Chapter 40

Starting from Yu City, it took a week to reach Andong City, with breaks and detours due to road congestion.

Wen Jiuze got out of the car and used a telescope to survey the city with tall buildings.

Before the apocalypse, Andong City had been more prosperous than Yu City, with a larger population.

But now, the area has completely changed. Several main roads were blocked, and many tall buildings in the city showed signs of bombing.

In some places, shadows of zombies swayed together, but there were no living people around—no scavengers, not even a trace of life.

Wen Jiuze had heard that there used to be a base in Andong City, but he had never been there and didn’t know its exact location.

The thing is, finding a base isn’t hard. People come and go, creating new paths. Usually, someone will put up road signs along the way to guide others.

What was strange was that in the area around the old Andong City site, there were no signs of any human activity.

Experienced wanderers from the apocalypse have their ways. The first step is to find a tall, abandoned signal tower and climb it.

Xue Ling stood below the tower, watching Wen Jiuze climb without any protection. She feared he might fall.

In the hundred ways she had imagined her ex-boyfriend’s death, this was one of them.

Wen Jiuze wore gloves, grabbed the horizontal bars, and used his strength to climb higher. Soon, he was several meters above the ground. On the way up, he even had time to give g a thumbs-up gesture to Xue Ling who was looking up at him from below.

He climbed higher and higher until Xue Ling could no longer see him clearly, so he stopped. After a while, he came down quickly, seemingly fearless of heights.

Xue Ling was terrified watching him at that height. But then he just let go of his hands and jumped down from over two meters as if nothing had happened.

He walked toward her, took off his gloves, and said, “I saw it. The base should be that way. There’s a marked area. Let’s go.”

In her heart, Xue Ling thought the dog was a bit handsome, but what she actually said was, “You climb the tower more agilely than a monkey.”

Her flat tone, with that electronic voice, made everything sound sarcastic.

Wen Jiuze suddenly wiped his hand across her face. Xue Ling quickly took a picture with her tablet and saw several gray smudges on her face. When she looked again, Wen Jiuze was already in the car.

Xue Ling: “…” He can’t stay handsome for even ten minutes.

Following the direction Wen Jiuze pointed out, they arrived at the Andong City Base. Unfortunately, something unexpected happened—the base had been abandoned.

There was a temporary building in the marked area, but it was only a frame, with most of it demolished.

There were signs that people had once lived there, but now it was just scattered daily waste, some abandoned temporary structures, and zombies.

This base was most likely the site of a second zombie outbreak, which led to its abandonment and the evacuation of the remaining people.

In today’s situation, transportation is inconvenient, news is not timely, and many large and small bases have been built and abandoned. It’s difficult for people far away to know the specifics. This was all normal.

When Xue Ling glanced at Wen Jiuze’s expression, she found he was watching her closely.

“It’s fine. It’s impossible that so many people died. Those who survived probably moved to a nearby base. We’ll look for them tomorrow,” Wen Jiuze said casually.

For the next few days, they wandered around, just as he said, trying to find someone to inquire about the situation.

After two days of searching, they finally met a living person.

Xue Ling noticed first. With her sharp eyes, she spotted a fenced vegetable garden by the road, well-maintained with no weeds, and peppers hanging on the branches.

Excited, she tapped Wen Jiuze’s arm and asked him to stop the car so she could point out the vegetable garden, signaling that there were people living nearby.

Wen Jiuze glanced at the garden and said, “Eggplants, greens, peppers, cucumbers. I’ll go pick some later.”

Xue Ling: “…”

Is that what I meant? Someone obviously lives here, and you’re just going to pick the crops?

But Wen Jiuze had already gotten out of the car, gun in hand, and walked straight toward the old house.

Is he going to kill someone? Xue Ling imagined the sound of gunfire and leaned against the car window, anxiously waiting.

After a while, Wen Jiuze and an older man came out of the yard together. They stood at the gate, gesturing and seemingly asking for directions. Surprisingly, the atmosphere was quite pleasant.

Wen Jiuze asked for directions and suggested exchanging some vegetables. The old man nodded in agreement, went back to the house, grabbed a basket, and let him pick the vegetables himself.

Carrying the basket, Wen Jiuze went to the car first and pulled Xue Ling out.

Xue Ling glanced nervously at the old man sitting by the gate of the courtyard. While walking stiffly, she pinched Wen Jiuze’s arm hard through his sleeve.

She had to come out to pick vegetables—what if they were discovered? This old man is so frail, what if he gets scared?

Nervously, she adjusted her mask and hat.

“Don’t worry, just hold the basket,” Wen Jiuze smiled and pushed her into the vegetable garden.

Xue Ling angrily picked peppers, deciding to make him suffer with a stomach ache after eating them.

While picking, she suddenly heard a crash from the small bungalow next to the house. Her first thought was that the old man must be raising pigs there. Then she heard the familiar roar of zombies.

Xue Ling stopped picking and pointed towards the bungalow.

Wen Jiuze paid no attention, continuing to pick eggplants and adding them to the basket. After Xue Ling tugged at him twice, he glanced up and casually said, “I saw several zombies locked in that room.”

“If you’re curious, you can sneak a look.”

Xue Ling put down the basket and quietly walked over to take a look.

It was a small rural bungalow originally used for storing miscellaneous items. Now, it was clean and tidy with mats on the floor. Inside were four zombies—an older woman, a younger couple, and a child.

Given the old man’s age, these people must be his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.

She returned to Wen Jiuze and squatted by a cabbage, staring into space.

Wen Jiuze patted her head and said, “Hurry up and pick the vegetables. No slacking.”

Xue Ling glared at him, grabbed the cabbage, and yanked it out by the roots.

After asking for directions and successfully exchanging two bags of salt for fresh vegetables, the man and the zombie continued their journey.

While driving, Wen Jiuze noticed Xue Ling looking back and suddenly said, “This happens a lot—mainly in the countryside, where entire families turn into zombies and are locked up at home. They don’t want to go to the base, so they just stay there.”

Many of them die quietly in their homes.

Xue Ling fiddled with her tablet and said, “I noticed the old man has chickens at home. We should get another one for soup.”

The electronic voice paused before responding, “You’re so sentimental, Wen Jiuze.”

Wen Jiuze smiled helplessly. “Just forget I said anything.”

It was because he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable after seeing that.

She used to cry every time she watched a silly cartoon.

The closest base to Andong City is the Yicheng Base. It’s a bit conservative, with no trading post at the gate. You have to enter the city, and there are inspectors who check both the people in the vehicles and their belongings.

Wen Jiuze wanted to visit the base for information, so he couldn’t bring Xue Ling with him.

He parked the car in a more secluded spot and prepared to go to the base alone.

Before leaving, he asked Xue Ling with concern, “You won’t drive away and leave me here, right?”

Xue Ling smirked. You just gave me a new idea…

Wen Jiuze put his arm around her neck and said, “Then you should come with me. I’m worried.”

Xue Ling raised an eyebrow. “How will we get in with the checkpoint at the entrance?”

Wen Jiuze replied, “We won’t go through the main entrance. We can find a way to climb over the wall. There’s always a way in.”

Xue Ling quickly protested, “No, no, no, let me go! I was just joking!”

After she swore she wouldn’t run off in anger, Wen Jiuze let her go and went into the Yicheng base alone with a backpack.

Once he left, Xue Ling opened a facial mask and put it on her face, and stepped out of the car. She did a set of Eight Section Brocade exercises.

She felt like she hadn’t been active enough recently—her body felt stiff, and her joints were less flexible, so she figured she should exercise a bit.

—Although this probably wouldn’t help much.

But psychological effects are still a thing.

Wen Jiuze’s expression grew neutral once he was out of Xue Ling’s sight. He asked the staff at the gate about places to search for people in the base and inquired about other information.

There were indeed people from Andong City at the Yicheng Base, but Andong City was so large that it was difficult to find someone who knew Wen Yi.

He couldn’t gather any information about Wen Yi here.

Wen Jiuze didn’t give up easily. There was no information at Yicheng Base, but there were other bases around.

The persistent Wen Jiuze spent a month traveling around the area and finally heard something about someone who seemed to be Wen Yi.

“I know the person you’re talking about. She left with a convoy a few months ago. I don’t know where she went.”

At this point, the trail was cut off again.

Wen Yi was still alive at least a few months ago, but no one knew where she went.

It was already late autumn, and the weather was turning colder. In the morning, the car hood was covered in frost.

Wen Jiuze was probably tired from the search, so he lay in the car, too lazy to get up.

Xue Ling, not afraid of the cold, ended her rest early and took a walk by the river. Although she didn’t need to breathe, she made an effort to inhale some fresh air.

When she returned to the car, the dew on the hood had melted, and the sun had been up for a while. Wen Jiuze was still lying in the car, sleeping on his side.

Hey, still sleeping? Don’t you have work today? How come you’re sleeping in so long?

Xue Ling waited a bit longer, then climbed into the car and nudged him.

Wen Jiuze felt unusually hot. He usually felt warm, but this heat felt off.

Uncertain about her current zombie-level sensitivity to heat and cold, Xue Ling lifted Wen Jiuze’s shirt and checked several areas of his body.

Wen Jiuze rolled over, opened his eyes, put his arm over his forehead, and hoarsely said, “How long have you been outside? You’ve frozen into a popsicle.”

Xue Ling stared at him and asked uncertainly, “Are you sick?”

Wen Jiuze actually got sick?! He was a man who could wear a windbreaker in the middle of winter without catching a cold!

How good was Wen Jiuze’s health? Xue Ling used to wonder if he was some kind of alien.

Bruises on his body would disappear within two days without any medicine.

Once, he was hit by an electric bike. The woman riding it broke her leg, but he wasn’t hurt at all.

If it weren’t for his strong appearance, the woman would have demanded compensation right then and there.

In the middle of winter, he could wash his hair with cold water. While Xue Ling was shivering in front of the heater, warming her hands, she saw him go to the refrigerator, grab a bottle of ice water, and drink half of it in one gulp.

With such a tough body, Xue Ling had never seen him feel uncomfortable, let alone get sick. It seemed almost inhuman.

So, he can actually get sick?!

His ex-girlfriend was so shocked that she almost stood up again.

Xue Ling pushed Wen Jiuze’s arm from her forehead, put her head against it, and carefully felt his temperature for a while.

Wen Jiuze raised his leg and pushed her back down, not letting her get up. “Don’t worry, it’s just a fever.”

After recovering from the shock of learning that Wen Jiuze not only had mental health issues but was also running a fever, Xue Ling felt a little numb.

What should she do? All the medicines she had found earlier were replaced, and the only ones left were some psychiatric drugs, which probably weren’t suitable for treating a fever.

She had told him it was too cold to go out wearing just one layer of clothes, but Wen Jiuze refused to listen. He was just trying to show off by refusing to wear a thick coat.

You’re in your twenties now. How can you compare yourself to when you were nineteen?

She admitted that the big cotton-padded jacket she found for him was indeed a bit ugly, but no one was looking at him right now, so what was wrong with him wearing ugly clothes? Didn’t she wear the ugly skirt he found for her? What was wrong with taking the chance to get a little revenge?

Xue Ling thought again. Could it be that he hadn’t seen Wen Yi recently and was under too much psychological pressure, which made him sick?

After a hasty analysis, Xue Ling felt there was a high probability of this being the case.

Some time ago, he said he was afraid of disappointing her and didn’t want to add pressure on her. But in reality, he was the one who felt most disappointed and stressed, even getting sick because of it.

Then Xue Ling thought of a more terrifying possibility.

Could it be that she accidentally pricked him and infected him with the zombie virus?

Some people have very small wounds and turn into zombies slowly, with fever being one of the early signs.

Suddenly, Xue Ling sat up, lifted Wen Jiuze, who had one leg on her, and began to inspect him carefully.

Wen Jiuze slammed the door, and his mind became a little clearer.

He was just about to ask if it took so much effort to transform into a zombie heroine when Xue Ling pounced on him, pulled open his clothes, and carefully checked him from head to toe, inside and out.

“What are you looking for?” Wen Jiuze asked.

Xue Ling couldn’t find any wounds and asked, “I didn’t accidentally prick you, did I?”

“…” Wen Jiuze, “What are you thinking? You usually hit me with your fists and never use your claws. How could you possibly prick me?”

“I just have a fever. I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.”

No matter what happened, he always said, “It’s okay.”

Xue Ling pulled his hands away from her hair and stuffed them into the blanket. She then went to the trunk, took out a thick cotton jacket, and covered him with it.

There was no other choice. Considering that he rarely got sick, she decided to make him some light food today.

After becoming a zombie, Xue Ling never cooked again. Now, she took out the rice and the pot, and while preparing to wash the rice, she looked at her black nails and fell into deep thought.

The question was: If she soaked her fingernails in the rice water while washing it, would the steamed rice contain the zombie virus?

Does this count as poisoning?

After pouring out the water, Xue Ling held the pot, feeling conflicted.

Her hand felt light as someone took the pot from her.

Wen Jiuze, holding his burning neck, said in a hoarse voice, “I’ll do it.”

Despite his fever, he was still very efficient at washing rice and cooking. After setting up the stove, he brought a chair and sat next to it.

Xue Ling took the big cotton-padded jacket from the car, put it on him, and then sat beside him, waiting for dinner.

Something was bubbling on the stove.

Xue Ling looked at Wen Jiuze’s lowered face again and again.

Wen Jiuze had never been sick, but Xue Ling had been sick before.

She found another benefit of being a zombie: zombies don’t get sick!

During the more than a year they had been together, Xue Ling had only fallen ill once. During that illness, Wen Jiuze completely changed her perception of him.

She was surprised to find that he was very good at taking care of patients.