The Invasion Day – Chapter 11

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 11:

By the time Fu Shiwu was done with his packing and walked out, Tang Xuhai hadn’t come out yet.

The moment Tang Xuhai finally saw Fu Shiwu in a shirt, office trousers and black shoes, he was completely speechless.

“What’s the matter?” Fu Shiwu looked at him suspiciously.

“Nothing!” Tang Xuhai held back his anger, for he was too lazy to say anything about this brat with no common sense. If he later felt uncomfortable wearing that, it would be his own problem!

When the two of them arrived at the underground garage via the elevator, lots of people from their building were crowding there. 

Wang Ziping was standing by a car and urging his family to get in with a wary expression on his face.

“Tang Xuhai!” Wang Ziping’s eyes lit up, then he walked over quickly and whispered to Tang Xuhai: “How about you come with us? There is still enough space in my car. You probably already know what has happened…”

“It’s fine, we’ll go by ourselves.” Tang Xuhai interrupted him. Wang Ziping obviously learnt from the TV or the Internet that the situation had gotten sour, and he was also smart enough to know that he should leave before dark.

“Wait, do you know a safe place to go to now? I know a place in the eastern suburbs…” Wang Ziping insistently persuaded him. He had seen Tang Xuhai’s strength that day. If Tang Xuhai hadn’t come in time, no one knew what Liao Ke and he might end up as.

“I’m not going alone.” Tang Xuhai interrupted him again.

Wang Ziping looked behind him and said hesitantly: “Are you sure you will be safe with these two people?”

Tang Xuhai frowned, two people?

Turning around, he suddenly saw Fu Shiwu talking to the disabled Wen Zhaoming, who lived next to him.

The words just casually rolled over his tongue, and he nodded: “Yes, I want to take the two of them, can you accept them too?” 

Wang Ziping immediately took a step back.

This Tang Xuhai is making it really difficult!

Wang Ziping had a friend who lived close to where the battle between the army and the aliens took place, and the friend jumped on the opportunity to follow the army when they retreated. Although many aliens in the city had been eliminated by now, it was unsure how many more of them were lurking out there. There was still a high possibility of coming across them.

The friend called him and recounted how scary those aliens were. If one had no weapons and confronted the aliens with bare hands, death was the only outcome. He might be able to escape by himself, but he still had his family!

Wang Ziping wanted to pull Tang Xuhai over just to take advantage of his strength and rely on his power to help protect his family. Bringing Fu Shiwu might still be okay, but adding a disabled person who was bound to a wheelchair and couldn’t walk at all would only drag them down!

“This… I’m sorry, there’s not enough space in the car.” Wang Ziping put on an embarrassed look, laughed awkwardly ​​and returned to his family.

Tang Xuhai sneered coldly.

He turned around and walked to Fu Shiwu’s side to find him looking unsettled.

“What’s the matter?” Tang Xuhai asked Fu Shiwu while his gaze was fixed on Wen Zhaoming.

Wen Zhaoming said calmly: “I ask Mr. Fu to do me a favour.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I’m not the one to call the shots.” Fu Shiwu sought help from Tang Xuhai with his eyes, but too bad, this eye communication didn’t pass the message correctly.

Tang Xuhai frowned and pressed down the displeasure that was surging inside. He thought that Fu Shiwu wanted him to agree with the decision.

“What is it?” Tang Xuhai asked with a tinge of contempt in his voice.

Wen Zhaoming paused for a second, then he looked at Tang Xuhai straight in the eyes and said: “I want to ask you to take me to the central warehouse in the eastern suburbs.”

“Oh?” Tang Xuhai raised his eyebrows. He didn’t expect that apart from his method of learning the news through the military radio, other people also had their own means to obtain the information. Although it was broadcasted on TV that the situation with the military was unfavourable, few people were informed of the central warehouse in the eastern suburbs. Now they might know about the specific location, but the actual circumstance behind it remained uncertain.

Wang Ziping was a man who could find his ways around, but Wen Zhaoming couldn’t leave the house at all. He might seem like an uninteresting man, but where he got this information surely was intriguing.

Tang Xuhai stayed silent while Fu Shiwu waited for his decision with nervous eyes. His own combat power was miserable, so he himself was counting on Tang Xuhai to get away from here, and of course he didn’t have the nerves to make the final call.

Wen Zhaoming was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to persuade Tang Xuhai, so he continued to say: “The person who gave me the news can settle us in. If there’s no support from him, even if we reach the central warehouse, our safety might not be guaranteed.”

Wen Zhaoming tried his best to calm down, but his eyes were drenched in the fear of being rejected.

Tang Xuhai suddenly smiled: “Okay, I’ll take you along.”

Wen Zhaoming was thrilled and couldn’t help beaming with joy. Fu Shiwu also let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

“I have an off-road SUV, we can go in that car.” Wen Zhaoming took out a key and threw it to Fu Shiwu.

Fu  Shiwu caught the key and asked puzzlingly: “You have a car?” 

Wen Zhaoming said sadly: “I ordered it just before the accident, and it’s been in this underground garage since it was delivered. Previously, I had someone take care of it. It can still be used.”

Fu Shiwu felt that he had asked a question that shouldn’t be asked. Fu Shiwu, the one with an abysmal EQ, stood there looking at Wen Zhaoming and not knowing what to say, but Wen Zhaoming himself didn’t care.

Fu Shiwu began to wonder whether he would cause further harm if he apologised.

Tang Xuhai took the car key from Fu Shiwu’s hand and pressed on it, then a black Volvo SUV responded with a “di di”.

Without letting anyone help him, Wen Zhaoming opened the car door and climbed into it all by himself. Fu Shiwu casted a quick glance at his legs that could’t move with ease, then he voluntarily folded the wheelchair and placed it at the back of the car.

Wen Zhaoming settled himself in the back seat and Fu Shiwu got into the passenger seat.

Tang Xuhai started the engine and the SUV moved smoothly. He drove a short distance and stopped in front of Fu Shiwu’s Mazda.    

“Bring the water over.” Tang Xuhai said.

“Uhm.” Fu Shiwu got out of the car and opened the trunk. Tang Xuhai carried two jugs and he carried one, and the three jugs were all stuffed into the car.

“I wonder if the central warehouse will supply us with water?” Fu Shiwu said nervously.

“Summer is the most prosperous season for sales of cold drinks, so the reserve for this necessity should have been prepared way in advance. It’s impossible to use it freely, but they should have enough for drinking. However, it’s likely to be portioned.” Wen Zhaoming said.

“That’s good.” Fu Shiwu felt relieved. In any case, their three jugs of water shouldn’t be too conspicuous.

The car went on its journey and the road seemed even more desolate than the last time Fu Shiwu came out. At that time, there were some patrols on the road, but now even the patrols were nowhere to be seen.

Occasionally they found some abandoned vehicles on the sides of the road. No one knew if those had gone out of gas or had unluckily encountered the aliens.

As the air tensed up, Wen Zhaoming proactively opened his mouth first: “Actually, I thought you would let Mr. Fu drive.”

Fu Shiwu turned to look at Wen Zhaoming and found that he was looking at Tang Xuhai, who was driving.

Tang Xuhai glanced at him with a smile through the rear mirror: “What you thought isn’t right then. I feel safer to control the wheel by myself at this moment, and you should always give the car to someone with better skills.”

Fu Shiwu didn’t react at first, but a second later he realised that his driving skills were looked down on together with his physical strength!

“I’m good at driving!” Fu Shiwu said indignantly.

Tang Xuhai glanced at him, his eyes obviously showing that he didn’t believe it.

“At least I’m very steady!” Fu Shiwu became even more angry.

At this point, Wen Zhaoming said: “You’ve misunderstood what I mean. I meant that… of the three of us, at least Mr. Fu is in the best physical condition now.”

“It doesn’t mean that his reaction speed is equally good. Being steady doesn’t guarantee that you won’t knock over the bollards in the event of an emergency.” Tang Xuhai said sarcastically.

“My bad.” Wen Zhaoming pursed his lips sorrowfully.

Fu Shiwu was stunned, and he asked questioningly: “What do you mean? My condition is better than Tang Xuhai’s?”

He looked at Tang Xuhai’s sturdy arms in confusion, then looked down at his fair arms with no muscles.

… It hurt his self-esteem again!

Tang Xuhai remained silent, but Wen Zhaoming hesitated for a while and said: “Mr. Tang has a steel plate on his right leg.”

What?!

This revelation came as a bolt from the blue.

“Really?!” Before he knew it, Fu Shiwu let out a loud cry.

He had seen Tang Xuhai kicking up his long leg and slamming it on Green T-Shirt. Looking at his incredibly strong physique, Fu Shiwu could never think that his leg had been wounded!

“I’m sorry.” Fu Shiwu apologised. He felt especially guilty.

Tang Xuhai laughed: “What do you apologise for?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know that you have an injury on your leg.” Fu Shiwu was extremely upset. If he knew that this guy had a steel plate in his leg, he wouldn’t have asked him to check on Wang Ziping and Liao Ke, or let him walk around carrying two jugs of water!

Tang Xuhai was a little unhappy: “Don’t treat me like glass, it’s almost healed.” 

“Even if you recover fast, with a steel plate in your leg, you shouldn’t engage in strenuous activities.” Wen Zhaoming quietly raised this indisputable fact.

“Tsk, it’s just driving a car anyway.” Tang Xuhai became impatient.

Wen Zhaoming didn’t say another word. Both of them knew that if an extreme situation came, no matter how his leg turned out or even if it was completely destroyed, he would have to fight.

Fu Shiwu was drowned in self-blame. After a while, he said: “It’s really my bad. We’ve been neighbours for so long yet I don’t even know.”

“This is not your problem!” Tang Xuhai glanced at him and said uncomfortably: “The most annoying people are those who treat me like a fragile item, that’s why I didn’t tell anyone when I moved here.” 

Tang Xuhai was an egoistic man. He put up an act as though nothing had happened and didn’t communicate much with other people, so of course no one got to know.

“But Mr. Wen, how did you know?” Fu Shiwu was puzzled.

“I just coincidentally learnt about it.” Wen Zhaoming looked at Fu Shiwu, who had turned around, and said: “Mr. Tang and I have the same doctor, so I met him during one of my checkups.”

But it was just a nodding acquaintance. They were both not in the best mood to think about making friends with each other.

Tang Xuhai agreed to let Wen Zhaoming come with them probably because of a sense of empathy. It made him think of himself, then he decided to reach out to help.

After Wen Zhaoming was disabled, he became extremely sensitive. He found it awkward when he looked at himself and then Tang Xuhai, for at least Tang Xuhai’s condition wouldn’t be easily detected by other people.

“Tang Xuhai, let me drive.” Fu Shiwu said.

Now that he was aware of the steel plate in Tang Xuhai’s leg, Tang Xuhai should be considered a patient, and Fu Shiwu couldn’t impose on a patient.

“Why do you keep rambling?!” Tang Xuhai was angry and yelled at him: “I already said it’s not that bad! It’s okay to drive a car! Besides, looking at your reaction speed, if we let you take the wheel, isn’t it the same as going straight to death?”

“What?” Fu Shiwu gaped.

This bastard’s mouth is as venomous as before!

Fu Shiwu actually wanted to reason with him. What’s with all this attitude flip? What’s with all that ‘going straight to death’? His driving was nowhere that bad! Tang Xuhai clearly had seen him driving before!

“Bang—” “Squeak—” “Aaahhh!!!”

Following the loud crash was the harsh sound of brakes, then of people’s panic screams.

Tang Xuhai’s expression tensed up: “Sit tight!!!”

As his words fell, he slammed the steering wheel with both hands, and the forceful inertia threw Fu Shiwu towards the door.