Chapter 25: Practical Combat Instruction

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After giving Xiao Yingyong his instructions, Qin Zhong drew back the bowstring, fitted a bolt into the firing groove, and taught her step by step how to use the crossbow.

Xiao Yingyong raised the weapon and aimed at a row of cargo containers more than a dozen meters away. She squeezed the trigger. With a sharp snap, the bolt shot forth and slammed into one of the containers, its fletching trembling incessantly.

Seeing how powerful the shot was, Xiao Yingyong stuck out her tongue in astonishment. “That’s incredibly powerful!”

Qin Zhong merely smiled. Noticing more than a dozen tubes of bolts inside the woven sack—three or four hundred in all—he took out one tube and slung it diagonally over Xiao Yingyong’s shoulder.

He mused that although Xiao Yingyong was only a girl, girls were naturally careful and therefore well suited to become archers or crossbowmen. The fact that she had managed to survive in the apocalypse already proved that she was no ordinary child. With proper training, she might one day become a capable assistant.

Still, Qin Zhong felt that this thought was somewhat selfish, even inhuman.

After all, Xiao Yingyong was so young, yet she already had to face killing. Anyone with a soft and compassionate heart would surely find it unbearable.

But Qin Zhong had lived through Disaster Day and had even been betrayed by his own companions. He understood all too well that if one wanted to survive in the apocalypse, one had to become useful. A useless person would only be abandoned without mercy.

Now that Xiao Yingyong had learned to use a crossbow, even if she eventually left him, the skill would greatly improve her chances of survival.

No matter what, the cold and merciless apocalypse would not show her extra kindness simply because she had not yet grown up. To survive, everyone had to learn to protect themselves. No one was exempt.

Xiao Yingyong’s face was flushed with excitement. “Brother Qin, I know how to use it now! Let’s go out and kill zombies!”

Qin Zhong only smiled faintly. “At most, you know how to fire it. You’re still a long way from truly knowing how to use it. Fortunately, there are plenty of bolts here. Even after you shoot them, we can retrieve and reuse them, so there’s no need to worry about wasting them. You can hone your aim through actual combat.”

Xiao Yingyong nodded repeatedly. Actual combat was far more thrilling than dull practice.

The two of them continued downstairs through the fire escape, preparing to take advantage of their elevated position on the seventh floor and kill the living dead wandering across the sixth floor one by one.

The fire stairs were silent. No zombies had broken in. When they reached the seventh floor, they found a zombie that had apparently run up there. The moment it saw them emerge from the fire door, it let out an excited howl and charged toward them.

Xiao Yingyong hurriedly raised the crossbow and took aim. With a whoosh, the bolt flew over the zombie’s head—at least three feet too high.

Embarrassed by her miss, Xiao Yingyong gave an awkward smile. She struggled to draw the bowstring again, carefully took aim, and fired a second bolt. Unfortunately, that one missed as well.

After two empty shots, the zombie had drawn dangerously close, now less than ten paces away. In her panic, Xiao Yingyong’s face went deathly pale. At a loss, she ducked behind Qin Zhong.

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Qin Zhong frowned slightly. Without bothering to use the crossbow, he drew his long saber and strode toward the zombie. With a sliding step, a flash of steel passed through the air, and the zombie’s head was sliced off.

After killing it, Qin Zhong wiped the blade on the zombie’s clothes, then hauled Xiao Yingyong up from the floor and shouted, “Why are you hiding? This is the apocalypse! There are zombies everywhere. If you want to survive, can you hide from all of them?”

His shout brought a flush to Xiao Yingyong’s face. She did not argue. Lowering her head, she went to the edge of the corridor, lay prone on the floor, and aimed at the zombies roaming across the sixth floor.

There were even more zombies on the sixth-floor corridor and terrace than before—some eighty or ninety in all. Apparently, the noise of Qin Zhong smashing the light bulbs earlier had drawn more of them inside.

Seeing Xiao Yingyong lying there and clumsily taking aim, often firing three or four bolts without hitting a single zombie, Qin Zhong could only shake his head.

After watching for a while, he went over and lay down beside her. While firing steel pellets to eliminate the zombies, he taught her a few tricks he had worked out himself.

Qin Zhong did not expect Xiao Yingyong to become a warrior overnight. For anyone living in the apocalypse, having someone for company—even if that someone was only a child—could greatly lessen the loneliness.

…

As the steel pellets and bolts continued raining downward, the horde on the sixth floor steadily dwindled. By noon, only a dozen or so remained.

Seeing that they had accomplished more than expected that morning, Qin Zhong rubbed his stomach and realized he was hungry. He called to Xiao Yingyong, and the two of them crawled backward a few steps before standing up and walking to the entrance of a department store on that floor. After removing a wooden bar, they went inside.

Qin Zhong had noticed the department store while clearing the seventh floor earlier. Once he had cleaned out the interior, he had barred the entrance with a stick so that any zombies who wandered up by accident would not enter.

That way, even if zombies made their way upstairs, they could only roam the corridor and terrace, making them easier to eliminate.

It was a department store, and the shelves were crowded with every kind of food. Much of it was vacuum-packed, and although six months had passed since the apocalypse began, most of it was still edible.

Qin Zhong took two bags of bread, several sausages, and two cans of eight-treasure porridge from the shelves. He found an empty spot, sat on the floor with his back against the wall, and ate slowly.

Xiao Yingyong wandered casually through the store. Whenever she saw biscuits she liked, she opened a packet, ate a couple, and abandoned the rest. When she spotted a kind of cake, she opened that too, took a few bites, and tossed it onto the floor.

Before long, snack boxes were scattered everywhere.

It looked wasteful, but aside from Qin Zhong and Xiao Yingyong, no one else would be coming to shop there. There was no reason to worry about waste.

Once they had filled their stomachs, the two of them left the store and resumed their morning’s work from a different angle. They found that more than twenty zombies had appeared on the sixth floor, all of them emerging from nearby shops.

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The two of them remained on the seventh floor, killing zombies from above until the light inside the department store grew too dim for them to see clearly. Only then did they return to an office on the eighth floor.

Qin Zhong had discovered the office while clearing the various floors earlier. It consisted of two rooms, with a security door enclosing the outer one. Compared with the roast-duck shop, it was far safer.

Therefore, beginning that night, Qin Zhong moved all their supplies there and planned to use the office as their home for the foreseeable future.

The only drawback was that neither room had a window. Once the security door was closed, the office became as dark as a tomb.

After securing the door, Qin Zhong lit the candles they had taken from the department store. He placed the crossbow and saber on the table, then asked Xiao Yingyong, “There’s a long sofa in each room. Which one do you want to sleep in?”

“The inner room!”

As she spoke, Xiao Yingyong’s eyes shone with excitement, though she also looked puzzled. “Brother Qin, you have an incredible amount of supplies stored here.”

When she had helped Qin Zhong carry everything over, Xiao Yingyong had noticed that the backpacks he gave her were filled with all kinds of food that was easy to store: fruit, canned meat, chocolate bars, vacuum-packed beef, and other high-calorie provisions.

There were even several bottles of Maotai, all sorts of wilderness survival equipment, and an entire backpack devoted to medicine.

Xiao Yingyong was a regular customer at this department store. At a glance, she could tell that much of what Qin Zhong had in his packs had not come from there. He must have gathered it from other places.

That was why she had spoken from the heart, convinced that Qin Zhong was truly remarkable. He had managed to acquire so many valuable supplies all by himself!

“Heh.”

Faced with her praise, Qin Zhong merely smiled and offered no explanation. Was he supposed to tell her that these supplies had been sent to him through a mobile phone by a female tycoon from ten years in the past?

Even if he did tell her, she would probably assume he was joking.

Besides, this was his greatest secret. Xiao Yingyong had not yet earned his complete trust, and even if she did, that did not mean he would have to share such a secret with her.

Yang Xin and Wu Qian’s betrayals had taught Qin Zhong one thing: one must never harbor the intention of harming others, but one must always guard against being harmed.

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