Have I Been Transmigrated?
It should have been 3901, the fourth day of the new year. The New Year fireworks festival was still underway on Hongshan Bridge in Guangqin City. Just before Jiang Ziyao closed his eyes, he saw fireworks bursting over one another in the sky. The riverbank blazed with lights, crowded with people, and the noise all around him was deafening. But even that couldn’t drown out the gunshots ringing in his ears now.
Bang!
The gunshot jolted Jiang Ziyao awake. His mind was still foggy, but a dull ache had already bloomed in his chest. It felt as if a hard stone had slammed into him, and saliva went down the wrong way, sending him into a coughing fit.
“Brother Jiang?”
Next came a breathless, trembling voice.
Jiang Ziyao blinked dazedly. His chest hurt from the impact, his vision swayed, and his body bounced with each stride of the person carrying him. The one running with him on his back was none other than Huo Chi.
Huo Chi, his boyfriend.
“Get inside!” a strange man barked urgently.
“Okay,” Huo Chi answered at once, turning with Jiang Ziyao on his back.
“Stay put!” the stranger warned.
Light reflecting off the glass stabbed Jiang Ziyao’s eyes, but only for a moment. They entered a mostly enclosed space, dimly lit, and Huo Chi lowered him from his back, steadying him against something hard.
They were in a small supermarket. Jiang Ziyao could barely make things out, but even a quick glance showed how shockingly dilapidated it was. You didn’t see this sort of thing often in the country. CI’s public order wouldn’t tolerate terrorists running rampant and looting the place.
The shelves had collapsed and scattered across the floor. On the glass by the entrance, there were still mottled bloodstains in the distinct shape of handprints, layered over one another, some darker than others. Only hands smeared with blood, pounding the glass again and again, could have left marks like that. Fine cracks webbed across the glass door. The shop reeked of rot and old dust, the stench so sharp it turned his stomach.
Before Jiang Ziyao could cover his nose, his hand touched the dusty floor.
Disgusting.
He pushed himself up, and Huo Chi helped pull him to his feet.
“Brother Jiang…” Seeing he was awake, Huo Chi immediately wrapped his arms around his back and pulled him close. His hold was tight as he patted Jiang Ziyao’s back hard. “You wouldn’t wake up. I thought something had happened to you. Does anything hurt?”
Jiang Ziyao opened his mouth and drew a quick, ragged breath. He didn’t answer. His gaze slipped past Huo Chi, and he caught sight of a rotten arm, dry as kindling.
Yes, a human arm. He could still make out the blackened knuckles.
Above it was a head. Its face had rotted away, a few strands of hair clinging to the shriveled ball. It had been dead for some time. A round, black hole marked its forehead, the surrounding flesh caved in.
A dead person’s mangled body had suddenly appeared before him. Jiang Ziyao stared for a few seconds, then turned away without expression. In the silence, he decided he must be dreaming.
“Brother Jiang?” Huo Chi saw that he wasn’t reacting and patted his dazed-looking face. “Don’t scare me…”
His touch was gentle, but his voice was urgent. “Brother Jiang… say something!”
Jiang Ziyao remained silent. Huo Chi waved a hand in front of his face. Jiang Ziyao stayed expressionless, his thoughts in disarray.
“Brother Jiang?” Huo Chi finally lost his patience and shouted, “Jiang Ziyao!”
Jiang Ziyao flinched. Huo Chi looked ready to shout his name again, but Jiang Ziyao stopped him in time. “Don’t yell. My ears hurt.”
His voice was hoarse and dry. Dreams weren’t this real. Jiang Ziyao knew the corpse in front of him was real. He’d closed his eyes and opened them to find himself here. So why was he here? He’d sooner believe he had run into a ghost than that he’d been kidnapped or pranked.
“Then why didn’t you answer me?” Huo Chi snapped. “I thought you’d lost your soul!”
His face flushed red; he looked furious. But as soon as he’d said it, he reached for Jiang Ziyao’s face again and studied him closely. “Where does it hurt? Let me look. Did you hit your head on the wall?”
“I…” Jiang Ziyao had only said it offhandedly and was about to explain when the stranger suddenly cut in, his voice low and stern. “Both of you, shut up! Something’s coming. Want to stay alive?”
Their conversation was interrupted. The man’s tone was so severe he even spat out a curse. “Damn it. I shouldn’t have fired.”
Right. There was a third person here.
Jiang Ziyao furrowed his brow. Huo Chi glanced outside, then immediately grabbed him.
“Shh, Brother Jiang.” Huo Chi cut off his questions, using so much force and moving so abruptly that he seemed ready to shove Jiang Ziyao into a corner. “It’s dangerous… We have to do what he says.”
Jiang Ziyao had rarely seen Huo Chi this nervous.
Huo Chi’s attention was fixed on whatever lay outside. Jiang Ziyao did as he wanted and squeezed in behind the shelves with him, against the wall.
Huo Chi pointed outside. Following his gaze, Jiang Ziyao saw a swaying shadow through the supermarket’s glass door. It had arms and legs, so it was a person, but it walked strangely, its head bowed. It looked like a limping drunk. It wasn’t far from the shop and seemed to be coming closer.
A tall man stepped out from deeper inside the supermarket. He was the one who’d spoken earlier.
Jiang Ziyao only saw his back. He wore a cowboy hat that shadowed his eyes, and a rifle was slung over his shoulder.
A real gun. Jiang Ziyao drew in a breath. It wasn’t easy to get hold of equipment like that in CI. Who was this tall man? Some extremist from the dark web?
The tall man swiftly drew a short knife from his waist. It was at least 3 cm wide and looked sharp. Gripping the handle, he sliced one of his fingers with the blade. Blood welled up at once and ran down his finger.
He opened the glass door just a crack and stuck his bleeding finger through.
The limping drunk abruptly turned its head. It twitched its neck in the tall man’s direction, raised its head, and began to approach, one step at a time.
The man came toward them, backlit by the sun. Only when he drew closer did Jiang Ziyao see what he looked like.
It was a man with half his face missing, still walking.
In the sunlight, flies and insects swarmed around him. The teeth on the remaining half of his face were bare, with no lips to cover them. He still struggled to open his mouth, letting out a muffled, buzzing moan. A strip of flesh dangled from his chin, clearly torn away by a bite. As he came closer, the stench grew stronger.
A zombie?
That was the first word Jiang Ziyao thought of. A chill crept up his back.
The unsteady man showed no sign of awareness. Like a mindless beast, he seemed able only to follow the smell of blood. He was no different from the walking dead.
The tall man stood quietly by the narrow opening in the door, his other hand gripping the knife.
He rolled his wrist, arm muscles tensing. The knife plunged straight into the man’s head. The sound of the blade piercing his forehead was like a knife driven into a sandbag. The tall man twisted his wrist hard, grinding the blade into the brain. Jiang Ziyao could even see the veins bulging on his forehead.
The man had no time to fight back. The tall man raised his arm and yanked out the knife. The stabbed man fell stiffly backward, like a heap of meat. There was no life in his pale eyes. The blade had split his head between the brows. Little blood came out, but a pool of pus-like liquid, probably brain matter, spread across the ground.
The tall man had used the blood to lure the threat away from the glass, so it wouldn’t charge recklessly into the door. Too much noise would be a nightmare. After a while, when no more figures appeared outside, he finally let down his guard, at least for the moment.
From his actions, Jiang Ziyao had already pieced together something about the world outside. He’d definitely transmigrated. He lowered his head, unsure what to do.
“Are either of you hurt?” The tall man used his knife to cut a strip of cloth from his shirt and bandage his hand. He didn’t put the knife away. Turning around, he pointed its tip at the two of them.
Huo Chi kept his eyes fixed on the knife. “We’re not infected. We’re normal people!”
“You don’t get to decide that,” the tall man said. “Put your hands up and stand still. Don’t try anything. This knife is more than enough for both of you.”
Huo Chi read the situation and obeyed.
“And you!” The tall man pointed the knife decisively at Jiang Ziyao. Unfortunately, the young man in front of him didn’t seem to know what was good for him.
Jiang Ziyao just looked dazed. He didn’t answer.
“There’s no way he’s infected either!” Huo Chi shouted in a hurry. “And can you lower the knife? You might hurt someone. You just stabbed a man in the head!”
The tall man lowered his knife a little, but Jiang Ziyao still didn’t say a word. Unable to resist, he sneered, “What, did you freeze up already?”
Jiang Ziyao was certainly shocked, but his attention had been completely captured by the text that had appeared in front of him. The moment he saw the tall man’s face, his head began to ache. The pain was bearable, but in the blink of an eye, something strange had appeared before his eyes.
[—Text: The virus outbreak began two years ago. We’ve survived for two years, too. A brief spell of peace made me let my guard down. We planned to find a relatively clean house in the city, and that moment of carelessness nearly got me killed. The moment the second-floor room door opened, a bloodied mouth reeking of rot lunged at me. I was lucky enough to dodge it, but I tumbled down the stairs and fell unconscious, though I wasn’t bitten. Huo Chi carried me the whole time. When I’d been asleep for a full day without waking, he had no choice but to risk taking me to a pharmacy. He only relaxed after confirming my wound had been bandaged and wasn’t at risk of infection. But his rash decision left us surrounded by walkers and trapped in a dangerous situation. We hadn’t encountered anyone for several weeks. The first person we met here used a gun to give us a chance to escape. In these times, it’s rare to meet a good person.]
Jiang Ziyao tried closing his eyes, but when he opened them again, the text was still there. It didn’t disappear until his mind had formed a clear memory of it.
Huo Chi couldn’t see it. His eyes stayed on the tall man from start to finish, focused only on keeping watch.
Jiang Ziyao didn’t want to be taken for a lunatic. Keeping his face as calm as he could, he raised his hands and stood neatly in front of the tall man. He also asked, “What was that thing you just killed?”
“A walker.”
The tall man’s answer was brief. He glanced at Jiang Ziyao with the look you’d give an idiot, then lowered his eyes again and gave the two of them a quick once-over. Aside from some dust, Jiang Ziyao was fairly clean.
The tall man’s gaze finally settled on Huo Chi. “Your pant leg.”
Looking closely, Jiang Ziyao saw a bloody mark on Huo Chi’s leg, like a handprint.
His heart lurched when he saw it, but then Huo Chi explained, “That… that walker grabbed my foot. It’s just blood. I’m not hurt.”
The tall man was unyielding. “Want me to take them off for you?”
Huo Chi had no choice but to roll up his pant leg. “I told you, I’m fine. I wasn’t lying.”
Jiang Ziyao let out a breath of relief. If there’d been anything wrong with either of them, the man would probably have turned them both into corpses on the spot.