Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

After breakfast, Lin Yi and Ren Tingting boarded the bus to the county town.

The car was a black Ford Model T, which looked to have been running for at least a decade. In some places, the black paint had peeled off, revealing the grayish sheet metal underneath.

The leather on the seats was worn shiny, and they were hard to sit on, with the springs making a creaking sound.

Ren Fa bought this car more than ten years ago, when the Ren family was at its peak, and it was the only car in the entire Renjia Town.

Every time Ren Fa gets into a car, he wishes he could roll down the window so the whole town could see him.

Ren Fa is gone now, but the car is still the same, only the driver has changed to Uncle Fu's eldest son, A Gui.

He was an honest and kind middle-aged man, but his driving skills were more steady than his father's.

The car's shock absorption system is practically nonexistent; even a single pebble driven over by the wheels faithfully transmits the vibrations to your backside.

During the Republic of China era, county roads were called highways, but they were actually just dirt roads that had been flattened and covered with a layer of gravel. They were full of potholes, and when rainwater washed out gullies, the whole vehicle could bounce up half a foot.

Riding this car on a long journey can make a normal person's buttocks swell up from all the jolting.

Lin Yi had no choice but to hold Ren Tingting in her arms in the back seat, using her own body as a human sofa.

"My dad used to take this bus to the county town, and he would lie down for half a day every time he came back," Ren Tingting said with a hint of embarrassment.

He said that riding in a car was more tiring than riding a donkey, but respectable people had to ride in cars, and riding a donkey was something only nouveau riche in the countryside did.

Lin Yishen agreed. These days, cars are purely tools for the rich to show off.

It's alright in the city, but outside the city, its practicality is not even as good as a donkey.

But there was no other way. Ren Tingting was now the head of the Ren family, and she couldn't ride a horse to meet the warlord in the county town, or she would be looked down upon.

That's how it is these days; appearances are more important than substance.

Along the way, Ren Tingting intermittently introduced Long Dashuai's situation to Lin Yi.

Commander Long's real name is Long Nanguang. His family was originally in business. A few years ago, he suddenly recruited soldiers and proclaimed himself the Commander of Yun County. He had about two thousand men under his command.

Long Nanguang was a greedy and lustful man with several concubines. After his wife died last year, he married a new one.

Ren Tingting paused for a moment at this point.

"A woman named Michelin."

Lin Yi raised an eyebrow slightly.

Michelin? The Michelin from the new Mr. Zombie? Uncle Nine's first love, who was later married by Commander Long. She got pregnant and was targeted by an evil spirit, causing a series of troubles.

Is that really such a coincidence?

Lin Yi already had a plan in mind. Michelin, and that Commander Long who looked just like Awei—wasn't this the setup for the new Mr. Zombie?

It seems the plot of the new Mr. Zombie hasn't even started yet. Michelle has only recently married Lung Nam-kwong, I wonder if she's pregnant yet.

However, now that Lung Nam-kwong has made his appearance, the plot will unfold sooner or later.

After nearly two hours of bumpy driving, we finally saw the city walls of Yun County.

Yun County is much larger than Renjia Town. The city wall is made of earthen bricks and is not high, only three or four meters high. There are soldiers with guns standing at the city gate.

A flag of the Republic of China with a white sun and a blue sky hangs on the city gate, and next to it is a military flag with the character "dragon" written on it, fluttering lazily in the breeze.

Ah Gui parked the car in front of the Marshal's Mansion.

The Marshal's Mansion is the most magnificent building in Yun County. It was built by a salt merchant during the Qing Dynasty. It is a large courtyard with three courtyards and two stone lions guarding the entrance. The three gilded characters "Marshal's Mansion" are hung on the lintel.

Four guards stood at the door with guns at their sides. A-Gui went up to negotiate, and one of the guards went in and quickly came out jogging. He gave a crooked salute.

"Miss Ren, the Marshal is already waiting for you inside."

Ren Tingting nodded, then said to Agui, "Wait for us in the car."

"Yes, Miss," A-Gui replied.

The guards led the two through the front yard, where a row of soldiers stood on each side, holding rifles with bayonets fixed, striking a majestic pose.

Lin Yi glanced at them—the bayonets were polished to a shine, but the rifle receivers were rusty, and several soldiers' rifle stocks were wrapped with wire.

Troops with this level of equipment might be able to fight bandits, but they would be easily routed if they encountered a regular army.

The main hall doors were wide open, and Long Nanguang sat in the large chair in the center.

When Lin Yi first saw him, she almost thought she had run into Awei again—no, Awei's middle-aged version.

They have the same round face, the same small eyes, and the same round glasses.

The difference was that Long Nanguang was a size bigger than Awei, wearing a crisp military uniform, with several medals hanging on his chest that he had somehow acquired, and two jade thumb rings on his hands, displaying the demeanor of a nouveau riche.

When Long Nanguang saw Ren Tingting walk in, his small eyes lit up instantly.

He stood up from the general's chair, rubbed his hands together, and grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Miss Ren, we meet again!"

"When I saw you at the provincial capital's chamber of commerce banquet last time, I felt that Miss Ren had an extraordinary temperament; you are even more radiant today!"

As he spoke, he reached out his hand to shake hands with Ren Tingting.

Lin Yi saw it all clearly from the side—this old man's eyes were scanning Ren Tingting up and down; he was simply utterly lecherous.

Long Nanguang knew the Ren family's wealth. Although Ren Fa was dead, the Ren family still owned businesses in the provincial capital, county town, and town, with more than a dozen shops and thousands of acres of paddy fields.

If he could acquire the Ren family, his wealth would at least double.

Right now, Ren Tingting is the only orphan left in the Ren family. In his eyes, this seventeen-year-old girl is just a piece of fat meat on a chopping board.

If we could marry her as a concubine, wouldn't that be a win-win situation?

His hand was halfway out when it was grabbed by another hand.

Lin Yi's large palms, with her fingers tightly clenched, firmly enveloped Long Nanguang's short, chubby hand in her palms.

With a polite smile on his face, he said calmly, "Hello, Commander Long, I am Tingting's fiancé, Lin Yi."

Long Nanguang's smile froze for a moment.

He looked down at his hand being held by Lin Yi, then looked up at Lin Yi's face, and twitched his lips slightly.

He forcefully pulled his hand back from Lin Yi's palm, then took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands.

The hand-wiping gesture was extremely deliberate, almost as if the word "disdain" was written all over his face.

"I don't care what kind of supernatural stuff you are," Long Nanguang tossed a handkerchief to the guard next to him, put his hands on his hips, puffed out his belly, and struck a pose like a great general.

"I only invited Miss Ren. Who do you think you are? Get out of here!"

After saying that, he ignored Lin Yi and turned to Ren Tingting with a completely different expression, smiling broadly as he said:

"Miss Ren, I recently hired a top chef from Japan. His cooking skills are absolutely superb!"

You absolutely have to try his sashimi later, it's so fresh, it'll make you tremble! Let's eat and talk—"

His hand reached out again, this time directly towards Ren Tingting's arm.

Lin Yi's face darkened. This Long Nanguang was already courting death.

If a second-generation zombie like him can be bullied by ordinary people, then he must have just been bitten by Jiang Chen.

Before Long Nanguang's hand could even touch Ren Tingting's sleeve, Lin Yi's slap had already landed on his face.

The force of that slap was controlled with extreme precision—

With a sharp "snap," Long Nanguang's head spun around his neck several times, like the leader of the Axe Gang, before finally stopping with the back of his head facing Lin Yi and Ren Tingting.

Long Nanguang's body remained in the outstretched position for two or three seconds before he fell backward onto the ground with a thud.

His face was up, the back of his head was up, and his neck was twisted into a pretzel shape.

Long Nanguang, died.

The main hall was silent for about two seconds.

Ren Tingting let out a short scream, then immediately covered her mouth.

Her face was as white as paper, and she gripped Lin Yi's arm tightly with both hands, her nails almost digging into his flesh.

The two guards reacted a beat slower than her—they saw the commander fall first, and then realized what had happened.

One of them frantically picked up his gun, while the other pulled the bolt, ready to shoot Lin Yi, the man who had killed Commander Long.

Lin Yi's reaction was many times faster than theirs.

Before the gunshot rang out, he had already teleported in front of the two men, reaching out with both hands to grab the necks of the two guards, one in each hand.

With a gentle flick of his fingers, two crisp snapping sounds rang out, and the necks of the two guards broke like dry twigs.

The rifles in their hands clattered to the ground, and they collapsed without uttering a sound.

"Ah, Ah Yi, you killed Commander Long." Ren Tingting's voice trembled, her hand still tightly gripping Lin Yi's sleeve. "How are we going to get out? There are thousands of people here. Even if you're incredibly powerful—"

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already clear.

Nearly two thousand soldiers with guns at their sides. Even if Lin Yi is a good fighter, can he take on two thousand men by himself?

Lin Yi held her hand, her tone calm: "Don't worry. A warlord like Long Nanguang is only intimidating while he's alive; once he's dead, he's nothing. Trust me."

Ren Tingting looked up into his eyes. There was no panic or fear in his eyes, only a calmness as if he had expected it all along.

Her fingers slowly loosened.

Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps and shouts came from outside.

The door to the main hall was suddenly kicked open, and a man in an officer's uniform with a pistol at his waist rushed in. He was Long Nanguang's adjutant.

He was followed by a dozen soldiers with guns. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Long Nanguang's neck twisted into a pretzel and the corpses of two guards on the ground.

"shot!"

Lieutenant Chen's expression changed drastically. Without saying a word, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger at Lin Yi. The soldiers behind him followed suit and fired.

Bang! Bang! Bang! A barrage of gunfire erupted in the main hall, bullets flying from all directions toward Lin Yi and Ren Tingting.

A green light flashed in Lin Yi's eyes. He put one arm around Ren Tingting's waist and teleported behind the group of soldiers.

The bullets all went out, clattering against the walls and chairs in the main hall, turning Long Nanguang's favorite rosewood armchair into a pile of broken wood.

As Lieutenant Chen stared blankly at the empty main hall, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He turned around abruptly and saw the young man standing behind him, holding a gleaming pig-slaughtering knife that had appeared in his hand at some point.

Lin Yi raised his knife and brought it down. The butcher's knife was more effective in his hands than any divine weapon; wherever the blade flashed, blood splattered.

More than a dozen soldiers fell to the ground before they even saw him draw his sword.

From the first blow to the last soldier falling, it took only three to five seconds.

The gun in Chen's hand was still smoking, and he instinctively fired another shot at Lin Yi.

At such close range, the bullet struck Lin Yi squarely in the chest.

A small, charred hole appeared in the long robe, revealing perfectly intact skin underneath—not even a red mark was left.

Lin Yi's body only paused slightly. Ouch, it fucking hurt—he cursed inwardly.

Although the bullets couldn't penetrate his defenses, being hit by a bullet felt like being stabbed hard with a small nail; the pain was very real.

However, in order to maintain his air of superiority, he suppressed the urge to grimace and, without changing his expression, raised his hand and cleaved the pistol in Chen's hand in two with his butcher knife.

The front half of the gun barrel clattered to the ground, while the rear half of the grip was still clutched in Lieutenant Chen's hand.

Looking at the gun that was now only half-broken in his hand, Lieutenant Chen's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud. He was trembling all over like a leaf, and his teeth were chattering.

He served in the army for more than ten years, from the Hunan Army to the Independent Regiment, and fought in no fewer than twenty battles, large and small, and saw many dead.

But he had never seen anyone use a butcher's knife to cut down a dozen soldiers in three to five seconds, nor had he ever seen anyone be shot in the chest without breaking a layer of skin.

Is this even human?

Lieutenant Chen looked up at the expressionless young man before him, his lips trembling as he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "You... are you a human or a ghost?"

Lin Yi's face twitched. Not from those words, but from the lingering pain in his chest where the bullet had struck him. He looked down at his adjutant, Chen, and raised the butcher's knife.

When Lieutenant Chen saw the still-dripping knife held above his head, he was terrified.

He no longer cared whether the other person was human or ghost; he collapsed to the ground with a thud, his forehead pounding against the bluestone floor, his voice trembling with sobs.

"Please, please don't kill me! I have elderly parents and young children to support; my entire family depends on me! Just let me go, and I'll do anything for you, like a slave!"

Lin Yi's knife stopped in mid-air.

He looked down at the adjutant who was kowtowing repeatedly.

He squatted down and patted Deputy Chen's face with the back of the butcher's knife.

The cold blade pressed against his face, and Lieutenant Chen shuddered. His kowtowing stopped abruptly, and he froze on the spot, too afraid to move.

"You're a smart person." Lin Yi's tone was flat. "A smart person should know that to survive, you have to demonstrate your value."

Forget about the nonsense about being treated like a beast of burden—I don't need worthless animals.

Faced with life and death, Deputy Chen's mind was working at an unprecedented speed.

Value? Value? What value does it have?

His greatest skill in life was being an adjutant—serving tea and water, running errands, and doing things according to the commander-in-chief's mood.

What use are these skills to this killing god in front of you?

His gaze swept erratically across the main hall, over the body of Long Nanguang lying on the ground, and over the scattered corpses of the soldiers, before suddenly stopping.

He stared at Long Nanguang's head, which had turned 180 degrees, and a flash of inspiration struck him.

"I, Chen Wei, fully support you in becoming the commander of the Yunxian Independent Regiment! You will be the new commander-in-chief from now on!" Adjutant Chen almost shouted, his voice cracking with excitement.

Lin Yi slapped him on the face again with the back of his knife: "Is it that simple? I killed your commander, and your Independent Regiment won't seek revenge?"

Lieutenant Chen shook his head vigorously, like a rattle-drum, and spoke twice as fast as before:

"General, you don't know this! Our Independent Regiment is a ragtag regiment without even a designation. The higher-ups don't care who our commander is, as long as we pay our taxes on time."

And then it's even simpler: whoever can pay the soldiers' wages is the commander-in-chief!

Lin Yi's expression underwent a subtle change.

He knew that the warlord era in the Republic of China was chaotic, but he didn't expect it to be this chaotic—

The head of a regiment can be replaced at will, regardless of whether the higher-ups or the lower-ups care, as long as there is money to be made.

This isn't an army, it's just a gang of thugs with guns.

Seeing that Lin Yi's expression had softened, Lieutenant Chen quickly pressed on, pouring out all the clever words he could think of:

"Commander Long was assassinated, and it was you, Commander Lin, who killed the assassin and avenged Commander Long! The position of Commander-in-Chief is rightfully yours! The brothers will certainly support you!"

Lin Yi looked at Deputy Chen and couldn't help but sigh inwardly: Goodness. In just a short while, he's even finished writing the script.

Chen Wei was able to rise to the position of adjutant under Long Nanguang, which shows he's got some skills.

This ability to assess situations and adapt to changing circumstances would place someone at least a department manager in the 21st century.

He put away the butcher knife.

When Lieutenant Chen saw the knife leave his face, he let out a long sigh of relief. He collapsed to the ground as if his bones had been removed, his back soaked with cold sweat.

"If what you say is true, and it allows me to successfully become the commander-in-chief, then you can continue to live and continue to be your adjutant."

Lin Yi stood up, looked down at Deputy Officer Chen, and said in a calm tone, "Otherwise, even if you escape to the ends of the earth, I will find you and skin you alive."

The adjutant was startled by the last four words and quickly got up from the ground, bringing his legs together to give Lin Yi a very standard military salute.

His hands were still trembling, but his voice was much steadyer than before: "It will definitely work! Commander, you are all-powerful, how could I dare to deceive you! I can get this done today! Don't worry!"

He spoke with conviction, but in his heart he was thinking: regardless of whether it succeeds or not, I'll just live through today first—even dying a day later is better than nothing.

"ah--"

A terrified scream came from the side door of the main hall.

Lin Yi turned his head and saw a beautiful young woman standing at the side door, one hand on the door frame and the other covering her mouth, looking at Long Nanguang's corpse on the ground with a pale face.

She was wearing a plain white cheongsam, with a slender figure, and looked to be around twenty-five years old. Although her face was pale with fright, the exquisite features and fair skin could not be concealed by rouge and powder.

Michelin.