Let’s Break Up
Jun Yueyue felt that, in this moment, all the roaring and noise around her had disappeared. She could only hear her own violent breathing and heartbeat. She could only smell the metallic stench of Fang Anyu’s blood splattered across her body.
She felt Fang Anyu leaning against her shoulder. His breath was against the side of her neck. She saw his grey-white eyes and knew that he had already mutated. This was an extremely dangerous position. As long as he bit down on her tender neck, he would become just like those monsters she hated so much.
She now had the ability to throw Fang Anyu off quickly. She had not developed a fever, but she had already mutated. She had not become a King Kong Barbie like in her previous life, but she possessed the same strength as one. Even her speed had undergone a world-shaking change. Otherwise, when Ji Fei had already pulled the trigger, she would never have been able to open the truck door and pull Fang Anyu aside so that the shot, which should have blown his head open, only hit his shoulder.
All she had to do now was throw Fang Anyu away. Even if she did not kill him with her own hands, she could still retreat quickly with her companions. The gate had already been opened by the people who had previously run out of the building. They only needed to jump onto the truck, and they could leave this place quickly.
But Jun Yueyue not only did not let go, she did not push Fang Anyu away either. Instead, she held him even closer. Through the truck window, she met Ji Fei’s eyes, who was still holding the gun. Jun Yueyue did not blame Ji Fei, but at this moment, pleading appeared in her gaze.
Her hair was loose and scattered, stuck everywhere with blood and flesh. Her eyes were bloodshot as she clung to a zombie and refused to let go. Not only was she in an extremely sorry state, she looked practically insane.
But when Ji Fei met Jun Yueyue’s gaze and saw Jun Yueyue’s hand covering the back of Fang Anyu’s head, her face full of tears, then looked at the zombie corpses strewn all over the ground—dead and not yet fully dead, piled layer upon layer in strange and twisted shapes—it was no different from hell on earth.
“You go,” Jun Yueyue shouted at Ji Fei.
Fang Anyan also jumped down from the back at this time and was about to get into the truck. When he saw this standoff, he instantly figured out what had happened. He looked at Ji Fei, then at Jun Yueyue, completely unwilling to believe the truth. He had already exhausted himself to the point of nearly collapsing, yet he still stubbornly stepped forward, grabbed Fang Anyu’s arm, and pulled him around.
Fang Anyu was holding Jun Yueyue, so she turned along with the force of Fang Anyan’s grip. Then Fang Anyu lifted his eyes.
What the three people saw were Fang Anyu’s pure black eyes.
Aside from the wound on his face that was deep enough to expose bone, they were as clear as ever. There was not the slightest trace of grey-white.
Ji Fei’s hand holding the gun trembled uncontrollably. Jun Yueyue’s eyes widened so much they nearly popped out of their sockets. She cupped Fang Anyu’s face, leaned close, and stared hard. Then she could not help shouting, “He hasn’t mutated!”
But Fang Anyan’s lips moved. His expression instantly collapsed into despair.
He had seen the bite wound on his brother’s neck.
“What are you standing there for? Get in the truck!” Li Li also came over from the back. Seeing the three of them standing there, he shouted at the top of his lungs. Only then did the three of them snap back to their senses.
Of course Jun Yueyue knew about the bite too. She quickly took off her outer jacket, chose the cleanest part on the back, avoided the wound on Fang Anyu’s face, and carefully tied his mouth shut. Then she pulled him quickly into the truck.
Ji Fei put away the gun and quickly changed gear. After Li Li got into the truck, the first thing he did was help Jun Yu sit up and pull her into his arms. But when he saw the shocking bite wound on Fang Anyu’s neck, his gaze also changed.
Fang Anyan also climbed into the truck. Jun Yueyue gripped both of Fang Anyu’s wrists and said to everyone, “He hasn’t mutated yet. I’ll hold him. I’ve already mutated—strength type. I can hold him. If he really mutates, I’ll be responsible for killing him.”
No.
She would not kill Fang Anyu.
If Fang Anyu really mutated, she would tie herself to him, let him bite her, and become a pair of wandering zombies with him.
If she truly abandoned him and survived alone in a world like this, then what meaning would there be in her rebirth?
No one in the truck spoke. Jun Yueyue held Fang Anyu and leaned against the side of the truck, trying her best to keep some distance from everyone.
The truck reversed and soon backed out of the small garden, speeding toward the gate.
But just as they turned and were about to reach the gate, there suddenly came from the street corner a dense patter of footsteps and zombie howls. The sound was packed and sharp, tearing at everyone’s eardrums as it rushed toward the gate in an overwhelming wave. Looking out, there were countless figures.
A zombie tide!
There were several times more zombies than in the courtyard. The people guarding the gate reacted fairly quickly. The open gate was shut rapidly, but just as they were sliding in the bolt, the first wave of zombies had already reached them. One bit directly into the hand of the person closing the gate.
Everything fell into chaos.
The person who was bitten had already let go of the gate and fled in terror. Another bitten person was still desperately pushing the gate, but zombies were already pouring in through the half-open side.
This was clearly a zombie horde controlled by second-stage zombies. The situation was urgent. If all these zombies were allowed inside, none of the people in this truck would have any hope of surviving.
Ji Fei made a split-second decision. She drove the truck straight toward the open side of the gate, then sharply turned the steering wheel, forcing the front of the truck sideways across the entrance. It pressed against the half-open gate and blocked the zombie horde from surging in.
But the person holding the other side was also about to collapse. In that emergency situation, it was impossible for such a large truck to swing its rear around too, so there was no way to brace the other side. It still opened.
Fortunately, the distance to the back of the truck only allowed that gate to open halfway, so not too many zombies could pour in for the moment.
The exhausted group began another bitter fight. Li Li, Fang Anyan, and Ji Fei all jumped down from the truck, trying to shut the gate and cut off the source of the zombie influx.
The walls around the sanatorium were all high and not easy to climb. Even if the zombies were being driven by second-stage zombies, they were still truly dead bodies. They could climb railings if there was something to grab, but when facing a tall, bare wall, they were temporarily helpless. So as long as the gate was shut and the source of the zombies was blocked off, they could still hold on.
Inside the truck, Jun Yueyue grabbed another person’s clothes and twisted two garments together into one rope, tying Fang Anyu to the seat. Fang Anyu watched quietly as Jun Yueyue did all of this. He could sense her emotions and really wanted to tell her that he was fine, but he could not speak. His phone had also fallen somewhere during the struggle just now.
He could only look at Jun Yueyue with his dark eyes. After Jun Yueyue tied him to the seat, she held his neck and quickly said, “Wait for me. Don’t move around. I won’t abandon you. Don’t be afraid. I love you.”
Fang Anyu wanted to say, “I love you too,” but Jun Yueyue had already jumped down and joined the battle.
There were too many zombies. They were crowded outside. Fortunately, because there were too many of them and they were too packed together, not many could get in at once.
Relying on his ability to partially petrify his body, Li Li ignored the zombies’ scratching and biting completely. With his back against the gate, he pushed it outward inch by inch. The fireballs Fang Anyan released were already smaller than a fist, his face deathly pale, but he was still holding on. Ji Fei held a gun and a knife, continuously covering the two of them from behind and killing anything that tried to attack and bite them. After Jun Yueyue got out of the truck, she quickly joined the ranks of those killing zombies too.
Her strength was great. After the zombies in the courtyard were killed, she dragged over a stone stool from farther away, held it with both hands, and helped Li Li push the zombie horde outward.
Some zombies had already climbed onto the gate, but because there were spikes at the top, and they did not know how to avoid them, they flipped straight inward. Two had already been impaled on the gate. Their intestines and organs flowed down along the bars, slippery and foul-smelling. Just as they were about to push the gate back to align with the other half, Li Li’s hands slipped twice. He was about to be unable to hold on.
Everyone was on the verge of physical exhaustion. Once the zombies in the courtyard were cleared, some people jumped down from the truck, found whatever tools they could, and helped brace the gate.
Working together, they finally pushed the two gates side by side and slid the iron bolt into place.
There were many, many zombies piling up. More and more of them. But for the moment, apart from those climbing the gate, they could not scale the high surrounding walls. So everyone only needed to watch this gate.
But there were too many zombies. The force of them packed together was not something a single iron gate could withstand. Even though the gate had been bolted, few of them dared to let go. Li Li’s ability was exhausted, and blood had begun flowing from his nose and mouth. Jun Yueyue braced the stone block against the gate, her hands trembling so badly that the stone stool looked as if it might fall at any moment.
At the same time, Fang Anyu, sitting inside the truck, was killing the third second-stage zombie while also controlling the zombie horde to slow their movements. Blood flowed from his nose, dripping down his chin and soaking into his trousers. His head hurt as if it were about to explode. He was familiar with this feeling. It was the warning sign that his ability was about to be exhausted. He was nearly unable to hold on and might faint at any moment.
At this moment, Jun Yu, who had been unconscious beside him, woke up. Supporting herself against the seat, she climbed up. First, she glanced at Fang Anyu. Seeing him looking as if he was on the verge of death, she opened her mouth in shock. Then she leaned against the window and looked outside.
Dense zombies. Everyone struggling desperately to resist.
Jun Yu saw Li Li covered from head to toe in zombie blood. At a glance, he looked like a bloody gourd.
But what could she do?
She did not even dare go outside, afraid she would only cause trouble for others.
Jun Yu gripped the chair tightly. She could not describe the despair in her heart at this moment. She had finally managed to stand up, yet she was still useless. She could not save Grandpa. Now that Li Li was like this, she could not help him either…
Her blurred gaze passed over the zombie horde. Suddenly, her eyes froze.
Her breathing stopped too. Only when her face turned red from holding her breath and tears poured out did she inhale sharply, grab the door handle, open the truck door, and get out.
Wearing prosthetics, she jumped down from the truck. The pain made a layer of small blue veins stand out on her forehead, but she could not care about that now. She moved quickly, limping toward the gate.
The truck door was very close to the gate, only a few steps away. But to someone with disabled legs, someone feverish enough to see double, that distance was so far it made her feel as if she was dying from the pain.
No one noticed Jun Yu getting out of the truck. But when she shouted “Grandpa” at one of the zombies outside the gate, everyone noticed.
That group had lied to them!
If Old Master Jun had really died of illness, how could he have turned into a zombie?
Jun Yu almost crawled and stumbled to the side of the gate, staring blankly at a zombie that still had a respirator hanging around its neck, her eyes blurred with tears.
Only then did Jun Yueyue see that, among the zombies outside the gate, Old Master Jun was actually standing there. Compared with the other zombies, aside from being a little dirty and having his eyes change colour, there was nowhere on his body that looked torn and broken like the other zombies.
“Yu’er… hurry, go back to the truck.” Li Li gritted his teeth and said to Jun Yu, “Be good.”
But Jun Yu stood there without moving. She watched with her own eyes as Old Master Jun seemed to hear her voice and moved from the back of the zombie horde to the front. His grey-white eyes stared at Jun Yu. There was no longer any trace of the old affection in them.
“Grandpa…” Jun Yu’s expression was almost twisted. She could not help taking a step closer and called softly again.
Old Master Jun also seemed to hear her summons. He walked over and even reached his hand toward Jun Yu. Ji Fei was afraid Jun Yu would really hand her hand to a zombie. Just as she came over to pull Jun Yu away, Old Master Jun’s hand suddenly changed direction and shot straight toward Li Li, whose back was braced against the gate.
“Yu’er, go!” Blood surged from Li Li’s mouth and nose. Even his pupils seemed red, as if blood had seeped into them. He could not hold on anymore.
Jun Yu glanced at Li Li. Li Li finally could not hold on. The petrified skin all over his body faded in an instant, and he slid down weakly. But Old Master Jun’s hand happened to be at the level of his neck. It was about to grab him.
Ji Fei’s gun was already out of bullets. Jun Yueyue had indeed seen it, but if she released her strength too, the gate would be forced open by the zombies in an instant.
Fang Anyan threw out a fireball, but it was only the size of a fingernail. It landed on Old Master Jun and only made him pause briefly. It did not hurt him at all.
Jun Yu tried to support the collapsing Li Li, but because he was covered in blood and too slippery, she failed. In the end, she only braced herself against the gate and shouted hoarsely, “Grandpa! Don’t!”
But would someone who had already become a zombie really listen to a loved one’s call?
When Old Master Jun’s hand reached toward Li Li, despair filled Jun Yu’s eyes.
But in the next instant, the decorative ironwork on the railing abruptly twisted direction. In a flash, it stretched and lengthened, becoming a sharp iron spike that pierced straight into Old Master Jun’s head.
At the same time, Fang Anyu’s battle with the final second-stage zombie finally ended. His lips moved slightly as he thought, Who killed the second-stage zombie? That’s wonderful…
Then his head drooped. His consciousness finally collapsed and sank into pitch-black darkness.
Thunder rumbled across the sky. The moment the thunder sounded, torrential rain poured down. All the zombies outside the gate lost their command and froze briefly. Those trying to climb the gate fell, crashing into the zombie pile below, and were quickly trampled.
Jun Yu closed her eyes and tightly gripped the iron gate railing. She began to cry softly, her voice almost inaudible, filled with trembling heartbreak and despair.
“Wu…”
Jun Yu sounded as wronged as an abandoned cub. The muffled thunder in the sky echoed her sobs. Under her hands, the iron gate began to rapidly deform and twist. Spikes grew from the bars, and iron vines spread from the area around the bolt, coiling upward inch by inch, linking the two iron gates together.
Jun Yueyue finally threw away the stone block in her hands. She turned her head, wiped rain from her face, and looked at Jun Yu.
Jun Yu’s back was slightly hunched. She was too small and thin. After her clothes were soaked, she looked even more frail, her spine protruding like fish bones. Her eyes were closed, as if she did not dare open them. Beneath her trembling lashes, tears larger than raindrops fell.
Her chest could only block a small space, only enough to shield a tiny patch of sky above Li Li so that his face, now that he had fainted, would not be ruthlessly beaten by the heavy rain.
She maintained this hunched posture. The iron gate under her hands continuously changed and interwove, densely covering every gap between the bars. The wild iron vines spread all the way from the gate to the surrounding walls, entangling themselves around everything solid. In the blink of an eye, the gate that had been on the verge of collapsing became an indestructible iron fence, completely isolating the zombies outside.
But that was not all. Spikes began growing from the fence too. Iron thorns more than two metres long pierced through the zombies crowded around the gate like candied hawthorns on sticks, forcefully pushing them two metres away from the gate. Only when the gate had become something like a hedgehog did Jun Yu finally let go of the iron gate and open her eyes to look at Old Master Jun, who was skewered on it.
Before fainting, she said softly, “Grandpa… I got married, but you couldn’t come…”
I know you didn’t like him, but I like him so much…
The child who had been favoured had not grown any more flesh because of that favour. Small and tiny, like a butterfly that could no longer fly in the violent storm, she fell miserably to the ground.
No matter how tightly a chrysalis was bound, it would eventually break open.
It was just that Jun Yu had not wanted to grow up like this.
All danger was blocked off. The rain poured madly, as if trying to wash away all the filth between heaven and earth. But no one searched for shelter from the rain. Some even opened their mouths, whether lying down or standing, to catch the rainwater.
The world had created them. Now it gave them endless suffering. Yet everyone still accepted its gift without resentment, like children adoring their elders.
Jun Yueyue collapsed to the ground. Her whole body hurt as if it were being torn apart. But she was still the first to support herself on a stone stool and stand up. Holding onto anything she could, she trembled toward the truck cab.
When she saw Fang Anyu on the seat, Jun Yueyue instantly thought he was already dead. Her heart was as cold as the heavy rain outside. Numbly, she climbed onto the seat, tested his breath, hugged him, and felt his body temperature. Only then did Jun Yueyue finally relax all her strength. In that half-kneeling position, she fainted across Fang Anyu’s legs.
Almost everyone had fainted. Even those who had not were unwilling to move a single finger. Even while being battered by the rain, they did not want to turn over.
Only Ji Fei remained standing. Looking at everyone lying among the zombie corpses, she first moved Fang Anyan, Li Li, and Jun Yu into the truck. Then she lowered the truck railing and moved the half-dead people on the ground one by one into the truck bed.
Everything around her was deathly silent. She did all of this alone, as if she had returned to those years when, after every mission, she would always think of every way possible to bring back the bodies of her dead brothers and personally bury them.
After she moved everyone into the truck, her whole body was visibly trembling. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the steering wheel. But suddenly, her wrist was hooked by a finger.
Ji Fei turned her head and saw Fang Anyan lying in the passenger seat, his eyes half-open as he looked at her.
Ji Fei turned to look at him. Only then did she realize that what was on her face was not only rainwater, but also tears—tears she had not shed since she was only a few years old.
Fang Anyan moved his lips and said something. Ji Fei could not hear clearly. Only when she leaned closer did she hear it.
Fang Anyan said, “Don’t be afraid… I’m here.”
Ji Fei hugged him tightly. Only then did she finally feel as if she had come back to life, as if she had not been buried underground together with those corpses.
She was still alive.
“You still look… best like this,” Fang Anyan said.
After saying those words, he could no longer hold on and fainted. After a brief breakdown, Ji Fei wiped her face and returned to the driver’s seat, preparing to drive and find somewhere to settle down first—at the very least, somewhere they could shelter from the rain.
But while moving from the passenger seat back to the driver’s seat, Ji Fei suddenly froze. Then, in disbelief, she pulled the rear-view mirror toward her face.
Her pointed chin was gone. The small cosmetic procedures she had done had vanished too. She had returned to her original appearance.
Could this also be… an ability?
But what kind of ability was this? Her previous appearance…
As Ji Fei thought this, she saw the face in the rear-view mirror gradually change. Her chin lengthened, the corners of her eyes stretched, and she turned back into the pointed-chin face again.
Ji Fei: “…”
Forget it. It would be impossible to say she was not disappointed. Other people’s mutations made them resistant and able to fight. Hers was face-changing.
She twisted the rear-view mirror back, started the truck, and drove toward the building.
The truck could not be driven directly inside, so she began moving people one by one again. Fortunately, by now, some of those whose strength had collapsed had recovered a little. At least a few could help and walk by themselves.
By the time everyone was finally moved inside, and she had gone upstairs to bring down blankets to distribute among them, Ji Fei was also utterly exhausted. She lay down beside Fang Anyan.
There were still zombie corpses everywhere. The windows on the side of the building were all shattered. In the rain, the floodlights in the courtyard, battered and fragmented by the downpour, were still lit. The cold white incandescent lights in the empty, wind-and-rain-swept lobby stayed on all night.
Almost everyone fell asleep as if unconscious in this environment that could only be described as terrible. Tomorrow’s life and death were still uncertain. But in this moment, they all hugged their blankets and curled themselves up tightly, wishing they could isolate themselves from the world and pray for one night of peace.
It seemed heaven heard their prayers. After everyone fell into deep sleep, it washed everything clean. The heavy rain stopped, and the world fell into silence. Wrapped in warm blankets, the people slept well through the night.
The next morning, some people were woken by the cold, and some by hunger.
After such an intense battle throughout the previous day, everyone groaned and whimpered. Several people had directly awakened abilities yesterday, just like Jun Yueyue and the others.
However, they were mostly strength and speed mutations. Overall, ordinary people were still the majority.
People gradually woke up. After resting for the night, the few whose abilities had been exhausted also woke one after another.
After Fang Anyan woke, he opened his eyes and glanced at Ji Fei beside him. He pulled her into his arms and closed his eyes again. Ji Fei woke when he tightened his arm around her waist. In truth, the most exhausted person last night had been Ji Fei, but her mental state had recovered very well. Actually, before dawn, she had already woken once and silently gone to the truck to bring inside the emergency food they had prepared on the way, which had been drenched in rain all night.
Last night, everyone truly had not had the strength to go upstairs and climb into beds, so they had slept in the lobby. But now that they had recovered somewhat, despite their bodies aching terribly, they supported each other and went upstairs to find rooms to wash up.
Fortunately, the water and electricity had not yet been cut off, so washing up was fairly convenient. People went upstairs one after another. Fang Anyan held Ji Fei. Suddenly, he felt a kiss on his cheek. He opened his eyes with a smile, only to see that the person in his arms was a muscular, dark-skinned foreign man. The man was pointing his nostrils at him and trying to pucker his thick lips to kiss him.
Fang Anyan was so frightened his soul nearly scattered. With a cry of “Mother!” he threw off the blanket and sat up, only for the big black man to grab his arm and pull him back down.
Then, under Fang Anyan’s horrified gaze, this unbelievably shocking man’s facial features collapsed and shrank, his bones magically changed, and finally he turned back into Ji Fei’s original appearance.
Fang Anyan held his frightened little heart. After looking at Ji Fei for a moment, he smiled helplessly. “You really are…”
Ji Fei patted his face and said, “Your brother didn’t mutate. I watched him the whole night. I’m sorry…”
Meeting Fang Anyan’s eyes, Ji Fei said sincerely, “I mean, for shooting your brother. At the time, his eyes were grey-white, his face was torn open, and he looked exactly like the zombies outside. I…”
“I know.” Fang Anyan turned his head and glanced at Fang Anyu, who was squeezed together with Jun Yueyue. The wounds on his face and neck had not been treated in time, but they clearly had not worsened either. He was sleeping deeply, his breathing long and even. He was not a zombie.
“I guess that’s his ability,” Ji Fei said. “Turning into a zombie, so he won’t be afraid of being bitten.”
Fang Anyan nodded. “When he wakes up, we’ll ask him.”
After a moment of silence, he asked, “I do want to ask. If the person you saw mutating at that time had been me, would you have shot too?”
Fang Anyan smiled. “I’ve heard you say before that when you went on missions, if someone was too badly injured to save or bring back, but not yet dead, the captain was the one who killed them. You…”
“I would,” Ji Fei said. “I would shoot them dead, then think of a way to bring them back. If I couldn’t bring the whole body back, I’d bring back part of them.”
Ji Fei said, “Every member of the group filled out where they wanted to be buried before they died. When we were mercenaries, we walked along the edge of life and death. We would do our best to help each other fulfill those wishes.”
Fang Anyan nodded. He was about to say something when Ji Fei continued, “If the one who mutated was you, I would shoot too. I would kill you.”
Fang Anyan had already guessed it. He pursed his lips and nodded. In truth, that was the best method. It was more beneficial to saving people. It was…
“Then I’d shoot myself too,” Ji Fei said softly.
Fang Anyan abruptly looked at her, his eyes filled with disbelief. But all the bullshit reasons he had just found for himself were nonsense. He still wanted to hear different words from Ji Fei’s mouth. Anything was fine, as long as it was not for the sake of righteousness.
Ji Fei met his gaze. “Why are you looking at me like that? Your life is mine.”
Ji Fei stood up, supported Fang Anyan, and walked upstairs. As they walked, she leaned close to his ear and said, “And my life is yours too.”
Fang Anyan floated upstairs as if in a daze, pulled along by her. They stepped around the occasional zombie corpse lying across the floor and went upstairs to wash up.
The reason Ji Fei had pulled Fang Anyan away was because she noticed that Fang Anyu and Jun Yueyue had woken.
Of course, Li Li and Jun Yu had woken too. Li Li helped Jun Yu sit up, preparing to carry her upstairs to wash up. Jun Yu did not nod. Instead, she directly lifted her trouser legs.
Li Li saw a pair of… iron legs.
Her previous prosthetics had been set aside. From the points where her legs had been amputated downward, there was now a pair of prosthetic limbs tailor-made by herself. Jun Yu had awakened an iron-type ability. Last night, it had been thanks to her that they were able to block the zombies at the final moment.
Just like Li Li could petrify his skin, her skin could turn into iron. She tested it. The iron legs created by her ability fit perfectly with her original body. They were practically as if she had been born with them. Their flexibility was one hundred percent too. Aside from having no sensation and being cold and hard, there was nothing wrong with them.
Jun Yu even walked a few steps to demonstrate their flexibility. Li Li lowered his hands awkwardly and asked, “Aren’t those things cold and heavy? Don’t they feel heavy to use?”
Jun Yu shook her head. Her mood was low. There was no smile on her face, nor any sign of happiness because she now had legs like a normal person—or even iron legs more powerful than normal legs.
Li Li knew why. Before he fainted, he had clearly seen everything. To save him, she had killed her own grandfather.
Even though Old Master Jun had already become a zombie, Li Li had grown up without family and did not know what family truly meant. He only knew that if Jun Yu became a zombie, he absolutely would not kill her. He would even let her bite him.
So judging others by himself, Li Li felt that Jun Yu must be so upset that she would not pay attention to him for a while.
But he was naturally thick-skinned. When Jun Yu walked upstairs to find somewhere to wash up, he chased after her from behind and held her hand. He had already prepared himself to be shaken off, but Jun Yu only paused. She turned her head and glanced at Li Li, remembering the scene last night when his strength had been exhausted and he had nearly turned into a zombie right before her eyes.
Jun Yu’s fingers curled slightly. She did not shake Li Li off. She even gently held his hand back and continued walking upstairs.
Li Li followed behind her with wide eyes, looking at their joined hands. His eyes blinked rapidly several times, and then he started walking with the same arm and leg moving together.
The lobby was almost empty now. Only blankets lay scattered everywhere.
Jun Yueyue had not gotten up. She lay on the pillow, quietly looking at Fang Anyu, who was lying opposite her with his eyes open too.
His hands were still tied. At first, something had also been stuffed in his mouth to prevent mutation. But last night, after more than two hours had passed and Ji Fei realized he would not mutate anymore, she had removed the thing from his mouth.
Fang Anyu blinked. He and Jun Yueyue had been staring at each other like this for a long time. Jun Yueyue’s hair was messy, some of it falling over her face. She looked very dishevelled. Fang Anyu waited a while, then silently lifted his hands. Even with his wrists tied, he helped Jun Yueyue tidy the hair at her temples.
Only after confirming that everyone had gone far away did Jun Yueyue speak.
“Have you had enough fun?”
Fang Anyu moved his lips.
Jun Yueyue continued, “You remembered everything, didn’t you? But you…”
Jun Yueyue’s words stopped. A moment later, she bit her lip and stood up to leave, but Fang Anyu grabbed her hand.
He sat on the ground while Jun Yueyue stood. His hands were tied as he looked up at Jun Yueyue. His hair was even messier. The little leaves mixed in it drooped limply on his head like crumpled rags. The wound on his face looked especially frightening, pale and raw, just like the bite wound on his neck. But neither had worsened. They had not even swollen.
His eyes were still as clear and bright as before. Looking up at Jun Yueyue from below, there was a faint pleading in them. His fingers hooked around one of hers. The force he used was not heavy, but to Jun Yueyue, as always, it was impossible to break free.
Just yesterday, she had even thought that if he really turned into a zombie, she would become a wandering ghost tied to the same rope as him. They would stay together until the day the world rotted away.
But after seeing Fang Anyu’s grey-white eyes turn black again with her own eyes, and after seeing him bitten without turning into a zombie, Jun Yueyue had also wondered whether he had awakened an ability in that direction. But she had experienced a world like this before. Apart from third-stage zombies, there was no ability like this at all.
Then only one explanation remained.
He had remembered everything.
This world was his. If he had remembered everything, then everyone was an ant being toyed with in his palm.
Jun Yueyue really wanted to be angry. She wanted to roar, wanted to lose her temper at Fang Anyu, wanted to turn and walk away, even wanted to beat Fang Anyu up.
But the moment she met Fang Anyu’s gaze, her heart softened uncontrollably. It softened completely, so thoroughly that it seemed to turn into water and drip out of her body.
She loved him too much.
Fang Anyu was too good at this. He knew exactly what kind of expression she could not withstand.
Jun Yueyue roughly hauled him up and dragged him upstairs. On the third floor, she found a room. The things inside were fairly complete. It looked like a medical office.
Jun Yueyue dragged Fang Anyu inside. Her current strength was worlds apart from before. With one motion, she threw Fang Anyu face-down onto the desk. Then she lowered her voice and shouted, “You remembered everything. If you hate me, if you want to mess with me, that’s fine. If you’re unhappy, you can do whatever you want to me. But why did you turn the world into this? Why drag so many people into suffering with us?”
After Jun Yueyue finished speaking, she saw Fang Anyu pick up a pen from the desk and quickly scribble something. Then he held it up for her to see.
—It wasn’t me who turned the world into this. The world lost control. I lost the ability to control it. I can only resist some zombies, and I have to become like them to do it. I didn’t want to drag everyone into this.
After Jun Yueyue took it and glanced at it, she walked to the side of the office desk, pulled a paper knife from the pen holder, and cut open the half sleeve binding Fang Anyu’s hands.
She stared at him carefully for a moment. In her heart, she had already completely believed him. A little person inside her was jumping around wildly, shouting:
See! I knew it! My baby couldn’t be a demon! He couldn’t drag so many people down just because he was unhappy!
But on the surface, she deliberately remained serious and doubtful. “This really wasn’t you?”
Fang Anyu shook his head, took the paper, and continued writing.
—I can’t control it. I also don’t know why it became like this.
Both of them fell silent. But the silence was not peaceful. Soon, the atmosphere filled with anxiety wrapped in those chaotic memories of the past.
Jun Yueyue was like a balloon that had been pricked. The forceful momentum she had when dragging Fang Anyu in had completely vanished. Her heart was full of grass-mud horses jumping around, shitting and pissing everywhere.
It’s over, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over.
He remembered everything!
Jun Yueyue could recklessly get close to the Fang Anyu who knew nothing, but she did not quite dare face the Fang Anyu who remembered everything from their previous life.
She had wronged him too much. She had done every bad thing to him—hit him, scolded him, humiliated him. She had caused someone as kind as him to die a terrible death in the end, and after his death, the world collapsed…
Jun Yueyue had planned to compensate him tenfold, a hundredfold in this life, whether the world stayed normal or became apocalyptic. She wanted him to live a peaceful, happy life.
But he had suddenly remembered!
No, not suddenly.
He had remembered long ago!
The world was his. It changed because of him. Whether it had gone out of control or something else had happened, this still proved one thing: everything that had happened before was still deeply affecting him now.
In other words, he still hated her.
When Jun Yueyue met Fang Anyu’s eyes again, she turned away as quickly as if she had been burned. She retreated two steps, leaned against the wall, lowered her head, and became so cowardly she did not dare speak.
Fang Anyu kept looking at Jun Yueyue. Seeing her avoid his gaze, he actually wanted to laugh a little.
He had forgiven her long ago. During the years after her death, the longing that grew deeper with each passing day had indeed made his hatred sharper, but it had also made his love even stronger.
He had imagined many possibilities. If she found out that he had remembered the past, would she dislike him because he was no longer “clear and innocent” enough? Compared with the collapse of the world, what Fang Anyu feared more was that Jun Yueyue would stop liking him.
He had been so worried that he did not dare tell the truth. He did not dare say anything about his ability to control zombies. He could fool others by saying it was an ability, but Jun Yueyue was too clever, and she had experienced a world like this before. He could not fool her.
That was why yesterday’s situation happened, where Ji Fei thought he had turned into a zombie and directly shot him.
However, Fang Anyu had not forgotten that yesterday Jun Yueyue refused to let go of him. Even when he had become like a zombie, she had still refused to release him. Looking at her reaction today, he guessed he probably did not need to worry that Jun Yueyue no longer liked him.
At least, not for now.
So Fang Anyu adjusted his expression, suppressed the unusual emotions in his eyes, and quickly wrote down a few words.
Then he silently walked up to Jun Yueyue and stood opposite her, watching her. He watched as her cheeks gradually flushed red, as she held her breath until she could barely breathe. She quickly lifted her head to glance at him, then said with difficulty, “Sor—”
Fang Anyu handed the piece of paper to her.
After Jun Yueyue glanced at it, her brain buzzed. She thought she had gone blind, blinked hard, and looked again. She almost fainted on the spot.
Fang Anyu had written only three words.
—Let’s break up.
Jun Yueyue’s apology and a mouthful of old blood choked together in her throat.
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