Chapter 41 Still Not Back?

"Th-that... that... that was clearly a reward for yourself..." Bai Qi was too shy to lift her head.

She could see clearly in Zhou Yan's heart that this was clearly a reward for himself!

But she could also discover that deep within Zhou Yan's heart, there was more of a pleasant surprise of "discovering a treasure" and a "delight" for Bai Qi.

The door to the secondary bedroom isolated them from the outside world.

Zhou Yan gently placed Bai Qi on the bed in the secondary bedroom, but did not let go immediately. Instead, he leaned down, bracing his arms on both sides of her body, trapping her between his figure and the bed.

The air between the two gradually began to heat up...

Bai Qi's body was tense, and her breathing began to quicken. She could read from Zhou Yan's heart just how embarrassing the "reward" he was thinking of truly was...

"Brother..." she whispered softly, her voice so delicate and soft it could almost drip water...

"In the future... let me help you, okay!" Bai Qi suddenly raised her head bravely to meet Zhou Yan's gaze, her eyes and tone full of determination.

Zhou Yan kissed her, deeper and more aggressive than he had in the living room.

Bai Qi's mind went blank in an instant, all her reason and shyness shattered by the intense sensory stimulation that swept over her...

...

...

"Brother Zhuo... should we go down and check? Why is Wu Ming still not back?"

On the 15th floor, outside the emergency exit of the refuge fire floor, a group of men led by Zhuo You sat around on the landing of the Fire escape...

Zhuo You was waiting for Wu Ming, who had gone to the 11th Floor to scout the situation.

Unfortunately, Wu Ming had already become a "nameless" corpse in the flood outside the window.

The one asking was none other than Zhang Xiao, one of Zhuo You's three lackeys. He had a sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked appearance, his figure as thin as a stick, and his eyes darted around, always carrying a bit of sycophancy and calculation.

Zhang Xiao didn't really get along with Zhuo You before, but Zhuo You was big and tall. Zhang Xiao was just an ordinary office worker, his physical fitness was poor to begin with, and after daily overtime, his body was completely worn out...

After the great flood, seeing Zhuo You's dare-to-fight and ruthless demeanor, he immediately hugged this big thigh.

Wearing a white undershirt and black baggy shorts, Zhang Xiao squatted in front of Zhuo You, lying against the fire door, staring intently at every move inside through the door crack...

Hearing Zhang Xiao say this, Zhuo You's expression also looked a bit ugly.

Zhuo You was a man with a build as tall and sturdy as a bear, his face piled with fat, and a pair of triangular eyes that exuded a fierce, malevolent aura.

He was the so-called "leader" of this floor, relying on his brute strength and ruthlessness to temporarily suppress the others who were gradually losing their humanity in hunger.

He sat on the cold concrete landing, his fingers digging forcefully into his knees, his face incomparably gloomy.

Zhang Xiao's words "go down and check" pierced his heart like a poisonous needle, stirring up a wave of intense anxiety and anger!

Go down?

Who the hell is going down?

Who dares to go down?

Either way, he wasn't going down!

Those people not only had guns in their hands, but they were damn rifles!

And that flamethrower!

Zhuo You even suspected that a terrorist was living in his residential complex...

Seeing Zhuo You's gloomy expression, the people around him were as silent as cicadas in winter, terrified that Zhuo You would lose his temper and beat someone...

"Wu Ming's old home was on the 5th floor. Theoretically, it shouldn't be that dangerous for him to go back... It's been almost a damn day since he went down, and he's still not back?"

The more Zhuo You thought about it, the more wrong it felt... Damn it, that idiot Wu Ming couldn't have been caught by them, right?

Although he wore an indifferent expression on his face, his heart was far less calm than he appeared on the surface.

Wu Ming had been down there too long! Too long to be normal! The 11th Floor was his own home; no matter what, he shouldn't have been delayed this long... unless, something happened to him...

A more terrifying thought uncontrollably drilled into Zhuo You's mind, sending a chill up his spine instantly: those people downstairs... that tough guy with a gun... if Wu Ming couldn't withstand the interrogation and spilled all his "intentions"...

"Damn it!" Zhuo You cursed in a low voice, the more he thought, the more afraid he became.

He felt as if he could already see that mysterious man holding an automatic rifle, stealthily and murderously creeping up the Fire escape!

That gun—although Zhuo You hadn't seen it, he had seen the merman killed in the water... Even the merman had been beaten to a pulp, let alone their group of starving people who only had one broken nail gun...

Fear instantly overwhelmed the greed for weapons in his heart, allowing his reason to momentarily return...

Zhuo You stood up abruptly: "Quick! Damn it, block the Fire escape! Move the sofa! Move the bed! Cabinets, chairs, whatever, move everything you can! Block the stairwell tight for me!"

The men in the team were stunned by his sudden command and the undisguisable look of terror on his face, but no one dared to question him. Their long-standing fear of Zhuo You made them start acting immediately.

Although no one dared to say it out loud, everyone knew very well in their hearts that Zhuo You was scared...

Immediately, the Fire escape fell into a chaotic bustle. The men scrambled to pile up all sorts of dismantled junk furniture, discarded door panels, and even some heavy debris haphazardly at the stairwell of the Fire escape.

The sounds of crashing, dragging, and the men's heavy panting rang out together...

On the 16th Floor, inside room 1603.

This room located on the 16th Floor had lost any basic dignity as a "residence" after Zhuo You and his gang came down the day before yesterday.

The air in the room was damp and filthy, thick with a mixture of sweat, blood, and a foul, fishy stench.

In the bedroom, a figure was tied to a chair, head hanging low... It was a man, and he was already dead.

The floor of the room was littered with torn, filth-stained clothing, and the bedding on the bed could no longer show its original color, soaked through with various bodily fluids and blood.

The security door at the entrance was full of dents and scratch marks, with its edges turned outward...

Everything in the room was silently telling of the human tragedy that had once taken place within these four walls.

The day before yesterday was the day Zhuo You's "food" ran out, the day the child who couldn't withstand the high fever and weighed only 62 jin completely "disappeared" from this world.

The ugliest desires in human nature, catalyzed by despair, devoured the last remnants of conscience in Zhuo You and his group.

Yesterday, the begging, crying, and desperate whimpering in their own rooms had sounded briefly, only to be quickly drowned out by rough scolding, lewd sneers, and the sound of tearing clothes...

Violence and assault were like some kind of mysterious drug that could allow the perpetrators to temporarily forget despair during their brief venting of bestiality, while the last glimmer of light in the women's eyes was extinguished completely, leaving only a dead, gray numbness.

But on the 16th Floor at that time, no one dared to stand up and stop the actions of Zhuo You and his group...

Li Mei curled up by the bedside, hiding her small body in the gap between the bed and the wall, as if this could give her a shred of a sense of security.

Opposite her, several other women were sitting on the floor, their expressions equally numb, their eyes hollow, as if their souls had long since died, leaving only these shells behind.

But it was precisely this deathly silence that was sometimes more chilling than any crying! It represented the collapse of the bottom line of human nature! It represented compromise! It represented... accepting all of this!

Li Mei stood up slowly, enduring the discomfort in her body... and slowly reached out, attempting to close her husband's eyes, which were streaked with traces of blood and tears.

He was very strong; Li Mei firmly believed she hadn't misjudged him.

He was very brave; this was something he had proven with his life.

Li Mei's slightly caressing hand suddenly detected the sensation of his eyeballs moving slightly beneath her husband's eyelids...

This wasn't right... Her husband had already been tortured to death last night...

Li Mei bent down, observing the expression on her husband's face carefully.