Chapter 53: Qingming Festival

The small building was simple and crude, yet it welcomed a distinguished guest that night.

The bodyguards at the door had long been dismissed.

Bai Guang Zheng wore a suit and gloves, wrapped up tightly from head to toe. His clean-shaven, elegant face appeared refined as he strode through the door and said happily, “It’s rare for you to let me in today.”

Li Zhen Zhen took two steps back, avoiding his hand. She lowered her eyes and led the way forward two steps. “I’m doing this for Bai Li.”

“Oh? Bai Li?” Bai Guang Zheng followed her over and stopped in front of the zombie.

He showed no fear of the zombie’s danger and directly reached out to grab Bai Li by the neck. He watched as the zombie struggled in his grasp, tilting its head back and letting out meaningless roars. Its face showed bulging cyan-purple veins, reduced to an ugly creature driven only by instinct.

Though Bai Li had turned into a zombie, he received treatment that many others lacked. His clothes were neat, and his twisted face had been wiped clean.

But no matter how clean, it was still a zombie. Bai Guang Zheng looked around left and right, his gaze full of scrutiny, as if appraising a piece of trash. Disgust appeared on his face. “Brainless thing.”

He withdrew his hand and casually wiped it on Bai Li.

The slap rang out loudly in the small building. Bai Guang Zheng slowly wiped his hand on Bai Li.

“Bai Guang Zheng!” Li Zhen Zhen’s eyes widened. “Do you still remember he’s your son? Do you still remember what you promised me? You have to save him.”

“Oh, son.” Bai Guang Zheng seemed to recall something then. A hint of warmth entered his gaze toward Bai Li. “Of course I’ll save my son.”

“This is the last time I’ll try to help you. If it fails again, I won’t waste my things anymore.” Bai Guang Zheng emphasized solemnly. “Even if it’s my son.”

If not for the Li Family not yet fully under his control, he wouldn’t have kept Li Zhen Zhen around.

If not for needing an experimental subject, he wouldn’t have kept the already-infected Bai Li.

Bai Li had fully turned into a zombie and was useless. Bai Guang Zheng thought slowly to himself, but now he had a daughter, and she was thoughtful and even cooked for him.

Though he could no longer taste flavors.

Someday, when he tested the small ball’s effects on Bai Tao, in consideration of her cooking for him, he could let her live a bit longer.

Bai Guang Zheng reluctantly took a small ball from his pocket. It was about the size of a chicken egg, gleaming with a cold, metallic light. He pinched the small ball and pressed it to the forehead of Bai Li, who was still roaring nonstop.

The thing was like some hypnotic artifact. The moment it touched Bai Li’s forehead, Bai Li calmed down, his eyelids drooping in a half-asleep state.

But the blood patterns on his body didn’t fade, and his face remained monstrous. He had simply quieted.

There was no other reaction.

Li Zhen Zhen went from anticipation at the start to desolation at the end. Dead silence filled the hall.

“Is that all?” Li Zhen Zhen closed her eyes briefly and made a decision in her heart.

The zombie before her was both familiar and strange… This was clearly an outcome she had known long ago. Bai Li had ceased to exist from the moment of infection. What was she still hoping for?

Bai Guang Zheng withdrew his hand. Li Zhen Zhen grabbed his sleeve, her eyes full of pleading. “Try once more, just one more time.”

“It’s already fully a zombie.” Bai Guang Zheng looked at Bai Li. He had fed it so many brains, tested the small ball on it, pulled it back from the brink of full zombification multiple times—just to see if it could turn back into a human as an experimental subject.

But now it seemed the small ball couldn’t save someone who had fully zombified. Bai Guang Zheng frowned tightly, panic rising in his heart, because he knew he wasn’t far from that point himself. His memories were gradually blurring, his emotions nearly gone, and even the objects of his appetite had changed.

“No! Let me try it again!” Li Zhen Zhen clung to his sleeve relentlessly.

Bai Guang Zheng found her annoying. With only the two of them in the room, he handed the small ball to Li Zhen Zhen.

Li Zhen Zhen cupped the ice-cold, egg-sized small ball in both hands and took a deep breath.

Bai Guang Zheng prompted her, “Put it on Bai Li’s forehead.”

Li Zhen Zhen nodded and took two steps forward, but she suddenly spun around. Her arm swung in an arc through the air, hurling the small ball to the second floor.

“You’re asking to die!” Bai Guang Zheng’s eyes bulged in rage. Li Zhen Zhen turned and ran.

Bai Guang Zheng ignored her and looked up, but he didn’t hear the small ball land. He glanced around left and right and caught faint footsteps. He chased out swiftly.

Under the moonlight, the expansive Rose Garden stood silently outside the door. A wall of flowers taller than a person formed a maze, blocking traces.

Bai Guang Zheng stared fixedly at the Rose Garden and roared, “Come out!”

Silence.

The next moment, with no response, Bai Guang Zheng shouted. He grabbed a nearby gardening hoe and smashed it viciously into the flower wall. The force was so great that the continuous circular flower wall bent along his swing. Roots pulled from the soil, and a huge section of the man-high flower wall collapsed with a boom. The soil beneath spread and flipped out, cracking open everywhere.

Bai Chen Zhu dodged the falling flower wall in time and jumped in fright. He signaled Jiang Ye with his eyes about what to do. The two were at another flower wall. Zhou Zhuo Hua and the others had already driven the car to the gate of Bai Manor and were waiting. They just needed to get in the car to escape.

The man-high flower walls made excellent cover.

But now, if they left the Rose Garden, Bai Guang Zheng would chase them like a venomous snake and kill them.

Bai Guang Zheng raised the hoe and swung it down. Another section of flower wall collapsed with a crash.

Jiang Ye patted the back of his hand to soothe him and signaled to keep moving forward.

But the footsteps behind grew heavier each time. Bai Guang Zheng, in his suit and carrying the hoe, stood just a few meters away. The whites of his eyes reddened with bloodshot veins as he searched everywhere for the intruders. Flower walls fell one after another under his casual destruction.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Do you think you can escape?”

“I’ll dig out all your brains.”

The cover dwindled. Moonlight cast his shadow behind him. Bai Chen Zhu covered his mouth as the shadow brushed past his toes.

What to do? Was there anything to lure him away? Bai Chen Zhu suddenly thought of his mental power.

He quietly extended his mental threads and placed a clump of chaotic mental power in the opposite direction.

Bai Guang Zheng reacted to it. He dragged the hoe with one hand and rushed over, leaping up for a smash. The hoe plunged into the empty flowerbed, smashing a patch of flowers.

A guttural growl came from his throat. His bloodshot eyes scanned the surroundings.

It worked! Bai Chen Zhu signaled Jiang Ye with hand gestures: He could use mental power to lure Bai Guang Zheng away, then they could slip out quietly.

A simple and effective method.

Jiang Ye nodded.

He immediately placed another clump of mental power at the farthest spot from them, then pulled Jiang Ye along through the flowerbeds, crouching low as they neared the door. The manor’s gate was an antique wooden door that would make noise whether opening or closing.

Bai Chen Zhu glanced back and saw Bai Guang Zheng at the farthest diagonal corner from them.

So far away—no problem. He yanked the door open.

But faster than he could exit was the hoe whistling through the air. Bai Chen Zhu’s pupils shrank, reflecting the incoming hoe.

The next second, he was shoved out the gate. The hoe smashed into the door, embedding deeply and slamming it shut with the force.

Bai Chen Zhu fell to the ground. Tang Zhao hurried out of the car, crossed the road, and helped him up. “Bro, what happened? Where’s Boss Jiang?”

Huge commotion erupted inside the manor. Cracks spread horizontally along the manor walls.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Bai Tao grabbed the microphone and small speaker she had specially brought and tried to charge in, but Bai Chen Zhu held her back.

“Don’t go. What if Jiang Ye gets influenced by you and becomes worse off?” Bai Chen Zhu’s heart raced, but his mind remained clear and methodical.

Zhou Zhuo Hua also got out of the car. “It’s been several hours since dinner. Normal people would have long since fully turned. Bai Guang Zheng can’t hold out—his internals are rotting.”

Bai Tao couldn’t help but worry. “Even if he’s rotten inside, without pain he can still move. Unless the drug fully takes effect and he can’t get up anymore.”

Tang Zhao stood on tiptoe, grabbed the hoe embedded in the door, and yanked down hard, tearing half the door off.

The battle was far worse than they imagined. The entire garden lay flattened, strewn with colorful debris. The surrounding buildings were all damaged. Amid the rolling dust, they saw sweat-drenched Jiang Ye and ashen-faced Bai Guang Zheng.

At this point, Bai Guang Zheng’s gloves were torn, revealing long, sharp, eerie fingers. His suit was ripped, exposing a cyan-purple, swollen body beneath. There was a blood hole on his shoulder from Bai Chen Zhu’s earlier strike, and his left leg was broken by Jiang Ye, making him stand unevenly as foul-smelling blood dripped steadily.

That monster was the old man…? Bai Tao froze in place, unable to react. Zhou Zhuo Hua covered her eyes. “If you’re scared, don’t look.”

As they clashed, Jiang Ye’s arm was grabbed by Bai Guang Zheng, who was about to twist it off. Tang Zhao’s heart tightened at the sight, and he rushed over. “Boss Jiang, I’ll help you!”

Jiang Ye shook off the restraint with a counter.

The three collided in the billowing dust. The smoke obscured vision, but just from the sounds, Bai Chen Zhu felt his bones ache.

When the dust cleared, two shadows flew back, slamming into the concrete wall and snapping a concrete pillar.

The monster’s gaze locked onto Tang Zhao.

“Tang Zhao!” Bai Chen Zhu shouted anxiously.

Tang Zhao spat out blood. Jiang Ye swiftly grabbed a broken wooden plank nearby and blocked in front of Tang Zhao, stopping the monster’s swinging garden fork.

The fork pierced through the plank, its sharp tines glinting, nearly stabbing into Jiang Ye’s forehead.

“Ball… ball…” Bai Guang Zheng’s eyes were fully red. A guttural wheeze came from his windpipe as he bellowed. His body swelled like a balloon, bursting his suit in agony.

He raised the four-tined fork and stabbed viciously at Jiang Ye, who rolled aside, tasting iron in his mouth.

Bai Guang Zheng limped after Jiang Ye. His tall, bloated cyan-purple body grew even more terrifying. Four parallel black holes marked his path on the ground, each grazing past Jiang Ye.

Jiang Ye grabbed a chair and smashed it onto Bai Guang Zheng.

Splinters flew. Bai Guang Zheng’s body swayed. He lifted the fork, but Jiang Ye’s dagger struck first—fast, accurate, ruthless—sinking into his right shoulder, jamming the joint and violently forcing it out of place, snapping ligaments.

Bai Guang Zheng shuddered. The fork clattered to the ground. In unclear speech, he said, “Give… it… back…”

A weird tone came from his throat. He flailed his less flexible right hand, not picking up the fork but clumsily shaking off Jiang Ye from his body.

Tang Zhao pounced from behind, riding the monster’s neck and wrenching Bai Guang Zheng’s neck back. With a crack, it was Tang Zhao’s left wrist that dislocated first under Bai Guang Zheng’s grip.

Left leg, right shoulder… Jiang Ye flipped to the ground, wiped blood from his lip, and quickly scanned the ‘giant’s’ joints ahead. He thought: Just a bit more, and I can dismember all its limbs.

But his body was signaling exhaustion, slowing his speed and affecting every attack and defense.

Just a bit more. Jiang Ye bit his finger joint hard to stay alert, hating that his body wasn’t as strong as before. Otherwise, he could have finished it when breaking the left leg… Jiang Ye breathed raggedly.

But to Bai Chen Zhu, dragging it out like this meant they’d all die here.

He couldn’t wait any longer, couldn’t just watch. Bai Chen Zhu’s heart was in his throat as his mind raced for a solution.

They couldn’t match his strength or speed. Even poison only weakened him.

The one advantage was Bai Guang Zheng’s zombification accelerating—he had clearly lost human reason now.

So what else? Even if they couldn’t beat him, they had to hold out until he died.

Bai Chen Zhu suddenly recalled a zombie that had chased him before, jumping into a pool and drowning.

Such absurd behavior was something a mindless husk would do.

Would Bai Guang Zheng do the same now? A sharp glint flashed in Bai Chen Zhu’s eyes.

Bai Guang Zheng grabbed Tang Zhao’s arm. Jiang Ye charged over and kicked Bai Guang Zheng, but he didn’t retreat. He released Tang Zhao and seized Jiang Ye’s ankle, swinging him through the air and smashing him into the wall.

Bai Guang Zheng closed in step by step.

Jiang Ye coughed blood, glaring fiercely at Bai Guang Zheng. His fingers twitched, pulling a gun from his pocket.

Gunshots rang out one after another. The figure with new bloody holes in hands and feet pressed on indifferently.

“The ball you want is here!” Bai Chen Zhu shouted, pulling something from his pocket, flashing it briefly before stuffing it back into his clothes.

Bai Guang Zheng reacted. It slowly turned its head, driven by its craving for mental power, and locked its gaze on the man at the door.

In its eyes, the thing in Bai Chen Zhu’s arms emitted an enticing fragrance that stirred its ‘appetite’.

It glanced back at Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye also carried a strong mental power, but it was mottled and layered, far less pure and fragrant than the ‘food’ at the door.

If it had been clear-headed, Bai Guang Zheng could have recognized that Jiang Ye carried what it wanted. But now, reduced to pure instinct chasing mental power, Bai Guang Zheng shifted its target.

Bai Chen Zhu quickly pulled Zhou Zhuo Hua and Bai Tao into the car. Bai Guang Zheng lunged forward, leaving two large pits in the ground at the door.

“Zhuo Hua-jie!”

Without needing Bai Chen Zhu’s reminder, Zhou Zhuo Hua had barely sat down when she yanked the steering wheel, and the car shot forward.

In the back seat, Bai Tao took a close look. What Bai Chen Zhu held was clearly a stone! But this stone was wrapped in layer upon layer of mental power, almost twisted into a large dragon beard candy.

“Sing quickly,” said Bai Chen Zhu weakly. He tested whether Bai Guang Zheng, in its current state of intelligence, could distinguish between the two kinds of mental power.

The answer was no. Bai Guang Zheng could not recognize that it was not a fragment. As long as the mental power concentration on the stone was strong enough to overshadow the fragment on Jiang Ye, it was sufficient to attract Bai Guang Zheng.

To achieve this, Bai Chen Zhu had nearly drained his own mental power.

If it really caught up, they could not compare to Jiang Ye and the others in endurance. One strike, and they would probably all be done for.

Bai Tao glanced through the rearview mirror at Bai Guang Zheng madly chasing behind them. Zhou Zhuo Hua was drenched in cold sweat on her back, her fingers digging marks into the steering wheel cover. “This is already the fastest speed!”

Bai Tao quickly turned on the stereo. Bai Chen Zhu stuffed cloth strips into his ears, and the sound of the lullaby rose in the night, catalyzing the pseudo-human creature to reveal its true face.

A high-hanging moon, a speeding car, a clear female voice, and the grotesque zombie chasing the car behind—everything in the scene was absurd and eerie.

—

The car stopped by the rocky shore. The anxious Bai Guang Zheng caught up, having completely lost any human appearance and turned into a terrifying mutant.

Bai Chen Zhu held his breath, carefully pinching the stone. He retreated step by step right in front of it until the seawater reached his knees. Then he turned and hurled the stone in his arms into the sea with all his strength.

Bai Guang Zheng’s eyes were bloodshot as it stared at the ocean.

Just as the three wondered if it still retained any human reason, it lifted its foot and limped toward the sea.

The seawater rose from its knees upward. Mutated fish, drawn by the scent of blood, swam over and surrounded it like the most loyal followers.

Bai Chen Zhu watched it head into the deep sea, step by step. It took so long that it felt like years to him.

Beside him, Bai Tao’s voice was soft, as if afraid of waking something. She said, “Today is Qingming Festival.”

The seawater shimmered with waves rising layer upon layer.

Bai Chen Zhu watched as the sea swallowed Bai Guang Zheng. The breath he had been holding loosened, and the familiar headache came crashing back. The moon and sea before his eyes turned into a blanket of darkness.

“Little Bai!”

“Brother Bai!”