Sixteen Years

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Huainan Road was a main road that ran through the east and west of S City. The incident happened at a commercial center at the intersection of the central district. Due to its geographical location and convenient transportation, there were numerous people coming and going.

When Fu Yan and Liu Ruosong arrived at the scene, a barrier had already been set up about two hundred meters away from the main road. All traffic was redirected, and a chaotic crowd gathered outside. Apart from the victims’ families, there was also a group of media personnel gathered.

While in the car, Liu Ruosong had been scrolling through local news. In just a short ten minutes, the situation had already become somewhat chaotic. Most of the crowd had rushed out of the mall, scattering, leaving only some injured and sick people still inside.

Outside the barrier, six or seven ambulances were parked. Police cars and ambulances were together, their red, blue, and white lights intermingling and shining through the car windows into Fu Yan’s eyes.

With excellent eyesight, Fu Yan could even clearly see the blood splatters on the second-floor windows of the mall from this distance. His expression darkened, and he decided to stop the car.

“You wait in the car,” Fu Yan instructed, “Don’t get out no matter what.”

“What about you?” Liu Ruosong asked.

“I’ll go take a look,” Fu Yan said.

Saying this, he got out of the car, closed the door behind him, and walked a few steps towards the crowd behind the police barrier. Liu Ruosong hesitated for a moment, decided to listen to him for now, locked the car door behind him, plugged in his portable charger, and continued refreshing the news.

The area near the barrier was in chaos. Fu Yan furrowed his brows and pushed through the crowd. His outstanding personality made him stand out like a straight benchmark in the crowd. Even though he was dressed casually, no one stopped him for a while.

Earlier, when he left, Fu Yan had put on an extra thick coat. He had been cautious all the way and almost didn’t come into contact with anyone.

Standing outside the barrier was a middle-aged officer holding a megaphone, directing the evacuees who ran out of the mall towards the ambulances. Fu Yan approached him from behind and tapped his shoulder.

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The middle-aged officer was startled and turned around to see Fu Yan in casual attire. Instinctively, he thought he was a civilian and was about to scold him with a wrinkled brow.

Fu Yan took out his identification from his pocket and opened it for him to see. He then asked, “What’s the situation inside?”

In his previous life, Fu Yan’s understanding of the early days of the apocalypse came entirely from the base. He had been on sick leave at the time and didn’t hear about the outbreak until later, when he was urgently called back to participate in rescue missions. It was only then that he had some understanding of the situation.

But Fu Yan calculated in his mind. In his previous life, the first case of the disease appeared on June 1st, and he was called back to duty on June 5th. By that time, rescue efforts had already been established on a certain scale nationwide, indicating that the situation had become quite serious within just five days.

However, this life had brought about so many situations beyond what Fu Yan could imagine. He couldn’t be sure if this “apocalypse” that had hastily arrived this time would be as devastating as the previous life.

From what he had learned in Sha Xuefan’s small building earlier, Fu Yan had a bold speculation lurking in his mind—this incident seemed to be more than just a natural disaster.

Otherwise, it was hard to explain why he had only stumbled upon Sha Xuefan’s murder, which should have occurred in the apocalypse over a dozen days later, happening ahead of time.

Fu Yan’s mind was a tangled mess of confusion, one question piled upon another, but there was no evidence to support any of his suspicions.

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All of this was based on his assumption, and his assumption was based on vague memories from his “previous life.”

Fortunately, Fu Yan had a very strong mental resilience. He didn’t dwell too much on the unbelievable fact of “rebirth.” He had simply accepted it as if returning to this life was the natural order of things.

The police officer controlling the scene was taken aback by his credentials. Instinctively, he wanted to salute Fu Yan, but before his hand could rise, he heard a shout from the entrance of the mall.

“Someone, stretcher—”

Subconsciously, he lifted the megaphone and shouted for two people to go and assist. Only after sending the person onto the ambulance did he have a chance to respond to Fu Yan’s question.

“It’s a rabies patient who had a seizure. He bit quite a few people in the mall. I don’t know where he got so much strength. He bites anyone he sees, targeting faces and necks, leaving a lot of people infected.”

“The patient?” Fu Yan asked.

“Shot dead,” the officer said. His face turned a bit pale as he mentioned this. He looked around, lowered his voice slightly, and continued, “But that person was a bit… strange.”

“How so?” Fu Yan asked.

“The angle of the sniper’s first shot was off, but it still hit the chest. However, the patient acted as if he didn’t feel it, and he continued to attack people. It wasn’t until the second shot hit him in the head that he stopped moving.”

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“And all the victims who were bitten are now showing signs of infection, they are biting others,” the officer said. “The situation inside is unclear. Some of the crowd is hiding in corners of the mall and won’t come out. We’ve sent several teams in for rescue, but the mall is too large, and it’s difficult to completely evacuate the crowd. Moreover, most of the injured are disoriented and feverish now, so it’s challenging to rescue them.”

Fu Yan turned his head to look at the mall building behind him.

“What about the thermal imaging device?” Fu Yan asked.

“It’s in use,” the officer said, “but it can’t completely tell those infected from those who aren’t, so…”

Fu Yan understood.

Of course, those who weren’t infected would be willing to be rescued, but in the current chaos, most of them would probably be hiding in some corner. The “zombies,” on the other hand, were swaggering around outside, disturbing many lines of sight and causing the rescue efficiency to remain pitifully low.

Fu Yan pursed his lips, then suddenly reached back and grabbed a police officer’s uniform jacket that was hanging on the car door, quickly zipped it up.

“Give me a headset,” Fu Yan said, “and a gun.”

The police officer was taken aback by his decisive manner, hesitated for a moment, but before he could say anything out of line, he saw Fu Yan efficiently fastening the wrist and ankle straps.

Far away in the car, Liu Ruosong frowned when he saw this, almost immediately guessing what Fu Yan intended to do.

So, at that moment, he disregarded Fu Yan’s advice, opened the car door, leapt out, and in a few steps, he was inside the barrier, grabbing Fu Yan’s arm.

“Fu Yan, what are you doing?” Liu Ruosong asked.

“I’m going in to take a look,” Fu Yan said.

Liu Ruosong furrowed his brows. He had intended to voice his disagreement, but hesitated at the last moment and swallowed his words.

—Well, it’s useless to say anything anyway. Fu Yan was just like this. He couldn’t expect him to turn a blind eye to the situation.

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Taking the headset from a nearby person’s hand, Fu Yan gave Liu Ruosong a quick glance, didn’t say anything, turned around, and got into a nearby police car. He pulled out a spare jacket that belonged to someone he didn’t know, which was likely left in the car to be used as a cover. It was filled with a strong smell of smoke. As soon as Liu Ruosong put it on, he began to sweat.

“Listen to me,” Fu Yan’s expression was very serious, “be careful, don’t go into the crowd, it’s better to stay hidden, and make sure not to get bitten by anyone.”

Liu Ruosong looked at him anxiously, wanting to ask if there was any danger inside, but in the midst of a crowd, he refrained from saying anything. He simply nodded to reassure Fu Yan.

“Okay,” Liu Ruosong said, “don’t worry about me. If there are too many people, I’ll stay in the car.”

Fu Yan sensed his worries. Having died once before, even though Liu Ruosong didn’t know about it, Fu Yan still felt a vague sense of guilt toward him. Moreover, he was actually taking risks in front of Liu Ruosong this time.

Fu Yan wanted to say a few comforting words, but unfortunately, he wasn’t skilled in this area. After struggling for a while, all he managed to say was, “When I come back out, we’ll…”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when Liu Ruosong covered his mouth with his hand.

“Fu Yan,” Liu Ruosong looked at him with a mixture of tears and laughter, saying, “you’re really tempting fate here. Don’t even say it. If you do, I’ll panic.”

Fu Yan, being a dull and old-fashioned person who had been without entertainment for years, obviously didn’t understand this joke. He was genuinely puzzled for a moment before obediently suppressing the words.

“Trust me,” Fu Yan took the gun and said earnestly, “I’ll be fine.”

This sentence was more in line with his usual way of speaking. Liu Ruosong nodded in response and patted Fu Yan’s collar.

“Be careful,” Liu Ruosong said.

Fu Yan nodded, then checked his jacket and equipment one last time before heading deeper into the barrier.

However, he didn’t head straight into the shopping mall. Instead, he turned toward the direction of the ambulances. Liu Ruosong had sharp eyes and noticed him getting a sealed, large syringe from the medical personnel.

Fu Yan slipped the syringe into his inner pocket and then got a couple of spare blood collection tubes from a doctor. With everything safely stowed in his pocket, he zipped up his jacket and continued on his way into the shopping mall.

Liu Ruosong watched his movements and suddenly came up with an inexplicable guess.

Could he be going in to collect something? Liu Ruosong wondered.

As he was pondering, Fu Yan had already entered the building. He didn’t enter through the sealed main entrance, but rather chose a side door typically used by employees.

Between the revolving glass doors, Fu Yan’s figure quickly disappeared from Liu Ruosong’s line of sight. Reacting instinctively, Liu Ruosong took a step forward, his heart racing.

Before he could calm his emotions, a hand quickly stretched out in front of him. In the rough palm was a headset.

Liu Ruosong turned his head and saw that it was the officer he had seen negotiating with Fu Yan earlier.

“Seeing him in civilian clothes, he’s probably on leave. Nobody has it easy in situations like this,” the officer said, “You’re together, right? You seem to care about him a lot, so it’s fine to listen in.”