Chapter 39: District Six
Fang Yue was rendered utterly speechless by the question.
…Why would Kevin say something like that? Had he done something that was easily misunderstood?
His mind went unusually blank for a few seconds, after which a flurry of fragmented thoughts flashed through his brain.
Did he like him?
Was he in love with him?
Was *this* what liking someone felt like?
He felt as though another version of himself had detached from his soul, analyzing and judging the emotions and mindset of his present self—the one being questioned.
Yet he seemed to have run into a problem that defied analysis and judgment through logic and reason.
He weighed his options, carefully deliberated, and meticulously polished the answer he was about to give.
After a moment of silence, he offered a low response: “We are friends.”
Fang Yue was someone who almost never lied; if there were something he wished to conceal, he would choose to remain silent directly. At this moment, however, uttering those words brought him a faint sense of going against his true feelings.
Kevin looked at him silently for a few seconds, then said, “But compared to friends, you two are far too intimate.”
Fang Yue froze for a second.
The word “intimate” caused numerous fragments of his daily interactions with Chi Xiaoxian to flash through his mind once more.
Kneading his arm in the warehouse, sleeping pressed close together; Chi Xiaoxian curling into his arms inside the truck to change clothes, where he had even lent a hand, ultimately holding him in his arms to sleep; feeding him with his own blood, feeling his desire steadily rise as he pressed tightly against him; after coming up from the riverbed, feeling zero resistance when Chi Xiaoxian kissed him…
Holding Chi Xiaoxian’s hand, he could walk for a very, very long time…
As his thoughts churned, the turbulence in his mind gradually settled into a peaceful tranquility.
Failing to receive an answer, Kevin grew tired first, resting his head against the seatback, falling asleep before long.
The interior of the vehicle grew dead quiet, and the highway was extraordinarily silent as well—so quiet that Fang Yue could even hear his own heartbeat.
No longer suppressing his emotions, he indulged himself instead, casting another glance into the rearview mirror at the soundly sleeping Chi Xiaoxian.
Without his realizing it, he had already grown accustomed to frequently looking at him.
Starting from observing his condition initially, to the attentiveness of taking care of him, and finally… wanting to look at him for no particular reason at all.
—
The vehicle drove for another two hours before Chi Xiaoxian, having slept his fill, woke up groggily. Rubbing his eyes, he took a moment to sit up, then held onto Fang Yue’s driver’s seat, leaning in to look at the road outside the front window: “…How much further?”
His sleepy, casual voice sounded right beside the back of Fang Yue’s head, carrying a pleasant magnetic resonance, like a sheet of soft gauze falling onto his shoulder.
“Roughly two to three hours more.”
“That’s pretty close then.”
“Not going back to sleep for a bit?”
“Aren’t I keeping you company?” Chi Xiaoxian let out a yawn. “Driving all by yourself is pretty boring with no one to talk to.”
Fang Yue’s heart stirred slightly.
Looking at the road sign indicating that District Six was still 200 kilometers away, Chi Xiaoxian suddenly remembered something: “By the way, do you live alone in District Six?”
“Mm.”
“Did your parents buy that apartment?” Chi Xiaoxian grew somewhat curious.
“My dad used to live there. When he left District Six later, he just left it to me.”
“Your family must be ridiculously wealthy,” Chi Xiaoxian said with starry eyes. “You’re a rich second-generation heir of Zhifang Bio!”
Fang Yue said nonchalantly: “It’s alright. My dad sends me a bit of living allowance periodically.”
Speaking of parents, Chi Xiaoxian naturally thought of his own grandmother.
He had already lost contact with her, able only to pray that she remained safe and sound in District Ten.
If possible, he wanted to go to District Ten to find her. Given his current state as a frail, weak individual, however, going to District Ten required relying on Fang Yue.
He just didn’t know whether Fang Yue would be willing to help him.
Although he felt his relationship with Fang Yue had grown considerably closer, a sober voice would occasionally sound in his mind—from the very beginning, theirs had been a relationship of mutual interest, a form of contract.
Fang Yue wanted to study him, while he needed to rely on Fang Yue to escape the plight of wandering aimlessly as a zombie, or even getting attacked by humans. Making the request to help him go to District Ten… he wondered if that crossed the line…
Hesitating briefly, Chi Xiaoxian ultimately voiced his thought.
“You want me to accompany you to District Ten?” Fang Yue said calmly, appearing unsurprised by this request.
“Previously, I felt my state was rather unstable, so I didn’t dare go look for my grandmother. Looking at it now, however, I seem to be a zombie that poses no major threat to humans,” Chi Xiaoxian explained.
“So… is that okay?”
Fang Yue caught the tension and careful probing in his tone, yet didn’t answer him right away.
Chi Xiaoxian’s heart sank bit by bit. Silence implied rejection—that was one of the unwritten rules of the adult world, and he understood it.
Releasing his grip on Fang Yue’s seatback, he sat slowly back into the rear seat, practically resolving to give up.
Right at that moment, Fang Yue suddenly spoke: “Are you worried I’ll refuse you?”
Chi Xiaoxian froze for a second, then nodded.
Fang Yue’s lips pressed into a tight, straight line.
Staring fixedly at the road ahead, he said in a low voice after a long pause: “I can take you there.”
“Really?!” Chi Xiaoxian said in delight.
Fang Yue spoke no further.
Chi Xiaoxian suddenly felt something was somewhat off. Fang Yue’s attitude felt somewhat unfamiliar, a subtle atmosphere quietly flowing through the air.
Observing Fang Yue’s expression for a short while, he asked softly, “Are you unhappy?”
“…If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to force yourself,” Chi Xiaoxian’s voice grew smaller. “I’ll just figure out a way myself.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go,” Fang Yue interrupted him.
Chi Xiaoxian froze: “Then why—”
“You don’t know why?”
Chi Xiaoxian scratched his silver hair, letting out a soft “Mm.”
Fang Yue cast a glance at him through the rearview mirror: “…The fact that you don’t know is precisely what makes me unhappy.”
“?”
“I’m sorry…”
“Apologizing without even figuring out why also makes people unhappy.”
Chi Xiaoxian shrank back, not daring to speak—feeling for the first time that understanding Fang Yue’s thoughts was far harder than solving advanced mathematics problems.
Just then, a burst of snickering erupted, startling both Fang Yue and Chi Xiaoxian.
“You two really are interesting,” Kevin opened his eyes casually, tutting several times, adding, “Talking like a young couple squabbling.”
At the end, he even let out a sigh of emotion: “Youth really is great—having this kind of romantic mood and fun!”
Fang Yue and Chi Xiaoxian: “…”
Fang Yue cast a icy glance toward Kevin, saying unceremoniously, “I see those ears of yours are pretty useless; better slice them off to feed the zombies.”
“I don’t eat those,” Chi Xiaoxian refuted instinctively.
“…Aren’t you getting a bit too used to stepping into your role as a little zombie?” Kevin said speechlessly.
“.”
Chi Xiaoxian covered his face silently.
Suddenly, the phrase “young couple” that Kevin had teased earlier echoed in his brain once more.
Realizing it after the fact, a blush reminiscent of the morning sun slowly crept up the tips of his ears. He had to reach out and cover them, attempting to use his icy fingertips to bring the temperature down.
While cooling down, he raised his eyes to sneak a glance at Fang Yue in the rearview mirror, completely unaware that Fang Yue had averted his gaze merely half a second prior…
—
Along the way, aside from Kevin’s idle chatter, neither Chi Xiaoxian nor Fang Yue spoke another word.
It wasn’t until they drove to the entrance of District Six that rows of apartment buildings on the outer ring came into view.
Having never witnessed such a scene before, Chi Xiaoxian couldn’t help letting out an exclamation.
Kevin followed his line of sight to look outside. Taking a single look was all it took for him to nearly jump out of his seat in shock.
District Six was a residential functional zone, its outer ring densely packed with high-rise apartment buildings.
Yet the scene before their eyes was riddled with scars, as if it had just endured the most brutal war.
A great number of apartment buildings had… collapsed.
Buildings over ten stories high had collapsed to merely half their height, with only the bottom two or three floors retaining the original frame of the structures.
Reinforced concrete and bricks looked like building blocks that could be broken and destroyed at will, piled haphazardly into small mountains of ruins, heavy dust and smoke permeating everywhere. Beneath the rubble, who knew how many dead souls lay buried.
“What on earth happened here!” Kevin stood flabbergasted.
No matter how powerful zombies were, they couldn’t possibly cause these steel monsters to topple.
District Six was the very first residential functional zone they had reached. If District Six looked like this, then the other two residential zones…
Bringing the car to a stop at the highway intersection, the three walked on foot toward a collapsed building. Standing ten meters away from the ruins, Fang Yue halted his steps.
If there were buildings that hadn’t collapsed completely, drawing closer would carry the risk of falling debris.
Under the sunlight, glass fragments within the ruins sparkled and gleamed, looking like a treasure trove filled with gold rather than a living hell.
A faint stench hovered around Chi Xiaoxian’s nose—the smell of flesh that was no longer fresh. Scanning his surroundings, he suddenly noticed half a slate-gray arm protruding from the gaps in the bricks of the ruins nearby, the fingertips a bloody mess, the fingers pointing toward the sky like withered branches, still yearning for freedom in the final second of life.
In places beyond vision, who knew how many people had been buried alive…
“Was there an earthquake here?” Kevin let out a sigh.
“Cannot rule out that possibility.”
Bypassing this patch of ruins, the three walked near the inner-city highway to inspect the area once more.
Unexpectedly, the road surface showed zero signs of cracking, aside from a few pitted dents smashed into the pavement by bricks and rebar falling from high altitudes.
The roadside trees hadn’t fallen either, though a thick layer of dust covered the leaves, and some branches had been sliced off by falling building debris.
“Doesn’t look like an earthquake either,” Kevin said in confusion. “Where do you find an earthquake that only shakes buildings without shaking the roads?”
“We didn’t feel any aftershocks along the drive either,” Fang Yue added.
Chi Xiaoxian recalled a few movie scenes: “Looks more like getting bombed by explosives, or something crashing into the buildings—like the plane attacks on 9/11.”
Returning to the car, Fang Yue decided to drive toward the center of the district to inspect the situation further.
Concrete and brick fragments lay everywhere on the road surface. When encountering small ones, Fang Yue rolled straight over them; for larger ones, he swerved to dodge them, avoiding scraping the vehicle’s undercarriage. Fang Yue had no choice but to keep his driving speed very slow.
Before driving for long, the bumpy ride gave Kevin motion sickness. He asked Fang Yue to stop for a moment, saying he needed to step down to throw up.
Surveying the surroundings, Chi Xiaoxian discovered that the closer they got to the district center, the lower the height of the buildings became, and the smaller the ruins caused by collapse were. Some five or six-story small buildings hadn’t even collapsed, standing intact right there, looking as though they belonged to an entirely different world from the hell on the outer ring of District Six.
He found it very strange: “Why are the buildings in District Six taller the further out you go? That’s the exact opposite of the Core Region.”
“Residential areas in District Six were constructed starting from the central area. To guarantee comfort and building spacing, they were initially designed at roughly five stories. As the residential population grew and immigrants joined, however, they had to expand outward with more high-rises. Buildings in the Core Region were constructed simultaneously; those buildings serve office functions, meant to accommodate as many people as possible without needing to consider living quality, so naturally the taller the better.”
The two waited for a short while, yet Kevin delayed getting back on the car. Just moments ago, Kevin had been squatting beside the car vomiting, yet right now he was nowhere to be found around the area.
—
“Everyone in the vehicle, step out immediately!”
A loud shout suddenly came from behind.
Chi Xiaoxian and Fang Yue turned their heads around hurriedly.
A group of people coming from who knew where—roughly seven or eight individuals—held baseball bats, hammers, and kitchen knives, lining up in a row to surround their car.
The group consisted of both old and young. The oldest appeared to have entirely white hair, while the youngest looked merely seven or eight years old, resembling a family gang.
A burly man standing at the very front held Kevin hostage, shouting loudly for them to step off the car immediately.
Kevin was cursing stormily in his heart. He hated himself for not bringing a gun along when stepping off the car; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been threatened with a kitchen knife. Moments ago, he hadn’t even finished vomiting before getting caught.
“Ugh…” Kevin felt another wave of nausea, throwing up with a loud splash right onto the burly man’s arm.
The burly man’s eyes widened. Realizing it was undigested contents from a stomach, he kicked Kevin onto the ground with a heavy blow, holding the kitchen knife blade-side down, resting it diagonally against Kevin’s neck.
Fang Yue picked up that gun from Kevin’s seat, disengaged the safety with two sharp *clicks*, loaded a round into the chamber, and stuffed it into Chi Xiaoxian’s hand.
“I don’t know how to use it,” Chi Xiaoxian said helplessly.
“No need to aim,” Fang Yue said nonchalantly. “Just coordinate with me.”
Kicking the car door open, Fang Yue leaped down, raising his own gun toward the group.
That group clearly hadn’t anticipated firearms on this end, every single one taking a startled fright. The burly man at the head holding Kevin hostage paid it no mind, however, barking, “Where did you get a fake gun to come out and scare people with?”
Fang Yue didn’t waste words with him, firing two shots *BANG BANG* that struck right beside the burly man’s feet, kicking up a cloud of dust. The burly man jumped in terror, releasing his grip on Kevin at once, and Kevin took the opportunity to sprint wildly toward Chi Xiaoxian and Fang Yue.
Weapons always held a specific charm for men. Seeing Fang Yue fire, Chi Xiaoxian felt an itch as well, firing a shot toward the spot Fang Yue had hit moments ago.
*BANG!* His wrist went numb from the recoil.
Unluckily, this shot missed the ground, skimming past the burly man’s calf and blasting a hole through his pant leg.
The group turned on their heels to flee in terror, only to hear Fang Yue’s voice ring out cold and hard: “Halt.”
The group came to a trembling halt once more.
“Where are you from?”
“We originally lived right here.”
“What happened to these houses?”
A man said with extreme caution: “We don’t know what happened either. At first, a crack opened suddenly in the middle of the night, so we ran downstairs in terror. The moment we ran out, the entire building collapsed.”
“A crack?”
“Yes, like the entire exterior wall was split open. There were cracks inside the rooms too, and even the doorframes came loose.”
Fang Yue fell into thought.
“Good sir, good sir, you see we didn’t manage to rob you either, can we first…”
“Disperse your people, drop your weapons,” Fang Yue’s voice rang out with unyielding authority.
With a series of metallic clatters, the group dropped all their weapons onto the ground.
Just as they were about to sprint away, several zombies suddenly leaped down from a tall pile of ruins opposite them. Dropping onto all fours, they glared savagely at them, opening their bloody maws wide.
The group hurriedly picked all their weapons back up.
This was a thoroughly smooth-less day for them—running into a tough nut hard to rob on one foot, and running into zombies on the other.
Fang Yue drew his gun with sharp agility, firing two shots *BANG BANG* that struck the head of one zombie leaping into midair, then quickly entered the car. Seeing this, Chi Xiaoxian and Kevin scrambled back into the vehicle as well.
Revving the accelerator to reverse, the off-road vehicle backed up straight, knocking two zombies flying. Shifting into drive, Fang Yue slammed his foot on the accelerator, decisively driving away from this patch of ruins.
“Fuck—” Kevin complained, “Zombies on one hand, collapsed buildings on the other. This District Six really is plagued with disasters.”
He called out a “Hey” to Fang Yue: “Your place hasn’t collapsed too, has it?”
