Wu You did not take Yu Lehuan’s earlier words seriously. He simply assumed she was being childish, and seeing that she seemed to be feeling better, he moved closer to talk to her.
“Lehuan, can your body still hold up? We’ll be getting out of the car to rest soon. The map shows a village not far ahead. We can search for supplies there, and maybe we’ll even find some seeds!”
Yu Lehuan looked at him, unable to understand what was so exciting about some useless seeds.
“Did we get rid of those things? I don’t want to see those disgusting things again.”
“What? Oh, you mean those zombies. We shook them off a long time ago. Those zombies are no match for us, but there were too many of them, so it would’ve been troublesome to deal with them all. That’s why we drove away.”
Wu You had already forgotten all about the zombies.
After hearing that, Yu Lehuan closed her eyes and leaned against Zhao Yan. Her little face was pale, and her body trembled slightly.
Only then did Zhao Yan realize that she was afraid of zombies.
Seeing her red-rimmed eyes and trembling body, Zhao Yan draped his large coat over her and awkwardly patted her gently.
System 1066 watched Yu Lehuan pretending to be weak in silence.
Once Yu Lehuan had woken up and realized that she was safe and the zombies were no longer chasing them, she had stopped being afraid. However, seeing how accommodating Zhao Yan was toward her, she decided she could continue pretending.
That awful Zhao Yan had such terrible driving skills that he had made her feel so sick she had fainted.
The pampered young heiress silently added another grudge to her list.
She decided that she would make Zhao Yan serve her twice as much in the future to make herself feel better.
Little Six felt that Yu Lehuan was beyond saving.
…
After a peaceful journey, they finally arrived at the small village.
The village did not even have a name on the map. There was only a marker indicating that people had once lived there.
The village was in ruins. Many of the houses had lost their roofs, and everything looked broken and dilapidated. At a glance, they could see several skeletal zombies wandering around, barely able to move.
After entering the village, they found a house with a courtyard gate. Although it was also in poor condition, it could at least shelter them from the wind and rain.
The sky was dark and overcast, and it looked as though it might start raining at any moment.
When they opened the door, they found two zombies inside.
The zombies reacted slowly. Xiong Gang entered first, and it took them quite a while before they finally turned their heads and started walking toward him.
Zhao Yan raised his hand and covered Yu Lehuan’s eyes.
“If you’re scared, don’t look.”
Yu Lehuan pulled his hand away and stood beside him, shaking her head.
“I’m not that scared anymore.”
Zhao Yan looked at her with quiet satisfaction when he heard that. He was glad that she was becoming stronger.
He also hoped that her heart would become stronger.
They still had no idea how many zombies they would encounter along the way, and sooner or later, she would have to get used to them.
Xiong Gang twisted the heads off the two zombies with his bare hands.
Yu Lehuan’s face turned pale when she saw it.
“Zhao Yan, you should cook for me from now on. I never want to eat anything Xiong Gang cooks again.”
The eggs Yu Lehuan had eaten in the car that morning had been boiled by Xiong Gang.
Zhao Yan did not mention that he had also twisted off zombie heads before.
He simply agreed.
As evening gradually fell, there was only one room in the house that was suitable for sleeping. The walls of the other rooms were cracked, and they could feel the wind blowing in from outside while standing inside.
Everyone gathered in the main hall to build a fire and cook. They planned to sleep around the fire afterward.
The others could sleep like that, but Yu Lehuan certainly could not.
There was no way she would sit directly on the ground and sleep against a wall.
She looked toward Zhao Yan.
The moment Zhao Yan saw her expression, he knew she was dissatisfied.
He got up and searched the inner room for bedding, but everything he found was unusable, covered in rings of mold.
Then, in a corner, Zhao Yan spotted a dusty wicker lounge chair.
He carried it outside into the courtyard and carefully wiped it down with a cloth until it was at least clean. Then he brought it back inside and spread a thick coat over it.
Yu Lehuan immediately lay down comfortably.
The chair was rather narrow, making it difficult for her to turn over freely, and it was certainly not as comfortable as a bed. However, she had spent the entire day sitting in the car, leaving her backside stiff and sore.
She was exhausted and quickly drifted into a drowsy sleep.
Seeing that Yu Lehuan had fallen asleep, the others quieted down as well and gradually drifted off.
Yu Lehuan was awakened by the cold.
It was late at night near the end of summer, and the temperature was already low. With the fire having gone out, she felt even colder.
She was sleepy and freezing.
Opening her eyes, she looked around and noticed that Zhao Yan was keeping watch during the second half of the night.
Zhao Yan saw Yu Lehuan wake up with soft little whimpers. She looked around before her gaze finally landed on him.
Then she stretched both arms toward him, clearly asking to be held.
Zhao Yan got up and walked over.
Yu Lehuan wrapped her arms around his neck and burrowed into his embrace, mumbling sleepily.
“…It’s so cold. I was freezing so badly that it woke me up. Your body is so warm. I want to sleep with you…”
Zhao Yan’s temple twitched at her final sentence.
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
He thought Yu Lehuan was delirious from the cold.
He glanced around and saw that all his teammates were still asleep.
Zhao Yan lowered his voice.
“Let go. I’ll go to the car and get you some clothes.”
Yu Lehuan was already half asleep. Now that she had found Zhao Yan, a walking furnace, how could she possibly be willing to let him go?
“No, no… I’m so sleepy. Can you stop talking already?”
Her voice grew louder as she spoke.
Zhao Yan almost wanted to cover her mouth.
He did not want to see his teammates looking at him with meaningful expressions.
He knew that he had developed some unusual feelings for Yu Lehuan, but he also knew how unpopular he was with girls.
Before the apocalypse, people would see the scar on his face and immediately show disgust. He was also quiet and naturally looked gloomy, making people even less willing to approach him.
Yu Lehuan was so beautiful and adorable. Although she had a bit of a temper, there were plenty of strange-tempered people in the apocalypse.
Anyone would be willing to indulge her.
Zhao Yan felt that he was not worthy of Yu Lehuan.
He did not want her to discover his feelings for her. If she became upset and her heart started hurting again, he would only end up embarrassing himself for nothing.
He carried Yu Lehuan over and sat down against the wall.
Curled up in his arms, Yu Lehuan had already fallen asleep the moment she felt the warmth of his chest.
He did not pull her away.
She was already asleep anyway, and no one was watching.
Zhao Yan allowed himself to feel Yu Lehuan’s warmth.
She was like a fragrant little heater.
He took the coat from the lounge chair and covered her with it. The oversized coat wrapped around her entire body, leaving only her relaxed little face exposed.
Then Zhao Yan leaned against the wall and closed his eyes again.
Wu You opened his eyes and found himself staring directly into three pairs of wide-awake eyes.
Wu You: “…”
Wang Ni, Chen Youyu, and Xiong Gang: “…”
Wu You exchanged shocked looks with them for quite some time before finally grinning mischievously and going back to sleep.
Only Wang Ni could no longer fall asleep.
He closed his eyes and sank into deep thought.