Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

”Alright, no need for more thank yous. Just be better to that child, Zhaodi, from now on. You should go.” Song You’ai started to close the iron gate.

Seeing this, Song Kuang’s wife quickly wedged her foot in the doorway, stopping the iron gate with a sycophantic laugh. ”Big Sister, the way you say that, you make it sound like we mistreat Zhaodi.”

”We’re all relatives, and we all escaped from the Song Family Pavilion to this base. We should be supporting and helping each other, right? Aren’t you going to invite us in for a bit?”

Song You’ai’s lips twitched into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. ”I don’t think that’s necessary.”

She tried to force the gate shut, but Song Kuang’s wife’s foot was wedged firmly in the way. She refused to pull it back, even as the iron gate squeezed it until she grimaced in pain.

Song You’ai laughed in exasperation. ”Ma Guilan, what do you think you’re doing? You have too much energy and nowhere to spend it, is that it?”

”Big Sister, you can’t just kick us out like this!” Song Kuang’s wife’s face flushed a furious red, and she opened her mouth and started to wail. ”Ow, ow, ow!”

Song You’ai eased the pressure on the iron gate, gazing at the other woman with an unreadable smile. ”What else are you after?”

”Mom, red-braised pork! The meat!” Song Jiabao, seeing that they hadn’t even made it through the villa’s gate after all this time, started shouting impatiently from the side.

”Alright, alright. You’ll get your red-braised pork in a little bit. Your Aunt You’ai and the others aren’t that stingy. I’m sure they’ll give our family a warm welcome.”

Song Kexin rolled her eyes dramatically, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ”Oh, you want red-braised pork? Go ask your mom to carve some off for you! She worships you like an ancestor, so what’s a little piece of her own flesh?”

”Song Kexin,” Ma Guilan glared, her eyes burning with fury. ”Don’t think you can get away with being so disrespectful to your elders just because you’re young.”

Song Kexin immediately dropped into a mock curtsy, lowering her eyes in a perfect picture of subservience. ”Yes, Your Majesty. This servant wouldn’t dare. I beg the Empress Dowager’s forgiveness.”

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xie Ning stepped forward and pushed her prickly little sister back. She looked up at Ma Guilan’s incandescently furious family. ”Has no one told you? In the apocalypse, you don’t just show up at people’s doors begging for food.”

”Life isn’t easy for any family. Doesn’t everyone have to go out and scavenge for supplies? We’re all snatching our livelihoods from the jaws of zombies; nobody is any more precious than anyone else.”

With things laid out so bluntly, Song Kuang’s old face flushed crimson. He quickly reached out to pull on his audacious wife’s arm. ”Let’s just go home.”

”Go home? What do you mean, ’go home’?” Ma Guilan violently shook off her husband’s hand and pointed an accusing finger at Song You’ai. ”You’re just a daughter who married out! How dare you shamelessly occupy such a fine piece of the Old Song Family’s property, and then try to drive us, the real Song Family, away?”

”Don’t you forget, my husband and son are the true male descendants of the Old Song Family. You outsiders, with your different surnames, have no right to live in such a nice house.”

Song Kexin was so furious she looked like an angry cat, her fur on end. She started hopping in place and roaring, ”Who the hell do you think you are? Coming to our house, making a scene and spewing insults!”

Xie Ning reached out to pat her sister’s shoulder, her gaze growing cold as she looked at Song Kuang’s family. ”You know, I was just thinking... the feudal dynasties fell a long time ago. How is it that Auntie is still going on and on about the ’Old Song Family’? You’d think the Old Song Family had a thousand-year throne waiting for your precious son to inherit.”

”Besides, the Old Song Family was formally divided back in our great-great-grandfather’s generation. When it comes right down to it, even though your family and ours both share the surname Song, we’re ultimately just distant relatives from different branches of the clan.”

”So how on earth do you have the nerve, Auntie, to claim this property is yours? I guess it just proves the old saying: a shameless person is truly invincible.”

Song Kexin snorted with laughter.

”Mom, let’s go home,” Song Zhaodi whispered timidly, tears welling in her eyes as she tugged on the corner of Ma Guilan’s clothes.

But Ma Guilan just swung around and slapped her across the face. She pointed at Song Zhaodi’s nose and screamed, ”You useless little bitch, how dare you lie to me? You said your aunt gave you two bags of clean water? Is that even possible?”

Ma Guilan shouted, spittle flying. ”A relative generous enough to do that? Her? The penny-pinching Song You’ai? She won’t even let us in the door! She’s a total skinflint!”

Song You’ai suddenly understood. So it was those two bags of superpower water that had brought this trouble to her door!

She looked at the child, Zhaodi, and frowned when she saw her dry, cracked lips.

’This poor, simple child only drank half a bag of water back then. Don’t tell me she handed the rest over to Ma Guilan?’

’This foolish girl... I don’t even know what to say.’

’So pitiful, yet so infuriating!’

”I’m sorry, Auntie. I’m sorry for causing you all this trouble,” Song Zhaodi sobbed, covering her face.

”Trouble? What trouble?” Ma Guilan strode forward and kicked her daughter. Placing her hands on her hips, she began to rant, determined to argue her point even without a shred of logic on her side.

”This property belongs to the Old Song Family in the first place. We’re all named Song, so why can’t we come in?”

”Mom, I want red-braised pork! I want red-braised pork!” Song Jiabao roared, throwing a tantrum at the side.

The aroma was so intoxicating it made his mouth water. He couldn’t stop swallowing, scratching his head and fidgeting in agitation. His entire being was already inside Bamboo Orchid Garden.

”Alright, alright. In a little while, we’ll have your aunt bring out a whole basin for you, so you can eat your fill,” Ma Guilan said, hugging her wailing son and cooing softly. ”All the food in the Old Song Family’s house should belong to my boy. Only a son with the surname Song is qualified to inherit everything from the Song Family. Be a good boy, Jia Bao. You’ll get your red-braised pork soon.”

”Mom, I want to eat now! Mom!” Song Jiabao hitched up his eyebrows and flared his nostrils, posturing as if he were king of the world. He shot a look at the coldly observing Xie Ning and the furiously glaring Song Kexin.

The family’s clamor made Song You’ai’s head buzz. Having reached the end of her rope, she grabbed a Metal Knife and, with a backhand swing, brought it down on the iron gate. CLANG!

The force of the blow left a small dent in the metal.

Xie Ning’s eyebrow twitched. She felt a pang of pity for her front gate.

In an instant, all the noisy shouting and screaming stopped. Silence fell.

Song You’ai’s expression was utterly demonic. She brandished the eighty-centimeter-long Metal Knife and roared, ”Let me tell you something! As long as I’m here today, not a single one of you will set foot past my gate!”

”Meat, meat, meat! Go home and eat your mother’s flesh!”

”Get out! All of you, get out!” Song You’ai bellowed, hacking at the iron gate with the Metal Knife. CLANG! CLANG!

”You’re all a bunch of useless, whining... things! Just distant relatives, eighteen times removed, who happen to share a surname! What, you think you can walk all over me? Acting like you’re my parents’ own flesh and blood, their favorite son and grandson?”

”And you, Ma Guilan, you shrew! What are you wailing about? You keep wailing and I’ll split your head open for you!”

”Why don’t you take a look at your own shameless face? It’s as big as a washbasin!” Song You’ai charged out the gate, swinging the Metal Knife CLANG! CLANG! and forcing Song Kuang and his wife to cover their heads and scurry away like rats.

”You’ve got human heads but the brains of pigs, and you still have the nerve to show up here and freeload! If you’re going to beg, then beg! Why put on this high-and-mighty act like you’d ’rather starve than eat food thrown at you in contempt’? Do you really think we’re that stupid? Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out! Get the hell out of here and don’t come back!”

”You useless, lazy excuses for relatives! Are you just sitting around waiting for heaven to hand you free meals? You’re daydreaming!”