161 - Cinderella’s Dream: Together Forever

When Qi Jing's gaze swept over the group of men, her face pale as if she might faint any moment, she wished to stop them. Yet, given her current state, even standing up was a struggle, let alone doing anything more. Cun Tou, seeing five more male alphas step forward, couldn't hide the joy on his face. He assured the others in the warehouse, "Don't worry, we'll take those people to another room for a proper interrogation. It won't disturb your rest." "Exactly, we're all in the same boat here. It's better to deal with outsiders than our own." Hong Mao added with a smile. Under Cun Tou's lead, several male alphas picked up makeshift weapons like wooden sticks or iron pipes and cautiously headed out of the warehouse towards the first floor. Meanwhile, Chen Wan and her group had also reached the first floor. However, the windows were sealed by heavy snow, preventing them from seeing outside. Fortunately, the mall's rooftop comprised sturdy glass, allowing the outside light to filter in, illuminating the space somewhat. Chen Wan glanced upward, noting that the windows from the second floor onwards still let in some light, suggesting the snowfall hadn't intensified too much. Yi Yi, standing beside her, warned, "Be careful, someone's approaching—about eight people." Chen Wan nodded. Zombies still roamed the upper floors of the mall, drifting towards them. Intent on clearing them out thoroughly, Chen Wan's group remained in place, uncertain how long they would need to stay in this location. Soon, Cun Tou surrounded them with his group. However, upon seeing a dozen zombies heading toward Chen Wan and her team, they hesitated, especially the five who had joined Cun Tou, beginning to regret their decision. "Maybe we should head back. There are too many zombies heading their way," suggested one man in a black jacket, which still had its store tag, likely grabbed from a local supermarket. "Why are you so timid? Do you want a slice of the pie or not? Those zombies aren't here yet, are they? This is our best chance; we'll make them do whatever we say," Cun Tou assured confidently. Taking advantage of the zombies still being some distance away, they quickly approached Chen Wan's group. Hong Mao and Bald Man focused on the zombies, while Cun Tou assessed Chen Wan's group, suggesting, "Hey friends, the zombies are coming. Do you want to follow us to a safe place?" Chen Wan smiled scornfully. She'd had her fill of hollow kindness while on the road. While there might be genuinely good people like Wei Si Yu, they were scarce. She was naturally skeptical of anyone suddenly offering help, especially after seeing the look in Cun Tou’s eyes, which only made her expression colder. She stepped protectively in front of Jiang Yan Xin, causing Cun Tou to resentfully glare at her for blocking his view. Chen Wan's gaze remained icy as she stared at Cun Tou. "I advise you not to harbor any inappropriate thoughts. The zombies are closing in. If you don't want to die, you'd better hide." Embarrassed by Chen Wan’s public challenge, Cun Tou retorted, "Damn you! How dare you lecture me? We're so many; there's no fear of these zombies. I suggest you come along with us—don't refuse a good offer only to regret it later." Chen Wan laughed softly, her eyes cold as she looked back at him. "I'm the type who likes to refuse good offers. What can you do about it?" "Fine, I considered the option of showing mercy, but forget it," Cun Tou sneered. "Guys, capture them and take them to the underground storage." Cun Tou's boldness came from the assumption that Chen Wan's group wouldn’t dare to use firearms in Beijing, still governed by pre-apocalypse rules where crime was swiftly dealt with. Yet before they could act, zombies charged at them. Chen Wan activated her powers, commanding fifty zombies around them to counterattack. Despite the number being manageable—only about a hundred zombies in total, with fifty under Chen Wan's control—the remaining posed little threat. However, the level 2 zombies showed some intelligence. Unable to breach Chen Wan's defenses, they shifted targeting Cun Tou's group of eight. Panic-stricken, Cun Tou's group scrambled. Overwhelmed, one after another fell prey to the zombies, their makeshift weapons—only wooden and iron sticks—proving futile. Quickly, a zombie tackled Hong Mao from behind. Desperate, he called out to Cun Tou, "Brother, help! There's a zombie on me!" But Cun Tou, trapped by six zombies himself, couldn't assist. Swinging his stick wildly, he was bitten on the arm by one from the left. Struggling and screaming in agony, Cun Tou watched as Chen Wan's group remained unscathed, encircled and protected by zombies. He reached out for help, but before he could call out, a tall male zombie tore through his throat, ending his cries. Nearby, Hong Mao suffered a similar fate, devoured from behind. Of the group, only Bald Man escaped, while the rest became zombie fodder. Chen Wan and her group had no intention of aiding them. These men had come for them, and Chen Wan was no saint. Such individuals didn't warrant rescue; saving them might only endanger other young Omegas in the future. She had no intention of sparing the zombies either. Commanding the fifty zombies under her control, she unleashed them on the remaining undead. The zombies she controlled were exceptionally fight-capable, swiftly wiping out the rest amidst the monsters' cries. Wary of potential disease outbreaks from numerous corpses, Chen Wan had the fifty zombies haul the bodies into a shop corner on the ground floor. Ensuring the shop's doors were secured, she then ordered the zombies into another shop on the floor. With control over exactly fifty zombies, Chen Wan planned to keep them as a potential resource, sparing them for future use. She led Jiang Yan Xin and the others to the mall's second floor, peering outside. The landscape was blanketed with heavy snow. Opening a window, she watched the large snowflakes cascade in, the biggest being as large as a quarter of a human palm. They exchanged incredulous glances. "If it keeps snowing like this, this mall could soon be buried. If it worsens, the entire city could be at risk," Qin Ke observed, watching the swirling flakes. "Yeah, staying holed up here with so many corpses could easily lead to a plague. We should find a way to burn the bodies," Chen Wan suggested, frowning. Staying here for a few days was feasible, but several months? Rotting corpses could spawn all sorts of diseases. "Good point. Burning indoors is risky. We need proper containers to manage the flames and prevent a fire from consuming the building," Qin Ke added, and they began scouting for suitable incineration locations, eventually finding large pots in a top-floor restaurant specializing in hot pot. Planning to burn all the mall’s and basement’s corpses to prevent bacterial spread, Chen Wan strategized with the others. "Let's do it here, but the smell will be awful. We'll open all windows before the building gets buried, burning the bodies in time," Chen Wan instructed, already commanding the zombies to begin. Taking control of thirty zombies, she had them transport over 300 basement corpses to the top floor. She reserved ten zombies to handle the ground floor corpses, and another ten to set up large pots in the restaurant, starting small fires to burn the bodies bit by bit. During the burning, Chen Wan and her group took refuge on the fifth floor, away from the stench of roasting flesh. Even so, she suspected meat might be off their menu for a while post-rescue. Below, the zombies under Chen Wan’s command diligently worked, and with her current mental strength, she could control their efforts for a full hour without strain. Meanwhile, the bald man managed to escape back to report. Terrified by the sight of Cun Tou and the others' grotesque deaths, he was glad he had been cautious enough to hide in the elevator's blind spot when the zombies approached. With Cun Tou distracted by arguing with Chen Wan, no one noticed his absence. Once he saw how dire the situation was, Bald Man fled, hearing only Cun Tou and Hong Mao's distant cries for help behind him, but he didn’t look back, focused solely on his escape. Back at their base, he pounded frantically on the door, but the recent events had left the others wary of Cun Tou's group, and no one opened it immediately. Finally, the man by the door in a suit, an alpha, got up to let Bald Man in. As the warehouse door opened, the suited man intended to check Bald Man for injuries first but was met with Bald Man trembling uncontrollably. "Bald Man, what happened? Where is everyone? Why did you come back alone?" asked the man in the suit, puzzled. "Shit, quit asking questions, just let me in already," Bald Man snapped, feeling more assured in the presence of others, though irritated that no one answered his knocking right away. Angrily, he kicked the suited man who had let him in. "You’re so slow opening the door! If there had been zombies, I’d be dead by now—I’ll kill you." "Hey, calm down, we're all on the same side here." "Exactly, let's talk this out." "Talk this out? I’ll deal with him first," Bald Man raved, wildly wielding his club at the suited man, who had helped, only to be attacked in return. "If I hadn't opened the door, you’d still be stuck outside. Stop chasing me," the suited man shouted as he ran. "You all want me dead, huh? Fine, I can die, but I’ll take you down with me," Bald Man threatened, swinging his club toward the innocent bystanders, throwing the warehouse into chaos. Qi Jing's expression softened slightly, yet she remained as pale as paper. She stood up and grabbed Bald Man's club from behind, calling out, "Enough! All this commotion will get us all killed here. And you, Bald Man, if you don’t want to be here, I can send you out." Hearing Qi Jing, Bald Man immediately calmed down, remembering there was still a righteous power-user among them, and it wasn’t his place to go mad. He quickly tried to justify himself, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I was just frightened by what happened outside. My boss and all the others are dead." He wiped away a couple of tears, sniffing as he cried, "You don’t know how brutal it was. Those women aren’t good people. My boss and everyone else were killed by them. They aren’t as friendly as they seem—they’re ruthless! Seven lives gone just like that. Qi Jing, I swear I’m telling the truth. We can’t leave those wicked people in the same building as us. The exits are all blocked by snow; we can’t go anywhere. Keeping them alive is like setting a trap for ourselves." Bald Man shifted all the blame onto Chen Wan and her group, who hadn’t even lifted a finger, claiming that if not for them, his two companions and the five others wouldn’t have died. He disregarded the unsavory intentions that led them to confront Chen Wan’s group in the first place.