Chapter 80: You’re Not That Fragrant Either～

In a split second, Lin Mu whipped his vine, squeezing out the last bit of his energy, and veins bulging in his hand as he used the momentum to hurl himself into the truck bed.

A violent explosion erupted, and Fu Jingmo was thrown hard onto the ground. Countless zombies were blasted into the air, followed by the heavy thud of bodies crashing back down.

It was like a downpour of zombies, with the explosion’s fiery light illuminating half the sky.

Even the people in the safe zone were startled by the tremendous sound of the blast.

The truck was violently flipped and then crashed back down with a thunderous bang.

Lin Mu felt as if his chest had exploded, and a searing pain spread across his back. He couldn’t hold back any longer as blood surged up his throat and spewed out. Bits of flesh and severed limbs rained down from above, burying him completely under the heavy, rotting stench, with even a few half-alive zombies mixed in.

His vision went black, and he couldn’t manage anything anymore.

The giant zombie could no longer rise, and the other zombies surrounding the area instantly lost their target. They staggered aimlessly, driven by instinct, moving toward where people were within the safe zone.

Every second was incredibly precious. Fu Jingmo sprang to his feet, fiercely sprinting towards the truck.

Lin Mu, hang in there!!

With a few leaps, Fu Jingmo vaulted over a section of the scaffolding that was ablaze from the explosion. He then stepped onto the second floor of a half-destroyed cement building, pushing off with his foot to launch himself sideways out of the structure.

His hands gripped the edge of the truck like claws, and inside the truck bed, zombies were piled halfway up. His hands were trembling uncontrollably.

“Lin Mu, it’s okay, don’t be scared, Brother Fu is here!!”

He grabbed the edge, pulling himself up and flipping onto the platform on the truck’s roof. Without pausing, he frantically started throwing the zombies out one by one.

There were too many-whole ones, half ones, disembodied hands or feet, and others that were still twitching, and mouths agape.

His hands were covered in sticky, rotting flesh and blood, smeared with the decaying faces and foul-smelling mouths of the undead. Yet Fu Jingmo seemed utterly unfazed, mechanically repeating the action of tossing them out.

With a burst of effort, Fu Jingmo threw out most of the zombies from the truck bed. He jumped down, and at the bottom of the pile, he spotted a familiar corner of white clothing.

Tossing aside the zombies on top, he uncovered Lin Mu’s thin body pinned underneath. A faint golden glow was barely visible on Lin Mu, but it faded away the moment Fu Jingmo pulled him out.

Fu Jingmo, struggling to control his trembling hands, tried to pull Lin Mu into his arms, but he didn’t know where to start…

Lin Mu’s face was pale, his dirty white T-shirt stained with bright red, and fresh blood still lingered at the corner of his mouth. The most horrifying sight was his back, severely burned by the explosion’s shockwave. His clothes were gone, leaving his back a bloody mess, with flesh mingled with blackened debris and ash.

Fu Jingmo had undertaken countless dangerous missions, pulled comrades’ remains from mountains of corpses, and witnessed bodies riddled with bullets in the midst of gunfire.

But never, never had he felt so helpless as he did in this moment.

His whole body felt as if it had fallen into an icy abyss. Fu Jingmo tore off a piece of his clothing, wiping the rotten flesh and blood from his hands, and placed his trembling fingers under Lin Mu’s nose.

When the faint breath brushed against his fingertips, Fu Jingmo’s entire body shuddered, and his mind exploded with fireworks, like a shot of adrenaline piercing straight into his veins. He nearly jumped up from the ground.

He’s alive, he’s alive!!

Lin Mu was still breathing!!

In that instant, daylight broke, the golden rays of the sunrise spreading across the earth.

The overwhelming relief of regaining something precious left Fu Jingmo at a loss for words. The repeated waves of worry had made him realize something strange about his own feelings, something even he found difficult to comprehend.

Why? Why was he so terrified of Lin Mu dying?

Before he could ponder further, the person in his arms erupted into a fit of violent coughing. Fu Jingmo lifted Lin Mu, letting him lean against his shoulder while gently patting his chest.

Lin Mu coughed up another mouthful of blood, which eased the searing pain in his lungs just a little.

His fingers dug tightly into Fu Jingmo’s arm, and the pain in his back made him want to cry out, but he bit down hard, suppressing the urge.

“It’s okay now, Lin Mu, it’s okay,” Fu Jingmo reassured him.

Enduring the excruciating pain, Lin Mu’s breathing grew labored. After a long moment, he finally spoke weakly, his voice barely audible, “Did we succeed?”

“Yes, we did it. You did great.”

Fu Jingmo’s lips were so close to Lin Mu’s ear, almost touching, afraid that Lin Mu might not hear his words.

Lin Mu turned his head away slightly, frowning as he muttered almost disdainfully, “Stay away, you smell awful…”

Fu Jingmo chuckled, “Look who’s talking. You’re not exactly fragrant yourself.”

They had been running face-to-face with zombies in the horde for hours—Lin Mu had been buried under them, and Fu Jingmo’s hands had grabbed more rotting flesh than he could count. The stench was truly nauseating, enough to make anyone want to retch; it was overwhelmingly foul.

“Don’t fall asleep. The smell will keep you from passing out. Brother Fu will take you back.”

With a flick of his wrist, Fu Jingmo stood up, carefully bending his legs to place Lin Mu on his back. He stepped onto the edge of the truck bed.

Lin Mu reflexively wrapped his arms around Fu Jingmo’s neck. Even without seeing it, the pain alone told him that his back must be in terrible shape.

When he was buried underneath the zombies, he couldn’t move. If not for something suddenly shielding him, blocking the mouth of a still-alive zombie near his shoulder, he would likely have been bitten.

———

In the safe zone, with the oncoming horde of zombies gradually thinning, the bombs slowly cleared out the surrounding zombies bit by bit.

The soldiers who still had strength left aimed their guns at the remaining zombies outside the safe zone, while the ability users began cleaning up the innermost circle of zombie corpses.

He Ze tossed aside the iron rod in his hand and turned to glance at Shen Rangchen beside him.

It was a rare sight to see Shen Rangchen looking disheveled, with even his hair matted to his face with sweat.

“Hey, how’s Mumu? Is that thing of yours still working?”

Although Wen Tang had said that the zombies were no longer moving toward them, indicating that the mutated zombie must have been dealt with, He Ze was still very worried.

Shen Rangchen patted the dust off the ground and sat down by the concrete wall, his fingers pinching the air a few times as he furrowed his brows.

“The talisman broke.”

“Damn it, why didn’t you say so earlier?” He Ze shot up from the ground as if his pants were on fire and immediately rushed out.

Just as he jumped off the concrete wall, Shen Rangchen casually added, “But aren’t they back already?”

On the distant horizon.

The armored vehicle slowly made its way toward the safe zone, bathed in the golden light of the sunrise.

——