A/N: This is for yesterday's update~

XG 86 - A face-con that likes mixed-blood appearance

Ash reported that they managed to find two working cars and cleared out whatever they thought necessary from the car repair shop, including oils. They had also completely turned the fried chicken shop upside down to search for food, but it was all gone, except for three bags of flour.

Park Donghae successfully found a stone sharpener, which was a relief to Kang Xunsu. He knew that once Madam took in Wong Xue Guo’s wounds, she would immediately be displeased. Hopefully, the success of finding a stone sharpener could reduce her ire somewhat.

“Do you want us to drop you off at school?” Oh Junghan asked Kang Hansik, who was spotted with a grumpy look.

“I can go back by myself.” Kang Hansik could not bury Minho, so he could only use a tablecloth to cover his body. As for his other buddies, their bloody remains were carefully gathered to be placed beside Minho. None of them survived long enough to turn into a zombie.

With everything done, he was ready to leave. But before he did that, he glared at Kang Xunsu. “Take care of Junghan. Don’t push him to the front again!”

After saying his piece, Kang Hansik left, his back radiating loneliness and evoking sympathy.

Kang Xunsu, with zero sympathy for the guy with the same surname as him, called everyone to continue searching for food. Since they have already come out, they need to at least bring back a satisfying amount of supplies.

He does not want to be criticized for bringing more people back than supplies.

With all the zombies gone somewhere, they easily slipped into other shops and successfully gathered a decent amount of goods. With their main objective achieved, they could now go back to the laboratory.

With their new members, their current headcount was increased to thirteen.

Kang Xunsu’s original group will be taking their own car while the others will need to ride the other two. Do Wheein will be driving the second car while Oh Junghan, the young guy, will drive the third car.

Once Wong Xue Guo got into the car, her mind was more relaxed. The first thing she did was remove her dirty face mask and tossed it out of the window, her bare face feeling the breeze of chilly but fresh air. Or as clean as the air could be. With factories abruptly stopping production in the whole world, the environment should be cleaner, but the rotting flesh and dead bodies were foul.

Wong Xue Guo glanced at Chen Yibo who had seen her action from the start till the end and raised a challenging eyebrow at him. She was not even willing to find a plastic bag to throw the mask in as if spending more time handling the dirty mask took too much effort.

With their world in its current state, who would still care that she litter the road?

Spotted with a resigned look, Chen Yibo removed his mask and did the same thing, tossing the mask out of the window. The small dissatisfaction of doing something against the law was strangely soothed by the proud grin on Wong Xue Guo’s face.

Was she that happy to ‘corrupt’ him that much?

“Fortunately there’s still water, or else I will be overly disgusted by myself,” Wong Xue Guo mumbled as she straightened her messy hair with the help of the rear mirror.

Ash and Kim Sung-Ho had long discarded their face masks once they got into Lee Su-Hwa’s studio. They could not get used to having their breathing blocked for a long period.

Their ride back was surprisingly uneventful, which was also good for them. Unlike Kang Xunsu and L.L., the others were not exposed to long hours of exercise, which also drained their mental energy.

Being the driver of the last car in the line, Oh Junghan followed the other cars closely, refusing to widen their gap as needed to prevent a car accident. Sitting at the passenger seat, Park Donghae just smiled at the anxious young man and helpfully lent his eyes. At the back seat stuffed with goods, Park Sungmin ignored them and took a light nap to regain some of his energy. He was no longer as agile or full of stamina as he used to be back in his youthful days, where he had spent most of his time at the farm.

Unlike the younger brother that settled down with office work after their business grew, Park Donghae would still go to his farm every day and work hard happily. Thus, his strength and stamina were still better than most people around his age.

“W-Where is this place?” Park Donghae’s shocked and full of awe voice had Park Sungmin open his eyes.

What entered his eyes immediately had his exhaustion fly away. They were driving on a straight road, with both sides empty of buildings, and only wide fields of short trimmed grass mostly covered by snow entered their view. He looked back and saw they had passed a wide gate with an electric fence surrounding the entire area, which automatically closed after they drove into the compound.

“I’ve heard of this place before. It’s a private laboratory working alongside the government,” Oh Junghan said pensively.

“Are they involved with the rabies outbreak?” Park Sungmin questioned apprehensively.

There was no answer to the question. It was rather easy to believe so, especially when Kang Xunsu’s group knew about the cure to human rabies, or ‘gene’ as they had referred to it as so.

“... Let’s trust them for now. We got no proof of our accusation and we had promised to help them,” Park Donghae finally broke the tension.

“Right.” Oh Junghan nodded, his expression relaxed. “They could be searching for the cure. It would hinder their progress if we doubt them needlessly.”

Besides, the Park brothers would not do anything until Do Eunhyuk said otherwise.

Just as the passengers in the third car had started doubting their new group, the second car was also in the same mindset.

“It’s too suspicious.” Do Wheein frowned as she drove steadily, their car getting closer to the buildings at the other end of the road.

Do Eunhyuk eyed the makeshift tents at the sides of the road and met the gazes of the survivors as they peeked out to stare at them as their car passed by.

At her father and aunt’s silence, Do Wheein continued, “They could be doing dangerous and illegal experiments on humans. Father, did you not remember what they said to you before offering to help you? They are using you as an experiment-”

“Wheein,” Do Eunhyuk stopped his daughter’s wild condemnation. “We agreed to let them test it out and I agreed. It was a deal between us. They have held up their part and it’s our turn to do our part.”

Do Wheein smacked her fist on the steering wheel. “I know. I’m grateful for their help and will keep my word, but what if we promised to the wrong person?”

“We will only know if they are worth our help after we talk.”

L.L. stopped the car before the building, and two armed soldiers approached them with guns pointing at them. It was the second protocol procedure, which was to do a body check before allowing them to enter the base.

The first car’s passengers had already stepped out and the others should also get out too.

“Father-”

“Wheein, calm down,” was Do Eunhyuk’s advice before he got out of the car. Lee Su-Hwa patted her niece’s shoulder before helping Yuna out of the car.

Vigilant, Do Wheein turned off the car engine, pocketed the car key, and followed her father out. Eyes filled with caution, she scanned the armed soldiers and then at Kang Xunsu’s group, only for her shifting gaze to abruptly stop when seeing two unfamiliar faces.

With the face mask on, Do Wheein could see that Wong Xue Guo and Chen Yibo would not have bad-looking faces, but they looked way better than she expected. Especially Wong Xue Guo, who has a hint of mixed blood from her beautiful facial features.

In the speed of lightning, Do Wheein’s caution dropped more than half and almost all her vigilance was absent from her expression.

As a face-con that likes mixed-blood appearance, she believes people like Wong Xue Guo would not be a bad person, especially when the young woman has a well-behaved look.