Chapter 19 Dead People

"ah"

Zhang Qian suddenly screamed, her eyes fixed on the ground, her hands gripping her father tightly.

Following Zhang Qian's gaze, everyone saw a lifeless face frozen beneath the ice, its features contorted as if the deceased had endured immense suffering before death. The expression on the face was blank and terrified, yet it also seemed as if a trace of resentment and horror remained at the moment of death.

Although the ice was murky and blurry, his outline was still clearly visible. His eyes were tightly closed, his mouth slightly open, and the skin on his face had become pale and stiff, devoid of life's warmth and vitality, making him look exceptionally frightening.

Zhang Qian's father quickly hugged his daughter and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Dad is here." Although his voice was steady, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Zhang Qian hugged her father tightly, her heart pounding, her small face pale and trembling. Her father's comfort calmed her down a little, but the fear in her heart still lingered.

Besides Zhang Qian, everyone else was also still shaken. This wasn't the first time they had seen a dead body; the last time, they had even witnessed Gu Yanzhi committing murder firsthand. But they were still terrified by such a visual shock.

Carefully navigating around the corpse, the group silently continued towards their destination. Gone was the cheerful mood they had initially shared; everyone's heart was heavy.

The only one unaffected was Gu Yanzhi. Killing people had no effect on her, let alone corpses, which she had seen plenty of in the apocalypse.

After walking a short distance, they saw several more corpses one after another. The manner of death varied, but without exception, they were all gruesome.

“Something’s not right. This body doesn’t look like it’s been dead for a long time,” Sister Li suddenly said.

After a pause, Sister Li continued:

"I've seen corpses that had been submerged in water for a long time. The better ones were swollen and distended from the water, while the more serious ones were completely rotting."

Sister Li paused again, as if organizing her thoughts: "These corpses look like they have tight skin without any wrinkles that would form from being submerged in water for a long time. It's like they were frozen solid not long after they died. I guess the time of death was not long after the weather turned cold last night."

“Indeed, these corpses don’t look like they’ve been dead for a long time.” After hearing Sister Li’s explanation, everyone agreed.

Gu Yanzhi also showed a thoughtful expression, and after thinking for a moment, said:

"Further ahead is the place where we were robbed last time. The water flow has been flowing from that direction to this side these past few days, and I suspect the bodies may have flowed down from that side."

“Let’s not go to Songshan, let’s go somewhere else,” Gu Yanzhi said decisively.

Gu Yanzhi's proposal was unanimously approved.

The presence of the corpse strongly suggests that there was a high probability of encountering robbers further ahead.

Despite the cold weather, some people are willing to do anything under the pressure of life.

They weren't well-prepared for today's trip; the most they brought was two axes for easy tree felling. Of the 16 people in the group, only Gu Yanzhi's family of three, Uncle Zhang, and Sister Li were capable fighters. Our fighting strength was too weak; if we rashly faced them ahead, the consequences would be unimaginable.

We walked back a little, found a secluded and safe spot, and stopped to discuss and decide to change our destination to a nearby office building.

This idea was suggested by Gu Yanzhi. Office buildings are generally built quite tall, so even after excluding the floors that are frozen, there are still a few floors that can be searched.

After making their decision, the group sped off toward their first designated target. When they encountered the frozen corpses along the way, they no longer felt the initial fear.

Even when we arrived at the nearest office building, we couldn't tell how many floors it had. The closest floor-to-ceiling window to the ground was half frozen over and half exposed.

Gu Yanzhi picked up the axe and cracked the glass with two quick blows. With another kick, the glass shattered into pieces, clanging as it hit the ice.

After carefully clearing away the glass shards around the glass frame, Gu Yanzhi jumped in first, and the others followed him in smoothly.

At least half of the first floor of the office building was frozen solid, leaving only about 1.6 or 1.7 meters of standing height. Among the group, only the shortest two, Yin Meng and Liu Sisi, could barely stand upright; the rest had to walk with their heads down or hunched over. Although this floor wasn't worth searching, the group still hunched over and circled around before finding the stairs and going up to the second floor.

Office buildings are generally taller than residential buildings, and the terrain here is also higher than that of Jinxiu Leiting residential area. Their residential area has been flooded up to the 10th floor, while this office building has only been flooded up to the 7th floor.

Once everyone reached the 8th floor of the office building, they straightened up and took a closer look. The overall area was relatively small, and the companies on this floor didn't seem very big either. Judging from the logos at the entrances, a room of about 30 square meters was basically a small company.

Everyone split up and searched around, but obviously they didn't find anything of value.

The only two things they found that could barely be considered useful were a few packets of unbrewed coffee powder found by Zhuang Nanyang, and a few bottles of frozen mineral water found by Liu Sisi and Gao Zhi.

With these two items in hand, everyone continued upstairs.

The situation on the 9th floor looked similar to that on the 8th floor; each floor had a small room, which made everyone lose interest in searching. They decided to go directly to the top floor and search from top to bottom.

The top floor of the office building is the property management office. As soon as you go out of the stairwell, you can see various property management regulations and notices hanging on the wall, but no one pays attention to them. Instead, they disperse as families to search for supplies.

"First, find the leader's office. Usually, only the leader's office has solid wood furniture. Those plywood tables outside have excessive formaldehyde content, so you can't burn them." Before parting ways, Uncle Zhuang emphasized to everyone that they must look for solid wood furniture. He owns a decoration company and is very familiar with these tricks.

Gu Yanzhi chose a locked room, and with a few swift blows of her axe, the door was smashed to pieces. She was lucky; it happened to be the property management's storage room, filled with various cleaning supplies: brooms, mops, cleaning agents, disinfectant, garbage bags, hand sanitizer, tissues, etc.

There were also some old furniture and appliances, and a huge stack of discarded newspapers and cardboard that were almost full.

Gu Yanzhi also found two folding handcarts and a repair toolbox inside. Gu Yanzhi opened it and took a look. The toolbox was quite complete, with hammers, electric drills, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, and even a battery-operated headlamp. They were all quite practical.