This time, Huai Si entered the front gates quite openly. He had changed into dark-colored clothing, with a black strip of cloth tied around his neck to conceal the horrifying wound there. Wearing a large, sweeping hood, he radiated an air of “do not approach,” and if anyone dared peer into his hood to meet those sharp pupils, they would feel the chilling sensation of being stalked by a wild beast.
With the shelter now in an unmanaged state and the inspection team having already departed, there was virtually no one left who could pose a threat to him.
When Huai Si entered the shelter in disguise, although he didn’t encounter any powerful resistance, the moment he stepped through the door a flash of blade-light slashed directly toward him. To his current self, however, the movement was painfully slow and completely devoid of threat; a slight sideways shift was all it took to dodge it effortlessly.
The person hiding behind the door struck empty air, finding no human figure before them. Turning around abruptly, they were startled by the sudden appearance of someone right behind them.
Huai Si watched as the man who had been lying in wait by the door clutched a knife defensively against his chest, his hands still trembling clearly frightened out of his wits. Although the shelter was now riddled with holes and zombies occasionally leaped in to snatch people, the shelter’s espers had left alongside the main base’s inspection team. Left with no other choice, the remaining residents had no option but to organize their own defense.
The man had only ever picked up a few basic moves of self-defense, but he was considered one of the stronger-built individuals left in the shelter. With everyone currently fearing for their lives, the residents took turns standing watch at the entrance. Today happened to be his shift at the gate, and never did he expect something to suddenly burst inside. Overwhelmed by panic, he didn’t even think before slashing out with his knife.
“Don’t be afraid,” Huai Si said, looking at him. Noticing the man shrink back two steps upon staring into his eyes, Huai Si couldn’t help pulling down the rim of his hood, lowering his gaze as he softly said, “I am… an esper.”
Huai Si recognized the thirty-something man standing before him. He hadn’t stayed at the shelter very long; he was one of the refugees the extermination squad had brought back from an outside mission. In truth, he only looked somewhat robust that was merely an appearance, as he possessed virtually no actual combat skill.
It was evident that the shelter had truly reached its most desperate hour, reduced to pushing even men like this out to stand guard at the gate.
“An esper?” The man muttered, staring at Huai Si in a daze, clearly failing to anticipate that an esper would show up at a time like this.
Huai Si nodded, about to speak further, when a familiar voice called out from behind.
“Xiao Huai?”
Huai Si spun around instantly. Sure enough, it was Liao Muqing.
Liao Muqing’s shirt lacked its usual neatness, stained with several smudges and faint traces of blood. His complexion was pale and listless, and he looked thoroughly haggard. Seeing Huai Si appear, his peach-blossom eyes widened in a daze.
A flash of joy crossed Huai Si’s face upon seeing Liao Muqing. However, he then noticed that Liao Muqing had his sleeves rolled up, exposing a section of forearm that lacked any real strength, while his hand gripped a knife.
That hand should have been holding chalk or a pen certainly not a lethal weapon like a knife.
Even Uncle Liao was now reduced to standing guard as a defender in this sieve-like shelter?
“Xiao Huai?” The guard looked bewildered by Liao Muqing’s address, then glanced back at Huai Si. With Huai Si’s entire face hidden beneath the hood, his demeanor was worlds apart from before, not to mention his voice sounded completely different from what they remembered. Yet, prompted by Liao Muqing’s words, the guard thought Huai Si’s figure did indeed resemble him somewhat, and he asked tentatively, “Is that… Huai Si? Weren’t they saying he—”
“Go back first. I need to talk with him.” Liao Muqing interrupted, “Besides, it’s just about time for my shift to end anyway.”
“But—”
“I came here this time to take you all to a branch base.” Huai Si acted first and reported later, laying out his plan immediately to prevent Liao Muqing from giving him any room to back down. “You had all better start preparing now, and don’t pack unnecessary things. This trip might be extremely difficult and dangerous, so think it over carefully before you decide to follow me.”
True to form, upon hearing this, Liao Muqing first stared at Huai Si, then furrowed his brow. A flash of irritation even surfaced in his eyes, though it was mingled with helpless resignation.
The guard’s eyes lit up, but the sudden appearance of this man made him naturally suspicious. Could his words be trusted? After all, they had just been abandoned by the inspection team and Chen Yao’s group. If this man was tricking them into leaving, they would truly be left with no path to survival.
Though staying here meant certain death sooner or later, facing the immediate dangers of the outside world felt far more terrifying; at the very least, they currently lacked the courage to step completely out into the open.
Huai Si understood their misgivings. For an esper to suddenly show up claiming he wanted to take them away no one would easily believe it. Yet wasting time trying to earn their trust all over again would be terribly inefficient. Huai Si wanted to get them moving toward the next branch base as quickly as possible.
Besides, he was going to be killed by Xie Shouhan anyway, so what did it matter?
That was how the original plot had written it, too.
“I am Huai Si. I ran into some trouble during a past mission and spent a long time recovering outside before finally coming back.” Huai Si took the initiative to reveal his identity.
Before he could give it deeper thought, the words had already slipped out.
He paused for a second, but didn’t dwell on it.
He believed his identity would unquestionably win these people’s trust.
“You’re really Huai Si?!” the man exclaimed excitedly, his eyes shining with a mixture of hope and doubt. “But everyone thought you… and why do you look…” He was clearly hinting at how drastically he had changed.
Huai Si cut him off. “I ran into some trouble, which is why I couldn’t return right away.” Addressing the changes in his appearance, Huai Si tapped his own head and said concisely, “I awakened my esper ability.”
Before his death, he had never managed to awaken an ability, relying purely on his physical conditioning to tag along on zombie hunts, which was why every mission had been so grueling. Everyone at the shelter knew this, and since awakening an ability often brought physical transformations, he didn’t need to offer any further explanation. Once an ability was acknowledged, every change to his body fell into place logically.
Coupled with Liao Muqing’s address, the man was convinced before long. In truth, what drove him more than anything was that they had all secretly yearned and prayed for someone to lead them out of their predicament. Their previous choice had been Huai Si, and now the only person they could pin their hopes on was someone like Huai Si.
Now that he was back, what was left to consider?
Seeing the man run off excitedly, Huai Si trusted that he would spread the news to everyone in the shelter, sparing him the trouble of notifying them individually. He turned to face Liao Muqing’s gaze. Liao Muqing stared back at him without a word for a long time, his peach-blossom eyes concealing a deep, unfathomable pool of water.
“Uncle…” Huai Si called out softly, already bracing himself for a scolding.
Liao Muqing kept a straight face. “I already told you, if you came back, don’t ever come see me again.”
“You might not want to see me, but I wanted to see you!” Huai Si’s tone took on a rare trace of childish stubbornness, acting like a willful rascal. “I didn’t agree to that back then anyway! You were just talking to yourself the whole time.”
“You child…” Liao Muqing was left speechless. Huai Si fixed his gaze on him; the sharp, feral glint vanished from his pupils, leaving them bright, luminous, and stubbornly fixed on his face.
“…”
After a long silence, Liao Muqing sighed, looking profoundly helpless. “You really are stubborn. Then again, I suppose I should have known that even under those circumstances, there was no chasing you away.”
Seeing Liao Muqing’s attitude soften, Huai Si quickly pressed on, “I’m not trying to throw my life away, either. The inspection team has already left, and this shelter is no longer safe to live in. Once I get everyone to the next branch base and settle them in, I’ll leave.”
“You make it sound so simple. Where is the branch base? How far is it? You don’t know any of that, do you? Are you just going to blindly lead these people on a wild goose chase? And besides, you’re all by yourself how do you expect to lead so many people out?”
Even though a lot of people had died in the shelter, a dozen or so remained. None of them had any real combat capability, making them a heavy burden to take along on the road.
“Don’t worry, I’ve considered all of that. Naturally, I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t have a plan.”
Ever since Xie Shouhan’s sudden transformation, his mind had been flooded with new plot details, which included the location of the nearest branch base from the shelter.
He already knew how to guide these people to the branch base. The distance wasn’t too far, and he felt confident he could get everyone there safely. Furthermore, although he appeared to be alone on the surface, behind the scenes he would have Adam lead a pack of zombies to guard them from a blind spot out of sight.
Since that branch base was the closest, he believed a group traveling on foot could reach it, and what’s more. Xie Shouhan was going to appear there as well.
Knowing he couldn’t dissuade Huai Si, and familiar with his temperament since he had practically raised him, Liao Muqing knew that once Huai Si made up his mind, nothing would change it.
“Xiao Huai, you’re going to wear yourself out like this,” Liao Muqing finally murmured.
Huai Si stared at the battered, broken kitchen knife gripped in Liao Muqing’s hand. It wasn’t suited for combat at all just an ordinary kitchen cleaver with a chipped blade and an uncomfortable handle. The webbing between Liao Muqing’s thumb and index finger bore faint blisters and scraped skin. Huai Si shook his head with absolute determination. “I won’t get tired.”
In the end, very few people remained in the shelter only about ten individuals. Most of them weren’t critically ill or too old to walk; they could all take care of themselves, making the journey relatively smooth under Huai Si’s leadership.
While taking a headcount along the road, Huai Si caught sight of that mother and son among the ranks, and his gaze involuntarily drifted toward them.
Cai Yongfang was busy breaking up a dry biscuit and soaking it in water to feed her son. Food had been extremely scarce all along this route, forcing them to ration every morsel carefully. She had thought she could finally enjoy a brief moment of rest, but Huai Si’s gaze carried far too much presence; staring at someone like that gave them the distinct feeling of being tracked by a predator. Unfortunately, he had stared too long and failed to look away in time, startling Cai Yongfang into instinctively pulling her son close and turning her back to shield him from Huai Si’s physical-feeling stare.
Only then did Huai Si realize he had been staring too intently.
Acting as if nothing happened, Huai Si withdrew his gaze and resumed what he was doing.
It was nothing special, really she had just tried to use him, and he had willingly delivered himself into her trap, giving her that opening. Otherwise, a fragile pair like a mother and child could never have threatened him.
He was simply curious as to why the mother and son were still at the shelter; logically speaking, the inspection team should have promised them some sort of benefit to take them along.
After traveling on foot for over ten days a stretch that pushed the physical limits of the refugees seeing that they were finally nearing the next branch base, Huai Si decided to let everyone rest in a shady spot sheltered by trees.
As some of the travelers sat down to savor the hard-won peace, one of them couldn’t help remarking, “Who would have thought we wouldn’t run into a single zombie all the way here? We’ve been so lucky.”
“Yeah, if we’d known it would be like this, we should have come out sooner.” Recalling their final days huddled in the shelter, someone compared it to their journey outside and concluded that the outside world actually felt much safer.
“We owe it all to Huai Si. If it weren’t for him, goodness knows when we ever would have gotten out of there.”
The group began showering Huai Si with lavish praise. Huai Si was long accustomed to this, but unlike when he was alive, he lacked the knack for smooth, polite conversational replies. He simply fell silent, standing quietly off to one side. Clad in a long, dark blue hooded windbreaker that enveloped his entire frame, he ignored the crowd, standing apart from them with an aura that screamed “do not approach.”
His demeanor was entirely stripped of its former warmth, radiating a chilling pressure that caused the group to quiet down after a few remarks. No one dared bring up his name again, and they quickly changed the subject.
Seeing everyone chatting amongst themselves, Huai Si began to pace. Noting that nobody seemed to be paying attention to his movements, he gradually slipped away into the nearby woods. His sensory perception had become extraordinarily sharp; as long as he wished, he could perceive things from a great distance away.
A flash of movement flickered in the distance. A head of blonde hair gleamed under the light, dragging an object behind him. Because the object suddenly thrashed and rebelled, the blonde lowered his head again, unhesitatingly raising a fist to smash down hard. Flesh and blood splattered across his hair. When he raised his head once more, the uncovered portions of his face were stained with fragments of flesh and blood, a stray drop splashing near the corner of his eye like a bright red beauty mark. As he turned his head, his single remaining sapphire-blue eye locked onto Huai Si’s gaze, freezing instantly as he stared straight at him.
Catching each other’s gaze, Huai Si instinctively smiled at him a habit from his lifetime as a human.
He had always loved smiling to show goodwill because it was both his character and his role in the original story.
Adam stared fixedly at Huai Si. After Huai Si smiled at him, a sudden wave of self-consciousness welled up inside him, though he didn’t quite know what the emotion was. His sapphire eyes instinctively flickered away, yet he couldn’t bear to look away entirely, unconsciously performing a clumsy act of covering his faults.
He abruptly let go of the zombie he was dragging, using one palm to cup the side of his face and block one cheek from view. His other hand wasn’t idle either, covering the empty eye socket hidden beneath a piece of cloth. It was a purely instinctive defensive reflex an animal’s reluctance to let its master see its unsightly side.
Yet he tilted his face slightly, still peeking through the gaps between his fingers, his sapphire eyes fixed on Huai Si.
The zombie Adam had let go of suddenly scrambled up, fleeing on all fours to get away from him. Only then did Adam snap back to reality and withdraw his gaze, looking momentarily annoyed at having been interrupted.
However, the zombie Adam had just flattened hadn’t crawled far before Adam could even strike; the little zombie reached out to block its path, then dragged the creature’s hair toward Huai Si’s line of sight like a child seeking praise, lifting his ashen-white face in anticipation of Huai Si’s approval.
Before Adam could say a word, the zombie grabbed by the little zombie suddenly sensed that the little zombie was weaker than itself, lunged up on all fours, and swung its arm in a vicious backhand slap straight across the little zombie’s face!
The force was so violent it snapped the little zombie’s head sideways, its eyeballs jittering as a five-fingered indent appeared across its ashen round face.
Fortunately, the zombie was close to Adam, who instantly delivered a fierce flying kick that sent the creature hurtling through the air until it slammed into the ground with a resounding crash!
The commotion startled the group resting nearby, causing several people to stand up and look over. Huai Si immediately turned around to block their view, saying, “It’s nothing. Sit back down.”
Huai Si’s voice lacked its former clarity. In the past, his voice carried the refreshing feel of a spring breeze, perfectly matching his gentle temperament. Now, his voice was low, hoarse, and raspy, blending with an underlying breathiness. If one didn’t listen closely, he was nearly unintelligible. Coupled with his perpetual silence, sitting apart from the crowd wrapped in his oversized windbreaker, he exuded an oppressive, unapproachable aura.
Consequently, everyone hung on his every word, obediently complying without daring to ask any extra questions.
Thus, the group sat back down, their expressions unnatural as they resumed chatting while constantly monitoring their surroundings.
Seeing that everyone had settled back down, Huai Si turned around again, just in time to catch a bizarre spectacle.
Having just taken a brutal backhand slap, the little zombie was whining tearfully to Adam, pointing at the sunken cheek on its round face and seeking comfort.
Adam, however, reacted with total indifference, entirely lacking his previous willingness to murmur a few comforting words to the little zombie.
He communicated in zombie-speech: [What does it matter? Xiao Guang won’t feel pain anyway.]
Even though Huai Si had named the little zombie Xiguang, like many parents, Huai Si occasionally called him Xiao Guang for convenience’s sake. Ever since Huai Si started using the nickname, Adam had adopted it, whereas previously he never used the little zombie’s name at all.
[But it’s caved in!] The little zombie held his sunken face right up to Adam’s, whimpering as he stroked the depression in his cheek.
[Then I’ll punch it again in a moment, and it’ll pop right back out.]
The little zombie immediately pressed his caved-in cheek forward obediently, gesturing for Adam to hit him right away.
Adam didn’t hold back in the slightest. With a wave of his hand, he delivered another vicious backhand slap that snapped the little zombie’s head violently to the side, twisting its neck into an unnatural angle. Yet the sunken cheek genuinely popped right back out from the impact. This exact scene unfolded precisely as Huai Si turned back around.
Huai Si: “…”
Adam: “…”
Huai Si stood in a daze, staring blankly at them.
Adam’s sapphire eyes widened slightly, looking momentarily flustered and at a loss like a naughty puppy caught red-handed by its owner, desperate to dig a hole and bury the evidence. He immediately reached out, grabbed the little zombie by the arm, and hauled him behind his back to hide him.
Yet the little zombie was positively thrilled with his newly re-inflated round zombie face, immediately starting to spin in circles within Huai Si’s line of sight to show off his restored visage, before Adam grabbed him by the scruff and yanked him back behind his bulk, blocking him from view entirely.
Faintly visible behind Adam’s slender thighs was a pair of small, claw-like hands scratching away in frustration.
Huai Si: “…”
Suddenly, footsteps approached.
Huai Si spun around instantly to fixate on the newcomer, his aura sharp and fierce like a pouncing beast, causing Liao Muqing to freeze in his tracks for a long moment before recovering.
In truth, the moment Huai Si sensed someone approaching, he had already caught their familiar scent, but he still instinctively turned to glare at Liao Muqing. He didn’t even think anything of it; it was just a natural reaction.
Instead, he watched as Liao Muqing slowly walked over and sat down to one side, still refusing to speak to him.
Ever since Huai Si led the survivors out of Shelter Eight, Liao Muqing had treated him as if he didn’t exist, truly ignoring him completely.
This was the first time Liao Muqing had taken the initiative to approach him in all this time. Even without speaking, Huai Si felt this was a breakthrough.
Liao Muqing leaned back against a large boulder. The boulder seemed to have sprouted from the earth, its lower half still embedded in the soil, its upper surface worn smooth by wind and rain.
Huai Si glanced quickly toward Adam’s direction, seeing only the backs of Adam pulling the little zombie along and dragging another corpse away, before walking over to lean against a tree trunk right beside the boulder where Liao Muqing was resting, pondering how to break the silence.
At that moment, someone else trotted over from the resting crowd.
Their footsteps were hesitant, but they were clearly heading straight for Huai Si.
Huai Si turned his head to lock eyes with them. The moment his gaze landed on her, Cai Yongfang’s footsteps ground to a halt, clear fear flashing across her face.
“What is it, Xiao Cai? Where is Xiao Yuan?” Liao Muqing asked.
Seeing Liao Muqing sitting nearby, Cai Yongfang’s nervous heart settled somewhat as she resumed walking toward Huai Si, replying to Liao Muqing, “I left Xiao Yuan to play with the others for a moment. I, I came to talk to Mr. Huai about something.”
Liao Muqing looked slightly surprised, glancing between Cai Yongfang and Huai Si before standing up. “Then I’ll step away…”
“No… no need. It’ll only take two words,” Cai Yongfang waved her hands hastily, quite certain she wouldn’t need long.
Cai Yongfang stopped about a meter away from Huai Si. Her expression was conflicted and laced with hesitation, but she steeled herself, lifted her chin to meet Huai Si’s gaze, and said, “About what happened that night, I didn’t know. After that man brought our mother and son back, he left us alone. I had no idea they were lying in wait in that room that night, and I certainly didn’t know what they were planning to do.”
“Therefore, I didn’t betray you.” Cai Yongfang’s thin, gaunt cheeks were entirely ordinary, but her eyes blazed with a resilience that rivaled the brilliance of a diamond.
Huai Si froze, a trace of confusion crossing his face. “Why are you…”
Cai Yongfang cut him off. “Along this road, I’ve seen far too much. To me, humans and ghosts are no different.” Her face lost its fear and timidity, replaced by a trace of mockery.
“As long as I can reach a safe place to survive, what you are doesn’t matter to me at all.”
Huai Si stared at her for a long moment before asking, “If that’s the case, why bother explaining that night’s events to me?”
Wouldn’t it be better never to bring it up?
Cai Yongfang paused, glancing briefly into the distance where her son was playing with acquaintances from the shelter, though the boy still kept glancing back in her direction.
Gathering her courage to confess, she said, “To be honest, part of it was fear of your retaliation.” Her voice dipped lower before rising with conviction: “But more than that, it’s because I am a mother.”
At that moment, her face softened with a gentle warmth. “Even when reduced to living like this, I still want to set an example for my son of what a mother should be. At the very least, I refuse to let people think his mother had to use such tactics just to survive.”
“You’re a very good mother,” Huai Si looked at her and said softly. In truth, a small part of him had still harbored lingering resentment over that night, but hearing Cai Yongfang put it into words finally untied that knot in his heart.
Cai Yongfang looked momentarily startled before breaking into a smile that stretched her chapped lips. “No one could ever not love their child.” With a look of quiet empathy, she added, “Your parents were the same.”
Huai Si smiled faintly without replying. He watched Cai Yongfang walk away, whereupon her son immediately sprinted over to her, and she gently patted the boy’s head while talking to him.
His parents?
He tried rummaging through the plot in his mind for any trace of his mother, only to find a complete blank.
Didn’t people say that when someone suffers the most, they cry out for their parents? But when he was in the depths of agony, he didn’t seem to think of his parents at all. Who was he thinking of back then, anyway?
Leaning back against the tree trunk, he raised his head to gaze at the sky through the withered branches, trying once more to trace clues within the original book’s plot, only for a dull ache to begin throbbing in his head.
Here it came again that sensation.
A figure slowly approached him. He didn’t move as a pair of warm hands enveloped his icy fingers, though they were entirely unable to transfer any warmth.
Huai Si turned his gaze toward Liao Muqing. Liao Muqing let out a soft sigh; he had clearly overheard the conversation between the two of them just now.
At the end of the day, Liao Muqing simply couldn’t harden his heart. Watching Huai Si raise his head in a daze, he was reminded that ever since he was little, this child had only ever had him.
Every harsh word vanished into thin air at that moment.
“Uncle, aren’t you angry anymore?”
“Of course I’m angry. I’m sentencing you to recite the Standards for Students another hundred times.”
“Isn’t that way too many?! How about ten times?”
“Heh…”