16 years

In the sum of several lifetimes, in Liu Ruosong's memory, only two people had this situation.

One is the strange young man in front of him, and the other is Fu Yan, who was trapped in the tide of zombies for the first time in his life.

Liu Ruosong suddenly realized that in fact, he should have discovered Fu Yan's specialness earlier - because when Fu Yan fell into the Twin Towers, he was also killed by zombies.

If he was sharp enough, then when he restarted for the first time, he should have realized that Fu Yan was not affected by the zombie virus.

It's a pity that he was confused when he restarted for the first time, and it was many years ago when he restarted for the second time.

In addition, the incident happened too quickly and urgently, Fu Yan himself lost consciousness, and Liu Ruosong's viewing angle of the video was limited, so no matter whether he or Fu Yan, they did not delve into this matter further.

Until today... This detail that Liu Ruosong had forgotten for many years reappeared in front of his eyes in this way.

Liu Ruosong only felt the blood all over his body boil. He looked at the strange young man with countless turbulent and obscure emotions in his eyes.

In his previous life...he had always wanted to find a substitute for Fu Yan, but he failed in the end.

Is this why I must go back to the beginning of everything, Liu Ruosong thought.

If the point of restarting is to "solve problems," then what's the point of everyone's return to time.

At this moment, Liu Ruosong suddenly had a guess.

——If all this is compared to a game, then his and Fu Yan's backtracking time point may be their respective "main line completion".

The unknown hand has already seen through everything in the future, and it knows that there is always a correct path, so every time it "backtracks", it will send people back to the wrong fork in the road.

Perhaps the young man in front of him is the "choice" he has missed twice.

Liu Ruosong's reason and emotion are intertwined, but no matter which point, it finally points to a path.

He wants to keep this person, Liu Ruosong thought.

Even if he won't do human experiments like Shao Xuefan, he still has to leave a guarantee for Fu Yan.

He pushed aside the crowd and walked forward calmly, only to see that the matter had developed to the point where swords were on the verge of breaking out.

The onlookers insisted that the wound on the young man's body was a hidden danger of infection. Even if the other party issued a medical certificate and a rabies vaccination certificate from a week ago, the furious people refused to listen to his explanation.

When Liu Ruosong squeezed in, they were clamoring to throw the two of them out of the evacuation point together.

The young boy was trembling with fright, his body was thin, and he looked very insignificant under the anger of the crowd.

In comparison, the young man was obviously much calmer. His eyes swept over these people one by one, with hatred and sadness in his eyes.

"I can go." The young man said: "But Xiao Ge is fine—he has no wounds on his body, and he came in normally. If you send him out too, you will kill people."

"You two are together, who knows if he is in the incubation period!"

A sharp cry erupted from the crowd. It sounded like a young boy hiding in the crowd, unable to tell who was who.

His voice ignited the sensitive nerves of the crowd, and a group of people pushed forward, unwilling to give up.

Liu Ruosong trailed behind the outer circle of the crowd and was pushed to the side. After only a few seconds, there were a few screams from the crowd.

He didn't understand what happened at first, but as soon as the people in front retreated, Liu Ruosong who was standing there was naturally pushed to the front row, and finally saw the situation clearly.

——The young man actually bit open the wound on his arm.

He should have hit hard, the wound that hadn't fully healed was completely open, and the blood flowed down his arm, dripping onto the ground.

How cruel, Liu Ruosong thought.

He suddenly remembered the pool of blood on the tiles the first time, and he probably understood how the other party let the boy beside him escape.

"You don't believe me, okay, no problem." The young man grinnedly exposed his wound to the air, and said with a sneer, "Either you promise me and I will go out by myself, or we will die together!"

It's funny to say that this group of people was filled with righteous indignation when they treated the youth as a gas bomb. Now that the "gas bomb" has been unplugged by itself, they are scared again, for fear of being contaminated with the blood of the other party and becoming the monster outside the door .

After so many years in the apocalypse, Liu Ruosong knew very well that under such circumstances, reasoning would not make sense—under the threat of life and death, no matter their age, education or occupation, they would only act according to their instinctive fear.

The noisy crowd just now was completely silent, Liu Ruosong swept his eyes and found that the man who cursed first had shrunk into the crowd and disappeared.

Sure enough, he was too scared to be stunned, and he was afraid of dying, Liu Ruosong thought, the young man, by himself, could still put on a posture like a thousand troops confronting each other.

So he smiled lightly and took half a step out of the crowd.

"Okay, I agree." Liu Ruosong said, "Let's go."

As soon as he opened his mouth, everyone including the young man turned their heads to look at him. Liu Ruosong didn't change his face, and then asked: "It depends on whether you believe me or not."

The young man is like a wounded wolf, everyone now has an expression of distrust, he is staring at Liu Ruosong's face, as if he wants to see some clues from the other person's face.

"Can you decide?" the young man asked.

Liu Ruosong smiled. He lifted the hem of his clothes, pulled out the gun from the holster with his backhand, and weighed it horizontally in his palm in full view of everyone.

"Do you think I can have the final say?" Liu Ruosong asked back.

At this stage, firearms and other hot weapons are not much less deterrent to the masses than zombie viruses.The young man stared at Liu Ruosong for a few seconds, and silently accepted his promise.

"Can you guarantee his safety?" the young man asked again.

"Yes." Liu Ruosong said.

The boy beside him seemed to have expected something, he put his arms around the young man's arm, and couldn't help shaking his head.

"No." He cried and said, "You take me away too, I won't...I won't go to Yancheng alone."

The young man didn't say anything, he wiped away the boy's tears, and then hugged him very lightly.

Liu Ruosong's eyes were sharp, and he saw that the opponent used his hand as a knife steadily and powerfully, and took the opportunity of hugging to knock the opponent unconscious.

Sure enough, he is a clear-cut person, Liu Ruosong thought, decisive, sharp, and not procrastinating.

The boy fell limply in the young man's arms, and the young man touched his face with pity, and laid him flat on the ground.

He probably didn't fully trust Liu Ruosong, so he squeezed his own wound and smeared the blood on the boy.

He wiped it carefully and subtly, right on the line between "not touching boys" and "shocking people".

...Still very smart, Liu Ruosong thought.

If it wasn't for the wrong occasion, Liu Ruosong would almost appreciate the other party.

Now it seems that in the "first time" when Liu Ruosong didn't intervene, the opponent used this method to save his companion.

"Don't forget your promise." The young man stood up with one hand propped up, and said in a deep tone, "I will always watch you."

Liu Ruosong smiled at him inexplicably, but didn't speak.

The young man took a last look at the boy on the ground, covered the wound on his arm, turned his head and walked towards the door.

The crowd made way for a passage like avoiding the god of plague, Liu Ruosong watched the young man go away, and then walked to the middle of the crowd, and picked up the fainted boy with one hand.

Liu Ruosong could feel the eyes of his surroundings falling on him—either fearful, doubtful, or even malicious, as if he would turn into a zombie the next second he came into contact with the other party.

Liu Ruosong turned a blind eye to these malicious gazes, he followed the man, glanced around, then carried him to a corner of the waiting hall, and handed him over to a guard.

"The blood on his body is not the blood of a zombie." Liu Ruosong said, "Take him to VIP waiting room No. [-], I'll be there later."

They also vaguely heard the farce sentry just now, but the environment was too chaotic, so they couldn't hear it clearly.

Coupled with the fact that Liu Ruosong had obtained the privilege of "doing things cheaply" by Zhao Jincheng, many things were more reasonable than before.

"Understood, Mr. Liu." The sentry said: "Do you have anything to do? Do you need the help of the guards?"

"No need." Liu Ruosong remembered something, and said, "That's right—give me a pass."

The high-speed railway station in City S is a new building. Outside the waiting hall, there is a glass sun room with an area of ​​several hundred square meters. It is not only the original security check point, but also a backup line of defense for the evacuation point.

Now the evacuation point has been closed, theoretically there is no entrance and exit connected to the outside world, but Liu Ruosong vaguely remembers that from the glass room at the security check, go straight up to the second floor, and you can go to a semi-open-air viewing platform.

Liu Ruosong recalled the bony hand in his memory, and compared the position in his memory, he felt almost the same—the other party should have gone in that direction.

He raised his collar, disappeared into the crowd again, dodged a few times in the crowd like a fish swimming, and then got rid of the probing eyes behind him.

Holding his pass, Liu Ruosong walked unimpededly to the security check area outside, greeted the person in charge of the evacuation point, turned into the small milk tea next to him, and walked into a long and narrow administrator passage.

There was fresh blood dripping on the ground, which hadn't dried completely because of the short time.

Liu Ruosong walked along the tens of meters of passage to the end, and then turned up an upward curved staircase.

When he caught up with the young man, the other party was only two or thirty meters away from the viewing platform.He clutched his wound, and stood there blankly, as if he was in a battle between heaven and man.

Liu Ruosong slowed down, caught up with him from behind, and patted his shoulder lightly.

The young man's reaction was quite strong, his whole body was shocked, and he turned around vigilantly.

However, the moment he saw Liu Ruosong, he was stunned again, as if he didn't understand why this stranger came after him here.

"I thought about it, and I think this is a trouble." Liu Ruosong said lightly, "Your people, you should protect yourself."