Wen Qianshu smiled and suddenly said, “Sometimes I find it strange. Many gods are like humans, while some humans are more like gods.”
Jiang Yao: “What?”
“Nothing.” Wen Qianshu looked at her. For a moment, Jiang Yao felt her gaze was very gentle, as if she knew how much pain she was in.
Wen Qianshu: “Just consider it nonsense.”
She smiled, her deer-like eyes curving like a lake full of water. “My mother once said that if a person is good when they die, they will float up to the clouds and truly become a god, and they will never be sad again.”
2333: “?”
2333: “Your mother never said that.”
Wen Qianshu: “I already said I was talking nonsense. Shut your little mouth.”
2333: “??”
Jiang Yao let out a laugh, the first time she had smiled since waking up. She licked her chapped lips and asked in a low voice, “Is that so?”
Wen Qianshu: “Yes.”
She smiled warmly. “My mother is very kind.”
“She probably thinks everyone in the world is kind, that everyone will become a god and be happy for a lifetime.”
Jiang Yao was silent for a moment, then asked, “What about you?”
“Do you think people are kind?”
Wen Qianshu was taken aback. She rested her elbows on the railing and looked down.
She saw Lou Jiu standing there, wrapping an anti-bite strap around her hand.
Lou Jiu was always focused when doing things, and wrapping the anti-bite strap was no exception. Her back was straight, her eyes slightly lowered, and her long fingers hooked the edge of the strap’s loop, winding it circle by circle.
The sunlight shone on her face, passing over her long eyelashes, her nose, and her restraint device, kissing her neck and shoulders.
She was a person kissed by the sun.
Back in the Main God’s space, Wen Qianshu often wondered if the reason 2333 always said this line was difficult was because the moon had failed to repair many worlds.
She is a doctor. In every world, she is a doctor.
Even if she doesn’t remember, even if the reasons are bizarre and varied, she still becomes a doctor, still saves people.
How many worlds has she experienced?
How many were successful, and how many were failures?
How many people has she watched die before her eyes, unable to save them despite having the best medical skills?
Wen Qianshu interlaced her fingers and closed her eyes.
She thought of the person with light-colored eyes by her hospital bed back then; she remembered her white coat, swaying slightly as the wind blew past.
Even so, you still went to such lengths to save me?
To save someone like me, who repeatedly tried to commit suicide?
I had already given up, yet you believed I still had a long road to walk, a wonderful world to see?
“Yes,” Wen Qianshu said, answering Jiang Yao. “I believe.”
I believe people are kind.
“Perhaps some people aren’t—”
Jiang Yao turned her head to look at her, watching her look at Lou Jiu.
Wen Qianshu had no idea how much tenderness and warmth filled her eyes at that moment, like aged, overflowing wine that threatened to spill with the slightest glance. “But some people are.”
“Sometimes, just those few people are enough to make you forgive all the bad in the world.”
Just then, Lou Jiu suddenly looked up, her gaze meeting Wen Qianshu’s.
Wen Qianshu, caught staring, was completely unabashed and not at all afraid of being discovered. She simply smiled and asked, “Are we leaving?”
Lou Jiu: “Yes.”
Her gaze swept past Jiang Yao, who was looking at Wen Qianshu.
2333 felt that this atmosphere was strangely weird.
Wen Qianshu patted the dust off her pants and said, “Let’s go, Captain Jiang. They’ve all finished packing.”
Jiang Yao: “I’m sorry.”
Wen Qianshu turned, looking at her impassively. But Jiang Yao lowered her head and changed the subject. “I shouldn’t have threatened you with the needle.”
This time, Wen Qianshu didn’t smile. She just said, “It’s not easy for anyone. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
Wen Qianshu walked past her and went downstairs, just in time to see Shang Ci jump out of the driver’s seat and give instructions to Lou Jiu. “Gao Zai and Little Lunatic are with you. Captain Jiang is with me, alright?”
Lou Jiu: “Okay.”
Wen Qianshu laughed, raised an eyebrow, and asked indignantly, “Captain Shang, I provided you with a smoke show the whole way here, why are you still calling me that?”
Shang Ci leaned against the car door, his long legs propped up, and spouted nonsense, “It’s a term of respect, to show how much our team values you.”
Wen Qianshu: “…”
Gao Bai, still a bit out of it from last night’s events, widened his eyes, seemingly confused about what a “Gao Zai” was.
Captain Shang sneered, “That’s a term of endearment, to show your daddy’s appreciation for you.”
Lou Jiu ignored this display of “fatherly love and filial piety” and “deep comradely affection.” She picked up a bulging bag from the side and tossed it into the car with a thud.
She looked up at Jiang Yao again, but the other woman seemed to be in a daze, her gaze vacant and fixed on Qin Shu.
Lou Jiu frowned almost imperceptibly.
Just as Wen Qianshu walked up to her, Lou Jiu took two steps to the side, blocking Jiang Yao’s line of sight. “Get in the car first.”
Wen Qianshu agreed and got into the car. A small bag was pressed into her hand. She looked down and saw a few toffees, some chocolates, and a handful of energy bars inside.
Lou Jiu: “The doctor at the hospital gave them to me. Eat something to tide you over.”
Wen Qianshu smiled. “Thanks.”
Lou Jiu: “Mm.”
After settling Wen Qianshu, Lou Jiu turned to discuss with Shang Ci how to handle the little zombie.
Gao Bai led the survivors onto the vehicles one by one. Jiang Yao had also come downstairs. Her face was still very pale, as if she were barely breathing. Shang Ci glanced at her a few times, surprised by her condition, and couldn’t help but ask, “Captain Jiang, what are your thoughts?”
Jiang Yao was silent. She didn’t look at Shang Ci, but at Lou Jiu—the field doctor of Team 5. She had heard of her, and had even nearly tried to snatch her from Shang Ci back then. A top graduate from both medical school and the training camp, she was flawless except for a slight lack of strength.
The base had developed an anti-zombie agent, but it wasn’t perfect. It required the accompanying doctor to make judgments based on the infected person’s age, body temperature, and condition, adjusting the dosage and the ratio of different components. Too little an injection would lead to a failure in de-zombification, while too much could easily cause an imbalance in cell division, damaging the body or even killing the infected person.
This meant that doctors in the search teams had to study a large number of cases and devote all their energy to caring for patients. In short, it was a “three highs” job: high risk, high difficulty, and high mortality rate.
Therefore, the search teams were always short on doctors. Lou Jiu was skilled in medicine and exceptionally good-looking, so the single members of the search teams loved to talk about her. Jiang Yao’s team was no exception.
Jiang Yao looked at her, thinking—
Can this person be trusted?
Qin Shu is the Qin family’s child, Mrs. Qin’s daughter. Someone she considers kind—must be a truly good person.
Lou Jiu lifted her eyelids, her light-colored pupils turning to look at her. They looked at each other for a moment before Jiang Yao spoke. “Advanced zombies can’t control every other zombie. Those infected by their direct bites are under their precise control. But for those not directly infected by them, close-range visual contact or a verbal command is needed for control to be effective.”
“Just cover the little zombie’s mouth and eyes, and keep it separate from its mother. It’s young, so the dosage of Divine Light wouldn’t have been too high. It can precisely control one zombie, but any more would be a strain.”
This statement contained a lot of information. Shang Ci stood up straight. “What?”
Lou Jiu: “How do you know this?”
Jiang Yao’s fingers clenched. “Because I’ve investigated—in the base’s laboratory, someone invented a drug called ‘Divine Light’.”
“Its principle is similar to the anti-zombie agent, but unlike the anti-zombie agent, Divine Light contains a virus that achieves a delicate balance within the human body, giving humans a zombie-like state, ageless and undying.”
“Of course, this ‘undying’ is only relative to humans. If its head is struck hard, it will still die.”
Shang Ci frowned. Lou Jiu’s expression remained unchanged. They were observing Jiang Yao, and Jiang Yao was observing them as well.
Jiang Yao had only told them before that zombies that could obey commands had appeared, but she hadn’t told them there were even more advanced ones.
Jiang Yao: “I thought they wouldn’t expose themselves so soon.”
Shang Ci: “Why?”
Jiang Yao: “Because they aren’t satisfied with ‘Divine Light’.”
Jiang Yao rubbed her temples, her head aching fiercely. “First, ‘Divine Light’ is unstable and cannot guarantee a success rate. Second, when ‘Divine Light’ is successful, it creates high-level ‘Believers’—just like that little girl, who can speak, think, and control other zombies.”
“But they don’t need so many high-level Believers. They want mid-level Believers who can’t think and only know how to obey, but who also aren’t addicted to the carnal desire for flesh and blood.”
“This kind of mid-level Believer can only be created when a high-level Believer’s body fuses ‘Divine Light’ with the virus to produce a brand-new virus, which is then transmitted to a normal human. They call this stage the ‘Embrace/Kiss’.”
Jiang Yao: “They are still unsure how many generations of the ‘Embrace/Kiss’ it will take to truly obtain the zombies they want, so they are still experimenting. It’s impossible that they would release a Believer this early to infect so many normal humans.”
“So I don’t understand why they let this little zombie be exposed—”
Shang Ci’s brows knitted together, his expression solemn. He lifted his chin, signaling to Lou Jiu.
Lou Jiu raised her arm and extended her hand, which was clenched into a fist. Jiang Yao paused, realizing she had something to give her, and held out her hand to receive it.
It was a small glass vial, but the liquid inside was already gone.
Jiang Yao’s pupils contracted sharply. “You didn’t inject this liq—”
Lou Jiu cut her off. “Look at the vial.”
“I removed the liquid.”
Jiang Yao composed herself and lowered her eyes to look at the glass vial. But with just one glance, she froze on the spot.
Jiang Yao’s face turned deathly pale. Though her legs were standing firm, she felt the ground before her swaying. The figures of Lou Jiu and Shang Ci seemed to multiply, making her dizzy.
On the side of the glass vial were small words in a blood-like color—”A gift for you, my dear Yaoyao.”
Jiang Yao stared fixedly at it. For a moment, she could hardly feel her own heartbeat.
Jiang Yao wanted to swallow, but her throat felt dry and sore, as if someone were strangling her, and she couldn’t even swallow her own saliva.
“I—”
She suddenly remembered that this glass vial had been in Qin Shu’s hands earlier—did she see it too?
In an instant, she seemed to see her teammates again. Their faces were covered in blood as they staggered and asked, “Was it you, Captain?”
“Are you one of them?”
Would Qin Shu, like her teammates, also think she was one of those people? Would she also think that she was the one who got so many people killed?
Suddenly, Jiang Yao was no longer flustered. She felt a sense of reckless abandon, as if nothing mattered anymore. She had kept her promise to Mrs. Qin and found her daughter. The girl was doing well, protected by Team 5, and didn’t need her help at all.
It was just a pity that Mrs. and Mr. Qin had died for someone like her.
Shang Ci: “What have you decided to do? Are you going to play along?”
Jiang Yao: “What?”
Shang Ci: “Play along—since they want to sling mud at you, are you going to just take it, or are you going to switch the vial and pretend we don’t know?”
Jiang Yao was a bit dazed. She raised her head and asked, “You believe me?”
“My teammates followed me, and they all died. I’ve been hiding things from you this whole time, and you still believe me?”
Shang Ci chuckled and said, “Captain Jiang, on the day I joined the Search Team, you were the one who put on my restraint device, weren’t you? Have you forgotten?”
It was a tradition in the Search Teams. On the first day of joining, a captain from one of the teams would put a restraint device on the new recruit, signifying that even if they died out there, they had to control their mouths and never devour the flesh and blood of their own kind.
After putting on the restraint device, they had to take an oath: “I volunteer to dedicate myself to the Search Team, to fight for humanity, to fight for hope. I swear to be kind, I swear to be responsible, I swear to be just. If the light refuses to shine upon the earth, I will resist the darkness, until the last moment, until the last person.”
Shang Ci tilted his head back and smiled. “I asked you a question back then. I wonder if you still remember.”
It dawned on Jiang Yao. She remembered. She remembered the handsome, smiling, slightly lazy captain of Team 5 before her. He had once been one of the lowest-ranking trainees from the training camp to intern with the Search Teams, yet his eyes were bright and his smile was defiant. He had bent down slightly, lowering his head so she could put on the restraint device, and asked softly, “Captain Jiang, do you really agree that the so-called light, the so-called future of humanity, is worth a person’s life? Don’t you think it’s ridiculous to die for such empty words?”
At that time, Jiang Yao had just achieved a great merit and become a captain. She had a bright future ahead of her, and her heart was filled with a burgeoning passion. How had she answered back then—
She had said, “I actually don’t agree.”
“Oh?” The young man raised a long eyebrow, seeming to find it very interesting, and chuckled. “That’s not what they teach in school.”
Jiang Yao adjusted the strap of his restraint device. “I never agree that the light of the collective should override the life of an individual. After all, that’s something too ethereal, too distant. No one can guarantee that humanity’s future will definitely be bright.”
The young man was a little surprised, but he still watched her lazily with a smile on his face. With a click, Jiang Yao fastened the buckle of the restraint device, her gaze proud and mocking as she looked directly into his eyes. “But I am still willing to give my life for it.”
Jiang Yao: “It’s not worth it, but I am willing. That is the Search Team.”
“If you think it’s ridiculous, then get out.”
The boy from back then had now grown into a man. He repeated Jiang Yao’s words from that day: “It’s not worth it, but I am willing—isn’t that right?”
Shang Ci: “Captain Jiang, you tricked me into joining the Search Team with just one sentence and bluffed me into becoming a captain. You wouldn’t be unable to do it yourself, would you?”
Jiang Yao stared at him blankly, as if looking through his eyes at her younger self from all those years ago—arrogant and full of spirit. “What if I’ve really changed and am no longer trustworthy?”
Shang Ci said, “Then my Gao Zai wouldn’t be alive and well.”
Gao Bai seemed to hear his name and peeked over from a distance.
Shang Ci smiled at him, a rather mischievous glint in his eyes.
Gao Bai: “…”
Gao Bai pulled his head back again.
Lou Jiu: “She trusts you too.”
Jiang Yao was stunned again. She saw Lou Jiu avert her gaze and say coldly, “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept it from you and given the vial to me.”
Jiang Yao was bewildered. Her eyes ached terribly, so she covered them with one hand, unable to stop trembling.
It seemed that hell and heaven were only a few words apart.
She remembered that person’s gentle and polite words: “Captain Jiang, you see, no one will believe you, and no one is worthy of your trust—people are inherently suspicious and torment each other. Only by becoming a Believer can one possess eternal peace.”
No, that’s not right—there are still people who believe in me.
There are still many people who believe in me.
“Alright, pull yourself together.” Shang Ci smiled and deliberately patted Jiang Yao’s shoulder forcefully. “Go get something to eat. We can talk about the other things slowly later.”
Who would have known that Jiang Yao had no strength at that moment? With Shang Ci’s playful pat, she staggered forward a step and fell to her knees, catching herself with her elbows. This startled Shang Ci, who immediately reached out to pull her up.
A photograph slipped out of her breast pocket, fluttering down and landing on the ground.
As luck would have it, it landed face up.
Jiang Yao: “…”
Jiang Yao quickly reached for it, but saw another hand had already touched the photo. That hand had long, slender fingers, and was very beautiful even when wrapped in an anti-bite strap.
Lou Jiu picked up the photograph. It was a bit creased. The Qin Shu in the picture was younger than she was now, with long hair, wearing a school uniform, sitting properly on a sofa, facing the camera with a well-behaved and gentle smile.
Qin Shu liked to smile, and of course, she had smiled like that, but she had always only shown that kind of expression to Lou Jiu.
Lou Jiu stared at the photo, her face cold and emotionless, but it inexplicably made one feel flustered.
She glanced at Jiang Yao. “You know her?”
Jiang Yao: “I know her parents.”
She wanted to curse herself. She felt that she had been spacing out and acting foolishly lately, utterly stupid. Although Team 5 said they trusted her, their duty meant they would surely still be on guard against her to some extent.
With this, wouldn’t Team 5 start suspecting Qin Shu as well?
Jiang Yao wanted to explain, to clarify that Qin Shu didn’t know her, in order to clear Qin Shu’s name. But before she could speak, Lou Jiu’s expression grew even colder, her tone hostile. “Then why did you still threaten her with a sharp object?”
Jiang Yao: “?”
Shang Ci: “?”
Author’s Notes:
OOC Theater:
The situation suddenly became strange.
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