The front door closed behind Rouxi and the men without a single sound.

For a moment, no one spoke.

The house finally felt empty again for the first time since Zhenlan and the others had decided to open the gates to let 23 survivors into their world.

There was still a smell of ’others’ that caused Rouxi to wrinkle her nose, but a few scented candles would fix all that. The important thing was that everything was now back to normal. Her home was hers again.

The noise of the convoy had already faded. The gunfire was gone and even the distant dragging sounds had thinned out into almost nothing.

Lingyun kicked the door once, testing the lock before turning away. "Well, that was fun," he muttered, rolling his shoulders like he had just come back from a workout instead of a collapsing perimeter with zombies ready to eat him.

Chenghai didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he moved straight past the living room, past the couch, past the place where everything had been left exactly as it was, and into the kitchen. His steps were heavier than usual, controlled but carrying a distinctive edge that hadn’t been there before.

Yuche followed behind him, his footsteps faster than usual.

In contrast, Zhenlan didn’t move right away.

He stood where he was, his gaze settling on Rouxi as she walked past him without a word, heading deeper into the house like nothing about the last twenty minutes had required comment.

He watched her for a second longer before pushing off the wall and following the others. He already knew what he was going to find.

The kitchen was empty. Not cleared in a hurry. Not disturbed. Completely empty.

Chenghai stood in the center of the room, his eyes moving across the counters, the cabinets, the shelves that had held supplies only an hour ago. His jaw tightened slightly as he stepped forward and opened the nearest cabinet.

Nothing.

He shut it harder than necessary and moved to the next.

Still nothing.

Yuche leaned against the counter, his arms folding slowly across his chest as his gaze tracked the room with sharp precision. He didn’t bother opening anything himself. He didn’t need to.

He could see it.

Everything that mattered was gone.

Lingyun stepped in behind them, taking one look at Chenghai’s expression before glancing toward the empty shelves. "Well," he said lightly, "that’s inconvenient."

Chenghai shot him a look.

Lingyun lifted both hands slightly in surrender, though the corner of his mouth still twitched like he found the situation more interesting than concerning.

"We can go out again," he added after a beat, pushing off the wall. "There were still buildings they didn’t touch. And zombies or not, it’s not like we haven’t dealt with it before."

"No." The word cut through the room cleanly.

Zhenlan stepped forward, his voice calm, his expression unchanged as he moved to stand near the counter. His gaze didn’t settle on the empty cabinets or the cleared surfaces.

It settled on Rouxi.

She hadn’t entered the kitchen right away. Instead, she stood in the doorway, leaning lightly against the frame, watching them with the same mild disinterest she had shown the soldiers.

Her attention moved from Chenghai to Yuche to Lingyun, tracking each reaction without comment.

Yuche straightened slightly, pushing off the counter as his expression sharpened. "They didn’t take this by accident," he said quietly. "That was organized. They knew exactly what they were looking for, and they took all of it."

Chenghai exhaled through his nose, his hand flattening briefly against the counter as if grounding himself before he spoke. "They cleared it completely," he added. "Not even scraps left behind."

Lingyun tilted his head slightly. "So we take it back," he said, like the answer had always been that simple. "They can’t have gotten far."

"No."

This time it came from Rouxi.

She pushed herself off the doorway and stepped into the kitchen, her movements slow and unhurried. The lollipop shifted between her fingers before she placed it back into her mouth, her gaze flicking once over the empty space.

"You’re not going anywhere," she added. "The zombies from before will still be hanging around. It’s too dangerous."

Chenghai turned toward her fully now, the edge in his posture still there, still contained but harder to ignore. "You don’t understand. They took everything."

"Mm." Rouxi’s response was soft, absent, like she was only half-listening even as she nodded her head.

Yuche’s eyes narrowed slightly. "You don’t seem particularly concerned that all of use will be going without dinner tonight."

"I’m not."

The words settled into the room without weight.

Lingyun huffed out a quiet breath, pushing off the counter again as he crossed his arms. "That’s reassuring," he said dryly.

Rouxi didn’t look at him.

She turned instead, walking past them and toward the basement stairs. They followed her down, looking at each other in confusion. At the far end of the massive room, she stopped in front of a wall.

The wall there looked no different than the rest—clean, uninterrupted, nothing to draw attention to it.

She reached out and pressed her hand against it, and for a second, nothing happened. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Then something shifted.

A soft click echoed through the space, followed by the faint movement of wood sliding against wood as a seam appeared where there hadn’t been one before. The panel moved inward just enough to reveal a narrow opening.

Chenghai went still.

Yuche didn’t move.

Lingyun blinked once.

Zhenlan didn’t react at all.

Rouxi stepped aside. "Are you coming," she asked, already turning toward the opening.

The men looked at each other before they followed her.

The space beyond was larger than it should have been, extending deeper into the basement structure than the exterior suggested or anyone of them really knew.

Metal shelves lined both sides of the room, stacked with supplies from floor to ceiling. There was boxes of food. Thousands of canned goods. More jugs of water than any of them had seen before. There were even medical kits and supplies in their own corner.

Who cared what the soldiers took from the kitchen. This was more than was ever in the house before.

A lot more.

Chenghai stepped inside first, his gaze moving quickly across the shelves, cataloging everything in a single sweep before slowing as the scale of it settled in. His hand lifted, brushing lightly against one of the boxes as if confirming it was real.

Yuche followed in after him, slower, his expression unreadable as his eyes moved from one side of the room to the other. He didn’t touch anything. He didn’t need to.

He understood exactly what he was looking at.

Lingyun let out a low whistle. "Well," he said, his tone shifting into something that sounded almost impressed, "that explains a few things."

Zhenlan remained near the entrance, his attention not on the supplies, but on Rouxi.

She leaned lightly against the doorway, watching them take it in.

"Even if they did take some popcorn," she said, her voice calm, almost dismissive as their reactions settled, "we still have enough supplies to last us for a while."

No one answered her immediately.

Chenghai’s jaw tightened slightly, but the tension had shifted. Not gone. Just redirected.

Yuche’s gaze flicked back to Rouxi, sharper now, more focused.

Lingyun smiled.

And Zhenlan kept watching her like he already knew this wasn’t the part that mattered.