Those who travel back in time

Chapter 1 Chen Qing

Chen Qing had visited Shuguang Hospital once when she was very young. This hospital was very famous in Jiangxin City, renowned for its neurosurgery and cardiovascular medicine. However, the old state of the outpatient building did not match its reputation. In many places, the paint on the walls had peeled off, the wooden windows had lost their paint, and there were several cracks in the parapet wall on the roof, giving people the illusion that it might collapse at any moment.

Twenty years later, Chen Qing returned to Shuguang Hospital and found that the outpatient building had undergone a rather hardcore upgrade. The walls were covered with rough cement, mottled like a giant sesame cake; all the windows were sealed with unevenly cut steel plates, with dark gun barrels sticking out of the gaps; and on the cracked parapet wall of yesteryear, several dark and cold heavy machine guns were mounted, their muzzles indifferently scanning the area below, like gods who disregarded all living beings.

Such a display was not intended to deal with medical disputes, but rather to confront something far more desperate—zombies.

The little boy who once cried in the hospital corridor because he was afraid of injections could never have imagined that human civilization would collapse so much twenty years later.

The world in 2044 has become a zombie-infested hell.

Just over two months ago, Chen Qing's human settlement was overwhelmed by a horde of zombies. Since then, he has been wandering alone through the ruins.

For sixty days and nights, he endured wind and rain, sleeping in the open, living amidst decay and competing with wild beasts for food. Only today, when he rescued a young man named Ah Jie from the jaws of a zombie, did his lonely wandering life come to an end.

He never expected that the hideout Ah Jie took him to would be the hospital he had visited as a child.

"Brother Chen, we have about three hundred people here now, and about one hundred and twenty of them can use weapons to kill zombies." A-Jie led Chen Qing through the emergency room corridor reinforced with sandbags and steel plates. "As for weaponry, you just saw it. We only have a few precious machine guns with heavy firepower, and the bullets are precious. We mainly rely on knives, a sharpened heavy open-end wrench, and homemade crossbows. We also have dozens of guns, but we have to use bullets sparingly."

"Where's the food?"

"We've cultivated all the land that can be cultivated, planting wheat and corn. We've also set up vertical farming in the building to grow some vegetables and fruits. Oh, and we're raising some chickens and rabbits too." Ah Jie patted the water bottle at his waist. "The water comes from a deep well with several filters, so it's drinkable."

"Your water is quite clean."

"Brother Chen, I've already told Dr. Fang about how you saved me, and he'll definitely let you stay. You're amazing! You wiped out over twenty zombies like it was nothing." A-Jie looked at Chen Qing with undisguised admiration. Today, he and his five-person exploration team went out to explore but encountered a small zombie horde. All his teammates were killed, and he thought he was doomed too. Just at the critical moment, this man appeared like a divine warrior, single-handedly annihilating all the zombies and saving his life.

"Dr. Fang?"

"That's our boss here, he's amazing, not in the way you're amazing, but amazing right here!" Ah Jie pointed to his head: "What I was talking about earlier, vertical farming, nobody knew about that before. After Dr. Fang came, he led us to make vertical farming racks out of waste plastic bottles and old pipes. Just using the little light from the window, we managed to grow apples and cherry tomatoes inside the building! Nothing can grow in the soil outside, but we can eat fresh fruit inside the building, can you believe it?"

"That's pretty impressive."

"And water! The water here wasn't this clean at first. The doctor led a survey and found deep underground water veins. He personally designed a filtration system using things like sand, charcoal, and gravel—I don't really know. Anyway, the water we drink is cleaner than some brands of mineral water from before the apocalypse. Oh, and medicine! I have to talk about the medicine. The doctor used the instruments and books he found to extract anti-inflammatory components from wild herbs and made his own wound powder, which is incredibly effective. If it weren't for him, many of our injured and infected brothers wouldn't have made it through."

"No wonder he's the leader here."

"Brother Chen, let me tell you a secret, the doctor has a way to completely get rid of the zombies."

"What? It can completely eliminate zombies?" Chen Qing stopped in his tracks. He would usually think someone was crazy for saying that, but judging from Dr. Fang's actions such as three-dimensional planting, water filtration, and making external injury medicine, this person has real skills.

Even so, completely eliminating the zombies still sounds like a pipe dream.

"Alright, stop bragging about me. I don't pay you a salary." Just as I was about to ask what method could completely eliminate the zombies, a man in a white coat who looked to be in his fifties or sixties walked out from a side passage.

"Dr. Fang," Ah Jie hurriedly said, "This is the Chen brother I told you about, my savior. He's incredibly skilled, better than anyone else in the base. We absolutely must keep him here!"

"Thank you for saving Ah Jie; we will remember this kindness. In return, we can provide you with a week's worth of food and clean water." Dr. Fang adjusted his glasses and looked Chen Qing up and down. "But I'm sorry, you cannot stay."

"What?!" Ah Jie exclaimed anxiously, "Dr. Fang, Brother Chen saved my life! And he's incredibly skilled; we need that kind of fighting ability!"

"You survived alone in the wild for two months?" Dr. Fang raised his hand to stop A-Jie, his gaze lingering for a moment on the dulled blade of the knife on Chen Qing's back before slowly speaking, "In the northern wilderness?"

"right."

"No team, no support, no one to take turns on night watch, no supplies?"

"No."

"It's practically impossible for someone like you to survive alone in the core occupied zone for two months entirely on your own. So, either you lied, which means you have ulterior motives, and I can't let you stay. Or..."

"Dr. Fang, Brother Chen wouldn't lie!" Ah Jie interrupted Dr. Fang before he could finish speaking, quickly defending Chen Qing. "I guarantee, everything Brother Chen said is true!"

"If he wasn't lying and truly accomplished something no one else could, then we absolutely cannot let him live," Dr. Fang said in a deep voice. "That means his personal combat skills have reached an unimaginable level..."

"Doctor, this is the apocalypse, and we face the threat of zombies every moment. Shouldn't we have the highest level of combat power?" A-Jie asked loudly.

"Ah Jie, you still don't understand. In a relatively stable community like ours, which is basically self-sufficient, the biggest threat often doesn't come from external zombies, but from internal conflicts and power struggles. There are over three hundred people here, and we survive only because of shared rules and order. Everyone knows their place, what they can and cannot do. It's a delicate balance. This 'Brother Chen,' he survived alone in the occupied zone for two months. This strength is beyond the normal range, which means he has the ability to easily break the rules. His existence is a huge hidden danger to the stability of the community. In our fragile system that we have painstakingly rebuilt, we don't need an unchecked strongman. That's not an aid, but a sword hanging over everyone's head."