Chapter Twenty-Four: A Familiar Face from a Past Life

Seeing that familiar yet strange face, Gu Sha felt momentarily dazed.

That man was Chen Chuan. According to the normal course of events, the two should have met three years later.

In his previous life, Gu Sha had struggled for three years before finally finding an opportunity to reach the C City fortress. By then, C City had already become one of the top ten fortresses in Longzhou. Aside from these ten, all other shelters across the land had fallen. Gu Sha arrived at C City with a group of refugees, but before entering the fortress, they were besieged by zombies. At the critical moment, Chen Chuan appeared.

At that time, Chen Chuan was an officer in the fortress military, tasked with clearing out zombies. He happened upon Gu Sha and his group under attack and immediately ordered a rescue, successfully saving them.

Gu Sha fought bravely and calmly in that battle, which impressed Chen Chuan. He recruited Gu Sha into the fortress army, and Gu Sha became one of Chen Chuan's soldiers.

For the next three years, they worked side by side, becoming teammates who could rely on each other, facing countless missions together. Chen Chuan cared for Gu Sha, gifting him his first Qi-guiding manual—the first friend Gu Sha made after the apocalypse descended.

Yet, eventually, they parted ways due to differing ideals.

At first, the fortress was managed by the official authorities. All military groups in Longzhou strictly adhered to pre-apocalypse policies and principles. But as various forces intervened, each fortress became independent.

Gu Sha felt that the new military was no longer what he sought, so he left to join civilian mercenary groups. Chen Chuan, on the other hand, had a deep sense of belonging to the military and stayed. Thus, their paths diverged.

In those early years, they met a few times, but always parted hastily. Their final meeting was in the eighth year of the catastrophe.

Chen Chuan went out on a mission, bade Gu Sha a quick farewell, and promised to share a drink upon his return. That farewell became their last.

Gu Sha never learned whether Chen Chuan died or went to another fortress—they never saw each other again.

Now, reborn and seeing Chen Chuan again, Gu Sha felt a peculiar mix of emotions he could not describe.

After twenty years of struggle in his past life, his heart had long grown numb, especially after ten years of humanity's decline following the catastrophe. His feelings for Chen Chuan had faded.

Besides, the trajectory of this life had already changed; he and Chen Chuan would never forge that brotherhood again.

As Gu Sha reminisced, Chen Chuan and his group entered the garage. There were about twenty ordinary civilians, mostly young and strong adults, no elderly, though two toddlers were carried by adults.

That was normal—after the apocalypse, few children or elders survived.

They were all travel-worn. Four or five wore camouflage uniforms, soldiers like Chen Chuan.

Under Chen Chuan's direction, they righted a toppled car and used it to block the garage entrance.

Gu Sha recalled hearing Chen Chuan describe it in his previous life: when the apocalypse struck, Chen Chuan was still in the army, leading a squad on a mission. Suddenly, the world changed. Unable to contact superiors, they followed official broadcasts, heading toward the C City fortress, rescuing survivors along the way and bringing them to C City.

Chen Chuan was a good man, or rather, the model soldier—a Longzhou soldier who, even in the apocalypse, remained upright and committed to protecting the people, always fighting at the front lines. When Gu Sha saw him for the last time, it was because Chen Chuan had volunteered for a rescue mission.

Sadly, Chen Chuan never obtained a Source Pearl in the early days, so in later years he only reached the fourth rank as a warrior.

Inside the garage, the group blocked the entrance and began to rest.

Suddenly, Chen Chuan shouted toward the pillar where Gu Sha was hiding, “Who’s there? If you’re human, answer!”

Immediately, the group grew alert; the soldiers raised their guns toward the pillar.

“Human!” Gu Sha responded.

The group relaxed at once.

Gu Sha stepped out slowly from behind the stone pillar.

Seeing the gun in Gu Sha’s hand, Chen Chuan’s group tensed. Chen Chuan called out, “Comrade, we are military. Please don’t be nervous—we have credentials to prove it. We didn’t know you were here; sorry for disturbing you. But outside, it’s all zombies, so we hope you’ll let us shelter here.”

Gu Sha put away his pistol and said, “This isn’t my territory. I just fled here myself. I’m not military—the gun is something I picked up for self-defense.”

Chen Chuan immediately had his comrades lower their weapons and asked, “Comrade, are you headed for the shelter as well?”

Gu Sha nodded.

Chen Chuan hurriedly said, “Then you can join us. We’re already in C City proper, but the shelter is still at least thirty kilometers away. It’ll be safer together.”

“We’ll see,” Gu Sha replied, unwilling to say more. He sat in a corner, closed his eyes, and rested.

Seeing this, Chen Chuan said no more, calling the group to rest, though he remained wary of Gu Sha.

After more than a month of the apocalypse, they had seen too much of human nature’s horrors and always stayed vigilant.

The garage was dim and oppressive.

Suddenly, among the civilians, someone quietly pointed at Gu Sha, saying, “That guy must have a lot of food—look, there are biscuit crumbs on the ground.”

This discovery quickly spread among the group, causing agitation.

Food was the scarcest commodity in the apocalypse.

This group often went hungry, sometimes eating only once in several days. They hadn’t eaten for a day and a night already. They had hoped to find supplies in the city, but after the second Scarlet Descending, not only did they find nothing, they lost what little they had.

Now, discovering that Gu Sha might have food, they couldn’t help but grow restless.

Resting with his eyes closed, Gu Sha was a sixth-rank warrior—of course, he noticed the commotion.

Though he had some sentiment for Chen Chuan from his past life and didn’t mind letting the group stay, if they dared to make any move against him, he wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate.

But Chen Chuan was still the same.

He noticed the unrest and sternly rebuked, “Put those thoughts away. Even if someone has food, it’s theirs!”

A young man with dyed yellow hair retorted, “That guy definitely has a lot—look at his bag, it’s bulging! What's wrong with sharing a bit?”

(To be continued)