Chapter 32.1

Before Shen Shian left, another thing happened in the library. A child caught a cold.

There were two children in the library. In addition to Shen Xun, there was a child who was older than him. It was estimated that he was about seven or eight years old. He hid with his mother on the day of the crash.

After Zhang Ze took most of the participants to live on the eighth floor, the remaining people also changed. Some of them chose to be closer to the ‘power class’ for food. Some feared that the library environment would increasingly deviate from the civilized society, and chose to rest on the fourth floor where Shen Shian was located.

There were also other reasons to choose to stay away from the crowd and stay alone somewhere. This was exactly the case for the mother and child.

The first to discover that the boy was a bit wrong was a person who did not participate in cleaning up the zombies. He had searched on each floor below the eighth floor, trying to find any materials left out by the participants, and had accidentally walked into the utility room where the mother and child were. The mother had tried to hide it, but how could the flushed face and the intense coughing sound of the high fever be hidden? Within two minutes, the news of the boy’s influenza spread to every corner of the library.

Zhang Ze came soon, looking at Shen Xun in the distance. He took out a square handkerchief with his left hand, and waved with his right hand. “Solve it.”

“Yes.”

Four strong men rushed forward, all wearing masks and gloves. Two held the mother, and the other two took the child and went to the window. All the onlookers immediately backed away, avoiding and opening a way for them.

“Don’t do what you want to do! Don’t hurt my son! Lele… Lele!” The mother was mad and struggling, but how could her strength be better than two mature men? Seeing her child getting farther and farther away from her, she plopped down on her knees with tears. “Mr. Zhang, I beg you. Please don’t hurt my son. He is only eight years old this year.”

Zhang Ze’s tone was calm, clear and eager as usual, but once the mild camouflage fades, all that remained was coldness and indifference. “You should be very clear about what a cold means. All people infected with the flu virus will become zombies. It’s a very selfish action to expose all the survivors to the threat of the flu virus, Ms. Dong. This behavior is not only stupid, but extremely selfish. I’m not trying to hurt your son. I’m trying to protect everyone here.”

Ms. Dong tried to approach Zhang Ze, but was forced to fall to the ground by one of the strong men. She could not help but raise her neck and screamed, “No! Not everyone will become zombies. Two days ago, I also caught a cold, but I didn’t become a monster. Lele was just infected by me, and will be able to recover in a few days. Mr. Zhang, I beg you. Please let Lele go alive. As long as you don’t hurt Lele, I will do anything. Mr. Zhang, I beg you.”

Zhang Ze frowned, and the cold eyes fixed on Ms. Dong.“You said, you caught a cold too?” His eyes glanced over to the two men.

After receiving the instructions, they dragged Ms. Dong to the window.

“Don’t. don’t! Save us. Hurry and save us!”

Seeing that her son had also been carried to the window, and one of them was pushing open the window, Ms. Dong’s eyes were red, and she didn’t know where the strength came from, but she suddenly broke free. She got up and rushed to the window, grabbed her son from the other strong men, like a mother beast guarding its cub. She then shouted at all the outsiders desperately, like a mad man. “Nothing will happen, Lele, you won’t become anything. Mommy will protect you. Mommy is here.”

Zhang Ze was a little impatient. “Move faster.” Every time the two of them breathed, there was a little more flu virus in the air.

The four men rushed up to throw the two out the window. Ms. Dong held her son in one hand and held onto the window lattice. Her face was blood-stained and scary.

Boom.

A blazing flame spurted from her mouth.

Ms. Dong eventually succeeded in bringing her son to the first floor. No one dared to approach, and they were not allowed to go upstairs. Things seemed to be settled in this way, but the impact was just like rough seas.

“Amazing.” Rich man Miao, sitting on the sofa, patted his thighs. “Brother Shen, you haven’t seen it. The guy burnt to ashes. Such a living person and he was gone, burned clean, and there were only ashes on the ground. Brother Cheng, who was responsible for the fire?”

Shen Shian raised his finger on the round table and said, “Focus.” At the time of the incident, he and the child were in the motor room on the first floor of the library, which was far away from the incident and had good sound insulation. So he heard nothing. By the time he passed, people were all scattered, only a puddle of ash remained on the ground near the window, and it was blown by the wind, and disappeared after a while.

However, although he did not witness it in person, under the vivid description of rich man Miao, he also knew almost every detail at the time.

“Sorry, I interrupted again,” said rich man Miao. He was embarrassed and grinned twice, and refocused his eyes on the table. “Brother Shen, you continue.”

On the round table was a white paper ten meters wide and tall with a detailed map of about one kilometer around the library drawn on it with a pen. The content of the map was extremely detailed, not only clearly showing all the streets and important buildings, but even a few cars parked on the roadside. Any obstructions or obstacles were also clearly drawn.

The more Li Cheng looked, the more he admired Shen Shian. “Mr. Shen, you are so amazing.”

This map was drawn by Shen Shian for more than a week, combined with the existing map of city H in the library. Because the surrounding buildings were generally high, some details must be visible on the roof of the library. So, he had to wait until the eighth floor was cleared up, which was one of the reasons why he stayed in the library for so long.

If they wanted to leave safely, they must be well prepared. He does not plan to take the risk of his own life and that of his child.

Rich man Miao also admired him very much, thinking that this little brother took care of the child all day long and was idle and had nothing to do. How could he know that Shen Shian had been doing such a big thing silently, and then he thought of those who eat every day in chaos, survivors who were just waiting for rescue.

Shen Shian held a pencil, and then went on to say. “The crash site of the passenger plane was beyond the square outside the library. It had attracted many zombies by the sound. The south, southeast, and southwest had gathered the most zombies, and the north has relatively few. If we had to leave now, we would have the best chance of survival by going north.”

After learning that he was about to leave, Li Cheng joined Shen Shian in anticipation. However, if rich man Miao chose to follow Shen Shian, he would have to leave the safe and solid library and set foot on the road with zombies.

According to Mr. Miao, the rich man himself, “I’ll be okay, it’s okay to suffer. But if I have to shake my tail and beg to eat, then it’s simply better to starve to death.”

If a person is extremely starving, their body will automatically digest the internal organs, which feels no better than being bitten by a zombie. He might as well get out and give it a go.

Except for the two of them, no one was willing to try and follow Shen Shian. They wanted to go out to get in close contact with the zombies, what is the difference between that and suicide? And the situation outside might not be necessarily better than the library. Even if they were fortunate that they have not been bitten by a zombie, they might die in countless other situations. They could just wait for the rescue team in the library with some food and water.

Shen Shian couldn’t control other people’s thoughts, and he was too busy to do so. He drew a line on the north side of the library with a pencil. “We will go down the window on the second floor, and there will be a circular semi-closed overpass about 500 meters away. Using my car, we would reach there. Zombies could not climb stairs so far. As long as we can reach the overpass, we will be temporarily safe.” He drew a circle in a car wash shop east of the overpass. “My car stopped here.”

His car was already in the space long ago. After everyone arrived at the overpass, he could go to the car wash shop alone to take it out and drove it under the overpass. After that, he could drive out of the city all the way, even if there were zombies blocking on the way. He could also temporarily abandon the car, and then find an opportunity to return to the place and put the car into the space. Because of the quality of that car, not anyone could drive it or break it anyway.