Not willing to be embarrassed, Rong Qing composed herself and decided to shift the focus to something else.
"Where is the other zombie- the cook?" she asked.
"Not 'other', but 'other two'." Duan Wei corrected her.
"What?" Rong Qing exclaimed. "How come? Did someone else also mutate into a zombie?"
She frantically looked around and confirmed that Fang Bai, Duan Wei and Tang Rong were beside her. Selfish as it could seem to others, but she is incredibly selfish about the people who she could claim 'hers'. And she had seen the process in which a person turned into a zombie with her own eyes. She couldn't imagine this happening to any of her loved ones.
Li Jin was also beside them, so… "Wait, are any of the bodyguards harmed? And where are the other two zombies? What if they came to harm us?"
Tang Rong assured her, "No, the bodyguards are fine. It was the other helper who got zombified. Perhaps he tried to free the bound zombies, and in turn got bitten by them. And, they have been taken care of."
Rong Qing digested the meaning behind 'taken care of'.
"Guys, we won't go to jail, right? Is this legal?" She asked.
"Don't worry, we are just defending ourselves. And it is illegal, we would just say it was you who murdered them all. I know you'd definitely help us take the blame. As a tribute to you, we will come to see you each month." Fang Bai winked mischievously and gloated at the annoyed look on Rong Qing's face.
Just then, the sound of footsteps came from the nearby stairs.
"What the hell! Another corpse! What are you guys up to?" Li Muyang stormed down the stairs with a look of disbelief on his face.
Behind him, Mo Ning was carefully analyzing each of theirs' faces, finding any clues from their body language. The messy room seemed to indicate some kind of struggle that took place, and Rong Qing also had puffy eyes.
Li Daiyu also seemed more alert, unlike her regular lazy appearance.
"Oh, you are on time! I've prepared the meat for the barbecue. We can have an amazing lunch today." Fang Bai motioned at the gore object and looked at them dead in the eyes while spitting those words out of his mouth.
Li Jin's head spun in his direction with question marks all over his face.
'Is this guy inviting trouble? What if they misunderstood? And how can he say all these words… Isn't he the innocent kind?'
Rong Qing's eye was twitching. Duan Wei decided to quietly watch the show, not missing the smirk that crawled up Tang Rong's face.
Fang Bai was definitely in the mood of pressing other's buttons. Those who understood him very well knew that his usually suppressed poisonous tongue was probably showing itself as a result of the stressful situation. This sequence of events had probably affected him quite deeply.
"Stop joking and tell us what happened." Li Muyang was not in the mood for any kind of joke.
Li Jin and Rong Qing released the breath they didn't know they were holding. Thank goodness Li Muyang did not doubt Xiao-Bao…
"Apparently these people turned into zombies and were now biting people, trying to eat them and also converting them into zombies. Like this one here, who first mutated by himself, and then bit his companion and also turned into like him. You probably saw the other one above." Fang Bai motioned towards the roof, indicating the floor above them. "And they can only be stopped if they are killed, for which the only method is to be hit on the head."
"How did you know they were trying to harm you? And how did you know the method of killing them?" Li Muyang inquired like a detective.
"The helper ran violently towards me with the intention of hitting me. Li Jin broke his knees and arms but that person still did not stop. Then he told me that the only method of stopping them was to kill them by hitting on the head and nervous system. And it was true." Fang Bai shrugged and narrated what happened.
Li Jin suddenly became the focus of everyone in the room. Everyone was sizing him up, trying to relate if he could do something like breaking someone's arms and legs, and then killing them. Especially those penetrating eyes of Tang Rong and Duan Wei…
"And how did you know that sir?" Li Muyang questioned Li Jin at last.
"I actually went to a pharmacy once during the daytime." Li Jin spoke carefully in a low voice.
"What?!" Rong Qing exclaimed in disbelief, representing everyone except the three bodyguards.
"You all had very strong fevers. I was also feeling very unwell. I could not find any medicine and many of you seemed to be in critical condition. Everything I had was just for external wounds, and fever medications were not enough for everyone. So I took the car and went to the medical shop. There I brought the necessary first aid." Li Jin carefully recounted his experience.
And not just medical supplies, he also almost brought home everything in the supermarket and the nearby market. But there was no need to say this in front of the outsiders.
He had been trying to find ways to tell this to Tang Rong and his friends, but he could not find a proper opening.
"You did not encounter any of these… zombies?" Li Muyang asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. At first, I just saw people haphazardly fallen on the street. They were probably in fever too and their bodies were constantly twitching like the helper's body did before mutating. If there were one or two, I could probably help them, but it seemed that the whole street was just ill. And you all were also in critical condition back home… So I just bought medicine for us and headed back." Li Jin recounted his experience.
"When I was about to board the car, one of the fallen people I had seen before going into the pharmacy, was now awake, and was eating the brain of a lady beside him. The weird thing was, that the lady wore identical couple clothes to him. When that man saw me, he violently charged towards me, and I was afraid that he would also eat me. So I hit him with a stone I picked on the road. Nothing was happening to him and he was getting up again and again. Only when I hit his head did he actually stop trying to kill me. And… When that man had fallen, I noticed that the woman with half her head eaten had also gotten up, and just like the man, she ran towards me to kill me. That's how I found that people were turning into zombies. And the helpers were also showing similar symptoms, so I tied them up."
No-one asked Li Jin what he did to the woman, as it was obvious. But there was a strange silence in the room.
Li Jin did not mention that he killed off probably ten of the early-mutated zombies who had high chances of turning into high level zombies in the future. In this way, this area could be less dangerous than others, but not for a long time.
"How did you get the money to buy all the medical supplies?" Duan Wei broke the silence with a lighthearted question. They all knew that Li Jin had finished all the money in his pocket on ice-cream, and they did not visit any ATMs where he could withdraw any funds.
"There was no-one in the store…" Everyone was staring at Li Jin weirdly, so he decided to not mention that he had robbed the shop. "So I- I… just swiped the card according to the prices written on the medicines."
"Oh, my bad." Duan Wei face-palmed himself and others showed knowing expressions. Only Fang Bai knew that Li Jin's bank balance was actually zero.
******