Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Three days later.

As the sun set, Jie Linyuan dispatched two careless contaminators, shook the blood off his blade, and walked slowly to a clear stream. He squatted down, meticulously washing the blood from between his fingers, then dried the water droplets off his long sword on his sleeve.

The setting sun stretched his shadow long, his silver hair falling over his shoulders, casually tied back behind his ear by Jie Linyuan.

The distant mountains were enveloped in night, like an ink wash painting. The crescent moon rose, but the last ray of sunset refused to fade, closely following Jie Linyuan's steps, lingering behind him until he climbed the moss-covered stone steps, turned several winding paths, and entered the highest courtyard.

The 72-hour countdown for the command transfer finally turned into six large zeroes, weakly asserting its last bit of presence before fading to nothing.

The dim twilight disappeared below the horizon. Jie Linyuan stopped, stood for a long time. He turned to look far off at the abandoned towns below the mountains, his breaths filled with relief and coolness.

Shortly after, a flicker of dim yellow candlelight burst from the window on the ground floor of the small building in the courtyard, igniting the only color in a black and white ink painting. Xie Linyuan's smile lingered in his eyes, and his steps became much lighter and more comfortable, quickly entering the house with a push of the door.

The Black Knight merely twitched his ears in alertness at one head resting on its paw, but the other head perked up excitedly the moment he entered, eagerly running to Xie Linyuan's side to affectionately rub against his thigh.

"Good dog, sit." Xie Linyuan lifted the rabbit he had caught, and the Black Knight obediently sat down, eagerly drooling over the rabbit while wagging its tail vigorously.

"Roll over."

The Black Knight neatly rolled over on the spot.

During this, its humanoid head reluctantly opened its eyelids, reminiscing its glorious past of hunting tigers and capturing dragons. Now, it found itself shamelessly begging for a mere rabbit due to ill health preventing it from hunting...

It sighed wistfully but ultimately did nothing, letting the other head take over.

"Very good." Xie Linyuan threw the rabbit, and the Black Knight accurately leapt to catch it in its mouth, pinning it to the ground with its paws to tear at the rabbit's legs, blood smearing its long mouth.

"Remember to clean the floor after eating." He walked into the kitchen with the remaining rabbit and a bundle of firewood, "I know you understand."

The dog-like head busily gnawed on the rabbit's leg bones, while the humanoid head twitched its ears, indicating it understood.

In the kitchen, Yang Mo watched over the leftover mushroom, wild vegetable, and fish soup from lunch, focused on waiting for the water to boil. Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see Xie Linyuan placing a bundle of firewood by the wall, holding a rabbit in his left hand, and a makeshift pouch on his right shoulder made from an outer garment, containing seven or eight wild apples.

"You're back, Xie." Yang Mo eagerly went up to help Xie Linyuan with his things, then took a bowl and spoon to serve him a bowl of cooled mung bean water with lily added, sweetened with sugar previously taken from the trunk of an off-road vehicle, offering a refreshing relief from the heat and quenching thirst like nothing he had enjoyed during his year-plus stay in the shelter.

Yet, Yang Mo still vividly remembered the morning of the previous day when Xie Linyuan took him to dig for lily bulbs in the field, facing the overwhelming swarm of contaminants that seemed not to have sensed the smell of living beings for a long while, rushing forward like locusts, only to be met with a burst of headshots from Xie Linyuan's heavy machine gun.

Yang Mo's trembling, feeble arms raised the hoe to dig, wishing he could urinate once more to express his miserable state, if only his trousers were not in such short supply.

By the time he had finally filled a small bag with lilies, the bodies of the polluters had piled up behind him into a small hill, emitting a strong, foul stench.

Xie Linyuan, expressionless, leaped down from the mound of corpses, his left arm transforming from a heavy machine gun into a long sword. He glanced coldly at Yang Mo, called for him to follow, and then, amid Yang Mo's screams, he turned and sliced through a zombie that had slipped through, quickly leading the way with a frosty face.

Realizing this, Yang Mo hurriedly became even more attentive. In this desolate wilderness, Xie Linyuan was like his guardian deity. Without this humanoid weapon, he couldn't possibly survive.

Seeing Xie Linyuan holding a porcelain bowl and gazing out the window, drinking mung bean water in large gulps, Yang Mo was busy helping with the chair, peeling apples for him, and even prioritized serving Xie Linyuan a full bowl of fish soup once it boiled.

Yang Mo didn't rest even as Xie Linyuan had his dinner, taking the initiative to peel and prepare rabbit meat.

Until now, Yang Mo couldn't understand what had happened from the time he killed Palmer until he suddenly regained consciousness in front of the prison the next day.

He tried asking Xie Linyuan, who dismissively claimed ignorance and suggested that Yang Mo might be experiencing memory loss due to shock. The large black dog with two heads outside gave him a look that seemed to hold back words, but Yang Mo, timid, has never dared to get too close to the Black Knight.

After Yang Mo had his dinner, the remaining pot of soup and bits of rabbit meat were given to the Black Knight, whose appetite was enormous, licking the pot clean with its huge tongue, then burying its head in the pot in a messy feast.

Xie Linyuan leaned on a wicker chair on the ground floor, lost in thought. After getting off the SUV that day, he had led Yang Mo and the Black Knight up a mountain for an hour to rest in this cafe nestled in the forest, a place that must have been a tourist development area before the apocalypse, created by a leisurely owner who built a quaint, pastoral-style cafe on the hillside, with a business area on the first floor and a resting area on the second.

Xie Linyuan slept in an upstairs bedroom at night, Yang Mo on a sofa on the first floor, and the Black Knight on the carpet.

As for the mutated lotus beauty, it initially left with Wu Yin intending for a short, spontaneous trip to see the world. After failing to detect Wu Yin's presence, it returned to its joyful home in Dongxin Lake like a wilted cabbage, taking advantage of the nighttime rain.

Inside the house, a lost moth circled the candlelight in the living room. Xie Linyuan, with his legs crossed and resting on a stool, leisurely shifted his gaze away, brushing past the shadow of the fluttering moth and the elongated shadow of Yang Mo cleaning the kitchen on the wall, touching and leaving in an instant, while the Black Knight lay at his feet, licking the pot until it shone… Everything seemed peaceful and tranquil.

Suddenly, Xie Linyuan frowned. He realized that these days, whether calling out or eating, the Black Knight had only used its dog-like head, while the other head, with human-like intelligence, remained silent throughout, not even opening its mouth to pant or cool off during the sweltering heat of midday.

He sat up abruptly, eyes locked on the Black Knight, asking, "Hellhound, do you have something in your mouth?"

The dog head of the Black Knight lifted from the pot, staring at Jie Linyuan in confusion, while its humanoid head slowly opened its eyelids, glancing at Jie Linyuan, still silent.

At that moment, Yang Mo hurried out of the kitchen, wiping his hands, "Speaking of which, Jie, I just remembered that Bileer seemed to have stuffed something into the Black Knight's mouth. Was it glue or something? To stick its mouth shut? You better check it out."

Bileer? No, it was Wu Yin, Wu Yin had hidden something in the Black Knight's mouth.

Jie Linyuan, not underestimating Wu Yin's seemingly inexplicable action, quickly approached, grabbed the Black Knight's jaw with one hand, and demanded fiercely, "Will you open your mouth yourself, or shall I break your jaw?"

The dog head immediately cried out in pain, trying to bite Jie Linyuan's arm, but then its mouth was quickly tied shut with a sprung steel wire rope.

The Black Knight's amber eyes squinted in pain. It bared its sharp canine teeth threateningly but ultimately submitted to Jie Linyuan's overpowering force, slowly opening its mouth, its black and pink tongue lifted, revealing an empty mouth.

Swallowed? Or hidden away?

Jie Linyuan turned to ask Yang Mo seriously, "What exactly did Bileer stuff in there, did you see it clearly?"

"Uh, I didn't get a good look," Yang Mo stammered, afraid of angering Jie Linyuan, "…Right, he took it out of my pocket, just... a transparent bag with a liquid inside that looked like water. I didn't even know I had that thing on me."

A liquid like water? Connecting it to Wu Yin, the first thing Jie Linyuan thought of was glucose injection solution.

Sugar, energy, with a bit of deduction, the primary function of the liquid could be inferred as to help Wu Yin recover his strength quickly. And all this was done behind his back by Wu Yin, proving that if he had discovered the liquid from the start, it would have been a huge, even fatal blow to Wu Yin.

He shouldn't have hesitated, Jie Linyuan thought regretfully, he had to admit, at that moment, he was indeed stunned by Wu Yin's words and his unpredictable abilities.

Directional parasitism, contact attachment, and the most baffling of all — the gesture of lightly tapping his forehead to bring back his senses.

"If you disappoint me... you'll pay a price you absolutely cannot afford."

"Don't let me down."

If Jie Linyuan hadn't obtained the highest authority of Z1932, he would have fought to the death inside the SUV, killing any creature that Wu Yin might have parasitized, eradicating any obstacle at any cost.

But Wu Yin had given him the highest authority of Z1932 before disappearing, the freedom he had sought for years, and his only weakness.

Only when you have something do you fear losing it.

Jie Linyuan tasted the flavor of breaking free from shackles for the first time, but also developed a fear. He couldn't bear the cost of losing his freedom again, hence he hesitated at the moment when he should have been decisively lethal, missing the best chance to deliver a fatal blow to Wu Yin.

He didn’t act when Wu Yin was at his weakest three days ago, and now that Wu Yin had almost recovered, Jie Linyuan was even less likely to act rashly. He felt more regretful, his face ashen as he released the Black Knight, retracting the wire rope into his mechanical arm, watching the dog head run off, rubbing its mouth with its paws, suddenly feeling a familiar sense of powerlessness from within.

Yang Mo watched Jie Linyuan’s lonely figure heading upstairs, fearing his uselessness had annoyed him, potentially leading to being abandoned, so he quickly tried to show his usefulness, shouting after him, "Jie! Can I peel an apple for you? You, go to sleep early, good night. I’ll make you mung bean soup tomorrow morning."

Jie Linyuan waved his hand without turning back, silently locking himself in his bedroom.

*

The next day, worried about making breakfast for Jie Linyuan, and after being disturbed by several contaminants lurking outside the yard, Yang Mo didn’t sleep well and hurried to the kitchen at the crack of dawn to start the fire.

Before the fire was lit, footsteps belonging to the Black Knight sounded behind him. Thinking the dog was coming for food, Yang Mo, suppressing his fear, turned around and whispered, "You can’t have this, it’s for Jie first, you know? No choice, he’s the boss in this house, we can’t live without him. After he eats breakfast and leaves, the rest is for you…"

Rambling on, he realized the head of the Black Knight facing him was not its usual gluttonous dog head, but one with the intelligence and calm of a high-IQ creature in its amber eyes.

"…Do you want to tell me something?" Yang Mo asked in surprise, seeing the Black Knight suddenly open its mouth, dropping a transparent IV bag, exactly what he had seen Bileer forcefully stuff in.

"…Right! This is it." Yang Mo exclaimed, picking up the IV bag.

The bag’s surface, besides saliva, had some dirt. He saw "Sodium Chloride Solution" clearly labeled on the packaging and inside the transparent liquid, a tiny irregular flesh-colored object, not much bigger than a fingernail, undulating in the saline, pulsing regularly like a heart.

It’s alive!

Yang Mo's hand shook, nearly losing his grip, "What is this…?!"

Before his words fell, the object vanished from the solution. Before the shock could fully form in Yang Mo’s eyes, his expression suddenly blanked, his movements froze, as if time had stopped at that moment.

Only a black dog sitting by the kitchen door, slowly wagging its tail, both heads and four eyes quietly watching everything.

A minute later, “Yang Mo” smiled and patted the Black Knight’s head, "Good dog, very good."