Nonsense!

Si Xuanyang almost exploded: If you can’t see, how do you know I’m making mouth shapes!?

And with such a close distance and you still can’t see anything—how severe is your night blindness? Are you blind!?

Yu Sen’s body trembled for a while, his face was sore, and he was struggling to hold back laughter. His arm brushed against Si Xuanyang’s arm, his fingers trembling, feeling that the irritable young man beside him, though obviously at the limit of his patience, still didn’t push him away recklessly. He suddenly felt that the harsh environment of the tunnel wasn’t so unbearable after all.

But it was impossible not to vent some complaints.

“The air is so bad, I feel like I’m going to suffocate.” Yu Sen complained quietly.

“What more do you want now that we’re here?” Si Xuanyang’s expression was as cold as AI, “Your personality is too troublesome… Just shut up and breathe through your nose.”

Yu Sen leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Got it!”

The warm breath sprayed on his ear, causing a tingling and itchy sensation. Si Xuanyang shuddered suddenly, his head recoiling slightly. He glanced at Yu Sen with a look as if he were crazy, took a deep breath, and tried to suppress the urge to roast him alive, hastening his steps with a blank expression.

Yu Sen watched his series of reactions and laughed uncontrollably: This guy is really fun to tease!

---

However, after a while, Yu Sen calmed down a lot. First, he knew that joking around should be done in moderation. Second… in such a place, he needed to conserve his strength!

After roughly estimating the time, it was already night. They had rushed out of the convenience store and didn’t take any food. For safety, it seemed they would have to skip dinner tonight. It was more cost-effective to avoid joking around.

After walking for a while, Yu Sen suggested taking turns to rest to recover strength. Resting was necessary, but staying too long in such a place could lead to trouble. Moreover, the flashlight’s power wouldn’t last long. After calculating, each of them would keep watch for two hours and sleep for four hours. By the time they exited the tunnel, it should be dawn outside.

After a brief discussion, Yu Sen took the first two-hour shift. The other two found a drier spot and closed their eyes to rest, their breathing gradually becoming steady.

Yu Sen was somewhat surprised. It was not unexpected that Si Nan trusted him, but it was unexpected that this irritable kid, who had only known him for two or three days, could relax his nerves in this situation.

Had their trust reached this level? But he had clearly been very disdainful before. Yu Sen sighed, moved a little closer to Si Xuanyang, and this time he wasn’t dodged.

Even though after this whole day, their smells had become unpleasant, he still felt that being close was more comfortable, with a strange sense of fulfillment in his heart.

---

The three spent the night in shifts, and when Yu Sen was woken up by Si Xuanyang, the suddenly enlarged angular face in front of him made him momentarily dazed, with a slightly confused expression.

Si Xuanyang: “What’s wrong? Can’t see?” He waved his hand in front of Yu Sen’s face.

“… Can’t see even at this distance? I’m not blind,” Yu Sen weakly swatted his hand away.

“Tsk, I didn’t think you were blind,” Si Xuanyang stood up and mocked, “You were just pretending earlier.”

Yu Sen: “…”

After waking up, the three did not linger and continued forward through the tunnel.

Skipping dinner and breakfast, combined with only four hours of sleep, Yu Sen clearly felt his mood was a bit off. He thought he was concealing it well, but Si Xuanyang seemed to notice, glancing at him several times.

Annoying, just looking at him makes one want to tease him.

Yu Sen bared his teeth at him: “If you steal another look, I’ll gouge out your eyes!”

Si Xuanyang stiffened and straightened his head: “…”

“Huh? What? Gouge out?” Si Nan was startled.

“Nothing, I’m just teasing your younger brother.” Yu Sen smiled.

“Oh, go ahead, Just don’t play too much.,” Si Nan appeared very magnanimous.

Si Xuanyang sneered, his temper flaring up again. He was good at being fierce with his ‘in-law,’ but he was even better at dealing with his ‘older brother’: “… Si Nan, if you keep blabbering, I’ll chop off your head and use it as a ball.”

He even shook the axe in his hand.

Si Nan wisely kept quiet and took a few steps back as usual.

Yu Sen was amused, sneering: The fake identity of ‘in-law’ was really useful.

After walking for a while, when Yu Sen was feeling somewhat impatient, they finally passed the previous station in the city center.

The number of zombies at this station was visibly higher. Yu Sen and the brothers exchanged glances, each understanding: The closer they got to the city center, the more zombies there would be.

With their hearts raised, they walked more cautiously. Fortunately, there were more light boxes along this stretch of road, and they could see everything around them clearly without the need for a flashlight.

The tracks on the ground were noticeably twisted, and the slight sound of footsteps made the sense of panic in their hearts harder to suppress.

“There’s an abandoned carriage ahead.” Si Nan squinted, “Have we arrived? This is the nearest central square station to the Eternal Life Technology Company.”

“Should be. Be careful.” Si Xuanyang tightened his grip on the axe.

As they walked a little further, Yu Sen noticed something increasingly off. He squinted and suddenly stopped: “Shit!”

Si Xuanyang reflexively raised the axe and quickly looked around: “What’s wrong?”

“In that carriage… I’m afraid it’s all Pikachus…” Yu Sen muttered, staring ahead.

“Pikachu? You mean zombies?”

Yu Sen looked again and indeed, through the somewhat cloudy carriage glass, he could see several humanoid shapes moving dully inside. Their repetitive, rigid movements clearly indicated they were not normal people.

Si Nan and Si Xuanyang also realized: “Oh my God, they won’t come rushing out, will they? We still need to get up from the side…”

“They shouldn’t. The carriage is intact, and the door is closed,” Yu Sen observed carefully. “With the dozen or so zombies inside, they shouldn’t be able to break the carriage glass immediately, but we should speed up to be safe.”

The three of them stealthily approached the side of the platform. The station’s pale white lights were still on, casting it like a morgue. Yu Sen could already see the dark bloodstains on the walls.

Even though they moved quietly, climbing up from beside the carriage to the platform was impossible without being noticed given the short distance.

Yu Sen climbed up first. Halfway up, a ‘thud’ behind him was like a crash in his ear.

He turned around and saw a hideous, ghostly face reflected on the slanted carriage glass. The eyes were ghostly white, the mouth wide open like a bowl, and the teeth grinding fiercely on the glass.

Yu Sen’s heart skipped a beat: “……”

Seeing such things too often really shortens your life!

“Don’t look, hurry up!” His ankle was suddenly grabbed by a hand. Yu Sen turned to see Si Xuanyang’s worried gaze.

Yu Sen immediately felt amused. He was indeed startled, but he didn’t need to be treated like a ‘pathetic weakling’!

Well, considering his current role as the ‘in-law’, it was understandable!

He shot a fierce glare at the ugly ghost in the carriage, then quickly climbed onto the platform and extended a hand to Si Xuanyang: “Come on!”

Si Xuanyang said nothing more and directly reached out to him.

“Faster, faster… Standing here is really creepy!” Si Nan urged from the side, where a bunch of ghostly faces were pressed against the glass.

As Yu Sen was pulling Si Xuanyang up, he suddenly noticed Si Xuanyang’s expression freezing for a moment, then his head was quickly shoved aside by Si Xuanyang in front of him. A sharp axe swooshed past his ear.

The sound of the weapon slicing through the air, followed by a muffled thud of flesh being cut, startled Yu Sen again. He stumbled and fell to the ground, blinking in confusion.

Not far behind him was a zombie just struck by Si Xuanyang’s flying axe.

Si Xuanyang swiftly stood up and tossed a sentence: “Quickly pull him up,” then walked towards the axe.

Tsk! Yu Sen came to his senses and sighed deeply—he had really looked like a startled fool just now, and now he was truly being seen as a weakling!

“Yu Ge, give me a hand!” Si Nan, oblivious, extended his hand with a naive smile. “Don’t be afraid, my brother is awesome! In terms of fighting, we’ll win just by following him!”

“……Then you stay lying there!” Yu Sen sneered.

“Hey! Don’t be like that. What’s with your temper? Pull me up quickly!”

When Yu Sen reluctantly helped him up, he saw Si Xuanyang had already killed three lone zombies with his axe.

Three broken heads rolled on the ground, making Yu Sen feel a slight urge to kick them.

Zombies in the carriages were still howling, continuously banging on the glass.

Yu Sen surveyed the route and they chose the B exit, just a few hundred meters away from the Eternal Life Technology Company. It couldn’t be more perfect.

However, after completely clearing the zombies in the subway station and peeking outside at the situation, the three of them froze for a couple of seconds.

Seeing the sunlight again, the sun was high in the sky, approaching noon. As they had anticipated, the road was indeed very wide, but it was also littered with abandoned cars, various obstacles, iron nails, and crooked railings… extending for an unknown distance. It was absolutely impossible to drive straight to the company building’s entrance.

The problem was… without a vehicle, they would have to run the few hundred meters without any protection.

And now on the square avenue, unlike the streets when they entered the city, there were zombies wandering around ‘searching for food’. Yu Sen roughly calculated there were about a hundred of them.

^[1]Author’s Note:

A skipped heartbeat might not be due to love, but rather because of zombies…???