Chapter 13: About the Previous Life
Su Ruizhe froze completely. For some reason his hand suddenly went slack, and the knife he had just picked up slipped from his grasp, falling straight down. If he didn’t dodge in time, it would have stabbed right into the top of his foot.
“Careful!”
Seeing this, Zhan Yun immediately reached out, grabbed Su Ruizhe by the wrist, and pulled him toward himself, narrowly preventing the knife from stabbing into his foot.
That pull snapped Su Ruizhe back to his senses. Although he felt a trace of lingering fear from nearly being hurt, what he felt even more strongly was a deep sense of being moved by Zhan Yun’s instinctive reaction. It had been the same in his previous life—no matter what kind of danger he encountered, Zhan Yun would always appear in time to shield him from it.
Scenes from his past life surfaced once more in his mind.
Back then, he had been nothing more than a naïve seventeen-year-old. After the apocalypse broke out, man-eating monsters were everywhere, the entire city plunged into chaos, and the air was thick with the stench of blood and terror. He and his uncle’s family hid inside their house, too afraid to go out. Because his aunt had the habit common to many older people of stockpiling food, they were able to stay indoors for a full half month. But no matter how frugally they rationed it, the food was eventually all used up.
He was coaxed by his aunt into going out to look for food, and in the process he was accidentally scratched by a zombie, nearly losing his life. It was Zhan Yun who saved him. Half a month earlier, anyone scratched or bitten by a zombie would be killed immediately, to prevent infection and mutation. Later, however, people discovered that after being scratched, in addition to becoming infected, humans also had a chance of overcoming the virus and awakening supernatural abilities, becoming ability users.
That was why Zhan Yun took Su Ruizhe back with him and kept him under observation. In the end, Su Ruizhe was fortunate enough to awaken what seemed to be dual abilities—wood-type and spatial-type. At that time, Zhan Yun had already used his own abilities to form a small team of around a hundred people, stationed in a factory. With its thick steel gates and towering walls, it was considered a relatively safe place. Zhan Yun was very satisfied with Su Ruizhe’s abilities and proposed that he join the team. But Su Ruizhe couldn’t stop worrying about his uncle’s family, so he asked to bring his relatives along as well. Though somewhat impatient, Zhan Yun still agreed.
At first, his uncle’s family was overjoyed at being able to join Zhan Yun’s team. With so many people protecting them and food provided every day, how could they not be happy? But before long, due to food shortages, Zhan Yun changed the distribution rules. He made it clear that his team did not support freeloaders—even ordinary people had to fight zombies or go out to collect supplies, or else they would not be given food.
Although being scratched or bitten by a zombie carried a chance of awakening abilities, there was also a very high chance of death. His uncle’s family were selfish and afraid of death—how could they possibly be willing to risk their lives?
His aunt came to him to beg. Because Su Ruizhe was a spatial ability user, a portion of Zhan Yun’s supplies were stored in his space. At the time, Su Ruizhe had already come to regard his aunt as his closest family. He couldn’t bear to see them starve, so he secretly slipped them some food.
This behavior was soon discovered. Zhan Yun flew into a rage, took back all the supplies from Su Ruizhe, and only allowed him to use his wood-type ability to grow fast-growing, filling crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Su Ruizhe knew very well that taking the team’s supplies to give to his own relatives had been wrong. As a result, he accepted it without complaint and obediently went off to farm.
Later, for reasons he never understood, Zhan Yun suddenly began to pursue him…
Perhaps because Zhan Yun had saved his life, he developed a kind of imprinting attachment to him. One thing led to another, and the two of them ended up together. When his aunt found out, she showed no displeasure at all.
But later, as fewer and fewer living humans remained in the city, the survivors became targets for the zombies. No matter how sturdy the factory gates were, they couldn’t withstand the tireless day-and-night assaults. When the gates were finally breached, Zhan Yun led a team out first to draw away some of the zombies so the others could escape. In the end, only a small portion of people managed to get away—Su Ruizhe and his uncle’s family were among the lucky survivors.
They fled from place to place, living a life of constant displacement, until they encountered another team and learned that the government had established survivor bases that accepted all remaining humans. This team happened to be from a nearby city’s base, and upon learning that Su Ruizhe was an ability user, they immediately invited them to go with them.
His uncle’s family had long since had enough of life on the run and just wanted somewhere stable to settle down. After hearing the description of the base, they immediately decided to go.
On the surface, the base did indeed seem quite good. His wood-type and spatial abilities were highly valued, and he received very favorable treatment. But later, he encountered Zhan Yun again. Zhan Yun told him that the place was not as simple as it appeared, and he hoped that Su Ruizhe would go with him to the capital.
Su Ruizhe didn’t answer him right away, saying only that he needed to go back and think it over.
After returning, he went to discuss the matter with his aunt.
Seeing his hesitation, his aunt immediately grabbed hold of him and began exposing Zhan Yun’s so-called “true colors.” She said that Zhan Yun was actually a hoodlum, not a police officer as he claimed. She said that when he had gone to collect supplies, he had broken into homes and killed many innocent people. She said that when the factory was surrounded by zombies, he hadn’t gone out to draw them away at all, but had been the first to flee, intending to use the remaining people as bait. She said he was nothing but a habitual liar. One accusation after another poured out, each sounding vivid and convincing, and she even somehow produced several “witnesses” to back her claims.
In the end, Su Ruizhe made a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life—he believed Chen Huizhen’s lies and personally pushed away the person he loved most. By the time he learned the truth later on, it was already too late for remorse.
In this life, he absolutely could not repeat the same mistake!
Su Ruizhe made up his mind: he would come clean with Zhan Yun.
“Brother Zhan, I have something to tell you.”
Seeing the resolute look in Su Ruizhe’s eyes, Zhan Yun felt a faint sense of foreboding rise in his heart.
The two of them went back into the house. After choosing his words carefully, Su Ruizhe slowly began to recount everything—about rebirth, about the apocalypse, about abilities, and about his spatial power.
“That’s everything. What do you want to say?” Su Ruizhe looked at Zhan Yun anxiously.
At first, Zhan Yun found it absurd. But the more he listened, the more his heart raced. Although what Su Ruizhe said sounded utterly unbelievable, a voice deep inside him told him that everything he had just heard was true. Especially after Su Ruizhe demonstrated his space and abilities, Zhan Yun had no choice but to believe that the apocalypse might really be just around the corner.
After asking in detail about various aspects of the apocalypse, Zhan Yun suddenly asked, “So… we were actually a couple? And you like me too?”
“Huh…?” Su Ruizhe stared at Zhan Yun blankly, not understanding how the focus had suddenly shifted to that.
“No wonder I find you so lovable.”
“…” Su Ruizhe was at a loss for words.
“You should have told me earlier.” Zhan Yun felt some heartache for how hard Su Ruizhe had worked these past days, running around every day to earn money—it turned out it was all to prepare for the coming apocalypse. “Two people working together is always better than one.”
“Y-you’re not planning to report this to the authorities… are you?”
Zhan Yun shook his head. Something like this would never be easily believed, unless Su Ruizhe demonstrated his abilities like he had just done. But even if they did convince the authorities, the apocalypse would still come, and human greed was boundless. Someone like Su Ruizhe, who already possessed abilities before the apocalypse, would definitely be taken into custody—worse yet, he might be used for experiments. In his previous life, Su Ruizhe had died precisely because of this. Zhan Yun would never allow him to go through that again.
As for making it public, that was even more impossible. Most people would scoff at it as an elaborate prank, and simply spreading such information—which could cause mass panic—would be enough to land them in prison. Not only would it fail to help anyone, it would likely drag them down as well.
It would be better to remain silent for now, quietly stockpile supplies, and when the apocalypse was on the verge of arriving, give the authorities a warning and release some information online. At the very least, it might allow people to make some preparations.
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