Chapter 33: If Only Shi Changyuan Could Become a Zombie…
By the time the little zombie finished his dinner, a thin layer of fine snow had already covered the ground, and it showed no signs of stopping.
“Do you think our car will be covered in snow when we wake up tomorrow morning?”
Lin Ling sat by the bonfire, his whole body warmed by the fire. He looked at the small snowflakes falling from the sky. A few occasionally drifted in and landed on the little zombie’s hair, then quickly melted.
“It might.”
Shi Changyuan went back to the car to get a hat for the little zombie and also put a scarf and gloves on him, wrapping him up tightly.
“My sweater has a collar.”
The little zombie, who was being wrapped up like a dumpling, was not happy. He took off the scarf again and hung it around Shi Changyuan’s neck.
“I’m not cold.”
Their resting spot, besides being a leeward slope, was also backed by a natural rock, like a semi-open cave. Parking the vehicle in front, acting as a door, could block almost all the cold wind.
Besides that, there was a small forest outside, and a spring not far away. It was a very suitable place to set up camp.
“I’m not cold either,” the little zombie grumbled, but he still insisted on making Shi Changyuan wear the scarf.
Shi Changyuan smiled. “We’re very close to City B now. Another day’s journey, and we can arrive before sunset.”
Perhaps because they were already very close to City B, the little zombie was not in a hurry.
“This ‘another day’s journey,’ is it a non-stop day’s journey, or a slow, stop-and-go, restful day’s journey?”
The little zombie immediately grasped the key point.
Before, Lin Ling had wanted to learn how to drive from Shi Changyuan so they could take turns resting, but after Shi Changyuan taught him, he started to find all sorts of excuses and reasons to deprive him of the right to sit in the driver’s seat.
“Or, we can rest here for a day first.”
Lin Ling looked at the snow outside and said, “We can lie in the car and watch the snow all day tomorrow, sleep in all day, and leave after the snow melts.”
This was just a light snow. It might completely melt by noon and wouldn’t take a whole day, but Shi Changyuan would not refuse any of the young man’s suggestions.
“Alright.”
After a night, there was indeed a layer of snow outside the car. It wasn’t thick, and stepping on it would leave a clear, complete footprint.
“Are we going hunting now?”
The little zombie, who had just woken up, looked at the first snow outside the car window and asked while obediently letting Shi Changyuan put on his hat and gloves. Although it wasn’t enough to build a snowman, he could still barely make a snow rabbit.
“Mm, and we’ll pick up some firewood.”
The bonfire had burned all night and had gone out by morning.
Shi Changyuan prepared his crossbow for hunting. When he turned around to look for the little zombie, he saw a snow rabbit on the hood of the car. It had a head and a tail, but it was missing its pair of long ears.
And a certain little zombie was squatting by a bush, picking out long, strip-shaped leaves, and finally stuck them on the little rabbit’s head.
“It’s done!”
Lin Ling patted the remaining snow from his gloves and said to Shi Changyuan, “Every year when the first snow falls, I’ll build a little rabbit on the windowsill.”
“And then watch it slowly melt.”
Although Lin Ling didn’t know the meaning of why he did this, he still stubbornly did it, like a strange ritual.
Shi Changyuan looked at the rabbit, thought for a moment, and also scooped up a handful of snow from a clean, empty space, kneaded it into an oval shape, and placed it next to the snow rabbit.
“It’s so ugly.”
The little zombie was not satisfied with this uneven oval and personally made some adjustments.
First, he smoothed out the uneven parts, then he pinched out a little tail, and finally, he took the same kind of leaves that Shi Changyuan had handed over and stuck them on.
“Remember to build one for me too in the future.”
Shi Changyuan looked at the two little snow rabbits huddled together, ruffled the little zombie’s hair, and said “in the future” in a calm tone, booking the next first snow.
“Let’s go, let’s pick up firewood.”
The little zombie didn’t answer, but the corners of his mouth immediately curved up. “Before the snow melts, otherwise there won’t be any dry firewood.”
This forest was overgrown with weeds, and there were many kinds of plants and animals, but they were all common species.
The little zombie picked up dry firewood while keeping watch, helping Shi Changyuan keep an eye on all suspicious movements, trying to dispel all hidden dangers.
“Huh, this kind of flower is also blooming here.”
After walking a few more steps, Lin Ling saw strings of small white flowers blooming in a bush not far away. They had yellow stamens and were shaped like little bells.
He looked at Shi Changyuan behind him, pulled off a vine with flowers, and wrapped it around the dry wood in his arms, as if he were tying up a gift.
“Isn’t it pretty!”
The little zombie held up the firewood and came up to Shi Changyuan, his eyes curved as he introduced, “There’s this kind of flower in my yard too. Auntie Man planted it. It’s not supposed to bloom in winter, but after the apocalypse, it blooms beautifully all year round!”
“It’s pretty.”
Shi Changyuan only glanced at the flower before his gaze returned to the little zombie.
He was indeed very pretty.
The oblivious little zombie chuckled. “When we get back, I’ll make you a flower crown!”
“Alright.”
Hunting was easier on a snowy day. Shi Changyuan could follow the tracks of various small animals and then raid their nests.
But when the two of them were adding firewood, a small accident happened.
Shi Changyuan was roasting meat and was not wearing gloves. His bare finger was cut by a vine leaf on the firewood, and a bead of blood instantly appeared on his fingertip.
“Are you okay!”
Lin Ling was stunned for a moment, then frantically came over, wanting to help, but he was afraid of infecting Shi Changyuan and took two steps back, at a loss.
“I’m fine.”
Shi Changyuan pinched his two fingers together, wiped away the bead of blood, pressed on the wound, and said to the little zombie with a smile in his usual tone, “Lingling can go to the car and get me a band-aid, the kind that Lingling bought.”
When the little zombie was shopping at the market before, he had bought a lot of fancy band-aids with patterns, which he hadn’t had a chance to use yet.
“Alright, I’ll go and find it.”
Perhaps it was because the thing was too small, or perhaps it was because the little zombie was a bit flustered, but he turned the storage box upside down and still couldn’t find it, which made him even more anxious.
“Where is this band-aid? I don’t remember you bringing this.”
“There’s iodine and bandages here. I’ll…”
Lin Ling was about to come out of the car with the iodine when his gaze shifted and landed on the reflection in the rearview mirror—
Shi Changyuan was quietly, without a sound, injecting himself with a suppressing serum.
It was a unique blue potion. He had seen it before and wouldn’t mistake it.
Then, Shi Changyuan threw the empty syringe into a crack in the rocks and covered it with a handful of fallen leaves.
In that instant, Lin Ling seemed to understand. Shi Changyuan didn’t want a band-aid at all; he just wanted to send him away.
He remembered Shi Changyuan saying that now, besides zombies, plants and animals could also infect humans. Perhaps ability users had resistance to it, but…
Shi Changyuan was an ordinary person.
And the flower he had picked, the one that had injured him, was the most common and weakest plant in City B, growing on the side of various streets.
Its only mutation was that it could bloom all year round, unlike the previous seed, which was aggressive.
Lin Ling belatedly realized that ordinary humans probably couldn’t survive in City B.
“What’s wrong?”
Shi Changyuan saw Lin Ling standing at the car door in the same position and asked in his usual tone.
“…Nothing.”
The little zombie tried hard to adjust his emotions, but his voice was still muffled. “It’s all my fault.”
“It’s not Lingling’s fault. I was just careless.”
Shi Changyuan held out his hand and watched as the little zombie disinfected it for him, then wrapped his entire hand in a bandage.
“Lingling.”
The human in front of him let out a low laugh. “I just have a small cut on my fingertip. It’s about to heal. There’s no need to waste so many bandages.”
“I’m wrapping it!”
The little zombie said through gritted teeth. “What if other places also get cut by accident? Wrap the other hand too!”
After wrapping it, he was still not satisfied. He tore off the vine and the flower and threw them into the bonfire, burning them to ashes.
“It really was just a small accident. I’ve had much bigger injuries than this before.”
Shi Changyuan gently patted the little zombie’s head with his bandaged hand, trying to comfort him. “This time we left the city, if it weren’t for Lingling, I might have been injured on the first day.”
“I don’t know how many times I would have been attacked in the middle of the night.”
“This really is just a small scratch.”
This was the most insignificant scratch in the apocalypse. Although there was a risk of infection, in the past, when he was injected with the serum, it was often because of a zombie attack first, followed by various scratches and scrapes during the escape or counterattack.
Big and small injuries, all just one tube of serum.
Compared to being pierced by a plant, this kind of scratch was really nothing. He was just being cautious, but it seemed to have been noticed by the little zombie in front of him.
“Actually, I’m not sure if this kind of small wound will get infected.”
Shi Changyuan thought for a moment, pulled Lin Ling into his arms to comfort him, and confessed.
“If it were before, I wouldn’t have taken the serum.”
Before, Shi Changyuan didn’t care if he was a human or a zombie. He even looked forward to becoming a zombie on one of his missions to City B, and then meeting Lin Ling on a certain street as one of his own kind.
But now he seemed to have become a bit afraid of death, because a certain Zombie Emperor had said that ordinary humans who were indirectly infected would have a hard time evolving into high-tier zombies.
How could that kind of low-tier, brainless zombie take good care of such a delicate young man?
Hearing Shi Changyuan say that he was just being cautious, the little zombie was finally not so nervous anymore. But he still couldn’t help but think, what if.
What if this kind of mutant plant could also infect people?
Once this thought appeared, it would never go away.
In the middle of the night, the little zombie, wrapped in the human’s body heat, couldn’t help but think again, if only Shi Changyuan could become a zombie.
If Shi Changyuan became a zombie, he could go back to City B with him.
