As time went by,
The two of them gradually grew up,
For some unknown reason, they drifted apart.
Later, when it came time for college, they each headed off to different cities.
Their communication became even less frequent.
Youyou couldn't help but feel emotional when Li Yu saw Lai Xiyue teaching the younger ones.
Her face was like the yolk of a goose egg, her high ponytail and the youthful aura drifting through the air.
Her jeans stretched tight over her slender legs, she now held a textbook,
Radiating an intellectual charm from head to toe...
Seemingly sensing Li Yu's gaze, Lai Xiyue looked up and their eyes met.
They nodded at each other, saying nothing more.
During their time living together, no despicable acts of human nature occurred.
Hunger tests humanity, but the base's abundant food supply maintained moral standards.
With mostly familial relations, the atmosphere remained harmonious.
The rain kept falling, and Li Yu took this time indoors to teach everyone how to deal with zombies.
Each person basically learned to use crossbows and swords.
Even 4-year-old Li Suxin learned how to use a dagger.
In the apocalypse, protecting children wasn't about keeping them in a false sense of innocence,
but to give them as much happiness as possible under the circumstances of adapting to the end times.
The torrential rain had been pouring for 10 days straight.
Today, the rain gradually lessened.
From the roar of the downpour to a gentle drizzle.
After the rain cleared, a rainbow hung above Mountain Pond,
As if linking two mountains.
Li Yu looked at the sky, which was hardly raining anymore, ready to go out for a bit.
During this time, his aunt and mother had been worrying about their brother.
In fact, other family members were still outside the base, like Second Uncle, his little aunt, and Third Uncle's family.
But they were all too far away, and the situation was unstable now – too dangerous to seek them out.
Not to put it too bluntly, in such a perilous apocalypse, exacerbated by the heavy rain,
Who knows what might have happened now...
But his uncle was on duty in a town just below the county, not far from here.
So, Li Yu decided to go look for him.
Additionally, he planned to stop by the county's police station en route to see if he could acquire some firearms.
This time, Li Yu planned to take more people with him.
Originally, Father Li Hongyuan also wanted to go, but Li Yu managed to convince him to stay.
His elderly father looked at his son with heavy sighs in his heart, but even more so with relief.
Li Yu, Li Hang, Fourth Uncle, Uncle Lai, and Liu Jinglue.
Li Yu hadn't planned to bring Liu Jinglue along, fearing that if anything happened to his uncle, Liu Jinglue wouldn't be able to handle it.
But he couldn't resist Liu Jinglue's pleading,
And finally agreed upon seeing that beseeching look in his eyes.
Uncle Lai was almost always brought along on trips without any complaints.
Everyone else was Li Yu's kin, but his family had no blood ties with them.
Although they were close, Uncle Lai felt he shouldn't just live there without contributing.
Otherwise, he'd feel uneasy, so he always volunteered first whenever there was an outing.
Li Yu noticed, and although he understood Uncle Lai's thoughts, he didn't say much.
After all, Uncle Lai was a fierce fighter, honest and loyal, and willing to follow orders.
Having Uncle Lai with him made Li Yu feel more secure.
They took two vehicles, a party of five.
Before they left, Li Yu instructed Father Li and Second Uncle that no matter the circumstances or who they encountered, they must not open the door.
When they opened the gate, a dozen meters away from the base, several corpses were already swollen from soaking in the water, stinking.
The bodies were covered with swarms of flies.
To avoid spreading the plague, Li Yu, wearing gloves, moved several corpses into the woods and hurriedly dug a pit to bury them.
Their journey was fraught with disarray.
Some of the unstable old houses had half of their walls collapsed.
A scene of utter ruin.
"Xiaolüe, did your dad go to Laowu Village?" Li Yu looked at Liu Jinglue, who was sitting in the backseat, and asked.
"Yes! When he called, he talked about this place."
After hearing this, Li Yu asked Uncle Lai to guide the way.
Before his rebirth, Li Yu had always been away from home, only familiar with the surroundings of his home and the county.
Uncle Lai had always stayed at home, helping Father Li deliver culvert pipes all over the county, so he was familiar with various places in the county.
Uncle Lai looked over the paper map repeatedly, nodding with certainty after confirming the location, "This is it."
"Go straight first, then....."
Li Yu drove the car following the directions given by Uncle Lai.
About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Laowu Village.
However, as soon as the car reached the entrance of the village, it could go no further.
Gazing at the village submerged in water ahead, the group fell into silence.
Laowu Village was one of the low-lying areas in the county and was among the first places where zombies broke out.
It was likely that everyone inside was already dead.
Looking at the vast expanse of water, only the roofs of a few elevated houses were barely visible.
Xiaolüe instantly broke down, yelling towards the front: "Dad! I'm Xiaolüe, where are you?"
The shouts echoed in the depression, reverberating throughout the valley:
Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?...
Upon hearing this, Li Yu quickly said, "Xiaolüe, stop shouting! Zombies might get attracted here!"
His tone was a bit emotional due to anxiety.
Right after Li Yu finished speaking, several zombies' screams could be heard from a hundred meters away.
Hearing this, Xiaolüe instantly calmed down and sheepishly glanced at everyone.
"Sorry, I, I, I..." Before he could finish, Li Yu patted his shoulder,
saying, "It's okay, I understand, but don't do that again."
As the sounds of zombies grew closer,
Li Yu hurried everyone to get back into the car and escape from this place.
If the zombies from the surroundings swarmed them, it would spell trouble.
The five of them wouldn't be enough to feed them!
Everyone quickly got into the car, and the roar of the SUV's engine once again stirred the surrounding zombies.
At the entrance of the village to the right, dozens of zombies chased after them, with even more vaguely following behind!
And from the water ahead, several zombies had emerged!
The SUV sped up in an instant, leaving the place behind.
The pursuing zombies continued the chase but eventually stopped and howled in place when they couldn't keep up.
After driving over a kilometer, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Their hearts were pounding with lingering fears.
The SUV moved along the road, with sparse zombies wandering aimlessly beside the national highway.
Upon hearing the sound of the engines of these two vehicles, the zombies chased after them like mad.
All the way, there were some stranded cars haphazardly stopped on the road.
Some random debris on the ground blocked the path,
Li Yu and Uncle Lai got out to clear the way, while the other three kept watch.
In some cars stopped on the national highway, there were even zombies howling inside.
Upon seeing them, Li Yu and his group put them down with a single stab.
This road was indeed difficult to travel; the heavy rain had washed a lot of mud onto the surface,
rendering it extremely muddy.
Stopping and starting, they finally made it into the county.