LCFM Chapter 6

“Run!” Fu Yan grabbed Jiang Xinghuai by the back of his collar, shoving him forward and charging up the stairs.

Jiang Xinghuai looked so lazy, skinny, and timid that Fu Yan worried he’d be caught, so he had no choice but to drag him along.

One second later.

Jiang Xinghuai shot forward like a rabbit, vaulting over the stair railing, pushing off with one foot, and instantly standing atop the fifteenth-floor railing.

His speed was lightning-fast, his movements sharp and agile.

Fu Yan tilted his head back to look at him: “……”

“What are you doing! Run already!” Jiang Xinghuai shouted down at him, then added in puzzlement, “Bad legs?”

Fu Yan said calmly, “…I’m 32.”

“I know that!” Jiang Xinghuai jumped back down, yanking on his arm in frustration, scolding him like he was hopeless, “Run faster! It’s not like they’ll respect your age and decide not to bite you!”

Fu Yan: “……”

This kid.

“Run!” Jiang Xinghuai thrust out his hand.

Fu Yan clasped it firmly: “Run!”

Hand in hand, the two of them sprinted upward.

More than once, Jiang Xinghuai felt claws almost brush against his heels.

That feeling of being chased… Jiang Xinghuai turned his head, catching sight of Fu Yan deliberately staying half a step behind him the whole way.

Uncle Fu Yan is a good neighbor. Then a thought struck Uncle Fu Yan out of nowhere.

“Take out your game console!” Fu Yan suddenly shouted.

“What game console?” Jiang Xinghuai feigned ignorance.

“Give it to me!” Fu Yan ordered.

“At a time like this, you’re still thinking about my game console!” Jiang Xinghuai cursed, fumbling to yank it out of the outer pocket of his backpack and shoved it over with trembling hands. “No respect for your age!”

Fu Yan switched it on, tapped into a random game, and cranked the volume to maximum.

“We’re running for our lives, uncle! And you’re playing games?!” Jiang Xinghuai was scared out of his wits.

Three flights of stairs in less than half a minute. They’d already left the infected trailing a whole floor behind.

When Jiang Xinghuai spotted the stairwell door on the 17th floor, he looked like he’d just seen a living bodhisattva, arms spread wide as he dove toward it: “Home! Home!”

Fu Yan snagged him by the scruff of his neck, stopping him cold, then hurled the game console toward the apartment door. In the next instant, he yanked Jiang Xinghuai with him, slipping fast behind the heavy stairwell door pressed close to the wall.

He clamped a hand over Jiang Xinghuai’s mouth, fighting to stifle the ragged breaths from their sprint.

The cramped space was pitch-black. Jiang Xinghuai’s forehead pressed against Fu Yan’s chest, breath tight and suffocating. But no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t break free.

“Three… two… one…” Fu Yan whispered the countdown into his ear.

The next second, a flood of chaotic footsteps thundered past.

The infected horde had caught up! The cheerful, noisy game music blared continuously outside the door.

Jiang Xinghuai instantly understood. He remembered Fu Yan saying the infected relied on sight and sound to hunt their prey.

All the footsteps of the infected thundered past.

“Close the door,” Fu Yan whispered.

Together, the two of them shoved the heavy stairwell door shut! The last of the infected reacted quickly, lunging toward them!

Fu Yan braced himself against the door with all his strength while Jiang Xinghuai twisted the lock.

Clack, clack. The door locked.

The next second, a barrage of impacts slammed against it in succession! At that moment, the thick fire door of the stairwell showed its high-strength, explosion-proof resilience.

Panting heavily, Jiang Xinghuai let go of the lock, his hands trembling. He lowered his head for a quick glance.

“Let’s go.” Fu Yan tightened his grip on his hand.

Jiang Xinghuai silently nodded, turned back, and scooped up the long skateboard lying on the floor.

Fu Yan glanced at him. “Want some water?”

Jiang Xinghuai shook his head, keeping his head down, moving nervously down the stairs, his whole body visibly taut.

Fu Yan thought for a moment. “Once we get out of here, you can pick any game console you want. I’ll get it for you.”

“Any?” Jiang Xinghuai tilted his head, asking.

Fu Yan nodded. “Pick whatever you like.”

Jiang Xinghuai grinned and raised his skateboard. “For the game console!”

Fu Yan patted him on the back, but very quickly—less than a minute later—that feeling of gratification completely vanished.

Because once Jiang Xinghuai returned to his normal state, he really was a bit noisy.

Most likely, he was still scared.

Some people might shout to vent their nerves and fear, while others… were probably chatterboxes.

“We’re on the 5th floor now. A little chubby kid spotted us. He must’ve gotten separated from his parents, only him alone.” Jiang Xinghuai muttered to himself, staring at the chubby kid at the corner ahead.

“This uncle took the head on the 9th floor, so this time it should be my turn to make a move.” Jiang Xinghuai held the skateboard cautiously, approaching the chubby boy who was about as tall as his knees. “I’ve seen this kid before. Once, under his grandma’s instigation, he snatched my skateboard!”

The chubby boy rushed forward, using his actions to prove he could snatch it again.

“Fu Yan! Fu Yan!” Jiang Xinghuai cried out, running back in tears.

Fu Yan was helpless and charged forward.

Basement level 1, parking lot.

Fu Yan pushed open the stairwell door and looked around warily.

Jiang Xinghuai followed behind him, head lowered, sulkily wiping the blood off his skateboard.

“I just couldn’t bring myself to hit that chubby kid. You know, he got separated from his grandma. I’m not the kind of person who bullies someone just because their parent isn’t around,” Jiang Xinghuai explained in a low voice.

“I know.” Fu Yan lightly patted his head twice.

Jiang Xinghuai shrank his neck in embarrassment. It had been a long time since anyone touched his head.

“Let’s go,” Fu Yan said.

The underground parking lot was dim and lightless, with only the glowing green sign of the emergency exit casting a faint hue along the wall.

The whole basement was unnervingly quiet. Fu Yan narrowed his eyes, surveying the surroundings. Most of the cars in the parking spaces were gone, and the ones that remained were mostly crashed and skewed.

On the concrete floor, dark bloodstains stretched out one patch after another.

Jiang Xinghuai hopped around to avoid the stains, tilted his head, and asked, “Where’s your car?”

“Shh—” Fu Yan frowned and turned his ear to listen.

It sounded like someone was crying…

“There.” Jiang Xinghuai pointed at a red sedan parked against the wall up ahead.

He slowly approached the car. The doors were locked, and the windows were pitch black, impossible to see through.

Before he could get any closer—

Smack!

Jiang Xinghuai jumped back in fright. When he looked again, a bloody handprint had suddenly appeared on the window.

Soon, the fog on the car window was wiped away from the inside.

In the driver’s seat sat a woman with disheveled hair, holding a little girl in her arms.

The little girl clung to her mother’s neck, biting again and again. Blood dyed the matching white dresses of both mother and daughter.

Jiang Xinghuai’s eyes widened. Instinctively, he reached for the car door.

The safety lock popped up inside the window. Jiang Xinghuai couldn’t pull it open.

It was the woman who had locked the car from the inside.

She turned her head to glance at them, shaking her head desperately, her muffled sobs choked and suppressed: “Go… go…”

Jiang Xinghuai froze, again and again, his eyes turning red.

At this moment, the thin paper veil over Jiang Xinghuai’s world was torn apart, laying the bloody truth bare before him.

Jiang Xinghuai finally realized. The world had truly changed.

Fu Yan covered his eyes. “Don’t look. Let’s go.”

The car engine started. Jiang Xinghuai turned back to look at that bright red sedan, then quickly turned his head away, his eyes still red.

“Hungry?” Fu Yan asked.

“…I can’t eat,” Jiang Xinghuai said with his head lowered.

“I’ve hidden a bag of beef jerky,” Fu Yan added.

“Then I guess I should eat a little,” Jiang Xinghuai said.

Fu Yan smiled.

The car drove out of the parking lot, and the blinding daylight suddenly burst forth. Both of them closed their eyes at the same time.

When they opened them again, neither said a word.

In just one day and night, the whole city seemed to have been covered in a layer of ash. A white plastic bag spun in the wind across the empty street, trash bins toppled by the roadside, a broken sign, a single shoe left behind on the road.

The city had become gray, desolate, and silent.

“I wonder how my friends are doing.” Jiang Xinghuai sighed softly. “All I can remember is my dad’s phone number.”

“They’ll be fine,” Fu Yan reassured him.

“Where are we going now?” Jiang Xinghuai looked at the wide road ahead.

“Southwest district,” Fu Yan said.

“The outskirts of the city?” Jiang Xinghuai asked.

“The city’s population is dense. With large-scale infection, it’ll only spread more and more,” Fu Yan explained. “We have to avoid the outbreak areas.”

“There’s a traffic jam ahead.” Jiang Xinghuai pointed forward.

Fu Yan stepped on the brakes, frowning as he looked ahead.

Up the road stretched long lines of cars, their shrill horns and the angry, anxious curses tangled together in the wind.

The wind carried those sounds across several streets to the square beyond. On the wide square lingered several thousand people, a mass of heads crowded together—yet it was utterly silent.

Their limbs were stiff, their faces swollen and bluish.

They were the infected.

As if catching the scent of blood in the wind, each of them grew restless, ready to move.

They stepped forward, coming closer.

In less than a minute, Fu Yan frowned, turned the steering wheel, and prepared to take another road.

It was too unsafe to wait any longer.

He turned around and pressed down on the accelerator.

Just then, a jeep shot up from the back road like lightning! The distance was too short, the speed too fast.

Both vehicles slammed on the brakes almost at the same time.

The jeep stopped, barely grazing their rear bumper.

Fu Yan’s face darkened, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.

“Are we being stuffed like dumpling filling?” Jiang Xinghuai frowned, stuck his head out the window, and shouted at the jeep, “Hey! Move it!”

Before the people in the jeep could respond.

Two men suddenly ran out from the street by the roadside. A blond-haired punk was trying to snatch the food a middle-aged, fat man was clutching to his chest.

“What the hell—?” Jiang Xinghuai, sitting in the passenger seat, suddenly cursed, then, in a gust of movement, flung open the door and jumped out.

“Jiang Xinghuai!” Fu Yan pushed his own door open and got out of the car.

“My homeroom teacher!” Jiang Xinghuai shouted without even turning his head, charging forward with his skateboard after only a few steps. “Old Geng! Duck your head!”

Geng Manhong instinctively hunched down, clutching his round belly.

“Eat your grandpa’s slap!” Jiang Xinghuai swung his skateboard down.

The blond punk clutched his head and collapsed to the ground.

“Jiang Xinghuai!” Geng Manhong called out.

“It’s me, that’s right.” Jiang Xinghuai proudly hoisted his skateboard, feeling like a hero who had descended from the heavens in a time of crisis.

“How many times have I told you! Stop wearing ripped jeans!” Geng Manhong scolded him.

Jiang Xinghuai lowered his head for a look. “…It’s just one hole.”

“What the hell! What the hell is that!” The blond punk sat up from the ground, face full of shock as he stared at the nearby road.

“Jiang Xinghuai!” Fu Yan’s voice came from that direction.

Jiang Xinghuai quickly turned his head. The moment he saw what was behind Fu Yan, his pupils shrank violently.

In his irises reflected a scene so terrifying it made one’s bones freeze and hair stand on end.

Countless living corpses scrambled over cars, crawled over struggling crowds, windows shattering, blood spraying into the sky.

Shrill screams, desperate cries for help. People fell one after another, only to rise again quickly, running as they joined the swelling tide of infection.

A brand-new wave of mass infection erupted right before their eyes!

“—Run!” Fu Yan shouted, clutching Jiang Xinghuai’s bag as he sprinted toward them.

“Run, run, run! Don’t look back! Hurry!” Geng Manhong waved frantically, shoving Jiang Xinghuai forward. “My house is just up ahead! Run!”

“Fu Yan!” Jiang Xinghuai, anxious, tried to run back.

“Get up, get up!” Geng Manhong bent to help the blond punk off the ground. “Run, run, run!”

“Jiang Xinghuai! Why are you coming back!” Fu Yan rushed over, anger flashing across his face for the first time. “Run forward!”

Jiang Xinghuai gave a sheepish grin, then bolted straight ahead.

He hadn’t gone more than a few steps when someone dashed past in front of him, head covered in blood.

“Damn!” Jiang Xinghuai gawked. “Took a hit from a board and still runs that fast!”

“Damn what damn! Still swearing! I haven’t even settled accounts with you yet!” Geng Manhong shouted at him as they ran, turning his head to the side. “Why did you stop going to school! And move houses! Do you even realize the college entrance exam is right around the corner!”

“Is this really the time to talk about that!” Jiang Xinghuai shouted back as he ran.

“Why not!” Geng Manhong smacked him hard on the back. “Don’t think just because the world’s like this now, you can get away with not studying! I’m telling you. You can’t!”

Fu Yan cut in, asking, “Teacher, is your house on the street to the left or the one to the right?”

Geng Manhong turned to look at Fu Yan and shouted, “Who are you!”

Jiang Xinghuai: “He’s—”

Geng Manhong filled in the blank on his own: “You’re Jiang Xinghuai’s father, right! Do you know he only got 12 points in his last math test?!”

Jiang Xinghuai stubbornly refused to admit it: “I did not!”

Geng Manhong, intent on criticizing Fu Yan, said, “Grades are secondary! You parents nowadays, none of you are dedicated at all!”

Fu Yan: “No, I’m—”

“Do you know what your child likes to eat? What hobbies does he have?”

Fu Yan: “I don’t—”

“Of course you don’t! Because you don’t care about him! You don’t keep him in your heart! You don’t love him!” Geng Manhong shouted in anguish as he ran.

Fu Yan: “…”

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Moonlit: Poor Fu Yan HAHAHAHHAHA