The hardware store Xue Ling found just happened to be next to a seed station, and she immediately thought of those vegetable-growing videos, happily bringing the seeds back.

“Can none of them be planted?” She slumped disappointedly at the edge of the bed.

Wen Jiuzhe picked out a packet of Chinese cabbage seeds. “This one says winter cabbage. This should be plantable.”

“Okay, then we’ll plant this. The others we’ll plant later.”

Wen Jiuzhe felt like she wasn’t just planning to stay here for one winter, but was planning to live here for ten or eight years, even having next year’s planting already arranged.

Two people who didn’t understand farming at all, together with zombies, like playing house, simply dug out a not-very-standard patch of ground behind the house and casually planted the cabbage seeds.

Xue Ling satisfied her pastoral craving and was content, and Wen Jiuzhe treated it as nothing more than a bit of exercise, not expecting the vegetables to actually grow.

Compared to vegetables that wouldn’t sprout until who knew when, the bigger problem right in front of them was the earthen stove.

First, it was hard to control the heat. Second, the pot was too big. When Wen Jiuzhe cooked a single-person portion, once it was poured in, it quickly stuck all over the bottom of the pot, impossible to scrape up.

While Xue Ling was stoking the fire in front of the stove, making it burn vigorously, she poked her head out. Wen Jiuzhe stood by the pot, expression unchanged, shoveling up the scorched rice crust and crunching it down.

It would have been better to use the small stove from before and cook slowly.

The base half a day’s drive from them was New Fourth Base, and Wen Jiuzhe drove there as well.

One trip, and he hauled back a full car of honeycomb coal briquettes.

Now the bases all restricted electricity, electricity fees were high, and using electricity for everything wasn’t economical, so many people used other methods to keep warm and cook.

Just so happened that there were coal mines nearby, so some clever people produced honeycomb coal briquettes to sell, and they sold extremely well inside the base.

Xue Ling circled around the pile of black honeycomb coal, remembering that when she was very young, some households used to burn honeycomb coal, but after growing up she basically never saw it anymore.

“So in the future we’ll use a coal stove to cook and make food, not the earthen stove?” Xue Ling asked, a little disappointed. “Then we won’t need to go chop firewood.”

She had wanted to go into the mountains to chop firewood—she’d never experienced it before.

Wen Jiuzhe said, “You also want to go into the mountains to pick mushrooms, don’t you?”

Before, she often looked longingly at videos of picking wild mushrooms. Wen Jiuzhe had seen them many times, so basically, whatever she saw other people doing, she wanted to do too.

Her thoughts exposed, Xue Ling didn’t pretend anymore. “Then when are we going? But it seems there aren’t any mushrooms here, and we don’t know which ones can be eaten.”

Wen Jiuzhe said, “What’s there to be afraid of? Whatever we run into, we’ll pick it. If we eat something and die, count it as my fault.”

Xue Ling: “……”

If they don’t go, is that not okay?!

During the previous few months, while they were on the road, every day was just repeating the same things—driving, finding routes, stopping to sleep and eat.

Now that they had settled down in one place, there really wasn’t much that needed to be done each day.

Wen Jiuzhe sat around idly on a chair in the main room when Xue Ling came over hugging a basketball and smashed it into his back.

Come play ball!

The basketball was something Xue Ling had grabbed casually from the supermarket, the tag still not torn off.

Wen Jiuzhe grabbed the basketball and went out with her to look for a place to play.

There was an open-air activity center in the nearby village, with a few pieces of fitness equipment for the elderly installed, and also a basketball hoop—ragged and broken, with the rim bent crooked.

“You want to play here? Can you even shoot?”

Who said playing basketball meant you had to shoot? Xue Ling took the ball and threw it far away.

Wen Jiuzhe strolled over on his long legs, hooked the ball lightly with the tip of his foot, kicked it up, and caught it in his hand.

He’d just walked back when Xue Ling snatched the ball out of his arms and with a bang threw it out again.

Wen Jiuzhe reacted, half-smiling. “You’re treating me like a dog, playing fetch, aren’t you?”

Xue Ling: He figured it out so fast—he’s so hard to fool.

After picking the ball up again, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t give it back to her and started dribbling it himself. Xue Ling went over to grab it. Wen Jiuzhe turned, the ball switching to his other hand as he continued dribbling.

It turned into a game of stealing the ball.

Then it turned into a throwing game.

Finally it turned into a kicking game.

The ball fell into a muddy ditch in the distance. Wen Jiuzhe jumped down to retrieve it, and the ball became filthy.

Xue Ling stopped playing and sat down on one of the elderly fitness machines, rocking slightly.

“What’s fun about that slow stuff? Dare to go hang on the parallel bars?” Wen Jiuzhe said.

Don’t underestimate a zombie’s arm strength and grip strength—hanging on parallel bars was easy for her. She just couldn’t jump up to reach them.

Wen Jiuzhe lifted her up to the horizontal bar. “Reach out and grab it.”

As soon as Xue Ling grabbed on, he let go, sat down on the equipment Xue Ling had been sitting on earlier, and smiled as he looked at her.

Xue Ling hanging on the horizontal bar, unable to get down: “……”

If she let go, she’d fall. This horizontal bar was a bit high.

“Ao!” Are you sick?! Hurry up and put me down!

In the end, Xue Ling chased Wen Jiuzhe all the way back, driving him along. That scene looked very much like a human-and-zombie chase scene from a movie.

Only the human who got chased by the zombie didn’t get bitten—he just got beaten.

In the afternoon, they went to the river to fish.

They first went to dig up earthworms. Seeing Wen Jiuzhe dig out a tangled clump of earthworms from the dirty, fertile soil, Xue Ling moved farther away, afraid he’d pull another cheap trick and scare her with them.

Wen Jiuzhe carried the bucket and fishing rods, while Xue Ling held a folding little stool. They found a spot by the river and sat down to fish.

Wen Jiuzhe helped thread the bait. When he threaded the earthworm, Xue Ling stayed far away. Only after he finished did she come closer.

Xue Ling stiffly held up the fishing rod and flung it out with force, hooking it onto a withered tree branch on the bank.

She unhooked it and tried casting again, nearly hooking Wen Jiuzhe’s head.

Wen Jiuzhe clapped and said, “Great aim.”

Xue Ling: Because zombies’ movements are stiff, that’s why she couldn’t cast well—this really couldn’t be blamed on her!

After finally managing to cast the hook into the river, Wen Jiuzhe also easily cast his line. The two of them sat down to wait.

After a long while with no fish biting, Wen Jiuzhe stuck his rod into the ground at the side and got up, walking behind the nearby bushes.

Xue Ling thought he’d gone to the bathroom and continued focusing on the float on her own rod.

Before long, Wen Jiuzhe came back, holding a long, strip-like thing in his hand.

“Look, what do you think this is?”

Xue Ling turned her head and saw the long thing. At first glance, she thought it was a snake. She was so frightened she threw away the fishing rod in her hand and plopped down on the ground.

“It’s a snake skin. Look—such a big one. Judging by this, the snake must’ve been huge, as thick as an arm.” Wen Jiuzhe shook the shed skin.

Xue Ling climbed up furiously. Wen Jiuzhe tilted his body to dodge her attack and quickly fled along the riverbank. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You scared yourself, how is that my fault?”

Xue Ling only chased him symbolically a couple of steps. The path by the river was hard to walk on, and she was too lazy to run. Turning back to look at her rod, she let out a huge scream.

Her rod! It was about to be dragged away by a fish!

The rod was already being pulled into the river. Xue Ling immediately went after it, but Wen Jiuzhe beat her by two steps, stepped into the river, grabbed the rod being dragged away by the fish in one go, and walked back to the bank.

Xue Ling impatiently held out her hands. Hurry, give it to me, give it to me—I’ll do it!

Getting the fishing rod back as she wished, Xue Ling stood on the bank and wrestled with the big fish for a while, finally managing to reel it in.

A fish that looked very ordinary but was extremely stubborn flopped vigorously in the bucket, splashing a ring of water over the rim.

She admired it happily for a bit, then sat back down on the small stool and continued fishing.

Wen Jiuzhe rolled up his soaked pant legs. His hook hadn’t brought up any fish for a long time, while Xue Ling quickly caught a second one.

She smugly showed him the bucket: two fish, one big, one small—both caught by me.

Wen Jiuzhe said, “You caught them—aren’t I still the one eating them.”

The wind by the river was strong. Wen Jiuzhe’s hair was blown into a messy clump, and Xue Ling’s hair was also a tangled mess.

The cold wind stung people’s faces, but Wen Jiuzhe had thick skin, so he stubbornly sat there with Xue Ling for the entire afternoon.

In the end, the harvest was: Xue Ling caught four fish, Wen Jiuzhe caught none.

“This is newbie luck, you know. Tomorrow you won’t catch any,” Wen Jiuzhe said, carrying the bucket.

Yes, yes, newbie luck, pure good luck. Xue Ling magnanimously tolerated the jealous man.

That day, Xue Ling caught fish, Wen Jiuzhe ate fish—both of them gained something.

Before bed, Xue Ling dragged out a bucket and had Wen Jiuzhe soak his feet, soaking for a full ten minutes.

She herself wiped off casually, then comfortably curled up on the bed, pulled out an elegant work of literature, and began to marinate her soul.

There was another benefit to being a zombie: now, no matter how sleep-inducing something was, it couldn’t put her to sleep. Knowledge just forcibly squeezed its way into her head.

Whether it stayed or not was another matter. At least she wouldn’t get sleepy while reading—so she just read through it forcefully.

After finishing soaking his feet, Wen Jiuzhe asked her, “You’re not soaking?”

Why would I, a zombie, soak my feet—no soaking.

Xue Ling flipped a page, feeling that some of the words she’d just read had forcibly squeezed into her brain, then flowed out through her ears.

Wen Jiuzhe reached out and pinched Xue Ling’s arm. “You were out in the cold wind all day and got stiff. Want me to knead you a bit?”

Xue Ling thought about it—sure. She put the book down and lay prone.

Wen Jiuzhe’s hands were very warm. Holding her arm, he first pinched the joints, grasped and moved them, then kneaded the arm muscles.

Xue Ling uncontrollably thought of when she used to cook, pounding and patting beef and chicken—beating dead meat loose so it would have more chew when eaten.

When Wen Jiuzhe kneaded down to her legs, Xue Ling thought of another scene.

Back then, Wen Jiuzhe had also massaged her like this.

That was still during their ambiguous phase. She decided to do night runs for exercise, but ended up with both legs sore.

Someone who didn’t exercise much suddenly exercising would have ruined legs the next day—lifting a foot was uncomfortable.

Seeing her limping, Wen Jiuzhe laughed enough, then said he’d help knead her.

They were in the rented apartment, in Xue Ling’s bedroom. The curtains were drawn but not tightly closed, and they could still hear the sounds of people playing ball at the nearby teachers’ college sports field downstairs.

Wen Jiuzhe kneaded her sore legs with practiced ease, just using too much force. Xue Ling felt the soreness and numbness from the kneading, and her foot couldn’t take it, stepping onto his stomach.

The position accidentally stepped off-center, bumping into it several times, stepping on something soft, pulsing against the sole of her foot.

Wen Jiuzhe was sitting cross-legged on the bed. He suddenly stopped and looked at her. Only then did Xue Ling realize where she had stepped, awkwardly lifting her foot—only to be held by him.

In that kind of situation, making eye contact was a sticky kind of pull.

Xue Ling met his gaze like a magnet. That gaze carried heat, moving from her eyes to her lips. She also looked at his lips—because of the lingering smile from just now, they were slightly parted.

Her mind went blank, hot and swollen, her breathing becoming especially obvious. After subconsciously averting her gaze, she saw his arm, pressed against the bedding, with distinct veins standing out.

She didn’t even react to how she’d lifted her hand to touch the veins there. The moment she touched them, Wen Jiuzhe leaned in.

Naturally, they kissed.

Her calf was gripped in Wen Jiuzhe’s palm. He tugged her over in one pull, and then neither of them managed to restrain themselves—starting and stopping, mainly Xue Ling stopping to rest. It went on until late at night. The next day, Xue Ling was forced to ask for leave and didn’t go to class, nor did she attend the student union activities. Of course, Wen Jiuzhe also didn’t manage to go to class……

……

Okay, stop the memories. Better to keep thinking about pounding chicken in the kitchen.

Chicken, chicken…… muscle—the shape of those rising and falling muscles was really very nice.

Feeling guilty because of those adult memories, Xue Ling glanced at Wen Jiuzhe’s figure as he was focused on kneading muscles right now, then suddenly grabbed the down quilt and wrapped her head inside it.

The next moment, the quilt was suddenly lifted away by Wen Jiuzhe in one motion, along with the gradually changing memories, all swept away together.

“I’m done massaging you. Now it’s your turn to massage me,” he said. “Don’t try to slack off. Get up.”

Xue Ling: “……”

Xue Ling got up and threw a flurry of punches at Wen Jiuzhe’s back.

A man who really knows how to ruin the mood 🙂