Tears clung to Chu Hong's eyelashes, her delicate, rosy face streaked with sorrow.

She had already succumbed to despair, utterly convinced that rescue was impossible. She believed she was doomed to be tormented to death by these men.

Yet in the blink of an eye, Yang Mu descended from the heavens, and in another instant, he had eliminated all the armed bandits.

How could this be?

How had Yang Mu become so formidable?

So formidable that it defied belief, reaching an unimaginable level of skill.

No, no, that wasn’t the point. The crucial matter was that Yang Mu had descended from the sky and saved her life, preserving her chastity.

Though Chu Hong was a year older than Yang Mu, she had been coddled since childhood, and her lofty standards had kept her from ever having a boyfriend. In many ways, she was still like a little girl.

This harrowing ordeal had matured her, teaching her a lesson—one that Yang Mu had once mentioned.

Without her family’s influence, she was no different from any other woman. Lying there, she was nothing more than a vessel to bear children for men.

It wasn’t a dismissal of women’s worth. Rather, when a woman recognized this, it often meant she truly desired a man, regardless of her status or position.

Sometimes, letting go is the same as wanting to possess.

With a sob, Chu Hong threw herself into Yang Mu’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, refusing to let go.

Yang Mu rolled his eyes; once again, Chu Hong nearly strangled him to death.

One had to admit, Chu Hong’s grip was surprisingly strong, likely a result of her excellent nutrition. As the pampered daughter of a wealthy family, she had learned many things over the years.

Dancing, Taekwondo, aerobics, self-defense techniques.

So, she wasn’t a frail, delicate woman—just a little timid. At the sight of a zombie's grotesque face, she couldn't meet its gaze and only wanted to run.

Yang Mu wrapped his arms around Chu Hong’s slender waist and, with a firm hand, delivered two sharp slaps to her peach-like behind, the sound loud enough to make anyone blush.

"Let go, you crazy woman, or you're going to kill me."

Chu Hong’s face turned crimson. She was certain her backside must be red as well—after twenty-two years of life, no one had ever touched her like this. The sensation was beyond words.

She reluctantly loosened her grip on Yang Mu, though her arms still clung to his neck, unwilling to fully let go.

Yang Mu, though he could see the flush on Chu Hong's face, was a twenty-one-year-old young man who had never been with a woman. For all his cleverness, even he couldn’t grasp the complexity of Chu Hong’s emotions at this moment.

At this moment, Liu Dongfeng and the others gathered around. When they first met Yang Mu, their attitude toward him had been rather indifferent, especially the three men who hovered around Chu Hong simply because she was beautiful.

But after several crises, they finally understood—survival skills far outweighed mere physical beauty. Thus, they began to flatter Yang Mu.

Liu Dongfeng forced a smile, placing a hand on Yang Mu's shoulder, "Brother, I must have been blind before. You're more capable than any special forces soldier."

Wang Yunzhi, holding her brother-in-law's hand, approached and said, "Yang, please don’t take offense. This kid is young and reckless, and he may have offended you before."

Gu Dasen came over with a sheepish grin, rubbing his hands together, but failing to say anything, as expected from a coward.

The most enthusiastic among them was Yeliena, the little girl, who clung to Yang Mu’s arm, bouncing around. Indeed, still a child.

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"Wow, wow, wow! Big brother, you're so cool!"

Yang Mu, meanwhile, held Chu Hong in his arms—this was their second intimate encounter since the apocalypse began.

The first time in the alley, Yang Mu had only wanted to discard her, but this time was different. The once-brash woman now seemed as fragile as any other, soft in his embrace. It was a reality that could not be ignored, especially as their bodies pressed together, chest to chest.

His gaze swept past the crowd to find Hu Die standing alone by the wall, unlike the others. She leaned against it, and when she noticed him looking, she nonchalantly blew him a kiss.

A clever, sly woman with a mature charm… one he would inevitably have his way with someday.

Yang Mu was in high spirits, oblivious to how small his desires really were, thinking only of this trivial conquest and nothing more.

Carrying Chu Hong to the window, Yang Mu finally addressed the group, who were all watching him expectantly.

"I’ll head to the eighth floor first and lower a rope to pull you up. This place isn’t safe anymore, but the higher floors will be better. Once we're up there, we part ways."

He spoke as he tied Chu Hong to his back with the rope, securing his backpack to his chest. He stepped over the balcony, looped the extra rope around the drainpipe as a safety measure, and began climbing swiftly upwards.

He reached the eighth-floor balcony in no time, untied Chu Hong, and lowered the rope for the others.

Using the same method, Yang Mu pulled everyone up to the eighth floor, and then they proceeded to the tenth floor.

Though he should have dealt with Liu Dan and his companions, he hesitated. Having grown up in a society governed by law, where one's moral compass isn't easily overridden, killing wasn’t something he could do lightly. It wasn’t just a matter of courage but breaking deeply ingrained beliefs.

Chances are, they wouldn’t survive long anyway, likely trapped and doomed in this building.

After a brief rest on the sofa, Yang Mu walked to the door, cracked it open, and peered into the hallway. It was quiet—no zombies.

He closed the door and turned to survey the group, scrutinizing them twice over.

“Those who know me, come here. The rest, stay behind.”

As soon as he spoke, Liu Dongfeng and his group rushed to his side, beaming with excitement.

"Hero, we want to come with you!" shouted one of the six men standing apart, a young man with glasses.

"I’ve already done my part by bringing you out of that desperate situation and into this safer place. There’s no reason for me to continue babysitting you."

"But you're so strong! We stand a better chance of surviving if we stick with you! You can’t just abandon us!" The young man’s shameless plea almost made Yang Mu laugh in disbelief.

Being kind really didn’t pay off. Not only did they fail to thank him, but now they were accusing him of abandoning them?

“Ha! Who do you think you are? Yes, I’ll leave you to die—what about it?”

“How can you be like this?” the young man stammered, on the verge of tears.

Yang Mu felt like an idiot. Why was he even bothering with someone who couldn’t tell right from wrong?

Without another word, Yang Mu turned, opened the door, and led his group out.

“Don’t be afraid! Just follow them! It’s not like they own the road!” the young man, now throwing a tantrum, said.

The others, desperate to survive, had the same thought. They knew their best chance lay with Yang Mu and his formidable skills.

Annoyed by the six men and two women trailing behind, Yang Mu stopped, turned, and coldly approached the young man.

“What… what are you doing? The road isn’t yours!”

“I don’t care about pride, but when I make a mistake, I fix it.”

With that, Yang Mu swiftly dragged the young man back into the room, tied him up, and lowered him from the tenth floor to the sixth-floor balcony.

“Ah! Pull me back up! I was wrong! I won’t follow you anymore!”

At the sixth-floor balcony, Yang Mu tied the rope to a fixture, leaving the young man dangling.

“Look, I pulled you up from the sixth floor, and I was wrong. Now I’m lowering you back down. You can easily step onto the balcony and get back into the room. The rope is yours—if you’ve got the strength, climb back up. Satisfied now?”

“You’re terrible! You’re a bad person! What’s your name? Tell me! I’ll get my revenge!”

“Yang Mu. I’ll be waiting.”

“And remember my name, too—Fang Zhongzheng! I will find you and get my revenge, you villain!”

Yang Mu felt utterly disgusted, cursing himself for engaging with such a lowly person.

Petty men were hard to manage. The world had its share of them, cloaked in false civility by societal norms. Now, with the collapse of civilization, their true nature was revealed.

This Fang Zhongzheng—his parents must have named him hoping he’d grow up righteous, yet he had turned out so twisted, unable to distinguish right from wrong.

Without wasting more time, Yang Mu led the group upstairs. Those left behind dared not follow, too afraid of being sent back to the sixth floor.

...

On the sixth floor, Fang Zhongzheng managed to scramble onto the balcony.

The rope around him was just a loop, and after a bit of struggle, he loosened it.

He squatted on the balcony, crying for a while, when he heard voices from inside.

"Out there, untie us."

The voice was harsh, and Fang Zhongzheng remembered that there were three people tied up in the room.

Nervously, he entered the room. Liu Dan’s husband, his hand still bleeding from where Yang Mu had severed his fingers, looked pale but managed a strained smile.

“Brother, I heard you. They abandoned you, right? Come on, untie us. Together, we’ll get revenge.”

Fang Zhongzheng hesitated, seeing how tightly they were bound, and took two steps back before sitting down on the floor.

“Untie you? I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Fang Zhongzheng pulled a corpse over—it was that of a man around fifty years old, the first and only one to stand against the cannibals.

"His name was Fang Wei. He was my father. Your people killed him, you know that?"

Fang Zhongzheng screamed in rage, his cries echoing as he grabbed a nearby hunting rifle and pointed it at the man with the triangular eyes, the one who had killed Fang Wei.

“No! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”