Chapter 157 – Life Inside the Quarantine Zone

Ningnan Quarantine Zone.

The day before, Su Lifeng had only stood outside and observed from afar, feeling wary as he looked at those gun and cannon muzzles. But today, he had already followed Yu Zai inside.

After entering through a hidden entrance, Yu Zai led him through the dense clusters of buildings. This place was already far from the firepower belt, but fully armed soldiers could still be seen patrolling back and forth nearby from time to time. Off-road vehicles occasionally drove past nearby, often mounted with loudspeakers. What they shouted back and forth was either the time for the noon meal or repeated emphasis on the rules here.

No going out at will, no loud noise or fighting, no wanton destruction of public property… The dull voice repeated over and over, giving even Su Lifeng a sense of oppression. And those soldiers usually had solemn expressions. Just looking at them made one feel the severity of the situation.

“Bringing you in can’t exactly be done with great fanfare,” Yu Zai explained.

Su Lifeng nodded and looked into those buildings.

These houses had originally all been high-end apartments, but at this moment, what showed behind those protective railings were numb faces one after another.

Su Lifeng had never imagined that when a person lived in an atmosphere of despair and oppression, it would take only a few days to become like this.

Some people’s eyes were still red and swollen, their gazes rather vacant, as if they were still immersed in the pain of losing family.

Some others leaned by the window, staring at the grayish sky outside and muttering to themselves.

“Some of them were separated from their family, and some watched their family suddenly turn into Xenospecies. Only then did they learn that their real family had actually been dead for who knows how long, and that what had lived and eaten with them was only a shell occupied by a monster. As for some others, they’re simply unable to adapt to this kind of life… Although people come every day to speak to them, honestly, when people with dark moods are all gathered together, no matter what, it is impossible for them to rally in a short time,” Yu Zai said.

Su Lifeng glanced at him somewhat unexpectedly. “You think this current method isn’t good?”

“Of course it isn’t good.” Yu Zai pointed at a man sitting on a balcony. “Just like that person. He’s only in his twenties, right? Every day, he sits there waiting for death while eating for free. Tell me, if it were us, what would we think? Why should I risk my life to protect others? Just so he can sit here feeling sorry for himself? If he is so sad, why doesn’t he rise up and fight to avenge his family?”

Seeing Su Lifeng’s surprise, Yu Zai raised his brows and continued, “Don’t misunderstand. I strongly support Commander Lv’s decision. Temper justice with mercy. They are ordinary people. They need transition. They need time. Once they recover, perhaps they will start helping build the Quarantine Zone. I understand all the reasoning. But if it were me, I would drive them straight onto the battlefield.”

“What could they do on a battlefield?” Su Lifeng asked.

“On a frontal battlefield, of course they wouldn’t be of much use. But in ordinary times, they could reduce our casualties.” Yu Zai’s words once again shocked Su Lifeng. “Do you know how many soldiers we lose every day? Even with barbed wire, those Xenospecies can still suddenly drill in through all kinds of methods. Now we don’t even dare let a single bird go. Seeing one bird may mean the death of over a hundred people. You look and see no Xenospecies appearing, but people are dying every day.”

“Yesterday, to check whether there was a problem with the upstream water pipes, a snake suddenly shot out of the grass. Because of that snake whose body had been occupied by a Xenospecies, eighteen of us died. Do you know what that means? In the end, the comrades who fired went mad. Every comrade who had just been touched by the Xenospecies was killed by their own hands. But just after shooting one, they discovered that the Xenospecies had already transferred to another person…”

“Xenospecies tactics are terrifying… And we need humanity to continue existing, not the weak to survive.” Yu Zai’s face was livid.

Su Lifeng fell silent. Indeed, these were things he had not experienced, and even found hard to imagine. The impact the Xenospecies brought to ordinary people and the military was in reality even greater than he had imagined.

But why was Yu Zai telling him these things?

Probably seeing Su Lifeng’s confusion, Yu Zai suddenly changed expressions, reached out to nudge him, and said mysteriously, “But you’re different. You’re clearly only a bookworm, yet somehow, without anyone noticing, you became stronger than me. And when it comes to picking up girls, you can also be called a model for our generation…”

When he heard the first part, Su Lifeng’s face remained calm, but when he heard the last sentence, he immediately felt speechless.

So that really was a misunderstanding!

“Captain Yu! Captain Yu!” A shout suddenly came from inside a room. Su Lifeng turned his head and saw that the one shouting was a very beautiful woman. Although the refinement of her features could not compare with Jiang Yushi’s, her temperament was still rather charming.

“Who is that?” Su Lifeng asked.

“Hurry, hurry, let’s go. She’s a female celebrity.” Yu Zai seemed to have a headache as he said, “She keeps shouting that she wants to see me. Maybe she’s fallen in love with me. Sigh…”

With him saying this, Su Lifeng immediately gained some impression as well.

At this moment, that female celebrity also noticed Su Lifeng. Although Su Lifeng was dressed in casual clothes, Yu Zai treated him with great respect. She froze for a moment, then turned and shouted at Su Lifeng, “Handsome young man! Please stop for a moment! You should know me, right? Can you listen to me say a few words?”

Su Lifeng froze, then looked toward Yu Zai. Did you not say she had fallen in love with you?

“I really don’t want to live in this kind of place. A small room of less than a hundred square meters has over a dozen people living in it, and the bathroom is shared. They even make me clean…” As this female celebrity spoke, her eyes reddened, and her expression looked very pitiful. “Please take me out. I can… I can…”

A shy expression appeared on her face, but Su Lifeng felt the corner of his eye twitch.

The acting was painfully bad, and she did not exactly seem bright…

Although from her perspective, this could be considered blindly grabbing at a lifeline, had she not noticed what expressions the people behind her had when they looked at her?

However, when Su Lifeng looked behind her, he was somewhat surprised to discover that those people’s attention was not on her at all. The few who did look at her had only mocking expressions in their eyes.

“Cough, cough… I was bragging before. But doing this is useless for her. Even if someone dared have relations with her, it would be impossible to take her out. Because doing that would definitely get them expelled. Once outside, it’s death,” Yu Zai said.

So that was it… Naturally, no one would be jealous of her this way. At most, they would only feel that she was pathetic.

Seeing that Su Lifeng merely looked at her from afar, then left with Yu Zai, the female celebrity’s face stiffened. Then she grabbed the protective railing and slowly slumped down. At a time like this, any halo or anything else was useless…

But at this moment, Su Lifeng suddenly sensed something and looked in another direction.

There was a car parked there. Inside sat an officer with a resolute-looking face, chewing a grass root. Seeing Su Lifeng look over, this person saluted him very boldly. Su Lifeng froze for a moment, nodded toward him, then turned back and asked, “Who is that?”

“Long Shan, Captain Long, responsible for Quarantine Zone security. He’s a good person,” Yu Zai said.

But after their backs receded into the distance, the smile on Long Shan’s face slowly became dry. In the end, even a trace of brutality appeared.

He glanced at the window where the female celebrity was, chewed hard twice, then spat the grass root out viciously.

“At a time like this, the rules are stricter than before. Damn it! Looking at women and not being able to touch them, that’s fucking frustrating! The world has already become like this. If you have a gun, shouldn’t you be boss? Fuck…”

Amid his cursing, Captain Long completely failed to notice that a storm-drain cover on the grass behind him suddenly shook. But because of the cement filling and reinforced iron bars, the storm-drain cover did not open.

However, after a momentary pause, a fissure quietly split open in the cement along the edge of the cover.

And all of this happened right under his eyes, yet he did not notice…