The cheerful and joyful sounds echoed throughout the entire neighborhood, making Wei Xuan, who had fully recovered his spirits, feel increasingly… headache.
He struggled to get up, taking slow and careful steps to walk to the window. Du Hang was timely and considerate, following closely beside him, acting as a humanoid crutch. Upon reaching the window, he raised his hand and pulled open the curtain with a “whoosh,” causing a pile of dust to fall, covering Wei Xuan from head to toe…
Wei Xuan, still shirtless, frowned and coughed repeatedly. However, even though he coughed while covering his mouth, he didn’t feel as irritated as he expected. It was as if even though he was amidst the dust, he hadn’t inhaled too much dusty air.
Wei Xuan’s mind wasn’t fully back to normal yet, so he temporarily set aside the puzzling matters. He felt that there seemed to be something in his line of sight that he couldn’t comprehend. He immediately pushed open the window with a forceful motion. Using a bit too much strength, there was a “crash” as the window shattered in front of him…
Staring at his palm once again, Wei Xuan felt it was best to put aside things he couldn’t understand for the moment. What he was more concerned about now was the other matters, large and small plastic basins, baskets, buckets, and boxes of various colors, shapes, and sizes were piled up everywhere, occupying almost all the space except for where the zombie minions could roam!
Even the roof in his sight was the same! There was a raised platform around the perimeter of the roof that was higher than the rest, and even these places were now filled with plastic products of various sizes and shapes.
Wei Xuan, who had already turned wooden-faced, felt his expression cracking open once again. His face was shifting towards a direction that was simultaneously dumbfounded and surprised.
“… What on earth are these things?” It wasn’t surprising that he was astonished; after all… there were even more obviously trash bins down there! And they were filled with a lot of garbage!
How did his neighborhood turn into a garbage dump overnight? What on earth happened while he was sleepin！
“Awake~ Awake~ Awake~” The voices below became even more cheerful. When Wei Xuan’s gaze swept over the group of zombie minions, he had a hallucination that he could clearly see pink bubbles emerging from their bodies.
Rubbing his eyes with his hand, Wei Xuan took a deep breath and turned away from the window.
The voices behind him continued to joyfully penetrate Wei Xuan’s mind. Thankfully, their emotions hadn’t shifted to a mournful mode, otherwise he would have had another headache.
Returning to his room, Wei Xuan glanced around and spotted a few very familiar pieces of clothing on the floor beside the bed—what he had worn “before” and his coat.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Looking at the clothes still stained with blood, then glancing at Du Hang who had been acting as a loyal crutch, obediently following him like a snug jacket, Wei Xuan guessed that Du Hang must have helped him take off his clothes.
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He had only casually complained, but he saw Du Hang extending three fingers, signifying “three meals.”
Alright, so what on earth is “three meals” supposed to mean?
With his brain still not fully awake, Wei Xuan couldn’t help but ask Du Hang, “Three meals? What kind of food did you eat?” Could it be that while he was asleep, there were three waves of survivors passing by, and his zombie minions had a feast?
Wei Xuan actually asked without expecting a genuine answer. However, just as he finished speaking, he saw Du Hang suddenly get up, walk to a certain spot in the room, and pick up… a pot?
In his hand was a small milk pot that was common before the apocalypse, used to boil milk powder, cook instant noodles, and make small amounts of soup. Now, as Du Hang walked over to Wei Xuan and bent down to show him what was inside, Wei Xuan could only see a pot of clear water…
Did he mean to say that he drank water three times while he was asleep? Wait, why did he find this pot of clear water so fragrant and tempting?
That sensation of salivating seemed to only happen to Wei Xuan when he ate meat after the apocalypse. Even if he lived a comfortable life after the apocalypse, he would still drool at the thought of lamb meat… Wait a moment, how is that lamb doing now? Also, why did things feel off when he looked out of the window earlier? And why does this pot that Du Hang is holding smell so good?
There were so many questions in his mind that Wei Xuan’s brain felt like it was turning into mush once again. So, he decided to temporarily put aside all these questions, took the pot with both hands, and drank a mouthful of water in one breath…
Wiping his mouth clean, Wei Xuan realized he must have slept too long because he was feeling so thirsty. Thinking about it, he suddenly turned to look out of the window. There was a layer of clouds in the sky, not too thick, with a slightly grayish color.
However, that wasn’t the focus now. What mattered was that even though everything was buried under piles of garbage, Wei Xuan seemed to have glimpsed some green plants between the gaps of those boxes and containers!
No, even if there weren’t these plants outside, there definitely shouldn’t be any snow! He was shot when it was snowing heavily!!
“… Is it spring now? Or has it already turned into summer?” Wei Xuan felt like his heart rate hadn’t increased, but each beat was remarkably strong, causing a slight ache in his chest.
Putting the pot temporarily on the table, Wei Xuan picked up the phone he had retrieved, turned it on… but it wouldn’t start.
After a few more attempts, Wei Xuan confirmed that the device was probably out of battery rather than broken. He then moved his stiff legs around the room, searching for a charger.
After a short while, as Wei Xuan squatted near the refrigerator, his eyes widened. He looked at the battery with no sign of power and then at the refrigerator that had seemingly been without electricity for a long time. He took a deep breath, although he hadn’t opened the refrigerator door, he felt like he could smell the stench of spoiled food inside.
“God, how long did I sleep?!” As he sighed over this issue once again, Wei Xuan heard Du Hang’s voice again— “Three meals.”
Alright, I know it’s three meals, but could you please tell me when and in what state you had those meals?
Wei Xuan was about to complain to Du Hang when he suddenly had a revelation as he looked into his pitch-black, bright eyes: “… You’re not talking about three strange snowfalls, are you?!”
Du Hang blinked at Wei Xuan for quite a while before slowly nodding. He remembered that Wei Xuan did mention something like this when the food was coming.
Finally, the two reached an understanding. Wei Xuan let out a sigh of relief, but then his expression turned grim.
In the post-apocalyptic world, there were almost seasonal strange snowfalls. Wei Xuan fell into a coma after the last strange snowfall of the previous winter. Now, three rounds of snow had passed, indicating that he had been in a coma for almost a year?!
No wonder he couldn’t find any trace of snowflakes outside, no wonder the room was covered in dust, no wonder there was so much “garbage” in the neighborhood, and no wonder he felt so stiff now…
Wait, did he really sleep for a whole year? Even if Du Hang was giving him water every day, he shouldn’t have survived until now, right?!
Thinking of this, Wei Xuan realized the answer in his heart. He didn’t “survive” until now. The current him wasn’t truly alive anymore, was he?
Thinking of the gunshot wound he had before falling asleep, thinking of his last kiss with Du Hang, thinking of the kiss they shared after he woke up…
Wei Xuan took a step forward, leaned his head against Du Hang’s chest, and wrapped his arms around his waist. “So, am I… a zombie now? But I still want to eat, I can still breathe, and my heart still beats…”
His voice grew lower and deeper, and just as he was about to fall into another wave of inexplicable confusion, he felt a vibration against his cheek, followed by a “thump, thud.”
The sound was exceptionally clear and powerful.
Wei Xuan widened his eyes, staring intently in a certain direction in the room, though his gaze seemed unfocused. After a long, long while, that vibration came again.
He suddenly raised his head, his expression a mixture of shock and joy as he looked at Du Hang. “Du… Du Hang, your heart is beating! Just like mine, it’s beating!”
When Wei Xuan woke up, he realized that his heart rate had slowed down considerably, but it was still beating. Although he had worried and felt anxious about his own condition at the time, nothing compared to the joy of discovering that Du Hang’s heart was beating!
To Wei Xuan, the key distinction between humans and zombies, apart from their different behaviors, was their heartbeats.
A beating heart meant having a “heart,” and being “alive”! A heart that didn’t beat was just a walking corpse.
At this moment, he faintly remembered that he had occasionally felt Du Hang’s chest vibrating in the past. However, the frequency was so low that it felt almost illusory.
So, he really was a half-zombie. What about himself?
Wei Xuan pondered for a moment and then felt a sense of calm. Perhaps he had also turned into a half-zombie, just like Du Hang. The difference was that he had transformed from a human into a half-zombie, while Du Hang had transitioned from a zombie to a half-zombie.
It was like they were walking towards the middle of a road from opposite ends. Sooner or later, they would both arrive at the same point, which was the center of the road.
This endpoint wasn’t at either end of the road, it was right in the middle.
Yay! And now kiss!
Ah, this makes me happy~
Thank you for the update 😘
Moving toward each other as zombification levels out all the affected… how romantic!!! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
Thanks for the update
Hm, if it’s almost a year after he was shot and in a coma, wonder what happened to the self-regen guy with three zombies roomies?
This story is so good! It’s still so interesting and unpredictable, I love it! Thank you for translating.
I predict a big cleaning day for all of the neighborhood 😅 and I hope self healing guy is okay.
Love this story so much! And appreciate the quick releases of these last several chapters to prevent tears over cliffhangers. Hope self-regen guy made it too!
🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍
Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter!
I had that thought of “meeting in the middle” since the temperature of WX decreasing and DH increasing was mentioned before. So that was really the case 😁
Okayyy now we have to find out what happened to the fire ball woman and the crazy healing dude? T-T