Bai Chen Zhu slurped down the instant dumplings ravenously; he was so hungry that anything tasted good.
Out of the blue, Zhou Zhuo Hua said, “When we came back earlier, that girl mentioned your name. You, Jiang Ye, and that girl—are you in a love triangle?”
“Cough cough cough!” Bai Chen Zhu nearly choked to death on those words, coughing thunderously. Zhou Zhuo Hua jumped in fright and hurriedly patted his back to help him breathe.
After a few coughs, Bai Chen Zhu grabbed the cup from the table.
Seeing he didn’t deny it, Zhou Zhuo Hua touched her chin and muttered to herself, “College kids these days play it so wild, huh? Did Jiang Ye ditch his girlfriend to pick up his ‘rival’?”
“Cough cough cough!” Bai Chen Zhu almost spat out his water. “N-no cough cough! It’s not cough cough!”
“Don’t rush. Catch your breath first,” Zhou Zhuo Hua said, worried he’d choke.
Little did she know Bai Chen Zhu was more afraid of her saying something even weirder later. He struggled to spit out fragments.
“It’s not Jiang Ye’s rival. Wang Xin Xin and I have nothing to do with each other! It’s them playing it wild!”
Zhou Zhuo Hua wasn’t entirely convinced and just uttered an “oh”, not seeming too concerned. She was a bit curious, but not overly so.
This wasn’t the reaction of the childhood sweetheart who secretly loved Jiang Ye in the book. Bai Chen Zhu paused, then blurted out on impulse, “You’re not mad?”
Zhou Zhuo Hua looked puzzled. “Why would I be mad?”
Bai Chen Zhu hesitated. “Aren’t you and Jiang Ye…”
Zhou Zhuo Hua was baffled, but Bai Chen Zhu’s expression told her what he meant. Her eyes widened slightly, and the distant demeanor she’d had since they met cracked.
Seeing her face change, Bai Chen Zhu said more softly, “Aren’t you… living together?”
He was actually a bit curious why the women in the novel were willing to share one boyfriend.
Who was living with whom? Zhou Zhuo Hua’s pupils quaked. For an instant, Bai Chen Zhu felt like her entire world had collapsed; her expression was like she’d seen aliens.
The calm before the storm came as an emotionless sentence. “What did you say? I didn’t hear clearly.”
That retort made Bai Chen Zhu’s scalp tingle. He regretted his loose tongue—why probe into others’ private affairs? He turned his head and focused on eating, pretending nothing happened. “Didn’t say anything.”
Zhou Zhuo Hua pressed her forehead, took deep breaths, twisted his head back, stared into his dark eyes, and gritted out through clenched teeth while suppressing her anger. “Listen up. I’m his big sis—the sis who watched him grow up with a bare butt!”
Bai Chen Zhu thought, what does that have to do with me? He regretted asking even more now, as Zhou Zhuo Hua vented her frustration from the misunderstanding right at him.
Earlier, Jiang Ye had suddenly called her, saying he had a fever, was at the mountain villa, surrounded by nothing but wilderness, too weak to drive.
Jiang Ye’s parents were always traveling for work. Zhou Zhuo Hua’s dad was the Jiang family’s private doctor, and the Zhou family was a medical lineage, so she’d known Jiang Ye since childhood and was practically his half-doctor.
She’d scolded him over the phone but worried he’d burn out his brain, so she took leave, grabbed her medical kit, and rushed over to care for him for a few days.
During that time, electronic signals cut out, zombies and mutated plants and animals appeared—even if slow, their numbers were scalp-numbing.
Only in these past few days had Jiang Ye recovered enough for them to dare drive out and scout.
Zhou Zhuo Hua’s words shattered Bai Chen Zhu’s preconceptions.
He frowned: why did every detail not match the book?
When Jiang Ye came down after hanging the clothes, Zhou Zhuo Hua was stewing with nowhere to vent. As she went upstairs, she roughly ruffled his hair. Jiang Ye casually swatted her hand away. “Don’t go crazy.”
Zhou Zhuo Hua shot back, “The guy you picked up yourself—you take care of him!” Then she left.
“What did you say to her?” Jiang Ye asked, puzzled. In his eyes, Zhou Zhuo Hua wasn’t one to get mad easily.
Bai Chen Zhu averted his gaze, not daring to repeat what he’d said.
Zhou Zhuo Hua was one thing—even mad, she couldn’t do much to him. But if Jiang Ye learned of this ‘misunderstanding’, he’d probably leave him bruised for a while.
Bai Chen Zhu ignored him and finished the last dumpling in a few bites.
The villa’s lights gradually went out. Zhou Zhuo Hua came up from downstairs and placed Bai Chen Zhu’s backpack, left in the car, beside him. Seeing him asleep on the sofa, she frowned. “Didn’t Jiang Ye tell you there’s a guest room in the villa?”
Tonight, he had originally been supposed to sleep on the roadside, but now this was already pretty good. Bai Chen Zhu did not care where he slept; the sofa was still more comfortable than the street. He lay down with his arms as a pillow, placing his hand with the needle mark on top of the blanket.
“You’re already physically weak, and a patient sleeping like this might easily relapse with a fever.” Zhou Zhuo Hua’s professional instincts made it impossible for her to stand by and watch. “Come with me. There’s a guest room on the third floor.”
“Thanks.” Bai Chen Zhu was momentarily stunned. He packed up his things and followed her upstairs.
The room was not large; it was at the end of the corridor and had its own bathroom. The window featured a tatami bay window, and sitting on the cushion allowed one to see the iron gate opposite.
There were no decorations in the room, but it was quite clean.
After Zhou Zhuo Hua opened the door, she seemed somewhat surprised. She turned on the light, entered, and inspected the room, reaching out to touch the dust-free bedding. Bai Chen Zhu only heard her mutter, “What the heck, when was this room cleaned…”
“Make do with it.” Zhou Zhuo Hua left soon after.
Bai Chen Zhu was already very satisfied. He opened his backpack and checked inside; there was not much—just two sets of clothes and some food, which he could use right now.
After washing up, he unusually found himself unable to sleep. As he tossed and turned, muffled thunder rumbled outside, one peal after another. The sky was overcast, and the wind whipped up leaves everywhere.
The cold night wind seeped through the window and crept onto his skin. He got up and sat by the window for a while. Since he had not turned on the light, the room was dim and dark, with only the courtyard’s streetlamp shining in.
In the quiet night, Bai Chen Zhu stared blankly out the window.
It seemed that ever since he had been bitten by that zombie, his physical condition had plummeted. He felt weak and powerless, easily fatigued, and prone to illness.
Bai Chen Zhu lowered his head and clenched his fist, looking at the needle mark on the back of his hand.
He was not even as strong as a normal person—could he really survive in this world?
Lightning flashed outside the window, illuminating his weary face, stripped of its social mask.
Time ticked over to midnight.
Two shadowy figures furtively poked their heads out from beside the electrified wall.
Bai Chen Zhu, by the third-floor window, narrowed his eyes and spotted that the figures were Wang Xin Xin and the Black-Clothed Man.
They stealthily tossed something the size of a fist into the courtyard, then hurriedly ran off, entering the abandoned villa next door and quickly locking the door.
Bai Chen Zhu had a bad premonition. He threw on his jacket and went out.
The apocalypse was constantly amplifying the worst of human nature, but social order had not completely collapsed yet. These two were already this bold and reckless—did they hold a grudge because Jiang Ye had not taken them in?
As he went downstairs, he happened to run into Jiang Ye, who was leaning against the protruding balcony on the second floor, blowing in the wind with a cigarette between his fingers. His face was hidden in the shadows, indistinct.
Bai Chen Zhu did not want to deal with him; he always felt that Jiang Ye was extremely unreliable.
But Jiang Ye was the owner of the villa, so he got straight to the point. “Wang Xin Xin and the others threw something into the courtyard. It’d be better to go check it out.”
“Mm.” Jiang Ye shook off some ash, still looking lazy and unhurried.
He pressed the cigarette butt into the marble surface. “You go back to your room and sleep. I’ll clean up the trash.”
This calm demeanor did not seem like something Jiang Ye would do. Bai Chen Zhu sized him up and asked sincerely from the heart, “Can you handle it?”
“Tch.” Jiang Ye gave him a sidelong glance. “You say that like you’re asking for it.”
They were in a crisis, and he was still trading barbs. Bai Chen Zhu’s face darkened; he did not want to bother with him and turned to go downstairs.
Jiang Ye frowned deeply. He straightened up, extended his long arm to block him, and dropped his usual teasing tone, saying seriously, “Go back, sickly weakling. I can handle it.”
Jiang Ye casually grabbed a long-handled umbrella and headed out.
Before leaving, he turned his face slightly, as if hinting at something or deliberately intimidating. “Sleep late, and you might have nightmares.”
