Chapter 28: Pendant
The guard interrupted him with a smirk. "You still owe us."
Ji Henghua froze. "...Then... please return it."
The two guards exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. "Return it? You handed it over yourself. It belongs to us now."
Ji Henghua immediately reached toward the guard. "That pendant belonged to my mother!"
Before his fingers could touch it... Bang! One guard violently shoved him backward. Ji Henghua crashed onto the ground, and white powder slipped out of his sleeves. Since it was in a low amount, it went unnoticed.
His glasses tilted. The guards laughed loudly.
"Poor people shouldn’t carry valuables. Get lost before we throw you into the zombie horde."
Ji Henghua slowly clenched his fists. But in the end, he silently stood back up.
Fighting against these guards head-on would only cause loss. He quietly turned around and left the gate.
Not far away, several men hiding in the darkness watched the entire scene.
One of them, Qian Haozi, licked his lips, his hands jerking involuntarily, and he murmured. "He’s alone and injured. Looks weak too."
He had a huge scar running down from his eyebrow to his cheeks. He was the leader of the group and a famous criminal before the apocalypse.
His subordinate, Xie Ping, gave a low chuckle and said in slurred speech. "Purfect..."
Having tasted how good human meat was... they had become addicted, and now, they had become experts in kidnapping and eating humans.
The group silently followed Ji Henghua. A few minutes later...they surrounded him inside a deserted alley.
Xie Ping smiled viciously. "Doooon’t blam...e us. Weeee’re justt tryinng too surrvive."
Ji Henghua’s face instantly turned pale. His eyes quickly analysed that 4 out of 5 people had slurred speech and their hands were jerking involuntarily. Kuru disease.
A disease caused by cannibalism. His fingers trembled slightly. The men slowly approached.
Just as one of them grabbed his collar... Ji Henghua suddenly spoke. "...I have AIDS."
The alley instantly fell silent. "...What?"
One of the men frowned. Ji Henghua looked at them with lifeless eyes.
"I’ve been infected for years. If you eat me... you might become infected too."
The men looked at one another. Disgust quickly appeared on their faces. "Disgusting! You filthy bastard!"
One of them punched Ji Henghua directly in the face. Another kicked him in the stomach.
"Why didn’t you say so earlier?!"
"Damn it! And I almost thought we were going to have a feast!"
After venting their anger with several more kicks, the group hurriedly fled.
"Let’s find someone else. Not worth the risk."
Soon, the alley became silent once again. Ji Henghua lay motionless on the cold ground.
Blood slowly dripped from his forehead. After several minutes, a soft green light enveloped his body. His injuries gradually healed.
He had to heal himself. Otherwise, the smell of blood would attract zombies. Once the wounds disappeared, Ji Henghua slowly sat up.
He blinked several times, but his vision remained blurry. Only then did he realise... his glasses were gone.
He immediately crawled across the filthy ground. "...Where... My glasses..."
His trembling hands searched every corner of the alley. Finally, his fingers touched something.
Crunch. He slowly picked it up. The frame was twisted beyond recognition. Both lenses had shattered completely.
Ji Henghua stared blankly at the broken glasses. His vision became even blurrier.
This time, not because he couldn’t see. Tears silently rolled down his cheeks. "...I’m sorry..."
His voice trembled.
"Huan... I’m sorry... I’m... such a useless older brother... I couldn’t even protect Mom’s pendant... I can’t even enter the base... And now..."
He tightly clutched the broken glasses against his chest. "I don’t even know if I’ll be able to find you..."
His shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
Even though Ji Huan could not hear him...
Ji Henghua continued apologising over and over again beneath the cold night sky, as though those words alone could somehow bridge the distance between the two brothers.
After a few minutes, he wiped away his tears and wore his cracked spectacles, his eyes flashing a determined light.
Soon, roars of zombies echoed in the distance while he remained hidden and stared at the battlefield intently. He watched as the guard who had stolen his pendant was constantly attacked by zombies.
Eventually, when he died in the hands of a zombie, Ji Henghua took the opportunity to sneak near him and took his pendant back.
Earlier, when he was thrown on the ground, he had dropped his special zombie-attracting powder deliberately near this guard.
On returning to his original location, he sprinkled a bit of zombie-repelling powder; however, he didn’t dare use a lot of it.
The herbs for the repellent were expensive and rare. So he didn’t dare use it extravagantly.
Growl. A burning sensation in his stomach made him close his eyes. Two days... it had been two days since he had last eaten anything.
His eyes scanned the surroundings, and eventually he noticed a group of four people who were eating well but had injuries. His eyes brightened up.
Closing the distance, he greeted them, "Hello, I am Heng Hua. I noticed that you all are severely injured; it just so happens I have a way to heal your injuries."
The leader, Nan Liuying, a sharp man with a bit of an authoritative aura, asked, "And how would we know that you are not here to trick us? What do you want?"
"You won’t know until you try. And I just want a bit of food." Ji Henghua pointed at the black buns, his throat bobbing.
He didn’t find it repulsive... rather, it looked tempting to him.
Nan Liuying licked his lips before agreeing. Once Ji Henghua was done, he was given two black buns. Rather than leaving, he sat beside them, hearing all 4 of them gossip.
"Little Nan, we heard you are getting engaged next week!" Ai Tong teased. He was the brains of the group and looked only slightly better than Ji Henghua
Nan Liuying gave a faint smile, enough to speak about his happiness.
"Sigh... I wonder when I’ll get a wife." Hunter, a blonde man with a heavy build, joked.
"Hey, brother Ji, do you have a wife too?" Ai Tong asked curiously.