Chapter 64 Building Outside the Village
Zhou Zhuohua didn't agree immediately. She squinted and scrutinized Tang Zhao in front of her. "You wish! Call Tao Tao over first. I'm afraid something might happen if she stays here by herself for too long."
Tang Zhao then walked away, and a little while later he returned with Bai Tao.
Zhou Zhuohua and Bai Tao looked at each other in surprise. Suddenly, Zhou Zhuohua said, "Tao Tao, your bracelet is dirty."
The bracelet was a silver one, engraved with peony patterns, and looked a bit old. Bai Tao casually wiped it clean, seemingly indifferent.
Something's not right. Zhou Zhuohua glanced at her a few more times, then suddenly changed her expression and angrily scolded her, "This bracelet is for you! How can you be so ungrateful!"
Bai Tao was taken aback, and hurriedly wiped her bracelet until it shone brightly. "No, no, I really like it."
Zhou Zhuohua had already angrily rolled up the car window and ignored the two people no matter how much they shouted. She took off her glasses and lay down on the steering wheel to catch up on her sleep.
——
Meanwhile, Jiang Ye and Bai Chenzhu walked around the village.
Bai Chenzhu withdrew his probing spiritual energy. "There are no living people ahead. We've gone around in circles for most of the way without finding a single survivor."
He tilted his head and looked at Jiang Ye, "Anyone with superpowers has to be a living person, right?"
Jiang Ye said, "Of course."
He punched down the thing that looked like a villager but was actually a zombie, which had been attracted by Bai Chenzhu's mental power, and twisted his wrist. "If mutants not only mutate physically but also evolve mentally, then humans won't be able to survive."
Bai Chenzhu rested his chin on his hand, looking around. "I have never seen such a powerful superhuman. He can actually deceive people's five senses for so long. Bai Tao and I have been too lax."
Jiang Ye didn't take it seriously. "It hasn't even been half a year since the virus spread. There aren't as many capable people as you think."
Bai Chenzhu turned his head slightly and asked with surprise, "Don't you have any idea of recruiting them?"
"What? Are you thinking of me?" Jiang Ye's eyes crinkled with a smile, as if he had guessed Bai Chenzhu's thoughts. "The five of us are enough."
Bai Chenzhu's eyes flickered, but he didn't say anything more.
It was very quiet around. The wind blew through the flower field like layers of ocean waves. Bai Chenzhu closed his eyes and sensed it. The spirit group representing Jiang Ye was so conspicuous in his mind.
Swaying back and forth, swaying back and forth...
He opened his phoenix eyes, mimicking Jiang Ye's usual manner, and put his hands in his pockets, looking at the back of the figure in front of him with a half-smile. "Hey, Jiang Ye, let's not talk about that now, can you make me a bracelet?"
"Bracelet?" Jiang Ye stopped and turned to look at him, lazily complaining in a drawn-out tone, "What's that? Earrings and bracelet, you really love these fancy things."
"Never mind, just keep making it up." Bai Chenzhu crossed her arms and looked at him. "Don't tell me you can't."
These words ignited Jiang Ye's competitive spirit. He went down to the field to take a look, plucked a long flower branch, and held the slender, emerald-green branch in his hand. He took Bai Chenzhu's left hand, casually wrapped it around a few times, and showed a hint of impatience mixed with a competitive seriousness.
Bai Chenzhu watched him fussing over something intently, glancing at Jiang Ye's face every now and then.
After fussing around for a while, Jiang Ye bent down, picked up a blade of dry grass, and tied a knot at both ends of the 'bracelet'.
"Is it alright?" Jiang Ye asked smugly, fiddling with his artwork.
"It's ugly." Bai Chenzhu looked at the yellow flowers and green branches on her wrist from side to side and smiled, "Hmm, it's quite nice."
He withdrew his hand. "Let's go back. We've walked halfway through the city and still haven't found that guy. Maybe he's been lured away by the car. It's no use for us to keep looking."
——
Unexpectedly, when the two walked back, all they saw in the distance was a black car, with very few zombies around. Through the window, they could vaguely see that Zhou Zhuohua was... sleeping?
Jiang Ye mocked without any politeness, "I never imagined he was this cowardly."
Bai Chenzhu quickly grabbed Jiang Ye, who was walking forward, and said, "Let's take another look."
After a while, they saw Zhou Zhuohua raise her head and talk to the outside of the car.
Bai Chenzhu stared at the air for a while, then suddenly said, "Wait, can we see the actual object now?"
Otherwise, how could they have seen that Zhou Zhuohua was talking to thin air?
"That guy's probably focused on Sister Zhuohua," Jiang Ye said.
They waited and waited, but the person never showed up.
Bai Chenzhu sighed, "Forget it, he probably doesn't want to come out."
——
Outside the car, Tang Zhao and Bai Tao were gone, but Jiang Ye and Bai Chenzhu returned and knocked on the car window.
Zhou Zhuohua stared at them as if facing a formidable enemy, ignoring them completely.
Jiang Ye jumped onto the hood of the car, half-squatted down to look at her, and pointed to the inside lock of the car window.
Zhou Zhuohua was extremely annoyed and opened the car window a crack, "Aren't you annoying?"
Why is he so irritable after only a short while? Bai Chenzhu looked around, pointed to himself, and said, "Are you talking to me?"
Zhou Zhuohua said, "Stop acting, I won't open the door."
Upon hearing this, Bai Chenzhu quickly realized what was going on. He said, "Sister, we were halfway there when we realized that the superhuman had been watching the car last night and might come back today. We were worried something might happen to you, so we came back immediately. If you don't believe me, just ask me any question."
Zhou Zhuohua paused for a moment, then, without being polite, went straight to the question from earlier: "Okay, first question, just now 'Tang Zhao' asked me if there was any food in the car."
Jiang Ye, who was inspecting the car's exterior for signs of damage, raised an eyebrow and scoffed, "Given how he counts supplies every day, how could he not know if there's food in the car? That's pure nonsense."
Zhou Zhuohua sat up properly, and her gaze towards the two of them changed. "Bai Tao dirtied the bracelet I gave her."
Bai Chenzhu sighed, "What? You gave it to her? That was her mother's keepsake!"
All correct.
Since it was all true, Zhou Zhuohua opened the car door, and the two got into the back. Bai Chenzhu said, "That guy just came here disguised as Tang Zhao and Bai Tao?"
Zhou Zhuohua nodded. "He does seem to be eyeing the supplies in the truck. Now that the three of us are here, he might not dare to come over."
Bai Chenzhu and Jiang Ye exchanged a glance.
Jiang Ye said, "We thought that maybe this guy was eyeing the supplies in the car and would deliver them to us sooner or later. But we didn't expect that with you all alone, he would be tiptoeing around and wouldn't dare to break into the car. Instead, he kept hoping that you would open the door for him."
Bai Chenzhu, however, thought of something else. "I can see the surroundings clearly. We didn't see a single living person along the way. How could he have lived alone in the zombie village for so long?"
While they were chatting, Bai Tao and Tang Zhao returned.
Because of Jiang Ye and Bai Chenzhu, Zhou Zhuohua lowered her guard and was about to open the door when Bai Chenzhu called out to her.
"Sister Zhuohua, those two outside are zombies." Bai Chenzhu's expression darkened.
"Using this trick again?" Zhou Zhuohua was startled. She looked at 'Tang Zhao' and 'Bai Tao' again, but found that their movements were stiff.
They were talking to the three people in the car. But all Bai Chenzhu could hear were the howls of passing zombies. Annoyed, Bai Chenzhu rubbed his forehead.
Jiang Ye found it amusing and pinched his earlobe. Bai Chenzhu reacted as if he'd been electrocuted, quickly slapping Jiang Ye's hand away, "Can't you straight men have a little distance?"
Jiang Ye withdrew his hand, saying matter-of-factly, "You're different."
"How am I different?"
Jiang Ye thought about it carefully, "You're good-looking."
Bai Chenzhu was silent for a moment, wanting to refute but not knowing how, "Thank you?"
"I'm still in this car," Zhou Zhuohua said, finally losing her temper. "Can't you two figure out how to deal with those two things outside?!"
Jiang Ye shrugged. "Just keep sleeping. It's all nonsense, just ignore it."
Bai Chenzhu nudged him, "It's noisy."
Jiang Ye sighed and got out of the car. As soon as he opened the door, he knocked down the two zombies outside the car, punched and kicked them, and dragged them away by their tattered clothes.
When I returned, it was indeed much quieter outside.
The passing crowds ignored their car and walked around it. The bustling scene in the distance sent chills down the spines of the three men.
Bai Chenzhu sighed, "The more I look at it, the stranger it becomes."
Especially after realizing that these are all illusions.
——
The sun was high in the sky, and the sunlight was quite scorching.
Zhou Zhuohua stared idly at the scene outside, then suddenly her eyes widened. "You guys... look outside."
She stammered incoherently, "How...how come there are so many handsome guys, and they're all naked?!"
Jiang Ye looked out the car window and saw that, at some point, the crowd outside had turned into countless beautiful women, some of whom were barely clothed.
He glanced at Bai Chenzhu.
Bai Chenzhu saw nothing; all he could 'see' with his supernatural ability was air. Jiang Ye, however, stared intently at him, as if he had witnessed something monstrous.
Bai Chenzhu suddenly felt like teasing him, so she followed Zhou Zhuohua and said, "Yeah, lots of handsome guys."
The next second, Jiang Ye covered his eyes.
Jiang Ye angrily said, "You're not allowed to look at this filthy stuff!"
Bai Chenzhu chuckled softly, "Then you shouldn't look either."
Jiang Ye clicked his tongue lightly, "Who cares?"
Instead, Zhou Zhuohua made no attempt to hide her surprise, exclaiming "Wow!" as she gave the two of them a live broadcast, saying, "So many male models are walking over and circling the car."
"I was almost ready to invite them into the car."
"This superhuman understands me too well, but it seems he can't access our memories."
Zhou Zhuohua narrowed her eyes. "None of them are my type."
It seems that the superhuman has become desperate and has stopped pursuing 'reality' and has started to let himself go.
The screen flickered like an old television set, sometimes showing elegant male and female models dancing around the car, sometimes showing streets full of zombies.
These illusions lingered outside the car for a while. Perhaps having witnessed Jiang Ye's 'brutality' just now, they didn't dare to knock on the window. They just wandered around outside, and when the three people didn't react, they disappeared.
Bai Chenzhu slapped away Jiang Ye's hand that was covering his eyes.
A moment later, a distorted, grotesque face suddenly appeared in front of the car. The face was blue and had fangs, and it grew so large that it filled the entire windshield, staring intently at the people inside the car.
The three people inside the car: ...
Bai Chenzhu looked past the ghost face and the zombie background behind it, and thought the ghost face was cuter.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently, and the ghost face opened its mouth wide, its red throat getting closer and closer. It looked as if the car was about to be swallowed up by the ghost face.
Zhou Zhuohua began to feel restless and instinctively looked back at the car. Jiang Ye pressed down on her shoulder.
They had no intention of abandoning the car and fleeing, so they watched helplessly as it passed through their esophagus and stomach, swayed for a while in their wriggling intestines, and then inexplicably returned to its starting point.
The ghost face disappeared.
After a while, it started raining rice outside.
Yes, it started raining rice, which piled up on the ground. Zhou Zhuohua swallowed hard, feeling a strong urge to go down and pick it up, but he didn't move.
Then the rice turned into fragrant bread.
Zhou Zhuohua rested her chin on her hand. "Is he afraid of us? He tried every means to get us off the bus, but he didn't dare to come over himself."
Bai Chenzhu pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking that watching a show also required some patience. "He is indeed very timid, hiding nearby and playing these little tricks. Sooner or later he will be found out."
Zhou Zhuohua said helplessly, "This stalemate isn't going to work. Why don't we all get out of the car? Maybe he'll come running over. If he doesn't come over now, how can we catch him? There are over a dozen buildings, and searching them one by one is going to be a nightmare."
Jiang Ye casually half-reclined and half-sat in the back seat, his arm half-circling behind Bai Chenzhu. He said, "Don't rush, let's decide after Tang Zhao and Bai Tao come back."
——
Around noon, Tang Zhao and Bai Tao returned, panting and with flushed faces, clearly having run a long way under the sun. They wanted to get in the car and rest as soon as they got back, but Zhou Zhuohua refused, insisting on asking several questions before letting them in.
Perhaps because the superhuman was locked in a stalemate with the three of them, Tang Zhao and Bai Tao were able to search the surrounding area with unusual ease.
However, they did not possess Bai Chenzhu's special ability to detect things, so they actually walked through half of the village.
Bai Tao wiped away her sweat, fanning herself with her palms because of the heat, and said seriously, "There are no signs of any living people in the village, but we found a small building. All the other houses are painted white, but this one is painted red. It's in the highest place in Jinqiu Village, the windows are open, and it looks like someone is still living inside. Should we go and take a look?"
Jiang Ye looked at Bai Chenzhu, who said helplessly, "It's a bit far, I can't detect it."
Jiang Ye then decisively said, "Let's go!"
Apart from Zhou Zhuohua, the four of them quickly headed towards the small building located on a high place outside the village.
Along the way, they encountered more and more illusions, which hindered their progress.
Every time they saw the small building not far away, they ran further and further away from it.
The building itself hasn't changed; it's their senses that have been deceived. They keep following the 'path' they see with their eyes, so they not only can't get closer but also get further and further away.
Bai Chenzhu covered his head, feeling more strained than ever before, "How can someone have such a superpower?"
With no room to maneuver, Bai Tao watched him resist the illusion and felt a little indignant. "Yeah! I wish I had that kind of ability!"
If you can't change the world, then deceive your senses. Let everything before your eyes change as you please, even if it's false, it's still a moment of reality.
"Let's fight him!" Bai Chenzhu was fed up with this trick of deceiving the five senses. He grabbed Jiang Ye's wrist, Jiang Ye pulled Tang Zhao, and Bai Tao grabbed Tang Zhao's clothes. The three of them followed Bai Chenzhu and ran wildly.
Before long, the bustling street scene before my eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by utter silence.
They were on an empty basketball court, with a two-story building in front of them. A sign hung at the entrance of the building: Jinqiu Village Office.
From here, you can see the entire Jinqiu Village.
For the first time in broad daylight, they could clearly see the dilapidated village, even the zombies lurking on the road. The flower fields on both sides swayed gently in the wind, and there were no vehicles on the main road outside; the whole world was as quiet as if it were dead.
Bai Chenzhu clearly sensed that there was only one person in the building. "He's inside."
Jiang Ye released Bai Chenzhu and rushed into the small building, followed by Tang Zhao. There was a series of crashes and noises inside the building as they dragged someone out the door.
Bai Tao gasped in surprise and hid behind Bai Chenzhu in fear.
Is that even human?! That's a skeleton!
That's terrifying! This is the first time Bai Tao has ever known what it means to 'look like a ghost'.
This person was too thin. He was so thin he was practically skin and bones; the movement of his Adam's apple was clearly visible when he swallowed. His skin was loose and clinging to his bones. His eyes were sunken, with dark circles under them. He had a beard, and he looked disheveled. He was wearing a striped polo shirt and black pants, and he had an unpleasant odor.
Judging from his appearance, he looks to be only in his fifties.
Jiang Ye released his grip, and he fell to the ground, his clothes torn and disheveled. He got up, weak but with a fierce, lecturing tone, "What are you doing here!"
"I want to ask you what you do!" Bai Chenzhu stepped forward. "You've been using your powers to trap us in the village. What exactly are you trying to do?"
"What superpower? What nonsense are you talking about!" That person was even more shocked than they were.
Jiang Ye stood with his arms crossed, tilted his head slightly, and gestured towards the room, saying, "He was sleeping when we went in."
A wicked, mocking smile spread across his lips. "You kept overdrawing your powers while you slept, turning yourself into this state. If we hadn't woken you up, you wouldn't even have known you died in your sleep."
"Nonsense!" the man said fiercely, waving his hand. "Another strange dream! Disappear! All of you, disappear! I don't want any of you in my dreams!"
Jiang Ye rubbed his knuckles and stepped forward. "It seems he's confused reality with his dreams. At this point, he needs someone to help him wake up."
The man yelled and tried to run away, but Tang Zhao held him firmly down.
"You're breaking the law! I'm going to sue you!" The screams echoed through the small building.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com