Academician Ji Shiping finally woke up after being unconscious for several days.
The moment he woke up, he murmured indistinctly, “My experimental data…”
The student guarding him, Lin Shuyang, hurried closer and said, “Teacher, don’t worry, we brought all the materials out, nothing was lost.”
The old man said something else that was hard to make out, vaguely sounding like “how many people” or the like.
Lin Shuyang understood and said, “Xiao Li and the others are all fine, we’re all okay.”
Academician Ji vaguely said “good,” and then fell unconscious again.
By the time he truly regained consciousness, half a month had already passed.
Academician Ji saw several unfamiliar faces beside him. After hearing that they had contacted the Northern Base and that the Northern Base had sent people over, he immediately became excited again, and was pressed back down by the doctor for quite a while before his emotions finally settled and he could speak slowly.
His spirits were weak, and his speech was not very clear, yet he still worried about his experiment.
“I was in Laboratory 8027… the experiment started… many samples, materials, there was no time to… take them away… later in Jin’an, Xilin… restarted… lacked experimental equipment…”
Lin Shuyang did not let him speak for too long, and quickly soothed him, saying, “I’ve already told them everything about the situation, Teacher, you should rest well first.”
Yang Luo and Wen Yi also came over to visit, and sat nearby.
Yang Luo was the first to speak in comfort: “Academician Ji, I’m Yang Luo, a student of Teacher Qi Zhenguang. Please rest assured, this time we brought an entire research team with us, and we will definitely be able to assist you in completing the research on the virus vaccine. Right now, the most urgent thing is for you to recover your health as soon as possible, so you can better lead us!”
Hearing him speak with such passion, Academician Ji smiled, then looked toward Wen Yi and said with effort, “Your teacher… is Rong Lanjia, right… I know you… she told me about you…”
“Yes, my name is Wen Yi. These past three years, at the Beizheng Base, my teacher has also made some breakthroughs in virus research. I’ve brought all the materials over. Lin-laoshi also showed me part of your research here, and I gained a lot of inspiration from it and have some new ideas. I hope to receive your guidance,” Wen Yi leaned closer to the old man and said softly and gently.
“Good, good, everyone work hard, unite and cooperate…” Academician Ji said.
Seeing how happily he smiled at Wen Yi, Yang Luo could not help but curl his lip imperceptibly. He had long heard that Academician Ji had a closer personal relationship with President Rong, but this favoritism was really obvious.
After Academician Ji’s condition improved a bit, he could not wait to continue his previous research.
Long’an Ancient City had initially only been a place used out of necessity for temporary refuge, and there were no research conditions here at all.
Academician Ji hoped even more to return to Laboratory 8027. There were ready-made instruments there, as well as the samples and data he had originally left behind, and it was also very close to where the meteorites had fallen on a large scale.
After detailed understanding and consideration, the team’s overall commander decided to first arrange for part of the personnel to go to Laboratory 8027 to clear out the zombies.
The remaining part of the personnel would temporarily station themselves in Long’an Ancient City, and once Academician Ji’s condition was completely stable, they would set out for Laboratory 8027 to rendezvous.
Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe were among the first batch of people heading to Laboratory 8027.
Laboratory 8027 was a secret laboratory hidden in the Gobi, and had existed for several decades.
“The northwest is so desolate. I heard that around Laboratory 8027 there are vast stretches of Gobi. There shouldn’t be that many people in the research institute either, so how did it fall?”
On the road, someone asked curiously, questioning a soldier who had been protecting Academician Ji and had always stayed by his side.
This soldier was Li Shixi, the one who had climbed onto the rooftop back then, discovered Xue Ling, and been the first to make contact with her.
He gave a bitter smile and explained, “There aren’t any cities around Laboratory 8027, but nearby, there was a military unit stationed.”
“When the apocalypse arrived, it was said that they were conducting closed training over there.”
What exactly happened no one knew. In any case, by the time they discovered it, there were no living people left inside, only a group of zombies trapped within.
They had been searching for food in the surrounding area and accidentally discovered this military garrison. Overjoyed, they wanted to seek help, but inadvertently released those zombies, resulting in Laboratory 8027 being besieged and overrun.
The location of Laboratory 8027 was truly too remote, supplies were very difficult to obtain, and after the apocalypse, ensuring food became even harder.
They had already been short-handed. Part of their people went out every day to look for food, while the rest stayed behind to guard and protect Academician Ji and the others.
Ammunition was also consumed quickly. Surrounded by zombies, they fought desperately to escape, and then began moving from place to place.
Li Shixi did not explain very clearly, but everyone understood what that situation must have been like, and could not help falling into silence.
But this silence did not last long. The apocalypse had gone on for so long that those still alive had seen far too many tragedies.
When the vehicles stopped and they began cooking, the group held bowls of steaming, fragrant food, and smiles appeared on their faces again.
The past could not be changed, and the future could not be determined, but being able to sit in this wilderness and eat a hot meal at the present moment was something that made people feel happy.
The two in the team who could not eat wandered around by the roadside.
They were preparing to rest in this area for the night. Nearby was an abandoned power plant. Xue Ling looked at the tall cooling towers over there with curiosity, and Wen Jiuzhe suggested going over to take a look.
The two of them were the same now. There was no need to leave one behind outside; they could act together.
There were zombies inside the power plant. When they passed by and made noise, the zombies let out roars, restlessly scratching at the metal doors inside.
Xue Ling also howled outside the door, but her howling was very light and cheerful, like happily humming a song.
There was actually nothing much to see in the power plant. The tall cooling tower that looked impressive from afar did not have anything special once you got close. Xue Ling was still full of interest, climbing down to the base and finding the entrance to go in and explore.
Wen Jiuzhe went around with her. Two zombies tilted their heads, looking at the patch of sky encircled above the cooling tower.
After they came out, they also climbed up another observation tower.
Grasping the peeling, rusted handrails, they reached the top of the tower, where they could see their temporary camp not far away, a few lights glowing, with some figures moving among the convoy.
Looking farther out, there was the horizon disappearing at the edge of the sky.
The afterglow of the setting sun was slowly swallowed by that line, turning ink-blue.
Wen Jiuzhe sat on the platform. At first, Xue Ling sat beside him, then slowly lay down on his legs, using a more comfortable position to watch the sunset.
When the sky was completely dark, Wen Jiuzhe did not say it was time to leave, and Xue Ling lay there quietly as well.
The wind was strong at such a height, but who cared? Zombies would not catch a cold anyway.
One sitting, one lying, they stayed here quietly for an entire night, watched a sunrise, and only then climbed down the tower and returned to the team, following the convoy onward.
Further ahead, they would be entering an uninhabited zone.
A long highway stretched across the yellow earth. There was not a single car on the road, nor were there any zombies to be seen—only them.
Wen Jiuzhe finally realized belatedly just how well-liked Xue Ling was within the team.
It started when he found a pretty stone in the Gobi Desert and casually gave it to Xue Ling. Xue Ling carried it with her and played with it every day.
Seeing that she liked them, the soldiers in the team would pick up pretty stones they found along the way and give them to her.
The first soldier to come give Xue Ling a stone was stared at by Wen Jiuzhe for a long time. When the second, the third… more than a dozen came, Wen Jiuzhe stopped looking at them and looked at Xue Ling.
“What do they mean?”
“To thank me,” Xue Ling told Wen Jiuzhe. “When I was doing missions, I brought them some things they needed, so everyone takes good care of me.”
Because she had taken care of them, they thanked her.
“And that one, he’s from Shen Zhang’s team. You didn’t take care of him, right?”
Why was he also coming to give some stone?
Xue Ling answered as a matter of course: “Then he must have been taken care of by you, so he’s giving me a stone to express his thanks.”
Wen Jiuzhe, who had not taken care of anyone in the team: “……”
On the other side, the soldier who tentatively went to give a stone returned to his teammates, and everyone asked him, “How was it? Did Wen Jiuzhe react when you gave the stone?”
The soldier said, “He kept staring at me, I think he remembered me! This method of building a relationship works!”
After a whole group swarmed over to give Xue Ling stones, Wen Jiuzhe directly hooked his arms under Xue Ling’s armpits and lifted her out of the crowd.
Forced to hold her arms up, stretched like a clothes rack, Xue Ling: “……”
How ridiculous. Was he actually getting jealous? She was a zombie, okay? Her appearance would soon rival an alien!
What was the difference between him and those men whose girlfriends are drop-dead gorgeous but still worry someone will steal them?
But Wen Jiuzhe didn’t take this jealousy very seriously either. He even helped pick through the stones others had given, keeping some pretty little ones.
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
The Gobi was desolate. Laboratory 8027 was in the uninhabited zone. After a certain stretch of road, there was a piece of fencing by the roadside that symbolically blocked the way.
A local soldier said, “This area used to be completely sealed off. No one was allowed to come over. I heard that even self-driving tourists who reached this junction would be stopped.”
But hidden here, the mysterious Laboratory 8027 was not a lofty place, nor did it have the metallic, high-tech feel of some science fiction films.
In reality, after they turned onto a small road and arrived, what they saw was a cluster of small buildings, mostly three to four stories high, with dull yellow exteriors that were inconspicuous and a bit old.
There was a small basketball court in front, a small canteen, experimental buildings and dormitories, and also a small power station.
The soldiers put on thick protective gear, split into small teams to cover one another, and began skillfully clearing the zombies outside.
Xue Ling and Wen Jiuzhe went into the buildings to scout the interior, avoiding blind spots and hidden angles where zombies might launch surprise attacks, effectively reducing the casualty rate of the clearing teams.
None of this work was very complicated. After one or two days of handling it, all that remained was to wait for Academician Ji and the others to arrive.
During the time they waited, Xue Ling also went with Wen Jiuzhe to look at the meteorite impact site.
The yellow earth was full of pits, and beside some of the pits were signs and markers, probably left by Academician Ji’s team before.
They arrived faster than expected, and once they did, a group of researchers plunged straight into the laboratory, working day and night without rest. Academician Ji sat in a wheelchair, receiving IV drips every day, yet still stayed in the laboratory, refusing to leave.
The others in the team were all busy—some went to look for food, some searched for oil to keep the power station running, some patrolled the surrounding area every day to clear zombies, some protected the researchers as they went to the meteorite zone to collect samples…
Soon, good news came one after another. Their research had made a new breakthrough.
The new virus named RE by Academician Ji could deactivate the zombie virus. After zombies were injected with this drug, they would completely die within ten minutes to an hour.
Unfortunately, this substance was very difficult to extract. It existed only in some meteorites, and the quantity was too small. At present, artificial synthesis was still impossible; otherwise, it would have replaced firearms and become the most useful weapon against zombies.
Combined with the research results of Academician Rong Lanjia’s team, the drug they developed could make the zombie virus lose its infectivity.
Zombies injected with this drug would no longer attack humans and would not die immediately, still maintaining a certain level of activity.
When injected into infected individuals who had been infected by the zombie virus but had not yet completely turned into zombies, although the infected person died, the zombification process was halted midway, and many of the cells in the body had their metabolic speed increase by several times during this process.
For several days, the group of researchers were all in high spirits, and even Wen Yi’s face showed a bit of a smile.
