Da Pao turned around and saw Li Hang fall to the ground, holding a gun in one hand and quickly helping him up with the other.
Li Hang coughed twice, his chest aching faintly.
The two quickly ran towards the house behind them.
The main door of this white three-story building had already been opened; they had scoured this place right after the apocalypse broke out.
Bang bang~
Bullets whizzed past them.
The distance of ten meters, in those few seconds they had just run, was undoubtedly the distance between life and death.
As soon as they entered the house, Da Pao said to Li Hang:
"Hang Zi, are you alright?"
Li Hang tore open his outer clothing.
Ding-dong~
A bullet dropped onto the terrazzo floor of the house, making a crisp sound.
Only then did they see a dent in the black bulletproof vest; the bullet that had just fallen to the ground had likely come from this spot.
"I'm fine, luckily I wore a bulletproof vest. It's just that my chest hurts a bit, I think my ribs are fractured, cough cough cough," Li Hang said with a pained expression.
Da Pao looked around and saw Li Tie privately bandaging his own calf with a strip of cloth.
There was also Ding Jiu, grimacing and pressing on his shoulder blade, his face somewhat pale, blood still seeping out.
Lai Dongsheng was holding a submachine gun, standing guard at the entrance.
Now, only he and Lai Dongsheng were uninjured. He looked at Li Hang beside him and asked, "Can you still fight?"
Li Hang immediately said, "I'm fine, of course I can."
Li Tie grunted, finally tying a knot in the cloth strip on his calf, then gasped, "Let's go upstairs. They might come over soon. We need to utilize this building."
As soon as he said this, Li Hang immediately helped Ding Jiu up and walked upstairs.
Lai Dongsheng closed the already deformed iron door, then moved nearby tables and chairs to block it.
Everyone arrived on the second floor.
This detached small building had a main entrance facing the National Highway, but it also had a back door at the rear, with a small courtyard.
After they went upstairs, Da Pao looked at Ding Jiu and the others and said, "Uncle Lai, let's go stand guard. You go to the back door and see if anyone is coming. I'll go to the front door.
Xiao Hang, see if you can contact the base. Check if the walkie-talkie can connect from this distance."
Li Hang nodded, then took out the walkie-talkie from his backpack. As he took it out, the movement likely hit his ribs, causing him to gasp in pain.
After taking out the walkie-talkie, Li Hang saw Ding Jiu, who had already slightly closed his eyes, and said to Li Tie, "Tie Zi Ge, can you help Uncle Ding with his bandage? I'm not very good at it."
Upon hearing this, Li Tie quickly looked at Ding Jiu. He had been in such a hurry running that he hadn't noticed Ding Jiu's shoulder was still bleeding.
Li Tie quickly hopped on one leg towards Ding Jiu, seeing the bloody mess on Ding Jiu's shoulder blade.
He felt a sudden difficulty and said to everyone, "Old Ding, his wound is too deep. We need to stop the bleeding quickly, or he won't last long."
Saying that, he violently tore off a piece of cloth, kneaded it into a ball, and pressed it onto the wound.
"Ah!" Ding Jiu opened his eyes, his face pale.
Li Hang turned on the walkie-talkie, heard Ding Jiu's scream, and quickly walked over.
Li Hang looked at Ding Jiu somewhat nervously and said, "Uncle Ding, you must hold on. I'll contact the base right away."
After the walkie-talkie was turned on, whether due to distance or some other reason, he couldn't get through. Li Hang looked at Ding Jiu's pale face, and his eyes immediately reddened.
He and Ding Qingqing, Ding Jiu's daughter, were classmates and had gotten together after the apocalypse. Now, seeing his future father-in-law in this state, he felt incredibly distressed.
Li Tie looked at Ding Jiu, thinking that he had just been injured while saving him, and was instantly filled with immense guilt.
"Uncle Ding, bear with it a little," Li Tie said, then tore off another long strip of cloth, lifted Ding Jiu's arm, and began to bandage it.
This was only a temporary measure to stop the bleeding; while it had some effect, it was merely a stopgap.
If Uncle Ding didn't receive treatment within an hour, he was very likely to go into shock and die.
Li Hang was still constantly calling on the walkie-talkie, but there was no reply. He saw Uncle Ding about to close his eyes again.
He was so anxious he was almost in tears. Thinking of Ding Qingqing, he couldn't imagine how sad Ding Qingqing would be if she knew her father had died.
So he said, "Uncle Ding, Xiao Qingqing is still waiting for you to come back."
Uncle Ding's eyes instantly opened, and he looked at Li Hang, saying, "You are a good child, cough cough cough. From now on, Qingqing will be entrusted to your care. With you there, I'm at ease."
After speaking, his hand slowly dropped, and he looked like he was about to faint again.
Seeing this, tears almost fell from Li Hang's eyes. He seemed to remember something, his eyes darted, and he seemed to have an idea. He immediately said:
"Uncle Ding, there's something I haven't had a chance to tell you yet. Qingqing is pregnant."
"What?!" Ding Jiu suddenly opened his eyes, wide as a donkey's.
Ding Jiu roared, "You little scoundrel! Good, good, I'm really going to beat you to death!"
His beloved daughter, whom he had raised for so many years, had been ruined by this audacious fool. His chest felt a sudden tightness.
His hand was about to strike Li Hang's face, but seeing Li Hang's concerned gaze, he instantly felt conflicted and lowered his hand.
He hadn't expected Li Hang to be so productive.
Li Tie, standing nearby, was also dumbfounded. Can you really play it like this?
Ding Jiu thought to himself, if his daughter Qingqing had a child, wouldn't he soon become a grandfather?
If the child was born and had no grandfather...
Moreover, he still wanted to see his granddaughter.
And Li Hang couldn't die either, otherwise his daughter and granddaughter would lose their husband and father.
Ding Jiu pointed a finger at Li Hang and said, "You little scoundrel, just you wait."
He instantly struggled to get up from the ground. He had to hold on, he had to go back.
Just then, Da Pao, who was standing guard on the other side, said, "They're coming!"
Li Hang quickly got up and, bending at the waist, walked towards the balcony.
They saw a large group of people forming an arc-shaped encirclement, slowly approaching their direction.
At the forefront, about thirty people held firearms.
They were merely surrounding them and had not opened fire.
Da Pao stood behind the wall, poked his head out slightly to take a look, and said to everyone, "We have to hold on. I saw earlier that they seemed to fire very few shots, as if they don't have many bullets.
As long as we persevere, it's already getting dark, and the base will definitely send people to find us."
Li Tie also said, "I also noticed earlier that their firing speed was too slow, probably because they're low on bullets. Xiao Hang, did you bring the night vision goggles?"
Upon hearing this, Li Hang quickly rummaged through the backpack he had brought when they ran over. Fortunately, he had remembered to bring it.
After searching for a bit, Li Hang joyfully pulled out three night vision goggles from inside.
He then handed them to Da Pao and the others.
Below this small building, Hua Chuanlong sent people to search their vehicles. They only found some food, a few iron shovels, and nothing else.
"Big Brother, what do we do now? It's getting dark. Some of the brothers from the back said they encountered a few zombies earlier. Although they were all cut down, it's late now, and it's dangerous at night."
Hua Chuanlong's eyes narrowed upon hearing this, and he said, "Are you suggesting we let them go?
They have guns! They must be from some faction. They must be nearby. We must capture them, otherwise, what was all this effort for!
Get out of here, and tell everyone else to turn on their car lights and point them at that building."
The subordinate opened his mouth after hearing what his Big Brother said, but still said nothing. From his understanding of the boss, if he said any more, he would probably be 'getting his lunchbox' (i.e., killed).
Some of the civilians who had followed along, without firearms and holding long spears, were in disarray.
They hadn't seen a single grain of food, had run so far, and so many people had died along the way. Now it was getting dark, and it would probably be completely dark in a few minutes.
Being outside in the dark was no joke. If a horde of zombies came, they would all be finished.
In fact, some zombies were already on their way.
Just now, the gunshots had attracted a dozen or so zombies from the surroundings, but they had all been eliminated.
At this moment, hungry and tired, with the sky darkening, it meant danger.
So they started to cause trouble:
"Boss Hua, we've followed you this far, and it's so late, and we haven't seen a single hair!"
"Exactly, exactly. On the way, you only cared about running yourselves. Many of us couldn't keep up."
"It's dark, it's dangerous, let's find a place to hide."
"That's right, even though they're few, they all have guns, and you guys have guns too. Are we just cannon fodder?"
"Let's just disperse..."
Hua Chuanlong's ears were filled with these voices, rising and falling, growing louder and more numerous. He had originally thought of making an example of someone and killing them.
Looking at the situation, he couldn't handle it that way.
So he turned his head and said to his subordinate next to him, "How much food do we have left? I remember we brought all the food."
The subordinate next to him was somewhat puzzled; he didn't know why the boss was asking this.
The commotion from the surrounding civilians grew louder and louder. Hua Chuanlong looked at his subordinate and said impatiently, "Speak."
The subordinate stammered, "Yes, we brought it all. It's in the two cars behind."
Hua Chuanlong thought for a moment and said, "Drive one of the cars over, divide it among them, and tell them to calm down."
Upon hearing this, the subordinate quickly said, "But these things aren't even enough for us to eat for a week. If we give it all to them now, what will we eat?"
Hua Chuanlong glared and said, "Once we find that base, will we still be short on food? We still need these people to help us. Once we find that faction and seize their food, will we still be short? Hurry up."
After hearing this, the subordinate said nothing more. The boss had made up his mind, and with the boss's personality, he certainly wouldn't listen to other ideas now, and he had no better solution either.
Hua Chuanlong walked towards the group of civilians, saying, "Brothers, I'm distributing the food. This is all I have.
Let's quickly deal with the people in that building, and once we find out about that faction, we'll seize their food.
Then everyone can eat to their heart's content."
The surroundings instantly quieted.
Followed by an outburst of cheers.
"Boss Hua is mighty!"
"Boss Hua is domineering!"
"Alright, give us something to eat, and we'll follow you."
In the crowd, Xu Yan stared intently at Hua Chuanlong, holding a dagger in his hand, which glinted coldly in the reflection of the car lights.
However, he suddenly saw two of Hua Chuanlong's subordinates standing beside him, so he silently put away the dagger.
