AFTCKCTCKATD - Chapter 88
Chapter 88
“If You’re Not Here, Then I Have No Home.”
---
Ji Yanqing felt a distinct sense of bafflement as he tossed the bag back onto the rear seat.
Counting the days, he had known Xia Shen Shu for nearly half a year, yet the man remained wrapped in mystery. All Ji Yanqing really knew was that Xia Shen Shu handled firearms with the ease of a master and had likely served in the military at some point.
Harboring these doubts but voicing none, Ji Yanqing turned his gaze back to the window, watching the landscape recede in a blur.
Perhaps due to Feng Yimo’s earlier command, the area centering on that last city was devoid of zombies for a considerable distance. By evening, they successfully drove onto the familiar stretch of Gobi Desert, dotted with small groves of trees.
That night, Ji Yanqing rejected the watch schedule proposed by Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi, insisting they both get some rest. Apart from Feng Yimo and the two children, Ji An and Ji Le, the three adults were all injured; Ji Yanqing’s wounds were just the lightest.
Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi didn’t argue. After a quick dinner, they found a spot to lie down early. After so much turmoil, exhaustion had soaked into their bones, and they were asleep almost the moment their heads hit the ground.
Once Ji Yanqing had coaxed Ji An and Ji Le to sleep as well, he sat quietly beneath a tree, staring out into the distant darkness.
The snow came late in this region. Without the obstruction of wind and flakes, the night sky was swept clean, pristine and clear despite the absence of moonlight.
As Ji Yanqing lost himself in the void, a rustle came from beside him.
Feng Yimo sat down, joining him in gazing at the horizon.
Feeling the warmth and the rhythm of the breathing beside him, Ji Yanqing’s thoughts suddenly became tumultuous.
Once they crossed this hurdle, their daily lives would arguably become easier, yet for Feng Yimo, the true challenge was only just beginning. If ‘Death’ intended to take control of every Corpse King in this world, a massive upheaval was inevitable. The process could take a year or more, perhaps even longer.
Ji Yanqing turned his head to look at him.
Dark, abyssal eyes; a high, sharp nose. Feng Yimo still wore that expression of detachment, as if he existed entirely apart from the world.
Feng Yimo could have stood aside. By nature, he was not one to care who sat upon the throne of the Corpse Kings or what the future held for their kind. Yet, such a transcendent being had been forcibly dragged down into the mess of mortal trifles by Ji Yanqing, embroiled in this mire of endless trouble.
“Feng Yimo,” Ji Yanqing called out softly.
Feng Yimo looked over, his dark irises reflecting Ji Yanqing’s silhouette.
The night was too dark for Ji Yanqing to see his own reflection clearly in those eyes, but he knew that Feng Yimo was looking at him with total focus, seeing nothing else but him.
“I like you.”
Beyond this simple confession, Ji Yanqing found himself at a loss for words. A mere “thank you” felt anaemic, utterly insufficient.
Feng Yimo remained silent, but in that instant, a smile touched the depths of his eyes.
“Mm.”
***
After a sleepless night, when they set off the next day, Ji Yanqing leaned back against the seat the moment he got into the car, drifting into a drowsy stupor.
Feeling the bumps of the vehicle and listening to the wind whistling past outside, the old Ji Yanqing would never have dared to drop his guard, let alone sleep. But this time, he succumbed to slumber almost immediately.
It was a deeply restful sleep.
When he woke again, it was because Xia Shen Shu was calling him.
Ji Yanqing opened his eyes to find the car stopped. Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi had already disembarked, weapons in hand. Outside, Lan Zi was staring vigilantly into the distance.
“There are people,” Xia Shen Shu said, anticipating Ji Yanqing’s question.
Ji Yanqing was instantly awake. He grabbed his axe and exited the vehicle swiftly. Standing at the front of the car, he followed Lan Zi’s gaze and soon spotted a convoy in front of a distant county town.
It wasn’t a large convoy—about twenty vehicles.
They were clearly there for the supplies within the town. Most of their personnel had already gone inside, leaving only about twenty people guarding the vehicles. Those guards had spotted them as well; faced with this sudden arrival, they looked as tense as Ji Yanqing’s group.
“Should we go over and take a look?” Xia Shen Shu asked.
Although Sunward had gathered nearly all the survival teams in the south, those were far from everyone. Further north, west, and even east, there were still survivor groups they had never met.
Ji Yanqing thought for a moment. “Let’s go see.”
He took the lead, walking toward them. There were only a few of them in total, so there was no need to split up for negotiations. Ji Yanqing had no intention of starting a conflict; after closing the distance a bit, he stopped to wait for the other side’s reaction.
Seeing their willingness to communicate, the opposing group conferred quickly. Several of them ran back toward the town—likely to fetch their leaders—while the rest slowly approached Ji Yanqing’s group.
Seeing the mutual intent for parley, Ji Yanqing moved forward again.
Minutes later, the two groups stood only ten meters apart.
Several people on the other side held guns. Judging by their gear, they were an expedition team similar to Sunward’s combat units, though their physical condition was noticeably worse. Sallow, pale faces, eyes heavy with exhaustion, and several bearing fresh wounds—they had likely been attacked recently.
“Sunward,” Ji Yanqing announced.
“Four Seas,” one of the men replied. He paused, then added, “Our people have gone to call our captain. Please wait a moment.”
Ji Yanqing had anticipated this and nodded in agreement.
The wait lasted nearly ten minutes.
Finally, a group of people emerged from the edge of the town and walked briskly toward them.
Ji Yanqing and his team watched them approach. At a distance, it wasn’t obvious, but as the gap closed to fifty or sixty meters, the opposing group clearly slowed down. Ji Yanqing instinctively tightened his grip on his axe.
There were about twenty newcomers. Apart from the man who appeared to be the captain, there were two others who were neither leaders nor ordinary members.
They were Corpse Kings.
One male, one female, both young in appearance. Yet, the aura radiating from them allowed Ji Yanqing to identify them instantly.
The other side also recognized Ji An and Ji Le immediately. One of the Corpse Kings whispered something to the survival team captain, whose eyes widened in shock.
“You...” The Four Seas captain looked at Ji An and Ji Le.
Ji Yanqing paused briefly. “Do you know of ‘Death’?”
“We do.”
“The duel between Death and Heavenly Flame has ended. Moving forward, Death will control the largest faction among the Corpse Kings. We, Sunward, have a sanctuary in the south that gathers all survival teams in the region, and we have signed a peace treaty with Death,” Ji Yanqing explained.
Surprise washed over the faces of the group opposite them, the two humanoid Corpse Kings included.
Seeing Corpse Kings within a ragged survivor team surprised Ji Yanqing, yet it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Corpse Kings were everywhere now, while resources were becoming increasingly scarce. If they wanted to enter cities, conflict with Corpse Kings was unavoidable. The old survival models were obsolete; without adaptation, humanity was doomed.
“We welcome you to join us,” Ji Yanqing said, casting a deliberate glance at the two Corpse Kings standing with them.
Hearing Ji Yanqing’s words and seeing his pointed look, the entire opposing group stood frozen in place.
Ji Yanqing waited a while longer. Seeing no immediate reaction from the stunned group, he simply turned and led his people back the way they came.
Back in the car, Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi looked back at the group still rooted to the spot in confusion.
“The two people beside that captain were Corpse Kings,” Ji Yanqing said.
Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi immediately looked back, shock evident in their eyes.
Corpse Kings and humans mixing together?
Both of them thought of Kang Xiaodong at the same time.
Ji Yanqing had said before that their only future lay in peaceful coexistence with Corpse Kings. At the time, such a statement had seemed too incredible to believe. Even the original members of the Sunward team had thought Ji Yanqing was indulging in wishful thinking.
No, it wasn’t that Ji Yanqing was simply correct—it was that he had made it correct.
Without Ji Yanqing, the war between the Corpse Kings would surely still be raging. Whether humanity could have survived until the end of that war was a chaotic unknown, let alone the possibility of peaceful coexistence.
“Let’s go back,” Ji Yanqing said.
Looking at the other survival team, Ji Yanqing suddenly felt a desperate urgency to see the people of their own sanctuary, to return to the apartment complex that was their home.
Xia Shen Shu said no more and quickly started the engine.
There were no paved roads in the Gobi Desert. Combined with the poor suspension of their minivan, everyone felt like their bones were being shaken apart over the next two days.
Two days later, when they found a city to scavenge for supplies, Xia Shen Shu immediately latched onto Ji Le and refused to let go, insisting that they find an off-road vehicle no matter what.
After restocking supplies and water in the city and switching to a new off-road vehicle, they set off again. Their speed increased significantly.
***
Half a month later.
The moment they drove into the region where their county town was located, before they could even spot the surrounding mountains, the brows of everyone in the car furrowed deeply.
On both sides of the road, as far as the eye could see, lay the corpses of zombies and Corpse Kings. The air was thick, choked with a nauseating cocktail of rot and metallic blood.
They had guessed the county town must have been attacked, but they hadn’t expected a massacre on this scale.
As they pressed forward, the number of bodies increased, sinking the hearts of everyone in the vehicle.
Following the national highway, ten minutes later, they caught sight of the mountain range surrounding the county town. Their hearts, already at rock bottom, grew heavier still.
The carnage around the mountains was worse than anywhere else. The ground was carpeted with remains, the earth scorched and corroded by acidic blood. The gap in the mountains looked less like a pass and more like the gaping maw of hell.
Inside the county town.
Watching the last two Corpse Kings of the Heavenly Flame faction—pursued by Death’s followers—flee into the distance, and watching Kang Xiaodong drive away the remaining ordinary zombies, the survivors in the town finally let out a collective breath as silence fell.
In the next second, the intense pain of their wounds, along with a tidal wave of fear and anxiety, crashed down, throwing everyone into brief chaos.
Survivors instinctively began to converge toward the center of the town.
Tong Yue looked at the gun in his hand, sticky with blood, and surveyed the surroundings. Among the mountains of corpses lay the bodies of their own people.
Tong Yue’s breath hitched slightly. “Prioritize getting the injured to Lu Qing. Then... take count of the dead.”
The group, having just emerged from combat, didn’t dare delay. They moved quickly, searching through the piles of bodies.
Those without weapons, who had hidden in the mountains and the town during the fighting, emerged as the battle ceased to offer their help.
Everyone was silent, communicating only through their actions.
The process lasted a long time, stretching from early morning to evening. It wasn’t until the heavy snow began to fall that Tong Yue finally received a crude report.
“Over seven hundred dead. Most were from the combat squads. Additionally, there are over a thousand injured,” Qin Yue reported.
Seven hundred people. That was the size of a large independent survival team. Even with Sunward’s population now sitting at thirteen or fourteen thousand, the number was shocking—especially since the casualties were entirely from their fighting force.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Qin Yue continued quickly, “The town has exhausted all special ammunition. We also used up our entire reserve of mutant plants to hurriedly manufacture autocannons and modify vehicles.”
Tong Yue remained silent.
“One-third of the town’s buildings have collapsed or are damaged, including two large warehouses we were using and a portion of the residential buildings.”
“The vegetable fields outside the town were trampled. Many crops are destroyed and may need to be replanted.”
“And the bodies of the Corpse Kings still need to be disposed of.”
As Qin Yue recited the litany of disasters, Tong Yue began to massage the bridge of his nose, a headache pounding behind his eyes. He didn’t know how he was going to explain this to Ji Yanqing.
Ji Yanqing had made specific deployments before he left and had specifically warned him to be careful, yet things had still ended up like this.
Tong Yue dropped his hand, took a deep breath, and issued orders rapidly. “Prioritize care for the wounded. Have the uninjured burn the bodies of the dead.”
He paused, then added, “Remember to record their names.”
They had seen the glimmer of hope, only to fall at the very threshold. They couldn’t change what had happened, but they could at least preserve the names of the fallen. If it were Ji Yanqing, he would surely do the same.
“Ignore the ruins in the town for now; that’s the lowest priority.”
Tong Yue looked toward the outskirts. “Prioritize clearing the corpses to prevent secondary infection. The crops in the fields must be replanted immediately.”
According to their original plan, they would have harvested the first batch of vegetables in about three months. If things had gone smoothly, they would have stepped into a new stage of stability.
After this devastation, everything would be pushed back by a month.
This wasn’t as simple as just starting over. It meant they had to scavenge an extra month’s worth of food from elsewhere to bridge the gap.
Their town now housed over ten thousand people. The amount of food required for a single month was terrifying.
Even after gathering all the supplies from the Devil’s City, they only had enough to feed everyone for a little over two months. One month’s worth of food was equivalent to stripping ten cities bare. In this environment, where were they going to find that many untouched cities?
---
Tong Yue had a headache. After helping to count the number of people, Li Pingsen, Bai Haoxuan and a group of team leaders came to find him.
“We want to leave tomorrow morning to bring back some mutated plants. Lu Qing said the healing-acceleration medicine is all gone too,” Li Pingsen said.
They had already killed the humanoid Corpse King sent by Heavenly Flame, but no one knew if there would be another attack, so they had to prepare as soon as possible.
Mo Xian said, “There’s also a batch of supplies in the Devil’s City that haven’t been recovered.”
Tong Yue nodded, “Be careful. There may still be Corpse Kings from Heavenly Flame in this area.”
After finalizing the next steps of their plan, the group quickly dispersed to attend to their respective tasks.
Tong Yue looked at the list Qin Yue had given him and then went to the hospital.
The hospital had fortunately escaped destruction.
It was filled with injured patients on beds and on the floor, upstairs and downstairs. Their anesthetics and painkillers were limited - most people couldn’t be spared any. As Tong Yue passed through, all he could hear were various cries and moans of pain.
There were many people in the county, and the Sunward members acting as ‘doctors and nurses’ in the hospital totaled only about ten people. This number was far from sufficient. As the person in charge, Lu Qing was so busy that his feet barely touched the ground.
Seeing Tong Yue, Lu Qing was still busy with his suturing work as he said without looking back, “Another twenty or so have died.”
Tong Yue’s breath caught.
The healing medicine could indeed help wounds recover, but it was more like advancing cellular activity. Some people were too severely injured and died even when treated with it.
“Find me a group of capable people as soon as possible. When I finish my work here, I’ll teach them how to treat wounds,” Lu Qing said.
Tong Yue’s feelings were complicated. Of course it was good that Lu Qing was willing to teach, but his skills were his way of staying alive, giving them away couldn’t be easy.
Thinking about it, Tong Yue also found his own thoughts laughable. They could no longer distinguish between “us” and “them” now. “I understand. I’ll arrange it as soon as possible.”
Tong Yue briefly reminded Lu Qing to make more bullets as soon as possible. After doing a walk-through of the hospital and seeing that Lu Qing didn’t even have time to drink water, he could only leave.
As he was leaving, Tong Yue saw Huang Rongyue at the hospital entrance.
Everyone had participated in the previous battle, and the team leaders were no exception.
Huang Rongyue had been injured during the battle, with a piece of flesh missing from her leg. Blood kept seeping out. She was in so much pain that her face was deathly pale and covered in cold sweat, yet she was still standing far back in line.
While enduring the pain in her leg, Huang Rongyue was talking to someone from her team in front of her.
Tong Yue walked over.
“You came at the right time,” Huang Rongyue looked at the person in front of her who was talking to her, and the latter immediately recounted what had happened.
“While we were busy dealing with that Intelligence-Type Corpse King, that group of people entered the research facility. They were very cautious and destroyed the surveillance equipment around the research facility before going in.”
“Did anything get stolen?” Tong Yue frowned.
“Not at the moment. They probably don’t want us to find out.”
Tong Yue remained silent.
“We’ve talked to people from their team during this time. Most people don’t seem to know about their ongoing operations. Their story about an attack from a Corpse King was also true,” the person added.
Tong Yue thought for a moment, “Continue monitoring them.”
The person left.
Tong Yue looked at Huang Rongyue and gave a few more reminders before also leaving.
When he left, the sky had already completely darkened. As far as the eye could see, there was falling snow covering the world.
Amidst the heavy snow, countless people were busy in the county and on the open ground beyond it.
Some were urgently rescuing the mutated plants they had planted before.
Some were dealing with corpses. They had to drag all the corpses from around the perimeter to a distant location for disposal.
They couldn’t directly touch the corpses, as that would increase the risk of infection. The Corpse Kings’ bodies were also extremely large and heavy, making the entire process quite difficult and time-consuming.
Half a month later.
In the temporary meeting room, Qin Yue, Huang Rongyue and a group of team leaders had gathered inside.
“Most of the supplies from the Devil’s City have been recovered, but while we were busy dealing with the Corpse King, Xia Chen’s people stole quite a bit of supplies. A rough estimate shows we got about one-tenth less than expected,” the rough-voiced person said.
The battle with Heavenly Flame’s forces had already left their supplies insufficient, and now part of it had been stolen, making the situation increasingly urgent.
Tong Yue was about to speak when footsteps came from outside.
“Team Leader Yue, they’re back!”
Everyone in the room looked toward the sound.
“Captain Ji!”
Everyone immediately stood up and rushed toward the county gate.
Arriving at the county gate, the group didn’t stop running and saw an off-road vehicle stop at the county gate, with Ji Yanqing and Xia Shen Shu and others getting out of the car.
Seeing Ji Yanqing, the hearts of Tong Yue and his group, which had been hanging in suspense, couldn’t help but restart with a fervorous tempo.
“You’re finally back!”
“How did it go?”
“Are you all okay?”
...
Listening to the various questions from everyone surrounding him, Ji Yanqing, who had been frightened by the sea of corpses surrounding the mountains, let out a breath.
Ji Yanqing directly told everyone what they most wanted to know: “The leader of Heavenly Flame has been dealt with.”
Hearing this, everyone’s spirits lifted.
With Heavenly Flame leader dealt with, what came next was…
Everyone looked toward Feng Yimo.
Ji Yanqing said, “Death’s side has already taken action.”
Everyone let out a breath, knowing that the Corpse Kings of Heavenly Flame wouldn’t attack again. The group felt as if they had surfaced from the suffocating deep sea and could finally breathe.
“How about you?” Ji Yanqing asked.
After the vehicle entered this open area surrounded by mountains, there were fewer corpses to be seen, obviously having been cleaned up. But this still made Ji Yanqing uneasy. The scope of this battle was far larger than he had anticipated when he left.
“Heavenly Flame’s forces launched two attacks...” Tong Yue quickly recounted the recent county going-ons.
The county had faced significant damage, which Ji Yanqing had already seen and mentally prepared for. But hearing that nearly a thousand people had died, his brows couldn’t help but furrow.
They had less than a thousand people in Sunward originally.
But thinking about it, Ji Yanqing let out another breath. The situation was much better than he had anticipated. On the way into the county, he had even prepared himself for the worst.
A man who had run up to the group was startled when he saw Ji Yanqing, but the next moment, he quickly said: “They ran away, toward the back of the county!”
Tong Yue was the first to react and immediately turned around with a dark face to sprint toward the back of the county.
Huang Rongyue, Qin Yue, and several other team leaders quickly reacted and followed.
Ji Yanqing was puzzled, “What’s going on?”
“The group of people who joined our county later on stole things from the research facility and ran away,” the person who came to report quickly explained.
Ji Yanqing said nothing and immediately followed Tong Yue and the others toward the back.
The county could accommodate seven to eight hundred thousand people and covered a large area. After Ji Yanqing and the others ran for nearly ten minutes through the county following those in front, they finally saw the crowd from afar.
In a ruin where the surrounding buildings had all collapsed, a group of more than thirty people were surrounded by their county’s combat team, with guns pointed at them.
Surrounded, Gu Shanhai, the leader of the group of more than thirty people in the middle, had a dark face.
Before setting off, he had called all the people from their original team to his side and asked them to pack up and leave with him. But of the more than five hundred people, only the more than thirty people in front of him were willing to follow him.
This had already made him extremely unhappy. He hadn’t expected to be blocked when leaving.
“Gu Shanhai, we’ve treated you well, even providing you with food and drink. What are you doing this for?” Kang Xiaodong looked pointedly at Gu Shanhai in the crowd.
Gu Shanhai was now the acting captain of his group’s survival team. Their previous paradise had been attacked, and the previous captain was no longer there.
The people on the opposite side remained silent.
“Even if you want to leave, you should at least say something first, right?” Kang Xiaodong glared fiercely at Gu Shanhai. He had been watching this group for a whole month, and his patience had long since run out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gu Shanhai pretended to be stupid.
Kang Xiaodong sneered, “Hand over the things yourself and save us all some trouble.”
“What things?”
“If you’re going to be like this, don’t blame me for being impolite.” Kang Xiaodong moved closer.
“A zombie bit someone!” Gu Shanhai immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.
Kang Xiaodong’s steps forward paused.
Gu Shanhai no longer pretended. He sneered and glared fiercely at Kang Xiaodong as he cursed, “Monster.”
Kang Xiaodong remained silent, just silently looking at him.
“Captain, don’t bother with him...” One of Kang Xiaodong’s team members stepped forward and said.
Before that person could finish speaking, Gu Shanhai, who had just shouted at the top of his lungs, opened his mouth, “Am I wrong? He’s not human to begin with, he’s a Corpse King, he’s a monster.”
“You...”
“Are you really planning to stay under the same roof as these monsters?” Gu Shanhai asked loudly, “Aren’t you afraid that one day they’ll bite you if they’re in a bad mood?”
No one spoke.
“Don’t forget, essentially they’re a group of monsters, a group of unholy creatures that live by eating people! When they’re in a good mood, they call you brothers, but when they’re in a bad mood, just watch how they treat you.”
“So what?” Tong Yue stepped into the crowd.
Gu Shanhai looked over at the sound.
Seeing Tong Yue and his group of team leaders, seeing Ji Yanqing, surprise flashed in Gu Shanhai’s eyes. He knew what Ji Yanqing had left to do, and Tong Yue hadn’t hidden it.
With Ji Yanqing appearing here now, that meant…
Gu Shanhai quickly dismissed his own speculation. Regardless of whether Ji Yanqing had really succeeded or not, it essentially made no difference to him.
He could never coexist peacefully with these monsters.
If it weren’t for these monsters, he would still be living his previous life, working nine to five, with a wife and children. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a wealthy life, but at least he wouldn’t lack food or clothing.
If it weren’t for these monsters, their paradise would still be there, and they wouldn’t have had to run thousands of miles to Sunward to seek refuge.
“So what are you going to do?” Tong Yue demanded.
Gu Shanhai remained silent.
“Steal our research results, then kill all the zombies in this world? Can you do it? If you can do it, then I respect you as a real man, but I’m afraid you won’t live to see tomorrow.” Tong Yue’s face was expressionless.
“That’s still better than you guys.”
“Really? Since you’re so capable, why not develop it yourselves instead of stealing from us?” Tong Yue sneered. He suddenly found that reasoning with Gu Shanhai was completely meaningless.
If possible, who wouldn’t want to kill all the zombies in this world and return everything to the way it was before the virus outbreak? But could they really succeed just by thinking about it?
What’s done is done, and no one can change it.
Faced with what had already occurred, rather than complaining, getting angry, or cursing, he preferred to keep moving forward.
Gu Shanhai was rendered speechless by Tong Yue’s words, but he wasn’t planning to surrender just like that. He suddenly lunged at someone from his team. Before that person could react, a syringe in his hand was already aimed toward that person’s arm.
That person was stunned for a moment, and the next moment, panic appeared on his face. He obviously knew what was inside the syringe.
---
“Ugh!”
Throwing away the syringe, Gu Shanhai retreated quickly, pushing the person next to him aside as he did so.
In the crowd, several others retreated along with him.
“Mmm! Mnn...” Veins bulged on the face of the injected person, the terror in his eyes gradually turning into a vacant stare.
“Zombie!” Kang Xiaodong warned.
As the words fell, before he could control the zombified man, the man instinctively pounced on the companion beside him.
The latter had no time to react and was knocked directly to the ground. A cry of pain rang out immediately as the man was bitten.
Bitten, the man’s limbs began to twitch bizarrely. In mere moments, he stood up from the ground.
“Ah!” The crowd fell into panic.
The surrounding combat team members immediately raised their guns, but the crowd was in too much chaos to fire.
“Stop.” Ji Le spoke.
The several zombies pouncing on the surrounding members instantly stopped.
The panicked crowd quickly retreated.
Looking over, they didn’t see anyone else nearby.
Before they could react, another person in the crowd was injected by Gu Shanhai, and the crowd fell into chaos once again.
Ji Yanqing raised the axe in his hand to step forward, but just as he took a step, Tong Yue blocked his path.
Ji Yanqing looked over in confusion.
Tong Yue didn’t explain, just looked coldly at the chaotic crowd.
Ji Yanqing also looked into the crowd.
In just a moment, more than ten of the thirty-odd people in the middle were infected. Those zombies knew no fear and pounced on the group of combat team members holding guns.
The combat team members dodged in panic, revealing a gap in the encirclement. Gu Shanhai, who had been creating zombies, and the few people around him immediately took this opportunity to run towards the buildings behind.
The combat team members immediately gave chase.
The two groups quickly disappeared into the buildings, vanishing without a trace.
Gunshots rang out as the combat team quickly dealt with the zombies left in the open.
Ji Yanqing looked at Tong Yue, waiting for an explanation.
“The thing they stole is a fake,” Tong Yue said.
Ever since Ji Yanqing told him Gu Shanhai and his group were problematic, he had been secretly observing them.
Huang Rongyue’s people had clearly seen Gu Shanhai slip into the laboratory. He had considered exposing them directly, but after thinking about it, he decided to play the long game to catch the big fish.
He had heard about Xia Chen’s matter. He held no hatred toward Xia Chen himself, but no one would like having a smelly rat in the gutter staring at them, ready to make a move at any moment.
Humans were sometimes far more terrifying than Corpse Kings.
Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi had cold looks in their eyes.
When the gunshots stopped, the zombies surrounded in the middle had all been dealt with. The ten-plus people who hadn’t managed to escape all crouched down holding their heads.
“Lock them up first,” Tong Yue said.
The combat team members stepped forward immediately.
Kang Xiaodong also moved at the same time. After confirming Gu Shanhai had run a certain distance, he immediately took a walkie-talkie and followed, intending to track him to find Xia Chen.
Xia Shen Shu knew what was going on and followed without a second word.
Ji Yanqing tried to call out to him, but it was already too late.
“Let him go,” Lan Zi said.
Ji Yanqing said nothing.
Leaving a portion of people to handle the zombie corpses on the ground, Tong Yue took Ji Yanqing back toward the front of the county town.
Many people in the county town had heard Ji Yanqing was back and were craning their necks to look at the town gate. The road was quite lively.
“Do you want to go back and rest first?” Tong Yue asked. “I’ll notify you when we find the person.”
Ji Yanqing thought for a moment and nodded.
After the brief exchange, Ji Yanqing took Feng Yimo, Ji An, and Ji Le toward the residential district where they lived.
Returning to the county town, Ji An and Ji Le were very happy. Knowing the way, they ran directly toward the district.
People had a strange habit; staying in a place for a long time made them develop feelings for it.
Ji An and Ji Le, who had been wandering for as long as they could remember, had evidently taken to considering that apartment in the district as their home.
Ji Yanqing watched the backs of the two little guys recede, his heart, heavy because of the Xia Chen matter, gradually starting to beat again. “Run slower.”
Ji An and Ji Le didn’t slow down at all and disappeared around the corner in a moment.
Ji Yanqing walked toward that side while surveying the surroundings.
The county town was severely damaged. Collapsed buildings could be seen everywhere, and many roads were blocked.
With only over ten thousand people now, the remaining buildings in the county town could indeed house them, but seeing a once fine city suddenly like this, one couldn’t help but sigh.
Ji Yanqing was pondering this when he turned the corner and saw Ji An and Ji Le.
“Why aren’t you going in...” Before Ji Yanqing could finish his question, he discovered that behind the wall on the right, the residential district they originally lived in, along with several nearby buildings, had become a pile of ruins.
This district was one of the first to be cleared out and was very close to the edge of the county town. The Corpse King had evidently wreaked havoc here after entering the city.
Ji Yanqing paused slightly, a sense of loss welling in his heart.
Hearing the sound, Ji An and Ji Le, who had run back in a hurry, both turned their heads to look at Ji Yanqing.
“Hoooh...” Ji Yanqing couldn’t help but sigh.
As soon as his voice came out, Ji An’s mouth flattened, and large drops of tears began to slide down his cheeks. “Wu...”
Hearing the crying, Ji Le’s tears also began to fall.
Ji Yanqing was speechless, then found it amusing. It was just a house…
Thinking this, his heart couldn’t help but feel sour too.
To Ji An and Ji Le, this wasn’t just a house, it was their home, maybe the first they’d known in this chaotic new world. Now their home was gone.
He hurried forward and squatted in front of the two little guys. He pulled them into his embrace, letting them cry against his chest. “It’s okay, we’ll just find another house. This time we’ll find a big one...”
It would have been better if Ji Yanqing hadn’t comforted them. With his comfort, the two little guys instantly cried even louder.
They seemed to have suffered a huge grievance, crying until they couldn’t catch their breath.
“Don’t want... don’t want a new house...”
“Wu...”
They didn’t want a new house; they just wanted the one from before.
Listening to the two little guys bawling, Lan Zi, who was thinking about Xia Chen’s matter, also felt her heart turn sour. She had lived in this district too.
When Tong Yue remembered this matter and hurriedly chased over, he heard the crying from afar.
Tong Yue slowed his steps and approached, looking toward the district on the left. Seeing the district full of ruins and wreckage, his mood also became complicated.
He had been busy until now, and only at this moment did he finally realize that this would no longer be just a temporary shelter; this would be the future home for all of them.
The district could no longer be lived in, so Ji Yanqing could only carry them to the canteen first.
Ji Yanqing carried Ji An and Ji Le all the way, and they cried sadly all the way.
Quite a few people on the road heard the crying and asked what happened. Learning they were crying because they lost their home, many wanted to tease Ji An and Ji Le, but they paid no attention.
This time, they were truly heartbroken.
Seeing Ji An and Ji Le couldn’t be coaxed, quite a few people in the canteen revealed smiles.
Ji Yanqing found a corner in the canteen and sat down holding them. He let them cry their fill before speaking, “Then how about you go choose yourselves?”
Ji An shrank in Ji Yanqing’s arms and didn’t move.
Ji Le shook his head; he didn’t want to.
“What’s gone is gone, it can’t come back,” Ji Yanqing said.
Ji An, who had just stopped crying with great difficulty, flattened his mouth as if to cry again, and Ji Le’s eyes reddened too.
Ji Yanqing was amused yet helpless. “Home isn’t just a house. If Dad wasn’t in that house, would you still want to go back? If you guys weren’t in that house, Dad definitely wouldn’t go back.”
Ji An and Ji Le pouted their mouths long and high, eyes full of tears.
“You go choose yourselves. Pick a big house. When you find a new house, Dad will teach you how to write, okay?” Ji Yanqing shifted their attention.
Ji Le looked at Ji Yanqing somewhat tempted.
Ji An remained unmoved.
Seeing this, Ji Le immediately took Ji An’s lead and put on a sad look.
“Do you know how to write Dad’s name?”
Ji Yanqing wrote it stroke by stroke on Ji An’s leg.
Ji Le peeked curiously. Ji An could hold back at first, but after a while, he also secretly looked.
“The first character of your names is the same as Dad’s,” Ji Yanqing said.
“Ji?” Ji Le still had tears hanging on his face.
“Mn, so smart.”
Being praised, Ji Le stopped crying.
Ji Le looked at Ji An with teary eyes, taking Ji An as the leader.
Ji An sniffed. “...Then okay.”
Ji Yanqing rubbed his head.
A long time ago, he said Ji An was the older brother and the older brother should take care of the younger brother. Ji An had always regarded himself as the older brother, constantly thinking about taking care of Ji Le, and his personality became more responsible and mature.
Ji Yanqing put the two little guys down. “Go on.”
Ji An wiped his tears, took Ji Le’s hand, and walked toward the outside of the canteen.
Ji Yanqing watched the two little guys disappear outside the door, the corner of his mouth hooking up slightly.
He was spacing out when a figure appeared in front of him.
He looked up. It was Feng Yimo.
Feng Yimo lowered his eyes slightly; deep in the depths of his eyes was a faint sourness.
Ji Yanqing was speechless. “You need coaxing too?”
Feng Yimo didn’t speak, only rubbing Ji Yanqing’s head.
Ji Yanqing felt the movement on his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Did Feng Yimo think he was a child? As he smiled, Ji Yanqing found he couldn’t smile anymore. Before coming back, he had looked forward to going home.
Although that room had nothing, the fact of having a home to return to was enough for him. He hadn’t expected to find it gone upon returning.
Ji Yanqing grabbed Feng Yimo’s hand and pressed it against his own face, using his hand to cover his expression, while also feeling the temperature of Feng Yimo’s palm.
“If you aren’t there, then I don’t have a home.” Feng Yimo’s voice was very soft.
Ji Yanqing paused. He opened his eyes and looked at Feng Yimo through the gaps between his fingers.
Feng Yimo was looking at him quietly, with a pair of black eyes that were calm, yet lonely.
In that instant, Ji Yanqing seemed to see a scene a hundred years later after he was gone—Feng Yimo sitting alone in the house they once lived in, staring blankly at the places he used to sit.
Ji Yanqing’s heart instantly lost its rhythm. It beat wildly with force, then stopped moving. A faint sourness gushed out and instantly swallowed Ji Yanqing.
Ji Yanqing suddenly realized that Feng Yimo might not be ignorant of human emotions. He might actually be quite smart; otherwise, how could he say things that made his heart race every time?
“Directionally challenged, illiterate.” Ji Yanqing suddenly spat, clutching Feng Yimo’s fingers tighter against his face.
Feng Yimo’s long, slightly curly eyelashes trembled lightly. He was being despised by Ji Yanqing?
“I can write,” Feng Yimo said.
Ji Yanqing raised an eyebrow, not believing it.
Feng Yimo squatted down. He pulled over Ji Yanqing’s hand, turned his palm upward, and then earnestly wrote stroke by stroke on his palm.
季。Ji.
言。Yan.
轻。Qing.
Ji Yanqing had just written it. Because Ji Yanqing said that was his name, he remembered it after seeing it once.
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