Ch 198: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World II

Gaosheng City, Xingmo Road, Mingtai Community.

Su Ling had a restless night, torn over whether to place a courier service order.

Several times during the night, she impulsively sat up, ready to write her request on the card.

But each time, she found herself unable to write a single word. She thought she’d been scammed, but upon careful reflection, that seemed unlikely.

After all, they didn’t scam food or supplies—just a few grams of gold. What was their motive?

This internal struggle carried Su Ling into dawn. Finally, a wave of sleepiness hit, and she managed less than two hours of sleep before suddenly waking up.

She sat up, reached under her pillow, and pulled out the card she had tried and failed to use last night.

This time, the ink flowed smoothly onto the card, reinvigorating Su Ling. Following the instructions, she wrote her name and address.

After placing the order, she got up, washed up quickly, changed into simple and modest clothes, and walked to the window. She peeked through the gap in the curtains, nervous but expectant.

Su Ling hoped the runner would arrive soon, silently praying it would be a female runner.

At 31 years old, Su Ling was single and living alone. She had worked in Gaosheng City since graduating from college.

She had dated a few times, but just when things seemed to be progressing, problems always arose.

As she got older, Su Ling became more self-aware. She no longer yearned for a stable relationship and focused on her career instead.

Had it not been for the sudden outbreak of the zombie virus, Su Ling would have been promoted in just a few months.

She had planned to use her pay raise to immediately move to a better neighborhood.

Su Ling had an unwavering dream of owning her own home. For years, she had scrimped and saved toward that goal.

Unfortunately, plans couldn’t keep up with change. The money she saved became worthless scraps of paper before she had a chance to use it.

In just over two months, the zombie virus outbreak had spiraled into an uncontrollable global disaster.

Humans perished en masse like moths to a flame, leaving behind countless vacant homes.

Yet Su Ling was trapped in her tiny rental unit, too afraid to step outside.

The sound of an engine grew closer. Su Ling saw a small electric scooter stop outside the community.

The runner had arrived.

A tall young man got off the scooter and removed his helmet.

From Su Ling’s vantage point at the window, she could only see his youthful face, with short, slightly curly, light golden hair.

Her heart sank. It wasn’t a female runner. Worse yet, he looked like a trendy guy.

She had a phobia of trendy guys!

Today, Si Jin was assigned to the area around Xingmo Road. As soon as he arrived at the shop, the system had dispatched him a new order.

He hadn’t even had time for breakfast, shoving bread and milk into his bag before heading out.

The community was run-down, with its main gate bound by iron chains and secured with a pointless oversized lock.

Harold, his senior mentor, had drilled some key work principles into Si Jin:

Avoid damaging buildings or objects nearby. Don’t clear zombies right away. Collect payment, pick up the goods, and finish the delivery.

Standing in front of the gate, Si Jin studied it for a few seconds before choosing the same route Luo Yao had used yesterday—climbing over the wall.

Following the directions on his badge, he walked to Building 9, third floor, and located Su Ling’s unit without issue.

The door opened from the inside, revealing a nervous-looking woman standing in the doorway.

Si Jin: “Hello, I’m Runner #5, Si Jin. May I confirm if you are Ms. Su Ling?”

Su Ling blinked rapidly. It felt like it had been ages since she encountered such a polite employee. For a moment, it gave her the illusion that the world hadn’t fallen into chaos.

The runner was simply too good-looking—golden hair, golden eyes, a handsome and regal air, tall and slim, with a pleasant voice and impeccable manners.

Su Ling slowly nodded, her thoughts slipping out: “I didn’t know there were foreign runners.”

Si Jin raised an eyebrow but chose to ignore the comment. He pulled out a gold-ingesting Pixiu from his bag. “Our store policy is payment first, then the delivery.”

Realizing her faux pas, Su Ling lowered her head, her cheeks slightly warm, and handed over a gold bar.

Over the years, Su Ling had accumulated quite a bit of wealth.

She was practical in her purchases, only buying pure gold jewelry and stocking up on gold bars every year.

After the zombie virus outbreak, she had often sat by her drawer full of gold, lamenting that it couldn’t buy food or water. It had all seemed useless—until now.

Su Ling needed to go to a large supermarket about a kilometer away from Mingtai Community.

Her home was completely out of supplies. She was looking for anything edible—dry goods, snacks, whatever she could find.

This was her first order. The card had already been paid for, and the runner fee was discounted by 50%, costing only 0.2 grams of gold.

The task was simple: escort her from Mingtai Community to the supermarket.

As Si Jin and Su Ling walked downstairs, they encountered the same thugs Luo Yao had dealt with yesterday.

The three men were lounging lazily on the edge of a flowerbed. One young man had his arm wrapped in clothing and slung across his chest.

At first, they perked up when they saw Su Ling, ready to stand, but then noticed Si Jin emerging from the building behind her. They quickly sat back down.

Si Jin gave them a brief glance and continued walking with Su Ling toward the gate. Instead of unlocking the chain, he effortlessly carried Su Ling and vaulted over the wall in a blink.

On the other side of the wall, Su Ling was stunned. The thugs still inside were equally shocked, standing up in surprise and silently thanking their luck for not picking a fight.

…

Guanyin Road, Luo Yao’s Courier Shop.

Harold, Qiu Yu, and Tina were also getting ready to head out on their electric scooters.

The courier service had shown promising results over the past two days. Apart from Si Jin’s new order, the morning jobs were all repeat customers from earlier orders.

Meanwhile, Zhao Ye and his sparrow underlings packed double the flyers compared to yesterday and prepared to canvass a new area.

At the store, only Zhang Shu, Luo Yao, Lu Mingxiao, and Ding Qing remained. After breakfast, Ding Qing also stepped out.

When Luo Yao was about to leave, she noticed Ding Qing standing outside, looking at an empty house next to Tang Anqi’s team.

This street used to be a commercial hub serving nearby residential communities.

After the zombie virus outbreak, the shops on the street were the first to be affected. The residents were bitten, and the stores were looted, leaving behind nothing but broken storefronts.

Luo Yao: “What’s up with that house?”

Ding Qing turned around: “Nothing, just wondering if I should move in there.”

Luo Yao: “You don’t want to stay at the store anymore?”

Ding Qing nodded, then shook her head. “The store is safe, and I feel secure living there. But everyone clocks out after work, and I feel like I should, too.”

Luo Yao felt a flicker of happiness. She had been worried Ding Qing might not recover.

This girl was incredibly resilient. Despite everything she had been through, she didn’t wallow in the past, break down, or let herself fall into despair. She tried her best not to trouble others.

Luo Yao walked over to take a closer look at the shop. She even went inside, checking out the loft upstairs and the restroom, which unfortunately couldn’t provide running water yet.

Luo Yao: “I think it’s a great spot. Clean it up, make it cozy, and it’ll be close to the store. Replace the doors, clean thoroughly, and add some furniture. I’ll help reinforce it, and zombies won’t stand a chance.”

Next door, Tang Anqi’s team was busy drilling screws into a rolling shutter. They were installing a manual rolling gate, with sliding rails on the walls inside.

Hearing Luo Yao and Ding Qing talking, Tang Anqi came over to greet them.

When she learned Ding Qing was moving next door, Tang Anqi extended a hand with a big smile: “Welcome, welcome, new neighbor!”

Luo Yao: “How’s your door coming along?”

Tang Anqi: “The front door and the loft upstairs have both been replaced. Soon we’ll be able to pull down the rolling shutter. This afternoon, we’ll replace the door at Xiao Jiang’s house, and by tonight, everything should be done so we can finally sleep soundly.”

After chatting briefly with the energetic college team, Luo Yao prepared to head out.

Today, her goal was to complete the placement of all signal devices and expand the coverage of the network to a 50-kilometer radius.

Last night, the staff from the nail salon and the master craftsmen from the Floating World Continent delivered two modified electric scooters.

Luo Yao planned to test the performance of both modified scooters. Lu Mingxiao accompanied her to place the signal devices, and each rode a different modified scooter.

As the scooters started, the first improvement immediately became evident—the engines were now incredibly quiet, almost inaudible unless standing right next to them.

This modification was crucial for avoiding detection when passing by large zombie hordes, especially during nighttime rides. Luo Yao was quite satisfied with the upgrade.

Additionally, both modifications enhanced the scooters’ performance as requested, giving a smooth, almost gliding sensation while remaining silent.

Tang Anqi’s team watched as the store owner and the handsome new runner sped past on the scooters, their eyes filled with envy.

Song Xu clicked his tongue. “If only we had our own ride too.”

Zhou Mingyang blinked. “Am I imagining things, or do those scooters look way faster than before?”

Jiang Yifei added, “And they’re completely silent.”

…

Xingmo Road Area, Lotus Plaza

The electric scooter stopped in front of the chain supermarket.

Su Ling got off and said to Si Jin, “Please wait a moment,” while pulling a new card out of her backpack. She placed it on her knee and began writing.

Si Jin looked puzzled. “What are you doing?”

Su Ling handed him the newly written order card. “Please take another job.”

The new task was to accompany Su Ling into the supermarket and ensure her safe exit.

Su Ling had carefully inquired about the services offered by Luo Yao’s runner store beforehand. Not wanting to trouble others, she planned everything in advance.

Before leaving home, she packed five spare order cards, a pen, and two gold bars in her backpack, intending to place additional orders as needed at the supermarket.

If she successfully found supplies, she would write another card for the return trip and have the runner escort her home.

After working diligently for seven or eight years and saving for so long, Su Ling had realized none of it mattered anymore. She hadn’t enjoyed any of it and ended up with nothing to show for it.

Countless sleepless nights later, she finally came to terms with it.

She no longer cared about material possessions; she just wanted to survive.

However, being introverted and slow to warm up to people, she struggled to make close connections outside of work.

The courier store was like her guardian angel—it provided reliable, temporary partners without forcing her to meet new people or form teams.

Si Jin didn’t take the card. A new order ID had already appeared on his communicator.

Since he was with Su Ling at the moment, the system identified him as the closest courier and automatically assigned the task to him.

This was Si Jin’s first time encountering such a methodical customer. He secured the scooter and accompanied Su Ling inside.

The supermarket was massive, comparable to the Happiness Supermarket Luo Yao had visited previously. It spanned three floors, including sections for fresh produce, agricultural goods, snacks, daily necessities, small household appliances, and home furnishings.

Su Ling’s goal was clear: food and water first.

The main entrance on the first floor was completely shattered, with debris everywhere. Shelves had toppled over, and there was hardly any food in sight. The floor was littered with rotten packaging and spilled goods.

Supermarkets of this size often housed zombies—and quite a few of them.

Dragging their putrid, decaying flesh, the zombies shuffled over the already moldy products on the ground.

Su Ling forced herself to endure the stench and took a few steps forward. She hadn’t even reached the fresh food section before being overwhelmed by an unbearable odor.

The air reeked of decaying protein and rotting vegetation, with green flies dancing in the filth. The fresh food and agricultural market section resembled a miniature vision of hell.

Si Jin, having seen countless similar scenes over the past few days, was largely immune to it. However, this was his first time entering a large supermarket, and it didn’t quite match the images he’d seen in comics.

While curiously observing the surroundings, Si Jin also kept an eye on Su Ling’s movements.

Su Ling crouched on the ground to calm herself, taking a few seconds before standing up and turning to say, “I want to check the basement. That’s where the dry goods section is—we might find some food there.”

Si Jin nodded. “Let’s go.”

After a few steps, he paused slightly.

There were survivors in the basement, cornered by zombies in a dead-end.

It reminded him of the mistake Zhao Ye made yesterday when he ran into a hospital, forcing their boss to personally rescue him.

Later that night, Harold spent half an hour using the little sparrow demon as an example of what happens when you don’t heed advice from experienced couriers.

Si Jin’s pride wouldn’t allow him to make a similar mistake. He kept quiet about the situation below, following Su Ling without a word.

The escalator was long out of order, so the two descended it on foot.

The situation on the basement floor wasn’t much better. Most of the shelves were half-empty, with crushed packaging scattered across the floor. The contents spilled out in bits and pieces, giving off a moldy smell like a massive garbage dump.

Large supermarkets like this had been the first and most obvious sources of supplies when the zombie virus outbreak began. They had already been raided by waves of desperate people.

Su Ling combed through the shelves with difficulty, searching several times before managing to pull a small bag of rock sugar and a small package of barley with a price tag from under a collapsed shelf.

She sighed in relief, placing the items into her backpack. Then she got down on the ground to search further, eventually finding a small bag of salt and a handful of broken dry noodles from the gaps in the shelves.

The noodles were a pitifully small portion, just 250 grams, and already shattered into bits. Thankfully, the packaging was intact, so they were still edible.

Su Ling stood up, putting the salt and noodles into her backpack. Feeling that something was amiss, she glanced around but didn’t see Si Jin. A wave of panic hit her, but she didn’t dare make a sound.

Before entering the basement, Si Jin had warned her that there were many zombies below, and they were especially sensitive to noise and the smell of blood. He had told her to avoid making loud noises and, above all, not to get injured.

Su Ling stood frozen in place, taking deep breaths as her mind raced, trying to figure out her next move.

Where had Si Jin gone?

Had he run off? That didn’t seem likely.

Had he been caught by zombies? But there hadn’t been a single sound, which didn’t make sense either.

A troubling thought suddenly struck her: Can couriers even handle zombies?

Yesterday, she’d placed her order right after seeing the flyer, and this morning, she had placed another in a rush. She realized she had never actually seen a courier confront zombies head-on.

Even couriers, being human, would likely avoid zombies, right?

Frustration welled up within her. She’d overlooked something crucial—runners were flesh-and-blood people, just like her. They would naturally fear zombies too.

As Su Ling reflected on her mistake, she glanced up unintentionally, and her pupils contracted sharply as her whole body stiffened.

Two zombies, horrifyingly decayed, had somehow appeared just two meters ahead of her.

Their rust-colored, rotting flesh clung to their skeletal frames like tattered rags, and she could clearly see thumb-sized white maggots writhing within the decaying tissue.

They were inching closer, moving slowly but steadily toward her.

Su Ling’s limbs refused to cooperate, trembling uncontrollably. She knew she needed to turn and run, but instead, she sank to the ground. Her legs felt like they were filled with cement, stiff and immovable, rooted in place.

The zombies drew closer, and Su Ling could already smell the foul stench emanating from their decaying bodies. Their dark red, rotting flesh seemed to pulse and breathe.

With a sickening plop, a white maggot wriggled out of one corpse and dropped to the ground, squirming frantically in Su Ling’s direction.

Terrified, Su Ling snapped out of her frozen state, her limbs breaking free from the grip of fear. She screamed and stumbled backward in small, frantic steps until her shoulder suddenly collided with something. She gasped and crouched down, too scared to look back.

At that moment, the zombies suddenly accelerated, their skeletal frames creaking with loud clack-clack sounds as they lunged at her.

Si Jin appeared, wrapping one arm around Su Ling. With a sidestep, he yanked a panel from a nearby shelf and flung it horizontally.

The thin plastic panel, sharp and light like an axe, whistled through the air and embedded itself deep into the wall.

Two heavy thuds followed as the zombies collapsed to the ground. A decayed skull rolled toward Si Jin’s feet, its teeth still twitching.

With a swift kick, Si Jin sent the rotting head flying into another decayed corpse nearby. The collision caused a splash of red and white fluids, mixing into a disgusting puddle resembling scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Su Ling looked up, catching a glimpse of her disheveled reflection in the calm, golden eyes of the young man before her. Her composure shattered.
“Where did you go?!” she cried, her voice trembling with barely suppressed sobs.

Si Jin, startled, asked, “What’s wrong?”
He quickly confirmed that she hadn’t been bitten.

Suddenly, a sharp noise of shelves collapsing echoed from behind her, sending Su Ling stumbling behind Si Jin in terror.

From behind the fallen shelves, two figures emerged—a tall boy of around 14 or 15, holding the hand of a younger girl, about six or seven.

Their clothes were tattered, their thin frames almost skeletal, and their faces and bodies were covered in dirt. They gazed at Si Jin with wide, pitiful eyes.

Peeking out from behind Si Jin, Su Ling asked, “Who are they?”

“They’re two kids who were trapped here,” Si Jin replied. “They almost got eaten.”

Su Ling looked up in surprise. “So you left to save them?”

Si Jin hesitated for a moment before nodding. Initially, he hadn’t planned to intervene, but upon sensing they were children, he couldn’t resist checking on them.

When they had entered the basement, Si Jin had already assessed the area and was confident in keeping Su Ling safe. Yet, his decision had left the client so terrified that she nearly cried.

A pang of frustration hit him—this was a major failure on his part. He dreaded to think what Harold would say if he found out.

Su Ling finally relaxed, her tense emotions giving way as she slumped to the floor, leaning on Si Jin for support. “You should’ve told me,” she said, her voice shaky. “I was scared to death when I turned around and couldn’t see you. I thought you’d been caught by zombies.”

Si Jin stood still for a moment before replying, “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

Su Ling wiped her face wearily and stood up, leaning on the shelf. “Forget it. You were trying to save someone. Just… next time, if something like this happens, let your companion know so they won’t worry.”

Si Jin froze slightly. He had expected her to scold him for failing to protect her. Instead, she had been worried about him?

Even though they were strangers meeting for the first time, with no guarantee of ever meeting again, there was still a subtle emotional connection born out of this fleeting encounter.

For the first time, Si Jin seemed to understand why Harold repeatedly emphasized prioritizing clients. In this unstable world, every order placed by a client was an act of trust.

Leaving Su Ling to save the siblings had been a mistake—one that might have been even more serious than Zhao Ye’s error yesterday.

Seeing Si Jin silent for so long, Su Ling asked curiously, “What’s wrong?”

Covering his eyes with one hand, Si Jin replied, “I’m reflecting on my actions.”

“Huh?”

“You’re right,” Si Jin said solemnly. “As a courier, I shouldn’t leave my client unattended during work, no matter how justified I think my actions are. Even if there’s a situation that requires me to step away, I should inform the client and apologize.”

Su Ling was taken aback by his overly earnest attitude, feeling slightly embarrassed. She was also surprised by how professional the runner service seemed to be.

This runner, strong and straightforward, had even challenged her preconceived notions that all handsome men were unreliable players.

🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️🛍️

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