Ling Qingyun had escaped into the space when he was being surrounded by zombies. As soon as he entered, he collapsed onto the grass, too exhausted to even lift a finger. He looked at what was happening outside, saw Zhuang Cheng chasing away the zombies that had been surrounding him, saw Zhuang Cheng sitting in the spot where he had disappeared, and with a slight curl of his lips, fell asleep.
Since the beginning of the apocalypse, although he had come to terms with his feelings, the constant stress of survival had left Ling Qingyun little time for other thoughts. But that night, he actually had a wet dream!
As a man, wet dreams were nothing new. Back in middle school, just a few ambiguous words passed among the boys could spark vivid fantasies and lead to some racy dreams. As he got older and was exposed to more, his dreams became even more intense. But never before had a dream made his heart race like the one from last night.
In the dream, Zhuang Cheng was young and shyly looked at him, then slowly began taking off his clothes… Ling Qingyun felt as though his heart would leap out of his chest. But just as Zhuang Cheng finished undressing and hugged him, he woke up!
He actually woke up! Ling Qingyun stared resentfully at the white sky within the space. If it had been the little dog who woke him, he could at least have something to blame. But that dog was sleeping soundly beside him!
Why did he wake up?! If he hadn’t, then next would’ve been… Ling Qingyun froze. He was no kid anymore—in this information age, of course he knew how things worked between two men. But at least with women, he had A-rated films for reference. With men, he really had no clue!
Forget it… Ling Qingyun decided not to think about it further. After all, Zhuang Cheng was still a zombie. He couldn’t even hold his hand, so what was the point of thinking too much? Then, the sticky feeling in his underwear and his bloated bladder reminded him that what he really needed now was to deal with some physical needs and change his clothes.
The space wasn’t big—he had just slept on the ground—so of course he couldn’t deal with his needs here. As for clothes, he had brought some when he left, but they were still in the SUV…
Ling Qingyun checked the situation outside. Zhuang Cheng was still sitting where he’d disappeared, and there were no other zombies around. He decided to go out.
The moment he stepped out, Ling Qingyun was tackled to the ground by Zhuang Cheng!
Zhuang Cheng’s palm pressed firmly against his chest, sharp claws seemingly ready to pierce through his clothes at any moment. With blank, hollow eyes and an expressionless face, he stared at him and opened his mouth, letting out a low growl, as if he might bite down at any second!
Ling Qingyun felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his chest. He couldn’t tell if he was scared, heartbroken, or… disappointed?
Because Zhuang Cheng was pressing down on him, Ling Qingyun could clearly feel everything about the other person. After becoming a zombie, the body no longer decayed. The only wound Zhuang Cheng had was the one on his face—unlike some zombies dragging their intestines and emitting a foul stench, he didn’t give off any unpleasant rotting smell. Still, he had completely lost all traces of life. It was currently winter, and after sitting outside all night, Zhuang Cheng’s entire body was freezing cold—Ling Qingyun could even see frost on his hair.
The warm breath Ling Qingyun exhaled condensed into tiny droplets on Zhuang Cheng’s face.
If Zhuang Cheng weren’t a zombie, Ling Qingyun would definitely have been happy to lift his head and kiss him right then. They had known each other for so long, and yet he had never kissed Zhuang Cheng… But now that Zhuang Cheng was a zombie, all he could worry about was his own life!
The Merit Jade was embedded in Ling Qingyun’s forehead, and he could enter and exit it using spiritual power, so he could escape at any time. If Zhuang Cheng had any intention of harming him… Ling Qingyun knew he had to run. After all, only if he stayed alive could he save Zhuang Cheng, and only then would they have a future together!
But after pinning Ling Qingyun down, Zhuang Cheng didn’t move. He just stared at him blankly.
After a while, Zhuang Cheng slowly reached out a hand toward Ling Qingyun’s face, but halfway there, he suddenly froze. Finally, he withdrew his hand and quietly moved to sit beside him.
He stared at his own hand in confusion, then furrowed his brow.
His food had disappeared for a long time before reappearing. He had grown impatient, and he was so, so hungry, so he’d wanted to eat him in one bite. But why, when he thought about eating him, did he feel so uncomfortable?
His food carried a scent he liked and was very warm. But when he tried to touch the other person, why did he suddenly feel such intense disgust toward his own hand?
He sat on the ground, staring at his hand for a long time, unable to understand why he would hate his own hand. Then he saw his food move toward the wall. What was he going to do now?
He stood up and followed him to the wall, staring intently at his food. This was his. He had to keep an eye on his food and couldn’t let him get away!
As for the strange things his “food” did, he didn’t mind anymore!
After Zhuang Cheng got off him, the first thing Ling Qingyun planned to do was to go to the bathroom!
Damn! He’d been holding it all night, and just now Zhuang Cheng had been pressing down on him again. If he didn’t go soon, he’d burst from holding it in! Ling Qingyun felt utterly helpless.
There was no toilet here, and as a man, his demands weren’t high. Ling Qingyun looked at those low-level zombies lurking at a distance, baring their teeth but not daring to come closer, so he just found a nearby corner and took care of his business on the spot. But…
Seeing Zhuang Cheng standing to the side, staring at him intensely, Ling Qingyun felt a certain recently exposed part of his body go chilly—of course, it was already winter, but the look in Zhuang Cheng’s eyes was even more terrifying… That he was still able to firmly take care of his physiological needs was really quite an achievement!
This time going out, Ling Qingyun had prepared fairly well. At this moment, he thought he probably wouldn’t be going back, so he packed most of the stuff from his room and brought it along, naturally including clothes.
A man changing clothes inside an off-road vehicle, and a zombie sitting on the roof looking through the sunroof, intently watching him change—this was truly a bizarre scene.
Changing clothes in front of the one you love—and changing underwear at that—how was one supposed to behave? Shy and evasive? Half-covering? Seductive and teasing? Or completely open and confident?
Ling Qingyun only knew that Zhuang Cheng, up on the roof, swallowing saliva and grinding his teeth with a hungry gaze, was putting enormous pressure on him. His body, once perhaps enough to make Zhuang Cheng blush and think of some inappropriate scenes, now probably just made him even hungrier and want to eat him. And this “eat” had no other implied meaning.
Sexual desire turned into appetite—what a tragic fate.
Changing clothes outdoors in the dead of winter, it was inevitable that Ling Qingyun felt cold and shivered. Seeing Zhuang Cheng’s hungry eyes, he suddenly felt hungry himself.
The food he brought this time was all supermarket vacuum-packed items with decent shelf life. He opened a pack of chicken drumsticks and a sausage, then ate instant noodles—normally cooked with water—dry like chips, washed down with cold water from a large soda bottle. After eating, Ling Qingyun felt much better. As for the issue of drinking cold water in winter harming the stomach—in the apocalypse, no one cared about that.
Right now, he had two choices: one was to return to the safe zone and fight the zombies alongside all the other humans, the other was to stay with Zhuang Cheng and fight the zombies alone. The first choice would earn him more merit, but he would have to leave Zhuang Cheng. The second would gain him less merit and a harder life—but he wouldn’t have to leave Zhuang Cheng…
Ling Qingyun chose the second option without hesitation.
Although Zhuang Cheng now constantly looked at him with the gaze of a starving man eyeing his food, the fact remained—Zhuang Cheng had clearly had multiple chances to eat him but hadn’t made a move. Just based on that, Ling Qingyun no longer minded being stared at by him all the time. Of course, he still preferred not to have someone—or rather, a zombie—staring at him so intently while he was using the bathroom.
Since Ling Qingyun had already made up his mind, after eating, he began slaughtering the surrounding zombies for the sake of his and Zhuang Cheng’s future.
Because of his presence as a living human, even with a level-three zombie like Zhuang Cheng nearby, many clumsy level-one zombies were still attracted. After noticing that Zhuang Cheng didn’t mind him killing zombies, Ling Qingyun set out on his path of accumulating merit by killing them.
He was cautious, but since he had to keep surviving, he couldn’t allow his SUV to be destroyed by zombies. So he chose a pile of rocks not far away to fight from.
This rock pile was built from many fairly large stones and stacked quite high. Standing at the top, Ling Qingyun could easily blow the heads off zombies that awkwardly climbed up or approached.
Of course, due to the large number of zombies previously lured in by him and Zhang Yi, and because he would eventually get exhausted, there were times when he would get completely surrounded. When that happened, he wouldn’t hesitate to retreat into the space.
During the day, he would take a short rest in the space. Seeing that Zhuang Cheng had already driven away the low-level zombies and was meditating where he had disappeared, Ling Qingyun would immediately come out again, and with Zhuang Cheng watching nearby, continue killing zombies.
This happened three times. But when Ling Qingyun tried to hide in the space for the fourth time, Zhuang Cheng surprisingly drove off those low-level zombies in advance.
Watching those one-armed, one-legged zombies scrambling away from the rock pile in fear under Zhuang Cheng’s “intimidation,” Ling Qingyun suddenly felt a warm glow in his heart.
In his good mood, he even felt a twinge of sympathy. Those zombies, driven purely by instinct and completely devoid of thought, wandering aimlessly and ready to charge in to their deaths and offer up merit—they were actually quite pitiful…
Of course, according to the little dog, the souls trapped within demonic bodies were even more pitiful. So, Ling Qingyun thought, he might as well liberate them all without mercy!
With Zhuang Cheng watching over him, Ling Qingyun couldn’t help but feel full of energy while killing zombies!