Chapter 5: A Former Colleague

“This is the feeling!”

Lin Xian cried out in his heart, feeling the roaring power from the train. The shadows of last night were quickly swept away. At this moment, he felt as if he had become one with the entire train, a sense of unstoppable exhilaration!

Clang, clang, clang…

On the open-air tracks outside University City Station, a few zombies in tattered uniforms wandered. At this moment, these monsters seemed to have simultaneously detected the strange noise coming from the tunnel, and the tracks beneath their feet had begun to tremble.

“Ugh~ Ah”

“Gurgle-cough~”

The sounds were as if squeezed with difficulty from windpipes as rotten as decaying wood. The zombies, as if pulled by invisible strings, slowly turned their heads, their turbid eyes filled with a deathly stillness, staring intently at the dark tunnel entrance.

Whoo!

The whistle blasted, like a roar from the abyss. The crimson mechanical beast, like a war god awakened from an ancient slumber, burst out of the tunnel with endless fury and the power of years of dust-sealed might!

“Ugh! Ah!”

They howled, swarming forward like a pack of crazed beasts. However, their rotten brains couldn’t comprehend that the source of the deafening roar was not the prey they craved, but a steel monster with a terrifying 18,500 horsepower!

Crunch, crunch~

The accelerating Infinity crushed them like deadwood, instantly creating a wave of blood and flesh. Countless limbs flew through the air. In the cockpit, Lin Xian’s eyes trembled. The gloom that had suppressed him for more than ten days was finally, completely released at this moment!

“Awesome!” Lin Xian roared.

At this moment, he felt an supreme pleasure, as if breaking through the night into the dawn!

It represented that his plan had successfully taken its first step.

Clang, clang!

With an excited heart, the heavy locomotive sped along the tracks. Lin Xian looked at the city, now reduced to ruins, constantly searching for useful information.

The zombies wandering the streets, unless they formed a massive tide, were a relatively minor threat to the average person.

Of course, if they were animal-type zombies, like dogs or wolves, they were often much more troublesome than ordinary humanoid zombies.

Beep, beep~

Chen Sixuan’s phone could no longer be reached.

Since the call wouldn’t go through, Lin Xian put away his phone, preparing to go directly to her door to pick her up.

He was not a person who hesitated. Since he had already made a plan, he wouldn’t waver too much. Unless Chen Sixuan was already dead, he wouldn’t change his plan arbitrarily.

The subway tracks were much clearer than he had expected. Perhaps because the tracks were generally enclosed, and no one would be foolish enough to drive a car onto the railway, he encountered no obstacles along the way.

The nearest subway station to Imperial Water Garden was called Tiyu West. It used to be a crowded subway hub. As the train entered the underground tunnel, Lin Xian slowed down a bit.

Because he had to get off the train to find someone later, if he made too much noise and attracted too many zombies, it would be inconvenient to move around.

Hiss~

Lin Xian didn’t pull into the station platform but stopped a little further away.

At this time, he first went to carriage 2 and found that the girl was still sleeping, which he found strange.

What normal person could sleep for so long?

“Hey!”

Lin Xian patted her small face, but there was no reaction.

So he simply reached out and pinched her. The girl’s face was delicate and elastic. Although stained with blood, it couldn’t hide her exquisite features. She was a true beauty in the making.

He wondered which wealthy family she belonged to.

Forget it, let her sleep.

Lin Xian thought for a moment. To be safe, he sealed all the gates between carriage 3 and carriage 1.

Then he picked up his short knife, carefully observed his surroundings, got off the train, and ran along the small path beside the tracks into the station platform.

…

Imperial Water Garden, Building 3, apartment 901.

Chen Sixuan hadn’t slept all night. The intense mental pressure made her look extremely haggard, her beautiful face devoid of any color.

At this moment, she was curled up in a corner of the sofa, her head buried tightly in her knees.

Beside her were piles of books about the Circum-Star Railway. Chen Sixuan’s eyes were somewhat dazed, her dry lips constantly opening and closing as she muttered in a low voice, “Jiang-Yu Line, number HX05681, total length 1256 kilometers, stops at first-class stations Jiangning Station, Yubei Station… second-class stations Yushan Station, Beiwan Station…”

Since making that last phone call yesterday, Chen Sixuan had placed all her hopes on waiting for that speeding train.

But as time ticked by, the despair in her heart was also devouring her last bit of sanity.

“Beiwan Station, maintenance section…”

She muttered in a low voice, her voice abruptly stopping, a tremor flashing in her eyes.

She thought of the student she had never paid much attention to.

An ordinary family, a warm smile, a reserved personality, not good at socializing, not good at sports…

It was as if… everything was so ordinary.

Then she thought of his ‘railway train’ project, to start a heavy train and escape along the Circum-Star Railway…

Didn’t it sound… a bit too sci-fi?

“Does he know how to drive a train? If he has so much gasoline or energy, wouldn’t it be more convenient to drive a car?” she muttered to herself, each question like a sharp knife, cutting through the hope in her heart.

What if the track is broken? Would this student of hers know how to fix it, or would she, a foreign language teacher, know how?

One after another, questions she didn’t dare to think about popped up, gradually engulfing her, making her feel that the little hope she had left seemed incredibly ridiculous…

Large teardrops welled up in her eyes, dripping down.

But Chen Sixuan didn’t dare to just accept her fate. She clenched her jaw tightly, not letting her tears fall, and chanted in her heart.

He promised… he will come…

“Beiwan Station, one main line, two arrival and departure lines…”

In the empty living room, Chen Sixuan’s delirious muttering echoed again…

Knock, knock, knock~

A knock on the door, like a stone breaking the calm surface of a lake, instantly created ripples, sounding deafening in this empty room.

Chen Sixuan looked up, a look of surprise and joy rising in her eyes.

Is it him?

She immediately ran barefoot from the sofa to the door, but she didn’t dare to look through the peephole. She asked in a panicked voice, “Who… who is it?!”

But the response from outside the door was a middle-aged man’s voice.

“Professor Chen, it’s me, Liang Wei. I’ve been calling you for two days and you haven’t answered. I was a little worried, so I came to ask.”

Chen Sixuan’s heart instantly plunged into an icy valley.

Director Liang was a former colleague of Chen Sixuan’s. This man was extremely sanctimonious. When he was at the university, his eyes would often rove over Chen Sixuan’s body. She had also heard that Liang Wei had preyed on several female students. He was a true beast in human clothing.

She didn’t know if it was because he had some backing, but such a guy had actually managed to get the position of office director at the university. Chen Sixuan was extremely disgusted with this person and rarely interacted with him.

But as it happened, this Director Liang lived in the same community and the same building as her. After the apocalypse, Liang Wei would call her every few days. At first, he was very proper, saying that in times of crisis, everyone needed to stick together for warmth, and that he had a lot of supplies, and she could ask him if she needed any.

But gradually, this guy’s true nature was exposed. Especially after learning that Chen Sixuan was running out of supplies, he became even more eager to send her messages, asking her to move in with him.

Hearing Director Liang’s voice now, Chen Sixuan didn’t know if it was because her hopes were dashed or because she was annoyed, but she felt a wave of nausea and responded coldly, “I’m fine.”

Bang, bang, bang!

The knocking on the door outside grew heavier.

“Fine? Didn’t you tell me before that you were running out of food?!”

Seeing that Chen Sixuan wasn’t opening the door, Liang Wei outside directly pressed his face against the peephole to peek inside. Chen Sixuan frowned and took a few steps back when she saw him approaching.

Who knew that Liang Wei saw the figure inside, his eyes immediately lit up, and he quickly shouted, “Professor Chen, are you hungry? I still have a lot of bread, biscuits, canned beef, and mineral water. If you want to eat, I can bring them down to you now.”

Bread, biscuits, canned beef, mineral water…

The names of these foods fell into Chen Sixuan’s ears, as if carrying some kind of temptation that broke through her reason.

She… had been hungry for two days.

But she also knew that whether what Director Liang said was true or not, as long as she opened the door, she would become this disgusting scumbag’s doomsday toy.

But between shame and survival, which was more important?

Perhaps because he hadn’t received a response for a long time, the last bit of patience Director Liang had was gone. His expression changed, and he suddenly slammed his palm on the door!

Bang!

“Chen Sixuan, you fucking bitch! Stop acting so high and mighty with me. Everyone’s almost dead in this world. If you follow me, you can at least live a few more days. I’m not going to eat you, what are you afraid of!”

“Hurry up and open the door for me!”

Thump, thump, thump!

As he spoke, the pounding on the door turned into kicking. The huge commotion scared Chen Sixuan so much that her face turned deathly pale. She turned and grabbed the fruit knife from the shoe cabinet for self-defense, holding it in front of her chest, her eyes full of struggle.