Chapter 154.2: Refreshing Jasmine
Wu Heng sat in a chair, his legs crossed and resting on the bench beneath the table. His long black hair fell loose around him, and upon closer look, it seemed to be veiled with a faint dark green tint—more noticeable at the tips. When the light hit it, the green became strikingly clear, casting his face in a calm, snow-pale glow.
X sprawled across his lap. The bird’s feathers had been scrubbed by Yang Xiaoyun until they were clean and glossy, its tail plumes a dazzling red. It wasn’t sleeping—instead, it kept chattering nonstop, waiting for Wu Heng to take pity on it and feed it some jerky.
“Damn it, damn it, it’s raining! Jingzhou, Jingzhou, zombies, Doctor Chen, cure illness, what are we eating, eating dog crap, A’Heng, A’Heng, A’Heng, Shenjian, scary Shenjian, cute, tasty, A’Heng …”
Annoyed into a frown, Wu Heng shoved a strip of dried wolf rib into its beak. Casually, he tossed another piece to Shukui, who was lying on the ground.
Shukui crunched through the one- to two-meter-long rib in just a few bites and swallowed it down, then continued staring at Wu Heng with bright, eager eyes. But something was poking at its forehead. It turned out X, perched above, was clamping onto the rib and gnawing at it with difficulty.
Shukui opened its mouth and began eating upward from below.
Wu Heng didn’t warn X. He simply watched the scene unfold at his leisure.
X wasn’t as fast as Shukui—but it wasn’t slow either. Soon enough, their mouths collided.
?
Both froze for a few seconds, each stunned for different reasons. Then fury exploded in X’s eyes. It flipped up and lashed out with a kick straight to Shukui’s chest.
Shukui let out a miserable yelp, then immediately bit down on the remaining rib, chewed a few times, and swallowed it whole.
That truly set X off.
The dog and the bird both swelled to enormous size, tangling together in a chaotic brawl. One moment the bird was on top, claws and wings battering and raking across the dog’s back; the next, the dog had dragged the bird to the ground, shaking its head as it bit and tore.
Neither creature paid the slightest attention to anyone except Wu Heng. They trashed the restaurant into a complete mess. The plants growing indoors were flattened to the floor, and several times they nearly injured the people nearby.
Yet Wu Heng sat calmly at the center of the battlefield—not even a single strand of his hair disturbed.
They were extremely alert. Even while fighting so fiercely it seemed the world might turn upside down, the last shred of reason kept them from hurting Wu Heng. The reason wasn’t deep love—it was simply that if they got in his way, the probability of being hung up and beaten by him was infinitely close to one hundred percent.
When dinner was almost ready, the dog and the bird called a truce on their own. They shrank back to their usual size, each hopped onto its respective seat, and stared at the table expectantly.
Lin Mengzhi also managed to escape from the clutches of those detestable “soldiers,” though his spoils had been reduced by half.
“I won’t let you off!” he shouted as he ran behind Wu Heng. “A’Heng won’t let you off either!”
Mo Zhaohong pulled out a chair and sat down, grinning. With his sharp features, even his smile carried a hint of roguish mischief. “Alright, alright. From now on, we big brothers will treat you well.”
Lin Mengzhi muttered a few curses under his breath. The next second, he caught sight of Xue Shen busy helping with the cooking in the distance. Instantly forgetting about the cigarettes that had been confiscated, he circled around to sit in front of Wu Heng, dragging over a chair.
“A’Heng, I need to tell you something. Prepare yourself mentally.” The boy looked solemn.
Wu Heng replied, “Mm.” He couldn’t think of anything Lin Mengzhi might say that would actually require mental preparation.
“My first kiss… is gone,” Lin Mengzhi declared mournfully.
Wu Heng blinked once.
“Guess whether my first kiss was with a guy or a girl.”
“A guy,” Wu Heng answered without hesitation.
“How did you know?” Lin Mengzhi stared at him in shock.
Wu Heng spoke leisurely. “If it had been a girl, you probably wouldn’t look so… distressed right now.”
“Exactly! Distressed!” Lin Mengzhi covered his face in anguish. “I’m no longer pure. I’ve let down my future wife.”
“Why would you kiss a guy?” Wu Heng knew perfectly well that Lin Mengzhi’s orientation—physically, psychologically, socially, every way—was toward women.
With an expression that said See? You can’t believe it either, right?, Lin Mengzhi explained, “I fell into the water. Xue Shen gave me CPR.”
“…”
“You can just pretend nothing happened.”
“I tried really hard!”
“Clearly, it didn’t work.”
“Too rigid snaps easily. Eat first,” Wu Heng said, patting Lin Mengzhi on the shoulder.
They spent the night in the restaurant service area hidden within the scenic zone. They also cleared out several half-dead zombies that had been locked inside the restroom. Perhaps because they hadn’t eaten in a long time, only their fingers and mouths could still move. The moment they saw humans, they let out hoarse, hungry growls.
After leaving the uninhabited zone, Shenjian no longer felt quite as eerie and terrifying as before. It was simply a scenic area that had become a little rougher and wilder than it used to be.
By dawn, mountain mist coiled through the air once more.
Jiang Xun was the first to wake. When she stepped outside, she froze in shock.
The flattened grass beyond the door was strewn with wild animals lying every which way, their fur stained with blood.
Uncertain what had happened, she quickly woke the others.
“What’s going on?” Yang Xiaoyun asked.
Lin Jie stepped down the stairs and bent to pick up the nearest corpse. It looked like a bird. Its wing feathers were rigid, its beak as long as its neck. It was larger than an eagle used to be, but its features were fiercer, and in its wide-open red eyes lingered an unspent hunger.
“What kind of bird is this? Never seen one before.”
“Many creatures have undergone mutations. They’re very different from before. It’s not strange we can’t recognize them,” Wang Ruixiang said.
Among the pile of unfamiliar mutated birds were also wild boars, badgers, weasels, even wolves. There were snakes as well—some as thick as a wrist at minimum—but they were mostly common green bamboo vipers and rat snakes. There didn’t seem to be many venomous ones.
Soon, the group discovered identical marks on the dead animals—signs of strangulation and puncture wounds. Scattered among them were small white flower petals, each about the size of a fingernail, delicate and refined.
Wang Ruixiang picked one up and examined it carefully. “Kudzu flowers.”
Lin Mengzhi eyed him suspiciously. “How do you know so much?”
Wang Ruixiang tossed the little white flower aside and pointed above their heads. “Isn’t there a whole patch of them right there?”
Only then did everyone turn to look. The restaurant roof was buried beneath thick layers of green kudzu leaves—and above those leaves bloomed countless of the same dainty white flowers they had just found.
“Did it kill them?” Yang Xiaoyun finally couldn’t hold back her shock. “Has it turned into some kind of spirit or what? Damn!”
“It killed them and didn’t even eat them? What, just showing off how good it is at killing?” Lin Mengzhi said.
Shen Ping’an’s brow twitched slightly. “It’s very likely it was standing guard for us.”
Everyone froze at that. When they looked again at the kudzu vines covering the roof, beyond the indescribable shock, what remained was a creeping chill down their spines.
While they had all been asleep, it had silently killed the mutated creatures that came in the night. That alone proved its strength. If it had been on the same side as those creatures, then even if they hadn’t been wiped out last night, someone would certainly have died or been seriously injured.
But why? Why would it help them kill Shenjian’s “native residents”? It made no sense.
Soon, however, someone realized that the one truly protecting them had been another vine entirely.
That person was off to one side, picking through the carcasses of animals that had died less than a night ago, alongside a dog and a bird. From time to time, he casually fed a bite to himself, and another to the dog and the bird.
Unwilling to let the scene draw too much attention, Wen Yuan stepped forward and said, “Let’s go. If we reach Shenjian’s main city today, we should arrive in Hanzhou within a week at the latest.”
Wu Heng discreetly stored quite a bit of meat into his spatial storage and made sure X and Shukui had a hearty breakfast as well.
Before leaving, Mo Zhaohong was pestered by Xue Qi into using the restaurant’s popcorn machine to make a whole bag of popcorn. The corn itself was emergency rations specially developed in Jingzhou—filling but so unpalatable it was almost nauseating. Fortunately, with the honey Wu Heng provided, the popcorn ended up tasting much better.
“Wu Heng, have some.”
“Brother Ping’an, you too.”
Shen Ping’an’s heart softened. “Thank you.”
—
Hurrying along, by afternoon the team arrived at Shenjian’s main city.
Dark clouds pressed low overhead. The city had been completely overtaken by lush vegetation. Inside and outside the residential buildings, the plant life had grown to astonishing proportions, swallowing everything but the occasional exposed rebar and concrete.
At first glance, it was no different from the forested region—if anything, the flowers blooming here were even more vibrant and dazzling.
No base had been established in the main city. It had already become a deserted city. Evidently, they were the first group of humans to arrive here since the apocalypse.
X lay sprawled atop Lin Mengzhi’s head, its neck swiveling back and forth as it scanned the surroundings warily.
“Brother Fork, you’re getting heavier by the day. Walk on your own from now on. Or go with Shukui. You squat on our heads all day—I’m seriously worried our necks are going to disappear under the weight.”
From behind, Lin Mengzhi grabbed at its backside—solid and full of meat. “You fat stinky bird. A’Heng acts tough but soft-hearted and fed you into this shape. You’re gonna get bird diabetes at this rate!”
X ignored him completely, shuffled its feet, adjusted into a more comfortable position, and continued squatting in Lin Mengzhi’s hair.
Crack.
Crunch.
Amid the dense carpet of plants, stiff, dragging footsteps approached.
Zombies.
There weren’t many. A quick glance showed no more than twenty.
Cao Xian drew two slender long blades from either side of his backpack. “I’ll handle it. You all keep moving.”
Wen Yuan had full confidence in him and led the others onward.
Wu Heng slowed for a few steps, then came to a complete stop behind a wall, watching Cao Xian approach the zombies.
Cao Xian walked forward normally for just a few meters before his figure blurred into an afterimage. By the time Wu Heng could see him clearly again, the zombies were already collapsing to the ground one after another.
Shukui wagged its tail excitedly.
Cao Xian wiped his blades briskly, removing the excess blood, sheathed them back into his pack, and returned the way he had come.
“Why didn’t you go with the others?” he asked when he saw Wu Heng.
“I wanted to see how you kill zombies,” Wu Heng replied frankly.
The two of them caught up to the group, walking at the rear.
The main urban district wasn’t large. There wasn’t a single trace of living humans. Most of the remaining supplies inside the buildings were useless now. Food had rotted beyond recognition, and vehicles parked everywhere had become oversized flowerpots for various plants.
There were too few usable supplies left for lingering to make much sense. After a quick search, the team focused on the various warehouses inside the city’s malls and stores. Most of these warehouses were located deep inside the buildings and were locked. As long as the plants hadn’t grown up from the ground, most of the items inside were still usable—especially clothing and daily necessities.
Out here in the wilderness, Wu Heng didn’t hold back. Anything the others couldn’t carry or take, he quietly collected behind them.
In a supermarket tangled with roots and vines, Wu Heng methodically cleared entire shelves: toilet paper, sanitary pads, shampoo, body wash, pots and pans, oil, salt, seasonings… even the shelves themselves—he salvaged a few completely intact.
The warehouses were far less overrun by plants than the publicly accessible sections, and goods were still in full boxes, making collecting supplies far easier.
Everyone else changed into clean, warm clothes and grabbed a second set while they were at it. The sticky, grimy feeling on their bodies finally eased considerably.
“Can we still eat this gum?” Lin Mengzhi asked, standing at the cash register as he pulled out two candy tins from a cluster of green leaves.
“Considering the high temperatures earlier, it probably melted long ago,” Xue Qi said beside him.
“True,” Lin Mengzhi nodded and tossed the tins aside, digging around again with his hand.
He pulled out two more boxes, bending down to read the labels carefully. “Condoms?”
“Take two, take two,” he muttered, his face instantly flushing red. He quickly and awkwardly shoved the boxes into his pocket, like a thief.
Xue Qi looked at him. “You don’t even need those.”
“Who says I don’t need them? I’m taking the biggest ones,” Lin Mengzhi said defiantly.
“What did you find?” Wu Heng heard their quarrel from a distance and assumed it must be something good.
“Nothing, nothing,” Lin Mengzhi said quickly.
Casually, Wu Heng reached into the shelf, feeling around. He pulled out a box of the same kind of item Lin Mengzhi had just found, only in a different color.
“Full pleasure, refreshing jasmine, moist with many beads,” the boy murmured, his words slowing as he read the label. He looked up slowly at the end, and beneath his thick black lashes, his gray-green eyes gleamed faintly. “Condoms.”
“You don’t need those,” Xue Qi said again. Wu Heng had already admitted he didn’t need them.
Wu Heng lowered his eyes, moving naturally as he slipped the box into his jacket pocket. “Jasmine-flavored… might as well give it a try.”