Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The night was deep, and the surrounding area of the Wen family mansion was quiet, with only a few dim streetlights in the distance.

Inside Wen Xuan's room, Wen Xuan, missing one ear, was tightly bound. Unlike when they bound Xue Ling, where only her hands were tied behind her back, Wen Xuan was secured from his hands to his feet, unable to move a muscle, forced to lie on the ground, breathing heavily.

The door had been shut again. Wen Jiuzhe crouched in front of Wen Xuan, his toe pressing on a clot of dried, pale ear, twirling a short blade in his hand.

"Alright, spill it. Why are you different from the regular zombies?"

Wen Xuan glared at him with hatred, revealing the hidden fangs in his mouth.

Wen Xuan loathed Wen Jiuzhe, just as much as Wen Jiuzhe despised Wen Xuan.

Patriarch Wen had two sons in his lifetime. The eldest, Wen Hengyi, and the second, Wen Shuang.

Wen Xuan's father, Wen Shuang, had only one child—Wen Xuan. Meanwhile, his uncle, Wen Hengyi, had two daughters.

Patriarch Wen was a rather traditional patriarch. He believed only men could carry on the family name and that daughters, who would eventually marry out, couldn't inherit the family business and were only considered half a member of the Wen family.

As the only boy of his generation, Wen Xuan had received the most attention and affection in the Wen family since childhood.

However, his uncle Wen Hengyi was quite a philanderer, sleeping with many women outside his marriage and leaving behind illegitimate children.

After Wen Hengyi passed away from illness, Patriarch Wen thought it improper that his eldest son had only two daughters. Thus, he tracked down Wen Jiuzhe, the only illegitimate son from his eldest, and brought him back to the Wen family.

Wen Xuan's status in the Wen family was threatened. An outsider, an illegitimate child, was taking away what originally belonged to him, which filled him with intense disgust. He wished Wen Jiuzhe would just die.

Unfortunately, the bastard was as tough as nails and wouldn't die no matter what. With Grandpa still around, Wen Xuan couldn't go too far.

As he grew up, the illegitimate child even stole the woman Wen Xuan had his eyes on, turning his disgust into outright hatred.

Later, when Grandpa fell ill, Wen Xuan wanted to take the chance to deal with Wen Jiuzhe, but then the zombie apocalypse happened.

He failed to get rid of Wen Jiuzhe and was instead nearly killed by him.

Three years had passed, but Wen Xuan still remembered that day. The weakling who had never dared to fight back or talk back to him had smiled as he shoved Wen Xuan's neck into a zombie's mouth.

He had said, "Wen Xuan, I wonder, if you turned into a zombie and I let you loose, would you eat all the people in the Wen family?"

"I'd really look forward to it, but I'm in a hurry and won't get to see that scene..."

The zombie had bitten Wen Xuan, causing him to scream in terror and even cry in humiliation.

But soon, he felt his body grow stiff, his mind becoming fuzzy, with only an unbearable hunger overwhelming his reason.

If he hadn't stumbled upon that thing by accident, he might have truly become one of those hideous zombies.

For three years, he had lived a life that was neither human nor ghost, cursing Wen Jiuzhe every time he thought about it. And today, the nightmare had returned. Wen Jiuzhe had not died outside but had appeared in front of him again.

He was thinner than three years ago, his aura more sinister and terrifying.

With that same smile that had sent him to the zombie's mouth, Wen Jiuzhe asked, "You don't want to talk?"

Wen Xuan's rationality, nearly consumed by the flames of hatred, resurfaced slightly, fear emerging in his heart, but he was unwilling to yield so easily.

Seeing his defiance, Wen Jiuzhe chuckled and pressed down with his toe.

"Squish."

He ground into the pulp and pressed the short blade against Wen Xuan's finger.

"I'll start cutting from your fingers, then move to your arms... Let's see how much I need to cut before you're willing to talk."

Zombies couldn't feel pain, but any person still in their right mind would find it unbearable to witness their body parts being cut off.

Wen Xuan, not a man of strong will, had been pampered since childhood and couldn't bear the slightest grievance.

Wen Jiuzhe pulled out one of Wen Xuan's hands and placed it in front of his eyes, the blade falling.

Thumb.

Three years into the apocalypse, Wen Jiuzhe had seen and experienced countless cruel and bloody events. His eyes were unmoved, and his hand was steady.

As expected, Wen Xuan broke down after the first cut.

"I'll talk... I'll talk," he mumbled incoherently.

His dislocated jaw had been reset, but Wen Jiuzhe didn't retract the blade, still holding it between Wen Xuan's fingers. "Go on."

"I ate... the Taisui, and that's how I became like this. I don't know anything else."

Taisui.

Three years ago, Patriarch Wen's health had deteriorated. Men like him, fearing death as they aged, hoped to live for a hundred years.

In his illness, he began to suspect that the feng shui of the ancestral grave was bad, leading to his eldest son's early death. So, he took charge of renovating the ancestral tomb.

The Wen family's ancestral graves were all on Anqiu Mountain, and Patriarch Wen oversaw the reconstruction of the tomb of his great-great-grandfather, six generations up.

From the tomb, he retrieved a special Taisui.

Such things, as recorded in various ancient texts, were praised to the heavens as if they were miraculous medicines.

Patriarch Wen believed that it was fate that he encountered this Taisui while he was ill and repairing the ancestral grave, a sign that he wasn't meant to die.

Wen Jiuzhe scoffed at the idea. What Taisui? Wasn't it just some special kind of fungus?

The existence of the Tai Sui was known only to a few people in the Wen family. Patriarch Wen kept it under tight wraps and even secretly sent it for testing. Afterward, he took a quarter of it, preparing to experiment with it.

Regardless of whether it would be useful or not, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t want Patriarch Wen to succeed. He switched it, giving the old man on the sickbed a fake.

As for the real quarter of the Tai Sui, he took it back... only for Xue Ling to accidentally consume it.

Wen Jiuzhe’s knife-playing movements halted.

That’s right, Xue Ling had eaten a quarter of the Tai Sui.

"You said you became like this because you ate the Tai Sui. How much did you eat?"

Wen Xuan’s cheek twitched. "I ate all the remaining Tai Sui that Grandfather had."

Wen Xuan was a zombie, but his appearance was more human-like. His skin was pale, not bluish-white, and his eyes weren’t a dull red. Upon closer inspection, you could see a hint of red deep in his pupils. He could still speak, though his voice was hoarse.

If eating the remaining three-quarters of the Tai Sui was what kept him looking like this, then what about Xue Ling?

Wen Jiuzhe thought of this immediately. He recalled the past few days since reuniting with Xue Ling, the occasional illusion that she seemed to understand what he was saying.

He thought about how she pretended to attack but never actually harmed him.

He thought about how she refused to eat people.

Wen Jiuzhe slowly tightened his grip on the knife handle, a tremendous sense of joy and anticipation welling up inside him.

Could it be that she still had consciousness?

He suddenly stared directly at Wen Xuan, his gaze unnerving.

If he let Xue Ling eat Wen Xuan, could she become like Wen Xuan?

No, he didn’t need her to become human again, as long as she remembered him. She could be a zombie, anything.

"Haha."

Wen Xuan heard Wen Jiuzhe laugh softly after a period of silence. He laughed for a while, covering his face with one hand, hiding his expression.

The laughter chilled those who heard it, suspecting he had gone mad.

"Knock, knock."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A young woman’s voice asked, "Xuan, is that you laughing? What are you doing so late at night?"

Wen Xuan recognized the voice as his cousin Wen Xiang’s. A glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes, and he opened his mouth, wanting to call for help.

Wen Jiuzhe stopped laughing and pointed the knife tip at Wen Xuan’s mouth. "Do you want to reveal your identity as a zombie?"

Wen Xuan froze.

For the past three years, he had hidden the fact that he had become a zombie, desperately concealing his abnormality. He wasn’t stupid; he knew what would happen if people found out, so he told everyone he was sick and reduced his contact with others.

If Wen Xiang found out...

Wen Jiuzhe could tell what he was thinking and stood up, moving toward the door.

Outside, Wen Xiang was puzzled. Her cousin’s personality had become strange over the years, always with a gloomy expression, his face as pale as wall paint. Why was he laughing so happily today? And the voice, it sounded eerily familiar.

The door opened, and Wen Xiang had just started to call out "Cousin," when her mouth was covered, and she was yanked forcefully into the room.

"Mmm!"

Wen Xiang’s eyes widened, and she was tied up and thrown next to Wen Xuan.

Wen Xiang was Wen Jiuzhe’s half-sister from the same father. She also had an older sister, Wen Yi.

Wen Xuan disliked Wen Jiuzhe because his presence affected his status. As for Wen Xiang, her dislike for Wen Jiuzhe stemmed purely from her disgust at the product of her father’s infidelity.

Apart from the older Wen Yi, both Wen Xiang and Wen Xuan had bullied Wen Jiuzhe quite a bit.

On Wen Jiuzhe’s first day in the Wen family, Wen Xiang had pushed him down the stairs, causing him to fall and bleed profusely.

Because they had a common target to bully, the cousins had once been united, their relationship closer than real siblings.

"Wen Xiang, you’ve come at the right time. I have something to ask you."

"Ptooey! Bastard, why didn’t you die outside? How dare you come back!" Wen Xiang cursed without understanding the situation, just like old times.

Wen Jiuzhe didn’t react to the insult, still smiling. He turned to Wen Xuan and asked,

"What should we do? If your cousin discovers your zombie identity, will she gossip about it?"

Wen Xuan trembled, and Wen Xiang, noticing something was wrong, looked at them, especially her cousin Wen Xuan.

She stared in shock. "What? A zombie? How is it possible? When did Brother Xuan become a zombie?"

But her eyesight was good, and she had already seen Wen Xuan’s missing ear, the clotted dark red blood, and the zombie fangs that had involuntarily appeared when threatened by Wen Jiuzhe.

Wen Xiang was so frightened that she moved away from Wen Xuan.

This pampered young miss, who had never experienced hardship and had lived safely in a castle even after the apocalypse, was utterly shaken by what was happening. Her eyes swept over the crushed meat on the floor, and she even showed signs of wanting to vomit.

Wen Jiuzhe patted her face. "I’m asking you, do you know the whereabouts of the Wen family’s Tai Sui?"

Although Wen Xuan said he had eaten the remaining Tai Sui, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t quite believe that Wen Xuan would tell the truth so obediently.

Wen Xiang’s expression changed, and a guilty look flashed in her eyes. "What? I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. What does the missing Tai Sui have to do with me?"

Wen Jiuzhe: “……”

Wen Xiang has been like this since she was young, with absolutely no guile or subterfuge, even her malice is straightforward, everything she's thinking is written on her face. She's much more foolish than her sister.

"You seem to know about the Tai Sui situation pretty well, don't want to talk about it?" Wen Jiuzhe dragged her back to Wen Xuan's side, "You two siblings are really alike, both of you refuse to yield until you're faced with the coffin."

"If you don't talk, should I stuff you into his mouth?"

As her neck inched closer to her cousin's pale face and fangs, Wen Xiang was so frightened that her mind went blank, she didn't even know what she was saying, and it wasn't until Wen Jiuzhe pulled her away that she came back to her senses.

"Go ahead and talk."

Wen Xiang glanced at Wen Xuan again, her lips trembling, and just as Wen Jiuzhe was about to make a move again, she hurriedly said, "I only know that after Grandpa died, my sister took the Tai Sui away!"

When her sister took the Tai Sui in the chaos, she had asked if Wen Xiang wanted to leave together, but she didn't dare. It was too chaotic outside, what if something happened? So her sister left alone, and there had been no news for three years.

Later, when Second Uncle asked about the Tai Sui, she stayed silent, and the matter was dropped. She even felt relieved that Second Uncle didn't pursue it.

The room was quiet for a while, and Wen Jiuzhe's smile disappeared.

The good mood he had from guessing that Xue Ling might still be rational vanished.

He suddenly grabbed both of their necks and said coldly, "What you said is inconsistent, so, who here is lying to me?"