Chapter 73 - 72: Liu Bin’s Visit
"?"
The two women stared at the bleary-eyed Lin Fan, who was hunched over the back of the sofa, utterly confused.
"What’s wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"
Su Qing grabbed a tissue, wiped her hands, and walked over to the sofa to feel Lin Fan’s forehead.
"You’re not hot..."
"Is that... Chu Zhaozhao?"
Lin Fan carefully studied the girl across from him, then crooked a finger to beckon Su Qing closer. He whispered in her ear in disbelief.
"Who else would it be?"
Su Qing looked puzzled, having no idea what Lin Fan was talking about.
Lin Fan looked suspiciously at the green health bar of [41/100] above her head, then glanced at Su Qing’s green health bar of [100/100]...
Lin Fan called out tentatively.
"Zhaozhao...?"
Chu Zhaozhao’s clean little face peeked out from behind Su Qing.
"Brother Lin! What’s wrong with you!"
’So it really is her...’
"No... How is this possible? She doesn’t look anything like her..."
He just couldn’t reconcile the person before him with the grimy, stinky girl from his memory—the one with the messy, unruly hair, a face covered in patches of dirt, and, at best, a baby face with big eyes.
It made Lin Fan’s mind, still groggy from sleep and tangled in a nightmare, feel like it was suffocating.
"What’s wrong?"
Su Qing leaned over and cradled Lin Fan’s head against her chest, asking gently.
"It’s nothing... I feel much better now..."
Lin Fan answered in a muffled voice from within Su Qing’s embrace.
...
"So, what are you two doing...?"
Even after admitting that this person was also Chu Zhaozhao, Lin Fan still sniffed suspiciously at her hair.
’Ugh... Smells like the same shampoo Su Qing uses...’
"Slicing meat... Get up, dinner will be ready soon. We should eat before it gets dark..."
Only then did Lin Fan notice that the dining table was already set with various meatballs and the few remaining vegetables from the fridge.
"Where are your brother and the other two?"
Lin Fan asked Chu Zhaozhao.
"The other two? Aren’t there only two of them?"
Chu Zhaozhao answered, confused.
"They both fell asleep after their showers. I just called them, they’ll be down in a minute."
’It really is Chu Zhaozhao...’
Seeing that he couldn’t trick her, Lin Fan had to confirm it to himself once more.
"That’s enough out of you..."
Su Qing said, rolling her eyes at Lin Fan as she placed a plate of meat on the table.
"A girl really does change so much as she grows up... Your haircut looks pretty good..."
Lin Fan remarked, studying Chu Zhaozhao.
"It does, right? Sister Qing cut it for me!"
Chu Zhaozhao said, pulling on Su Qing’s arm.
Lin Fan was just recovering from the shock of Chu Zhaozhao’s complete transformation when he noticed that Su Qing’s hair had also been cut much shorter.
Her original shoulder-length hair was now cut to just graze her shoulders and was combed back, adding a touch of crispness to her already beautiful and charming face.
Her entire aura felt much more...
More "open."
"Brother Lin..."
Just as Lin Fan was leaning against the back of the sofa, watching the two beauties walk back and forth preparing dinner, a voice called out from the doorway.
It was Chu Zhaotian. When he saw Lin Fan turn his head, he continued.
"I went to the RV to get something and saw that Liu Bin guy. He’s in the first-floor clinic... and he brought a lot of stuff with him."
"Oh?"
Lin Fan stood up from the sofa, stretched languidly, and spoke casually to Chu Zhaotian.
"They’re done distributing the supplies? Alright, let’s head down."
After saying a quick word to Su Qing, he started walking downstairs.
Down on the first floor, he saw Liu Bin and another man who looked familiar but whose name he couldn’t recall, standing in the main hall.
The two of them had two small pushcarts. One had a stack of cardboard boxes of various sizes tied to it, while the other carried several barrels of water.
"Brother Lin..."
Seeing Lin Fan come downstairs, Liu Bin hurried over to greet him, bowing slightly with a smile.
"Hey, Brother Liu, no need to be so formal. What’s up?"
Lin Fan waved his hand at Liu Bin, then turned and brought out a stack of plastic stools from the inner room. Seeing this, Chu Zhaotian quickly took them, unfolded them one by one, and arranged them in the clinic’s hall.
The four of them took their seats. Lin Fan gestured toward the two carts and asked.
"Is this for us?"
Liu Bin nodded eagerly, his voice filled with excitement.
"Yes, Brother Lin. You have five people here, so I brought a portion for five... The supplies in the warehouse were more than we ever imagined!
There are nearly a hundred bags of rice and flour combined.
There are also almost a hundred boxes of dried noodles, instant noodles, and other things like instant vermicelli.
There are over thirty barrels of cooking oil, and about four hundred bags of salt and sugar.
And there are more than ten boxes of various miscellaneous seasonings."
"How many people are left in total?" Lin Fan asked, signaling Chu Zhaotian to call people to move the supplies.
Hearing Lin Fan’s question, Liu Bin quickly pulled a small booklet from his pocket, handed it to Lin Fan, and said:
"According to the current count, including our own people, there are 52 survivors who made it out. 34 men and 18 women. No one over 60, and 5 under 18, including one who is 14."
"They’re all able-bodied adults, and several of them are real tough guys who had to kill zombies in the hallways to get out."
"I discussed it with a few of the guys, and this is the distribution plan we’re implementing today. Please take a look..."
"Whoa... you don’t need to show me. You guys decide how to distribute the supplies. How much water is there...?"
Lin Fan waved his hands dismissively when he saw Liu Bin pull out another list covered in densely packed words.
"Oh, okay." Liu Bin quickly put the list away and took out the small booklet again.
"There are a total of 168 barrels of water, plus 26 cases of bottled mineral water.
We did exactly as you said before. We gave everyone one barrel and told them it’s at least a week’s worth of supply.
There are 111 barrels left. We haven’t touched the cases, in case we need to go out in the future, bottled water is easier to carry than barrels..."
The more Liu Bin spoke, the more excited he became, his voice brimming with confidence.
"After this batch of supplies was handed out, everyone’s spirits stabilized. Now that they have food, their morale is high. They all say they’re willing to follow orders and pitch in!"
As Lin Fan listened to Liu Bin rattle off the numbers, he did a rough mental calculation. The supplies were quite plentiful.
He nodded, then looked up, peering through the gap between the two RVs at the street outside.
The sky was already growing dim, and the dark red bloodstains had turned black.
The sky had a grayish tint again. For some reason, the rain had been especially frequent this summer.
"What’s next? What are your plans?"
As if he knew Lin Fan would ask, Liu Bin answered confidently.
"The zombies’ weak point is their heads. They’re strong, have a powerful bite, and it’s hard to break free if they grab or bite you. Plus, you get infected if you’re injured. Even with protection, ordinary people need to use long-range weapons..."
"We have that cutting machine, right? After we distributed the food, one guy said his car could be rigged to provide external power. I traded him some food for it.
That way, we won’t have to trouble you for your RV’s power. His car still has plenty of charge.
I’m planning to organize some people to make a batch of long steel pipes, just like yours.
Then, we’ll start by prying open the empty apartments in the first few rows of buildings facing the street. At most, there will be one or two zombies inside. If we all go in together, we can just stab them to death. We should be able to collect a lot more supplies that way..."
Lin Fan listened to Liu Bin’s plan. It was feasible. With so many able-bodied adults, arming them was the first priority.
If he could organize a few dozen people armed with long spears, a small cluster of ten or so zombies wouldn’t even be able to get close, let alone zombies in a room. Five or six spears would be enough to block a doorway completely.