“Zhiyuan!”
The hoarse cry was torn apart by the howling wind and snow.
Shen Zhiyuan stumbled forward, desperately trying to run.
The snow beneath her feet had long since been stained dark red with blood. The ice was mixed with chunks of flesh, and every step felt as though she were sinking into an abyss.
Behind her came the snarls of zombies.
Ahead stood the tightly shut gates of the base.
“Open the gates… Please, let me in…”
She pounded on the heavy iron doors, her palms already turning purple from the cold.
The city walls were crowded with people, yet not a single person moved.
Some avoided her gaze, others watched her with cold indifference, and a few whispered among themselves.
“Has she been infected?”
“Isn’t she Captain Gu’s wife?”
“Didn’t Captain Gu already bring Doctor Lin into the base?”
Doctor Lin.
Lin Weiwei.
At the sound of that name, Shen Zhiyuan’s entire body stiffened for a moment.
The next second, a familiar voice came from atop the city wall.
“Zhiyuan.”
Gu Jingchuan stood above her, his black combat uniform fluttering fiercely in the wind.
He was still as handsome as ever, but the warmth had vanished from his eyes.
“Your wound is infected.”
“The base can’t take that risk.”
Shen Zhiyuan stared at him in a daze.
The wound on her left shoulder was still bleeding. She had sustained it three hours earlier while trying to save Gu Jingchuan.
She still remembered the moment the zombie horde surged toward them.
Gu Jingchuan had pulled Lin Weiwei into his arms to shield her, while Shen Zhiyuan was left alone to hold the zombies back.
She had thought someone would come to rescue her.
Instead, all she received was the announcement that the base gates were closing.
The cold wind whipped snowflakes against her face, the icy sting cutting straight to her bones.
Suddenly, Shen Zhiyuan felt utterly exhausted.
Three years into the apocalypse, she had taken every last supply from her spatial storage and used it to support the Gu family.
Her father had died at a highway service station while searching for medicine.
After her mother was infected, she had refused to become a burden on her daughter and ended her own life.
Her younger brother, Shen Zhiye, had been swallowed alive by a zombie horde while helping the others escape.
And Shen Zhiyuan had endured everything until now for just one reason: Gu Jingchuan had promised her, “Zhiyuan, once things settle down, we’ll get married.”
How ridiculous.
Only today had she finally understood the truth.
From beginning to end, she had been nothing more than a weapon the Gu family had raised for its own use.
A soft voice suddenly came from beside her.
“Brother Jingchuan, there are more and more zombies outside…”
Lin Weiwei stood beside Gu Jingchuan in a clean, thick white down jacket. Her face was pale, and her eyes were red-rimmed, as though she truly couldn’t bear to see what was happening.
“I’m so sorry that Sister Zhiyuan got hurt too…”
“But there are still so many people inside the base…”
She bit her lip, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
The people around them immediately began to sigh.
“Doctor Lin really is too kind.”
“There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how the apocalypse is.”
“We can’t risk the lives of everyone in the base for the sake of one person.”
Standing in the snow, Shen Zhiyuan suddenly laughed.
She looked at Lin Weiwei and recalled how things had been before the apocalypse.
Lin Weiwei had always been like this, gentle and delicate, always appearing as though she were the one being bullied.
Yet behind the scenes, she had gradually stolen everything that belonged to Shen Zhiyuan.
The air grew colder, and the snarls of zombies in the distance drew closer.
At last, Gu Jingchuan averted his eyes and spoke in a low voice.
“I’m sorry.”
The heavy iron gates slowly closed, cutting off the last sliver of light.
Shen Zhiyuan stood motionless in the snow.
She didn’t cry or scream.
It turned out that when a person reached the depths of despair, they could no longer make a sound.
The snow fell harder and harder as the zombie horde charged toward her from a distance.
She slowly closed her eyes.
The last thing that surfaced in her mind was an ordinary evening before the apocalypse.
Her mother was calling her to dinner from the kitchen.
Her father sat on the sofa watching the news.
Her younger brother was sprawled on the sofa playing video games, an ice pop still hanging from his mouth.
The lights were warm, and the food smelled delicious.
Back then, she had found their constant nagging annoying and had always wanted to grow up faster.
But later, she lost her home forever.
…
“Sister!”
“Your phone’s been ringing forever!”
An impatient young man’s voice suddenly rang in her ears.
Shen Zhiyuan’s eyes flew open.
Sunlight filtered through the curtains and spilled into the room.
A faint aroma of food lingered in the air, while the calls of vendors from the breakfast shop downstairs drifted in through the window.
She stared blankly at the familiar ceiling, her breathing gradually coming to a halt.
This place was…
Home?
The bedroom door swung open.
A young man wearing a black basketball tank top leaned against the doorway, looking thoroughly annoyed.
“Did you stay up all night again?”
“Mom says you need to get up and eat.”
His hair was messy, and he was holding half a fried dough stick in his hand.
He looked so alive that he couldn’t possibly be a dream.
Shen Zhiyuan stared at him, and her eyes suddenly reddened.
Shen Zhiye.
Her younger brother.
The younger brother who had died in the zombie horde.
“…Sister?”
The way she was looking at him made him feel a little uneasy.
“What’s wrong with you?”
The next second, Shen Zhiyuan suddenly rushed forward and threw her arms around him.
Shen Zhiye froze completely.
“Holy crap!”
“Shen Zhiyuan, what are you doing?!”
His ears turned bright red in an instant.
But soon, he felt something wet against his shoulder.
The girl in his arms was trembling, crying silently and struggling to contain her emotions, as though she had lost something for an eternity and had only just managed to find it again.
Shen Zhiye was stunned.
“…Did you have a nightmare?”
Shen Zhiyuan said nothing. She simply clutched his clothes tightly, afraid that if she let go, everything would disappear.
Just then, the phone on her bedside table began to vibrate.
The screen lit up.
Caller: Gu Jingchuan
The room suddenly fell silent.
Shen Zhiyuan slowly raised her head, and the last trace of vulnerability in her eyes gradually faded into coldness.