Chapter 43

Solar lights are installed in the yard and light up when it gets dark.

As long as the curtains aren’t drawn, the light shines into the bedroom through the window at night, making the entire room glow like it’s a full moon night.

On sleepless nights, the zombie could only lie in bed and read books, which was a bit boring. Thankfully, Wen Jiuze didn’t sleep much every day. He would fall asleep late at night and wake up at dawn.

Once he woke up, Xue Ling rarely felt bored.

As soon as Wen Jiuze opened his eyes in the morning, Xue Ling made her request.

“Can I go out for a walk while you sleep? I don’t want to lie in bed anymore.”

Wen Jiuze immediately agreed. “Okay.”

Xue Ling was delighted, thinking that people’s minds are indeed confused when they just wake up.

But Wen Jiuze calmly added, “If you’re taken by a tiger, leopard, or wolf in the forest at night, remember to leave marks along the way. That way, I can follow them to find you when I wake up.”

Xue Ling: “…”

“Are there tigers, leopards, and wolves here?” Xue Ling felt a bit scared by his words.

“This house is so close to the mountain. Have you forgotten that we saw a tiger last time?”

Although the leopard had escaped from a nearby zoo, it did make Wen Jiuze’s words more convincing. What if another leopard escaped from a zoo here?

Xue Ling abandoned the idea of going out alone in the middle of the night but suggested, “Let’s go to the mountain during the day to see if there are any large beasts.”

Sometimes, Wen Jiuze couldn’t tell whether Xue Ling was brave or timid.

Seeing that she was thinking about it, Wen Jiuze agreed to accompany her up the mountain.

Xue Ling carried a basket, while Wen Jiuze brought an axe.

He chopped some firewood, which would be useful for boiling water in a large pot on the earthen stove.

There were only birds in the low forest and no signs of larger animals.

Xue Ling, who had said she was looking for a large wild animal, kept her head down, searching through piles of dead branches and leaves.

“Why aren’t there any mushrooms?” she said in great disappointment.

Although there were no mushrooms and she returned with an empty basket, Xue Ling was in a good mood after the walk. Wen Jiuze dragged a piece of firewood down the hill, and she helped with a smaller one.

The freshly chopped wood gave off a cool woody scent, and the branches rustled as they were dragged along the frosty autumn grass.

Wen Jiuze took two steps before stopping to wait for her.

When he returned, he cut the branches and prepared to chop firewood. Xue Ling was eager to try her hand at it as well.

Wen Jiuze chopped wood for a while before handing the axe to her. Xue Ling lost interest after chopping just two pieces and decided to watch him continue. The heat made him take off his coat, and soon his vest was soaked with sweat.

She found him an old man’s vest to wear.

After finishing the wood chopping, “Old Man Wen” noticed it was nearly noon and went to the kitchen to cook. Xue Ling watched him, but she wasn’t the least bit tempted.

The food available was limited, unlike before when she could buy anything at the supermarket. The simple stew made by Wen Jiuze didn’t look very appetizing.

Between cooking three meals, cleaning, and handling daily tasks, the day passed by quickly.

It may seem like a dull and ordinary routine, but it consumed time, and before long, half a month had passed.

As usual, Xue Ling went to check her “vegetable garden.” She looked at the land that had been bare for the past half month and confirmed that the winter cabbage they planted hadn’t grown.

Why? Was it because it’s too cold now? Did we plant them wrong?

Wen Jiuze said: “The seeds must have gone bad. They have been stored for three years. It is normal that they cannot grow.”

His explanation made sense. It wasn’t their planting method—it was the seeds that had rotted.

Before bed, they had their daily chat. Xue Ling looked forward to next spring’s vegetable garden and asked Wen Jiuze to bring back good vegetable seeds from the base. She wanted to create a self-sustaining ecological garden.

Xue Ling had been learning how to grow vegetables on a tablet, confident that by next spring, she would be able to apply what she had learned.

Actually, they didn’t talk much before bed. Xue Ling was slow at writing or typing on her tablet. If she wrote a long message, Wen Jiuze would often fall asleep while waiting.

Listening to her garden plans made Wen Jiuze feel drowsy again.

Suddenly, Xue Ling screamed. She got up, opened the window, and looked outside.

Tiny snowflakes were drifting in the light of the solar lamp.

It’s snowing!

Wen Jiuze was startled when she stepped on him in her excitement. He quickly looked out the window. In just a few moments, the snowflakes had grown larger.

There were no weather forecasts now, but from experience, it seemed like it would be heavy snow.

Before the end of the world, there hadn’t been heavy snowfall in the area around Yu City for nearly ten years, with only light snowfalls a couple of times each winter. But since the end of the world, the weather had changed, and heavy snowfalls had become common around Yu City.

Xue Ling remembered that the previous winter, when the snow started falling, she hadn’t yet reached Anxi City.

Since zombies weren’t afraid of the cold, she didn’t hide when it snowed. She would walk through the snow, and the snow wouldn’t melt when it touched her body, instead, it just piled up thicker and thicker.

If it rained, Xue Ling would find shelter and wait for the rain to stop before leaving. But if it snowed, she would definitely go out and experience a walk in the snow.

It was actually quite fascinating. The world would fall silent under the snow, and the snowflakes would cling to her, making her feel like she was walking in a different dimension.

Xue Ling shared her experience with Wen Jiuze.

On one snowy day, she walked into a city full of zombies. The streets were covered in snow, with no one to clean them. The zombies moved slower than usual, each of them blanketed in thick snow, some even turning into snowmen.

Just imagine streets filled with moving snowmen. Xue Ling was sure that not many people had witnessed such a scene.

Bored, she picked up a stainless steel basin and hammered it. The loud noise echoed between the tall buildings. As she walked through the streets, her sound attracted many zombies, who began following her.

Though some zombies fell behind, unable to pick up the human scent, new ones joined along the way. This allowed her to lead a parade of zombies through the city just before the New Year.

After sharing her story, Xue Ling asked Wen Jiuze where he was and how he spent the winter during the previous snowfall.

Wen Jiuze put his hands behind his head and thought for a moment. “I think I was in Heyang City, doing a mission with a convoy.”

He didn’t remember much from that time. The passage of time and the weather all felt the same.

Over the past three years, he had spent half of it alone and the other half with various convoys.

He followed the convoys to earn supplies since he couldn’t just walk into zombie-filled streets like Xue Ling to trade medicine and gold. He had to complete missions to get supplies.

He went back and forth between various bases looking for people. There were often various tasks in the bases, requiring scavenger teams to go into the city to kill zombies and find things. Some rich people also wanted to travel and would hire many people for protection.

Wen Jiuze usually chose missions based on rewards, accepting any type of task. This made him well-known across many bases.

Few people were brave enough to take on such dangerous missions, and with his skills, he could command higher rewards than most.

Teams that he joined often wanted to recruit him permanently, but Wen Jiuze always declined. This led to many unpleasant experiences with various teams.

Last winter, he was with a convoy from a base, scavenging a small town for supplies when they encountered another convoy from a different base.

Both sides were after the same supplies, and neither was willing to back down. It turned out that the other convoy was one Wen Jiuze had previously joined.

Naturally, Wen Jiuze sided with the convoy carrying his supplies. When a gunfight broke out, someone from the opposing convoy shouted angrily, accusing him of being cold-hearted. They had killed zombies together before, but now he was fighting against them for supplies.

Wen Jiuze almost laughed because he didn’t even remember who had said that to him.

Once the fight was over, he overheard some members of the convoy saying he was scary and ruthless, not only when killing zombies but also in attacking people. They even suggested to the leader that he shouldn’t stay with the convoy.

Had he not been ruthless and scared off the opposing convoy, the casualties would have been higher for both sides.

But Wen Jiuze didn’t care to explain. He simply completed the task the next day, took the agreed supplies, and left.

He remembered that it snowed for two days straight. While driving through the snow and wind, he got a little lost, so he got out of the car to clear the road signs.

He leaned against the road sign, reading the words on it, and thought of Xue Ling.

………

“As if! You can’t even remember what happened a year ago?” Xue Ling stopped looking at the snow and turned back to look at him with concern.

“Your memory is already so bad at such a young age. What will you do in the future?”

“What else can I do? I’ll get Alzheimer’s and then live off others,” Wen Jiuze said casually.

It wasn’t a problem for him at all!

“It’s great to find a place to stay before it snows,” Xue Ling wrote.

She also thought it would be nice to lie in a warm bed while the snow fell, with Wen Jiuze beside her.

Wen Jiuze patted the quilt like a master. “Stop looking at me. Come here, and let me hold you while you sleep.”

Xue Ling threw her pillow at him and continued lying at the window, gazing outside. Suddenly, a large hand grabbed her ankle.

Fuming, Xue Ling turned her head, but Wen Jiuze held her ankles and, with his eyes closed, fell asleep without moving.

Xue Ling: “…” You’re sick.

Due to the heavy snowfall, the planned trip to the New Fourth Base was delayed for a few days. They waited until the snow on the road had almost melted before setting off.

Xue Ling went with him, wrapped in a thick cotton-padded jacket, wearing a hat, scarf, gloves, and goggles. Anyone who saw her would think she was overly cautious about the cold.

In winter, zombies are harder to spot.

Wen Jiuze wore a blue hat and a large cotton-padded jacket.

Before they left, he secured his gun in the holster at his waist and practiced with his dagger. The big cotton jacket felt awkward, but since Xue Ling insisted, he had no choice but to make do.

The New Fourth Base was bustling with activity, with many people gathered at the gate.

With Xue Ling by his side, Wen Jiuze didn’t approach casually. Instead, he found someone on the roadside to ask.

The man took the cigarette he offered, looked at his car, and said, “There’s a new detector installed at the gate of the base. They say it was shipped from a large base up north. When people pass through it, it can detect if they’re infected with the zombie virus. Everyone’s watching it with curiosity.”

“I heard that in a certain base, a scavenger team went out, and one of their members got scratched by a wire on the way. The infection wasn’t visible right away. There was an incubation period of a few days, and when he returned to the base, he suddenly turned into a zombie. Many people died.”

“This new machine can even detect the incubation period.”

The New Fourth Base had stricter entry and exit checks after an early zombie outbreak nearly destroyed the base. The leaders had learned their lesson and worked hard to prevent a repeat of the incident.

After talking to the man, Wen Jiuze drove off to find a place to stop.

He looked at Xue Ling, whose eyes lit up, and raised her writing board: “Is the machine free? Go check if there’s any zombie virus hiding in you!”

Wen Jiuze felt a little relieved: “Do you think this is a free physical examination at the hospital?”

“Last time I came here, they mentioned that there’d be a street with vendors selling things during the winter. It would be very lively. I wanted to take you there today,” he said.

“I’m not going!” Xue Ling refused again. If she was discovered, it would be over. Why scare people when they are just enjoying themselves?

“Forget it, let’s head back today. I’m not going either. There’s nothing to trade.” Wen Jiuze said as he was about to drive off.

Xue Ling immediately stopped him and said seriously, “You have to go to a barber shop in the base and get a proper haircut. I can’t stand it anymore.”

Wen Jiuze: “Last time I told you to just shave my hair with a knife, but you refused.”

Xue Ling nearly screamed: No! Get it cut properly!

She was the one who’d benefit from his handsome haircut!