“Can you see a pharmacy?”

“No—”

“None over here either—”

The tour bus driver turned the steering wheel and said seriously, “Nope, little comrades. Big bro here used to run long-distance routes along the Xiang River, so I know this area well. There are no big pharmacies around here, and the small ones don't have that thing you're looking for...”

“Inhibitor,” Guo Weixiang reminded him.

“Right, Inhibitor,” the driver said. “There's a Tongrentang after turning at the next street, but that was years ago. Don't know if it's still open...”

Doctor Zheng said amiably, “Xiao Ren, should we go take a look?”

Ren Junyang was an introverted, quiet little O who didn't like to talk and whose face would turn red before he even spoke. One night after he arrived, Zhou Rong had gotten into a fight with Yan Hao over whether the group could enforce arranged pairings. Afterward, feeling utterly helpless, he could only go and ask for Xiao Ren's opinion himself.

But perhaps because Zhou Rong had just finished fighting and wasn't really prepared to take Xiao Ren's opinion seriously, his tone wasn't exactly as warm as a spring day. Xiao Ren was at a loss, stammering and unable to form a complete sentence for a long time. After Zhou Rong pressed him with a couple more questions, he actually started crying out of grievance on the spot, scaring Zhou Rong into using Phantom Steps to retreat twenty meters in an instant.

Doctor Zheng softened his tone even more. “Xiao Ren?”

Xiao Ren fidgeted with his fingertips for a moment, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. “I, I don't know...”

The few of them exchanged glances. Guo Weixiang patted the driver's seat and said helplessly, “Let's go take a look.”

However, the driver's memory failed to live up to everyone's hopes. After driving in circles for over ten minutes, they did indeed find a Tongrentang a few blocks away, only to see the sign read: Store located on the second basement level of the mall.

During the cold winter, with evening approaching, most Zombies would hide underground in large buildings to stay warm. Si Nan, with his gun slung over his back, glanced into the underground passage and shook his head. “Can't get in. Let's forget it.”

Doctor Zheng reminded them, “Captain Zhou and the others should have succeeded by now. We need to find a rendezvous point nearby quickly. Xiao Ren, what do you say?”

Everyone's eyes turned to him. Xiao Ren's face flushed red, and he mumbled without speaking.

Si Nan glanced at Guo Weixiang, who shrugged.

“You,” Si Nan pressed down on Ren Junyang's shoulder, his tone leaving no room for refusal. “Come with me.”

He pulled Ren Junyang to a corner in the back row of the bus. At the sharp glance from the corner of his long eyes, the man originally sitting there immediately stood up, hastily moved aside, and smilingly gestured for him to take the seat.

Si Nan pushed Xiao Ren in, made him sit, and then sat down himself. Arms crossed, he studied the little O's timid face. “What are you going to do?”

Tears immediately welled up in Ren Junyang's big eyes, and he was about to start whimpering.

Si Nan raised an eyebrow.

“...” Ren Junyang's whimper died in his throat.

“If you were about to die, the special forces soldiers would risk their lives to save you out of a sense of duty. But for something like a Heat Period, if the Inhibitor has to be exchanged for a life, then no one owes you anything.”

Si Nan's voice had a naturally husky quality that was captivating when whispered close to the ear. But when his voice was flat and monotonous, without any fluctuation like a dead man's heartbeat, it was rather cold and frightening. “You make the decision yourself. If you don't want them to pair you with a random Alpha, then say who you like. I'll make them respect your choice, otherwise you're just making the escape more difficult. Cooperate.”

“...” Xiao Ren's face was deathly pale. He stared blankly at Si Nan, seemingly terrified by the phrase “You make the decision yourself.”

Si Nan tapped his watch. “My patience lasts for thirty seconds.”

Xiao Ren seemed unable to believe Si Nan could be so cold to him, an Omega. After a long moment, he tremblingly squeezed out a sentence: “...I, I don't know anything. I don't have an opinion...”

“You don't have an opinion?”

Xiao Ren lowered his head, fiddling with the hem of his clothes.

“They can pair you with anyone, and you have no opinion? Zhou Rong, Yan Hao, Chuncao, Ding Shi, and Guo Weixiang, you don't care who it is?”

Xiao Ren's face was so red it looked like it could bleed. He let out a nearly inaudible “Mhm.”

Si Nan recalled Zhou Rong's mocking words from that day: ‘What opinion does an Omega need to express?’ For a moment, he was rendered speechless.

Adding fuel to the fire, Xiao Ren then buried his head deeper and added in a mosquito-like hum, “As long as... as long as they're responsible for me...”

“Even if it's a partner you choose yourself, once he accepts you, you have a mutual obligation to be responsible for each other. What kind of issue is that?”

Xiao Ren fell silent, his body twisting slightly, looking like he wanted to say something but was too afraid.

After a long while, he finally forced out a sentence: “I... I'm just an Omega.”

Si Nan studied his expression carefully and suddenly seemed to understand something.

He had never once put himself in the position of the weak—not physically, but psychologically weak. But if he thought from that perspective, Ren Junyang's behavior had already clearly revealed his inner thoughts: he wanted to be dominated.

He wanted Zhou Rong and the others to make the decision for him, so that in the future, whether it turned out good or bad, he would have someone to be grateful to, to blame, or to depend on.

He wanted to be chosen by an Alpha, to be offered up like someone's private property, completely handed over to the other for protection and possession. This way, he would be free from all the risks of making his own choices, able to entwine himself around a large tree like a dodder flower, joyfully accepting that the other person would take full responsibility for him.

This was, in fact, a thought that many Omegas nowadays had to some extent.

Si Nan vaguely felt that he had met an Omega like this before. He closed his eyes, and his mind drifted for a moment, but it remained blank; he couldn't remember anything.

“Si Nan!” Guo Weixiang shouted from the front of the bus. “Come over here, there's a platform over here!”

“Got it,” Si Nan said curtly. Without looking at Ren Junyang again, he got up and left his seat.

Xiao Ren hesitantly lifted his head, seeming to hear a faint sigh as Si Nan turned away. But before he could determine whether it was his imagination, he saw Si Nan stride through the bus toward Guo Weixiang and the others.

He carried an Uzi Submachine Gun on his back. The black riot police uniform made his figure appear tall and lithe. The sliver of his neck extending from the collar, contrasted by his black hair, looked as white as snow.

Because the top of this uniform was form-fitting, the pants were consequently two inches too short. But with the cuffs tucked into high-top black leather boots, their shortness wasn't noticeable. It only made one feel that his legs were unreasonably long. When he walked, his stride was fast and firm, as if one would have to jog to keep up.

‘...How could he possibly understand,’ Ren Junyang thought with some self-pity.

‘He's not an Omega like us, how could he know our hardships.’

But—then his thoughts shifted: ‘Being an Omega isn't so bad either. At least we can be protected in the rear, peacefully having children is enough. We don't have to face those terrifying monsters, and no responsibilities or obligations fall on us.’

With this thought, he felt a subtle sense of satisfaction.

“A maternity hospital.” Guo Weixiang pointed to a three-story building at the end of the street, gesturing for Si Nan to look at the roof. “Hard, flat top. Visually, no fixed obstacles. Hospital roofs generally meet helicopter landing standards. During the initial virus outbreak, the first round of infected would have been sent to public hospitals and police stations. A maternity ward should be safe. Try it?”

Si Nan thought for a few seconds and gave a slight nod.

“Alrighty!” the driver yelled, suddenly slamming on the gas. The tour bus roared onto the sidewalk, jolting all the passengers at once!

With a few loud bangs, the bus sent several Zombies flying before stopping in front of the building. Guo Weixiang and Si Nan rushed out of the bus, stood back-to-back, and mowed down the Zombies that had followed them onto the sidewalk and the white-clothed ones pouring out of the hospital building. Bullet casings clattered and scattered at their feet.

Doctor Zheng and the driver quickly led the survivors off the bus. They spontaneously formed a line and, led by Si Nan, rushed into the hospital.

There weren't many Zombies in the lobby. A few family members of expectant mothers shuffled around dazedly and were sent to the afterlife before they could even react. Only two nurses behind the front desk reacted more violently, roaring and wobbling as they gave chase, seeming very displeased with these intruders who had appeared out of nowhere.

Guo Weixiang turned and picked them off with a few shots, roaring, “Si Xiaonan!”

The escaping group, panicked but not chaotic, was moving quickly and orderly up the stairs under Si Nan's lead. “What?”

“Have you noticed! Even though Rong-ge is usually neurotic and not quite normal!”

Si Nan: “...”

“His IQ! Is actually really high—!”

Si Nan: “...”

Si Nan didn't stop, spraying with his submachine gun to beat back the twenty-some Zombies swarming down the hallway, causing brief screams from the escapees.

But no one's legs gave out, and no one fell or caused chaos. They quickly regrouped, protecting the women and children in the middle, and continued to run upstairs.

“Look!” Guo Weixiang shouted proudly. “He trained everyone in these escape skills! He also arranged the group's formation! Such foresight! Don't you feel a sliver of pride?!”

“—That's right!” the driver agreed as he ran. “Captain Zhou is a capable man!”

Wu Xinyan: “He's a good person!”

Doctor Zheng: “And has good genes!”

Guo Weixiang: “If he proposed to you, would you say yes?”

“...” Si Nan muttered, “I really want to just leave you all behind.”

A dozen or so zombie doctors and nurses charged out of a break room, each brandishing a blood pressure monitor, stethoscope, or surgical forceps, roaring as they rushed toward the stairwell. Si Nan reacted with lightning speed, first spraying and sending the leading group of Zombies flying, then picking off a few more with single shots. But several attending physicians, relying on the agility and resilience honed over years of dealing with unruly patients, charged forward with heart-wrenching roars. Si Nan kicked each one square in the chest, sending them flying, then followed up by twisting off their heads with a crack, crack.

“You're too violent,” Guo Weixiang said, dissatisfied. “Doctors in our country have it tough, you should treat them more gently.”

Si Nan: “It's just work. Doctors are high-income earners...”

Guo Weixiang: “What do you know, Comrade Xiao Si! Don't talk nonsense! Five years of undergraduate, three years of residency training—”

“Two years of specialized training, with no money at all!” Doctor Zheng roared.

Doctor Zheng was panting like an ox from climbing the stairs, grumbling, “One day's worth of surgeries is equivalent to a foreign doctor's entire month. After getting off the operating table, we still have to deal with unruly patients, always at risk of getting our heads bashed in at work— I'm old now. When I was young, the moment the director yelled 'retreat,' I could run down the fifty-meter emergency room corridor in six seconds...”

With a loud clang, Si Nan pushed open the rooftop door at the top of the stairwell, feeling a major headache. “I'm sorry, alright?”

Guo Weixiang cleared out the few Zombies that had followed them up. Once everyone was on the rooftop, he slammed the iron door shut and quickly locked it.

“Secure!” he roared. “Mission accomplished!”

The rooftop of this three-story building was flat, wide, and unobstructed, perfectly suitable for a helicopter landing—truly a rare landing platform within the city. Si Nan scanned the gradually darkening sky, raised his hand, and pressed the ruby earring stud, feeling the tiny rice-grain-sized button depress slightly.

The crowd, still shaken, didn't care about the strong wind on the roof and sat down on the ground to rest.

“Alright, well done.” Guo Weixiang walked over, looking down at the scene around the hospital building. “Now let's just wait peacefully... for Rong-ge and the others to come pick us up... Huh? Is that a pharmacy?”

Behind the hospital was a construction site. The zombie workers had probably all wandered off, leaving it empty and desolate.