Chapter 123: Captain Fu, Aren’t You Being Too Clingy?

Fu Jingmo wasn’t upset and placed his hand back again.

“It’s highly possible. It might not just be animals, and it might not just be the R-virus. In any case, be cautious about everything tomorrow.”

Lin Mu’s temple twitched. While gritting his teeth, he growled, “Fu Jingmo!”

“What’s wrong, baby?”

“Take your hand off… mmph.”

The hand on his waist slid downward and gave a firm squeeze.

“You…”

Lin Mu’s lips were sealed, and he couldn’t utter another word.

The small paper figurine perched on the neighboring tent’s roof heard the strange noises. It slid down along the side of the tent and ended up lying by the edge of Lin Mu and Fu Jingmo’s tent.

Suddenly, the inside fell silent again. The little paper figurine tilted its head in confusion, then obediently scampered back to its original spot.

Lin Mu let out a breath of relief and bit down hard on the thin lips still pressed against his. The other person let out a muffled grunt and licked the blood off his lips.

“Lin Xiao Mu, ah, as expected, once you get something, you stop cherishing it.”

“You used to be so obedient when you slept at night, cuddling up to your big brother to sleep. Now, when I kiss you, you even bite me.”

“You… You call that a kiss?”

Lin Mu propped himself up with his hand, barely raising his head, and turned on the small flashlight to check his lips.

The faint blue light spread softly within the tent, illuminating a handsome face wearing a roguish grin, looking every bit like a scoundrel.

If not for that ridiculously handsome face, he would have been arrested long ago.

Fair fingers touched his lips. Lin Mu lowered his gaze to look—well, it was indeed bitten and bleeding.

Fu Jingmo glanced at his slightly open collar and his glistening eyes, his smile growing deeper.

“Does it hurt?”

“Hurt, hurt, hurt.”

At this moment, only an idiot would say it didn’t hurt. The same Major Fu, who wouldn’t even admit pain if he were shot clean through, was now crying out in layers of “hurt.”

If the members of Team 113 saw this, they’d probably be scared out of their wits.

Lin Mu leaned closer, kissed it gently, then licked his wound awkwardly and said, “Alright, it’ll be fine in a bit.”

The person lying down showed no signs of being fine and pulled Lin Mu into his arms.

“Baby, this will make it heal faster.”

“Captain Fu…”

“Tsk, why are you calling me Captain Fu? What’s wrong?”

“Aren’t you being a bit too clingy?”

Lin Mu ignored him, turned off the flashlight, and closed his eyes to sleep.

The thick-skinned man held onto him all night, torn between desire and reluctance to let go.

…

——

In the early morning, the mountains were quiet, and the stream flowed with a crisp, clear sound.

Shen Rangchen was the first to wake up. He pushed aside the person sprawled out in a disorderly manner and stepped out of the tent.

He lowered his head to straighten his wrinkled blue silk clothes and tied up the small tuft of hair at the back again. A little paper figurine climbed up his leg and perched on his shoulder.

The paper figurine leaned close to his ear, as if whispering something, but upon closer attention, it made no sound at all.

Shen Rangchen’s brows lifted slightly, and he glanced at the neighboring tent.

At that moment, Fu Jingmo emerged, pulling the tent flap aside. Faint dark circles shadowed his eyes as he nodded at Shen Rangchen.

The two of them found a nearby rock to sit on and silently began absorbing the R1 elements in the air.

Before long, Lin Mu also emerged, climbed over to the neighboring tent to wake He Ze, then filled a basin with water and stood on the rocky shore, meticulously washing his face.

With a toothbrush in his mouth, He Ze shuffled over, his mouth full of white frothy foam.

“Mumu, tell me—mmph—do you think that research facility really has ghosts?”

“…No ghosts, but there’s probably something scarier than ghosts.”

“…Forget I asked.”

He rinsed his mouth and spat out the foam. “Let’s go, let’s go, breakfast time! We need to eat well if we’re going to have the energy to deal with that damned research facility today!”

Lin Mu wrung out the towel, glanced briefly at the person sitting with eyes closed on the rock, and followed He Ze to prepare breakfast.

By the time breakfast was ready, the other two had also woken up.

“Brother Fu, didn’t sleep well, huh?”

Fu Jingmo raised his eyebrow. “Mm, there was a cat scratching around.”

The group ate a quick meal, packed up their tents, and resumed their journey.

——

To save time, they didn’t stop along the way, striving to reach the research facility before nightfall.

The closer they got to the coordinates, the more zombified animals began to appear.

When the coordinates on the black device matched the ones Fu Jingmo had provided, they came to a stop.

The surrounding vegetation was dense, with trees towering so high they blocked out the sky.

They stood on a small slope, and through the overlapping layers of tree canopies, only fragmented patches of the sky were visible.

Less than 20 meters ahead, hidden beneath the dry branches and leaves, was a thick, silver alloy door.

The door was well-concealed, completely invisible from an aerial view. It was only when they got this close that they finally noticed it.

It was not too late in the day—around 3 p.m.

The group observed their surroundings carefully, finding no traces of recent human activity.

This location, deep in the mountains, was unlikely to have outsiders. However, in the early days of the apocalypse, even a water source was enough to trigger zombification.

A facility like this would typically have independent security personnel in addition to researchers, provided the zombie mutation wasn’t too severe.

It wasn’t impossible that the situation had been contained.

Of course, that would be the best-case scenario.

The group waited for half an hour, but the surroundings remained eerily still.

Two wild rabbits and a squirrel passed by during that time—each one zombified.

Fu Jingmo spoke in a deep voice, “Prepare to go inside. A research facility like this, if it were still operating normally, would have detected us the moment we got within a five-kilometer radius.”

“Now we’re already at the door, and there’s no reaction at all. That leaves only one possibility.”

Lin Mu asked, “No one alive?”

“Mm.”

“It’s fine, Brother Fu. A research facility like this can’t hold too many people, right? Even if they’ve all turned into zombies, we can clean them out.”

Fu Jingmo’s gaze turned cold as he slowly shook his head. “What’s terrifying isn’t the people. Don’t forget—this is a biological research facility.”

“Let’s go.”

He stood up decisively and approached the alloy door.

Lin Mu and the others followed closely behind.

The alloy door wasn’t large, made of a special alloy, tightly sealed, and impervious to ordinary force.

Fu Jingmo observed it for a moment before pulling off the vines covering the door.

The door couldn’t be opened from the outside. Fu Jingmo unzipped his backpack and decisively took out a set of mini explosives, pressing them into the four corners.

“Boom!!”

Dirt and debris flew everywhere, splattering directly onto He Ze’s face. He turned to see Lin Mu safely shielded in Fu Jingmo’s arms.

His face immediately fell into a comical expression of misery.

“cough, cough, cough! Brother Fu, couldn’t you give us a heads-up first?”

Fu Jingmo pulled Lin Mu to his feet. The explosion had created several cracks on the door. Two shards of black crystal shot out and lodged themselves straight into the gaps.

With a thunderous blast, the alloy door was violently blown open, leaving a large gaping hole.

“Hold your breath.”

As soon as the words fell, he reached out to cover half of Lin Mu’s face, staring intently inside.

A strong, indescribable stench wafted out.

It was like the smell of a summer garbage bin, a mix of putrid rot combined with the acrid stench of disinfectant and other sharp chemical odors.

“Ugh…”

He Ze dry-heaved a couple of times and quickly hid behind Shen Rangchen. He’d figured it out by now—these two wouldn’t care about his life or death.

As the smell gradually dissipated, Fu Jingmo withdrew his hand.

The two of them, in perfect sync, took out their flashlights and shone them inside.

Thanks to the excellent beam focus of the flashlights, they could clearly see the area where the door had been blasted open.

There, stacked in a heap, were four or five corpses.

No, to be precise, they were human bones.

Piled together.

As if…

They had been trying to claw their way out through the door.