Setting out from Yu City, with frequent stops and detours due to road blockages, it took a full week before they finally arrived in Andong City.
Wen Jiuzhe got out of the car and used binoculars to observe the city of clustered high-rises.
Before the apocalypse, Andong City had been more prosperous than Yu City, with an even larger population.
But now, it had completely changed. Several main roads were blocked off, and many of the high-rises in the city bore traces of being shelled.
In some places, shadows of zombies packed tightly together could be seen swaying, but there were no living people in sight nearby—not even a single scavenger.
Wen Jiuzhe had previously heard that there was a base over on the Andong City side, but he had never been here before, so he did not know the base’s exact location.
Bases were generally not hard to find. With people coming and going, a new road would be worn out, and usually someone would set up new road signs along the roadside to indicate the direction.
Strangely, circling around the old site of Andong City and searching outward, they did not find many traces of human activity.
Experienced apocalypse wanderers had their own methods—first, find a tall, abandoned signal tower, then climb up.
Xue Ling stood beneath the signal tower. Seeing Wen Jiuzhe climb the tower without any protective gear, she was very afraid that he might slip and fall.
Among the hundred ways her imagination had come up with for her ex-boyfriend to die, this was one of them.
Wen Jiuzhe wore gloves, grabbed the crossbars, and used them to climb up to the upper levels. He quickly reached a height of several meters, and along the way even had the leisure to give an OK hand gesture to Xue Ling, who was craning her neck to look up at him.
He climbed higher and higher, until Xue Ling could barely see him, and only then did he stop. After observing from above for a while, he quickly came back down, looking as though he had no fear of heights at all.
Xue Ling watched his high-altitude work with her heart in her throat. He acted as if nothing were wrong, letting go and jumping straight down from a height of over two meters.
Walking toward her, he spoke while taking off his gloves. “I saw it. It should be in that direction. There’s an area that’s been fenced off. Let’s go.”
Xue Ling felt in her heart that this dog was kind of handsome, but what she said was, “You climb towers more nimbly than a monkey.”
The tablet mouthpiece—no matter what that electronic voice said, it always came with its own sarcasm.
Wen Jiuzhe suddenly reached out and wiped her face with his finger. When Xue Ling used the tablet to take a look, there were several gray smudges on her face. Looking again, Wen Jiuzhe had already quickly burrowed into the car.
Xue Ling: “……” He really couldn’t stay handsome for more than ten minutes.
Following the direction Wen Jiuzhe had seen, they arrived at the Andong City base, but unfortunately an accident had occurred—the Andong City base had already been abandoned.
The fenced-off area did indeed have temporary housing built there, but only the frames remained; most of the rest had been dismantled.
There were traces that people had once lived there. Now, inside there were only some temporary dwellings that couldn’t be moved, abandoned daily-use trash, and zombies.
It was very likely that a second zombie wave had broken out at this base, so the base was abandoned, and the remaining people moved away.
Under the current circumstances, with inconvenient transportation and untimely information updates, many bases of all sizes were built and then disappeared. For people far away to be unable to learn the specific situation was entirely normal.
When Xue Ling secretly sized up Wen Jiuzhe’s expression, she discovered that he was also observing her expression.
“It’s fine. There’s no way that so many people all died. The people who are still alive should have moved to nearby bases. We’ll look around again tomorrow,” Wen Jiuzhe said casually.
Next, just as he had said, they wandered around the surrounding area, hoping to find someone to ask about the situation.
After wandering for two days, they finally encountered living people.
Xue Ling was the one who noticed first. With her sharp eyes, she spotted a fenced-off vegetable plot by the roadside. It was very well tended, with no weeds in the field, and at a glance she could see bright red chili peppers hanging on the branches.
So excited that she kept patting Wen Jiuzhe on the arm, Xue Ling told him to stop the car and go take a look at the vegetable plot, wanting to tell him that people were living here.
When Wen Jiuzhe saw that vegetable plot, he said, “Eggplants, leafy greens, chili peppers—oh, there are even cucumbers. I’ll go down and pick some later.”
Xue Ling: “……”
Is that what I meant? This is obviously something someone planted—are you just going to pick it like that?
But Wen Jiuzhe had already gotten out of the car, gun in hand, and walked straight into that old-style rural bungalow.
He isn’t going to kill someone, is he? Xue Ling imagined gunshots going off in a moment—bang bang—and nervously leaned against the car window to watch.
Before long, Wen Jiuzhe came out of the courtyard together with an elderly man. The two stood at the gate, gesturing directions as if asking for the way, and the atmosphere actually seemed pretty good?
Wen Jiuzhe asked for directions, then suggested exchanging for some vegetables. The old man nodded in agreement, went back inside, and gave him a basket, letting him go pick from the vegetable plot himself.
Carrying the basket, Wen Jiuzhe first went over to the car and pulled Xue Ling down.
Xue Ling guiltily glanced at the old man sitting at the courtyard gate. While walking stiffly, she forcefully pinched Wen Jiuzhe’s arm through her sleeve.
Even picking vegetables, he has to drag her along—what if they get discovered! The old man is so old already; don’t let her scare him into something happening.
Xue Ling nervously tugged at her mask and hat.
“Don’t be nervous. You hold the basket.” Wen Jiuzhe smiled and pushed her into the vegetable garden.
Xue Ling angrily picked chili peppers, deciding to make him eat so many chili peppers later that his stomach would hurt.
As she picked, she suddenly heard banging noises from the small bungalow beside the house. Her first reaction was that the old man was also raising pigs, but then she heard the familiar roars of zombies.
Xue Ling stopped picking and pointed toward the bungalow where the sound was coming from.
Wen Jiuzhe acted as if he hadn’t heard anything. He picked an eggplant and put it into the basket, and only after Xue Ling tugged at him twice did he lift his eyelids a little and say casually, “I saw it. There are a few zombies locked up in that room.”
“If you’re curious, you can sneak over and take a look.”
Xue Ling put down the basket and quietly went over to take a look.
Inside what had originally been a rural storage bungalow, it was cleaned spotless, mats laid on the ground, with four zombies locked inside.
An older woman, a younger couple, and a child.
Considering the old man’s age, the ones locked inside should be his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, and his grandson.
She returned to Wen Jiuzhe’s side and squatted in front of a cabbage, staring off into space.
Wen Jiuzhe patted her head. “Hurry up and pick the vegetables. Don’t slack off.”
Xue Ling glared at him, grabbed that cabbage, and pulled it out roots and all.
After asking for directions and successfully exchanging two packets of salt for fresh vegetables, one person and one zombie continued on the road.
While driving, Wen Jiuzhe saw Xue Ling still looking back and suddenly said, “This kind of thing happens a lot. Basically, it’s rural families—everyone in the household turns into zombies, so they lock them up at home. They’re also unwilling to go to a base, so they just stay at home.”
Many of them end up quietly dying at home like this.
Xue Ling tapped the tablet, and a sentence came out: “I saw the old man’s family also raising chickens. I think we should have exchanged for a chicken to stew soup.”
After a brief pause, the electronic voice added, “You’re so sentimental, Wen Jiuzhe.”
Wen Jiuzhe smiled helplessly. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Wasn’t it just because he was afraid she’d feel uncomfortable after seeing it.
She used to be able to cry just watching childish cartoons.
The closest base to Andong City was Yicheng Base. This base was somewhat conservative—there was no trading point set up at the entrance. You had to enter the city, and there were inspection personnel at the gate, who not only checked the people in the vehicle but also inspected the items being carried.
If Wen Jiuzhe wanted to go into the base to inquire about information, he couldn’t bring Xue Ling with him.
He parked the car in a relatively concealed spot, preparing to go to the base by himself.
Before leaving, he asked Xue Ling uneasily, “You won’t just drive the car away and leave me here alone, will you?”
