Collecting a Debt
After Wu Zhenfei heard Jun Yueyue say that, his whole body shook. Then he collapsed weakly onto the ground and burst into loud sobs.
He knew what he had done was wrong, but he had still done it. Just like many times, we know that loving someone has no hope, yet we still cannot control our hearts.
Wu Zhenfei was just an ordinary person.
He was not even outstanding, nor was he smart enough. He had grown this old and had still failed to properly love someone, nor had he properly treated the person who loved him. But many things in this world did not have absolute black and white, nor pure love and hate.
He felt guilty toward Ming Zhen. He blamed himself. And in Ming Zhen, he saw his own shadow.
If loving someone meant going forward without looking back, then he was not even worthy of saying the word love to Jun Yueyue. Because he did not have the courage Ming Zhen had, to take love to its absolute extreme.
Everyone had already checked the base and confirmed there were no gaps, nor any other invading zombies. The place where Wu Zhenfei had let Ming Zhen go had also been reinforced again by Fang Anyu.
There were so many people in the base. Because of Wu Zhenfei’s mistake today, they might have to face an unimaginably terrifying force in the future.
But no one spoke up to blame him.
Not one person.
Almost everyone present had lost family. If they switched places, if one day your dead loved one appeared before you in this form, able to speak, able to breathe, having suffered so much, even if you knew he or she might be a monster, a devil capable of destroying everything, who could truly be ruthless enough to hand their loved one over to be executed by the crowd?
Even ants tried to survive. Human nature could indeed do unbearable things for the sake of living. But the beauty and complexity of human nature lay in the fact that we could never truly be without feelings.
This was also why, after everyone worked together to capture Ming Zhen, they did not immediately execute her. Instead, they left a little time and space for Wu Zhenfei to speak with her, while they first went to check for gaps.
It was not that they had never thought Wu Zhenfei might release Ming Zhen. Many people had stayed behind near the zombie cages. But Wu Zhenfei had taken Ming Zhen out, then directly bypassed the guards through the route he often used for training and went to the back mountain to let her go.
Jun Yueyue was full of blame. But seeing Wu Zhenfei lying on the ground, crying without stopping, her lips moved several times, and she could not say a single word.
If Fang Anyu became like that…
She would leave with him. They would become a pair of wandering zombies together.
If Fang Anyu had to eat people in order to live, she would willingly let him eat her.
Everyone made different choices.
The reason they were different from the zombies outside was not only that their bodies did not rot. It was that they possessed complicated feelings.
However, in order to give everyone an explanation, Wu Zhenfei was still locked inside his own room.
Jun Yueyue took Fang Anyu and walked bit by bit along the surrounding wall, weaving another tall layer of vine netting over the stone wall. This was an enormous project. Fang Anyu was exhausted to the point of collapse and had to be carried back by Jun Yueyue.
Apart from them, Li Li also exerted every effort to raise the stone wall even higher. He had a bit of male chauvinism and cared about face. Even after exhausting himself, he still gritted his teeth and insisted on going back by himself. But when he knelt halfway and could not get up, he lost both face and dignity completely.
However, the unexpected joy was that he also enjoyed treatment he had never had before.
Jun Yu hovered around him, wiping his face, helping him drink water, almost short of holding him while he went to the toilet.
“Yu’er… I feel like my waist hurts a little. Do you think my waist could be ruined from overusing my ability? Will it stop working in the future?” Li Li lay paralyzed on the bed, but his mouth still worked very smoothly. Usually, Jun Yu would only look over at him faintly, or tell him to get lost.
But this time, Jun Yu’s movement of wringing the towel to wipe his face paused. She looked at him, already in this state yet still wearing a rogue expression, and silently hooked the corners of her lips, lowering her head.
Just when Li Li thought Jun Yu would ignore him, Jun Yu wrung the towel dry and slapped it over Li Li’s face. Then, wiping gently, she said, “It’s fine if your waist is ruined. You weren’t that capable anyway.”
Li Li lay there and choked on his own saliva.
Jun Yu never flirted with him like this. He choked so badly his face turned red. When Jun Yu took the towel down, Li Li grabbed her hand and glared at her. “Whether I’m capable or not, why don’t you come test it now?”
Jun Yu thought of Wu Zhenfei and Ming Zhen. After a moment of silence, she lightly tossed the towel back into the basin. Her gaze fell calmly on Li Li. She lifted her fingertips, reddened by the hot water, and undid one button at her collar. Then she said, “Fine. I’ll test it.”
Li Li blushed.
Like that summer filled with the smell of frying oil, when he had used the most awful joke to scare away an excessively clean young girl, only to get up and leave handsomely, then blush so hard and become so flustered that he wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground.
He watched Jun Yu slowly lean toward him. Thinking again of Wu Zhenfei and Ming Zhen, this man over 1.8 meters tall almost burst into tears.
How difficult was it in one lifetime to meet the person you liked, and for that person to happen to like you back?
How difficult was it in one lifetime for two people to cross the flowing sands of time that washed everything clean, and still walk hand in hand?
Li Li was never sentimental, but on this day, he became terribly sentimental.
And it was not only them.
Fang Anyan, who had led the patrol team until midnight and finally returned home, was unprecedentedly shaken inside when he saw Ji Fei, who had never touched a pot, cook him a bowl of noodles clumped together.
The noodles had been boiled far too soft. There were also black things floating on top, probably from the bottom being burned. She had probably wanted to make a poached egg, but the egg had broken apart and become egg ribbons. Ji Fei stood there holding the noodles, stunned when she saw Fang Anyan return. She had wanted to destroy the evidence, not expecting him to come back at exactly this moment.
Fang Anyan silently accepted the bowl of noodles and slurped all of it down.
Ji Fei sat across from him. From beginning to end, she did not ask whether it tasted good.
It definitely did not. She had just remembered that she had probably forgotten to add salt.
But Fang Anyan, who in modern society had been so picky that even a single strand of hair could not grow outside the shape he had styled, actually ate it with relish.
After finishing, Fang Anyan put down the bowl, walked to Ji Fei’s side, crouched down, and held her hand. “Don’t do this kind of thing in the future.”
The two of them never did this kind of warm and tender routine. Usually, when passion came, they went straight to it. When they were angry and fought, they also went straight to it. Fang Anyan suddenly acting like this gave Ji Fei Goosebumps.
“I know. It tasted bad, right?” She curled her lip. “You think I wanted to…”
“These hands of yours are meant to hold guns, not do this kind of thing,” Fang Anyan said. “It was good. The best noodles I’ve ever eaten.”
Ji Fei froze for a moment, unable to stand how cheesy he was. She pulled her hand away. “Get lost. Don’t use that trick to fool me. I’m not some little girl.”
“You don’t like it?” Fang Anyan wore a camouflage jacket, one they had found in the big mall. He was born to wear clothes well, and this outfit looked cool on him. During patrol, someone had fallen into a leaf-covered pit. He had reached out to pull them up and was pulled down too. Although both of them were fine, when they rolled down, a branch scraped a long line across the side of his face. Now it was red and a little swollen. On his already sharp, hard-featured face, it created a very strange effect.
When Ji Fei had still been a little girl, she had once had a secret crush on the leader of their mercenary group, a mixed-race Asian man with black hair and black eyes, his face always cold. He wore military uniform all year round, was always on missions or fighting, and had wounds all over his body and face, yet none of that affected his handsomeness.
Back then, Ji Fei had even climbed into his tent. He had kicked her out in disgust, saying she was too flat. Not long after, that leader died. Ji Fei did not remember him for many days either. Soon, she forgot him during the next hellish training session where she felt she was about to die.
But at this moment, Fang Anyan’s appearance unexpectedly gave Ji Fei the same feeling she had back then. They did not look alike. Nothing about them was the same. But the stirring in Ji Fei’s heart was the same.
She obeyed her heart very honestly. Lowering her head, she pinched Fang Anyan’s chin and kissed him, admitting frankly, “I like it.”
Fang Anyan held Ji Fei. The two kissed passionately by the table, embracing and expressing their love in the most heated way. They knocked the empty bowl on the table to the floor. It shattered with a crack, but no one paid it any attention.
And they were not the only ones whose bowl broke.
Jun Yueyue was eating with Fang Anyu when the bowl in Fang Anyu’s hand suddenly dropped and shattered.
Jun Yueyue quickly checked Fang Anyu. Fang Anyu shook his head at her, indicating that he was fine. But his hands were visibly trembling.
Jun Yueyue held his hand, reached out to wipe the oil beside his lips, and smiled. “I’ll feed you.”
Fang Anyu’s face was a little pale. He had done the most work reinforcing the wall. The enormous consumption of energy made his already fair skin look completely bloodless. When he stood still, he looked like a fake porcelain figure.
But hearing Jun Yueyue say this, Fang Anyu licked his lips and nodded in agreement.
Jun Yueyue pulled her stool beside him. She placed vegetables on top of rice, pressed them together, then brought them to Fang Anyu’s mouth.
Fang Anyu leaned against the chair, eating bite by bite. He looked at Jun Yueyue without shifting his gaze. His eyes were gentle and quiet, like warm water flowing over the whole body.
Fang Anyu had this ability. No matter what happened, no matter how intense your emotions were, as long as you stayed with him for a while, everything would settle.
Fang Anyu ate gracefully, but not quickly. Jun Yueyue fed him three bowls in a row, eating some herself in between, then stopped.
If she did not stop and kept feeding him, Fang Anyu would continue eating. This was also something that made Jun Yueyue very helpless. Once he started eating, it was like he did not care about his life and did not know when he was full.
Jun Yueyue had never asked why he had this problem. But now, after they finished eating, there was nothing else to do. Jun Yueyue did not wash the dishes. She only cleaned up the table a little, then leaned together with Fang Anyu and chatted.
“Why is it that every time you eat, you don’t stop on your own?” Jun Yueyue asked him. “Do you really not know when you’re full?”
The corners of Fang Anyu’s mouth carried a relaxed smile. Holding Jun Yueyue and leaning against the cabinet behind him, he nodded.
“Why? Have you been like this since you were little?” Jun Yueyue asked again.
Fang Anyu paused, then shook his head.
He picked up the phone placed by the edge of the kang and typed:
No. When I was little, my family hired a nanny…
As Jun Yueyue watched the words he typed, her heart gradually clenched.
When Fang Anyu was little, because his parents were busy, and because the Fang family was still in the entrepreneurial stage back then, Fang Anyan had been sent to boarding school. So they had hired nannies to take care of Fang Anyu.
A deaf-mute child was not easy to care for. Moreover, Fang Anyu had not been born with such a calm personality. Children were always curious about the world. Before they learned to be sad because of their own defects, they were no different from ordinary mischievous little monkeys.
But the adults were away from home for long periods. Because he was deaf and mute and could not communicate, some nannies were still alright, only scolding him a few times or smacking him once or twice when they could not endure it. But some, because Fang Anyu could not speak or hear, and because the Fang family adults were rarely home, abused him.
When the two Fang adults were away on business trips, those nannies often “forgot” to cook. A child was mischievous every day and could not stay still. If he ate little, he would grow thin.
Then, to avoid being scolded before Fang’s father and mother returned from business trips, the nannies would force Fang Anyu to eat desperately in the days before they came back.
No one could become fat in one bite. But several days of frantic feeding could indeed temporarily make a person look swollen. His stomach had been forcibly damaged like this. If he did not eat, he would be punished. If he ate, he felt unbearably uncomfortable. Over time, he lost his sense of fullness. And as long as he started eating, it became very hard for him to stop on his own. That shadow had never disappeared. The subconscious feeling that if he stopped, he would be punished, had always remained.
Jun Yueyue had never expected it to be like this. Her heart ached terribly. She hugged Fang Anyu tightly and listened to his heartbeat, not knowing what to say to comfort him.
Fang Anyu stroked Jun Yueyue’s hair, his chin gently knocking against the top of her head again and again.
He actually did not feel miserable, nor had he ever blamed his parents.
Because he knew how difficult it had been for his parents to start their business back then. After growing a little older, he also understood that as a burden, for him to live so well was inseparable from his family’s hard work and love.
So when he had married Jun Yueyue in exchange for resources, his parents had asked him, and he had agreed willingly.
If he had not fallen in love with Jun Yueyue, he would have obediently allowed himself to be used by everyone. Later, when Jun Yueyue proposed divorce, he would not have objected. Even if he had to marry again in the future, as long as it was for the Fang family, it would not matter.
But he also had not expected that he would fall in love with Jun Yueyue.
From the moment she painted the first vivid stroke of colour across his world, the bond between them was destined. It could no longer be easily severed.
If he had never seen colour, he could have lived his whole life like a blank sheet of paper, silent and without sound.
But now, Fang Anyu felt incomparably grateful.
Even in the first life, when there had been no happiness between them, only pain; even if their ending had been tragic beyond tragedy—
If all of that had been used to exchange for knowing and loving each other in this life, Fang Anyu would be willing to jump from the cruise ship again and sink into the sea, no matter how many times.
Night deepened.
After the two washed up, they lay on the kang. Jun Yueyue burrowed into Fang Anyu’s arms, her heart free of distractions as she felt this tenderness and warmth that belonged only to her. But Fang Anyu and his little brother were not very well-behaved.
Jun Yueyue opened her eyes and looked at Fang Anyu’s face, its expression unclear in the darkness.
“You… what are you doing? Weren’t you so tired tonight you couldn’t even hold a bowl?” Her voice was very soft, but it was not a complaint. It carried a hint of smiling teasing.
Fang Anyu gently kissed the side of her neck. His breathing was a little unsteady. He answered her words with a tight embrace.
The lights in the room were off. Many of the streetlights outside the window were broken, but not far from the little courtyard where the two lived, there was still one very stubborn streetlight doing its job.
Gentle light passed through the night and spread in from outside the window, reflecting on the quilt on the kang as it rose and fell slowly with a soft, low rhythm, and on Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu’s tightly interlocked hands. Low, deep words of love lingered only within this little room. Even the flowers and plants outside could not eavesdrop on the slightest bit.
Fang Anyu was a little different tonight. Perhaps because his ability had been greatly exhausted, he was especially gentle tonight. So gentle that it was a little tormenting. Jun Yueyue held his slightly damp back. Her embrace, her heart, and her body were all deeply filled, worn down, soothed, and satisfied until her soul seemed about to float away.
The night passed peacefully.
The next morning, everyone was still in a state of high alert.
They trained in batches, while the rest patrolled everywhere.
But after the zombies outside the walls were killed, no more zombies gathered abnormally.
The second day.
The third day.
The fourth day.
Everything remained calm.
It seemed that after Ming Zhen had been released, she had truly left. It was really as she herself had said: she had only snuck in to take revenge.
Wu Zhenfei was released.
It was not a decision made by Jun Yueyue and Li Li. Many people had come to plead for him.
Jun Yueyue felt incredibly fortunate that this group of people gathered together were truly good people. Even if a few were more selfish and argued over disagreements in supply distribution, shouting that it was unfair, they were still a group in this world who had preserved the greatest amount of humanity.
After Wu Zhenfei was released, he silently joined the ranks of trainers and patrols. He worked even harder. In the time that followed, whether going out to search for supplies or patrolling and training, he behaved as if he was risking his life. Only, he became much more silent. Even when he saw Jun Yueyue, his eyes no longer lit up.
He began to become steady. He began to become reliable in everyone’s hearts.
If his father were still alive and saw him like this, he would definitely be relieved that his son had grown up.
Whether it had been pressing down his head to choose Ming Zhen, or forcing him to give up the profession he liked and manage the hotel, old people were always like this. The crooked roads they themselves had walked, they did not want their children to walk again. Wu Zhenfei was indeed suited to management and good at using people. If the world were still the same as before, sooner or later he would have discovered how suitable the woman his father had chosen for him was for living a life together.
Only, old people did not know that once a child learned to walk, you could no longer reach out and support them along the road.
They would always have to pay some price to understand what was right.
Only, the price of Wu Zhenfei’s growth was too heavy.
Recently, he often thought that if he had the chance to do it all again, he would try to ease the frozen father-son relationship. He would try to treat Ming Zhen a little better. He would try his best not to think of Jun Yueyue. He would no longer be half-hearted, and would instead live his own life properly.
But in this world, was there truly still a chance to start over?
For people living in the depths of the apocalypse, the answer was naturally no.
Days flowed silently like water. Without the change of seasons, without needing to go to work or school, few people cared about the passing of time.
In the blink of an eye, a full month had passed since Wu Zhenfei released Ming Zhen.
The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month.
If this were normal society, it would be a very beautiful day, a day symbolizing reunion.
But in this society, no one really mentioned such holidays. Because reunion required being with family. In the base, how many people truly had their whole family beside them?
Everyone tacitly avoided mentioning it and went out to collect supplies as usual.
It was still the same as before, splitting into two routes. Every time they collected supplies, if they encountered survivors, they would bring them back. While collecting supplies, they would also kill as many zombies as possible, exhausting their abilities and strength before returning to the resort.
On one hand, the more abilities were consumed, the easier they grew. On the other hand, they had already reached the point where they could upgrade. The crystal cores inside the zombies’ brains could be used for ability users to upgrade.
There were many, many zombies in this city. But if they kept killing them day after day like this, sooner or later, all the zombies would be killed.
Then they could realize that somewhat absurd-sounding dream: establishing a base as large as a city, accommodating more survivors. With enough land, space, and resources, they could be self-sufficient and continue living.
One day, the apocalypse would end. They would no longer have to worry that when they walked out of a house, living dead would tear them apart and eat them.
Although this ideal had never been spoken aloud, there was no doubt that it was the shared hope of all those still alive.
And Jun Yueyue’s group was growing rapidly.
When they gathered enough zombie crystal cores, they would temporarily close the drawbridge and focus on upgrading the base’s ability users.
At present, they already had excellent coordinated combat. They split into two routes in the morning and returned in the evening fully loaded. Life was exhausting, but still full of hope.
“Doesn’t it feel like there are fewer and fewer zombies lately?” On the truck, several ordinary people ate the snacks collected this time while leaning against the railing and looking out at the street.
Perhaps because of their large-scale slaughter, there were almost no zombies wandering on the street. Occasionally, shadows could be seen inside shopping malls, but only a few scattered ones.
Wu Zhenfei leaned against the railing and refused the drink someone handed him, shaking his head.
In their truck today, Li Li was driving. Jun Yu and Fang Anyan were also there. The others included Wu Zhenfei, a light-type young man, several strength-type ability users, and ordinary people who, after long periods of combat training, had each become very formidable.
The streets were silent.
But just as they were about to return to the resort, two women suddenly rushed out from the mall beside them and shouted for help.
“Help! Help!”
They looked especially dishevelled. Behind them ran three zombies. Everyone quickly stopped the truck, killed the zombies, and rescued the two women.
“How did you end up here?” After they got onto the truck, Li Li came from the front. He was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, he carefully asked the two women why they had rushed out from a clothing store.
“We’ve been here all along. We…” one of the women said. “There’s a little courtyard behind our store. We’re sisters. Our family had a decent amount of stored food, so we kept hiding at home. The store door was closed, and no zombies came in. But today… we ran out of food.”
“We’ve passed this street more than once. There’s a loudspeaker not far from here that keeps saying people can seek refuge at the resort. Why didn’t you come?” Li Li looked at the two women, feeling that something was not quite right about their eyes.
But they said they had once seen their neighbours seek refuge with a group of people, only to be shot as soon as they went out. Only women were taken away. They had been very afraid.
Li Li knew that in the beginning, this city naturally had more than just their group. Some time ago, they had encountered a group that specifically used this method of gathering survivors to deceive people. After tricking people out, they would rob them. The people would either be killed or used to attract zombies.
Li Li’s group had already killed three groups of bastards like that. The two women’s concerns were not unreasonable.
Some people followed them inside to check. They had indeed run out of everything and had been forced to come out. Only then did Li Li put aside his doubts and take the two women back to the resort.
It was not that they were being overly cautious. The more survivors they collected, the more all kinds of people they encountered. Some bastards thought that because they had a little ability, they could do whatever they wanted. There had been one strength-type ability user who tried to snatch supplies and was directly stabbed to death by Jun Yu.
Of course, there were also people from other groups who came in to fish for information, wanting to learn about the resort’s situation. So now, when accepting survivors, they were all very cautious.
But these two women looked fairly normal, and what they said was true. Everyone relaxed. After Li Li got into the truck, they continued driving toward the resort.
However, while everyone’s attention was on the two crying women, no one noticed that from a nearby shop whose door had been smashed, a human figure shot out at an unimaginable speed. It did not attack anyone. Instead, it silently slipped beneath the truck.
When the truck reached the resort entrance, the drawbridge opened. Everyone checked the wounds on their bodies to make sure they were not bites or scratches from zombies. They also focused on checking the two new survivors. No one checked underneath the truck.
Because no zombie could hang itself under a moving vehicle silently for several hours and still not be discovered even after everyone unloaded the truck.
And by coincidence, on this day, Jun Yueyue and Fang Anyu, who could sense zombies, were not in the base.
They had driven to a farther urban area and collected many supplies. But along the way, they encountered several small zombie tides one after another. Among them were more than thirty second-level zombies, as if they had been mass-produced.
If they had encountered these second-level zombies two months ago, their whole group might have been wiped out. Fortunately, after this period of training and cooperation, everyone’s abilities could no longer be compared to before.
When Jun Yueyue returned with a truck full of supplies, everyone on the truck wore grave expressions.
They had not fought such a difficult battle in a long time.
The sudden appearance of large numbers of second-level zombies was a very bad omen.
Either zombies had begun eating their own kind, causing this, or someone had learned the method for creating second-level zombies and was producing them in large quantities.
No matter which possibility it was, it was undoubtedly not good news.
Although only one person had been injured and no one had died, everyone’s expressions were exhausted and solemn. Fang Anyu had both controlled zombies and healed people. He was already so tired he had fallen asleep.
His little face had turned pale and miserable again. Jun Yueyue touched his face, heart aching, and let him rest his head on her lap. Among all these ability users, the one whose abilities had strengthened the most was Fang Anyu.
But the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. If not for his powerful control, in the battle just now, they absolutely would not have had time to carve a path through such a dense zombie tide.
Moreover, he also had to go with Ji Fei, who transformed into a zombie, to kill second-level zombies everywhere. Fang Anyu had once told Jun Yueyue that when he zombified and fought against zombies, his head hurt as if it were about to split open.
Jun Yueyue held Fang Anyu’s head and lowered hers to kiss his fine eyelashes.
In the past, she had thought that as long as she was with Fang Anyu, it did not matter what kind of world they were in.
But now, she gradually no longer had that thought. She did not want to see Fang Anyu work so hard. She did not want to take risks with him every day. She did not want to open her eyes and immediately think about how many supplies they could collect today. She did not want Fang Anyu to become like this again, exhausted until his face was pale.
If only the apocalypse could end.
The truck swayed as it drove toward the base. Outside, the sky gradually darkened. She looked out at the ruined, lonely city beyond the truck, devastated by smashing and looting, rampant plant growth, and storms. Holding Fang Anyu tightly, she missed the city once tangled in neon lights.
When their truck entered the resort, the previous truck had already unloaded and been parked. Everyone had gone back to rest.
Because of the large consumption of ability power, Fang Anyu was still unconscious. Once again, Jun Yueyue drove the sightseeing cart to take him home.
Her baby was exhausted today. She moved lightly the whole way. In fact, Jun Yueyue herself had cracked lips and a poor complexion, but when she carried Fang Anyu out of the vehicle, she held her breath, unwilling to wake him.
During battle today — or rather, every time he fought — Fang Anyu always took care of Jun Yueyue. Jun Yueyue had discovered long ago that zombies arriving before her were always a little slower to react than those near others.
Fang Anyu protected her silently and had never taken the initiative to mention it.
His personality was indeed unlike those domineering men who could make a person’s heart race just by trapping them against a wall.
But his gentleness and long-lasting kindness could only be discovered by truly feeling with the heart. Like poison seeping into the marrow, by the time one suddenly realized it, it was already an incurable descent.
Fang Anyu did not wake. Or rather, when Jun Yueyue placed him on the kang, he briefly woke. But he only opened his eyes, his gaze somewhat unfocused. After clearly seeing Jun Yueyue, he closed them again.
He was too tired. He needed rest. Today’s consumption had truly reached the limit.
It was also because of this that he did not, as usual, spread out his ability to check whether there were any zombies inside the base apart from those used for training.
Jun Yueyue took care of him. After simply wiping him down, she held him and fell asleep.
But this was destined not to be a peaceful night.
After most people had fallen asleep, from beneath the truck that should have been quietly parked in the base, a human figure crawled out soundlessly.
That figure slipped into the guard booth at the drawbridge. Seeing the two duty guards dozing off, it swiftly twisted their necks. After lying on their bodies and tearing at them for a while, it finally raised its head in satisfaction. Its gray-white pupils turned back to a normal colour, and it began to do what it had come to do.
The drawbridge, which was usually only opened when going out to search for supplies, opened silently in this originally quiet night.
Opposite the drawbridge, zombies gathered quietly, densely blending into the darkness. They waited in an extremely orderly manner for the drawbridge to open, then went onto the bridge in batches.
Not only that, outside the tall stone wall behind the base, countless zombies had also piled together. They were the lowest-level zombies. They did not know how to climb, and their order was chaotic. But their numbers were impossible to count. They continued gathering from all directions in an endless stream. They did not rely on climbing. Instead, they relied on stacking themselves, forcefully piling up to the highest point, then flipping down from above. Following the commands of second-level zombies, they walked inward.
At three in the morning, the patrols were also unbearably sleepy, their footsteps dragging.
But when they returned from changing shifts, they discovered that the drawbridge had opened. Then they saw their companion beside them being pounced on and killed by zombies before their eyes. After being knocked down, one patrolman took the gun from his pocket. There was only one bullet inside, used to warn everyone in uncontrollable situations.
With the last bit of human consciousness, he fired.
The gunshot rang through the night sky. Everyone woke with a start. The zombies’ howls also followed that gunshot, resounding through the entire base.
People’s peaceful dreams shattered on this seemingly gentle night.
When Jun Yueyue, Fang Anyu, and the group of ability users rushed out, they looked toward the square and all froze.
Flames soared into the sky. Fang Anyan, who had rushed out first, had set the fire. As far as the eye could see, every place was densely packed with zombies. They had already surrounded the accommodation hotel completely.
But strangely, no zombies rushed inside. One by one, they howled anxiously. Fortunately, the doors of the accommodation hotel were closed at night, and the people awakened inside only stood by their beds. For now, they were not in danger.
In the very centre of the square, among the silent second-level zombies standing around her, a woman in a black robe stood there.
It was Ming Zhen, whom Wu Zhenfei had released earlier.
“I came to collect a person,” Ming Zhen said, looking at Jun Yueyue’s group. She ignored Fang Anyan, who was setting fires everywhere, and also did not order the second-level zombies behind her — those truly powerful killers who could drive ordinary zombies into madness — to attack.
Instead, she said to Jun Yueyue, “Give me Wu Zhenfei.”
When Wu Zhenfei saw Ming Zhen, he was already about to go mad. He rushed from in front of the crowd to Ming Zhen, his eyes full of disbelief and collapse.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t come back?! What are you doing now?!” Wu Zhenfei roared.
Ming Zhen only looked at him with those pale eyes. There was not the slightest fluctuation in them, exactly the same as when she had begged Wu Zhenfei to let her go.
“I missed you very much,” Ming Zhen said in a flat tone. “I think of you every day. When I think of you, this place hurts. Come with me.”
After Ming Zhen finished speaking, she looked at Wu Zhenfei.
However, she only said this because she did not yet know that this was love. Her words were meant literally. She always thought of Wu Zhenfei. She had come this time precisely to take him away.
Wu Zhenfei’s eyes were red. After looking around, before he could say anything, Ming Zhen spoke again.
“I can choose not to eat you. I’ll turn you into a second-level zombie. Then you can stay by my side forever.”
That way, her chest would no longer twist with pain.
Wu Zhenfei was stunned. But before he had time to retreat, Ming Zhen reached out swiftly, grabbed him, clutched his throat, and forced him to kneel before her.
Ming Zhen then said, “I don’t only want him. I also need a few people to eat. I’m so hungry.”
Ming Zhen licked her lips and said, “I can guarantee that the rest of you won’t be attacked when you go out to collect supplies.”
Like a king ruling the world, Ming Zhen spread her arms and said, “They all listen to me. You only need to keep me alone full. I don’t eat much. You can also keep going out to find people. I can even have them assist you.”
She had come this time to threaten them.
It was now very difficult to find food outside. There was the most food here. And she always thought of Wu Zhenfei. Ming Zhen had gone to many places and created many second-level zombies, all because she wanted a stable source of food.
In essence, she was the same as Jun Yueyue’s group. All of them were doing it for a bite to eat.
She did not want to kill everyone. She only wanted them to regularly provide people for her to eat.
Ming Zhen was no longer human. She did not know what such a trade meant to humans. She had made this kind of deal with many people. She no longer had human feelings and could not be understood through human thinking.
Wu Zhenfei knelt before Ming Zhen. He had nearly been strangled to death by Ming Zhen just now. Now, he regretted it so much that he wished he could take everyone’s place and be eaten by the zombies himself.
He was always like this.
He could never do anything right.
How could he gamble using the sincerity of a zombie?
When Jun Yueyue’s group heard Ming Zhen’s demand, they were so angry they laughed. Without another word, they prepared to fight.
They would rather all die in battle today than ever use companions in exchange for a chance to survive!
But before they could attack, Wu Zhenfei suddenly rose. His face was covered in tear tracks as he stabbed the knife he kept close to his body toward Ming Zhen’s head.
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