Jiang Miaomiao returned to the room and opened the small box that Lu Qiming gave her.
Inside were seven test strips and a matching urine cup.
She took one to the bathroom and followed the instructions in the manual. She dipped one end of the test strip into the urine and then took it out, laying it flat.
After a few minutes, she checked the result. The white test strip had only one clear red line.
Negative, not pregnant.
She double-checked and then sighed with relief. She kept the remaining ones for future use and couldn’t wait to go downstairs and tell Lu Qiming the good news.
He was also happy to hear it, but insisted, “Test again in a few days, it’s safer that way. Before that, you better not leave the room, and definitely not run around like you’re doing now.”
She sighed, “After testing and confirming that I’m not pregnant, why worry so much? Don’t worry, we won’t be that lucky.”
He frowned, “Miaomiao.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll be careful.”
She went over to look at the pot with a smile, “What are we having for breakfast today?”
With limited ingredients, their recipes were quite fixed—either noodles or rice, and the same dishes.
Seeing her getting thinner again, Lu Qiming wanted her to eat more, so he made a bowl of batter and poured it into the pan to make pancakes.
The pancakes were thin and fragrant, with a layer of locust flower honey spread on top.
Jiang Miaomiao devoured two at once and gave him a thumbs-up.
“You’re really good at this, how did you learn?”
As soon as the pancakes came out of the pan, they were already finished. Lu Qiming continued to cook and said with the spatula in hand, “When I was little, no one was at home, so I learned to use a coal stove in the third grade and started making things to eat. Later, when I went to a closed school, the cafeteria food was not good, and the school was in a remote area with no restaurants nearby. We would get hungry at night during puberty, so me and a few classmates often climbed over the wall and made a fire in the woods to roast bird eggs.”
Listening to him, a scene involuntarily appeared in Jiang Miaomiao’s mind—
Lu Qiming, thin and small at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and a few other skinny classmates, sneaking out of the high wall in the middle of the night. The young boys ran like the wind across the fields and graveyards, competing for a few small bird eggs in the woods.
She suddenly felt sorry for him and looked at the piece of pancake still in her hand, feeding it to him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Feeding you. You’re a great chef, working hard. Hehe.”
As she spoke, Jiang Miaomiao looked at his broad shoulders and long legs. It was hard to imagine how he grew so tall in such a difficult environment.
In comparison, she was born in an ordinary family, never experiencing extreme wealth or hardship. She felt ashamed of her height, as it did not justify the hardships he had been through.
Lu Qiming finished the pancake with her hand and felt somewhat relieved of his heavy heart due to the suspected pregnancy.
Three days later, Jiang Miaomiao tested again.
The result was the same as last time—negative, not pregnant.
And that night, her period came.
Now they were completely at ease, no longer worried about Jiang Miaomiao’s life, but still cautious.
While they were preoccupied with contraception, the old couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lao Bai, were diligently incubating the eggs.
Half a month later, one of the eggs hatched, and a weak chirping sound could be heard.
After that came the second, the third… four small birds hatched from six eggs, and two of the eggs were rotten.
At first sight of the little crows, Jiang Miaomiao felt so repulsed that she didn’t want to touch them.
Their heads were big, wings were small, bellies were large, and their bottoms were chubby.
Their feathers were sparse, and their skin had an unattractive bluish-black color, thin like spring roll wrappers, making their internal organs almost visible.
Their eyes were particularly large, and their mouths were big too. After hatching, they did nothing but open their mouths and wait to be fed.
If they were not fed on time, the four birds would start squawking together, making such a racket that no one wanted to step into that room.
In order to take care of them, Lao Bai’s health was affected visibly, and she lost a noticeable amount of weight.
Lao Bai’s husband was quite responsible, always taking over when she was exhausted, and continued to feed the chicks.
Jiang Miaomiao worried that if the smaller ones were not fed enough, they would starve while the bigger ones grew. So, she specially made postpartum meals for Lao Bai.
Ham sausages, powdered milk, greens, etc., all blended into a paste, exclusively fed to one of the birds.
Lao Bai became plumper, and the little crows started to grow feathers.
Not long after hatching, they transformed from ugly and unbearable-looking little monsters into something that slightly resembled birds.
Jiang Miaomiao was someone who valued appearance, and after that, the more she looked, the more she liked them. She would often go in and pat them.
She had Lu Qiming, Lao Bai had her husband and child, but Jiang Rou Rou was all alone, always being forgotten by everyone, standing in the corner with a pitiful wagging tail.
When the little crows were able to walk around, summer had passed.
Finally, they didn’t need to have the air conditioner running 24 hours a day, and the saved electricity was allocated to the electric stove, making cooking much easier without the need for fire.
Sometimes, when they were lazy to cook, they would take out the electric stew pot and make a pot of mushroom and dried scallop porridge, paired with preserved vegetables, and have an easy meal for the day.
The little crows grew rapidly, and it wouldn’t be long before they could eat meat. However, the couple encountered a difficult problem.
The resources at the supermarket were limited, and eating more meant having less.
They consumed rice and grains very slowly, and as long as they were stored properly, they could last for two to three years. But mineral water couldn’t last that long.
Ever since they installed the air conditioner, they tried to reduce the frequency of bathing, keeping themselves clean instead.
When it rained, they would find all sorts of containers and place them on the balcony to collect water for mopping, washing vegetables, and washing dishes.
Despite their efforts, the water storage decreased day by day.
By October, the remaining water could only last for another month.
With electricity and food available here, Jiang Miaomiao didn’t want to leave.
So, the only solution was to go out and find water to bring back.
On a cool day, the two of them prepared to go out.
Since moving from the villa to the high-rise building, Jiang Miaomiao had never been outside, so she was both nervous and excited about the idea.
And because of their previous experience, she repeatedly warned Lu Qiming not to change his mind and leave her behind.
His promise wasn’t enough—she held his hand tightly during meals and sleep.
If he tried to lock her in the room, he would have to leave his arm behind!
Under such strict vigilance, Lu Qiming couldn’t find any opportunity to leave early, so he had no choice but to keep his promise and take her out with him.
At eight o’clock in the morning, the sun was shining brightly.
The two stood by the window, each carrying a bag on their shoulders, filled with weapons and food. They were tying ropes around themselves, planning to leave the high-rise building using the method Lu Qiming had used before.
Lao Bai’s husband and wife were feeding the little crows in the birdhouse, and Jiang Rou Rou noticed their actions, going back and forth around them, wanting to go with them.
Jiang Miaomiao squatted down and gently patted the dog’s head.
“Rou Rou, stay at home and don’t run around, okay? I’ll bring you some delicious food back.”
Although the whole city was flooded, there were always some places that were not submerged, like the building where Lu Qiming found the solar panels.
Some food items were well-sealed, such as canned goods, with a long shelf life, which should still be edible.
If they couldn’t find water, bringing back some new food would also be good.
Jiang Miaomiao brought a large storage bag specifically for carrying things.
After comforting Jiang Rou Rou, she stood up.
Lu Qiming had already tied the ropes and came to check the one around her waist.
“Are you sure you dare to climb down from here?”
He asked, with his eyes lowered.
The supermarket was located on the twentieth floor, at a height of over sixty meters. They needed to descend five floors, which meant climbing down from over sixty meters to the position of fifty meters.
For Lu Qiming, it was a piece of cake, but for Jiang Miaomiao, it was as difficult as reaching the sky.
Experience, strength, skills—she had none of those.
Jiang Miaomiao took a deep breath and looked up, saying, “As long as you’re with me, I dare.”
Lu Qiming smiled, tightened her backpack and the rope, and tied both of them with a climbing rope, leaving about three to four meters in between.
This way, even if she fell during the climb, he could catch her in time.
After doing all this, he opened the window and picked up a large bundle of ropes piled next to him, holding the end and throwing it out.
The rope unfolded in the air, very long, and swung all the way down to the window of the fifteenth floor, swaying in the wind.
Lu Qiming tied the end he was holding to a shelf filled with rice and pulled it, saying to her, “We’re good.”
Are they really going down? It’s so high.
She stood by the window and looked down. Although she was already used to such heights, it made her feel dizzy and weak in the legs.
Lu Qiming noticed her expression and said proactively, “You can still change your mind now if you regret it.”
“No.”
She rejected it without hesitation, grabbing the window and saying, “Stop tempting me. I won’t give up.”
Lu Qiming chuckled and patted her butt.
“I’ll go down first, and you can follow.”
After saying that, he grabbed the rope and jumped down. By the time Jiang Miaomiao saw clearly, he was already on the nineteenth floor.
“Phew… No need to be afraid. There’s nothing to fear…”
She had fought against zombies, carried sofas, and raised crows. She was no longer the same person as before.
Just climbing down a building, what was there to be afraid of?
Jiang Miaomiao mentally prepared herself, mustered her courage, and grabbed the rope… slowly sliding down the wall like making dumplings.
Lu Qiming called from below, “Don’t be afraid. If you fall, I’ll catch you.”
She didn’t want him to catch her. She could do it.
Her whole body was hanging outside the window, and she tried not to look at the scenery around her. Following the method Lu Qiming had taught her earlier, she wrapped the rope around her arms and legs a few times.
After steadying her body, she reached up to close the window.
Jiang Rou Rou ran over and licked her hand.
She was afraid it might fall, so she quickly said, “Go back!”
“Bark, bark!”
“Good boy, go back.”
After finally getting Jiang Rou Rou to leave, she closed the window, and her back was already covered in sweat.
Lu Qiming didn’t move, waiting for her below. He only started descending at her pace once she began climbing down.
Jiang Miaomiao had never been so focused in her life. Her eyes were fixed on the rope, completely ignoring the possibility of falling and turning into a puddle of flesh.
Her mind had only one goal—descend, descend.
She moved slowly along the climbing rope like a large hairy caterpillar.
After who knows how long, she heard a light laughter from above.
“Where are you planning to go?”
She looked up and saw Lu Qiming standing behind the window, looking at her with a smile.
She was stunned for several seconds before reacting, and she asked excitedly, “Have we reached the fifteenth floor?”
Lu Qiming nodded and reached out his hand.
“Yes, you’re more capable than I imagined.”
Jiang Miaomiao grabbed his hand and climbed up. When her feet touched the ground, she felt incredibly steady.
“Hehe, let’s go.”
Full of confidence, she walked forward. After taking a few steps, she realized that both of them were still tied together by the rope around their waists. It was troublesome, so she planned to untie it.
Lu Qiming stopped her.
“Don’t untie it.”
“Huh?”
“We’re taking the little friend with us. What if we accidentally lose it?”
Her? Little friend? Was he underestimating her?
Jiang Miaomiao made a disdainful face, but obediently withdrew her hand from untying the rope.
The two of them walked shoulder to shoulder with their backpacks, soon leaving the building.
It was early autumn in October.
The sky was high, and the road that had been unattended for six months was covered with yellow fallen leaves.
Unfortunately, they had missed the peach ripening season.
Now, the green belt was filled with wild and overgrown weeds and bushes.
Since they were not wearing protective suits and hadn’t smeared zombie blood, Jiang Miaomiao was very cautious, unable to appreciate the scenery, and constantly attentive to changes around them, ready to draw her gun at the sight of any zombies.
However, after walking hundreds of meters, they didn’t encounter a single zombie.
The city that had been flooded seemed deserted and quiet, like a truly dead city.
“Did you encounter any zombies the last time you went out?”
She asked Lu Qiming.
He nodded.
“It’s strange. How come there’s not a single one today?”
“Probably they knew you were coming out, so they all ran away.”
“…You’re teasing me to death.”
Lu Qiming was about to say something when he suddenly saw a convenience store and decided to go in and take a look.
There were bottled water in the convenience store, and generally, bottled water with good sealing should still be drinkable as long as it hadn’t been washed away by the flood.
They entered the store, with Jiang Miaomiao searching on the left and Lu Qiming on the right, maintaining a distance of about three meters.
Jiang Miaomiao picked up a tin box of fruit candies, shook it, and opened it.
The candies inside had become a big lump, with various colors mixed together, emitting a pungent smell.
She frowned and threw it away, checking others.
Potato chips, biscuits, preserved fruits, chocolates… the snacks she once loved were either eaten by ants and bugs, soaked by the flood, or spoiled to the point that they were dangerous to touch.
Not to mention those bento boxes and sandwiches that only had a few days of shelf life and hadn’t been sold before the apocalypse.
Jiang Miaomiao had once indulged in wishful thinking.
With no one else in the city, all resources were hers. As long as the zombies didn’t come back, she might be able to survive until the end of the apocalypse with these resources.
Now, thinking back, she was too naive.
Just because no one took the resources, it didn’t mean the food would wait for her to come and eat it.
Every day, countless foods would rot in silence.
At the current rate, if she stayed here for several years without finding alternatives, she would have to wait to starve to death.
“Did you find any water?”
Lu Qiming asked.
She snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head, “What about you?”
Lu Qiming shrugged, indicating he hadn’t found any either. He looked at the store’s layout and noticed a door that had been soaked by water. It was likely the way to the warehouse, so he prepared to walk over.
The two were still connected by the rope. When he moved, Jiang Miaomiao moved too, walking even faster than him.
Suddenly, she stopped, her face wrinkling as if she had seen something very disgusting.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a zombie… I feel like throwing up… It’s too smelly.”
She pointed to the back of a shelf, using her hand to shield her eyes from looking.
Lu Qiming approached and indeed found a rotting corpse lying on the ground, covered in maggots, a truly gruesome sight. No wonder she didn’t want to look at it.
He took a billboard and intended to cover it up, walking around it to continue to the warehouse.
However, just as he was about to act, he stopped and stared at the corpse without moving.
Jiang Miaomiao curiously asked, “What are you looking at?”
“This corpse… something seems off.”
“Really?”
She looked out through her fingers, trying to ignore the disgusting maggots, and observed the zombie.
This should be a male, slightly over 1.7 meters tall, dressed in a complete suit with a tie and leather shoes.
In his previous life, he was either a financial elite or an insurance salesman.
His body had been almost eaten empty by maggots, with only a little flesh left on his face and fingers. Even inside his leather shoes, there were worms wriggling.
The maggots were crawling all over, occasionally revealing the bones underneath.
The zombie’s bones, after long-time decomposition, were mostly grayish-black, with some parts being white.
But his bones were a faint shade of red, looking unlike those of a zombie. They resembled large pig bones freshly displayed at a market stall in the morning, giving a sense of freshness.
Facing all the maggots, the word “fresh” flashed in Jiang Miaomiao’s mind, and she almost threw up.
She covered her throat and said, “Could he be not a zombie but a normal person who recently died?”
Lu Qiming wasn’t sure either. He picked up a few pieces of paper from the ground, lit them with a lighter, and then blew them out, using the smoke to drive away the maggots.
The maggots scattered, and Jiang Miaomiao quickly climbed to a higher place, afraid that they would crawl onto her.
As the maggots dispersed, the complete skeleton was revealed.
From the skull to the toes, it was all in a pale pink color.
Pale pink bones… why does this feel so familiar? Did the original text mention it?
Jiang Miaomiao had a vague impression, but too much time had passed, and she couldn’t recall it no matter how hard she tried. Annoyed, she patted her head.
Lu Qiming also didn’t find any secrets after looking for a while. Losing interest, he suggested, “Let’s forget about it and find water.”
“Okay.”
The two of them opened the warehouse door, and inside, there were stacks of boxes, with more than a dozen of them containing mineral water.
The outer layer of plastic film had been soaked and rotted, easily crumbling upon touch. However, the bottled water inside was well-preserved and safe to drink.
Jiang Miaomiao was very happy.
They found it so quickly; it seemed they didn’t need to go to farther places with much trouble.
With more than a dozen boxes of water, they could use it for another month.
But… how to get it back?
Lu Qiming looked for boxes everywhere, and she spotted a handle in the corner. She grabbed it and pulled it out; it was a single-layer handcart that she often saw supermarket employees using to restock goods.
The structure of the cart was simple, with only four wheels, a heavy iron platform, and a chair-like handle.
There were no chains, so even after rusting, it could still be used, albeit with some sluggishness.
She called Lu Qiming, and he took out a screwdriver from his backpack and inserted it into the wheels, clearing away the rust on them.
Before long, the handcart regained its agility from before the rusting.
They worked together and stacked the water on the cart, getting ready to go back.
When passing by the corpse, Jiang Miaomiao tried hard to recall the details from the book, but unfortunately, she gained nothing. Then she thought of something else.
“Just one convenience store had so much stock of drinking water. Let’s find a few more and bring them all back. It will last us at least half a year.”
Lu Qiming couldn’t help but suppress a smile.
“Aren’t you uncomfortable staying in there all the time?”
“No, not at all. I have food, drinks, birds, and dogs. It’s much better than I expected.”
He nodded, “That’s true. Being alive is always better than being dead.”
“Mainly, it’s good luck to find such a big supermarket that wasn’t submerged. If only at that time…”
As she spoke, she walked outward. Suddenly, she caught sight of a zombie rushing toward them. Without thinking, she took out her handgun from the backpack and aimed it at the zombie before pulling the trigger.
Bang!
After the loud noise, the recoil pushed her backward, causing her to stumble into Lu Qiming.
The bullet flew through the air, missing the zombie by at least ten centimeters, and hit the wall behind it.
Momentarily stunned by the loud noise, the zombie quickly regained its senses and continued charging.
Lu Qiming sighed, released the handcart, and held her gun-wielding hand with both of his, resting his chin on her shoulder to teach her how to aim.
“Don’t aim for the head, aim for the chest. The chances of hitting are higher that way, like this.”
Another loud bang, and the zombie’s chest exploded.
Its body fell to the ground like a broken branch, the spine broken, unable to stand up. However, it hadn’t died completely yet. It stared at them with murky eyes, struggling to crawl toward their direction.
Jiang Miaomiao didn’t want to look and put away the gun, intending to leave.
Lu Qiming remembered the strange bones from earlier, took out a knife, and walked toward the zombie. He used his shoe to hold down the zombie’s hand and cut away the flesh from its arm, revealing the bones.
The faint pink color was very eye-catching.
The city was still quiet, and these scattered zombies weren’t enough to threaten their lives.
However, there seemed to be some enormous danger lurking nearby, and if they weren’t careful, it could swallow them whole.
The two returned to the building and slowly hoisted the water up using the rope, adding it to their supplies.
They had planned to spend the next few days collecting supplies, but it unexpectedly started pouring rain the next day, saving them the trouble of going out. Instead, they brought out all the containers they had and collected rainwater.
The area of water basins and buckets was, after all, too small, and they couldn’t collect much even after a long time.
Jiang Miaomiao came up with an idea and went to the office area to find a large waterproof advertisement cloth, about half the size of a wall. They held it up with a fishing rod.
Each held one end and extended it outside the balcony.
The advertisement cloth was large enough to collect a lot of rainwater.
They placed a bucket underneath, and the water poured like a waterfall. In no time, one bucket was filled, and they immediately replaced it with a new one.
After working hard all morning, the results were quite impressive. They added more than forty buckets of water to their inventory, filling an entire room, which would be sufficient for washing clothes and bathing.
Both of them were exhausted, and at noon, neither had the energy to cook. They nibbled on biscuits to satisfy their hunger.
The heavy rain continued, and Jiang Miaomiao sat behind the floor-to-ceiling window, eating butter cookies while enjoying the rain scenery.
The raindrops were dense, falling as if celestial beings were pouring water from the sky.
Pouring water… that’s right!
She suddenly slapped her thigh.
“I remembered!”
Lu Qiming, who was reading “Journey to the West” on his Kindle, was startled by her sudden exclamation. He turned around and asked, “What did you remember?”
She finally figured out why the bones of those two zombies were pink!
In the original text, although the government led the people to temporarily evacuate the city, they never gave up on the idea of coming back. While relying on the military to establish safe bases, experts were also working hard to develop drugs to deal with zombies.
The research was divided into three directions. The first was a vaccine to help normal people resist infection, the second was a special medicine to revert zombies back to humans, and the third was a toxin to accelerate the death of zombies.
Saving people is always harder than killing them, and among the three directions, the last one made the fastest progress. Within less than a year after the zombie outbreak, the first batch of products was developed.
They selected several cities with relatively few zombies as test sites for easier control. The toxin was dissolved into aerosol form and sprayed from airplanes.
The airplane she saw over a month ago was most likely involved in this, which explained why it was flying so low.
Jiang Miaomiao finally understood the issue that had been bothering her, her expression becoming more serious as she grabbed Lu Qiming’s hand.
“We better not go out recently.”
He was puzzled. “Why? Didn’t we agree to go find water when the rain stops?”
Jiang Miaomiao looked hesitant, unsure how to explain to him but knowing she had to convince him. After all, in the original text, the description of this test action was a complete failure. She didn’t want to become an experimental sacrifice.
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