Chapter 44
In the middle of the night, the impact of this was truly no less terrifying than a ghostly hand reaching out of the toilet.
Jiang Qingyu scrambled and rolled, using both hands and feet, wrapped in his blanket as he crashed onto the floor with a loud bang.
Almost at the same time, someone knocked on his bedroom door. Fu Jingqiu’s anxious voice sounded from outside. “Jiang Qingyu? Jiang Qingyu! Are you okay? What happened?”
Still shaken, Jiang Qingyu opened the door with trembling hands. Fu Jingqiu immediately rushed in. Seeing him lying on the floor in a strange posture, his pupils trembled, and he quickly reached out to help him up. “What happened? Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself anywhere?”
The three questions smashed over him one after another, and instead made Jiang Qingyu calm down a little. He suddenly grabbed Fu Jingqiu’s outstretched hand, but his voice could not help trembling. “There’s a zombie!”
Fu Jingqiu asked, “Where?”
Jiang Qingyu pointed at the car window. Fu Jingqiu understood. He squeezed Jiang Qingyu’s shoulder comfortingly, then stepped past him and went to the window to check the situation. As soon as he lifted the privacy curtain, sure enough, that zombie was still in the same spot.
Seeing that face again, it would be a lie to say it was not horrifying. And because Fu Jingqiu had lifted the curtain, this time Jiang Qingyu could see it even more clearly.
Its skin was wrinkled like tree bark. Its eyeballs were cloudy. Half of its face had been gnawed away by something, exposing the bones and congealed flesh inside. The color was very dark. Its open teeth were covered in dried, dark-brown bloodstains, and its tongue looked like a piece of air-dried meat.
Just that one glance made all the goosebumps on Jiang Qingyu’s arms rise. Hugging Meimei, he shrank backward, only for his elbow to bump into something, scaring himself again.
When he turned his head, he realized it was Tangyuan, who had rushed over after hearing the noise. The tiny little puppy was terribly anxious, rubbing its head against him wildly and licking Jiang Qingyu’s hand. The warm touch helped him calm down a little, and he turned to look at Fu Jingqiu.
Fu Jingqiu observed the situation with just two or three glances, then came back and half-carried, half-dragged Jiang Qingyu up from the floor. “Do you still have strength?”
After that one look just now, Jiang Qingyu felt as if his nerves had been frightened weak. “I… a little, I guess.”
Fu Jingqiu supported him. “It’s all right. There’s only this one. It’s possible it was previously a staff member at the checkpoint. It’s still wearing work clothes.”
As for its face, either there were other zombies, or it had been gnawed by fish in the reservoir. It was hard to say.
Jiang Qingyu wanted to cry but had no tears. “I was a little too self-confident before.”
The zombie images in movies and dramas had nowhere near the impact of seeing one with his own eyes. Without exaggeration, if Fu Jingqiu had not been here, Jiang Qingyu probably would have been so frightened that he would scream while crawling on all fours into the living room.
He did not even dare to watch many horror movies, okay!
He also did not know how long this zombie had been wandering nearby before he discovered it, or whether it had been hiding somewhere, silently watching them park the vehicle here, then feeling its way over and circling this thing that had been familiar to it while it was alive.
Fu Jingqiu perhaps could not think of anything else to comfort him, so he lightly patted his shoulder. “Then let’s change places tonight.”
Jiang Qingyu did not really dare sit back on the bed. Wrapped in his blanket, he asked, “Where are we going?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “There are plenty of places to park. We just need to choose another.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “O-okay.”
If they continued staying here, he might not dare sleep for the whole night.
What if zombies had some kind of language or sensing ability between them, and this one discovered there were people inside the vehicle, then attracted other zombies over? Then they would really be like honey dropped into an ant nest. Even escaping would take some effort.
No matter how powerful their combat ability was, there was still always risk. Since they could avoid it by driving away, it was better not to go down and deal with it.
Fortunately, Fu Jingqiu did not bring that up. Otherwise, Jiang Qingyu definitely would have stopped him.
Fu Jingqiu brought him to the driver’s cabin, wrapping another blanket around him. At this moment, Fu Jingqiu did not feel reassured letting Jiang Qingyu stay alone.
As they drove away from the checkpoint, Jiang Qingyu still could not help secretly glancing at the rearview mirror. Sure enough, under the poplar forest near the reservoir, he saw several suspicious shadows.
He did not know whether it was his imagination, but he kept feeling that those shadows were looking in the direction they had left, and that they had the posture of wanting to follow.
This thought made Jiang Qingyu suddenly shrink his neck. He immediately withdrew his gaze and did not dare look again.
Fu Jingqiu had been paying attention to his condition the whole time. Seeing this, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Qingyu said, “I feel like there’s more than one zombie over by the reservoir.”
He said worriedly, “The reservoir isn’t far from Minfeng. Do you think the city might…”
Fu Jingqiu said, “It’s all right. We’ll still follow the original plan. Tonight, we’ll spend the night outside first, then enter the city tomorrow. If the situation in the city is serious, we’ll bypass this section of road.”
Jiang Qingyu held Meimei in one hand and Tangyuan in the other. “Okay.”
Now that he had come back to himself, he inevitably felt that his reaction just now had been a little embarrassing. Hadn’t he overreacted too much? Had Fu Jingqiu been forcibly woken from his sleep by him?
Thinking of this, he secretly glanced at Fu Jingqiu and tentatively asked, “When did you go to sleep?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “I went straight to sleep after washing up.”
All right, then he really had been woken up by him.
Fu Jingqiu added, “But I’m a light sleeper, so it’s fine.”
What a very straight-man kind of comfort.
Before Jiang Qingyu could figure out how to awkwardly chat with him, Fu Jingqiu had already found a new place and parked the vehicle.
This place was a half-finished small plaza. Behind it was a row of shops with signboards already installed, but the interiors had not yet been renovated. Judging by the look of it, the construction had been stopped for some time.
The view was relatively open, and the location made it convenient to drive away. They would not waste too much time reversing or turning around. Comparatively speaking, it was a more suitable place to rest.
After parking, Fu Jingqiu did not immediately let Jiang Qingyu rest. Instead, he first turned off the lights and observed for a while to see whether any zombies would be attracted by the heat of the vehicle’s engine.
His caution made Jiang Qingyu rather nervous too. He no longer had the heart to hold the cat and dog, and instead followed behind Fu Jingqiu with a serious expression to observe the surroundings. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Can you see clearly?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “Mm.”
That was it?
Was he not going to explain why he could see clearly, then give an example or something?
He really had no genes for showing off at all.
If it were those people Jiang Qingyu had known before, like the student council or others, they would already be boasting endlessly in front of him by now.
After waiting for about ten minutes and seeing that there was indeed nothing unusual around them, Fu Jingqiu turned the lights back on. Seeing that Jiang Qingyu’s face was still a little pale, he took the initiative to suggest, “Do you want to sleep in the living room?”
Jiang Qingyu froze. “What?”
Fu Jingqiu said, “The bed in the living room isn’t beside the window. You can sleep peacefully without being afraid of something clinging outside the window.”
Jiang Qingyu asked, “Then you…?”
Fu Jingqiu did not mean to switch sleeping places with Jiang Qingyu. After all, the other party’s bedroom looked very private, and Fu Jingqiu was not the kind of person without manners.
“I’ll sleep on the floor in the living room. There’s enough space here, so I can sleep.”
So that was what he meant.
Jiang Qingyu hesitated. “That doesn’t seem good, does it?”
Leaving a perfectly good bedroom unused, coming over to snatch someone else’s bed, and making the other person sleep on the floor—wasn’t that a little… too fussy?
Fu Jingqiu said, “It’s fine.” He paused, seemingly not wanting Jiang Qingyu to feel burdened. “I used to sleep on the floor often. This is nothing. And it isn’t cold inside the vehicle, so it’s the same.”
To be honest, Jiang Qingyu did still have a bit of psychological shadow and did not really dare return to his room to sleep.
The rainy-night atmosphere that had previously been extremely sleep-inducing now felt gloomy. The sound of rain was too loud and covered other noises instead. After all, zombies did not float over. There would always be footsteps. It would not be like one could lie against the vehicle completely unaware until something suddenly scared him.
But still…
Seeing Jiang Qingyu hesitate, Fu Jingqiu could guess with his toes why he was not agreeing. He simply made the decision directly, putting an arm around Jiang Qingyu’s shoulders. “Then it’s settled. I’ll carry your bedding out. Tonight, sleep in the living room.”
Hey, wait?
Without another word, Fu Jingqiu went straight into Jiang Qingyu’s bedroom to pack up his things.
His movements were extremely efficient. Grabbing the head and foot of the bed, he rolled everything up and carried away the soft mattress together with the pillow and quilt in one arm.
Jiang Qingyu stared, dumbfounded. These things were not light at all, okay? He did not need to split them into two or three trips, and actually carried everything away all at once?
Ignoring Jiang Qingyu, who was standing blankly in the living room, Fu Jingqiu set the things down, quickly tidied up his own bedding, and wiped the floor again with a towel in a few moves. Within a few breaths, he had laid out his own bedding, then swiftly and neatly made Jiang Qingyu’s bed too. Clapping his hands, he said, “Done!”
And that was not all.
With one hand, he picked up Meimei and placed her beside Jiang Qingyu’s pillow. Then he lifted Tangyuan and placed him on his own quilt. After settling each of them, he had even arranged who would sleep with whom.
Meimei looked dazed, completely unaware why she had been transferred from the warm bed where she had been sleeping to the living room. She raised her face blankly to look at Jiang Qingyu, as if saying: Are we sleeping here tonight?
Everything had been arranged and tidied properly. If he refused now, it would seem a little inappropriate.
Although the result was not what he had expected, and the beginning had been horrifying, at this moment, looking at the two beds in the living room, one higher and one lower, Jiang Qingyu felt incredibly comforted and at ease.
“Then I’ll trouble you,” he said.
After saying this, he automatically helped Fu Jingqiu continue the sentence. “It’s no trouble. It’s nothing.”
Fu Jingqiu was cut off by him. After freezing for a few seconds, he laughed. “Yes, it really is nothing. If you need this again in the future, even sleeping on the floor in your bedroom is fine.”
He did not mock Jiang Qingyu’s “timidity,” nor did he feel that tonight’s matter was making a mountain out of a molehill. Very properly, he settled Jiang Qingyu’s emotions and made practical arrangements, so Jiang Qingyu would not feel afterward that he had lost control too much.
Jiang Qingyu said, “…You probably wouldn’t be able to sleep on the floor in my room. You’re so tall.”
Not only were there steps below the bed, but the cabinets on both sides also took up quite a lot of space. Strictly speaking, his bed was actually the most spacious part.
Fu Jingqiu said, “The living room is fine too.” He did not mind; he could sleep anywhere.
Jiang Qingyu found it funny. “How could I snatch your place every day?”
He let out a long breath and finally climbed onto the bed Fu Jingqiu had been sleeping in for some time.
It was his first time sleeping here, and the comfort level was still decent. Faintly, at the tip of his nose, there seemed to still be the scent of Fu Jingqiu’s body wash, like the fragrance of soapberries after being dried in the sun. It smelled very comfortable.
Meimei was extremely familiar with Jiang Qingyu’s scent. Probably understanding that he was going to sleep here tonight, she skillfully lay down beside the pillow and narrowed her eyes to sleep.
This seemed to be the who-knew-how-many-th time that Jiang Qingyu sighed inwardly. Aside from certain inconveniences, having one more person around really did feel quite good.
