Chapter 236 - 234 Zeng Liu’s Companion

Words : 1153 Updated : Sep 27th, 2025

"What’s your name?" Chen Xin let the woman tend to the wound on his forehead again. It hurt a bit, so he chatted with her to distract himself. "Zeng Liu. Liu as in willow tree. My dad wasn’t very educated, so when he named me, he just went with the willow tree by the river at our door." The woman, or Zeng Liu, carefully removed a piece of old gauze from Chen Xin’s forehead with tweezers and used a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to clean the scabbed wound. After cleaning the wound, Zeng Liu said to Chen Xin, "Using hemostatic powder initially was the right emergency action, though it did affect the wound a bit and might leave a scar." "No big deal, it’s just a small issue." Chen Xin didn’t mind having another scar on his head; it was nothing serious for a man. The car, under the control of the navigation system, headed for the mall. After Zeng Liu re-applied medication and re-bandaged Chen Xin’s forehead, she tidied up the things on the table, put them back into the medical box, and threw the dirty gauze into the car’s trash bin. Feeling the wound wrapped again by Zeng Liu, Chen Xin glanced at her and said, "You have great bandaging skills, thanks. If you can fix my hand, I can help you leave this town." Hearing Chen Xin’s words, Zeng Liu was visibly tempted but showed no indication, just nodded slightly, acknowledging the matter. This town no longer had any living people. Zeng Liu and her group used to see a few survivors in the city, but now they were getting fewer and fewer. They hadn’t seen others in a long time. As resources became increasingly scarce, the supplies available in this town were almost depleted for them, though not nonexistent. Under these circumstances, if they couldn’t leave the town to go to other refuges, an inevitable fate of death awaited them—whether by freezing, starvation, or sickness. So hearing Chen Xin say he could take her away, Zeng Liu was indeed very moved. Yet, Chen Xin’s previous attitude and the gun in his hand scared Zeng Liu. She didn’t dare to trust Chen Xin or show too much excitement. The two didn’t say much more, and the car quickly arrived near the mall. Chen Xin drove the car into the underground parking lot and stopped at a sheltered place, telling Zeng Liu, "Go find your companions. You can take the medicine to them first. After handling your matter, bring people over to treat me." "I understand. I’ll be back after delivering the medicine," Zeng Liu nodded, indicating she wouldn’t play any tricks. Earlier, Chen Xin had demonstrated the drone’s surveillance capabilities and also let her realize that Chen Xin had a real gun, which made her even more fearful and dared not have any other thoughts. Now, in the post-apocalyptic world, having struggled to survive for more than half a year, Zeng Liu had witnessed killings more than once. In Zeng Liu’s view, anyone who could live so comfortably in the apocalypse and still have weapons like Chen Xin was certainly no saint, and she wouldn’t dare to gamble on whether he would pull the trigger. After getting out of the car, Zeng Liu re-wrapped the scarf around her head, which she had removed in the car for convenience while treating Chen Xin’s wound, inhaling cold air to cool down her head heated by the warmth of Chen Xin’s car and calm her emotions. She glanced back at Chen Xin’s car and bit her lip, knowing clearly that Chen Xin’s two drones were monitoring her companions to guard against any tricks she might try. But Zeng Liu knew she wouldn’t try anything, though she couldn’t say the same for her companions... Zeng Liu shook her head, shaking these thoughts away, and squeezed the medicine in her hand. No matter what, she got the medication, and her friend could be saved. Passing through the silent and dark underground garage, Zeng Liu used the small flashlight in her hand to descend to the next level of the underground parking lot, which had also been transformed into a refuge. But now, only Zeng Liu and her companions lived here. Although the refuge’s facilities were fairly complete, lacking resources, they had no way to start the heating boiler or use the generator. They could only gather some furniture from the mall above to dismantle for burning, barely keeping warm. This was also why Chen Xin hadn’t scanned any heat sources. After all, just one or two campfires, the heat dissipated mostly before reaching the surface through the ventilation ducts. "Zeng Liu, you’re back? Did you find the medicine?" Seeing Zeng Liu return, one of her waiting companions hurriedly approached, showing joy on his face. Zeng Liu nodded at him, asking, "How’s Sister Ning’s condition? Is she still stable?" While asking, Zeng Liu also glanced at the other few companions sitting around a dim campfire, worried about them the most. They were not her original companions, only appearing here after the large-scale evacuation in the town. Zeng Liu didn’t know where these people came from, but she had seen them kill. Since then, Zeng Liu and her companions had kept a respectful yet distant stance with this group, relying on two police officers and a handgun among them to deter the group and maintain peace. But now, one of the police officers in Zeng Liu’s group fell ill, weakening their deterrence and causing the other side to become restless. The reason Zeng Liu risked seeking medicine was partly because the sick person was her friend, but also to maintain her group’s deterrent power. "She’s alright, I’ve been using towels for warm compresses to stabilize her condition. Did you manage to get the medicine?" The approaching companion was another police officer, but he and the sick Sister Ning were only regular officers and not even officially on the force, just auxiliaries. If it weren’t for the uniforms they wore being somewhat intimidating and having brought a gun from the station, they wouldn’t be able to deter these not-so-good-looking drifters. Initially, he also disagreed with Zeng Liu going out for medicine, but now under such circumstances, if one of the two intimidating officers fell, the fragile balance between their small group and the others would break. "I got the medicine. Let’s go to Sister Ning’s room and let her take it first." Saying that, Zeng Liu was about to drag her companion back to their living quarters. However, just as they were preparing to head to their room, a few people from the group by the campfire stood up and blocked Zeng Liu’s way: "You actually got the medicine? That’s unexpected. But if you ask me, it’s a waste. Anyway, she’s dying. It’s better to keep the medicine for us; it could be more useful."

Chapter 236 - 234 Zeng Liu’s Companion

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