For someone like Li Qiu, who had only seriously been driving for a short while, driving was dangerous, but it also felt amazing.
She controlled the steering wheel herself, controlled the speed herself, changed lanes whenever she wanted, and sped whenever she wanted. Everything followed her own rhythm completely. Most importantly, the only passenger beside her, Li Dong, would not have any opinions about her driving skills.
When Li Qiu had gone to driving school, she had already been somewhat introverted to begin with, and then her instructor had scolded her so much that she had practically become a recluse. Later, after going through countless hardships to get her driver’s license, she had driven her father’s car a few times.
Her father had sat in the passenger seat while her mother had sat in the back seat. The two veteran drivers had directed her at the same time, making Li Qiu incredibly nervous. Once, she had even stepped on the accelerator and crashed straight into the curb. After that little accident, Li Qiu had completely kept her distance from driving, choosing to take a taxi whenever possible.
But now that she was touching the steering wheel again, without interference from anyone else, Li Qiu suddenly found driving incredibly fun.
Outside both windows, the scenery kept retreating behind them, while ahead of the car stretched a wide and open road.
It was as though she had been isolated from this world, yet at the same time had thrown herself into its embrace.
Unfortunately, she had no way to share this enjoyment.
Most of the time, Li Dong’s presence was very faint, as if the person sitting in the passenger seat was merely a life-sized figurine.
He had not even turned his head to look at Li Qiu once. He sat sideways, looking to his right, watching the forest continuously move backward and flocks of birds fly across the sky.
Only occasionally would he repeat a few of Li Qiu’s words.
What displeased Li Qiu the most about driving in the apocalypse was the lack of electronic navigation. Every time she reached a fork in the road, she could only slow down, glance at the map spread over the steering wheel, and determine a general direction. Sometimes she even had to stop the car to carefully distinguish the directions indicated by the crooked road signs on the roadside.
Li Qiu stepped on the accelerator and said to Li Dong, “There’s a gas station ahead. Let’s go see if we can get some fuel.”
Li Dong repeated the words “add fuel,” and other than that, showed no extra emotion or said anything else.
Li Qiu spotted the Sinopec sign from a distance.
Compared to gas stations before the disaster, this small gas station now looked as though it had gone back thirty years. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, and the ground was littered with garbage and dead branches that had been blown over by the violent winds.
Li Qiu opened the window and took a sniff. A very faint fragrance belonging to ability users still lingered in the air.
If those human survivors were still at the gas station, the scent should have been very strong. Since it was so faint now, it meant they had already gone far away, at least more than half an hour ago.
Relieved, Li Qiu opened the car door and jumped out. Li Dong still sat obediently in the passenger seat, his pair of grayish-white eyes fixed on Li Qiu without blinking. Only after Li Qiu unfastened his seatbelt and pulled him did he get out of the car.
“You should stretch your limbs too. We zombies need exercise as well!” Li Qiu patted him seriously. “Just stay by the car and walk around a bit. Don’t run around. I’ll go take a look inside first.”
Li Dong lowered his eyes and did not respond, but he had probably understood what Li Qiu had said.
After making a round of the place, Li Qiu discovered that there was no fuel at all in this gas station. Fortunately, she had already expected this possibility and was not particularly disappointed. She turned around and entered the convenience store beside it.
Quite a few empty food wrappers and fragments of bottles and jars were scattered across the floor of the convenience store.
Naturally, there were also bloodstains.
Following the dried blood on the ground, Li Qiu immediately spotted her food reserves.
Two shriveled zombie corpses, one male and one female, still wearing the uniforms of gas station employees. Half of one person’s head had been sliced off, while the other’s neck had been twisted into a bizarre angle.
“What a vicious attack.” Li Qiu stood beside them and observed a moment of silence for one second in sympathy, then shouted toward the entrance, “Li Dong, Li Dong.”
After Li Dong helped her move the corpses into the trunk, Li Qiu found a few more unwanted items in the convenience store.
To humans, the most important things were food, drinks, medicine, and items for self-defense.
To Li Qiu, it was the exact opposite.
So the things other people did not want were treasures to her instead.
A brand-new water bottle, salt and monosodium glutamate, automotive lubricating oil, shampoo, body wash, disposable plastic raincoats, children’s diapers, a radio, several miscellaneous books, a few notebooks and a large bundle of gel pens, as well as a toy car model and a Strawberry Bear plush that some child had apparently dropped here.
Since Li Qiu now had a car anyway, she naturally picked up everything and put it into the vehicle, making her no different from a junk collector.
“Should I take the curtains too? I might as well pull them down. If I ever want to go camping, I can spread them on the ground and use them as a carpet.” Li Qiu muttered to herself, and as soon as she finished speaking, she yanked the curtains down.
The fallen curtains filled her arms, but her gaze was attracted by something on the ground.
A power bank with various charging cables attached to it had appeared behind the counter. It had been hidden by the curtains before and had never been discovered by anyone. Now it had been picked up by Li Qiu.
This was a huge twenty-thousand milliamp-hour power bank. Li Qiu gently pressed the small display on it, and it clearly showed one hundred percent battery.
The moment she saw that the power bank still had electricity, Li Qiu’s heart began pounding wildly. To be honest, even back when she had spoken to the boy she had secretly liked at school, her heart had never beaten this fast.
“Charge, charge, charge…” Li Qiu connected the charging cable with trembling hands.
Dong!
The familiar charging sound rang out.
The phone that Li Qiu had been carrying with her all this time finally lit up.
She was so moved that tears streamed down her face!
Li Qiu was so happy that she slammed her fist onto the nearby table. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was now extremely strong and directly cracked the table apart.
Through the convenience store’s glass door, Li Dong looked over. Expressionlessly, he thought that his companion was always doing strange things.
“Li Dong! Li Dong!” Li Qiu ran out holding her phone and power bank, continuously calling his name. “It has power, it has power, my phone has power! Do you understand?! Even though there’s no signal, I can still play with it, waaah!”
With this power bank and its charging cable, she could recharge it in the car once it ran out of power. From now on, Li Qiu no longer had to worry about her phone dying.
Li Dong repeated Li Qiu’s words. “Play.”
“Come on, come on, let’s take a picture together.” Li Qiu pulled Li Dong toward her and pressed the shutter.
In this photo, the two zombies were neatly dressed, standing shoulder to shoulder like two real people taking a picture together. She looked toward the camera, and the joy in her expression extended from the corners of her eyes and brows all the way to the tips of her hair. Li Dong, on the other hand, wore a blank expression. He was not looking at the camera at all. From beginning to end, his gaze had followed only Li Qiu.
After taking the photo, Li Qiu carefully put away the phone and power bank as if they were treasures, planning to play with the phone once it had fully charged.
After bringing Li Dong back into the car, Li Qiu placed the palm-sized Strawberry Bear plush in front of the driver’s seat, then took out a notebook and a pen.
On the first page of the notebook, Li Qiu slowly wrote a line of words. The first day Li Dong and I drove home, we found a fully charged power bank. A happy day. With just a few simple strokes, she drew two stick figures beneath the words and then drew a square around them as a picture frame.
Stepping on the accelerator, Li Qiu continued driving forward with Li Dong.
Perhaps because she was in such a good mood, Li Qiu sang while driving and pressed the accelerator especially hard. Fortunately, this road was exceptionally clear, with almost no obstacles.
The gate at the highway entrance had long since broken and fallen to one side. Seeing that they were about to get onto the highway, Li Qiu stepped on the accelerator until the speed exceeded sixty kilometers per hour on the ramp.
She noticed that Li Dong in the passenger seat had started becoming restless.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Li Dong did not answer her. He pressed himself against the closed window, slapping at it in a certain direction while letting out growls.
A zombie was calling to Li Dong.
Li Qiu suddenly realized it.
Because back at the Yanhu Lake Grand Hotel, when she and Li Dong had hidden in the sewer, Li Dong had acted exactly the same, desperately wanting to leave.
“It’s dangerous outside,” Li Qiu shouted.
Li Dong paid no attention to her words. The force with which he struck the window grew heavier and heavier. His expression also became increasingly cold and gloomy.
Li Qiu thought, Go ahead and hit it all you want. It’s not like you know how to open the window.
Then, in the very next second, she was thoroughly proven wrong. Li Dong’s hand landed on the window control, and the window slowly lowered. By the time Li Qiu tried to close it, it was already too late. Li Dong’s figure shot out through the window in a blur.
He was as agile as a cat.
Li Qiu slammed on the brakes in fright. When she got out of the car to check on Li Dong, all she could see was his back.
Li Dong was crouched on all fours. Not only was he completely unharmed, but just as Li Qiu had seen before, he quickly leaped over the highway guardrail and into the wild fields beside the road.
“What is there in the wilderness anyway?!” Li Qiu shouted angrily.