Chapter 221: You Are Useless
"Are you kidding? You want me to save you?" Zhang Yi thought incredulously. He wasn’t inclined to rescue these elite students. Raised with silver spoons in their mouths, their lives had been more extravagant and fulfilling in twenty years than many people's sixty-five. These young masters and mistresses would be a burden if rescued.
"I’m only here for Yang Xinxin. The rest of you are on your own!" Zhang Yi declared, turning to take Yang Xinxin away.
However, these cunning children of officials and wealthy businessmen quickly realized Zhang Yi had no intention of taking them along. Several students approached Yang Xinxin, seizing her.
"You must take us with you! Or we’ll kill her!" Zhang Mengning threatened, her face twisted with malice.
Lu Keran, shocked by her classmates’ actions, rushed to free Yang Xinxin but was pushed to the ground by a tall boy. "Don’t! You’re all classmates; you can’t do this!" Liang Yue weakly protested, but no one listened. To them, she was merely a glorified bodyguard.
Several students restrained Yang Xinxin. Zhang Mengning glared at Zhang Yi, "If you don’t take us, no one leaves!"
Zhang Yi scoffed, turning to Fatty Xu and Uncle You. "Why are there so many self-righteous people in this world?" he asked, seemingly casual but ready to act.
With a quick, nonchalant turn, he switched to his police-issue handgun, more manageable for precision shots.
Four consecutive shots echoed as Zhang Yi fired without hesitation. The students holding Yang Xinxin collapsed, blood oozing from bullet holes in their foreheads. Their eyes widened in shock before life left them, and they fell to the ground, dead.
The surrounding students screamed and scattered, looking at Zhang Yi with fear as if he were a wild beast. Liang Yue, furious and shocked, pointed at Zhang Yi, "You... you killed those children!"
Zhang Yi laughed coldly, "Children? They knew how to use a classmate’s life to threaten others, and you call them children?"
Ignoring their moral arguments, Zhang Yi walked to Yang Xinxin. The dead bodies didn’t faze her, her expression detached. "Desensitized?" Zhang Yi wondered, hoping she wouldn’t be too psychologically scarred.
Liang Yue continued to berate Zhang Yi for his cold-blooded actions, pleading for him to take the other students, too. Zhang Yi paid her no mind, extending his hand to Yang Xinxin. "Let’s go. I’m taking you home."
For the first time, Yang Xinxin’s light blue eyes showed emotion. "Okay," she nodded, taking his hand.
"Can you take my friend too?" she pleaded, looking at Lu Keran nearby. "She’s a special student at Tianqing Academy, just like me."
"Special student?" Zhang Yi asked, intrigued.
Yang Xinxin explained, "This school has two kinds of students: children of the elite and those specially admitted for their talents. Lu Keran is a mechanical genius, on par with engineering graduates from Caltech. She built this custom wheelchair for me."
Zhang Yi examined Lu Keran, a short-haired girl with a robust physique, essential for a mechanical engineer. "What can you do?" he asked.
Lu Keran’s eyes brightened, seizing the opportunity. "I’m skilled in vehicle design and repair, and I know a lot about firearms. If you take me, I can modify cars and guns for you. I’ve also studied swordsmithing and can forge weapons if conditions allow."
Impressed by her skills, Zhang Yi clapped, "Alright, you can come too."
Lu Keran and Yang Xinxin exchanged glances, excitement in their eyes. "Thank you… What should we call you?" Lu Keran asked.
"Call me Zhang Yi. You can call me Brother Yi," he replied with a smile.
"Thank you, Brother Yi!" Lu Keran beamed, overjoyed.
Zhang Yi had Lu Keran push Yang Xinxin’s wheelchair as they prepared to leave. The remaining students, on the verge of tears, begged, "Mr. Zhang, we have skills too! I’m a great driver!"
"I know eight languages; I can be your translator!"
"I’m well-versed in literature and can recite Dream of the Red Chamber backwards!"
Despite their elite education, their skills were mostly impractical in the apocalypse. The remaining students, realizing their futile pleas, turned to Shen Miaoke, the brave girl with long, wavy hair.
"Now that Ms. Liang is weak, and the monster is still around, what will we do if it comes back to kill us?" she asked Zhang Yi.
"Without your intervention, Ms. Liang might have killed the monster. Are you just going to leave us to die?" she argued, trying to appeal to his sense of responsibility.
Zhang Yi remained unmoved. "You speak as if you’d survive if we hadn’t intervened. Maybe you’d all be dead by now."