LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 12 - The Campus Belle Liu Yuqing Wakes Up! Can I Ask You a Question?
Chapter 12: The Campus Belle Liu Yuqing Wakes Up! Can I Ask You a Question?
Before long, the men finished their dinner and were getting ready to take a bath before seeking out those two girls to relax a bit. However, before they could even get up, the young man who had returned to the surveillance room to monitor the cameras suddenly shouted in excitement.
“I found her, I found her!”
Hearing the commotion, the men immediately stopped what they were doing and rushed to the surveillance room. The six security guards and the other dozen or so people who had been cleaning up the table and dishes outside also curiously followed them.
“What’s going on? Where is that girl?” The burly man known as Third Brother was the first to step into the surveillance room, his eyes fixated on the surveillance monitors.
The young man in charge of watching the cameras pointed to one of the screens, “I found her. She’s right here!”
“Huh??”
Hearing his words, all five men looked at the screen he was pointing to.
“Who the hell is that guy?”
On the surveillance monitor, the scene showed Jiang Cheng carrying the campus belle in his arms.
“Is he one of our people? Has anyone gone to the second floor?” The fat man known as Brother Xi frowned, shaking the rolls of fat on his face as he asked.
“Who cares who he is, damn it! If he dares to touch the woman I had my eye on, I’ll chop him up and feed him to the zombies downstairs!” The hot-tempered man with the scar on his face immediately flew into a rage.
The more composed, muscular man in beach shorts noticed the time stamp on the surveillance footage.
“This footage is from over ten minutes ago.”
“Ten minutes ago? What’s the situation over there now?” Third Brother frowned and ordered the young man in charge of surveillance, “Bring up the live feed.”
“O-okay!”
The young man shuddered and quickly complied.
“Hmm? Where did he go?”
But when the screen switched to the live feed, Jiang Cheng, who had been holding the campus belle, had already disappeared from the camera’s view.
“Rewind it!”
Third Brother commanded once again.
“Yes!”
Before long, the young man rewound the footage to the last moment Jiang Cheng appeared on the screen.
“It looks like he’s still on the second floor.”
Watching Jiang Cheng disappear from the camera’s view near the furniture section, the bespectacled man stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“You guys, take some people down there and bring him up here!” The impatient Third Brother, having confirmed Jiang Cheng’s approximate location, didn’t waste any more time watching the footage. He pointed to the security guards who had followed them into the room and gave the order.
“Got it, Boss. Leave it to us.” The six security guards immediately nodded and bowed in agreement, then turned to the dozen others, saying, “Go grab something to defend yourselves with. Meet us at the staircase in a few minutes. We’re going down to help the bosses bring that guy up.”
“Yes, sir!”
The dozen people didn’t dare argue. They responded in unison and quickly dispersed to grab makeshift weapons they had used earlier in the day to fend off zombies.
In just over two minutes, they had all gathered at the staircase leading downstairs, meeting up with the six security guards. Together, they unlocked the iron gate leading to the fourth floor and began cautiously descending the stairs.
Earlier, they had used the sound of their phone ringtones to lure the zombies to the first floor. Under the leadership of the five bosses, they had worked together to clear out all the zombies on the third and fourth floors.
As for the second floor, being so close to the first, they hadn’t dared to clear it for fear of attracting more zombies. Instead, they had simply locked the iron gates on each floor.
But now, because of Jiang Cheng’s sudden appearance, they had no choice but to head down to the second floor.
Naturally, this filled them with resentment toward Jiang Cheng.
“Keep it down, all of you! If you wake up the zombies on the first floor, we’re all dead!”
The six security guards at the front were extremely cautious. Although the third and fourth floors were clear of zombies, the second floor still had some lurking around. If they made any noise, it could spell trouble for them.
The dozen people following behind nodded vigorously. If the security guards didn’t want any mishaps, they certainly didn’t either.
This led them to move more cautiously the further down they went, slowing their pace with each step.
…
On the second floor, in the home textile store…
“Ugh …” At this moment, the campus belle who had been placed on a bed by Jiang Cheng slowly regained consciousness.
She shook her still-groggy head and looked around in confusion. Then, she noticed Jiang Cheng, who had just finished eating and was now sitting on the sofa drinking water. Her heart immediately tightened as memories of what had happened before she fainted flooded back, and a look of caution spread across her delicate face.
“Who are you? Why am I here?”
“Oh? You’re awake?”
Hearing the noise, Jiang Cheng glanced over at her. But when he heard her question, he rolled his eyes. “That’s a question I should be asking you, don’t you think?”
“You’re not with them?” Liu Yuqing looked at him suspiciously, asking in return.
“With who? What do you mean, ‘not with them’?” Jiang Cheng was full of confusion.
“Sorry, I misunderstood.”
Realizing that Jiang Cheng wasn’t with the people who had drugged her, Liu Yuqing let out a sigh of relief. “I was drugged by a friend of my roommate, but luckily I noticed in time and managed to escape.”
“Drugged?”
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but feel a twinge of curiosity. Although it wasn’t exactly appropriate to gossip in an apocalyptic setting, he couldn’t help but imagine some rather unsavory scenarios in his head—possibly even R-rated ones with some steamy elements.
Although such plots might be thrilling in movies, surely that wouldn’t happen in real life, right?
But then again, looking at this campus belle—so beautiful—and recalling how she had been unconscious earlier, it did seem like she had been drugged …
“Hmm …”
Seeing that Jiang Cheng was skeptical, Liu Yuqing’s long eyelashes drooped slightly as she nodded with a touch of sadness, recounting what had happened to her.
If it had been before, she would never have believed that something like this could happen to her.
Not only had she been deceived by her most trusted roommate, but she had also almost been drugged …
“Tsk tsk, this really is quite a drama …”
Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but sigh after hearing her story. At the same time, he speculated, “The friends of her roommate she mentioned are probably on the fifth floor, right?”
After all, based on Liu Yuqing’s description, those people were gangsters and would likely have enough self-defense skills to avoid being easily bitten by zombies.
“Can I ask you something?”
After recounting her ordeal, Liu Yuqing remembered the horrifying zombies she had seen before hiding in the cabinet. Not quite able to believe it, she wanted to confirm her suspicions with Jiang Cheng.
“Go ahead.”
Glancing at her, Jiang Cheng could pretty much guess what she wanted to ask. He nodded nonchalantly; after all, this world had already turned upside down, and she would have to face the truth sooner or later.
“Is it true that … there are zombies everywhere outside now?”
Although she had already more or less confirmed this by observing the empty second floor of the supermarket, she still clung to a glimmer of hope that what she had seen earlier was just a nightmare, something not real.
However, Jiang Cheng’s response crushed that last bit of hope.
“Yes, just like in the movies. This is now an apocalyptic world, and there are zombies everywhere.”
“…”
Liu Yuqing looked at Jiang Cheng, who seemed so calm and composed. She opened her small mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she didn’t know what to say.
She had been an orphan, and it had taken so much effort to get into college and make good friends. But in the end, her best friend had drugged her, and though she had escaped, the world had turned into this nightmare.
How could she, a young woman, survive in this post-apocalyptic world?
What should she do to stay alive?
As Jiang Cheng looked at Liu Yuqing huddled in the corner of the bed, hugging her knees with a face full of confusion, he shook his head. Just as he was about to speak, Jarvis’s voice suddenly came through the Bluetooth earpiece, “Sir, the survivors on the fifth floor are moving down the stairs towards your location!”