Chapter 31

The large family occupying one side of the camp finished their meal. As they cleaned up and settled down to digest, the gate of the camp swung open.

This door and lock were merely for protection against zombies, not humans. Anyone passing by could enter the camp.

A disheveled woman ran into the camp, sparing only a quick glance at the large family on her left before heading straight to Wen Jiuze’s old, modified car without hesitation.

As she reached the corner, Wen Jiuze had already stood up, lifted Xue Ling, and placed her into the car with one swift movement, shutting the door firmly before standing in front of the woman.

“Stop.”

The woman had tangled hair, messy clothes, and scars covering her body, making her appear particularly pitiful.

“Please help me! Someone is chasing me. Could you let me hide in your car for a while?” she pleaded, revealing a pale, helpless face.

Wen Jiuze remained unfazed, delivering a cold warning, “Get away.”

Outside the camp, shouting and cursing grew louder as three men, armed, approached.

Seeing them, the woman panicked, rushing to open the car door, but Wen Jiuze caught her by the collar and threw her aside.

“I warned you, if you come any closer…” Wen Jiuze drew his knife, making his intention unmistakably clear.

The woman, thrown to the ground, froze in place. The three men also paused upon seeing her, but soon the leader cursed, “Bitch, you dare to run, huh? Why run here? Is this man your new lover?”

The woman cried out in fear, casting pleading eyes toward Wen Jiuze.

Finding the scene tiresome, Wen Jiuze’s expression was neither sympathetic toward the woman nor disgusted by the men. He simply stood his ground in front of the car.

The men, accustomed to typical reactions, were momentarily taken aback by his indifference.

One of the shorter men sneered at the woman, “Come with us, or we’ll beat you to death!”

“No!” The woman cried and turned to Wen Jiuze, “Please save me, they really will kill me! I’ll do anything if you help me!”

Wen Jiuze held his dagger steadily, showing no reaction, though a young girl from the opposite family couldn’t help but shout, “Are you even human? Look how you’ve beaten her!”

Her mother quickly pulled her back, while several men in the family took up their weapons and stood protectively in front of the women.

The three armed men turned and glared at them, one yelling roughly, “We spent our supplies to buy this woman. We can beat her as we like! If you feel sorry for her, fine, exchange some supplies, and we’ll give her to you!”

Turning to Wen Jiuze, the lead man said, “How about it? If you want her, trade us some supplies.”

The young girl seemed about to say something, but an elderly man in her family stopped her, likely sensing something amiss.

Suddenly, Wen Jiuze took a step forward, grabbed the woman, twisted her arm, and held his knife to her neck, “Fine, bring the supplies to trade for her, or I’ll slice her right here.”

The three men were shocked. They hadn’t anticipated this response, and the leader, seeing the blade pressed against the woman’s neck, looked visibly nervous.

“What’s the meaning of this? We spent our supplies to buy her, had our fun, and now you want to threaten us with her?” The leader’s voice trembled slightly.

Wen Jiuze replied, “Should I help you get rid of her then?”

He grabbed the woman’s hair and pulled it back, pressing the blade closer to her exposed neck, making a shallow cut.

The woman felt a chill at her neck, quickly turning to a stinging pain. Terrified, she screamed louder than ever, “Don’t kill me! Please, husband, save me!”

The three men’s expressions shifted, and the leader, unable to hold back, took a step forward, “Let’s talk this through, don’t kill her!”

Apparently, the man was her husband.

The other two men spoke up, “You’d harm a woman? Are you even a man?”

These three men and the woman were a family. The leader was her husband, and the other two were her brothers.

For two years, they had run this scam successfully.

If they met a lecherous man willing to trade supplies, the woman would enter his car, inspect the goods, and the family would later rob him.

If they encountered someone soft-hearted enough to offer supplies, they’d take advantage of that too.

If their target resisted, the three men would threaten and make a scene until they were given something to settle the situation. They had carefully avoided large convoys, targeting smaller groups that seemed well-stocked.

They had their eyes on Wen Jiuze’s car as soon as it entered the camp.

But this time, they met their match.

“I don’t have time to waste on you,” Wen Jiuze said. “Bring gasoline and other basic supplies. You have half an hour. If you’re late, I’ll collect her body.”

The men exchanged looks, and two of them went back to fetch the items.

The unexpected turn of events left the nearby family uneasy, while Xue Ling, inside the car, widened her eyes in shock.

After about half an hour, the three men returned with supplies, taking the woman back.

The woman, still shaken, clung to her husband and sobbed. Her two brothers shouted threats at Wen Jiuze, promising they would remember him.

When Wen Jiuze smiled and pointed his gun at them, they fell silent, quickly scrambling out of the camp.

Satisfied, Wen Jiuze put the supplies they had left into his car, opened the door, and saw Xue Ling’s wide-eyed stare.

The faint smile on his face grew warmer. “Your eyes are as big as copper bells.”

He placed a hand under her chin and teased, “Don’t let your jaw drop, you might not find it later.”

Xue Ling quickly took out her writing board, “How did you realize something was off?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “After seeing things like this so many times, you can tell at a glance.”

In the past three years, he had encountered countless monsters and demons. Compared to them, these con artists were trivial, and hardly worth drawing his gun for.

“Isn’t this an obvious honey trap? Can’t you see it?” Wen Jiuze asked.

Xue Ling genuinely hadn’t noticed. She felt a wave of pity seeing the woman’s injuries, and her mind had been occupied by concerns about the woman’s future.

“Look at her — well-fed, clear skin, and black hair. A truly tortured person wouldn’t look like this. Those injuries are obviously fake,” Wen Jiuze said in a calm tone.

For a moment, he felt grateful that Xue Ling was a zombie. Otherwise, she would have likely been deceived countless times over the past three years.

He had witnessed many who had truly suffered, and the thought of Xue Ling enduring such hardship…

Xue Ling was still writing with her head down and wanted to ask him if he had encountered this kind of thing often before when suddenly he pulled her over and hugged her tightly.

His hands kept touching her hair.

Zombie hair wasn’t as soft as human hair and was somewhat dry, but he seemed reluctant to let go, running his fingers through it for a long time.

Xue Ling found him incomprehensible. She hid in the car when the man appeared just now, and watched a big show on the spot. She was not scared at all. What was he trying to comfort her for?

Those who were involved in the honey trap were scared even more.

When Wen Jiuze had held the stranger by the hair, Xue Ling almost thought he might slice her neck in the next second.

But in reality, Wen Jiuze wasn’t a murderer. When facing robbers, he rarely went for the kill unless they forced him to, opting instead to give them a harsh lesson.

This group had tried extorting supplies, yet Wen Jiuze merely demanded a share and then let them go.

He was remarkably skilled at negotiating supplies — even more so than the ones attempting the honey trap — clearly indicating he had experience dealing with this kind of deceit.

Xue Ling erased her unfinished words on the board and wrote again: “You’re quite the expert at outsmarting tricksters.”

Wen Jiuze released her and replied, “Stealing and demanding supplies is much faster than tagging along with a convoy and earning it the usual way.”

He noticed some blood on his dagger and wiped it clean with a paper napkin.

Xue Ling nudged him with her clipboard, where she had written, “Will the woman you cut turn into a zombie?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “You’ve practically polished the edge off my knife. It’s so clean, do you really think she’ll become a zombie?”

Xue Ling: “…” Probably not.

Whenever Wen Jiuze had to use his knife for situations like this, he usually avoided the one he used on zombies. For incidents involving humans, he had other, rustier knives in his car. He felt those who dared to rob him deserved their bad luck if they got wounded. With medical supplies scarce, they couldn’t even get a tetanus shot.

Yet now, all his “enchanted” knives had been honed down by Xue Ling, reducing their sharpness.

That night was destined to be restless. While they chatted in the car, the camp gate swung open, and two more vehicles entered.

The two modified cars bore some resemblance to Wen Jiuze’s. Five or six men exited, talking and laughing loudly.

Each man had a prominent lion-head tattoo on his arm and exuded an equally dangerous aura.

Seeing these newcomers, the family nearby quickly got into their car. The young girls and women went in first, followed by the elderly and children.

One of the tattooed men eyed the young girl in the family, glanced at the male relatives standing guard, and sneered with disinterest.

“Brother Gang, when are we heading back? We’ve been roughing it out here with no decent food or women,” one man complained.

“Enough with the trouble, don’t make things difficult,” warned the crew-cut man who had stepped out of the car last.

They didn’t bother with fire but instead took out canned food from their vehicles, occupying the table the family had just vacated and settling down to eat.

Inside his car, Wen Jiuze’s eyes darkened at the sight of the lion-head tattoos. These men were from the Yishi Base, known for their ruthless, criminal activities under the command of the Yishi gang boss.

Wen Jiuze even recognized the man with the crew cut, Brother Gang, they had crossed paths before.

Xue Ling saw Wen Jiuze tense up as he grabbed his gun, his gaze fixed on the newcomers.

“Who are they? An old feud?” Xue Ling inquired.

Wen Jiuze nodded. “Yes, I once barely escaped with my life from a base run by a gang like them.”

He lightly touched the scar on his stomach, a reminder of that encounter.

Back then, Wen Jiuze had been searching for Xue Ling everywhere, asking about her at every base he visited. When he reached the Yishi Base, he inquired as usual if anyone had seen a woman named Xue Ling.

In the Yishi Base, young women were rarely visible on the streets. When he mentioned his search, someone grinned wickedly, hinting that all the young women there ended up in a single place — the “Lioness Camp.”

The place where the Yishi boss rewards his men is called the “Lioness Camp”. 

All the men in the base want to become a members of the Righteous Lion Gang and get a lion head tattoo. Then they can enjoy all the best treatment and can go to the Lioness Camp to have fun at will.

“You’re looking for someone named Xue Ling? I’ve seen a woman by that name there,” a drunkard sneered.

Wen Jiuze had always been composed, yet at that moment, he nearly cut himself with his own knife.

Staring at the blood on his thumb, he asked again, “You’re sure there’s a woman named Xue Ling there?”

The man chuckled sinisterly. “Yeah, she’s quite pretty. If you want her, you’d better hurry. Dead bodies come out of there all the time.”

Wen Jiuze slowly wiped the blood from his hand, mentally preparing himself. It didn’t matter what it took, he would go and find her.

It didn’t matter, he would kill them.

Was it really her?

Was she still alive?

What had she endured?

These questions haunted him relentlessly, yet he remained calm.

The Yishi Gang was actively recruiting. They wanted someone who could fight, and Wen Jiuze came to them and was easily accepted.

He quickly made his way to the Lioness Camp, searching for the woman named “Xue Ling.”

When he found her, she looked numb and emitted a foul, decaying odor. She was not the person he was looking for.

His heart sank with a mix of relief, disappointment, and lingering fear, snapping him out of his previously calm state. He noticed the fearful and pained expressions on the faces of the other women.

Overcome by a feeling of emptiness and loss after surviving such danger, he finally acted against the Yishi Gang. He injured the gang leader, blew up their headquarters, inflicted severe losses, and created an opportunity for those women to escape.

This incident led to the pursuit that followed.

A Yishi Gang leader and dozens of his men couldn’t kill him, instead, he defeated them, stole their vehicle, and fled.

It was clear he must be on the Yishi Base’s wanted list.

If that “Brother Gang” saw him, he would surely recognize him.

Wen Jiuze mentally prepared for the worst, anticipating a potential fight.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his tense shoulder—Xue Ling had leaned over.

Looking down, Wen Jiuze saw her dark red eyes filled with quiet confusion and concern for him, not fully understanding the situation.

“It’s alright,” he smiled, gently rubbing her cold cheek with his thumb and kissing her hair.

After the whole family got into the car, they started it slowly, intending to leave the camp amid the loud laughter of several men from the Yishi Base, even leaving their table behind.

“What’s that supposed to mean? They don’t want to stay in the same camp as us?”

“Hahaha, Zou Hong, it must’ve been your sleazy stare that scared them away!”

Unhappy, Zou Hong stood up and reached for the gun on the table, only for Brother Gang beside him to pull him back. “Stop causing trouble! If you don’t want to sit here, go back to the car!”

Zou Hong grudgingly sat back down and spat in the direction of the family’s car as it drove away.

“Guess we’re the only ones left in the camp… Oh wait, there’s another car parked in the corner.”

This made a few people turn their heads to look at the corner.

Brother Gang glanced over casually, but then his gaze stopped. The car parked there looked strikingly similar to the modified vehicles used by their gang.