With the Old Commander’s intervention, Qin Zhen successfully got her grudge book back.
On the way back, she warned Fu Qi, “If you dare steal—steal my things again, I’ll have the Old Commander arrest you and send you to jail!”
Fu Qi was pushing her toward the ward. The moment she finished speaking, he stretched out his long arm, and the grudge book in Qin Zhen’s hands flew away as if it had grown wings.
“Go ahead and report me,” Fu Qi said. “Want me to help push you back to the Old Commander?”
As he spoke, he turned the wheelchair around, clearly intending to push Qin Zhen back for real.
Qin Zhen experienced firsthand what it meant for a tiger to fall into the plains and be bullied by a dog. She tilted her face up, mouth hanging open, and stammered, “You—you—you…” for a long while without managing to say anything.
Fu Qi laughed, bent down, and stuffed the grudge book back into Qin Zhen’s arms. “I was only teasing you. I’d never really let you go through all that fright. But, Baby, you’re not an illegal little zombie anymore, so why are you still so afraid of government officials?”
Qin Zhen clenched the grudge book. She would have loved nothing more than to beat Fu Qi up on the spot, but considering her current frail body, she ultimately decided to endure the humiliation for now.
She would remember this in her heart, copy it into her book once she got back, and settle the score with him slowly later!
Qin Zhen silently committed this grudge to memory and replied, “You’ve eaten rice for decades. Can you just suddenly quit—quit it?”
She had managed to restrain her iron fist, but the aggrieved emotion in her voice was impossible to hide.
Fu Qi caught it and let out a low chuckle.
Qin Zhen looked up and glared at him. For some reason, he suddenly leaned down from behind the wheelchair and cupped her face in both hands, kneading it as if she were a soft steamed bun.
Her face was squeezed out of shape. Qin Zhen struggled, mumbling “Mmph, mmph,” as she tried to pull Fu Qi’s hands away, but he refused to let go. He only stopped when a staff member happened to push a cart past them.
Because they had run into the Old Commander, Qin Zhen hadn’t managed to have her picture taken. Fu Qi took several photos of her in the ward instead. Qin Zhen thought she looked far too thin in them and didn’t look good at all, so she began working hard to put on weight.
The livestock that had once been raised by humans had all gone wild. To some extent, they had pecked at zombie corpses and carried all sorts of known and unknown viruses, making them unsafe to eat. The research institute had already begun breeding livestock again, and once Qin Zhen’s appetite recovered, they would occasionally send some poultry over to help nourish her.
Fu Qi came up with all sorts of ways to cook delicious food for Qin Zhen.
Every day, Qin Zhen slept until she woke naturally. Once awake, she ate meat and drank soup, played on her phone, read novels, and had Master Xiang give her massages. Her days were wonderfully carefree.
Fu Qi also took excellent care of her assets. Apart from the safe in the Fu family’s home in the capital, everything else was right there with her.
Qin Zhen had not a single worry.
At one point, she asked Fu Qi whether he wanted to help with the post-apocalyptic cleanup efforts. Fu Qi said that the work was all fairly basic and they weren’t short one person.
After about half a month, Qin Zhen finally had a little flesh on her arms and legs and could walk around freely again. But whenever she went downstairs for a stroll, she still made Fu Qi carry her.
Once, Fu Qi questioned her. “You wouldn’t happen to have recovered already and simply gotten addicted to being carried, would you?”
Qin Zhen refused to admit it. She declared righteously, “I’m weak. I need to rest and take good care of my—my body!”
What a clear and wonderfully original excuse for being lazy.
Fu Qi didn’t believe her. “You’re just lazy. You used to pretend to be aloof whenever you didn’t want to practice speaking… You’re the best at pretending.”
“You don’t have even this much basic trust in me?” Qin Zhen said, clearly heartbroken. She clutched her chest, took two steps backward, and looked at Fu Qi with tears in her eyes, as if he were some heartless scumbag.
Since she had already put on an entire performance of playing the victim, Fu Qi had no choice but to give in and continue taking care of her.
Then, one day, someone at the base got married.
The marriage registration system had disappeared long ago, and marriage itself was no longer a thing in the post-apocalyptic world. When two people liked each other, they simply got together.
This time, however, they were going to hold a wedding because the Old Commander had heard about it while out for a walk. He said it had been a long time since there had been anything festive, and that they should hold a wedding to celebrate the restoration of order in human society. He instructed Zhang Xiping to organize one for them.
The people at the research institute grew excited as soon as they heard. Without even waiting to find out whether Zhang Xiping agreed, they began making preparations in a flurry of activity.
It was a rare and joyous occasion. When the base’s security team heard about it, they wanted to go into the city to find a wedding dress, as well as trade for wedding candies and other supplies with several nearby bases. Since personnel transfers were inconvenient, Fu Qi ultimately led a few people there himself.
An event this joyful was a major occasion at any base, and everyone was extraordinarily generous. The supplies they contributed were abundant.
Qin Zhen was also brimming with enthusiasm. She was drafted into service and put to work packing wedding candies.
The researcher who was getting married even gave her special permission to eat the candies as she packed them.
Qin Zhen didn’t need that permission at all. Fu Qi had gone out and raided plenty of snacks from his friends, enough to keep her well supplied, and she had generously donated quite a few of them.
The wedding was held in the lobby of a shopping mall inside the base. The weather was poor—the sky was gloomy and the wind was strong—but the people’s enthusiasm was not dampened in the slightest. Quite a few people from other bases even came from afar to attend.
The wedding couldn’t compare with those held before the apocalypse, but people were optimistic enough.
There was no background music, so they played it themselves. Violins, flutes—everything was brought out, even the erhu.
There were no flowers or ribbons, so they used leaves instead. The fiery red maple leaves and golden ginkgo leaves were every bit as beautiful.
The only hitch came when the bride made her entrance.
At the time, Qin Zhen was on the second floor with several staff members, holding baskets and “scattering flowers” down below. The moment he saw the bride in her wedding dress, his eyes went wide.
Fu Qi sensed danger. He turned her face back toward him and asked solemnly, “Sweetie, you’re definitely heterosexual, right?”
Qin Zhen knew at once that he was alluding to her ex-husband and former fiancée. Embarrassed and furious, she wanted to fire back, but with her history, she couldn’t come up with a convincing retort. After holding it in for a long while, she finally said, “No! I have a… a pig fetish!”
That attack, which hurt the enemy by a thousand but cost her eight hundred, left Fu Qi speechless. He said, “You could at least have said you had a fetish for inanimate objects.”
Mentioning unusual fetishes suddenly reminded Qin Zhen of something Fu Qi had once said. She grabbed his arm and asked curiously, “Are Chen Xiang and his… his wife going to have a wedding?”
Fu Qi looked puzzled. “When did Chen Xiang get a wife?”
“Didn’t you say one of your teammates married a tree?”
There were only two teammates in total. If it wasn’t Chen Xiang, could it possibly be the taciturn Old Mo?
“It’s Old Mo,” Fu Qi said.
Qin Zhen: “…”
She should have figured it out sooner. In the apocalypse, everyone had become a little twisted. The more normal someone seemed, the more abnormal they actually were.
“He, he, he really is…” Qin Zhen couldn’t find the right words to express what she thought of Old Mo.
“Closet pervert,” Fu Qi supplied. “That’s what you call it.”
Qin Zhen said, “Then you’re an open pervert!”
Fu Qi replied, “Thank you.”
Just then, a gust of wind blew in through the hall doors. The veil on the bride’s head hadn’t been secured properly, and it fluttered lightly through the air before landing on the second-floor railing, right beside Fu Qi and Qin Zhen.
Before everyone’s attention could follow the veil and turn toward them, Fu Qi grabbed it, planted one hand on the railing, and effortlessly leaped straight down.
His movements were light and dashing. A chorus of impressed exclamations immediately rose from the hall, and everyone’s attention was drawn to him before shifting toward the newlyweds at the center of the hall.
“What a show-off!”
Qin Zhen vaguely heard someone mutter that. Thinking she had finally found someone with the same outlook as her, she turned toward the voice in surprise—only to discover that the speaker was Tian Li.
She had no idea where he had gotten injured this time, but one of his arms was wrapped in a bandage and hung from his neck. When he noticed Qin Zhen looking at him, he turned his head. The instant their eyes met, his expression changed dramatically. He spun around and ran as if he had encountered a man-eating beast.
What a truly magnificent man!
Qin Zhen wanted to catch up and reminisce, but the moment she lifted her foot, Tian Li vanished like a fish slipping into water.
While she was searching for him, someone suddenly called, “Qin Zhen!”
Just as Fu Qi had said, while Qin Zhen had been unconscious, everyone at the research institute had started calling her Sweetie or Baby Qin after him. Hardly anyone used her full name anymore, so the voice sounded unfamiliar, and she didn’t respond right away.
She looked around for the person who had called her, but before she could find them, someone answered, “Hey, over here!”
And it wasn’t just one person who responded. Even Associate Researcher Zhuang, standing beside the wedding stage, called out in acknowledgment.
Qin Zhen scratched her head. She remembered what the Old Commander had told her: the zombie virus had been brought under control, but the world was enormous, and there would always be people harboring ulterior motives. There was no guarantee that no one would try to target her.
That was true even though the authorities had already announced to the public that she was dead, that her body had been cremated, and had even formally held a press conference.
At the conference, they had not only emphasized the crimes Country B had committed more than forty years ago, but had also publicly revealed Qin Zhen’s contributions to humanity, the banners she had personally signed with the names “Jiang Xiaojiang” and “Jiang Xiaoqin,” and the bizarre portraits drawn of her by Xu the Second and the others…
The mighty Zombie King of old had still been distorted into some strange, inhuman creature!
In the end, she had rewritten the history of the zombie race.
Qin Zhen sighed inwardly. Still, she was deeply moved that Fu Qi had helped divert everyone’s attention and that the people at the research institute had helped conceal her identity.
She couldn’t let everyone’s kindness go to waste, so she soon began cheering along with the staff around her, behaving like an ordinary research institute employee.
The wedding was lively and lasted for a long time. Qin Zhen had only just recovered, and her energy wasn’t what it used to be. She was exhausted. But Fu Qi still hadn’t returned, so she told the staff member beside her that she was going back to rest first.
The staff member was worried and insisted on accompanying her.
It was the same stairwell with the motion-sensor lights. Qin Zhen lived on the eighth floor. With Fu Qi away, she felt too embarrassed to ask the staff member to carry her, so she planned to climb the stairs one step at a time by herself.
She took a deep breath and prepared herself before starting up the stairs. Just then, two more people entered the stairwell.
Qin Zhen turned around—and froze when she saw who they were.
Academician Jiang froze as well.
The staff member accompanying Qin Zhen remembered that Qin Zhen hadn’t seen Academician Jiang since waking up and was about to introduce them. Qin Zhen cut her off.
“I know—I know her.”
Then she looked at Academician Jiang and said, “Jiang Little Crazy, how—how did you get so old?”
The wrinkles at the corners of Academician Jiang’s eyes twitched.
“Qin Xiaobao, how are you still stuttering?”
Qin Zhen clutched her chest as if she’d been struck by an arrow and waved the staff member away, indicating that she could make it upstairs on her own.
Academician Jiang did the same.
Seeing that the two of them clearly had things to discuss, the staff members reminded them to be careful on the stairs before leaving together. The two women, both in their sixties, then began the arduous journey upward.
“You’re back. Why didn’t you—didn’t you come see me?” Qin Zhen asked.
“I thought you still didn’t dare face me,” Academician Jiang replied.
Qin Zhen absolutely refused to admit that she really had avoided her for a while. Putting on a brave front, she said, “I look younger—younger and prettier than you. There’s no way I wouldn’t dare face you!”
“What good is being young?” Academician Jiang panted. “Your stamina is just as bad as this old lady’s.”
Their bodies, only recently able to move freely again, were still useless. They were exhausted after climbing just two flights of stairs, and Qin Zhen was breathing heavily too.
“I’m a patient!” she declared righteously. Then she leaned against the wall and waved to Academician Jiang, gasping, “Jiang Little Crazy, come—come carry me!”
“…” Academician Jiang was bent over, resting against the railing. Hearing this, she freed one hand and pointed at her head of silver hair. “You want a woman in her sixties to carry a twenty-something?”
“I’m a woman in my sixties too!”
“Even so, I’m still two months older than you. I’m older.”
The two women in their sixties made things difficult for each other for a while. In the end, they realized that neither of them could trust the other to carry her, so they sat side by side on the steps to rest.
After panting for a while, Qin Zhen asked why she had come back.
The old lady said that the bride was her student, so she had come to attend the wedding.
The mention of marriage reminded Qin Zhen of some old matters, and she asked, “When you went to college, did you—did you date anyone?”
“Of course I did.” The old lady pounded her legs as she spoke. “At first, I dated an upperclassman. After a month, I found out he was cheating… By cheating, I mean he was seeing two people at the same time.”
“Beat—beat him up!”
“You must have learned too much martial arts as a child. You’re terribly violent.” Academician Jiang shook her head. “Fighting at school would have gotten me reprimanded. I didn’t hit him. I posted about him on the school forum instead.”
That worked too.
Qin Zhen nodded and asked, “You only dated one—one person?”
“How could that be?” Academician Jiang held up three fingers. “I dated three people during my first two years… Love is easy to get swept up in at the beginning, but after a while, every relationship starts to feel the same. By my third year, I’d lost interest and didn’t date anyone else.”
“Then where did you meet your hus—husband?”
A tender smile appeared in Academician Jiang’s eyes. “I met him while I was in graduate school. He was a junior…”
In the empty stairwell, the fluorescent light kept going out and then flickering back on whenever they clapped. Two friends who had reunited after many years sat side by side on the steps, one speaking in an aged voice and the other speaking haltingly, recounting the romances they had never had the chance to share when they were young.
As Qin Zhen listened to the old lady describe how she and her husband had met, fallen in love, and married, she felt as if she had witnessed the entire story herself.
“Not bad.” Apart from the fact that he had failed to survive the apocalypse, Qin Zhen was quite satisfied with her friend’s husband.
Romantic relationships were meant to be shared both ways. After hearing Academician Jiang’s story, it was Qin Zhen’s turn. She said, “You and your hus—husband had an older-woman-younger-man relationship. Sweetie and I are the same.”
“That’s not the same at all,” Academician Jiang said. “My husband and I were indeed an older-woman-younger-man couple, but you and Captain Fu would be more accurately described as an old cow eating tender grass.”
Qin Zhen smacked the old lady across the back!
“Jiang Little Crazy! Don’t say it like—that!”
At the height of her power, that slap would have sent the old lady straight to the afterlife.
Fortunately, Qin Zhen was still very weak at the moment, and Academician Jiang merely swayed a little.
She waved her hand and said, “I’m complimenting you. It takes skill for a woman to get her hands on tender grass.”
Qin Zhen had only discussed romantic matters with her and Yellow Helmet. Yellow Helmet could somehow turn anything into an eighteen-plus topic and was incapable of having a serious conversation, so when it came to relationships, she still had to rely on Academician Jiang.
After hesitating for a moment, Qin Zhen decided to accept the compliment. “That’s right. I—I’m very capable!”
Academician Jiang then asked, “When are you and your tender grass planning to get married?”
Qin Zhen’s face instantly flushed bright red. She rubbed her feet together, then moved closer to Academician Jiang and whispered, “We can’t.”
“Did you cheat on him?”
“…” Qin Zhen glared angrily at her. “What are you—talking about?”
Academician Jiang didn’t understand. “You didn’t cheat on him, and he likes you so much. How could the two of you not be able to get married?”
Qin Zhen hesitated, then said quietly, “It’s Sweetie… Back when I was still a zom—zombie, he kissed me. Twice. You know, the kind of kissing I mean?”
“My grandson is already that old, and you’re bragging to me?”
“…Ahem!” Qin Zhen’s face reddened again. Then she frowned in confusion. “After I became human, he never—never kissed me again. Jiang Little Crazy, do you think Sweetie has some kind of spe—special fetish?”
Could he really have a thing for the grotesque and only be attracted to the living dead?
“Hard to say,” Academician Jiang replied. “Why don’t you try kissing him first?”
“Oh my, that would be so embarrassing!”
“You wouldn’t be embarrassed at all. You were just waiting for me to say that.” Academician Jiang exposed Qin Zhen without mercy. When Qin Zhen refused to admit it, she added, “You didn’t even stammer just now. You must have planned this.”
Qin Zhen said, “Hey, you… Your emotional intelligence is so, so low!”
Why did she have to see right through her?
The old lady said, “You’re just too old-fashioned. People these days aren’t like we were back then—they’re very straightforward. You need to keep up with the times.”
Qin Zhen had no intention of becoming some country bumpkin. After thinking it over, she said, “Then once my, my body gets a little stronger, I’ll go kiss him.”
She couldn’t do it now. She was too weak—Fu Qi could pin her down with one hand.
To prove she wasn’t old-fashioned, she clenched her fists and said, “When the time comes, I’ll pin Sweetie against the wall and kiss him hard!”
I’ll kiss him until he squeaks!
“Good!” Academician Jiang cheered her on. “Pinning him to the bed works too…”
The two of them had completely forgotten that they were in the stairwell and were about to continue their conversation when someone upstairs finally couldn’t take it anymore. Through the safety door, they shouted, “Academician, Baby, are you done chatting? There’s a whole crowd of us waiting to go downstairs and get the documents.”
Only then did Qin Zhen realize that they weren’t in a room. Her cheeks flushed red again, betraying her!
But when she saw that Academician Jiang didn’t care in the slightest, she decided she couldn’t lose. So, with her face still bright red, she bravely met the staff member’s gaze.
The staff member assumed she was asking for encouragement and gave her a supportive thumbs-up.
Fu Qi knew nothing about this. After determining the identity of the person who had called Qin Zhen’s name from within the crowd, he handed him over to the Old Commander. When he returned to find Qin Zhen, he noticed that the staff were looking at him rather strangely.
Because of the wedding, the research institute had prepared a great deal of food. That evening, Qin Zhen didn’t have a special meal prepared for her and ate in the cafeteria instead.
When a staff member delivered the meal, they took an extra look at Fu Qi, then turned around and added a large spoonful of rice to Qin Zhen’s bowl. “Eat more. You’ll need the strength!”
Qin Zhen nodded energetically. She didn’t fuss over the food anymore and wolfed down every last bite.
After eating, she not only stopped playing on her phone but even took the initiative to suggest going downstairs for a walk. She refused to let Fu Qi carry her up the stairs, too. Instead, she leaned against the wall and huffed and puffed like a little old lady, having to sit down and rest after climbing only two floors.
The change was a good one, but it was also very strange…
Had her vanity flared up again?
Weren’t her little brothers and sisters not even here?
After their walk, it took them half an hour to climb back upstairs to the ward. Qin Zhen cooperated with the examination, washed up, and climbed into bed. She didn’t even watch a movie.
“Not watching a movie?” Fu Qi asked.
“No. I’m going to bed early and getting up early to take care of my health,” Qin Zhen replied.
Fu Qi was certain something was wrong. Suspicious, he asked, “Are you planning to do something naughty again?”
Qin Zhen shook her head with an innocent expression. She had put on a convincing act, and Fu Qi had nearly believed her. Unfortunately, when he turned away, she caught sight of the curve of his neck and the prominent bump of his Adam’s apple. The light cast across it created stark boundaries of shadow and brightness, making his neck look especially long and slender.
It was a little sexy.
All of Qin Zhen’s emotions were written plainly across her face. The look of infatuation in her eyes was instantly caught by Fu Qi.
Fu Qi turned his head back. Qin Zhen immediately closed her eyes.
Now wasn’t a good time to pin him against the wall. She was too weak. What if Fu Qi really did have a corpse fetish? She wouldn’t be able to control him.
She was no longer that hotheaded little jiangshi. She had learned to make long-term plans and could resist the temptation right in front of her!
But no sooner had she thought this than a shadow seemed to fall across her vision. Qin Zhen instinctively opened her eyes and saw Fu Qi leaning over her from the waist, as if he were reaching for something inside the bed. His shirt had fallen open slightly because of his posture, revealing his long, slender neck and a small patch of skin at his collar.
Heat surged into Qin Zhen’s brain in an instant. She felt as though she had turned into a vampire, an urge to pounce and bite welling up inside her.
But she stubbornly held herself back!
Just as she was about to close her eyes and stay calm, Fu Qi lowered himself a little farther. The skin at his collar nearly brushed the tip of Qin Zhen’s nose, and she could even feel the scorching warmth of his body!
Qin Zhen’s eyes went wide. In an instant, her mind contained nothing but the feel of hot, resilient muscle. Her hands involuntarily reached toward Fu Qi’s neck.
She had only just lifted them when Fu Qi suddenly straightened, a pen in his hand. “I’m borrowing this.”
Qin Zhen stared at his pale pink lips as they moved. Remembering their two previous kisses, she felt heat flood her face. What pen?
Fu Qi, however, seemed not to notice anything unusual about her. He walked straight over to the side of the room.
Qin Zhen felt a pang of disappointment. She calmed herself down for a moment, but she didn’t actually calm down at all.
She was a patient. She deserved his undivided care!
She threw off the covers, slipped on her slippers, and strode toward Fu Qi.
Fu Qi looked up at her. “Weren’t you going to sleep? Why are you up again?”
Overcome by lust, Qin Zhen didn’t answer. She charged straight at him, forcing Fu Qi’s back against the wall.
Qin Zhen rose onto her toes to kiss him, but Fu Qi gave a slight twist and dodged, holding her by the arm. Lowering his head, he looked at her with amusement in his eyes.
“And you said you weren’t planning to do anything naughty?”
Qin Zhen couldn’t take it anymore. Angrily, she said, “Y-You kissed me before, but n-now you won’t kiss me. You’re a necrophile!”
Fu Qi: “…”
How could such an absurd conclusion actually make perfect sense?
Of course, he wasn’t a necrophile.
Fu Qi tipped his chin upward and said quietly, “You really think I’m a pervert? Couldn’t it be because I’m more conservative and don’t like getting intimate in front of cameras?”
Qin Zhen froze for a moment, then looked up. Sure enough, there was a camera mounted high above them.
This was a hospital room, and the camera had been left on so the staff could monitor her condition. For private matters like changing clothes, she had to use the bathroom.
“But we can do it in this corner,” Fu Qi said with a soft laugh. “It’s a blind spot.”
As he spoke, he cupped Qin Zhen’s face and leaned in to kiss her. Her cheeks flushed bright red, partly from embarrassment over her ridiculous misunderstanding and partly because his movement made her bashful.
However, just as Fu Qi’s lips were about to meet hers, her reason returned. She hurriedly shook her head and said, “P-Pin me against the wall to kiss me.”
Fu Qi smiled, wrapped an arm around her waist, and spun them around, pressing her against the wall.
But when he lowered his head to kiss her, Qin Zhen pushed at his shoulder and said anxiously, “No, I-I’m supposed to pin you!”
Fu Qi: “…”
What a troublesome woman.
But no matter how troublesome she was, he still had to indulge her.
He pulled Qin Zhen around again and let her grab both his hands and press him against the wall.
This time, Qin Zhen got her way, and they could finally kiss. Unfortunately, there was a significant difference in their heights. With Fu Qi pinned against the wall, even standing on tiptoe, Qin Zhen still couldn’t reach him.
Seeing the frustrated look on her face, Fu Qi smiled, broke free of her grip on his arms, and bent down slightly before scooping her up.
The sudden loss of balance startled Qin Zhen. She instinctively grabbed Fu Qi’s shoulders. By the time she realized what had happened, she was already sitting on his arm, held high in the air, with the camera hanging from the ceiling directly above her head.
“Now you’re taller than me,” Fu Qi said, his back against the wall as he looked up at her. “Go ahead and pin me down to kiss me.”
