Chapter 38.1: “…next time, don’t think about hugging me”
Last time, it was Wu Heng who had taken the initiative to hug Xie Chongyi. The other gave no real response, and he thought that was what a hug was—when in fact, it had only been a one-sided embrace on his part.
But this time was different. This time, it was Xie Chongyi who hugged him. Wu Heng’s body sank into the other’s arms, the warmth inside that embrace piercing through several layers of clothing, surging endlessly into his body.
Wu Heng was squeezed so tightly he couldn’t breathe. The air inside his down jacket was pressed out, and even the oxygen in his lungs was nearly gone.
He even had an illusion—as if the one holding him wasn’t a person at all, but some huge, violent mutant beast, like a tiger or a wolf.
Xie Chongyi buried his face in the hollow of Wu Heng’s neck, rubbing against the collar there until it was a mess.
The person in his arms was very thin. Even with several layers of clothing on, and a down jacket on top, Xie Chongyi could still feel the sharp outlines of his shoulder blades. The bony protrusions of Wu Heng’s shoulders pressed against his own chest and hurt surprisingly much.
From start to finish, the other never struggled.
Not until Xie Chongyi let go of him.
Wu Heng obediently lifted his face. The brief lack of oxygen had left his cheeks even redder than before. “That felt great. Thanks.”
The Adam’s apple of the boy right before his eyes shifted up and down.
Xie Chongyi pushed Wu Heng away, his tone as indifferent as usual. “Don’t bring too much food. We need to save space in the car for gasoline.”
Wu Heng ruffled his messy hair and nodded. “Alright.”
At that moment, Dou Lu pushed over a box of gas canisters. “And these.”
Once they had gathered all the supplies they needed and stacked them by the door, Xie Chongyi and Shen Ping’an drove the car into the supermarket. Zombies that had been forced in with the vehicle were instantly smashed apart by a single punch from Li Shu—their brains bursting, foul stench spreading through the air.
Some people still couldn’t get used to it. Their faces turned pale in an instant—especially Ying Liuquan, who had never gone downstairs before. He gagged a few times, and immediately, thinking of the noodles he’d eaten in the morning, he clamped a hand tightly over his mouth.
“Move it.” Li Shu wiped his hands, rolled up his sleeves, and began loading the supplies bag by bag into the car.
Water took up the most space, but it was also the most important. Wu Heng noticed that even though the trunk of another car was packed to the brim, it still didn’t add up to much water. He turned away in silence.
After storing over a dozen barrels of water, Wu Heng also collected quite a few items for the girls, as well as staple foods that were easy to prepare and filling. From the dry goods section he gathered mung beans, red beans, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, dried daylily, dried shrimp. From the snack section, he picked up candied fruits, candies, and chocolates, stocking up a good amount of each in his space.
But his storage space was too small to hold a large volume of supplies. It could only ensure they wouldn’t go hungry in the short term. He’d have to keep freeing up space and refilling it while on the road.
In the clothing section, Wu Heng crouched in front of the shelves and slipped on a pair of black wool gloves, tucking another clean pair into his pocket.
He stood up, glanced around, then picked up two thick quilts.
When Wu Heng returned to the entrance with his arms full of bags, Xie Chongyi looked at him. “There’s no room in the car. You’ll have to carry them yourself.”
Wu Zhi immediately reached out from the side. “I’ll carry some too.”
“Should we bring a tent?” The usually silent Shen Ping’an suddenly spoke up. “We’ll also need a toolbox, lighting equipment, and gear for cold and wet weather.”
Xie Chongyi replied, “Up to you.”
Soon, both cars were crammed full. By then, the torrential downpour outside had turned into a light drizzle. The raindrops swayed gently as they fell—if the entire city weren’t shrouded in death, such a delicate rain would have been quite beautiful to admire.
Before setting out, everyone changed into thick clothing. Even those who didn’t feel cold put on an extra layer.
“Don’t go empty-handed—carry as much as you can.” Shen Ping’an’s car only had Li Shu and Ruan Silian inside. The two of them sat in the backseat, while the front seats and even the space in front of them weren’t left empty. After loading in barrels of water, they stacked large bags of food on top, until the front passenger seat couldn’t even fit a single bottle of mineral water.
“Shen Ping’an, we’re all ability users. Honestly, staying in Hanzhou isn’t impossible,” Li Shu suddenly said.
“It’s not the same.” Shen Ping’an wasn’t much of a talker, but a gentle voice came from Ruan Silian. “It’s already been two weeks, and all we’ve gotten from the government is one radio broadcast. Guan Yingxue said every region is acting independently, but the city and the province have remained silent. It’s obvious that Hanzhou hasn’t received firsthand resources or information. You all are ability users—if anything, you should head to Jingzhou, to obtain firsthand information that benefits ability users’ evolution, to uncover the truth of this disaster, instead of waiting passively for death.”
“If you stay in Hanzhou, the only thing waiting for you—besides possible rescue—will likely be control measures or restrictions aimed at ability users. Because beneath ability users, there are still ordinary people, and ordinary people make up the majority of the world. In short, things probably won’t end well for ability users. Rather than wait for shackles to come to your door, why not go and become the ones making the rules?”
Ruan Silian tilted her head toward Li Shu, her oval face softened with an almost unbearable gentleness. “Li Shu, what do you think?”
Li Shu looked into Ruan Silian’s eyes, moist and shimmering like spring water, and his face flushed red. He stammered, “I–I think you’re right.”
But when he turned his gaze away, he met the lifeless eyes of Wu Heng from the passenger seat of the neighboring car. Wu Heng had his face pressed against the window, and no one knew how long he had been watching the two of them.
“…”
Li Shu rolled down the window. “What are you staring at?”
Wu Heng blinked.
“What are you yelling for?” The rear window of the car silently lowered, and Wu Zhi leaned halfway out. “I’ll have Brother Mengzhi burn you to death with one strike of fire!”
“Oh, I’m so scared.”
“You’re just strong, that’s all. What’s so great about being strong?” Wu Zhi, although she had no abilities, had watched plenty of cartoons. Among the dazzling array of powers, mere strength seemed unimpressive to her.
“Enough noise.” Shen Ping’an cut in, forcibly raising the car’s windows.
Wu Heng withdrew his gaze, and Wu Zhi also pulled back. She asked curiously, “Brother, what were you looking at just now?”
“Nothing.” Wu Heng was bundled in a quilt, still wearing a scarf. When he glanced around, he realized he was wrapped up more than anyone else.
“Aren’t you cold?” Unable to hold back, Wu Heng finally asked.
Dou Lu replied, “I just checked with the outdoor thermometer—it’s fourteen degrees. Why are you so cold?”
Wu Heng shook his head. He wasn’t just cold—he was also very sleepy.
“Let’s go.” Xie Chongyi steered one-handed, the tires screeching with a long hiss as the imposing Land Rover clattered down the nearby steps.
“Class Monitor!” Dou Lu was thrown against the car window. When she turned her head, a zombie’s face was just one pane of glass away.
The car jolted down the stairs, but Xie Chongyi quickly regained control. He said calmly, “Give me a little time to grow.”
After speaking, he cast a glance at the passenger seat. The boy was leaning against the window, dazed, his mind clearly elsewhere.
After they had driven for a while, Wu Heng fell asleep again.
“What’s wrong with Brother? I’m really worried.” Wu Zhi leaned over the back of the passenger seat, sighing in distress. “Could Brother be dying?”
Dou Lu didn’t answer her, but patted her own thigh. “Come, you should nap too.”
Lin Mengzhi glanced a few times at Wu Heng, then finally looked at Xie Chongyi. “How long are we planning to take to reach Jingzhou?”
The windshield wipers moved up and down rhythmically. Xie Chongyi paused for a moment before replying, “If short, eight or nine days. If long… I don’t know.”
—
Right beside the highway entrance stood a gas station, quiet and still amid the misty rain. Across from it, several wide, straight roads stretched out, not a single car in sight. This place was remote— even zombies were far fewer than in the city, only a scattered few here and there.
Xie Chongyi turned off the engine. “You stay in the car.” It was clear he was speaking to Wu Heng.
The others had no objection to his arrangement. After all, Wu Heng did look truly worn out at the moment.
As Xie Chongyi stepped out of the car, a black umbrella opened above his head. He walked quickly to the fuel tank, placed his palm against the metal wall, and felt around in a few places, his knuckles shifting slightly.
“Lin Mengzhi, go inside and find some oil drums to fill.”
No sooner had he finished speaking after opening the tank than a few nearby zombies had already started shambling toward them.
The young man held his umbrella steady and strode forward to meet them head-on, raindrops sliding down the umbrella’s ribs in streams.
Wu Zhi shifted from one seat to another, peering outside. “Brother, your class monitor is really amazing, and he’s brave too. I wouldn’t dare go out there.”
Wu Heng leaned against the car window. “You going out wouldn’t help anyway.”
“Oh, it would help. You’d give the zombies something to fill their stomachs with.”
“Brother…”
After Xie Chongyi finished off a few zombies, he took out several energy cores, then went to a puddle by the roadside and rinsed the foul blood off them.
“Anyone here…?” Lin Mengzhi pushed open the door of the small convenience store. “I’m coming in~”
Dou Lu followed close behind him. “Even if there were ghosts, there wouldn’t be people.”
“I know, I was just yelling for fun.” Lin Mengzhi searched around outside but found no oil drums. When he circled around to the cashier counter, he suddenly saw a person slumped over it. That person slowly lifted his head, looking drowsy.
Lin Mengzhi and Dou Lu froze for a moment—then screamed at the same time.
“What’s with the screaming? Got any food?” The man, still in uniform, stood up abruptly and reached straight for Lin Mengzhi’s throat.
Lin Mengzhi stumbled back in panic, his shoulders slamming against the liquor shelf.
A flash of cold light swept past his eyes—Dou Lu had drawn her knife, striking at the man without hesitation.
But in that instant, a layer of gold wrapped around the man’s arm. He blocked Dou Lu’s blade with it, the knife edge curling on impact, the force numbing Dou Lu’s arm.
“Heh, kids.” The man lashed out with a heavy kick to Dou Lu’s stomach. She flew backward, crashing through several shelves.
The next second, Lin Mengzhi dodged another kick, and a streak of fire shot past the man’s face.
The fire scorched away a piece of skin, exposing the raw red flesh underneath.
“You’re not a zombie.” Lin Mengzhi froze. A zombie’s flesh was long since rotted; even those rare ones with self-awareness were still decayed. But this man—he wasn’t. He was human.
“He’s human, damn it!” Dou Lu clutched her stomach, bracing against the wall as she struggled to stand.
“Wh–why?” Lin Mengzhi stammered. In his mind, only zombies and monsters killed people.
The man didn’t answer. Instead, he marveled, “So you’re fire-type. For an ability like that to appear in a kid like you… absurd.”
Dou Lu grabbed her knife off the ground. “Don’t waste words on him! His level’s low—take him down!”
“How naive.” The man curled his fist, and once again that golden sheen spread out, this time crawling upward from his feet. His legs were engulfed, then the rest of his body, until he was entirely wrapped in gold— even his eyes had turned golden.