Chapter 5 – Parting Ways

The two girls were like birds startled by the mere twang of a bow, unable to sleep. Most of the people in the world were the same as them, sleepless the whole night through.

But Qi Jingchen… He had always been sleeping.

Qi Jingchen was laying on his back, even his posture didn’t change.

Even though the pain on his body was terrible, he still slept particularly comfortably, had even felt that his rebirth isn’t so much of a bad thing, at least he has a good sleep.

During the late stages of the apocalypse, he spent every moment of every day supporting his domain. Don’t even mention sleep, even wanting to rest was difficult.

“Yaoyao, why’s your brother still sleeping?” Guan Jiayu frowned and looked at Qi Jingchen’s room. Didn’t it say that the fever would last a few hours, then they’ll become an ability user? Why was Qi Jingchen still like this? Could it be that his fever wasn’t because he’s becoming an ability user, but because it’s just a common illness?

“My ge is feeling unwell.” Qi Yaoyao said with swollen eyes. In the beginning, because she was afraid of the two zombies pounding on their door she daren’t move. But now everything that could be pushed was pushed to the door, and those two zombies still hadn’t managed to pound open the door, so she immediately felt better.

“Even if it was a fever it shouldn’t be this severe…” Even though the ability users had a fever and felt unwell all over their body, they weren’t to the level of being unable to get off the bed. Millions of common people had fevers and continued to go to school and go to work too.

“People who don’t usually get sick, would be more ill when they do… I’ll go feed my ge some milk.” Qi Yaoyao stood up again, people who had a fever or cold should drink more water, so she set an interval of every few hours to go and feed Qi Jingchen some water, or feed some milk.

It’s not that she didn’t want to feed him other things, but actually… before, she had stuffed a milk candy into her ge’s mouth, as a result, her ge threw up again!

“There’s almost no milk.” Guan Jiayu immediately said.

“There’s still quite a few cartons ne.” Qi Yaoyao took the milk and left.

Watching Qi Yaoyao leave, Guan Jiayu sat there and grit her teeth. If Qi Jingchen really wasn’t becoming an ability user but was sick, then giving him milk now was simply a waste… they altogether only had this little to eat!

Thinking like this, Guan Jiayu even felt regret over the milk tea she herself had given Qi Jingchen to eat before.

Even though milk tea was junk food, but when there wasn’t food, this thing was small in size but large in calorific value, so it was indeed a good thing!

Even though Qi Yaoyao had personally witnessed the arrival of the apocalypse, she was unable to react to it. Guan Jiayu wasn’t the same. Now she already had the food that has high calories and were easy to carry hidden by her body, and started pondering over what to do next.

Qi Yaoyao watered Qi Jingchen with a carton of milk then returned, only then did she realise she was hungry too— yesterday she had been too sad to eat at first, then after she saw the zombies outside the door she had completely lost her appetite, until now she had only drank saliva.

“There’s nothing to eat at home?” Qi Yaoyao tore apart some bread, only then did she notice that there was only very few snacks left in the apartment. “How long can we still eat the remaining? We… won’t starve to death ba?”

Qi Yaoyao went to open the refrigerator door, in the fridge there was only some tomatoes and eggs, and also one single carrot, while the freezer actually had some frozen dumplings, but now they can’t turn on the fire which means they had no way to eat it— Qi Jingchen’s cooking was all made with electric stoves, electric rice cookers and so on, after the electric outage they naturally can’t be used anymore.

“If I knew earlier that the electricity would be cut off I would’ve cooked the dumplings.” Guan Jiayu’s face was filled with regret. This quick freeze dumplings will spoil if they weren’t in the refrigerator, but currently they also had nothing to cook it with… thank god she had eaten the ice cream in the fridge yesterday, or else it would be a waste too.

“How about we find something to light on fire?” Qi Yaoyao asked.

“Lighter ne?” Guan Jiayu asked in reply, in fact she had looked for a lighter a long time ago, in the end this home simply didn’t have one.

Qi Yaoyao immediately had nothing to say.

There’s currently no electricity, they also dare not play with their phones, and there was nothing else to do. They could only be silent, and then the sounds of the zombies pounding on the door became much clearer, the sound of pounding against the door was like it was pounding against their heart, and the fear and dread in their hearts were magnified by countless-folds.

They lived on the sixth floor, in the middle of the floor. All kinds of cries for help could be heard increasingly clearly, and they were able to see the scenery of the neighborhood.

A lot of people wanted to drive a car to escape, some wanted to run away, some were scratched by zombies… Guan Jiayu had, from the window, personally seen a man carrying large and small bags back here, but ended up unexpectedly scratched by a zombie that had leapt out of the shrubbery.

That man hadn’t died at that time, and had even crushed that zombie to death, but after… he’ll sooner or later also turn into a zombie.

Unknowingly, the sky darkened again.

The two girls finally couldn’t resist sleep. Qi Jingchen then slowly got up from his bed, then went to the toilet.

The neighborhood from time to time broke out into shrill weeping sounds, the zombies pounding on the door had only one left, but still persevered in poundingk2026;

All of this was just the beginning.

Throwing his stiff and aching body onto the bed, Qi Jingchen only felt that his heart was bitter and astringent. He didn’t know how the apocalypse came, and didn’t understand why, since the apocalypse had already arrived, it hadn’t let everyone die at once, instead insisting on letting everyone struggle to survive for so many years, to the extent that it allowed so many ugliness be nakedly exposed in front of everyone?

Well, he shouldn’t think so much, he didn’t even want to live, so why bother thinking about this?

Today in his last life, Qi Jingchen had actively reached out for the fellow townsmen he knew, and followed those people to depart from this city. But this time, he just closed his eyes once more.

The third day of the apocalypse, the sun rose as usual, sunlight spilling all over mother earth, the weather was really, really good, and… really, really hot.

It was July, the hottest period. The past two days, everyone had been frightened and shocked so they didn’t notice, but it wasn’t the same today. A heatwave made all the survivors even more jittery.

The frozen dumplings had already completely spoilt, Qi Yaoyao and Guan Jiayu’s complexion also became increasingly unsightly. They were now, like other people, laying on the balcony calling for help hopelessly, but absolutely no one would come and save them, and no one had the ability to save them…

Under the sunlight, the zombies actions would be restricted, but the high temperature wouldn’t rot them. This may not feel deep for the ordinary people, but for those in power, this was undoubtedly a huge blow.

It was also on this day, Qi Yaoyao and Guan Jiayu had eaten all the snacks and food.

Qi Jingchen still wasn’t moving, Qi Yaoyao squeezed some tomato juice into his mouth, fed him some water, but couldn’t do anything else. As for Guan Jiayu who had previously thought to fawn over Qi Jingchen, she didn’t even go near Qi Jingchen today.

“Yaoyao, what do we do? We won’t starve to death here, would we?” On this night, Guan Jiayu couldn’t resist asking.

Responding to her, was Qi Yaoyao’s sobbing.

The fourth day of the apocalypse quickly arrived.

According to what Qi Jingchen knew, at this time two large-scale security base would already be completed nearby, so much that a lot of people had already entered the secured base.

Some of them were lucky enough to live in the area where the secured zone was located, some had heard information and fled there or accidentally fled there, and also some… If they had a distinguished family background, then they didn’t even need to do anything, and there would be people sending them to a security base.

Large-scaled security base already existed, and soon, a few small scale security bases would spring up…

Those large-scaled security bases were still fine, they fundamentally were controlled by the army, so it could be considered as orderly, while the small scaled bases… hehe!

In his last life, Qi Jingchen was confined by a small base, that base was originally extremely small, according to reason it wouldn’t be too long before they were annexed or destroyed by zombies, but they had caught him…

Relying on his flesh, this security base’s ability users all became strong beyond description, and had exchanged it with other places to obtain many good things.

Almost no one knew, this big villain that could let people be terror stricken by the news of him, had in fact once relied on his strength to ‘live’ in a security base.

Qi Jingchen was calm because he knew that once the secured base was on the right track, the army would definitely come out to search for supplies.

During the initial stages of the apocalypse, the army treated common people, particularly the minors, pretty well. Of course, if they met him, this kind of ‘treasure’, likely there weren’t many people that could resist not taking a bite out of him.

Qi Jingchen had thought of where Qi Yaoyao should go next, but he didn’t say anything at all, partly because he was too lazy to speak, and partly because he was very clear on what kind of person Guan Jiayu was.

Just as expected, today Guan Jiayu couldn’t endure any longer.

Guan Jiayu was increasingly impatient, she apparently looked outside the window at all times, as long as she saw a living person she would loudly cry for help, but unfortunately it was the same as the day before, absolutely no one replied to her pleas. And then, she began to lose her temper towards Qi Yaoyao. “There’s nothing to eat at home! Why did your brother precisely at this time fall sick? If he was fine, we would’ve escaped a long time ago!”

Qi Yaoyao faintly felt that Guan Jiayu’s words were kind of fishy, yet didn’t know how to refute her, and could only listen to Guan Jiayu’s criticism.

“Give me the milk!” Guan Jiayu rushed at Qi Yaoyao while speaking. Right now, she exhibited that besides the living, there was only that two cartons of milk left.

“This is for my ge.” Qi Yaoyao was alarmed. “He can’t eat anything else, this milk is for him.”

“He’s already sick to this point, only drinking milk could support him for a few days, it’s better off if we split and drank it.” Guan Jiayu said.

“How could you do this!” Qi Yaoyao couldn’t restrain herself, no matter how much she was difficult to Qi Jingchen, taking for granted that Qi Jingchen had to treat her well since her own family had raised him, she had never thought to let Qi Jingchen die. “We can eat rice!”

Before, Guan Jiayu and Qi Yaoyao had already discussed it, if they really couldn’t go on, they could eat the uncooked rice, but how could raw rice taste better than milk? Guan Jiayu was very determined. “Give me the milk!”

“No way!” Qi Yaoyao still shook her head.

Guan Jiayu didn’t even think, throwing herself at Qi Yaoyao and started to scramble for the milk in her hands. Qi Yaoyao had never fought with other people, not only did she suffer a few strikes, the milk was also taken away.

She suddenly looked at her friend in disbelief, unable to believe the good friend she had always taken care of and protected, unexpectedly would do this sort of thing.

“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be stuck at this damnable place!” Guan Jiayu wasn’t only precocious, she was also shrewd. It was just that she was still small, and had experienced great changes, so at this time she had exposed her true colours.

“It was you who wanted to come…” Qi Yaoyao muttered. She had hated Qi Jingchen, so how could she want to come to Qi Jingchen’s place for summer vacation? If it wasn’t for Guan Jiayu always saying she wanted to come, she simply wouldn’t have come.

“How would I know that your brother was this useless?” Guan Jiayu yelled. “You as well, completely useless. You only know how to cry! For you, this type of woman, besides getting fucked, what else do you know?”

Guan Jiayu not only criticised Qi Yaoyao, she even cursed at her, wantonly unburdening her negative mood onto Qi Yaoyao. That attitude, was exactly like her mother.

Qi Yaoyao always listened to Guan Jiayu avoid her own mother and say this is not good that is not good, but never thought that Guan Jiayu was unexpectedly the same, both frightened and angry, but she unfortunately had no way of scolding her back.

Guan Jiayu cursed halfway, then suddenly shut her mouth, and then impatiently ran out to the balcony, following which, she started to call for help again.

“Help! Help!” Guan Jiayu’s voice was extremely loud, not even a while later, the neighbors started to ring out with the same sounds of crying for help— the husband of the zombie blocking their door had hidden in the bedroom and avoided a calamity, now he was still alive, fortunately there was him, now their door only had one female zombie.

Guan Jiayu’s yells for help was particularly resounding this time, and she did this for a reason— in their neighborhood, appeared troops that seem especially formidable.

The troops were probably planning to clean up their neighborhood. Some of them were smashing down the doors of the households below, some of them were attacking the wandering zombies, but without a doubt, the most eye-catching one was the person in the middle of them throwing fire balls!

Before the internet was shut down, Guan Jiayu had seen the news about ability users online, even hoped that Qi Jingchen was also an ability user, but she hadn’t actually seen a genuine ability user.

Now, seeing the ability user burning the zombie’s head after it was intercepted by a comrade with a metal rod, both astonished and worshipful, the sounds of cries for help became more piercing.

However, the people downstairs weren’t planning on caring about the cries for help at all. Think about it, the amount of people who stayed in their homes and didn’t dare come out now were so many, if they wanted to save everyone, how could they save them all?

“Help! We have an ability user here too!” Guan Jiayu’s cries for help suddenly changed. She had already seen that these people weren’t interested in her, but what about an ability user?

The people downstairs discussed for a while, then very quickly, someone had given Guan Jiayu a gesture.

Guan Jiayu’s eyes immediately started shining. She hurriedly started moving away the furniture blocking the entrance, planning on waiting for people to come save her.

“Jiayu!” Qi Yaoyao’s spirit couldn’t return— where did they have an ability user?

Guan Jiayu didn’t speak to Qi Yaoyao at all. After those people dealt with the zombies by the door and across the hall, she impatiently threw open the door.

“The ability user ne?” The one who came in was the one who had thrown the fireball. After he came in, he swept the place with disdainful eyes.

An ability user trapped in their home by two zombies… How humiliating!

“It’s my ge! Didn’t the internet say that people who were feverish and ill would awaken to an ability? My ge started having a fever for no reason after the apocalypse came.” Guan Jiayu immediately said, looking as if she believed Qi Jingchen was an ability user without a doubt.

“Where’s your ge ne?” That person asked.

“In his room!” Guan Jiayu said, immediately opening Qi Jingchen’s door.

Qi Jingchen was lying on the bed, pallid complexion and unconscious, with just a look it was obvious he was really ill.

“What’s wrong with him?” The fire ability user asked.

“He still has a fever, his ability hasn’t awakened yet!” Guan Jiayu said.

“Bullshit! Ability awakening’s fever would last the longest for a day, where would someone have a fever this long and not awaken? Moreover, even if it was a fever, it wouldn’t be like this! Fuck! You played me!” That person immediately became angry.

“I didn’t know, big brother, I really didn’t know…” Guan Jiayu hurriedly apologised.

Even though the ability user was unhappy, Guan Jiayu was still a girl who hadn’t grown up, she was pretty good-looking, plus, she didn’t do it on purpose… He coldly snorted, but in the end he didn’t continue to lose his temper.

Guan Jiayu immediately exploited this opportunity. “Big brother, I’m really sorry… You were using an ability earlier? So cool! My house has raw rice and can make cooked rice, and also water, do you guys want it? And I can cook rice, I’ll cook rice for you!”

“You want to follow us?” The ability user almost immediately guessed out Guan Jiayu’s intention.

“Big brother…” Guan Jiayu pitifully looked at him.

“If you know how to cook rice, then you can follow us, but we won’t specially protect you, and we won’t care for the people in this house.” That man said.

Guan Jiayu’s eyes flashed with delight. She hurriedly agreed, then suddenly alertly remembered that she can’t abandon her companions… “Big brother, actually he isn’t my related brother, I came over to a classmate’s house to play then the apocalypse happened, could you take along my classmate?”

Guan Jiayu pointed at Qi Yaoyao.

Even though Qi Yaoyao was already fuming at Guan Jiayu, she also wanted to follow this ability user. After all, staying behind probably meant starving to death, but in the end she still thought of Qi Jingchen. “Then my ge?”

“Don’t tell me you think we’ll carry your brother to leave?” The ability user frowned. The Qi parents were ordinary people, Qi Yaoyao also had ordinary looks, and these days she cried until her eyes were swollen. At this moment there really wasn’t any qualities worth looking at, and he couldn’t summon any feelings of protectiveness for the fairer sex.

“Then… Then I won’t go…” Qi Yaoyao said. Her brother was sick to this degree, and couldn’t eat anything, if she left he would definitely starve to death……

“That’s for the best.” The man said, then without hesitating, he went into the apartment to take a few plastic bags filled with water, and took two full thermoses of water, at the same time, he didn’t forget to call for Guan Jiayu. “If you want to leave with us, then bring along the rice and seasoning!”

Guan Jiayu carried her bag, held the sack of rice that hadn’t been opened yet, and even took some seasoning, then left without even turning her head.

The still alive husband from the opposite apartment also packed up his things and followed them. Probably because that man brought quite an amount of food, and also was at the prime of his life, the ability user tacitly agreed on letting him follow along.

Baobao Notes (edited)

GOD BLESS discord user Demon Cat for pointing out the millions of mistakes I made, that’s what I get for rushing a chapter out…