The summer downpour came suddenly, thundering down without warning. The raindrops were so dense that visibility dropped to less than fifty meters.
Bai Chen Zhu stepped through the puddles and rushed into the house. With a loud bang, he slammed the door shut, blocking the pursuing zombies outside.
With the door’s barrier in place, the faint mental power vanished into the curtain of rain. The zombies stood stunned in the rain with blank expressions, their ragged clothes clinging to them, the foul stench growing even more pronounced.
They looked like homeless people.
Homeless people dead for many years.
Because their vehicle had been destroyed, Bai Chen Zhu and the others had been relying on scavenging in Ancient City for supplies these past few days.
Today, Bai Chen Zhu had gone out with the others as usual, splitting up to search for supplies. He had just prepared to head back when the storm hit, forcing him to find temporary shelter.
He hastily wiped his face and patted the water droplets off his backpack. Inside were a few pieces of clothing he had scavenged, along with some odds and ends of food.
It was a bookstore. The interior was dim, filled with the thick, distinctive scent of books.
Bai Chen Zhu groped his way to the front counter and flicked the switch with a click. A yellow lamp blazed to life overhead, casting warm light that illuminated the bold, flourishing characters on the wall: Timelight Bookstore.
The shop was very quiet. It did not seem to have any mutants inside.
Bai Chen Zhu shook off the water from his clothes and sat at the front counter, propping his chin as he watched the rain pouring outside the glass door.
He had not found much today. He thought, I hope the rain stops soon. If it keeps pouring until evening, heading back at night would be dangerous.
The clock ticked above his head, the second hand making a sound with each notch.
Bored, Bai Chen Zhu fiddled with the small items on the counter.
He had always loved reading books, which was why he had chosen that profession. But since arriving here, opportunities to touch books had become rare.
He toyed with the beckoning cat on the desk, the half-withered potted plant… and finally pulled an old, faded novel from under the desk.
A pink cover with a cherry blossom tree background and flashy large characters: Love Under the Cherry Blossom Tree.
Bai Chen Zhu: ……
He shoved it back.
After a while, boredom got the better of him, and he could not resist pulling it out for another look.
The story was clichéd. It was about a girl in the flower of youth and her handsome childhood neighbor who secretly loved each other. Due to various misunderstandings, they kept missing each other, stuck in that ambiguous zone beyond friendship but short of romance. Finally, the male lead went abroad for a few years, and the female lead realized her feelings.
The ending had them reuniting under the cherry blossom tree back home, happy ending.
What the hell. So young and already playing at secret crushes. Bai Chen Zhu thought, If it were me, I wouldn’t……
He suddenly remembered he was no better, hesitating and playing ambiguous games with the equally foolish Jiang Ye.
Bai Chen Zhu expressionlessly closed the book and tossed it into the corner. No more reading.
The room was quiet, with only his breathing and the clock sounds. Then came some faint rustles.
The noise was deep and muffled, so soft it was easy to overlook.
Bai Chen Zhu sensed something wrong. He shouldered his backpack and scanned the surroundings under the light: tables, chairs, bookshelves, carpet… Nothing. He was the only living thing here.
But he did not move.
Bai Chen Zhu always trusted his instincts. He cautiously surveyed the room, back against the wall, inching toward the door bit by bit.
His eyes fixed on the interior, he reached for the door handle.
Instead, he touched something slimy and soft. It pricked his palm painfully.
“Hiss hiss!”
Startled by the strange sensation, Bai Chen Zhu jumped back, knocking over several bookshelves along the way. In the light, he finally saw it clearly.
A snake as thick as an arm had its upper body coiled on the window flower stand, lower body wrapped around the door handle.
So what he had just touched was… the snake?
Bai Chen Zhu’s face darkened. He glanced down at his palm, now dotted with blood from the prick.
It was a black-and-white patterned snake. Bai Chen Zhu was not familiar with such creatures, so he could not tell if it was venomous.
But one thing was certain: it was not an ordinary snake, but a mutant. Its eyes glowed red, scales flared like sharp iron blades.
It coiled its body, sniffing the spot Bai Chen Zhu had touched, where warm blood trickled.
Bai Chen Zhu bolted up the stairs to the second floor. The Black Snake, locked on its food, slithered down from the flower stand and pursued up the wooden stairs.
Objects crashed down one after another from upstairs, smashing onto the Black Snake. Enraged, it hissed, opening its gaping maw, tongue flickering like paper in the wind.
Bai Chen Zhu desperately blocked the stairwell with whatever he could find. His heart pounded like thunder as he smashed a chair into the second-floor window.
The glass shattered, shards raining on him.
Bai Chen Zhu lowered the chair he had used to shield his face and was about to climb out the window when the Black Snake caught up. He hurled the chair at it. The snake dodged, lunging with jaws wide.
Bai Chen Zhu grabbed a thick dictionary and smashed it into the Black Snake’s face. Caught off guard, it flew back two meters, then reared up, snarling ferociously.
“Get lost!” Bai Chen Zhu shouted.
He dared not turn his back to the Black Snake, which could strike anytime. Instead, he backed slowly toward the window.
The Black Snake waited for an opening and suddenly lunged. Bai Chen Zhu swung a broom from the corner at it. He thought it would fly off again this time, but the snake slithered up the broomstick.
Startled, Bai Chen Zhu flung the broom away.
He scrambled out the window, drenched by the downpour. Standing on the air conditioner unit, Bai Chen Zhu hesitated.
Snake inside, zombies below, pouring rain. Where could he go?
Then, his peripheral vision caught a metal door that looked like it led to a garage.
The Black Snake slithered out. With no time to think, Bai Chen Zhu jumped down from the unit—three meters high. He nearly twisted his ankle on landing.
Zombies on the street caught his scent and shambled toward him. These normally sluggish monsters became agile the moment they sensed prey.
Bai Chen Zhu dodged a zombie’s bony fingers and retreated swiftly. Mid-air, the Black Snake shot out, landing right on a zombie’s head—where Bai Chen Zhu had just stood.
Its flared scales tightened, shredding the zombie’s already rotten flesh, pus and blood oozing out.
Bai Chen Zhu spared it one glance and bolted.
The Black Snake seemed obsessed with his blood. Even in the pouring rain on slick bluestone slabs, it pursued swiftly, whipping like a rope.
Even without looking back, Bai Chen Zhu could sense it chasing.
Damn it! Bai Chen Zhu deftly dodged a zombie while running and thinking.
The snake hounded him relentlessly, leaving no chance to counterattack. Elsewhere, he might try mental power, but using it amid zombies on the street would draw a horde to tear him apart before he killed the snake.
No tools on hand—did he have to fistfight it to death? He’d get bitten for sure.
In the distance, a figure walked with his back to him.
Bai Chen Zhu yelled, “Tang Zhao! Help!”
Tang Zhao, backpack on and humming a tune, turned puzzled. He spotted Bai Chen Zhu, a smile starting—then saw the ‘rope’ behind him.
His face changed instantly. “Holy crap!”
Now there were two fleeing.
This was not what Bai Chen Zhu expected. He wiped his drenched face, exasperated. “Why are you running? You’re an Ability User!”
Tang Zhao shoved zombies aside without care for dirt, running even faster in fright. “I’m fucking scared of snakes!”
Bai Chen Zhu: ……
Then, he spotted a graceful figure.
Before Bai Chen Zhu could speak, hope-sparked Tang Zhao shouted, “Bai Tao! Help!!”
Bai Tao under the eaves turned in confusion, then screamed in terror.
Her scream pierced Bai Chen Zhu’s head with pain. Nearby zombies writhed and groaned, their twisted faces contorting further.
The sound briefly stunned the Black Snake, halting it momentarily. Amid the trio’s tension, it ‘revived’.
Bai Chen Zhu clutched his head. “Run!”
He had just started when Bai Tao grabbed him. “Wrong way! Follow me!”
They followed Bai Tao through an alley. Far off, she yelled, “Brother Jiang! Help!!!”
Bai Chen Zhu looked closely—it was Jiang Ye, tinkering with a sightseeing cart’s steering wheel. No wonder Bai Tao had led them here; she knew where he was.
Admittedly, Bai Chen Zhu relaxed. He always had an inexplicable trust in Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye looked up as the three charged through the rain. Baffled, he asked, “What are you doing?”
“Snake!” Bai Chen Zhu feared Jiang Ye would say he feared snakes too.
If none of the four could handle a snake, that would be truly embarrassing.
Jiang Ye finally saw the pursuer. His expression shifted slightly. He glanced around—only a umbrella handy—and the three were nearly upon him.
Jiang Ye twisted the umbrella handle, detaching it to turn it into a weapon. He opened the cart door and sat at the front, silent.
As the three ran past and the Black Snake slithered after, he timed it perfectly, lunging from the door to stab downward. The umbrella handle pierced the Black Snake’s body with great force, nailing it in place.
The Black Snake writhed in waves, hissing, unable to break free from the impaling rod.
It twisted up along the umbrella ribs. Jiang Ye released it; the flared-scale snake struck empty air and glared viciously at him, as if memorizing this prey.
A vengeful mutant, but Jiang Ye gave it no chance.
He drew his dagger and stabbed through the Black Snake’s head, pinning it.
Black blood spread on the ground, soon washed away by rain. Jiang Ye withdrew and stabbed repeatedly into the skull, ensuring the tenacious Black Snake could not revive.
He stood and looked at the drenched trio under the eaves, looking utterly bedraggled.
“Great job!” Jiang Ye wiped his dagger clean, pocketed it, and walked over to tease.
He pointed at Tang Zhao from afar. “And you’re an Ability User? Running with them?”
Tang Zhao protested, “Big bro! It’s a snake! As thick as my arm!”
Jiang Ye scolded, “By weight or size, it should fear you.”
Tang Zhao fell silent, aggrieved.
Bai Chen Zhu wiped rain from his face, about to speak to Tang Zhao, when Jiang Ye pulled him aside for a check. Bai Chen Zhu extended his hand, showing the fine wounds on his palm.
From the Black Snake’s scales.
Jiang Ye frowned, examining the palm repeatedly. “I’ll disinfect it when we get back.”
Gazing at the thoroughly dead snake, Bai Chen Zhu’s taut nerves eased. “Jiang Ye, I ran into that snake in the bookstore.”
The sentence came out of nowhere; Bai Tao and Tang Zhao did not understand.
But Jiang Ye did.
Bookstore, snake—just imagining the connection was terrifying, especially caught off guard.
He wiped water from Bai Chen Zhu’s face. “Scared, huh? Snakes in the river aren’t strange; it must’ve crawled into the store sometime. Nowhere’s absolutely safe anymore. Be more careful next time.”
Bai Chen Zhu rested his forehead on Jiang Ye’s shoulder.
Jiang Ye stroked the back of his head, then his little braid, soothing him. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Odds of running into another snake are low. Won’t happen again.”
Bai Chen Zhu showed him his deflated backpack. “That thing even delayed my scavenging.”
Was this… complaining? Jiang Ye chuckled helplessly. He thought for a moment. “I just found keys for this sightseeing cart at the service center. Want to ride? We can drive back.”
Bai Chen Zhu perked up.
So they piled into the sightseeing cart, with Bai Chen Zhu taking shotgun.
Even floored, the cart was slower than a car, but better than nothing.
It bumped along, shoving zombies aside on the wet ground. Bai Chen Zhu suddenly felt like learning to drive. “I actually got my license before, but forgot over the years. Want to teach me?”
“Now?” Jiang Ye asked casually.
“Can we?” Bai Chen Zhu rubbed his hands eagerly.
“No! Way!” Tang Zhao and Bai Tao shook their heads in unison from the back, voices overlapping.
Tang Zhao wailed, “One wrong pedal into the river, and it’s four lives gone!”
“Tsk.” Bai Chen Zhu pointed and gestured as he said, “You guys have way too little faith in me.”
Bai Tao immediately yelled, “Ahh, murder! Murder!”
Jiang Ye was so amused by them that he burst out laughing. “Alright, alright. Azhu, next time I’ll teach you one-on-one.”
Bai Chen Zhu deliberately scared the two in the back seat. “Sure, then just hand over all the paths out of the ancient city for me to practice on.”
Bai Tao and Tang Zhao huddled together, shivering.
The temperature in the ancient city was always a few degrees lower than outside. With the weather turning cooler and Bai Chen Zhu soaked from head to toe in rainwater, he started sneezing as soon as the wind blew.
—
The group drove the sightseeing car back to the house, where a crowd had gathered at the door. They were there to see Jiang Ye.
Lately, those ability users had been leaving the ancient city one after another. Many of them came to Jiang Ye for more detailed information before setting off, so they could better plan their journeys.
Bai Chen Zhu was used to it by now. He greeted the group and headed back to his room first to change into a clean set of clothes.
He washed his wet clothes and hung them on the windowsill. Then, in a daze, he collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
When he woke, he felt warm all over, comfortable as if basking in the sun. But his head throbbed, and his limbs felt as heavy as lead.
Bai Chen Zhu opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a patch of flesh tone.
What was this…? He opened his eyes wider and instinctively struggled to sit up. But Jiang Ye held him even tighter. “Don’t move.”
Bai Chen Zhu calmed down and looked up. He found Jiang Ye hugging him tightly, chin resting on top of his head. A thick quilt covered them both—no wonder he felt so toasty. Bai Chen Zhu asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Jiang Ye stretched out to turn on the light. It illuminated the dim room as he said, “You should be asking what’s wrong with yourself.”
Bai Chen Zhu’s mind turned slowly. He mulled over the words. “What’s wrong with me?”
Jiang Ye laughed at the dazed guy. This time, Jiang Ye touched his forehead and sighed helplessly. “You’re running a fever. You kept shouting that you were cold.”
Bai Chen Zhu looked down at his own thin clothes, then at Jiang Ye’s bare torso. He was stunned for a long moment before a crucial question hit him. “Wait, you’re wearing pants down there, right?”
