Chapter 17

Wen Jiuze didn’t rush to hit the road. He drove slowly, often teasing Xue Ling until she would shout at him or hit him, which made him happy.

Since the reunion, he had only pretended for three seconds, the three seconds when he called her Sister Ling, and then he was too lazy to pretend anymore, and his old illness relapsed, revealing his true colors.

Xue Ling grew increasingly annoyed with him. She just wanted to sit quietly in the passenger seat for a moment, even feeling a bit nostalgic for the days before everything was laid bare.

Back then, Wen Jiuze had driven in silence, occasionally talking to himself, and he didn’t necessarily expect her to respond. It was so peaceful. Now, it was all too annoying.

With Wen Jiuze’s lack of focus on driving, they would have already been in an accident if there had been any other cars on the road.

Frustrated with Wen Jiuze’s antics, Xue Ling couldn’t take it anymore. She started writing on her board, making it clack loudly.

“Stop bothering me! Focus on driving!”

Wen Jiuze glanced at what she had written and suddenly yawned.

Leaning back in his seat, one hand lazily resting on the steering wheel, he said, “I’m so sleepy. If you shout at me a few times, it might wake me up.”

While speaking, he suddenly jerked the steering wheel, maneuvering around a large truck that was blocking most of the street.

The car wheels hit the road’s edge, shaking the vehicle violently and almost sending it into a ditch, but Wen Jiuze quickly steered it back onto the road.

Xue Ling had been so focused on writing that she hadn’t noticed the road conditions. His sudden turn startled her, and her heart raced. Glancing at his lifeless expression, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was really planning to drive them to their doom.

Wen Jiuze had been a decent driver before the apocalypse. At least he followed traffic rules. However, after three years of apocalypse, he had driven on all sorts of terrible roads.

Bumpy fields, thorn-covered mountain paths, or even the rooftops of single-story houses—he could drive through almost anything.

Facing a normal road like the one in front of him, with no zombies or humans running out and no other cars to compete with and with minimal damage to the surface, it felt easy for him to drive like he was flying.

Now that Xue Ling was in the passenger seat, Wen Jiuze had restrained himself a bit.

For the previous two months, while following his cousin Dai Ying and their convoy, it had been Dai Ying driving for him because he couldn’t tolerate Wen Jiuze’s driving style.

After thinking for a moment, Xue Ling handed her writing board to Wen Jiuze. When he saw it, he exclaimed, “You want me to let you drive? Have you learned how to drive?”

Xue Ling wrote: I can’t drive.

Thinking about it made her angry. She had paid for driving school but hadn’t had the chance to learn before the zombie outbreak hit!

“I can learn,” she wrote.

Wen Jiuze suddenly perked up, smiling as he pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Alright, I’ll teach you how to drive.”

He seemed more interested in teaching her than in driving himself. He had her sit in the driver’s seat while he settled in beside her, explaining how to operate the vehicle.

His teaching style was simple. He gave a brief introduction and then encouraged Xue Ling to jump right in and try it out.

…Was it really that simple? Did he leave out some important steps? It felt like what he was explaining was different from what she had learned when she prepared to take driving lessons.

Just ten minutes ago, Xue Ling had been in the passenger seat saying she wanted to learn to drive. Now, she found herself in the driver’s seat, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly as they trembled with tension.

Wen Jiuze encouraged her from the side, saying, “Don’t worry, drive confidently forward.”

Xue Ling attempted to follow his brief instructions step by step, glancing at him after each action.

He remained cheerful, not correcting her mistakes, which made Xue Ling feel uneasy.

It reminded her of learning to drive at a driving school, where instructors were known for being impatient and often scolded their students.

She was worried that if she made a mistake, Wen Jiuze would mock her.

But he didn’t. Whether the car wouldn’t start, stalled, shot forward suddenly, or veered off the road, he simply said, “Don’t be afraid, keep driving.”

With his constant encouragement to “keep driving,” Xue Ling eventually managed to steer the car down a small hill, running over a patch of tall weeds.

Wen Jiuze laughed heartily as he maneuvered the car back onto the road and then handed the driver’s seat back to her.

“Just drive a bit longer, and you’ll get the hang of it. Go ahead.”

Xue Ling took the lesson seriously and soon began driving more smoothly. But seeing her tense and darkened eyes fixed intently on the road, oblivious to everything else around her, made Wen Jiuze reach over to gently ruffle her hair.

Xue Ling wanted to tell her instructor not to disturb the driver, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off the road, so she acted like a zombie with her teeth bared in displeasure.

Ahead, several abandoned cars cluttered the street, remnants of a past accident, leaving just enough space for one vehicle to pass through.

To avoid scraping the car against the wrecks, Xue Ling was extra cautious.

Just as she thought she could relax after navigating that section of the road, a figure suddenly appeared from behind the car and dashed into the street.

Instinctively, Xue Ling jerked the steering wheel, swerving to avoid the figure. The car skidded to the side, crashing into an abandoned truck.

In that moment of impact, everything went black for Xue Ling as Wen Jiuze pushed her down into his embrace.

Fortunately, his modified vehicle only suffered a dented hood.

Once Xue Ling struggled out of Wen Jiuze’s hold and confirmed he was fine, she looked back to see what had caused the commotion.

It wasn’t a living person. It was a zombie that had lurked behind the abandoned cars and stumbled into the road after hearing the noise.

Wen Jiuze glanced down at her, thinking she was scared. Just as he reached out to touch her head, Xue Ling pushed him aside.

She opened the car door and jumped out, catching Wen Jiuze off guard as he fell back into the passenger seat. He watched her angrily confront the zombie, kicking it to the ground.

Wen Jiuze: “…”

The zombie only reacted to living beings and was indifferent to its own kind. As Xue Ling rushed over, she pummeled the creature until it rolled into a ditch by the roadside.

On her first day of driving, Wen Jiuze realized that she seemed to have road rage.

Because from that moment on, every time he accidentally touched her or distracted her while she was driving, she would let out a furious roar.

Xue Ling: Don’t you love hearing the zombies scream? I’ll let you hear enough!

It was somewhat effective. After that, Wen Jiuze was much more subdued, even crossing his arms and dozing off in the car for a bit.

Eventually, when Xue Ling had driven enough, they stopped near the edge of town.

Wen Jiuze got out, grabbed some tools, and began to work on the dented hood of the car. Remembering how Xue Ling had acted earlier on the road, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

Xue Ling felt mentally exhausted, hugging her knees and sitting to the side as she watched Wen Jiuze fix the car, who occasionally paused to laugh without any apparent reason.

Was it really that funny that the car almost got wrecked?

Wen Jiuze was busy until very late before he started to eat his dinner, which was some compressed biscuits that were easy to eat and could fill his stomach quickly.

Xue Ling saw him eating these every day and wondered whether eating like this could really provide him with the necessary nutrients.

Looking closely, wasn’t Wen Jiuze’s profile too thin?

“This area has probably been cleared out. Are we sleeping outside tonight? It’s too stuffy in the car,” Wen Jiuze quickly finished eating, packed up, and said to Xue Ling.

He took something from the roof rack of the car, unfolding it for Xue Ling to see that it was a folding cot.

He set it up beside the car, laying out a mattress so it could be used for resting.

Zombies didn’t need to sleep, but having a comfortable place to lie down was also a form of mental rest.

Xue Ling walked over and lay down next to Wen Jiuze.

Wen Jiuze hadn’t rested well these past few days and fell asleep quickly today. Xue Ling could hear his deep, even breathing, along with the buzzing of mosquitoes.

In the wild, especially during this season, mosquitoes were inevitable.

Zombies didn’t attract mosquitoes, so all the little pests were buzzing around Wen Jiuze instead.

Xue Ling remembered the nights when she and Wen Jiuze would go for walks. She seemed to be a magnet for mosquitoes. Whenever they walked together, the mosquitoes would bite her and leave Wen Jiuze alone.

Now, it felt like karma had come around to bite him!

She chuckled to herself, enjoying the moment as she heard him slapping at mosquitoes on his arm. “Haha!” she teased softly.

Half-asleep, Wen Jiuze pulled her closer and, in a sleep-talking manner, asked, “Did you get bitten again? You should sleep in the car…”

Before he could finish, he suddenly woke up. After a moment of silence, he rubbed his forehead and said, “I forgot. You won’t get bitten by mosquitoes anymore.”

Xue Ling: “…”

The atmosphere turned somber, and she found it hard to laugh.

Wen Jiuze fell back asleep after making that comment.

The portable cot they were using wasn’t very big, and if he wasn’t careful, his feet would dangle off the edge.

Yet he slept soundly, undisturbed by the mosquitoes buzzing around him, even too lazy to swat them away.

He seemed to have grown accustomed to falling asleep in uncomfortable and harsh environments.

As the morning light began to filter in, Xue Ling noticed a flower-legged mosquito resting on his cheek.

She reached out to swat it but hesitated when she saw the dark red veins on the back of her pale hand and her long, pointed, discolored nails.

After a moment of hesitation, the mosquito flew away, and Xue Ling slowly retracted her hand.

It was a new day, and they took their time getting ready to explore the nearby urban-rural junction.

There were no living people left there, and it was clear that few people had passed through. The houses facing the street were covered in a layer of dust.

There were lodgings converted from residential buildings, primarily catering to drivers who used to transport goods. Nearby were shops for car repairs and tires, as well as small supermarkets and convenience stores that had a rustic and simple charm.

The supermarket and shops had surely been looted long ago, and even the shelves had been smashed.

Wen Jiuze and Xue Ling didn’t bother checking those places. Instead, the experienced Wen Jiuze chose a two-story building that was away from the main street.

This was the only house with a tightly shut front door, unlike the others, which had been forcibly opened.

It was obvious that zombies were trapped inside.

“This house hasn’t been ransacked, should we take a look?” Wen Jiuze asked.

Xue Ling nodded in agreement.

With a gun holstered at his waist, Wen Jiuze took out his tools to pick the lock. Just as he was about to open the door, Xue Ling tugged at his shirt from behind.

Wen Jiuze turned to look at her.

Xue Ling pointed to a spot outside, signaling for him to stand there.

Following her direction, Wen Jiuze moved to the indicated spot. “What’s wrong?”

Xue Ling pointed to herself and then inside the house, implying she would go in while he waited at the door. With that, she pushed the door open and entered.

Wen Jiuze stood at the entrance, listening to the sounds of zombies inside. He peeked in to see Xue Ling grabbing a zombie by its clothing and shoving it into the bathroom to lock it away.

He crouched in the spot she had pointed to, playing with a short knife, thinking to himself that he was really getting used to living off her efforts.