Chapter 54

If zombies don’t rely on eating humans to sustain themselves, how do they manage to keep moving for extended periods?

If, as Wen Yi said, it’s not a virus controlling the zombies’ bodies but some unknown organism, where did it come from, and how did it suddenly emerge?

Zombies don’t need to sleep, so as Xue Ling lay on her bunk that night, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Wen Yi had said during dinner.

Unfortunately, Wen Yi had only said a few things before putting down her unfinished meal and going back to work.

Xue Ling, lying on her bed, let her mind wander. She saw an insect crawl across the tent and thought:

The unknown organism that turns humans into zombies sounded like some sort of parasite.

Does that mean every zombie carries one of these “bugs” inside?

She couldn’t control her imagination, picturing the sensation of a bug crawling inside her body. She shuddered involuntarily and rubbed her dry arms.

Lying beside her, Wen Jiuze grabbed her arm and looked at it, letting out a questioning “Aww.”

The tent had a bunk bed, but Xue Ling chose the bottom because climbing to the top was too difficult. Wen Jiuze didn’t want to stay on the upper bunk either.

Once Xue Ling had settled into the lower bunk, he lay down beside her.

A single bed was obviously too small for two people, so most of Wen Jiuze’s body hung off the side. He had placed two chairs next to the bed and propped his body and legs up on them.

— He had to squeeze in with her.

Xue Ling tried to tell him to go to the top bunk, but he simply showed her the screen of his tablet, saying, “I’m afraid it’ll crush you if I go up.”

Xue Ling insisted it wouldn’t happen. The iron-framed bed was quite sturdy.

Wen Jiuze grabbed the bed frame and shook it. The creaking sound made Xue Ling hurriedly stop him.

Not only did she fear he might break the bed with his strength, but she also worried about what people passing by might think of their actions.

Two zombies, who followed human routines, lay under the narrow bunk bed for a long time. Wen Jiuze remained silent, and if it weren’t for the fact that zombies don’t sleep, Xue Ling would have thought he had fallen asleep.

When Xue Ling quietly rubbed her arm, Wen Jiuze bent his knee, his foot touching the chair as he sat up. He grabbed the tablet and asked, “Rubbing your arm, are there bugs crawling on it?”

Xue Ling shook her head.

She took the tablet from him and, under the dim light, saw Wen Jiuze’s current appearance. His face, now covered with grayish-blue skin, resembled an inanimate stone statue, so lifeless that it seemed like it would crumble if touched.

Suddenly, she asked him, “Now that you’ve turned into this, are you used to it?”

“I’m used to it. I’ve long envied you for not needing to eat or sleep,” Wen Jiuze replied.

Even without him speaking, Xue Ling could imagine his casual tone as he said it. His words made it seem as though he truly didn’t care about anything.

It wasn’t until Xue Ling saw Wen Jiuze watching others eat during a meal that she truly realized he had also become a zombie.

Despite her relief that she hadn’t lost him, she felt a complex mix of longing, helplessness, and sadness.

When Wen Jiuze had discovered that she still had consciousness, he had once said, “It’s good that you’re still here.”

Now, Xue Ling felt that way too, but she realized this feeling wasn’t purely happiness; it was also filled with regrets and sorrow.

“You’ve turned into a zombie too,” Xue Ling tapped the tablet.

Wen Jiuze responded, “How fresh! I’ve been a zombie for so long, and you just realized it.”

Xue Ling: “…”

After learning from Wen Yi that Wen Jiuze could still talk, Xue Ling hadn’t called him out, wanting to see how long he could keep up the act.

But tonight, as they used the tablet to talk, Wen Jiuze really didn’t say a word, which made Xue Ling feel a little uneasy.

She knew he was deliberately trying to act the same as her.

Earlier, when he had pulled her into the crowd at the activity area, he had been taking care of her feelings.

When he was still human, he would avoid crowds and live alone with her at the foot of a desolate mountain, even walking into cities full of zombies for her.

Now that he had turned into a zombie, he still thought of her and actively led her into the crowd.

As she had said to Wen Yi, Wen Jiuze was thoughtful and considerate—truly so.

Xue Ling stretched out her hand, wrapping her arms around Wen Jiuze’s neck, burying her face in his now rigid, bluish skin.

In the past, Xue Ling rarely took the initiative with intimate gestures, fearing that he would be infected with the zombie virus. But now, she didn’t mind, holding him tightly without worrying about her nails digging in.

Suddenly being embraced so tightly, Wen Jiuze fell onto her pillow, his feet still hanging off the ground.

One of his hands was pinned by Xue Ling, while the other tapped the tablet, asking with a hint of curiosity:

“Out of the blue, did the living people trigger something in you today?”

“Did you realize they’re afraid of you and feel sad?”

“Or do you not like their strange looks?”

Xue Ling didn’t look up but mumbled a strange zombie-like sound.

Wen Jiuze pulled her onto his chest, lying back into her previous position, legs crossed on the bed frame.

“Is there something else that made you want to cry? Let’s alk about it.”

The female voice from the tablet somehow made Xue Ling feel a trace of mockery.

She immediately looked up and grabbed the tablet. “I’m not crying.”

“Oh, so it’s twelve o’clock. Time to start getting emo?”

Xue Ling snatched the tablet away to stop him from speaking.

She typed a message but deleted it, backspacing for a long time until only one sentence remained: “If you really don’t want to stay here, we can figure out a way to leave.”

Finally, Wen Jiuze understood what had been bothering her all night.

She had always been like this—when she felt happy and comfortable, she started wondering if others would also be happy because of it. If they weren’t as happy as she was, she would feel that her own happiness was somehow wrong.

“I don’t care where I am. I’m just annoyed by Wen Yi,” Wen Jiuze told her.

He was afraid that if he wasn’t careful, Xue Ling would let Wen Yi dissect her. Wen Yi, that ruthless woman, would definitely do it without hesitation.

“Don’t worry. This place is fine. No need to drive or wander around. No pressure. Don’t worry too much about the corpse. The more you worry, the faster it’ll end.”

Xue Ling: “…”

“Are you going to miss me when I leave in a few days? If you do, just say it.”

Wen Jiuze continued to swipe on the tablet.

Xue Ling: “…”

Facing that dog-like face, she really didn’t want to admit she would miss him.

In the end, they spent the entire night chatting about meaningless topics.

Unable to speak, they relied solely on typing on the tablet to communicate, which made Xue Ling think about the past.

During their dating days, Wen Jiuze had disliked chatting through texts.

Unlike other people his age who preferred messaging or voice chats, Wen Jiuze preferred to talk on the phone or in person.

At the beginning of their relationship, when Xue Ling didn’t fully understand his habits, she would initiate awkward small talk, but Wen Jiuze would always reply with very brief messages.

She felt uncomfortable because of his short responses, thinking he was too indifferent. However, when she looked up, she saw him standing at the door of their shared classroom.

It was raining heavily outside, and his hair and pants were soaked.

Xue Ling quickly ran over and asked why he was there. He replied, “You didn’t say anything on the phone, so I came over to see if something was wrong.”

Xue Ling was too embarrassed to say that she was just trying to chat out of politeness because she remembered that she had a boyfriend.

Wen Jiuze waited for her to speak, and she finally managed to say, “Let’s have lunch together.”

It seemed that from then on, he assumed whenever she contacted him, she wanted to see him.

When Xue Ling went to the library and saw the sunset, she took a photo and shared it with him. Soon, he would show up, following the fading light of the sun.

Looking as though he had just woken up, his messy hair framing his face, he lazily asked her, “What’s up?”

Xue Ling would say, “Let’s walk around the playground.”

When she went out with her friends and saw something interesting, she took a photo and sent it to him.

Wen Jiuze immediately asked, “Where are you?”

Xue Ling quickly understood what he meant and replied, “Don’t come!”

She still had to have dinner with her friends and didn’t have time to accompany him.

Later, as their relationship became more intimate, Xue Ling asked him, “Why do you always reply with such short messages?”

He said, “I’m too lazy to type.”

Now, after becoming a zombie, he could still talk but chose not to, even though they exchanged 3,000 words in one evening.

He wasn’t lazy anymore.

They had rested at the camp for a day, and the next day, they saw two cars drive into the camp. Several people got out of the cars and went to report to Wen Yi’s RV.

Xue Ling then learned why they had camped here and blocked the road. It turned out they had marked off an area up ahead for an experiment.

Wen Yi’s team wasn’t just researching the zombie virus vaccine. They were also working on other studies, like developing a scent-based agent to confuse zombies’ senses. There had been some initial results, so they were testing it in the surrounding area.

Now, the test results were in, but the effects weren’t very good.

“In the lab, in a confined space, there was some effect, but in the natural environment, it didn’t work as well. The drug’s ability to confuse the zombies was very brief, less than five minutes.”

“We increased the drug’s concentration, and at first, it had some effect, but as they breathed and sweated, the zombies soon sensed them.”

“All five test subjects showed unsatisfactory results.”

The accompanying researcher spoke with visible disappointment.

Wen Yi didn’t show much reaction as she listened. She simply said, “Got it. You can finish compiling the data and then take Luo Chun and Liu Zhe to start the second phase of testing.”

They had been in a hurry to develop this to equip the special operations team and increase their chances of successfully completing missions inside zombie cities.

But now that they had better candidates for the mission, it wasn’t as urgent.

The researchers were used to facing setbacks, and when they saw that Wen Yi didn’t scold them, the young researcher who had just shown disappointment quickly gathered himself and said, “Alright, we’ll keep working hard!”

He got out of Wen Yi’s car and almost ran into Xue Ling’s face. Startled, he screamed and fell backward into the car, landing right by Wen Yi’s feet.

Wen Yi lifted her foot and lightly kicked his shoulder. “Get up. She’s a special zombie, like Zeng Yitong. She won’t bite you.”

The young man stood up with an embarrassed expression, adjusting his glasses. “Oh, oh, a zombie… Huh? This is a special zombie?! Does that mean we could use her for the control group experiment?”

Behind Xue Ling, Wen Jiuze’s face appeared, his cold eyes fixed on the researcher.

The researcher’s surprised smile froze on his face.

Wen Yi explained, “The one behind is also a special zombie, but he might bite people. Don’t provoke him.”

Wen Jiuze blocked the car door, glaring fiercely. The young researcher hesitated, too afraid to leave the car and could only look to Wen Yi for help.

At that moment, another researcher behind Wen Jiuze nervously spoke up, “Um… Could you move? I need help from Dr. Wen… Mr. Zeng in the medical vehicle has woken up.”