The Walking Dead : Rules of Survival

The two big men entered the car and checked around before bringing Zheng Rongrong, Shen Xue, and the others out.

Jun Di was almost pulled out by one of them.

His previously dazed expression finally shifted, but it only changed slightly, with his eyes moving just a bit before freezing on a fresh walkers, wrapped in bright red, on the ground.

Then, his expression returned to its previous state.

He said nothing, just staring at the walker without blinking.

The man with the bushy beard also followed Jun Di's gaze and then pointed at the walker, asking us, "Is that one of your people?"

"Yeah," I nodded, feeling a bit bitter inside.

The man with the bushy beard seemed to want to say something else, but when his gaze swept toward the back of the car, his expression suddenly changed.

He immediately straightened up, his face filled with respect, and called out, "Boss."

Boss? What kind of address is that?

I hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at the newcomer, but I heard a sharp intake of breath from Shen Feng and the others behind me.

I was still a bit confused about what kind of person could cause such a reaction from them, but when I saw the person walking towards us just a few steps away, I was instantly frozen in place.

Suo Tian!

How could it be him? Why is he with these people?

And… why did the man with the bushy beard call him "Boss"?

Suo Tian pressed his lips together and swept his eyes over the few of us before walking up to me. His pitch-black eyes fixed on me and studied me for a moment: "Chen Yang."

It wasn't a question.

I froze for a second, my expression stiff, then nodded.

Honestly, I didn't know what kind of expression I should show when facing Suo Tian. His sudden appearance had caught me completely off guard — I wasn't prepared for this at all.

I had originally thought that if I ever saw him again, I would be overwhelmed with joy and unable to contain myself. But at this moment, none of that happened. On the contrary, I felt surprisingly calm.

"Brother Tian, what are you doing here?" Yangyang asked in shock, voicing the same question that filled my mind.

Suo Tian glanced at him but didn't answer.

The man with the bushy beard leaned in and asked in a low voice, "Boss, do you know these people?"

"Yeah." Suo Tian nodded, then looked at the ground near the vehicle, which was covered in rotten flesh, and said to the bearded man, "All handled?"

"Almost. We can move forward now."

Suo Tian nodded. "Then get in. Let's go."

"What about these people…?"

"Take them with us."

......

For some unknown reason, the bus broke down.

In this pitch-dark night, with all the noise from earlier, there's no telling when a horde of walkers might gather again and swarm us.

So we had no chance to make repairs.

Without a vehicle to continue forward, Xu Shu and Chen Pu had no choice but to temporarily join us.

Seeing that Jun Di was clearly in no condition to drive, I arranged for him to ride in Shen Feng's car with Shen Xue.

Xu Shu drove the other car, taking me, Chen Pu, Yangyang, and Rongrong.

Rongrong was terrified—she remained curled up in Yangyang's arms, quietly sobbing.

No matter how much Chen Pu or Yangyang tried to comfort her, it was no use.

Suo Tian's convoy consisted of dozens of vehicles ahead and behind, and our car was sandwiched right in the middle.

That blinding light from earlier had come from a xenon lamp mounted on the roof of the lead vehicle.

Through the rearview mirror, I stared at the car behind us—Suo Tian was sitting in the front passenger seat.

The headlights from their vehicle made it impossible to see what was happening inside, but that didn't stop me from imagining the situation he was in.

Too many things had happened in a single day—it had completely thrown my mind into chaos.

The more I tried to think about it, the less clarity I had.

My thoughts tangled into a mess.

The town we left behind.

The home we abandoned.

The cold-blooded Mei Jing.

The hypocritical Li Jianguo.

The broken promise Shu Guang.

The deranged Zhao Qiuting.

The skillful Xu Shu.

The bitten and dead Yin Shangtang.

And… Suo Tian, whose identity remained as mysterious as ever.

The first time I met Suo Tian, he introduced himself as a police officer.

I had never doubted his words—until now.

Looking at everything… it's clearly a lie.

Setting aside the fact that those uniformly dressed men were calling him "Boss," the fact that they had so many heavy-duty firearms alone was already strange enough.

I got a good look at the guns those people were carrying today—many of them looked very familiar.

There was a time when Yangyang was obsessed with some game called CF or maybe CS—I couldn't really tell the difference—but I ended up studying a lot of the weapons in it along with him.

That was the only bit of firearms knowledge I ever had.

The rest I'd only seen in Hong Kong cop-and-gangster movies.

So what exactly is Suo Tian involved in?

How could he have access to so many guns?

The vehicle had been driving for quite a while.

Both sides of the road were still shrouded in darkness.

I could only make rough guesses based on what the headlights illuminated.

We still seemed to be driving through the countryside—trees and drainage ditches occasionally appeared on both sides of the road.

Rongrong had finally cried herself to exhaustion and was now sleeping soundly in Yangyang's arms.

I told Yangyang to grab one of the spare jackets from behind the seat to cover her up so she wouldn't catch a cold.

Looking at Rongrong, still with tears clinging to the corners of her eyes, I sighed again.

I honestly had no idea how many times I'd sighed today.

"Chen Yang," Xu Shu, who was driving, suddenly called out to me.

"Yeah?"

"You guys know that group from earlier?"

She glanced at me, clearly beginning to have doubts about who we were too.

"No, just the guy who talked to me. He… used to be with us," I quickly waved my hand and explained, not wanting her to get suspicious.

"Then how come he's with that group today?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure. He left suddenly without saying anything. I never thought we'd run into him again like this."

"You guys must've been pretty close before?"

"Of course! I used to think of him as a future brother-in-law," Yangyang suddenly chimed in from the back seat.

"Yangyang! Don't talk nonsense!" I scolded him, then quickly said to Xu Shu, "Don't take it seriously. Kids love to play matchmaker."

Xu Shu tilted her head slightly to glance at me twice, then suddenly let out a snort of laughter.

"I once read a joke."

"A joke?" I was caught off guard, not quite following why she'd suddenly changed the topic.

"The joke goes like this," Xu Shu said, "if your hair is a mess, your eyes are dark with fatigue, you're covered in filth, and you're wearing dirty, ragged clothes, and a man still likes you—then it can only be your dad." She burst into laughter after finishing.

I didn't immediately get what she meant, but once it clicked, I was instantly furious.

"Xu Shu, you little—so you're insulting me for being a slob, but in such a roundabout way?!"

Chen Pu and Yangyang, sitting in the back, started laughing along with Xu Shu after hearing what I said.

I pretended to glare at them angrily, but inside, I was already smiling.

The fact that Xu Shu made that kind of joke was her way of telling me indirectly that she thought I was someone trustworthy.

We continued driving for a long time.

It wasn't until the sky began to lighten with dawn that the convoy finally slowed and stopped in front of a row of small buildings by the roadside.

When the doors opened and we jumped out, Suo Tian's people immediately rushed into one of the buildings with guns drawn, while the rest fanned out to check the area.

After exchanging a few words with Shen Feng and the others, I glanced over at the car behind us.

Suo Tian was still sitting in the passenger seat, holding something in his hands and looking down at it with full concentration.

Just as I was debating whether or not to go over and say something to Suo Tian, my mind suddenly recalled that prank joke Xu Shu made last night.

I quickly dashed back into the car, used my fingers to smooth out my hair, and tied it into a quick bun while looking into the rearview mirror.

Xu Shu tilted her head and glanced at me as she commented, "Haven't washed that hair in at least three months, huh?"

Her remark nearly made me choke.

I shot her a fierce glare before turning around and getting out of the car.

To make myself appear more natural, I twisted my waist left and right, shook my arms, and casually started walking toward the vehicle behind us, trying to look nonchalant while quickly thinking about how to start the conversation.

But before I could even reach Suo Tian's car, I heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs from the building.

Those people in black uniforms quickly came downstairs and scattered toward various vehicles.

The man at the front—who looked a bit more honest and plain than the others—ran over toward Suo Tian's car.

Hearing the commotion, Suo Tian set down whatever he had been looking at, opened the door, and got out.

It was then I noticed he was also wearing a black uniform.

It looked somewhat similar to a paramilitary police outfit, but not quite the same.

"The place has been cleared out, boss," the middle-aged man reported.

Suo Tian gave a nod. "Assign the guard shifts. The rest can go up and rest."

The man responded with a quick "Yes" and ran off toward the vehicles ahead.

Only then did Suo Tian turn to look at me.

The moment his gaze locked onto mine, I felt a little awkward.

My eyes darted around aimlessly, anywhere but at him.

"Go pack your things. Don't you want to rest?" Suo Tian said in a calm tone.

"Ah… oh…" I was stunned for a second, then replied foolishly.

I quickly turned around and headed back toward the car, cursing myself in my mind:

"Chen Yang, you idiot! Always walking into awkward situations!"

I gathered some things from the car and also brought the spare inner clothes I'd taken yesterday, thinking I'd find a chance to change.

I hadn't felt it before, but after Xu Shu's teasing yesterday, I really did feel like I was covered in grime and stench.

Even if I didn't want to admit it, I had to say—I didn't want to leave the kind of impression Xu Shu joked about last night on Suo Tian.

This was a three-story countryside house.

Judging by the looks of it, it had been fully renovated and then left vacant.

The rooms still had furniture and appliances in decent condition.

But aside from that, the cabinets were completely empty.

Nowadays, many rural families go out to work in the cities for years.

Once they've saved up some money, they come back and build houses like this.

After construction, the homes are often left unused—maybe only visited during holidays, or perhaps left for the elderly or children to live in.

Given that, it seemed like the whole row of houses around here was probably vacant.

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