Shen Yuan navigated the way to the office he spawned at. Once they arrived, he told Zhou Yi to stay on the bike before going up and searching for the imaginary person.
He placed Huo Yan on one of the desks and sat by the edge with a huff. The thought to escape popped out for a second but didn't linger long. Zhou Yi would catch him sooner than later with that omniscience of his.
"I take back my words. Good job turning into a cat." He scratched Huo Yan's head in lament. "I'll find a way. A painless one."
"Meow~" Huo Yan pushed his head to Shen Yuan's palm and rubbed his fur against it, his eyes squinted in contentment.
"You know how to act cute now, huh?"
After 5 minutes passed, Shen Yuan grabbed one of the backpacks lying around, dumped out its contents, and went to the pantry to hoard food for Huo Yan. Lucky for him, there were many ready-to-eat sausages and a couple of canned spams.
He let Huo Yan try the sausage, and Huo Yan finished it until he licked all the flavor residue off his fingers. Safe to say he liked it.
When they left the building and returned to the bike without any additional person, Zhou Yi relaxed his nerves. "They're not here?"
"No, the place is empty." Shen Yuan hopped back onto the motorbike and deliberately added, "If your shelter is around the area, maybe they're already there."
Zhou Yi fell into a brief silence and wore back his helmet. "Who are they?"
"What happened to 'I promise I won't pry about your matter'?"
"If you tell me their name, I can help you find them there."
"No need. They don't like attention." Shen Yuan looked at Zhou Yi through the rearview mirror. "Are we going to keep chatting here or what? Might as well look for a table and a waiter."
"Is there anywhere else you want to check?"
"No."
"Alright."
Making sure Shen Yuan was ready, Zhou Yi turned on the engine and drove away. The lack of urgency gave him hope that Shen Yuan wasn't looking for his lover. If they were and that person truly was at his shelter…
There were a lot of ways to keep Shen Yuan by his side. With or without force.
They arrived back at the mall where the scout team had finished their task, and Bai Feng was leading the group briefing. They couldn't help but take curious glimpses at their boss and Shen Yuan behind him.
It was the first time their boss let anyone on his passenger seat.
Zhou Yi went to join the briefing when he stopped in his steps and looked back at Shen Yuan. "Gathering supplies will take a while. You can wait in the car or anywhere you find comfortable. Just don't stray too far."
"Might as well go back inside and look for things myself." Shen Yuan rested his hand on his hips. "Just to be clear, I won't see you as an authoritative figure, and you can't order me around like a subordinate. In return, I won't get in your way, and if you do need anything, you can ask and we'll see how I feel about it. Any objection?"
"No, I'm not thinking of making you a subordinate either. But if a situation calls for it, I hope you'll be willing to listen to me."
"If it's to the best of our judgment."
"It's him! He tried to kill me! You can't trust him!"
The scream halted their conversation. Shen Yuan turned towards the voice and wasn't surprised to see the girl from earlier, pointing at him in indignance and accusation. Her nosebleed had receded, but her face remained red and swollen, particularly her nose.
Seeing Zhou Yi's questioning eyes at him, he curled an elusive smile and spread his arms in nonchalance. "What? Does it matter if I do?"
Zhou Yi stared at Shen Yuan for a moment before studying the girl next. He heaved an inaudible sigh and proceeded to the briefing.
One accused the other out of personal spite while the other took the chance to make a bad impression. If he didn't know better, he would've bought it.
Even if it was true, his decision wouldn't change either way.
His subordinate made space for him next to Bai Feng. He gave them a nod. "Report."
Bai Feng summarized their findings so far and continued with their planning. The others threw silent glances at each other before tacitly ignoring the matter and focusing on their task as well.
If their boss didn't give a shit, they didn't have any business to give a shit either.
Ming Xia stood neglected in disbelief. Never in her life had others disregarded her words so unconcernedly like that, not to mention men. Her swollen face was also in full display, but none of them had offered any kind of relief.
Shen Yuan dropped his act from the lukewarm reaction when he noticed the indignant glare drilling holes at him from Ming Xia. He only raised his eyebrow at her, unimpressed, before following the rest in ignoring her and eavesdropping on the planning.
Unsurprisingly, they were aiming for the supermarket. With their weapons, cleaning hundreds of undead wouldn't be a problem.
It raised the lingering question he had since entering this world. If the damned could simply be killed by bullets, they should be easy to take care of. So, how did this place fall into an apocalyptic state?
Or was he overthinking things and should just take it as it was?
Once the meeting wrapped up and the group did their final equipment check, Zhou Yi returned to Shen Yuan's side. "You want to go inside as well?"
"I'm not going to stay here and deal with that crazy girl." Shen Yuan threw his thumb toward Ming Xia. "As I said, I won't get in your way. Before you're done cleaning up, I won't go near the lower ground level."
"Have you ever used a gun before?"
"What do you think?"
"…Here." Zhou Yi handed his collapsable metal baton to Shen Yuan. "Just to be safe."
Shen Yuan didn't reject it and tucked it into his belt. "Speaking of guns, I've been wondering. Why did the military fail to contain these creatures? They're not hard to kill."
Zhou Yi paused and looked at Shen Yuan with pensive eyes. "You can kill them?"
"Huh?"
"Boss, we're good to go!" Bai Feng called out from afar.
"Let's go," Zhou Yi replied. He lingered at Shen Yuan in thought for a second before turning to leave. "We'll talk about it later."
Shen Yuan frowned in apprehension. He watched the group assemble and soon march inside, leaving him and Ming Xia to their own accord. Seeing the girl coming to confront him, he grabbed Huo Yan and went inside as well.
"You coward! Hey! You owe me an apology!" Ming Xia chased after him until he entered the lobby.
Seeing her fuming outside yet hesitant to go back inside, Shen Yuan scoffed and prayed the middle-aged guy fucked himself up. He didn't want an additional nuisance.
He put Huo Yan down to let him walk on his own and went further inside together. "Let's shop for some clothes, Yan-Yan. Forget the damned. I'll die if I only have one clothes, let alone one underwear, in my wardrobe."
"Meow!"
The damned on the ground floor were mostly taken care of by Zhou Yi and his group. All that left were those who stayed in the stores.
While Shen Yuan combed through the clothing shops, gunfire echoed from the lower ground. Crisp, but muffled from the distance, only attracting some damned on the second floor. It hurdled over the railing and dropped themselves to the ground floor.
He didn't think too much about it at first but then recalled Zhou Yi's words and looked out the window once again to see the damned getting up from the floor without any damage and following the noise.
…That degree of fall should have equal if not stronger impact as his hits. Their skull should've shattered or at least a bone should've broken.
Huo Yan leaped up the stacks of neatly folded track pants and reached up his paws to Shen Yuan's stomach. "Mraow?"
"It's nothing." Shen Yuan rubbed Huo Yan's head in reassurance and put the pants he picked into his bag.
Once the gunfire receded, he had collected all he needed including grooming tools for Huo Yan. At some point in time, a cargo truck had parked outside and Zhou Yi's people moved boxes after boxes of supplies into the container.
On his way to check the supermarket, he raised his eyebrows at a small team going into jewelry shops and hoarding all the products inside. He reached the lower ground floor, now safe and clean, and went to Bai Feng, listing the retrieved supplies by the escalator.
"I want to get some cat food."
"You can get the box at the entrance." Bai Feng pointed at the box station set up by the baskets and trolleys. "Only get dry or canned food. If you want to get wet food as well, only take the amount you're certain your cat can finish before their expiry date and that it can be stored outside controlled temperature. There's only so much waste management we can handle in our circumstances."
Shen Yuan nodded in understanding. "By the way, I saw your guys emptying the jewelry stores upstairs. Do they still have values?"
A member came with their box of supplies and Bai Feng excused himself briefly to confirm the content and record it into the list. Once it was all clear, he returned to their conversation. "More than ever. You saw how we're able to kill the damned."
"Yeah, I was surprised. Still am, actually, but I didn't want to pry." Shen Yuan bluffed through it.
"You'll find out sooner or later if you come to the shelter anyway." Bai Feng didn't mind telling. "It's not about the jewelry. It's the silver. Turn them into bullets and the dead are no less fragile than the living."
Shen Yuan fell silent and glanced at Zhou Yi watching them from one of the cashiers, "…"
Just great.