This neighborhood’s environment wasn’t bad, except the security guards weren’t very friendly, and not very clean either.
Covered in blood, they rushed over one by one, only to be sent away one by one.
“Way too impolite. Weren’t they supposed to say ‘Welcome to Beijing’?” Jiang Xinghuai muttered while following Fu Yan’s footsteps, running into the building entrance.
“Cold?” Fu Yan asked, wiping the rain off his face with one hand.
“Not cold.” Jiang Xinghuai closed his eyes, waiting for him to finish wiping, then turned back in puzzlement to look at the path behind. “Wait, that’s not right.”
Through the curtain of rain, a thin mist had spread, blurring everything into large, hazy patches of color.
Green shrubs, the blue guard booth, and the gray body of the security guard lying on the ground.
“There are too few infected.” Fu Yan narrowed his eyes, voicing his suspicion.
From the neighborhood gate all the way here to the building, they had only run into three security guards coming out of the booth.
“Where did the infected go?” Jiang Xinghuai turned his head again to glance inside the building. “Even if they’re hiding from the rain, they wouldn’t stay quiet after hearing noises, right?”
Because of the temperature difference between inside and out, the glass of the building had fogged up.
Jiang Xinghuai couldn’t see what was happening inside at all. “It looks like—”
“Don’t talk.” Fu Yan stared fixedly ahead.
The faint rustling hidden in the rain grew louder and louder. The mist began to churn and surge. Something was sprinting toward them at high speed.
Shhh!
In an instant, the corpse of the security guard was yanked backward, dragged sharply into the fog.
Fu Yan swiftly raised his gun in that direction.
“What… what is that…” The hairs on Jiang Xinghuai’s back stood on end. “Where’s the security guard uncle?”
A gust of wind blew, scattering the mist.
Jiang Xinghuai’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Beside the greenbelt lay the security guard uncle, ripped open in just a few seconds, his stomach torn apart.
Squatting at his side, gnawing on his face, was a gaunt skeleton. The shriveled skin had no flesh or blood beneath it, only taut against each clearly visible bone, like a dried corpse specimen come to life.
Just then, that thing lifted its head.
An intense wave of danger and dread instantly swept through both of their nerves.
“Run! Into the building!” Fu Yan quickly fired several shots at the skull creature while shouting and backing away.
Jiang Xinghuai spun around, shoved the door open, and rushed inside. “Hurry, hurry, hurry!”
Fu Yan darted in after him, slammed the door shut, and bent down to grab a security baton off the floor, jamming it between the handrails of the glass doors.
The next second, the skull creature smashed hard against the glass, the fragile doors shuddering violently inward.
Jiang Xinghuai jumped back in fright. That speed was terrifying.
“You didn’t hit it?” Jiang Xinghuai asked in shock.
At that distance, there was no way Fu Yan could have missed.
“I hit it.” Fu Yan’s expression darkened.
He had fired two shots. He was absolutely certain both had hit the skeleton’s head.
Crack—
A sharp, breaking sound suddenly rang out.
With the skeleton’s relentless ramming, cracks began to spread across the glass door, unable to withstand the strain.
The glass was about to shatter.
“Go!” Fu Yan grabbed Jiang Xinghuai’s arm and yanked him toward the stairwell.
The lobby floor was smooth tile. Jiang Xinghuai’s shoes were soaked through from the rain, and in his rush, his foot slipped out from under him. He fell face-first to the ground.
But Fu Yan couldn’t catch him.
Jiang Xinghuai scrambled back up, wiped the blood from his nose, and immediately pulled Fu Yan forward as he shouted, “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine!”
Fu Yan felt both distressed and amused. He grabbed him backhanded. “This way!”
The stairwell door was wide open. With one glance, they saw inside: severed limbs of infected and half-eaten organs littering the steps.
Suppressing the nausea rising in his stomach, Jiang Xinghuai rushed in. Together with Fu Yan, they shut the heavy fire door of the stairwell and locked it tight.
From outside came the sound of glass shattering!
Jiang Xinghuai and Fu Yan exchanged a glance, then turned and sprinted upstairs toward the second floor.
The second floor looked no different from the first—snow-white walls splattered with blood, the ground covered in shredded flesh.
Jiang Xinghuai didn’t dare look too closely. Once the door was closed, he followed Fu Yan and continued to run upward.
The two of them rushed up five flights of stairs in one breath. Only after locking the stairwell door did they finally stop to catch their breath.
After all, no one could be sure how destructive that skull creature truly was.
“This is what a real zombie is like…” Jiang Xinghuai’s hands were trembling nonstop, his face pale. “It actually eats… eats…”
“It’s alright, it’s alright, don’t think about it.” Fu Yan lifted both arms and held him, gently patting his back over and over.
“It’s so disgusting.” Jiang Xinghuai buried himself in Fu Yan’s embrace, taking a deep breath to drive away the heavy stench of rotten flesh lingering under his nose.
Fu Yan lowered his eyes, staring at the blood on the ground, lost in thought. Compared to the infected, this skull creature was faster, stronger, and, unlike them, it not only hunted living humans but also ate infected.
So, was the skull creature a further mutation of the infected, or was it caused by another kind of virus entirely?
The person in his arms gradually calmed down, pulling Fu Yan back from his thoughts.
“Let me check your nose.” Fu Yan pinched Jiang Xinghuai’s chin and tilted his head upward.
“It’s fine, just a little nosebleed.” Jiang Xinghuai explained while looking up, then frowned again. “What exactly was that skull thing? Why couldn’t bullets kill it?”
“Not sure yet. Let me think on it more.” Fu Yan lowered his head, carefully checking, his fingers sliding from the tip of Jiang Xinghuai’s nose to the bridge. Once he was certain there were no other injuries, he finally breathed easier, ruffled Jiang Xinghuai’s hair, and said, “Let’s go.”
They climbed two more floors safely. In the stairwell, aside from their footsteps, only the sound of pouring rain outside could be heard.
“Let’s talk a bit.” Jiang Xinghuai squeezed Fu Yan’s fingers. “It’s too quiet.”
“Mm.” Fu Yan looked down at him. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know either.” Jiang Xinghuai thought hard. “I just want to eat steak… The one you pan-fried for me at your place was really delicious.”
“I’ll make it for you again when we get back.” Fu Yan said, then suddenly remembered something he had been holding back since last night, something he really wanted to ask.
Fu Yan cleared his throat. “Last night you said you didn’t like… ahem… didn’t like the person you had a crush on anymore. Why is that, exactly?”
Jiang Xinghuai was puzzled why Fu Yan brought this up out of nowhere, but after thinking for a moment, he said, “Because I feel like…”
He stopped mid-sentence and halted his steps.
Fu Yan also stopped.
At the stairwell corner ahead stood a woman in a black professional suit, her back to them, hair messy.
“Because I feel like I’ve started to like—” Jiang Xinghuai raised his gun.
The woman suddenly turned her head. Half of her nose was missing, the wound torn open, along with a chunk of her face ripped off, leaving a bloody mess.
“Holy shit!” Jiang Xinghuai had never been this close to such a disfigured infected before.
Startled, his aim went off, and the burst of bullets hit only the woman’s feet.
She toppled forward, crashing straight toward Jiang Xinghuai. The distance was too close. Fu Yan didn’t dare fire, afraid of hitting him.
Instead, he quickly drew the knife from his waist, grabbed the woman’s arm, and twisted it, forcing her down by the neck. With one swift thrust, the blade pierced through her eye socket into her brain. The movement was sharp and clean, without a trace of hesitation.
Fu Yan pulled the knife out, its edge dripping with blood. The woman no longer moved.
“You just said you felt like you liked someone. Who was it?” Fu Yan stood up, flicking the blood off his blade.
Jiang Xinghuai swallowed hard. “……No one.”
Whoever ended up with Fu Yan one day, Jiang Xinghuai would definitely admire them. Their head couldn’t possibly be filled with a brain. It had to be all guts.
Starting from that female infected they encountered, the higher they went, the more infected they found gathered on each floor.
Their pace grew slower and slower.
Jiang Xinghuai stepped on an infected lying on the ground still trying to bite at his foot, aimed at its head, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Blood splattered.
“Come here.” Fu Yan, breathing heavily, put his gun away and reached out to take his hand.
“I can’t… my hands are numb from the recoil. I’m out of bullets, too.” Jiang Xinghuai shook his hands out.
“Rest for a while.” Fu Yan led him to the wall, found a barely clean spot, and sat down with him.
“What time is it?” Jiang Xinghuai tugged at Fu Yan’s hand, pulled back his sleeve, and peered down. “…I can’t read this.”
“How old are you this year?” Fu Yan teased.
“Eleven.” Jiang Xinghuai leaned his head back against the wall. “How old are you, uncle?”
“Hungry?” Fu Yan unzipped his backpack, pulled out some bread and canned food, and handed them over.
“This stuff doesn’t taste good. I want steak.” Jiang Xinghuai grumbled.
“Such a baby.” Fu Yan tore open the bread wrapper and placed it in his hand.
“That skull thing… what exactly was it?” Jiang Xinghuai took a bite of the bread, still shaken as he recalled the monster. “Was it some kind of evolution?”
“No.” Fu Yan frowned. “I think that kind of change might actually be true ‘death’.”
“You mean… the infected can die again?” Jiang Xinghuai froze, then suddenly remembered those infected hiding from the rain. Muttering under his breath, he guessed, “If they hide from the rain, does that mean they still have human consciousness? Are they still human right now? Then when we kill them, doesn’t that mean—”
“No.” Fu Yan cut him off, brows furrowed. “No, they’re not human anymore. Maybe someday there’ll be a way to change things, but right now, they’re not human. Right now, they’re just monsters.”
“…Mm.” Jiang Xinghuai nodded, his mood sinking.
If he regarded these infected as zombies, he felt no hesitation or regret pulling the trigger.
But if… these infected were people who might still be saved, he wasn’t sure he could bring himself to fire.
Fu Yan sighed softly. He knew exactly what Jiang Xinghuai was thinking.
“Come here. Rest for a bit.” Fu Yan reached out and pulled him in by the shoulder.
Jiang Xinghuai leaned over naturally, as if tucking himself into some safe place, knees drawn up as he curled into him.
The stairwell wasn’t big, and it had no lights—only the ventilation fan spinning quickly outside under the force of the wind.
The two of them just sat there quietly, resting against each other.
“Will Zheng Yi be home?” Jiang Xinghuai suddenly asked in a low voice.
“We’ll find him,” Fu Yan answered.
“Will Old Geng die… will he hold on until we get back?” Jiang Xinghuai asked again.
“He’ll see you take the college entrance exam,” Fu Yan said.
Jiang Xinghuai pursed his lips and smiled quietly, then suddenly noticed the fabric under his fingers was still damp.
The clothes on him were thin and were already half-dry.
But Fu Yan’s suit jacket was thick and was still soaking wet.
Jiang Xinghuai frowned. “How is your coat still not dry? Your cold just got better. Don’t catch it again.”
“It’s fine.” Fu Yan patted his jacket. “I’ll just take it off.”
“If you take it off and wear one shirt, you’ll still be cold.” Jiang Xinghuai stood up and looked around. After rifling through the horde of infected for a long time, he finally came across one intact, warm piece of clothing and picked it up. “This is not bad.”
“I don’t think it suits me,” Fu Yan said.
“You just called me a baby not long ago. When did you start caring about what suits you? Look if it fits!” Jiang Xinghuai frowned, scolding him. “If you insist on wearing a suit all the time, can’t you try some other styles? Right now, warmth comes first!”
Fu Yan: “………………”
Three minutes later.
Walking on the stairs, Fu Yan, now wearing a women’s pink cashmere cardigan, shouldered a big gun and tried to hide the bow at his chest.
