“So what if President Wang touched you once?”
Su Nian shot to her feet. The moment she opened her eyes, a greasy, bloated face was practically pressed against her nose.
“If you don’t go to tonight’s business dinner, then get the hell out!”
Liu Wei’s spit sprayed across her face.
Liu Wei! That beast.
Wasn’t I… torn apart by Zombies?
And Xingxing… he died too.
The thought had only just crossed Su Nian’s mind when a sharp pain clenched her chest as though an invisible hand had crushed her heart, making it impossible to breathe.
Then the agony of her final moments came flooding back.
The dull pain of flesh being ripped apart. The nauseating stench filling her throat. And the tiny, ice-cold body in her arms.
When the Zombies bit her, she had been holding Xingxing.
He had already mutated. Only five years old, his eyes had turned grayish white, his fingernails blackened, and he had opened his mouth to bite into her neck.
She had never let go.
She couldn’t let them bite Xingxing.
“Y… What are you doing?”
Su Nian stumbled backward. The chair legs scraped harshly across the floor, and Liu Wei jumped in fright at her sudden movement.
She remembered now.
It had all started because of this man.
This damned supervisor had deliberately arranged for her to entertain clients in another city. He had promised she would only be away for ten days, but instead he got her so drunk that she lost consciousness.
By the time she woke up, the Zombie Apocalypse had already begun.
She had desperately tried to get back home.
The expressway had been completely blocked. The national highways were littered with traffic accidents. She had walked countless miles on foot, and by the time she finally made it back to Sheng City, more than twenty days had passed.
The kindergarten gates were tightly shut.
She climbed over the wall and found blood covering the ground.
Then she saw Xingxing.
That tiny little body no longer breathed.
One arm was gone, his stomach had been torn open, and the moment he saw her, he lunged toward her with his mouth wide open.
That was her son.
She had fallen to her knees, clutching him as she cried. Even when Zombies pounced from behind and bit into her, she had refused to let go.
Blood and tears streamed down together.
The man standing before her now was the one responsible for her son’s death.
Su Nian trembled from head to toe. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms until they went numb with pain, barely keeping herself from losing control on the spot.
“I’m done with this damn job!”
Smack!
The slap landed with a loud, crisp crack.
Liu Wei froze in shock, clutching his cheek in complete disbelief.
Su Nian snatched up her bag and phone, then drove her foot hard into Liu Wei’s beer belly, sending him crashing onto the floor before turning and sprinting out.
Xingxing!
She had to bring Xingxing home!
As soon as she rushed out of the office building, the wind hit her face, and only then did she finally let the tears fall.
She flagged down a taxi, her hands trembling so badly that she could barely pull the door open.
“Driver, please hurry! Please, as fast as you can!”
“Miss, what happened? Where are you going?”
“Blue Sky Kindergarten! Hurry! Faster!”
Today was April 13, 2062.
She had come back to life.
There were still ten days left before the Zombie Apocalypse erupted.
Su Nian stared out the window.
People were still shopping, waiting for buses, and chatting happily along the streets.
To hell with this peaceful scene.
In just ten more days, most of these people would either become Zombies or be devoured by them.
She had grown up in an orphanage.
No one had ever taught her what love was.
It was Xingxing who had shown her what it truly meant to have her heart torn apart.
In her previous life, she had watched helplessly as her son became a Zombie.
This time…
No matter what happened, she would never let it happen again.
Her phone suddenly rang.
It was an unfamiliar number with no saved contact. She almost ignored it, since scam calls had become far too common lately.
But what if…
What if it was the kindergarten calling?
“Hello?”
The signal was terrible. Static crackled constantly, as though the caller were speaking from an impossibly great distance.
She could just barely make out that it was a man’s voice, but none of his words were clear.
“What did you say? Speak louder!”
“…Careful… Zom…”
Only those three broken syllables reached her.
“Careful… Hurry… Hurry…”
“Hurry what? Hello? Who are you?”
Before he could finish, the call was disconnected.
Su Nian glanced at the screen but didn’t have time to dwell on it.
The kindergarten had already come into view.
She threw down a one hundred yuan bill and rushed inside.
The playground was filled with children happily playing together.
At a single glance, Su Nian spotted the little figure she had been searching for.
Wearing a sky blue hoodie, Xingxing was racing another child on a toy car. His little face was flushed red from running, and he grinned broadly, revealing the two missing front teeth in his smile.
He was alive. Safe and healthy.
Su Nian’s legs gave out beneath her.
Her knees slammed into the ground, but she didn’t even feel the pain. She lunged forward, scooped her son out of the toy car, and hugged him so tightly that she refused to let go.
“Mom… I can’t breathe…”
Xingxing struggled in her embrace.
“Mom, did you have a nightmare?”
Su Nian’s throat tightened so much she couldn’t speak.
She buried her face against her son’s little shoulder as tears streamed down one after another.
It was a little embarrassing.
But she couldn’t care less.
Xingxing blinked in confusion before raising his tiny hand and gently patting her back.
“Don’t cry, Mom. Xingxing’s here.”
Breathing in the sweet milky scent that still lingered on her son, Su Nian silently made a vow.
In this lifetime, no one would lay a finger on him.
She immediately asked the teacher for a week’s leave.
The teacher looked surprised.
“A whole week? Did something happen at home?”
“Something came up.”
Su Nian offered no further explanation.
Would anyone believe her if she said the Apocalypse was coming?
She was just a single mother, not the world’s savior.
The teacher completed the paperwork anyway.
Ten minutes later, Xingxing walked out of the kindergarten hand in hand with his mother and looked up at her.
“Mom, where are we going now?”
Su Nian lowered her head to look at him, her voice catching slightly.
“Home. From now on, Mommy will stay with you every day.”
That night, after Xingxing had fallen asleep, Su Nian sat quietly beside the bed, lost in thought.
Ten days remained.
The apartment wasn’t safe. They couldn’t stay in the city.
She needed to stockpile supplies, but as a woman alone with a child, how much could she realistically protect?
A place suddenly came to mind.
Six years ago, someone had taken her hiking. Along the way, they had passed an abandoned village. Pointing at a two story house, he had smiled and said,
“When we’re old, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could live here? Completely cut off from the rest of the world. So peaceful.”
Shuixi Village.
It was a five or six hour drive from Sheng City.
There was a courtyard, sturdy walls, and even a water well.
The entire village had been relocated because of a geological disaster. The houses had only just been completed before everyone moved away. With a bit of reinforcement, they would be perfectly livable.
Hidden deep within the mountains, it was almost completely isolated from the outside world.
That was where they would go.
Her phone lit up again.
It was the same unfamiliar number.
Su Nian frowned. Why are there so many nuisance calls today?
For some reason, she answered anyway.
“Hello?”
This time the signal was much better.
Someone was running on the other end. His breathing was ragged, his voice hoarse and urgent.
“…Su Nian… Find somewhere… hide…”
“What did you say? Speak louder.”
“Run! Leave the city… Listen to me… Hurry…”
Before he could finish, the line dissolved into loud static once more before disconnecting completely.
This time, she had clearly heard one thing.
The caller had shouted her name.
He knew her.
And the urgency in his voice didn’t sound fake.
A single person suddenly flashed through Su Nian’s mind.
Impossible!
That man had disappeared six years ago. His phone number had long since been deactivated.
How could he possibly be calling her now?
She tossed her phone aside.
There wasn’t any time left.
In just ten days, the Zombie Apocalypse would arrive, and she still had far too many things to prepare.
Whoever the caller was, only one thing mattered now.
She had to survive with Xingxing.
Everything else could wait.