Mu Rou stood straight, walked over, and crushed the eyeball beneath her foot.
"We’re even," she said softly, not caring about He Rong’s agonized screams as she turned and left the room.
As she passed by Su Mo, Mu Rou stopped and bent over to thank her again.
Su Mo waved her hand, "Go back and get some sleep."
After the person who went to fetch the hemostatic items returned, He Fei clapped his hands and dispersed the students gathered at the door. "Alright, alright, go to sleep."
Before returning to her room, Su Mo asked Lu Chen to give Li Qian a few more bottles of Jasmine Tea, as the prolonged output of his superpower, although a form of exercise, was still exhausting.
As night fell, taking advantage of everyone’s deep sleep, Su Mo got up with Lu Chen and secretly cooked two plates of Scallion Crispy Pumpkin in their room, following the same recipe and method but extending the time to 50 minutes.
"Alright, alright, put it in the Space and let’s go to sleep," Su Mo said as she stood up from the small table and stretched lazily.
Lu Chen hadn’t replied when a huge explosion sounded from several miles outside the oil refining factory.
The dark night sky was suddenly lit up by the sudden blaze, illuminating half the sky. Lu Chen quickly put away the food and pulled Su Mo into his arms, his gaze watchfully fixed on the curtain-covered window through which a glimmer of fire could be seen.
"What just exploded?" asked Su Mo, clutching the front of his shirt, her face a picture of surprise.
"I don’t know, it sounds far away," Lu Chen said, his gaze steady. He waited for a moment in the room as if to make sure it was safe before pulling her out of the building.
Many students who had just gone back to sleep ran out, some not even wearing shoes and barefoot.
Their faces, which hadn’t properly rested for two days, were marked with heavy fatigue and panic.
A huge mushroom cloud rose from the distance outside the Refining Factory; it was a sizable explosion.
"What’s going on?" Zhao Changsheng, putting on his coat in a hurry, brought Jiang Yulian and the incessantly crying child toward them.
Soon after, Li Qian also came over, pulling along a half-asleep Ling Ye.
"Let’s go up to the mud wall and take a look," Lu Chen, taking the lead, pulled Su Mo towards the main gate.
As Su Mo climbed up the structure on the mud wall, He Fei had already gone up ahead of her, accompanied by Guo Hua, whose face, when he looked at the explosion, bore a hint of excitement and anticipation.
She looked towards the explosion, her vision stretched to its limits. What had been blown up was a gas station standing amid ruined buildings. Several shadows flitted through a dark small building nearby, and Su Mo caught sight of it.
She asserted, "It’s people from the epidemic prevention zone."
"What are they doing blowing up a gas station in the middle of the night?" Zhao Changsheng leaned on the railing, filled with confusion.
"Sister Su, look down there," Ling Ye, who had somehow also climbed up the structure, pointed at the dense crowd of zombies below the mud wall.
Su Mo obediently looked down.
Below, a dense swarm of zombies was moving towards the site of the explosion at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"They’re attracting zombies for us," Guo Hua, with his hand on the railing and most of his body leaning out over the mud wall, said excitedly.
"By tomorrow, they should have..." Su Mo squeezed Lu Chen’s palm.
The man looked up and suddenly said to the still bewildered He Fei, "Get the students up to work overtime; I need to get the oil immediately."
Originally, they thought these people wouldn’t come so soon; they didn’t expect them to act after just one night.
Then, the matter of transporting oil must be expedited.
He Fei recovered his senses and knew that cooperation with the people from the epidemic prevention zone was inevitable. Understanding Lu Chen’s thoughts and concerns, he immediately said, "Okay, I’ll have them start working overtime right away."
Having stepped down from the shelf, Su Mo yawned and said to her nearby comrades, "You all should go to sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll probably have a tough battle to fight."
After bidding them farewell and regardless of the noise of the students outside bustling about with their work, Su Mo pulled Lu Chen to bed and fell asleep.
Deep into the night, the people on the oil tank shelf were still busy at work.
Not until the sky turned the color of a fish’s belly did someone knock on Su Mo’s door—it was He Fei, coming to call Lu Chen to collect oil.
"You sleep a bit more," the man stopped her from following him as she tried to get up, quickly dressed, and left.
Su Mo cuddled in bed a bit longer before sitting up from under the covers. She zoned out for a bit before starting to tidy up the items on the bed.
Not knowing when that group would come today, she had to organize her things first.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, and with Lu Chen still not back, she cooked some rice in the rice cooker and made over a dozen sugary rice balls. After eating a few, she packed the rest for Zhao Changsheng and Li Qian next door and delivered them in her System Bag.
After waiting in the house for a while, Lu Chen returned.
Approaching him with anticipation, Su Mo asked, "How did it go? How much did you bring back?"
The corners of Lu Chen’s mouth slightly lifted, signifying his good mood. He ruffled her hair and tightened the ponytail at the back of her head, "Enough to last a few years."
Su Mo immediately cheered up, "That’s great. Now we just need to figure out how to get through the epidemic prevention zone. Later, pack up everything in their rooms and wait for the people from the other side to come over."
The two of them stayed in the room for a while and then went to collect the luggage of Zhao Changsheng and Li Qian from their room.
A group stood outside on the open ground, chatting sporadically. Inside the earthen wall, Guo Hua and He Fei kept standing there, monitoring the situation outside.
Most of the students had gone back to catch up on sleep.
Su Mo occasionally teased the child in Jiang Yulian’s arms, watching him blow milk bubbles.
Approaching noon, outside the wall, there were still only the shrieks of zombies.
There was no other movement outside.
He Fei hadn’t slept all night. Coming down from the iron rack, he felt somewhat disappointed. He walked over to them, picked up a chair to sit down, and spoke in a low tone, "Initially, I always despised the people from the epidemic prevention zone. But now, I’ve never longed for their rescue as I do now. Do you think I’m a failure?"
Su Mo did not answer, but Lu Chen instead spoke up, "Before the apocalypse, you were a qualified leader."
"But you also said before the apocalypse," He Fei lowered his head even more, almost burying it in his knees.
After all, he was just a young man in his early twenties, lacking in experience and still viewing humanity through the lens of absolute good and evil.
Lu Chen observed him for a while, then spoke indifferently, "You’re too soft-hearted."
"I...", He Fei sighed heavily, "I always thought that protecting them from harm is something those of us with superpowers should do."
Even now, he couldn’t change that mindset, knowing it wasn’t right. But with friends, classmates, and teachers having relied on each other to survive up to this point, how could he bear to abandon them?
"You should know, in this world without law and morality, a piece of bread can become the fuse for a fatal conflict. Once you’re in the epidemic prevention zone, you won’t be able to protect them," Lu Chen said in a flat and unemotional tone, yet it depicted the stark reality of their current world.