The beam of the flashlight illuminated the man outside, making him squint against the harsh light.

He was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and even in the winter, when the cold would normally hinder the spread of odors, the stench of urine was unmistakably strong.

He was thin, almost skeletal, and covered in dirt, with several footprints marking his ragged clothes. His appearance was a far cry from the usual residents of the shelter, and it was clear that he was another unfortunate soul who had been bullied by the local thugs.

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"Have we met somewhere before?" Huang Jin thought the man looked somewhat familiar.

"Y-Yes... we’re classmates." The man gave a bitter smile, revealing a missing tooth.

That pitiful, almost tearful expression made Huang Jin pause. It took him a moment, but then he finally remembered.

"Class monitor?"

"Th-Thank you for still remembering me..." The man gave a weak smile.

It was none other than Zhang Lei, the class monitor. Huang Jin had always had a good impression of him, especially considering how Zhang Lei often asked to copy his homework.

"Quick, quick, come inside! Why are you wearing so little?" Huang Jin hurriedly opened the door and ushered the shivering man in.

Thanks to the man’s thin clothing, Huang Jin could tell he wasn't carrying any weapons, so he felt safe letting him in.

"I... I got stripped during a fight..." Zhang Lei mumbled, his voice barely audible.

"Did you lose your tooth in that fight too?"

"Y-Yeah..." Zhang Lei grimaced, his eyes still clouded with pain.

"You’re already weak. Why provoke someone like that? Who beat you?"

"A bald guy."

"Well, you're really unlucky."

Huang Jin grabbed a coat and tossed it to Zhang Lei, who was sitting on the worn-out sofa.

"Th-thank you..." Zhang Lei quickly put it on, and his trembling body slowly began to calm down.

"So... why did the bald guy attack you?"

The "bald guy" was a man in his thirties, stocky and strong, and the second-in-command of the shelter. The leader, his brother, was just as despicable.

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Huang Jin was waiting for Zhang Lei’s answer, but after hearing the question, the man fell silent.

It wasn’t until a long while later that he spoke.

"Could... could we skip that part?"

"Of course." Huang Jin smiled and poured himself a drink from the water dispenser. "As long as you’re not here to cause trouble, I don’t need to know the details."

Zhang Lei fell into silence again, as if debating whether to speak. A few seconds passed before he finally shared the painful truth.

"Xia He... Xia He’s dead..."

Huang Jin’s hand froze mid-sip. He walked over to Zhang Lei and handed him the cup.

"Thank you..."

"How... how did she die?"

"She was killed by the bald guy and his gang..."

"Where’s the body?"

"They threw it in the trash outside the shelter. She wasn’t wearing any clothes..."

Huang Jin said nothing. He had already pieced together the full picture. This kind of brutality was all too familiar to those thugs.

"We... we only arrived here yesterday," Zhang Lei continued. "We saw the shelter and hoped we could find refuge... but the bald guy..."

Zhang Lei began recounting the events that led up to this.

It all started two years ago when the zombie outbreak began. At the time, A City had descended into chaos. But Xia He’s family was wealthy, so they sent a helicopter to pick her up from school during the early days of the outbreak.

However, Xia He wasn’t at school when the helicopter arrived. She had gone to the hospital, where Zhang Lei had been hospitalized for an acute appendicitis.

Eventually, Xia He found her boyfriend, but in doing so, she missed the helicopter.

After that, they had to escape like everyone else, fleeing from one place to another. They finally ended up in C City just yesterday, looking for a shelter.

They hoped to find protection, but the shelter demanded "rent." At the time, they had nothing, and were about to leave when the bald guy saw them.

He immediately set his eyes on the beautiful Xia He and ordered his men to take her. Zhang Lei, of course, refused, but he was no match for the thugs, and a fight broke out.

He was beaten mercilessly and lost his tooth in the process.

The bald guy made it clear: "If you want her, bring me food. If you can bring me ten pounds of food, I’ll make sure nothing happens to your girlfriend. But I’ll only give you one day."

Desperate, Zhang Lei went out, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find any food. In the end, he resorted to finding an empty bag, filled it with trash, and hoped to fool the bald guy.

The plan seemed simple: exchange the trash for Xia He’s safety, and then escape with her once the deal was made.

But, of course, things didn’t go as planned.

While sneaking the trash into the bag, Zhang Lei accidentally discovered a naked body in the trash heap. When he looked closely, his blood ran cold—he recognized the body.

It was Xia He.

Her face was contorted in pain, and there were... more than one person’s filth on her.

Zhang Lei snapped.

Enraged, he rushed to the shelter, intent on confronting the bald guy, but it wasn’t like the cartoons. Alone, he was quickly overpowered, beaten, stripped, and humiliated.

The thugs mocked him, talking about his girlfriend’s body and the things she had done.

But in the midst of his fury, something in Zhang Lei snapped. Exhausted though he was, he managed to rise again, but this time, instead of rushing in blindly, he kicked the bald guy between the legs.

And then, he ran.

The bald guy and his men chased him, but Zhang Lei was able to escape to a corner of the shelter, hiding among the garbage piles.

Fearing discovery during the day, he had waited until nightfall before finally coming to find Huang Jin.

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"Who was that scavenger?" Huang Jin asked, piecing together the whole story.

"He called himself Lao San. He’s over sixty years old."

"Ah, him..." Huang Jin nodded. He knew the man well.

He turned to Zhang Lei, once the envy of many classmates, and said, "You didn’t come here just to drag me into this, did you?"

"I... I need you to... help me kill someone..."