Jiang Sui turned back to the hospital bed to find and wake Xie Yanhan.
Xie Yanhan was already awake too, but he couldn’t move. He looked at her expressionlessly, waiting for her to speak first.
Facing him still made Jiang Sui uncomfortable, but the situation outside was urgent, so she forced herself to speak.
“Something’s happened outside. There are monsters like zombies appearing. I feel like the hospital isn’t safe. We should be discharged today and go home.”
Xie Yanhan repeated slowly, “Go home?”
Jiang Sui nodded. “Your rented place. We’ll stay there together for a few days.”
In the chaos ahead, South City would only get worse, with infected people everywhere on the streets. Locking themselves indoors would actually be safer. After the worst period passed, she would find a car and drive back to Zhongcheng.
Xie Yanhan’s dark eyes stared at her.
The girl also looked at him. She had just woken up, her hair uncombed and face unwashed, soft and slightly pink. But her clear, bright almond eyes still shone.
Like glass beads.
And now those beautiful eyes were filled with tension, caution, guilt, and self-reproach as they looked at him.
Guilt.
It always worked like this—people believed they had made a mistake and harmed someone, and so this intense but short-lived emotion would arise. It would push them to do troublesome things they didn’t truly want to do, yet still felt compelled to do—so-called “correct” actions.
Xie Yanhan thought this emotion was hypocritical.
But also… extremely interesting.
Because it benefited him.
Jiang Sui didn’t know that he had voluntarily gotten into the car intending to “frighten her.” He had planned to take advantage of her return to exact revenge, but things had backfired. Instead, he ended up in a car accident, his legs broken and crippled.
Jiang Sui, who knew nothing about this, not only foolishly took all the responsibility onto herself, but also felt deep guilt and remorse toward him, even impulsively promising to take care of him.
Hypocritical. Interesting. And useful to Xie Yanhan.
Even if that guilt wouldn’t last long.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, Jiang Sui became more and more uneasy.
“I’ll go check if the cafeteria has breakfast. Then we’ll handle discharge paperwork.”
She hurried out.
The hallway was full of patients and family members. Jiang Sui’s gaze casually swept over—and suddenly froze.
She saw a middle-aged man whose face and neck were covered in flesh-like tumors.
The tumors bulged under the skin like ping-pong balls, faintly shaped like mushroom caps.
The man lay on the bed in pain, weakly groaning. His wife sat on the ground beside him, looking blank and dazed.
There were many such patients around. Some even tried to cut the tumors off themselves, but the fungal threads had already penetrated deep into their blood vessels—normal methods couldn’t remove them.
Only healing-type abilities—or the flesh and blood of healing-type users—could work.
Jiang Sui lowered her head and quickly walked past.
She rushed to the cafeteria. As expected, it was packed, but food was scarce. After squeezing in, she only managed to buy two steamed buns, two eggs, and two bowls of porridge—the maximum ration per patient.
Hurrying, she completed discharge procedures, picked up medicines, and managed to get a wheelchair and crutches.
By the time she returned with reheated breakfast, two hours had passed.
She adjusted the bed, set up the table, and helped Xie Yanhan prepare to eat. She was familiar with this—she had taken care of her critically ill grandmother in the hospital before.
Xie Yanhan could only use one hand. Jiang Sui peeled an egg for him and handed it over.
He looked up at her and took it. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied stiffly.
They ate in an awkward silence.
Suddenly—
A gunshot rang out from the hospital.
Close. Deafening.
Jiang Sui choked on her egg instantly, clutching her throat and coughing violently, tears welling up. She had already finished her porridge and had nothing to wash it down.
At that moment, a bowl of porridge was handed to her.
Xie Yanhan’s.
Almost dying from choking, she grabbed it and drank quickly. Only then did she finally catch her breath.
When she came back to her senses, her hand was still gripping his arm tightly. His skin was cool, and beneath it she could faintly feel firm muscle.
For some reason, it reminded her of a snake.
She immediately let go, face flushing red as embarrassment surged up—especially after realizing she had just drunk from the same bowl as him.
“Th-thank you.”
She didn’t dare look at him. She stood up quickly.
“I’ll go check what’s happening outside.”
Xie Yanhan’s dark eyes followed her figure as she left. The place where she had touched him still carried warmth—and a strange, creeping sensation that seemed to burrow straight into the deepest part of his heart.
Strange.
He curled his fingers slightly.
This Jiang Sui… felt very strange.
As if she had become a different person.
Just then—
Screams suddenly erupted from the hallway outside.
Followed by the sound of a bed violently crashing against a wall.
Chaos exploded.
Footsteps, shouting, panic—mixed with beast-like roars.
Infected!
Jiang Sui’s heart pounded. Without hesitation, she rushed to the door and locked it.
Through the observation window, she saw an infected patient in hospital clothes biting down on someone on a nearby bed. The victim struggled desperately while family members panicked, hitting it with whatever they could.
The infected suddenly turned its head.
A man—his scalp and forehead covered in raised bumps like a frog’s back, eyes blood-red, no longer human.
He roared and pinned the family member down.
“Help! Help!!”
Screams turned desperate. People in the hallway backed away—no one dared approach.
The cries faded into chewing sounds.
A child began crying loudly.
The infected immediately reacted, crawling up the wall with terrifying agility—then reached their door.
Its blood-red eyes met Jiang Sui’s through the window.
She saw its face clearly—the dense bumps, veins swollen and twisted by fungal growth.
Her mind went blank.
She instinctively stepped back.
The infected locked onto her and slammed into the door.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The frame shook violently.
Inside the room, the couple screamed. The more they screamed, the more excited it became.
The door finally shattered.
It rushed in.
Jiang Sui rolled aside just in time, landing on the bed.
The infected charged deeper into the room toward the couple.
The girl screamed. The boyfriend used the chance to escape.
Jiang Sui wanted to help—but she couldn’t. She turned away and forced herself not to look.
She jumped down and ran to Xie Yanhan.
“Get up. I’ll carry you. Hurry!”
“Now!”
But his legs were immobilized in casts. He moved slowly.
Calmly, he said, “You should leave me. That way you won’t be responsible—and you’ll have a better chance of escaping.”
“Shut up if you can’t say anything useful!” she snapped.
She turned her back to him. “Get on my back. Hurry!”
Xie Yanhan looked at her thin, fragile back.
As if he could wrap his arms around her completely with a single motion.
His fingers twitched.
But before he could move—
A roar came from behind.
Jiang Sui turned—and her face went completely pale.
The infected had charged straight toward them.