Under the moonlight, they huddled together to look at the map.
“We’re still quite a distance from Deer Cry Ancient City.” Zhou Zhuo Hua held the map and pointed at the route they had marked.
“Yellow Ox Mountain has oxen, Luozhou City has fish, so does Deer Cry Ancient City have deer?” Bai Tao counted on her fingers, smacked her lips, and said with a hint of anticipation, “I’ve never seen a live deer before.”
Zhou Zhuo Hua took off her glasses and wiped them with a cloth. “What I meant was that paying attention to personal hygiene during the journey is also very important. We should save where we can and wash our clothes when possible. But we haven’t encountered a place with water for two days now. Everyone, don’t you feel like you’re starting to stink?”
She looked toward the cluster of small white houses in the distance. “I wonder if there’s water and electricity inside.”
Whether there was water and electricity really depended on luck. In some areas, the facilities were damaged—for example, Fuguang City, which Bai Chen Zhu had visited, had a severe shortage of water and power resources. In others, like Luozhou City, water and electricity were fully functional, and people had even started repairing various infrastructures.
Bai Tao nodded listlessly and raised her hand. “I’ve been feeling unwell during my period these past few days. I need water to take a bath.”
As soon as Tang Zhao heard that, he immediately said, “Then Jiang and I will go check it out first!”
Bai Chen Zhu watched as Jiang Ye stood up. “Shouldn’t we wait until dawn?”
Jiang Ye shook his head. “The night doesn’t affect our vision.”
Only then did Bai Chen Zhu realize that the enhancements ability users received were truly useful in certain details.
Jiang Ye and Tang Zhao headed toward the white houses. Bored, Bai Chen Zhu gazed across the vast fields of rapeseed flowers and counted the white houses of varying heights in the distance.
One, two, three… After counting, Bai Chen Zhu estimated that this small village had only about ten households.
Those standalone small houses were painted black on top and white on the bottom, and paired with the flower fields, they looked just like the popular internet scenic photos at first glance.
The neat and orderly appearance suggested they had been specially renovated and then given some village name for promotion. The houses were probably mostly unoccupied, just used as decorations for the flower fields.
Zhou Zhuo Hua also stood up and peered at the white houses from afar, reaching the same conclusion. “This village probably doesn’t have many residents. When I came earlier, I noticed there were few zombies, and very few cars parked outside the doors. The chance of encountering ferocious mutants is low.”
Bai Chen Zhu stood with his arms crossed and said in a low voice, “But aside from zombies, could there be other mutants? Rats, cockroaches, snakes, insects, or even plants—those are the ones I fear most.”
“I’m scared too!” Bai Tao shuddered and waved her hands in the air. “I’m most afraid of bugs! They’re so disgusting!”
Mentioning bugs made the shadow in her mind grow even larger.
Jiang Ye and Tang Zhao soon returned with good news. “It’s a left-behind village. The zombies are mostly middle-aged and elderly people and children, and there aren’t many of them. It’s not very dangerous, so we can go rest there.”
Everyone was delighted to hear that.
They drove the car under a large banyan tree near the village entrance, locked it, and Bai Chen Zhu left a strand of mental power on it to stay vigilant. The group then walked about thirty meters along the paths between the houses.
The way was filled with the stench of decay. Furniture and utensils lay scattered on the ground, and there were quite a few humanoid figures lying on the road emitting foul odors. They even occasionally encountered a few zombies shambling about slowly.
Fortunately, they had grown accustomed to it.
This was a village that had been abandoned by people both before and after the apocalypse. They called out a few times, but no living person responded.
All the houses were empty.
They chose a house with no signs of recent habitation. The finely renovated room had only basic water and electricity lines and a wooden board bed, without even an extra mattress.
They then scavenged some daily necessities from other houses. While others were “putting together a meal,” they were “putting together a room” in the middle of the night, cobbling together a temporary shelter.
—
The light flickered on and off, and under the group’s anxious anticipation, it finally stabilized and shone steadily. When they turned on the faucet, clear water soon flowed out after some dirty, murky water.
Bai Tao jumped for joy and clapped her hands together. “Finally, we have water we can use!”
“Then let’s call it a night for today.” Bai Chen Zhu tugged at his collar and sniffed himself. “Let’s divide up the rooms and get some rest.”
As usual, Bai Tao shared a room with Zhou Zhuo Hua, but Bai Chen Zhu chose to room with Tang Zhao.
Though he didn’t know why, Tang Zhao felt like Jiang Ye’s gaze was about to kill him. He quickly followed Bai Chen Zhu, not daring to look back the whole way.
As soon as they entered, Bai Chen Zhu grabbed some clothes and went to take a bath.
Tang Zhao huffed and puffed as he laid a layer of cloth over the wooden board bed. He happily bounced onto the bed, reveling in the spacious comfort after leaving the cramped car space, and pillowed his head on his arm, ready to sleep soundly.
“This is too great! Woo-hoo!”
In a half-awake daze, he seemed to see Jiang Ye’s face, looking sinister.
Tang Zhao jolted his eyes open in fright, only to find it wasn’t a dream—Jiang Ye was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at him coldly.
Tang Zhao scrambled up from the bed and scratched his head. “Bro, why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night? What’s up?”
Propping his chin, Jiang Ye said gravely, “I think since you’ve already guessed who I was talking about, you should have some awareness to avoid suspicion.”
“Huh?” Tang Zhao sat on the bed, slowly processing the words. “Oh!”
It referred to the time when Jiang Ye had asked him if he knew about men liking men—that shocking matter—and Tang Zhao had merely glanced at Bai Chen Zhu before nearly being thrown out by the hot-tempered Jiang Ye.
Heaven knew, with only three men there, excluding himself and the naive Jiang Ye who had asked the question, who else could be the source?
Tang Zhao inwardly groaned, blaming his own cleverness for opening the door to a new world for Jiang Ye and delivering a billion points of shock to someone.
At that moment, Tang Zhao smacked his palm. “Yeah, it seems like that.”
It really should be that way.
When they had divided rooms earlier, Bai Chen Zhu had been too natural about it, and Tang Zhao hadn’t thought of it right away.
“But what does it matter?” Tang Zhao sat back down, sprawling casually on the bed and saying innocently, “Bro Bai and I have slept together before. If he were interested in me, he would’ve been long ago, and if he needed to avoid suspicion, he would’ve done it already.”
The only thing echoing in Jiang Ye’s mind was one sentence: “When did you two sleep together?”
Tang Zhao said, “R-right at the beginning of the apocalypse, that first week. He came to my house, and my place only had one single bed and a sofa.”
“Your place didn’t have a sofa?”
“It did.” Tang Zhao belatedly sensed Jiang Ye’s mood wasn’t right. “What’s wrong?”
What’s wrong?
Big problem!
A surge of anger rushed straight to Jiang Ye’s head. He recalled that back at the start of the apocalypse, when he had met Bai Chen Zhu, there had clearly been a sofa, yet that guy had fought with him over the bed to occupy it alone.
So sleeping with Tang Zhao was fine, but sleeping with him was despised?
Even someone as oblivious to social cues as Tang Zhao could tell Jiang Ye looked terrifying now. He thought for a moment—fine, Bro Bai’s situation was special, so avoiding suspicion it was. Sleeping with anyone was the same.
Thus, he climbed off the bed, put on his shoes, grabbed his jacket to use as a pillow, and called out, “Let’s go, Jiang Bro. We’ll sleep together.”
“Who’s sleeping with you?” Jiang Ye snorted coldly. “I’m sleeping with A’Zhu.”
Tang Zhao was even more confused. “Weren’t we supposed to avoid suspicion?”
So why was he the one avoiding now, but Jiang Ye wasn’t?
“Close ones don’t need to avoid suspicion. How could I be the same as others?” Jiang Ye was blatantly playing favorites, saying it deliberately as if it would ease the discomfort in his heart.
“How are you different?” Tang Zhao, on the receiving end of the double standard, asked. “Does Bro like men too?”
“What are you saying?” Jiang Ye said in shock. “Who would like a hard, stiff man!”
Jiang Ye thought of organs like his own, the burly and solid muscles, the thick sweaty odor, and his face grew even darker.
It was as if just saying that sentence had used up all his patience.
Who was he disgusted with? Tang Zhao stared at him blankly, walked out two steps with his jacket, then backed up. “Bro, do you know the true fragrance thing?”
Jiang Ye was baffled. “What fragrance?”
“Never mind, Bro, just pretend you didn’t hear that.” Tang Zhao chuckled, shook his head with a “I see through it all” expression, and strode off with the carefree steps of someone “while others are drunk, I alone am sober” toward the room he would enjoy alone tonight.
—
The water in the bathroom stopped.
Jiang Ye’s heart skipped a beat as he quickly stood and pretended to busily make the bed.
Bai Chen Zhu had vaguely heard some conversation outside the door. As he dried his hair and came out, he only saw Jiang Ye making the bed.
“Where’s Tang Zhao?”
Jiang Ye looked at his half-wet collar revealing fair skin, droplets trailing from the tips of his hair along his collarbone, the water sliding down his clothes and blooming across his firm chest and abdomen.
He cleared his throat, averted his eyes guiltily, but said righteously, “He said he’s used to sleeping alone and that he grinds his teeth, snores, and flails around at night, so he begged to switch rooms with me.”
Begged? Bai Chen Zhu paused but said nothing, nodded, pulled over a chair to sit, and sorted out his dripping long hair.
Seeing no objection from him, Jiang Ye was pleased inwardly.
He tiptoed over and probed, “A’Zhu, want me to dry your hair for you?”
How could Bai Chen Zhu not know his little schemes? He just found it amusing. “What did I do to make you so hesitant?”
He was practically walking with mismatched hands and feet.
“Nah, when have I ever been hesitant?” Jiang Ye took the towel from Bai Chen Zhu’s hand as if it were natural. He held the two ends, cupped a damp strand of hair at the ends, and wiped it. “You must be too tired to have that illusion. Go to sleep early tonight.”
Bai Chen Zhu raised an eyebrow but didn’t expose the little scheme to chase away Tang Zhao. After drying his hair, he climbed onto the bed first. “I’ll sleep on the inside.”
“Mm.” Jiang Ye grabbed his own clothes and, before heading in to bathe, turned back and asked, “By the way, when we first entered the village, your complexion didn’t look right. Are you okay?”
He hadn’t expected Jiang Ye to notice that. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Bai Chen Zhu paused and rubbed his nose bridge. “Ever since entering the village, I’ve felt a bit off.”
That discomfort was hard to describe; it came from his mental power. It felt like being offended or spied upon, and Bai Chen Zhu didn’t know how to explain it to Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye said, “Maybe the decaying aura here is too heavy. Anyway, we’ll leave tomorrow, so no need to worry.”
—
The sky was just beginning to lighten but not yet bright. Bai Chen Zhu had always been sensitive to light, and as it filtered through the window cracks, he woke immediately. Upon waking, he felt parched and achy all over.
The wooden board bed was really uncomfortable to sleep on. He should’ve found a place with a mattress. Bai Chen Zhu sat up from the bed.
Jiang Ye was still asleep.
Bai Chen Zhu stepped over him, put on his shoes, went downstairs, and planned to pour some water to drink. Everyone had gone to bed late last night, so the house was quiet now. With the doors and windows closed, the interior was dim.
He poured water in the kitchen, and outside, he heard chickens crowing and dogs barking.
The natural environment here was really good. As Bai Chen Zhu sighed to himself and drank a few sips, about to head back, he suddenly thought: Where did the chickens and dogs come from?
They clearly hadn’t seen any chickens or dogs in the village last night—only rotting corpses and zombies.
Bai Chen Zhu halted. He pushed open the kitchen window on the first floor and saw people bustling about outside, lively and energetic, with flashes of camera lights now and then. Right by the window he opened, a beautiful young woman was holding rapeseed flowers and taking photos.
Bai Chen Zhu’s eyes slowly widened. He quickly pushed open the front door on the first floor.
He saw several elderly people carrying low stools and sitting at the entrance, greeting each other, basking in the morning light. A puppy wagged its tail as it passed by, and quite a few young people dressed in colorful, elaborate clothes walked by laughing and chatting with cameras and phones.
“This place is really beautiful, just like they said online—white walls, black tiles, full of ancient charm!”
“Good thing I wore my hanfu today. Hey, you stepped on my skirt!”
“It’s the right season now, with so many flowers. If we wait longer, they’ll wilt. Let’s take photos of each other later.”
“Scenic area stuff is ridiculously expensive. I brought food—want some?”
…
Bai Chen Zhu closed his eyes and shook his aching head vigorously. When he opened them, for an instant, he glimpsed the quiet street full of zombies, but that image vanished in a flash. Blinking again, the scene before him was still bustling and lively.
