“Hold on a moment.”
Lu Zhi suddenly stopped Yun Ai from cutting through the glass door.
Yun Ai froze, hurriedly lowering her hands. The tear streaks on her face hadn’t dried, and her damp eyes nervously watched her. “W-what is it?”
Lu Zhi didn’t answer. She just focused and listened carefully. Through the thick layer of glass, the sounds outside weren’t very clear. Even with her ears perked, it was only the faintest hint of noise, seemingly there and then not.
Yun Ai didn’t dare breathe loudly and pressed her ear against the glass as well.
A moment later, Lu Zhi made a gesture and said, “You keep going. I’m going to find something.”
Without waiting for Yun Ai’s refusal, she stood up from the floor and walked straight to the counter. After rummaging for a while, she fished a white commercial megaphone from a low cabinet. She casually grabbed a few pieces of clothing to muffle it tightly, then pressed the play button to test it.
“New arrivals, entire store…”
The muffled sound cut off abruptly as Lu Zhi, upon confirming it worked, quickly pressed the stop button.
When she returned to the doorway, Yun Ai had already started using her Psionic Power to grow vines over the glass as before, but this time the branches and leaves were clearly growing slower and much sparser.
“That’s enough.” Lu Zhi patted Yun Ai’s shoulder, then half-crouched. This time, instead of using her elbow, she went straight for a fire extinguisher in the shop.
With a crash, the glass shattered into bits.
Following that, the characteristic excited, low growls of zombies trickled up from the street outside below.
Yun Ai’s face went pale.
“It’s fine,” Lu Zhi gently reassured her. In her hands was the white megaphone tied with two shoelaces, hanging down nearly a meter long. “I’m going out to tie this thing to the railing. Once all the zombies in the mall are lured out, we’ll go upstairs.”
“Wait here,” Lu Zhi said.
“No, no,” Yun Ai quickly shook her head, her fingers clutching Lu Zhi’s sleeve. “I want to go with you.”
Lu Zhi glanced down at her, didn’t insist, and said, “Then follow me.”
The two quickly slipped through the hole in the glass door, slightly hunched over as they moved along the wall. Just as they glanced down over the mall’s signature transparent guardrail, they saw that six or seven zombies had already gathered on the floor below, directly opposite the clothing store, drawn by the sound of shattering glass. Now, having caught their scent, they were all excitedly stretching out their arms and howling.
Lu Zhi’s gaze swept past the escalator, which was still some distance from the clothing store.
Humans turned into zombies lost their reason and thought, relying entirely on sight, hearing, and smell to perceive the world. Even if their intelligence improved over time, it would at most go from a dog’s level to a wolf’s. So, without prey to guide them, they naturally didn’t know they needed to take the stairs to reach the second floor. Besides, it had only been two months since the apocalypse. The zombies hadn’t evolved that fast into monsters with dramatically improved jumping power, bite force, speed, or strength. Currently, they could only futilely leap up from the ground floor.
Keeping a wary eye on the various tightly shut shops beside her, Lu Zhi circled the corridor to an area diagonally opposite the escalator and farthest from it. Then, she tied the shoelace to the wood-colored railing, turned on the white megaphone’s play button, and let it hang down.
“New arrivals, entire store twenty percent off— New arrivals, entire store twenty percent off—”
The somewhat stiff female voice suddenly exploded throughout the entire mall, instantly shattering the solidified air and looping tirelessly over and over.
The nearby zombies acted as if injected with adrenaline, every single one sprinting toward the megaphone. Even zombies originally wandering slowly in another area swarmed over ferociously.
By the time Lu Zhi and Yun Ai returned to the clothing store, the area directly under the megaphone on the first floor was already packed with over a dozen zombies, all stretching out their bloated, decaying claws, frantically jumping.
Lu Zhi had calculated the distance when tying the shoelace to the railing. Even hanging down, the megaphone was still three or four meters above the ground. Ordinary zombies wouldn’t have the jumping power to reach it, and even if they did, they would only pull it down—the shoelace’s tensile strength wasn’t enough to support an adult’s weight.
“There,” Yun Ai suddenly tugged Lu Zhi’s sleeve, pointing a finger at the floor opposite the clothing store. A blurry human silhouette stood near the railing on the fourth floor, its form swaying slightly, but its features were indistinguishable in the dim light. “Is that a person?”
Lu Zhi looked over, narrowing her eyes slightly, but still couldn’t identify it. She had no choice but to extend her arm through the glass door behind her and wave it in a large, deliberate gesture.
The next second, the figure plummeted headfirst from the fourth floor.
It was clearly a zombie.
Yun Ai shuddered and retreated behind Lu Zhi.
The two waited inside the clothing store for a few minutes, estimating that any zombies able to emerge from the shadows had been drawn downstairs by the noise. Those still not emerging despite the sound were certainly trapped or immobile, posing no threat. Only then did they leisurely step out of the shop. With the zombies’ roars on the first floor and the megaphone’s continuous sales pitch as background music, they smoothly made their way to the top floor of the mall—the fifth floor, occupied by a cinema and the dining area.
Thanks to the skylight, the fifth floor was much brighter than the second.
The dining area wasn’t like the clothing stores below, with every shop shut tight. A few open storefronts had tables and chairs in disarray; clearly, the owners or other people had come here seeking supplies. Regardless, compared to convenience stores, supermarkets, and the like, which had been swept clean by swarms of humans, this place was much better and much safer.
Lu Zhi chose a barbecue restaurant that, in the haste, hadn’t had its door locked. The restaurant, forced to close after the apocalypse hit, was surprisingly clean. On the tables in the dining area, portable butane stoves, grills, and roasting pans were still neatly arranged.
Lu Zhi gave the interior a quick once-over, then picked up a steel rod and first banged it against an iron stool near the door. Two crisp clangs rang out. She listened intently for two seconds, and only when there was no abnormal reaction did she slowly walk inside.
Yun Ai followed behind. Passing a table, she tried twisting the knob on a grill. A flame shot up from the burner, illuminating the dim space.
“It still works!” Yun Ai said happily.
Lu Zhi raised an eyebrow slightly. “Let’s go check the kitchen.”
“Mm!” Yun Ai quickly turned off the flame and followed.
This was clearly a restaurant that its own people had already scavenged. The ones who came likely didn’t know themselves how long the apocalypse would last, perhaps clinging to the faint hope that they could reopen someday. So, while the kitchen equipment was a bit messy, there was little damage.
Lu Zhi didn’t open the tightly sealed freezer. She knew that even if the owner hadn’t taken all the meat, after two months without power, it would now be a breeding ground for another ecosystem.
But against the back kitchen wall were two large vegetable bins. They only contained the bottom-of-the-barrel stock of leftover vegetables, now mostly rotted into mush. Only a few potatoes and sweet potatoes had the good fortune, in the damp environment, to sprout some leaves even as they rotted.
“Naturally, there’s no barbecue meat left,” Lu Zhi said, turning back to look at Yun Ai. “Can you grow a few potatoes or sweet potatoes for us to roast?”
Yun Ai poked her head over to look, her small nose wrinkling with difficulty. After a long moment, she said in a small, pitiful voice, “I probably can’t grow them yet…”
Lu Zhi didn’t show any disappointment on her face. She just nodded understandingly and said, “Then wrap some of the roots and stems around your body. You can plant them in a few days.”
She said it so casually, as if Yun Ai’s Psionic Power would actually make such a leap in just a few days.
Yun Ai pursed her lips, struggling to suppress the shame she felt inside about her weak ability. She half-crouched, stretched out her wrist, and, urged by her Psionic Power, the potato and sweet potato sprouts quickly grew some thin tendrils that twined around her hand.
Although the ingredients had already been looted once, it was, after all, the kitchen of a sizable restaurant. No matter how they moved things, they couldn’t possibly take everything in a rush. The rice that had been piled in the storeroom was gone, but the storage bin still held some gleaming white grains. Also, ginger and garlic were complete, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar weren’t lacking either. Yun Ai even found a vacuum-packed ham that had fallen into a crevice.
“How about it,” Yun Ai said, holding the nearly one-pound red ham in her hands, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Lu Zhi. Tentatively, she suggested, “Why don’t we cook some rice and stir-fry a dish first? We have fire anyway, and a lot of this stuff isn’t easy to carry.”
Lu Zhi: “Are you going to cook?”
Yun Ai nodded eagerly. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it! I know how to cook!”
Lu Zhi chuckled softly, agreeable as ever. “Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“No trouble, no trouble,” Yun Ai said rapidly. Then, pitter-pattering, she ran out and hauled a grill with a small gas canister back into the kitchen, clearly very pleased at the prospect of eating.
Lu Zhi followed behind and firmly closed the restaurant door, even dragging a heavy table to barricade it.
A moment later, Yun Ai’s fair fingertips gripped the kitchen doorframe. Her small head poked out, giggling. “A little water, please?”
Lu Zhi responded, patted her hands, and walked over. She quickly focused and gathered half a basin of water, letting her use it to wash the rice, the pot, and the cutting board.
“Your Psionic Ability is improving so fast!” Yun Ai said, holding the aluminum basin with admiration.
“You have to practice and use it a lot,” Lu Zhi said, sitting down on a chair nearby and slowly easing the waves of pain washing over her. She spoke softly, “The pain you feel when your Psionic Power is depleted should be your body automatically expanding its internal energy reserves. This training method rapidly exhausts physical energy, but for those who can’t absorb Psionic Cores, it’s greatly beneficial.”
“I tried it before, but back then, we were always traveling or running away. In the team, food was distributed based on everyone’s contribution, so I never had enough to eat. I didn’t dare push myself…” Yun Ai smiled, her eyes curving. Her expression held not the slightest resentment, instead showing some shyness. “But I’ll definitely try my best to use my Psionic Power from now on.”
Lu Zhi gave a soft hum of agreement, narrowing her eyes slightly.
Yun Ai turned around and focused intently on cooking. She found a rice steamer in the kitchen, using the inner pot and ceramic bowls to prepare four bowls of steamed rice. She then removed the grill plate from the stove and placed the steamer’s inner pot, covered with a lid, directly over the flame to cook slowly.
Next was the ham. The vacuum-sealed ham was specially intended for barbecue in the restaurant. The moment the packaging was cut open, the smoky, meaty aroma filled the air.
Although Yun Ai had eaten a bunch of snacks earlier, her stomach was still in a constant state of hunger. Smelling this, she felt like drooling.
“It smells so good…” she murmured, staring at the red slices. She turned around and asked Lu Zhi, who was acting like a hands-off manager, “How about I make a stir-fry of garlic sprouts and ham?”
Lu Zhi: “Can you grow them?”
Yun Ai pursed her small mouth, her expression resolute. “Yes!”
After saying this, she grabbed three garlic bulbs from a nearby mesh bag. Left in the air for two months, these little things were mostly dried and shriveled. But luckily, with Yun Ai, this Wood Elemental Psionic, around, for the sake of a tasty meal, she drained her already sparse energy in one go. After a long while, she managed to grow a batch of lush, green garlic sprouts, twenty centimeters high.
