This mission would take them deep into the Dayu Base. Fu Qi said he had dealt with them before, and quite a few people there knew him. The moment he entered the base, word would be reported to the higher-ups.
That meant the key to the mission rested with Qin Zhen.
It was her first mission, and she already had to shoulder the main responsibility. The Zombie was extremely nervous.
Fu Qi did not know whether he was trying to comfort her or being sincere when he said, “Just tell them you’re Academician Jiang’s granddaughter, and that I escorted you here to find him. They haven’t completely fallen out with the government yet, so there’s no reason for them to stop you from seeing your grandfather. Once you’ve confirmed that Academician Jiang is safe, find a chance to drive out of there.”
“That simple?” Qin Zhen asked incredulously.
“It’s not exactly simple,” Fu Qi said. “They’ll definitely be on guard against me. Once we enter the base, they’ll separate us, so most of the time, you’ll have to improvise.”
Qin Zhen grew even more nervous. “Aren’t we, um... a couple? They’ll still separate us?”
Fu Qi nearly forgot about that. He smiled and said, “Oh, right. I forgot. Then we can say the government of the Dawn Base detained you to force Academician Jiang to return. As your boyfriend, I brought you here to elope and find your grandmother. That way, we won’t have to separate.”
Qin Zhen thought it was a great idea. Fu Qi had eight hundred brains, and the two of them together could make up for the empty space left by her own brain, which did not know how to turn. That way, they would not have to worry about some unexpected incident causing the mission to fail.
She nodded seriously. “All right. Even if we die, we, we won’t separate.”
Fu Qi started laughing again.
The Zombie was baffled. When she finally realized he was laughing at her words, “Even if we die, we won’t separate,” Qin Zhen grew irritated and said, “We’re discussing the mission. Can you be, be serious?”
Fu Qi laughed even harder.
Qin Zhen glared at him. She waited until he had finished laughing and was reasonably sure he would not start acting up again before continuing. Who knew that the moment she opened her mouth, Fu Qi started laughing once more.
“This plan sounds pretty, pretty good, but it slanders the, the government. Would the, the national leaders be unhappy?”
The Zombie had asked the question with a deeply worried frown. Seeing Fu Qi’s reaction, she became furious and stopped talking to him altogether, turning her back on him.
Once Fu Qi had finally finished laughing and returned to discuss the mission, Qin Zhen suddenly thought of how to get back at him. She turned around and said coldly, “People with such a low, low threshold for laughter can’t be team, team leaders!”
Fu Qi acted as though he had been cursed. Once again, he nearly laughed himself unconscious.
He eventually managed to stop, but amusement still lingered in his eyes. Qin Zhen had the constant feeling that he would burst out laughing again the moment she said anything, and she was so annoyed that she did not want to see Fu Qi for the rest of the day.
When they could finally discuss serious matters properly again, the first thing Fu Qi brought up was teaching Qin Zhen how to drive.
The Zombie felt that she probably had not known how to drive in the past. The moment she heard that she had to learn, she became a little uneasy and asked, “Do I really have to learn?”
“Are you planning to make me do all the driving?” Fu Qi asked in exaggerated surprise. “In other teams, everyone takes turns driving. I’m your boyfriend, too. Don’t you care about me even a little?”
His surprise was far too theatrical, and his voice was dripping with insincerity. Qin Zhen immediately saw that he was pretending.
But she merely rolled her eyes at Fu Qi before agreeing to learn.
She had studied the map carefully and knew that the bases were far apart. Even if everything went smoothly, the drive would take at least ten days.
No matter how tough Fu Qi’s body was, he was still human and would get tired. The Zombie did feel a tiny bit sorry for her team leader.
She had just moved closer to listen to Fu Qi explain how to operate the car when she caught the slight upward curl of his lips from the corner of her eye. Qin Zhen immediately gave him a fierce glare before he could say anything.
Fu Qi had been glared at by her too many times. He knew exactly what that look meant and forcibly flattened his lips. However, he could not completely conceal the amusement in his voice. It sounded like a clear, warm mountain stream flowing beneath the sun, making it obvious that he was plotting something.
“I was only joking. I’m teaching you to drive as a precaution. If something unexpected happens and I have to stay behind to cover our retreat, you can drive Academician Jiang to safety first.”
Something similar had happened before. When Qin Zhen and the Fan Xu brothers went to the Dawn Base ahead of him, Fu Qi had gone alone to draw away the people from Country A.
Qin Zhen was not surprised at all. But perhaps it was because she would not have anyone familiar with her this time, or perhaps it was because the relationship between the Zombie and humans had changed, but she was unwilling to accept that outcome. She asked, “Can’t we, we go together?”
“If we can, that would obviously be best,” Fu Qi said. “But if we can’t, we’ll have to split up. Someone has to draw their fire, and I’m the best choice.”
The people at the Dayu Base knew who he was, so they would be most wary of him.
Qin Zhen fell silent.
Seeing her expression, Fu Qi let out a long sigh and said, “I can’t help it. Who told me to be a good person, and a responsible team leader at that?”
Qin Zhen no longer wanted to talk to him.
The human and the Zombie continued along the highway, chatting and bickering as they went. During the day, Qin Zhen learned how to drive. At night, they stayed in abandoned villages and towns. They often encountered zombies along the way, but one of them had quick reflexes and excellent fighting skills, while the other wielded a peachwood sword that cut through everything in its path. They dealt with the zombies without a hitch.
They also came across traces left behind by human survivors, though they never saw anyone. Fu Qi said those people were wandering survivors.
In the early days of the apocalypse, society had descended into chaos, and every kind of vile thing had happened. Some people had survived countless dangers to seek refuge in a base, only to suffer terrible treatment there. After the government rescued them, they would rather wander in groups, living precariously, than depend on a base again.
“They’re usually very wary and generally don’t want to interact with strangers. If we run into them in the future, remember to keep your distance,” Fu Qi warned the Zombie.
Qin Zhen nodded and committed his words to memory. The second time they came across those marks, a question suddenly surfaced in her mind. She asked, “Where were you, back, back then?”
“Where do you think I was?” Fu Qi countered.
Qin Zhen could not guess.
Fu Qi always said he was a good person. As much as she disliked him, the Zombie could not deny that. But would a good person simply turn a blind eye to things like this?
She could not imagine where he had been at the time.
Fu Qi did not answer immediately. After recalling the past for a moment, he said, “At that time, I was still working for the government.”
Qin Zhen assumed he had been carrying out missions with a government team. She let out an “Oh,” but after a moment, she suddenly exclaimed, “Then why don’t you, you work for the, the government, anymore?”
“Secret.”
Qin Zhen had originally planned to let the matter drop as soon as she heard that. Then she thought about it again. Fu Qi knew all her secrets, so why should he be allowed to keep his from her?
Besides, they were teammates!
“You don’t trust, trust me?” Qin Zhen demanded, her face stern.
“There’s no one I trust more than our precious Qin Qin.” Fu Qi smiled warmly, looking so irritating that he seemed to be begging for a beating. After a brief pause, he gave her a short explanation. “There are some things the government can’t get directly involved in.”
The Zombie was puzzled.
“It’s the same as with Academician Jiang.”
With that example, the Zombie understood almost immediately. She let out an “Oh.”
By the time they finished talking about it, it was already late. Fu Qi closed his eyes and went to sleep, while Qin Zhen lay beside him, using the light from her phone to read her novel. The more she read, the more she scratched her head.
The movement startled Fu Qi awake. He opened his eyes, reached out, and rested his hand on top of Qin Zhen’s head. His fingers scratched a few times through her hair as he asked lazily, “Got lice? Don’t you wash often? Could it be that, like your aloofness, your cleanliness is just part of the image you put on for outsiders?”
Qin Zhen swung her hand and slapped him hard in the chest. “I’m using my brain!”
Fu Qi hissed, rubbing his chest. “What did you figure out?”
Qin Zhen reconsidered her thought and, once she was sure she was right, said firmly, “You work for the gov-government. You’re still… still doing that thing where you make something obvious on the surface while secretly… secretly crossing the warehouse?”
“Repairing the plank road in the open while secretly marching through Chencang,” Fu Qi corrected her wording, though he did not deny the first part.
Qin Zhen knew she had guessed correctly. She pushed away the hand he had once again extended toward her head, propped herself up, and crawled over beside Fu Qi. Expectantly, she asked, “So you secretly work for the na-nation? I’m your team member, so does that make me half a ci-civil servant?”
“You don’t count.” Fu Qi lay on his back and glanced at the Zombie, who was leaning over him. Then he closed his eyes and said, “You didn’t pass the background check.”
Qin Zhen obeyed the law and had nothing to fear from a background check.
But how could anyone conduct a background check on a Zombie?
If she had been a Zombie for hundreds or thousands of years, would they have to bring in the national archaeology team?
Fu Qi was definitely talking nonsense again.
Qin Zhen yanked up the blanket and pulled it over his head. “You’re annoying.” Then she rolled back to the corner of the bed and continued reading her novel.
Under Fu Qi’s hands-on instruction, Qin Zhen was able to drive on the road by the third day.
To help her get over the heavy psychological burden of driving illegally, Fu Qi had even drawn her a driver’s license and tucked it into a compartment in her backpack.
The Zombie had a stronger sense of safety than humans and did not drive very fast. Fortunately, there was little danger during the early stages of this mission. Taking a little longer on the road would not matter, and it gave Fu Qi a good chance to rest.
Starting on the twelfth day after they set out, they began to draw close to a human survival base, and there were more and more zombies along the way. Several times, Qin Zhen was chased down by zombies because she was driving too slowly.
She did not dare hit them. Whenever there was no one around, she would get out with her peachwood sword, knock the zombies down one by one, then get back in the car and drive away with Fu Qi.
Fu Qi watched the show from inside the car the entire time, occasionally offering a few comments about how gently she fought the zombies and how she had hit him harder than that. Qin Zhen was so angry that she wanted to beat him up alongside the zombies.
Once again, they were passing through an intersection. Qin Zhen slowed down according to the traffic rules, only to be blocked by another group of inconsiderate zombies. She was just about to get out and clear the road when several gunshots rang out. One zombie after another collapsed.
The Zombie looked at the bodies scattered around them, then turned to Fu Qi in the passenger seat. “See? Only humans can disobey traffic rules. Other species that disobey them all get sh-shot.”
Fu Qi: “…”
He said, “That’s only because there’s no internet right now. Otherwise, humans who run red lights would get sentenced to death online too.”
The Zombie did not understand. She shook her head and sighed. “The law is so st-strict now. Dangerous. The human world is too dangerous!”
Fu Qi suddenly laughed. Using the excuse of checking whether the foundation on her face had smudged, he leaned over and pinched her cheeks a few times, then used a powder puff to touch up her makeup.
Once her makeup was fixed, the roar of an engine came rushing toward them before braking beside their car.
“Engine stalled?” asked a cool, clear female voice.
The speaker was a young woman riding a motorcycle.
The motorcycle was massive, wrapped in glossy black metal like a vicious steel beast crouched low to the ground.
The woman standing astride it, one foot planted on the ground, was no less imposing. She wore a black leather jacket and tall leather boots, with two guns strapped around her waist. Qin Zhen had never seen anyone in the apocalypse look so cool.
But what drew her attention even more was the woman’s healthy wheat-colored skin and her eagle-like eyes, full of untamed wildness.
Qin Zhen felt that this woman was strong enough to kick a zombie’s head clean off.
A genuine big shot. A truly cool woman.
A fake trying to stand before the real thing naturally felt a little guilty. The Zombie answered honestly, “No. I was afraid of hitting them, so I slowed down.”
“Huh?”
The other woman stared into the car window at Qin Zhen as if she had seen a ghost. Then she happened to notice Fu Qi beside her, and her expression shifted.
“So it’s Major Fu. That explains it.”
She said it as though anything incomprehensible involving Fu Qi became perfectly reasonable.
Fu Qi did not mind being viewed that way. He nodded at her and said politely, “Thank you for coming to our rescue, Miss Ye.”
Ye Hui: “You’re welcome.”
After saying that, she gave Qin Zhen another once-over and remarked meaningfully, “Your makeup looks pretty good.”
Then she rode away stylishly on her motorcycle.
After she was gone, Fu Qi introduced her to Qin Zhen. “That was Ye Hui, the daughter of the person in charge of the Dayu Base. The two of you are both called ‘Sister Night.’ You even have matching personalities. Looks like fate has brought you together.”
But that was not what mattered to the Zombie.
Qin Zhen clutched the seat belt and secretly peeked at Fu Qi several times. When he noticed and asked her with his eyes what was wrong, she carefully asked, “Swee-Sweetie… No! Captain, you’re Ma-Major Major?”
“I used to be. In the second year of the apocalypse, I gave up my rank and formed a private team, so I’m not one anymore.” Fu Qi raised an eyebrow. “What? Don’t I look like one?”
No!
If he had looked like one, Qin Zhen would never have dared steal his clothes, even if it killed her.
Working for the government was one thing. Having an official rank was another.
Qin Zhen still preferred to think of him as a tomb raider.
She looked as though she were about to cry. “I’m sorry, officer. Little Zombie was ignorant. I’ve offended you many times in the past…”
Fu Qi: “…?”
It was the first time anyone had called Fu Qi “officer,” and he was utterly baffled. After taking a careful look at the Zombie’s fearful, reverent expression, he finally understood.
“Wait. Let’s get this straight first.”
He turned sideways with great interest, rested one hand on the driver’s seat, and leaned toward the trembling Zombie. With obvious amusement, he said, “So now it’s Officer me who gets to turn the tables, take charge, and order the Zombie around?”
