Although the crowd had dispersed somewhat, people were still like headless flies, running wildly in all directions.
Even with Shen Feng clearing a path ahead of us, we were still stumbling as we pushed through.
The baby in Lili's arms was crying its heart out.
I thought it might have been bumped, so I shifted slightly, forming a diagonal line with Shen Feng to shield Lili and the baby behind us.
When we were about ten meters away from the car, Uncle Gazi had already opened the door.
We dashed over, and once we got inside, we panted heavily for a while before noticing the nauseating stench of blood on our bodies.
My shoes were smeared with brain matter, and stepping onto the car mat felt indescribably disgusting.
After what Lili had just done, we didn't dare let her sit in the front passenger seat again.
Uncle Gazi and Han Xue flanked her on both sides, guiding her to sit in the middle of the back seat with the baby in her arms.
When they saw the baby, both Uncle Gazi and Han Xue clearly wanted to ask something, but after catching a glance from Shen Feng, they chose to remain silent.
The baby was still crying loudly.
Lili turned away and began breastfeeding.
I wasn't sure if she still had milk after all this time, but once the baby latched on, it actually stopped crying.
Seeing Lili's expression soften, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
I then looked toward the walkers lying in front of the bar in the distance.
The one that had made me hesitate for a split second—I remembered who she was.
She had been the young daughter-in-law of the security guard from the first time we entered the residential complex…
Sitting in the car, watching the chaos outside, our hearts were filled with unease and fear.
But… what we feared wasn't the walkers—it was the possibility of losing this place that had just given us a taste of peaceful life again.
A few minutes later, just as we were all lost in thought, a series of sharp braking sounds suddenly came from behind.
Then several high-powered headlights were switched on from an elevated position, illuminating the darkening street as if it were broad daylight.
The restless crowd looked even more chaotic under the harsh lights.
A burst of static came from somewhere, followed by a stiff female voice over a loudspeaker:
"Civilians, please remain on the street. All exits have been sealed. Cooperate with Team B's cleanup. Personnel inside the bar, please remain inside and comply with the lockdown."
As the announcement ended, the crowd—previously completely irrational—began to regain some composure.
Some people even stopped and looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice.
The next moment, amid the rising buzz of discussion, an angry shout rang out:
"Why are you sealing us in?! Every time something happens, you lock us down! Are our lives worth nothing?!"
But soon, a large group of soldiers in dark green uniforms appeared from all directions, holding rifles and moving in orderly formation.
The few staggering walkers were quickly taken down.
Then behind them came a team of medical personnel dressed in white coats.
Among them, I spotted Song Jiang, Huang Jun, and Doctor Sun.
With the help of the soldiers, they quickly placed the bodies—already with their heads destroyed—into body bags.
Then, leading the personnel carrying the bags, they withdrew rapidly.
"Civilians, please remain on the street. All exits have been sealed. Cooperate with Team B's cleanup. Personnel inside the bar, please remain inside and comply with the lockdown." The same emotionless female voice continued over the broadcast.
I was certain there must be surveillance cameras installed all over the street.
Watching through the car window as the soldiers—likely the "Team B" mentioned in the broadcast—used anything but gentle methods to stop people from fleeing, it became clear they were enforcing strict control.
An elderly woman was shoved by one of the Team B soldiers and stumbled, nearly falling against our car.
Han Xue, who was sitting closest to that side, looked at her for a moment, then without hesitation opened the door and called out, "Grandma, get in quickly!"
The old woman glanced into our car.
Perhaps seeing both elderly people and a child inside reassured her.
She nodded gratefully several times before shakily squeezing into the back seat.
After closing the car door, the old lady looked at the civilians being driven to both sides of the street outside the window, sighing and shaking her head repeatedly.
"What a sin… trying to do good but ending up causing harm. Trying to do good but ending up causing harm…"
Hearing this, Shen Feng and I both turned to look at her.
Could it be that she knew something?
"Grandma, do you know what's going on out there? How did walkers suddenly appear?" Han Xue cleverly asked the question everyone was wondering about.
The old lady froze for a moment, then slapped her thigh.
"Of course I know! My son's been following the crowd since noon, wouldn't come back no matter how much I called him. Look at this—he hasn't even eaten, running here to protest against Team D or whatever."
"Protest against Team D? What do you mean by that?"
"I'm not too clear on the details, but from what I heard, Team D was doing their routine inspection today. Seems like they found something suspicious in the bar. Sigh… probably someone got sick, died, and turned, but the family didn't want the body taken away—didn't even get a chance to bury them—so they tried to hide it. But how could that be hidden? Once inspected, everything was exposed. So Team D sealed off the bar, along with all the customers inside who were drinking."
At this point, the old lady sighed again. "It's already been a whole day. Aside from a few Team D members going in, no one else has come to deal with it. Of course the families of those customers won't agree. Sure, the bar might have a problem, but what about the people who just came to drink? You can't just lump them all together."
"So these people are here looking for their relatives?" I asked.
The old lady waved her hand. "Not all of them. Plenty are just here for the spectacle. They're copying the old ways, trying to pressure the authorities with protests. But what kind of world is this now? These young people don't understand—they're still using the old methods to create pressure, without thinking. Everyone's living under someone else's protection now—aren't they just slapping themselves in the face?"
"Where's your son now?" Shen Feng asked.
The old lady pointed toward a closed stall across the street. "I just saw him hiding in there with a few others. He should be fine."
While she was speaking, I noticed a handsome, sharp-featured officer walking past our car—the same one who had stared at Suo Tian for quite a while the day we first arrived at headquarters.
If I wasn't mistaken, he was the captain of Team B.
Sure enough, after he walked up to the tightly shut entrance of the bar, a few people stepped forward and spoke to him in low voices.
He then picked up a walkie-talkie and said a few things into it.
When no response came, he lowered it and stood there, staring quietly at the bar building for a moment.
Then he said something to the people around him and raised his hand.
Nearly a hundred Team B members quickly surrounded the bar.
They all raised their rifles— even from this distance, we could hear the sharp clicking sounds of weapons being loaded.
At that moment, another group passed by our car.
I took a closer look, and my heart skipped a beat—it was Suo Tian!
Wasn't he supposed to be dealing with the walkers outside the perimeter? Why was he here?
As Suo Tian passed by our car, he seemed to notice it looked familiar and turned his head to glance at it.
For a brief moment, I saw a rare trace of exhaustion on his tense face…
Leading Big Beard and the others, along with members of Team C, Suo Tian quickly headed toward the young officer in front of the bar.
From a distance, Big Beard was already shouting, "Captain Gao, wait a second!"
The young officer turned at the sound.
When he saw Suo Tian, his expression visibly darkened.
Suo Tian didn't seem to care.
He stepped forward and said something to Captain Gao.
After listening, Captain Gao thought for a moment, then shook his head repeatedly.
Big Beard and the middle-aged man beside him also tried to say something, but the young officer's response was nothing but continued refusal.
The next second, Big Beard was still talking, his mouth moving rapidly, when Suo Tian suddenly pulled out a gun and pressed it straight against Captain Gao's forehead.
Even from this distance, I could clearly tell what he said—
"You're asking to die."
The moment Suo Tian made his move, the hundreds of Team B members who had been aiming at the building instantly turned their guns toward him.
Big Beard and the others were clearly at a disadvantage, but they still drew their weapons and chambered rounds, confronting Team B head-on.
In an instant, the atmosphere became extremely tense.
Captain Gao remained still, his head slightly lowered under the gun for a moment, before raising a hand to signal the Team B members beside him.
Then he said something to Suo Tian and slowly reached out, pushing the gun away from his forehead.
It seemed Captain Gao had offered some kind of condition.
Suo Tian put his gun away, and Big Beard and the others followed suit.
After a brief exchange, the two of them each led a team and quickly rushed into the bar after breaking open the doors.
But just a few minutes after they entered, two dark figures suddenly fell from above the building where the bar was located, hitting the ground with heavy thuds.
Amid the screams that erupted around them, the two figures staggered to their feet—but before they could take even a step forward, they were riddled with bullets by the remaining members of Teams B and C outside.
I looked up at the building—six stories tall.
The walkers had just fallen from a third-floor balcony without windows.
If I wasn't mistaken, the walkers that caused the earlier disturbance had likely fallen from there as well.
While Suo Tian and the others were inside the bar, the broadcast started again:
"Civilians, please proceed to designated exits in an orderly manner for health inspections. Those who pass, please return home promptly. Those who fail, please cooperate with quarantine procedures."
Soon, the medical staff in white coats reappeared at the exits, along with some Team B members and a group of police officers, beginning to guide the congested crowds on each road.
We were also instructed to remain inside the car and wait patiently.
That suited me just fine.
As the crowd dispersed, it became much easier to see what was happening in front of the bar.
The evacuation proceeded quickly.
In about ten minutes, the crowd had been directed to the sealed exits, leaving only the blocked vehicles and their occupants at the central intersection where we were.
Just as the car in front of us began moving forward with the guided flow, Suo Tian and his team finally came running out of the bar.
Suo Tian was supporting an elderly man.
I narrowed my eyes and looked carefully—and then realized…
Wasn't that Dad?!
So Suo Tian had just risked pointing a gun at Captain Gao to get inside and rescue him?
Before I could think further, a vehicle pulled up in front of them.
Huang Jun and Song Jiang stepped forward, helping the seemingly drunk old man into the car, which then sped away.
Suo Tian watched the car leave, then turned back, nodded to Captain Gao, and with a wave of his hand led Big Beard and the others away.
Following the guided route, we went through multiple rounds of inspection and disinfection before finally being allowed out of the lockdown.
During this process, I saw quite a few people ahead who failed the checks—shouting angrily at the medical staff—but they were quickly forced into vehicles by police officers and taken away.
After such a harrowing ordeal, and after dropping the old lady back at her residential complex, we finally returned to the villa district—only to find the entire place without power.
We tried persuading the guard for quite a while, but he refused to let us in.
In the end, with no other option, we were about to spend the night in the car when another vehicle pulled up behind us.
As it passed by and stopped beside us, the driver's window slowly rolled down.
In the glow of the headlights, I finally saw clearly—
It was Suo Tian.
What he said was far more effective than all our pleading—the guard finally opened the gate, and we were able to enter the villa compound with him.
When we arrived, Yangyang and the others were all sitting in the dark in the living room.
Seeing us return, they were shocked and said they thought we wouldn't be coming back tonight.
After exchanging a few words, everyone chose a room and settled in, planning to deal with anything else the next day.
Whether it was intentional or not, they all filled up the rooms on the second floor in small groups of two or three, but not a single person went up to stay on the third floor…
After Lili carried the baby upstairs, Xu Shu and the others pulled me aside to ask about the child.
I had no choice but to briefly explain what had happened today.
After hearing it, everyone sighed with mixed emotions.
Suo Tian seemed exhausted.
Only after drinking an entire glass of water did he set the glass down, breathing lightly.
Seeing that, Xu Shu and the others didn't press further and returned to their rooms.
After Suo Tian dragged me back to a room on the third floor, the first thing I did was toss my shoes into the trash can and tightly wrap them in a garbage bag.
The rotting smell of brain matter simply didn't belong in such a clean room.
After a quick rinse with the remaining water in the heater, I wrapped myself in a towel and finally collapsed onto the bed.
Suo Tian lay sideways on the bed, his head resting on the pillow, completely still.
I turned my face to look at him—only to realize he had already fallen asleep.
I let out a soft chuckle, pulled the blanket over him, then slipped under it myself.
I quietly grabbed a corner of his clothes, leaned in, and gently kissed his face before closing my eyes in contentment, ready to sleep.
But that little kiss woke him up.
In the darkness, his eyes suddenly opened, startling me.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds, then shifted his body, got up, took off his coat, and climbed back under the blanket.
Being held in Suo Tian's arms again, I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling.
Hidden by the darkness, I kept grinning foolishly until he asked in a muffled voice:
"What are you smiling about?"
My face froze—I suddenly remembered…
This guy can see perfectly well at night…
— The end of the Chapter–