From Ping District Base to Yu City, there was still a relatively long distance.
Before the apocalypse, planes or high-speed rail would take only a few hours. Now, driving with constant stops, detours for safety, it would take at least two months.
But Wen Jiuzhe had traveled this route before and was fairly familiar with it. By this point, he no longer really needed to check the map, using landmarks he knew well to correct their direction.
He also knew which places along the way had bases where they could replenish supplies. He even had a map he had drawn himself, with markings only he could understand.
Because the more prosperous and crowded a place had been, the faster it had fallen back then, most bases now were built in formerly remote areas, or relied on small towns with fewer people.
Between bases, vast stretches of abandoned land were once-thriving cities, now rarely showing signs of human presence.
When they reached places like that, with no one on the road, Wen Jiuzhe would open the car windows wide, letting the outside wind blow in.
He would also often find areas with fewer zombies, get out of the car with Xue Ling to walk around nearby, then find a place to camp and cook at night.
But as soon as they got close to a base, when other people and vehicles appeared on the road, Wen Jiuzhe would shut the windows tight and drive through silently and quickly, never interacting with anyone unless absolutely necessary.
That wary gaze, suspicious of everyone, made him look even more like a zombie lurking among humans than Xue Ling did.
As for Xue Ling, the real zombie—when they encountered lots of people on the road, she would even press up against the car window to take a few extra looks.
She hadn’t seen so many people in a long time. After staying among zombies for so long, she often had the illusion that humanity was already extinct, with only her left.
Seeing her plastered against the window watching people outside, Wen Jiuzhe would tease her: “Hey, picked out someone you want to eat yet? Is the fat-to-lean ratio more even than mine?”
Xue Ling: “……”
Most of the time, Wen Jiuzhe ignored the people by the roadside, and others wouldn’t take the initiative to cause trouble either.
On rare occasions, their car would be attacked.
After all, it was just a single vehicle. Traveling outside, it was certainly less intimidating than a convoy, inevitably tempting people to try their luck and rob it.
The more blatant ones would chase the car directly.
Wen Jiuzhe would open the window and fire outward. Usually, after killing one person who was sitting on the roof keeping lookout, they would stop chasing.
People with guns were not easy to deal with. Even now, not everyone could get their hands on a gun. Most people used weapons they had modified themselves.
Those who only dared to rob lone travelers usually weren’t doing very well anyway. Even if they had a gun, whether they knew how to use it was another matter.
The more cautious ones would set up roadblocks, waiting for someone to get out of the car to clear the road, then several people would rush out together and swarm them.
However, Wen Jiuzhe’s skills were even better than his looks, and he had plenty of experience being surrounded. At times like that, he didn’t even need a gun, just a short blade.
A human neck was softer than a zombie’s neck.
Situations like this also happened from time to time: while Wen Jiuzhe was over there fighting a group, someone else would sneak over to the car.
Seeing Xue Ling curled up inside, wrapped tightly, their first reaction was to drag her out, planning to use her as a hostage to force Wen Jiuzhe to submit.
Xue Ling usually only had two actions—show her face, open her mouth, and take a bite.
“Ahhh—this is a zombie, I’ve been bitten!”
Basically everyone reacted like that, as if they’d rehearsed it.
In their eyes, the apocalypse had gone on for so long—who would still be keeping a zombie, and dressing it neatly to look just like a living person.
Basically, no one was on guard. After being bitten, it always took them a beat too long to realize something was wrong.
After dealing with the roadblock robbers, Wen Jiuzhe squatted by the water, wiping the blood splashed on his body and face, while Xue Ling rinsed her mouth with a cup.
The one who had tried to abduct her today had especially long arm hair, and looked like he didn’t bathe often. There was sweat grime on his arms. Taking a bite of that… ugh.
A purely physiological wave of nausea.
The zombie was completely unharmed, suffering only a bit of emotional trauma. Humans were different.
In one-against-many situations, Wen Jiuzhe inevitably picked up some minor injuries.
Scraped knuckles, torn skin at the tiger’s mouth from exerting too much force—those just needed disinfecting. But bruises from being smashed with a stick, there was no medicine to promote blood circulation and disperse stasis for him to use.
Watching Wen Jiuzhe airing out his freshly washed upper body, holding a bowl and eating with two swollen red stick marks on his back, Xue Ling felt that the last time she grabbed medicine, she really hadn’t thought things through.
Noticing her gaze wandering over his back, Wen Jiuzhe smiled. His wet hair clung to his forehead, blocking his eyes a little, and he casually brushed it aside.
“It’ll be fine in a couple of days,” he said. “You know me. I heal faster than most people.”
Yes, Xue Ling knew. He’d been used to getting beaten since he was little. With a stick swung with this level of force, it only left two red marks on him. If it were someone else, their bones might’ve been smashed.
Xue Ling applied some disinfectant to his back. It had expired for a while—no idea if it was still effective.
At night, Wen Jiuzhe slept lying face down, airing out his back. It was too hot, and he was sweating, beads of sweat sliding from his back down into the hollow of his waist.
Xue Ling hugged her knees and sat beside him, took out her tablet, and watched something to help her appetite.
She had lied. Actually, Wen Jiuzhe really did look quite appetizing.
After traveling like this for more than half a month, the power bank was drained, and there wasn’t much gasoline left either.
Driving was very convenient, and this modified car was good too. It had been smashed and vandalized several times on the road without any major issues. It was just too fuel-hungry.
Wen Jiuzhe found another relatively large base to trade for gasoline. They almost hadn’t been able to make it to this base before stalling midway. If the car had stopped on the road, that would’ve been troublesome.
Xue Ling held the abstract map he had drawn himself and asked why they didn’t go to the closer base, but instead came to this farther one.
“That base?” Wen Jiuzhe said. “It’s already gone. It used to be a black base—ordinary people went in and couldn’t get out.”
The leaders of large bases were mostly former official personnel. They still had some rules and order.
Smaller bases had no oversight, with a mixed bag of people. It was easy for local tyrants who bullied men and women alike to emerge.
A group of big brothers and little brothers, running the business of occupying territory and ruling like kings.
“You’ve been there?” Xue Ling asked curiously.
“I have. Otherwise how would I know it was a black base? The boss there even wanted me to stay and work for him as a thug,” Wen Jiuzhe said, like he was telling a story.
“That boss tried to sell me a dream, saying, ‘Once you become my brother, your big brother won’t treat you badly. When we take down the two neighboring bases, I’ll let you go be the boss of another base!’”
He tugged at the corner of his mouth and commented, “He really thought he was playing a Three Kingdoms strategy game, recruiting troops and vying for supremacy.”
Xue Ling was amused by him and wrote, “Then how did that base disappear? Was it related to you?”
“They grabbed someone they shouldn’t have. I took the payment and went with a group to rescue them… and then that base was gone.”
He skipped way too much in the middle.
Xue Ling listened with rapt attention, feeling that Wen Jiuzhe’s life over the past three years had been far more exciting than hers.
Unlike her—aside from walking and walking on the road, constantly getting lost, it was just finding places to rest.
“You’ve been to all these bases?” she wrote, write write.
“I have.” Wen Jiuzhe propped his hands behind his head, looking at Xue Ling’s dark red eyes, which were almost filled with the words tell me everything interesting that happened.
Wen Jiuzhe thought back for a moment. It definitely hadn’t been as interesting as Xue Ling imagined.
Back then, he’d just cooperated with people to earn supplies. Each time he got enough things, he left. He hadn’t paid much attention to those bases, and he could barely remember the people he worked with.
As for interesting things—he thought for a long time and still couldn’t find anything interesting.
Trying to figure out what she might find interesting, Wen Jiuzhe said, “There’s also a base on this map with a very bandit-like style. It’s fairly large. I almost got trapped in there back then, barely escaped with my life.”
Xue Ling grew tense, clenching her fists as she waited for what came next.
“The reason… the reason I don’t remember. There was a leader in there who didn’t like the look of me. He led dozens of people to hunt me down. I’d already run out of the base, and they were still chasing relentlessly.”
The long scar at his waist had been left from that time.
“I led them in circles around a nearby abandoned city. In an empty skyscraper, I spent a day and a night maneuvering against them, took them all out in the end, and stole their car to escape.”
“Yeah, this one right here. I should thank them—this car is really nice.”
Seeing Xue Ling relax her fists and sway a bit to show her happiness, Wen Jiuzhe also smiled lazily.
He didn’t say how dangerous it had been. That night, with one hand he shoved his nearly spilling intestines back in, pressing down the wound in his abdomen, while with the other he drove and forced his way out. The entire seat was soaked with his blood.
He’d thought he was going to die there. Half-conscious, he clenched his teeth and dragged his injured body, rummaging through the car for medicine and treating himself haphazardly—yet somehow, he held on.
Maybe his life was just cheap and hard to end. Or maybe dying there would’ve been too unwilling.
Xue Ling was a little suspicious that he was making up stories to amuse her, but she still generously clapped her hands.
The parts Wen Jiuzhe didn’t say, she filled in a little herself, feeling it must’ve been as tense and thrilling as in an action movie.
The final scene of leaving would definitely have dawn as the backdrop, symbolizing escape from death and smooth sailing ahead.
“So,” Wen Jiuzhe said, drawing an X over that base, “when we pass by this place, it’s best we detour.”
Xue Ling nodded.
Wen Jiuzhe drew another X over a different base. “This base can’t be visited either.”
Was this one also a black base?
Wen Jiuzhe said, “This base is the largest one in the surrounding three provinces. There are a lot of people living inside, and management is extremely strict. The roads leading into the base are all guarded and inspected. We definitely can’t get close.”
Xue Ling would definitely be discovered.
He’d stayed the longest at that base. There was a long street filled with missing-person notices. His notice looking for Xue Ling was posted there too.
“And this base—we’d better not go either.” He crossed out another one.
What was wrong with this base now?
“The leader’s daughter at this base took a liking to me and wanted me to become a live-in son-in-law.”
Xue Ling: “……”
“Fake, right?” she wrote.
Wen Jiuzhe smiled without saying anything.
Before going to sleep that night, Xue Ling, who had been lying on her back with her hands folded over her abdomen, suddenly sat up, grabbed the writing board, and smacked Wen Jiuzhe with it.
The two words “Fake, right” hadn’t even been wiped off yet.
“Fake fake, it’s fake, I was just lying to mess with you,” Wen Jiuzhe laughed as he was hit.
Xue Ling lay back down again.
Actually, it wasn’t anything.
They had already broken up.
And besides, one of them was a zombie and the other a human. Would they really keep staying together like this in the future? Definitely not.
Xue Ling’s hands, folded over her abdomen, moved up to her chest. After a while, she suddenly sat up again, grabbed the writing board, and wrote: “It’s really fake?”
“Pfft.” Wen Jiuzhe rolled over, turning onto his side, his shoulders shaking nonstop.
“It’s fake. No one took a liking to me,” he said. “You’d have to have something wrong with your eyes to like me.”
Xue Ling: “……”
She’d been insulted.
She stretched her foot over and stomped hard on his foot.
Wen Jiuzhe was still laughing.
Xue Ling thought, did stepping on you hit some kind of switch—one stomp, one burst of laughter?
Worried that if she only stepped on one foot, he’d be limping tomorrow, Xue Ling considerately stomped on his other foot as well.
