Chapter 65: Muntjac
Given how sharp Wu Heng’s senses were, when he was asleep — never mind someone touching his hand — even if someone were merely nearby, he would normally wake up immediately.
But not this time.
Xie Chongyi had already pinched each of his fingers one by one, and Wu Heng still hadn’t stirred.
Behind Wu Heng’s neck, X lay on its back, claws up, looking quite like a dead thing.
It was usually far more alert than Wu Heng was now. When Xie Chongyi had lifted the wolf pelt, X’s eyes had flown open at once; it flexed its claws twice, flipped upright, and looked warily toward the door.
Then it saw it was only Xie Chongyi.
After a moment of thought, it lay back down again.
Xie Chongyi watched the small bit of Wu Heng’s face that was visible, then found a comfortable position and closed his eyes.
Man, bird — peace and quiet.
But all around them, the others were still working busily, in a rush of sound and motion.
By afternoon, everyone had finished up and gone back to their rooms to rest.
Wu Heng hadn’t woken even once the whole time.
X woke up in the middle of the night. It carefully hopped over Wu Heng, kicked open the sliding door to the living room, and spread its wings into the howling cold wind. After flapping a few times to shake off the chill, it lowered its head and looked toward the houses not far away — that villager called Zhao Rui seemed to have just killed a few zombies.
X gave him no more attention. It flew to a concealed spot near the house to relieve itself, then soared into the sky, circling the area several times. Seeing nothing unusual, it returned to the house and even closed the door carefully behind it.
It hopped back onto the bed, leapt over Wu Heng once more, and lay back down in its usual spot, ready to sleep again.
But at some point, Wu Heng had opened his eyes.
He shoved X away from him. “Cold.”
The bird, having just returned from its night patrol outside, had feathers like ice.
And that was when Wu Heng realized — he was on the bed, with X beside him… and Lin Mengzhi lying on the other side.
He remembered falling asleep wrapped under the wolf pelt — the hide of the mutant wolf was so incredibly warm that he couldn’t help but want to burrow deeper into it.
When he opened his eyes and stared up at the chandelier on the ceiling, already coated in a layer of dust, he began to wonder who had carried him to the bed.
It was probably Lin Mengzhi.
The next time he woke, it was to the sound of Xue Shen and Shen Ping’an talking.
“The villagers are all gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean? Were they eaten by something, or…?”
“Neither. I searched through the places they stayed last night — all their supplies and even the clothes Ruan Silian brought them yesterday are gone. There were no ability users left among them. At first, I thought if they hadn’t been attacked by mutant plants or animals, maybe a passing team had robbed them. But among the things Ruan Silian brought were not only adult clothes, but also several sets for the children — and those are missing too. I think… they might have left the village on their own.”
Xue Shen looked out at the mountains, gilded gold by the sunlight, and smiled faintly.
“Leaving without abilities — that’s interesting.”
Shen Ping’an didn’t quite understand what Xue Shen meant by “interesting.” He glanced at the few tightly shut doors nearby.
“We should wake them up.”
Outside, it was still a world of ice and snow, showing no sign of spring.
Everyone had more or less rested enough.
But the moment Xue Shen said, “After breakfast, everyone will head into the mountains for six hours of field training,” the group instantly protested — claiming that yesterday had been far too exhausting and they needed more sleep.
“Yesterday’s main output was Wu Heng. What are you all tired for?”
Xue Shen, speaking like someone who’d never known back pain, filled everyone’s schedule to the brim again.
Lin Mengzhi snatched the oversized notebook from his hands — the pages spread open to reveal Xue Shen’s meticulous daily plan.
He was momentarily stunned.
“You even scheduled yourself into it?!”
Xue Shen reclaimed the notebook with an expressionless face.
“The chaos of the apocalypse is temporary. Don’t underestimate life’s ability to adapt. Once you’ve adapted to the environment, that’s when the real war begins. So during this period of disorder, we should all work to improve ourselves as quickly as possible.”
Wu Heng, holding X, sat in the corner amidst the pile of wolf fur. After a moment of quiet thought, he nodded.
“The class rep isn’t wrong.”
By now, it was hard for anyone to ignore Wu Heng, even from a distance.
Before, they had always overlooked him; they didn’t understand him, weren’t familiar with him. Even if he now agreed with Xue Shen’s “merciless” training plan, none of them dared to challenge Xue Shen like they might have otherwise.
Subtly, Wu Heng’s strength had already reached a level comparable to Xie Chongyi. But the two were polar opposites in personality, and their closeness with the others differed by an enormous margin. They had already fully accepted Lin Mengzhi and Wu Zhi, yet Wu Heng, a classmate no less, remained separated by countless invisible layers.
Even with Wu Heng supporting Xue Shen, it was obvious that Xie Chongyi would be no different. The others felt utterly defeated.
But they hadn’t expected that Wu Heng hadn’t finished speaking. Midway through his sentence, he stood up and faced them, finishing it:
“Let’s eat first.”
?
Immediately, the atmosphere turned cheerful again.
—
The first floor of the house had a spacious kitchen, and the yard was stacked with firewood, mostly buried under snow. But Lin Mengzhi didn’t mind. He carried several bundles of wood in, rubbed his hands together, and started a fire in the middle of the kitchen.
All the cooking utensils and tableware were ready. Both Ruan Silian and Shen Ping’an knew how to cook. After Lin Mengzhi handed them the thawed wolf meat, they immediately got to work preparing the meal.
Wu Heng, dressed in a dark gray wolf-hide jacket, sat by the door with a plate on his lap. On the plate were small cubes of meat, cut by Ruan Silian, each about the size of a peanut. He occasionally pinched a couple and tossed them into his mouth.
Xie Chongyi returned from outside with Xue Shen and Shen She, tossing several bags of supplies they had retrieved onto the ground.
The group gathered at the doorway drew attention immediately — motionless, yet their faces shone brighter than the snow outside.
Wu Heng normally looked far too thin, a mere sliver of a frame. Even a puffy jacket hung on him like a slender reed, fragile enough to snap. But the wolf-hide coat, bulky and clumsy on most people, fit him perfectly, giving him a sturdier appearance. His narrow face even seemed a little fuller.
“Have you eaten?” Xie Chongyi asked, approaching Wu Heng. He removed his gloves and looked down at Wu Heng’s ears and nose, reddened from the cold.
Wu Heng shook his head.
“Ruan Silian said she’s making meat pancakes… still kneading the dough.”
As he spoke, his fingers fiddled with a few pieces of meat, and his gaze lifted to the pair of legs in front of him, which hadn’t moved an inch. He looked up at the figure with a mix of curiosity and quiet attention.
Even knowing Xie Chongyi was handsome, Wu Heng couldn’t help but feel his face struck again, briefly but powerfully, by the other’s features.
The boy’s brows were dark and well-defined, his nose bridge high, and his gentle eye shape softened the aloof pride in his expression. Yet his thin lips almost undid the effect.
Wu Heng had mild face-blindness, but he remembered Xie Chongyi perfectly from the first meeting — his appearance, his name, and the sense that he would not be easy to confront.
At that moment, a long, knuckled hand lazily draped over Xie Chongyi’s back, then slid away. Xue Shen’s teasing voice floated lightly.
“Two of you… eyes gone all soft, huh?”
Wu Heng drew back his gaze, popped the meat into his mouth, and chewed calmly.
Xie Chongyi stepped fully into the house, placing his gloves casually on a cabinet near the door. Ruan Silian looked at him.
“In about half an hour, the meal should be ready.”
“This kitchen still has several bags of rice — enough to last us a few days,” Shen Qi said, sitting in his wheelchair and helping those working in the kitchen. He pointed.
“There’s also a small basket of ginger over there. It’s a bit wilted, but still edible.”
The flour was also found in that same kitchen cabinet. Zhao Ming thought that before they had built the walls, the villagers hadn’t thoroughly gathered supplies, leaving behind quite a bit. Aside from flour and rice, there were also millet, several bags of instant noodles, and some miscellaneous food.
It was the dead of winter — everything was silent, and animals struggled to survive from lack of food. Humans were no different. Those who had already realized the importance of provisions conducted carpet-like searches of all nearby houses, leaving no corner unchecked.
Lin Mengzhi’s “soldiers” were Dou Lu and Wu Zhi, with Wu Zhi temporarily filling the slot left by a member of the Elysium team.
The three of them entered a house located farther from where they were staying. The house had a yard — the largest yard they had come across so far. Along the walls, indistinguishable green plants poked through the snow in uneven patches. The house itself was built generously, almost like a villa, with multiple glazed sections reflecting sunlight. The snow, unable to withstand the sun’s heat, had partially melted, leaving damp patches on the ground.
Dou Lu drew a knife from her bag, her expression serious.
“Something feels off. Everyone be careful.”
Wu Zhi halted, slowly turning to the left. Her eyes flickered.
“There are mutated animals over there, of course it feels off.”
Upon hearing this, the other two followed her gaze.
In a corner by the wall stood a large iron cage. It wasn’t the cage that drew attention, but what was inside: a muntjac. The small deer filled half the cage, its eyes glowing red, fangs longer than half its face, and its four hooves surrounded by scraps of cloth and white bones. Yet unlike other mutated animals, it wasn’t thrashing wildly. Instead, it quietly observed the humans outside the cage.
“Whoa — a deer!” Dou Lu saw it was trapped and, after a moment of alarm, immediately relaxed.
Lin Mengzhi held her knife behind her back and moved cautiously.
“No way… that deer has antlers.”
“Female deer don’t have antlers.”
Wu Zhi stayed rooted in place.
“It’s a muntjac.”
“Muntjac? What’s that?” Lin Mengzhi had heard the word from his master before. He vaguely remembered it was a nationally protected species. Even though his master had shown him pictures, the animal he pictured now still resembled a deer.
“I saw it in a picture book,” Wu Zhi said after thinking for a moment.
Dou Lu nodded, then suddenly frowned.
“Xiao Zhi, you’re not dumb anymore?”
“I haven’t been dumb for a long time,” Wu Zhi said, clutching the monkey doll in her hand. Her tone wasn’t cheerful. “Thanks to Teacher Ying.”
“Teacher Ying is amazing,” Lin Mengzhi said with a click of his tongue. “He can take on an entire squad by himself. And with him, you can’t even scold him. He just makes people overthink… but overthinking can get you killed. And dying is your own choice… so awesome!”
“I just feel terrified. I don’t even dare talk to Teacher Ying now. I’m afraid I’ll die while speaking to him,” Dou Lu admitted.
Because the muntjac was caged, the two felt safe enough to keep talking, while Wu Zhi stared unblinking at the animal. And the muntjac returned her gaze.
Its brown-black body twitched subtly, muscles flexing under its fur as it stared at the small human girl.
Click.
“Mengzhi,” Wu Zhi’s pupils shrank. She pointed at the animal. “The cage isn’t locked!”
The cage only looked locked. The muntjac only appeared to have no way out. It had actually been hooking the door with its front hooves, but Wu Zhi had noticed it first.
Realizing its small maneuver had been discovered, the muntjac kicked the cage door open with a clang. It let out a sharp hiss, leapt several steps at a time, and moved with blinding speed.
As the muntjac reached the three of them, Lin Mengzhi swung his knife downward. Flames leapt up at his feet, rushing toward the animal.
The muntjac flipped onto its back, nimbly evading the attack. In an instant, all four hooves pushed off the yard wall, its muscles coiling and flexing as it perched on top.
It let out constant squeaks and hisses, its relatively small ears twitching sharply. From its vantage point, it looked down at the three humans below. Its hind legs — longer than its front limbs — had been coiled and ready since it first spotted them; now they were taut as bowstrings, primed to strike at any moment.
Lin Mengzhi and Dou Lu positioned themselves in front of Wu Zhi. Each step they took was mirrored by a corresponding movement of the muntjac on the wall.
“I thought it couldn’t get out of the cage!” Dou Lu’s face was ashen. She hadn’t imagined that an animal nowadays could actually set a trap like this.
She dared not think what might have happened if she and Lin Mengzhi hadn’t brought Wu Zhi along. With their personalities? This muntjac would likely have sent them flying to the afterlife with a single kick each!
Author’s note:
Muntjac: hates little girls.