When the car was about to reach the service area where they had just escaped from, Hou Ying still hadn’t recovered.
According to this child named Meng Hanghai, he and his father came from Hucheng. His father was a doctor, and when the first death from an infectious disease appeared in the hospital, he wanted to take him outside for safety, and they hurriedly left. The road had not been blocked at that time, and they heard that many people died in the earthquake in Hucheng being broadcasted while on the road.
Then they arrived at the Jianghai Service Area where they met, and the road was blocked immediately.
Those who were stranded in the service area were ordered not to leave and needed to be checked whether they’re infected or not. But until the evening, the medical team in charge of the examination arrived late, and among them, there were hidden infected people who escaped from Hucheng.
The infected person became ill and bit several people. Those who were bitten all fainted. His father wanted to take him away, but the police uncles surrounding them didn’t allow it.
After a while, the people who were bitten woke up and started biting people everywhere. Meng Hanghai didn’t know what exactly happened because he and his father were trapped in the car. He also heard the Minister of Public Affairs announcing to the radio that the virus infection had spread all over the country, causing many people to die.
The Minister said that the end of the world has come, and they called the infected patients zombies—a species that had been brain dead and could not be considered humans.
Until the next day, there was no food in the car. His father didn’t allow him to go out, let alone crack the door open, then he got out of the car. He saw his father fighting those zombies and even killed a few of them.
But in the end, his father was still infected.
At first, those zombies didn’t find him inside the car but when he saw his father passing by, he impulsively wanted to call him and when the car door opened, the zombies frantically rushed to him, forcing him back into the car again. He was trapped inside for two days and two nights before Hou Ying rescued him. If Hou Ying did not show up, he would still die from hunger even if he was not bit by those people.
Hou Ying realized the seriousness of the matter.
First of all, according to the child and the date on the car, today is February 25th. But he remembered very clearly that he arrived at the Jianghai service area on the night of February 22nd—like Meng Hanghai and his father, he was in the service area that night.
What’s even more alarming was the fact that he couldn’t remember what happened to him in those two days, and the reason for him not to notice the passage of time.
Secondly, the last words from this child’s father.
—The end is here.
Those infected people are just like the zombies in the movie Resident Evil. Once they are bitten by them… even if they are just scratched or any laceration, they can be infected and become one of them!
Hou Ying thought of the mangled faces of the zombies and the completely bloodthirsty thoughtless eyes that he had fleetingly seen, and suddenly a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back, almost frightened by his own imagination.
The car stopped. The Jianghai service area is shown on the map just two kilometers away.
Meng Hanghai said with a sad face, “Uncle, are we really going back there?”
“Yeah.” Hou Ying broke his illusion, and then said, “If you are afraid, you can wait for me at the highway intersection. If I can’t come back… you quickly escape.”
Meng Hanghai cried, “No, I don’t want to be alone!”
Hou Ying hadn’t realized that his nerves were thicker than steel before, and he could still be amused by his wrinkled face at this critical moment of life and death. “Then what do you want?”
“No matter what, I don’t want to be alone.”
Meng Hanghai insisted very much. He was more afraid of being alone than the danger he would encounter. The memory of the two days of being trapped in the car is really a torture for him. If it weren’t for the end of the world, this child would have at least a claustrophobia or severe mental trauma after being rescued. But at such a moment when it is impossible to even live to tomorrow, no one has the right to escape hypocritically.
Hou Ying felt that the child was pitiful and did not refuse him in the end.
When there is no signal from the mobile phone to confirm whether his nephew is safe, he wants to accumulate some morals and show the greatest kindness to the child he accidentally saved, hoping that if Wang Hehe also encountered the same situation as this child, he will have a kind person to reach out to him.
After making some psychological adjustments, Hou Ying brought Meng Hanghai closer to the Jianghai Service Area—a place he would never want to pass by for the rest of his life, if possible.
But speeding back and forth on the road, the oil in his car is almost running out.
“You will move to the back seats later, remember not to move or make any sound.”
Hou Ying explained.
Meng Hanghai, an eleven-year-old child, was too weak to fight. On the one hand, he didn’t want to let the child who was finally rescued die in vain, and on the other hand, he didn’t want him to drag him down.
Meng Hanghai did not agree with this approach so Hou Ying said his plan, “I will park the car at the gas station, it’s best to get more gasoline. Then I’ll go to the convenience store to get as much water and food as possible. If I can leave here alive, I’ll drive back to Yecheng, where my relatives are. If you don’t want to go there, tell me where you want to go when I come back.”
“I’ll follow you!” the child said firmly. Fearing that he would abandon him, he tightly held on to the corner of Hou Ying’s clothes.
Hou Ying smiled and felt as if he was shouldering a great responsibility, his heart suddenly felt heavy.
Slowing down the ramp, they hadn’t yet seen the zombies who had chased them, Hou Ying suspected that they must have retreated. Sure enough, there were slow-moving zombies moving towards the sound of the car before they got off the ramp.
Hou Ying’s palms sweated, he wanted to fight, so he stepped on the gas pedal and rushed to the gas station!
“Hide well! Don’t make a sound!” Hou Ying yelled at Meng Hanghai who was in the back seat, then hurriedly got out of the car.
Even if he kept telling himself to calm down and hurry up, but staring at the zombies that were getting closer, the hand that pulled out the oil pipe and the oil card trembled out of control. What made him scold his mother1 was that at this critical moment, the oil card could not be read at all, and the machine kept showing system failure.
“Fuck!”
Hou Ying cursed wildly, looking at the zombies less than fifty meters away from him, his eyes were red and fierce, “Meng Hanghai, wait for me in the car! No matter what happens, you are not allowed to come out!”
Meng Hanghai leaned against the car window, crying. He saw Hou Ying running into the staff room of the gas station, he was about to come out of the car, suddenly some zombies started to hit the car.
Meng Hanghai was so frightened that his face wrinkled into a ball. Unexpectedly, the zombies were not interested in him. After hitting the car for a while, they dispersed. Meng Hanghai still didn’t dare to move. After waiting for a long time, he couldn’t endure the dread. He carefully raised his head and looked out the window, wanting to see how Hou Ying was.
—Suddenly, a zombie face hit the car window!
“!!!”
Meng Hanghai’s eyes widened but still stubbornly covered his nose and mouth, his entire face flushing instantly, and tears were forced out.
After the zombie face slid down from the car window, Hou Ying was seen holding an iron rod behind, he recovered his heartbeat and breathed lifelessly.
Hou Ying glanced at him, and quickly made a downward motion to make him hide. He clamped an iron rod under his armpit and pulled the oil injection pipe from the machine with all his strength. Regardless of the oil that splashed in his body, he hastily inserted it into the oil drum he found from the employee storage room. The end of another oil drum is inserted into the car’s oil filling hole, and is raised to inject oil into the car.
Hou Ying was sweaty, he stifled his breath and dared not breathe too hard, holding an iron rod to guard against zombies at any time—but it is strange that those zombies are obviously not far away from him, but it seems that they have not found him. As if turning a blind eye to him!
Hou Ying was dubious, trying to calm down and thinking about the reasons for this scenario, then doubts whether these zombies can only judge their existence based on sound.
In deep thought, he stopped pouring in oil—he didn’t know how much he had added—put the oil barrel down gently, and decided to take a risk.
Hou Ying knocked on the car window and found that the zombies suddenly looked at him—or more precisely, the sound source. The zombies leaned over, waited for a while, and then slowly scattered.
Meng Hanghai raised his head to look at him when he heard the sound, and Hou Ying, face pale from fright caused by the zombies, made a silent gesture, then took an iron rod and walked away gently. After walking 20 meters away, he took out the lighter that he had put in his trouser pocket after smoking in the car before, and slammed it forward with all his strength!
Bang!
The sound of the lighter exploding really attracted the zombies!
Seeing them rushing towards the explosion, Hou Ying was overjoyed, and quickly took advantage of this time to rush back to the storage room he had just explored, and carried four large barrels of oil on his shoulders—sure enough, human beings have limitless potential. The gentleman sitting in the office, although he always runs and is keen in fitness, is already at his limit with two barrels of oil in his hand. He did not expect that he could explode so much energy.
He opened the trunk, stuffed the oil drums, and put in the same oil drums that were less than one-third used just now. Close the trunk and no matter how light the action is, the sound of the trunk closing is enough to make the zombies look over at the sound of the explosion and change the target.
Hou Ying was horrified, and patted the car door to let Meng Hanghai unlock it and let him in!
He climbed and rushed back to his seat, hurriedly closed the door, and proceeded in the direction of the convenience store.
“Listen to me kid!” They soon widened the distance of about two or three hundred meters. Hou Ying stopped and turned to Meng Hanghai behind him, who was tightly holding the back of the driver’s seat and said hurriedly, “I tried it just now. If you don’t make a sound, zombies won’t find you. You stay in the car and don’t make a sound. Don’t be seen by them. Do you hear me?”
Meng Hanghai only knew how to nod.
Hou Ying didn’t care to say a word, closed the car door tightly, and glanced at the zombies who were a few meters away from the car, turned and rushed into the convenience store.
Biscuits, bread, instant cup noodles.
Hou Ying glanced at the three types of food on the shelves, and hurriedly tore down all the bags from the top of the cash register, hurriedly pat the dust away, and stuffed the food inside.
He believed that he was faster than the foreign refugees looting supermarkets as reported in the news. While stuffing them, he kept looking back at the zombies wandering into the convenience store. He turned around and took away the last bucket of instant noodles on the shelf – unsuspectedly, a zombie face of a female clerk appeared behind the shelf!
“Ah!”
Hou Ying gave a short cry!
Translator’s Note:
- 让他骂娘的是 Experienced danmei readers understands this but for the new ones, he is not really cursing/scolding his mom, it’s just an expression. It’s like cursing the heavens or something.
If anyone’s curious, I currently have 15 chapters translated (not yet edited tho) in my computer. I still plan to update weekly because classes are starting next week and gosh, there are already a lot of things to do. Don’t worry though, once I get the hang of the school works, I’ll continue translating until I reached the goal of updating everyday. Also, my translating speed is improving, with 2 chapters a day (that’s how I got so many chapters out already despite only starting a week ago) so that goal will happen sooner rather than later.
Let me know what you think, guys, comments are pretty much appreciated 😉 🙂
Yaoi Wonderland 