When Qin Zhen first met Fan Xu, she thought he was exceptionally optimistic. He didn’t fit the image she had imagined of humans struggling desperately to survive in the apocalypse. At the time, she assumed he was just an idiot. Later, after meeting other survivors like Pink-Shirt Big Brother, she discovered that most people were actually pretty optimistic.
She mentioned it to Fu Qi once, and he said, “Maybe all the pessimistic ones are dead.”
A hellishly bleak answer, but a reasonable one.
Anyway, according to Fu Qi, everyone still alive these days valued their lives. They tried to stay optimistic—optimistic with a touch of negativity, negative with a hint of madness. It was fine.
Qin Zhen hadn’t really understood it before, but after seeing the inside of the base, she understood everything.
By the time the base was being built, the zombie virus was already beyond control. The government at the time had probably predicted what was to come. To accommodate as many survivors as possible, the base had been built on a massive scale, centered around a town and gradually expanding outward into the surrounding countryside.
After several years of construction, it was now brimming with the signs of life. Wherever one looked, aside from the occasional brick house, there were mostly wooden shacks and tents. Every household had a sign hanging outside: blacksmith, corpse collector, voluntary funeral companion, barter shop… There was everything under the sun, in all sorts of bizarre and bewildering forms.
The Fan brothers had signs of their own. One advertised a mobile-phone unlocking and entertainment shop; the other was a stall for fortune-telling, talisman drawing, and blessing ceremonies.
A cracked glass frame hung outside the latter stall. Inside were Fan Kong’s Taoist certificate, ordination certificate, and the real-estate title deed for their family’s Taoist temple. Nobody would bother picking any of those things up off the ground nowadays, so they weren’t worried about theft.
The stall’s main selling point was that it had all the proper certificates and operated according to regulations. It was enough to make a zombie’s legs go weak, leaving her unable to walk.
Fu Qi supported her by the arm. “Steady.”
In truth, they didn’t have to stay with the Fan brothers. It was Fu Qi who felt that if they encountered another Taoist in the future, Qin Zhen might fail to maintain her disguise and expose herself. It would then be very easy for someone to trick her into doing something evil.
To prevent that from happening, she had to face her fear of Taoists and overcome it herself.
It was important. For the sake of this matter, Fu Qi hadn’t even gone to look up the information related to their mission with Xu Feng right away.
But it was simply too difficult for a zombie. Qin Zhen hunched her head and let out two muffled whimpers.
“Boss?” Fu Qi reminded her to mind her image.
Boss Qin struggled between fear and vanity. In the end, trembling but resolute, she lifted her head.
Fu Qi: “…”
That vanity of hers was truly something else.
And rather cute, too.
The human felt a surge of affection for the zombie, but he remained heartless all the same. “I can compromise on anything else, but not this.”
Just as he put on his sternest expression, the Fan brothers opened the door ahead of them and went inside. When they looked back and saw the two of them still standing there, they assumed they objected to their fortune-telling scam.
Fan Xu hurriedly explained, “Don’t get the wrong idea! We’re not faking anything or conning people. We make everything clear when we sell it. They’re all just beautiful blessings—there’s no actual magic, and they can’t kill zombies. Hey, in times like these, who knows whether you’ll make it back after going out? People just want something auspicious to make themselves feel better!”
That explanation was exactly what Fu Qi wanted to hear, saving him the trouble of saying it himself.
Following the subject, he asked, “Business good?”
“Not bad! We all know zombies are caused by a virus, but on the surface, they look just like the walking dead. As luck would have it, capturing ghosts and suppressing evil spirits is what Taoism does best. Whether it works or not, we can always slap on the buffs first!”
Once Fan Xu’s chatterbox mouth got going, it was impossible to stop.
“Taoist talismans are convenient, so they sell the best. Evil-repelling copper coins come next. Lots of people buy them to wear around their necks. Peachwood swords aren’t practical, so they sell the worst. Brother Fu, Sister Night, I’ll give you two some later. Stick the talismans onto your guns. With firearms and the protection of the Three Pure Ones Patriarchs working together, even if your aim is lousy, you’ll still be able to awe the four corners of the world…”
The first part was acceptable. He had personally admitted that the talismans and peachwood swords were fake, which allowed the zombie to recover a little of her courage.
But when he reached the part about firearms and the Three Pure Ones Patriarchs, the zombie felt as if a talisman-covered bullet had pierced straight through her heart. She was scared half to death.
Fortunately, Fan Kong interrupted his twin brother and welcomed the customers inside.
The “corpse-driving technique” was cast once more, and Fu Qi didn’t have to play the villain. He watched as the zombie, utterly dejected, walked inside one slow step at a time all by herself.
It was enough to make anyone both relieved and exasperated.
The wooden house belonging to the Fan family had been built by the brothers themselves. It consisted of only two rooms. Originally, the brothers had each had one room, but now they had cleared one out for Qin Zhen and Fu Qi.
Fan Xu felt bad about making an ex-couple share a room. He wanted to sneak over and ask Qin Zhen what she thought. If she minded, the three men could squeeze into one room instead.
But either Fu Qi was there, or he stopped Fan Xu from going in, so Fan Xu had no choice but to give up on asking Qin Zhen. He said something to Fu Qi outside the room instead.
Fu Qi said, “It’s fine.”
Qin Zhen now wished she could cling to him, so giving her two rooms would actually have been what killed her.
Fan Xu’s eyes lit up. He asked in a lowered voice, “You two got back together?”
From the very first moment he had seen them at the base entrance, he’d wanted to ask. The way they stayed glued to each other, holding hands wherever they went—it had to mean they were back together!
Fu Qi tactfully replied, “It’s all thanks to you brothers.”
His little brother took that at face value and cheerfully said, “No need to thank us!”
Because Qin Zhen was “unwell,” she went straight to the room to “rest” after they arrived.
The bedroom had been cleaned in advance by the brothers. Traces of clutter remained on the floor, so they had clearly taken everything away with Qin Zhen’s cleanliness obsession in mind.
The wooden room was crude, but clean and orderly. Given the conditions, it was quite good.
Fu Qi said, “Your little brother genuinely wants to repay you. He’s so considerate. Touched?”
The zombie was touched, but didn’t dare move. She said she felt unwell and asked Fu Qi to check whether there were any talismans or peachwood swords hidden somewhere in the room.
The little house didn’t even have a decent piece of furniture. Everything was visible at a glance, and there was nowhere to hide anything.
“Then why do I f-feel so w-weak? I feel like my p-powers are f-fading.” Wrapped in the quilt, the zombie lay on the bed. Afraid the Taoist next door might hear her, she spoke in a trembling voice so low it could barely be heard.
Fu Qi sat beside her, organizing his backpack. Calmly, he reminded her, “Sweetie, you don’t have any powers.”
The zombie paused, then changed her wording. “My s-strength is f-fading.”
She had even started using a word like “strength.” She had probably been poisoned by some edgy, melodramatic movie or television show in the past.
But what could Fu Qi do?
He said, “Punch me and let me see.”
The zombie raised her fist and softly thumped him once.
Fu Qi: “…”
What a gentle punch. He had never experienced anything like it before. It didn’t even give him enough force to pretend to fall over.
“I really have b-become weaker… My s-strength is f-fading, my c-consciousness is d-disappearing, my b-body is m-melting…”
“Your use of parallel structure is pretty good,” Fu Qi chimed in. “Keep it up. After a few more tries, you won’t stutter anymore.”
“…”
The zombie’s eyes turned fierce, and she punched him hard.
Fu Qi hissed, rubbing his arm as he said, “All right, it’s confirmed. Sweetie, your strength is just as strong as ever.”
They had said themselves that everything outside was merely for show, its greatest purpose being psychological comfort. Qin Zhen had made it in alive, too, so of course she realized that this was simply the psychological effect caused by a zombie’s instinctive fear of exorcists.
Unfortunately, that clear-headed awareness wasn’t strong enough. It came and went, leaving the zombie feeling miserable.
Qin Zhen looked left and right, pulled the quilt around herself, and lay back down. After coughing weakly a few times, she said pitifully, “No, Sweetie, I… I still can’t… overcome it.”
Fu Qi nearly laughed out loud at her sudden change in behavior. Never mind whether she could overcome it—he had never even watched a zombie movie, yet he knew that no zombie coughed after getting injured. She had clearly cobbled this act together from all sorts of random sources.
He bent down and moved closer to Qin Zhen, touching her forehead as he patiently asked, “Then what do you want?”
Qin Zhen lay on her back and thought for a moment. “Could you… find me a coffin? Sleeping in a coffin would make me feel… safe.”
Fu Qi said, “Wait here.”
Fu Qi went outside, but he wasn’t actually going to look for a coffin.
Now that the dead could run, jump, and eat people, who would still use coffins? If he really went looking for one, not only would he fail to find it, he would probably be mistaken for a lunatic who had suffered a mental breakdown.
Since he knew that the zombie’s discomfort was caused by fear, the solution was simple: distract her.
Fu Qi went next door. The moment Fan Xu heard that he wanted to watch a movie, he immediately handed over a phone loaded with films and a battery-powered projector that he had prepared earlier.
As soon as he brought the equipment back into the room, the zombie’s face lit up.
Apparently, modern technology was still the best way to combat feudal superstition.
Fu Qi adjusted the projector, then tugged the quilt around the zombie into something resembling a coffin. In the gentlest voice he could manage, he asked, “Do you feel safer now?”
The zombie huddled inside the quilt and nodded reluctantly before becoming absorbed in the movie.
The base was crowded and chaotic, but it grew very quiet after nightfall. The only sound was the occasional rustle of the night wind shaking the signs outside.
Curling up in a little room to watch a movie in such surroundings really did feel comfortable. It brought a long-lost sense of peace and happiness. If he had to name one flaw, it was that they had chosen the wrong movie.
Qin Zhen wanted to watch an old-school zombie film, but there wasn’t one. As a second choice, she asked for a movie about an exorcist catching ghosts, but there wasn’t one of those either—and even if there had been, Fu Qi would never have let her watch it.
After searching for a long time, they finally settled on a tomb-raiding movie that had something in common with her.
Qin Zhen was completely engrossed by the adventurous buildup at the beginning, as well as the insects and hallucinations in the tomb. She was also very pleased and impressed when the beautiful female zombie appeared halfway through the film. She even crawled out of her “coffin” and sat up to watch with relish.
But when the ugly giant zombie finally appeared, the expression on her face changed.
First came shock, then disgust. Then she clenched her fists. Once the tense and thrilling scene had passed, she spun around and lunged at Fu Qi.
“They insulted… us zombies! I’m going to… fight you humans!”
Fu Qi: “?”
He restrained Qin Zhen and thought back over the movie’s content, his face darkening. “Did I splash black-dog blood on your head, or stuff a black donkey’s hoof into your mouth?”
Neither.
But that didn’t matter. Attack!
The innocent Fu Qi, who had suffered this outburst for no reason, was speechless. “I’m getting angry, you know, darling. I’m warning you—if you keep this up, I’ll really be mad.”
The zombie didn’t dare hurt humans, afraid that the exorcist would retaliate. She also didn’t dare hurt the reanimated corpses, because they had once been human, and she couldn’t be sure the exorcist wouldn’t come after her later to settle the score.
Fu Qi was the only exception.
Ever since Qin Zhen learned that all the high-tech inventions Fu Qi had mentioned in the tomb had been lies meant to trick her out of it, she had stopped regarding him as a human being. Whenever they disagreed, she simply hit him. Fu Qi had grown used to it.
It was just that this little zombie had been weakly calling him Sweetie and putting on such a pitiful act a moment ago. Now she was suddenly full of energy, no longer afraid of the exorcist outside, and baring her teeth and claws at him. It was truly infuriating.
“I spend all day coaxing you and giving in to you, and this is how you repay me? Using me to cross the river and then tearing down the bridge, huh? Fine, fine! Tomorrow I’m going to learn talisman-drawing from your underling…”
As soon as he mentioned the underling, the underling arrived.
There were several cautious knocks on the door, followed by Fan Xu’s timid voice. “Sister Night, Brother Fu, are you two fighting?”
The zombie, who had been going berserk and seeking revenge just moments earlier, instantly changed expression. She collapsed weakly onto the bed.
Fu Qi was still gripping her arm. “?”
This trick again?
He didn’t answer. Instead, he released her and lay down as well, pretending to be asleep. The room suddenly fell silent except for the music playing over the movie’s end credits.
The room had been full of shouting just now, and the sudden silence sounded extremely abnormal to the underling outside. He continued knocking, his voice growing anxious, as though he was about to break down the door.
“Sweetie…” Qin Zhen called softly.
“Sweetie’s injured,” Fu Qi said, eyes closed as he leaned against the foot of the bed. His voice was even weaker than hers. “Sweetie was badly wounded just now. He’s asleep and can’t hear anything or move at all. You’ll have to face this bravely on your own, darling.”
