Upon arriving at Gu Shangse's private residence, Su Ling's suspicions were confirmed.
The first time she met Gu Shangse, she felt a sense of nobility in his demeanor.
That nobility was strikingly similar to how Shang Qi had made her feel.
Furthermore, there were many resemblances between their facial features.
She privately believed that Gu Shangse and Shang Qi knew each other.
It was this private belief that led to her series of drastic actions. Gu Shangse's private residence was a three-story villa, located in the heart of Xuyang, a prime location, with a very large garden.
The villa gate was tightly shut. Su Ling parked her bicycle at the entrance of the villa, looked at the two-meter-high wall, took a few steps back, then ran with momentum, stepped on the wall, grabbed a protruding object on the wall's edge, and easily scaled it to get inside.
In the blink of an eye, she had transitioned from the world outside the wall to the world within.
The yard was beautiful, but Su Ling had no intention of paying attention to the plants and flowers within it.
Standing in the yard, Su Ling looked at the three-story villa and called out, "Gu Shangse."
The only response was a deathly silence.
The yard and the villa were beautiful and large, but at this moment, they exuded an eerie quiet.
Su Ling walked forward, carrying her Tang knife, towards the villa, stopping in front of the tightly shut villa door. Su Ling called out again, "Gu Shangse."
If he were here and alive, he would definitely hear her voice.
If he were here and had turned into a zombie, he would also hear her voice and make a sound.
But in reality, Su Ling had called his name twice without any response.
This shouldn't be!
If he wasn't at the Xuyang Police Station, nor at his residence, where could he be? Outside? Somewhere else?
Su Ling walked around the villa once and finally confirmed that Gu Shangse was not in the villa.
As for where he was, it was truly unknown.
Su Ling gave up. She had tried her best. It only meant she needed to wait, to reach the time when she met Shang Qi in her previous life, rather than trying to find Shang Qi through other unreasonable means.
Leaving Gu Shangse's villa, Su Ling rode her bicycle back to the department store.
As she returned, the sky was filled with the colors of dusk, the entire world turning a deep red, much like that evening in the apocalypse.
There were still many zombies on the way. Su Ling pedaled her bicycle quickly, soon leaving the pursuing zombies behind.
When Su Ling returned to the department store, she found Gu Shangse's saber-toothed tiger vehicle parked there.
It was a special police anti-riot vehicle. The moment she saw the vehicle, Su Ling's eyelids twitched violently.
A voice echoed in her mind: Gu Shangse!
Meanwhile, inside the department store, on the third floor of the supermarket, chaos had erupted.
After Gu Shangse left alone, he entered the center of the supermarket. After searching around, he found no danger. He did not turn back to inform Wang Qiang and the others, but instead went upstairs alone to continue assessing the situation.
When he passed the second floor, he even released the survivors who had been tied up by Xu Daqiang's men.
Amidst the thankful cries of the released survivors, Gu Shangse went to the third floor.
On the third floor, he encountered Li Yunlong and others.
Before he could ask Li Yunlong and the others if they had seen a girl with short hair, an oval face, peach blossom eyes, fair skin, and a detached, cold demeanor, noisy shouts could be heard from downstairs.
Before he could go downstairs to see what was happening, he saw Wang Qiang swaggering upstairs with Bai Shuyi and others.
Wang Qiang, with a cigarette in his mouth and holding his wife Bai Shuyi's hand, cast a contemptuous glance at Gu Shangse and the others, then loudly declared—
"I declare that from now on, this is my territory. All of you must listen to me!"