I froze for a couple of seconds, then turned my head suspiciously to look at Old Man Zheng.
Seeing him standing in the half-open doorway, his face full of sleepiness, I felt incredibly puzzled.
Although I had only glanced around the room briefly earlier, I was absolutely 100% certain—he definitely hadn't been in there just now.
How could he suddenly appear in the room the moment I turned around?
Maybe my stare was a little too intense, because Old Man Zheng gave himself a once-over with a confused look before asking, "Young lady, what are you looking at?"
Snapping out of it, I quickly retracted my gaze and, after mentally sorting through the situation in a flash, smiled at him naturally and asked, "Sir, why didn't you respond when I called just now?"
Hearing that, Old Man Zheng waved his hand and said, "I was asleep. If I hadn't vaguely heard your last call in my half-sleep, I probably wouldn't have woken up even after you left."
I let out a dry chuckle and said, "Well, that's great for you. Most elderly folks your age can't sleep at night and suffer terribly from insomnia, yet you can nap so deeply in broad daylight that it takes effort just to wake you."
"Haha, exactly! This old body of mine wants to hang on for a couple more years—how else could I manage that?" he said with a laugh.
Without waiting for a response, he gave me a once-over and asked with a warm expression, "So? What brings you here, young lady?"
I quickly swept my gaze across the security booth and then flashed Old Man Zheng a brilliantly bright smile as I asked, "Mind if I come in and talk?"
At that, Old Man Zheng's expression paused slightly.
He stared into my smiling eyes for a moment, and I saw a flicker of scrutiny flash through his gaze.
After a while, he gave a dazed little chuckle, nodded, stepped aside, and said, "Come in and have a seat."
I didn't hesitate at all.
I nodded in response and stepped into the room.
A strange feeling immediately settled over me.
I couldn't shake the sense that this security booth—and Old Man Zheng—weren't nearly as simple as they looked on the surface.
There was definitely something off about him.
And the couple who had just come here?
They were suspicious too.
I was absolutely certain there had been no one in the room earlier.
The space itself wasn't large—you could sweep your eyes over the whole place in one glance.
If someone had been inside, I would've noticed immediately.
I'd scanned the interior several times, but there hadn't been a soul in sight.
And yet, the moment I turned around, just seconds later, Old Man Zheng opened the door and appeared.
So where exactly had he been hiding before?
As I passed by him and stepped into the room, I caught a glimpse from the corner of my eye—Old Man Zheng had deliberately or subconsciously glanced toward the top floor of Building 1.
After I came in, he didn't bother to shut the door.
It remained wide open as he turned and sat down on the bed.
I didn't bother with pleasantries either.
I walked straight over to the desk and sat down in the chair in front of the black screen of the computer.
At the same time, I subtly cast my gaze around the room, examining every detail.
The window above the desk was completely covered with thick layers of newspaper.
I stared at it for a couple of seconds, wondering whether Old Man Zheng had put it up himself later on, or if it had already been there.
Just as I was pondering this, he spoke up beside me: "Girl, go ahead—what's the matter?"
Hearing that, I drew my gaze away from the window and glanced at him, sitting on the bed against the wall.
After a moment's thought, I decided not to startle him and to probe around a bit first.
I deliberately put on a slightly sad expression and looked at Old Man Zheng. "It's nothing much… Just feeling heavy-hearted, wanted to find someone to talk to."
"What's going on? Why do you feel so down?"
I sighed deeply, trying my best to lean into my not-so-convincing acting.
"Old man, you probably already know… a couple days ago… the body that got carried out from here… that was… sigh…"
I trailed off mid-sentence, leaving the rest for him to imagine.
As my eyes scanned the room, I caught sight of something odd.
I took the opportunity to raise my hand and cover my face in a show of sorrow, tilting my head down just a little.
Through the narrow gaps between my fingers, I snuck another glance at the thing I'd just noticed.
Something was off about Old Man Zheng's black cloth shoes.
The soles seemed to have something sticky and bright red stuck to them.
Since I was only peeking through my fingers, and had to keep glancing back at him now and then to make sure he hadn't caught on to my snooping, I couldn't see very clearly what it was.
But whether it was just my imagination or not, I could swear the air around us now carried a faint, almost imperceptible scent of blood.
With that seed of suspicion planted in my mind, when I looked at the red substance on the sole of his shoe again, it looked more and more like blood—fresh, vivid red blood.
But… how could there be such bright red blood on his shoes?
This kind of blood clearly belonged to someone normal, not mutated.
After hearing what I said, Old Man Zheng let out a faint sigh, adjusted his posture a bit, and spoke in a low, slow tone:
"Girl, don't think too much. Whether it's the world before or now, life and death partings happen every single day. It's just that, when something like this falls on someone close, it's harder to accept. That's only natural."
After saying that, he glanced at me again.
Seeing me still covering my face, pretending to be overwhelmed with sorrow, he continued:
"I saw that girl when she first arrived too. Such a delicate, sweet-looking child—you could tell right away she was a lovable one. And now she's gone so early… really is a pity."
I focused with all my strength to conjure memories of Xiao Xue in my mind.
When I finally felt a real heat building behind my eyes, I slowly lowered my hand from my face and, with a heavy sigh, said to Old Man Zheng:
"What's really heartbreaking is her brother. The two of them relied entirely on each other. Now he looks like two and a half of his three souls are gone. Seeing him like that just makes my chest feel tight."
After I spoke, Old Man Zheng just sighed again and didn't say anything more.
I glanced around the room once more, and after a moment of thought, I casually asked,
"Old man, you're getting on in years, and you spend all day in here alone, barely even stepping outside—don't you ever feel stifled?"
He waved his hand and shook his head slightly:
"I'm old. Not like you young folks, always restless and impatient. For me, whether I'm bored or not doesn't matter anymore. Just being able to breathe another day is good enough."
As he spoke, he looked out the open door for a moment, then continued:
"Even if I do go out, I never leave the courtyard of this complex. That little park—I could probably count exactly how many weeds have grown in it. Nothing new to see anymore. Might as well just stay in here and take it easy."
"You probably haven't gone out in a long time, right?"
"Mm." Old Man Zheng nodded and replied, "It's been several days since I really moved around. Each day, I just pace a bit around the doorway."
I quickly glanced at the soles of his shoes, then swiftly scanned the floor of the room.
Though the floor wasn't exactly spotless, there definitely weren't any bloodstains.
But the blood on the soles of Old man Zheng's shoes hadn't dried yet—meaning he had definitely been lying!
He hadn't been asleep in the room at all—because if he had, there wouldn't be fresh blood on his shoes.
He hadn't been inside the room this whole time—because if he had, there would be bloodstains on the floor, and there weren't.
He hadn't been sleeping just now either.
First of all, the blood on his shoes clearly looked fresh.
Second, the bedding on the bed—which had likely been rolled up beforehand to keep dust off—was still neatly rolled and hadn't been unfolded at all, despite the cold weather.
Never mind that I hadn't seen him inside when I peeked earlier—even just the detail with the bedding alone was enough to make me seriously suspicious of this old man in front of me.
Suddenly, Suo Tian's earlier words—"There's something off here"—echoed in my mind.
Looking now at Old Man Zheng's calm, natural expression, I could truly feel it:
There is definitely something wrong here.
It's something right here in this room!
Perhaps because I had been silent for a little while, Old Man Zheng called out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts: "Young lady? What are you thinking about so intently?"
I snapped out of my daze and looked at Old Man Zheng, only to catch a fleeting flash of impatience and wariness in his eyes.
My heart sank, and a strange sense of unease crept over me.
Before the apocalypse, I always thought the hardest part of life was dealing with other people—the endless calculations and hidden motives.
That's why so many people seemed to gather cheerfully together, yet deep down, they were all trapped in their own small, dark worlds—twisted and broken, judging others while hiding their true selves.
But after the world ended, that twisted way of human interaction didn't change in the slightest.
The only real difference was that, without the constraints of laws and norms, people became even more willing to impose their own twisted thoughts onto others.
People like Li Jianguo and his crew, who tried to take our shelter by force.
Like that old couple who captured living people to feed their Walker son.
Like those who used children as sacrifices...
Looking at Old Man Zheng now, I couldn't help but think—compared to him, that grumpy, foul-mouthed Fatty who never gave anyone a good face was actually way easier to deal with.
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