Although Qin Zhen knew that being immobilized had only been a psychological effect, she still couldn't completely believe that the Fan Xu brothers knew no magic. Fu Qi had said that when he tricked her with the talisman, he had used a couplet, not a real talisman. What if real talismans actually worked on her?
"You're being a bit of a contrarian," Fu Qi said.
Taking a step back, even if cinnabar and yellow paper could really immobilize zombies, there was no way Fan Xu and Fan Kong's talismans would work...
Fu Qi had paid attention when he tore up the talisman yesterday. It hadn't been drawn with cinnabar at all, but with lipstick. A talisman that insincere was bound to be useless.
Unfortunately, the only effect these words had on Qin Zhen was to make her remember the new term "contrarian" and mutter inwardly that when it came to being argumentative, Fu Xiangxiang was ten times worse than she was.
In the end, Qin Zhen still agreed to go to the base with Fu Qi. There were three reasons.
First, Fu Qi promised that he absolutely would not let her be alone with the Fan Xu brothers and would do everything he could to cover for her. Second, Fu Qi said that Xu Feng also had a watch he had seized from the people of Country A and could lend it to her so she could get online. Third, if she didn't go back, Fan Xu would think she was dead and would blame himself.
Of the three, the first mattered most, and Qin Zhen emphasized it repeatedly.
"Now you realize how useful I am?" Fu Qi was still brooding over losing to a movie last time. After complaining for a while, he consoled her, "Don't worry. Zombies have fallen out of fashion. As long as you don't bring it up, no one will remember."
That was a terribly unpleasant way to put it, and a zombie drove an elbow into him.
Once everything was settled and they were preparing to leave, Fu Qi finally asked the question he should have asked the moment they met.
"You're taking it with you?"
The Little Zombie had been washed clean by Qin Zhen the night before. Unable to find any children's clothes, Qin Zhen had put it in an adult T-shirt, which hung on it like an oversized dress.
Its hands and feet were bluish-green. It bared its teeth at Fu Qi, its hollow eyes filled with longing for human flesh.
Qin Zhen tugged on the rope and dragged it back to her side. "I don't know."
"Then where are you going to put it?"
That question was just as difficult to answer.
Fu Qi saw that and changed his approach. "Why did you take her with you after jumping out of the car that day?"
Why?
Maybe because it had still been human when they jumped from the car—a living child, and a pitiful one at that.
Maybe because Qin Zhen didn't know where to go and was afraid that being a zombie all alone would be lonely.
Or maybe she simply liked playing the boss deep down, and after losing one underling, she had casually picked up a little sister instead... though that little sister often refused to listen.
Qin Zhen told Fu Qi each of these possibilities in turn, making him laugh. When he finished, he said, "You have some good thoughts there. But in this world, death is frightening, and being alive isn't exactly a good thing either."
He lowered his eyes to the Little Zombie, which was snarling at him, and his voice grew heavier. "Especially when you're alive without consciousness or dignity."
He hadn't interfered with Qin Zhen taking the Little Zombie with her before because he knew that her world was different from his.
Now that he was making his position clear, it was because she had to enter his world.
Qin Zhen understood what he meant.
For humans, he was right.
She held on to the Little Zombie and looked at its empty right sleeve as it struggled. She couldn't quite explain what she was feeling.
In the end, it was Fu Qi who sighed and said, "Then let's hide it somewhere for now. Once we're out of the base..."
Before he could finish, a gunshot rang out. A burst of blood exploded from the Little Zombie's head. It fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and went still.
"No need to thank me!" someone shouted in a hushed voice from not far away.
Qin Zhen was stunned. After a moment, she realized that someone had just performed an act of vigilante heroism. She looked toward the figure in the distance, said, "Oh," then turned back and said, "I remember now. I was originally going to take it to find my husband."
A family of three would be nice. There were no living people underground anyway, so the Little Zombie wouldn't go berserk.
It had never eaten anyone, either before or after death, so she wouldn't have to worry about some Taoist priest coming to slay it one day.
It could keep Qin Zhen company for a long time.
"Would that really be a good idea?" Fu Qi squinted at the people approaching from ahead and said, "Weren't you going to let me be your neighbor? It wants to eat me every day. Who's going to protect me?"
Qin Zhen said, "By then, you would already be dead."
"I'm still fragrant when I'm dead."
"..."
After those few exchanges, the person who had fired the shot came over. They were from the Dawn Base, out looking for medicine. They had also stayed nearby the previous night, and after hearing the commotion and seeing the zombie pounce on someone, they had kindly fired a shot.
After introducing themselves, the leader was delighted. Before they had left, Xu Feng had told him to help look for Fu Qi while he was out. What a coincidence that they had found him.
He suggested that they return together.
Fu Qi had no objection, but asked them to wait a moment.
He wrapped the Little Zombie's body in a bedsheet and buried it beneath a jujube tree. Then he said to Qin Zhen, "I've hidden it for you. If you ever want to go back underground, come and take it away."
Qin Zhen thought that would work and nodded. She buried the little electric fan alongside it as well.
After that, they officially set out, speeding along the road.
Qin Zhen's tablet had run out of battery long ago. She had originally planned to continue reading her paper novel, but the bumps in the road made it impossible to concentrate. Instead, she began watching the convoy ahead through the window. Remembering that Fu Qi had said Xu Feng belonged to the Dawn Base's special operations team, she asked, "Special operations... teams... what do they... do?"
"They transport people, retrieve information, locate equipment, compete for resources, and so on. They handle all kinds of tasks, and the danger level is relatively high. They generally don't stay at the base for long. The only exceptions are technology personnel and wounded people."
Xu Feng was recuperating at the base because he had suffered severe injuries not long ago and nearly died.
Qin Zhen was intrigued. "Does the base... have any technology... personnel?"
"Yes."
"Have them... make you... another watch. It would be convenient!"
"Do you think it's that easy?" Fu Qi saw through her immediately. "You just want to get online."
Qin Zhen felt guilty, then admitted it with righteous conviction. She had left her tomb in the first place to get online.
Then she asked Fu Qi, "Are you... one of them?"
Fu Qi nodded. "But I'm different from him. His team belongs to the government. I'm private."
Fu Qi gave Qin Zhen a detailed explanation. It sounded complicated, but in practice it was much the same as the bases themselves. Teams belonging to the government mainly handled missions assigned by the government. They had more equipment, weapons, and personnel, but also more rules and were not allowed to act independently.
Private teams had much more freedom. As long as they agreed on the payment, they accepted all kinds of missions, though their logistical support was somewhat weaker.
Some missions required everyone to work together to complete them, so the various combat teams had interacted with one another to some extent and knew each other.
After listening, Qin Zhen said, "Then you can only... work for a private team. You waste... everything after using it... just once. The government... wouldn't want you."
That was the truth. Thinking back over the time since they had met, Fu Qi had thrown away every rare item he used, including the watch and the glider. He had even turned Qin Zhen's tomb into a one-time-use structure.
The thought made the zombie angry.
“Nonsense. The government obviously wants me.” Fu Qi glanced out of the corner of his eye and spotted a base vehicle drawing near. He pressed down on the accelerator, putting some distance between them, and continued, “I’m the captain of the number-one special operations team in the apocalypse. I’m very popular.”
As he spoke, he freed one hand and tapped the side of his neck.
“I don’t believe you.” Qin Zhen had also noticed the approaching vehicles.
The group was driving three cars, each carrying three or four people, all armed.
Fortunately, she had seen much more of the world by now and was no longer as terrified of meeting people.
Qin Zhen took out her powder compact and patted her neck a few times. She tipped her head back so Fu Qi could check whether the mark was covered. After receiving his confirmation, she continued, “Their team has lots, lots of people. Your team has only you? You fell into a tomb, and you still have to find, find your enemy and salvage things.”
Fu Qi said, “That’s right. My team is desperately short of personnel, so do you want to join?”
The question came so suddenly that Qin Zhen froze. “Me?”
“That’s right, you.” Fu Qi kept his eyes on the road and spoke casually. “You’re practically five people by yourself. You could expand my team in one stroke.”
Qin Zhen: “…”
Qin Zhen guessed that the reason Fu Qi had no teammates was probably because he was so irritating that nobody wanted to be on a team with him.
The convoy took several detours before merging with a few other vehicles. With their numbers swelling, they headed toward the base in a grand procession. Since the concentration of human scent might attract zombies, they did not stop to rest during the night. They finally arrived near the base in the afternoon.
The last time Qin Zhen had been there, her mind had been filled with Fan Kong’s peachwood sword and his cry of “Wicked creature!” She had been so frightened that she was barely aware of her surroundings. This time, with Fu Qi backing her up, she cautiously poked her head out and looked around.
There were many people at the base, making it easy to attract zombies, so extensive defensive measures had been put in place.
The outermost line consisted of steel cables strung across the area, one after another at varying heights. At first glance, they looked like enormous fishing nets.
Farther in, steel plates divided the passage into S-shaped bends, much like the queue barriers at a tourist attraction. Watchtowers stood at regular intervals, each manned around the clock by guards carrying guns.
Only at the very center did the tall city walls begin.
The defenses were all quite simple. They were inconvenient for people to pass through, but anyone with a functioning brain could figure out how to navigate them. Zombies, however, could not, so the obstacles could block them or at least slow them down to some degree.
It took nearly an hour just to get through all the defensive lines.
Beyond the secure passage came personnel registration. Under normal circumstances, the process would have been rather tedious, but special operations teams were clearly treated differently. Once the staff confirmed Fu Qi’s identity, they quickly let them pass.
After that, someone came to ask Fu Qi to meet with somebody. While Fu Qi was speaking with the person, a familiar voice came from nearby.
“Sister Night!”
Only one person called Qin Zhen that. She shuddered and nervously grabbed Fu Qi’s arm.
Fu Qi glanced down at her, said goodbye to the person in front of him, and turned around with Qin Zhen.
The Fan brothers were running toward them.
They had already reached them by the time Fan Xu arrived, his face flushed with excitement and his words tumbling over one another. “Sister Night, you’re back! You’re all right… Thank goodness you’re all right. If something had happened to you, I really wouldn’t have been able to go on living!”
Qin Zhen tried her best not to look at Fan Kong behind him and took a deep breath, reassuring herself that everything was fine.
Fu Qi had already come up with an excuse for her. They did not know she was a zombie, and still admired her as they had before. All she had to do was continue acting cool and aloof.
Qin Zhen mentally prepared herself, held her breath, kept her face stern, and carefully nodded.
“That’s wonderful!” Fan Xu said happily, completely failing to notice anything amiss.
Qin Zhen let out a breath of relief. She thought to herself that a lackey was a lackey—so easy to fool.
She was quite pleased with her performance. She stole a glance at Fu Qi, who noticed and quietly gave her a thumbs-up.
Qin Zhen was delighted, but then someone said, “You must be tired. I’ll help you carry your things.”
Qin Zhen habitually began speaking in the dignified manner of a grandmaster. “No…”
She had barely uttered a single syllable when she realized that it was not the excited Fan Xu speaking, but Fan Kong, who was slightly taller than his brother. A buzzing filled the zombie’s mind, and her voice immediately spiraled out of control.
“…No no no no no, you don’t have to!”
Fu Qi: “…”
Fan Xu stared in surprise. “Sister Night, what’s wrong?”
“…” Qin Zhen was on the verge of tears. She pinched Fu Qi’s arm with the hand wrapped around it.
Fu Qi sighed and said, “It’s a side effect of the medicine.”
“Oh, oh!” Fan Xu immediately believed him. “Sister Night, you’ve been through so much!”
He knew that Qin Zhen had jumped out of the vehicle after the little girl, and since he had not seen the girl, he had already guessed what happened. He did not mention her and instead said enthusiastically, “I’ll take you to your place! I’ve got the movie all ready. I was just waiting for you to come back!”
Fan Kong, who was not familiar with the two of them, repeated his earlier offer out of courtesy and a desire to repay the brothers’ life-saving benefactor. “Just give me the things. I’ll carry them for you.”
Fu Qi did not mind letting him carry his backpack, but Qin Zhen’s was another matter. It was packed with her indispensable foundation and novels, which she needed to keep with her in the base so she could touch up her makeup at any moment.
Fu Qi was just about to see whether Qin Zhen could refuse on her own when he saw her obediently remove her backpack and offer it to Fan Kong with both hands, as if presenting a tribute.
“…”
Fu Qi quickly reached out and took it from him, then handed over his own backpack. “I’ll carry hers. She’ll need it later.”
He had barely dealt with that situation when, in the blink of an eye, Qin Zhen began pulling out the hair clips, hard candy, and Rubik’s Cube she had in her pockets, presenting them all to Fan Kong as well.
Fu Qi reached out, stuffed everything into his own pocket, and clasped Qin Zhen’s disobedient hand. He gave the two brothers a gentle smile and said, “She’s too tired… Is there somewhere she can rest?”
“Yes!”
The two brothers led the way. Fu Qi took one step, then noticed that Qin Zhen had not followed. He turned around and saw her standing there with a mournful expression.
“My legs are, are, are, are weak…”
Fu Qi was both amused and exasperated. He was just about to speak when Fan Xu, who was leading the way, heard the commotion and looked back.
“Come on, Sister Night! I’m taking you to rest!”
The zombie, whose legs had been weak only a moment earlier, instantly straightened up and strode forward.
After a few steps, Fu Qi tugged her back to his side by the hand. Only then did she whisper shakily, “Th-they might… might, might, might drive out the corpses!”
Fu Qi: “…”
He had no idea what to say.
Fine. He would just give her imagination a thumbs-up.
