Chapter 36

Xue Ling herself had no recollection of kissing a frog, after all, it happened before she was three. But adults love to dig up these childhood stories, retelling them over and over.

When Xue Ling was in elementary school, a cartoon about the Frog Prince was popular nationwide, and her childhood frog-kissing incident became a favorite family story. It was mentioned so frequently that Xue Ling grew almost immune to it. When relatives laughed about it, she’d manage a polite smile in response.

Yet, when her friends heard about it and started calling her “Princess,” she couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment.

Still, she couldn’t bear the thought of Wen Jiuze knowing this story. He’d definitely laugh at her!

She had no doubt that fifty years from now, Wen Jiuze would randomly remind her, “Remember when you kissed a frog as a kid?”

The thought of being teased by him forever made her cringe.

Either she’d die of embarrassment, or he would have to pay.

After Xue Pingying left with Tiantian, Wen Jiuze watched her disappear into the distance. He opened the car door and casually said, “Frog…”

Xue Ling, who had been sitting quietly, immediately sprang up, thrashing around in the car in a sudden burst of panic.

There was a loud clanging noise in the car, and the whole car was shaking.

Wen Jiuze, leaning back slightly with a bright smile, held the car door. Since they were parked close to the base, passersby were drawn to the commotion, glancing curiously at the vibrating car.

Wen Jiuze stifled his laughter, stepped into the car, and tried to calm her. “Alright, alright, I won’t say another word.”

“I’ll stop. I’ll zip it, cough.”

Finally, Xue Ling settled down, clutching the headrest she had nearly torn off, glaring at him suspiciously.

Wen Jiuze then casually changed the subject, “We’re about to leave. Do you want to leave something for your mom?”

Xue Ling set down her “weapon” and nodded, deciding to rummage in the backseat for a suitable gift.

Wen Jiuze suggested: “Give her the ham.”

It’s not the first one, that one has been eaten. The one in the car that has not been eaten yet is the one Xue Ling found later.

It’s okay to eat ham occasionally, but it’s really unbearable to eat it at every meal. Wen Jiuze finally finished the first one, and Xue Ling turned around to find the second one.

Seeing her happily write “If you like it, I will find another one” and spend so much time looking for it. Wen Jiuze couldn’t say “I don’t want to eat it”.

“Leave that ham to your mother as a token of your appreciation.” Wen Jiuze said.

Xue Ling nodded and crawled to the back to look for anything else that she could give to her mother.

After sorting through a few things, she settled on a bag, as it would be inappropriate for her to meet her mom directly. She handed the bag over to Wen Jiuze.

Instead of giving it to Xue Pingying herself, Wen Jiuze found her stepdaughter and cousin on the roadside, passing them the items with instructions to deliver them to her.

Once the items were delivered, they didn’t linger at Xiu’an Base and quickly departed.

By the time Xue Pingying noticed something amiss, they were already gone.

“They’re all doing well. Everything is fine,” Xue Ling wrote on her writing board after a long, pensive silence in the car.

When she had first turned into a zombie, she hadn’t explained her situation to her family, and even now, she wouldn’t disrupt their peace by showing up and revealing her condition.

If they knew, they’d be joyful for a brief moment, but then worry and heartache would follow endlessly.

It was like Wen Jiuze. Even though he smiled with her every day, there was always a painful reminder that she was no longer truly alive, and it hurt every time she realized it.

Wen Jiuze was strong enough to bear it and still smile, but her mother and uncle couldn’t do the same.

“I’m doing alright now,” Xue Ling continued writing, feeling a quiet calm settle within her.

Wen Jiuze interjected, “I’m not alright. I’m on pins and needles.”

Xue Ling: “…”

What’s your business again?

Wen Jiuze shifted in his seat and pointed, “Look, did all your jumping around just damage the seat? The springs are coming loose.”

Xue Ling: “…”

Her peace was shattered instantly.

In the past, whenever Xue Ling accidentally damaged something, she’d automatically apologize and try to fix it. But with Wen Jiuze… anyone who dares to point out her mistakes deserves a punch!

After giving him a couple of punches, Wen Jiuze maneuvered her to the driver’s seat, switching places with her. “You’re not afraid of getting hurt anyway. You drive.”

This is why Xue Ling treats Wen Jiuze differently. He doesn’t scold her for breaking things, instead, he uses it as an opportunity to tease her.

After Wen Jiuze emphasized his point, Xue Ling, who was driving, felt slightly uncomfortable. When they stopped to rest again, she got out of the car. Wen Jiuze sat lazily on the hood, holding his chin and smiling as he watched Xue Ling angrily search the abandoned cars nearby, opening doors one by one.

Soon, she found a cushion. Just as she was about to place it down, Wen Jiuze extended his hand in front of her. “Look, what is this?”

It was a frog, and Wen Jiuze was holding one of its legs and shaking it in the air.

Xue Ling: “…” 

The cushion slipped from her hands, falling with a thud to the ground. Wen Jiuze tossed the frog aside and hopped onto the car’s roof. At that moment, Xue Ling moved quicker than most zombies, grabbing both the frog and Wen Jiuze’s feet.

With her grip on him, he couldn’t easily shake her off like he would an enemy, so he braced himself with his hands, trying to avoid a hard fall. Taking advantage, Xue Ling pressed the frog towards his mouth. 

You jerk—go ahead, kiss it!

Wen Jiuze swiftly grabbed her wrist, stopping her from pushing the frog to his face. He quickly planted a kiss on her cheek and chuckled, “If you put that frog on my mouth, I’ll kiss you next.”

Xue Ling won second place in the shameless competition.

Xue Ling didn’t want to end up kissing the frog or indirectly kissing it either. She released him and tossed the frog into a nearby ditch. Wen Jiuze picked up the cushion she’d found, dusted it off, and said with a playful tone, “Hey, you actually care about me.”

After this series of playful tricks that left his ex-girlfriend seething, Wen Jiuze stopped teasing and instead focused on chores, washing pots and preparing a meal. He had briefly considered finding a skipping rope for her to vent her anger by jumping, but he decided against it, worried she might get so mad she’d actually bite him. Besides, there wasn’t a skipping rope nearby.

Xue Ling was so occupied fuming at Wen Jiuze that she barely registered the familiar streets of Yu City as they drove in. Yu City doesn’t have as dense a population as major cities, so after the cleanup, the outskirts were relatively free of zombies. Several main roads had been cleared, with abandoned vehicles stacked along the sides to ease the passage of scavenger teams.

As they neared the city center, Wen Jiuze took an alternate route, turning onto a less cleared road. Both of their schools were in the university district on the city’s outskirts, and Xue Ling had rented a nearby apartment to be closer to campus.

They parked under her residential building, and Wen Jiuze glanced up at the charred walls. A fire had broken out here, damaging several units but sparing the entire structure. The apartment Xue Ling rented had been affected, with the small balcony blackened from the flames. She used to keep a morning glory plant on that balcony, which thrived with minimal care, forming a green, curtain-like cascade.

During the blooming season, blue and purple morning glories would wind around the railings, and whenever Wen Jiuze passed by, he couldn’t help but glance up at that windowsill. Although he never felt at home with his own family, Xue Ling had somehow instilled in him the sense that this place was his home. Whenever he thought of “going back,” this was the place that came to mind.

That year, simply seeing the window from below brought him comfort. Recently, he even dreamed of this place—Xue Ling sitting on that balcony, murmuring her lessons as she nodded along, her freshly washed hair drying in the breeze. Wen Jiuze, lying on the sofa, would watch her, the sunlight from the white tile floor almost blinding him. A small bell on the coffee table would jingle whenever he tapped it, filling the room with a crisp sound.

Suddenly, Xue Ling punched him lightly on the arm, pulling him from his memories. He looked up at her, as she pointed upwards, asking if they should go in. He was the one who wanted to come here, yet now he stood motionless.

Wen Jiuze walked up the stairs, asking, “Do you think anyone took anything from your place?”

It was clear that survivors must have scavenged it, so his question seemed nonsense. The building was empty, with not a single person or zombie in sight. The dusty door opened easily, revealing a blackened living room and half-burned kitchen, though the main room remained intact.

Wen Jiuze strolled around the small room with his hands in his pockets. He picked up a small bell ornament that had fallen from the sofa and placed it back on the coffee table, where it gave a soft jingle.

Xue Ling entered the bedroom, while Wen Jiuze looked over to the guest room. When he first moved in, he lived in this room for a while, and later it became vacant and was converted into a study.

The sofa bed was folded up, and the desk stood next to the bookshelf. He opened a drawer, revealing a mint-green Polaroid camera. They’d bought it on a trip together, but it hadn’t seen much use afterward.

Two stacks of laminated photos lay next to it, the images still vivid after three years. The top photo was of him and Xue Ling. Since he was tall, he had crouched down for the picture, giving him a slightly awkward pose. The next photo showed Xue Ling, looking frustrated with one foot dipped in a pool.

She had posed gracefully by the pool, waiting for Wen Jiuze to take the picture. But he’d taken so long fiddling with the camera that Xue Ling grew impatient and tried to show him how to use it, only to slip and fall into the pool. That was the moment Wen Jiuze captured, immortalizing her unexpected plunge into the water.

Wen Jiuze remembers almost every photo he has, some of which bring good memories, and some, not so much.

Some of these photos barely show half his face, while others feature two blurred faces alongside him. Despite their imperfections, he has carefully preserved each one.

However, at the bottom of the stack, Wen Jiuze finds several pictures he has never seen before.

One photo shows him at the south gate of Xue Ling’s school, a street lined with sycamore trees. In the picture, he stands with one hand in his pocket, holding a sycamore leaf, looking at it under the beautiful light. The photo isn’t sharp, though, casting him as a dark silhouette.

There’s also a shot of his back, with him leaning against the basketball court’s wire fence.

Another picture captures him walking down the street, where passersby, perhaps noticing his height, glance back at him. Their reactions are frozen in the frame.

…

After going through the photos, Wen Jiuze pulls out a picture of the two of them together and slips it into his pocket.