After listening to Yu Hongfei, Lin Chu understood.

As a soldier, stepping forward when seeing the weak being bullied was almost an instinct ingrained in his very bones.

By the time he realized what he had done, it was too late—he had already offended Ma Yan and his gang.

They had numbers on their side, and it was a direct confrontation. No matter how skilled Yu Hongfei was, he couldn’t fight off four limbs with just two fists.

Someone like him would be considered a good man in times of peace.

But in the apocalypse, where people devour others without even spitting out the bones, such a nature was bound to suffer.

Everyone had their own way of dealing with the world, so Lin Chu didn’t say much—just asked a single question:

“Those people you helped—where did they go?”

Yu Hongfei was momentarily speechless.

The moment those people saw Ma Yan turning his anger toward him, they had slipped away like oil on the soles of their feet.

Seeing his silence, Lin Chu naturally guessed the answer.

The two exchanged a few more words, on and off.

Most of the time, they simply sat in silence.

Ma Yan didn’t keep them waiting long. Soon, he appeared within their line of sight.

Though the distance was too far for Lin Chu to see his expression clearly, she could tell from his frantic movements that he was utterly enraged.

Faint curses drifted up. Lin Chu leaned closer to the window to listen more carefully.

“F**k! Why the hell wasn’t the door closed?”

A number of zombies that had been flooding into the building heard his shouting and immediately turned toward him, charging.

Ma Yan rushed forward, wielding a large machete and hacking furiously at the oncoming zombies, venting all his rage on their innocent corpses.

The others exchanged glances, then hurried to raise their weapons and join in.

These people were always violent; the dozen or so zombies that lunged at them were quickly wiped out.

“Who was the last one out?”

Ma Yan held his blade horizontally, scanning the group. Blood dripped dark red from its tip.

A man standing at the edge swallowed nervously, his voice slightly trembling.

“I-It was me.”

The moment he finished, seeing Ma Yan’s brows arch in anger, he hurriedly added, “But I swear I closed the door—and even locked it with the key!”

The man beside him quickly nodded in agreement.

“Boss, I can vouch for him—I also saw—”

Before he could finish his sentence, his vision was suddenly obscured by a spray of blood.

Warm blood splattered across his face.

A severed head rolled across the ground, spinning a few times before stopping in the grass nearby.

The man responsible for locking the door was beheaded in mere moments.

No one else dared to speak.

From the upstairs window, Lin Chu and Yu Hongfei remained silent as well.

Seeing Ma Yan’s brutality, both of them involuntarily frowned.

As a forensic doctor, Lin Chu had seen many decapitated bodies.

But this was the first time she had witnessed someone being beheaded in person.

That head, soaring high and then crashing down—it was a visceral reminder of this world’s cruelty.

But she wasn’t afraid, nor did she feel pity.

The man had chosen to follow someone as ruthless as Ma Yan. He should’ve known what was coming.

Unfortunately, too many people in this world don’t understand pain until the blade touches their own skin.

The fate of their companion seemed to jolt the remaining four into a rare moment of clarity.

They stared at Ma Yan, unconsciously taking a few steps back, eyes wide in shock.

Once they had backed far enough to feel safe, one of them gathered his courage to speak.

“What was that for? Even if Brother Man made a mistake, he didn’t deserve to die!”

“Just because we didn’t find the woman doesn’t mean you can take it out on your own brothers!”

Ma Yan gave him a look—half smile, half sneer.

That man immediately turned away and fell silent.

None of them were newcomers. Anyone who had survived this long in the apocalypse was no fool.

What had just happened was like an alarm bell, hammering in all their minds.

But faced with Ma Yan—so powerful and violent—even if they joined forces, they might not be able to defeat him.

On top of that, their shelter was on the same floor. Unless they planned to never leave it, they’d be running into him constantly. Tearing off the façade would do them no good.

The zombies didn’t give them much time to squabble either. The three survivors inside the building weren’t nearly enough to satisfy their hunger. Hearing noise from outside, many zombies squeezed out of the building and charged at them.

The five were thrown into battle once more.

The office building had no shortage of desks and chairs. Lin Chu was comfortably seated in a gaming chair with a headrest, watching the chaotic fight below with idle interest.

The chair was extremely comfortable. Lin Chu planned to sneak it into her storage space while Yu Hongfei wasn’t paying attention and take it with her when they left.

The rope binding Yu Hongfei’s hands had already been untied by Lin Chu. He was gone for now—just told her to wait here.

As Lin Chu glanced around, Yu Hongfei came back, arms full of bags.

Once he placed everything on the desk nearby, Lin Chu saw clearly under the moonlight:

A bag of sunflower seeds, a can of preserved plums, two bags of chips, and two bottles of soda.

Lin Chu was amused.

These were once common items on supermarket shelves—she rarely thought to buy them. But now, they were treasures.

And she didn’t have any of them.

Yu Hongfei had actually brought them to treat her.

However…

This also revealed that his shelter was in this very building. And during Ma Yan’s door-smashing rampage earlier, it had remained unscathed.

Seeing Lin Chu looking at him, Yu Hongfei grinned wide, revealing a set of white teeth, confirming her guess.

“My shelter is in this building. I activated the anti-theft doors. Ma Yan did break the outer door, but it didn’t affect mine.”

“I owe you my life. I’ll repay that debt, but not with a few snacks—so eat freely.”

Maybe worried she wouldn’t trust the food, he even opened each package himself and took one of each snack, stuffing them in his mouth.

“See? Not poisoned.”

Lin Chu chuckled, thanked him, then grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and began munching as she watched the battle below.

If Ma Yan knew the woman he’d torn through two residential areas to find was now sitting just upstairs, eating sunflower seeds and watching him fight zombies… he’d probably get mad enough to kill two more people.

By the time they finished clearing out the endless wave of zombies, it was already 1 a.m.

Upstairs, Lin Chu and Yu Hongfei had polished off a whole bag of sunflower seeds, a bag of chips, and the soda bottles were nearly empty.

At the moment, she had a preserved plum in her mouth.

Watching Ma Yan and the others fight, Lin Chu shook her head repeatedly.

Yu Hongfei noticed and asked why. Lin Chu answered bluntly, “What a waste.”

Their method of hacking and slashing destroyed a lot of the internal organs and bones that could otherwise be harvested intact.

Those parts could be traded for points.

Yu Hongfei was stunned.

“All that can be harvested intact?”

Seeing Lin Chu nod, he asked again, “How long would that take?”

“Not too long—under four hours per body.”

Hearing that, Yu Hongfei’s eyes lit up. After a moment of thought, he carefully asked, “If you dissected one like that, how many points could it get?”