There were RVs and tents in the camp. Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe were assigned a tent of their own, separated from the others’ living quarters by a safe distance.
On their way back to the tent from Wen Yi’s vehicle, Xue Ling saw quite a few people in the camp.
The most numerous were the soldiers. They were all still very young, wearing uniform outfits and carrying weapons. When they saw the two of them, they would tense up and stare closely, as if on constant alert that they might suddenly lash out and hurt someone.
Then there were the researchers from the team. Their gazes were even more curious and excited—Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe walking normally or making simple movements would already make them reveal interested expressions.
If one had to use a word to describe most of them, it would be “delighted at the sight of prey.”
Being stared at by these blazing gazes, Xue Ling almost had the illusion that the identities of humans and zombies had been swapped.
Of course, there were also those who were afraid of their zombie identities and appearances and kept their distance, but such “normal people” were relatively few here.
It was probably due to Wen Yi’s requirements—whether the vigilant soldiers or the researchers eager to probe them, none took the initiative to approach, instead restraining themselves and keeping their distance.
Xue Ling walked around outside for a bit and then prepared to return to the tent, so as not to keep the soldiers beside them constantly tense. She herself also felt uncomfortable under the mixed gazes.
But Wen Jiuzhe pulled her back, dragging her straight toward the most crowded activity area in the camp.
A screen was hung up in the open space, playing a comedy show. Around it were tables and chairs where people sat eating and chatting, and nearby others were exercising.
When the two of them arrived, the noise in the activity area instantly died down. Everyone focused on the two anomalies.
But Wen Jiuzhe was just like before, not caring at all about the gazes around them, pulling Xue Ling along as if no one else existed, walking through the gap people made for them.
Xue Ling, who had originally felt awkward, thought of the countless times before when he had dragged her into socially mortifying situations, and suddenly felt that what was happening now was nothing.
Wasn’t she supposed to have gotten used to this long ago?
She was different from the people around her, but there was still Wen Jiuzhe, who was the same as her.
Wen Jiuzhe led Xue Ling to the best spot in front of the screen. Someone happened to move away and sit farther off, and he, like a bully, occupied that person’s place, making Xue Ling sit down.
The two sat in adjacent seats and began watching the comedy show.
Because of Wen Jiuzhe’s natural ease, Xue Ling gradually relaxed and let go of her uneasiness, beginning to focus on the program.
This show was actually quite interesting, and without realizing it, she became immersed.
Aside from not being able to laugh as freely at funny scenes, there weren’t any other problems.
With the two of them acting so naturally, even if the people around them had thoughts in their hearts, it was hard for them to make a fuss and show it. Little by little, those who were eating continued eating, those exercising continued exercising—only, absentmindedly, they would frequently cast glances at the two of them.
“Zombies… they watch shows too? They look just like humans.”
“Xiao Yu, you followed Doctor Wen on experiments before, right? You’ve seen Doctor Wen’s boyfriend, haven’t you? Doctor Wen’s boyfriend is said to be a special zombie—are they the same as him?”
“I don’t know either. The last time I saw that Mr. Zeng, he was lying there, completely motionless.”
“We’ve been following the team for so long, and I’ve only heard that Doctor Wen has a special zombie experimental subject. I’ve never seen him even once. I didn’t expect two more to suddenly appear.”
“How do these kinds of zombies come about? Are they some kind of failed new vaccine experiment?”
“Have you forgotten our discipline? We are forbidden from discussing related topics!”
“Yes, Captain.”
……
Amid all the whispered murmurs, Xue Ling sat among the crowd and finished watching a comedy show.
However, the TV drama that played next wasn’t very good—it was a type Xue Ling wasn’t interested in. Her gaze was drawn instead to the two people playing badminton nearby.
Badminton… it had been quite a long time since she last played.
Back when she was at Yushi Normal University, on evenings when she had no classes, she liked to go to the sports field to play badminton, and Wen Jiuzhe had accompanied her before.
Xue Ling’s badminton skills were average. But Wen Jiuzhe—his skills couldn’t be judged as good or bad. He was just unhinged.
When Xue Ling played badminton with other people, she always tried to make sure the other side could receive the shuttlecock. Everyone was exercising, after all—it was all about back and forth.
Wen Jiuzhe wasn’t like that. He played as if he were hitting a person—wide, aggressive swings with full force, and he was committed to making sure the opponent couldn’t catch a single shot, hitting tricky and bizarre angles.
Xue Ling couldn’t catch even two of his shots in two hours. Furious, she smashed her racket and yelled, “Stop playing!”
Her shout made the entire sports field think they had gotten into a fight.
As Xue Ling was lost in these memories, Wen Jiuzhe took her tablet and walked over to the people playing badminton.
Wen Jiuzhe’s build was already intimidating when he was normal. Now that he had become a zombie, he was even more frightening.
Seeing him approach, the young man holding the racket stiffened, subconsciously stepping back, nearly stepping on the shuttlecock that had fallen at his feet.
A female voice came from the tablet in Wen Jiuzhe’s hand: “Can we borrow a racket, bro.”
The unfamiliar “bro,” with a stiff expression, handed over the racket and immediately retreated, slipping into the crowd, visibly relaxing only then.
After “borrowing” the racket, Wen Jiuzhe waved to Xue Ling, signaling her to come play badminton.
Xue Ling shook her head.
Wen Jiuzhe tapped the tablet, which played: “Come on, come on, come on…”
The devilishly looping urge made Xue Ling walk over and type: “Your badminton skills are too bad. I’m not playing with you.”
Wen Jiuzhe replied: “I’ll play properly this time.”
Half-believing, half-doubting, Xue Ling went over, took a racket, and walked to the other side, taking up her stance.
From the crowd came a shout: “Holy shit, zombies playing badminton!”
Realizing he’d said it too loudly, the speaker immediately shut up, but with that shout, nearly everyone in the camp who was free gathered around to watch.
Wen Jiuzhe served.
Once he actually tried to play properly, Xue Ling realized that his skills were genuinely terrible.
Even when he wasn’t deliberately hitting it off, his shots were still a complete mess.
Xue Ling’s movements weren’t that fast anymore, and she had to run left and right to catch the shuttlecock. Before long, she didn’t want to play anymore.
“How about I play with you!” A young girl in the watching crowd plucked up the courage to speak.
Wu Ying was a badminton expert. She couldn’t stand watching the way the two of them played—and playing badminton with a zombie, how novel. She wanted to experience it.
After Wu Ying spoke, the tall, fierce-looking zombie on the court picked up the racket and walked toward her.
The people standing around Wu Ying immediately stepped back, and Wu Ying herself felt her heart rate spike.
When the other party walked up to her and handed over the racket, Wu Ying reacted half a beat too slow before reaching out to take it—her hand was trembling slightly.
By the time she came back to her senses, she was already standing on the court.
The tall zombie who had stepped off stood at the sidelines watching with the others, while the female zombie on the opposite side of the net held her racket and waited seriously for her to serve.
Wu Ying took a deep breath and served—
Wen Yi got out of the vehicle, preparing to head to the activity area to eat. Before she even got close, she heard that it was a bit noisy over there. When she walked closer, she found that there was no one by the tables and chairs—everyone was gathered around the open space, crowding so tightly that it was completely packed.
Through the shifting heads, Wen Yi could only see a badminton shuttlecock flying into the air from time to time.
So many people watching a badminton game?
Wen Yi noticed that even the people cooking were wearing aprons and holding large ladles, standing behind the crowd and craning their necks to look. The soup boiling in the big pot over there was unattended and about to spill over.
“What’s going on?”
In this team, Wen Yi was the decision-maker, and her personality was overly cold. Whether it was the soldiers responsible for protecting them or the researchers in the team, they were all a bit afraid of her.
When they saw her approach, the tightly packed crowd slowly dispersed, revealing the two people playing badminton inside.
One was Wen Jiuzhe. The other was Captain Yao, who guarded the camp.
The shuttlecock, nearly losing all its feathers, flew back and forth between the two sides.
Earlier, this place had turned into a “play badminton with a zombie” experience area. With Wu Ying as the first, several girls had successively gone on the court to play badminton with Xue Ling.
It wasn’t mainly for playing badminton—it was curiosity about zombies that were the same as humans.
Later on, many soldiers also wanted to play, but they felt awkward about challenging Xue Ling, so Wen Jiuzhe went back onto the court.
“I didn’t expect you to adapt so well.” Wen Yi sat down with her meal tray.
Wen Jiuzhe had been a lone wolf since childhood. He never cared about the people around him, nor about whether he could fit into an environment.
For him to be this proactive—there was no need to think about it. It was to make the other person happy.
Xue Ling had played badminton with several people today and was in a very good mood. She sat at Wen Yi’s table and also pulled Wen Jiuzhe to sit down.
The people who had been playing and watching earlier all began eating. The open space was filled with the aroma of food. Only in front of Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe was there no food.
“Go sit somewhere else. I don’t have much appetite, and seeing you makes it even worse.” Wen Yi said to Wen Jiuzhe.
Wen Jiuzhe sat there with his legs apart, arms crossed, pretending not to hear her, and asked on the tablet: “You study zombies—do you know what zombies can eat besides people?”
If there was anything zombies could eat, it would be good to help Xue Ling ease her cravings. Her eyes were practically falling into other people’s bowls.
Wen Yi glanced at him while holding her chopsticks. “You really are ignorant.”
“A zombie’s digestive system has already stopped functioning. How could they possibly eat?”
“‘Zombies eat people’ is a widely acknowledged fallacy. In reality, zombies don’t eat people. They only have the impulse to infect humans, and will attack humans through grabbing, biting, and similar means to complete the infection.”
“If zombies ate people, cities would be full of bones left over from being eaten, not piles of zombies that can’t be killed off.”
“So if someone was eaten by zombies, that can only mean they were unlucky—the zombie virus infected their body too slowly, there were too many zombies around, and the zombies that noticed he hadn’t been infected yet each took a bite, biting him down to nothing.”
Wen Yi took a sip of soup. “You’ve been roaming around outside for so long. Haven’t you observed such an obvious fact?”
Wen Jiuzhe hadn’t paid attention to it. When normal people saw zombies eating people, they would either kill them or run away as fast as possible—who would stand there observing whether the zombies finished eating the person.
Xue Ling felt like she had been scolded too, because she hadn’t paid attention to that either.
Wen Jiuzhe was already used to Wen Yi’s temperament. Not even his eyebrows moved as he extracted the key point: “So you’re saying that even if zombies bite people a few more times, they’ll still feel hungry. Eating anything is useless, and they can only endure it, right.”
Wen Yi let out a light sigh and set down the meal she had barely eaten a few bites of. “Actually, my teacher believes that the zombie virus is an unknown organism that resides within the human body. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t really count as a virus.”
“It parasitizes the human body, causes bodily death, and drives the corpse to move in order to reproduce. ‘Infection’ is its method of reproduction.”
“A zombie’s ‘hunger’ is also an illusion created by this organism in order to complete its reproductive task—meant to drive the parasitized body to seek out hosts suitable for reproduction.”
