16 years

Before leaving the supermarket completely, Fu Yan kept an eye out and went to see the place where the man ate the tomatoes.

After sending the man out before, the other party left more information for Fu Yan while he was still sane, so he followed the man's guidance to find the decorative area and wanted to see the infection situation.

According to Fu Yan's previous guess, the tomato was probably contaminated with the body fluids of the zombie, but the man ate it without cleaning it up, which caused the infection.

But when he found the pot of small tomatoes, he realized it wasn't.

The "decoration area" is not an open public area, strictly speaking, it is a display cabinet of an indoor flower shop.No wonder the man decided that he was fine when he ate it. It turned out that the pot of tomatoes was not exposed to the outside environment as everyone imagined, but was held by a transparent display stand, leaving only a small movable opening, which made people feel uncomfortable. Reach in to water or operate.

Now that the display stand is intact, it is impossible for zombies to reach into such a small movable compartment. It must be because of this that the man ate the contents with confidence.

The pot of small tomatoes was planted on the platform close to the ground of the display cabinet. The only thing that communicated with the outside world was a palm-width soil bottom.The not-too-long strip of soil extends from the display case, exposed to the air, and seems to be used for water and fertilizer.

Fu Yan fiddled with the plastic bag cautiously, and found that there was a little stain of dried blood foam on it.

"The soil will be polluted too?" Shao Qiu wondered.

Fu Yan frowned and looked at the soil belt, but didn't make a sound.In his previous life, he didn't pay much attention to this matter. Most of his knowledge reserves lie in how to fight against zombies and avoid his own infection. When he goes out, in addition to the military rations he brings, most of the drinking water he gets is in good plastic packaging. So the knowledge of this classification in "agricultural planning" does not belong to him.

"It's possible." Fu Yan said: "After the soil is polluted, the virus enters the plant, so the plant also carries the virus-but didn't it be said before that the body fluid will lose its activity after being exposed to the air for a period of time?"

"This is... a biological virus." Fang Sining suddenly pushed aside the crowd and walked up. He first subconsciously glanced at Shao Qiu, but quickly withdrew his gaze, staring solemnly at the small strip of soil in front of him, and then said: " Ordinary viruses do not invade soil or plants, except biological viruses with fixed anchors."

"What do you mean?" Fu Yan said.

"To put it simply, because the cell walls of plant cells are very hard, viruses want to invade plants, either through mechanical damage or artificial injection." Fang Sining said: "This kind of survival in the soil is directly absorbed, which can only prove this The virus itself is a plant virus...or at least plant growth is one of the survival channels for them to host, so the virus can directly adsorb plant cells or fuse."

"And looking at the growth of this pot of small tomatoes, it seems that they have not been affected by the virus infection." Fang Sining said: "I suspect that they are in a symbiotic relationship."

"If this is the case, it will be troublesome." Liu Ruosong whispered: "There are too many zombies outside, if they will pollute the land and crops, then..."

Fu Yan obviously also thought of the pros and cons. He frowned, dropped the plastic bag in his hand, and said, "Call the base when you settle down."

Yao Tu nodded, indicating that he had written it down.

The bunch of keys that Yang Fan gave to him earlier contained everything, such as access control cards, backup keys for the underground garage, and house keys, all strung together together, looking messy.

Yao Tu found the name of the community from the logo on the key card, then navigated on the spot, and found the nearest path.

Yang Fan said before that it was only two streets away, but in fact they drove there, and it took Xiaoer 10 minutes to make a detour.

It was a disaster for seven people to squeeze into a five-seater car. When he got out of the car, Liu Ruosong felt that his waist was not his own.

Fu Yan helped him when he was back, and rubbed him without any trace.

"It's okay." Liu Ruosong grinned at him and said, "Just stretch it and it'll be fine."

The action team parked the car in the narrow road between the two buildings, and after taking the necessary supplies, covered the car with a concealed covering cloth.

When Yang Fan said before that "we all live in his house", Liu Ruosong thought he was being polite and was going to find a place for the action team to settle down. It wasn't until he found his house according to the house number that he realized that Yang Fan's words were not at all watery. .

——His house can really accommodate a group of people!

This house has a total of twelve floors, and there are two households on one elevator. Unfortunately, the elevator has been out of service, and only the stairwell is open.

The action team cleaned up some of the zombies in the corridor, and when they entered the door of Room 701, they discovered that it was a hardcover duplex with upper and lower floors.

"...I'm a little under psychological pressure." Standing at the door, He Tang wiped the dust from her palms on her pants, and said honestly, "Looking at the shiny tiles in the entrance hall, I'm not willing to step on them."

"If you come, let's be safe." Shao Qiu didn't care so much, he said, putting the heavy backpack and firearms on his body, and changed his shoes before entering the door, with a casual attitude like the owner of the room.

"Clean up before leaving." Fu Yan said.

Fu Yan opened his mouth, and the others relaxed more or less.After half a month of running around on the road, although the whole room didn’t say anything, they were actually exhausted. Now it’s finally easy to find a safe zone that’s closed on all sides, and everyone wants to throw their heads back on the bed and sleep with him for three Days and nights.

However, we have to do business. Before the "free activities", there is still necessary pre-work to be done.

Yao Tu and Fu Yan moved the coffee table in the living room a little, and made a space near the balcony. They set up the signal box they carried with them, and started to contact the base, trying to exchange information.

Liu Ruosong and He Tang went up and down to check the condition of the house and the available rooms, while He Feng stayed near the entrance alone, dismantling and maintaining the team's firearms.

They seemed tacit understanding and familiarity, and they were automatically assigned tasks from the moment they entered the door, only Fang Sining couldn't integrate into it.

In this team, he was in an embarrassing situation. Others were more than polite to him, but not close enough. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't know how to integrate into this environment and help others.

He looked left and right, and found that there seemed to be nothing he needed to do, so he consciously left the living room and walked to a small balcony on the second floor.

It had been raining heavily in Lincheng for several days before, and the water vapor in the air hadn't dissipated until now. The cool wind blew past, and there was a clean earthy smell inside.

There is no rotten smell of zombies, and the sun shines on the railing from the blue sky, just like an ordinary day before the end of the world.

Fang Sining took a deep breath, his eyes moved down from the dazzling blue sky - in the park not far away, a zombie was wandering out along the bushes, and a young boy was lying in the small flower bed, the wound on his hand was rustling. He was dripping blood, covering his face and crying bitterly.

His cries were loud, even if he was seven floors away, Fang Sining could still hear him clearly.

Fang Sining shuddered subconsciously, took a step back, and tightened the window again.

Suddenly there was the sound of very light footsteps behind him, Fang Sining turned around following the sound, only to find that it was Shao Qiu standing by the door, raising his hand, as if he was about to knock on the door.

"Xiaoqiu, what's wrong?" Fang Sining said.

Shao Qiu raised his hand in the air, but after thinking about it, he put it down. He walked into the door without making a sound, and handed the things in his hand to Fang Sining.

Fang Sining looked down and found that it was another canned food.

In the past two days in the cold chain warehouse, he probably also noticed a little bit. The military rations brought by their operation team are divided into two types. One is the large portion, which can be used for stewing, which is a common dry ration.This kind of palm-sized small tank is a personal supply, and it has a lot of weight.

Fang Sining clenched the things in his hands, pursed his lips, tried to muster up the courage, and looked up at Shao Qiu.

"I wanted to ask before." Fang Sining said, "The one you gave me in the warehouse last time must be your own."

"Yes." Shao Qiu simply admitted.

"You...don't be angry with me anymore?" Fang Sining squeezed the cold tin can tightly and asked tentatively, "Can you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive or not to forgive." Shao Qiu said flatly, "You didn't do anything wrong. We're all grown-ups, and we're not kids who keep saying, 'You're not allowed to play with people I hate'."

Shao Qiu took a step back and turned to leave.

He seemed to be only here to deliver things, without any personal emotion, and left after delivery, even the express delivery outside was a little more enthusiastic than him.

But Fang Sining knew this was not the case, he repeatedly made small mistakes for himself, if he said that he was kind and generous, I am afraid that ghosts would not believe it.

But Fang Sining didn't understand why he was so indifferent while taking care of himself.

"If you still care about that matter, then I apologize." Fang Sining said softly: "I'm sorry, I didn't consider your feelings at the time. I knew at that time that I could be a graduate student of Professor Shao, and I was so happy. You Yes, I really want to study in this field. And I always... I always felt that you would be angry for a while and then forgive me. I didn't think you really hated him so much, and I didn't think you would really broke up with me."

Shao Qiu's footsteps paused, but he didn't look back.

"Thinking about it now, from the perspective of being a friend, I don't care about your feelings." Fang Sining said: "Even if I have to go, I should have explained to you at that time, instead of telling you the result directly. After so many years , Actually, I still miss you very much, so—”

"Fang Sining." Shao Qiu interrupted him.

"Ah?" Fang Sining blinked and asked in a daze.

"What do you want to say?" Shao Qiu asked.

"Actually, it's nothing." Fang Sining said, "I just want to say that over the years, I have really missed you."