Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Having become a zombie who retained her sanity, Xue Ling had pondered countless times about why this had happened to her.

But to her, this question was as unanswerable as why the zombie outbreak had occurred or why the apocalypse had come.

Lying in the wild grass by the roadside, staring at the stars, Xue Ling had wondered, could it be that she had been exposed to radiation at some point, leading to her mutation?

Sitting under an abandoned melon shed by the road, taking shelter from the rain, she had also wondered, could it be that, like Spider-Man, she had been bitten by some virus-carrying insect and turned into a zombie hero?

Walking on the long, deserted highway, Xue Ling had speculated that maybe she was actually a product of some laboratory, and all her past experiences had been artificially implanted—everything was a lie?!

Sitting under a tree in the park, watching her fellow zombies wander around in a daze, Xue Ling's thoughts drifted to novels she had read. Maybe she had awakened a special ability—an ability to remain rational even after being infected by the zombie virus!

This led her to imagine that she might be the key to ending the zombie virus, that a special antibody could be extracted from her to eliminate the virus.

One day, researchers in white coats would capture her—just like in all those novels and movies, right?

And yet, here was Wen Jiuzhe, casually claiming that he knew the reason.

...You know the reason? How do you know the reason? I don’t even know, so how do you know?

Xue Ling was puzzled: Exactly who is the zombie here, you or me?

She looked at Wen Jiuzhe, and he looked back at her. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

Just as Xue Ling was about to pounce on him and shake his shoulders in frustration, Wen Jiuzhe spoke. "It's because you ate the 'Tai Sui'."

"Tai Sui?" Xue Ling wrote the pinyin on her small blackboard.

To be honest, it was more difficult and uglier for a zombie to write these crooked letters than Chinese characters.

Wen Jiuzhe wrote "Tai Sui" beneath the pinyin.

Xue Ling looked at the two characters, suspecting that Wen Jiuzhe was messing with her.

The last time she had seen those characters, "Tai Sui," was in a fantasy movie.

It claimed that Tai Sui was one of the ingredients for Qin Shi Huang's elixir of immortality, capable of reviving the dead and regrowing flesh—of course, that was artistic fiction and nonsense!

Xue Ling gave Wen Jiuzhe a disdainful look, thinking that what he made up was even more far-fetched than her own wild speculations.

She drew a question mark on the blackboard, expressing her confusion, wanting to hear how he would continue his tall tale.

Xue Ling guessed that, like many times before, Wen Jiuzhe would drop a hint and then leave her hanging on purpose, making her anxious.

Only telling half the story was his old bad habit.

But this time, Wen Jiuzhe didn’t fall into his usual pattern. He looked at the two characters on the blackboard and said in a flat tone:

"Three years ago, the Wen family retrieved something from the ancestral tomb. Patriarch Wen identified it as Tai Sui, a rare and special kind of Tai Sui. I took some of it home, and by a twist of fate, you ate it."

This fabrication sounded somewhat real. Xue Ling, hugging her blackboard, drew another question mark, wondering when she had eaten such a thing.

Before she could write "when," Wen Jiuzhe guessed her question and said, "I put it in the fridge, wrapped in gold paper. You ate it. Remember?"

With Wen Jiuzhe’s reminder, Xue Ling recalled.

It had been shortly before they broke up, around the time approaching Qixi Festival.

That weekend, she had slept in until almost noon. Suffering from low blood sugar, she had been dizzy when she got out of bed and opened the fridge to find something to eat.

There had only been mineral water and raw leafy vegetables in the fridge. Feeling awful, Xue Ling had suddenly noticed a round ball wrapped in gold paper on the side rack of the fridge.

The packaging had looked like a brand of chocolate.

She didn’t remember putting it there, so it must have been Wen Jiuzhe. They had been living together for several months, and he often stocked the fridge with fruits, drinks, and snacks.

Was this chocolate a Qixi chocolate he had bought for her? Just one piece?

Feeling unwell, she hadn’t thought much and peeled the gold paper off the "chocolate." Seeing the black, round object inside, she had popped it into her mouth.

At first, it hadn’t tasted like anything, but after chewing and swallowing, an indescribable bitterness had surged up. Just moments ago, she had been on the verge of fainting, but now the bitterness had jolted her awake.

She had clutched her chest, feeling nauseous, but nothing had come up. It had taken two glasses of water to suppress the bitterness that felt like it was lifting her skull.

She had finally realized that it wasn’t chocolate. Holding the golden wrapping paper, she had wondered if she had eaten some kind of plaster for bruises that Wen Jiuzhe had put in the fridge.

Just then, Wen Jiuzhe had come back and, upon seeing the gold paper in her hand, had given her a strange look.

"Did you eat the thing inside?"

Seeing his expression, Xue Ling’s heart had started to race. "What is it? Is it something I shouldn’t have eaten?"

Wen Jiuzhe had looked unusually serious, his brows furrowed, which had frightened Xue Ling. She had nervously asked him what it really was.

After a brief silence, Wen Jiuzhe had spoken gravely. "That was something I picked up from the side of the road—dog poop."

Xue Ling: "..."

I think *you* are the dog poop!

Wen Jiuzhe’s serious expression had suddenly relaxed, and he had worn that infuriating smirk of his again. He had walked over, taken the gold paper stained with some black residue, and put it away.

"Okay, actually, it was a wild fungus a friend gave me to prank someone... How could you have actually eaten it."

"You deliberately put it in the fridge to prank me, didn’t you?" Xue Ling had accused.

Wen Jiuzhe had simply smiled nonchalantly without offering an explanation.

Later, he insisted on taking her to the hospital for an especially thorough check-up. At the time, Xue Ling thought he was making a big deal out of nothing.

And because of his overly serious attitude, Xue Ling once again doubted whether what she had eaten was poisonous. Just as she was starting to feel tense, Wen Jiuzhe said that the detailed examination was to check if her frequent anger had caused breast cancer.

In the end, the results of the check-up were all normal, and the matter was forgotten.

It wasn’t until now that Xue Ling understood why Wen Jiuzhe had reacted that way back then.

…She had been a zombie for three years, and there was a point when she even suspected that the meteorite she saw as a child at the astronomy museum had radiation. Yet, she had never suspected Wen Jiuzhe.

Holding a piece of chalk, Xue Ling felt speechless.

Wen Jiuzhe said, "It was only when I went back this time that I found out the problem was due to the taiji you ate. That’s basically the cause."

His expression seemed calm, but he kept playing with a piece of chalk in his hand, making his fingers chalky white.

If Xue Ling wasn’t mistaken, was he nervous?

Did he think she would blame him?

Becoming like this, Xue Ling had certainly experienced pain.

But she knew that if she hadn’t turned into this unique existence and had instead become an ordinary zombie, she might be wandering in familiar environments, unknowingly eating her relatives or friends, or other people she knew.

Compared to that, it was better to be like this now.

Logically speaking, she should even thank Wen Jiuzhe.

But when it came to Wen Jiuzhe, there was no need to be logical!

So, Xue Ling fiercely punched Wen Jiuzhe a few times, turning his arm red.

After her outburst, she wrote "thank you" on the small blackboard, too lazy to write the more complex Chinese characters for thanks.

Wen Jiuzhe’s expression became very complicated upon receiving that thanks. He finally let go of the chalk and forced a smile that looked difficult to bear.

"You’re actually saying thanks to me."

Because Xue Ling always believed that it was better to be alive than dead. Although her body had died, her soul hadn’t perished yet. It was still better than being completely dead.

To be honest, Xue Ling now felt an especially relaxed sensation.

It was the satisfaction of finally getting the answer to a puzzle she had been thinking about for a long time, no longer needing to dwell on it or worry over it.

There was also a bit of small disappointment—it wasn’t an awakened superpower or an alien experiment!

Mutating because of accidentally eating the legendary "taiji" taken from a tomb was too localized. Now she didn’t even want to call herself a zombie; she wanted to call herself a jiangshi.

Xue Ling suddenly had a flash of insight and quickly wrote on the blackboard: "Is there anyone else like me?"

Wen Jiuzhe must have seen it; otherwise, how could he be so certain?

"Who?" As Xue Ling was still writing the complex character for "who," Wen Jiuzhe turned his head away with his arms crossed.

He didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to mention the name "Wen Xuan" in front of Xue Ling.

Seeing her so anxious to ask, he was even less willing to say anything.

Did she think that because Wen Xuan’s situation was similar to hers, they were somehow in this together?

Wen Jiuzhe scoffed at the idea.

Seeing Wen Jiuzhe lazily standing with his arms crossed and not speaking, Xue Ling pushed him lightly. Wen Jiuzhe erased the small blackboard in front of her.

Xue Ling: "?"

After carefully observing Wen Jiuzhe’s expression, she suddenly understood.

Whenever she mentioned Wen Xuan before, he would get upset, wearing an unhappy and arrogant face because he disliked Wen Xuan and didn’t like people bringing him up. So, could it be that coincidence?

Xue Ling tried writing the character "Xuan" on the blackboard.

Before she could finish, Wen Jiuzhe erased it, his smile faint. "Writing just the character 'Xuan' by itself, doesn’t it seem a bit too intimate?"

Xue Ling was speechless. Writing as a zombie was already difficult; knowing who was being referred to should be enough, yet he insisted she write it fully.

She threw the chalk at Wen Jiuzhe, and he dodged by tilting his head. He said, "Yes, it’s him, but he’s already dead. There’s no need to go and see."

Xue Ling didn’t intend to go see him; she just wanted confirmation that there was someone else like herself. And if there was one, could there be more people like her?

Xue Ling’s mood improved because of this news, but Wen Jiuzhe’s mood didn’t seem too great.

They drove away from the place. On the way, Wen Jiuzhe often looked ahead with a contemplative expression, while Xue Ling sat in the passenger seat, one of her two seatbelts now undone, turning into just one.

The window was open, and the hot wind blew in. Xue Ling saw scenery she was familiar with and some she wasn’t, but she realized they were on their way out of Anxi City.

She held a plastic children’s magnetic writing board that Wen Jiuzhe had somehow found. It was lighter and cleaner than the small blackboard.

She picked the pen stuck in the groove on the side and wrote "Where to," holding it up for Wen Jiuzhe to see.

Wen Jiuzhe glanced at it and countered with a question: "Why don’t you make those sounds anymore?"

Before, she would often let out a zombie roar, but after being exposed, she stopped wanting to.

Xue Ling: "…"

It was a rhetorical question. Didn’t he know she would feel embarrassed? Now that everyone knew she still had her rationality, making those awful sounds would indeed be awkward!

Wen Jiuzhe said, "Don’t hold back. If you feel like making a sound, just do it. Your roar is deep and powerful now, quite imposing, like a tiger descending a mountain."

The black modified car driving on the national highway in Anxi city suddenly swerved in an S-shape on the road.