549690339 , When Wang Tao entered Room 201, the sight of chaos and bloodstains everywhere must have given him some expectations., But the sight of rice spilled into pools of blood in the kitchen still pained him greatly., “What a waste!”, Most of the rice was inedible, and judging by the traces on the ground, Wang Tao suspected a female zombie had pursued the male homeowner, who likely tried to grab a kitchen knife, throwing everything at the zombie in his path. The bag of rice in the corner was probably knocked over by the man., Unfortunately, it seemed the fight hadn’t delayed the zombie for long…, “No, my rice!”, The bald man wailed, clutching his head. He was genuinely crying—after all, it was 50 pounds of rice!, “Pick through it, see if any is still edible.”, Wang Tao patted his shoulder., “Hmm…”, Trying to suppress his grief, the bald man began to sort carefully., The kitchen was covered in blood—impossible to tell if it was human or zombie. The woven bag that held the rice had toppled to the floor, the grains mixing with the blood. However, there seemed to be some rice at the bottom of the bag that might still be edible., Swallowing hard as he looked at the rice in the blood, he ultimately didn’t dare to take it., If it were only human blood, he might consider it if he were nearly starving to death… But the problem was the zombie blood. If he dared to eat it, he’d likely turn into a zombie within minutes!, Reluctantly, he had to give up., Wang Tao searched through the rest. Most of the food in the kitchen was contaminated, but the refrigerator door was unopened. Inside, there were some wilted vegetables, some eggs, and, to their surprise, several pounds of frozen beef in the freezer., Seeing this, the bald man’s mood finally improved a lot, making the trip worthwhile., After considerable effort, they managed to sort out the edible rice. Wang Tao and the bald man collected these items and then returned to the bald man’s apartment., “Only 6 pounds of rice left… 2 pounds of vegetables, 5 pounds of meat, 22 eggs—that’s about 2 pounds…”, In total, 15 pounds of food—not as much as expected but still decent. After crunching the numbers with pen and paper, the bald man looked at Wang Tao expectantly and said:, “According to our deal, I take one-quarter which is 1.5 pounds of rice, half a pound of vegetables, 1.25 pounds of meat, and 5—no, 5 eggs… ”, Wang Tao was much stronger than he had anticipated; he expected a tough struggle between Wang Tao and the zombie, but Wang Tao resolved it in a minute… If Wang Tao didn’t keep his promise, he would have no way to resist., Fortunately, Wang Tao was a man of his word., “Okay, take yours first. Give me the rest.”, “Alright! Thank you, brother, thank you so much!”, The bald man quickly took his quarter share and then helped to pack up the rest of the food., Having taken the goods, Wang Tao stood up to leave., “I’ll be going back now; I’ll come over again tomorrow.”, He hadn’t mastered all the lock-picking skills yet, and that was a craft Wang Tao was determined to learn., “Eh, sure! I’ll give you these tools so you can practice on your own…”, The bald man readily agreed and then proceeded to hand over some tools to Wang Tao., “Thanks!”, Wang Tao looked at him appreciatively, nodded in preparation to leave, but suddenly turned back and asked:, “By the way, do you know the situation with the two apartments downstairs?”, “Downstairs… I’m not too sure, when the virus broke out, I was too scared and didn’t pay much attention to the neighbors…” The bald man was somewhat embarrassed, but quickly added, “However, I do know that there’s an elderly couple in 101 downstairs, and a family of three in 102, their naughty kid always causing trouble…”, Wang Tao had some recollection when it came to the naughty kid., During the previous winter break, he was hit by a little stone thrown by that kid, and when he turned around, his scary scarred face immediately made the kid cry., Wang Tao even got scolded by the kid’s mom, and if the other people in the courtyard hadn’t stepped in to defend him, the kid’s mom would have even tried to extort money from him!, After that, when the kid went to school, Wang Tao’s routine didn’t align with that of normal people, so they never ran into each other again…, “So, it looks like there might be five zombies downstairs… Alright, I’ll head back first.”, “Okay!”, After leaving 202, Wang Tao didn’t rush back home. Instead, he went to the first floor and lightly knocked on the doors of 101 and 102., Soon, there came some scratching noises from inside., “Great, there are zombies inside.”, Wang Tao went back to the bald man to tell him that there were zombies in both houses downstairs and warned him not to unlock the doors rashly., If the bald man, tasting success this time, tried to unlock those doors, that would spell trouble., “Thanks, buddy. You can rest assured, I dare not go in there…”, Remembering the scene he encountered in 201, he was still shaken., “As long as you understand.”, After Wang Tao got home, he organized the supplies he had gathered that day and analyzed the situation in the building., Based on the current situation, there seemed to be only four surviving families: 501, which was his own; 502, where the sister-in-law lived; the stranger in 401, and the bald man in 202., There were also the rooms he had looted, which were 602, 301, and 201., Then there were rooms where he had knocked and heard noises, confirming the presence of zombies – these were 601, 101, and 102., Last were the rooms he guessed were empty: 402 and 302… Of course, his guesses might not be accurate. Maybe the zombies hadn’t heard him, or perhaps there were other threats, it was hard to say. But he felt there was a high probability they were empty., “One visit will tell if someone’s there or not!”, Wang Tao clenched his fists, ready to venture out again., Killing that zombie today had been relatively easy, and he hadn’t wasted too much physical strength. Even if there were zombies in those rooms, he felt confident he could handle them!, After eating something light and drinking some water, Wang Tao grabbed his lock picking tools and the steel pipe and set out again., It was now past three in the afternoon, still early before dark, so time was on his side., First, he went to 402. Using the skills the bald man taught him that morning, he managed to open the door after a bit of effort with a click., He cautiously entered and looked around. After a thorough check, Wang Tao breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, there was no one in this apartment!, But soon, Wang Tao felt uneasy. Not only was the place void of people, but there were also no signs of life., Furniture was covered with plastic sheets, all of which were layered with thick dust. Judging from the looks, at the very least, no one had lived here for a month or two., Nevertheless, since he was already there, he certainly intended to look around. He couldn’t leave empty-handed., And sure enough, just after stepping into the spare bedroom, Wang Tao found some valuable things., “Is this… a portable power supply! And a generator!”, Among some miscellaneous items in the spare bedroom, Wang Tao spotted a portable power supply and a diesel generator next to it., “These people were likely off on a trip? Well then, I won’t be polite!”