The time Xue Ling fell ill was because of a rather severe bout of influenza.
She had been out volunteering for an entire day, felt unwell as soon as she got home, took some cold medicine, and curled up in bed to sleep.
When Wen Jiuzhe came back, he found that she had a fever. No matter how he called her, she wouldn’t wake up—she was already feverish and muddle-headed.
So he pulled her out from under the covers, helped her put on her pants, and directly carried her to the hospital.
By the time Xue Ling was a bit more awake, she was already leaning back while getting an IV drip.
Around her were all patients with colds and fevers, and Wen Jiuzhe was sitting beside her.
Dully registering the sounds of children crying and adults coughing around her, her heavy head was steadied by Wen Jiuzhe.
Xue Ling subconsciously lowered her head to look at herself. On her upper body was the pajama top she had worn before sleeping; on her lower body was a pair of pants that did not match at all.
Xue Ling didn’t understand—there were so many pairs of pants in the wardrobe, how did Wen Jiuzhe manage to precisely pick the most mismatched one.
“Did the fever make you stupid? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Wen Jiuzhe bent down and leaned close to her face.
Xue Ling tugged at him with one hand and said in a low voice, “I’m not wearing a bra.”
Do I have to help with that too?
Wen Jiuzhe’s gaze swept over her. “Didn’t notice. It’s fine, you can’t tell.”
Xue Ling raised a hand to cover herself and said listlessly, “No, I don’t feel safe.”
“Then what should we do?” Wen Jiuzhe raised his hand to take off the long-sleeved top he was wearing. “Should I take this off and cover you with it?”
Wen Jiuzhe was only wearing that one top on his upper body. Xue Ling immediately grabbed his hand desperately, so scared she almost made him break out in a sweat.
She felt empty and insecure, yes, but having a half-naked man sitting beside her—wouldn’t that attract even more attention?!
In the end, Wen Jiuzhe went outside the hospital to find a shop and bought her a blanket.
He also bought a thermos, filled it with warm water, and brought it back.
While he was gone buying things, the mother next to Xue Ling—there with her child getting an injection—struck up a conversation with her.
“That’s your boyfriend, right? He’s really nice. Just now you were asleep and couldn’t sit steadily, he was holding you the whole time.”
Xue Ling, still dazed, didn’t remember it. She glanced at the way the mother was holding her child and thought—could it be that kind of posture he used to hold her?
The mother added, “Just now my son refused to get the injection, crying and making a fuss. Your boyfriend told him not to cry and not to make noise, and my son actually listened, hahaha.”
Xue Ling: “……”
With Wen Jiuzhe’s build and looks, if he didn’t smile and acted fierce, he really could stop a child from crying at night.
Not only could he stop children from crying at night—the children’s mothers would be scared too.
Wen Jiuzhe came back holding the new blanket and the thermos. The mother next door, who had been talking nonstop just moments ago, immediately shut up and focused on her child.
“Drink some warm water. Can you hold it steadily?” Wen Jiuzhe squatted in front of her, opened the blanket and covered her with it, then helped her twist open the lid of the thermos.
Xue Ling looked at him and felt that the mother beside her had been a bit unfair—Wen Jiuzhe was just tall, how was he scary at all.
Wen Jiuzhe held the thermos. Xue Ling lowered her head and took a sip, and discovered that the water had a mix of sweet and salty flavors.
When you have a fever, drinking sugar-salt water—Xue Ling remembered that when she was very young and had a fever, her mother would do this. After she grew up, she seemed to see this habit much less; everyone just drank plain boiled water.
This time, with the cold and fever, Xue Ling went to get IV drips for three days.
When she went to the hospital on the second day, the one in charge of giving her the injection was a very young nurse, probably an intern. Her movements were not very skilled, and she was very nervous. She tried twice and still couldn’t get the needle in properly.
Each time she failed, she would glance at Wen Jiuzhe, as if she was very afraid he would scold her. Every glance made her more nervous, and the third time she still didn’t manage it.
Wen Jiuzhe said he would do it. At that moment, Xue Ling’s expression was about the same as that nurse girl’s.
You can even give injections?
“No, you can’t…” Before the nurse finished speaking, Wen Jiuzhe had already gotten it in. So the nurse silently finished up, reminded them how to change the bottle, and then awkwardly hurried off.
“Why can you give injections, and you’re so skilled at it.”
“It’s so simple. You can do it just by watching once.”
“Ah? You used me to practice?”
“Isn’t that fine? If I poked it crooked, you could still scold me a couple of times to vent your anger. If that nurse earlier poked it crooked again, you could only endure it and say it was fine.”
“……”
“Relax, I’ve practiced.” Wen Jiuzhe supported her hand, his palm warm.
Xue Ling kept asking him when he practiced, and how he practiced, but Wen Jiuzhe didn’t say.
Actually, it was very simple. He had known how to do it since he was little.
When Wen Jiuzhe was very young, his mother had already developed heart disease and couldn’t go to big hospitals. Every time it got serious, they would only look for a nearby clinic to get IV drips.
Originally, only patients were supposed to go to the clinic for IVs, but that doctor knew his mother—they were former classmates. When his mother really couldn’t get up, the doctor would bring the medicine to their home to help give the injection.
Changing medicine bottles, pulling out needles, holding the IV bottle and accompanying his mother to the toilet—Wen Jiuzhe had already done all of that very skillfully when he was little.
After so many IV drips, accidents were inevitable, like the needle being pulled out by accident, or moving the hand too much so that the site swelled and needed to be redone.
The doctor couldn’t be on call at any time, and after that doctor went to their home to see his mother a few times, the neighbors started spreading some gossip. The doctor also wasn’t very willing to go anymore.
Wen Jiuzhe was probably born with a lot of nerve. After learning twice, he knew how to give injections. Later on, he would often run to the clinic to get the medicine and give his mother the injections himself.
That was how he practiced.
Xue Ling found it very astonishing that Wen Jiuzhe could give people injections. Over the next two days, she even hoped he could give her another one to try.
Unfortunately, the nurse who came afterward was older, looked hard to talk to, and gave injections very skillfully, leaving Wen Jiuzhe no chance to show his skills again.
After finishing the injections and going home, Xue Ling lay around for another two days. All the meals were prepared by Wen Jiuzhe.
He could cook for himself, and he would also go out to buy some small side dishes. The flavors were light, with more vegetables and less meat, very suitable for a patient.
Three meals of medicine a day—he remembered them clearly and would remind Xue Ling on time. He would put the medicine and water directly into her hands, all the way until she completely recovered.
During the days Xue Ling was sick, Wen Jiuzhe was considerate to the point of not seeming like himself at all. Xue Ling even suspected that she actually had a terminal illness, and that Wen Jiuzhe was hiding it from her.
Most importantly, during those days, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t act obnoxious at all—not even once did he make Xue Ling angry.
“When I’m sick, why don’t you provoke me anymore, and why are you treating me so well?”
“Oh, I don’t like it when you’re sick. I want you to get better quickly.”
Wen Jiuzhe didn’t like other people being sick, and he couldn’t stand being sick himself either. The feeling of weakness made people uneasy; even in his dreams, he would worry that he wouldn’t be able to deal with things that urgently needed handling.
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
After eating a little, Xue Ling urged Wen Jiuzhe to lie down in the car, making sure he was wrapped up tightly.
She took out the thermos, put in some salt and sugar, and held the thermos, shaking it back and forth.
Wen Jiuzhe watched her from inside the car. Her body was thinner than before, her face tinged with green, shaking the thermos again and again, like a little wooden figure lagging and stuttering.
Behind her, the lead-gray sky merged with the blurred silhouettes of the city. Gale winds swept up dead grass, making the car canopy propped beside the vehicle flap loudly.
Wen Jiuzhe closed his eyes.
He felt tired.
A kind of exhaustion from seeing the finish line, yet knowing he couldn’t reach it.
More than three years now—he had rushed between many places, searching nonstop. Even if he suffered severe injuries, as long as he could still wake up, he would keep moving forward, never stopping.
But he had already found Xue Ling, and the voice that had been urging him on had quieted a great deal. Two days ago, he had thought about whether he should temporarily stop.
Xue Ling returned to the car and quickly closed the door, not letting the cold wind outside blow in. She moved lightly and quietly, pressing down on the blanket covering him.
Wen Jiuzhe wrapped her up, and Xue Ling, in turn, wrapped the steaming blanket back around him.
“…It’s too hot,” Wen Jiuzhe said.
Xue Ling went back to using her writing board, because using the tablet consumed too much power and needed to be conserved.
“You need to sweat! Replenish fluids.”
Wen Jiuzhe pressed his hand to his head and said again, “I’ve slept too long. I can’t lie still.”
Xue Ling felt he was a bit like a child and asked, “Do you want me to tell you a story?”
There seemed to be all kinds of sleep-inducing stories on the tablet that she could play for him.
Wen Jiuzhe said, “Sure, then tell the fairy tale The Frog Prince.”
After he said it, he waited for Xue Ling to get embarrassed and angry and hit him, but what came instead was a cool touch on his forehead.
Xue Ling didn’t get angry. After she became a zombie, this was the first time she initiatively kissed his forehead, then soothed him by gently stroking him.
Wen Jiuzhe stopped talking and lay there quietly.
Xue Ling brought over the tablet and softly played some civil service exam materials. The contents on this tablet were numerous and messy—there were even civil service exam materials, along with a huge question bank.
Wen Jiuzhe said, “…Did you study these things before?”
Xue Ling answered yes. She said these were really great for inducing sleep—she had experience.
Some of the questions she could still recall. It was just a pity that all the things she had studied while losing a huge amount of hair back then were useless now.
In this lifetime, anyway, it was impossible to pass the civil service exam and make it.
“If I committed a crime, could you still take the civil service exam?” Wen Jiuzhe suddenly asked.
Probably could, since he was just an ex-boyfriend. Considering that Wen Jiuzhe was sick, Xue Ling didn’t stimulate him and said she didn’t know.
“Will they recruit zombies?” Wen Jiuzhe asked.
Xue Ling: “……”
She moved over nervously to touch his forehead—how had he started burning up and talking nonsense already.
Wen Jiuzhe let out a muffled laugh.
Seeing that he didn’t want to sleep and seemed a bit muddle-headed, Xue Ling suddenly thought—would he be willing to say some heartfelt truths in this state? Didn’t they say people were the most vulnerable when they were sick?
Xue Ling, preparing to play some mind games, lifted Wen Jiuzhe’s head and let him rest it in her arms, tucked the blanket around him again, and patted it lightly.
“I think things are pretty good like this now. We don’t have to insist on going to look for Taisui.”
“With the way I am now, maybe Taisui wouldn’t be useful to me anyway, so it’s better to just go with the flow, right?”
With his head resting on her stiff legs, Wen Jiuzhe said hoarsely, “That’s not right.”
His voice sank, like sleep talk. “Have you ever thought about it—zombies don’t eat or drink, where does the energy come from to keep moving all the time? You feel okay now, but maybe in a couple of years you won’t be able to move anymore.”
Maybe in a couple of years she would rot away?
Xue Ling’s first reaction was: “If zombies all go finished so easily, then the apocalypse would be more than halfway over, and everyone could return to the cities!”
No matter how you looked at it, that was a good thing.
Wen Jiuzhe stared at her for a long while, tugged at the corner of his mouth into a fake smile, and said, “Thanks so much for the comfort. I feel like my condition just got worse.”
Xue Ling hurriedly patted him again through the blanket. “You’re just guessing. Maybe zombies can still move even decades later.”
She thought for a moment and gave an example. “Fresh meat rots easily and doesn’t keep long, but dried, hardened cured meat keeps for a very long time, so my shelf life is longer than yours.”
Wen Jiuzhe: “…You really are a genius.”
After talking, Xue Ling looked at him with worry.
Why did Xiaoxiao have so many things to worry about?
After being a zombie for three years, she had once thought she had become gloomy, but compared with Wen Jiuzhe, she felt she was still fairly positive and sunny.
Wen Jiuzhe was sick for three days before getting better. He didn’t take any medicine—it was all thanks to his immune system being strong enough.
As soon as he recovered, he wanted to prepare to set off.
Xue Ling thought he was going to continue looking for Wen Yi, but Wen Jiuzhe said, “Let’s go. Let’s go see the Terracotta Army.”
“I don’t want to see it now.” Actually, she hadn’t wanted to see it before either—she had just said it casually.
Xue Ling took the map from Wen Jiuzhe, folded it up, and tucked it into a book.
“Winter’s here. Running around outside is exhausting. Let’s find a place to live for a while.” She started counting how inconvenient it was to live in the car.
Cold, fuel-consuming, not enough space to lie down, too many things with nowhere to put them… in short, she wanted to find a place to stay and didn’t want to stay in the car anymore.
Wen Jiuzhe compromised. “Alright then. Where do you want to live?”
