"Why did you push me just now? Did you want to kill me?" Su Jin heard Assistant Zhang demanding angrily. When she turned around to look, she saw that he was facing Wei Xiaoyan, whose head was lowered as she sobbed quietly. Su Jin could not tell if she was pretending or actually scared by Assistant Zhang's outburst.
However, no one tried to comfort her. Even Wang Linda just sighed. She could not understand how her cousin ended up this way. As far as she remembered, Wei Xiaoyan was a good girl.
Su Jin walked over to them and grabbed Assistant Zhang's arm.
Assistant Zhang thought that she was trying to stop him, but contrary to his expectations, she simply gave Wei Xiaoyan a hard slap across her face. Wei Xiaoyan fell to the ground, but Su Jin did not stop. From above, she grabbed Wei Xiaoyan by the collar and slapped her other cheek too.
With those two slaps, Wei Xiaoyan's entire face swelled up beyond recognition.
Assistant Zhang thought, 'Well done, well slapped! You're my hero, Big Sis Su!'
Wang He thought, 'Uh-oh, my employees are fighting? What should I do? Any advice would be appreciated!'
Wang Linda thought, 'My poor cousin… But why do I suddenly feel like Su Jin's pretty darn cool?'
The other employees thought, 'Phew, thank goodness we never got on Big Boss Su's bad side before.'
Su Jin had no idea what the onlookers thought, of course, but no one tried to stop her when she was beating Wei Xiaoyan up. That was enough to leave her feeling pretty pleased. It seemed there were not that many brainless 'pure-hearted angels' in this world.
Wang Linda had to help Wei Xiaoyan walk away, and while Wei Xiaoyan deeply resented Su Jin, even she knew that no one would help her right now. All she could do was keep her grudge to herself.
"Cough cough." Assistant Wang cleared his throat. "I'm sure we're all hungry. Let's go to that dinner, shall we?"
"Right, of course! I'm starving, let's go!" everyone echoed.
Once they were in the seafood restaurant, Assistant Zhang and a few other colleagues kept stealing glances at Su Jin while they ordered their food.
Su Jin was speechless. "..."
Wang He chose a few main dishes and handed the order slip back to the waiter. He then took a sip of the freshly-brewed chrysanthemum tea before asking, "Were you trained before, Lil Su?"
Su Jin naturally knew what he meant by 'training', so she nodded and said, "My father was a military man, and he used to teach me Chinese kickboxing."
It was true that Su Xiangzhe had forced Su Jin to learn some martial arts for self-defense when she was a child. That was how she managed to scrape by and survive at the beginning of the apocalypse. However, she probably would not have been able to save Assistant Zhang so easily if the Marrow Cleansing Pill had not strengthened her physique. The impressive mental fortitude she built up when facing zombies over two entire years in the apocalypse helped, too.
"You were too weak just now, Assistant Zhang. Couldn't you at least dodge?" Su Jin wanted to change the topic and move the focus away from her.
"Oh, please, don't call me Assistant Zhang anymore. That's too formal! Just call me Zhang Chuyang or even Chuyang. After all, we went through life and death together, right?" There were no limits to what they could talk about at the branch company's dinners, and Zhang Chunyang had always been an expert at managing the atmosphere. He made everyone laugh, and slowly the others began to relax.
"Sure, come to H City and be my underling," Su Jin said, half jokingly and half seriously.
"Sounds good! Just wait for it, Mr. Wang might fire me someday, and then I'll come running to you."
Wang He looked at everyone, beaming. If only Su Jin was part of their branch company… Truly, what a shame.
Just then, the food they ordered began to reach their tables. What happened earlier left everyone feeling starved, so they rolled up their sleeves and dug in.
As they ate, Zhang Chunyang said, "But that guy just now was super disgusting! I could even smell the rot on him. Since he came at me with his teeth, do you think he has rabies or something?"
A female colleague said as she drank her fruit juice, "Could you not, Zhang Chunyang? I finally got myself to forget that."
A few other women agreed. The man had just been injured, but he was still going around biting people. It was terrifying.
Su Jin felt the need to remind these people. After all, they had seen the truth with their own eyes.
"I think…" As soon as Su Jin spoke, she saw everyone turning around to look at her. They were clearly waiting for her to chime in.
"You should all be careful this month. Hoard more food and water if possible, and don't go out if you can avoid it."
Everyone else thought that made sense. What if there really was a rabies epidemic going around?
Wang He took off his single-use gloves, having finished eating the crab. "Did you notice? After that man bit the nurse, the cop immediately shot him dead. In the past, when it came to assault cases like this, the police would at least try to keep him alive. Unless…"
"Unless this wasn't the first time that cop had seen something like this," Su Jin continued.
"Okay, now you're creeping me out. All my hair is standing on end." Zhang Chunyang hugged his arms, pretending to tremble.
"In any case, everyone should take Lil Su's advice. Stay away from people if possible and stock more supplies. If anything feels wrong to you, get away from the scene immediately," Wang He said.
Thankfully, the other attendees were no fools. They all nodded obediently.
Su Jin frowned. The exhibition was going to continue for another fortnight. If the apocalypse was triggered earlier than expected, these people would be in deep trouble in such a densely-populated location. Now all she could do was hope that it would not happen too soon.
Once they were full and everyone had toasted their farewells to Su Jin with tea in place of wine, they each headed home.
Wang He gave Su Jin his personal name card and told her to call him if she needed anything. Su Jin thanked him and accepted the card.
When Su Jin reached the hotel, she saw a headline pop up on her phone. 'Shocking! Rabies patient near exhibition, nurse ignores advice from beauty and is bitten!!!'
…
Were all news headlines this sensational these days?
Su Jin clicked on the article and was surprised to see that a reporter had captured the incident on camera, later uploading the video online. At least the reporter was considerate enough to censor all their faces. However, they had not censored the zombie's face, so anyone who watched the video could see it in its full terrifying glory.
The comment section promptly erupted.
'Holy hellll isn't that like a zombie??'
'She deserved it! I bet the nurse was a trainee. After the pretty lady worked so hard to tie up the madman too.'
'That lady is sooo pretty! We can't see her face, but her body says it all.'
'I'm sho scawed! I'm all alone at home, gotta hide under my blankie…'
'The nurse was bitten, so does that mean she has rabies now too??!!'
'This is divine retribution! Foolish humans, this is your punishment~~'
'Poor kind nursie. This is so sad. Siri, play despacito.'
...
Su Jin rolled around in her bed, laughing at the comments. In return for the good laugh, she added her own comment to the thread. 'Be careful guys, stay home if you can and stock up on your food. If possible, get yourselves some weapons for self-defense.'
Soon, she received some replies.
'OP, did you watch too many zombie movies? HAHAHAHA'
'Never fear, missy. Come here, big bro will protect you.'
'I agree with OP, they're just being nice and reminding us. Either way, I'm stocking up.'
See, someone believed her. In that case, she should warn as many people as she could, Su Jin thought to herself.
Just then, she saw an incoming voice call from Lu Hao. He was probably busy, or else he would have made it a video call.
Su Jin answered the call. The voice on the other side still was panting, as though the caller was running.
"The one in the news, is that you?" Lu Hao asked breathlessly.
"How did you know it was me?" Su Jin was curious. Her face had been censored so badly that even her mother would not recognize her.
"Your clothes."
Su Jin looked down at the clothes she had not changed out of yet. Right, she remembered now. Lu Hao had bought these clothes for her when they went out shopping once.
"Are you alright? Were you hurt?" Lu Hao asked worriedly.
"I'm fine. Didn't you see the video? I kicked butt out there. By the way, are you outside? Why are you so out of breath?" Su Jin asked.
"Yeah, we got a lead saying that the suspect who got away is hiding in Elephant Trumpet Hill. We're surrounding the entire hill now." Lu Hao finally felt his heart settle back in his chest when he heard that Su Jin was unhurt. She knew some basic martial arts, but only in theory, so he had been quite worried.
"Be careful out there, then. I'll be heading back the day after tomorrow." As far as Su Jin remembered, Lu Hao had not gone for a mission at Elephant Trumpet Hill in her past life. Still, that was a long time ago, and she had been outstation at the time, so maybe she just forgot.
"Yeah. If I have time, I'll pick you up at the airport the day after tomorrow," Lu Hao said.
Just then, Su Jin heard someone yell, "Captain Lu!" on the other end, so she said goodbye to Lu Hao and hung up.
Su Jin then took a shower and went back into the dimension to practice her special ability for a good long time. When she came back out, it was not even eleven yet, but she had to go to the warehouse early tomorrow morning to gather her goods, so she decided to sleep early.