To find Qin Zhen, they first had to shake off the foreigners following them.
But in their eyes, Fu Qi was the person most likely to find Qin Zhen, so they kept an extremely close watch on him, practically never letting him out of their sight.
The group headed northwest, with Fu Qi leading them in a sporadic search of various locations.
Sometimes he claimed that Qin Zhen liked being worshipped and might go to a hospital to get medicine and save people. He led the foreigners into hospitals, where they transported large quantities of medicine, but found not the slightest trace of her.
Sometimes he said Qin Zhen might be staying with vagrants. They searched high and low and dragged out several young runaways, only to discover that they knew absolutely nothing. Fu Qi notified the person in charge of a nearby base, and the children were taken away and sent to school.
Later, Fu Qi said Qin Zhen liked skiing and led them into the mountains. Once they arrived, they discovered that whether Qin Zhen liked skiing or not was uncertain, but Fu Qi definitely did. He made a point of heading to places suitable for backcountry skiing.
The foreign leader was furious. He contacted the Beicheng Base and accused Fu Qi of being deliberately uncooperative and completely indifferent to the survival of humanity.
The Beicheng Base replied that Fu Qi might have acted impulsively in the past, but he was a good comrade now, and the higher-ups trusted him. They asked their foreign friends to place a little more trust in him as well.
After a round of diplomatic back-and-forth, the foreign leader ended the call in a rage and followed Fu Qi into the deep mountains.
On the fifth day after entering the mountains, they encountered zombies. Someone fired a shot, triggering an avalanche. In the chaos, Fu Qi disappeared without a trace, his fate unknown.
Travel was difficult in the snow, and Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet slowed to a crawl, often stopping for three to five days at a time.
The days spent waiting were incredibly dull. Sometimes, when they chatted at night, Yellow Helmet would curiously ask Qin Zhen what she planned to do in the future.
At present, Qin Zhen had no plans at all. She merely said that, in the past, she had intended to get an internet connection and then return to her tomb to stay there.
“What a lack of ambition!” Yellow Helmet said disdainfully, accusing her of having no career aspirations.
“What does a zom-zombie need with career aspirations?” Qin Zhen said. “Do you want me to lea-lead an army of zombies and eat all you humans?”
“That’s true.” Yellow Helmet agreed, though she felt a little disappointed inside. “From humanity’s perspective, I’m glad you think that way. But honestly, if I were you, I’d definitely take the route of conquering the world and becoming queen.”
Just as Qin Zhen was feeling relieved that humanity had avoided ending up with a zombie queen like that, Yellow Helmet sighed and added, “Anyway, whether you have ambitions or not, they’ll still hunt you down as an aberration… You’ve got it so rough.”
That left Qin Zhen feeling depressed.
After brooding for a while, she said, “Even if you became a zom-zombie, it wouldn’t help. Zombies don’t obey orders. You couldn’t have them as, as minions.”
“What a shame.” Yellow Helmet was deeply regretful. “If only they could follow commands. Then we could line them up according to military manuals, attack the county seat first, seize the armory, and then attack the bases…”
The more Yellow Helmet talked, the more excited she became. “Zombies don’t get tired and don’t need sleep. Even if they’re shot in the head, they can replenish their numbers with corpses. They’re ridiculously powerful! Just imagine how amazing it would be if it actually worked!”
Qin Zhen couldn’t understand how a human could become so invested in the perspective of a zombie. She reminded her, “They have no sense of taste, and they can’t fall in, in love.”
“I can put up with having no sense of taste!” Yellow Helmet said. “And romance wouldn’t work out anyway. There are handsome zombies, too. That zombie we met yesterday was very handsome. He used to be a celebrity… Ah…”
Yellow Helmet suddenly became interested. She rolled over to face Qin Zhen and asked nosily, “Have you ever thought about trying it with a zombie?”
Qin Zhen stared at her. “Your taste is, is really something else!”
Humans were truly insane. No wonder they had managed to create zombies.
Yellow Helmet said, “I really think you should try it. Wash him properly and he’d be fine…”
That was even more perverted than Fu Qi!
Qin Zhen couldn’t accept it. She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, refusing to continue this disgusting conversation.
With no one left to talk to, Yellow Helmet sighed, closed her eyes, and lost herself in her beautiful fantasies.
The next day, the ice and snow froze solid. Every step was slippery, making it impossible to travel, so the two girls continued to hole up indoors.
Winter was cold, long, and incredibly boring. After reading for half a day, Yellow Helmet couldn’t take it anymore. She discussed it with Qin Zhen, then brought the handsome male celebrity zombie into the courtyard.
The two of them stayed indoors for the winter while the male zombie drooled at Yellow Helmet from the window. Yellow Helmet would read for a while, then watch the zombie for a while, and say, “If only this had happened before the apocalypse!”
She had always dreamed of becoming a queen. Now she asked Qin Zhen again, “Zombies don’t obey commands, but what about zombies like you? If you bite someone, will they become a zombie?”
Qin Zhen had never tried it.
“We have to test it!” Yellow Helmet said. “The people hunting you want to use you for experiments anyway. If there were lots of you, wouldn’t they stop hovering around you?”
That made perfect sense, and it tempted Qin Zhen. Unfortunately, there were no bad people around for her to bite.
Yellow Helmet pondered for a while, then used a net to catch a sparrow.
The sparrow might have eaten a zombie or some rotten meat. Its feathers were ragged, a large patch on top of its head was bald and covered in red spots, and its eyes were veiled by a layer of cloudy white film. It looked extremely abnormal.
Yellow Helmet was afraid it might carry a virus and didn’t dare touch it. Qin Zhen wasn’t afraid of viruses, but she was a clean freak and was even less willing to put it in her mouth.
The two of them studied the sparrow for half a day. In the end, they opened the net and let it go.
Yellow Helmet lamented, “If I weren’t afraid of turning into a zombie and losing my memories, I’d offer myself up for you to bite.”
She was truly working very hard for her dream of becoming the Zombie Queen.
Unfortunately, even if she wouldn’t turn into a zombie, Qin Zhen still wouldn’t bite her.
Qin Zhen really wanted to say that Fu Qi had warned her, “Don’t eat garbage,” but the sentence sounded too strange and seemed almost insulting. In the end, she wasn’t as shameless as Fu Qi and reluctantly let the opportunity pass.
The snow fell, stopped, then fell again, making it extremely difficult for Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet to move forward. After half a month, they still hadn’t seen any sign of Beiyue Base.
However, they were heading in the right direction. At their current pace, they would reach the area soon.
The two had even worked out a plan. Qin Zhen’s identity was inconvenient, so she would wait outside the base while Yellow Helmet went inside to inquire about Fu Qi. With one person inside and one outside, there was no way they would miss him.
The day after they finalized the plan, something unexpected happened.
Qin Zhen was driving that day when she heard a noise overhead. She looked up and saw several helicopters flying past in formation.
She thought that the helicopters were flying too high to see her, so there was nothing to worry about.
After driving for about five kilometers, she heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. The firepower was intense, and it sounded dangerous.
Yellow Helmet, who had been catching up on sleep in the back seat, was jolted awake. Neither of them knew what had happened up ahead. They were planning to turn around and avoid the area when several zombies, drawn by the noise, blocked the road behind them.
They hurriedly rammed their way through and were about to speed away when—
Bang!
A zombie outside the car window was shot in the head.
Qin Zhen assumed people from the base had arrived. But in the very next second, another gunshot rang out. One of the tires deflated, and the moving car suddenly lost its balance. The steering went out of control, sending it crashing toward the roadside.
Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet were both thrown sideways by the inertia, their heads spinning as they slammed into the side of the car.
Fortunately, no one had been tending the roadside greenery, and it had grown exceptionally thick. The withered branches were tangled together like a gigantic net, slowing the out-of-control vehicle enough for Qin Zhen to slam on the brakes in time and avoid any casualties.
No one was hurt, but the car could no longer move. Outside, gunshots came as densely as raindrops, while zombie heads kept exploding one after another beside the windows, blood spraying everywhere and leaving the two women unable to get out.
After more than ten minutes, the gunfire stopped, and the people who had been shooting arrived outside the car.
Unexpectedly, there were two groups of people: one made up of foreigners, the other of fellow Chinese.
The moment Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet got out of the car, a stern-looking man with a scar across his face pulled them behind him and confronted the other group.
“Our side clearly stated that no Chinese civilians were to be harmed during the operation. Mr. Will, what exactly did you mean by what you just did?”
Mr. Will replied calmly, “I missed.”
Scarface’s expression darkened. “Mr. Will thinks two human lives can be written off with a simple ‘I missed’?”
The foreigner named Will looked impatient and sneered. “If your country would sincerely help us locate the experimental specimen, my bullets might be more accurate next time.”
Scarface retorted without the slightest courtesy, “If Mr. Will’s marksmanship is so poor that he might accidentally injure Chinese civilians, I suggest you go back and brush up on your shooting before taking on another mission!”
Will’s face flushed, then turned livid. He forced out an apology.
It was utterly insincere. His eyes were vicious, and he turned to leave as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Then he suddenly stopped and began scrutinizing Qin Zhen.
After looking her over for a while, he stepped forward and reached out a hand toward her.
Ever since getting out of the car, Qin Zhen had kept her head lowered, quietly observing the situation. Now, with the man suddenly reaching for her, she rapidly considered how to respond. Before she could do anything, however, the threatening hand was blocked.
Scarface stepped forward once more, his voice stern and authoritative. “Mr. Will, please show some restraint.”
Will’s gaze remained fixed on Qin Zhen’s face. Suspicion flickered in his eyes. “She looks familiar.”
“That method of hitting on someone went out of style ages ago,” Scarface said mercilessly. “Besides, don’t all yellow people look the same to you?”
Uncertainty crossed Will’s face. He looked at Qin Zhen, then at Yellow Helmet, and was about to speak again when Scarface cut him off sharply.
“Our side is willing to make concessions for the common good of humanity. But if Mr. Will intends to use the specimen as an excuse to humiliate Chinese civilians, we will pursue the matter to the very end!”
Will’s expression shifted. He gave a cold snort and led his people away.
After they were gone, Scarface turned back to the two women. “Please accept my apologies.”
Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet hurriedly said it was fine, then asked what had happened. Scarface did not answer. Instead, he waved over two men and had them escort the women to the nearest safe point.
Perhaps because the two workers had witnessed Qin Zhen and Yellow Helmet being caught in the crossfire, they were less guarded with their words. Before long, they were chatting animatedly along the way.
They had come from the Northern City Base. One of them explained, “A squad captain from the base went on a mission with those people. He disappeared after running into an avalanche. They couldn’t find him, so they insisted that our government was hiding him and had helped him escape. Now they’ve come back to demand an explanation.”
Qin Zhen nudged Yellow Helmet. Yellow Helmet asked on her behalf, “What kind of mission was it?”
“The survivor from Country B’s experiment… You don’t know about that? Didn’t you see the wanted notices along the road?”
Qin Zhen said, “We saw them.”
Yellow Helmet quickly added, “We didn’t read them carefully. We picked them up for kindling.”
One of the workers burst out laughing. Once he had finished, he gave the two women a rough explanation of what had happened.
One supplied details while the other filled in the gaps. Before long, the two men began reminiscing among themselves.
“…Several bases were hit by an epidemic earlier. I accepted a mission to find medicine and had already prepared myself not to come back. But when I got there, the medicine had already been transported outside the city and stacked neatly in rows. Guess what? It was that zombified girl who helped find it. She even left her name. I’ll say this much, though—the girl really ought to work on her handwriting.”
Qin Zhen: “…”
Praise her if they wanted, but why criticize her handwriting?
She had spent so many years in a tomb without seeing a book or touching a pen. The fact that she could write at all was already impressive!
No one noticed her displeasure. The other worker said, “I heard she was the one who rescued the members of the Thunder Squad too.”
“Academician Jiang has received her help as well.”
“She may have had something to do with what happened at the Dayu Base…”
The two men continued talking in front of them. Behind them, Yellow Helmet stared at Qin Zhen in astonishment.
Yellow Helmet’s amazed expression soothed Qin Zhen’s displeasure. She felt both proud and faintly bashful, but pretended to be indifferent as she nodded at her.
She had thought all those accomplishments would be forgotten. In the end, they had still been credited to her.
She was so happy!
Since the conversation had already reached this point, Yellow Helmet leaned forward and asked, “And you still want to capture her?”
The worker sighed. “Everyone outside says that finding her is the key to curing the zombie virus. There’s nothing we can do.”
“Even if she’s captured, it doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll die, right?”
“If they send her off to be dissected, how is that any different from dying?”
“That’s true… Ah, well, if we really can’t find her, then so be it. You get used to living in this world eventually. Besides, the base’s newly developed interference agent is several times more effective than before. Who knows? Maybe humans and zombies really will be able to coexist peacefully someday.”
The two workers resumed their idle chatter. Qin Zhen, listening behind them, felt as though a cat were clawing at her heart. At last, when they paused, she hurriedly asked, “Which squad? Who’s the captain?”
The worker answered from ahead, “Captain Fu Qi. You know him?”
“I’ve heard of him!” Yellow Helmet cut in, gripping Qin Zhen’s trembling hand as she eagerly asked, “He’s missing? Where is he now?”
The worker replied, “We don’t know. But those foreigners claim they tracked him heading toward the Northern City Base… Some of them are pursuing him from behind, while the rest are moving in from the base to cut him off. They’ve even brought in several helicopters to search for him from the air.”
“Not to be rude, but it’s hilarious that they’re making such a huge fuss just to find one person.”
Qin Zhen did not find it funny at all. She was simply excited. She no longer wanted to go to the safe point and wished she could immediately find another vehicle and hurry to the Northern Yue Base.
She did not know where Fu Qi was now, but he was definitely coming to find her. She had to wait near the Northern City Base as they had agreed.
“No, that would be too dangerous,” one of the workers said. “Those foreigners set out in waves. If you head that way now, you’ll definitely run into them again along the road. It would be best for you to rest at the safe point for a few days and continue once they’ve moved on.”
The area was already quite close to both the Northern City Base and the Northern Yue Base. The safe points nearby had all been marked by the government, and the foreigners would not dare trespass.
Qin Zhen was frantic with worry that she might miss Fu Qi. Yet she also knew that if she encountered a situation like today’s again, she might reveal her identity without Scarface’s help and find herself unable to take another step forward. With no other choice, she agreed.
The safe point they went to was located on a cantilevered building. The lower levels were extremely narrow, and from a distance, the residential level appeared almost to be floating in midair. It was an ideal refuge from the zombies in the apocalypse.
Climbing up the rope ladder, Qin Zhen discovered that there were quite a few people inside. Like them, they had come here temporarily to hide from the foreigners.
The safe point had been divided into a number of small rooms. Qin Zhen shared one with Yellow Helmet. For the sake of keeping an eye on what was happening outside, they had deliberately chosen a room near a window.
The view was excellent, allowing them to see a long way into the distance.
Qin Zhen spent all day crouched beside the window, drawing her little comics. Whenever she spotted the shadow of a vehicle or heard the sound of gunfire, she would nervously peer into the distance, but she never once saw Fu Qi.
That evening, snow began to fall again. The thickly drifting flakes reminded Qin Zhen of the time she and Fu Qi had hurried to the hospital to rescue the Thunder Squad.
Afraid she might forget, she quickly began drawing the scene. Halfway through, she realized she could no longer remember some of the details. She raised her head to look at the snowy landscape, and suddenly caught sight of a figure flashing past in the hazy dusk.
“Sweetie!” Qin Zhen abruptly stood up and cried out.
At the sound of her voice, Yellow Helmet came over to look with her. Outside, heavy snow was falling, and the light was dim and gray.
They stared without blinking for nearly half an hour, but did not see even a single bird.
“You must have mistaken it,” Yellow Helmet ventured.
“I mistook it?” Qin Zhen repeated blankly.
Night had already completely descended beyond the window. In the distance, swaying shadows seemed to move about in the darkness—or perhaps they were merely withered branches waving from side to side.
It was late, and the snow was obstructing their view. On top of that, her own expectations were making her believe that Fu Qi would pass by this place. There really was a chance she had seen wrong.
“Maybe… maybe I really did,” Qin Zhen said.
There were no lights in the safe point, and once night fell, it was completely dark.
Yellow Helmet went to sleep early. Halfway through the night, she had a nightmare and woke with a start. When she opened her eyes, she saw Qin Zhen still sitting motionless beside the window in the darkness. She had no idea how long she had been there.
Yellow Helmet coughed and asked, “Can you still see anything?”
Qin Zhen turned to look at her. “No.”
It was already the middle of the night. Outside was pitch-black; even the withered tree at the very bottom of the safe point was invisible.
Qin Zhen stood up after saying this.
Yellow Helmet thought she was coming over to rest and shifted inward to make room. Instead, Qin Zhen stopped beside the bed and said, “I’m going to find him. At night, I’m a-alone, so it’s safer. Get some rest. If I-I get the chance, I’ll come back for you.”
Yellow Helmet was horrified. She sat up and said, “It’s dangerous out there!”
“I’ll take off my makeup before I go,” Qin Zhen said. “If I get shot, I’ll just pretend to b-be dead. It’ll be fine.”
She spoke calmly, clearly having made the decision after careful consideration.
Yellow Helmet knew she could not stop her. She had wandered alone for a long time and knew how painful loneliness could be. She wanted to say that she would go with Qin Zhen, but she also knew that traveling together would attract zombies, making her a burden.
Yet she could not bear to let Qin Zhen leave alone.
As she struggled with her thoughts, a sudden sound came from outside—a soft click, as if something had been placed against the projecting safe point.
Yellow Helmet heard it, and so did Qin Zhen. The two exchanged a glance in the darkness and immediately fell silent. Carefully, they leaned out to peer through the window, but because of the angle, they could not see anything.
Zombies had no brains and could not have done something like that. So either some piece of debris had fallen, or someone was climbing up the safe point in the darkness.
The former would be all right. But if it was the latter, who could it be?
The base staff and the wandering survivors who had been rescued had no reason to be so cautious.
Both girls thought of the foreigners at once. They quickly grabbed their weapons—one hid behind the door while the other stood to the side—and held their breath as they waited.
One minute passed, then two. The outside remained deathly quiet. Just as Qin Zhen began to think that the sound had come from falling debris, the simple lock on the door suddenly clicked, and the door was pushed inward.
In the darkness, a foot stepped inside.
Like the snowflakes, it landed without a sound.
The intruder was extremely cautious. His shadow blended into the night, making his features impossible to discern, but it was clear from his indistinct outline that he was very tall. He was undoubtedly one of the foreigners who had been pursuing Qin Zhen.
Qin Zhen’s gaze sharpened. She raised the pointed bamboo arrow in her hand and thrust it forward.
The wind stirred by her movement alerted the intruder. He withdrew one step and raised his arm to block. At the same time, he seized Qin Zhen’s wrist. His hot palm touched her cool skin, then suddenly tightened as he pulled her toward him.
Qin Zhen let out a soft “Ah.” She only had time to turn the bamboo arrow around before she was thrown heavily against a broad chest.
The other person was far too strong and held her far too tightly. She bumped her nose and sniffed, catching the cold, biting scent of wind and snow on him.
Before she could wrap her arms around him in return, a gust of wind swept in from behind. Qin Zhen remembered that Yellow Helmet was holding a knife and hurriedly called out, “Don’t—don’t, Sweetie!”
Yellow Helmet could not stop herself in time. It was only because Fu Qi pulled Qin Zhen into his arms and retreated outside the room that they managed to avoid the blow.
“Huh?” Yellow Helmet asked in confusion. “Fu Xiangxiang? How did he know we were here?”
Still holding Qin Zhen, Fu Qi kissed the top of her head hard and let out a heavy breath before saying in a low, concise voice, “We’ll talk outside.”
He took Qin Zhen by the hand. The three of them quietly slipped out of the safe point and climbed down to the ground, where a vehicle was waiting in silence.
Once they got inside, Fu Qi quietly introduced the driver. “Old Mo.”
Seeing one of her teammates so suddenly, Qin Zhen sat up straight and said politely, “Hello, I’m Qin Zhen.”
As soon as she finished, she realized the introduction sounded wrong and hurriedly added, “I mean, Little Qin, Qin Qin, or Little Zomb—um, also Baby.”
Fu Qi began to chuckle beside her. His body shook with laughter, making Qin Zhen intensely embarrassed.
She elbowed him and continued introducing them. “This is Yellow Helmet, my fr-friend.”
Yellow Helmet quickly followed with a greeting of her own. “Hello.”
There were no lights on inside the vehicle. Old Mo sat in the driver’s seat, and Qin Zhen could only vaguely see him turn his head and nod. Then the car accelerated from a standstill and shot forward like a bullet.
Neither woman had ever experienced driving like this before. They both let out a cry of “Ow!”
Fu Qi put an arm around one of them and stretched out the other to steady the second, saying with a smile, “We’re in a hurry. My apologies.”
“In a hurry to go where?” Qin Zhen asked.
“With someone beside me, I don’t stutter as much when I talk,” Fu Qi said first. Then he added, “We’re going to meet our contact.”
Qin Zhen was about to ask who they were meeting when something heavy landed on her. A blanket had been draped over her. Then Fu Qi’s hand reached across her and passed another blanket to Yellow Helmet.
But after handing it to her, he did not withdraw his arm. Instead, he wrapped it around Qin Zhen through the blanket.
Qin Zhen had not been this close to anyone in a very long time. She was nervous and out of practice, her feet awkwardly treading on each other as she sat stiffly, afraid to move.
Fu Qi, however, showed no sign of awkwardness. Resting his chin against Qin Zhen’s head, he said, “I haven’t slept in five days, Baby. Let me lean against you for a while.”
Qin Zhen had also gone a long time without anyone calling her “Baby.” Hearing the low voice say it made her heart tingle and left her extremely uncomfortable.
She guiltily glanced at Old Mo, but he gave her only a calm silhouette in response.
Then she cautiously glanced at Yellow Helmet.
Yellow Helmet was sitting with them in the back seat, curled up to one side beneath the blanket. It was too dark to make out her reaction.
Qin Zhen found nothing after looking around. She raised her head to glance at Fu Qi, but the moment she moved, he pressed her head down. Then, with an arm around her waist, he lifted her onto his lap.
…!
Qin Zhen felt like she was going to die of embarrassment!
“Let me rest for a while. We’ll talk about everything after daybreak.”
Fu Qi’s weary voice sounded above her head. Qin Zhen felt him kiss the top of her hair again.
She hadn’t bathed in several days, so her hair probably smelled by now. Yet Fu Qi could still bring himself to kiss her. He really was just as perverted as ever.
What a pervert!
But Qin Zhen was a little happy. She glanced around and, after making sure the carriage was pitch-black and no one could see them, gave an embarrassed smile. Then she slowly wrapped her arms around Fu Qi’s waist and nestled into his embrace.
