"Where are they? At the very least, let us see them."
My eyes swept over the group of people who were treating my home as if it rightfully belonged to them.
A sudden surge of nameless rage rose in my chest.
As expected… regardless of whether it's the end of the world or not, the one thing you must always guard against—is people!
"Heh…" The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow and sneered, then motioned with a wave of his hand for the blonde-haired guy to bring them out.
The moment I saw them, I knew—there's no way these bastards would treat Rongrong and Shen Xue kindly.
But even so, when I actually laid eyes on them, I was still shocked!
These scumbags had even laid hands on women and children!
When Rongrong saw us, her lips trembled, eyes brimming with tears.
She wanted to cry, but didn't dare.
Her little face was bruised purple and blue—it was heartbreaking.
Shen Xue had blood at the corner of her mouth.
Her body trembled slightly, her face full of uncontainable grievance.
Suddenly, I was reminded of that girl in the supermarket—the one missing her lower leg.
Was she, too, before her death, brutalized by people even filthier than the walkers, ones who didn't eat flesh but were worse than monsters?
The terror of walkers lies only in their appearance and their hunger for meat.
But among humans… greed, selfishness, and an endless, hideous inner depravity—there are far too many beasts in disguise!
Behind me, Shen Feng's breathing suddenly grew heavier.
He quickly strode toward Shen Xue.
The blonde tried to stop him, but the middle-aged man barked at him to step aside.
He scooped her into his arms in one motion.
The moment she saw her brother, Shen Xue finally broke down and cried out loud.
Tears and snot flowed together.
Her sobs were heart-wrenching.
"This is what you call 'well protected'? How exactly is this good?"
My voice carried an anger I could no longer suppress.
"This is already good—otherwise, you might've had to find them lying in the street outside," the middle-aged man said with a smile, turning to walk back toward the living room sofa.
"What do you mean by that?"
"What do I mean? Heh~ Isn't it obvious? We think this place is pretty nice, so we're planning to stay. Only thing is… you guys might have to move out."
Bandits! You beasts!
I cursed them furiously in my heart, clenching my fists as I gritted my teeth and asked, "There are plenty of similar buildings around. Why did you specifically choose to take over our place?"
"Take over? Isn't that word a little too harsh? If I were really taking it by force, would I still be standing here wasting words with you so politely?"
"Then what exactly do you want?"
"I want you all to pack up and move out. Right now."
"And why should we?"
"Why? Girl, I'm afraid you haven't grasped the situation in front of you."
"We understand the situation very clearly. You bunch of thugs broke in while only women and children were home and took over our place."
"Well, that might not be entirely wrong, but your wording is rather uncivilized. Young lady, you're still quite young—why speak so crudely? Perhaps… you could think of all this as a form of competition?"
Competition, my ass! I was practically about to explode with rage!
"Compete over what? Who's competing with who? You mean a bunch of you thugs against the two poor girls you had tied up inside? That's beyond laughable—it's utterly absurd!"
I couldn't hold back anymore, and the words burst out of me in a near scream.
Tch—Suo Tian, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly let out a laugh.
The middle-aged man paused, his expression turning serious. "What are you laughing at?"
"You really want to know?" Suo Tian still had that grin on his face as his gaze swept across the men on the sofa, finally locking onto the face of the middle-aged man.
His eyes went cold.
He stepped forward quickly, suddenly reaching out—grabbing the man's shoulder and yanking him hard.
The next second, his hand was like an iron claw, clamping down tightly on the man's neck.
The men on the sofa were caught off guard by the sudden change.
They immediately tensed, quickly drawing their knives in unison and raising them toward us.
Gone was the earlier smugness—now all their faces were filled with wariness.
"Damn it, Let him go!" shouted one guy with hair dyed like a peacock, brandishing a knife and trying to rush over—only to be held back by two older men at his sides.
Suo Tian just chuckled again, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Since this gentleman mentioned competition, why don't we go ahead and compete for this territory then?"
Suo Tian's sudden move had nearly turned the situation back in our favor.
This group, dragging along women and wielding random, mismatched weapons, clearly weren't any kind of seasoned bandits.
Judging by their improvised gear, they looked like they'd been cobbled together on the fly.
Chances were, they were the same bunch that had raided the lower floors last time.
Now that their leader was subdued, the entire group across from us fell silent.
No one dared to step forward, their eyes darting around uncertainly as they looked at each other for direction.
The middle-aged woman who had just stopped the blonde kid earlier stepped forward.
"We can sit down and talk this out calmly."
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my emotions and get my rationality back in order…
After a brief pause, we still stood our ground.
I looked directly at the woman and said firmly, "Alright, if we're going to talk, then let's be clear—this place is ours. We absolutely, absolutely won't leave."
"You all understand the current situation," she said.
"We have a lot of people, and we really do need a safe place to survive. While we're sorry for barging in, right now we're all in the same boat. Instead of butting heads, why not figure out a win-win solution and survive together?"
She was sharp—smart enough to avoid the core conflict and steer the conversation toward a broader perspective, defusing tension with just a few words.
"That's true. I don't have a win-win solution," I said, my brain working rapidly, trying to come up with something both sides could live with, "but I do have one… that's a little less ideal."
"Let's hear it," she said.
"Judging from your numbers, I'd say most of you have probably never actually fought the walkers face-to-face. The reason you barged in here was likely because you saw us coming and going safely, figured this place was secure, and decided to claim it for yourselves."
The woman gave a slight smile and nodded at me. "Go on."
"You and that man both emphasized needing a safe place to hide. No doubt, the walkers outside are overwhelming. So here's the deal—what if we help you clear out a building and make it safe for you to use as a shelter? In return, can you guarantee you won't come bother us again? Of course, if you run into trouble, we'll be there to help."
Upon hearing this, the woman didn't answer right away.
Instead, she leaned toward a few others and began discussing in hushed tones, likely trying to gauge everyone's opinion.
I didn't rush them.
I stood there quietly, waiting for them to give a response.
Still, my heart was uneasy.
If they refused—if they weren't willing to take the risk and insisted on staying here—things would get very complicated.
Meanwhile, Shen Feng helped Shen Xue out, and Rongrong had already fallen asleep in Yangyang's arms.
The bruises on her small face looked especially harsh.
I gave them a look, signaling for them to stand behind us.
Suo Tian stood calmly to the side, showing remarkable patience.
His expression was indifferent, but his hand still gripped the middle-aged man's neck tightly.
"Alright, we agree," the woman finally said. "But we have one condition."
"What condition?" I asked.
"We want half of the food in your kitchen. We'll take it with us."
"Fine. As long as you can guarantee we can live peacefully from now on, you can have half the supplies."
I agreed without hesitation.
Saying I wasn't heartbroken would be a lie.
Losing half our food for nothing stung.
But food could be found again.
Right now, the most important thing was keeping our home—this safe haven—secure.
.....
Since the negotiation was settled, the atmosphere on both sides immediately eased a lot.
After a brief discussion, the next step was to decide which building to clear out.
Since that group was just a bunch of survivors temporarily banded together, not hardened criminals or outlaws, once we finalized the deal, their attitude shifted right away.
They were no longer as hostile and aggressive as before.
After giving a rough explanation to those inexperienced men—whose knives had clearly never drawn blood—on how to take down walkers, we moved on to arranging specific assignments.
Suo Tian handled this part—he was very skilled at it.
The middle-aged man, once released, returned to his group, and the woman quietly retreated back behind him.
To be honest, compared to that man, the woman was the real ruthless one.
Faced with such a situation, she was still able to maintain such a clear head.
After finalizing the plan, I generously treated the group to a cookie feast, deciding that everyone would rest for two hours before heading out.
During this time, I learned that the middle-aged man's name was Li Jianguo.
Among the others, aside from the yellow-haired and green-haired men, the rest were about the same age as him.
They were all his cousins.
On the night of the incident — the night the chaos started — they were all summoned by the elder of the Li family for a family meeting.
After the chaos broke out, the elder of the Li family didn't make it, dying under the chaos.
The brothers, however, were quick-witted and stayed hidden in the house, not daring to go outside.
Later, when they ran out of food, the broadcasts on the TV and the horrific scenes on the streets served as a wake-up call.
They realized they couldn't risk going outside.
Eventually, they couldn't hold on anymore.
Seeing the people on the upper floors taking the food from the small shop, they decided to go rob it.
The two men and two women we saw earlier — the yellow-haired and green-haired men, along with the two young girls standing nearby — were those very people.
The injuries on Rongrong and Shen Xue's faces were caused by the green-haired man.
Shen Feng almost couldn't hold back from charging at him, but Suo Tian held him back.
Two hours passed quickly.
Suo Tian, Shen Feng, and I led the men as we quickly made our way to the building across the small street from our home.
The area around it was sparse, with only a few scattered buildings, offering wide visibility.
With so many of them, any noise they made wouldn't immediately attract the walkers.
Suo Tian and Shen Feng took the lead, Li Jianguo and his group were in the middle, and I brought up the rear.
Fortunately, we didn't encounter a single walker along the way.
The building's main door was open.
This was both good and bad news.
The good news was that there were definitely no survivors living here.
The bad news was that it didn't guarantee there weren't any of those meat-loving creatures inside.
As expected, as soon as Suo Tian moved the door slightly, a few growls came from inside.
The group immediately gasped in shock.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes — were their courage and their size really so disproportionate?
The few grotesque creatures were quickly dealt with by Suo Tian and Shen Feng, their skulls crushed and bodies falling to the ground.
Among them, there were two small figures, seemingly children.
These few must have been a family before they turned.
The layout of this building was almost identical to the one we lived in.
The doors on the first and second floors were wide open, but there was no one inside.
The doors on the third and fourth floors were tightly shut, and faint sounds could be heard coming from the third floor.
Suo Tian seemed to have picked up a piece of wire from somewhere and fiddled with the door gap for a while.
With a click, the door opened.
As soon as the door opened, a disheveled woman screamed and charged out.
Suo Tian quickly dodged, and everyone was startled.
Li Jianguo, with a knife in hand, was about to stab her in the head, but Shen Feng grabbed his hand: "She's still alive."