Chapter 43
These days, they spent more than half of each day on the road. Thankfully, they had the cheat-like automatic driving system. Otherwise, their backsides would probably have been worn through.
However, every time the RV was driving, and Jiang Qingyu sat leisurely inside watching the scenery outside continuously retreating and the endless rain, he felt a peaceful sense of ease. He almost wished they could stay on the road like this forever.
The internet had not completely collapsed. Aside from some cities heavily affected by the torrential rain, where rainfall had at one point broken historic records, even if zombies came, they would have to wade through water.
At first, everyone thought this could delay the zombies’ movements. After all, there was still resistance in water. It was not like flat ground, where they could directly rush over or surround people from all directions.
But very soon, a new situation appeared: some people who had known how to swim when they were alive, after turning into zombies, were not afraid of dirt or cold. They swam extremely fast in the water, giving off the vivid impression of man-eating fish. They would even reach out from under the water to grab people’s feet, or directly pounce over and start biting.
Once the problem of needing to wade through water disappeared, they instead became more agile and quick. This forced those who wanted to go out and gather supplies to think of ways to find vehicles or floating tools to get out.
Those big iron basins bought at home for bathing children happened to become useful. With the water accumulated so deep below, as long as an adult sitting inside controlled their balance well, they could completely paddle out.
Of course, there were risks.
When one was alone, perhaps one would think, “If I die, then I die.” But the more people there were, the stronger the desire to survive became. People would think of every possible way to live.
The military mobilized all its strength to carry out rescues, establish temporary shelters, and take in civilians.
At first, things were inevitably chaotic. In shelters, there were always situations where people concealed injuries and then turned into zombies in public.
Whether the situation would ultimately become better or worse, no one knew.
But what was certain was that this earliest period was absolutely the hardest to endure.
The departure of loved ones, the loss of homes, friends turning against one another, and the malice of strangers—every frightening moment made everyone truly realize: the apocalypse had really arrived.
It was not the kind of end of the world where a planet crashed into Earth and, before one could even react, one was completely vaporized.
It was an apocalypse where people had to constantly struggle and work hard to survive, with no one knowing what kind of disaster would arrive tomorrow.
One word apart, yet worlds apart.
Not to mention that aside from zombies, there were also natural disasters.
Jiang Qingyu contacted a few classmates from university whom he had gotten along with fairly well. Before this, he had already intentionally or unintentionally reminded them to remember to stockpile supplies.
He had even, as if directing and acting in his own play, shared with them the apocalypse-related post he had written on the forum, repeatedly reminding them that they must take it seriously.
In addition, Jiang Qingyu had also “lent” them some money to use for stockpiling supplies.
Back in university, they had taken care of him to some extent. Jiang Qingyu was the kind of person who would return the same kindness when others treated him well.
If they listened to him and went to stock up, then they could now hold out at home for a period of time.
On the other hand, if they took the money and did something else with it, and were now out of food and resources, Jiang Qingyu truly had no way to help.
Even this was money he had transferred by skirting the edges of the system’s rules. After all, when Jiang Qingyu first learned that points could be exchanged for money, he had already had the concept of “teaming up.”
Continuously stockpiling and continuously exchanging, expanding the team and inventory—would that not mean the entire population could stockpile?
Things like joining hands to resist natural disasters…
At the time, the system had laughed coldly and reminded him not to indulge in wishful thinking.
If Jiang Qingyu really did that, the entire apocalypse survival system would collapse. Forget protecting others—his life value would instantly drop to zero. In other words, his little life would be gone, and he would die on the spot.
That was not exploiting a bug? The system had not bound that many people.
After hearing this, Jiang Qingyu could only give up and take care of himself first.
After all, he only had the space and the RV. He was not invulnerable to blades and bullets. If he was unfortunately bitten badly by zombies or harmed by people, everything he currently had would disappear into ashes along with him.
Back to the matter at hand.
Their nearly ten-hour journey today had almost half the roads in poor driving condition.
If the RV did not have an adaptive function, they would probably have been jolted into carsickness the whole way, with no energy to do anything else, only lying on the bed feeling nauseous.
Along the way, they encountered quite a few SUVs and RVs that had been modified with additional luggage racks. Occasionally, large trucks drove toward them from the opposite direction. The road was full of accumulated water, and it was hard to say who splashed whom.
If this had been normal weather, then naturally, there would have been sand and dust everywhere. After several days of road-tripping, even the glass would have been worn down.
But now, rainwater wrapped around sand fell with pattering force. If one used a basin to catch the rainwater, after letting it settle for a little while, a layer of sand would sink to the bottom. Every vehicle looked dusty and disheveled.
Before they reached their destination, the sky had already darkened. However, this was not their first time driving at night in the rain, so they were not that worried.
The entire RV was brightly lit inside. Both electronic doors were open, making it convenient to walk around and retrieve things.
Meimei was relatively reserved. She found a place to nestle comfortably, occasionally strolling along after Jiang Qingyu’s footsteps.
Tangyuan was different. It was a clingy little thing and almost followed wherever they went. It was very fair and balanced, liking Jiang Qingyu and also clinging to Fu Jingqiu.
Its main principle was that no one should be neglected, and everyone needed to be stuck to.
Fu Jingqiu looked at the navigation and speed, then said to Jiang Qingyu, “By the time we drive over, it’ll probably already be late at night. If there’s anything you want to buy or any place you want to visit, we can only talk about it tomorrow.”
Jiang Qingyu crossed his arms and put on an affected air. “That depends on the situation. If there are zombies, I absolutely won’t go shopping.”
At some point, Fu Jingqiu had learned how to joke around from Jiang Qingyu. He replied, “If there are zombies, even if you want to get out of the vehicle, I won’t allow it.”
Only in that case, tonight’s dinner still had to be solved on the road. They could not eat out.
Originally, Jiang Qingyu had planned to eat Niya black chicken. Everyone online said it was delicious, almost without bad reviews. If no zombies had appeared for the time being and everything in the city was peaceful, then he could still eat and buy some.
Fine, fine.
Jiang Qingyu once again took out the hot pot, planning to eat a yak [1] beef hot pot before they reached their destination.
He had bought the beef in advance. At yak beef hot pot shops here, a set meal costing around a hundred yuan could feed two people until they were stuffed.
Not only was there plenty of beef, but the side dishes were also generous. He did not know whether it was because of the breed, but it just felt more delicious than the ones he had eaten before.
The beef bone broth jelly had been saved by Jiang Qingyu previously when he had stewed beef ribs in clear broth. It had frozen into blocks inside sealed bags. Whether used to cook wontons and noodles or added to dishes, it was delicious.
Now, he used it with plain water as the soup base, making a light and clean bone broth beef hot pot. If they wanted something more stimulating, they could just add things to their dipping sauces. It was the same.
The two humans, one cat, and one dog took their seats. The light above their heads was warm yellow, and the scene looked exceptionally cozy.
Ever since the zombie incident broke out, they had not opened the privacy curtains again.
Fu Jingqiu was much more vigilant than Jiang Qingyu. Not only did he inspect the surroundings every morning after waking up, but before sleeping, he also routinely checked again, in case he missed any details or gave bad people an opportunity.
In this regard, Jiang Qingyu was an obedient good student. Whatever the teacher taught and told him to do, he accepted it all.
After all, in this area, Fu Jingqiu was the professional.
The privacy curtains were drawn, but that did not affect the sound of rain serving as background noise.
Jiang Qingyu raised a cup. The floor heating was on inside the vehicle, so he wanted to drink something icy. He had added ice cubes to orange juice. It tasted sweet and sour, especially refreshing.
This hot pot was something both the cat and dog could taste a little of. Jiang Qingyu also took out a lot of seafood and vegetables for blanching, placing them in the special hot pot preparation basket and arranging two beautiful portions.
The vehicle’s speed did not slow, but the meal was in no hurry. Neither he nor Fu Jingqiu had anything to do, so they calmly and steadily ate for nearly two hours.
During this time, they also added fruit and desserts. They had all been bought by Jiang Qingyu before, inexpensive but good-quality and large in quantity. The juices were sweet and plentiful, with almost no astringency. The meal was thoroughly enjoyable.
As expected, Jiang Qingyu ate too much.
This time, without Fu Jingqiu needing to remind him, afraid that he would feel too stuffed before sleeping, Jiang Qingyu took the initiative to request some post-meal digestion exercise—the easy kind.
Fu Jingqiu agreed.
He had plenty of methods. Dealing with this inexperienced little fish was more than enough.
Jiang Qingyu endured it with tears, both pained and happy.
With their previous experience, today they did not choose to enter the city right away. Instead, they parked the vehicle outside a checkpoint near the reservoir outside the city.
The checkpoint was located relatively high up. Although the reservoir’s water level had risen recently, it had not yet reached the checkpoint.
All the white buildings here were locked, and the location was not far from the city, so there should not be anyone staying here.
After entering the city tomorrow, they would check the situation. If it was still relatively peaceful, they could stay at an RV campsite for another couple of nights. In any case, they were not in a hurry.
Naturally, Jiang Qingyu had no objection to Fu Jingqiu’s arrangement. After they parked, Fu Jingqiu pushed him to wash up first.
He quite liked this part. After taking a shower, changing into clean pajamas, and climbing into bed, all worries should be thrown beyond the clouds. He should think of nothing and sleep properly.
Before sleeping, he lowered the soundproofing slightly, arranged the pillow, and tucked the blanket into a comfortable shape—it was quite ritualistic.
He lay down and was instantly wrapped by the soft blankets, letting out a comfortable sigh. His left hand reached to hook the privacy curtain at the rear of the vehicle.
The rain seemed to have lessened somewhat, falling like silver needles. Nearby poplar trees swayed gently in the wind, weaving together into a natural lullaby, making him even more drowsy.
The quiet bedroom was like a warm harbor from the wind. Jiang Qingyu withdrew his hand in satisfaction, planning to sleep.
The kind where he would not play on his phone under the blankets.
But in the second before the privacy curtain fell, from the corner of Jiang Qingyu’s eye, he suddenly caught sight of what seemed to be a black shadow flashing past outside the vehicle. He instantly sat up.
What was that?
A cat? A wolf? It couldn’t be a bear, right?
But thinking carefully, its size and height did not seem right.
Jiang Qingyu gripped the blanket tightly, his heart pounding like a drum. He sat frozen on the bed for several minutes, not knowing whether he should look again to confirm.
Could it have been the shadow of a tree?
…Should he go call Fu Jingqiu?
But Fu Jingqiu washed up and tidied himself much faster than him. He was not so slow, nor would he touch his phone midway and look at it endlessly. Once he got into bed, he would directly rest. If Jiang Qingyu went over and woke him up at this time, and it turned out to be a false alarm, how awkward would that be?
After battling with himself for a moment, Jiang Qingyu bit his lip and still decided to muster his courage and look again.
Just one look!
The privacy curtain was pulled open with a sharp swish. Jiang Qingyu widened his eyes, wanting to see clearly. Almost in an instant, a face suddenly pressed up against the window, its turbid pupils staring at him like dead fish, unblinking.
Jiang Qingyu screamed.
Footnotes:
[1] Yak: A large, shaggy-haired wild or domesticated ox (Bos grunniens) found in the Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, and Central Asia.
