AFTCKCTCKATD - Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Was Feng Yimo... Drunk?

“Ji Yanqing?”

Ji Yanqing only had time to hear a voice calling him before his mind fell into chaos. He didn’t lose consciousness. On the contrary, he was incredibly lucid. But he had fallen into a hallucination.

It was before the virus outbreak.

The metropolis was full of towering skyscrapers. Crowds and cars flowed endlessly. The streets were full of advertisements for various events and promotions. Everything was vibrant and bustling.

In the quiet, secluded villa district, in the large, empty living room full of blood and glass shards, ten or so people were either whispering in groups or looking at him with worried expressions.

They lined up to talk to him, telling him to be understanding, to be considerate, to not tell anyone, because he was the one who had killed his mother. No one had wanted it to happen.

He listened numbly. He had heard these words since he was little and knew them by heart.

Blood trickled down his forehead, into his eyes, blurring his vision.

He watched the scene silently, vaguely aware that he was being carried by someone.

The person’s arms were strong, their chest firm and broad, making him feel inexplicably at ease, making the hallucination feel even more fake.

After catching him and looking back, Feng Yimo saw that he was the only one left standing. Everyone else had collapsed.

He frowned, bent down, picked up Ji Yanqing, and ran. He ran far away, until he could no longer see the flower field, before stopping.

He put Ji Yanqing down at the foot of a shrub, letting him lean against it, and looked at him. “Ji Yanqing?”

Ji Yanqing’s eyes were open, but he was staring blankly ahead, his whole body motionless, like a soulless doll that could be manipulated at will.

His face was already delicate and beautiful. Now, coupled with his soulless, doll-like eyes, he looked even more exquisite and strange.

Feng Yimo didn’t like this Ji Yanqing.

“Ji Yanqing?” He patted Ji Yanqing’s face, trying to wake him up.

Ji Yanqing remained motionless.

Feng Yimo frowned. He felt Ji Yanqing’s breath. He was still breathing, but very weakly. He leaned down to listen to his heartbeat. It was also very weak.

Although it was weak, he was still alive.

Feng Yimo relaxed a little. Only then did he remember that Ji An and Ji Le were still back there.

He looked back. He could see all those people in the distance.

They were all lying motionless in the postures they had collapsed in. They all still had their eyes open, and many of them even had expressions of panic on their faces.

After glancing at Ji Yanqing again, he quickly ran back over there. Approaching the crowd, he quickly found Ji An and Ji Le and took them away.

Back with Ji Yanqing, he put Ji An and Ji Le down beside him, one on each side.

Ji Yanqing was still motionless, as if he had no soul.

Feng Yimo checked him again. After confirming that he was fine, he relaxed.

He looked at the people lying in the distance, as if he had just remembered that there were a bunch of people lying there.

After a moment of hesitation, he still went back to drag them all back. Those people had been found with great difficulty by Ji Yanqing. If they died just like that, Ji Yanqing would have to start all over again.

He was never patient with anyone other than Ji Yanqing.

At first, he only dragged one person back at a time. After the third trip, his patience ran out. Not wanting to go back and forth more than twenty times, he started dragging four or five people at a time.

Xia Shen Shu, who had been dragged back to Ji Yanqing on the sixth trip, stared blankly at the burning clouds in the sky, trying hard to empty his mind, to ignore the bumps on the back of his head.

After bumping into something again, the corners of his mouth twitched under his expressionless face. He just couldn’t win in a fight! If he could, he would have already beaten Feng Yimo to a pulp!

Obviously, he wasn’t the only one who had this thought. After he was dragged back to Ji Yanqing and saw the pile of people casually thrown together, he immediately understood the situation.

After Feng Yimo casually threw him onto the pile, he immediately joined the ranks of the resentful.

After two more trips, Feng Yimo casually threw the people in his hands to the side and sat down in front of Ji Yanqing.

He checked Ji Yanqing again. After confirming that he was fine, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The others, who were piled up behind him, stared at his back. If looks could kill, he would have been cut into a thousand pieces.

Unfortunately, looks couldn’t kill.

When they had collapsed, the sun had already begun setting, and the sky had been filled with burning red clouds.

By the time they had been dragged away by Feng Yimo to the shrubs, far from the flower field, the sky had already begun to darken.

After they were thrown to the ground, less than half an hour later, the wasteland was pitch black.

At eight o’clock, large flakes of snow started to fall. The snowflakes swirled in the wind, making their numb hands and feet gradually start to ache.

The only thing they could be thankful for was that Feng Yimo had thrown them near a large cluster of shrubs. The shrubs were much taller than a person, and they grew close together, effectively blocking some of the wind and snow.

At half past eight, Ji Yanqing, who was sitting to the side with Ji An and Ji Le, began to be able to blink. Although his movements were incredibly slow, it was still a sign that he was slowly regaining control of his body.

Xia Shen Shu and the others noticed this. Hope appeared in their despairing eyes.

Feng Yimo, who was the happiest of all, seemed to remember something. He took out a sunshade cloth from his backpack and carefully wrapped it around Ji Yanqing, who couldn’t move, to shield him from the wind and snow.

Seeing this, the others, whose eyes were gradually able to move, glared at Feng Yimo even more fiercely, like hungry wolves.

At a little past nine, Ji Yanqing, who had been moved away first, began to be able to move, although slowly.

After being able to lift his hand, the first thing he did was stiffly and clumsily drag his backpack to block the wind. Ji An and Ji Le’s little faces were already blue from the cold.

Seeing this, Feng Yimo seemed to have just remembered that Ji An and Ji Le were there. He helped adjust the position of the backpack.

“I…” Xia Shen Shu tried to say something, but he was slurring his words.

Feng Yimo looked at him.

“Excuse me…”

Feng Yimo couldn’t hear him clearly, so he simply ignored him.

The corner of Xia Shen Shu’s mouth, which he could barely move, curled up in a smile. He felt that while it was important to be self-aware of one’s circumstances, it was also important to relieve anger.

After this, he would definitely find a chance to put a sack over Feng Yimo’s head! He would definitely beat him black and blue!

At ten o’clock, the snow was falling heavily, and the whole world was white. The other group members finally managed to get up. They were like evil spirits crawling out of hell, all moving in strange postures.

They crawled away from the pile and into the shelter of the nearby shrubs.

They clumsily and silently took out sunshade cloths and ropes from their backpacks, and with trembling hands and awkward movements, wrapped them around themselves.

The wind was too strong, and the sunshade cloth was immediately blown into the air.

The people crawling on the ground were startled and quickly reached out to try and grab it. If the sunshade cloth was blown away, they would have to endure the heavy snow.

Everyone stretched out their hands desperately, and the sunshade cloth flapped in the wind. The scene was incredibly strange.

“Help…” Ji Yanqing, who had been wrapped in a windbreaker early on and was watching from the side, felt a little embarrassed.

Feng Yimo looked over.

“…Help…Them...” It took Ji Yanqing a lot of effort to finally push out those two words.

Hearing that, Feng Yimo looked back at the people who were awkwardly trying to get under the cloth. They were already having trouble controlling their hands and feet, and they were so cold that their movements were even more awkward than zombies’.

He hesitated for a moment, and then went over to help pull the cloth open and cover everyone.

Finally, afraid that the cloth would be blown away, he thoughtfully picked up one of the people who was crawling on the snow and put him on top.

The man, who had been struggling to get under the cloth and had finally managed to get half his body in, glared at Feng Yimo.

After enduring the snow for another two hours, they finally managed to get up. They quickly piled up their backpacks, blocking the wind and snow.

Huddled inside the circle of backpacks, under the sunshade cloth, they gritted their teeth and endured.

At about three in the morning, when the snow stopped, they were like people who had returned from the gates of hell. They all couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief.

After exhaling, they all looked at Feng Yimo.

“Let’s… go…” Ji Yanqing said, his voice thick.

They weren’t far from the flower field, and they were now back in that Awakened zombie’s territory.

Hearing that, everyone quickly got up and put their backpacks on.

They hadn’t fully recovered yet. Sometimes, they would stumble and fall after taking a few steps. They had no choice but to help each other walk, which also slowed them down considerably.

They walked along the left side for over an hour before they finally moved away from the wasteland and the flower field and entered a wild forest.

The forest wasn’t very big, only two or three hundred trees. After mutating, all of them had become enormous, their crowns dense and thick, effectively blocking the wind and snow.

Ji Yanqing quickly led the others into the forest.

After finding a relatively flat area, they didn’t say anything. They just threw down their backpacks and lay down to sleep.

The extreme cold and exhaustion had emptied their minds. They didn’t even have the energy to worry about whether there were any zombies here, or whether that Awakened zombie would come after them.

It was the same for Ji Yanqing.

After lying down and pulling Ji An and Ji Le closer, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

He hadn’t slept well the previous night, and the scene he had seen in the hallucination kept appearing in front of his eyes. Coupled with the cold around him, he didn’t sleep very soundly.

But even so, he slept for a very long time. When he woke up again, it was already close to four in the afternoon.

It was the same for the others.

Half an hour after he woke up, the others woke up one after another.

Seeing that most people had woken up, Ji Yanqing had them take out food and water to distribute.

They were all hungry and thirsty after being busy all morning, and they moved very quickly. In just a few minutes, everyone except for the two people on guard duty, who were still holding their guns, had received food and water.

There was silence in the forest, only the sounds of people eating.

After handing out the food rations for him, Ji An, and Ji Le, Ji Yanqing instinctively looked back for Feng Yimo.

Turning around, he didn’t see him.

He looked around, trying to find him in the crowd, but after looking around, he still couldn’t see him.

He froze, then his mind cleared. Feng Yimo was gone?

“Feng Yimo?” He hurriedly got up.

Hearing his voice, the others who were eating all looked at him.

Ji Yanqing quickly scanned their faces. After confirming that Feng Yimo wasn’t there, he frowned.

He remembered that Feng Yimo had followed him to this forest. He had seen him earlier.

Lan Zi pointed behind him.

He immediately looked behind the tree. Seeing the familiar figure, his heart, which had been in his throat, instantly fell in relief.

Feng Yimo was sitting quietly on the other side of the tree, holding his sword in his arms. The food they had given him was next to him, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of eating.

Hearing the commotion, Feng Yimo looked at him, then closed his eyes.

He had always been like this, unsociable, uncommunicative.

After confirming that Feng Yimo wasn’t lost, Ji Yanqing sat back down and started eating.

After finishing their food and resting for another ten minutes, they finally felt alive again.

Confirming that they had escaped yet again, when they looked at each other, their faces were full of bitterness and despair.

No one spoke. The forest was silent.

After leaving the county town, they had thought a bright future awaited them, rested and healed. But they had encountered that Awakened zombie as soon as they left the county town. After struggling to escape from it, they had run into the flowers.

After so long, they sometimes even had the feeling that it would be better to just die than to live like this.

Seeing their dejected expressions, Ji Yanqing didn’t say anything and silently got up, taking his axe.

“Ji Yanqing?” Lan Zi asked, confused.

“I’m going to check the surroundings to see if there are any zombies,” he said. They had completely deviated from their planned route. Even he wasn’t sure where they were now.

“…What’s the point? So what if there are, so what if there aren’t?” the man who had been kicked by Xia Shen Shu before sneered.

He hadn’t been willing to hand over his gun, so he hadn’t received any food or water. His face was full of anger.

Ji Yanqing looked at him.

His black eyes, no longer hidden behind his goggles, were clear and bright. There was no anger in them, and no despair either.

Those eyes were so pure, they made people angry.

“Am I wrong?” The man was provoked. “Hot during the day, cold at night, never enough food, never enough water, never enough sleep… What’s the point of living like this? We survive today, but what about tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow?”

Hearing his words, which were clearly just meant to pick a fight, the others in the clearing frowned. Many of them moved their lips, wanting to say something. This wasn’t Ji Yanqing’s fault.

But the words died in their throats.

That man was hateful, but what he said wasn’t wrong.

They smiled wryly, already tired of such a miserable life. The reason they were still alive was simply because they didn’t dare to die.

If a zombie really took them by surprise and bit them all, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

There was no anger in Ji Yanqing’s eyes, which remained clear and bright. He looked around at everyone.

When his eyes met Xia Shen Shu’s and Lan Zi’s, they both instinctively looked away.

They were the ones who should be standing up for him, defending him. But after being through so much last night, they were truly tired.

Tired to their cores.

Ji Yanqing didn’t blame anyone. He knew that no one was feeling optimistic after all this, and he wasn’t feeling all too good either.

He took a deep breath, not letting himself be dragged down by the despair that felt like a bottomless abyss beneath their feet.

He looked around before speaking clearly. He was speaking to them, but he was also speaking to himself. “If there isn’t enough food and water, we’ll find some. If we can’t get enough sleep, we’ll create a place where we can sleep peacefully. If it’s hot during the day and cold at night, we’ll create a place that won’t be affected. If we can’t do it today, we’ll do it tomorrow, the day after tomorrow… Step by step, we’ll be able to do it eventually.”

Hearing his resolute words, everyone was stunned.

The next moment, they couldn’t help but smile wryly again.

They had said such words to themselves countless times. They had repeated them until their lips were chapped. It was indeed one of the things that had kept them alive until now. But they were tired of hearing those words.

Ji Yanqing, the only one still standing, looked at the bitter smiles on their faces, and his heart sank. He had gone through most of what they had, and he wasn’t oblivious.

He spoke again, his tone unhurried. “When our survival team has a hundred people, we’ll find a way to contact other teams. We’ll try to expand the team as much as possible. When we have enough people, when we have enough weapons, we’ll build a home of our own, a paradise.”

Hearing the word “paradise,” the people who had been smiling wryly were all stunned.

They had been about to continue smiling wryly. Ji Yanqing was practically talking in his sleep, dreaming while the sun was already shining. 

Looking at his face, which wasn’t overly serious but wasn’t joking either, they couldn’t smile.

He sounded like he was simply commenting on the nice weather.

He sounded like he was actually planning to carry out this absurd plan.

He sounded like he could actually do it.

They looked at the others around them, hoping to see smiles, others laughing at Ji Yanqing’s absurdity, laughing at his daydreams.

But when they looked, they didn’t see a single smile.

Everyone around them had the same look of shock on their faces.

“I’m going to patrol.” Ji Yanqing didn’t try to convince them with grand speeches. He simply gripped his axe and walked towards the edge of the forest.

The people who were looking at each other all looked at him, their eyes following his back until he disappeared.

After he left, their smiles disappeared completely.

“…You’re not actually going to take him seriously, are you?” The man who had been kicked by Xia Shen Shu asked sarcastically. But there was no smile on his face.

No one responded to him. The forest was silent.

Ji Yanqing ignored what they were thinking. He focused his attention on patrolling.

Life in this apocalyptic world was like this. Endless walking, endless danger, endless suffering.

Unless they could establish a new order, build a fortress that could keep out danger.

But how could this be easy?

Although ordinary zombies didn’t move around randomly, they would be attracted to light and sound. Awakened zombies were beyond control. They could move at any time, and Corpse Kings even more so.

Even if they built a paradise, a fortress, if they didn’t have enough power to resist Awakened zombies and Corpse Kings, all their efforts would be in vain. They would only be preparing a feast for them.

If they wanted to have the power to contend with Awakened zombies and Corpse Kings, first, their survival team needed to have at least five hundred people, with at least two or three hundred who could use guns.

The team behind him had less than fifty people, and they only had less than ten guns.

The more he thought about it, the more he understood how difficult it was. He sighed silently.

He hadn’t planned to say those things. He knew it sounded ridiculous.

But even though he knew this in his heart, he didn’t hesitate at all.

The forest wasn’t very big. It didn’t take long to go around it. After confirming that there were no zombies nearby and no signs of human life, he returned to the clearing.

When he returned, everyone, sitting or lying on the ground, looked at him without exception.

He didn’t bring up the previous topic. “It’s safe nearby. We’ll camp here tonight.”

It was already three or four in the afternoon when they woke up. Half an hour had passed in the blink of an eye. It was too late for them to move today.

After exchanging glances, they started to move.

Some went to find a suitable place nearby, while others took out sunshade cloths and ropes from their backpacks. They were going to build a snow shelter in advance.

The sunshade cloth was very thin and barely provided any warmth, but having a place to shelter from the wind and snow would make things more bearable.

This was something they had all done many times before. They quickly built a simple snow shelter between two large trees, their minds wandering.

Ji Yanqing put down his axe and went over to inspect it. After confirming that there were no problems, he walked away.

Almost everyone watched him as he did all this.

He ignored their scrutinizing and complicated gazes, and before it got dark, he took out his map from his backpack.

He spread the map out on the ground and began studying their current location, following the mountain range they had crossed.

They had initially been walking to the right of the county town. Later, they had encountered Xue Gang’s team and run into the mountains further to the right. After that, they had followed the mountains for a long distance, until they encountered the flower field.

After encountering the flower field, they had gone left. After all the walking, they might have already passed the railway, arriving at the area to the left of it.

The area to the left of the railway was the direction of the large urban area in front of the county town. They had chosen to go right to avoid it. If they went back now, they might encounter the survival team that was ahead of them.

There might even be a Corpse King in that city.

He roughly marked their route on the map, as well as the location of the flower field, and quickly made a decision. They would find a way to go around the village where the flower field was tomorrow, to get back to the railway.

“Ji Yanqing.” Lan Zi approached him.

He looked up.

Lan Zi’s lips moved. She had wanted to ask if he had been serious before, but she changed her mind. “How is it? Did we stray too far?”

“Not too far.” Ji Yanqing gestured on the map. “Overall, we’re still moving forward. If all goes well, we should be able to reach the next village tomorrow night.”

Lan Zi breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the map.

“Could all the villages around here be growing flowers?” Seeing that the atmosphere wasn’t bad, Xia Shen Shu came over as well.

“…It’s possible.” Ji Yanqing hadn’t thought about that before.

Lan Zi smiled wryly. “If that’s the case, then we’re in trouble.”

Ji Yanqing looked at the map again. “If the next village is also growing flowers, we’ll go to the large city on the left.”

Their food and water were running low.

When they left the county town, they still had almost a week’s worth of food left. But now their team had more than ten extra people, and they had been delayed for two days on the road. The food they had left could only last for four days at most. They had to replenish their food and water within four days.

“How about we just go to the large city? We don’t have to go deep,” Li Pingsen and the others suggested, now that the atmosphere had improved.

“No. We’ll prioritize going to the right,” Ji Yanqing said, rejecting their suggestion. “We have to find a way to expand the team first. Only when the team is big enough will we have the right to contact other survival teams and find a way to obtain weapons.”

Hearing his words, Li Pingsen and the others, who had just been about to come over because the atmosphere had eased, froze.

They all looked at Ji Yanqing.

“…Are you serious?” Li Pingsen couldn’t help asking.

Xia Chen, who was next to him, quickly nudged him with his elbow.

Ji Yanqing looked at him. “Dead serious.”

Xia Chen hadn’t expected him to answer. The words he had been about to say to lighten the mood died in his throat.

Li Pingsen was also speechless.

Silence fell in the forest.

“Ha…” It was Xia Shen Shu who broke the silence. He was squatting on the ground, looking at the map, and laughing like a madman.

“What are you laughing at?” Li Pingsen looked at him.

“We’re all going to die anyway. It’s not bad to find something to do. What if it works out?” Xia Shen Shu said.

Li Pingsen was speechless. It was easy for Xia Shen Shu to say. It would be a miracle if this really worked out.

“Isn’t that unrealistic?” Xia Chen couldn’t help but say.

Xia Shen Shu looked at him. “What’s unrealistic about it? Could you have imagined that the world would become like this a year ago?”

“Even if we have a lot of people, do you think we can defeat a Corpse King?” someone else chimed in.

“That might not be impossible. If we can really build a paradise, we can make other weapons. No one said we could only use guns.”

“What other weapons are there?”

“Like… rocket launchers?”

“Can you make one?”

“Even if I can’t, there are people who can. If all else fails, we can use electric guns. Electricity is easy, right? There are generators everywhere. Just carry a couple back here.”

“The question is, will it work against a Corpse King? It’s a Corpse King! A Corpse King!”

“It’s not like Corpse Kings are immortal.”

“That’s right. It’s not like they can’t be killed. And we don’t necessarily have to fight them. They might not come here.”

“But what if they do?”

…

Ji Yanqing, who was in the middle, listening to their argument, was speechless. He had wanted to say that those were things to worry about far in the future, but he swallowed his words.

Although they were arguing, they were actually starting to describe the paradise they hoped for. Although they all knew it was practically impossible, at this moment, they were genuinely discussing it.

He folded up the map and put it back in his backpack.

As he moved, he saw two pairs of eyes. Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi weren’t arguing with the others. They were both looking at him with complicated expressions.

Neither of them was smiling.

Meeting their gazes, he smiled slightly. Before he could smile properly, he felt a tug on each of his pant legs.

He looked down. It was Ji An and Ji Le.

The two little ones were saying something, but the others were arguing too loudly. He couldn’t hear them.

He squatted down.

“Can I still live with you then?” What Ji Le was most concerned about wasn’t whether zombies would come or how to defeat them. What he cared about most was always whether he could stay by Ji Yanqing’s side.

Ji Yanqing’s eyes softened. “Of course.”

“In the same room?”

“Mhm.”

“Sleep together?”

“Mhm.”

“Eat together too?”

“Mhm.”

Receiving the answers he wanted, a smile blossomed on Ji Le’s little face. He was content. As long as he could be with Ji Yanqing, it was enough.

Ji An, who was next to him, watched his bright smile. His nose felt a little sour. Ji Le still didn’t know anything. By then, they would definitely have become zombies.

He grabbed Ji Yanqing’s clothes, his childish voice tearful but full of earnestness. “Papa, I’ll protect you.”

When that time came, he would take Ji Le and live outside the paradise. He would fight off all the zombies and not let them in.

It didn’t matter if he couldn’t see Ji Yanqing, it didn’t matter if he couldn’t live in the same house with Ji Yanqing, sleep with Ji Yanqing, or eat with Ji Yanqing. It didn’t even matter if Ji Yanqing hated him after he became a zombie. As long as he knew that Ji Yanqing was still in the paradise, it was enough.

He would protect Ji Yanqing.

Ji Yanqing touched his head. “Okay.”

He pulled the two little ones into his arms. As he was feeling their warmth, he saw a pair of deep black eyes in the distance.

He looked over. Feng Yimo, who was behind a tree, immediately looked away.

Feng Yimo was still sitting in the same place, closing his eyes and resting.

Ji Yanqing was speechless. He didn’t understand what was wrong with him.

The group argued for a while, without any clear winners emerging. But after this “argument,” everyone’s moods improved.

Although the death, despair, and pain in their hearts hadn’t completely disappeared, their negativity had been vented, and their eyes had regained some light.

Before dark, Ji Yanqing had everyone get their food rations early. After dinner, they would sleep, and set off again tomorrow.

Their suppressed emotions having been vented, they ate dinner with great enthusiasm. Even when it was time to sleep, there were still smiles on their faces.

After Ji Yanqing finished eating, he was about to take Ji An and Ji Le back to the tent, when he saw Xia Shen Shu walking towards him in the darkness.

Approaching, Xia Shen Shu threw the two guns in his hand to him.

Ji Yanqing caught the heavy guns, and even without Xia Shen Shu saying anything, he immediately understood what was going on.

He looked at the two people who had been ostracized by the rest of the team. They had been without food and water for a long time, and had reached their limit.

The man who had been kicked by Xia Shen Shu before had a face full of resentment and gloom. Although he was trying to hide it, his acting skills weren’t very good.

The other one’s face was full of anxiety, anxious about the anger he was about to face, the anger he had once vented on others without restraint.

“Give them some food,” Ji Yanqing said.

He didn’t want to accept these two, but he had to have these two guns. Otherwise, he would have already driven them away.

Their team now had almost fifty people, and with Mo Xian’s, they only had six guns. It was too few.

With this level of firepower, if they encountered another team, let alone a large survival team, even a small team of dozens of people might not take them seriously.

With these two guns, their team would have eight. Although it was still pitiful, they only had fifty people. That meant one out of six people had a gun, which was acceptable.

Xia Shen Shu nodded and went over to the two with some food.

After watching Xia Shen Shu walk over, Ji Yanqing took the two guns and entered the tent.

He had given Mo Xian’s gun to Lan Zi to hold earlier. After entering the tent, he asked her to give it back to him.

The people in the tent, who had already been getting ready to sleep, saw this, saw the guns in Ji Yanqing’s hands, and many of them stood up.

Most of the people who stood up were the ones who had been with him before. They had seen him distribute guns before.

He had said then that there would be more guns, that they would have a chance.

Seeing their excitement, seeing the silence fall over the tent, the ten or so people who had just joined the team also fell silent. They all looked at Ji Yanqing.

“Anyone who has experience shooting, raise your hand,” he said.

One of the ten or so people who had joined later raised his hand. Ji Yanqing looked over. It was Mo Xian.

Besides Mo Xian, everyone else was silent. The people in Xue Gang’s team would never let them touch a gun.

Understanding the situation, he nodded and started looking for suitable candidates besides Mo Xian.

A gun could weigh two to five kilos. It was heavy to even hold, let alone carry on a long journey. Without enough physical strength, it could even drag you down at a critical moment. So Ji Yanqing’s first criterion for choosing candidates was physical fitness.

Seeing him start choosing people, those who had been with him before, and those who vaguely understood what he was doing, all held their breath.

The first person he chose was a man to his left.

The man was in his forties. He wasn’t as strong as the others, but Ji Yanqing had noticed him several times during this time. He was a good runner. Every time they had to run, he was always at the front.

When he handed the gun over, the man trembled with excitement, his mouth splitting open in a grin.

After giving him the gun, Ji Yanqing only had two left. The people who were waiting became even more tense. Many of them clenched their fists, their nails digging into their palms.

The second person he chose was also a man, one of the thirteen who had joined them recently. He looked like he had been a manual laborer before, his legs very strong.

The man was still stunned as he held the gun, facing the envious eyes of the others. He hadn’t expected to actually be able to get a gun.

Ji Yanqing wasn’t going to wait for him to express his feelings. After giving him the gun, he directly gave the last gun to a woman at the back of the group.

The woman was in her late twenties, with a neat buzz cut. Her stamina might have been worse than most of the men in the team, but her explosive power was very good. Ji Yanqing had also seen her at the front when they were fleeing in the mountains.

Just like the man before, she was stunned when she received the gun.

There were no women with guns in Xue Gang’s team.

They had always thought the reason Lan Zi had a gun was because she was close to Ji Yanqing. She had been one of the first people to follow him.

“There will be more guns.” Looking at the surprised and disappointed faces, he said the same thing again.

After saying that, he glanced at the woman who was still stunned as she held the gun, and at the many men and women looking at her. He added, “My team only cares about whether you’re capable.”

No one who had survived until now had gotten by solely on luck. He didn’t think women were any worse than men. Lan Zi was a much better shot than him or Xia Shen Shu.

He had only given one gun to a woman purely because there weren’t many women in their team. There were only six, including Lan Zi, among the almost fifty of them.

It was hard enough to survive in this environment. Many people like Xue Gang also took out their anxieties and anger on those weaker than them, like children and women. Some even treated them like supplies. This had resulted in far fewer women surviving than men.

After saying that, he left the tent and went outside.

He went to see how things were going with Xia Shen Shu, and also to give the others time to react.

Sure enough, as soon as he left the tent, a heated discussion erupted inside.

It had been unbelievable enough for them to receive guns, let alone the fact that the three guns had come from the people in Xue Gang’s team.

Outside the tent, Xia Shen Shu gave the two men some food, chatted with them for a bit, and was about to head back when he heard the discussion inside.

He looked up and saw Ji Yanqing at the entrance of the tent. He immediately understood what had just happened.

He waved and entered the tent.

Ji Yanqing didn’t go back in immediately. He looked at the two men who were gobbling down their food in the distance. They were so focused on eating and drinking that they hadn’t even noticed him.

After standing outside for a while longer, he was about to go back to the tent to sleep when he felt someone watching him.

He immediately looked in the direction of the gaze. The person who had been peeking at him from behind a tree quickly withdrew.

Ji Yanqing was speechless. It was Feng Yimo who had been peeking at him.

He was baffled. After a moment of hesitation, he walked towards that tree. Feng Yimo had been sitting there since the afternoon without moving.

Approaching, Ji Yanqing looked at the person behind the tree, who was closing his eyes and resting. “It’s time to sleep.”

Feng Yimo didn’t move.

Ji Yanqing raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you sleepy?”

Feng Yimo finally moved. He slowly opened his eyes, as if he had just woken up.

His dark, deep eyes, although still cold, were no longer aloof. He was pretending to be cold.

Realizing this, Ji Yanqing became even more puzzled. What was wrong with him?

“I’m going.” He pretended to turn around.

Sure enough, almost the instant he turned, Feng Yimo looked over, a hint of anxiety in his eyes.

Without his usual coldness, he looked even more like a well-behaved, quiet dog.

Meeting his gaze, realizing that Ji Yanqing hadn’t left and was still looking at him, he immediately pretended to be cold again.

Ji Yanqing saw all this, and his puzzlement grew, but he also vaguely understood what Feng Yimo was trying to do.

“It’s dark… let’s go sleep?” He tentatively reached out to him.

As expected, the moment his hand stretched out, another hand appeared in his palm. Feng Yimo put his hand in his.

Before he could even think, Feng Yimo had already gotten up from the ground obediently, ready to be lead to sleep.

Ji Yanqing’s mind went blank, and he instinctively took a step forward.

As he moved, Feng Yimo followed, his dark eyes moist. But after only one step, he stumbled and fell.

Ji Yanqing was startled and quickly reached out to catch him. “What are you—”

Before he could even finish asking, he vaguely sensed something was wrong, because Feng Yimo tried to get up several times but couldn’t stand steady. He was swaying like a drunkard. 

Feng Yimo’s body temperature had always been lower than normal, but now, he felt hot, his firm body, covered only in two layers of clothing, clearly outlined against his palm.

He suddenly remembered the flower field.

Feng Yimo had been acting a little strange since they left the flower field.

Was Feng Yimo… drunk?

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