Side Story — The Apocalypse Arrives
How exactly had this happened?
Even now, when Jun Yueyue thought about it, her head still throbbed in waves.
After the wedding ended yesterday, everyone had gone back to their own homes, each looking for their own mothers… Jun Yueyue had wanted to be romantic, so she had not taken Fang Anyu back to the Fang family home. Of course, that was too far away. Nor had they gone back to the Jun family home. Instead, they had gone to the house Old Master Jun had once prepared for Jun Yu in Qiuhai City.
On their wedding night, it was inevitable that they fooled around.
Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu first revisited the enclosed space inside the large wardrobe. Then came the soft sinking comfort of the big bed. After that, she was dragged by Fang Anyu to the floor-to-ceiling window for an open kind of indulgence.
Of course, the parts of the two of them that could not be seen were blocked by the table. Even if someone across the way could tell what they were doing, they could only tell. They could not actually see.
Jun Yueyue did not really like this sort of scene. It overstimulated her nerves. But Fang Anyu liked it. Ever since some unpredictable door seemed to have opened inside him, the ways he tormented people had become endless.
Jun Yueyue suspected that he had secretly watched some little adult films to learn from them, but she had searched through his phone and checked his computer too. She had not found even the slightest clue. If one only looked at his phone and computer, Fang Anyu was pure enough to rival a primary school student.
But reality was that, in the end, he had carried her into the bathroom while supporting her trembling legs. When they were showering, she felt as if she had truly turned into a doll, allowing Fang Anyu to move her arms, wash her, rinse her, while she could not muster any strength.
Being this unrestrained was actually rare. It was probably because they had remarried and held a wedding again. Fang Anyu was overly excited, and Jun Yueyue could understand that.
By the time the two of them had washed up and were lying on the bed, they clung together lingeringly like two little cats licking one another. They were affectionate for a long while. Only when the sky outside was nearly bright did they finally fall asleep, face pressed to face.
Jun Yueyue had never imagined that while she was asleep, she would still be dancing in heaven, only to wake up and fall straight into hell.
When she opened her eyes early in the morning, not only was she lying there completely exposed, but the space beside her was empty. The quilt had been tossed to one side, with no one covering her. Fang Anyu was standing by the window, a bathrobe draped loosely over his body, staring at something outside.
Aching all over, especially around her waist, Jun Yueyue sat up, pulled the thin quilt around herself, and got out of bed, still dazed, walking toward Fang Anyu.
She pulled the curtains open at once. Sunlight instantly poured over her whole body. She comfortably stretched, rested her head on Fang Anyu’s shoulder, and followed his gaze downstairs while mumbling, “Are there flowers down there? Why are you standing here so early in the morning…”
Jun Yueyue’s voice stopped abruptly.
She suddenly straightened and looked downstairs. For an instant, she thought her eyes were blurred, that she was hallucinating, that she was still dreaming and had not woken up.
She saw, downstairs, one person pressing another person to the ground, holding that person’s head and… gnawing.
Not the kind of gnawing done affectionately.
It was eating.
It was tearing and biting.
Jun Yueyue stepped forward and opened the window. Faint screams, barely discernible, echoed through the entire residential compound.
Jun Yueyue gripped the window tightly, still unable to believe it. Only when the person doing the eating raised their face again, their face covered in blood as they roared toward the sky, did Jun Yueyue freeze in horror.
That sound was far too familiar to her.
So familiar it made her hair stand on end.
And the moment the zombie’s howl rang out, Jun Yueyue watched with her own eyes as the other people in the compound who had seemed to be out walking all stopped and began roaring in response.
Jun Yueyue staggered back two steps. Her breathing grew increasingly rapid. Her entire mind tensed. She looked back at Fang Anyu’s confused face, then suddenly pulled the curtains shut. With one hand clutching the quilt around her body and the other pulling him along, she dragged Fang Anyu to the side of the sofa and pressed him down onto it.
After finding her phone, she quickly typed for him to see:
Go check the house and see how long the food is enough for us to eat. I’m going to collect water.
After saying that, Jun Yueyue quickly walked to the kitchen. There were no large water storage buckets in the house, so she cleaned the kitchen sink, plugged it, and turned on the tap. Then she hurried to the bathroom, washed and disinfected the bathtub, and quickly started filling it with water.
Using that gap, she also quickly washed up herself. After coming out wrapped in a bathrobe, she saw that Fang Anyu had, at some point, gone back to the window and pulled open the curtains to look outside.
Jun Yueyue hurried forward and pulled Fang Anyu away from the window.
Fang Anyu let her pull him to the sofa. He took out his phone and asked:
What’s wrong with those people? Why are they screaming? Why are they biting people?
Jun Yueyue also wanted to know what exactly was wrong with those people.
She looked at Fang Anyu with complicated emotions. Clearly, in this life, the two of them had already lived happily together. So why had the apocalypse still come?
She sighed and was just about to take the phone when Fang Anyu typed again:
Is this the world you talked about? The world you lived in? That world where people eat people?
At this point, the final option was to let Fang Anyu know everything.
So she nodded. Then she carefully explained to Fang Anyu the weaknesses of the initial stage of mutation. For example, they ran very slowly, did not understand teamwork, and would be attracted by sound and smell, but their vision was actually not very good.
Their only fatal weakness was the head. Attacking other parts of the body would only slow their movements, not kill them directly.
Jun Yueyue did not rush to mention second-level zombies. After the apocalypse began, zombies all attacked humans at first. They were all low-level zombies then, so they were easier to deal with. Only later, when humans gradually became scarce and they began attacking and devouring one another, would zombies that accidentally ate their companions’ crystal cores advance to second level.
Second-level zombies already understood teamwork and hunting humans.
By the time they evolved to third level, their intelligence and memories would recover to the level they had when alive. They could drive their own kind to launch attacks. This was the reason zombie tides formed later on.
Jun Yueyue had only encountered one once. But that time, she had joined forces with other bases. Besides, the conditions for a third-level zombie to form were extremely strict: a second-level zombie had to eat the crystal core of a second-level ability user of the same level in order to evolve.
But in the beginning, everyone was still exploring their mutations. Upgrading was difficult. The fact that eating zombie crystal cores could improve abilities was only discovered accidentally much later. Moreover, a second-level ability user could usually instantly kill a second-level zombie. Basically, the formation of a third-level zombie was extremely unlikely.
Jun Yueyue only explained the abilities of first-level zombies to Fang Anyu in detail, then typed a reminder that he should not go to the window to look anymore.
Fang Anyu was so timid that Jun Yueyue feared he would be frightened badly.
She got up to check the remaining food while preparing to make a phone call to contact Fang Anyan and Ji Fei. But before she could dial out, Fang Anyan had already called first.
As soon as Jun Yueyue answered, Fang Anyan’s voice came through along with the sound of gunfire.
“Where are you? We’ll come pick you up! When we woke up this morning, all the servants at home had gone insane. We drove out, and the people on the street had all gone insane too. Don’t take my brother running around. Stay where you are and wait for us.”
Listening to the constant gunfire, Jun Yueyue said, “Tell Ji Fei to avoid using guns as much as possible. They’re attracted by sound. Also, in the earliest stage of mutation, they’re very slow. There’s no need to directly kill them. If you drive, they won’t be able to catch up.”
Jun Yueyue continued, “If she must shoot, tell her to only shoot the head. Shooting other places won’t kill them. Your brother and I are at Garden Street, No. 48, Unit 5, Room 303.”
Fang Anyan’s voice caught for a moment.
Ji Fei had obviously also heard what Jun Yueyue said. She fired two shots into the heads of the zombies, and sure enough, killed them.
Fang Anyan could not help asking, “How do you know…”
Then he stopped. “Alright. We’re coming over now.”
After hanging up, Jun Yueyue hurriedly called Jun Yu and Li Li.
The two of them had probably had too wild a night yesterday and had not gotten up yet. Jun Yueyue asked where they were. When she learned they were at the hotel and had not returned to Pingchuan last night either, she could not help cursing. She quickly explained the current situation.
Li Li sat up groggily, rubbed his face, then sneered. “A newlywed prank? Zombies outside the door? Have you gone mad…”
Jun Yueyue was speechless. “Open the curtains and look downstairs.”
Li Li lazily wrapped a bath towel around himself and pulled open a little of the curtain. Downstairs was quiet. There was not even a car.
He was just about to scold Jun Yueyue for disturbing his sleep when he saw the clock on the wall. It was past ten in the morning.
His whole body paused.
Past ten. How could there not be a single car on this busy street?
Even if it was a prank, there was no way she could empty an entire street.
Li Li’s voice cut off. Then he quickly walked to the door. He heard howling outside, along with someone screaming hoarsely, “Don’t come over…”
He opened the door, just in time to come face-to-face with a zombie whose mouth was full of blood and whose eyes had already turned grey-white.
The zombie abandoned the farther target for the nearer one and lunged straight at him with a howl.
Li Li reacted quickly enough. This could be counted as one benefit of having fought a lot. The instant the zombie lunged, he slammed the door shut hard.
There was only a loud bang.
If it had been a normal person, their nose bridge would probably have been smashed into their brain.
Sure enough, the sound outside stopped. A short while later, someone tremblingly knocked on the door.
“President Li, open the door. I’m Wu Zhenfei, the organiser from yesterday’s wedding. Can we come in and talk?”
Li Li frowned.
He listened as Jun Yueyue was still telling him basic survival common sense over the phone. One point was not to open the door casually. First, he had to confirm whether the other person had been bitten.
Like Fang Anyan, Li Li was full of doubts about why Jun Yueyue knew all this. But this was indeed not a good time to ask.
After frowning and hanging up, he did not respond to the person outside. Instead, he walked straight to the bed and searched the wardrobe for suitable clothes and trousers. Then he pulled open the quilt and began putting clothes on Jun Yu.
Jun Yu was woken up by his movements. Thinking this beast was about to do something again, she raised her little claws to scratch him. Li Li grabbed her hands and pressed her onto the bed, kissed her, and said, “Get up first. Something serious has happened. I’ll explain in a while.”
Li Li quickly dressed Jun Yu and pulled her out of bed.
The person outside was still knocking quietly.
Li Li walked to the door and asked warily, “Have you been bitten or scratched?”
“No, no…” Wu Zhenfei immediately answered from outside. “We were staying next door. This morning, we called room service to send something up, but no one answered. That was when we realised something was wrong. We wanted to go downstairs to check, but when we went down, we ran into a group of people who had already gone mad. We ran back up.”
Li Li opened the peephole. “We?”
“My wife and I…” Wu Zhenfei said. “I called every floor, but no one answered… I’m guessing that in the whole hotel, only we are still normal.”
Through the peephole, Li Li saw scratches on both of their faces. He instantly asked warily, “You said you weren’t scratched, so what are the wounds on your faces?”
Wu Zhenfei choked. He looked back at Ming Zhen, then said awkwardly, “These weren’t caused by zombies. We scratched each other… We argued last night. If you don’t believe me, look carefully. They already scabbed over overnight. They aren’t fresh wounds.”
As Wu Zhenfei spoke, he moved closer to the peephole.
Li Li looked clearly, then opened the door and let the two of them in.
Jun Yu had already put on her prosthetics and gone to wash up. Wu Zhenfei pulled Ming Zhen inside. Seeing Li Li looking down at the two of them from above, he was intimidated by his presence. He coughed and seemed somewhat at a loss.
“Well…” Wu Zhenfei said. “I’ve already called my uncle. One of his comrades happens to be in Qiuhai City. They’ll come pick us up in a while. You should hurry and pack up so we can go together.”
Li Li did not immediately agree. He only told the two of them to sit on the sofa while he went to check on Jun Yu.
Jun Yu still did not know the situation and was washing up very carefully. Li Li did not rush her. He stood beside her, attentively helping her.
Last night had truly been too wild. Now, seeing Jun Yu, his thoughts could not help wandering.
Jun Yu glared at him through the mirror. Li Li hugged her from behind, lowered his head, and buried his face in her neck to inhale.
By the time the two of them came out, Li Li’s phone rang again.
It was Jun Yueyue again.
“Don’t go out casually. Fang Anyan and Ji Fei are coming to pick us up soon. Then we’ll come meet you together, and after that, we’ll all return to Pingchuan. I’ve already called Fatty at the resort. Fatty and several managers partied in the entertainment hall until dawn last night, and now they’re trapped there. We have to go back.”
The resort was the most suitable survival base. Once they cleared the zombies inside the resort, lowered the suspension bridge, and sealed the gates, everything inside operated in a self-sufficient mode. The advertised concept had been environmental protection and nature. The plan had been designed by Jun Yueyue back then. In the normal world, it was a novel experience for tourists. But in the apocalypse, it was a natural shelter.
Even if Jun Yueyue did not say it, Li Li certainly knew the situation inside the resort too.
The problem was that right now, he still did not fully understand the situation. He had only seen that one person with a mouth full of blood. Even now, he was still in a confused stage about what changes had occurred in the world.
However, Li Li did not hide what Wu Zhenfei had said. After all, in the impression of normal people, the army was always safe.
“You said Wu Zhenfei’s uncle’s comrade is coming to pick him up. Do you know where they’re going?” Jun Yueyue said. “If the destination isn’t in the direction of the resort, don’t follow them. If you follow them too far now, it’ll be difficult when you want to turn back to Pingchuan.”
Jun Yueyue continued, “Li Li, you understand the resort even better than I do. Let me put it this way: what you can see now is only the tip of the iceberg. Do you remember the apocalypse I told you about? Do you remember those people who developed unexplained fevers and recovered for no reason?”
Li Li’s brows furrowed more and more deeply.
Suddenly, the sound of a violent car crash came from the street. Li Li and Jun Yu walked to the window together and saw a car crash into a streetlight pole. It looked as if the driver had swerved to avoid someone on the road. But when she crawled out of the car with blood all over her face, she was immediately pounced on by that person against the car.
Jun Yu’s eyes widened.
Li Li wrapped an arm around her shoulders and moved her away from the window, walking toward Wu Zhenfei and Ming Zhen.
Li Li said into the phone, “Got it,” and was about to hang up when Wu Zhenfei suddenly reached out toward him, his expression pleading.
“Is that Yueyue? Can you let me say a few words to her?”
Ming Zhen beside him suddenly erupted. She bit his shoulder hard.
Wu Zhenfei pushed her away, took the phone from Li Li, and said anxiously, “Yueyue, it’s Zhenfei. My uncle’s comrade is here. They’re from the military. They’ll come to save me soon. Where are you? I’ll have someone pick you up. We’re going to Heji Province. That place is safest.”
When Jun Yueyue heard “Heji Province,” she immediately remembered something from the apocalypse.
According to people who had luckily escaped from there, that place had indeed been very safe at first. The roads had all been sealed and cut off, and there were troops stationed there. It was said that an entire city maintained normal operations for a time, and everyone once fled there.
But later, the monitoring system briefly failed. Among the survivors who sought refuge, someone who had already been bitten snuck in. After a thirteen-hour incubation period, they fell ill.
Then the blockade became a cage.
In less than five days, almost the entire city fell.
Jun Yueyue said directly, “I’m not going. That place can’t be visited.”
“Yueyue, you don’t know the situation outside. Apparently, some places already had people falling ill several days ago,” Wu Zhenfei tried to persuade Jun Yueyue to leave with him. “The outside world has completely changed. At a time like this, going with the military is the safest. They have guns. I’ll be responsible for speaking to my uncle. Yueyue, you… where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”
“Wu Zhenfei!”
Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a sharp voice.
“Do you think I’m dead? You dare hook up with that bitch right in front of me!”
Ming Zhen lunged forward to grab the phone. Li Li reacted quickly and snatched it away. Wu Zhenfei raised his arm to block her from coming closer, and another fresh red scratch appeared on his face.
Jun Yueyue hung up.
Fang Anyu was sitting beside her. She turned her head and smiled soothingly at him, then typed:
Your brother will be here soon. Once he arrives, we’ll return to Pingchuan.
After Fang Anyu read it, he obediently nodded.
Jun Yueyue thought he would have a whole pile of questions, but he asked nothing. He only sat there in a slight daze for a while, then reached out and hugged Jun Yueyue.
Jun Yueyue’s heart was in chaos.
The sudden arrival of the apocalypse, without the slightest preparation, was truly like war and chaos descending at once. But Fang Anyu was by her side. That was the greatest calming force. Being hugged by him like this, Jun Yueyue’s chaotic emotions gradually settled.
As long as Fang Anyu was beside her, anything was fine.
Once they returned to Pingchuan and cleared out the base, she would hide Fang Anyu there and let him live as carefree a life as he had in the normal world.
Jun Yueyue hugged Fang Anyu back.
Thinking of the physique she would have after mutating… she was half happy and half worried. Although her mutation was low-level, that kind of large build, combined with the training experience she had from before, would definitely allow her to move with ease at the beginning of the apocalypse.
When the time came, if anyone dared covet her little delicate flower, she would swing a fist the size of a sandbag at them. Just thinking about it felt satisfying.
But what she worried about was Fang Anyu disliking her. Although he had said he would not dislike her…
However, Jun Yueyue was not too worried either. They were already married. If Fang Anyu really disliked her, then she would play forced love with him.
The two embraced quietly in the room. Jun Yueyue turned her head to kiss Fang Anyu’s jaw. Fang Anyu rubbed his nose against her forehead.
But because of the angle, his eyelashes drooped, hiding the true emotion in his eyes. Only the fine shadows beneath his eyes, like a row of little brushes, trembled with a faintly unusual meaning.
Unfortunately, Jun Yueyue could not see it. Fang Anyu’s leaking emotion only lasted for a moment before he carefully restrained it again.
Last night… he had dreamed for the entire night.
Fang Anyu’s hand tightened around Jun Yueyue’s clothes. Jun Yueyue thought he was afraid, so she kept stroking his back to comfort him.
Before long, the phone rang again.
Fang Anyan and the others had already arrived downstairs. The car was parked at the entrance to the building. They were preparing to come upstairs and told Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu to get ready.
Jun Yueyue had already made all preparations. Whether they ended up trapped here or went straight out, she had prepared both options. She packed some portable ready-to-eat food from the fridge and the things the two of them absolutely needed into one bag.
Fang Anyan and Ji Fei had guns, so they told Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu to wait upstairs.
Jun Yueyue wrapped her own arm, then wrapped Fang Anyu’s arm too. On the phone, she had repeatedly reminded him how to dodge and respond if he came into close contact with a zombie, just in case she could not take care of him.
Ji Fei truly was someone who had fought for years. At first, she had been frightened by these monsters that were neither human nor ghost, would not die easily, and so she had fired wildly. But after learning their weaknesses from Jun Yueyue, she had killed her way over with Fang Anyan, and now it was almost like she was playing a large-scale live-action game.
Fang Anyan had no chance to make a move at all. She did not even need a gun. One blade per “little friend,” accurately stabbing into the brain, cutting them down like vegetables and melons. Watching it made Fang Anyan nauseous.
Ji Fei’s psychological barrier was relatively small. After all, she had killed many living people. This kind of half-human, half-corpse thing did not make her uncomfortable in the slightest when she stabbed it.
Fang Anyan could not do that.
He was a normal person. If he had not almost been gnawed on by his own parents together this morning, he simply would not have been able to believe that this world, and the people in this world, had all suddenly gone mad.
He felt awful. But fortunately, Ji Fei was beside him. She had saved him from his parents’ hands and brought him all the way out.
“Still uncomfortable?” Ji Fei unscrewed a bottle of water and handed it to him.
Fang Anyan met her pale eyes and looked at that pointed chin face completely mismatched with her powerful, muscular body. For an instant, he felt at ease.
He took the water and drank a mouthful, then nodded. In front of Ji Fei, he did not hide how uncomfortable he felt.
“Nauseous.”
Ji Fei reached over from the car seat and stroked his head. “Then wait in the car. I’ll go pick them up.”
“No.” Fang Anyan drank another mouthful and immediately refused. “I can’t stay unaccustomed forever. You’ve taught me a lot at home during this period. I’m wearing your bulletproof vest, and I’ve wrapped things around my arms. I’ll be fine. I saw that they’re very slow. This is a good chance for me to practise.”
Ji Fei smiled. Her doting was extremely obvious. She handed the spike she used most smoothly to Fang Anyan.
“Baby, you haven’t practised piercing skulls before. The easiest way is to stab inward through the eyes. This is easier to stab in and pull out, but it’s very sharp, so be careful.”
Fang Anyan’s ears reddened at a very inappropriate time. He said in a low voice, “I know.”
“Stay close behind me,” Ji Fei said.
Fang Anyan opened his mouth, wanting to search for some masculine dignity and say he could take the front, but one sentence from Ji Fei made him fall silent.
“I’m leaving my back to you. You know what my back means to me, right?”
Ji Fei smiled as she unlocked the car.
Fang Anyan did indeed know. When they first started sleeping together, Ji Fei had refused certain positions. She had said that her back did not have eyes, and that her spine was an important joint supporting the whole body. She was not used to handing it over to someone else.
But last night, she had allowed it.
Holding the triangular spike, Fang Anyan coughed lightly and followed Ji Fei out of the car.
After locking the car, the two quietly entered the corridor. Unfortunately, just as they turned the corner, they came face-to-face with a security guard whose neck had been cut open halfway, with a short-handled axe still hanging from it.
The front of his chest was soaked through with blood. By all logic, if this had been a normal person, he would definitely be dead.
But this security guard tilted his head, the axe hanging from his neck. When he saw the two of them, he gave a short cry and lunged at them.
Ji Fei did not attack immediately. She planned to use the axe hanging from his neck and strike the same spot again. That would probably make him fall. She waited for him to get closer.
But when the person approached and she had only just raised her hand, Fang Anyan’s spike had already stabbed through his eyeball.
Steady. Accurate. Ruthless.
When he pulled it out, not a drop of blood splashed. The body slapped onto the ground.
Fang Anyan shook the spike in his hand. His heart was beating so hard it was about to leap out. His mind was full of: Fuck, I killed someone. Although something was wrong with this person, he was still a person!
Ji Fei grabbed his trembling wrist. “It’s okay. The first time is always a bit hard. It’ll get better later. I even threw up the first time.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Fang Anyan immediately pushed Ji Fei aside, leaned into the corner, and vomited so violently the sky and earth seemed to turn dark.
Ji Fei kept watch over their surroundings. While Fang Anyan was vomiting miserably, she dealt with four people.
By the time he finally recovered and turned his head, seeing bodies lying all over the ground in various states of death, his stomach churned again. This time, he held it in. Avoiding his gaze, he said hoarsely to Ji Fei, “Let’s go.”
“You okay now?” Ji Fei raised her brows.
Actually, the first time she killed someone, she had vomited terribly and had almost become dehydrated from illness.
Fang Anyan looked at Ji Fei weakly, then opened his arms and hugged her.
“Mm. I’m okay. Let’s go.”
The two continued upstairs.
This floor looked like there were no zombies, but one household’s door was wide open, and sounds came from inside. Both Ji Fei and Fang Anyan felt an ominous feeling settle over them.
When they reached the doorway, they saw a group of zombies surrounding a person and tearing at him. That person’s head happened to be facing the door. He did not seem to be dead yet, only his face was filled with blank numbness. When he saw Fang Anyan and Ji Fei at the doorway, he suddenly began struggling.
But his whole body had almost been torn apart. Blood covered the floor. The sounds coming from his throat no longer seemed human. One eye had turned grey-white, clearly about to mutate too.
“Save me… save me… help—”
Fang Anyan subconsciously stepped forward, but Ji Fei swiftly grabbed him and pulled him aside to hide.
There were more than ten zombies inside, both adults and children. If they saw them and rushed out, it would be very troublesome.
After a while, the cries for help stopped.
Fang Anyan slowly stuck his head out and saw that the man who had been calling for help earlier was now completely dead. Because he had been torn apart too badly, he had not even managed to turn into a zombie. His head still faced the doorway. Although he was completely dead, one eye was grey and the other black.
Because he had not fully mutated, his flesh and blood still carried the fresh smell of a human, so the zombies were still fighting to tear him apart.
Fang Anyan and Ji Fei thought of the same thing at the same time. Both silently reached out to close the door.
In the end, Fang Anyan, who was closer, quickly grabbed the doorknob. Just as the zombies inside turned their heads and noticed them, about to pounce, he swiftly shut the door.
The entire second floor quieted down.
But before the two of them could breathe a sigh of relief, another household’s door suddenly opened. A man cracked the door open slightly and looked at them.
“Are you here to find someone? I saw your car downstairs. It’s a jeep. There’s a lot of space. Can you take us with you…”
As he spoke, the man moved aside slightly. A woman and a teenage girl beside them looked at Fang Anyan and Ji Fei with deathly pale faces.
Ji Fei did not have that sort of overly kind sympathy. At a time like this, taking care of oneself was the real priority.
But Fang Anyan hesitated. Ji Fei could see it.
From beginning to end, Ji Fei had always doted on Fang Anyan. She often felt that getting her hands on a treasure like Fang Anyan and even coaxing him into getting a marriage certificate must have been because her parents, whom she had never met, had accumulated virtue.
He was capable, responsible, good-looking, and fierce in bed. She had never met such a good man before. Every time she called him baby, she meant it seriously.
So seeing Fang Anyan moved, Ji Fei did not make him speak or struggle over it. She directly nodded and agreed.
“Fine. But wait here. We need to go up to the third floor to pick someone up before we can come down.”
The man in the family was about to speak, but the woman pinched his arm, making him hold back. Ji Fei’s gaze was sharp. She felt that these three people gave her a bad feeling. Her excessive sensitivity toward good and evil made her frown.
However, the three of them kept thanking them quietly.
Fang Anyan said, “Bring the necessities and any easy-to-carry ready-to-eat food from home. Prepare first. We’ll come down in a while.”
The three quickly agreed. Only then did Ji Fei and Fang Anyan continue cautiously up the stairs.
Taking the lift was far too unsafe. Not only could the power go out at any moment in the current situation, but if they took the lift up and the doors opened to a third floor full of zombies like the room earlier, then once the zombies heard the lift, they would swarm them. Even if Ji Fei had a gun, there would be no guarantee they would not be injured at all. It was too dangerous.
They took the stairs. Normally, there was no one in the stairwell, and now there was no one either. When they reached each floor, they could first open the door a crack to observe, making it easier to respond.
There were four or five zombies on the third floor. Some were even carrying bags, looking as if they had wanted to run but, for some reason, had failed.
Fang Anyan sent Jun Yueyue a message, saying they had reached the third-floor stairwell and telling them to prepare. Once they dealt with the zombies, they could rush out.
But as soon as his message was sent, the door to 303 opened.
Hearing the sound, all the zombies were attracted over. Ji Fei and Fang Anyan hurriedly rushed out of the stairwell.
Jun Yueyue held a fruit knife in her hand, the handle taped to her hand. Cleanly and efficiently, she stabbed through a zombie’s eye and pulled out. Stabbed in, pulled out.
Her movements did not look panicked, nor were they especially fast. But compared to the zombies’ speed, she was faster. In the blink of an eye, she killed three.
The fourth reached her, while the fifth was still down the corridor.
Jun Yueyue kicked the knee of the male zombie that had rushed up to her. After mutation, their joints became much stiffer. With one kick, it dropped to its knees.
Jun Yueyue raised her hand and stabbed directly through its wide-open mouth. Then, in a voice so calm it was eerie, she asked Ji Fei, “Have the first and second floors been dealt with?”
Ji Fei looked at Jun Yueyue strangely, then killed the last zombie running toward them.
Only then did she answer, “Dealt with.”
“Where’s my brother?” Fang Anyan hurried forward and pulled open the door.
Fang Anyu was standing at the doorway, but his eyes were closed. He held a large bag in his arms.
Fang Anyan paused, then looked at Jun Yueyue.
Jun Yueyue shook the blood off her knife, pulled Fang Anyu around the body at the doorway, and only then touched his nose.
It was as if there were some magical switch. The moment Jun Yueyue touched him, Fang Anyu opened his eyes.
He instinctively wanted to look back, but Jun Yueyue caught his neck in time.
The two of them had agreed inside the room that she was taking him to play a game. He was not allowed to open his eyes unless she touched his nose. When she touched his eyelashes, he had to close them.
Fang Anyu was especially obedient. If Jun Yueyue did not let him turn back, then he did not turn back.
Fang Anyan’s expression was complicated.
Ji Fei said, “You can’t keep him from seeing forever.”
This world had already become like this. She could not always keep him from seeing these things.
Jun Yueyue nodded. “I know. I’m giving him some time to adapt. Otherwise, he’ll vomit. I only just coaxed him into eating some noodles this morning. I’m afraid he’ll throw them up.”
She said this so naturally that Ji Fei suddenly glanced at Fang Anyan. She met Fang Anyan’s gaze, and the two of them simultaneously felt a little choked.
Jun Yueyue brought Fang Anyu to the stairwell, then said, “I’m going to pick up the bag that man was carrying. Wait a moment.”
Fang Anyan and Fang Anyu grabbed Jun Yueyue at the same time.
Fang Anyu did not know what she was going to do. Fang Anyan said, “That bag is covered in blood. Why are you taking it?!”
Before Jun Yueyue could say anything, Fang Anyu suddenly hugged her and took two steps back, just enough to shake off Fang Anyan’s hand gripping her.
Fang Anyu held her. From an angle no one else could see, his eyes were dark and obscure.
Jun Yueyue thought he was afraid. She stroked his back and kissed the side of his face, then took out her phone and used voice input.
“I’m going to get something. Wait here. Count to ten, and I’ll be back.”
Fang Anyu slowly released his hands.
Jun Yueyue turned and went out. He still faced the door, not turning back to look at Fang Anyan.
Only when Fang Anyan reached out to pull him did he turn his head. He stared steadily at Fang Anyan for a while.
Fang Anyan hugged him, somewhat choked up.
Their mother and father were gone…
Fang Anyan wanted to say this, but in the end, he only hugged Fang Anyu tightly and said nothing.
Jun Yueyue soon returned.
When the group reached the second floor, the three people were carrying two large plastic bags. Seeing them, they hurriedly followed.
Jun Yueyue turned her head and glanced at them, frowning slightly.
But she said nothing.
After going downstairs and dealing with the two zombies beside the car, they opened the car doors.
However, just as they were about to get in, those three people pushed Jun Yueyue aside, rushed ahead, pulled open the car door, and squeezed into the front first.
Ji Fei opened her mouth and cursed, “You fucking—”
Her words were cut off by the zombies running toward them.
Everyone quickly opened the doors and got into the car. Ji Fei drove, Fang Anyan sat in the passenger seat. When Jun Yueyue turned back to pull Fang Anyu, she found him staring at the corner between the stairwell door and the storage room.
Jun Yueyue looked over but saw nothing. She first pushed Fang Anyu into the car, then got in herself.
She did not see how terrifying Fang Anyu’s gaze had been before she pulled him away.
Nor did she see how, just now, a zombie that had lunged out had suddenly shrunk back as if stabbed by a knife the moment it was about to pounce on Fang Anyu.
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