Ch 194: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World II

After finishing the urgent conversation, Zhao Ye ended the call.

Lu Yao prepared to head straight to the hospital.

Xia Huaisong and Li Mi, who had been watching her closely, noticed her sudden self-talk and blocked her from both sides as she tried to leave.

Li Mi said, “Sorry, but please wait a little longer. They’ve been inside for a while; they should be coming out soon.”

Xia Huaisong added, “If we let you go, it’ll put us in a tough spot.”

Lu Yao felt the grip on her wasn’t strong and struggled lightly. “Are you two freeloaders? So weak. Let go, and I won’t make a fuss.”

Their expressions shifted subtly, and both released her at the same time, looking at her with an odd mixture of surprise and disbelief.

Too focused on her task, Lu Yao didn’t pay much attention and continued toward the hospital.

At that moment, three men stepped out of one of the parked vans. Leading them was a tall, sturdy man who said, “This hospital and its supplies are now under Hope Base’s control. Don’t even think about it, and stop playing your little tricks. Or, if you want to join Hope Base, you’re welcome to stay and head back with us later.”

The man in a denim jacket standing beside him looked Lu Yao up and down, smirking. “You’re just my type. How about being my girlfriend?”

The Dream Fulfillment System chimed in, annoyed: “Ugh, these people are so irritating.”

Before Lu Yao could respond, Li Mi grabbed her wrist and dragged her away, saying loudly, “Li-ge, Gao-ge, please watch over the supplies. Xia Huaisong and I will deal with her.”

Lu Yao tried to resist, but Li Mi’s grip suddenly tightened, pulling her along at a quick pace. In a lowered voice, Li Mi warned, “Don’t talk. Just follow me. Don’t tell me you’re actually considering being that guy’s girlfriend?”

Xia Huaisong trailed behind, adding quietly, “Those guys are different from us. They’ll really make a move. Be smart and leave. Forget about the hospital.”

Lu Yao shook Li Mi off with surprising strength, causing her to stumble and almost fall. Lu Yao turned and briskly headed toward the hospital. After a few steps, she stopped, looked back, and kindly warned them, “I just got a message from my colleague. He’s in the hospital, and things inside don’t seem good. If you have more people outside, you’d better be ready for a rescue.”

Li Mi stared at Lu Yao, caught off guard by her strength. The men lounging by the vans burst into laughter, making no move to stop her as they leisurely followed behind.

Xia Huaisong stayed by the roadside, watching Lu Yao leave. Then, turning his gaze toward the overgrown grass across the road and briefly glancing at the sky, he said hollowly, “What if we just ran away?”

Li Mi raised her head sharply, the night wind lifting strands of her hair. Memories flooded her mind as she softly shook her head. “It’s the same wherever we go. Chen Xin said people like me would only end up worse outside, and I think he’s right.”

Xia Huaisong removed his glasses and rubbed his temples. His eyes landed briefly on Li Mi’s bright, beautiful face before he averted his gaze. “Let’s just get back to the van.”

As they walked toward the van, they noticed a flyer lying on the roadside.

Li Mi bent down to pick it up. “Lu Yao’s Courier Shop… What’s this?”
…

Wanyi Hospital, Basement Level 1, CT Room

Zhao Ye and over a dozen Hope Base members were hiding in the CT scan room. An Xia and Xie Yu crouched beneath the glass window, carefully observing the situation outside.

Zhao Ye had entered the hospital earlier than the Hope Base group. After finishing his flyer distribution in the afternoon, he was heading back to the shop when his three sparrow companions suddenly chirped loudly, saying someone upstairs in the hospital was signaling for help with a mirror.

The sparrows, having seen similar scenarios in movies, immediately felt like the protagonists of an epic rescue. They begged Zhao Ye to go with them to investigate.

Remembering Lu Yao’s warnings, Zhao Ye hesitated and didn’t act immediately.

The sparrows, however, pulled out all the stops—pleading, whining, and throwing little tantrums.

Born and raised in the mountains, the sparrow demons had roamed freely for over two hundred years. Their real exposure to humans only began after the internet café appeared on Baixian Mountain, so they didn’t share humans’ ingrained caution or fully grasp the importance of Lu Yao’s instructions.

Zhao Ye’s resolve was weak, especially after the sparrows’ incessant coaxing. Curiosity got the better of him, and he reluctantly stopped his bike and approached the hospital.

Before entering, he took some precautions, leaving six sparrows outside as lookouts. If he didn’t return quickly, the sparrows were to head back to the shop and report.

Inside the hospital, Zhao Ye climbed the stairs to the floor where the mirror signals had been spotted. However, he found no one in need of rescue—only a particularly terrifying zombie.

This zombie wore a white lab coat and silver-rimmed glasses with shattered lenses. Its face showed almost no external injuries, but its skin was a sickly greenish hue. It was several times faster than a regular zombie and incredibly strong, capable of lifting a hospital bed with one hand and throwing it several meters.

Zhao Ye engaged it several times but couldn’t find an opportunity to destroy its brain.

Amid the chaos, two of the sparrows were caught and nearly devoured.

Panic set in, and Zhao Ye was forced to use his demonic powers. With his limited cultivation and the near-total absence of spiritual energy in the modern world, he had to rely on the power of the Regulation Rod to perform a spell, rescuing the two sparrows. His curiosity was extinguished in an instant as he fled downstairs with the sparrows in tow.

He had intended to leave the hospital immediately, but the lower floors were a maze of long and short corridors. He became disoriented and couldn’t find the exit, only to run headlong into a terrified group from Hope Base’s scavenging team.

Hope Base had sent two teams: Team Ten, led by Captain An Xia and Vice-Captain Chen Yu, and Team Seven, led by Captain Chen Xin and Vice-Captain Li Mi.

Li Mi was stunningly beautiful but had mediocre skills—in truth, a “vase” of a team member. However, as Chen Xin’s girlfriend, she had been placed in his team as vice-captain and was always kept by his side.

Xia Huaisong was another “vase,” though his “handler” wasn’t part of Teams Seven or Ten but was out on a different mission. His girlfriend had good relations with Chen Xin, who had promised to look after her boyfriend.

Before entering the hospital, Chen Xin and An Xia had agreed to leave a few capable team members outside to guard the supplies in the vans, leaving Li Mi and Xia Huaisong among those stationed outside.

The two teams comprised 31 members, plus Instructor Lu Mingxiao, making 32 in total. However, only 27 people entered the hospital.

The captains divided their teams into three groups to search different areas for medical supplies, compact medical devices, and injectable medications or tools for treating minor injuries.

The groups were led by An Xia, Xie Yu, and Chen Xin. Each secretly hoped that Lu Mingxiao would join their group, leading to a brief dispute in the hospital lobby.

Their argument was cut short as patient-clothed zombies began swarming from all directions.

When Zhao Ye encountered the scavenging team, they were fleeing through the payment hall with a large horde of zombies in pursuit. The front ranks of the horde included several zombies in tattered lab coats and nurse uniforms, moving noticeably faster than the patient-clothed zombies.

Both groups ran in chaotic loops around the first-floor corridors. Six members of the scavenging team were lost before they were cornered with nowhere to go. They spotted the stairs leading down to the basement and rushed toward them, clattering down the steps to the first basement level.

The basement appeared to be a medical examination area, with fewer zombies than upstairs. Zhao Ye and the scavenging team began clearing out the wandering zombies while searching for a place to hide.

The waiting hall seemed deserted, with a few zombies in nurse uniforms drifting through the consultation area. The waiting area itself had several rows of long benches, but only a handful of zombies lingered at the edges.

The scavenging team lingered in the hall for about five minutes but still couldn’t clear out all the surrounding zombies.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling echoed from the escalator area. Someone ran to check and returned pale-faced. “The zombies from the first floor are coming down!”

Xie Yu wiped his face with force, muttering angrily, “We shouldn’t have come here. If we’d just brought those camping supplies back, we’d probably already be at the border by now.”

Another team member, struggling to fend off zombies, regretted it just as much. “The zombies in this hospital aren’t like the ones outside—they’re so much faster, and they can even go down stairs. Are we even going to make it out of here?”

The initial wave of zombies hadn’t displayed any intelligence—just a mindless horde of creatures craving human flesh. They had no vitality, no thoughts, and no emotions.

But Xie Yu, recalling the spider zombie they’d encountered at the Golden Tower, felt his panic deepen. “It might be a mutated zombie.”

An Xia’s team had returned to the base early in the morning after encountering the spider zombie but hadn’t had a chance to report it before setting out again. Except for Chen Yu, no one else had connected the two encounters yet.

Chen Xin, after slashing down several zombies in a row, leaned against the wall to catch his breath. “This hospital is too big. Everyone who stayed behind has turned into zombies. Who knows how many are still lurking in the shadows? There aren’t enough of us, and we’re running out of stamina. Let’s find somewhere to hide, wait for things to calm down, and then figure out how to get out.”

They had entered the hospital with 27 people. Six were lost on the first floor, and two more had been bitten after reaching the basement.

Those two weren’t dead yet, but their transformation into zombies was only a matter of time.

That left 19 survivors, plus Zhao Ye, making 20.

Zhao Ye, after taking out a few zombies, had stealthily retreated to the CT room. He crouched in a safe corner to contact Lu Yao.

Just after ending the call, the Hope Base members also entered the room to hide.

The fast-moving zombies from the first floor had now reached the basement and were roaming the outer hall, hunting for any isolated humans.

Zhao Ye shrank further into his corner, keeping his distance from the Hope Base members.

Xie Yu spotted Zhao Ye and crouched down to move along the glass window until he reached Chen Xin. After whispering something to him, Chen Xin, who was sitting against the wall to rest, turned his head to look at Zhao Ye.

A moment later, Xie Yu waved at Zhao Ye.

Curious, Zhao Ye glanced at Lu Mingxiao, standing in the background, then reluctantly got up and walked over.

Xie Yu’s first question was blunt. “That red-haired girl, Tina—isn’t she with you?”

Zhao Ye didn’t like Xie Yu, but he still answered. “Our training ended, so we’re not working together anymore.”

Disappointment flashed in Xie Yu’s eyes. “I see. I thought she might be nearby.”

Zhao Ye replied, “Tina doesn’t cover this area. But today’s our lucky day. The boss happens to be passing through. I just contacted her, and she’ll be here soon.”

It took Xie Yu a few seconds to process. “The boss… is that the engineer?”

Zhao Ye didn’t understand the term “engineer,” so he simply said, “The boss is the most capable person in the shop. She knows everything.”

An Xia, noticing Xie Yu sneaking off, turned to see him talking with Zhao Ye. She moved closer just in time to hear Zhao Ye’s comment and scoffed. “That girl called Lu Yao? How capable can she really be? Isn’t everything just relying on that little girl named Tina?”

At that moment, two sparrows suddenly burst out of Zhao Ye’s hoodie, fluttering their wings as they dropped two splatters of black-and-white goo squarely onto An Xia’s face.

For a brief moment, An Xia’s vision went dark. When she blinked and reached up to feel her face, her hand came away covered in a warm, sticky mess. The sensation confirmed her worst fears.

After spending last night scrubbing her hair multiple times, this was the last thing she needed. Though the sparrows’ attack didn’t cause much harm, the sheer disgust, combined with the fact that everyone had seen it, sent her into a rage. Furious, she reached out to grab the sparrows.

The resting team members stared, stunned, unable to believe what they were witnessing.

“Why are there sparrows flying out of his hoodie?”

“Where did this kid even pull out a whole nest of those little things?”

Before anyone could figure that out, they were already recalling the sparrows’ precise attack on An Xia. The memory made some of them want to laugh.

“Are these sparrows… enchanted? How could they aim so perfectly?”

One sparrow fluttered up and perched on Lu Mingxiao’s head, while the other landed on his shoulder, giving off a distinct air of arrogance, as if flaunting its backer.

Zhao Ye immediately put on a serious face and sincerely addressed An Xia. “Apologies, sparrows are simple creatures—they can’t hold it in.”

An Xia refused to let it go, snapping angrily, “Nonsense! They clearly did it on purpose!”

Zhao Ye maintained his earnest expression. “No, really. They do like the boss very much, but they wouldn’t do something like this just because you said something bad about her. They’re just sparrows—how could they have bad intentions? It was purely an accident.”

An Xia’s face turned bright red with anger.

Around them, some teammates couldn’t help but turn away, stifling their laughter.

“Sparrows? Malicious? Of course not.” But the boy? He was definitely provoking her on purpose.

Chen Xin, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke up with a sly smile. “That girl named Lu Yao—what does she look like? Is she pretty?”

The members of Team Seven immediately caught on to Chen Xin’s intentions. They all knew his reputation. Despite having a stunning girlfriend like Li Mi, he still enjoyed stirring up trouble wherever he went.

Nowadays, most people were just trying to survive day by day, with little energy left to criticize others.

Though Chen Xin wasn’t a complete slouch—during training and assessments, his physical prowess and combat skills ranked among the best of the team leaders.

The members of Team Ten had all seen Lu Yao before, but they only chuckled at Chen Xin’s question and refrained from answering.

Zhao Ye, still a relatively naive sparrow demon, failed to pick up on the veiled malice hidden in their knowing laughter.

An Xia rolled her eyes and interjected dismissively, “Not much to look at. Let’s stop wasting time on this nonsense and focus on figuring out how to get out of here.”

Lu Mingxiao, leaning silently against the wall and watching the group with thinly veiled boredom, suddenly straightened up. After a glance at Zhao Ye, he walked toward the door.

Zhao Ye found his behavior baffling but noticed the sparrows were still perched on him. He stood up and followed.

The rest of the team, though unsure of Lu Mingxiao’s intentions, had great trust in their instructor. His cold demeanor and exceptional skills had earned their respect during training.

Someone asked cautiously, “What’s the instructor up to?”

Lu Mingxiao observed the area outside through the glass window for a moment before turning back. “The zombies are gone.”

An Xia and Xie Yu quickly joined him at the window and saw that the hall outside was indeed empty.

Lu Mingxiao added, “Let’s move. Now’s the best chance to leave.”

Still skeptical, An Xia voiced her concern. “They disappeared too quickly. Could this be a trap?”

Ignoring her, Lu Mingxiao pushed open the door and walked out. He turned back and motioned to Zhao Ye. “Let’s go.”

After a brief hesitation, Zhao Ye followed, a growing suspicion in his heart that this man might truly be the reincarnation of Demon Sovereign Zeyuan.

The others assumed Lu Mingxiao’s gesture was meant for them and began to follow.

The zombies that had been swarming the basement were indeed gone. The group cautiously climbed the escalator back to the first floor. Initially on high alert, they gradually relaxed upon realizing the floor was also devoid of zombies.

Feeling emboldened, Chen Xin revisited his earlier plan. “I memorized where the pharmacy is—it’s on this floor. The traditional Chinese and Western medicine sections are right next to each other. Let’s split into two groups and at least bring back a few boxes of supplies.”

Suddenly, Zhao Ye broke away from the group, walking quickly toward a corridor behind them. Just as abruptly, he stopped, turned around, and called out to Lu Mingxiao.

“I heard Xiao Shisan’s voice. The boss is here. Do you want to come with us to meet her?”

As soon as Zhao Ye’s words fell, everyone turned their heads.

A short-haired woman was sprinting full speed from the end of the corridor, with a horde of zombies chasing her. These weren’t ordinary zombies—they were the same high-speed mutated zombies the team had encountered earlier.

The group instinctively tried to run, only to realize that all the surrounding corridors were blocked, packed tight with the same zombies that had disappeared earlier.

The scavenging team huddled together back-to-back, like small, powerless animals in the wild.

“It’s a trap! How did this happen?”

“Could it be that woman’s fault?”

“We’re going to die here—I don’t want to die!”

An Xia looked to Lu Mingxiao with desperate hope. “Instructor, what do we do?”

The team members might not fully grasp his abilities, but as captains, An Xia, Xie Yu, and Chen Xin were well aware that Lu Mingxiao’s strength was unfathomable.

During training and missions, it was evident that he never used his full power.

Right now, their only hope was the instructor. An Xia didn’t care what others thought—she would do whatever it took to survive.

Both Xie Yu and Chen Xin quickly caught on to An Xia’s thoughts, turning to look at Lu Mingxiao as well.

They didn’t want to die either.

Lu Mingxiao remained silent, his vivid, blood-red eyes fixed on the approaching figure.

Lu Yao spotted him, and a smile instinctively appeared on her face, as if the horde of mutated zombies at her heels didn’t matter at all.

She focused solely on running, closing the distance until she could make out the youth’s short silver hair, vivid red eyes, delicate nose and lips, and the faint frustration, reluctance, and awkwardness hidden beneath his calm exterior.

“Lu Mingxiao!!!”

She shouted his name, and the moment he looked up, she leaped into the air, landing securely in the faintly lotus-scented embrace of his arms.

Yes, it was him.

The scavenging team was utterly baffled.

Who is this woman?

What’s her relationship with the instructor?

And now? Hugs and kisses? Is this seriously allowed in this situation?

Their emotions swirled between shock, awe, and confusion, all while the rapidly approaching zombie horde loomed in the distance.

The sparrow companions that had followed Lu Yao flew back to Zhao Ye, perching neatly in a row along his arm. Zhao Ye, apparently forgetting the danger, seemed entirely absorbed in watching his boss.

The mutated zombies chasing Lu Yao were almost upon them when An Xia yelled in frustration, “Instructor, what are you doing?!”

The Dream Fulfillment System simply said, “Here it comes.”

Lu Yao raised her right arm, adorned with several loops of red cord. With a single thought, seven daggers shot out from her sheath.

She lightly flicked her wrist, sending the daggers flying. The red cords instantly tightened, and the thin blades spun through the air, slicing cleanly through the mutated zombies before they could get close. Heads and bodies separated in an instant.

The six leading zombies, all moving at high speed, were decapitated in a single strike—none survived.

The foremost zombie, lunging with great momentum, managed to get its head within five centimeters of Lu Yao’s hair. Her strands brushed against its decayed cheek just as the severed head fell.

The zombie’s head, like a sprouting potato, dropped—but was caught by a hand that lightly tossed it far away.

After confirming the threats were neutralized, Lu Yao refocused on the man in front of her. Unable to resist, she leaned forward and nipped at his lips.

Lu Mingxiao’s expression froze instantly.

At almost the exact same moment, a scream erupted behind him.

Chen Xin clutched his left hand, dropping to his knees, his cries filled with terror.

The potato-like zombie head that Lu Mingxiao had casually thrown had hit Chen Xin by sheer coincidence.

In his frantic attempts to dodge, Chen Xin’s left hand was grazed by the zombie’s teeth, scraping off a piece of skin.

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