When Wen Jiuzhe spoke, his voice was low and gentle, sounding very tender.
Listening to him, Xue Ling fell into deep thought.
She was thinking about one question—why did Wen Jiuzhe act as if he loved her very much?
If she remembered correctly, in the year or so from when they met, to becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, and then to breaking up, the thing this man did most was not making her so angry she exploded, but making her jump up and down in fury.
Every single cell in his body had the words “cheap” and “bad taste” written all over it.
He often wore that smiling, squinty-eyed expression, treated everything casually, and she had always thought that even this girlfriend of his was something he was just casually making do with.
Because he had never once said a single line of confession to her, and in the end it was also he who first brought up the breakup, and at that time it did not end pleasantly.
She had been so angry that she smashed her milk tea onto his head, but he indifferently wiped the dribbling milk tea off his face with a casual swipe, shrugged lazily, waved his hand, and left.
He did not care about her, nor did he have any very deep feelings for her.
Xue Ling had always thought so.
But then why could he recognize her at a glance after three years apart, why did he insist on keeping her by his side after seeing her turn into a zombie, why did he not care at all about her zombie appearance and still hold her close, why did he look as if he missed her very much and cherished her greatly?
He even abandoned his cousin and the human convoy, choosing to leave alone with her, a dangerous zombie. Anyone who saw that would say he had lost his mind.
Xue Ling thought it over and over, but could not figure out what this man was really thinking.
It had always been like this before; she had never been able to guess Wen Jiuzhe’s thoughts, while after spending no long time together he could see straight through her, and on the matter of deliberately provoking her anger he possessed an innate, heaven-given talent.
After thinking for a long time, Xue Ling could not help but start suspecting whether she herself had lost her memory.
But when she carefully recalled the past, she found her mind clear, her memories not blurred, nothing missing, and instead she once again relived Wen Jiuzhe’s past “notorious record” and “numerous evil deeds.”
…In this lifetime, one really should not date a lunatic boyfriend too early, otherwise you will remember him for your whole life, unable to forget him no matter what, just like Xue Ling.
In the gaps between pondering and self-doubt, Xue Ling did not forget to maintain her zombie persona, roaring a couple of times now and then, grabbing at the seat cushion and the seat belt on her body, scratching at the car window and the door.
That damn Wen Jiuzhe treated the noise she made as a white-noise radio, driving while listening to her sounds and humming a tune, his fingers tapping a beat on the steering wheel in time with the creaking sound of Xue Ling scratching the back of the seat, surprisingly rhythmic.
Xue Ling: Excuse me, am I here to entertain you?
Wen Jiuzhe now seemed very good at entertaining himself.
He said, “Let’s find a place to take a bath. The tap water has all stopped, but some households live in more remote areas; they’re not connected to tap water, but to their own well water. That can still be used.”
“Can you wash with cold water? Oh, if you can’t, there’s no helping it—there’s no hot water for you now. The weather’s so hot, using cold water won’t be too cold anyway, right?”
He made the decision on his own and did not need Xue Ling to answer.
Xue Ling lifted her foot and kicked his seat hard, kicking it until it thumped loudly. He bobbed up and down in the driver’s seat instead and seemed quite happy, nodding as he said, “Oh, then it’s settled.”
They did not go very far, still in a town on the outskirts of Anxi City.
Xue Ling was locked back inside the car again, watching through the window as Wen Jiuzhe got out to look for a place where they could bathe.
His movements were very practiced—whether it was scouting abandoned houses, avoiding zombie sieges, or killing them one by one, everything was clean and decisive, his speed very fast.
Xue Ling realized that he was not only unafraid of her, this familiar zombie, but also unafraid of other unfamiliar zombies. Even when a ferocious zombie nearly attacked him face-to-face, he could calmly draw his blade and slit the zombie’s throat.
He had a gun tucked at his waist, but he never used it the entire time, relying only on that short blade.
Xue Ling had seen many people kill zombies; almost everyone preferred to use longer weapons to keep some distance from the zombies.
But Wen Jiuzhe was different. He used a short blade, only the length of an arm. Every time he reached out to cut off a zombie’s head, it was nerve-wracking, as if he would be bitten the next second.
It made even Xue Ling tense just watching.
Wen Jiuzhe observed the layout of the houses on this street, looking for ones with courtyards that might have wells and that had not been badly damaged, then went in to check.
He smashed open locked doors, wandered inside for a round, and came back out. Sometimes he carried zombie corpses in his hands, sometimes other things.
“Look, this dress is nice, right? I’ll wash it clean for you later and you can change into it.”
He was holding a floral dress covered in sunflowers, opening the car window to show it to her.
Xue Ling had never had any expectations of Wen Jiuzhe’s aesthetic sense. The ugliest dress in her wardrobe was bought by him; it was something she simply could not wear outside.
“I found a few boxes of unopened skincare products. I remember you used this brand before, I think. I’ll let you use them later.”
He tossed several boxes of skincare and cosmetics into the car again.
Xue Ling was baffled: I’m a zombie, and I’m still doing skincare… should I praise you for being considerate?
“Don’t worry, I checked—they’re all still within the expiration date.” The considerate ex-boyfriend sighed and was puzzled. “How can cosmetics have such a long shelf life? It’s been three years and they still haven’t expired.”
Clothes and dresses, skincare products, towels, soap, shampoo—throwing these usable things into the car was one thing, but what was the meaning of throwing an Elizabethan collar into the car?
This was something usually worn around cats’ and dogs’ necks, used to prevent them from licking their wounds.
If he wanted to put it on her, he could just go die!
Wen Jiuzhe searched very pickily along two streets and still didn’t find a bathing spot that satisfied him.
In the end, he finally found one on the third street.
He walked out through that household’s front gate, strode over, pulled open the car door, and said with a smile, “This house’s bathroom has water that can be used, and it’s pretty clean. Come on, get down.”
Xue Ling didn’t want to get down, but he dragged her out.
One of his arms crossed horizontally in front of Xue Ling’s chest, pulling her backward from behind. Xue Ling grabbed the two seatbacks on either side, her sharp fingernails scratching several gashes into the leather.
But Wen Jiuzhe’s strength was too great. He still pulled her down steadily, not even letting her feet touch the ground, while his other hand could still carry the bag filled with various odds and ends.
“All right, all right, you’re a zombie, not a cat—how can you be afraid of bathing?” Wen Jiuzhe coaxed.
She wasn’t afraid of bathing; she just didn’t want Wen Jiuzhe to help her bathe!
They had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a year. Wen Jiuzhe was also… also sexy and charming. Of course they had done some intimate activities, but helping her bathe or anything like that was truly awkward.
However, zombies had no human rights, and Wen Jiuzhe had no humanity. Xue Ling was still escorted into the bathroom.
This place had already been simply cleaned by Wen Jiuzhe; the floor was covered in water stains.
Seeing Wen Jiuzhe holding that Elizabethan collar in one hand, Xue Ling went madly at him with headbutt attacks, using fierce actions to tell him she absolutely would not wear it!
“Okay, okay, don’t wear it—tsk, your head is really hard.”
He tossed aside the Elizabethan collar, tied one of Xue Ling’s hands to the assist bar beside the toilet, then pressed her down to sit on the toilet. He himself took out a nail clipper, grabbed her other hand, and started trimming her nails.
A zombie’s nails were blackened, sharp, glossy, and very hard. Wen Jiuzhe lowered his head to trim them for her, shaping them into a neat, smooth curve.
Although Xue Ling herself had long wanted to trim her nails, she was still very angry. During the process she was not very cooperative, often suddenly lunging forward and pretending she was about to bite Wen Jiuzhe in front of her.
Wen Jiuzhe was like he had eyes growing on his forehead. With his legs braced, the small wheeled stool he was sitting on slid him away, just out of Xue Ling’s biting range.
Even under Xue Ling’s harassment, Wen Jiuzhe still efficiently finished trimming one of her hands.
He held her hand and looked at it for a while.
A zombie’s hand had a bluish-white skin tone. The blood vessels were more visible than a human’s, showing a dark red color, connecting into a net across the back of the hand, the skin slightly taut and dry.
Xue Ling felt it was because she paid attention to maintenance, so she had not dried out as quickly as other zombies, looking like someone who had only died not long ago, just a little thinner.
Wen Jiuzhe’s hand, two sizes larger than hers, gently rubbed against the back of her hand, sharing the warmth in his palm with her.
“All right, switching to the other hand.” After a moment of silence, he said again in a light tone.
In the latter half, Xue Ling did not make much trouble. When he got up to clean the bathroom at the end, Xue Ling carefully looked at both of her hands and was very satisfied.
She had previously felt that her nails were too long and inconvenient, and had tried trimming them herself. But a zombie’s joints were stiff, her fingers unable to bend flexibly, so she could only gnaw at them with her mouth, gnawing them into uneven pits that looked even uglier.
Cool water sprayed out of the showerhead, hitting the white tiles and splashing droplets.
The pants and long-sleeved top she had worn for a long time, already somewhat gray and blackened, were torn into scraps and thrown to the side.
She was pressed onto a small stool under the showerhead, the water flowing over her bluish, gaunt back.
Xue Ling curled up her whole body, too embarrassed to lift her head.
Wen Jiuzhe sat behind her and voiced a strange question: “Are zombies afraid of water?”
Otherwise, why was she making such a fuss just now, but the moment the water hit her, she wouldn’t move at all.
Not moving was just as well—it saved him from having to tie her up again… Wen Jiuzhe did not really want to keep tying Xue Ling up all the time.
Mint-scented body wash foamed up on the top of her head. The feeling of someone rubbing her hair back and forth was actually quite comfortable.
Xue Ling rested her chin on her knees, squinting her eyes so the water wouldn’t flow into them.
The hand on her head kneaded and rubbed her scalp, inch by inch.
Xue Ling felt his fingers searching around some spot on the back of her head, feeling around for quite a while.
“Why does it feel like the back of your head is a bit sunken, not as round as it used to be?” Wen Jiuzhe wondered.
He of course did not expect a zombie to answer him, so he carefully felt again and joked, “Don’t tell me you’ve been using your head to attack people so much that you hammered the back of your head flat?”
Xue Ling reacted for a while amid the sound of running water.
Ah, was the back of her head flat?
Maybe it was that time three years ago. She had only been a zombie for a short while then, discovered that she could still think and was different from other zombies, and panicked a little.
She wanted to go to her uncle’s house to find her cousin and the others. Her mother and stepfather happened to be there as well. When they saw her appear, they were all frightened.
She was struck on the back of the head with a stick… At the time she had thought, had her head been smashed flat? But she had touched it several times herself and hadn’t felt any difference.
So it really had been smashed flat, haha.
…How did Wen Jiuzhe manage to feel it out right away?
Xue Ling thought back. In the past, he seemed to quite like touching the back of her head. Sometimes while walking on the road, he would suddenly lift his hand and press on the back of her head, pushing her forward.
Just waking up in the morning, turning over, a big hand would head straight for the back of her head, and Xue Ling would be grabbed awake in an instant.
She angrily asked him why he was always grabbing the back of her head, and he would smile with squinty eyes and say, “The back of your head is especially round. It’s fun.”
