Chapter 184: Guo Fei
The woman’s son saw Zhang Xiao Qiang’s eyes that were filled with a scorching desire and felt extremely unhappy in his heart, he wanted to struggle out from his mother’s embrace and bite Zhang Xiao Qiang, but his mother held him tighter as she felt his struggle.
It was Zhang Xiao Qiang’s first time feeling himself getting emotional when he looked at the lady in front of him. He had a crazy thought; He wanted to keep the lady by his side forever because his heart would always beat for her.
Zhang Xiao Qiang had always imagined himself as a heartless man who would never understand love, he had a secret crush on his classmate in junior high school for 10 years, and 10 years later when he was 25, he asked himself, Do you really love that girl? His answer was no, it was merely a crush.
Zhang Xiao Qiang had a girlfriend before and dated for 5 months but already had thoughts to get married to her and have children with her. This girlfriend actually called him and broke up with him over the phone, to which he replied with an indifferent tone: “Fine, we’ll break up!” After hanging up, his heart shattered. From that day on, he no longer thought about having a girlfriend, feeling the heartbreak once was enough. But when he asked himself yet again if he loved her? His reply was the same, no.
He did not know what love was, he always thought that he was a heartless man. But his heart was finally moved, he did not know if it was love, but he knew that he wanted to keep the lady by his side and watch her till she grew old.
“You’ll follow me from now on….” With that said, Zhang Xiao Qiang got Shangguan Qiao Yun to bring the woman into the room that he and Yang Ke’er shared. The lady holding onto the little girl stood in place not knowing what to do while the little girl in her arms continued staring at Zhang Xiao Qiang as he placed his half-eaten mess tin to one side, her eyes following the mess tin filled with vegetables and the bacon. She started to drool.
Seeing the young girl looking like a gluttonous cat, Zhang Xiao Qiang could not resist but to carry the little girl out from the woman’s embrace. The little girl was extremely calm and did not make a ruckus or move about. She just looked at her mom who was at a loss and did not know what to do. Zhang Xiao Qiang allowed her to take a shower while he carried the little girl over to the ammunition crate, picked up the mess tin off food and started feeding her spoons of rice and bacon. The little girl’s mouth was too small and his spoonful was too big, so he carefully scooped lesser and fed her bit by bit. One mouth another, the girl accepted all of his feedings. When the people who were in chaos saw the scene, all of them calmed down and watched Zhang Xiao Qiang slowly feed a little girl who had absolutely no relationship with him. All of them wished to be able to cut themselves into halves to be as small as the girl, the angry Old Frank who was anxious initially calmed down, he and his subordinates all stopped whatever they were doing and watched Zhang Xiao Qiang and the little quietly.
This was a Zhang Xiao Qiang they had never seen, Zhang Xiao Qiang had always been extremely strong to them, he was merciless and vicious. So long as he saw any deserters, he would give the immediate order for them to be killed. He had a violent personality, if the D2s could not be killed by machine guns or mortars, he dared to rush upfront and clash with it single-handedly. He was no good soul, he could feed a live person to zombies, but only because this person had tested his bottom line. He got everyone together to watch the zombies eat the man and watch him die from being eaten. From there, everyone figured that Zhang Xiao Qiang was a cruel, ruthless and emotionless man. But this emotionless man actually had such a gentle side to him, causing everyone’s emotions to become complicated, they all felt a strange mood pervade around them.
When Zhang Xiao Qiang finished feeding the little girl and carried her to the tent, Old Frank woke up from his daydream. He looked at all of his subordinates that were frozen and shouted: “All of you old and slow mules! Why are all of you staring into space so blankly for? Quickly get back to work!”
Old Frank’s shout broke the strange silence. The entire grounds became lively again, the reinforced steel bars were heavy again, the building materials still as bulky, the number of vehicles that required servicing still as many, but everyone seems to emit more strength as they became slightly more efficient. They needed a strong and emotionless leader, but wouldn’t it be better if their leader was a little more humane? At least he was still a human, when all the captives saw the scene occurring to the little girl they knew, who was the only little girl in the camp, their hearts calmed down and started to become more cooperative. To them, as long as they were treated as humans and not animals, it was good enough.
As work at the bottom of the hill continued, the sky started to darken. Making full use of whatever daylight was left, Old Frank got his new subordinates to complete more work. Two large trucks were parked by the side while Three got his men to unload the supplies. Bags of rice, buckets of clean water, bags of clothes, bedding. Many things were brought down from the trucks which were parked beside an oil tanker, where Lu Ren Yi held onto a thick rubber hose and refueled the large trucks.
Zhang Xiao Qiang held a teacup with both hands and sat next to the blazing bonfire before him stood the young man who was unafraid of death and could risk it all to fight. Behind this young man stood the pretty girl dressed in a red down-filled garment whose eyes were only fixated on the young man in front of her, completely ignoring the men holding rifles and scrutinizing her.
The young man raised his head and looked at Zhang Xiao Qiang, revealing an indifferent look. Aside from his swollen face inflicted by Yang Ke’er in the morning, it was impossible to tell that he was a person that had fainted for a full day. Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the young man in front of him, his face was already cleaned, his skin rather delicate like a girl. His appearance had some immaturity to it as well, everything was extremely normal aside from the occasional deathly stare and dazed look in his eyes.
“What’s your name?” Zhang Xiao Qiang took out a cigarette and have it to him, then lit a matchstick for him and lit the cigarette up for him. The young man inhaled in deeply then spoke: “Guo Fei!” With that, he continued smoking.
Guo Fei gave off an extremely cold vibe, he never looked at anyone else twice. Even towards Zhang Xiao Qiang or the red-dressed girl behind him. At that moment, he was being pointed at by 4 to 5 rifles, but he continued smoking and stayed in a daze, maybe he had already forgotten about Zhang Xiao Qiang seated in front of him.
“Interested to follow me?” This was the first time that Zhang Xiao Qiang had actually initiated an invite for a person to join his team, not the base, but his personal team. Inside the team, there were a total of 4 people whom he was prepared to bring along to WH City.
When Zhang Xiao Qiang asked the question, Guo Fei had no reaction, but he knew that Guo Fei had heard him. Zhang Xiao Qiang was not anxious and slowly puffed on his cigarette while he waited for Guo Fei. Zhang Xiao Qiang admired Guo Fei’s craziness, the lunacy that made him stare at death’s door in the face was something Zhang Xiao Qiang had experienced before against the D2 at the granary, except he was not as resolved as Guo Fei. But he was in a state of rational craziness, he wanted to live and not die. Guo Fei’s craziness was a soldier unafraid of death and had to obtain his goal even at the cost of his life. This tenacity and character was something that Zhang Xiao Qiang consider himself inferior.
“Will I die?” A low voice entered Zhang Xiao Qiang’s ear. Zhang Xiao Qiang lifted his head and looked at Guo Fei who was still smoking. If he had not heard Guo Fei’s voice, Zhang Xiao Qiang would have thought that Guo Fei had not spoken or moved at all.