Surviving the Apocalypse with the Young Miss - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Rejected

The small path turned out to be a dead end. Song Ge was halfway down when she discovered the road had been deliberately severed. The already narrow trail was blocked by a high pile of scrap metal—rusty, jagged, and razor-sharp.

No one would dump such things in the middle of a road for no reason; it was a deliberate blockade.

But could this really stop monsters? Unless they weren’t trying to stop monsters.

Tong Xiangyu’s heart had already leaped at the sight of the abandoned shoes earlier. Seeing Song Ge stop halfway, she asked nervously, “What’s wrong, Song Ge?”

Song Ge didn’t answer. Instead, she raised her voice and shouted toward the distance: “Hey—!”

Yue Yao, who was focused on flipping sweet potato strips on her bamboo tray, was startled so badly she nearly knocked the tray over. She looked up, but before she could see clearly, someone had already rushed out of the house wielding a large iron shovel.

Yue Yao quickly stopped him. “Dad, Dad, don’t be nervous. It looks like… girls. They’re girls.”

“Girls?” Yue Qiuxiong said. “The roads in and out of this place are all blocked by cars. It’s been so long, how could there still be girls coming through?”

“I don’t know.” Yue Yao looked over and said, “I’ll go check it out.”

Yue Qiuxiong followed with the shovel. Yue Yao wanted to tell him it wasn’t necessary, but for safety’s sake, she let her father follow.

The residential buildings built against the mountain didn’t look poor, but the terrain they sat on was uneven. In front of the houses were patches of farmland. The path wasn’t paved with cement; it was a dirt road embedded with anti-slip stones, winding and rugged. It took quite a walk before the path joined the mountain trail.

By then, the sky had darkened considerably. The two groups looked at each other across the pile of scrap metal.

In Yue Yao’s eyes, there was only a short-haired girl sitting on a bicycle. She was expressionless, tall and thin, with one foot on the pedal and the other on the ground, looking clean and sharp. Just as Yue Yao was about to speak, a fresh, dark-green palm leaf hat peeked out from behind the short-haired girl. Beneath the hat was a small, fair, and beautiful face with watery apricot eyes and a small mouth. With her bright eyes and white teeth, she looked exactly like a pampered city lady who had never done a day’s work in her life.

Yue Yao stared, forgetting her intended question the moment she saw the beautiful girl on the back seat.

Instead, it was Tong Xiangyu who politely nodded first. “Hello.”

Yue Yao snapped out of it and hurried to say hello. She looked at the girl on the bicycle, but seeing the other girl wouldn’t even meet her eyes, she looked back at the girl in the straw hat. “Are you…?”

Tong Xiangyu said, “We’ve come from Kecheng.”

Song Ge left the socializing to the young lady while she quietly sized up the father and daughter. Yes, father and daughter. Although they were at a distance, Song Ge had overheard their brief exchange.

Something unpleasant must have happened here. Between the scrap metal blockade and their conversation, it was clear they were guarding against humans, not monsters. Song Ge noticed the girl was wearing a plaid shirt and a red skirt. Her gait was light; she was clearly accustomed to the rugged path. Her exposed arms and legs were free of wounds. The middle-aged man looked to be in his late forties or fifties—honest, short, dark-skinned, and sturdy. He was clearly a farmer.

From this alone, they seemed to be locals, not outsiders. Moreover, they didn’t seem to have experienced any combat.

Tong Xiangyu got off the bike and walked up to the scrap metal barricade to speak with the girl in the red skirt. She gave their names and identities—students from Kecheng—and stated their main request: they were passing through and wanted to stay the night, politely asking if it was convenient.

Yue Yao asked, “Kecheng? Did something big happen in the city?”

“Yes.” Seeing her pretend not to know, Tong Xiangyu remembered the blood-stained shoes on the slope. Her hands clenched nervously at her sides, but she forced herself to stay calm and asked with feigned confusion: “Don’t you know? Many biting monsters appeared in the city, like they’re infected with a rabies virus.”

“We don’t know. You probably saw on your way here—the highway is completely blocked. Our sweet potatoes are ripe but we can’t get them out to sell, and the buyers who were supposed to come never showed up.” Yue Yao added quickly, “What’s this rabies virus? Is it very serious?”

“Extremely serious,” Tong Xiangyu said, looking her in the eye. “Almost everyone in the city is dead.”

Yue Yao gasped. “How is that possible?!”

Song Ge saw that her shock didn’t look fake and spoke up: “You live right by the road, haven’t you seen anyone? On our way here, we saw many rotting corpses.”

“Cor… corpses?” Yue Yao looked panicked, but quickly steadied herself. She could talk to Tong Xiangyu fine, but when facing Song Ge’s calm, piercing gaze, her speech became stuttered. “We’ve… we’ve seen a few. People, I mean, not corpses. But that was only in the first two days. Maybe because of the traffic jam, they all got out to walk…”

Lying.

Song Ge watched her struggle to hide her nervousness but didn’t call her out. She simply said, “If it’s not convenient to stay, then forget it. Little Milk Tea, let’s go.”

Tong Xiangyu also felt the atmosphere wasn’t right and nodded quickly. Song Ge lifted the bicycle to turn it around.

But just as they were about to leave, the darkening sky suddenly lit up! For a split second, everything was bathed in an unnatural white light, like an overexposed film. Though it went dark again, the deathly white glare lingered on their retinas.

The next moment, a thunderclap like a physical blow exploded overhead: KRA-KOOM!

Startled, Tong Xiangyu immediately grabbed Song Ge and leaned into her. Song Ge frowned. No warning at all—was it about to pour?

It was fine. They could find a car to hide in. They hadn’t run into people or monsters on the road for days; hiding in a car for a night shouldn’t be so unlucky as to encounter danger.

Yue Yao looked at the lightning and the gathering storm clouds, then at the retreating figures. She said to her father, “Dad, why don’t we let them stay for a night?”

Yue Qiuxiong frowned and shook his head at her, as if signaling something.

At that moment, a voice called out from nearby— “Old Yue! It’s about to rain, why are you still standing there?!”

Yue Qiuxiong looked back. The man immediately cried out in surprise, “What, people have come?!”

Clutching Song Ge’s arm, Tong Xiangyu couldn’t help but look back curiously. She saw several men standing in a yard not far away. They were in short sleeves with their pant legs rolled up, carrying large bags of sweet potatoes on the ends of shovels and hoes. But now, they set down their loads and started walking toward them, clutching their tools.

The image of the blood-stained shoes flashed through Tong Xiangyu’s mind. She whispered frantically to Song Ge, “Song Ge, Song Ge, let’s go, quickly.”

Song Ge grunted in response and got on the bike. By the time the men approached with their “weapons,” the two were already cycling back the way they came.

“Why’d they leave?” Song Ge heard the loud-voiced man ask.

“Just asking for directions. Mind your own business. Go, go, go back.”

“No, weren’t those two young girls? It’s about to pour. Why not ask them in for dinner and to shelter from the rain?”

“The rain hasn’t even started yet, what are you worrying about? Besides, if they have the ability to make it safely all the way from Kecheng, they certainly have the ability to leave safely.”

“…From Kecheng?”

Yue Qiuxiong immediately winked at the others. The loud man’s volume dropped instantly. “Let’s go, let’s go back.”

It wasn’t quite dark yet. Song Ge carried Tong Xiangyu back up to the highway, parked the bicycle, and took out a flashlight to search for a car without a dead body inside. She seemed completely unbothered by the rejection. “We can hide from the rain in the car, but if there’s lightning, we won’t get struck and die, will we?”

Tong Xiangyu had been watching Song Ge’s reaction; hearing this, she immediately countered, “Of course not.”

Song Ge: “Isn’t a car metal? Doesn’t it conduct electricity?”

“The car is metal, but it’s an enclosed space. Do you know the ‘Faraday Cage’ principle?” Seeing Song Ge’s look, Tong Xiangyu knew she didn’t and continued without waiting for an answer. “It means the cage is an equipotential body. When lightning strikes the car, the body and tires connect to the ground. The potential difference inside the car is zero. Without a potential difference, no current will pass through you. It’s like high-voltage lines—if one breaks and falls near you, you absolutely must not take a step. Because the ground is electrified, the moment you step, your body becomes a path, and the ‘step voltage’ created by the different voltage levels between your legs will kill you. You have to hop on one leg or jump with your feet together to avoid being shocked.”

“Falling near me?”

“Yeah.”

“Am I that unlucky?”

Tong Xiangyu said, “No, it’s just an example. The same applies if it falls near me.”

Song Ge: “Forget it. Better if it falls near me.”

Tong Xiangyu froze, realizing the sentiment behind Song Ge’s words. Her ears warmed slightly. Just as she was about to speak, Song Ge found a very new BMW SUV. She opened the door; the interior was in great condition.

Song Ge: “Get in.”

Tong Xiangyu forgot what she was going to say and obeyed. “Oh, coming.”

They closed the windows and doors. Tong Xiangyu took off her backpack and pulled out a few sweet potatoes. “Sigh, I was hoping to roast these today.”

“Don’t like them raw?”

Tong Xiangyu peeked at her. “Can I tell the truth?”

Song Ge: “If you tell the truth, am I going to hit you?”

Tong Xiangyu said honestly, “Raw ones taste like starch.”

“Well, sweet potato starch is made from grinding raw sweet potatoes, after all.” Song Ge didn’t plan on eating the sweet potatoes the young lady had carried so hard all day; she opened a pack of compressed biscuits and some jerky.

By unspoken agreement, neither mentioned the rejection.

Lightning flashed across the horizon again, followed by rolling thunder. Tong Xiangyu, holding a braised chicken leg, looked out the window. Suddenly she became excited. “Song Ge, Song Ge, look!!”

Song Ge looked in the direction she was pointing and was also stunned. Those residential buildings from earlier had actually lit up.

Tong Xiangyu was delighted. “They haven’t lost power?!”

Song Ge guessed, “Probably their own generators.”

“That’s impressive,” Tong Xiangyu said, then frowned and leaned in closer to the window.

Seeing Tong Xiangyu leaning toward her chest, Song Ge pressed herself back against the seat as much as possible. Then she heard the young lady squint and ask, “Is that a person?”

Song Ge turned her head again and realized she had been so focused on the house lights that she hadn’t noticed a figure on the small path walking toward them. It was very dark now, but the person was wearing a red skirt.

It was likely the girl from before.

“Don’t move. I’ll go down and check.” Song Ge opened the door to step out, telling Tong Xiangyu to lock the doors behind her.

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