Chapter 36
They drove through the uninhabited area, completely cut off from the world. For several hours, all their electronic devices had no signal. After the first suspected zombie video fermented online, a second zombie video appeared in the public eye.
This time, the incident happened indoors. There was not even the slightest buffer period. When the camera shifted over, several people who had already been attacked were lying on the floor, their complexions bluish-white, the bites on their necks shocking to the eye.
But just over ten seconds later, those people actually climbed up from the ground without warning.
They had the same strange posture, as if they would fall to the floor in the next second. Yet once they actually started running, their speed was extremely fast. Almost in the blink of an eye, they rushed toward the crowd that had originally gathered around them and was now retreating like a tide.
Those who were a little slower were immediately pounced on, continuing the initial chaos.
The entire internet exploded. The videos could not be blocked fast enough. It was like floodwater breaking through a dam: once the first opening appeared, what followed was an endless stream of zombie biting incidents. Especially in places with large crowds, order nearly collapsed.
Because of the continuous heavy rain over the past few days, a large portion of people had recently been working from home and resting indoors.
No matter what, the heavy rain itself had been a warning sign. Coupled with the prevalence of the so-called “new type of flu,” everyone had tacitly stockpiled quite a few supplies at home, both food and daily necessities. No one had expected them to truly come in handy now.
Amid the chaos, someone online posted the sentence, “The apocalypse really has come.” A few minutes later, the comments, shares, and likes broke ten thousand, and the hashtag climbed to the top of the trending list.
Jiang Qingyu pulled open the privacy curtain. Through the vehicle window that was constantly being washed by rain, he could see endless snow mountains rising and falling in the distance. The mountaintops were covered by clusters of white clouds, and the sea of clouds churned. Sparse poplar trees swayed by the roadside in the wind and rain.
This stretch of road was extremely desolate. It always gave him the illusion that their RV was the only vehicle left in the entire world. The cycle of the four seasons seemed to have stopped here. Aside from the endless heavy rain, nothing remained.
This protected area did not allow tourists to enter. Compared with Lop Nur, even fewer people came here.
Jiang Qingyu had seen photos online before. When the weather was good, the protected area was full of green grass. There were not only cattle leisurely grazing, but also camels, herds of wild donkeys, and marmots that looked very alert.
As the altitude gradually rose, Jiang Qingyu began to feel tightness in his chest. His breathing was no longer steady. It was hard for him to describe what kind of feeling it was, but in any case, it was very uncomfortable.
He made a prompt decision and began supplying oxygen throughout the entire vehicle without hesitation.
According to the system, this oxygen supply was even more effective than a nasal medical oxygen concentrator. There was absolutely no need to worry about suffering from altitude sickness.
Jiang Qingyu only felt uncomfortable for a short while. He did not want to wrong himself by pretending anything in front of Fu Jingqiu. The whole-vehicle oxygen supply worked silently and subtly; even if Fu Jingqiu felt something was off, there was nothing he could do about it.
In this weather, the drone could not fly. If it had not been raining and the weather had been good, perhaps they could have woken up early and seen the sunrise turn the snow mountains golden.
He did not plan to travel all over Southern Xinjiang. Looking at the offline map on his phone was not satisfying enough. Fortunately, he had bought a paper map in advance. He spread it out on the table and looked over it carefully, marking the must-visit places on sticky notes beside it ahead of time.
Calculating the time, since they had already set off around noon, his phone should be able to receive a signal again after dinner. Jiang Qingyu could still play for a while.
Heaven knew when the internet would be cut off. Since there was still time to play, he had to enjoy himself first.
The rain did not have much effect on Meimei. After oxygen was supplied throughout the entire vehicle, her behavior was quite normal too. Jiang Qingyu placed the little cat on the table and carefully combed her fur with a grooming comb.
On her head was the automatic cat head-massager Jiang Qingyu had bought online earlier. Several roller-like things kept circling and massaging her head, forehead, and ears.
When Meimei was massaged for the first time, she had resisted a little, unwilling to have something sitting on top of her head. But once the switch was turned on and the machine started working, she immediately lay down. Her large fluffy tail swayed comfortably, looking so content that it was unbearable.
Jiang Qingyu did not have much concept of how long they had driven through the rain. In any case, everything was on autonomous driving. It had long since grown dark outside. Only when his phone regained signal and began vibrating wildly on the table did he realize they had probably driven out of the uninhabited area.
He immediately picked up his phone to check the information, wanting to know what the situation was now.
Previously, the video about zombies biting people in a residential compound had still been concealed and covered up online. Now, it had erupted fully. Videos and photos were being uploaded from every IP location, each shocking to the eye.
Jiang Qingyu suddenly thought of something and quickly switched to WeChat, removing all the people from his eldest uncle’s family from the blacklist. His fingers moved quickly over the phone, and he stalked their Moments for a while.
Mm. Their trip had ended, and they had returned home some time ago.
But what a coincidence. The night they arrived home, heavy rain had started, and it had not stopped to this day.
Jiang Qingyu understood those people at least a little. They absolutely did not have the mindset of preparing for danger in times of peace. As long as food delivery was still available, a few days of rain would not count as anything to them.
Even if they stockpiled supplies, the quantity probably would not be much.
He quietly pulled them into a group chat, but did not immediately send any messages inside. He planned to wait a few more days, until they could not go out even if they wanted to, before sending some photos to provoke them a little.
The sky was high and the emperor was far away. Their residential compound had a fairly high occupancy rate. There might already be a dense mass of zombies downstairs. Jiang Qingyu was thousands of miles away. What could they do to him?
What a bad fish, he thought while rubbing his chin.
Once the signal recovered, Fu Jingqiu naturally received messages too.
The person who had once been pinned at the top of his chats and had then been unpinned by him sent him dozens of messages, questioning whether he was still alive, why the family card could no longer spend money, and why, when she took his bank card to withdraw cash, the ATM showed a balance of zero.
She questioned him several times. Then, perhaps realizing Fu Jingqiu would not reply to her messages, she began writing long paragraphs of accusations and curses, as though Fu Jingqiu were not her son but her enemy.
Fu Jingqiu skimmed through them quickly and silently read them all. Just as she had expected, he did not reply to a single one.
Even a fool should understand the necessity of stockpiling supplies at a time like this.
Perhaps his mother and younger brother had not returned yet. This area was vast and sparsely populated, so the number of zombies was not that high. They could still go out and take a chance, gathering some supplies to store.
Speaking of which, they also had an RV.
But if order collapsed, maintaining an RV would become a huge problem.
Leaving aside everything else, where would oil and electricity come from? Refilling water, emptying the black water tank—many facilities that required maintenance were very likely to involve encountering zombies. The two of them were practically powerless. How would they survive?
Just as his thoughts ran wild, a hand suddenly appeared and rested on his shoulder.
Fu Jingqiu turned to look. Jiang Qingyu stood beside him, his gaze fixed on Fu Jingqiu’s phone screen.
He was not nearsighted. As he passed by and glanced over, he had seen the contents of those messages clearly.
In the end, he could not hold back and wanted to come over to add a word.
Jiang Qingyu said, “Don’t go soft-hearted.”
Fu Jingqiu said, “I won’t.” Never again.
Jiang Qingyu thought: fortunately, he did not reply to the messages. This way, the damage would be stronger.
Now that the apocalypse had arrived and zombies had appeared, they would surely begin to miss Fu Jingqiu’s high combat ability, his real estate and assets, and his hardworking, complaint-free personality.
If they had not planned that “family trip,” then would the whole family not still be comfortably living together in that nice house right now? With zombies appearing, they would not need to do anything; Fu Jingqiu would naturally run around for them.
How much they had hoped he would die before was how much they would hope he was alive now.
Thinking about it now, it was actually quite ironic.
After driving through the uninhabited area, there were still desolate stretches of road ahead, but fortunately, they had signal now. They were a little hesitant about where to park and rest tonight. It did not seem realistic to keep driving on the road the whole time.
There was a county town ahead, but this place was remote. There were few tourists, and even fewer local residents. With the rain, surely not many people would come out.
It was not as if they had no internet here. The zombie situation should have been seen by those who needed to see it.
Driving into town now, it was hard to say whether there would be danger.
However, caution came first. After thinking it over repeatedly, Jiang Qingyu and Fu Jingqiu still stopped at an abandoned square about one li away from the roadside, planning to spend the night there for now.
In any case, neither of them would get out of the vehicle. Jiang Qingyu secretly changed the RV’s skin, making it look like an abandoned van. It appeared shabby and broken, with no ability to shelter anyone from the wind or rain.
Jiang Qingyu asked, “So? What are we eating tonight?”
Fu Jingqiu’s answer was very practical. “Let’s just eat something simple.”
Jiang Qingyu smiled knowingly, but did not deliberately persuade Fu Jingqiu. He agreed, “Sure. Then today, we’ll eat something simple.”
It just so happened that he had suddenly been craving instant noodles that afternoon. Tonight was the perfect time to cook a few packs.
He used the homemade chili oil from a restaurant he had packed food from to fry four eggs, added a little diced ham beside them, then put in the seasonings and boiling water before cutting in a small piece of tofu and adding mung bean sprouts.
He did not like noodles that were too soft, so he added the noodles later. Once they were slightly cooked, he could turn off the heat and scoop them out. They were steaming hot and fragrant. Just based on the appearance alone, Jiang Qingyu could eat two bowls.
There were also sauces to go with them. The beef sauce had huge chunks of meat, and there were crunchy white shimeji mushrooms. It was delicious whether mixed with noodles or fried rice.
Instant noodles were one of those things that one got tired of after eating them constantly, but missed when one did not eat them. Although everyone said they were unhealthy, very few people disliked them.
Amid the rising, rolling fragrant steam, Jiang Qingyu grinned and asked him, “Does this count as simple?”
Seeing him smile like this, Fu Jingqiu knew he had guessed what he was thinking. He smiled somewhat embarrassedly. “I was just thinking we should save a little.”
Jiang Qingyu slurped a mouthful of instant noodles and said indistinctly, “I know.”
Who was the first person to discover this, anyway? Why were fried eggs and instant noodles so fragrant together?
“Actually, our luck isn’t bad. Before cooking, I searched online for a while, and for now, I haven’t heard of any zombies appearing here. Of course, it’s also possible that no one posted it online. But think about it: with a route like ours today, the vehicle had to drive for more than ten hours. Even if zombies are powerful, their soles would get worn through, right?”
So even if zombies appeared, they would be in local towns and villages. This place was vast and sparsely populated, so the number would be limited and easy to deal with.
If the situation could be controlled, perhaps they could even make some trades.
For example, cattle and sheep from herders’ homes, wool, farmers’ orchards, cotton—all of these could be exchanged for goods.
They had chosen a correct route. At least for now, there was no need to be too anxious.
Jiang Qingyu talked in circles and analyzed things for a long while. In the end, he was simply comforting Fu Jingqiu. Fu Jingqiu had long been used to being the one who stepped forward and shouldered responsibility. Suddenly being comforted like this by a boy several years younger than him was, to be honest, something he was not quite used to.
