Chapter 59: Evenly Settled (Woken by Illness, Begging for Follows)

Qin Ya saw how quiet it was, sighed inwardly, and raised his hand: “Since everyone’s so profound, let me lay out my plan first!”

“It’s about seven kilometers from here to the Olympic Sports Center. From what I know, Xishan Road isn’t busy during morning rush hour—if we can get onto Xishan Road and pick up speed, the zombies won’t catch us; it’s manageable!”

Xishan Road lies west of Sheng Qin Jiayuan, separated by a single street, roughly four to five hundred meters away, closer to the urban fringe. As Qin Ya said, Xishan Road is almost always quiet on regular days.

After listening to Qin Ya, Duan Wu looked at Zhang Su, as if to say, “You go first?”

But Zhang Su raised his hand actively, signaling for Duan Wu to speak first…

“Cough…,” Duan Wu didn’t hesitate: “Since the authorities have already set up a safe zone at the Olympic Sports Center, my little Hai and I naturally plan to go there too—but, Officer Qin, the situation on Xishan Road probably isn’t as good as you think!”

Zhang Su felt puzzled—when had the broadcast mentioned “authorities”?

Qin Ya had earlier claimed the authorities intended to establish a safe zone at the Olympic Sports Center, but the broadcast had mentioned nothing about “authorities”—only “safe zone.” This subtle difference went unnoticed by almost everyone.

Even Qin Ya had overlooked it; he turned to Duan Wu with a questioning look and asked, “Why do you say the situation on Xishan Road is bad?”

Duan Wu said: “Before September, Xishan Road was indeed quiet. But recently, two schools have opened there—one middle school and one elementary school. The elementary school only enrolled first graders, so not many people. But the middle school is the relocated Qizhong—over three thousand students!”

Qin Ya immediately frowned: “How do you know that?”

“I’m the PE teacher at the new Qizhong. Of course I know…”

Duan Wu covered his face and chuckled bitterly: “If I weren’t a PE teacher, I’d have already left for the school when the incident happened. The school uses staggered start times—first-year students start twenty minutes later, but second- and third-year students would’ve already left home!”

“I don’t know about other roads, but the several hundred meters around the new Qizhong are definitely jammed!”

Duan Wu spoke with absolute certainty.

Qin Ya sighed, then noticed how silent Zhang Su’s group of three had been. He turned to Zhang Su and asked, “Xiao Zhang, what’s your plan? Do you have any more mature ideas? Let’s discuss them together.”

Although Zhang Su’s appearance wasn’t particularly friendly, he gave Qin Ya a natural sense of goodwill—he’d saved his life, after all—and Qin Ya spoke to him with extra courtesy.

“Get a vehicle first.”

Zhang Su said three simple words.

Everyone waited expectantly for more, but Zhang Su had already finished.

“Get a vehicle first… hmm, that’s right—mobility is far better than walking. Then what, brother?”

Duan Wu, no doubt a teacher, asked with approval and gentle guidance.

Zhang Su smirked and shook his head: “Outside, there’s explosions, car crashes, and zombies everywhere—how can you have a plan? You just take it one step at a time.”

“Xiao Zhang, from what you’re saying, you don’t plan to go to the Olympic Sports Center?” Qin Ya picked up the subtext and asked.

Zhang Su slowly shook his head: “Too far away. I’m not ready to consider something that distant yet. If we make it near there, we’ll go.”

After hearing Zhang Su’s words, everyone silently nodded. Though overly pessimistic, wasn’t this the reality?

Forget seven kilometers—even running seventy meters out of the building entrance meant fighting several brutal battles.

“Everyone’s tired. Why not rest for now? This isn’t something we can solve in a day. Let’s think slowly and talk again tomorrow!”

Qin Ya clapped his hands lightly. Continuing the plan now would only weigh hearts down further. Then he glanced at the bulging packs on Zhang Su and the others, and smiled apologetically.

“Xiao Zhang, Teacher Duan, I see you’re well-prepared. Do you have extra food? I’d like to trade water for some.”

As Qin Ya spoke, Tian Fan and Yu Nuo looked at Zhang Su’s group and the Duan brothers with hopeful eyes.

Their supplies were wildly unbalanced: they had so much water they couldn’t carry it all—even if each person took one case, there’d be leftovers—but food was extremely scarce. Ready-to-eat meals were nearly gone; all that remained were uncooked rice and flour.

In a stable environment, processing rice and flour isn’t hard—you can easily boil rice porridge or flour dumpling soup. But once you leave the apartment building, everything changes.

Outside, unexpected situations could arise at any moment. Simply setting up a pot to cook a bowl of porridge becomes far from easy.

Zhang Su sighed with a smile, took off his backpack, and dropped it on the floor with a dull thud. This made Qin Ya and the others’ faces light up—but when he unzipped it, their smiles faded.

“Officer Qin, we don’t have much food either. And… we don’t lack water—we left plenty at home.”

Qin Ya glanced at the backpack full of mineral water, his eyes flicking unconsciously over the other bags on Zhang Su and the others. Before he could speak, someone spoke first.

“This lady’s backpack is bulging out of shape—surely it contains some packaged food?”

Yu Nuo pointed at Zheng Xinyu’s backpack.

Zhang Su zipped it shut with a sharp snap: “We three need food too. We’ve calculated the exact amount—it’s enough for two or three days. No trading.”

“How can you be like this? We’re not taking your stuff for free—Officer Qin already said we’d trade water! Why are you so heartless?”

Yu Nuo said, annoyed.

“Sorry. I only trade for what I need.” Zhang Su disliked Yu Nuo’s tone intensely.

“You—”

“Come on, let’s all stay calm. Officer Qin, I’ll trade—I’ll give you a five-pack of instant noodles for one case of water. How’s that?”

Duan Wu quickly stepped in as peacemaker, pulling out a large pack of instant noodles from his bag.

His family’s situation was the exact opposite of Zhang Su’s and Qin Ya’s: they normally drank water from the community’s purification system, so they had little stored. But because Duan Sihai was homebound, they’d stockpiled plenty of ready-to-eat food.

“Fine, no problem!”

Qin Ya agreed to Duan Wu’s trade without hesitation—they had far too much water to carry.

“Teachers really do have noble character. Unlike some people who don’t even know gratitude after being saved.”

Yu Nuo, seeing Qin Ya and Duan Wu reach a deal and now temporarily aligned, launched a sarcastic attack at Zhang Su.

“Yu Nuo!”

Qin Ya glared at Yu Nuo.

Yu Nuo suddenly remembered Qin Ya had escaped only because of Zhang Su’s help—her remark implied Qin Ya was ungrateful too. She pouted and fell silent.

Huh.

Zhang Su stood up, each word deliberate: “I saved Officer Qin once. Officer Qin helped me once. We’re even. Goodbye.”

Zheng Xinyu and Zhong Xiaoshan immediately stood up, shooting Yu Nuo a furious glare.

Since entering the room, they hadn’t let go of their weapons—not even their backpacks. They could leave at any moment.

Hey, can’t say it enough—half a ibuprofen, and you feel so much better…

(End of Chapter)