Xue Ling sat in the driver’s seat, her eyes fixed on the road ahead, driving very seriously.

Wen Jiuzhe was dozing in the passenger seat, hugging his own arms. Because there was a stack of books placed at his feet, there wasn’t enough space to tuck in his two long legs, so he could only sleep with his legs spread apart.

He was sleeping deeply. No matter how bumpy the road was, no matter how his head swayed back and forth, he didn’t wake up.

Zombies appeared on the road ahead. Xue Ling couldn’t avoid them and directly rammed them down and ran them over, causing the car to jolt again.

Wen Jiuzhe was still asleep. He was quite at ease—he slept even more soundly in the car than lying on a bunk bed at night.

After driving for a while longer, a zombie suddenly lunged from the roadside and slapped against the driver’s side window with a bang, startling Xue Ling.

But it was quickly flung off by the car. Seeing the gray handprint left on the window, Xue Ling let out an unhappy yelp.

Her voice wasn’t loud, but Wen Jiuzhe beside her suddenly woke up. He straightened up and looked at Xue Ling, his large hand reaching to the back of his neck and squeezing hard.

“What’s wrong?”

Sensing something off, he glanced out the window. “Did you take the wrong road?”

Xue Ling was busy driving and didn’t have time to answer him. Wen Jiuzhe also didn’t continue asking where she was taking the car. Seeing that nothing seemed to be wrong, he didn’t care, closed his eyes again, and went back to sleep.

When they arrived, Xue Ling jabbed his arm with her fist to wake him. Wen Jiuzhe saw a certain eye-catching city landmark building in the distance.

Xue Ling had driven the car to the formerly bustling Xin City. Compared to Xin City, Anxi City could only be considered a small town.

Xue Ling took off her gloves and hat and issued him a notice—I’m going into the city to do zero-yuan shopping, you wait here.

There was no need to ask what she was going into the city to look for; it was definitely for him.

Wen Jiuzhe pulled her back into the car. “There’s still a long way into the city. If you walk over by yourself, it’ll take half a day. Drive in a bit more.”

Xue Ling had parked the car here because she was worried there would be too many zombies ahead, but Wen Jiuzhe was highly skilled and bold. The way he drove was almost like charging straight into a pile of zombies.

Seeing more and more zombies on the road outside, often slamming into the windows with loud bangs, Xue Ling started to feel restless.

She was afraid that if the car stopped later, Wen Jiuzhe would be surrounded.

In a place with so many zombies, if the wheels got stuck by zombies and couldn’t move… Xue Ling thought of the many people she had seen who committed suicide inside their cars.

“They’re already zombies—be a bit bolder!” Wen Jiuzhe encouraged.

Xue Ling suspected he still wasn’t fully awake.

After a thrilling and dangerous display of driving skills, they were lucky to find a place with relatively fewer zombies, and Wen Jiuzhe stopped the car.

Xue Ling told him to wait here while she got out, but Wen Jiuzhe also got out of the car.

Xue Ling: “?”

Wen Jiuzhe: “Aren’t there fewer zombies over here? I’ll walk a bit farther ahead with you.”

Have you forgotten what happened last time, being chased and blocked by zombies?

It was already so dangerous, and he still insisted on following. If they got surrounded later, with such a big body, she could block his head but not his legs.

But Wen Jiuzhe insisted on following. She had no way to force him back into the car, so she could only speed up herself, walking ahead to scout the road conditions and find sections with slightly fewer zombies to take.

Wen Jiuzhe held a short blade, cutting down several zombies that ran over from the roadside. Seeing Xue Ling ahead comparing the number of zombies on two streets and waving at him, he followed after her.

They walked on like this until they reached a place where there were simply too many zombies to get through. Only then did Wen Jiuzhe stop and say, “I’ll wait for you here.”

If he hadn’t stopped, Xue Ling was about to turn back herself.

Wen Jiuzhe stood there for a while, then entered the nearby residential building. Stepping over the old, darkened bloodstains in the stairwell, he climbed to the rooftop, found a suitable spot, took out binoculars, and searched for Xue Ling’s figure.

Among all the zombies wandering aimlessly, Xue Ling was extremely conspicuous. Her target was clear—she went straight for the large shopping mall.

Then she was stopped outside by the tightly shut mall doors.

Seeing her figure pace around in front of several entrances—kicking at the doors, unable to kick them open; smashing the glass, unable to break it; unwillingly standing on tiptoe and pressing against the glass doors to peer inside.

Wen Jiuzhe, holding the binoculars, curled the corner of his mouth.

Cute.

Unable to get in through this door, Xue Ling didn’t get discouraged and went to look for other entrances. Her figure disappeared from his field of vision.

But Wen Jiuzhe still held up the binoculars, searching for her.

After waiting a long time, Xue Ling’s figure finally reappeared.

She was wearing an especially large coat, with bags in both hands, looking just like she used to after coming out of the supermarket.

Either she didn’t go to the supermarket at all, or once she went, she bought a lot of things. She loved stockpiling, wishing she could buy a whole year’s worth of household consumables in one go.

When Wen Jiuzhe lived with her, she would drag him along to go grocery shopping.

The large supermarket near their place had heavy foot traffic. People from several nearby residential complexes all liked to shop there, and the supermarket also loved running promotions. Every time there was a sale, there were especially many people.

Once, there was a promotion on dumplings. Xue Ling quite liked eating dumplings. Seeing everyone crowding over there to grab them, with some aunties shouting that the dumplings were especially delicious, she was immediately tempted and prepared to go buy some.

Unfortunately, no matter what, she couldn’t squeeze her way in. Seeing her hovering eagerly outside the crowd, Wen Jiuzhe decided to simply help her out. He slid both hands under her armpits and lifted her up, letting her parachute directly into the inner circle—

That day, they did manage to grab the tasty dumplings, but when Xue Ling got home, she collapsed onto the sofa, burying her face in a cushion and refusing to lift her head.

She ignored him for several hours, until that night when he boiled dumplings and called her to eat. Only then did she crawl up.

She had only eaten one dumpling at the table when she suddenly sniffled and said, “Today was so embarrassing.”

“What was embarrassing? They don’t even know you.”

“…From today on, they do.”

After Wen Jiuzhe moved in with her, because of his height and looks, he was quite well-known in that area. The nearby aunties would privately gossip about him.

Some guessed he was a model, some said he was a martial arts star from Hong Kong, and others thought he was from the underworld.

Xue Ling wasn’t that well-known, but after that incident, many more aunties recognized her too.

When mentioning her, they would say, “That girl who jumped onto the counter to grab dumplings,” “I heard she climbed onto the shelves and even stepped on people’s heads to grab dumplings,” “The one who argued with her boyfriend in the supermarket and got thrown into the crowd by him”… The rumors grew more and more outrageous.

Because of that one time, Xue Ling stopped wanting to let him go to the supermarket with her. If he went, she would make him squat far away and wait while she went to buy things herself.

Just like now.

Through the binoculars, Wen Jiuzhe saw Xue Ling come out after shopping and prepared to go down to meet her. He saw her look around on the street, then turn into another street.

Wen Jiuzhe frowned. That street couldn’t be seen from this rooftop.

He waited a while longer. Seeing that it was almost getting dark, he couldn’t wait any more. He observed the surrounding terrain, considering the feasibility of crossing that zombie-filled street from building to building to get to the other side.

Before he actually took action, Xue Ling appeared.

She was carrying and hauling big and small bags, and in her hands she was also dragging a large chunk of something. Although her expression was a bit stiff, the lightness in her steps showed how happy she was.

After walking for a bit, she dropped one of the bags because she was carrying too much. She turned back to pick it up, only to drop another one while picking up this one.

By the time she finally dragged herself through the street with the most zombies, Wen Jiuzhe went to meet her and only then saw clearly that the large chunk she was dragging was a big ham.

Wen Jiuzhe could almost see the excited showing-off in her eyes: “Look, it’s a big ham!”

Without asking whether, after all this time, the ham could still be eaten, Wen Jiuzhe first took all the things from her, and along the way hoisted her up as well, striding quickly toward where the car was parked.

Inside Xue Ling’s oversized men’s coat, everything was bulging. Carrying her on his shoulder was especially uncomfortable. Wen Jiuzhe put her down by the car and rubbed his shoulder.

“What do you have on you?”

Xue Ling pulled her coat open to both sides, revealing a stretch of golden light flashing at her neck—a gold chain.

Wen Jiuzhe: “……”

Xue Ling then raised both hands. The coat sleeves slid down, revealing dozens of gold bangles and gold bracelets on both her arms.

Wen Jiuzhe: “……”

He had mentioned to Xue Ling before that at the large bases now, gold could still be used as currency. After all, relying only on supplies for transactions wasn’t very convenient.

But seeing her distinctive gold-shop-robber styling so clearly, Wen Jiuzhe still almost laughed out loud.

Xue Ling was inexplicably excited. After showing off everything hanging and worn on her, she rummaged in her pockets again—everything was gold.

As Wen Jiuzhe took all those things off her, he thought to himself that she really had become a glittering rich lady now.

Xue Ling’s excitement over the gold didn’t last very long.

She had also brought back some medicine she rummaged out of a pharmacy. Leaving it there unused would just mean it expired and went to waste, so she took quite a lot.

But this time there wasn’t enough time to carefully sort through it, so she only picked out some wound medicine.

There were also some clothes and other daily necessities, which finally allowed Wen Jiuzhe—whose clothes had gained several more holes—to achieve clothing freedom and not have to bare his back so often in the wilderness.

What Xue Ling cared about the most was still that big ham.

When Wen Jiuzhe drove the car away and found a spacious roadside spot to prepare to cook, Xue Ling squatted beside the big ham and studied it.

Such a heavy ham—she really had dragged it back with sheer persistence.

Xue Ling poked the ham with a small twig and asked Wen Jiuzhe whether this thing could still be eaten.

She seemed to remember that this kind of ham could be kept for a very long time.

Wen Jiuzhe didn’t know whether this thing could still be eaten either, but without changing his expression, he scraped off the white fuzz on the ham and said, “It can be eaten. Why wouldn’t it be? Later we’ll cut a bit and try it.”

After she had worked so hard to drag it all the way back, even if it couldn’t be eaten, it still had to be eaten.

Xue Ling immediately became happy and urged him to hurry up and cook.

Seeing how much she was looking forward to it, Wen Jiuzhe couldn’t tell for a moment whether she wanted to make him something good to eat, or whether she simply wanted to know if this ham could still be eaten.

Wen Jiuzhe cleared a spot and started cooking for himself. Xue Ling watched from the side. Before the food was ready, a fairly large convoy drove over.

Wen Jiuzhe put down what he was holding. Xue Ling also reacted and headed toward the car. Wen Jiuzhe helped her put on her hat, glasses, and gloves, and then added another mask for her.

“Stay in the car later. I’ll go take a look at the situation.”

Wen Jiuzhe went out, holding his gun.

Up to now, all the convoys they had encountered on the road were small ones. A formation like this—over twenty vehicles with large trucks included—was the first they had seen.

Usually, this kind of convoy was transporting goods over long distances. The convoy itself was strong, and the people in it lived fairly well. Generally, they disdained to rob lone travelers, though there were exceptions.

Some people in certain convoys had low moral standards. They took the initiative to stir up trouble not for anything else, just to find some amusement. Wen Jiuzhe had encountered such people before.

After looking over this large convoy and roughly figuring out what goods they were transporting and where they were headed, Wen Jiuzhe had a good idea in his mind. He wasn’t overly tense and simply leaned against the car, waiting for the convoy to pass.

Occasionally, someone inside a vehicle glanced at him a couple of times, but no one paid much attention. Just as more than half of the convoy had driven past, a truck suddenly stopped.

A buzz-cut head stuck out of the window, staring at Wen Jiuzhe for a careful look.

“Ninth Brother? That’s Ninth Brother, right? Holy shit, Ninth Brother, how are you here!”

Wen Jiuzhe recognized him as well. His expression showed some surprise, and he rarely revealed a bit of a smile. “Linzi?”

When this truck stopped, the vehicles behind it also stopped. The buzz-cut guy didn’t care about anything else. His face was full of the joy of seeing someone familiar, so excited he almost climbed out of the window.

“Holy shit! Ninth Brother! I haven’t seen you for years! It really is you! I thought you looked like him just now—how come you haven’t changed at all, hahaha!”

People in both the front and rear vehicles stuck their heads out to see what was going on. Someone shouted, “Lin Guosheng! What are you doing stopping there!”

“It’s Ninth Brother! Come look, all of you!” The buzz-cut guy yelled, and seven or eight heads popped out at once.

Very quickly, the entire convoy stopped. Several men jumped down from the front and back. They were tall, solid, and fierce-looking, and together with the buzz-cut guy, they surrounded Wen Jiuzhe.

Through a crack in the car window, Xue Ling saw this scene that looked like a gang gathering, and she recognized them too. Speaking of which, they were all from Yu City.

Although they looked like they ran with the underworld, they… were actually teachers at a children’s martial arts training school.

Wen Jiuzhe had once worked part-time there, so Xue Ling had also gone there before to look for him.