Chapter 64

“Give it here, I’ll put it on for you.”

Xue Ling felt a bit reluctant. She thought she didn’t look good enough to wear it now—it would feel odd.

But she knew if she said something, Wen Jiuze would dismiss it and make her wear it anyway. So, she skipped the protest and simply took the necklace out of the box with two fingers.

She wanted to ask if he could manage to fasten the clasp behind the necklace, but then she noticed his hands.

The flesh of zombies would gradually become tougher, so tough that even a knife couldn’t cut it. Yet, Wen Jiuze had many scars on his hands.

The back of his hand and palm had scratches. The area on his thumb and index finger was worn raw, exposing dark red flesh beneath, like a tree trunk with a strip of bark peeled away.

Xue Ling took his hand, examining it closely. She gently prodded with her sharp nails on his fingers, then looked up at him, her eyes silently questioning.

Even without speaking, everything she wanted to ask was clearly written in her gaze.

Wen Jiuze quickly grabbed both of her hands with one of his, while the other hand fiddled with his tablet.

“It’s from a mission in Donghai City. It doesn’t hurt or itch,” he explained.

He had completed his mission in Donghai City so quickly, never bothering to be meticulous. He would just dive in and handle everything with his hands. Even the toughest person would get a few layers of skin scraped off.

It wasn’t just his hands. He had used explosives many times, and there were moments when he nearly slipped and got buried, or when flying shrapnel hit him.

But zombies were convenient. As long as the wound wasn’t too big, it dried up quickly. There wasn’t even a drop of blood. Once covered by clothes, no one would notice.

In the past, injuries would have been painful, but now, they didn’t hurt, making it harder to notice any damage on his body.

At first, Wen Jiuze hadn’t even noticed that the skin on his hand had worn away. When he went to wash in the river and scrubbed off the dirt and grime, the dark patch on his fingertip wouldn’t come off. It was only when he took a closer look that he realized the skin had been worn away, exposing the flesh underneath.

His hands, already scarred when he was human, were now even rougher.

Xue Ling winced at the sight and leaned closer to his chest.

Wen Jiuze shook the tablet and urged, “Give me the necklace.”

Xue Ling thumped her head against his chest in frustration.

Wen Jiuze pried the ruby necklace from her hands and put it on her.

The clasp was small and fiddly, and Wen Jiuze struggled for a while before it was finally on her.

Throughout this, Xue Ling hung her head, resting against his chest, as if in deep contemplation.

Wen Jiuze nudged her, “Stop pitying me. You should pity yourself too.”

“You’ve become so thin.”

When did Wen Jiuze first notice how thin Xue Ling had become?

It was last winter.

He was the closest person to her. They were always together, spending nearly all their time side by side. Wen Jiuze even noticed her changes faster than she did herself.

But he couldn’t understand the cause of this change.

He felt helpless, simply watching her.

Wen Jiuze was capable of many things, but he never felt particularly proud of them because the things he truly wanted to do always ended in failure.

“You promised me that whatever you were hiding, you’d tell me when I came back. Now’s the time to speak.”

Xue Ling wasn’t as stubborn as Wen Jiuze and slowly pulled out the tablet, finding a PPT she had prepared for him to look at.

The PPT was something she had put together on the way, revised several times. It explained her situation, but it also urged Wen Jiuze not to act impulsively, especially not to try to bite people and end up like her.

Wen Jiuze lowered his head to read the PPT, and during that moment, Xue Ling glanced at the car window, checking her reflection and the necklace hanging around her neck.

It didn’t look so bad hanging there, the necklace was quite beautiful. The translucent gem had a nice texture, shimmering like flowing blood.

She hadn’t wanted to wear it earlier, but now that it was on, she felt a strange sense of happiness.

Once Wen Jiuze finished reading, he seemed calm, with no sign of going mad.

Xue Ling stopped glancing at the window and began to secretly observe him instead.

Wen Jiuze asked, “Is there anything else you want now?”

Xue Ling was shocked. Had he accepted reality? Was he already starting to offer her end-of-life care?

“Do you want a medal of honor?”

Xue Ling shook her head. “I don’t want the medal of honor, I just…”

The word “just” on the tablet paused, and nothing appeared below for a long time.

Wen Jiuze finished for her, “You want more people to remember you?”

Xue Ling thought about it for a moment, and it seemed like that was true.

When she was alive, all she thought about was studying hard, graduating, preparing for postgraduate exams, or finding a stable job. Maybe she even dreamed of having a family one day.

She planned for the future and imagined what she’d be like when she reached middle age or old age.

But after turning into a zombie, everything stopped. She felt like she had no future anymore, and she stopped thinking about what would come next, living only in the present.

Three years alone in the apocalypse, with no living people to talk to, made her feel forgotten by the world she once knew.

Perhaps that was the root of her current mindset: wanting to be seen, wanting to be accepted, wanting to be remembered.

Once she realized that the endless time of death had become a finite life, she couldn’t maintain her previous calmness. She began to desperately hope to do something, to leave something behind.

If she could contribute something, she’d feel fulfilled.

If she died as a zombie, she wouldn’t be despised. Instead, those who knew her would remember her.

And Wen Jiuze… once their mission was completed, the base would accept them and treat them well.

She would have a place to stay, no more wandering, and no longer needing to hide from others like she did before. She could live openly, in the crowd, respected by others.

She wanted a medal of honor, but it wasn’t the honor itself she wanted—it was the reassurance of having something to show for her efforts.

“Medals of honor, certificates, rewards… I want them all,” Xue Ling typed in.

“You’re quite greedy,” Wen Jiuze said as he pulled her close by the neck. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“To earn your ‘little red flowers.’”

They participated in a cleanup operation in Long’an Ancient City.

The soldiers started clearing the zombies from the ancient city gates, while they tackled another direction.

When Wen Jiuze pulled out explosives, Xue Ling was shocked and grabbed his hand.

“Using explosives is quick and efficient,” Wen Jiuze said. He thought it would be easy to gather all the zombies into one courtyard and then drop the explosives. Simple and effective.

Xue Ling disagreed.

The ancient buildings in Long’an were hundreds of years old, beautifully constructed and well-preserved before the apocalypse. Destroying them with explosives felt like a waste. There were other ways to handle the zombies.

A waste? Wen Jiuze had blown up famous landmarks and buildings in Donghai City without a second thought. What did these buildings mean to him?

But Xue Ling wouldn’t allow it. He still took back the explosives and was prepared to kill them one by one with a gun.

Xue Ling had more to say: “Don’t waste bullets. Everyone is tightening their belts to use this ammunition. We need to be more economical.”

Wen Jiuze asked, “Then what do you suggest we do?”

Xue Ling always had her methods.

She was also resourceful, but unlike Wen Jiuze’s rough approach, she was thrifty.

In Long’an Ancient City, there were various museums displayed in old courtyards, showcasing ancient silver notes, account books, silver, and weapons like knives and swords in glass cabinets.

Xue Ling took out a gong.

The kind you can strike with a stick that makes a loud sound.

The “dong dong” sound echoed throughout the ancient city, drawing all the surrounding zombies toward them.

Wen Jiuze then grabbed a large coil of hemp rope from one of the display cabinets and started tying the zombies, one by one, creating a long string of them.

Xue Ling walked ahead, striking the gong, and Wen Jiuze followed, pulling the zombies into a wide street corner.

Then Xue Ling directed him to use a large cleaver from the display case to chop off the zombies’ heads one by one, pressing them against tree stumps.

It was like creating a “public execution” scene.

Wen Jiuze held the knife, measuring the zombies’ necks, then looked at Xue Ling.

Her face looked so pure and kind, as if she didn’t find anything wrong with this scene.

Suddenly, she seemed to remember something, made a “pause” gesture, and pulled out a pair of thick gloves from her bag for Wen Jiuze to wear.

That way, it wouldn’t wear down his hands.

Satisfied, Xue Ling continued to push the zombies down.

Seeing that Wen Jiuze hadn’t moved with the knife, she curiously tapped her tablet and asked, “Is the knife too dull? Do you think you can’t cut through them?”

“How about I sharpen it first, make it sharper?”

Wen Jiuze frowned and began his role as the executioner.

After doing it repeatedly, the chopping motions became mechanical, and sometimes he even felt like he was just chopping firewood.

After finishing one batch, Xue Ling carried the gong and continued walking through the streets, randomly catching zombies to “dispose of.”

Wherever they passed, every slightly spacious intersection was littered with zombie heads, and corpses lay everywhere.

Some curious soldiers from their team, observing from high on the city walls with binoculars, were shocked by the brutal scene.

Zombies were getting their heads chopped off by other zombies!

Soldiers who were familiar with Xue Ling couldn’t help but marvel: “That Wen Jiuze is ruthless. Since he came, even Xue Ling seems terrifying.”

Soldiers who had witnessed Wen Jiuze’s indifference and lack of cooperation with Captain Shen’s team sighed, “Wen Jiuze is really terrifying. He can come up with such a cruel method to handle zombies.”

Compared to before, when he simply ignored them, that was already quite friendly.

“By the way, brother, what’s Xue Ling like when she’s with your team? Does she ignore people too?”

“Of course not! Xue Ling is really nice. When she’s on a mission, she even brings us gifts. Last time, she brought a big ham to give our team extra rations!”

“Last time, our cook, Old Zeng, complained the pot was no good, so she brought a new one back from her mission. Old Zeng said that pot works wonders.”

The soldiers from Captain Shen’s team: “…”

Was there really such a huge difference between their external help and the external help from another team?

The news that Xue Ling and Wen Jiuze were catching zombies and beheading them all over the city spread quickly throughout the team of several hundred people.

Every day, someone would secretly observe them with binoculars, stunned by the sight.

Even Wen Yi, who was buried in research, heard about it.

“Did you finish chopping off so many zombie heads, and still have time to come find me?” Wen Yi glanced at Wen Jiuze blocking the door and reminded, “Move a bit. You’re blocking the light.”

This was the downside of the ancient buildings: they didn’t get enough sunlight.

“Do you have a solution for Xue Ling’s situation?” Wen Jiuze’s voice was hoarse.

Wen Yi kept writing, her pen never stopping, as she replied, “You people just like to make trouble. You wouldn’t let me study Xue Ling’s condition before, and now you want me to cure her? I don’t know anything about how to treat her. Do you think I’m a god?”

Wen Jiuze was silent for a long time and said, “It shouldn’t… be painful for her. As for other things… that can be dealt with.”

Wen Yi mocked, “I thought you were going to bite someone yourself and let me study you first, then treat Xue Ling.”

Wen Jiuze replied, “If needed… I can do that.”

Wen Yi quietly wrote for a few more lines before rejecting, “No, the research materials from Professor Ji are very valuable. I don’t have time for anything else.”

Plus, she was afraid of Wen Jiuze’s temper. She had a long life ahead of her and many things to do, so she wasn’t ready to die from his misplaced anger.

Wen Jiuze unexpectedly didn’t insist further. He turned and left.

Once the light from outside poured in again, Wen Yi picked up a manuscript from Professor Ji and began to ponder.

Professor Ji’s research on the virus was fundamentally different from her teacher’s research.

He had discovered a special substance in some meteorites that could inhibit the virus’s reproduction, but it was likely a living, unknown organism similar to the current virus.

Professor Ji hoped to resolve the zombie virus issue by using the competitive relationship between the two.

But this was a bold and dangerous attempt, and no one knew if it would open another Pandora’s box.

Wen Yi’s thoughts shifted back to Xue Ling’s situation.

If she were given this special substance, causing the zombie virus in her body to deactivate, would her condition improve or worsen?