78: Chapter 78 You said she's your spouse?

Xu Wanning led the group inside, "Remember, do not fire your guns unless absolutely necessary." Firing in the hallway was too likely to cause friendly fire.

"Understood." The group slowly entered, with Xu Wanning leading the way.

Both doors on the first floor of Unit 1 were open. The door on the left was clearly deformed from external force; someone had likely smashed it open in a desperate attempt to escape from inside, but they had been bitten and turned into a zombie. They were probably among the few zombies just killed.

Xu Wanning peeked inside. The living room was in shambles; the sofa was overturned, the TV screen had a large hole smashed into it, and a zombie corpse lay on the floor.

The zombie's head had been smashed to pulp by something. The green blood and brain matter hadn't dried yet, and a few flies were crawling over it.

Flies.

Xu Wanning felt a twinge of worry. If humans, animals, and plants could mutate, these insects wouldn't be able to escape the same fate.

If these flies, mosquitoes, and cockroaches also mutated, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Their reproductive capacity was so high; it would be a catastrophic disaster. "You all, go check next door."

Xu Wanning released her Ice Ability, freezing those few flies. Then, she squeezed her hands together, shattering the ice and tearing the flies inside into pieces until they were gone.

She would have to report this when she got back. There was no cell signal here, so they couldn't communicate directly.

"Sister, there's no one next door, but there's zombie blood inside. It's likely they were infected too." Xu Yu came over and leaned against the door to tell her.

After digging out the crystal nucleus, Xu Wanning collected the supplies in the room into her space, then went next door to collect the supplies there as well.

These had been delivered by the staff and were all in the kitchen. They weren't contaminated, so they couldn't be wasted.

Xu Wanning instructed Xu Yu, "Little brother, use your Wind Ability to move the zombie outside. We'll burn them all together in a while."

"Okay." Standing in the living room, Xu Yu focused his energy on the zombie, released his ability to envelop it, and threw it out through the window.

It was his first time using his Wind Ability for this kind of task, and he was a bit excited. "Let's go, let's go upstairs."

The situation on the second and third floors wasn't looking good. There were no living people or moving zombies in the rooms, only corpses.

The possibility of them having died together was extremely high; some corpses were clearly infected, while others were clearly still human.

On the table of the household on the left side of the third floor, there were still meals laid out, with three sets of bowls and chopsticks. It was likely that at 8 o'clock on the 25th, they hadn't followed the instructions to isolate, but had instead gathered as a family to eat.

Xu Yu conscientiously moved the corpses out through the windows. For those that couldn't fit through the security bars, he moved them down the stairs.

When the first zombie came out lying down through the main door, Wen Shuyang and Lu Zhiyu were startled, but they breathed a sigh of relief once they realized it was Xu Yu sending them down.

When they reached the fourth floor, a noise suddenly came from the hallway, and everyone stopped at the same time.

Xu Wanning raised her left hand and made a fist. The whole group instantly pressed against the wall and froze.

She listened intently for a few seconds. The sound wasn't a zombie's howl, nor was it footsteps; it sounded like someone scratching a door panel with their fingernails, slight and continuous.

The sound was coming from 401. Xu Wanning signaled to the teammates behind her, and the closest ones, Ma Yang and Song Qiang, slowly moved up to open the door.

They were all professionals. When they weren't forging things at Grandpa Zhou's place, they were out doing locksmith work—it was their registered profession.

The door opened. Squatting on the living room floor was a woman wearing floral pajamas with messy, long hair hanging down.

At that moment, she was using both hands to repeatedly scratch at a crack in the floor. Her fingernails were completely torn back, exposing the finger bones—it looked painful just to watch.

She seemed completely oblivious, scratching again and again, making the floor creak. Something underneath was attracting her.

It was clear that she had mutated; her arm skin was covered in green.

Xu Wanning gripped the hilt of her sword, walked over in a few strides, and with a swift swing, sliced its head right off.

Zombie blood splattered everywhere. The zombie corpse convulsed violently once before collapsing onto the floor, motionless.

"Alright, let's..." Before she could say the word "go," an old man suddenly rushed out from the master bedroom of 401. He was gaunt and thin, with completely white hair, and was wearing a white undershirt that was dirty and shiny with grime.

He was holding a mop handle and swung it towards Xu Wanning's head, screaming, "You killed her! You killed her!"

Xu Jingping was closest to Xu Wanning. Realizing something was wrong, he rushed over quickly. The mop handle struck his shoulder with great force, causing him to stumble a step and lunge toward the floor.

"Uncle." Xu Wanning reached out to pull him up, her eyes red as she glared at the old man. If that had been a kitchen knife, she didn't dare to imagine what would have happened to her uncle.

Xu Yu and Zhou Ke stepped forward simultaneously, pressing down on the old man's shoulders and arms from the left and right, wrenching the mop handle away and throwing it to the ground with a loud clatter.

The old man struggled desperately. He was skin and bones, but his strength was immense. His cloudy eyes were wide open, filled with tears; his lips were cracked and bleeding, and his voice was raspy and harsh.

"What right do you have to kill my wife? What right?! She was just sick, she could have gotten better!"

Xu Wanning glanced at the corpse on the floor. Wife? Such a young wife?

Even though she had turned into a zombie, one could tell that she had been only about thirty years old, while this old man was at least 70.

"You say she is your wife? She's only about 30 years old; you could be her grandfather, and you say she's your wife?!"

Xu Wanning looked at him skeptically. In her past life, she had seen too many men and women who were forced together; their relationship was definitely not simple.

Hearing Xu Wanning say this, Qin Qingru turned and went into a small room. Under the bed, she found a small box containing a notebook. The notes recorded that the young girl had been 15 years old when she left for school, only to be forcibly taken away and imprisoned in the house.

In the first few years, the girl had still been clear-headed enough to write in her diary, thinking of ways to escape. Later, there were no more entries; she had probably gone insane.

Qin Qingru came out holding the notebook, her eyes red. "She was abducted. This man kidnapped her when she was 15."

The group's gaze toward the old man immediately turned hostile. Grandpa Zhou kicked him, and the old man was killed instantly by the kick.

"Serves him right. He deserved to die." No one felt any sympathy for him. If they pitied him, then who would pity that young girl?

Xu Yu threw the old man directly out the window. He fell, and a pool of blood splattered on the ground.

Wen Shuyang and the others looked over suspiciously, but didn't pay much attention, assuming he had been infected and couldn't be saved.

With the fourth floor cleared, the group finally arrived at the fifth floor.

The fifth floor was relatively cleaner, and the door to 502 was tightly shut.

Xu Jingping walked to the door and knocked three times with his knuckles—one long and two short. This was the signal they had agreed upon before separating.

It was quiet behind the door for two seconds, then there was a rustling sound. The latch clicked open, and the door opened a crack.

Bloodshot eyes peeked out through the crack in the door and scanned to Xu Wanning. The moment their eyes met, the door was flung wide open. "Sister Ning, wuu wuu." The young man rushed out and hugged her, crying so sorrowfully.