Seeing that Suo Tian was clearly displeased, I had no choice but to give up.
I cast him a couple of apologetic glances, then forced myself to stay focused and followed him toward the stairwell.
This building was clearly not a target for the walkers—we made it all the way to the fourth floor without seeing even a single one.
But we didn't dare let our guard down.
I kept following Suo Tian upward.
Our goal was the rooftop, and we still had a long way to go.
As it turned out, the maximum number of floors I could climb in one go… was eight.
Again.
By the time we hit the eighth floor, I was clinging to the handrail, unable to take another step.
I clenched my teeth hard.
After what happened earlier, I really didn't want to be dead weight again—but there was nothing I could do.
My stamina had already been worn thin back in Building Two, and now, no matter how much willpower I had, my body simply couldn't keep up.
"Suo… Suo Tian…" I gasped, finally giving in.
I dug the spade into the ground to brace myself and slowly collapsed onto the stair landing, every muscle aching.
Waving weakly at Suo Tian, I said, "You… go on ahead… I just… need a break…"
It took several ragged breaths just to get the sentence out.
I was beyond frustrated—especially when I remembered how smug I'd felt watching Suo Tian train Yangyang and Xiao Xue, thinking I was somehow better.
Turns out, my body's just as out of shape as anyone else's.
Hearing me, Suo Tian turned around and looked at me.
It seemed like he was about to say something—
But suddenly, his expression darkened, and he frowned deeply as he stared toward the door on the eighth floor.
His abrupt change in expression startled me.
I instinctively tried to get to my feet, but my entire body was in semi-shutdown mode, and that "instinct" wasn't nearly enough to lift me.
So I could only stay seated awkwardly on the stairs and follow Suo Tian's gaze toward the door.
"Woof…"
A soft puppy bark came from the other side of the door, accompanied by a steady, rhythmic set of footsteps approaching.
"Zheng Yiyi?!"
I recognized Yiyi's bark in an instant and whipped my head around to look at Suo Tian.
I could've sworn Yiyi was supposed to still be in our room.
For some reason, Suo Tian's expression eased quite a bit after hearing the dog's bark and approaching footsteps.
Noticing my confused gaze, he calmly said, "So he ran off over here."
I was instantly speechless.
So this guy had already noticed that Yiyi had gone missing earlier?!
As soon as he finished speaking, the stairwell door was pulled open.
In the very next second, Zheng Yiyi—head strong, eyes bright—squeezed through the gap and scampered over to me, panting happily.
His little tail wagged non-stop, and every now and then he leaned in to sniff me.
I loosened my grip on the spade and was about to pick him up when I suddenly remembered—the person who opened the door!
I quickly looked up.
And the moment I saw who it was, I froze a little.
From the rhythmic, composed footsteps I'd heard earlier, I already knew it couldn't be a walker…
But I never would've guessed those crisp, firm steps had come from an elderly woman—white-haired, wearing small round glasses.
The moment she opened the door, her eyes swept across the stairwell before settling on Suo Tian and me. Two seconds later, she gave a kind smile and said,
"Hello, dears."
"Hello, ma'am," Suo Tian replied behind me—surprisingly polite.
I looked at the old lady with a bit of confusion.
She had to know that the courtyard outside was crawling with walkers—so why would someone her age choose to come out at a time like this?
I wasn't sure if she'd noticed me eyeing her, but she just kept smiling gently and pointed kindly at Yiyi as she spoke:
"I was holding this little one while watching out the window when I saw you two coming in. He got really restless and started barking the moment he saw you—I figured he must belong to you, so I brought him down."
I glanced down at Yiyi, who was happily circling my legs, and gave the old lady what I thought was a warm smile.
"Thank you for taking him in. Yes, he's ours."
Hearing that, the old lady looked visibly pleased.
After giving us another once-over, she said,
"You kids are hiding here for safety, right? Come into my place and rest a while. You're new here, so you probably don't know—this sort of thing has happened more than once. It'll be dealt with soon."
My mind instantly latched onto the odd part of her sentence.
This has happened more than once?
I looked at her and asked,
"Excuse me… by 'this sort of thing,' do you mean the walkers outside?"
The old lady paused in surprise. "Walkers?"
Then she seemed to realize something. "Ah… we call them mutants around here."
As soon as she finished speaking, the gunfire outside— which had only just died down—started up again, sharp and sudden.
The shots came in rapid bursts, interspersed with the deep bangs of a sniper rifle, clearly signaling just how dire things in Building Six still were.
I didn't respond to the old lady anymore.
Instead, I turned to Suo Tian and said urgently, "Go check the situation on the rooftop. I'll wait for you here."
To be honest, I knew even if Suo Tian made it to the roof, there wasn't much he could do.
After all, the only weapon he had on him was a small dagger.
Hearing me, Suo Tian glanced at me, then cast a quick, unreadable look at the old lady.
He pressed his lips together and gave me a silent nod before turning around and quickly running upstairs.
As soon as Suo Tian left, my heart twisted tightly with the sound of the gunfire outside.
The old lady had also noticed the noise.
She looked at me with a hint of confusion, and I met her gaze.
"What is it?" I asked.
She waved her hand dismissively and pulled the door open a bit more.
"This isn't a place to talk," she said. "Come in and we'll chat properly."
I paused for a moment, glanced down the eighth floor hallway, then looked at the old lady again.
After a bit of hesitation, I nodded.
I reached down to scoop up Yiyi, who had been startled by the gunfire and was now hiding behind my legs.
With some effort, I got up and followed the old lady into her unit.
Once I was seated in her clean, well-lit living room, I subtly scanned the place, checking for anything that could pose a threat to my safety.
After a thorough look, I noticed that aside from a broom in the corner, there wasn't a single item in the room that could be used as a weapon.
Only then did I quietly let out a sigh of relief.
The old lady sat down on the sofa across from me and glanced at the iron spade in my hand a couple of times, her expression slightly uneasy.
It took me a second to realize, and I quickly explained, "Ah—sorry. We've been wandering outside for a while. Carrying a weapon at all times just became a habit."
As I spoke, I hurried to lay the spade flat on the floor beside my feet.
She didn't respond to my explanation.
Her expression remained somewhat uncomfortable.
After thinking for a moment, she suddenly asked,
"Why did you kill the mutants?"
I froze for a second, then realized she was referring to the walkers.
I gave her a strange look, carefully turning her question over in my mind:
"Why did you kill the mutants?"
In other words…
Why did you kill the walkers?!
My heart skipped a beat.
I immediately looked at the old woman with heightened vigilance, suddenly recalling that older couple who'd tried to feed me to the walkers for their son.
Maybe she noticed the shift in my expression, because the old lady gave a gentle smile and said,
"No need to be nervous, child. I'm just asking out of curiosity. After all, you outsiders don't really understand the true meaning of the mutants. It's not surprising you see them as monsters."
"True meaning?" I asked, feeling more and more confused by what she was saying.
"Yes," she nodded, then continued,
"They've simply entered a stage of evolution earlier than we have—they're not monsters. It's actually quite fascinating. Just like how humans gradually evolved from apes, they've only crossed over into a deeper level of existence a bit earlier than the rest of us."
"Wait, wait—do you even know what you're saying?" I couldn't help but interrupt her, pointing out the window.
"Those things? Evolution? Another level of existence? Who told you all this?"
She seemed displeased with my tone and gave me a mildly reproachful look, but her voice remained gentle as she replied,
"Young girl, don't be so impatient. With that attitude, you'll never have the chance to evolve."
At her words, my eye twitched uncontrollably.
What the hell is this nonsense?
Evolve? Does she think she's in some damn Ultraman episode?
After all the weird encounters I'd had lately, I'd learned my lesson.
Seeing the devout expression on the old lady's face, I didn't bother trying to convince her that walkers were just walkers, and that the only proper response to seeing one was to drive a blade straight through its skull.
In a world like this, people's minds were long past the point of reason.
I'd seen enough twisted thinking by now that I wasn't even that surprised anymore.
After a moment of thought, I sidestepped the topic and asked,
"So, according to you… this 'evolution'—what exactly does it require? Can everyone here evolve?"
I don't know why, but the moment I finished asking that, I genuinely felt like I sounded like a lunatic.
The old lady snorted in contempt.
"Them? What right do they have to evolve?"
Then, as if something had come to mind, she pointed to the left and said,
"The two kids in the unit next door—they're lucky. Born to a good son. They'll get the chance to evolve with him."
I was stunned for a moment when I heard that.
I glanced at the old lady, who wore an expression full of envy, and asked,
"Wait… are the neighbors a married couple? Both with the surname Jiang?"
"Yes, that's the two kids," she replied.
I looked at the old lady again and repeated my question,
"What exactly are the criteria for this so-called evolution?"
"Kindness, spiritual cultivation, and sacrifice," the old lady said slowly, deliberately enunciating each word.
"Kindness? Spiritual cultivation? Sacrifice? What do those actually look like in practice?"
In response, the old lady pointed at Yiyi and said,
"I saved him—that's kindness. I welcomed you into my home—that's also kindness."
I glanced down at Yiyi, who was yawning with his little pink tongue sticking out, then asked again,
"Then what about spiritual cultivation and sacrifice?"
"Sacrifice means offering yourself. Only by offering yourself can you gain the chance to evolve."
Seeing the look on the old lady's face, I shuddered hard, a chill creeping down my spine.
She didn't seem to notice my reaction and continued,
"As for spiritual cultivation… not everyone gets the chance."
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