“What exactly are you scheming?”
“It was clearly you who harbored ill intentions, wanting to kill me and seize the villa, yet you turn around and accuse me.” Yun Huacen looked at Yue Zirui with disdain. “So young, yet already so malicious. Keeping you around would only bring harm.”
Upon hearing this, Yue Zirui’s pupils suddenly dilated. “You want to kill me?”
“I’m not as vicious as you.” Yun Huacen ignored him further, turned, and walked toward the medical supplies storage room. He took out a body bag and then left the laboratory.
Yue Zirui stared at the closed door, his face full of confusion. Why was it different? What exactly were those suddenly emerging memories? Could it really have just been a dream? But the sensation of the scalpel cutting through flesh, the feeling of being injected with the zombie virus, the experience of being tied to a bed and injected with various drugs… If it was a dream, why did it feel so real?
Yun Huacen looked at the bewildered Yue Zirui, nodded with satisfaction, and then turned to leave. Since he couldn’t experiment on living people, he would experiment on zombies. There was a ready-made one upstairs, no use wasting it. Yun Huacen put on protective clothing, placed the corpse into the body bag, and dragged it onto a cart. Though it sounded simple, the task was not easy. Given the original owner’s physical condition, just getting the corpse into the body bag took considerable effort. Dragging it onto the cart left him drenched in sweat. Yu Lei wanted to come out and help, but Yun Huacen stopped him. That cat could appear at any moment. While he was fine outside (the cat also didn’t want its body to turn into a zombie), it didn’t mean others would be safe. It was better to be cautious.
Moving it into the laboratory wasn’t the end. He still had to complete a series of tasks like sampling and preservation. By the time he finished, it was already past ten at night. To be honest, although he had earned a Ph.D. in his previous life, due to health reasons, he hadn’t spent much time actually working in the laboratory. Now that he had started, he couldn’t stop. If it weren’t for the cramping pain in his stomach from hunger, he could have worked through the night.
“Uncle.” Seeing Yun Huacen come upstairs, Sun Qi hurried over to greet him.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“You’ve been busy all day, skipping both lunch and dinner. I was worried.”
“You wanted to bring food to Yue Zirui, didn’t you?”
Sun Qi instinctively shook her head, then nodded and said, “I did want to bring food to A-Rui, but I was genuinely worried about you too.”
Yun Huacen smiled and asked, “What did you make for dinner?”
“I cooked rice porridge, stewed potatoes with cured meat, and steamed some buns.” Sun Qi turned and headed toward the kitchen. “I’ll go heat up the food for you.”
Yun Huacen followed her to the kitchen and asked, “How old are you this year?”
“Fourteen.” Sun Qi answered Yun Huacen’s question while busying herself.
“How did you learn to do so much?”
“Life in the orphanage wasn’t easy, especially for those like me who hadn’t been adopted at this age. We had to do more work to show the director that we were useful.”
Though she said it with a smile, Yun Huacen could hear the bitterness in her words. “Life from now on will only be harder than before. You need to be mentally prepared.”
Sun Qi paused her movements, turned to look at Yun Huacen, and asked, “Uncle, will you still drive us away?”
“It’s hard to say. If we run out of food, even if you stay here, it’ll be a dead end. It might be better to venture out, perhaps there’s a chance to survive.”
Sun Qi silently turned around and continued stirring the vegetables in the pan with a spatula.
“But for the time being, I probably won’t kick you out. After all, I can’t cook, and having a free chef is too good to pass up.”
Sun Qi smiled, revealing two dimples. “Thank you, Uncle. You’re a good person!”
“Your companion doesn’t think so. He believes I’m keeping you here with ulterior motives.”
Yue Zirui was a reborn individual, a bit tricky to handle. He couldn’t be let go just yet, especially since developing the special medicine required his expertise. Yun Huacen needed to win over the people around him first; that would make dealing with him easier.
“Are you talking about A-Rui?” Sun Qi turned to look at Yun Huacen.
Yun Huacen nodded. “What’s his usual personality like? Does he have a persecution complex?”
“A-Rui is really good to us. He takes care of everyone like we’re his younger siblings. He must have misunderstood you, Uncle. I’ll go talk to him. Please don’t blame him, okay?”
“He’s hostile toward me. I can’t let him out.”
“I’ll persuade him to apologize to you. Uncle, could you give him another chance?”
Yun Huacen glanced at the pan and said, “It’s about to burn.”
Sun Qi hurriedly turned off the stove and scooped the vegetables onto a plate. The porridge and steamed buns on the side were also heated and ready, so she served them as well.
“Prepare a portion for him too. I’ll take it over.”
Sun Qi complied, dishing out another serving. “Uncle, you eat first. I’ll deliver it.”
“You can’t open the lab door.”
Until he had fully won over these kids, Yun Huacen couldn’t grant them access. He carried the meal into the lab, placed it inside the cage, then got up to pour a glass of water. From start to finish, he didn’t say a word to Yue Zirui.
Yue Zirui watched silently until Yun Huacen left and the lab door closed. Only then did he turn his attention to the food. Compared to the instant noodles from before, this was a world apart, clearly not made by the same person. He picked up his chopsticks, tasted a piece of potato, and recognized the familiar flavor. He began eating heartily. No matter what, he had to survive first to have a chance of uncovering the truth.
After finishing his meal, Yun Huacen intended to wash the dishes himself, but Sun Qi insisted on doing it. Yun Huacen understood she was afraid of being driven away, just like in the orphanage, hoping to prove her worth through work. If this made her feel secure, he saw no reason to stop her.
Yun Huacen went upstairs, took a quick shower, and by the time he stepped out, it was already eleven. Just as he was about to go to bed, he heard a noise from the balcony and looked over. The drowsiness that had just begun to settle vanished instantly. The cat, suspected to be the original owner’s, was sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring straight at him with unblinking eyes.
Yun Huacen swallowed nervously, wanting to pretend he hadn’t heard anything. But the sound of the cat’s claws scratching the glass was downright eerie. If he wanted a good night’s sleep, he couldn’t ignore it. He walked over to the window and tentatively asked, “What do you want?”
The cat wrote two words on the glass: “Stockpile medicine.”
Yun Huacen was taken aback for a moment before understanding. “There’s only one pharmacy in town, and it’s right in the center. With so many zombies, going there would be suicide.”
The cat wrote two more words: “With me.”
A scene flashed through Yun Huacen’s mind, and he voiced the question that had been bothering him. “When I first saw you, the zombie virus had only been spreading for three days. How did you evolve so quickly?”
“Eating the brains of zombies can accelerate evolution.”
Yun Huacen suddenly understood, then immediately asked, “But wait, you ate human brains, didn’t you? They hadn’t turned into zombies yet.”
“They were zombies. I just ate their brains during the transformation.”
“So that’s the condition for accelerating zombie evolution.” Yun Huacen paused before continuing, “So that bird mutated because it ate zombie brains too?”
The cat nodded. “I watched it evolve and tried it myself. It worked.”
“So all the zombies outside are still in the first stage.”
“Right now, I have hierarchical dominance over them.”
“That’s why that zombie listens to you.”
The cat nodded again and said, “We need to stock up on medicine now. No delays.”
“But it’ll have to be tomorrow. I’ve been busy all day and I’m exhausted.”
“Now.”
Even though he knew the glass was specially made, he could see the cat, but the cat couldn’t see him, Yun Huacen felt a chill run down his spine when he met its gaze. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Fine, now it is. Let me change clothes, and we’ll go right away.”
After changing, Yun Huacen went straight downstairs. As soon as the car left the villa, he locked all the doors remotely. The cat jumped onto the roof of the car when he parked. By the time they reached the town, it was already half past eleven. The streets were eerily quiet, and even though Yun Huacen drove slowly, the sound of the engine echoed clearly. The nearby zombies grew restless and began moving toward the car.
As zombies closed in, Yun Huacen nervously swallowed, his hands slick with sweat on the steering wheel. With so many zombies, even if he forced his way through, the car would likely flip, leaving him torn apart. A low growl came from the roof, and the approaching zombies paused, then turned and scattered.
Yun Huacen let out a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, “So it really is hierarchical dominance.”
He parked in front of the pharmacy but hesitated to get out, as three zombies nearby were staring at him intently. The cat leaped from the roof to the hood and let out another low growl. The zombies shuddered and turned away. Only then did Yun Huacen step out of the car, tightly gripping his homemade spear.
The pharmacy door was unlocked, and the inside was pitch black. Yun Huacen carefully pulled open the glass door, glanced at the cat, and whispered, “You go in first. There are definitely zombies inside.”
The cat gave him a disdainful look and stepped inside. Yun Huacen awkwardly rubbed his nose and followed closely. It wasn’t safe inside or outside, he had to stick close to this powerful ally. The sound of the door opening alerted the zombies inside, and one lunged at Yun Huacen. Though he couldn’t see it, he could smell the stench of decay and instinctively thrust his spear forward. It pierced the zombie with a wet thud, but the creature continued to growl and pressed forward with even greater force.
“Yun Huacen, are you even capable?”
As soon as the words fell, the cat lunged at the zombie, forcefully tearing open its scalp, biting through its skull, and began sucking out its brain. Though Yun Huacen couldn’t see it, he could hear everything, and he couldn’t help but recall the images he had seen on the surveillance footage. His stomach churned, and he retched uncontrollably. The low growls of the zombie ceased, and the corpse, losing its support, collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Click, the lights suddenly turned on. Yun Huacen closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he saw the fallen zombie, a woman wearing a white lab coat, likely a salesperson from the store.
The cat stood on the shelf, licking its paws with its tongue. Sensing Yun Huacen’s gaze, its dark eyes turned toward him, and then its fur bristled all over as it lunged straight at him.