Traveling together with the large convoy was much more convenient. There was no need to stop frequently to look for directions or check road signs, and when encountering an impassable road, Wen Jiuzhe did not need to get out to clear it. With over a hundred people in the convoy ahead, everything would be cleared directly.
And with so many people, those roadblock bullies and small robbery groups that cropped up endlessly along the way would not dare to show themselves when they saw them.
The journey was so calm it was unbelievable.
After traveling with them for several days, Xue Ling even had the feeling that she was on a road trip before the apocalypse.
There was only one situation in which even Wen Jiuzhe, who was enjoying the ease of following behind, would go help—when there were too many zombies blocking the road.
The convoy ahead had many people and made a lot of noise. Traveling like this scared off bandits, but it excited the zombies. If they stayed in one place for even a little while longer, the surrounding zombies would come rushing over, drawn by the scent.
Zombies’ tendency to seek out humans increased exponentially with the number of people—the more people there were, the more they attracted zombies.
On this point, Xue Ling, as a zombie, could speak from experience.
Zombies were sensitive to sound, even more sensitive to human voices, and most sensitive to human scent.
Perhaps because Xue Ling had not completely zombified, her perception of humans was not as sensitive as that of other zombies. Usually, it was only when the surrounding zombies started getting excited that she realized there were people nearby.
But that kind of perception definitely existed. It was quite subtle, similar to how lions on the grasslands could track the scent of their prey.
Someone passed through here, where they went, the fresh traces and scents they left behind—all of it was very obvious in a zombie’s perception.
That was why bases usually had to clear out the surrounding zombies at regular intervals; otherwise, it was easy to end up surrounded by zombies.
In the beginning, when people lacked experience, quite a few small bases were destroyed for this very reason.
The drawback of a large convoy was that it easily attracted zombies. The first few times, when there weren’t many zombies, the squads sent out by the base and the bodyguards hired by the wealthy families who were relocating could still handle it fairly easily.
But accidents were inevitable. Once there were too many zombies charging the convoy, gaps would appear in the long line of vehicles.
Those ordinary people in the convoy who had always been well protected—let alone helping deal with the swarming zombies—were so frightened they couldn’t even run.
Hearing screams coming from the front of the convoy, Wen Jiuzhe picked up his blade and went to help.
When it came to killing zombies, even the most well-trained team leader in the entire convoy could not compare to his experience.
When he reached the last vehicle in the convoy, the car door was open. The people inside kept retreating, screaming in terror while continuously throwing things at the zombie by the door, trying to stop it from advancing.
At a glance, Wen Jiuzhe knew what had happened. The door had been opened during a rest break, and when the zombies attacked, they panicked too much. After getting back into the car, they failed to close the door in time, letting the zombie climb inside. The zombie blocking the doorway then became a case of “catching turtles in a jar,” opening the can and eating directly.
After not fighting much over the winter, Wen Jiuzhe was not rusty at all. With terrifying force, he chopped off the heads of the two zombies beside the car, stepped up into the vehicle, grabbed the zombie inside by the back of its collar, dragged it straight out of the car, and chopped it to death.
The few people in the car had already been so shocked by the sight of him grabbing the zombie with his bare hands that their eyes were about to pop out. When they then saw how cleanly and efficiently he moved, they stared at him as if he were a monster.
If they hadn’t seen how laborious it was for the convoy’s people to kill zombies, just watching those two or three strikes of his, they might have thought zombies were made of paper.
Wen Jiuzhe arrived in time. No one in this car was injured by the zombie. He casually slammed the car door shut and then ran straight toward the middle of the convoy to help.
The people trapped inside the car took a long while before they came back to their senses, then rushed to the window to look outside.
“He—he’s not afraid of zombies? Those are zombies, and he actually grabbed one with his hands!”
“Who is that person? Is he from the convoy? Why haven’t I seen him before?”
“From his build, it looks like he’s from the car that’s been following behind us the whole time. He’s also carrying a woman. When I went a bit farther away during a rest earlier, I saw the two of them cooking by their car.”
“Did you see that just now? He’s way too amazing. With skills like that, why didn’t he join the convoy?”
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
After dealing with a wave of zombies, the small squad leader of the convoy came over to greet Wen Jiuzhe.
He had already known that there were people following behind the convoy, but since they weren’t getting in his way, he hadn’t paid much attention. He hadn’t expected that this person’s skills would be this good.
“Thanks for coming to help. If it weren’t for you, a few people would definitely have died this time. I see you’re just a single car behind us, which isn’t very convenient. Why don’t you just join the convoy?”
“I can help you apply for the same treatment as a squad member. Normally you wouldn’t need to help us maintain order like the rest of us—just lend a hand when there are a lot of zombies. What do you think? If you have any other requests, you can bring them up and we can discuss them.”
Wen Jiuzhe had heard this kind of thing many times. He casually wiped his short blade. “No need.”
Following behind the convoy already counted as taking advantage of it—having gained convenience, he just helped out along the way.
Wen Jiuzhe didn’t like taking advantage of people, and from the moment the zombie horde appeared and surrounded the convoy, Xue Ling had been craning her neck to look ahead, clearly worried on others’ behalf.
Even though she hadn’t said anything to ask him to go, Wen Jiuzhe knew exactly what she was thinking.
After refusing the offer, Wen Jiuzhe walked back under the gazes of everyone in the convoy, returning to the car parked dozens of meters away from the convoy.
He tossed the short blade onto the seat and pulled off his leather gloves.
When killing zombies, he usually wore leather gloves to avoid accidentally getting infected by the virus due to injuries on his hands.
Xue Ling waited for him in the car. As soon as she saw him return, she picked up the water kettle and reminded him to wash his hands.
“No need, right? I was wearing gloves, and my hands don’t have—…fine.”
No matter how cold, ruthless, and aloof he was outside, once he got back to his own car, he still got chased into doing cleaning.
Wen Jiuzhe squatted by the car with the kettle and washed his hands, taking the opportunity to clean off the splatter that had accidentally gotten on him while killing zombies.
“Were there any injuries or deaths in the convoy?” Xue Ling asked aloud using the tablet.
“No. That captain said it was lucky I got there in time.” He stood up and flicked the water off his hands, joking. “So, am I impressive or not?”
Although she felt a bit speechless, Xue Ling still praised him. “Of course you’re impressive.”
Wen Jiuzhe snorted twice. His smile was shallow, but no matter how you looked at it, he was clearly pleased with himself.
Wen Jiuzhe’s appearance in front of the convoy this time also brought a bit of minor trouble.
During a rest, a young girl from the front convoy ran over. She was the youngest granddaughter of one of the wealthy families that were relocating.
At the time, Xue Ling was also sitting outside the car. Since it was just her and Wen Jiuzhe, she wasn’t wearing a mask or glasses. When she suddenly saw someone approaching, she hurriedly covered her face and was about to hide back inside the car.
Wen Jiuzhe stood up, his tall figure completely blocking her from view, and said bluntly to the approaching girl, “Don’t come closer. Go farther away.”
The smile on the girl’s face stiffened. Holding up the things in her hands, she said with some grievance, “Why are you being so fierce? I came to give you something, to thank you for helping earlier.”
“No need. Leave immediately.” Feeling Xue Ling leaning against his back, Wen Jiuzhe’s tone grew even more impatient.
He scared the girl into leaving in tears.
After driving the person away, Wen Jiuzhe sat back down where he had been and found Xue Ling silently staring at him.
“What, were you startled by that person suddenly running over just now?”
Xue Ling shook her head. She was thinking that Wen Jiuzhe would definitely be very popular in the apocalypse—not just because of his looks, but also because of that sense of power he carried.
If you saw him killing zombies, it would be hard not to admire him. Especially when you yourself could not possess such ability, you would admire and yearn for someone as strong as him even more.
“Do a lot of people like you?” Xue Ling asked.
“You’re wrong. No one likes me. There are more people who are afraid of me and dislike me,” Wen Jiuzhe said.
Why was that?
“Because even if they have a bit of goodwill toward me at first sight, they’ll soon be scared off by me. Then that shallow bit of goodwill will turn into doubled dislike.”
Wen Jiuzhe finished eating simply and lazily leaned back beside Xue Ling.
Xue Ling was half doubtful. “No way. You’re not that scary.”
Wen Jiuzhe didn’t say much.
If he really explained it in detail—said that he could never be as patient or as nice to others as he was to her, said that he hated others wasting his time so he was always fierce, said how cold he was to other people… every sentence would sound like a roundabout confession.
So he only said, “You have to know that not everyone has as good a temper as you. Think about the times I made you angry—me being disliked by people is pretty normal.”
Xue Ling: “……” That was true.
Not long after the girl ran away, another young man came over. He said he was the girl’s older brother, here to apologize, saying that his sister was young and didn’t understand things, and there might have been some misunderstanding.
This time, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t even let him get close and directly drove him away, saying bluntly, “If you come to disturb us again, I guarantee that next time I absolutely won’t help.”
The man left with his face turning green, and before leaving, he forced out a smile and said, “Sorry for disturbing you.”
Wen Jiuzhe pointed at his retreating back and said to Xue Ling, “See? Right now he’s cursing me in his heart for having a twisted personality, being moody, and being cold and inhuman.”
“Now you know why I say there are more people who dislike me.”
Xue Ling nodded.
She understood. It wasn’t that other people disliked Wen Jiuzhe—it was that Wen Jiuzhe disliked people. He refused to communicate with others and also refused the possibility of forming connections with anyone again.
After the two people who tried to approach both left in defeat, things returned to calm. No one from the front convoy came over to disturb them again, and both sides moved forward peacefully.
Heading north all the way, the weather should have been gradually getting colder, but the pace of spring was still faster than their steps, and the weather continued to warm day by day.
Xue Ling could no longer wear the kind of big padded coat that covered her from head to toe; that would only make her look stranger and draw more attention.
To prevent the people in the front convoy from discovering that she was a zombie, Xue Ling rarely got out of the car during the day, only coming down at night to get some air.
Traveling alone had its own troubles, and traveling with many people also had its own troubles.
It wasn’t as free, but their speed of advance was indeed fast. In two months, they had already entered the northern region.
Looking along the way, Xue Ling felt that the biggest difference between the north and where they came from was that there weren’t so many small bases.
Around Anxi City and Yu City, small bases were scattered everywhere. Some bases were probably only the size of a single residential compound and could still be called bases.
The quality of small bases varied greatly, with lax management, and they often produced many horrifying tragedies.
But upon reaching the north, small bases were almost no longer to be seen. There were fewer bases, but each one was relatively large in scale.
After the convoy had been on the road for ten days to half a month, seeing no living people along the way aside from zombies, they finally saw the first base after entering the north. The ordinary people in the convoy were almost moved to tears with joy.
Although they had not yet reached their destination, they had finally encountered living people again. After passing through the long blockade formed by wandering zombies, seeing a human base once more felt truly comforting.
After such a long journey, it was inevitable that the convoy had suffered losses. Some had fallen ill and died on the road, and several had died at the hands of zombies, and the atmosphere grew heavier and heavier.
Being away from home meant danger was impossible to guard against. Move a little farther away from the convoy, and there might be a zombie lying under a roadside car. It could suddenly spring up and grab you—ordinary people usually couldn’t react in time, and just like that, they would be gone.
The people in the convoy were happy and excited, heading toward that base to request entry and rest. Wen Jiuzhe, who was trailing behind, drove his car to the outskirts of the base and stopped in a dangerous area where zombies often appeared.
Xue Ling watched the convoy drive into the base gates, then turned back to look at Wen Jiuzhe and comforted him:
“It’s okay. With me here, you’ll be very safe when you sleep at night.”
