“Damn! What the hell is this weather? Hail in the middle of summer? Haven’t seen this in so many years!” A young man with dyed red hair opened the car door and took a few steps towards the exit.
“Thank goodness we found this place. If we had stayed a little longer, not only would we have been injured, but our car would have been smashed too,” said the person in the car, who was about the same age as the red-haired guy. He patted his chest with lingering fear and looked around.
The two young men were driving a sports car with the convertible top already down, so they weren’t hit by the hail. However, there were some dents on the roof from the impact of the hailstones.
The other vehicle was a Jinbei van, and it seemed like it was intentionally driven to carry more things. The front windshield of the van was completely shattered, and inside were a father and his son. The father’s forehead was either hit by the hail or injured by the broken glass, and blood was streaming down his face.
The young guy in the car got out, lit a cigarette against the car window, and squinted his eyes as he watched the son trying to stop the bleeding on his father’s head. “Dude, was it the hail or the glass that caused the injury?”
“The glass,” replied the son from inside the car, busily trying to stem the bleeding. He was sweating with anxiety.
“Well, you got lucky. We saw someone lying on the ground earlier, with his head all smashed up. It was game over for him,” the red-haired guy said, returning and extending his hand to his companion, asking for a cigarette.
“Before you rush to wrap things up, check if there is any glass in the wound,” the young man handed the whole pack of cigarettes to the red-haired guy and leaned towards the Jinbei van, giving instructions.
“Yes, that’s it. Rinse it with bottled water… Oh, it’s on the forehead? That’s fine. As long as there are no glass shards, the wound won’t be too deep. Just apply some pressure to stop the bleeding.”
The teenager hurriedly dealt with his father’s head, nearly using up all the bandages they had just found. The father cleaned the blood from his face and thanked the young man outside. “Thank you so much. This kid hasn’t experienced anything like this before, so he was frightened.”
“No need to mention it. We learn from practice. We’ve been in enough fights to know how to handle these minor wounds,” the young man squinted his eyes, took another drag from his cigarette, and turned his head to see Xu Song and Yue Zheng’s vehicles.
When the two cars drove in, they didn’t realize there were already people here, especially because it was dark now. However, they noticed that the SUV they were driving was modified, with a roof rack and a layer of something on top that they couldn’t identify. The two young men exchanged glances and walked towards the two men’s vehicles.
“Hey, were you guys here before the rain started?” There were no signs of rainwater or mud on the SUVs’ bodie, and it was in perfect condition, indicating that it had been parked here earlier.
Yue Zheng glanced at the two men. Although they seemed like delinquents based on their appearance and attitude, the young man who just taught the father and son how to treat wounds made Yue Zheng have a favorable impression of him.
“Yeah, we came into the city to try our luck and didn’t expect to encounter this weird weather.”
Looking at Yue Zheng’s side face with a gentle smile, Xu Song’s jaw almost dropped in shock. He had known him for several days, but when did this big brother not have a deadpan expression? Even when he smiled, it was more like a twitch that seemed neurotic.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The young man’s eyes lit up as he looked towards the shopping mall behind the cars. “Is there still stuff inside?”
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Without asking any further questions, the red-haired guy dropped his cigarette and turned to lock the car.
“Thanks, man,” the young guy turned back and pointed at himself, “Luo Wen’an.” He then pointed towards the red-haired guy approaching them, “Su danji/Su Tanji, call him Su Daji.”
“Get lost!” Su Daji’s motherly figure kicked him from behind.
“Yue Zheng, Xu Song. It’s dark now, and it’ll be even darker inside the mall.”
Luo Wen’an was a smart person and understood what Yue Zheng meant. He grinned and said, “Thanks for the reminder, but it should be fine.”
Seeing the two young men entering the mall, the father and son discussed for a moment and also stood up to head towards the mall. They nodded at Yue Zheng and Xu Song on the way without saying anything.
Once everyone entered the mall, Xu Song looked at Yue Zheng and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
There was a sense of coldness in the car, and with hail still falling outside, Yue Zheng felt that if he continued being cold, he would have to consider the down jacket in the back of the car.
“So, you can smile,” Xu Song said.
He had been frozen by Yue Zheng’s icy face for several days, even though they have spent several days together. Couldn’t Yue Zheng treat him warmly? Even if he couldn’t, couldn’t he be a bit more kind?
Yue Zheng remained silent for three seconds, then glanced at Xu Song with a faint look. “That’s called a social expression, exclusively for infiltrating the enemy’s ranks.”
“So, you’re usually an ice block?” Xu Song rolled his eyes. Alright, if this expressionless face was his way of specifically dealing with “his own people,” then Xu Song would reluctantly bear with it. He couldn’t force Yue Zheng to smile by pulling up his mouth corners, right?
“Who’s an ice block?” Yue Zheng felt his eye twitch, irritated by Xu Song’s remark.
“If you had to train every day and felt like puking, you wouldn’t be able to smile either.”
With a chuckle, Xu Song couldn’t help but burst into laughter, patting Yue Zheng’s shoulder hard. This guy was really entertaining! He really wanted to see what he looked like when he was forced to smile during training. It must be quite interesting!
The hail was still falling outside, and the two groups had been inside the mall for half an hour, probably still shopping. Looking at the curtain of rain, Xu Song remembered Yue Zheng’s mention of training and curiously asked, “Why do you need to train to smile? Is it necessary for being a spy?”
“Something like that,” Yue Zheng replied, somewhat absent-mindedly, gazing at the pockmarked ground from the hail.
“Because I’m relatively young, not many people in the criminal police have seen me, so sometimes I need to act as an insider.” Infiltrating the enemy’s ranks was not something anyone could do. It required personal adaptability to various unexpected situations and the ability to mimic different character traits when playing different roles.
“But when I saw you, you had a big beard on, and you usually act with a poker face,” Xu Song hesitated and wisely chose not to say the rest of his sentence, but his previous words already provoked a displeased look from Yue Zheng, who narrowed his eyes at him threateningly.
“Because you didn’t see me using it before,” Yue Zheng replied, realizing that he had already worked undercover more than once while his face was still unrecognizable. He had planned to transfer to another team after one or two more missions like this, but he hadn’t expected this unexpected situation to occur.
Feeling the tension in the car, Xu Song instinctively shrunk his neck, sensing that if he asked further, something bloody might happen.
At that moment, the sound of glass shattering interrupted their conversation. A dark figure broke through a window on the second floor of the east-side mall and leaped down, landing not far from the car.
It was a living corpse! Part of its body was missing, with only the left hand remaining, and there was a large hole in its chest.
The two men exchanged a glance, both noticing the difference in each other’s eyes. This injury was not simple. Who could have caused it upstairs?
The answer was soon revealed as another person jumped down along with the living corpse. With a few leaps, the person landed safely on the ground, using the top of a shop’s signboard for support. They held a kitchen knife on their shoulder and whistled playfully at the living corpse.
“Kid, where do you think you’re going?”
It was Luo Wen’an, the person who had previously conversed with Yue Zheng.
“A person with an ability?” Yue Zheng raised an eyebrow, understanding why Luo Wen’an seemed so unconcerned earlier before they entered the mall.
“Seems like it… a speed-type ability, maybe?” Xu Song observed as Luo Wen’an swung the kitchen knife and struck a pose, thinking he looked cool. The speed at which he threw the knife was almost as fast as when Yue Zheng used a dagger. Xu Song instinctively made a guess.
Before his words could fade, Luo Wen’an exerted force with his foot and rushed towards the living corpse like a sharp sword. Indeed, his speed was astonishing.
Yue Zheng loosened his hand resting on the military dagger at his waist. Since it was an ability user, they should be able to handle the living corpse, and judging by Luo Wen’an’s demeanor, it wasn’t his first time facing this situation.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Three consecutive gunshots echoed, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass from the second-floor window on the west side. Another living corpse screamed as it fell from mid-air, landing on the ground with three gunshot wounds on its arms and thighs. This living corpse seemed to intend to rush to the opposite mall, but it was shot before it could successfully jump.
“Damn it! Why is there another one?! Su Daji, you didn’t fucking remind me!”
Su Daji on the second floor leaned against the window, cursing downwards.
“Who the fuck would think of looking at the stuff on the opposite building upstairs? It’s already good enough that we noticed it now!” While cursing, he fired two more shots.
The fallen living corpse sensed not only the scent of delicious food in the open space but also the presence of its companion. After a quick assessment, it decided to join forces with its companion to deal with a target, considering it better than not getting a bite at all.
As the other living corpse rushed towards him, Luo Wen’an’s face paled, “You fucker, aim properly! They’re all coming at me!”
“No more bullets!” The voice from upstairs filled Luo Wen’an with a sense of fear. If there was only one living corpse, he could handle it perfectly fine, but who knows if these things are zombies? Would getting scratched by them turn him into a zombie too?
“Watch the car.” With these three words, the seat next to Xu Song was already empty.
Yue Zheng’s speed wasn’t very fast, but he appeared precisely in the path of the second living corpse’s attack. With a single strike, he severed one of the living corpse’s arms.
Both the people upstairs and downstairs breathed a sigh of relief, and Luo Wen’an regained his spirits to deal with the one beside him. After struggling to chop the living corpse in front of him into pieces, he finally noticed that the one Yue Zheng dealt with had completely fallen.
Whistling, Luo Wen’an praised, “Impressive, buddy. Have you trained?”
“You’re not bad yourself, pretty fast,” Yue Zheng replied with a polite smile.
Xu Song, squinting his eyes in the car, observed. Well, it seemed that this smile was different from usual, very courteous and standard. The degree to which the corners of his mouth lifted was exactly the same as the previous encounter with Luo Wen’an, unlike the twitching and somewhat genuine smile he usually wore.
Volume 2: The Hunt
Fake smile for outsiders, interesting. Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️
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