When Lin Mingmei died, she knew this time was truly the end.
It was a strange feeling, almost impossible to describe. Every previous time she had been ripped apart and devoured by zombies, there had always been a faint instinct deep inside her telling her that she would come back.
During the endless years of the apocalypse, she had died countless times. Zombies had chewed her body to pieces over and over again until not a single patch of skin remained untouched. Her appearance had become horrifying, so grotesque that anyone who saw her recoiled in disgust.
To her, death had long since become a relief.
Lin Mingmei slowly closed her eyes. On her scar-covered face appeared a smile she had not shown in a very long time. Amid the snapping jaws of the zombies, it looked especially eerie.
…
“Mingmei! Lin Mingmei! Wake up!”
The familiar voice jolted her awake.
The moment she saw the face in front of her, her vision blurred and cold sweat instantly soaked her forehead.
She was not dead?
Damn it.
How many more times did she have to die for him before he would finally let her go?
Kill him.
At that moment, the urge to kill him nearly consumed her whole.
The sudden chill radiating from her made Gao Lang instinctively stop talking. A strange unease crawled up his spine, though he quickly found the feeling ridiculous.
What was wrong with him just now?
“Lin Mingmei, you slept through class. The teacher told you to go to the office.”
Class?
Teacher?
Lin Mingmei slowly looked around, her mind still muddled.
A familiar classroom.
Familiar classmates.
And an extremely familiar Gao Lang.
He wore a spotless white shirt. His skin was pale and clean, exactly like it had been at twenty years old. Elegant, tall, handsome.
Was this a dream?
“Mingmei, did you hear me? The teacher said to go to the office. Give me your meal card first, I need to buy lunch at the cafeteria.”
Impatience had already crept into Gao Lang’s voice.
Lin Mingmei stared at him blankly, her heartbeat thundering in her chest.
This scene.
This conversation.
Everything matched the day the apocalypse began in her memories.
Could it really be real?
Lin Mingmei pinched herself hard enough that tears nearly welled up in her eyes.
She had died.
Yet she was alive again.
She had actually been reborn on the very day the apocalyptic virus erupted.
“Lin Mingmei!”
Gao Lang frowned and called her name again.
Usually, whenever he called her full name like that, it meant he was angry. In the past, she would have immediately apologized and tried to comfort him.
But today, she did nothing.
“Gao Lang, does your body feel hot? Like you’re coming down with something?” she suddenly asked.
Gao Lang’s expression darkened.
“You already know I’m sick, so why are you still being annoying?”
He snapped impatiently. Seeing that she remained silent, he simply grabbed her bag himself, took out her meal card, and turned to leave. Before walking away, he did not forget to tell her to visit the campus clinic and get medicine for him.
Only after his figure disappeared beyond the classroom door did Lin Mingmei finally come back to herself.
It was real.
She had truly been reborn.
And it was the exact day the zombie virus broke out.
She remembered this day clearly. Gao Lang had a fever, so she went to the school clinic to get medicine for him. But when she arrived, countless students were already lining up for the same reason.
She waited for a long time and failed to get any medicine.
Instead, she witnessed people transforming into zombies right in front of her eyes.
Terrified, she still worried about Gao Lang eating in the cafeteria. She desperately ran to find him, only to be attacked and killed by zombies halfway there.
Not long after, she revived.
When she discovered she could resurrect after death, she was overjoyed and rushed to the cafeteria again. Eventually, she found Gao Lang hiding inside a storage room.
At the sight of her body drenched in blood, Gao Lang thought she was turning into a zombie and told her to get lost.
Panicked, she explained her resurrection ability to him.
He did not believe her.
He shoved her out the cafeteria’s side door and watched her get torn apart by zombies with his own eyes.
Only after seeing her revive again did he finally believe her story.
Then, while the zombies were distracted by her, he safely escaped the storage room.
Back then, Gao Lang had hugged her tightly in excitement, calling her an angel sent by heaven to save him. He swore endless promises of love, and she had foolishly believed every single word.
From then on, she stayed beside him, taking care of him and protecting him. Again and again, she died beneath the teeth of zombies, only to revive once more.
With her as an immortal human shield, Gao Lang escaped danger time after time.
Later, after awakening his fire ability, he sweet-talked her into continuing to protect him while he used his looks and powers to seduce countless women.
One after another, he fooled around with them.
Sometimes, in order to ensure his own safety, he even forced her to stand guard nearby while he indulged himself with those women in the wilderness. Whenever zombies or enemies appeared, she had to rush forward first, buying him enough time to pull his pants back up.
She had hated him for a very long time.
She once tried to escape, but Gao Lang captured her and locked her up with iron chains like a dog.
Anyone could drag her out and use her as bait to lure zombies.
No one pitied her.
No one helped her.
To them, she was merely a tool.
She had always believed herself to be a kind person. She had never harmed anyone, and she had devoted everything she had to Gao Lang.
Only after the apocalypse arrived did she realize how stupid she had been.
There were no good people in this world.
Only monsters wearing human skin, creatures even more terrifying than zombies.
And Gao Lang was the worst of them all.
Hatred exploded within her chest as she suddenly rushed out the door.
She was going to kill him.
The apocalypse was about to begin anyway. Even if she murdered him now, there would be no law left to punish her.
Lin Mingmei sprinted all the way to the student cafeteria.
It was the peak of lunchtime. The moment she stepped inside, she failed to spot Gao Lang immediately. Instead, she was stunned by the noisy crowd before her.
She froze near the entrance, unable to breathe.
Because in her eyes, these were no longer people.
They were future zombies.
Future demons disguised as humans.
Memories flooded her mind like a nightmare. The agony of being ripped apart by zombies, the cruelty she had suffered at the hands of living people, everything replayed over and over like a horrifying film.
Instinctively, she lowered her head to look at her watch.
Less than an hour remained before the virus outbreak.
Before the apocalypse officially began.
She scanned the cafeteria again.
Still no sign of Gao Lang.
If she insisted on finding and killing him now, she would probably be swallowed by the crowd before she even reached him.
Just then, she vaguely heard someone mention Gao Lang’s name nearby.
“Did you see that? Gao Lang acts exactly like a lapdog around Luo Xinxin.”
“Seriously. The way he spends money treating Luo Xinxin to meals, he doesn’t look poor at all. Weren’t you guys saying he’s been living off Lin Mingmei this whole time? Funny how arrogant he acts in front of her.”
“He absolutely lives off her. Other people might not know, but I do. We were classmates in high school. I bet the money he used to treat Luo Xinxin today came straight out of Lin Mingmei’s pocket. Honestly, Lin Mingmei is ridiculously stupid.”
“Has Gao Lang always been like this?”
“Yep. Since forever. He treats Lin Mingmei like an ATM and a servant.”
“That’s honestly pathetic…”
The voices gradually faded into the noisy chatter of the cafeteria.
Lin Mingmei stood motionless.
The fury inside her nearly burned her alive.
Luo Xinxin…
So they had already known each other long before the apocalypse.
They had not grown close after the end of the world at all.
Gao Lang had never changed because of the apocalypse.
He had always been trash.
Was everyone in the world aware of it except her?
Was she the only fool who never realized the truth?
Rage and despair tangled together inside her until her mind went blank and her ears buzzed loudly.
When she finally regained her senses, she noticed nearby students glancing at her with curiosity and pity.
At that moment, she wished the ground would split open and swallow her whole.
Without even realizing it, she had already become a complete joke in everyone else’s eyes.