To stop Fu Qi from robbing a bank, Qin Zhen finally agreed to spend the astronomical sum of fifteen yuan on a pair of slippers for him—and not just any slippers. They had to be bought at a large shopping mall downtown.
After what had happened, she no longer felt comfortable leaving this restless little zombie home alone. Besides, none of the matters concerning the clan had been resolved. So Qin Zhen simply brought Fu Qi along when she went to work the night shift at the internet café.
Fortunately, Fu Qi was nonaggressive most of the time. In fact, he was quite friendly. Whenever someone came to the counter to buy something, he would take the items down for them without Qin Zhen having to lift a finger. When no one was bothering them, Qin Zhen would immerse herself in her TV dramas while he used her phone to browse the forums beside her.
They got along quite harmoniously, except that Fu Qi was a little too talkative sometimes and was always interrupting Qin Zhen while she watched television.
“What does that idiot do for a living?”
“He’s an extra. He plans to get his documents sorted out and apply for a job as an elementary school teacher.”
“When was the last time that zombie named Pi Qiu posted on the forum?”
“When the Wealthy Big Shot made that tutorial post about how to earn money.”
“How many zombies are in the Zombie Alliance to Overthrow Human Tyranny now?”
“No idea.”
“Does the zombie clan have a leader and an organizational structure?”
Qin Zhen answered each question one by one. By the end, she was getting irritated and said, “No. If we did, I would’ve dumped you in a daycare center ages ago!”
Fu Qi didn’t mind her impatience in the slightest. Instead, seeing her like this, he smiled and leaned toward her.
“Do you hate me that much?”
Qin Zhen was curled up in the barstool, sipping Sprite and watching a TV drama. He blocked her view, so she shoved him aside.
“You’re so annoying!”
After being pushed away, Fu Qi sat down beside her. He continued browsing the forums to learn more about the members of the zombie clan, while also keeping an eye on Qin Zhen, who was completely absorbed in the plot of the show. Seeing how engrossed she was, the corners of his mouth curved upward as well.
He was always trying to go over and bother her. Every time he did, she pushed him away. Once, Qin Zhen used a little too much force and nearly sent him tumbling beneath the counter.
Even so, Fu Qi never seemed to tire of it.
While things were relaxed on their side, the situation at the Special Law Enforcement Department was the exact opposite. They had just uncovered a huge, well-established, cross-species illegal document-forging operation, and everyone was so busy they were spinning like tops.
Some of the staff were busy handing the human members of the fake-document ring over to the regular law-enforcement authorities. Others were interrogating the zombies who had illegally manufactured and sold forged documents. Another group was organizing information on the identities and addresses of zombies living in human society. Nearly everyone else had been sent out to secretly monitor those zombies.
“Where’s Fu Laoqi?” The department chief was so busy that his hair was practically falling out. “We’ve more or less gotten to the bottom of the zombies. The only thing left is that so-called alliance. When is he coming back?”
“No idea,” his subordinate replied. “After we caught that Man-Eating Zombie last time, he followed the phone of the zombie who ate people and tracked it to that little zombie he’d been watching for ages. Then the phone got lost, didn’t it? Ever since, he’s only been contacting the department one-way.”
Now that technology had advanced far enough, zombies, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures could all be detected through changes in magnetic fields and the like. The awakening and existence of these nonhuman species had long since ceased to be a secret.
Some were good, and some were bad. The heavier their resentment, the easier they were to detect. Take that Demonic Zombie, for example. It had learned a whole series of scam tactics online and specialized in luring gullible zombies and humans to meet it. Once they arrived, it ate them all without distinction, leaving not even bone fragments behind.
The Special Law Enforcement Department had suffered heavy losses battling it, but fortunately, they had ultimately managed to eliminate it—and had also seized a phone.
By tracing the phone, they uncovered quite a few victims, both human and zombie. Once they had counted them all, the department discovered that there were actually more zombies than humans among those who had fallen for the scams. It was enough to give anyone a headache.
That phone had been a crucial piece of evidence. As the captain of a squad, Fu Qi had personally taken the evidence and gone undercover beside a little zombie. Less than two days later, he had somehow lost the evidence. It was a serious mistake in the course of his work.
However, Fu Qi was highly capable. Even without the evidence, he had managed to lure out a large number of illegal zombies and, in the process, exposed a severely criminal document-forging ring. His contribution was considerable.
“The next time he contacts the department, put him through to me,” the chief ordered.
The moment he finished speaking, a message from Fu Qi arrived. It was extremely simple:
“I’m going to the Central Mall this afternoon to buy slippers. Please arrange a raffle and make sure I win the vacant house I own in Jiangbei.”
The department chief replied, “Win my ass. Get back here and work!”
Fu Qi asked, “Are they planning to wipe out the entire zombie clan?”
The department chief answered, “Who benefits from a war?”
If humans and zombies broke out into war, there was no doubt that humans would ultimately win. But zombies would not be easy to eliminate, and humans would certainly suffer heavy losses in the process as well.
Besides, zombies had once been human. What if, in the middle of a battle, they discovered that the zombie on the other side was one of their own ancestors? How awkward would that be?
Should they keep fighting, or stop?
If they kept fighting, would they still go and offer incense to their ancestors during the Qingming Festival?
If they stopped, then what would be the point of the war?
And if you followed that logic, as long as humanity was not completely wiped out, zombies could never truly be eliminated. Who could guarantee that they themselves would not turn into zombies one day after dying?
By then, they might transform overnight and end up fighting their own descendants and former teammates…
The thought was simply too disturbing to pursue.
The department chief said, “Everything you investigated has already been reported. The higher-ups have decided to observe the situation for a while longer. As for zombies who are not highly aggressive and have not committed any serious crimes, they’ll consider recruiting them based on their traits and abilities.”
Fu Qi had known about this from the start. He asked, “What about the little zombie who is especially hardworking and long-suffering, who swallows every grievance and has been bullied relentlessly in human society? Does she get any compensation?”
The chief snapped, “How about compensating her with a captain from the Special Law Enforcement Department?”
Fu Qi laughed. “That won’t do. She can get this one even without compensation from the department. Give her something else.”
The chief’s voice rose, and his tone became more serious. “Are you really planning to get together with a zombie?”
“That’s only my unilateral plan.” Fu Qi carefully corrected his superior’s wording. “For the sake of human social stability, I’m willing to make a personal sacrifice and marry into the zombie clan.”
The department chief said, “Get lost! Get lost!”
After their discussion, Fu Qi did not return to the law-enforcement department. Instead, he continued staying beside Qin Zhen, focusing on investigating the members of the Zombie Alliance to Overthrow Human Tyranny.
They were the most serious offenders among the zombie clan apart from the Man-Eating Zombie. They were hostile toward humans, so they had to be brought under control first.
The only problem was that this was rather difficult. Whenever Fu Qi showed any interest in the matter, Qin Zhen would suspect that he wanted to join the alliance. Every time he tried to bring it up, she would glare at him and begin lecturing him about the terrifying nature of humans.
There was nothing he could do but take it slowly.
But before that, the most urgent matter was moving house…
Fu Qi truly could not go on living in that attic where he would hit the ceiling every time he looked up.
That afternoon, Qin Zhen kept her promise and took Fu Qi to a large supermarket to buy slippers. After picking and choosing for ages, the cheapest pair they found still cost eighteen yuan. Under Fu Qi’s expression of “If you don’t buy them for me, I’m going to rob a bank,” Qin Zhen forced herself to ignore the pain in her wallet and put the slippers in the cart.
After choosing the slippers, they wandered around for quite a while.
They were genuinely just browsing.
“When I have money, I’m going to buy this entire block,” Qin Zhen declared grandly when they reached the candy aisle.
Fu Qi suggested, “You can buy some now.”
“Better not.” Qin Zhen sighed sympathetically. “We still don’t know what’s going on with Little Luo. What if he’s with law enforcement? I’d better save up first so I can run away someday.”
Fu Qi admired her ability to plan ahead, but still wanted to persuade her to treat herself a little better. Then he noticed her mournful little eyes move from the slippers to his face, followed by a heavy sigh…
Why did this feel like she was looking at an underachieving child in her family?
Fu Qi felt a pang of distress. He closed his eyes and decided to throw caution to the wind. “I want candy. Buy me some, or I’ll rob the place.”
Qin Zhen turned pale with fright. She hurriedly latched onto his arm and clung to him for dear life. After glancing at the supermarket employee not far away, she painfully let him choose a small bag of Skittles.
After that, Qin Zhen didn’t dare let this unruly zombie browse any longer. She practically dragged him outside. She had thought the trip would cost several dozen yuan, but when they reached the register, she discovered that the slippers were on sale. Together, the two items came to only seventeen yuan.
Qin Zhen was delighted.
Seeing her secretly pleased expression after getting such a bargain, Fu Qi felt both helpless and amused. All he could do was follow along and praise her cleverness.
But he soon found himself unable to praise her anymore, because the lucky draw at the supermarket entrance required a minimum purchase of twenty yuan—and they hadn’t spent enough.
Fu Qi forcibly stopped Qin Zhen from leaving. Through the crowd of people waiting in line for the draw, he stared at his colleague from a distance with an accusatory look.
His colleague felt wronged too. Honestly, being able to enter the draw after spending twenty yuan was already an extremely low threshold!
Other supermarkets required around a hundred yuan!
He hadn’t expected Fu Qi to go shopping with a girl and spend less than twenty yuan.
“I want to enter the draw,” Fu Qi said firmly.
Qin Zhen, who had only just bought him a bag of candy after he threw a tantrum, really wanted to pin him to the ground and beat him up!
But she was an adult zombie, and making a scene like that would attract too much attention. She could only hold him back and say, “Lucky draws are just traps set up by businesses to encourage people to spend more. The prizes are all useless little things. They’re not worth paying extra for.”
Hearing this, Fu Qi really wanted to ask her: If you understand that, how could you fall for the Wealthy Big Shot on the nonhuman forum who kept promising to make you rich?
His trap was far more low-grade than a supermarket’s sales tactics.
But having an objection he couldn’t voice made Fu Qi uncomfortable too. He could only look at the little boy nearby who was crying and throwing a fit over a toy car, then imitate him.
“I don’t care! I’m entering the draw! If you won’t let me, I’m not going home… I’m going to rob the place!”
Qin Zhen wanted to imitate the adults soothing the child beside them and tell Fu Qi, “Don’t force me to slap you in front of all these people,” but she didn’t dare.
Fu Qi wasn’t really a child, after all.
If he lost his temper, he could genuinely rob the place in broad daylight!
Qin Zhen sadly tried explaining things to Fu Qi for a while. When she found that reasoning with him was utterly useless, she finally gritted her teeth, punched him, and bought another bottle of soda to bring their total up to twenty yuan.
When they reached the lucky-draw box, Qin Zhen glared at Fu Qi. “Go on, draw! If you don’t win something good, just see whether I beat you up!”
Fu Qi looked at his colleague, who was pretending to be a stranger, and felt that he had lost all dignity, inside and out.
Since things had come to this, all he could do was try his best not to get beaten.
“I’ll definitely win,” he told Qin Zhen first. Then he turned toward his colleague and said with heavy emphasis, “I can draw the grand prize, right?”
His colleague replied, “Haha, who knows? Good luck.”
Fu Qi decided that if his colleague sabotaged him and didn’t let him win the grand prize, he would make things difficult for him when they got back.
The house was his to begin with, and the cost of the prizes had been deducted from his salary the previous month. Besides, he was working for the department. There was no reason he shouldn’t win.
After exchanging meaningful looks, Fu Qi had just stuck his hand into the draw box when Qin Zhen suddenly shouted, “Wait!”
She pulled his hand out and tugged on his arm. In a low voice, she said, “Little Qi, you haven’t washed your hands. How about—how about I draw instead?”
In fact, Qin Zhen simply wanted to draw the ticket herself.
She had paid for it, so naturally she should be the one to draw.
She just felt embarrassed, since she had been so righteous moments ago in declaring that lucky draws were merely sales gimmicks, that there wouldn’t be anything good, and that they weren’t worth entering.
“I’m not saying I like lucky draws,” Qin Zhen said defensively. “I’m just luckier than you. I’ll definitely win something good. Little Qi, let me draw, okay?”
Her tone was perfectly normal, but her eyes clearly said, Please, please, please! Let me draw! Let me draw!
Fu Qi laughed inwardly at her. Looking into her expectant eyes, he said, “Fine. You draw. You only get one chance, though. If you don’t win anything good, just see whether I beat you up!”
Qin Zhen: “…”
She hesitated for a moment, then bravely stepped up to the box.
If she won, she’d prove Fu Qi wrong. If she lost, she and Fu Qi could just beat each other up later. In any case, he was relying on her to support him now, so she was the one calling the shots!
Qin Zhen resolutely thrust her hand into the draw box and closed her eyes. The moment her fingers touched a ticket and she was about to pull it out, the box suddenly shook, and another ticket bumped into her hand.
This one didn’t feel like a winning ticket. She wanted to feel around for another, but the employee urged her, “Hurry up. If you’ve got one, pull it out. Don’t hold things up—there are still plenty of people waiting behind you.”
Qin Zhen instantly didn’t dare dawdle. She pulled out the ticket, but before she could even see what it said, the employee snatched it away.
The next moment, he let out an exaggerated gasp. “Grand Prize! The biggest prize this quarter! Wow, young lady, you’re incredibly lucky!”
The people around them erupted into an uproar. Some crowded around to look at the ticket, while others asked what the grand prize was and whether there were any other major prizes.
Only Qin Zhen stood there in a daze, feeling as though she had wandered into a dream.
She tilted her head blankly to look at Fu Qi, only to see him ask solemnly, “What did you just say the grand prize was?”
The “supermarket employee”—who was also Fu Qi’s colleague—answered in a clear, formal tone, “A small villa in Jiangbei, free for six months, plus a certain amount of cash.”
Fu Qi’s eyelid twitched. His eyes gleamed as he stared straight at his colleague. “I know about the villa. What’s the cash for?”
The colleague said, “Oh, that? It was added temporarily. It’s about the equivalent of one month’s salary for certain departments… It’s the grand prize, after all. It has to be grand enough, don’t you think?”
The corner of Fu Qi’s eye twitched several times. He was about to say something else when Qin Zhen forcefully pulled him behind her.
“You won that much money, and you’re still unhappy?” Qin Zhen had finally come to her senses after the shock of winning the grand prize. Her eyes were wide and round, filled with uncontrollable delight and exasperation at Fu Qi’s stupidity.
She turned on Fu Qi fiercely. “Stop talking. Get over there!”
Fu Qi: “……”
This was great news for Qin Zhen—she was genuinely happy and relieved. Fu Qi wasn’t going to see a single cent of his salary from last month.
That still wasn’t enough for the greedy little zombie. She basked in everyone’s envious looks, bashful yet smug, and while accepting her prize, she whispered to Fu Qi, “It’d be great if they held an event like this every month.”
Unfortunately, a “staff member” with sharp ears overheard her. Eager to stir up trouble, he immediately said, “That’s not impossible. I’ll apply to the higher-ups when I get back and try to arrange an event like this at the beginning of every month. Little girl, you have to come participate when the time comes.”
Qin Zhen was overjoyed and nodded vigorously. “Mm!”
Fu Qi: “…”
It wasn’t their money, so of course they didn’t care in the slightest.
Fu Qi silently rubbed his chest to calm himself down. Then he let out a mournful sigh when he saw the shopping bag in his hand and the pair of slippers inside—nine yuan after the discount.
Only nine yuan?!
He got angry, opened Qin Zhen’s precious candy, and ate two pieces in one go.
So what if he ate them?!
Considering that she had legally obtained a free villa and a large sum of cash, two pieces of candy didn’t seem all that important. When Qin Zhen noticed, she only frowned for a few seconds before magnanimously forgiving Fu Qi and rewarding him with two more pieces.
Just two.
Fu Qi was speechless. Deliberately picking a fight, he said, “I insisted on entering the lottery, Qin Qin. Shouldn’t you split the cash with me?”
Qin Zhen’s expression changed in an instant. She turned toward him as though facing a formidable enemy, and Fu Qi could practically see the wheels spinning rapidly in her little head.
After a long while, she said, “What do you need money for? You don’t understand how dangerous the human world is. I can keep it safe for you! Besides, I’ll support you.”
“I’m buying a phone,” Fu Qi said. “Designer clothes. Luxury goods.”
Qin Zhen looked troubled. After stammering for a while, she said, “Then I’ll give you twenty, okay?”
Fu Qi was almost laughing from anger. “Twenty? Even people begging for money on the street wouldn’t bother with that.”
“It’s my money, and I was the one who entered the lottery…” Qin Zhen muttered several times before saying, with an expression of excruciating pain, “I’ll give you fifty. Fifty yuan. Is that enough?”
Fu Qi was completely speechless. “Keep it for yourself, you little miser!”
As soon as she heard that Fu Qi didn’t intend to take even a single cent, Qin Zhen became delighted. After enjoying her happiness for a moment, she asked him repeatedly for confirmation. “You’re the one refusing it, right? We agreed on this. You can’t change your mind later.”
Fu Qi said, “Mention it one more time and I’ll change my mind.”
Qin Zhen hurriedly shut her mouth. After hiding the cash away, she began packing her luggage, preparing to move into the villa by the river.
She didn’t have much luggage, and Fu Qi had even less—just two changes of clothes, which Qin Zhen had bought for him from a street stall a few days earlier. The entire outfit had cost less than forty yuan.
After completing the termination procedures for the rental on that money-pit of an attic and packing up their few belongings, they were ready to hail a taxi and move. Then Qin Zhen had a sudden idea. She tugged on Fu Qi and said, “I heard that villa is really expensive. Why don’t we keep living here and rent the villa out for money?”
That way, she would only have to pay a little over a thousand yuan a month for the attic while earning a steady, substantial income from the villa’s rent.
Qin Zhen was astonished that she could have such an excellent money-making idea. She felt that she had finally unlocked her talent for making money and that it wouldn’t be long before she became part of high society!
Just thinking about it made her a little dizzy with excitement.
She was so absorbed in her beautiful fantasy that she failed to notice Fu Qi’s face had turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
Fu Qi really wanted to pin the little zombie down and give her a beating!
But he held himself back. While Qin Zhen wasn’t paying attention, he went out to contact the department in charge. A few minutes later, Qin Zhen received a phone call.
After answering it, she became dejected and said regretfully, “The organizers said we’re not allowed to rent out the villa… Sigh, see? I wasn’t the only one who thought of such a great way to make money. It’s just that those capitalists are too wicked, doing everything they can to stop us poor people from… getting rich!”
Fu Qi no longer wanted to say anything. He silently stuffed her into the taxi, and only after they finally arrived safely at the villa by the river did he let out a sigh of relief.
The villa wasn’t very large, but the surroundings were pleasant. It was fully furnished, regularly cleaned, and spotless.
Once they arrived, Qin Zhen ran up and down the entire place, delighted beyond words. When she made a post on the nonhuman forum, her fingers were trembling with excitement.
After showing off for a while, she warned Fu Qi not to wander off, then happily curled up in the home theater to watch a movie, tossing her phone to Fu Qi and leaving it entirely in his care.
Fu Qi opened the forum and saw many zombies replying to Qin Zhen’s bragging post. Most of them were envious and jealous. Some even asked whether the Wealthy Big Shot had taught her how to make money, and regretted not having eagerly asked the Wealthy Big Shot for advice at the time.
Only a few zombies still possessed enough sense to suspect that Qin Zhen had been set up by humans.
Unfortunately, those rational comments were drowned out by the envious ones, and no one paid them any attention.
Fu Qi found this utterly ridiculous. He felt that if it weren’t for Little Luo, who illegally manufactured and sold fake identification documents, a few extremists, and the Demonic Zombies and Man-Eating Zombies who preyed on humans, then this entire group of zombies could be tricked out of the clothes on their backs by ordinary people without any need for the special law-enforcement department to intervene.
After browsing for a while, Fu Qi focused on observing the account named “Zombie Alliance for Overthrowing Human Tyranny.”
The account’s post read: “Money is great! With money, we can buy guns and bullets and wipe out the humans!”
Fu Qi registered a new account and tried to reply to him, hoping to make contact. However, this anti-human zombie was surprisingly vigilant. He said he had never seen Fu Qi’s account before and suspected that he wasn’t a good zombie.
There was no helping it. Fu Qi could only put his attempt to approach the anti-human alliance on hold and continue investigating from the sidelines.
He went to the home theater to find Qin Zhen. Since it was his own home, he was used to walking straight in and forgot to knock. The moment he opened the door, he heard Qin Zhen let out a startled cry. She hurriedly shut off the projector and dove headfirst beneath a blanket.
“…”
Why was she acting so guilty? What had she been up to now?
Only a dim amber lamp was lit in the home theater, making the room very dark. Fu Qi walked in, and only then did Qin Zhen pull the blanket off her head. With her hair sticking up in every direction, she put on an innocent expression and asked, “Little Qi, you’re here. Is there something you need?”
Fu Qi knew she was pretending for several reasons. Aside from her strange behavior just now, her eyes were moist and dewy. She clearly had been sneaking around doing something she shouldn’t, and her guilty gaze kept darting from side to side.
Besides, whenever she was disturbed while watching something, she would never speak so pleasantly to Fu Qi.
“I came to watch the movie,” Fu Qi said.
As he spoke, he reached for the projector. Qin Zhen immediately reacted like a startled tiger, crying out as she pounced on him and pinned him to the carpet.
They had already moved out of that cramped attic, yet Fu Qi still ended up hitting his head. There was nothing he could do about it. Supporting himself with one hand on the floor and steadying Qin Zhen, who was sprawled on top of him, with the other, he asked, “What are you doing? Are you trying to eat me?”
Qin Zhen lifted her head from his chest, her eyes darting everywhere. She mumbled, “I—I tripped.”
“I don’t believe you.” Fu Qi tried to get up, but the moment he exerted himself, she pressed down on him again, and he fell back onto the floor.
He looked at Qin Zhen suspiciously and was about to speak when she beat him to it.
“Did anything major happen on the forum? Have they found Little Luo?”
That was somewhat related to what Fu Qi wanted to know, so he temporarily set aside Qin Zhen’s little secret and said, “The biggest thing happening on the forum right now is that you won the jackpot. Everyone’s getting ready to follow your example and try their luck with prize draws and lottery tickets.”
As for Little Luo, this heartless bunch of zombies had already assumed she’d been eaten by an evil spirit. No one cared about her anymore.
Qin Zhen asked again, “What about the Wealthy Big Shot? Has he replied yet?”
As she asked, she sat up from Fu Qi. Perhaps afraid he would run off and turn on the projector again, Qin Zhen had been pinning his lower legs beneath her, her knees bent and her feet braced against his thighs.
Fu Qi shifted to the side, trying to change the awkward position. The moment he moved, Qin Zhen’s leg shot out, nearly kicking him in the stomach.
He quickly reached out, caught her leg, and moved it aside before slowly letting out a breath. He answered softly, “No.”
Of course there had been no reply. The Wealthy Big Shot was a fraudulent Demonic Zombie who ate people and zombies alike. His sins were grave, and he had been eliminated on the day of his arrest.
“Oh.” Qin Zhen’s face scrunched up as if she were struggling to find something to talk about.
Fu Qi seized the opportunity. “But I saw that the Anti-Humanity Alliance is still recruiting…”
“Don’t even think about it!” Qin Zhen shouted, cutting him off. She spoke harshly and sternly. “How many times do I have to tell you? We zombies are no match for humans. Stop thinking about opposing them all the time. Can’t you listen for once?”
Just how much had she suffered at the hands of humans to be this frightened of them?
Fu Qi actually felt sorry for Qin Zhen, a zombie herself. Keeping his thoughts hidden, he said, “I can’t even ask about it?”
“No!” Qin Zhen said very seriously. “They’re poor and useless. If you join them, you won’t even be able to afford to live in an attic anymore. You’re better off staying with me. If you stay with me, you can live in a big villa!”
She had sounded extremely stern at first, but by the end, her voice rose with delight.
Fu Qi caught the change in her tone. Looking at her small, gleeful eyes, he began to smile as well.
After they finished laughing, he put on a solemn expression and said, “Of course I want to stay with you and live the good life. I was just curious… The more you refuse to tell me, the more curious I get.”
Qin Zhen thought it over. He was an insubordinate little zombie who never listened, after all. In the end, she gave in and said, “Fine. I’ll tell you about the alliance…”
The Alliance for Overthrowing Human Tyranny was, as its name suggested, an organization opposed to humans. It was highly aggressive toward them.
Fu Qi had assumed the organization would have a lot of zombies in it. He hadn’t expected Qin Zhen to say that as of last month, they had only had three zombies. Now, she wasn’t sure.
“Why aren’t you sure now? Isn’t he recruiting on the forum every day?”
Qin Zhen said, “No zombie cares about him.”
Fu Qi was very attentive. “If no one pays attention to him, then they should still have three members. Unless there are other zombies who have never appeared on the forum and were secretly recruited by him?”
“No.” Qin Zhen denied this. “Most zombies know about the forum. After all, we zombies need to communicate too… Their membership might have something to do with their jobs.”
Fu Qi had learned quite a bit about the zombie community recently. He knew they had all found jobs and were working hard to get by.
Aside from a few who had used fake IDs to land decent jobs with benefits, most of the rest worked exhausting odd jobs like Qin Zhen. Some were even worse off, sleeping on the streets, begging by the roadside, or singing and performing for money.
Fu Qi genuinely couldn’t imagine what kind of job could affect the number of members in an anti-human organization.
Qin Zhen said, “One of them guards a cemetery, and the other works at an incinerator.”
Fu Qi said, “…So?”
“They both deal with the dead,” Qin Zhen said as if it were obvious. Seeing the utter confusion written all over Fu Qi’s face, she remembered that he was still a newly unearthed little zombie and patiently explained, “Guarding a cemetery is a great job. It’s in a remote place, with very few living people around—especially at night. Every night, you can dig up a grave and sleep in a coffin…”
They would open the coffin to check whether it held ashes or a corpse. If it contained ashes or a decomposed body, they would borrow it for a night and then come back out to continue guarding the cemetery.
If they were lucky and found a body that hadn’t yet decomposed, they would take a bite and see if they could turn it into a zombie.
The odds were rather low, because cremation was now mandatory.
Working at an incinerator had a much higher success rate. Every body could be bitten once before being sent into the fire. Who knew? Maybe one of them would successfully transform into a zombie.
“The third zombie in their alliance came about that way,” Qin Zhen said. “Lately, I’ve been too busy discussing important matters concerning our people to pay attention to them. I don’t know whether their alliance has expanded again.”
Fu Qi was speechless.
If he hadn’t infiltrated the zombie community, who would have guessed they used such bizarre methods to increase their numbers?
But he still had one question. “How do you know whether the transformation will work?”
“We don’t.” Qin Zhen turned the question back on him. “Do you know how you became a zombie?”
Fu Qi wasn’t a zombie at all. How could he know how zombies came into existence?
The existence of zombies had been a mystery since ancient times, and no one had solved it to this day.
Clearly, Qin Zhen didn’t know either.
Fu Qi asked again, “If you bite a dead person and there’s a chance they’ll become a zombie, what about biting a living person? How likely are they to turn into a zombie?”
“Never tried it.” Qin Zhen’s expression turned strange. There was a hint of longing mixed with shyness. In a small voice, she said, “To tell you the truth, I’m pretty curious too. Sometimes, when I see a human-zombie couple, I really want to ask whether they’ve ever accidentally bitten their partner while kissing…”
If they had, would their partner turn into a zombie?
It was a real mystery to zombies.
Fu Qi raised an eyebrow and pressed her leg downward slightly. “If you’re that curious, why don’t you try it?”
“No, no.” Qin Zhen shook her head vigorously. “We’re respectable zombies. We don’t get involved in human-zombie romances.”
Fu Qi’s eyes darkened slightly. “So you only date zombies?”
Qin Zhen didn’t know how to answer. While she was still hesitating, Fu Qi added, “A handsome zombie like me—would you be interested?”
Qin Zhen’s face flushed. She clasped her hands together and stammered, “You are pretty handsome… But you’re useless. You’re always trying to commit a crime at the drop of a hat, and you might drag me into trouble someday. Besides, you don’t know how to make money. You’re like a kept pretty boy, and I’d have to support you…”
Fu Qi suddenly burst out laughing.
Qin Zhen had no idea what he found so funny. She quickly glanced up at him and saw him looking down at her, amusement practically spilling from his eyes.
Feeling a little embarrassed, she lowered her head and picked at her fingers.
After a while, Qin Zhen sneaked another look at Fu Qi and found that he was still laughing.
What was so funny about that?
Qin Zhen couldn’t understand his sense of humor, and she began to feel uneasy.
She went over what she had just said. A moment later, she vaguely guessed what Fu Qi was laughing at. Her face hardened as she said, “I might just be what humans call a materialistic little zombie. As long as I can live well, I refuse to suffer alongside some man. Think whatever you want, laugh all you want—I’m not dating a penniless loser!”
At that, Fu Qi laughed even harder. The tremors of his body traveled into Qin Zhen, making her feel strangely ticklish.
What on earth was so funny?
Qin Zhen couldn’t figure it out. She began to find Fu Qi annoying again and abruptly pulled her hand away from him, shifting from beside his calf to the blanket nearby to reach for the projector.
The projector flickered on, and two people appeared kissing passionately on the enormous screen. The man had already taken off half his clothes, his arm wrapped around the woman’s waist as he lifted her and pressed her against the wall of the train compartment. The fervent caresses and kisses were enough to make anyone blush.
Only then did Qin Zhen remember what she had been watching. She let out a scream and hurried to turn off the projector, but in her fluster, she not only failed to switch it off—she also turned up the volume.
The sound of intimate kisses filled the screening room. Qin Zhen was so mortified she wanted the ground to swallow her up. After finally managing to shut off the projector, she was too embarrassed to look at Fu Qi.
She sat there blankly for a few seconds, then collapsed onto the spot, lying limply on the carpet as if she had lost all will to live.
After she fell, she heard Fu Qi laughing again.
…He really was so annoying!
