Ch 184: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World II

Chen Fu propped himself up on the floor, struggling to crawl toward the main entrance. His voice trembled as he called out, “Qingqing, Qingqing, I’m sorry. I apologize. Please, don’t do anything rash.”

The girl, referred to as Qingqing, strode up to him. Without hesitation, she drove her sword through his hands, which were feebly attempting to shield his lower body. The blade pierced through with ease, and Chen Fu’s face turned ashen, cold sweat dripping down his face and soaking his skin.

Qingqing’s expression was icy as she pulled the sword out and stabbed again—each thrust delivered with fierce resolve.

With every strike, Chen Fu let out a blood-curdling scream, each more desperate than the last.

From outside came the distinct sound of an engine roaring to life. The three men with the van were preparing to flee. Qingqing pulled her sword free and bolted out the door after them.

Chen Fu collapsed onto the floor, dark red blood pooling around him and quickly spreading.

“Krrrrk… krrrrk…”

A hoarse, rasping noise echoed faintly from the stairwell. It was fragmented, uneven, and ominous.

Chen Fu froze, his back drenched in cold sweat. He turned his head to see the source of the noise, but the sight that greeted him made his blood run cold. He tried to get up, but his legs were still bleeding profusely, rendering him unable to stand.

“Bang! Thud! Clatter!”

A zombie tumbled down the stairs, rolling several times before crashing into the hallway wall. It landed face-up, its exposed neck bones stark against its decaying flesh. Its shriveled face housed two bulging, bloodshot eyes that stared unblinkingly at Chen Fu, who was less than twenty meters away.

Chen Fu locked eyes with the zombie, and a terrified scream burst from his throat. Scrambling like a desperate dog, he crawled across the floor, pleading, “Save me!”

The zombie slowly turned its neck, as if testing its movements, before attempting to stand.

“Thud… Thud…” More zombies began tumbling down the stairs, piling atop the first one.

Drawn by the fresh scent of blood and the anguished cries, the undead seemed to have discovered an effective way to descend. More and more of them began rolling down the stairs in a gruesome cascade.

Hearing Chen Fu’s first scream, the three men outside initially stepped out of the van, thinking to help. However, upon entering and seeing the chaos inside, they fled back to the van. They believed Chen Fu could make it out, so they sat in the vehicle and waited at the entrance for about thirty seconds. When he didn’t appear, they decided to leave.

By the time Qingqing rushed out of the clinic’s main doors, the white van was already heading toward where Lu Yao had parked her electric bike.

She gave chase, sword in hand, but her frail body couldn’t keep up. She could only watch helplessly as the van sped farther and farther away.

Standing at the entrance, Lu Yao watched Qingqing’s stiff, desolate silhouette. She let out a soft sigh, gently released Zhang Shulan, and raised the short sword in her hand. With precise aim, she hurled it like a javelin toward the van.

The moment the blade left her hand, a transparent layer of sword energy enveloped it, transforming it into a missile-like projectile that streaked toward the vehicle.

Inside the van, the elderly man who had been complicit in deceiving Lu Yao was sitting in the back. He leaned slightly to observe what was happening behind the vehicle. When he saw Lu Yao’s throwing motion, he scoffed dismissively. A mocking smile spread across his face—he didn’t believe for a second that a simple sword could do any harm.

But as the blade closed in, his smile froze. A faint flicker of astonishment replaced his disdain, though he still didn’t feel the need to worry. “It’s just a sword, not a bullet,” he thought. “What’s the worst it could do?”

The answer came in the next moment. The sword’s tip struck the van’s rear bumper. The accompanying sword energy effortlessly sliced through the vehicle’s glass and metal chassis, cutting the van cleanly in half.

The elderly man’s mocking grin turned into a blood-curdling scream as the sword energy severed four of his fingers and both of his kneecaps.

The van screeched to a halt, the rear half sliding a few meters away before tilting and collapsing on its side.

Qingqing reached the vehicle just as it came to a stop. Ignoring the wails of the mutilated elder sprawled across the backseat, she intercepted the two men in the front as they tried to climb out.

The short sword Lu Yao had thrown hadn’t managed to slice through the entire van—it remained lodged in the front section of the vehicle. The weapon’s energy had dissipated after traveling such a great distance, leaving it embedded in the car’s metal frame.

Still, it had done enough damage.

If Harold had thrown the sword, the blade would have barely grazed the vehicle before the entire van exploded.

But even without such force, those men were not escaping.

The two men trapped in their seats panicked as they saw the girl—her sword still smeared with half-dried blood—approaching them. They immediately began pleading for mercy.

The girl’s real name was Ding Qing. She used to be neighbors with Chen Fu.

The old man in the back seat was Chen Fu’s biological grandfather. Chen Fu’s parents had abandoned him when he was young, leaving him to live with his grandfather. Ding Qing’s mother, out of kindness, often helped the pitiful pair.

But this kindness didn’t earn their gratitude; instead, it invited a nightmare that left scars on Ding Qing’s family.

The year Ding Qing was accepted into university, the old man approached her mother with a twisted proposal: he wanted Ding Qing to marry Chen Fu and insisted there was no need to send “a little girl” to college.

Her mother was utterly disgusted and immediately refused.

She thought the matter had ended there. But soon after, malicious rumors about Ding Qing began to circulate in the neighborhood.

Ding Qing’s parents, though kind, were no pushovers. They gathered evidence of slander and hired a lawyer.

Faced with legal action, Chen Fu and his grandfather cried, wailed, and played the victim, but none of their antics worked against the evidence presented.

Although the rumors were cleared up, Ding Qing’s parents no longer felt at peace living in that neighborhood. They sold their home, bought a new one, and moved away. For two years, life was quiet.

Then, the zombie virus outbreak began.

When the outbreak hit, Ding Qing was in university. She and her boyfriend fought tooth and nail to return to her family, only to arrive at her parents’ house to a scene of horror.

Her parents lay in the living room, stabbed multiple times, their blood pooling across the floor. Her mother’s face was especially horrific—sliced dozens of times, down to the bone, leaving it a bloodied mess.

Standing in their home were Chen Fu, his grandfather, and two unfamiliar men—none other than the driver and front passenger of the van.

Chen Fu had planned to find Ding Qing eventually, and encountering her here was a twisted stroke of luck for him. Without hesitation, he restrained her and dragged her out of the house.

Ding Qing screamed for help, but the other residents, already terrified by the zombie outbreak, locked their doors and windows, offering no aid. Her boyfriend tried to intervene, but Chen Fu shoved him into a nearby horde of zombies.

From that moment on, Ding Qing’s life plunged into unrelenting darkness, consumed by boundless hatred.

Now, standing at the van, Ding Qing began her vengeance. She first severed the legs of the man in the front passenger seat. As he wailed in agony, a faint smile broke through her otherwise numb expression—a smile full of grief, anger, and bitter hatred.

The driver reached out to grab the short sword lodged in the car’s frame, but Ding Qing swiftly swung her blade, slicing off his right hand. His scream echoed through the air.

Retrieving the sword embedded in the car, she methodically severed the driver’s hands and legs before mercifully opening the car door to let them fall out. Blood and urine pooled on the ground as they writhed in pain, dragging their maimed bodies toward the distance.

Ignoring them, Ding Qing moved to the back of the van, where Chen Fu’s grandfather was dragging himself toward the roadside bushes, his leg already severed.

Without hesitation, Ding Qing severed the old man’s remaining limbs. He rolled on the ground in pain, screaming profanities, “You little b—AAAAHHHH!”

A sharp swipe of her blade silenced him, cutting off a chunk of his tongue and part of his mouth. Blood filled his mouth, reducing his cries to muffled gurgles.

Ding Qing left him there, knowing the surrounding zombies would finish the job within half an hour.

That’s how they had killed her parents and her boyfriend.

Carrying her sword, she turned back toward the clinic. She still had unfinished business with Chen Fu.

The punishment he had suffered so far was far from enough to quell the overwhelming humiliation and searing hatred that consumed her.

Zhang Shulan leaned against the doorframe of the clinic entrance, watching Ding Qing approach. She wanted to speak but couldn’t find the right words.

Ding Qing didn’t spare Zhang Shulan a glance as she walked back into the clinic lobby, just in time to see Chen Fu crawling out of the hallway, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.

The zombies had descended from the upper floors and now crowded around the entrance to the examination room.

The two men who had been inside earlier had tried to flee, but the zombies caught them, ripping open their stomachs and pulling out intestines to feast on.

Chen Fu crawled as fast as he could, glancing back in terror at the carnage, before turning forward—only to meet Ding Qing’s eyes.

“Spare me! Save me!” he wailed.

Ding Qing burst into laughter. She stepped on his head, crouched down, and grabbed his tongue, then stabbed her sword through it. After slicing off half of his tongue, she viciously stomped on his mangled mouth.

“Louder!” she taunted, her voice icy. “Don’t you love hearing screams? Let’s hear some more.”

By the time Lu Yao emerged from the left hallway, the zombies had already finished devouring the two men and were beginning to shuffle toward the clinic lobby.

Chen Fu lay on the blood-soaked floor, his mouth and lower body mutilated, trembling violently as he stared at the approaching zombies. He looked as if he were already dead, except for the sheer terror in his bulging eyes.

Ding Qing stood motionless in front of him.

Lu Yao frowned slightly, hurried over, grabbed Ding Qing by the arm, and pulled her along.

Ding Qing instinctively tried to pull away, but when she realized it was Lu Yao, she shook her head. “I don’t want to leave. I’ve had enough of living.”

She extended both swords toward Lu Yao. “Thank you.”

Lu Yao took the swords, then turned around, scooped Ding Qing up in her arms, and ran for the door. “Let’s go!” she called to Zhang Shulan. “Head for my electric bike!”

Out on the main road, zombies were beginning to appear. Attracted by the blood and noise, they swarmed toward the men who had escaped the van. They wouldn’t last long and would soon end up like the men at the examination room door.

Pain-filled screams echoed from behind them as the zombies closed in on Chen Fu.

Ding Qing leaned against Lu Yao’s shoulder, her eyes slowly closing. In a faint voice, she said, “You shouldn’t have interfered. I’ve lost all hope. Staying there would’ve been better. But… thank you. I didn’t know that all it took was a knife to make them so terrified. I have no regrets.”

A warm dampness spread across Lu Yao’s chest. She slowed her pace slightly, motioning for Zhang Shulan to keep up, then spoke softly to Ding Qing. “That weapon you used? It’s mine. That makes me your accomplice. You have nothing, so you can’t repay me. From now on, your life belongs to me.”

Ding Qing immediately raised her head, her sharp gaze locking onto Lu Yao.

Lu Yao remained calm. “I run a delivery service on Guanyin Road. I handle errands for the nearby residents. You’ve got good stamina and mental resilience. If you pass the assessment, you might become one of my runners.”

Ding Qing stared at her in stunned silence, her expression complicated and unreadable.

Lu Yao didn’t press her. Once they reached the electric bike, she set Ding Qing down and pulled a plastic-wrapped package from the hood of her sweatshirt. She handed it to Zhang Shulan. “I didn’t have much time, but I managed to grab these. There’s some fever medicine suitable for children in there.”

Zhang Shulan’s face was filled with disbelief. When Lu Yao had left her at the door and ran back toward the hallway, she thought there was something urgent she had to do. She never imagined Lu Yao had gone to find medicine for her.

Zhang Shulan lowered her head. “I’m sorry. When I placed the order, I was trying to ask for help.”

Lu Yao stuffed the medicine into Zhang Shulan’s hands and then pulled out the Pixiu. “Settle the bill, and we can leave. No need to say anything else.”

Zhang Shulan slid a gold bracelet off her wrist. “This was part of my wedding jewelry. It’s over 30 grams of gold—take it all.”

Her initial business card had been given to her free of charge when Lu Yao delivered it last time.

Based on the distance from Guanyin Road to the clinic, the service fee amounted to 1 gram of gold. Since the delivery had also involved bringing Zhang Shulan back for safety, Lu Yao added an additional 0.2 grams as the return fee, totaling 1.2 grams of gold.

The Pixiu bit through Zhang Shulan’s bracelet, extracting the appropriate amount of gold.

Lu Yao handed the remainder of the bracelet back to her, then gave her a promotional flyer. Before the encroaching zombies could gather, she rode off with Zhang Shulan and Ding Qing on her electric bike.

…

Zhang Shulan carefully examined the flyer as they traveled. Once they stopped, she decided to purchase ten additional business cards from Lu Yao.

Though the staff of this peculiar courier shop acted rough, it unexpectedly gave her a sense of security.

After thanking Lu Yao at the roadside, she carried the medicine and hurried home. Her residence was in the neighborhood directly across Guanyin Road from the delivery shop. From her apartment, she could see the shop on the opposite side of the street.

After watching Zhang Shulan enter her complex, Lu Yao rode back to the shop.

Harold stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe. “Why are you back so late?”

Lu Yao parked her bike and led Ding Qing inside.

Harold gave Ding Qing a quick once-over and curled his lips. “Another stray you’ve picked up?”

Ding Qing, noticing Harold, abruptly turned toward the door and began dry-heaving.

Harold’s face darkened instantly. “What’s that supposed to mean? She sees me and wants to vomit?”

Lu Yao patted him on the shoulder. “It’s not about you. She’s feeling unwell. I’ll contact Bai Yi to have a doctor come and take a look. Now, tell me how you managed to get the clients back.”

Harold, clearly feeling a bit guilty, replied impatiently, “The job’s done. Does it matter how?”

Later, Lu Yao got the full story from Zhang Shu. Still, she didn’t reprimand Harold after learning about his inventive methods.

Two Hours Later, an ambulance arrived at the shopping street with two female doctors. After Lu Yao explained the situation to Bai Yi, he contacted Bai Jing, who arranged for medical staff from their family hospital to assist.

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