Chapter 19

Three years ago, the two of them went on a trip together to Lanba City.

At that time, they had two options: Lanba City and Yuanhu City. Xue Ling hesitated for a long time before ultimately choosing Lanba City.

Her reasoning was that there would probably be fewer tourists in Lanba City, so it wouldn’t be too crowded.

Who would have thought that so many people would visit Lanba City that year!

They encountered a cable car malfunction and ended up stuck in a crowd at the popular square, unable to move for almost two hours.

That trip was the first time Xue Ling realized she had a fear of crowds.

At the bustling intersection, people surrounded them from all sides, making it impossible to see an end to the crowd.

The throng was so dense that Xue Ling nearly fainted from being pushed around.

Wen Jiuze stood behind her, and when he heard her despairing exclamation that she could hardly breathe, he raised an eyebrow and lifted her up on his shoulders.

Sitting on Wen Jiuze’s shoulders, Xue Ling took a long time to regain her senses. As she breathed in the fresh air up high, she also felt countless eyes on her.

Wen Jiuze was already tall, standing out in the crowd. With Xue Ling on his shoulders, she felt like she had ascended to a throne, becoming the center of attention.

Almost everyone around them turned to look, and many even raised their phones to take pictures.

What was supposed to be a trip to see a statue at the end of the street turned her into the spectacle, and she felt as stiff as the statue itself.

Embarrassed, she clung tightly to Wen Jiuze’s head, but he seemed completely unfazed by the attention and asked her, “Can you breathe now?”

Even less so!!!

Xue Ling wanted him to put her down, but the space around them was already packed with people, leaving no place for her to land.

In the end, Xue Ling bent down in despair, buried her face in Wen Jiuze’s head, and was carried out of the street by him.

That night, Xue Ling saw herself in the trending videos from Lanba City.

Later, she kept regretting why she chose Lanba City in the first place! It would have been much better if she had chosen Yuanhu City!

Yuanhu City had famous lakes, renowned temples and monasteries, and notable museums. What could be better than a malfunctioning cable car or the horror of being surrounded by a crowd?

Back to the present, Xue Ling patted the sign in her hand and repeated once more.

—I want to go to Yuanhu City to play.

“Alright then,” Wen Jiuze replied as he drove toward Yuanhu City.

“Where do you want to go? To the lake?”

“To the Yuanhu City Museum,” Xue Ling told him.

Wen Jiuze stopped the car again.

The Yuanhu City Museum was quite famous, and when the zombie outbreak occurred during the holiday, the museum was still holding special themed exhibitions. Can you imagine the crowd in the museum?

Yes, it was probably similar to a hospital.

The zombie outbreak happened so quickly and unexpectedly. Places that used to be bustling with people were now crowded with zombies.

Even though Wen Jiuze was stronger than average and had often teamed up with groups to eliminate zombies for supplies, he wasn’t so reckless as to think he could casually stroll through an apocalypse museum unscathed.

Of course, Xue Ling didn’t expect Wen Jiuze to accompany her. If he went with her, it would be no different from throwing fish food into a koi pond.

She wanted to face the zombies alone.

“Stay back. Wait for me outside,” she instructed.

Wen Jiuze confirmed, “You mean you want to leave me here and go to the museum by yourself?”

Xue Ling nodded.

Regardless of whether Wen Jiuze was truly willing, he parked the car on a street with fewer zombies and watched as Xue Ling got out.

She changed into a T-shirt and a long skirt, carrying a small bag as she walked toward the museum, her back bouncing with excitement.

“Knock, knock.” Wen Jiuze suddenly tapped on the car window.

When Xue Ling turned to look at him, Wen Jiuze smiled and said, “If you’re not out by evening, I’ll come in to find you.”

After saying that, he rolled up the window, resting his hand behind his head and leaning back in the driver’s seat.

Xue Ling thought to herself, What, are you afraid I’ll take the chance to escape?

Finally, she was at the museum she had always wanted to visit. She hadn’t had the chance to explore it when she was alive, and now this small regret has vanished.

As a zombie, Xue Ling strolled confidently into the museum.

Although it took some time to find an entrance, it was okay—she didn’t have to stand in line today.

The museum’s power had long been shut off, and Xue Ling walked into the dark exhibition hall from the relatively bright lobby.

Every exhibition hall was pitch black without lights. The exhibits in the glass cases looked just as they had many years ago, while groups of zombies wandered around the showcases, having roamed for three years.

Xue Ling: “…”

Wen Jiuze didn’t wait in the car for long before he saw Xue Ling come out, much sooner than he had expected.

However, she looked a little disheveled and unenthusiastic.

Her current state reminded him of their trip to Lanba City when she had gotten angry in the crowded plaza and declared that she would go alone to the bar street to listen to an outdoor concert, telling him to stay at the hotel and sleep.

In the end, the concert had just started, and after only two songs, she had rushed back to the hotel.

She had even brought back snacks and drinks from the street, sitting by the bed with a gloomy expression.

“What’s wrong? You’re back so soon?” he asked.

“It wasn’t fun,” she replied.

Wen Jiuze took a couple of bites of the snacks she brought back and casually offered her some, “Do you want to eat?”

“I’m not eating; I have no appetite,” she said.

Wen Jiuze finished the snacks quickly, stood up, and took his phone as he walked outside, saying, “Let’s go.”

“It really wasn’t fun. They were singing off-key and it sounded awful,” she said, but followed him honestly.

Then, at that “not fun” outdoor concert, she ended up having a great time, cheering loudly with the crowd and eagerly snacking from one end of the street to the other.

Later, she pushed him toward a bar and eagerly drank inside, both timid and bold at the same time.

—She was someone who really needed companionship.

Thinking of this, Wen Jiuze suddenly smiled.

As he watched Xue Ling climb back into the car, he asked, “Back so soon?”

Xue Ling sat down, slowly touched her writing board, and wrote weakly: “Not fun.”

Still the same, Wen Jiuze thought.

Xue Ling had a bag with her, a museum merchandise tote. She took out several museum souvenir badges, notebooks, cultural relic dolls, and an oversized museum T-shirt that would fit Wen Jiuze.

She tossed the souvenirs onto his side and rested her head against the window, falling silent.

She hadn’t been scared when she went to the hospital at night, but in the dark museum, her fear had gradually crept in. When she passed the ancient tomb exhibition hall, she hadn’t dared to go in, afraid that the mummies inside might suddenly sit up.

Wait! Xue Ling suddenly realized, Aren’t there moving corpses everywhere? She was one too.

What was there to fear about ancient mummies? A few hundred years from now, she would be an ancient mummy as well!

After pondering all this, Xue Ling noticed that Wen Jiuze hadn’t spoken in a while. She looked up at him in confusion.

Wen Jiuze was leaning back, his gaze fixed on the distant museum, as if he was deep in thought.

“What are you thinking about?” Xue Ling interrupted his contemplation by raising her notepad.

Wen Jiuze glanced at her, saying, “I was thinking of ways to go to the museum with you.”

Xue Ling: ?

No way, you’re trying to find a way to go with me even when it’s so dangerous; aren’t you too clingy?

She shook her head in refusal.

“I don’t want to go anymore.”

Wen Jiuze looked at her words but scoffed, his gaze clearly expressing disbelief.

“I really don’t want to go back,” she reiterated firmly, “Let’s go somewhere else next.”

Seeing Wen Jiuze still staring at the museum, Xue Ling decided to take control. She snatched the steering wheel from him and drove away from the museum area.

As she drove, she stopped after a while to write, asking, “Which way to Yuanhu City?”

Wen Jiuze didn’t know either.

They drove around the streets, avoiding the areas with more zombies, moving into more secluded areas until they stopped in front of a small bookstore.

Inside, a zombie crawled on the ground, banging against the closed glass door.

Xue Ling rushed out of the car before Wen Jiuze, heading straight for the small bookstore, only to find she couldn’t open the door locked with a chain.

After fiddling with it for a while, she turned back to look at Wen Jiuze with a blank expression.

Wen Jiuze got out of the car and kindly pried open the lock, tossing it aside, then stepped back and gestured, “Please.”

Xue Ling pushed the door open and dragged the zombie away.

She disappeared behind the bookshelves with the zombie in tow, and Wen Jiuze entered as well, gripping a short knife while running his fingers along the shelves.

He wanted to look for a map. Even if there wasn’t a detailed one, local travel publications usually included maps.

Xue Ling soon joined him. As she saw Wen Jiuze rummaging through the bookshelves, she also turned her attention to the shelves and began to search.

This bookshelf had likely been ransacked before; there were very few books left, most of which were student guidebooks and workbooks.

There were also a few novels, some social science books, and a couple of popular philosophy bestsellers.

One book looked familiar. Xue Ling had bought it before. The marketing claimed that reading this book would provide new insights into life and that it was a quality book capable of influencing one’s entire life.

After she bought it, she read a few pages before giving up because the philosophical writing was too obscure. The book sat untouched for months.

Later, when Wen Jiuze stayed at her place, she saw him flipping through that book a few times. He managed to read the entire thing.

As expected from a student of Chinese language and literature, he surprisingly had a reading ability that didn’t match his appearance!

Xue Ling picked out a few books from the shelf but hesitated before pulling out that familiar book as well. Maybe she could understand it now.

In the past, she struggled to read it because her mind was restless. Now, her mind was calm, and there was no noise around her.

Wen Jiuze found a map and grabbed several thin travel brochures while Xue Ling carried a stack of books.

Wen Jiuze didn’t comment on her pile of books and took more than half of them for her.

Noticing the familiar book, he took it out and glanced at it again. “Isn’t this the book you used to press your instant noodles?”

Xue Ling: “……”

He got in the car and organized the books she had brought. Then he pulled out one of the travel brochures and handed it to her.

“Here, look at this.”

Xue Ling wondered what it was. When she took it, she saw a flashy cover with the bold title: “The Soul Food Young People Need Most Today.”