Chapter 117: The Cold Front Approaches

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“It has already been two days. Why haven’t they come back yet?”

“Exactly. Do you think something happened to them?”

“I told you we shouldn’t have let them go out. We still had enough food, so why did they have to search for more? It’s so dangerous out there. Are you satisfied now?”

“You have some nerve saying that. You’re the biggest eater of us all. If you could have saved a little, would they have needed to go out so soon to look for food?”

“That’s enough. Stop arguing. Do you want to attract all those walking corpses outside?”

Amid the noisy crowd, a man with a bandaged leg rose to his feet, steadying himself with a chair. He appeared to be in his early fifties, with sunken cheeks and the gaunt look of someone suffering from malnutrition.

“It isn’t your husband who went out searching, so naturally you aren’t worried. Li, I’ve finally figured you out—you really are clever. You managed to break your leg just walking down the stairs, so now you don’t have to go outside looking for food, right?”

“Mrs. Wang Lei, what kind of thing is that to say? What do you mean, I broke it on purpose?”

The man’s face turned pale, but his eyes shifted evasively, as though someone had ripped away the cloth hiding his shame. Even so, he stubbornly refused to admit the accusation.

“There wasn’t even a light in the dark. I couldn’t see where I was going and fell by accident. How did that become me deliberately breaking my leg? Besides, ever since I was injured and couldn’t go outside, I’ve only had one meal a day. Yet every one of you has secretly stored away plenty of food. Why haven’t you thought of giving me some? Do you really want to starve me to death?”

A middle-aged woman lunged forward and seized the man by the collar, scolding him in a low voice.

“You cripple, this is all your own doing. Of all of us, you’re the most useless. What, do you still think you’re some section chief? Let me tell you, if Old Wang and the others don’t come back today, you won’t get so much as a single bite of instant noodles, let alone a full meal. Parasite! Rat!”

“You’ve certainly grown bold. Have you forgotten how you begged Old Wang and me to get your son into a good school? You were practically ready to kneel before me. And now, after only a few days, you’ve completely forgotten the little favor I did you. Fine… very fine indeed…”

The man had never been in good spirits to begin with. After being shoved around, dizziness overwhelmed him, and he nearly collapsed.

Whenever disaster descended, the thing least able to withstand the test was human nature.

Who could have imagined that, before the apocalypse, this woman—now behaving like a shrew—had been a senior accountant? She had always spoken in a measured manner and carried herself with grace, earning a reputation as an exemplary employee and mother.

But now, trapped inside a hotel, she had been tormented day and night by anxiety and fear, which had transformed her into a fierce, quarrelsome woman. She even dared to curse and strike her former superior. After he broke his leg and could no longer go outside to search for food, she had taken the initiative to reduce his food ration, claiming that the supplies should be reserved for those who were still useful.

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The crippled man had once been an executive at a state-owned enterprise. Although his position had not been particularly high, his department was a special one, and he had enjoyed plenty of flattery over the years. After struggling and working for so long, he had accumulated a fortune worth tens of millions. In the city where he lived, he was something of a well-known figure.

Yet this successful man, who possessed both wealth and authority, had been reduced by the arrival of the apocalypse to surviving on a single packet of instant noodles each day. Worse still, he had to endure the scolding and torment of his former subordinates. It was enough to make anyone sigh at the cruel turn of fate.

“That’s enough, Fangping. Say a little less. If you make so much noise, you really might attract those dead things.”

“Yes, enough already. Don’t stoop to arguing with him.”

This was a hotel. When the apocalypse struck, the people from the city had been visiting the county town as part of a company outing. No one could have imagined that disaster would arrive at precisely that moment, trapping them inside the hotel.

There had originally been more than thirty of them, but after everything that had happened, their numbers had dwindled to fewer than ten. Their other companions had either become food or mutated into emotionless zombies.

Two days earlier, the four remaining men had gone outside to search for food. Forty-eight hours had passed, yet there was still no sign of them. The few women left in the hotel had naturally lost their sense of security. Fear and worry intertwined, driving their tempers ever closer to the breaking point.

Knock, knock!

At that moment, a sudden knocking came from outside the door.

Everyone held their breath. Terror filled their faces as, with uncanny unanimity, they turned their eyes toward the entrance.

“Who is it?” the woman who had been arguing whispered.

Knock, knock!

No one answered from outside. The knocking continued slowly and rhythmically.

The woman drew a deep breath and took several steps forward, raising her voice slightly.

“Who is it?”

Knock, knock!

The knocking continued, even the intervals between each knock exactly the same.

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Summoning her courage, the woman opened the peephole and looked outside. After staring for several seconds, her spirits suddenly soared. She hurriedly unlocked the door and quickly pulled the figure standing outside into the room.

“Old Wang, you nearly scared me to death! Where have you been all these days? I was worried sick.”

The man was in his early thirties and wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He appeared to have taken good care of himself and did not bear a single visible injury. Yet his expression was strangely vacant. His eyes, especially, stared at the woman without the slightest emotion, with even a faint trace of confusion in them.

He was one of the survivors from the hotel.

“Old Wang is back! What about the food? Didn’t you go out to search for supplies? How did you come back empty-handed after two days?”

“Right, where are Dongzi and the others? Why didn’t they come back with you?”

“Say something! Why are you just standing there staring at me? Answer me! Where’s my husband? Where did my husband go?”

When the survivors realized that the man had returned alone, panic seized them once again. One of the women, frantic with worry, began shaking him repeatedly.

The man’s expression slowly changed. The cold confusion in his eyes gradually turned crimson.

Crack…

With a sound like something splitting apart, the man’s head suddenly opened like a flower into four separate sections. More horrifying still, the exposed surfaces were covered with densely packed teeth, sharp as four rows of blades.

Everyone who witnessed the scene felt their blood freezing inch by inch. No one could believe what they were seeing.

Screams like the howls of ghosts and wolves erupted from inside the hotel. But they ended abruptly soon afterward.

A while later, the door clicked open, and the man emerged. He had not changed much, except that his eyes were even more blood-red than before.

The man stood there blankly, scanning his surroundings. He tried to speak, but it was as though he had only just learned how. Summoning every ounce of strength, he finally muttered to himself:

“The dead… weren’t human… only a mass… of human-shaped flesh.”

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