Li Yiyi cautiously scanned the surroundings, and her gaze eventually landed on the baby who was crying nonstop. When she noticed the scratches on its soft, chubby hand, she was startled again.
She leaned closer to Fu Sizhe’s ear, but Fu Sizhe moved farther away. He was still angry.
Li Yiyi found it somewhat amusing. She did not remember the male lead being this jealous in the original novel.
There was no time to waste. She patted his arm.
“Brother Ze, something’s wrong. There’s a zombie on the train.”
Fu Sizhe abruptly turned his head and lowered his voice as well.
“How do you know?”
Li Yiyi pointed toward the Baby across the aisle. Its skin had turned bluish, and when it cried, sharp fangs were exposed. How could a baby possibly have teeth like that?
Li Yiyi told Fu Sizhe to leave the first-class carriage with her. She also sent a message to Butler Zhao in the second-class carriage, asking him to come over.
“We’re going forward.”
Fu Sizhe pulled Li Yiyi back when she tried to move toward the rear. Li Yiyi was confused, but she still followed him.
“Why are we hiding here? Isn’t this a dead end?” Li Yiyi asked in confusion. “And we’re so close to the zombie.”
The high-speed train they were riding was the most common CRH3 model. The automatic driver’s cabin was connected to the business-class section, followed by the first-class and second-class sections.
Fu Sizhe led them toward the front of the train, in the direction of the business-class section, and stopped at the automatic door between the business-class and first-class sections.
“First, we have to guard the automatic driver’s cabin. Otherwise, we won’t make it to Beijing.
“Second, there must be other survivors who have been bitten or infected in the other carriages. We’ll be attacked from both sides. Other than jumping off the train, we won’t have any other choice.
“Here, all we have to do is guard this door.”
Li Yiyi thought he was right. Although this was a dangerous dead end, it was also the only path that offered them a chance of survival.
The high-speed train was moving far too quickly. Jumping off would mean certain death.
They kept a close watch on what was happening in the first-class carriage.
The Baby continued crying without pause.
What it was making was actually not an ordinary baby’s cry. It was the hoarse growling sound of a zombie. Coming from a baby’s high-pitched vocal cords, it sounded like crying.
The Bald Man clearly could not endure it any longer. He suddenly stood up, climbed over the seat behind him, snatched the Baby away, and was about to smash it onto the floor.
“Don’t!”
The Young Mother screamed. “Please don’t! Otherwise, I’ll call the police.”
The Bald Man sneered.
“Then call them. Don’t you know what’s happening outside? Even if I deal with you right here, no one can do anything to me.”
The Young Mother took a step back. She sensed the danger and wanted to find a train attendant.
“Aw, what the fuck? This little brat can bite too.”
The Bald Man cursed and slapped the Baby’s tender face.
Seeing her child being mistreated, the Young Mother began sobbing as well. She collapsed to her knees.
“Please give me my child back. I’ll take him to another carriage right now. I’ll give you as much money as you want.”
The few passengers in the first-class carriage remained silent. No one stepped forward to help.
“I don’t want money. Come to the bathroom with me right now, and I’ll let this little brat go.”
The Bald Man looked her up and down with malicious intent.
“What are you doing?”
Fu Sizhe raised his right hand and stopped Li Yiyi.
Li Yiyi’s eyes showed her reluctance to stand by.
“I want to help her.”
Fu Sizhe shook his head.
“You can’t help her. That woman may have been bitten too. They could all turn into zombies. Stay behind me. Don’t go over there.”
Li Yiyi turned her face away reluctantly.
He was right. She could not help her.
She was not some saintly person. She had simply thought of her own mother at that moment. If something happened to her, her mother would probably try to save her in exactly the same way.
She just could not bear watching a mother being humiliated.
Tears covered the Young Mother’s face.
“I’ll do it. I’ll do it… as long as you let my child go.”
An evil smile spread across the Bald Man’s face. He casually placed the Baby on the table, grabbed the Young Mother by the hair, and began dragging her toward the first-class bathroom.
“Move!”
He glared at Li Yiyi.
“Get out of the way. If you keep blocking me, I’ll drag you in there too.”
Before he could finish speaking, Fu Sizhe pulled Li Yiyi behind him and stood directly in front of the Bald Man.
His gaze was sharp, and he was half a head taller than the Bald Man.
The Bald Man immediately changed his expression.
“Oh, brother, sorry. I didn’t know she was your woman. We’re brothers here. Give me some room, huh? When you’re done, I’ll stand guard for you.”
Fu Sizhe looked at him with undisguised contempt. His thin lips parted.
“Get lost.”
A trace of viciousness flashed across the Bald Man’s face.
He lowered his head and, without warning, swung his fist toward Fu Sizhe’s face.
He had just bullied someone else, and his sense of self-importance was at its peak. He could not tolerate Fu Sizhe’s attitude toward him.
Fu Sizhe raised his hand and caught the Bald Man’s fist.
The blow itself had done little damage, but the humiliation was immense.
“Say it again. Get lost.”
The Bald Man smiled ingratiatingly.
“Brother, I was just joking. Just joking.”
He turned toward the Young Mother and kicked her in the back.
“Get moving. Go to another carriage.”
Suddenly, the Young Mother turned around and sank her teeth into his neck.
The Bald Man struggled desperately, but the Young Mother had suddenly become incredibly strong. She pinned him down and continued tearing into his neck with her teeth.
Only the whites of her eyes remained, streaked with black veins. Her face was twisted into a horrifying expression.
She had already turned into a zombie.
Even after the Bald Man stopped breathing, she did not stop until his head was completely torn from his body.
She stood up and staggered toward the rest of the carriage.
Li Yiyi lowered her voice.
“Why isn’t she attacking us?”
Zombies had no pupils. They did not identify people through eye contact, but through temperature and scent. Hiding was useless when facing zombies.
Fu Sizhe lowered his right hand.
The zombie immediately turned her head and charged toward them while making hoarse growling sounds.
Fu Sizhe raised his hand.
The zombie turned away again and began wandering between the rows of seats inside the carriage.
Only then did Li Yiyi see clearly that Fu Sizhe had erected a wall of wind in front of them to interfere with the zombie.
Inside the carriage.
The Baby had been picked up by a “kind-hearted” passenger. She was a university student. She had not stepped forward to help the Young Mother earlier because she was afraid of getting dragged into the situation.
She had seen everything that happened beside the bathroom. This woman had suddenly gone berserk and bitten the Bald Man to death.
The university student thought that since the woman cared so much about her Baby and had been willing to do anything for her child, she would surely spare her if she helped take care of the Baby.
Holding the Baby in her arms, she tried to ingratiate herself.
“I’ve been taking care of your child this whole time…”
Before she could finish speaking, the Young Mother bit through her neck.
Blood splattered across the ceiling of the carriage, while the legs in sneakers continued twitching.
The Young Mother tilted her head as she stared at the Baby, as if she could not understand the instinctive emotional response that still lingered somewhere in her mind.
But soon, she released her grip and let the Baby fall to the floor.
Even after turning into a zombie, the Baby was still fragile. The fall killed him instantly, and he stopped crying.
“Run!”
The other passengers in the first-class carriage had witnessed everything.
If they had still harbored any hope at the beginning, that hope disappeared completely when the woman threw down her own child.
She could no longer even remember the thing she had cared about most.
She was no longer human.
The female university student, whose body was still twitching, also stood up. She began making hoarse zombie sounds and followed behind the Young Mother, staggering toward the other end of the carriage like a walking corpse.
Li Yiyi swallowed hard, somewhat stunned by what she had witnessed.
“I wonder how Butler Zhao is doing.”