Chapter 46 – Arrival

Nie Yi’s series of actions were all taken in by Qi Jingchen.

His pair of delicate feet rested barefoot on the chair beside him. He waited for Nie Yi to return before saying quietly, “Actually, I’m not afraid of pain, and the wound heals very quickly.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Nie Yi took a deep breath and kissed Qi Jingchen’s face.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about it. If I knew that there was such a miraculous person in this world, I’d also want to eat their flesh-” Before Qi Jingchen could finish speaking, Nie Yi had already sealed his lips.

Qi Jingchen stomped his foot on Nie Yi, and directly kicked him away. He knew that Ping Shengchao was a very important person to Nie Yi, and had even wanted to give him some blood. In the end, Nie Yi came and took advantage of him… He’s too lazy to care anymore!

In any case, a regular person like Ping Shengchao will die very soon during the middle period of the apocalypse, so truthfully, there was no need to save him.

After kicking him aside, Qi Jingchen laid back down while Nie Yi suddenly went out.

Seeing this, Qi Yaoyao carefully edged closer to Qi Jingchen. “Ge, Ping ge is pretty good. He doesn’t need to be tied up, right?” Ping Shengchao had been quite considerate towards Qi Yaoyao in the past, so Qi Yaoyao wanted to plead for leniency for him.

Even though Qi Yaoyao still couldn’t understand Nie Yi’s temperamental behaviour, after interacting with Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen more often, she knew that as long as her brother said the word, Nie Yi would assuredly do as he said.

Nie Yi was quite good to her ge, but he used her ge’s sickness to grope him all over, and even forbid her from approaching him. Qi Yaoyao still couldn’t bear this.

“They’re playing around. You don’t have to bother,” Qi Jingchen said.

Unable to obtain the result she wanted, Qi Yaoyao took out a packet of milk candy and went to Ping Shengchao’s side. “Ping ge, do you want candy?”

When Ping Shengchao had been tied up by Nie Yi, he had thought that Nie Yi was valuing his lover more than his friends, but very soon, he understood— Nie Yi seemed to have seen his strangeness.

He had initially wanted to go out and die alone outside, but being able to stay here while he was at death’s door was also pretty good.

He just didn’t know what his family’s boss made him eat… it was so hard to swallow!

Thinking of this, Ping Shengchao calmed down and even smiled when he saw Qi Yaoyao come over, then opened his mouth. “Give me one!”

Qi Yaoyao opened a milk candy and was about to feed Ping Shengchao, but Ping Shengchao thought of something and used his gaze to indicate towards Zhang Zihai. “Let him feed me.”

He was about to become a zombie; if Qi Yaoyao accidentally knocked against his teeth or something when feeding him. It wasn’t the same for Zhang Zihai. He was an ability user, so even if he bit him, it would be fine.

Besides that, when he recalled that he had encountered this fate because Zhang Zihai bafflingly wanted to look for a crystal nucleus, Ping Shengchao really did feel his teeth itch a little.

Of course, he just thought about it… After all, Zhang Zihai was still his saviour.

“So it’s like this ah…” Qi Yaoyao gave the milk candy to Zhang Zihai, looked at Zhang Zihai, then looked at Ping Shengchao, feeling as if she had discovered something.

Ping Shengchao had no idea that someone was thinking too much. After eating the milk candy fed by Zhang Zihai, he had Zhang Zihai feed him a chicken leg.

Although it seemed bad to waste food when he was about to die, he still wanted to enjoy life before his death.

Zhang Zihai fed Ping Shengchao the packaged drumsticks. He held the drumstick and patiently let Ping Shengchao nibble on it. When Ping Shengchao finished eating it, he took out a pig trotter. “Do you want it?”

“Yes,” Ping Shengchao said through gritted teeth.

At this time, Nie Yi had walked in from outside, holding a stainless steel thermos.

“Get out of the way,” Nie Yi said to Zhang Zihai and Qi Yaoyao, then grasped Ping Shengchao’s jaw and poured the thing inside his thermos into his mouth.

Ping Shengchao’s jaw was grabbed, and he couldn’t move, but after having drunk only a mouthful, his eyes widened in astonishment as he stared fixedly at Nie Yi. However, Nie Yi ignored him and continued pouring the entire liquid from the thermos into his mouth in one go. Then, he poured some water into the thermos, shook it and continued to pour it down his throat.

After doing all this, Nie Yi threw some water over him again and washed him down, saying, “Be careful in the future. Don’t make your entire body stink.”

Ping Shengchao had eaten dinner before he left, ate a drumstick just now and Nie Yi had even filled his stomach with water twice. His stomach was incredibly bloated now.

The thing in that thermos just now was blood.

Just now, Nie Yi had gone out alone; whose blood he had drunk was self-evident.

ven though he didn’t know why Nie Yi wanted to feed him the blood, it was definitely not to hurt him, and might even be to save him… Ping Shengchao suddenly felt his eyes become hot.

After Nie Yi force-fed Ping Shengchao, he went over to Qi Jingchen.

When Nie Yi came closer to him, Qi Jingchen looked at Nie Yi’s hand, then stood up to put on his slippers and went upstairs. “I want to go to sleep.”

“I’ll go as well.” Nie Yi hurriedly followed after him. He didn’t know whether Qi Jingchen’s hair or his own blood after drinking Qi Jingchen’s blood was useful, but it should be, seeing that Qi Jingchen didn’t plan on staying.

His heart, which had tightened, finally relaxed.

He heard that for a short period of time, those who had eaten the panacea made by Qi Jingchen’s blood would be fine even if they were bitten by a zombie of their level… He just knew that his blood would be useful!

The house they had chosen in this rural area was in the style of a villa. The second floor had a bedroom that was decorated quite well. As soon as Nie Yi went up, he changed a clean woven quilt for Qi Jingchen to lie on, and asked, “You didn’t let me carry you up today; is it because you feel distressed that I hurt my arm?”

Qi Jingchen was once again too lazy to care about him.

Nie Yi had gone upstairs, but the others were gathered downstairs.

Zhang Zihai had already opened up the pig trotters in his hands, but just when he was about to give it to Ping Shengchao, Ping Shengchao said, “I don’t want to eat.”

“Then…” Zhang Zihai looked at his hand, then held it out heroically. “Do you want a bite?”

He had previously seen one of his comrades slowly turn into a zombie. Before his comrade killed himself, he had said that he really wanted to take a bite out of him.

For ability users, it was fine if they were bitten a few times by level one zombies, as long as they didn’t get bitten by level twos.

“Get lost!” Ping Shengchao looked at that hairy arm that was getting closer to his face and couldn’t help speaking up. He just had too much water poured down his throat and didn’t want to eat; it wasn’t like he wanted to eat human meat!

“Ping Shengchao, are you okay? What happened just now?” Xu Nan walked over. He was a little shocked when Nie Yi had abruptly and inexplicably begun tossing Ping Shengchao about.

Although Nie Yi was very caring towards Qi Jingchen, he was in no way this sort of unreasonable person

“It was my fault, I did something wrong,” Ping Shengchao immediately smiled as he said, “It has nothing to do with Boss… Actually, the boss’s punishment was a little light.”

Hearing Ping Shengchao say that, Xu Nan also thought that Ping Shengchao had done something wrong. In truth, Nie Yi had only tied Ping Shengchao up and left him in a corner but didn’t harm Ping Shengchao at all. It didn’t seem as if he was genuinely mad.

A lot of people came over with concern for Ping Shengchao. Facing these people, Ping Shengchao had a remorseful appearance, expressing that he had done something wrong. Eventually, no one questioned him anymore, each searching for a place to sleep.

Only Zhang Zihai was left sitting by his side. “You truly are good at lying.”

“Is this anything?” Ping Shengchao said proudly. Back when his family’s boss had encountered some trouble, it was all resolved by his own mouth. His family’s boss wasn’t an expert in social interaction, and was even getting worse recently…

It was just like what his boss did just now. If it weren’t for him helping to explain, other people would definitely misunderstand him. Ping Shengchao suddenly felt a little worried.

“Expert!” Zhang Zihai did a thumbs up. Even though he also guessed that Nie Yi had done this for Ping Shengchao’s own good, he had originally thought that Ping Shengchao would be uncomfortable after being tied up.

“Do me a favour.” Ping Shengchao suddenly looked at Zhang Zihai.

“What do you want me to do?” Zhang Zihai asked.

“…” Ping Shengchao was silent for a moment, then he said, “Carry me to the toilet.”

His family’s boss had probably tied him up because he was worried he’d become a zombie. He had tied him up so tightly, and yet fed him so much water— He needed to pee!

“You want to go to the toilet?” Zhang Zihai was surprised.

“Why? Don’t want me to need to go to the toilet?” Ping Shengchao said through gritted teeth. When he had returned, he clearly exhibited some symptoms of zombification. His nails were black, but now these symptoms had slowly disappeared. He knew that this was caused by the two things Nie Yi had fed him.

His boss’s blood had a special efficacy… Ping Shengchao realised this almost immediately and felt that it was imperative to keep this a secret from everyone else.

Others didn’t know that he had been injured by a zombie, but Zhang Zihai knew. Since Nie Yi had fed him something, Zhang Zihai could probably make a guess… Ping Shengchao decided that he must watch Zhang Zihai from now on, and prevent him from speaking about this.

Zhang Zihai didn’t know what Ping Shengchao was thinking. He carried Ping Shengchao to the bathroom and suddenly thought of Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen. “I say, if Qi Jingchen is as heavy as you, Nie Yi definitely wouldn’t be willing to carry him every day!”

Ping Shengchao then realised that he was actually princess carried; this fellow was simply asking to die! However, Nie Yi had tied him very tightly and not only could he not beat him up, he even needed Zhang Zihai’s help to go to the toilet.

As for undoing this rope… Although Ping Shengchao currently didn’t show any zombification symptoms, he was still worried that something unexpected would happen with him. Moreover, since Nie Yi had tied him up, it didn’t seem right for him to take the initiative to untie it.

After resolving his physiological issue, Ping Shengchao and Zhang Zihai returned to their original spot. After half an hour, Ping Shengchao said, “I want to go to the bathroom.”

Zhang Zihai, who was still feeling remorseful and thus didn’t sleep, promptly did a princess carry again. At the same time, he realised that Ping Shengchao didn’t have any symptoms of turning into a zombie and sighed in relief. Nie Yi… was really quite skilled.

Qi Yaoyao had gotten up to use the toilet and just happened to see this scene and was all the more certain that she had discovered the truth.

These days, men all liked men. Qi Yaoyao wondered whether she should find a partner to keep ah… Unfortunately, she didn’t have the ability to keep someone else.

Sighing dejectedly, Qi Yaoyao laid down again. It was better if she waited a little longer before going to the toilet ba.

The next day, Nie Yi went downstairs and saw Ping Shengchao, only then did he realise that he had tied Ping Shengchao up for a whole night and promptly untied the rope on him. “Are you okay?”

Yesterday, when he discovered that Ping Shengchao was about to turn into a zombie, he was also anxious and feared that Ping Shengchao would do something like slipping away by himself to commit suicide. That’s why he had restrained him so tightly.

“I’m okay. Boss, it was my fault yesterday. I won’t do this again in the future.” Ping Shengchao immediately apologised.

Zhang Zihai also lowered his head in apology. “Yesterday was my fault too… Nie shao, thank you.” If Ping Shengchao died, he would definitely feel guilty forever. Thank goodness Nie Yi saved Ping Shengchao… Zhang Zihai wasn’t sure what happened yesterday, but he guessed that Nie Yi had definitely given Ping Shengchao something beneficial to eat.

Nie Yi naturally knew why he wanted to apologise and readily accepted it, saying, “Pay attention next time.”

“Yes, Boss.” Ping Shengchao was a little moved. To save him, Nie Yi had exposed his secret… He definitely wouldn’t disappoint Nie Yi!

However, Nie Yi didn’t have anything that needed his help… Ping Shengchao could only help Qi Jingchen move the deck chair and stool around.

This time, Qi Jingchen didn’t avoid him due to his smell.

He didn’t know whether it was because Qi Jingchen was in their unit, or because there was still very few level two zombies right now, but they didn’t meet any level two zombies during the rest of their journey to the western base. Of course, there was still a lot of level one zombies.

At first, Nie Yi had gone to kill zombies, but later, his subordinates’ cooperation steadily improved and they didn’t need him to come forward.

And during this journey, the most vigorous in killing zombies was none other than Ping Shengchao. Besides killing zombies particularly diligently, he didn’t bicker with Zhang Zihai anymore either and was always sticking by Zhang Zihai’s side instead.

Because of that small secret only known between them, Zhang Zihai was also extremely friendly towards Ping Shengchao. Their cooperation when killing zombies became increasingly tacit.

Qi Jingchen felt relieved after he observed these two for a while, then looked at the lettuce in his hands. He once again realised resentfully that this lettuce seemed to be growing particularly slowly. He couldn’t even pull out a leaf to eat…

They found a place to rest early every day; therefore, they didn’t arrive at the small western base until the third day. Distantly, they could see many people surrounding the small base. Like B City secure base, this place had used a bomb to clear an area. If zombies entered this area, the patrol would immediately dispose of them.

Zombies couldn’t sniff out smells from too far away. Hence, the reason why zombies would appear here was generally that they were attracted by survivors who had fled here or people who had gone out to look for food, so the secure base dispatching a patrol was not unexpected.

The roads nearby had all been cleared up, so Nie Yi and the others increased their speed at the end. When they arrived, not a single zombie was following after them. At the same time, someone from the patrol had also come over. “Where are you guys from?” Nie Yi and the rest’s trucks were not something a fleeing survivor would have.

“We came from B City secure base. Because the zombies have gotten stronger, B City secure base was worried that something would happen here, so they had us come to take a look,” Nie Yi said, opening the fence at the side of the truck and jumping down.

“You’re from B City secure base? Please come in!” The patrolmen had faces filled with joy. They were reliant on goods like ammunition sent from B City secure base, so they were extremely welcome to people from there.

Even though the entrance of this secure base wasn’t as elaborate as B City secure base, an average person still had to wait by the entrance for a long while before they could enter. However, Nie Yi and his people were all dressed cleanly, so they directly let them in. The person in charge of the base, that company commander, had even personally welcomed them.

“Do the higher-ups have any instructions?” The company commander immediately asked. He was the one managing the secure base here, and the pressure really was great; moreover, he had wanted to look for his own family… He felt that he would soon cave under pressure.

“This is a document from above.” Nie Yi gave him the file in his hands.

When the company commander had seen that Nie Yi and the others’ trucks had roofs filled with flowers and plants, he had thought that they were just people from the secure base who had come over to take a look at the situation, but this file startled him. “This many weapons?”

“Yes. Currently, the zombies are getting stronger. The secure base’s suggestion is to bring the old and weak over there as soon as possible,” Nie Yi said.

The old and weak were brought to B City secure base to settle down, whereas the young could stay behind and follow him, then he’ll go to other places to take a look.

During the beginning stage of the apocalypse, there actually were a lot of opportunities. Those mutated plants and animals were all beneficial. At first, in his last life, he had squandered all his time in B City secure base and earned very little, but it wasn’t the same now.

“We don’t have many people… Can we protect them?” The company commander was a little hesitant.

“Some decisions have to be made sooner or later,” Nie Yi said.

The company commander nodded. The people here were increasing with every single day, and it was getting harder for him to manage. Even though he had carried out some of B City secure base’s policies, in the end, he couldn’t do something exactly like B City secure base… If it continued on like this, a problem would arise sooner or later.

“Oh, by the way, is there a doctor called Fang Xinqi here?” Nie Yi asked.

The chief of the secure base was a little familiar with this doctor and promptly said, “There is.”

Ping Shengchao had always been right behind Nie Yi, and when he heard this, he was immediately excited.

Fang Xinqi, that was his mother’s name!