Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe never again went into the roadside camps to rest.
From August to the end of October, over a period of more than two months, they finally traveled from Anxi City to what had once been Xiuze County.
Having reached here, they were now relatively close to Yu City. If things went smoothly, they would be able to reach Yu City in a few more days.
Wen Jiuzhe had always told Xue Ling that their destination was Yu City, not Andong City.
Now that they were almost there, Xue Ling, who had been fairly cooperative along the way, began to show signs of unease as she looked at the gradually familiar scenery outside the car window.
Her uncle’s family lived in Yu City, and she herself had lived there for many years. From childhood to adulthood, everyone she knew—classmates, teachers, friends—almost all of them were in Yu City.
Returning to Yu City, she would definitely run into people she knew from before.
And her uncle, aunt, and the others—she didn’t know how they were doing now. Just thinking of these things made Xue Ling restless, really wanting to find something to bite.
Wen Jiuzhe could tell. Over the past two days, he had deliberately slowed down the driving speed and talked to her more often to distract her.
But it was useless. Xue Ling was even listless when writing on the writing board, and she didn’t hold the tablet to watch any videos anymore.
Of course, that was also because the battery was running low. It had already been half a month since they last went to a base to exchange supplies. The power in the storage battery box had long been used up, and the tablet only had a tiny bit of power left.
“Before going to Yu City, we still have to pass the Xiu’an Base in Xiuze County. I heard that it’s the closest base to Yu City, and quite a few of the people living there used to be from Yu City.”
Wen Jiuzhe reminded her that the people she knew were no longer in Yu City now, but scattered among the surrounding bases.
Sure enough, Xue Ling nervously turned her head to look at him.
Seeing her like this, Wen Jiuzhe couldn’t help but laugh, took out a rubber toy, and handed it to her. “If you can’t stand it, bite this.”
Don’t bite the seatback anymore. She had scratched and bitten that seatback so much that the leather was torn and the foam was exposed.
Last time when he switched to sleeping in the passenger seat, he nearly got his head poked by the steel wire sticking out from inside.
Xue Ling didn’t get embarrassed or angry because the rubber toy looked like a dog toy, nor did she fling it at his face.
She silently took it and stuffed it into her mouth. Before long, it was covered in tooth marks, and a pretty little rubber figure became tattered and broken.
They had spent more time on this journey than originally expected, traveling from the scorching summer into autumn.
Around Yu City in October, the temperature had already begun to drop. After two autumn rains, mornings and evenings were cool, with only that brief stretch around noon still feeling hot.
As their car drew closer and closer to the Xiu’an Base, Xue Ling saw that the people by the roadside had basically already put on jackets.
Just like before, Wen Jiuzhe parked the car on an open area relatively close to the base entrance and got out to replenish supplies.
He asked Xue Ling, “Do you want to get out and find a place to sit for a bit?”
Xue Ling hesitated, then shook her head.
The first time she approached a base, she had been a little scared and stayed in the car, not daring to get out. But after passing several bases along the road without any accidents, her courage gradually grew.
Later, when passing bases again, when Wen Jiuzhe asked whether she wanted to get out and sit for a while, she agreed.
The two of them sat at the entrance of that base for several hours, watching people come and go around them, and not a single person noticed that she was a zombie.
A real zombie would have gone crazy and pounced on people the moment it saw them. How could it possibly sit quietly in place.
So even though Xue Ling’s fully armed appearance looked a bit strange, passersby would never think in the direction that she was a zombie.
At most, they would think she had some kind of illness and would subconsciously keep their distance from her.
After that, whenever they passed bases with less strict management, Xue Ling would get out of the car and find a place nearby to sit, watching the people coming and going at the base entrance.
But now, upon reaching the Xiu’an Base, she no longer wanted to get out of the car.
Wen Jiuzhe didn’t make things difficult for her. He closed the car door and went to the trading point at the base entrance.
Before long, he came back, leaned against the car window, and said, “There’s no storage battery box to exchange here. We’ll have to wait for the battery box to be charged, and some supplies need to be temporarily transferred. We’ll have to wait a few hours.”
“Do you want to get out and sit for a bit? We won’t go anywhere else, just sit next to the car. Don’t you feel like it’s too stuffy inside?”
Xue Ling hesitated, then pushed the car door open and got out.
Wen Jiuzhe set up two chairs by the car. Xue Ling sat down close beside him, wanting to draw a bit of calm from him.
People passing by would all glance at them.
Because these two didn’t look like they were in the same season.
Xue Ling was wearing an especially large, thick coat that even covered her hands.
Hat, sunglasses, gloves, long pants, long boots—not a bit of skin was exposed. This was exactly how people from Yu City dressed in winter.
As for Wen Jiuzhe, he was wearing only a thin long-sleeved shirt on his upper body, with the sleeves even rolled up to his arms.
It had rained in the morning, the sky was still overcast, and a light breeze was blowing, yet he didn’t look cold at all, as if he were still in the sweltering summer.
Sitting close to Wen Jiuzhe, Xue Ling could even feel the heat radiating from his body.
If not for the long-sleeved shirts Xue Ling had found for him, he would still be wearing those few short-sleeved shirts of his.
He really wasn’t afraid of the cold. The winter Xue Ling spent with him, even at the coldest time, he only wore a thin down jacket, and still wore it open.
When Xue Ling suspected he was just trying to look cool and hoped he’d wear more, Wen Jiuzhe pulled her hand into his clothes and let her feel what it meant to have vigorous heat.
He really wasn’t cold, not forcing himself at all.
So that winter, when she slept together with Wen Jiuzhe, they didn’t even use the electric blanket or hot water bottle she needed every year, because Wen Jiuzhe was warm and toasty, especially good for warming the bed.
Xue Ling drifted off for a moment, and her tense mood relaxed a little.
Through her sunglasses, she looked at the people coming and going along the road at the base entrance.
She watched for a long time and didn’t see a single familiar face—everyone was a stranger. She felt a bit disappointed, yet also a bit relieved.
She was afraid of running into her mother and her uncle and the others, but how easy would that really be. With so many people, even if she deliberately went looking, she might not be able to find them.
The sky was getting dark. Wen Jiuzhe stood up, preparing to go to the trading point to collect the supplies, when he suddenly felt his clothes being tugged.
He turned his head to look. Xue Ling was staring intently in a certain direction, looking so tense she was about to shrink in on herself.
Wen Jiuzhe followed her pull and sat back down, also looking in the direction of her gaze.
On the road was a middle-aged woman, holding a little girl a few years old, seemingly waiting for someone by the roadside.
She was no different from all the middle-aged women Wen Jiuzhe had seen along the road—there was a hint of worry and weariness on her face, fine lines at the corners of her eyes.
It looked like she had endured some hardship, but not so bad as to be completely haggard, clearly life was still manageable.
Wen Jiuzhe carefully observed that woman, but couldn’t find any similarities with Xue Ling on her face—such as the curve of Xue Ling’s smiling eyes, or her nose, mouth, or face shape.
She didn’t look like Xue Ling, but Wen Jiuzhe understood that she must be Xue Ling’s mother.
Because the moment Xue Ling saw her, she panicked completely. Even with a mask on, it was obvious she wanted to hide, yet she didn’t dare make any big movements that might draw attention. In the end, flustered and without a plan, she lifted his T-shirt and, like an ostrich, burrowed into it.
Wen Jiuzhe: “……”
She was cool to the touch, pressed against his back, trembling slightly despite herself.
If zombies could cry, he would have suspected that she was crying while hiding inside his clothes.
Their posture was extremely eye-catching. Everyone who noticed them couldn’t help but look twice out of curiosity, and her mother looked over as well.
But she didn’t recognize Wen Jiuzhe, and she had no particular curiosity toward him or the strange lump beside him. Very quickly, she shifted her gaze away.
Because the people she was waiting for had arrived.
A car stopped beside her, and two people got out.
A young woman took the sleeping little girl from her arms. The middle-aged man put an arm around her shoulders and said a few words, and then they all got back into the car together and drove into the base.
Only after watching them disappear did Wen Jiuzhe pat the lump hiding behind his back.
“They’re gone. Come out.”
Xue Ling waited a bit longer before pulling his T-shirt open and poking her head out.
Wen Jiuzhe tugged at his loose, baggy T-shirt and asked her, “That was your mom?”
Xue Ling stared blankly at the now-empty spot by the roadside and nodded.
“How about we stay here for one night and leave tomorrow?” Wen Jiuzhe said.
Xue Ling snapped back to herself and looked at him. They never stayed near bases for long, at most a few hours before leaving.
It had been Wen Jiuzhe who wanted her to sit around near bases to relax, and it was also Wen Jiuzhe who worried that lingering too long near bases would put her in danger.
Facing her gaze, Wen Jiuzhe smiled. He seemed to see through all the emotions she couldn’t put into words.
“Let’s stay here one more day. Let you look at her one more time tomorrow.”
At night, no one went in or out of the base. The gates were closed, and they rested in the car.
Outside, a silent autumn rain was falling. Wen Jiuzhe reclined the seats, and the two lay down to rest.
There was a blanket in the car, something Xue Ling had specially found after the temperature dropped. But Wen Jiuzhe was too hot to really use it. At most, he held onto a corner and loosely draped it over his stomach as a gesture, with most of it covering Xue Ling, who now wasn’t afraid of the cold.
Xue Ling lay there with her eyes open, leaning against Wen Jiuzhe’s chest. The muscles in his chest were soft, and she unconsciously bumped her forehead lightly against him.
She thought Wen Jiuzhe had fallen asleep, but suddenly he rolled over with her, switching to a side-lying position, and said faintly, “You’ve bumped this side sore already. Switch to the other side to bump.”
Xue Ling: “……”
Wen Jiuzhe asked again, “What’s your mom’s name?”
Xue Ling lifted the blanket and climbed up, then carefully wrote the three characters “Xue Pingying” on the writing board.
The next day, Xue Ling absolutely refused to get out of the car. She just sat in the passenger seat, opened the window a crack, and secretly peeked outside.
Unfortunately, throughout the entire morning, the person she wanted to see never appeared.
At noon, when Wen Jiuzhe was leaning against the car and gnawing on an instant biscuit, his sharp eyes caught sight of someone.
He took two bites to finish the remaining biscuit, clapped his hands, and called out toward that direction, “Ms. Xue Pingying!”
“Bang!” There was a loud noise inside the car. No one knew whether Xue Ling had nervously bumped into something, or whether she was angry because he suddenly called out to someone.
But Xue Pingying had already looked over in confusion and was walking this way, and the zombie inside the car immediately did not dare make a single sound.
“You know me? Who are you?” Xue Pingying couldn’t recall who this young man was, her face full of confusion.
“Are you Xue Ling’s mother? I’m her university classmate. I’ve seen photos of you—you look quite similar to her,” Wen Jiuzhe lied casually.
When Xue Pingying heard the name Xue Ling, she couldn’t help revealing a sorrowful expression, her eyes immediately reddening. How could she still spare the attention to look for flaws in his not-very-rigorous words.
“Yes, I am Xue Ling’s mother. You’re her classmate, a university classmate, right? Hello, hello.”
Wen Jiuzhe lowered his gaze and looked at the somewhat incoherent woman in front of him, then suddenly smiled and asked, “Where is Xue Ling? How is she now, is she with you? How come I don’t see her?”
Xue Pingying’s tears instantly fell, and she hurriedly raised her hand to wipe them away. “She, she already… passed away. Three years ago she, became a zombie.”
Wen Jiuzhe, as if he really were just one of Xue Ling’s classmates, revealed a regretful expression upon hearing this, and comforted her with a couple of apologetic words.
After a few more exchanges, Xue Pingying said she still had things to do and left with reddened eyes.
After she was gone, Wen Jiuzhe opened the car door. Xue Ling was clutching her clothes with both hands, her face stiff as she met his gaze.
Suddenly, she swept her eyes around inside the car, grabbed a bottle of water that Wen Jiuzhe hadn’t finished drinking, twisted it open, tilted her head back, and poured the water into her own eyes.
Manually creating the appearance of tear-filled eyes.
Holding the bottle, she blinked. Her face was covered in water, dripping down from her chin.
That wasn’t enough. She suddenly tilted her head back and opened her mouth, silently putting on an extremely ugly, wailing expression of sobbing.
Wen Jiuzhe: “……”
He knew she couldn’t cry, was holding it in until it hurt, and wanted to use this method to express it.
But watching this scene, it was really hard for him to hold back his laughter, and he also found her adorable.
With great difficulty, he forced the laughter back, to the point that his expression even became a bit twisted. Only after taking two deep breaths did he put on a solemn expression suitable for this sorrowful atmosphere. Wen Jiuzhe stepped forward, pulled her into his arms, and patted her back twice.
“Poor… go ahead and cry. Should I pour you some more water?”
