’t dissipated.

“It’s…the smell of bread.” Yin Suna had a sweet tooth. When she used to skip school and stay up late in internet cafes in junior high, everyone else ate instant noodles, but she would munch on various flavors of bread every day, enjoying it immensely. So, she was more sensitive to the smell of bread than most people.

“Wow… are we filming a suspenseful detective drama? You guys are amazing! How come I can’t smell anything? Huh?” Seeing that Yin Suna could even clearly identify the smell, Yin Zhouhang couldn’t help but widen his nostrils and sniff hard. But unfortunately, he still couldn’t smell anything. So, he said angrily, “Damn it, I might as well have a fake nose!”

“You don’t have a fake nose, you have a fake brain… Heh.” Yin Suna said in a low voice, still not forgetting to mock Yin Zhouhang.

“Yin Suna! You!” Yin Zhouhang’s face turned red with anger at Yin Suna, but he couldn’t win an argument with her, so he could only stomp his feet there, which made Yin Suna secretly laugh with joy.

“Stop it, the person is probably already gone. Let’s go see if what we’re looking for is still there.” Wu Hao was still expressionless, but his words already showed his dissatisfaction with the noisy siblings. Then, he directly buried himself in searching. Seeing this, the siblings temporarily put aside their personal grievances and began to split up and act, following behind Wu Hao.

…

The fourth floor was rented by several foreign trade companies dealing in different products. Because there were only the administrative departments of the companies, nothing much was found. Zhou Yuanyuan, however, took a thin blanket from the sample room of a textile company and stuffed it into her bag. Indeed, in these uncertain times, physical health was more important. If she accidentally got sick, it could be fatal under certain circumstances, because medicine was even scarcer than food and water.

Internal and external troubles were all there was: internally, worrying about what to eat for the next meal; externally, worrying about being attacked by humans and non-humans. So, Zhou Yuanyuan’s action could be considered learning from a fall. Or maybe she was just freezing from wearing short sleeves and shorts all this time.

Perhaps because she was wearing the extra layer, Zhou Yuanyuan clearly felt her body temperature rising, and her face was starting to feel hot.

“Cough cough.” She also began to cough lightly involuntarily.

“Do you need to rest for a while?” Lu Ziming, of course, heard Zhou Yuanyuan’s cough. Although her eyes were scanning the surroundings, she didn’t delay asking.

Is this…caring about me? Zhou Yuanyuan was a little surprised and touched. Lu Ziming seemed like a cold person, but she had saved her life twice and was now so concerned about her.

“Cough… no need. I’m not tired.” Although she was a little happy to be cared for by Lu Ziming, Zhou Yuanyuan decided not to hold Lu Ziming back. Besides, she only felt a little hot and her throat was a little itchy; it wasn’t necessary to stop and rest.

“Okay, then let’s go to the fifth floor.” Lu Ziming was constantly thinking while searching.

How to get out of this building? Use Zhou Yuanyuan’s half-baked lock-picking skills to open the lock on the main door? That was also a feasible method, but the success rate was unknown. First of all, Zhou Yuanyuan’s skills were an uncertain factor; even she herself said she could only open simple locks. Secondly, if they wanted to run out of the main door, someone would need to lure away the zombie horde surrounding the entrance from the outside. So, the question was, was there anyone outside who could help? No, there wasn’t. Then, could she manage to lure the zombie horde away from the entrance inside the building? There was some possibility, but at most she could only attract the zombie horde from one side of the building to the other, which was still very close to the entrance. If there were two or three persistent zombies that kept staring at the entrance, then the plan would fail. If the zombies on the door side discovered living people and howled, the other zombies would swarm over. Then all the previous efforts would be in vain.

So, this method was not feasible now. The success rate was not high and there were too many uncertain factors. So, what about changing the method? Escape silently from the back of the building? From what she could see now, the zombies were all surrounding the main entrance, forming a semi-circle around the front of the entire building. If they could run out from the back of the building without alarming the zombies, that would be ideal.

So, in terms of location, the safest was, of course, the first floor. Normally, the exits in other places were uncertain, but the restrooms on both sides definitely had ventilation windows. So, having already collected a lot of food and necessities, escaping this ‘dead city’ was the top priority.

Therefore, on the fifth floor, the two of them only went up the stairs on one side and then went down the stairs on the other side.

“What are we… doing?” Zhou Yuanyuan was led around the fifth floor by Lu Ziming. Seeing that they were about to go downstairs again, she finally remembered to ask Lu Ziming.

“Running for our lives.” Lu Ziming still replied with two concise words.

“Oh.” Actually, Zhou Yuanyuan really felt a little tired at this moment. She thought Lu Ziming would choose a floor on the upper levels to rest for a while, but after escaping with Lu Ziming all this way, she was clear about the current situation. Lu Ziming’s decision not to rest was also the right thing to do, so she still followed without complaint.

…

At this time, the mixed trio on the fourth floor had just patrolled the fourth floor and quickly ascended the stairs to the fifth floor. Coincidentally, Lu Ziming and Zhou Yuanyuan had just gone down to the fourth floor and didn’t stop again, continuing down.

Lu Ziming and Zhou Yuanyuan quickly arrived on the first floor. Lu Ziming first went to check the ventilation windows in the restrooms and found that there were protective bars outside the windows, presumably for anti-theft purposes. But at this moment, this was undoubtedly a bad situation for them. The safest and most reliable escape route was sealed off.

Zhou Yuanyuan didn’t understand what Lu Ziming meant by running for their lives at first, but after seeing Lu Ziming checking the ventilation windows in the restroom, she understood Lu Ziming’s plan.

“Phew… Let’s go to the second floor and see.” Lu Ziming tried the sturdiness of the protective bars outside the window for a long time before giving up and letting out a sigh.

The two came to the second floor again only to find that Wang Dong and the other four were no longer there. However, Zhou Yuanyuan felt relieved, after all, they had saved them before. Although there had been some unpleasantness due to food afterward, the kindness of saving their lives was still there, and it would feel very awkward to meet again.

The windows of the companies on the second floor also had protective bars, but Lu Ziming mainly wanted to see the restrooms. If the restroom windows didn’t have protective bars, then the two of them would still have some hope.

Fortunately, the ventilation windows in the second-floor restroom indeed didn’t have iron bars. But the difficulty was that the window was too small. Lu Ziming was more agile and thinner, so climbing up and getting out, although it would take about ten minutes, didn’t seem too difficult. It was just that she didn’t know if Zhou Yuanyuan could get out.

“You go up first.” Lu Ziming looked at the window and turned to Zhou Yuanyuan.

“Me?” Zhou Yuanyuan was surprised. Did she…doubt that she couldn’t climb up? Oh my, really, just because the tiger isn’t roaring doesn’t mean I can’t climb trees, right?

Zhou Yuanyuan chuckled, put her backpack aside, and strode directly onto the washbasin that was some distance away. Then, using the momentum, she jumped, grabbed the windowsill that was still at a certain height with one hand, and then used the strength of her other leg to push against the wall, coordinating with the force of her hand, and her body sprang upward. Her other hand quickly grabbed the frame of the window, and with a pull of both hands, her upper body had already passed through the opened window to the outside. Then, using the strength of her stomach to get stuck in the window, she freed her hands, found a good position, pressed down, propped herself up, turned around, and sat on the small window.

“Hmph.” Zhou Yuanyuan sat firmly, pulled on the window frame, and proudly raised her head, her chin facing Lu Ziming, meaning, see if you still underestimate me?!

Lu Ziming was indeed a little surprised. She thought Zhou Yuanyuan was just a pampered young lady who only knew how to play mixed martial arts games, but she didn’t expect her to show off so beautifully. But, it must be said that having long legs was good; climbing a window was easy and swift.

Now that Zhou Yuanyuan was up, the rest was easy. Lu Ziming left the sentence, “Wait here,” and ran out of the restroom again. Zhou Yuanyuan stayed on the window, unable to go up or down, so she could only obediently wait there.

In a few minutes, she saw Lu Ziming running in, carrying a large pile of curtains. Of course, she wanted to use these curtains to make a long rope ladder so that the two of them could safely get down from the height of the second floor.

But…the quality of the curtains seemed to be too good. Lu Ziming disassembled the joints for a long time, and finally disassembled them. She wanted to tear the curtain cloth apart with her bare hands, but found that she couldn’t tear it… She used all her strength, her face flushed, but the cloth was still intact.

Zhou Yuanyuan could only watch Lu Ziming busily working in a panic from the window. Finally, seeing Lu Ziming struggling to tear the cloth, she suddenly remembered that she had found a pair of scissors and put them in her backpack!

“Lu Ziming! My, my bag!”

“Bag?” Lu Ziming was holding the curtain in her hand, wasting her strength. Suddenly hearing Zhou Yuanyuan’s words, she reacted for a moment.

“Scissors! There are scissors inside, you idiot!” Zhou Yuanyuan started the self-familiar mode in a hurry. Seeing that Lu Ziming also had moments of slow reaction, she couldn’t help but scold.

“Oh oh! Scissors! Right!” Lu Ziming finally understood what Zhou Yuanyuan meant, immediately pulled Zhou Yuanyuan’s bag over, and took out the scissors inside.