Chapter 24

Wen Jiuze was well-versed in exchanging supplies and quickly traded for several essential items.

While waiting to pick up the goods at the trading point, he kept an eye on the direction of his car.

He parked it in the nearest spot, easily visible from the trading point. This way, he could quickly notice if a stranger approached.

He felt uneasy about letting Xue Ling out of his sight in such a place.

While handling the transactions, Wen Jiuze heard someone call out “cousin” from behind him.

Dai Ying, with his arm in a sling, looked at Wen Jiuze awkwardly. Wen Jiuze glanced at him and continued to stuff items into his pockets.

Dai Ying moved closer and whispered, “Cousin, how are you? Are you okay? My convoy with Brother Mi was driven off by the local bullies in Anxi. We didn’t get our stuff back and ended up getting beaten up. My arm got injured.”

He moved his arms to show his injury.

Wen Jiuze snorted and laughed, “You deserve it.”

“Cousin, I know I was wrong.” Dai Ying followed him, checking to see if anyone was listening. He continued in a hushed voice, “After I came back, my mother scolded me. I shouldn’t have done that.”

His mother had said that the other members of the convoy were worried about their own safety and understandably wanted to eliminate the zombies. However, they were family, so they should have been more considerate of Wen Jiuze and put themselves in his shoes.

Wen Jiuze was capable and knew what he was doing. It wasn’t the place of an inexperienced boy like him to make decisions for him. There were many more tactful ways to resolve the issue, but he had been instigated by others and ended up doing something foolish.

“Cousin, are you still bringing that… your girlfriend?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “If you have something to say, just say it.”

Dai Ying felt even more embarrassed. “Uncle Feng from the convoy came back and told everyone at the base that you were raising zombies. If you still have them, you probably won’t be able to stay in the base anymore. They’ll investigate you.”

Wen Jiuze responded casually, “Oh, I’ll leave right away.”

He hadn’t planned to stay at this base for long. For some people, being rejected by the base would be a disaster, but for Wen Jiuze, the world was vast, and there was no place he couldn’t go.

Dai Ying was disappointed. “Ah, cousin, are you leaving now? My mother asked me to wait for you here. She said she would invite you over for dinner and let me apologize to you.”

Wen Jiuze was firm, “If you want to apologize, you can do it now.”

Dai Ying bowed his head, looking bitter as he apologized, “If my mother knew you were leaving like this, she would definitely scold me.”

His mother was the cousin of Wen Jiuze’s mother, whom Wen Jiuze referred to as Aunt. When that promiscuous man from the Wen family deceived his mother and then disappeared, she had been a naive high school student.

She became pregnant before marriage and suffered countless judgmental stares and gossip. Everyone said she had no self-respect due to her upbringing and that she was pregnant at such a young age.

All their relatives felt ashamed and distanced themselves from her, except for her cousin, who cared for her after she gave birth and later offered some financial support.

When Wen Jiuze was a child, the few snacks he had were bought by this cousin during her visits. That’s why he was willing to take Dai Ying under his wing and teach him some things when they met again during the apocalypse.

Dai Ying kept chattering behind him. Sometimes he told him to go back to eat because he knew a place where they could hide the zombies and ensure that no one would find them. Sometimes he became worried about him, fearing that he would be discovered with the zombies and be ostracized.

Wen Jiuze turned around and tossed him a box of painkillers. “This is for your aunt. Doesn’t she often have headaches?”

“Just take the medicine, shut up, and go home. Don’t say a word.”

He found Dai Ying too noisy.

Holding the medicine in silence, Dai Ying admired his cousin a great deal. As Wen Jiuze was about to leave, he finally couldn’t help but ask, “Brother, will you come back?”

Wen Jiuze waved his hand dismissively.

He probably wouldn’t return to this place again. If he couldn’t find Wen Yi in Andong City, he would have to see the Terracotta Warriors. If he died on the road one day, it wouldn’t matter; it was only a matter of time.

He carried his belongings back to his car. During his absence, no strangers had approached it, but a familiar dog was there.

Dai Ying’s big golden retriever, Puff, had followed his owner out for a stroll and came running when he saw the familiar car.

While Dai Ying and Wen Jiuze were talking, Puff lay by the car window, panting, with his tongue hanging out and tail wagging.

The car windows were covered with anti-peep film, so Puff couldn’t see inside, but he sensed someone was there.

Xue Ling sat in the back seat, looking at the dog through the window.

She was no longer afraid because of the car door. She even thought it was cute and tapped the car window with her fingers to tease the dog.

As she tapped with her fingernails, Puff playfully pawed at the window. They engaged in this game until Wen Jiuze returned.

Upon seeing him, Puff stopped leaning against the car and ran to greet him, rubbing against his feet.

Wen Jiuze reached down and patted the dog’s head, “Good dog, you’re much cuter than your master.”

He opened the car door and placed his things inside. Xue Ling in the back seat shrank back but then poked her head out to look at the dog, displaying both fear and curiosity.

Wen Jiuze looked down at Puff and suddenly asked, “Do you want to keep a dog? How about we take Puff with us?”

Xue Ling thought, What a bully cousin! Isn’t he just like those relatives who take away children’s toys during the Chinese New Year?

She quickly shook her head and waved her hands, refusing.

Her interest in dogs was similar to Ye Gong’s love for dragons. When dogs were still, she thought they were adorable and fluffy, but when they moved close, she felt scared.

Besides, she already had a dog.

When he behaved, he was like a Border Collie. When he misbehaved, he was like a Husky. Who dares say Wen Jiuze isn’t like a dog?

Anyway, when she first discovered Wen Jiuze’s true nature and was so angry at him that she couldn’t speak, she comforted herself by thinking of him as a dog.

Just like people who raise Huskies might get annoyed at their dogs, at least Wen Jiuze didn’t wreck the house and could understand human language.

Thinking this way, her tolerance for him suddenly increased.

Wen Jiuze, unaware of Xue Ling’s thoughts, assumed she was still scared of the dog and didn’t want to see Puff, so he regretfully abandoned the idea of taking the dog.

He wanted his silly cousin to experience the feeling of having someone he cared about suddenly taken away.

He would wait until Dai Ying cried out for his return and then give him back the dog.

“Go on, return to your owner.” Wen Jiuze nudged the big golden retriever with his foot.

The big golden retriever, unaware of the kidnapping attempt he narrowly escaped, sensed his intention to drive him away. He barked twice reluctantly before obediently running towards his owner.

He and his foolish master, who had managed to avoid disaster, watched the car disappear.

“Why not stay here for another two days?” Xue Ling asked in writing.

“No, it would be troublesome if there were too many people,” Wen Jiuze replied.

Knowing that the team members handling the zombies were also at the base, he decided it was best to stay for a couple more days. He didn’t want to risk someone harboring a grudge and causing trouble.

He wasn’t afraid, but he wanted to protect Xue Ling from being exposed to too many eyes. That could be very dangerous.

If you recognize a danger, it’s better to avoid it rather than wait for regret after it occurs.

Wen Jiuze drove far away from the Pingqu base before stopping to pack the supplies he had exchanged.

In addition to gasoline and food, he took an outdoor mobile battery. It resembled a box with a handle and could charge various electronic devices.

There had been one in the car before, primarily used for maintaining night lighting.

Now, this new one had another purpose.

“This is for you,” he said, handing a tablet to Xue Ling.

“Although it can’t connect to the internet, it has built-in standalone games, books, TV series, and various videos to help pass the time.”

These electronic products are quite inexpensive, and few people choose to replace them.

Not all bases have electricity; some smaller bases lack power generation equipment, limiting electricity usage to only a few people. Medium and large bases have their methods of generating power, but it isn’t as easily accessible as during peacetime.

For example, the Ping District base is considered a medium-sized base, providing residents with six hours of electricity daily, and the electricity bill is not cheap.

Xue Ling was unaware of all this. After three years, she finally got to use a tablet again. Poking and tapping with a pen was much more engaging than writing.

She quickly buried herself in the tablet for the entire day, even ignoring Wen Jiuze when he spoke to her, her eyes glued to the screen.

Wen Jiuze, who got no response, said: “…”

The only other beings as enthusiastic about people as she was about tablets were zombies.

Worried that Xue Ling might get bored, he had changed this for her. Now that she was entertained, he found himself growing bored.

Considering she had been so bored for so long, Wen Jiuze rarely disturbed her, allowing her to immerse herself in the drama.

However, in the evening, while he cooked and ate together, Xue Ling began watching other people’s eating videos, which annoyed Wen Jiuze.

He was sitting there eating, yet instead of paying attention to him, she was glued to a food show. Was it because his eating made the zombies lose their appetite?

When Xue Ling clicked on videos of male fitness bloggers, Wen Jiuze glanced at the muscles on the screen and took the tablet with a half-smile, saying, “I’ve never seen you like this before.”

Xue Ling glanced back and wrote, “This is a food show more suited for zombies.”

Wen Jiuze: “…”

It seemed she was telling quite a joke.

“Just kidding,” Xue Ling wrote.

Taking the tablet back, she continued browsing the numerous video libraries, finding a collection of home cooking videos by chefs.

“Look, you can learn to cook,” she said, picking out a few simpler recipes to show him.

Wen Jiuze watched the video and jokingly replied, “So I’m working hard to learn cooking skills to fatten myself up, and you’re diving into the breeding industry?”

He was genuinely curious, “What do you see me as now? Chicken legs? Beef? Pork chops?”

Xue Ling: “…”

Regardless, Wen Jiuze was still Wen Jiuze; he couldn’t possibly turn into beef or pork chops.

To be honest, it reminded her of when she was a child. Her uncle and aunt took her to play on the streets and bought her a very cute candy man.

The caramel tasted wonderfully sweet when she licked it, and she kept it by her bed for several days.

When hungry at night, she couldn’t bear to eat the beautiful sugar figures, finding satisfaction and happiness just by looking at them.

Eventually, they attracted ants, and her aunt urged her to eat them quickly, but she was still reluctant.

In the end, they melted, yet she still couldn’t bring herself to eat them.

Her aunt complained about the waste, but she didn’t regret not eating them earlier. She liked them too much and couldn’t bear to destroy them.

She just thought it would be nice if they could be preserved longer.

“Tell me, do you think I’m delicious?” Wen Jiuze asked with a smile.

Xue Ling shook her head firmly.

She feared that if she said he was delicious, he might order a piece for her to satisfy her craving.

Thinking about it, she wrote, “It’s dog meat, not tasty.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Jiuze stopped asking questions. He was quite dissatisfied with her answer and began rubbing her face left and right, up and down.

“No taste,” he sneered.