Chapter 50

Zombies can drive, understand human language, and communicate—if this happened anywhere else, no one would believe it.

But right now, the camp was occupied by Wen Yi’s research team.

The soldiers protecting Dr. Wen knew that there were still zombies in the world that retained human thoughts and rationality, and they now had one in their team.

Because of this, Xue Ling was not immediately shot by the sniper. Instead, a group of soldiers surrounded her car.

Wen Yi walked over wearing a coat, passing through a group of armed soldiers, and approached the car that had been forced to stop.

The soldier who had delivered the news followed her closely, holding a gun.

“The zombie that can drive is in this car?” Wen Yi asked. “Get him out of the car first so I can take a look.”

Another soldier guarding the car replied, “Dr. Wen, we asked the people inside to get out, but they refused to cooperate.”

“Should we forcibly break open the car door and pull the person out?”

Before the soldier could finish speaking, the car window, which had been tightly closed, slid open. A pale face, belonging to a zombie, emerged.

In that brief moment, we could see the once-beautiful young woman’s dark red eyes now fixed on the protected Wen Yi.

The soldier who spoke thought that the people in the car were forced out by him, but he saw that she was staring at Wen Yi, as if she had confirmed something, and suddenly became excited.

She turned around, frantically searching the car, and found a writing board. She began to write on it.

Soon, she held the writing board out of the car window. On it were two crooked words, “Wen Yi?” followed by a question mark.

“Do you know me?” Wen Yi asked, stepping forward in surprise.

Xue Ling finally remembered to open the car door, but before she could, a blue hand appeared on the window.

It was clearly a man’s hand, meaning there was another zombie inside the car.

Ignoring the nervous soldiers around her, Wen Yi walked up to the car window and looked inside. At such a close distance, she could clearly see Wen Jiuze.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise but kept her expression neutral. “Wen Jiuze?”

Her gaze shifted back to Xue Ling, and she finally remembered who she was. “You’re Wen Jiuze’s ex-girlfriend from Yu City.”

She recalled that Wen Jiuze had once been very fond of his girlfriend. When she first heard about it, she was surprised and went to take a look at her.

Xue Ling nodded. She looked at Wen Yi and felt as though she had been saved from an otherwise hopeless situation.

Wen Yi took the stick from a soldier next to her, raised Wen Jiuze’s hand from the car window, and examined it.

“Wen Jiuze has been infected with the zombie virus? It looks like he’s been infected for some time… Is he still conscious?”

“Yes!” Xue Ling wrote quickly.

Wen Jiuze had spoken just moments ago!

She pushed open the car door and wrote on the writing board: “Save him! Help!”

Vaccines, Tai Sui… anything, just save Wen Jiuze!

Wen Yi used the stick to carefully point at Wen Jiuze. “Wen Jiuze, are you still conscious? Speak.”

Wen Jiuze slowly lifted his head and looked at her with his dark red eyes.

After a brief moment of staring, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

“Wen… Yi.”

Wen Yi withdrew the stick. “Two people, take him back to the camp.”

“You come too,” she added, turning to Xue Ling.

A moment later, inside a makeshift tent, Wen Yi addressed the two people in front of her. “I did have a piece of Tai Sui before, but it has been eaten by someone.”

Ignoring their disappointed expressions, she turned around, took out a refrigerated box, and opened it. “But I still have two types of medicine.”

“The team on the left is led by my teacher. We’re working together to develop a vaccine for the zombie virus. This is the latest result.”

“After being infected with the virus, the sooner you inject the vaccine, the better the chances. In your current condition, there’s a one in ten chance of recovery, but it’s more likely you’ll become a regular zombie.”

“The potion on the right was extracted from Wen Xuan’s corpse.”

“There’s only this one and it hasn’t been tested. I don’t know what will happen after the injection, but my guess is that you’ll likely become a zombie who retains some sanity.”

“The two medicines can’t be used together. You must choose one.”

Wen Jiuze’s condition had already deteriorated significantly. He had been carried to sit in the tent, but he showed no reaction to Wen Yi’s words. Perhaps he couldn’t even understand her.

Xue Ling, sitting next to him, still had one hand handcuffed to him. She couldn’t help but hold his hand.

She stared at the two injections in front of her, feeling that both options were full of uncertainty and risk.

She tried to calm herself and think carefully about which option would be better.

But Wen Jiuze didn’t leave this difficult choice to her. He reached out weakly, picked up the medicine on the right, and injected himself.

Xue Ling watched as the injection disappeared into his body. She closed her eyes, leaned against Wen Jiuze’s shoulder, and waited.

Wen Yi put the remaining medicine away, stood up, and said, “Stay here for a few hours and see what happens before we discuss the next steps.”

“If it succeeds, then we can cooperate. If it fails… well, it won’t be without value.”

“Wen…Yi,” Wen Jiuze suddenly called out.

Wen Yi stopped at the door, turned around, and waited for him to continue speaking, her expression still indifferent.

Wen Jiuze said, “Please, don’t hurt her.”

Wen Yi was finally surprised. She gave a brief, emotionless smile and glanced at Xue Ling. “You’re begging me? Your last name is Wen. You’ve been in the Wen family for years, but never begged for anything, even when beaten to death. Yet today, you beg for help?”

She didn’t respond further. She simply walked out of the tent.

Xue Ling heard her speak to the soldiers outside the tent: “Keep an eye on the special zombies inside. If anything happens, let me know. If they fully turn into zombies and go berserk, control them first.”

“Understood, Dr. Wen!”

Only Xue Ling and Wen Jiuze were left in the tent.

Xue Ling collapsed on the table in front of her, exhausted. She had been through so much that day, and the intensity of her emotions had drained her completely.

Wen Jiuze placed one hand on the back of her head.

They sat there quietly, waiting for the final verdict.

Xue Ling didn’t know what the outcome would be, but she no longer thought about “what if” or the future. She simply waited.

As dawn broke, sunlight poured through a transparent window at the top of the tent, casting a warm glow on the table.

There were quite a few people in the camp. From time to time, people passed by outside the tents, speaking in hushed tones, while footsteps echoed through the area, yet no one opened the tent door to check on them.

Wen Yi had not arrived yet. As the sun began to slant from above, it felt as though they had been forgotten here.

Xue Ling shifted her hands and gently pulled on the silent Wen Jiuze.

After receiving the injection, he was bound to turn into a zombie. The only difference was whether he would retain his sanity or not.

By now, his appearance had completely transformed into that of a zombie, yet he remained motionless, sitting there with no reaction.

Xue Ling grew uneasy again.

Had he lost his sanity?

She screamed and waved her hand in front of Wen Jiuze.

His eyes, as dark red as hers, shifted as her hand passed by, flickering twice in the sunlight.

Suddenly, he appeared vicious, reaching out toward her and letting out a zombie-like roar, as if he had lost control.

He had always been hot-tempered, and in this state, he looked even more terrifying. Xue Ling was so startled by his sudden reaction that she almost wanted to cry.

He’s lost his mind! The injection didn’t work!

A pang of sorrow struck Xue Ling, but then she noticed something strange. Her wrinkled face relaxed, and the sadness in her eyes turned into suspicion.

Don’t zombies only react like this when they encounter humans? If Wen Jiuze had really become a mindless zombie, why would he act like he was “attacking” another zombie?

Wen Jiuze continued to growl at her, yet he didn’t make contact.

Xue Ling: “…”

You deserve to die, you smelly dog.

She roared back, raising her hands with a fierce expression, ready to strike Wen Jiuze. As soon as he stopped roaring, he raised his arms, either trying to stop her or dodge her.

Now, Xue Ling understood. He still had his mind intact, and he was simply trying to scare her.

For a moment, she hit him even harder.

If the soldiers outside hadn’t heard the roar and rushed in to see what was happening, Xue Ling would have kept beating him for a while longer.

When Wen Yi arrived after hearing the commotion, Xue Ling, still fuming, turned around and punched Wen Jiuze twice more.

Wen Yi paused, then walked in as though nothing had happened and sat down across from them, at the table.

“Congratulations,” she said as she settled in. “Even though you’ve become a zombie, compared to those who are completely gone, you’re still lucky to retain your sanity and thoughts.”

She slid a specially-made tablet toward him. It had a large screen and came with a pen, so even a zombie with stiff hands could input words easily.

“Let’s talk now,” Wen Yi said. “You should know that the medicine wasn’t given to you casually. You need to pay a certain price.”

Wen Jiuze understood this well. Wen Yi was not the type of person who would help others out of kindness. She was cold, rational, and didn’t even care about her own sister.

If she gave him that precious injection, she must have wanted something in return.

If Wen Jiuze failed, he believed both he and Xue Ling would become Wen Yi’s experimental subjects.

Of course, that might be the case already.

Instead of asking about the price, Wen Jiuze typed a question on the tablet: “You said the medicine I injected was extracted from Wen Xuan’s body.”

The voice that came from the tablet was a female announcer with a clear and melodic tone.

Xue Ling found this situation a little amusing, but she was immediately drawn in by the content of the sentence. She also recalled information she had ignored before.

Wen Yi had mentioned this when she introduced the vaccine, but Xue Ling had been too distracted at the time to pay attention.

“Yes, I went to Anxi City once before and then returned to the Wen family in Qiu Village.”

Wen Yi had gone back for Tai Sui. Her research had hit a bottleneck, and her teacher had received her message and sent someone to bring her to the northern base. They asked to take her to Qiu Village.

“When we arrived at Qiu Village, we found that Wen Xuan had eaten Tai Sui and turned into a rational zombie. Unfortunately, his zombie identity was exposed, and he was beaten to death.” Wen Yi spoke of her cousin’s death in a calm tone.

“Fortunately, his body was still intact. We brought it back, processed it, and extracted the medicine you used.”

Wen Jiuze seemed to be very concerned about the Wen family, and he typed another question: “How are the other members of the Wen family?”

Wen Yi replied, “Something unexpected happened. Wen Xiang died, and my second uncle also died. The Wen family is nearly wiped out.”

Xue Ling thought back to the time Wen Jiuze visited the Wen family last year and turned to look at him without thinking.

After turning into a zombie, it was even harder to decipher the expression on his face.

But from what she understood about him, Xue Ling had a strong hunch.

The accident at the Wen family might be related to Wen Jiuze.

Wen Jiuze didn’t seem guilty at all, but Xue Ling felt a pang of guilt for him. She hid her hands under the table and looked down.

Wen Jiuze only asked these two questions before returning to Wen Yi’s original topic.

“Then tell me the price of saving me.”