Chapter 33: Survivors! (Handsome men and beautiful women, please follow and read)

"Brother Su, c-can I take this bankbook?"

Zhong Xiaoshan asked timidly.

Zhang Su looked at Zhong Xiaoshan, puzzled: "You don't want the money in the bankbook, do you? Gold is useless now, and you don't even know the password."

"It's not that..." Zhong Xiaoshan shook her head and said, "Th-they reminded me of my grandparents. When I was little, my grandparents were just like this, scrimping and saving to scrape together my dowry..."

"Alright, alright, keep it!"

Zhang Su waved his hand, hurriedly cutting off Zhong Xiaoshan's words. If they kept talking, both women would be crying. He added, "Let's go, let's go check the place across the hall."

After checking the situation outside through the peephole, Zhang Su pulled the door open and stepped out of 1102.

"1101's door is locked, how are we going to get in..."

Zhong Xiaoshan followed Zhang Su's footsteps, her emotions still not recovered from the sadness, and she asked with a nasal tone.

"Let's look outside first. Many people have the habit of hiding keys!"

As Zhang Su spoke, he opened a narrow wooden door beside him.

Door locks were becoming increasingly complex and precise, making them harder to pick. Often, one had to resort to brute force, and including the cost of replacing the lock, hundreds would be gone. Many owners simply hid a spare key outside to save a lot of money in a pinch.

Zhang Su had the habit of hiding a key too, only his was hidden inside the Yileiwen Convenience Store.

The two women didn't question him and began searching the stairwell.

The seemingly spacious and tidy stairwell actually had many places to hide a key. Not to mention the traditional spots like above the door frame or under the doormat, the complex, dark water meter closets and heating pipe shafts were even better places.

If one was truly worried about someone finding the key and committing theft, they would hide it on another floor, or simply in another unit.

"Found it!"

Zheng Xin's voice was slightly joyful; she held up a complex fourth-generation anti-theft door key.

Zhang Su, who was rummaging through the heating pipe shaft, pulled himself back and nodded secretly. 【Good Fortune】 was indeed no joke; no wonder it had to be specifically pointed out. It really made sense.

"Where did you find it?"

Zhang Su took the key from Zheng Xin's hand to look at it, then looked at the keyhole of 1101, basically confirming it without a doubt.

Zheng Xin turned back and pointed to the side of the elevator door, saying: "On top of the fire cabinet. I stepped on the heating pipe to get up there and find it. It was even covered by several promotional flyers, but I still discovered it. Am I amazing?"

As if she had done something truly remarkable, Zheng Xin proudly tilted her head, wearing an expression that said, "Hurry up and praise me."

"Amazing, amazing. Good luck. Keep it up in the future."

Zhang Su pinched the key in his hand, gave a perfunctory compliment, and walked to the door of 1101 with a solemn expression.

The doormat under his feet, full of blood plasma, had already crusted and hardened. Stepping on it felt like thin ice cracking. The strange sound mixed with the stench of blood made one feel extremely uncomfortable, as if walking through a Shura hell.

Not rushing to open the door, Zhang Su pressed his ear against it, listening quietly to the movement inside. The silent room had no sound, but that didn't necessarily mean that was the real situation!

Thump, thump, thump.

Zhang Su used his axe to knock on the door of 1101 as usual.

Awoo...

The knocking sound was still echoing when a sticky howl came from inside the door, sounding slightly ethereal through the door panel.

Zhang Su raised his eyebrows and hurriedly took a step back.

Bang!

A great force slammed into the door, causing the door frame to tremble, giving off a strong sense of oppression.

Bang, bang, bang.

The familiar sound of door-banging made Zhong Xiaoshan's skin twitch involuntarily, but this time she didn't make a sound, appearing much calmer.

"See, the method of creating sound is fine. Never forget this procedure in the future!"

Zhang Su took the opportunity to give the two people beside him a field lesson.

Zheng Xin and Zhong Xiaoshan nodded one after another, firmly remembering this simple method in their hearts.

"Then what do we do now? It's guarding the door like this, can we get in?"

Zheng Xin asked with slight worry.

Zhang Su rubbed the key in his hand, pondered for a moment, and said: "There are still ways. We could lure it to the stairwell and use the steps to make it fall flat on its face. But there's no need to take the risk. Let's go, we'll go upstairs first and wait until it quiets down!"

Amidst the irregular banging sounds of the zombie, the group retreated to the stairwell and slowly went up to the twelfth floor, which was the top floor. Further up was another flight of stairs leading to the roof, guarded by a thick door.

Turning the security door handle, Zhang Su frowned slightly: "It's locked!"

"Someone must be living there!"

Zheng Xin said with a complex expression. She hoped to see living people, but was also worried that living people might be detrimental to them, feeling very conflicted.

On the contrary, Zhong Xiaoshan's thoughts were more optimistic, and she said with a hint of joy: "Living people are always better than zombies, Brother Su, don't you think?"

Zhang Su didn't commit to an answer. He took the key from Brother Li's house out of his bag, found a key that roughly fit the security door's keyhole, and fiddled with it. After just over ten seconds, the lock cylinder emitted a click.

"Damn, Brother Su, no wonder you bought a house in full payment at such a young age. So you have this kind of skill, no wonder, no wonder!"

Zheng Xin looked at Zhang Su with a strange gaze, praising him in a weird way.

Zhong Xiaoshan didn't speak, but she also looked at Zhang Su with an awkward expression, probably thinking the same as Zheng Xin.

"Do you two have brains? If I were really good at picking locks, why would I have bothered so hard to find the key for 1101 just now? This trash lock on the security door, to put it bluntly, is purely the developer fooling people. You could poke it open with any piece of scrap metal!"

Zhang Su explained softly and slowly pulled the door open a crack, finding the entire corridor clean. However, the doormat at 1201 had very obvious signs of use, so someone should be living there.

Going around the wall to look at 1202, the engineering door still had old, dilapidated plastic film on it, looking like no one had been there for a long time.

Even though it looked very safe, Zhang Su still tested it. Only after confirming there was indeed no reaction inside 1202 did he feel relieved.

"Xin, go scout the situation."

Zhang Su raised his axe and pointed at 1201.

Zheng Xin didn't hesitate; she nodded and walked to the door of 1201. Mimicking Zhang Su, she pressed her ear against the door. It was quiet with no sound. Then, she used her baseball bat to knock on the door.

Thump, thump, thump.

Clatter, clatter...

As the door was knocked, there was no low growl unique to zombies from inside, but rather the sound of stainless steel products falling to the ground!

The three of them changed their expressions in unison.

Zhang Su said to the excited Zheng Xin: "If the environment is complex, continue using rhythmic knocking to let the people inside know we aren't zombies. Now, we can directly speak softly toward the door crack to communicate."

"Okay!" Zheng Xin agreed, then pressed against the door crack and said inside: "Hello, we are neighbors from downstairs. Can you open the door and talk?"

"Nothing to talk about, you go away!"

Soon, a man's voice came from inside the door, sounding about forty or fifty years old. The position didn't seem far, probably only two or three meters from the door.

Immediately after, the man inside added: "Lock the security door when you leave, thanks!"

The three people outside looked at each other. They thought they had encountered survivors and would at least meet and say a few words, but they didn't expect the other party wouldn't even open the door.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 34 =====