Chapter 3

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Chapter 3: Returning Home

【Three】

Wu Zhi could no longer remember how he avoided wave after wave of zombies when he returned to his neighborhood. He looked at the unit number on the door, a small ray of light finally glimmering in his eyes. Bright and warm light exuded from the house in front of him, as if showing the way home for lost children. Although he had the house key, Wu Zhi still pressed the doorbell out of a desire to have someone open his home’s door for him.

Ding— dong—

Ding— Dong— Ding— Dong—

Ding— Dong— Ding— Dong—……

The hand that pressed the doorbell had already begun to stiffen and shiver. Wu Zhi gritted his teeth hard, trying hard to dismiss the increasingly heavy sense of foreboding.

Perhaps, just perhaps, they only left for a moment, so they did not turn off the lights— Right. His parents might have suddenly received the news and headed to school to search for him and Wu Yuan. That was why they left so hurriedly…

Wu Zhi sucked in a deep breath, pulling out his key from his pocket. He opened the door to despair.

The house was not very quiet. From the doorstep, he could hear the news playing from the TV in the living room. The corridor was in the dark. The only light was coming from the dining area. Wu Zhi could even imagine that in the next moment, his mother would walk from the dining room to smile at him, Zhizhi, you’re back late again? Go wash your hands quickly and get ready for dinner. Then, when he entered the dining area, he would see his father eating as he watched the TV. And Wu Yuan would even spite him bluntly, telling him he could have come back even later as he’d be just in time for supper.

This was his home. Tiny, but warm.

Wu Zhi mused, before a smile surfaced on his lips. He walked impatiently towards that radiance, yelling as usual, “I’m bac—”

Wu Zhi’s smile froze.

This was hell, right?

His mother was smiling at him as usual. She was lying face-up with a grin, staring fixedly towards the dining room entrance. Her bulging eyeballs looked like they would fall out of the sockets the very next moment. His father was having his meal as usual. His meal was Wu Zhi’s mother. That monster clothed in his father’s skin was engrossed in eating the woman’s abdomen. Saliva mixed together with the pus as it dripped into the bloody intestines.

Dad… Mom…?

Wu Zhi was at his limit. With a retch, he threw up everything.

This was a dream, right? Wu Zhi vomited uncontrollably. Even when all that was left was his stomach acid, he still dry-heaved, as if he wanted to throw up all of his internal organs. Could anyone, anyone at all, come and tell him this was all a dream—

The noises that Wu Zhi emitted appeared to have startled “his father” who was binging “his” food happily. It raised its head, its rotting brain facing Wu Zhi. Then, without any hesitation, it threw away its half-eaten “wife” — the fresh, living “son” was much more attractive.

Wu Zhi staggered backwards, leaning on the wall feebly, watching his “father” approach him step by step, benumbed. He no longer had any strength to run, nor did he want to escape. This world had turned into this state. The living could only face despair. So, was there any point at all in painstakingly trying to live on?

In his darking swaying vision, Wu Zhi watched his “mother”, who was crippled from being eaten, “revive” as if it did not want to be left out. It began to get up with its damaged limbs, wobbling its way over to him.

—Zhizhi, you’re back late again? The zombie gave a rotting grin. Go wash your hands quickly and get ready for dinner—

Wu Zhi closed his eyes, slowly sliding down against the wall. In pitch darkness, there were no parents changed beyond recognition, there was no despairing world. There was only the purest sort of darkness.

Splat. Splat. Splat.

“Dad, Mom.” When faced with his “parents’” approaching footsteps, Wu Zhi whispered, “I’m back.”

Splat. Splat… Ssss—!

The sound of burning oil sharply erupted. A wave of hot air with the stench of burnt flesh assaulted Wu Zhi, preventing him from opening his eyes. He was completely befuddled. All he could hear was the zombies’ low growls akin to hurt beasts and the sound of a heavy object hitting something else. In complete disarray, his hand was grabbed. It was a human touch, not the zombies’ rotting skin packed with pustules. Wu Zhi was about to move when he heard someone whisper in his ear. “Follow me.”

Wu Zhi’s tears immediately fell. Utterly compliant, he let himself be pulled into running through an area of scorching heat. It was only when clean air hit his face that Wu Zhi realized that they were outside, out of that hellish house.

Wu Zhi wiped his eyes roughly and opened them to look at that person. The red flame sparks had spreaded even beyond the house itself. Contrasting with the flames in the background, that person’s pallid face had her usual meaningful smile. “Zhizhi, why didn’t you come back later today? I could’ve brought you straight for supper like that.”

“Jie[1]…”

Tears spilled out uncontrollably. Wu Yuan seemed very frantic.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. That’s my first time hearing you call me ‘jie’. It’s usually 5 Yuan, 5 Yuan[2]. Do you have to cry so hard just because you called me sis once?” Wu Yuan slapped Wu Zhi’s head hard. “Brat, act more like a man!”

“Jie… Dad and Mom…”

“That’s how it is.” Wu Yuan’s smile dimmed. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She had clearly cried her eyes out too. “When I came back, it was already too late. I could only escape before they noticed me. Then, I decided to go to your school to find you. But I think we missed each other.” Recalling what happened earlier, Wu Yuan could not help kicking Wu Zhi. “Thankfully, I came back in time. Aren’t you usually amazing and all that? Why are you so useless in this crucial time!”

Wu Zhi did not avoid the kick like usual and accepted it face-on. But, this only upsetted Wu Yuan even more.

“What? Just because “Dad” and “Mom” wanted to kill you, you don’t want to live anymore?”

“…No.”

“That’d better be the case.” Wu Yuan’s black eyes that contrasted her whites seemed to see through everything. She tilted her head slightly to study Wu Zhi seriously. Every word was punctuated, as if to forcibly imprint some kind of concept in the deepest part of Wu Zhi’s mind. “Wu Zhi, you better remember this well. You’re not allowed to die — in this world, anyone can die, but I won’t allow you to die! You have to live on. Live and live on until death comes to your doorstep. Not you asking for death!”

“Promise me!”

The blazes violently erupted along with Wu Yuan’s shouts. Wu Zhi nodded in reflex. Seeing that, Wu Yuan sighed softly in relief. She turned aside to look at the fiercely burning house, expression inscrutable. A fierce unease crept up Wu Zhi’s body. Whether it was Wu Yuan’s forceful manner or the burning scarlet flames, they seemed like an ill omen.

“Do you still remember? When you were young, you would always throw an incredible tantrum when Dad and Mom had to travel outside the city. Outside, you were clearly the king of the children, but at home, you’re as soft as a hedgehog that could only make ‘zhizhi’ squeaks.” Before Wu Zhi could speak up, Wu Yuan suddenly blurted out those words. She did not look back at Wu Zhi’s bewildered face, and only continued calmly, “In just a blink of an eye, Zhizhi has grown so big…”

“Our Zhizhi has to continue growing like this. From teenager to youth, to middle age, and to old age… Ahhh, how I wish I could personally see Zhizhi in old age…” Wu Yuan’s side profile was smiling, but a tremble had slowly caught on. Wu Zhi began panicking. He reached to grab that smiling girl whose tears streamed down. Wu Yuan avoided Wu Zhi’s hand with a side-step. In the brilliant rays of fire, she turned around.

Wu Zhi’s hand stiffened mid-air. His body began quivering, and his voice too, was already trembling beyond belief.

“You… You…”

In front of him, Wu Yuan’s right hand was firmly pressing on her left, but it could not hide the spread of the ulcers. The veins on her left arm bulged out. Blood vessels disgustingly crept along her arm like a spider web. Her entire arm was already completely rotten. Tiny, packed pustules covered her arm. When a pustule broke, another one immediately grew in place.

“Dad and Mom must have been lonely. That’s why they wanted to bring me along.” Wu Yuan’s tears trailed down her cheeks, mixing together with the yellowish-green pus — the ulcers had already spread to the girl’s left half of her face. Half of her face remained beautiful, but the other half was revoltingly rotten. Wu Yuan and Wu Zhi looked at each other. The still normal half still had that smile. “There’s really no helping it.”

Wu Zhi’s stiffened hand dropped back to his side. He looked at Wu Yuan, his black eyes lighting up. “Yeah, so let’s find them together. It’s the liveliest with all four of us…”

“Don’t forget what you promised me earlier.” Only one of Wu Yuan’s black eyes remained. The other eyeball had already long turned into a yellowish-white gel, so she could only glare at Wu Zhi with one eye. “Do you know? I’m so envious and jealous of you — I don’t want to become that kind of monster! If I could switch places with you, I definitely won’t hesitate!” Wu Yuan wailed while holding her face. “I’m so scared… I’m so scared of turning into a repulsive monster…”

A half-human, half-demon monster was growling in the flames. Wu Zhi looked at Wu Yuan, stupefied. He reached out, wanting to caress his sister’s black hair, but Wu Yuan avoided his hand.

The girl heaved heavily. Her eyes had begun to unfocus. She staggered backwards, shoulders drooping. Then, with that tilted rotted head that exposed grimly grey brain fluids, she suddenly pounced at Wu Zhi. Putting up zero resistance, Wu Zhi was knocked onto the ground, and his head hit the ground painfully. From his left leg came pain and an odd itch. Wu Zhi painfully pushed his upper body upwards, gazing calmly at the half-human, half-demon monster chewing on his left leg.

…This is fine.

He turned his gaze towards the flames that seemed to burn into the entire sky, his heart cheery. Tonight was especially dark. Wu Zhi squinted before he suddenly realized that none of the lights were turned on today. The entire neighborhood was cloaked in darkness. The occasional screams seemed to be separated by eons of distance away.

In such a world, who the fuck would want to live in it?

。

The pain on his foot stopped abruptly, leaving only a terrible itch. Wu Zhi turned to see the completely rotten Wu Yuan heaving and glaring at him.

“…You’re… not allowed… to die…”

The zombie grabbed its own rotten face and began screaming. It gripped Wu Zhi’s chewed lower leg, twisting and pulling it. The bone snapped, the sound of the break ringing out in the quiet air. The excruciating pain of having his leg forcibly broken made his vision darken. He reflexively screamed.

“AAHHH——”

Wu Zhi curled up on the ground like a shrimp, gulping in air in hisses. Even the air that he breathed into his body was sending bouts of pain to his nerves. But he could not afford the time to wait for the most unbearable pain to pass. Wu Zhi pushed himself to raise his eyes. Blurred by sweat and tears, everything he saw was unclear, but he still found the person he wanted to find the most.

Wu Yuan’s figure was indistinct in the flames. Under Wu Zhi’s despairing gaze, his last family member hastened staggeringly into the sea of fire, vanishing within a blink of an eye.

“——!”

Unable to make a sound, his choked throat could only produce a few strangled grunts. Wu Zhi pressed his bleeding left leg, wide eyes watching all this in shock. He could no longer feel the pain, nor his thoughts. Everything seemed to be completely sucked out of him in an instant, leaving only an empty shell named Wu Zhi lying on the ground in a strange pose, consumed by despair.

—Wu Zhi, you cannot save anyone at all. Because you don’t have the power to.

Without any combustible materials as fuel, the fire gradually died down. The smoke of the extinguished fire was blown away and disappeared in tendrils. Without fire or lamplight, only the glimmers of moonlight and starlight remained in the whole city. A group of zombies wobbled their way into the aftermath of the fire. Reflected in their grim grey eyes was a human figure. A teenager curled in a strange pose on the ground. The zombies only gave him a glance before they left in disinterest.

Not interested anymore…?

Wu Zhi’s lips curled up in a smile. His left leg had stopped bleeding. The skin there was uneven, as if a demon was about to emerge from beneath. Next was the emergence of the tiny, bulging ulcers. The bulging skin was a translucent blood red. The countless, even tiner pustules were densely packed together inside, visible to the naked eye. Having witnessed the process of infection a couple of times, Wu Zhi was very clear that when those pustules began to pop, it was time for him to rot and transform into a zombie.

Oi, Wu Yuan. You guys couldn’t abandon me after all.

Wu Zhi squinted, aware of his thoughts becoming incoherent.

Now, I didn’t try to die on purpose…

—The sky seemed to have darkened.

Wu Zhi painstakingly raised his head, looking above. He was dumbfounded for a moment before he finally put on an expression that not even himself knew what it was.

“……hi.[3]”

The person standing in front of Wu Zhi crouched down, gently wiping away the dirt on Wu Zhi’s face. Careful and attentive. The expression on his face was his usual cold and indifferent one.

“Wu Zhi, I’m here.”

A/N: The apocalypse bit is finally over. Next up are those two twisted romance plots. Oh yeah.

Translator Note:

[1] 姐 (lit. older sister). Here, it is Wu Zhi’s term of address for his biological older sister.

[2] 五元 (lit. five chinese yuan), is a homonym with Wu Yuan’s name (吴媛).

[3] This line is in English.

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