Gao Yuan couldn't see Xiang Weiguo in the woods; he could only see zombies rushing into the woods one after another.
His hands were sweaty with tension, so nervous that he couldn't speak. Gao Yuan stared intently in the direction of the woods, but thankfully, Xiang Weiguo soon casually asked over the walkie-talkie, "Are there any more zombies?"
Gao Yuan was somewhat out of voice. He swallowed hard before he could tremulously respond, "No more, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
As they spoke, Xiang Weiguo had already emerged from the woods. He waved toward Gao Yuan's location before heading for the village.
"What are you going to do now?"
"There shouldn't be any zombies left, right? I'll move in closer and try."
"Uncle Xiang, are all the zombies dealt with? Completely?"
Gao Yuan wanted to dissuade Xiang Weiguo, but the words of dissuasion he couldn't bring himself to say eventually turned into a question.
"Yeah, they're dealt with."
Gao Yuan was extremely puzzled because he had encountered zombies, knew how resilient zombies were, and Xiang Weiguo only had a stick in his hand. Even if he was skilled with the stick, dealing with zombies seemed beyond the scope of skills alone.
Xiang Weiguo arrived at the edge of the village, about a hundred meters from the nearest house, and he stood in the farm fields.
There was nothing in the farm field to slow down the zombies, so Xiang Weiguo's position was very dangerous. If more zombies came out, he definitely wouldn't be able to run back to the woods in time.
"Ah!"
Xiang Weiguo suddenly shouted loudly. Every time he made a sound, he would also turn on the walkie-talkie, so Gao Yuan knew how loud he was, but this time, Xiang Weiguo just shouted once, that was it.
Gao Yuan thought Xiang Weiguo was about to sing, but there was no follow-up. Initially unafraid, Gao Yuan grew more and more frightened as Xiang Weiguo's silence prolonged.
Finally, Gao Yuan couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Uncle Xiang, what happened to you?"
"Uh, I forgot what to sing…"
Gao Yuan realized he didn't know what to say, while Luo Xingyu moved her face close to the walkie-talkie, looking woeful as she said, "Uncle Xiang, you're really funny."
Too bad Luo Xingyu's praise went unheard by Xiang Weiguo.
Over the walkie-talkie, Xiang Weiguo cleared his throat, then suddenly shouted, "One two three four, one two three four like a song!"
Xiang Weiguo was impressive; he truly was. But his singing was really not pleasant to the ear, his voice raspy and a bit out of tune – not because he was singing, but because he was yelling. Anyone who had heard soldiers singing knew what that sounded like.
Xiang Weiguo shouted his way through an entire song without interruption, without a single zombie coming out.
Eventually, after finishing his song, Xiang Weiguo said over the walkie-talkie, quite satisfied, "That's it, there probably aren't any zombies left now, come on down."
Scouting turned into close reconnaissance, close reconnaissance into force reconnaissance, and force reconnaissance into a full assault.
The plan was originally just to wait for the right moment to grab things and run, but now there was no need to run because Gao Yuan and the others could move in.
Gao Yuan and Luo Xingyu came down, and Xiang Weiguo put on his military coat again.
An odd fact was that Xiang Weiguo was already old, and even if he weren't, you couldn't exactly call him good-looking, but when Xiang Weiguo donned that worn and incredibly outdated military coat, standing anywhere with a stick in hand, he just radiated such an imposing presence.
"Wow, it's really..."
Luo Xingyu shook her head, then said quietly, "So stylish!"
Gao Yuan felt that 'stylish' was the most appropriate term, more so than 'handsome' or 'imposing.'
Xiang Weiguo nodded at Gao Yuan, then said in a deep voice, "Xiao Yuan, follow me. Xiaoyu, you go elsewhere, stay away from the village."
Luo Xingyu, not understanding, asked, "Why?"
"I'm taking Xiao Yuan to check the zombies' corpses. Do you dare to look? Be careful of nightmares tonight."
Luo Xingyu hesitated for a while, a short while, then still reluctantly and helplessly said, "I might as well take a look, it's better than seeing the living ones."
"That's... quite reasonable, indeed!"
Gao Yuan couldn't help but cheer Luo Xingyu's words. Seeing zombies that were thoroughly dead was definitely better than seeing ones that were bouncing around, ready to bite.
Xiang Weiguo was decisive in his actions. He immediately said, "Makes sense. Let's check it out together."
Gao Yuan couldn't help but say, "Uncle Xiang, zombies... I've seen them. I once saw a soldier fire more than a dozen shots at a zombie. That zombie died quickly but bit someone else just before it did. And I chopped at a zombie with an axe... Its neck was halfway severed, yet it still didn't die, and could still lunge to bite. But why are you able to kill a zombie with just a stick? Are the zombies not as strong anymore, or are you just that amazing?"
Xiang Weiguo didn't smile, he just said in a deep voice, "You'll find out soon enough."
Luo Xingyu was surprised and said, "Brother Yuan, you've actually fought a zombie?"
Gao Yuan slowed his steps and then said in a low voice, "Yeah, I've fought one, don't ask about it."
"The broadcasts all say that zombies are no longer human. You shouldn't feel any aversion. It's all for self-protection, you really shouldn't..."
Gao Yuan stopped in his tracks, turned to look at Luo Xingyu, and said softly, "The one I chopped was Ham."
This Ham obviously wasn't the ordinary kind.
Luo Xingyu and Xiang Weiguo listened to Gao Yuan call for Pipe and Ham on the radio every day, so Luo Xingyu immediately shut her mouth after hearing what Gao Yuan had said, while Xiang Weiguo glanced at the axe hanging from Gao Yuan's waist.
Gao Yuan was somewhat agitated and therefore felt an inexplicable irritation towards Xiang Weiguo, whom he normally respected deeply.
"Stop looking, it's not this axe. The used axe has already been thrown away."
After briefly explaining, Gao Yuan waved haphazardly, saying quite curtly, "I told you not to bring up those past matters! Don't you understand that?"
Luo Xingyu was a bit scared and sad, and she said softly, "I'm sorry, brother, don't be heartbroken..."
Xiang Weiguo stopped and said to Gao Yuan in a low voice, "Xiao Yuan, don't get angry, be brave!"
After saying that, Xiang Weiguo patted Gao Yuan's shoulder and once again said softly, "Be brave, it's okay, it's all in the past."
Gao Yuan took a deep breath, nodded, and said softly, "I'm fine, I'm sorry, I'm really fine."
Chopping off the neck of your best friend, even if that best friend had turned into a zombie, was not something many could endure.
Indeed, not many could endure it, and Gao Yuan naturally couldn't either, so he just couldn't think about it, not at all.
Therefore, it only took an instant for Gao Yuan's mood to change from good to bad, because recalling an incident he was unwilling and afraid to think about could cause him to collapse in an instant.
But the collapse was only brief. Seeing the ground covered with zombies, now completely dead, Gao Yuan was still very saddened, but at least he had returned to normal.
There were a total of twelve zombies, now all face down on the ground, motionless, surely dead, because zombies would never willingly lie down like that.
Xiang Weiguo stopped and turned to look at Gao Yuan and Luo Xingyu, saying, "Do you understand now?"
Luo Xingyu nodded, while Gao Yuan said directly, "I get it. The zombies rushed into the woods, and even if they see the vines, they don't know to jump over or slow down, so they would trip and fall forward face down. You then took the opportunity to hit them with a stick, but... these zombies look quite intact, how did you manage that?"
Xiang Weiguo said in a grave tone, "The brainstem. Taking advantage of the zombies falling to the ground, you wait for the right moment to strike the brainstem. As long as the force is enough, whether alive or undead, they will die."
Gao Yuan nodded repeatedly, while Luo Xingyu said excitedly, "Uncle Xiang, you're amazing! You're really amazing!"
Xiang Weiguo said with a touch of emotion, "Humans don't have sharp fangs or claws, but why have we come to rule Earth? Because we have intelligence, it's all about the brain. Zombies might be faster and stronger now, but they are just irrational beasts, aren't they? Are humans afraid of beasts? Tigers, lions, elephants – are humans afraid of them?"
After finishing, Xiang Weiguo tapped his own head and said, "As long as you're willing to think, observe, analyze, then you can find a way to deal with the zombies."
Gao Yuan sighed and said, "Dealing with zombies isn't hard, then. By that logic, won't we be able to clear out all the zombies very soon?"
Xiang Weiguo shook his head and said, "That's not quite right either. There's also a saying that goes 'act according to the circumstances.' We can use this simple method here due to the suitable terrain, but the key is that there aren't many zombies in this village, which is why we can resolve them all like this. But what about another place?"
Why do they say hands-on teaching is effective? Because no matter how many times you say something, it's never as effective as demonstrating it just once.
After pondering for a moment, Gao Yuan said, "Rural areas are suffering from severe hollowing out now, with most villages only housing the elderly and children, just like this village. But it's different in the cities; there are too many zombies there. If there are too many zombies, it would be impossible to handle them this way."
Xiang Weiguo smiled and nodded, saying, "Exactly, everyone has their limits. I stayed back because I saw only twelve or thirteen zombies, and there was a distance between them that made me think I could handle them. But if the zombies were too close to each other or had no intervals at all, coming in a swarm, then I would definitely run for it. I would just hope that these tripwires could slow the zombies down but would never stay to fight them, not even try."
Gao Yuan nodded and said, "Understood. You have to use your brain, no matter what you do, you must think first."
Luo Xingyu's focus had clearly drifted again. She frowned and said, "If that's the case, then what would the cities be like? Wouldn't they have become... Hell on Earth?"
The smile disappeared from Xiang Weiguo's face as he said softly, "Exactly, Hell on Earth."
Gao Yuan and Luo Xingyu had never seen what a city looked like after the virus had fully erupted, but Xiang Weiguo surely had.
Looking up, after a moment of thought, Xiang Weiguo suddenly said, "If there's no need, then never try to enter a city, absolutely not!"