Chapter 6

"Global outbreak..."

Zhang Su's expression was blank. At first, he was wondering if it was a biological weapon released by some country. Now it seems... this possibility still cannot be ruled out. The person who opened Pandora's box might not be spared either.

That comfortable life was definitely gone forever. How the disaster was triggered wasn't worth delving into; he only cared about the situation in Qincheng, and even closer, he only wanted to survive himself!

"Don't worry about foreign countries for now. We probably can't even get out of the complex. Let's see if there's any news in the owners' group. You've joined the owners' group, right?"

Zhang Su rubbed his temples and shook his head helplessly.

"Joined, joined."

Zheng Xinyu found the Shengqin Garden owners' group. The unread messages weren't many, about seventy-plus, including unread messages from the previous few days. She flipped to find the messages starting from today.

6:37 AM, 8-2-702: Good morning. September 27, X023, Wednesday, the thirteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Morning is the beginning of hope. Wishing everyone's hearts filled with sunshine, facing the morning sun with a smile. Good luck will definitely bump into you, Rose/.

"The first message is around 6:30. It seems everything was fine at that time?"

Zheng Xinyu asked.

Zhang Su didn't commit, signaling her to keep looking down.

6:45 AM, 11-1-201: Which owner's car is license plate XC·XXXXX? Come down and move it quickly. It's blocking my car from getting out. Hurry, hurry, hurry, @everyone.

6:48 AM, Just This Style: @11-1-201, sister, you aren't a group admin. @everyone is useless. I suggest you ask the group owner for help.

6:50 AM, 11-1-201: Thanks for the reminder. A nice big brother came to help me move it out.

7:03 AM, Happy and Joyful: @7-1-601, hello, can you be a little quieter early in the morning? My old man just finished surgery and is recuperating at home. Let's have mutual understanding.

7:06 AM, Fruit Sister Ling: Dear ones, ordered

A message that was clearly not finished.

7:07 AM, 301: Family, I heard an explosion. Whose house is it? It's so fucking scary.

7:10 AM, Tomorrow Will Be Better: Family, there's a fight downstairs. Look quickly, it's all blood.

7:11 AM, Building 10 Seafood Brother Wang: Someone on the road has gone crazy, biting people as soon as they open their mouths. A bunch of cars crashed, Haibin Road is completely blocked. Seafood can't be delivered on time today!

7:13 AM, 3-1-402: Who is so ill-mannered, yelling and shouting in the garden early in the morning? Next time, I'm calling the police directly!

10:55 AM, Winter Plum Blossom: Murder! There's a monster biting people to death!

At the same time, 12-3-1101: Voice message, unable to read.

Following that, more than ten messages were all voice messages. Although they couldn't hear what was inside, one could understand the gist just by guessing.

Zhang Su took Zheng Xinyu's phone and flipped through it, saying: "It seems the zombie virus broke out around seven in the morning, and then the internet was cut off in less than half an hour..."

There was almost no useful content in the complex group; one could only infer the outbreak time from the message posting time, which was of limited help to the two.

"Seven o'clock..." Zheng Xinyu pursed her lips and said: "Seven o'clock is the morning rush hour, right? Adults going to work, children going to school. Heavens, it's unimaginable."

"The complex has about seven hundred apartments. I learned about it when I paid the parking fees before. The occupancy rate is about sixty percent, which is over four hundred households. Calculating by three people per household, our complex has about twelve hundred people. I don't know how many are still alive."

Zhang Su didn't mention the infection rate because it didn't matter how many people were infected; not being infected didn't mean they wouldn't be killed by zombies. Surviving was the key.

Zheng Xinyu thought of the tragic scene downstairs and shook her head sorrowfully: "Maybe at most half."

"Half..."

Zhang Su secretly thought that this girl was really optimistic. Judging from the situation he had just observed, he felt that the number of people who could survive was probably only one or two out of ten—in other words, it would be good if two hundred people survived!

Suddenly, he thought of his two employees.

The shift change time for the twenty-four-hour convenience store was eight o'clock. However, the girl on the day shift, unlike Wu Lue on the night shift, usually arrived at the store earlier to hand over, meticulous and very serious.

If...

Zhang Su didn't continue to think. It was all a waste of effort; it was better to save brain cells to study some useful things.

"Xinyu, let's think carefully about what to do next?"

"Mm-hmm, Brother Su, I'll listen to you!"

When the two were studying in the room, occasionally shrill howls would drift outside the window. Fortunately, the excellent soundproofing kept the sounds from being too loud, and both tacitly ignored them.

However, an explosion sound rang out, making the two unable to remain calm anymore. They looked at each other, full of gravity.

*Rat-tat-tat-tat... *

Immediately after, a very unusual sound entered their ears.

"This is?"

"Helicopter!"

Zhang Su reacted keenly, rushed to the bedroom window in one stride, and pulled open the curtains. The first thing that met his eyes was the black smoke rising into the sky in the distance—naturally, the place where the explosion had occurred earlier. He had no time to look up to find them, but saw three helicopters sweeping across the sky in a *pin* formation.

"Type 11 helicopter..."

"Brother Su, is it an army helicopter?"

Zheng Xinyu asked, full of hope.

When facing big disasters and calamities, ordinary people naturally pin their hopes on the army, the government, and the country.

Zhang Su shook his head and said: "It's a special police helicopter."

Although they were far apart, he could faintly tell from the paint job that it wasn't military.

"Special police? Special police are good too. It seems the police force hasn't had any trouble. This is great. They will definitely come to rescue us, right?"

Zheng Xinyu clasped her hands tightly, her expression pious, like a believer praying for the descent of holy light.

"How many people are in Qincheng? Think about it yourself. When will it be our turn?" Zhang Su looked at Zheng Xinyu with an inexplicable expression.

Long no longer an innocent student in an ivory tower, Zheng Xinyu had struggled on the internet and seen many people's warmth and coldness. The insults and slander from various haters had made her see through many things.

Before, it was just because she was panicked and held beautiful fantasies. After Zhang Su woke her up, she naturally understood the key.

"Brother Su, you're right. Even if there is rescue, we must survive until the moment the rescue arrives..."

Zheng Xinyu wiped away her tears, sniffed, and became much stronger instantly.

"Damn it!"

Zhang Su suddenly gritted his teeth and cursed.

Zheng Xinyu looked at him with slight confusion.

Zhang Su said with extreme depression: "I really should have brought up those things you bought last night!"

A section was deleted, about 200 words.

(End of chapter)