Chapter 55: In Progress

After eating meat and drinking meat soup until they were stuffed and paralyzed on the sofa, unable to move, Xiao Guang looked at the three useless zombie girls and sighed.

In Xiao Guang's view, a person cannot go without eating meat. He knew there were many vegetarians in the world, and he also knew that certain beliefs prohibited the consumption of meat, but Xiao Guang knew he could not manage that, especially when it was well within his financial capability.

Of course, that was all in the past. After the apocalypse, financial pressure was gone, but the source of meat became a major problem. Knowing that a virus had caused the global transformation, the issue with meat was no longer about whether one could afford to buy it, but whether it was safe to eat.

Xiao Guang did not stuff himself to the absolute limit for two reasons: first, there was still work to be done later; second, if you overeat, your stomach will stretch and become larger and larger.

His hypothesis about the stomach might lack scientific basis, but Xiao Guang really did not want to become a competitive eater at a time like this. Moderate eating was necessary; one should not binge or overeat. He had heard that the stomach can expand the more you stretch it, and lacking advanced medical knowledge, he preferred to keep his desires in check.

There was a lot of work to be done. Xiao Guang had listed three top priorities for surviving the apocalypse:
First, safety.
Second, food.
Third, health.

There were four breathing souls in the house, and he was the only one capable of doing any work. He made sure to cover up the little exposed bellies. Although there was a high probability they wouldn't catch a cold and get a tummy ache, ingrained habits still made Xiao Guang do this.

Even pandas in the wild knew to cover their bellies when sleeping; this was, after all, part of ancient Chinese culture.

Today's focus was on reinforcing the back courtyard's small door. After being rammed for a while by that pack of wild boars, the door had become somewhat warped. Xiao Guang decided to lash some lumber onto the door; on one hand, it would look sturdy, and on the other hand, it would provide a bit of a visual camouflage effect.

Not being a professional, Xiao Guang could only use thick iron wire to secure everything. The calluses on his palms were growing thicker, and his physical strength had clearly increased significantly. One had to admit that people are forged by adversity; when things come to a head, you have to do them whether you want to or not, and isn't that how strength is built up through exercise?

For reinforcement, sturdiness naturally came first; aesthetics could be forgotten. With thick tree branches bound tightly to the back door from top to bottom, Xiao Guang gave it a shove with his arm and felt a lot more secure inside. However, his craftsmanship was far too crude; a twisted end of the iron wire, clearly left there from the reinforcement work, poked right into his arm.

When binding things with iron wire, one wraps it around, twists the ends together, and finally clips it with pliers, so the sharpness remained quite formidable.

Feeling the pain in his arm, Xiao Guang quickly pulled it back, only to realize that due to his sloppy workmanship, the securing wire slipped a bit. As Xiao Guang pulled his arm back, his sleeve was torn open into a large rip.

Tearing a work jacket was no big deal, so Xiao Guang quickly pulled it aside to inspect his arm. There was a very distinct white streak across his greenish skin. Reaching out to touch it, he found it didn't hurt.

It was clearly a scratch. Normally, even if it didn't break the skin, it would leave a raised red welt.

Unable to resist examining it closely, Xiao Guang had a vague, uncertain feeling: had his skin actually become tougher? Looking at the pliers in his hand, Xiao Guang gritted his teeth, opened the jaws of the pliers, and pinched the flesh on his arm.

"Ouch, damn it, hurts, hurts, hurts!"

Xiao Guang hurriedly dropped the pliers and patted the pinched spot. He realized that evolution was just a fantasy of his. Looking at the indentation left by the pliers on his skin, his skin might have become a bit tougher, but the flesh still hurt just as much when pinched.

Embarrassed by his own foolishness while his arm was still aching, Xiao Guang irritably went back to work near the back door. A single door was too flimsy; he needed to build a protective barrier outside it. After all, wild beasts lacked intelligence. With sharpened wooden stakes pointing outward toward the door, he guaranteed that if they dared to charge like last time, they would be impaled without making a single sound.

The sharp tips were hidden inside the fence pointing outward, while the back ends of the wooden stakes extended into the back door, propped either against a pit Xiao Guang had dug or against the car he had driven over. Xiao Guang planned to continue stewing meat tomorrow, waiting for the wild boars to deliver themselves to his door and skewer themselves like kebabs.

How cruel, how wicked, Xiao Guang thought, shaking his head while looking with satisfaction at his own masterpiece. Why should human beings, despite lacking the strength to even truss a chicken, become the masters of the world? Wisdom.

The perimeter wall was three meters high. Unless they formed a human pyramid or practiced pole-vaulting, zombies shouldn't be able to get over it. On his previous trips out to scavenge, Xiao Guang had raided several hardware stores. Now he was considering whether, following past memories, he should install a layer of broken glass shards on top of the wall—the kind where glass shards are inserted at an angle, looking extremely deterrent.

To be frank, it was probably a futile effort; after all, zombies didn't seem to feel fear in their hearts toward getting cut.

Having brought back various building materials and hardware, Xiao Guang felt restless. After all, for an ordinary man, some cross-industry tasks felt more like playing a game, such as building a brick wall in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.

The villa featured a minimalist European style, prioritizing brightness and transparency. The floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides of the first-floor living room were targeted by Xiao Guang, who decided to wall them up. Villas were unsuited for the apocalypse; bunkers were much better.

His reason for doing this was the fear that one day he would wake up to find himself surrounded by zombies in the front and back yards, leaving him with not even a chance to run. Xiao Guang decided that after eating all the supplies he had hauled back, he would commit suicide if necessary, so he needed a sturdy safehouse.

He wondered if any of his fellow men had ever done bricklaying work. Suffice it to say, when professional masons used a plumb line to check the bricks, they could build gorgeous walls. Xiao Guang worked diligently until the sun was setting in the west, only to sigh at his own handiwork.

Dusk was the most relaxing time of day. After washing his hands, heating up the leftover stewed meat from noon, cooking some rice, and watching the curious expressions of the zombie girls, he felt truly fulfilled.

"I'll finish eating as soon as possible. You guys shouldn't eat food that's too hot, so don't rush."

He ate first, and they ate afterward; this had also become a household habit. Therefore, even though the zombie girls might be a bit hungry, they still obediently sat by the dining table.

With the small ball in her mouth, Hye-won's cheeks bulged back and forth. Xiao Guang could almost picture her tongue working frantically inside. Could practicing like this actually help train her ability to speak? It actually sounded somewhat scientifically plausible.

"Hiss~~ China... national... all channels... already... effectively mitigated....."

The walkie-talkie on the floor suddenly emitted a sound. Xiao Guang's attention was instantly captured. Dropping his chopsticks, he immediately walked over, picked up the walkie-talkie, and carefully adjusted the frequency.

"All-channel broadcast....... An effective mitigation method has now been found... Uninfected survivors, please strive to live on... Rescue operations are about to be launched... based in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen...... Please strive to live on........"

Xiao Guang didn't cry, because the red miracle he firmly believed in was happening right before his eyes.

Yet he couldn't hold back his tears, because it was impossible for him to reach Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen. He understood that the nation and its people had to come first; he understood everything, but he simply couldn't help himself.

Bae Joo-hyun's red eyes stared fixedly at Xiao Guang, or rather, at the walkie-talkie in his hand. She blinked, turned her head to look at Hye-won and Min-ju, her gaze turning somewhat stern.

Min-ju's small face was tightly pulled. Xiao Guang's walkie-talkie was the one she had been playing with; she had forgotten to turn it off after playing.

Hye-won looked at Bae Joo-hyun, then at Min-ju, and climbed down from her chair to stand in front of Min-ju, blocking Bae Joo-hyun's line of sight.

Xiao Guang was very happy because he knew countless compatriots would be saved. Therefore, he very carefully mixed meat soup and rice for the girls. He fed them happily, though he felt the girls didn't seem to be eating quite as happily.

What was going on? They had eaten it just fine at noon, and now they were turning their noses up at it by evening?