Zhang Bo looked at the two people blocking his way, recalling the look of betrayal in their eyes before they died.
His heart suddenly began to ache with a thousand tiny stabs.
"Was everything I've insisted on all this time wrong?"
Xu An wouldn't give him an answer.
"The medicine Yu Qin smeared on me, that was from you, wasn't it? And you're the mastermind behind that 'Deadman Gang'? This operation, was it ordered by people in the Bunker?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Bo raised his eyes and gave Xu An a deep look.
"You're very smart, but you've got one thing wrong. As I said, I'm just a researcher of medicinal agents. Yu Qin's medicine was indeed from me, but I'm not the mastermind behind the Deadman Group. Are you very disappointed?"
Even at the last moment, Zhang Bo's face was still adorned with a gentle, light smile, as if the person who had been questioning himself like a madman just moments ago wasn't him.
"The Bunker doesn't know about your connection to the Deadman Group?" Xu An frowned slightly. She hadn't expected Zhang Bo to be merely a pawn with a hidden Boss behind him.
"That's right, of course they don't know. I am the esteemed Dr. Zhang, sacrificing for the development of all humanity!"
Xu An was speechless. She hadn't said she was going to kill Zhang Bo. What was this person rambling about?
"Did you think I led you here to let you leave alive? Even if I die here today, I, Zhang Bo, will not let you walk out of this mountain alive."
Before Xu An could react, Zhang Bo himself drank the transparent, pale blue liquid.
Following this, his body began to change, but Zhang Bo's face held an expression of righteous sacrifice.
Xu An just felt a sense of ill luck.
"Mei Jie, aim directly for the central nervous system of these zombies. Their weak point is the spine."
When Xu An emerged from her space, she had previously consulted with Ze Yuan and learned that these mutated zombies had become this way due to drastic changes in their central nervous system.
As long as their spines were damaged, they would lose their ability to move.
But clearly, things wouldn't go as smoothly as Xu An had anticipated.
They had assumed that, including Zhang Bo, there would be at most four zombies.
However, they hadn't expected that as more footsteps approached, numerous zombies would appear around the willow tree, gradually closing in on them,
forming a encirclement.
Xu An wasn't foolish; she naturally knew that their group likely had more than just Zhang Bo as a traitor.
Lin Zhuoran was the most shocked, as many of the zombies that now appeared were familiar faces.
Among them were even quite a few former comrades with whom she had fought side by side.
"Are these people crazy?"
Indeed, they were. How could someone who had survived for so long in the apocalypse be mentally sound?
"Run! There are too many zombies, we can't fight them all."
Lin Zhuoran grabbed Xu An's shoulder, and with her other hand, pulled Zhou Haimei's still firing hand.
"Stop shooting, we can't kill them all, let's prioritize escape."
Xu An thought she was right and was about to turn to flee down the mountain, but in a fleeting instant.
Xu An felt as if she saw a familiar figure disappear into the ceaseless flow of zombies, looking rather peculiar.
...
By the time they ran down the mountain, all three had sustained some injuries. Xu An and Zhou Haimei were wearing special protective suits from the Lighthouse, so they were not in serious trouble.
Lin Zhuoran, however, had been in more danger.
At a critical moment, Zhou Haimei had thankfully shielded her, otherwise the zombie's claws would have pierced her chest.
The three had fled in such haste that they hadn't noticed anyone else. After catching their breath.
Xu An finally spotted Liu Fei hiding behind a nearby tree.
She scooped him up like a small chick, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and pulling him out.
"Why are you lurking around so suspiciously?"
"Where's Wang Zhao?"
Xu An scanned the surroundings and asked, "Besides you, is anyone else here?"
"There's also the driver who was with Zhang Bo, the one who looked like a bodyguard. From my team, Wang Zhao and another driver didn't come down. Yu Qin has already turned into a zombie."
Xu An nodded, guessing that the figure on the mountain was likely one of these individuals.
"No, no, Wang Zhao is already dead. Please, just let me go. I'll disappear far away and never show up here again. Spare my life."
The words came out nonsensically, and Xu An and Lin Zhuoran exchanged glances, seeing a hint of confusion in each other's eyes.
Immediately after, Lin Zhuoran remembered Wang Zhao's wariness towards Yu Qin.
At this moment, it was as if a vital point had been unlocked, and the entire event began to connect.
Xu An signaled Lin Zhuoran with her eyes not to speak yet.
"You speak first. Why did you kill Yu Qin?"
Xu An spread her hands, feigning an indifferent demeanor, as if not eager to know the answer to this matter.
But Liu Fei still detected a hint of threat in Xu An's gaze.
It was as if if he didn't tell the truth now, he would be killed the next second.
"I... we... didn't..."
Liu Fei's eyes darted around, still trying to quibble, but when he looked up, he met Xu An's eyes.
Instantly, the explanatory words caught in his throat, stuck in his chest, unable to be spoken.
He knew that if he lied again.
Xu An might actually kill him.
"I'll tell you, I'll tell you..."
"We killed Yu Qin because Yu Qin threatened us, using our secrets, to kill Xu An."
Liu Fei's eyes were evasive, showing a hint of guilt.
"She had used our secrets to threaten us into doing many things before. But at that time, we all thought it was better to avoid trouble, so we endured it. But enduring it once or twice was fine, but continuously like this, no one could stand it."
"So, you pretended to agree to Yu Qin's demands, but secretly plotted and killed Yu Qin?" Xu An asked coldly.
Liu Fei didn't deny it, but quietly added.
"That bitch Yu Qin was unpredictable, like a ticking time bomb. Killing her was for your own good. She wanted to kill you too..."
Xu An found the tone so infuriating that she laughed. Was she supposed to be grateful to this man for killing Yu Qin for her?
At this moment, Lin Zhuoran, who had been standing silently, seemed to be acting strangely.
Her eyes were red, looking as if she was about to cry, but her tightly clenched fists, her pale fingers, revealed the owner's stubbornness.
Lin Zhuoran bit her lip and said word by word, "Is my sister's death related to Wang Zhao?!"