Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Ever since that night, Fan Xinglu had been very wary of Bai Tu, keeping an eye on him whether he meant to or not. Although Ji Songyue trusted Fan Xinglu, she still couldn't shake a sense of wariness, and coupled with curiosity, she was observing Bai Tu even more closely than she had in the small town. Song Lan had never liked Bai Tu and was always trying to find fault with him, though he had become much more restrained after Huo Changfeng's warning. Guan Jianrui couldn't grasp the undercurrents between the others, but that didn't stop him from gossiping about what was going on between Bai Tu and Huo Changfeng.

Bai Tu didn't care about the others' subtle attitudes, and he didn't have time to worry about it anyway, because the day after showering, warming up by the fire, and stargazing with Huo Changfeng, he discovered he had a fever.

All he remembered was that the night had been bitterly cold. The chill seemed to ignore his sleeping bag and clothes, seeping into his body from the ground. He slept fitfully, dreaming constantly until Huo Changfeng shook him awake.

"You have a fever," Huo Changfeng frowned, checking his forehead with the back of his hand.

Bai Tu was only half-awake; everything looked blurry. He opened his mouth and called out, "Cold..."

Hearing his voice, Huo Changfeng's frown deepened. He reached into Bai Tu's sleeping bag, felt how cold he was, and quickly unzipped it to pull Bai Tu upright. Bai Tu's collar wasn't fastened tightly, and as he sat up, it loosened further. Seeing his chest was flushed with fever, Huo Changfeng hurriedly got a thermometer for him to place under his arm and gave him cold medicine to swallow with water.

After a few minutes, Bai Tu came to a little more. The tent was empty except for his belongings; everything else had been packed away, making it look desolate. Bai Tu glanced outside; the daylight was bright.

"Are we about to set off?" he asked.

"No rush," Huo Changfeng said.

He got up and left, returning in less than half a minute with a thicker blanket than the one from the previous night. Crouching down, he wrapped it around Bai Tu.

Bai Tu took out the thermometer but hadn't had time to read it before it was taken from him. Huo Changfeng glanced at it: 38.7°C, a high fever. It couldn't have spiked instantly; Bai Tu must have suffered through the night.

He thought Bai Tu must have been toughing it out again and couldn't help but say, "Why didn't you say something if you were feeling unwell during the night?"

His words held no reproach, sounding instead helpless and gentle. Bai Tu had dreamed of many things from his past life. Gazing dazedly at the person before him, Huo Changfeng in his vision alternated between a real person and a stark white skeleton.

He leaned forward slightly and was immediately caught. Huo Changfeng still seemed unaccustomed to close contact with him, stiffening for a moment before relaxing and letting Bai Tu lean against him, his hands still hanging properly at his sides.

Bai Tu pressed his face against the crook of Huo Changfeng's shoulder and said, sounding a little hurt, "I told you I'm afraid of the cold."

Huo Changfeng felt a pang of remorse. Yes, Bai Tu had clearly said so. Counting the shower incident, this was already the second time he had overlooked it. Moreover, Bai Tu's fever might very well have been caused by that cold shower. Ultimately, it was his fault.

Huo Changfeng hesitated, then raised a hand to pat Bai Tu's back comfortingly. He opened his mouth, hesitating before saying, "Then... would you like to sleep next to me from now on? I mean, when we're in the wilderness."

He thought Bai Tu would immediately agree happily, but Bai Tu shook his head, his cheek rubbing against Huo Changfeng's shoulder, causing a slight itch and tingling. Huo Changfeng felt an inexplicable sense of disappointment, but then heard Bai Tu mumble, "I have a cold. I shouldn't pass the virus to you."

"You won't. I don't get sick easily," Huo Changfeng said immediately.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized they sounded as if he were eagerly anticipating sharing a sleeping bag. But Bai Tu really was comfortable to hold... Huo Changfeng quickly stopped that train of thought and immediately lowered the hand resting on Bai Tu's back.

However, Bai Tu had clearly shifted his entire weight onto him. Without using his arms, to support him, Huo Changfeng had to lean forward slightly, bringing their bodies even closer together.

The blanket around Bai Tu's front had loosened at some point, and the burning heat transmitted through several layers of clothing. Finally, Huo Changfeng raised his arms to embrace him, tightening the blanket around him in the process.

"Huo Changfeng, I have no strength. Can you carry me to the car... We shouldn't delay the others too much..."

His voice grew faint. Huo Changfeng looked down; Bai Tu had already fallen unconscious again. Huo Changfeng carried him to the car. The others were waiting for them. Without much explanation, he simply said Bai Tu had a cold, then quickly packed up the remaining items and the tent into the vehicle and got behind the wheel.

Before releasing the handbrake, he leaned over to tuck the blanket tightly around Bai Tu and fastened his seatbelt.

*

When Bai Tu woke up, the first thing that met his eyes was a very familiar piece of dark brown nylon fabric. He shifted slightly and realized he was being held in Huo Changfeng's arms. The blanket was wrapped snugly around him, and his whole body felt warm and cozy.

"Awake?"

Bai Tu looked up. Huo Changfeng was handsome even from this angle. He stared blankly for a while until Huo Changfeng touched his forehead and asked softly if he was still feeling unwell. Then he rested his head back on Huo Changfeng's shoulder.

"Much better."

Seeing he was alert, Huo Changfeng released his arms and instead grasped Bai Tu's shoulders, seemingly hesitating whether to sit him upright. Bai Tu then said, "But I still feel a bit weak."

So Huo Changfeng didn't move.

They were in the back seat of the car, which was still moving. The driver had become Xiang Yubo. The asphalt road ahead wasn't wide, only allowing two vehicles to pass side by side. Outside the window, vast stretches of withered fields flashed by, with faint glimpses of interconnected ditches crisscrossing through them. They were clearly no longer near the gas station.

When Huo Changfeng had touched his forehead earlier, his palm carried a faint scent of something burnt and gun oil, and there were slight burn marks on his palm. When Huo Changfeng used his lightning-based superpower, if he released too much electricity in a short time, his palms would sustain minor burns.

Both traces indicated he had been in an intense battle not long ago.

The blanket greatly restricted movement. Bai Tu raised his arm slightly, and Huo Changfeng immediately understood and released him. Bai Tu sat up straight and looked back, seeing only a Hummer following them.

"Did something happen while I was asleep?"

"Oh, way too much," came the voice, but it wasn't Huo Changfeng's. Bai Tu then realized there was someone in the passenger seat as well.

"You slept for three whole days. We've already driven through an entire province," Guan Jianrui leaned back to look, seeming to have been bursting to talk, his words pouring out in a torrent. "You kept running a fever. Concerned for your health, the boss originally wanted to find a safe place for you to rest properly, but we kept running into zombies along the way. We had to fight and flee. Finally, when we found a suitable spot, we ran into a group of people. We had just stopped to catch our breath and cook some food when they saw us while we were rummaging through the trunk. They acted like they hadn't eaten in three days, rushing to rob us right away, and every one of them had superpowers—fireballs and ice blades flying out one after another. We couldn't just kill them like zombies, so we fought for a long time. They only backed off after one of our cars got wrecked..."

Bai Tu listened in astonishment. He probably knew the reason for his three-day coma. Since his rebirth, he had been constantly on edge, never daring to let his guard down for a moment, afraid he would die unexpectedly without living long. He hadn't dared to drive because vehicles were too conspicuous, whether to the living or zombies. He had mostly walked on foot to that small town.

By then, the town had already fallen, with few survivors left. Hordes of zombies roamed outside. He had carefully avoided them, collected crystal cores, and painstakingly locked them up one by one. During that process, besides him, the last living person in the town had also perished.

Apart from the pistol with endless bullets that Xue Ji had given him, Bai Tu had nothing. Ultimately, he was just the most insignificant ordinary person in the apocalypse. Being able to accomplish all that was entirely due to his experience from his previous life and what he had learned in the underworld. For him, the process had still been extremely difficult.

After meeting Huo Changfeng, the tension he had been holding onto suddenly relaxed. The exhaustion and fear accumulated over months surged up all at once, so falling seriously ill wasn't surprising. But so much had happened, and he hadn't been aware of any of it.

Probably noticing his astonishment, Guan Jianrui said, "The boss protected you really well. Even during fights, he never left your side—"

"Ahem!" Huo Changfeng coughed heavily.

Guan Jianrui shut his mouth but raised his eyebrows at Bai Tu in a teasing manner.

There was a medical kit in the back seat. Bai Tu took it, opened it, and tugged at Huo Changfeng's sleeve.

Huo Changfeng hadn't expected him to notice. "They're just minor injuries..."

Bai Tu held onto his sleeve, not using much force but not letting go either, pursing his lips and looking at him stubbornly. Huo Changfeng immediately gave in, unclenching his fist and offering his hand.

Both his palms were injured—some burns, some scrapes from who knows what. Bai Tu carefully disinfected them with iodine, applied anti-inflammatory ointment with a cotton swab, wrapped them in two layers of gauze, and finally, holding Huo Changfeng's fingertips, said, "Thank you."

He held Huo Changfeng's fingers with both hands, just resting them lightly without force, yet there was an inexplicable sense of cherishing and valuing. Huo Changfeng felt uncomfortable again, withdrawing his hand to look out the window. "No need to thank me. I accepted payment for protection. This is what I should do."

Even as he said this, the two bags of crystal cores he had accepted remained untouched, determined to keep them for Bai Tu himself—he still believed it wasn't impossible for Bai Tu to awaken a superpower.

"What protection payment?" Guan Jianrui leaned over to ask.

A vein twitched on Huo Changfeng's temple. He casually grabbed a medicine bottle and threw it over. "You talk too much!"

Guan Jianrui caught it with a laugh, but his smile suddenly froze. The vehicle jolted violently, as if it had run over a giant rock. Guan Jianrui, not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown upward. The medicine bottle slipped from his hand and disappeared into some corner. At the same time, Huo Changfeng quickly pressed down on Bai Tu's shoulder with one hand while grabbing the back of the front seat with the other, firmly securing both of them in their seats.

The vehicle screeched to a halt but still skidded forward several meters, tires screeching against the asphalt. Bai Tu's body lurched forward uncontrollably but was immediately stopped by the strong hand on his shoulder. Before he could steady himself, a powerful force from behind shoved him forward.

—The car behind them had failed to brake in time and rear-ended them.

Even Huo Changfeng was caught off guard this time. Seeing Bai Tu's forehead about to hit the front seat, he set aside the inexplicable awkwardness in his heart and quickly reached out to pull Bai Tu toward himself, firmly securing the person within his arms. Before he could steady them, he asked, "What's wrong ahead?"

Xiang Yubo's expression was grave. "The road ends."

Even though the vehicle had stopped, the car body was still shaking. The light inside the cabin visibly dimmed. Immediately after, urgent and violent banging sounds came from the car walls. Bai Tu glanced out the window and paled. "It's mutated poplar trees. We need to leave quickly. When they're in an aggressive state, they secrete a pheromone that attracts symbiotic mutated birds. Those birds are fierce and prefer human flesh."

Guan Jianrui paled, clutching his forehead where it throbbed from the impact. "I want to get out of here too! But right now, we can't even open the doors."

Outside the window, thick branches were densely packed, some winding around the vehicle, clearly intending to ensnare the entire car. The car was already rocking and tilting. Xiang Yubo gunned it several times to no avail, his expression grim. "We can't move. The tires have been punctured."

"It has thorns?!" Guan Jianrui exclaimed in despair.

"Yes, they're extremely hard. With repeated impacts, they can punch through stone." The light inside the cabin grew increasingly dim. In the few moments it took to speak, the mutated poplar branches had already wrapped around the entire vehicle. Bai Tu could feel the unmistakable sensation of being lifted, his body swaying left and right with the cabin. "The tree thorns are highly toxic. Be careful not to get pricked."

The battering continued, growing even more intense. A dense mass of branches thrashed wildly right in front of the windshield, their sharp thorns scoring the glass. Suddenly, a loud crash sounded—something had struck hard. A clear crack spider-webbed across the bottom left of the windshield, spreading outward in concentric circles. As the cracks spread, shrill screeches seemed to rush in from outside.

Guan Jianrui cursed. "Is that bird calls?"

All of this happened in a flash. Before anyone else could respond, dozens of bird claws appeared outside the car windows, followed by large, powerful wings. Amidst the gaps between the wildly thrashing branches, countless grotesque bird faces loomed into view—hooked beaks, crimson eyes—horrifying beyond words.

"What the hell are these things?!" Xiang Yubo swiftly detached a seatback, morphed it into a flattened sheet of metal. Guan Jianrui grabbed it and pressed it against the cracked glass.

"They're gray starlings," Bai Tu said, clutching Huo Changfeng's clothes tightly and pressing close to him. "After the poplars mutated, they could no longer produce catkins. Their seeds can't rely on wind for dispersal; they need the Gray Qiong birds to carry them to new soil. In return, the trees help the birds by trapping prey."

"I don't care what birds they are! They're not cute at all! Think of something, I'm not gonna last!"

The Gray Qiong birds' beaks and claws were incredibly strong; even the force of their flapping wings whipped up powerful gusts. The cracks quickly spread across the entire windshield, and the other windows weren't spared either.

The instant a bird's beak punched through the windshield, Huo Changfeng shouted, "Get down!"

Guan Jianrui quickly slid down, retracting the metal plate while pulling Xiang Yubo with him, using the plate to shield them both.

Thunder cracked, and lightning flared. For a moment, ear-splitting bird cries filled the air, the sound of flapping wings becoming chaotic and frantic. The air grew thick and foul with the stench of scorched flesh and feathers.

But Bai Tu only felt a hand reach behind his head, covering his ears and pressing him into a clean, warm embrace. His face was buried in Huo Changfeng's clothes, breathing in the fresh, clean scent of soap.

It had been far, far too long since he'd last experienced such an embrace. He felt tears pricking his eyes.

The flashes of lightning and faint rumbles of thunder lasted a long time—so long that Bai Tu could hear Huo Changfeng's gradually quickening heartbeat and his increasingly labored breathing. Keeping up that level of power output was a strain, even for Huo Changfeng.

He had no idea how much time had passed when the surroundings finally fell silent. The car abruptly dropped from mid-air, shaking violently once more. But Bai Tu knew the crisis was over.

Huo Changfeng released him and got out of the car. Guan Jianrui and Xiang Yubo quickly followed, throwing aside the metal plate and hurrying toward the back. Voices, some high, some low, soon rose. Fan Xinglu seemed injured; Guan Jianrui's voice shot up in panic, anxiously asking how he felt.

Bai Tu got out and saw Fan Xinglu's glasses were smashed, dangling precariously from one ear until Xiang Yubo silently removed them. Three parallel, narrow wounds ran down Fan Xinglu's left cheek, dripping blood—likely claw marks from a Gray Qiong bird.

Ji Songyue, a healer-type, was carefully focusing her superpower on Fan Xinglu's wounds.

Mutated Gray Qiong birds weren't venomous, so Bai Tu shifted his gaze without much concern.

Huo Changfeng stood to the side, his hands hanging loosely at his sides, clenched into loose fists. The bandages wrapped around his hands not long ago were now nothing but a layer of charred black.

Bai Tu turned to look ahead. The long asphalt road seemed endless. Around the vehicle lay charred bird corpses and branches. Even the tall poplars on both sides had been reduced to charcoal, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Patches of green remained scattered in the fields on either side, but under these circumstances, they looked particularly desolate.

After a while, Bai Tu sensed someone approaching. He turned and heard Huo Changfeng ask, "What are you looking at?"

A fine sheen of sweat coated Huo Changfeng's forehead. Bai Tu shook his head, stood on his toes, and used his sleeve to wipe the sweat away. For some reason, Huo Changfeng didn't retreat, silently watching him.

Bai Tu bent down and retrieved the first aid kit from the car. It had been open during the mutated poplar attack, and most of the supplies had spilled out. It took him several minutes to find the iodine, cotton swabs, anti-inflammatory ointment, bandages, and anti-inflammatory pills.

He removed the shattered, ruined bandages from Huo Changfeng's hands, disinfected the wounds, applied ointment, and re-bandaged them. Then he turned, pulled a water bottle from the car door's storage pocket, unscrewed the cap, pressed out an anti-inflammatory pill, and handed it to Huo Changfeng to swallow with water.

Only after Huo Changfeng had taken the pill did Bai Tu speak. "Protecting someone is never just an obligation."

Huo Changfeng was taken aback, then realized Bai Tu was responding to his earlier comment about "collecting protection fees."

"But if I keep paying protection fees, will you keep protecting me?" Bai Tu continued immediately.

Huo Changfeng gripped the water bottle. "How long is 'keep'?"

"'Keep' is keep," Bai Tu said seriously. "There's no 'how long.'"