The shopping center on Lin'an Road was completed less than two months before the apocalypse. It was built by the new district to attract traffic, and it was only a ten-minute drive from the city center.
Although this area was designated as a development zone, due to its proximity to Yuhu Tianxia, the supporting facilities were very complete.
This also attracted a lot of foot traffic, as the shopping center here not only had everything but was also sparsely populated, meaning no queues.
The most important thing was that the same items were about 10% cheaper than those in the city center supermarkets, making it hard to resist.
However, before this area could develop into another business district, the apocalypse arrived.
This shopping center was called Wanda Plaza. Xu An had passed by once and had some impression of it, so she drove smoothly for the most part.
Finally, after some bumps, she reached the underground parking lot.
As soon as Xu An turned off the engine, she took out her Tang saber and meticulously wiped the tip with a silver-polishing cloth.
Without looking back, she said, "Gou Dan, stay obediently in the car. Come down when I call you, do you hear me?"
Gou Dan let out a soft whimper as a reply.
It always felt that whenever its mother took out her saber, she was possessed by someone else. The terrifying aura emanating from her made Gou Dan scared, so it obediently lay on the seat, watching its mother holding the long saber, flashing an evil smile.
It looked quite creepy to Gou Dan.
Xu An smiled and took out a meat strip as a reward.
Then, carrying her saber, she opened the car door. Almost the instant the door opened, a male office worker, half of whose body had already begun to rot, lunged towards Xu An, waving his only remaining arm.
She kicked out, and the zombie was sent flying. The zombies behind took the opportunity and rushed forward in a frenzy.
Xu An seized the moment, quickly got out of the car, and turned to close the car door with a "bang!"
Her eyes were cold, and she parried with her other hand. The blade got stuck in the mouth of the zombie directly in front of her.
With a twist of her wrist, she made a horizontal slash with the blade, directly severing half of the zombie's head.
It was horrifying.
Without any hesitation, Xu An's eyes were grim. The zombie whose head had been half-cut off did not fall but continued to maintain its attack posture.
It continued to lunge towards Xu An. Without any hesitation, she raised her saber with both hands and brought it down in a reverse slash, and the remaining half of its head also fell to the ground.
After killing this one, she roughly counted the remaining zombies. There were men and women, and the youngest zombie appeared to be only about 8 years old.
Its once chubby arms had long since rotted, exposing bone.
Xu An's eyes were dark, and she swung her long saber to meet them.
She knew that zombies had only one weakness: the neck. Only by severing the entire head could these creatures be rendered immobile.
Fortunately, the number of zombies following her was not large, and combined with the few scattered wandering zombies, it was still within Xu An's control.
She had prepared some bloody fresh meat in her spatial dimension. If there were too many zombies, she planned to throw the raw meat out to distract them, and then she could escape with Gou Dan.
She had not expected that the number of zombies here would be so much smaller than she had anticipated.
As she was chopping off zombie heads, she thought to herself.
"Has someone cleaned out the zombies here?"
Even though this area was a development zone in the new district, it was unlikely that only a few people had turned into zombies.
There must be something fishy going on!
If that were the case, it would be a huge loss. If it had indeed been cleaned out, then this area must have already been looted.
However, the Chinese people inherently uphold good traditions. Since she was already "here," she had no reason not to go in and take a look.
Seeing that most of the zombies had been dealt with, Xu An whistled. Gou Dan opened the car door by itself and jumped out of the car.
This was also why Xu An had instructed Gou Dan. Gou Dan had learned to open car doors before the apocalypse, and she didn't know whether to praise its intelligence.
The underground parking lot was on the B1 level. She led Gou Dan through the fire escape in the dark.
Taking out a flashlight from her spatial dimension, the face of a zombie, so rotten that its gender was indistinguishable, came face to face with Xu An. It was a zombie whose belt was caught on a fire hydrant.
It couldn't break free, so it struggled in place.
It was like playing an escape room before the apocalypse, where the NPCs suddenly pop out to scare you. Xu An was also startled by this zombie.
Gou Dan crouched even lower, baring its teeth in an offensive and defensive posture.
Xu An crouched down and gently petted Gou Dan, comforting it. Fortunately, Gou Dan had not cried out directly just now, otherwise, it might have attracted more zombies.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. This zombie is a bad guy, it scared our baby, right? Mommy will chop off its head, and then it won't scare Gou Dan anymore!"
As Xu An spoke, she made a swift cut with her saber. The zombie trapped in the corner stopped struggling and slumped to the ground.
Xu An was quick to grab Gou Dan by the scruff of its neck, preventing it from trying to bite the zombie's head.
"What did we agree on before we left? No biting these unclean things!"
Gou Dan returned obediently, feeling wronged, and followed Xu An up the stairs, looking back at the zombie head rolling on the ground with reluctance.
Xu An was also speechless. What strange hobby did her dog have? The zombie emitted an unbearable stench.
Yet, this darn dog loved to go near it.
Xu An felt along the handrail and led Gou Dan to the supermarket on the first floor.
As expected, there were even fewer zombies here than outside. Only one or two zombies wearing work clothes were wandering around the entire supermarket, looking like staff.
Strangely, since someone had cleared this area, why hadn't the supplies been taken?
Xu An fell into thought, looking at the bulging snack foods on the shelves.
Due to the prolonged high temperatures, some of the vegetables, fruits, and frozen meat and seafood in the supermarket had already turned into pools of blood.
The smell of decay and spoilage mingled in the air, and the entire space was filled with a sour odor.
However, there were still some heat-resistant and storable foods that had not been taken and were still neatly placed on the shelves, making her suspicious.
"Could it be a trap?"
Despite her suspicions, she still had to collect the supplies. She had a voracious appetite recently and had eaten quite a lot.
Although it was a drop in the bucket compared to her reserves, who would complain about having too much food?
So, Xu An, holding her flashlight, scanned the shelves row by row. Anything that had not spoiled and was edible was collected into her spatial dimension.
When she reached the end, a row of glass display cabinets appeared. She walked over and raised her searchlight. Good heavens, they were all high-end gift boxes containing precious tobacco and fine wines.
She even saw bird's nest, white fungus, cordyceps, black goji berries, saffron, morels...