Chapter 115: Shi Guangyao's End...

Upon hearing the sound outside the door, Shi Guangyao's expression changed instantly, like a startled bird, and he almost jumped up from his dining chair.

Mr. and Mrs. Shi didn't realize anything was wrong; Mr. Shi even subconsciously responded, "Who is it?"

As he spoke, he took two steps toward the foyer.

It was only the second day of the outbreak, and most households still had supplies. Military convoys passed through the streets every few hours, broadcasting the latest situation, so overall social order was still maintained.

Rather than being wary of each other, neighbors encourage one another and work together to survive.

Guided by official pronouncements, people generally viewed this as a more widespread and severe "flu," believing that the government would eventually find a solution, without considering that humanity might be facing a life-or-death crisis.

History has repeatedly shown that people are often oblivious when certain significant events occur that are worthy of being recorded in history and have an impact on the world.

Some of them may have already begun to worry about the issue of food storage, but at least those calculations are not made public.

Therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Shi were not too wary.

Shi Guangyao hadn't expected his father to agree so quickly, and it was too late to stop him. He was furious, but now was not the time to be angry. He could only go back into the house, grab a dagger, and sling it behind his back to bolster his courage, carefully following his father's steps.

Mr. and Mrs. Shi hadn't expected him to be so cautious, and they felt a little apprehensive, beginning to regret agreeing so quickly.

The person outside responded at that moment.

"I'm from the community," the voice said calmly. "I'm just here to inform you of a few things and then I'll leave. It's not very safe outside, could you please open the door?"

Upon hearing that it was from the community, Mr. and Mrs. Shi, who had been tense, immediately relaxed.

Just as he was about to open the door, Shi Guangyao suddenly strode forward and peered through the peephole.

There was a man standing outside the door, bundled up in thick layers, wearing several masks and an extra riot suit and riot helmet.

Shi Guangyao recognized the equipment as the one placed in the corner next to the security room at the entrance of the residential area.

The person outside asked again, "Hello?"

As he spoke, he looked behind him, seemingly a little scared.

Mrs. Shi couldn't help but urge, "Let them in. There are zombies everywhere outside, and the stairwell isn't safe either..."

This reminded Shi Guangyao that if they really attracted zombies, the smell of the rotting corpse after the man was bitten to death would be secondary; what if he also turned into a zombie, and the two zombies ended up staying at their doorstep?

After thinking about it, Shi Guangyao hesitated for two seconds, unlocked the door, and pushed it open.

Upon seeing the scene outside the door, he exclaimed in surprise and immediately tried to pull the door back forcefully, but a hand reached out from the side and a foot from below, firmly blocking the door.

Despite his large frame, Shi Guangyao couldn't overcome the man's strength no matter how hard he tried, and the man pulled the door open again.

He took two steps back in fear and reached for the dagger in his pants pocket.

Four adult men were standing outside the door.

Apart from the one who greeted them, the other two hid in a blind spot on the side staircase, out of sight of the peephole. They waited until the door opened before slowly coming downstairs. They were both wearing riot gear, and one of them was carrying a steel fork.

There was another person standing at the bottom of the stairs, who only started climbing back up after hearing the commotion. He was holding a riot shield and was probably the one among the four who was on lookout duty and defending against the zombies.

Four men, with clear division of labor and fully armed, made Shi Guangyao's heart tremble, and his hand holding the dagger went limp.

His dagger couldn't penetrate the riot suit, nor was he confident he could pierce the gaps it couldn't cover.

The man outside the door looked Shi Guangyao up and down, then smiled and said, "Don't close the door. We really are from the community. We'll just do a survey and then leave."

"There are quite a few of us because it's not safe to go out now. We serve the people, but we can't risk our own safety, right?" The man said nonchalantly, then stepped inside first. The other three chuckled and followed him in.

Four strong, burly men completely blocked the narrow entrance hall.

As if they were back in their own home, they immediately began to look around comfortably as soon as they entered.

It was only then that Shi Guangyao noticed that they were even wearing gloves, and his pupils constricted in fear.

Wearing gloves is to prevent fingerprints?

With the power outage in the neighborhood, the surveillance cameras are probably all out of order. This group of people were even wearing gloves. If they really wanted to harm them, they could have done it cleanly, left the door open afterward, and let some zombies in. The whole family could have turned into several corpses without anyone noticing.

Shi Guangyao's vision went black; fear completely robbed him of his fighting spirit, and he was shielded behind his parents.

Mrs. Shi squinted, carefully examining the faces of the people hidden by their masks. When she saw the eyes of one of them, she suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "You...you're not..."

The man's gaze instantly turned cold.

Shi Guangyao desperately covered his mother's mouth, saying, "It's nothing, it's nothing!"

He then recognized the man as one of the security guards in their residential complex, easily identifiable by a large mole on the side of his eyebrow.

So, the remaining people are likely also rotating security guards. Although Shi Guangyao didn't know the specifics, he knew that the security in their community wasn't very good. Most of the security guards they hired were temporary workers, and the faces would change every now and then. These people were probably not locals; they were likely migrant workers from other parts of the country.

There are beds in the security room, and many people rest there while on night shift, taking turns with others.

With the virus outbreak, these people can't go home and have probably been starving since yesterday's lunch. Who knows what they might do?

As the apocalypse arrived, they took the riot gear from the equipment corner, masked themselves, and pretended to be community members to visit. Whatever their purpose, it certainly wasn't good.

If they discover their identities have been exposed, their entire family may not survive.

Shi Guangyao didn't want to die, and he didn't want to be dragged down by others. He covered his mother's hand with all his might. Shi's mother opened her eyes wide, her eyes were full of tears, and she made sobbing sounds. It took a long time before Shi's father pulled the two apart.

The leader of the group watched the whole thing with a cold eye, then scoffed, "At least you know what you're doing. Don't forget, I know where you live. Don't say things you shouldn't, or else..."

He showed the knife tucked into his waistband.

The family of three nodded hastily.

It was probably early in the apocalypse, and the group still had some reservations, so they didn't take immediate action. After threatening them once, they started ransacking the house.

With the front door closed, the room became a secret chamber. They completely dropped their disguises and ransacked the place like bandits. In the blink of an eye, the once clean and tidy house was a complete mess.

One of them found the storage room closed, turned the doorknob, found it locked, and turned to look at Shi Guangyao.

Shi Guangyao swallowed subconsciously, remembering the key to the storage room he had hidden in his room.

He hid it fairly well, perhaps...

With a jumble of thoughts running through his mind, in his despair, Shi Guangyao even had a sliver of hope that the man might suddenly be blind and let that suspicious room go.

But the next second, the other person grinned at him, then kicked the door open, aiming at the lock.

The wooden door trembled violently and crashed against the wall behind it, revealing a room filled with supplies.

The man glanced at it, his eyes instantly filled with excited elation. Recalling Shi Guangyao's obvious attempt to conceal something, he understood: "You don't really think I need a key to open such a broken door, do you?"

"Who is this lock on the door meant to keep out?" He glanced at Shi Guangyao's parents, who were protecting him behind him, with a strange look, and sneered, "It's not... one of your own family members, is it?"

Mrs. Shi's face turned deathly pale, and Mr. Shi clenched his teeth.

Has their family really become so abnormal that even a burglar could make a sarcastic remark about them?

His body swayed, and he was supported by his mother. The two exchanged glances as they helped each other up, but neither of them spoke.

The man called several companions to come and move things. They all brought woven bags, and then put the empty bags open on the ground. The man with the shield still blocked the door, while the other three packed up the things inside the house.

While packing, he casually tore open several bags of cookies and began wolfing them down.

Shi Guangyao looked at the shattered pieces on the ground, his heart aching.

The cookies have a long shelf life, so even he himself is reluctant to eat them!

For these people, the looted supplies were like a windfall, and they didn't need to be careful with their money.

They filled several large woven bags, but they weren't satisfied. They also wandered around other places, taking away a lot of Shi's mother's gold and silver jewelry, as well as Shi's father's two watches.

Neither of them dared to utter a sound. At this moment, money had long become something external. They only hoped that the men would take enough and leave quickly, so that their family could have a way out.

After searching several rooms one by one, they finally found Shi Guangyao's large south-facing bedroom. The bedroom wasn't locked, and someone pushed the door open and went in. Shi Guangyao, who was slumped on the floor in despair, suddenly looked up as if he remembered something.

He wanted to stop it, but he didn't have the guts.

A moment later, an exclamation came from inside the room: "Come quick, there's so much more here!!"

"So much instant noodles and water, plus all that stuff, it'll keep us going for a while. We're really rich! Hahahaha!"

The man couldn't hide his smugness; if he weren't afraid of attracting zombies, he would have loved to laugh out loud.

The others quickly gathered around and dragged out several boxes of instant noodles and bottled water from under Shi Guangyao's bed and wardrobe.

The door was wide open, and no sound could be concealed. Although Mr. and Mrs. Shi could not see what was happening inside, they could roughly guess what had happened from the sound of dragging a heavy object and the conversation between the people.

The two turned to look at Shi Guangyao in disbelief.

How could they not know that there was food in their son's room?

Father Shi mustered up his courage and took a closer look. He found the brand of the instant noodles to be somewhat familiar, as if the family had bought them together at the supermarket.

They were completely unsuspecting of their son, and because they bought so much and made so many trips, they couldn't remember the quantity at all. No one knew when Shi Guangyao had secretly moved so much stuff into his room.

Shi's father's vision went black.

Actually, the two of them had already been whispering about it in the bedroom last night.

They had just bought so much stuff from the supermarket; even if they ate it normally, it would last them two or three months. If they were frugal, it could easily last for half a year. Plus, with the news and radio announcements these past few days about the government airdropping supplies, they felt there was really no need to be so frugal.

However, their son had been in a bad mood and his mental state was worrying. Considering Shi Guangyao's experiences over the past year, they were afraid of upsetting him further, so they preferred to go hungry themselves and always take care of their son's feelings.

These four men had been starving all day before they took the risk of robbing us. But what about the Shi couple? They hadn't eaten well for a day and a night either, and were starving when they woke up in the morning.

Who would have thought that while they were taking care of their son and dared not eat, Shi Guangyao had not told anyone, and had secretly hidden so many things in his room.

The storage room still had some space and wasn't completely full. In this situation, hiding food and water in one's own room was exactly what the thug said—keeping a watchful eye on them.

Thinking of her deceased family members, Shi's mother finally couldn't hold back anymore. She pointed at Shi Guangyao, her fingertips trembling, and said, "What are you thinking! Guangyao, even if you hadn't hidden them, how could your parents have let you starve to death! Why did you do that? Why did you do that?"

Overwhelmed with heartache, her voice trembled with tears.

They couldn't understand why, from childhood to adulthood, Guangyao was always the first to be honored in the family. He was the only boy in their generation, and during holidays, the elders doted on him the most, giving him the thickest red envelopes.

Despite being treated with the utmost care and consideration, how come he's become increasingly greedy and insatiable?

From childhood to adulthood, they have always been there for them, doing everything they asked for and treating them with utmost kindness. But what have they actually received in return?

Is it abandoning them in a critical moment, or being the first to throw them out as a shield in the face of crisis?

When Shi's mother recalled Shi Guangyao's words yesterday when he heard that she had left the house that morning, he went crazy and wanted to throw her out of the house, and her heart turned to ashes.

She finally realized that the son she had raised for nineteen years, whom she loved to the core, did not love her at all.

He only loves himself.

Ironically, it was she who taught him to do it.

The man who first discovered it was still bragging to his companions: "See, I told you, this family was weird. The other evening, I don't know what got into them, they suddenly drove out several times, each time unloading a huge pile of stuff before leaving again. One time, I happened to be patrolling the neighborhood and I saw them unloading a lot of supermarket plastic bags and canned goods. This is probably what people online call hoarding, right? It's a good deal for us guys."

"Besides me, quite a few other people saw it too. Even if we didn't come, they'd have to come when they ran out of food in a couple of days and were starving." The man chuckled, clearly not thinking there was anything wrong with what they did.

Upon hearing this, Shi Guangyao suddenly looked up.

He never expected that it was his hoarding that exposed him, leading this group of people to his door.

If only I had been more careful back then...

He felt endless remorse, and his gaze toward the backs of the group turned vicious, wishing they had been poisoned and died on the spot.

That was his food! That was his hope for survival!

Shi Guangyao's gaze was direct and undisguised.

Anyway, even if he caused trouble, his parents would always cover for him. Shi Guangyao was used to being unscrupulous, but this time, something unexpected happened.

First, one of the men suddenly turned around and their eyes met.

Shi Guangyao's gaze startled him, and his expression immediately changed: "You brat, what are you looking at?!"

This was the first time these men had committed a home invasion robbery. They were both excited and apprehensive about being arrested. When they saw Shi Guangyao's sinister, scrutinizing gaze, as if he wanted to etch them into their very souls, their fear was ignited. Before their brains could process what was happening, they had already rushed forward with knives in hand.

While brandishing the knife, he forced out through his teeth, "What are you looking at? Huh?! Are you trying to call the police???"

The second unexpected thing was that the Shi family couple, who should have stood in front of Shi Guangyao, were somehow a beat slower in their movements.

Their eyes were unfocused, and by the time they realized what was happening, the blade was already slashing towards Shi Guangyao.

Almost at the same time the two screamed and pushed the man away, Shi Guangyao covered his eyes and let out a shrill scream before falling heavily to the ground.

The other three accomplices were also shocked and rushed over. After glancing at Shi Guangyao, who was rolling on the ground screaming in agony, one of them stopped his companion who was about to deliver the final blow: "Don't kill him!"

He remained relatively calm and said in a low voice, "We can't kill them. This couple clearly dotes on their son. If we spare his life, they won't bother us because they want to take care of him."

“If we kill them, they won’t have any worries.” He was clearly the brains of the gang, and everyone else trusted him. The man who attacked Shi Guangyao was also panting heavily as he put away his knife.

The man approached the flustered Shi couple and pointed the dagger at Shi Guangyao: "This time it's the eyes, but next time, it might be somewhere else."

The two women, their eyes red with tears, protected their son.

The intense pain, coupled with the panic of losing his sight, caused Shi Guangyao to cry out incessantly.

But no matter how hard he shouted, he couldn't get any help.

These screams blend into the cries of people encountering zombie attacks, like a trickle flowing into the ocean; those who have long been numb to them will simply cover their ears in silence.

The man left behind his threatening words, stood up, and gestured to his companions to leave a box of instant noodles for the Shi couple, lest they be driven to desperation by a lack of food and do something unimaginable.

Mr. Shi ran to find the first-aid kit. Mrs. Shi's hands trembled as she pressed a towel against Shi Guangyao's eyes, causing two streaks of blood to flow from below his eyes.

The family seemed to have all their energy drained away, and the couple no longer even cared about what had been stolen.

Before leaving, the man turned back and said, whether mocking or comforting, "Try to look on the bright side. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that your son lost his eyes. Anyway, he didn't use his eyes for anything worthwhile."

What should be seen is unseen, while what shouldn't be seen is tightly guarded.

The front door slammed shut.

Mrs. Shi shuddered, and heard her husband stop in the distance. She wondered if he had also heard those words.

The two fell silent, with only Shi Guangyao's increasingly weak cries of pain echoing in the room.