Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Fragile University Student

She abruptly raised her hand to signal the others to stop, her entire body tensing like a hunting leopard as she cocked her ear to listen. The whistling wind, the low growls of zombies, and even the distant cawing of crows were captured by her acute hearing, then filtered out one by one.

"Inside... there are living people." Jiang Qiyu's voice was very soft, yet carried an unquestionable certainty.

Liu Mei widened her eyes in disbelief, pointing at the rust-covered truck: "Living people? Boss, are you sure? It smells so foul in this truck, how could there possibly still be..." She didn't dare to finish the sentence, but the words "living people" seemed exceptionally ironic at this moment.

Shi Chao also cast a suspicious gaze, observing the surroundings cautiously, and lowered his voice: "Could they be zombies? Advanced-level zombies can also disguise themselves..."

His "Thousand Faces" ability made him exceptionally sensitive to disguises and deeply vigilant.

Jiang Qiyu ignored their skepticism and turned to look at Jiang Fengmian, a hint of inquiry in her gaze: "Sis, what do you feel?"

Jiang Fengmian smiled slightly, though her smile carried an unperceived trace of coldness: "Since you say they are living people, then they must be living people." She stretched her wrists, her joints letting out a faint cracking sound. "Let me handle this."

Before the others could react, Jiang Fengmian walked up to the truck and grabbed the rusty iron door with one hand.

She extended her right hand, her fair fingers firmly gripping the recessed edge of the iron door, her knuckles turning slightly white from the exertion. Then, she took a deep breath, her arm muscles tightening, and exerted force abruptly! A harsh screech of twisting metal suddenly exploded, and that heavy iron door seemed to weigh nothing in her hands, being forcefully ripped off as the warped metal emitted a painful groan.

The situation inside the truck bed was revealed at a glance.

A group of ragged students were huddled together in the corner, pressing tightly against one another in an attempt to extract a sliver of warmth from each other. Everyone's complexion was as pale as paper, their eyes hollow and devoid of light, as if they had lost all hope of survival, trembling like frightened little beasts.

The stench of decay lingering in the air grew increasingly pungent, occupying every inch of space impenetrably like some lingering demon, leaving not a shred of room to breathe. That odor was a mixture of sweat, urine, and the sour, rotting stench of spoiled food, as though countless foul smells had been piled together, causing dizziness and a near-gagging revulsion.

One of the girls, looking to be about eighteen or nineteen, was curled up in the corner, using her rather slender body to shield several younger children behind her. Matted hair covered most of her face, revealing only a sharp chin and a pair of frightened, uneasy eyes.

She slowly inched forward from the corner like a weak young beast, barely supporting her fragile frame. Struggling to raise her head, she tremblingly reached out toward them: "Save... save us..." Her lips were chapped to the point of bleeding, her voice hoarse and faint like sandpaper scraping across an iron plate, exhausting the last shred of her remaining strength.

"Boss, this..." Liu Mei abruptly covered her nose, her stomach churning violently. Suppressing her discomfort, she furrowed her brow, her expression turning somewhat unsightly: "It smells way too bad! This stench is simply ten times worse than a dead rat! Could these people all..."

"They are living people, just starved to the point of fainting," Jiang Qiyu interrupted her, her tone calm. "Get them all out."

Though still harboring lingering fears, the group obeyed Jiang Qiyu's command. Each of them held their breath, suppressing their fear deep within, and slowly approached the reeking truck.

With a frown, Liu Mei managed to squeeze out a shred of courage, trembling as she reached out to carefully lift the weak students along with the others, as if the slightest carelessness might shatter them.

A bout of suppressed coughing broke the silence inside the truck bed. A frail young boy curled his body in agony, his throat emitting a hoarse, rattling cough that sounded like an old, broken bellows wheezing away.

He slowly opened his eyes, his bloodshot, clouded eyeballs staring out as his heavy eyelids drooped weakly, ready to shut again at any moment.

A dazed gaze swept across the unfamiliar faces around him, fear and confusion intertwining inextricably deep within his eyes. He struggled to move his chapped lips, laboriously uttering a hoarse voice as if he were spending every ounce of his remaining strength: "Where... where are we...?"

"You are safe now," Jiang Qiyu said softly, trying to moderate her tone. "I am Jiang Qiyu, the leader of the Vimo Base."

The boy froze for a moment, a flicker of hopeful light flashing across his clouded eyeballs—a light like a dying candle flame, swaying unsteadily in the wind. His chapped lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he weakly closed them instead.

Then, he opened his eyes once more, the glimmer of hope in his gaze becoming brighter and firmer. He swallowed with difficulty, and with a voice so hoarse it was barely audible, he asked in fragments: "Vimo... Base? Is it... that... safe... Vimo Base? Have we... truly... been saved?"

"Yes," Jiang Qiyu nodded. "Where did you come from?"

The boy took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently as if he were desperately trying to control the surging emotions and the impact of his memories. He spoke in a hoarse voice, word by word: "We... we were college students. When the apocalypse broke out... we were still at school... That day was supposed to be peaceful, we were still preparing for our midterm exams... We escaped, driving a truck... and then..." At this point, his voice began to tremble, as though every single word were tearing at his memories, his eye sockets turning slightly red. "And then the truck overturned... The driver... the driver turned into a zombie along the way... His roaring was right beside our ears, we were so scared we almost lost our minds..." He unconsciously clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. "We thought... we were all going to die..." Pausing, he raised his head, staring fixedly at Jiang Qiyu, tears shimmering in his exhausted eyes—tears that seemed to bear the weight of a prolonged ordeal and the newly sprouted hope. "Thank you... truly... thank you for saving us..." His voice was choked with sobs, overflowing with gratitude.

"How many of you are there?" Jiang Qiyu asked.

"We... we originally had over twenty people." The boy lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly, his tone steeped in profound grief, his voice choked to the point of nearly dropping tears. "But... but along the way, we encountered zombie attacks, and some fell ill... one after another, none of them managed to hold on..."

Jiang Qiyu did not press further; she knew that in the apocalypse, death was the most commonplace occurrence of all.

"My name is... *cough, cough*..." The boy suddenly broke into a violent fit of coughing, his frail body arching into a ball as if he were about to cough up his very internal organs. He tightly clutched his chest in agony, his complexion as pale as paper as large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

"Don't speak for now," Jiang Qiyu hurried forward to support him, gently patting his back in an attempt to help him catch his breath.

Yet the boy waved his hand, shaking his head laboriously with trembling lips, as though he still wished to say something.

"Rest for a while first. We can talk after your body feels better," Jiang Qiyu comforted him softly.

However, the boy acted as though he hadn't heard, his stubborn gaze locked onto Jiang Qiyu as he spent his very last ounce of strength, speaking in intermittent fragments: "I... my name is Zhao... Zhao..."

His voice grew weaker and weaker, eventually vanishing into the air.