Chapter 34: Jealousy (Part Two)

“Ah! Mozi, you’re here!” Nan Lingzi rubbed her still-sleepy eyes, but as soon as she saw Moyu, all traces of drowsiness vanished.

The morning sunlight was uncommonly warm, yet it only made Moyu feel all the more restless.

The weather in the apocalypse had no right to be so pleasant.

Lingzi was chattering away at her side, voicing her worries, but Moyu ignored her. Seated in the corner of the sofa near the floor-to-ceiling window, she stared blankly outside.

Qingxuan had been by her side for over ten days now, hardly leaving her even for a moment. She had seen him both as a grown man and as a child, and even in his form as a serpent. She’d long regarded him as her own younger brother, caring for him with genuine affection. He, too, had always relied on her, clinging with a stubborn sort of attachment. But this time, he’d gone off on his own without so much as a word.

The province was safe for now, but only for the moment; no one could guess what might happen in the next instant. The zombie virus was global—no one could escape it. The province where she was now was perilously close to Province A. Though Qingxuan was a mutant serpent, his strength was still limited. His only ability was teleportation—fifty meters at most, and even that drained his energy.

The thought made Moyu’s heart clench with anxiety. She wanted nothing more than to go find Qingxuan right away.

“Hey! Mozi.” Nan Lingzi waved her hand in front of Moyu, shaking it up and down. When Moyu finally looked at her, Lingzi continued, “Anyway, as long as you’re okay. This is Cheng Qidong, our team leader.”

Moyu stared skeptically at the slouching man across from her. Were soldiers not supposed to look like that army officer she’d met today? This man didn’t resemble a soldier in the slightest.

Lingzi shot Cheng Qidong an awkward glance, about to speak, but Cheng stood up with an easy confidence, saluting Moyu with military precision.

After dropping his hand, he adopted a serious expression, though his tone was irreverent. “I’m on leave, so I’m letting my true self out,” he said.

Moyu looked at him without expression, then quietly turned away. All she wished for now was Qingxuan’s safe return; the worry was eating her alive.

The room fell instantly silent. Cheng Qidong, Nan Lingzi, and Moyu each occupied a corner of the sofa, while Li Jun slept soundly in another room.

The sun seemed to pour all its heat into the world, and the air grew stifling and uneasy.

Suddenly, a woman’s panicked screams shattered the quiet from outside: “Husband! What’s wrong?!”

The three inside instantly tensed.

“Quick… go, there’s…”

“Husband!”

“Could be a mutation,” Moyu muttered, frowning.

Cheng Qidong got up and went to the door, peering through the peephole into the corridor, narrating as he watched. “Tsk, tsk, how brutal.”

“Oh, even the intestines are being torn out.”

“Sigh, not even finished with one meal before moving on to the next. What a waste—”

Moyu found his tone utterly revolting, and her worry for Qingxuan only grew.

“No, I have to find him!” she told herself with resolve.

Brushing aside Cheng Qidong, who was blocking the door, Moyu yanked it open and rushed outside. Nan Lingzi, a step behind, cried out and chased after her, and even Cheng Qidong, who usually maintained a detached air, slammed the door and followed.

Thankfully, they weren’t the only ones leaving. The zombies couldn’t catch these “one abnormal, two special,” and so they turned instead to pursue ordinary people.

Lingzi and Cheng Qidong followed Moyu as she ran outside. The scene beyond was even more dire. Zombies roamed the streets, frenziedly hunting and devouring their prey—and their numbers swelled with each passing moment.

Moyu stood frozen in the middle of the street, inside a triangle formed by three crashed cars. Lingzi clung desperately to her arm, while Cheng Qidong watched the chaos as if it were a spectacle.

Through a gap between the cars, Moyu spotted Qingxuan.

He was gasping for breath, shrunk into a corner by the wall, his hands clawing desperately at the bricks, his whole body pressing closer to the corner. Around him, a pack of ravenous zombies closed in!

“No! Please, no!” Moyu tried to call out, to snap Qingxuan out of his stupor, but her open mouth trembled, unable to make a sound.

The zombies, sensing fresh meat, hurled themselves at Qingxuan with gleeful howls.

“No!” Lingzi screamed, watching Moyu charge into the zombie horde like a cannonball. “Come back! Moyu! Idiot!” She tried to run after her, shouting.

“Let go, Cheng!” Lingzi tried to pry his hand off her arm. “Let go! Let go!”

“It’s over,” Cheng Qidong said coldly, staring at the spot where Moyu had disappeared. Lingzi jerked her head up to meet his eyes, then shook her head wildly, as if denying a cruel joke.

“No! It can’t be! Let me go, let me out!”

Cheng Qidong finally released her arm, only to grab her shoulders with both hands, turning her to face the scene.

The zombies had fallen upon the body, tearing at it in a gruesome frenzy.

Lingzi saw only a severed, pale, slender arm lying on the ground. It looked just like Moyu’s.

“No—!”

Cheng Qidong let go, and Lingzi collapsed to the ground. He drew his sidearm, dispatched the nearest zombie with a shot to the head, then pulled Lingzi to her feet and dragged her out of the triangle of wrecked cars.

Lingzi moved like a soulless puppet, stumbling after Cheng Qidong without awareness.

“Get in!” He shoved her into an abandoned sedan and slid into the driver’s seat himself.

Only then did Lingzi come to her senses. “What about Li Jun?! We’re just going to leave him? He’s still in the hotel!”

Cheng Qidong wrestled with the steering wheel, not looking up. “There’s no time. We have to go, there’s no time!”

He repeated it twice.

Lingzi raised her arm to cover her face, and tears slipped silently through her fingers.

“Heh… there’s no time, there’s no time… Moyu, Li Jun… there’s no time…”

Cheng Qidong’s knuckles stood out white on the steering wheel, but he said nothing, only floored the accelerator.

“Moyu, Li Jun, what am I supposed to do now…”

“Nan, you’re a soldier,” Cheng Qidong said, using her code name from missions, hoping it might steady her.

Lingzi lowered her arm, her face streaked with tears, her expression twisted in anguish.

“A soldier?”

“Yes.” Cheng Qidong stared straight ahead, never looking at her.

“How pathetic.”

A long silence passed before he replied.

“The living have no cause for sorrow.”

Lingzi turned to press her face against the window. To her, every victim torn apart by the zombies looked like Moyu. Every zombie deserved to die. The whole world had abandoned her.