Chapter 18

Chapter 18

There were four zombies in this house, probably a family of four: a middle-aged couple, an eighteen-year-old son, and a daughter in her early twenties.

They were wandering around the first floor, but Xue Ling had rounded them up and locked them neatly in the bathroom.

After locking the bathroom door, she waved at Wen Jiuzhe, who was standing by the door, signaling him to come inside.

They wanted to find some spare clothes, mainly for Xue Ling.

Xue Ling had long been dissatisfied with the sunflower-print dress she was wearing and wanted to change it.

Hearing the commotion outside and sensing the human presence, the family of zombies in the bathroom roared incessantly.

Amid the terrifying howls, Wen Jiuzhe stood in front of the master bedroom's large wardrobe on the first floor, holding up a gauze dress and asked Xue Ling, "How about this dress?"

Xue Ling thought he had a problem with his eyesight; the dress was clearly meant for a little girl in elementary school. She remembered having a similar dress when she was about seven or eight years old.

Apart from the little girl's clothes, most of the wardrobe contained short-sleeved blouses and pants in a middle-aged woman's style.

"This set is nice too," Wen Jiuzhe said, pointing to a purple patterned short-sleeve top.

Xue Ling slammed the wardrobe door shut, nearly pinching his fingers.

Sensing Xue Ling's unspoken threat, Wen Jiuzhe shut up and followed her to the second floor.

The clothes in the daughter's room on the second floor were much more suitable.

Xue Ling picked a T-shirt from the wardrobe, which had only a few simple letters on it.

Wen Jiuzhe turned around the room, opening several wardrobe doors one by one. When he opened the last one, he saw a skeleton of a little girl curled up in the corner of the wardrobe.

It was the skeleton of a girl who might have been a few years old.

She probably died at the beginning of the apocalypse. Her family had turned into zombies, and she had hidden here out of fear, only to starve to death.

Wen Jiuzhe's expression didn't change, and he didn't even pause in his movements as he casually closed the wardrobe door.

From the second wardrobe door, he took out a ripped denim shorts with some decorative chains and paired it with a purple-red skull short-sleeve top.

"How about this set?"

Xue Ling glanced over and thought to herself that this girl must have been part of the "Funeral Love Family."

She firmly rejected Wen Jiuzhe's choice, snatching the clothes from his hands and putting them back in the wardrobe.

Wen Jiuzhe found a black leather skirt, "How about this..."

Xue Ling found him annoying and suddenly turned around, pulling out an expired band-aid from the wardrobe, tearing it open, and slapping it onto Wen Jiuzhe's mouth to shut him up.

The expired band-aid had no stickiness left and was flapping around on Wen Jiuzhe's mouth.

Wen Jiuzhe let it stay on his mouth, shrugged, and put his hands in his pockets, not saying anything more.

After picking clothes, Xue Ling also found two new towels in the wardrobe and put them in the bag.

As she reached the last wardrobe door, she thought about opening it, but Wen Jiuzhe was leaning against the door and smiling, showing no intention of moving aside.

Thinking he was trying to tease her again, and since she had picked enough clothes, Xue Ling didn't insist on seeing that wardrobe and left the room with her bag.

After she finished picking, she let Wen Jiuzhe find something he could wear too, but unfortunately, the clothes in the master bedroom belonging to the male owner and the son were too small for Wen Jiuzhe to wear.

The two of them searched the house separately to see if there was anything else they needed.

Wen Jiuzhe squatted in front of a bug-eaten TV cabinet, testing a pair of scissors he had found.

He rarely had the interest to slowly search through things like this. In the past, he would directly exchange for what he needed at the base, and if he couldn't get it, he would go to the city with a clear goal, searching thoroughly and leaving immediately after.

But now, he even finished going through this family's drawers and saw a photo of the family of five, which he picked up and examined.

As he was putting the photo back, Xue Ling came over from the kitchen carrying a pot.

Wen Jiuzhe looked at her holding the pot handle and asked uncertainly, "You're not going to hit me with that pot, are you?"

Xue Ling: "..."

She threw the pot at Wen Jiuzhe's feet and then extended her other fist, which was clenched. This was to indicate she had something in her hand and let Wen Jiuzhe guess what it was.

"What is it?" Wen Jiuzhe rubbed his chin and observed her fist, "Did you catch a mouse?"

Xue Ling lightly kicked his leg.

Opening her palm, a small, dry tomato lay in her hand.

It was bright red and the size of a bottle cap.

Tearing off the band-aid that was flapping on his mouth, Xue Ling offered the tomato to him.

Wen Jiuzhe laughed, picked it up, and put it in his mouth. It tasted overripe, on the verge of rotting.

"Well, not bad," he praised with an unchanged expression.

Xue Ling pulled Wen Jiuzhe by his clothes and led him to the backyard of the house.

The ground was paved with cement, and there were several basins and foam boxes filled with soil placed at the side.

Now, the basins and foam boxes were overgrown with weeds, but one of the basins had a tomato plant, with several red and half-green fruits still hanging on the branches.

In the end, when they left the house, they took this basin of tomatoes with them.

The tomato plant had grown quite large and was placed in the back seat, secured with a seatbelt.

They had searched all the locked houses around the area and found quite a few things.

Although Wen Jiuzhe thought most of the items were unnecessary, and some, like a large bundle of dried mugwort, were of unknown use, he didn’t say anything when Xue Ling handed them to him, stuffing everything into the car.

When the back seat was full, they put things in the trunk. When the trunk was full, they tied the remaining items to the roof rack.

Finally, Xue Ling found two baskets of black charcoal.

Wen Jiuzhe: “……”

He pretty much understood Xue Ling’s intention now; she wanted him to cook a meal.

Since Xue Ling had all the tools ready and was watching him intently, Wen Jiuzhe couldn’t just make do with a sloppy effort.

He started the fire, cleaned the sand pot, put in the rice and water, and placed it on the stove.

While waiting, Xue Ling got up and headed towards their temporary camp.

Wen Jiuzhe followed her, and the two found a few lettuce plants in a deserted private plot nearby.

Long bean vines hung on blackened bamboo poles, entangled with winter gourd vines.

They harvested a dozen long beans, but the winter gourds hadn’t borne fruit yet, only flowers.

After searching the area for a while, they found a green, long strip of pumpkin hidden in the wild grass.

They returned to the camp with a full load of ingredients.

When Wen Jiuzhe was about to open a can of meat and pour it directly into the pot of rice, Xue Ling pulled out a separate pot from the car.

He had to take back his hand, wash the pot, and fry the canned meat.

Xue Ling watched him closely, and Wen Jiuzhe’s attempt to chop the vegetables and throw them all into the pot for stewing was rejected by her gaze.

The pan used for frying the canned meat was then used to stir-fry the vegetables, and the aroma and smoke wafted through the air.

Xue Ling watched him as he busied himself.

When they lived together, Wen Jiuzhe had done chores under her request.

At first, she thought he wouldn’t be able to do much, but later found that he was actually quite skilled, knew how to take care of people, and could cook. However, his cooking was rather unrefined.

He liked to put everything in a pot, add water, and stew it until soft, resulting in the same taste for everything.

It gave the impression that he had cooked before but had never been taught, so he had developed his own makeshift habits.

Xue Ling had taught him how thick to slice the meat and fry it in oil for better flavor, and how long to stir-fry vegetables for the best taste.

Although he had seemed distracted and not very serious at the time, he actually remembered it well.

Though his movements were awkward, he wasn’t in a hurry, so he looked somewhat like a professional chef.

The fried meat and stir-fried vegetables placed on the snow-white rice, along with two halved small tomatoes, looked quite nice.

Wen Jiuzhe placed the sand pot on the makeshift table, and the steaming hot rice and vegetables gave an indescribable feeling as soon as they entered his mouth.

It felt as if they weren’t out in the open on some unknown roadside, but rather at home.

Xue Ling sat across from him, resting her chin on her hand, her eyes fixed on the sand pot in front of him.

What was she thinking? Was she thinking about her own hunger, envious that he was eating? Or was she thinking about the times they had sat together at the table like this in the past?

Chewing the long-lost meal, Wen Jiuzhe suddenly asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Xue Ling took the writing board next to her and quickly wrote a sentence to show him.

"Did you put salt in just now?"

Recalling his cooking process, Xue Ling realized there might have been an issue—Wen Jiuzhe hadn’t added salt! How could the food taste good without salt?

Wen Jiuzhe: “...The canned meat and the broth inside have saltiness.”

Seeing this, Xue Ling immediately looked relieved.

She wrote, “We didn’t find any salt today; we’ll look for some tomorrow.”

Seeing this, Wen Jiuzhe suddenly laughed, stuffing a large mouthful of food into his mouth. He ate heartily, in a way that would make zombies look appetizing.

Watching him, Xue Ling thought that humans were indeed harder to feed than zombies.

Before going to bed that night, Xue Ling asked Wen Jiuzhe to take out the bundle of dried mugwort to burn. Only then did Wen Jiuzhe understand that its purpose was to repel mosquitoes.

However, that night, despite fewer mosquitoes due to the lingering smoke of the mugwort, Wen Jiuzhe couldn’t fall asleep.

Every now and then, Xue Ling checked if he was still awake, and finding that he wasn’t asleep in the middle of the night, she got up to search her medicine bag in the car.

A box of sleeping pills was placed in front of Wen Jiuzhe.

She really thought of everything, even having sleeping pills.

Wen Jiuzhe refused.

Xue Ling regretfully took the medicine box back. The medication would expire in just over a month, and it would be such a waste not to take it.

For the rest of the journey, they took turns driving. Xue Ling practiced driving when the road conditions were good, and Wen Jiuzhe took over when the conditions were poor.

Wen Jiuzhe was also responsible for keeping them on the right route because when Xue Ling drove, she would head wherever the road seemed easiest, driven by whim.

But Wen Jiuzhe had to ensure they were heading towards Andong City.

However, even Wen Jiuzhe didn't know every road, and without navigation available, they only knew where they were when they saw road signs by the side of the road.

The car stopped at an intersection. Wen Jiuzhe, holding several maps for comparison, said to Xue Ling, "It seems we've driven into Yuanhu City."

If they were going to Andong City, they would need to head north next, bypassing Yuanhu City.

As soon as he put the maps away, he saw Xue Ling holding up a sign that read, "I want to tour Yuanhu City!"

Wen Jiuzhe: "..."

It suddenly dawned on him that three years ago, Xue Ling had mentioned wanting to visit Yuanhu City.