Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

Chapter 227: What just happened?

The scream had been too sudden, the fall too fast, the impact too final. People who had been watching from different apartments could only stare with their mouths half open and their brains stuck on the same question.

What just happened?

For a split second, most of them still thought they must have seen it wrong. That maybe someone had tripped. Maybe someone had leaned too far. Maybe some idiot had gotten dizzy and fallen. A few even thought the scream belonged to a zombie dragged somewhere below. But then the facts started to settle in, one by one, like pieces of ugly puzzle no one wanted to touch. There had been a gunshot. That much was clear. Then someone had screamed. Then someone had fallen from the twentieth floor. And now there was blood on the ground.

The building group chat erupted before the shock even cooled.

Wang Hao 302: What the hell was that sound?

Wang Zhichao 203: I heard a gunshot first. Did somebody just shoot at someone?

Ma Shuai 801: Wait, gunshot? Are you serious? Who still has a gun?

Zhang Ming 2001: I saw someone on the 20th floor holding one. I thought I was hallucinating.

Another resident: I heard screaming. Was that from upstairs?

Another resident: Someone fell. I swear I saw a body drop.

Another resident: No way, no way, are you all sure? Did he jump?

Ma Shuai 801: Why would anyone jump from the balcony for no reason? That makes no sense.

Wang Hao 302: I don’t know what happened, but I saw a flash. Then a fall. Then blood.

Wang Zhichao 203: I’m telling you, it was Hu Xuecheng. He was on the balcony before. I saw him leaning out before the shot.

The chat exploded even harder after that name came up.

Everyone in Building 9 knew Hu Xuecheng. Even the ones who did not like him knew of him. He lived in room 2004, on the upper floor, always carrying himself like he was above other people. He had been loud during the early days of the apocalypse, the kind of person who liked to act tough when the world was already falling apart. Some people had found him useful because he had a gun. Others had found him terrifying because he had a gun. Most of them had just tried to avoid him completely.

Now that his name was floating through the chat, the reactions became messier.

Ma Shuai 801: Are you sure it was him?

Wang Zhichao 203: I’m pretty sure. He was on the balcony with a gun. I saw him leaning out before the shot.

Wang Hao 302: Why would he shoot at someone in the courtyard?

Zhang Ming 2001: Who was he aiming at?

Another resident: Wasn’t Bai Li still downstairs?

That one message caused the chat to pause for a tiny second before everyone started talking at once again.

Wang Zhichao 203: Yeah, Bai Li was below.

Ma Shuai 801: No way. He shot at Bai Li?

Wang Hao 302: Did he really do that?

Zhang Ming 2001: If it was Bai Li, then why is the one who fell from upstairs Hu Xuecheng?

Another resident: Maybe he got hit by accident?

Another resident: Or maybe he jumped because Bai Li scared him?

Another resident: What? That doesn’t make any sense.

The confusion spread fast because nobody had the full picture. Everyone had only seen one piece of the scene. One person heard the gunshot. Another saw the balcony open. Someone else saw a figure on the ground. A few people saw Bai Li below cutting through zombies. Some heard the scream when Hu Xuecheng fell. None of them could connect the whole thing in the right order, and because of that the guesses started getting more ridiculous by the second.

Some thought Hu Xuecheng had been trying to shoot Bai Li and had accidentally lost his balance from the recoil. Some thought Bai Li had somehow attacked him from below with some special ability. Some thought he had been scared into falling by his own guilt. Someone even suggested that maybe the apocalypse had made him hallucinate and he had jumped on his own. That theory got laughed at, but only a little, because in a world like this, stupid things happened all the time. Still, most of the residents leaned toward the simplest explanation. Hu Xuecheng had gone crazy, fired a gun, and somehow fell.

That was the only version that seemed even remotely believable.

But even that version felt unbelievable.

Because people had seen the gun. They had seen Hu Xuecheng standing on the chair, leaning out far enough to shoot down. They had seen him acting threatening before. He had always had that sort of aggressive energy, the kind that made other people uncomfortable. So when the gunshot rang out, fear spread through the building almost instantly. People ducked from their windows. Some covered their children’s ears. Others backed away from balconies in panic because if one man in the building had a gun, then nobody could be sure he would not use it again.

In apartment after apartment, people started speaking in lower voices.

"He actually fired?"

"Did Bai Li get hit?"

"I don’t know. I saw her still moving after the shot."

"Then maybe he missed?"

"If he missed, why did he suddenly fall?"

"Did somebody push him?"

"Push him? From inside his apartment? How?"

"I’m asking because it doesn’t make sense."

Even the people who usually liked to act righteous or fake calm were now unsettled. This was not just about one violent man anymore. This was about the fact that there was a gun in the building, and that someone had actually fired it. That realization hit them hard enough to make their scalp go tight. In the apocalypse, zombies were terrible, but at least zombies were expected. They were monsters. They were honest in a way. A gun meant a person had decided that killing humans was fine too. That changed everything.

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TO BE CONTINUED.