Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ji Yanqing hadn't recovered from the bittersweet pain when his gaze was drawn to a new red mark on the child's left jaw.

The red mark was fresh, not there before.

Ji Yanqing looked at the small bread on the ground, missing one corner, then at the hungry child whose stomach kept growling. He scanned the ground but didn't find the cookie wrapper, so he turned back to the fire.

Beside the fire, Sun Haifeng was happily eating his share of rations.

Ji Yanqing withdrew his gaze, picked up the small bread, and placed it in the child’s arms.

As he moved, his short ashy-brown hair swayed gently, fluffy and loose. Coupled with his feigned cold and serious demeanor, it was enough to melt anyone's heart just by looking.

"Eat it all." Ji Yanqing's tone was firm.

Hearing Ji Yanqing's cold words, the child seemed startled, staring at Ji Yanqing with wide eyes.

He dared not defy Ji Yanqing. Though Ji Yanqing was good-looking with soft, fuzzy hair, he was much taller and stronger. A beating would surely hurt, so the child obediently started eating the bread.

The aroma of bread filled his nostrils, and the sweet taste spread in his mouth once more, quickly capturing his attention. He was truly starving, unable to recall how long since his last meal. Reluctant to finish the small bread in one bite, he nibbled at it like a little hamster.

Ji Yanqing sat down again. After swallowing the last bite of bread and discarding the wrapper, he looked at the other child lying on the ground.

This child was smaller than the one who was awake, around three years old as well.

Previously, Ji Yanqing assumed he was merely asleep. With the need to secure their campsite and find food, he hadn’t had time for a detailed examination. Now, he realized something was amiss.

Ji Yanqing reached out to touch the child's forehead, frowning instantly as his palm met burning skin.

He turned the child's head to see his face.

The child's face was dirty, dried blood mixed with dirt smudging half of it and concealing the flush from the fever.

The fabric behind his shoulder felt stiff, as if soaked and dried by some liquid. Ji Yanqing’s heart sank as he carefully turned the child over. Indeed, the entire back of his shirt was stained with dried blood, and there was a large gash about the size of a hand on the fabric near his waist.

The child was thin; the wound nearly spanned his entire back.

Ji Yanqing braced himself for the worst. They barely had any food or water left, let alone medicine. If the injury was severe, the child would surely die.

Ji Yanqing lifted the child's shirt but found no wound on his back.

Ji Yanqing paused, lifting the shirt again to check. The shirt indeed had a bloody hole, as if torn by a sharp object like a rock. The wound should have been wide and deep, the bloodstain on the shirt confirmed this, yet there was no sign of injury on the child's back.

Ji Yanqing was momentarily perplexed.

"What's wrong?" Xia Shenshu's voice echoed.

Ji Yanqing looked over.

Xia Shenshu was preparing to extinguish the fire.

Zombies were attracted to light, making it extremely dangerous to keep a fire going at night, even a faint glow.

"Nothing." Ji Yanqing laid the child flat. He took his share of water from his backpack and fed some to the child, then passed the water to the awake child beside him.

The child glanced at him timidly, not daring to defy him, and indeed, he was very thirsty. So, he cautiously held the water bottle with both hands.

After taking a small sip, he hastily returned the bottle to Ji Yanqing.

Xia Shenshu extinguished the fire.

The world plunged into darkness.

With the darkness came an eerie silence and pervasive terror.

After the fire was put out, everyone waited quietly for a moment until they adjusted to the darkness.

Once they confirmed there was no danger nearby, Xia Shenshu looked towards the two figures in the darkness. Tonight, it was their turn to keep watch.

They exchanged glances and stood up.

"I'll watch from the rooftop. It's safe inside the building as long as no zombies come in." A female voice sounded as she rose.

"I'll take the second half of the night." Another person said.

Surviving alone in such an environment was incredibly difficult. There was no safe place outside, and no one knew what might happen while sleeping. Having someone keep watch could buy them just two hours of deep sleep, significantly increasing their chances of survival.

The others found spots to lie down and rest.

As Ji Yanqing put the water bottle back in his backpack, he also retrieved a T-shirt and, in the dark, changed the bloody shirt on the child.

Afterward, he found a coat in his bag and draped it over the child. Despite daytime temperatures reaching sixty to seventy degrees, it was genuinely winter now.

A winter day with outdoor temperatures of sixty to seventy degrees.

The apocalypse had struck suddenly.

Initially, it was just a virus outbreak, zombies spreading throughout cities, leading to widespread use of nuclear weapons, which triggered consecutive nuclear explosions. This damaged the atmosphere, disrupted climate patterns, caused tectonic shifts and magnetic field chaos, led to bacterial and microbial mutations, and unleashed rampant growth of plants and animals...

The world had already gone haywire, and dangers were no longer limited to zombies.

After eating the small bread and drinking water, the awake child soon yawned. Ji Yanqing had him lie down next to the other child.

Ji Yanqing put the remaining small bread and two pieces of fish tofu in his backpack.

Ji Yanqing didn't immediately lie down to sleep. Leaning against a concrete pillar, he gazed at the sky through the gaps in the green net above.

The night was dark, without a single star in sight.

It mirrored their current situation, with no glimmer of hope in sight.

In the darkness, someone moved through the crowd and sat down beside Ji Yanqing.

Ji Yanqing looked over and saw it was Xia Shenshu.

Xia Shenshu lowered his voice. "Team Leader Ji."

"Team Leader Ji is Team Leader Ji. What's this 'Team Leader Ji Junior'?" Ji Yanqing was taken aback for a moment, his eyes flaring with indignation, but he didn't forget his icy and powerful persona, so he spoke slowly and coldly.

Xia Shenshu was momentarily speechless. Even though he couldn't see clearly, he could guess the expression on Ji Yanqing's face from his resentful yet deliberately aloof tone. He was the first one to meet Ji Yanqing.

Xia Shenshu sat down. "This afternoon, I saw a Public Security Bureau nearby. I thought about looking for guns inside, but there was nothing."

All the weapons had been scavenged long ago; there was nothing left for them.

Ji Yanqing remained silent. He was very aloof.

"We're out of water. The remaining water will last us at most one more day. If we don't find more water within two days..."

Without water in such an environment, death was inevitable.

"I'll search nearby again tomorrow." Ji Yanqing tilted his head slightly, gazing up at the sky with a faint light in his eyes.

Xia Shenshu was momentarily stunned. Ji Yanqing's eyes were like stars.

Xia Shenshu quickly regained his composure. "This area has already been searched by multiple groups. Even if there are places that haven't been found yet, the scorching heat would have dried everything out."

Xia Shenshu was right. Ji Yanqing had searched for water during the afternoon, but all he found were countless empty bottles.

As for the taps, they were even less likely to yield any results.

The city had run out of water long ago, and even the sewers and streams had dried up.

"It would take at least three days to catch up with the group ahead, and we might not even be able to catch up." Xia Shenshu paused. "There seems to be a reservoir nearby, marked on the police map."

"A reservoir?"

"It's quite large, probably the city's water supply. It's in the mountains nearby."

Ji Yanqing retracted his gaze and looked down at the two small children huddled under clothes, sleeping uneasily at his feet.

In such high temperatures, they would die in two days without water. Catching up with the group ahead would take at least three days, and that was assuming no unexpected setbacks. If they failed to catch up...

After a moment of contemplation, Ji Yanqing asked, "Do you remember the route?"

"I know the general direction."

Ji Yanqing had made a decision. "Let's find water first."

Xia Shenshu let out a breath and leaned back against the wall, relaxing.

To catch up with the main group, they first needed to stay alive. Moreover, the larger group might not be as good as Sun Haifeng imagined, and they might not be willing to share their precious food and water.

"Let's get some sleep," said Ji Yanqing.

"Mm." Xia Shenshu returned to his previous spot and lay down, pulling his coat over him.

In the brief time they had been talking, their breaths had turned into misty white clouds. From sunset until now, less than an hour had passed, yet the temperature had dropped from sixty or seventy degrees to below ten degrees.

Chilling coldness assailed them from all sides, like a horde of madmen stabbing them with knives. Their exposed skin felt the pain of the rapid temperature drop.

Ji Yanqing glanced at the two shivering children on the ground. Hesitating for a moment, he picked them up and wrapped them in his coat.

Their bodies were too weak, and if they didn't keep warm, they might not survive the night.

Both children were very thin, and when Ji Yanqing held them, he barely felt their weight. They were like two cats. Their body temperatures were very low, and their hands and feet were freezing.

The sensation of weightlessness and coldness was as if life itself was draining from their tiny bodies.

Held in his arms and feeling the warmth emanating from Ji Yanqing's body, the older child stirred. His hands clutched tightly onto the fabric of Ji Yanqing's shirt.

Ji Yanqing looked down, thinking the child had woken up, but he saw that the child's eyes were still closed.

He seemed to be dreaming of something sad, tears wetting his long eyelashes. His whole body trembled gently from sorrow, like a kitten shivering in the cold winter outdoors. "...Daddy..."

That cry was like a kitten's.

Even in his dreams, he didn't dare to cry loudly.