This mission location was Jiading Island, an island.
Xue Ling woke up at just the right time—right when the mission had already been completed, and everyone was very relaxed.
A group of people with nothing to do for the moment carried buckets and torn fishing nets, rummaging for food along the rocky shore and the seaside.
After the period of resource shortages in the apocalypse, people were very enthusiastic about anything edible.
When Wen Jiuzhe appeared with Xue Ling, it did not draw any attention.
Everyone had long been used to these two being inseparable, and they were also very clear that they posed no danger; of course, when there was nothing going on, it was best not to get too close.
For their own safety, and also to avoid provoking Xue Ling.
When Xue Ling was brought out by Wen Jiuzhe, she carefully observed these people’s faces, wanting to see if there was anyone she recognized.
Unfortunately, they knew her, but she was unfamiliar with everyone.
Wen Jiuzhe deliberately led Xue Ling to a stretch of beach far from the crowd, where the water quality was a bit better.
“Ao ao ao ao ao!” Xue Ling vented a stifling breath from her body toward the sea surface under the setting sun.
The surging tide made people feel an urge to “go with the flow.” Xue Ling ran toward the seawater, ao ao-ing as she went, stumbling with deep and shallow steps.
Then a wave rushed over and slapped her down into the seawater.
Wen Jiuzhe, following behind, was not prepared for her sudden dash and did not manage to grab her in time: “……”
He quickly went over and fished the dazed Xue Ling out of the water.
The empty handcuff in his hand had its other end cuffed back onto Xue Ling’s wrist.
Xue Ling: “……”
Wen Jiuzhe pulled out the tablet: “So you don’t get swept away. If you get swept into the open sea, I’d still have to go start a salvage boat……”
Xue Ling didn’t bother arguing with him, ignored the handcuff on her wrist, and directly took hold of his hand, stopping him from finishing his sentence.
Then she ao ao-ed again and charged toward the small waves.
Wen Jiuzhe was like a pillar, firmly rooted in the ground. Xue Ling dragged him along; although the seawater washing up to their knees knocked her about unsteadily, she would not fall.
Whenever Xue Ling felt she was about to lose her footing and fall, Wen Jiuzhe would lift her up.
On the shore over there, a group of soldiers were lighting fires on the spot to eat seafood. Xue Ling finally was willing to come out of the water, walked onto the beach, picked up a small twig, and scribbled on the sand.
“Like a dream. Blink, and a year has passed.”
Wen Jiuzhe poked at the tablet, and soon a flat voice came out: “Get up, don’t sit on the sand. You look like a fried chicken drumstick coated all over in breadcrumbs.”
Xue Ling: “……”
I want to talk to you about something emotional—what are you even saying?
She stood up and angrily patted the sand off her body.
Restarted the topic: “How have you been this past year?”
Wen Jiuzhe: “Very fulfilling. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, twenty-four hours a day, full-time work. Not a single day off.”
Xue Ling: “……” Even for a corpse, this job is a bit hellish.
Wen Jiuzhe: “You’re also very hard to handle. If I don’t take you out for one day, you smash things—more irritable than other zombies. Take you out, and you want to attack people; I can’t even pull you back.”
Xue Ling: “……” This description sounds strangely familiar.
Wen Jiuzhe: “Although we live in a base apartment building without soundproofing, because you always howl in the middle of the night, I often receive complaints and dissatisfaction from nearby neighbors, but after they see you, they don’t dare come over to argue face-to-face.”
Xue Ling: “……” So miserable—I mean the neighbors.
Wen Jiuzhe: “When I take you on missions, if I don’t cuff you, in the blink of an eye you’ll blend into a group of zombies, wandering around with the others. I cordon off an entire street and search for ages before finding you.”
“Alright, stop talking.”
Xue Ling snatched Wen Jiuzhe’s tablet away, shocked by his extremely fast typing speed.
His face had grown thinner, but his movements had also become faster.
“My fault, okay, I’ll apologize to you.”
“I’m sorry, I caused you trouble.”
Wen Jiuzhe picked up the small twig she had dropped and scribbled on the ground: “It’s not trouble. It’s just that without anyone to argue with me, every day is very boring.”
Because it was boring, he could only desperately do missions.
“……You really don’t think I’m trouble?” As soon as Xue Ling heard his classic way of making big things small and small things trivial, she knew the actual situation had to be much worse than what he said.
For over a year, it felt like a dream to her. She still didn’t have much sense of reality, but Wen Jiuzhe had to walk through it day by day. Bringing her along, he must have encountered many things.
Just thinking about it made Xue Ling feel suffocated.
“I must have caused you a lot of trouble……” Xue Ling lowered her head.
Wen Jiuzhe used the web between his thumb and forefinger to lift her sharp chin and showed the tablet: “You call the daily events of three meals a day trouble?”
Xue Ling: “……”
Such a very “Wen Jiuzhe”-style comfort.
Come to think of it, with such frequency, it really is impossible to feel apologetic.
“Then how is Wen Yi, how is Laboratory 8027, and how is the research on the zombie virus vaccine?” Xue Ling asked.
Wen Jiuzhe: “Let’s continue talking about the trouble you brought me.”
Xue Ling: “Didn’t you say it doesn’t count as trouble?!”
Wen Jiuzhe: “I was just being polite to you and you took it seriously. Listen properly, then thank me properly.”
Xue Ling: “Thank your head. If you’ve got the ability, throw me into a trash can!”
Wen Jiuzhe suddenly fell silent. Xue Ling began to reflect on whether she had gone too far; actually, saying thank you wouldn’t be a big deal.
“It’s this kind of arguing feeling. It’s very good.” After the silence, Wen Jiuzhe said this, raising his thumb to signal her to continue.
Xue Ling: “……” Are you sick, seriously!
༚༅༚˳ . . ˳༚༅༚
Night fell.
When Xue Ling stepped out of the room, what she had wanted—to have a proper heart-to-heart talk with Wen Jiuzhe and understand the current situation—was not accomplished at all. Instead, for no clear reason, they used a tablet and beach writing to exchange a pile of nonsense.
“Don’t keep leading me astray!” Xue Ling reminded him. This stretch of beach had already been written into a complete mess by them.
“It’s dark. What’s there to write? Can’t see clearly,” Wen Jiuzhe wrote.
You can obviously see clearly. You’re just doing this to oppose me! Xue Ling decided to stop talking and go back to take a shower.
Her body had been soaked in seawater and then covered in sand, wet and heavy, psychologically uncomfortable.
The temporary small room they were staying in had usable water, and there was even a small bathtub inside.
Xue Ling locked the door, sat in the bathtub, scrubbed herself, and quietly measured her body data at the same time.
How had she suddenly woken up again after a year in that state back then? Wen Jiuzhe didn’t say a word about it.
The locked bathroom door was suddenly clicked open from the outside. Wen Jiuzhe walked in naturally and placed some things beside the bathtub.
“Use this body wash and shampoo. The ones that were here before have all expired. Your sleepwear and slippers are here too. Do you want a scrubbing towel?”
Xue Ling was still holding the posture of measuring her neck circumference, her hands not yet lowered. Wen Jiuzhe glanced at the soft measuring tape around her neck and, tapping the tablet, reminded her with a serious face: “Don’t hang yourself in the bathroom.”
Who hangs themselves in the bathroom—are your eyes broken?!
Xue Ling splashed water at him.
Wen Jiuzhe put the things down and went out. When he reached the doorway, he paused again, tapped the tablet, and a message came out: “No need to secretly measure. Your data is recorded every week. If you want to see it, you can check it on the tablet.”
After it finished playing, he closed the door.
Xue Ling: “……” She held her breath and sank into the bathtub, thrashing like a shark.
After rolling around, she climbed back up and leaned on the edge of the tub, picked up the body wash Wen Jiuzhe had brought, and looked at it.
Wow—it was actually produced by the Northern Base this year. It looked like the production of daily necessities was already recovering. The outside world really was getting better.
What was recovering wasn’t just these small daily necessities. The next day, they were leaving this place, and Xue Ling discovered that they were actually taking a train back to the Northern Base.
“Don’t be so surprised. Only a very small portion of high-speed rail and regular trains have resumed operation, used to connect several important large bases and some special cities. Ordinary people still can’t ride them. Only specific groups on missions can hitch a ride,” Wen Jiuzhe explained, pushing her onto the platform.
There was even manual ticket checking. The woman checking tickets smiled, took the two cards from Wen Jiuzhe with gloved hands, verified them on a machine, and handed them back to him:
“Thank you very much. If you have any issues on the train, you may go to Car One to find the attendant. Wishing the two of you a pleasant journey and smooth travels.”
There were only a few cars in total. In the car Xue Ling boarded, most of the seats had been removed. Only two seats remained in the front row; the empty space behind was all for cargo.
In fact, this small resumption of trains and high-speed rail was not mainly for carrying passengers, but for transport.
The other soldiers boarded one after another, but they were in another car.
Wen Jiuzhe brought Xue Ling into a separate car. This had always been his habit. Their car was a cargo car, with two spots specially opened up for them.
Xue Ling sat down and reached out to Wen Jiuzhe, wanting to see the cards he had taken out earlier.
“What cards are those?”
“They’re new ID cards.”
“New ID cards? Let me see. I already have an ID card too.”
Xue Ling saw that the card had her name, date of birth, and registered base.
There was also a special note: identity—Beizheng Base Special Operations Squad member, number S0.
Next to the text was a photo. It wasn’t her gaunt zombie face, but a photo taken from when she was human.
She still remembered—it was cut from a certain Polaroid photo.
Wen Jiuzhe’s ID card was the same as hers, only with a different number. He was S9. His photo was cut from the same Polaroid picture as hers.
She stared at the two ID cards for a long time. Wen Jiuzhe told her, “That number doesn’t represent the number of people in a squad. The two of us are just a single squad.”
General Hao had specially set up the establishment just for them, and the numbering was deliberately teasing, using homophones of their names.
With the two simple ID cards, Xue Ling flipped them back and forth for a long time before handing them back to Wen Jiuzhe.
Wen Jiuzhe: “You don’t want to keep yours yourself?”
Xue Ling shook her head and stacked the two ID cards together: “You keep them.”
The train ran for a full day and night. Although it was still much slower than before the apocalypse, it was far faster than driving themselves.
The train basically didn’t stop along the way and didn’t pass through those large stations either.
Wen Jiuzhe told her that it was because there were too many zombies in the major stations. Many zombies had piled up on the tracks and blocked them. There wasn’t enough manpower to clear each station one by one, so for now they could only detour around them.
Xue Ling knew this. She had once gone to a high-speed rail station when she was lost, climbed up onto the platform along the tracks, and searched for a map and route diagram inside the station before figuring out where she had wandered to.
“It’s already recovering pretty fast. In a few more years, maybe it’ll be fully restored,” Xue Ling optimistically expressed her view.
Wen Jiuzhe didn’t react to her words at all, as if he hadn’t heard them.
After getting off the train, they still had to drive for half a day before they could return to Beizheng Base.
Returning to that secret research base felt like a replay of the first time they came here. Xue Ling was once again sitting in Wen Jiuzhe’s passenger seat, seeing a row of stern soldiers standing guard at the entrance.
But this time, she recognized several of the soldiers inside.
So she opened the window and waved at them.
Seeing her gesture, several people widened their eyes and couldn’t maintain their stern expressions.
Haha!
When the car drove forward and they could no longer be seen, Xue Ling pulled her head back in.
She saw Wen Yi again. The person who hadn’t changed much compared to over a year ago was talking downstairs with her junior sister, Xu Zhihua.
Turning around, she saw Xue Ling, who was pulling Wen Jiuzhe along and waving vigorously. Wen Yi stopped talking and stood where she was, waiting for them to come over.
Then she stepped forward and gave Xue Ling a brief hug.
After that, she said coldly, “Perfect timing. Go rein in Wen Jiuzhe. He kicked and broke seven tables in the conference room and also damaged several instruments in my lab.”
Xue Ling: “……”
Not a single word of greeting—what followed was a victim filing a complaint against Wen Jiuzhe.
