Qin Zhen, if she were a bad person, she would be the textbook sort who cared only about killing and never about burying the bodies.
After delivering a shocking speech that left everyone speechless, she tilted her head and collapsed, completely unconcerned with how the people outside were feeling.
Technically, the person who should have been hit hardest was Fu Qi—the one whose feelings and body had been toyed with. In reality, Tian Li had the biggest reaction. He was practically frantic as he shouted, “No, that’s not true! I have nothing to do with her!”
Would someone take a bullet for you if you had nothing to do with her?
At least, that explanation sounded painfully unconvincing to his two teammates.
Tian Li really wanted to shake the stiff Little Qin awake and make her admit that she had been talking nonsense just now. But he was afraid that touching Qin Zhen would only deepen the misunderstanding, so he didn’t dare lay a hand on her. When shouting failed, he grabbed Fu Qi and roared, “Fu Laoqi, say something!”
Fu Qi’s expression was bleak. He raised his eyes, three parts unwillingness, three parts embarrassment, and four parts melancholy in his gaze.
He closed his eyes in anguish, then opened them again and said in a low voice, “Qin Qin… Qin Qin is still young. She doesn’t know how to resist outside temptation… I don’t blame her.”
Tian Li: “...?”
He stared blankly at Fu Qi for several seconds, then turned to look at the “unconscious” lifesaver, before glancing at Lin Ye and the teammates behind him.
Both teammates’ eyes were shining with excitement. They looked as if they wished they could transform into cameras and record the whole scene.
“No, no… What the hell is wrong with all of you!”
Tian Li had spent the entire journey mocking someone else’s “love triangle,” and now karma had come for him.
He had been dragged into a complicated love polygon for no reason at all. Unable to defend himself, he let out a despairing, aggrieved roar and stumbled back to his teammates’ vehicle. With a loud bang, he slammed the door and went off to shut himself away.
“Your leg seems to have recovered pretty well.” One of his teammates, delighted to watch the drama unfold, cheerfully praised him before turning to Fu Qi. “Thanks for taking care of him all this time, Captain Fu. Much appreciated, much appreciated!”
The other teammate apologized as well. “Captain Fu, don’t take it personally. He’s only thirty-two. He’s still just a kid…”
No one knew how Fu Qi reacted. The Zombie, pretending to be unconscious, only knew that Tian Li’s two teammates did not seem particularly bright. They fit her stereotypical image of survivors in the apocalypse perfectly.
The farce outside ended with Tian Li and his group leaving. The farce inside the vehicle began with Fu Qi’s return.
Lin Ye was extremely awkward. At a loss for what to do, he said, “Brother Fu, Little Qin was just joking. Don’t take it seriously.”
Fu Qi shook his head and said quietly, “You don’t have to comfort me. I know. She’s always loved fooling around.”
Lin Ye had no idea whether “fooling around” referred to her playing pranks on and bullying Tian Li, or to her being fickle and promiscuous, hugging the bowl in her hands while eyeing the pot on the stove. He didn’t dare ask. After waiting awkwardly for a while, he turned around and started driving.
But his mind was still in the back seat. He secretly watched through the rearview mirror and saw Fu Qi climb into the rear compartment and gather the “unconscious” Qin Zhen into his arms.
Fu Qi stared expressionlessly at the Zombie for a moment, then said, “Open your eyes.”
Sooner or later, she would have to face the consequences. Qin Zhen was forced to wake up and slowly opened her eyes.
“I, I…”
She stammered “I” for a long time without managing to say anything useful.
Fu Qi let out a sigh and said, “I’m only asking you one question. Between Tian Li, me, and your former fiancée—and not your husband, he doesn’t count—which of the three of us do you like best?”
There was no need to hesitate. The Zombie answered decisively, “You! Sweetie, you’re my favorite!”
Fu Qi visibly relaxed. “Fine. I forgive you.”
“Sweetie, you’re the best!” Qin Zhen cried gratefully as she threw herself into Fu Qi’s arms. Fu Qi gently helped her up and asked with concern whether her wound hurt.
Qin Zhen immediately gave a few weak coughs and asked him to hold her and comfort her.
Fu Qi did exactly that. In less than half a minute, the two of them had returned to their former clingy, lovey-dovey state.
In the front, Lin Ye’s mind was still stuck on “your former fiancée” and “your husband,” two people he had never heard about before. Meanwhile, the couple in the back had already made up and were sweet as honey, leaving him so shocked that he was momentarily speechless.
Later, after the injured Qin Zhen took her medicine and “fell asleep,” Lin Ye finally managed to ask the question that had been troubling him.
“Little Qin… has she been married before?”
“Mm,” Fu Qi said. “Her husband has trouble getting around, so he’s waiting for her back home.”
“…”
Lin Ye opened and closed his mouth several times before finally asking, “She also has a fiancée?”
Fu Qi frowned. “That’s in the past.”
She really did have one?
Lin Ye hesitated, then said in an uncertain tone, “…Little Qin sure is pretty fickle, huh?”
“She’s always been like that. I’m used to it.”
Lin Ye was speechless. The vehicle continued on in silence for a while before he asked doubtfully, “Brother Fu, you’re not joking with me, are you? Little Qin… really has that many complicated relationships?”
That was a very tactful way of putting it. Put more bluntly: never mind whether Qin Zhen’s face was attractive or not—her figure certainly wasn’t anything special, since she was so thin. Her personality wasn’t particularly distinctive or endearing either. Could someone like that really have such an abundant supply of romantic admirers?
Fu Qi replied calmly, “Why couldn’t she? You want to become one of them too, don’t you?”
Lin Ye: “…”
He had almost forgotten. He liked her too.
“Heh heh, I-I’ll pass…” That path was far too crowded. Lin Ye decided to change lanes. “Actually, my feelings for Little Qin are more like the affection you’d have for a younger sister.”
Fu Qi said, “Whatever you do, don’t say that in front of her. She may be young, but she cares about her pride. She only wants people to treat her like the big sister. She doesn’t like being treated as the little one.”
Lin Ye’s expression froze. “...Then the big sister it is, haha. It’s all the same.”
“Then remember to call her Sister Qin from now on,” Fu Qi said.
Lin Ye had already said that he wanted to return to his southern hometown. Since he was traveling in the same direction as Fu Qi, and they happened to be short a driver, there was no reason to refuse. He continued traveling with them.
The advantage was that they had someone to drive, so Fu Qi and Qin Zhen only needed to lie in the back seat. It was wonderfully easy.
The disadvantage was that with an outsider present, it was inconvenient to talk.
For example, the Zombie was currently regretting the fact that she had forgotten her husband just now. If only she had thought of saying that Tian Li looked like her husband, and that she had taken the bullet for him out of love for her husband—she would have had a perfectly reasonable explanation.
One careless remark had turned her into a heartless woman. The Zombie felt a faint sense of melancholy.
“I really am a terrible woman.”
The Zombie scolded herself. But when she recalled the horrified look on Tian Li’s face, as if he had swallowed a fly, Qin Zhen decided that it had all been worth it. She happily hid beneath the blanket and started playing with her phone.
Fu Qi held her in his arms, feeling utterly helpless inside. He couldn’t exactly have woken Qin Zhen up on the spot, yelled at her for being a heartless flirt, hauled her to her feet, given her a beating, and then gone their separate ways.
Pick a fight?
Even worse. That would only give someone else an opportunity to move in.
Fortunately, being devoted and tolerant were virtues in a man, not traits that were too difficult to accept.
It was just poor Tian Li who had come to say goodbye out of kindness, only to be scared into fleeing in panic. He probably never wanted to see Qin Zhen again for the rest of his life.
Unable to speak freely in the vehicle, the two of them sat stiffly apart, each lost in their own thoughts.
After that, the journey went exactly as Fu Qi had predicted. For more than ten consecutive days, apart from zombies, they encountered no other danger.
Things had gone smoothly, but it had been an ordeal.
After Tian Li left, only three “people” remained.
Lin Ye had been driving the whole time. To take care of the two “injured patients,” he had even taken on the job of killing the zombies. Whenever they stopped to rest, it hardly seemed fair for the two of them to continue sharing one room while Lin Ye stayed alone in another. Wouldn’t that be isolating him?
They had no choice but to squeeze into one room.
Qin Zhen still had to pretend to be injured, so she couldn’t afford to seem too energetic. It was bad enough that she couldn’t talk much during the day; at night, she even had to lower her voice and pretend to be asleep. Apart from the moments when Fu Qi used changing her bandages as an excuse to get her away from Lin Ye, she hardly had any chance to speak freely.
The Zombie was practically going to suffocate into a dried corpse!
She had even considered telling Fu Qi to ditch Lin Ye and make a secret escape together.
Then, one day, she received a message from Tian Li, forwarded by Chen Xiang.
The message said that the small house where they had stayed on the day Qin Zhen was injured had been visited by people from Country A. Everything inside related to blood samples had been taken away.
Fu Qi had guessed it right!
Qin Zhen secretly asked Fu Qi why this had happened, but he told her to figure it out herself.
The Zombie still wasn’t especially clever, but she was no longer the mindless little zombie she had been when she first crawled out of the tomb. After thinking it over for several days, she gradually sorted out the situation.
First of all, on the surface, the bloodstains in that house belonged to her. She had never met those people from Country A. Why would they want her blood samples for no reason?
Unless they had discovered that she wasn’t human.
The only explanation was what had happened at the hospital. The golden-haired man’s watch had captured her image before he died, making the people from Country A suspicious.
That made sense—but how had they known that she and Fu Qi had stayed there? And how could they have been certain that the blood there belonged to her?
Unless someone had leaked the information…
Lin Ye was the mole!
They were continuing south when she finally figured it out. The inside of the car was quiet. The Zombie got so excited that she straightened up and was about to sit up from Fu Qi’s arms, where he had been resting with his eyes closed.
Fu Qi was startled awake. His arm moved swiftly, pressing her back down, but Qin Zhen’s raised foot kicked against the seat in front of them, making a noise anyway.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Ye asked, looking back.
“What’s wrong?” Fu Qi also lowered his head to ask.
Fu Qi had known all along that Lin Ye was a spy, but he had never exposed him. Qin Zhen definitely couldn’t expose him either. She stammered a few times before saying, “Tian Li sent me a message asking if I have a mental disorder. He insulted me!”
That was true. After discussing the matter with Xu the Second, Tian Li and Xu the Second had reached the unanimous conclusion that she must have a split personality disorder, and Chen Xiang had passed the message along.
Lin Ye said, “Brother Tian is going too far. How could he insult you, Sister Qin?”
“Exactly,” Qin Zhen said. “I’m going to insult him back!”
She lowered her head and began poking at her phone, but what she typed wasn’t a reply insulting Tian Li. It was a message for Fu Qi to read.
After reading it, Fu Qi rubbed her head and nodded.
Qin Zhen flew into a rage. “Bastard!”
The word was an insult, but she wasn’t cursing Tian Li or Xu the Second for saying she had a split personality. She was cursing Lin Ye and Fu Qi.
She was cursing the former because, as a spy, he should have focused on prying information out of them. Instead, he had actually tried to win her over by seducing her. He was so shameless that he had made her act on impulse and say something that turned her into a heartless flirt.
And why had he chosen to make his move on her instead of Fu Qi?
Did he think she was lustful? Or did he think she looked stupid enough to be easy to fool?
Either way, it made the Zombie furious.
How hateful!
As for Fu Qi, she was cursing him because he had known about this from the beginning and had made so many preparations without telling her a single word.
How despicable!
“He really is a bastard,” Bastard Number One said. “How can anyone say such filthy things to a girl?”
Bastard Number Two knew the Zombie too well. Seeing the anger in her eyes, he realized that this “bastard” included him as well, so he wisely kept quiet.
His silence only made the Zombie angrier. Qin Zhen drove an elbow into Fu Qi’s chest and tapped out a message:
You didn’t tell me. Weren’t you afraid I might accidentally give something away?
Fu Qi also tapped out a reply:
True. You would have exposed yourself as a heartless flirt.
The Zombie tried to elbow him again, but he wrapped both arms around her and pinned them in place.
While the two of them were secretly tussling, Lin Ye’s voice came from the front. “By the way, Sister Qin, I’ve been meaning to ask you—why do you always wear gloves?”
Other than when she was pretending to be a zombie or when she was alone with Fu Qi, Qin Zhen never took off her gloves.
When the weather had been cold, she had worn knitted gloves, so no one had thought it strange. But the weather had warmed up. Not long ago, a rainstorm had passed through, and green shoots had begun to sprout in the fields and bushes along the road. The two humans had gradually changed into lighter clothes, yet Qin Zhen’s gloves remained. Sometimes they were knitted, and sometimes they were medical rubber gloves.
“She has mysophobia—”
“She has scars on her hands.” Fu Qi hadn’t finished before Qin Zhen cut him off. “I was caught in a fire when I was little. The skin on my hands was badly burned, and it left scars. They’re ugly.”
“Ah?”
Qin Zhen continued, “There are scars on my face too. They’re too ugly, so I put on makeup every day.”
Lin Ye hurriedly apologized. “I’m sorry, Sister Qin. I didn’t know…”
Qin Zhen fell silent for a moment. Then, as if she had suddenly become a completely different person, her voice dropped.
“Why are you apologizing?”
Lin Ye was stunned. He slowed the car and said apologetically, “I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful…”
“Why would you say it’s something painful?” Qin Zhen pressed.
“…”
Lin Ye was completely baffled. He looked to Fu Qi for help through the rearview mirror.
Fu Qi wanted to see what Qin Zhen was playing at too, so he followed the thread of their conversation and said, “Sweetie, Little Lin was only asking. He didn’t mean anything by it…”
“Are you pitying me?” the Zombie interrupted sharply, angrily questioning him from behind.
“No…” Lin Ye began to panic. “I-I was just apologizing…”
“I’m asking if you pity me, if you feel sorry for me!”
Qin Zhen began struggling out of Fu Qi’s arms as if she had gone mad. After breaking free, she lunged toward the driver’s seat to grab Lin Ye, continuing to shout questions at him.
“Do you think I’m pathetic? Do you look down on me? Is that it? Is that it?!”
Lin Ye’s sleeve was seized, and he jumped in fright. Keeping hold of the steering wheel, he shouted, “No, I don’t! Sister Qin, calm down…”
“Calm down? You think I’m not calm? Do you also think I’m a— a lunatic?!”
Lin Ye was utterly unable to defend himself. He looked frantically at Fu Qi. “Brother Fu, take a look at Sister Qin!”
Fu Qi had been making a show of trying to restrain Qin Zhen all along. Only when she was about to interfere with Lin Ye’s driving did he pull her back with force.
He wrapped his arms around the raving Zombie and held her tightly. Rubbing his chin against the top of her head, he murmured soothingly, “It’s all right. It’s okay, Sweetie. Be good. Just get some sleep…”
Qin Zhen continued struggling, but Fu Qi held her firmly and coaxed her gently for quite a while before she finally quieted down and gradually stopped making a sound.
A long time passed. Lin Ye didn’t dare make the slightest noise. Only after they passed through a village did Fu Qi suggest that they rest for the night, so he could check whether Qin Zhen’s outburst had pulled open her wounds.
Lin Ye agreed cautiously. Seeing that Qin Zhen showed no sign of going crazy again, he asked in a quiet voice, “Brother Fu, what’s wrong with Sister Qin?”
Fu Qi’s expression turned grave. In a low voice, he said, “She survived a fire and suffered burns over seventy percent of her body. Afraid that people would find out, she’s been wearing gloves all this time and pretending to have a cleanliness obsession…”
After a pause, he continued, “She was already rather sensitive. When you asked her about it today, you triggered her schizophrenia.”
Lin Ye: “…”
How had that actually become true?
Lin Ye hadn’t really believed all that talk about scumbag women and rotten romantic luck before. It had been far too absurd. He’d been more inclined to think that Qin Zhen and Fu Qi were making it all up to deceive him.
But this act of schizophrenia seemed a little too real—especially Qin Zhen’s lunge as she tried to claw at him. She had looked exactly like a madwoman.
Lin Ye wasn’t sure what was real and what was fake. Half-believing him, he said, “Th-then I’ll try to avoid this topic from now on?”
Fu Qi said, “Mm.”
He added, “Sweetie has just suffered a shock and her emotions are unstable. It would be best if she didn’t see you tonight, in case…”
“I understand, I understand,” Lin Ye said. “We’ll stay in two separate rooms tonight. Brother Fu, I’ll leave Sister Qin in your care.”
Fu Qi said, “It’s only right.”
The vehicle stopped. Fu Qi remained inside, watching Qin Zhen, who had supposedly just suffered a schizophrenic episode, while Lin Ye got out to clear away the zombies and look for a room they could stay in.
Watching the figure disappear into the distance, Fu Qi decided that bringing him along was actually quite convenient.
“Has he gone far?” the Zombie asked softly from his arms.
“No.” Fu Qi watched Lin Ye disappear into the small courtyard with his gun, then lifted a corner of the quilt wrapped around the Zombie and lowered his voice as he spoke into it. “He’s right outside. Don’t talk.”
The Zombie immediately clamped her mouth shut and obediently curled up in his arms, not moving a muscle.
Seeing her make little movements like a hamster, Fu Qi turned his face away, the corners of his lips lifting.
A few minutes later, Lin Ye finished clearing out the zombies and called for the two of them to come inside. Only then did Fu Qi carry Qin Zhen out of the vehicle.
Once they entered the house and closed the door, the Zombie came alive at once and opened her mouth. “Sweetie…”
“Shh—” Fu Qi said. “The walls are thin.”
Qin Zhen immediately lowered her voice. Grabbing his arm and pressing herself tightly against him, she whispered furtively, like a thief, “Sweetie, wasn’t my acting great?”
“Excellent.” Fu Qi offered his highest praise. “You captured eighty percent of Academician Jiang’s essence. Much better than when we tricked Xu the Second.”
Of course it was. When they had deceived Xu the Second, she had been improvising on the spot. Although this act of schizophrenia had also been added at the last minute, when it came to going crazy, Qin Zhen had witnessed it firsthand—and experienced it personally.
The Zombie was proud of herself. “I’m smarter than you, aren’t I?”
She certainly was smart. Fu Qi hadn’t even thought of using burn scars as an excuse for her applying foundation all day and wearing gloves.
He asked, “How did you think of that?”
Qin Zhen answered honestly, “I just wanted to be alone with you.”
The Zombie had had enough of being unable to speak freely. So, when the subject of schizophrenia came up, she had thought of using it to frighten Lin Ye.
As luck would have it, Lin Ye then asked why she wore gloves. She had seized the opportunity, invented a story about being burned, and then acted unreasonable and played the lunatic. In the end, she had successfully frightened Lin Ye into keeping his distance.
The Zombie patted Fu Qi on the shoulder. “You weren’t bad either, Sweetie. You’re really quick-witted.”
“But, darling, this means you really are a schizophrenic now,” Fu Qi reminded her.
“It’s acting. Once you choose a role, you have to get into—get into character and act it well. You can’t care about what other people think.” After saying this boldly, the Zombie whispered, “He’s a bad person, isn’t he? No one will believe what bad people say, right?”
Fu Qi laughed. “Now you’re worried?”
“I’m not worried.” The Zombie immediately straightened her back and said firmly, “He’s a bad person. Bad people never have good endings. There’s nothing to be afraid of!”
Fu Qi sighed. “You used to worry about committing the sin of being immoral. Now you’re becoming more and more unrestrained—and more and more immoral.”
How could bullying a bad person count as being immoral?
The Zombie was indignant and started playfully wrestling with him.
After they finished fooling around, they tidied themselves up and prepared to rest. While resting, they brought up the serious business again.
“The blood-analysis results will be ready in the next few days. He’ll soon realize that he’s been exposed…”
That room was where Fu Qi had treated Qin Zhen’s injuries. It had been covered in blood. There was no way all of it could have come from a man—unless someone had done it deliberately.
Once the test results came out, Lin Ye would realize that Fu Qi had been on guard against him from the very beginning.
“They didn’t expose your identity outright, which means the footage from when the blond man died was incomplete. They’re only suspicious; they haven’t confirmed anything yet.” Fu Qi said, “From now on, you have to be careful. Don’t get injured again, and don’t leave any openings.”
The Zombie nodded repeatedly. “Mm-hmm. Got it. What about Lin Ye? Should we strike first?”
“No need.” Fu Qi said, “He’ll pretend he knows nothing and continue taking us to Lin Township.”
The people from Country A had spent five years searching for the thing they believed Fu Qi had taken away. They wouldn’t give up easily. At most, while searching for that thing, they would also suspect that there was an unusual zombie beside Fu Qi.
Qin Zhen could be considered their second target. With the vitally important primary target taking precedence, she was safe for the time being.
“I’m fine,” Qin Zhen said. “When they eventually try to come after me, I can just take off my makeup and hide in a crowd of zombies, can’t I?”
Zombies were filthy anyway. At worst, she could get herself a little dirty. There were so many zombies in the cities—could those people from Country A really inspect them one by one?
Fu Qi nodded. “We can do that if necessary.”
“Chen Xiang and Old Mo have already found some leads while investigating Lin Township. I’m safe too, and we’re almost at our destination. Everything’s going smoothly, Sweetie…”
Qin Zhen leaned against Fu Qi and hugged his arm. “Sweetie, why are you still in a bad mood?”
Fu Qi froze for a moment. “How did you know I was in a bad mood?”
Because Qin Zhen had been injured, he had spent this period of time carrying her around. He still often laughed when she teased him, just as he always had. But Qin Zhen knew that he was in a bad mood, as though there were something heavy hidden deep in his heart.
“I can feel it,” Qin Zhen said.
Fu Qi silently sorted through his emotions before slowly speaking. “I’m worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“I’m worried that once the truth is uncovered, things will escalate to another dimension.”
By then, many things would be beyond his control.
Fu Qi couldn’t be certain, and he had far too many things to consider.
“Uh…” Qin Zhen tilted her face upward and thought for a moment. Then she asked, “What dimension? Will it make the Earth explode?”
“…It probably won’t go that far.”
“Then what are you afraid of?” The Zombie repeated the same answer she had given before. “At worst, you can come back underground with me. We don’t need all that high technology either. Look at me—I’m an antique scholar, a Daoist priest, a writer, and an excellent actress. I can make up stories for myself and entertain myself.”
Fu Qi was amused by her and smiled. Perhaps he really had been overthinking it. Those people from Country A were looking for some kind of object, not a person.
He smiled, pulled Qin Zhen into his arms, and ruffled her smooth hair until it stood up in tousled tufts.
