Chapter 17

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

It was raining heavily, dark clouds were dense, and the environment of the lonely temple on the outskirts converged into a standard horror movie opening. Even the kind-faced Maitreya Buddha in the temple seemed to be smiling badly.

Yao Wuque put a small radiation filter in front of the temple, turned his head to worship Maitreya Buddha, and put another tube on its round belly. Zhong Yin took out the measuring device and walked around the temple. The radiation value reached the normal index. Everyone was able to take off their hoods. Shen Shanwu quickly took off his helmet, which was useless to him except for weight.

The hour hand pointed to four o’clock in the afternoon, and the wind outside was vaguely quiet, but the rain still did not stop, and the drops of water crackled on the eaves and fell into the depression again, splashing little by little.

Everyone sat around in the broken temple and chatted idly, from poems and songs to philosophy of life, and inevitably talked about mutants as they chatted. Yao Wuque suddenly asked curiously, “Have any of you ever seen mutants with your own eyes?”

Shen Shanwu was sitting on his knees obediently, listening to the adults’ conversations with his two big eyes open. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but look at Jiang Huan, who was sitting next to him with the corner of his eyes. The other party leaned against the wall wearing a mask, and there was no response at all.

“The mutants are such a cruel and murderous race, who can live after they saw them?” Another team member shook his head, “Do you know about the 109 Tragedy of Shenghe Hospital?”

The lieutenant leaned forward and changed his sitting position, while Yao Wuqu was excited all over, and hurriedly asked, “I don’t know, what is it? What is it?!”

“A hospital located in the jurisdiction of Wuyou City in the south. In the fifth year after the end of the world, all 109 medical staff of Shenghe Hospital were abused and killed by mutants, and none of them were spared. All zombie-related research materials in the hospital were also burned cleanly.”

Everyone’s focus was attracted, even the captain, Jiang Huan, slowly turned his face to look at him. The team member couldn’t help but say even more. His face was frowning and colorful, “I heard that no body in the hospital was complete. The eyeballs were pierced, the tongue was pulled out, and the brain was sucked. There was not a drop left. The heart was gnawed everywhere, the intestines were pulled out and wrapped around the neck. Hanging people on the ceiling, the white walls of the corridor were all repainted with blood as decoration, and then the sweepers went in and vomited a few. It was like a living hell on earth.”

“Damn it.“ Yao Wuque couldn’t help rubbing his shoulders, “Mutants used to be human anyway, this is too inhumane.”

“But they are not human anymore.” Zhong Yin said, “They are zombies, zombies who have produced sanity. They have a very strong desire to kill. They like to eat human flesh and internal organs. I think it’s best never to see them.”

Yao Wuque said bitterly, “What if we meet them? Can we run through them?”

“If you react quickly, you should be able to run.“ Xiaowen touched the back of her head, “I heard that mutants have very sensitive vision and are afraid of strong light. They usually hide in the shadows during the day, so I think in case we encounter it, we can turn on the flashlight to the maximum and shoot them directly in the eye, blinding them, and then run away quickly.”

“I also heard that mutants have a very sensitive sense of smell and are particularly afraid of the smell of garlic.”

“Oh, where are we going to find garlic?”

Shen Shanwu: “…” What a mess! The more you say it, the more outrageous it becomes!!

Who was afraid of garlic? Was he a vampire?! Who was afraid of strong light? He could even look directly at the eclipse! Who likes to eat human flesh? He had very good taste!

……But all of the 109 doctors and nurses in Shenghe Hospital did die at the hands of a mutant.

The hospital captured a mutant who had just awakened not long after in the fourth year of the end of the world. They used the mutant’s extremely difficult physical characteristics to divide the mutant’s body into six pieces; head, limbs, and body.

They extracted blood, peeled off the skin, cut muscles and fat, separated blood vessels and nerves, and performed inhumane physiological studies such as electric shock, hallucinogenic gas, and slicing of the mutant’s brain.

On the one hand, they wanted to find ways to restrain zombies, but most importantly, they wanted to gain the power of mutants.

They did not treat mutants as human beings, and naturally, mutants would not treat them as human beings.

After rescuing the mutilated mutant, there was no living thing left in the hospital. Blood and meat crumbs soaked every inch of the floor tiles and penetrated every inch of the walls.

The mutant wanted to let the whole world know through this extremely cruel massacre, and this was the price to be paid for coveting the mutant.

As for the mutants being a murderous race… Shen Shanwu felt that, on the contrary, mutants were like tigers and lions, and they didn’t bother to move when they were full. Perhaps it was genetic restriction. There were hundreds of mutants all over the world, but none of them liked to do things. Everyone either lived alone in seclusion in a strong radiation zone, or wore sunglasses and masks carefully and lived with other humans in harmony and beauty, happy and content.

However, it was impossible for humans to admit that mutants were still human, and mutants also acquiesced to each other that they belonged to the zombie family and did not justify their cruel image.

The reason was that the mutants were zombies. If the mutants were still human, then their behavior of killing zombies was tantamount to killing creatures that may still be restored to sanity?

Once the mutant was sane, kind, and intelligent, the true situation was that their thinking and behavior were completely different from ordinary people, known to the world, and the consequences were unimaginable.

There were fewer than a hundred mutants among the billions of zombies, and the zombies attacking people were aggressive, contagious, and strong. Killing them was the most correct choice compared to betting on the trivial possibility.

But what if the zombie who must die is your relative? Would you raise your butcher’s knife, or pray for the one-in-a-billion possibility?

Would you resent the person who killed your relatives who became zombies in the first place?

Would you be bound by the idea that the opponent may become a mutant, so that even if the zombie’s teeth and claws were already in front of you, you dare not attack any zombie?

Jiang Huan leaned back against the wall after only a few words. After a while, Shen Shanwu thought he was asleep. He just moved his legs to stand up, but his clothes were pulled. He turned his head and saw Jiang Huan facing him straight, opening his lips and asking, “What do you want to do?”

“…the ground is too hard.”

Shen Shanwu’s original intention of this sentence was that the ground was too hard and it was uncomfortable to sit for a long time, so he had to stand up and move, but this sentence fell into Jiang Huan’s ears: The ground is too hard, and my ass hurts to death when I sit on it.

He straightened one leg and patted Shen Shanwu lightly.

“…?” Shen Shanwu looked at him puzzledly. Jiang Huan waited for a while, and when he saw Jiang Tong standing still like a fool, he simply reached out to hug him, then put his arms around his waist and pressed the person directly onto his lap. “Will this be more comfortable?”

Father’s love was like a mountain, Shen Shanwu couldn’t bear it.

Yao Wuque looked very fiery next to him, and he couldn’t directly provoke the captain’s authority, so he had to say, in a weird manner, “Yinyin, the ground is cold. Do you want to sit on my lap?”

Zhong Yin replied coldly, “Be careful, I will sue you for sexual harassment.”

Yao Wuque: “……”

After six o’clock, the rain curtain finally faded, faintly turning weaker , but the sky was completely dark. The temperature dropped sharply, freezing people to the bone, but in the wild, everyone refused to go into their sleeping bags to rest, afraid that they would not be able to run away if they encountered danger. Xiaowen turned on the power of their only heater to the maximum, and everyone put on protective clothing, even if they were sleeping against the wall without leaving their swords and guns.

The pattering rain played a hypnotic movement, and Shen Shanwu finally sat back on the ground, but Jiang Huan was half-hugged in his arms and covered his body with a cloak.

Jiang Huan hugged very tightly, and from time to time he wrapped the cloak tighter around Shen Shanwu, then held his hand and put it in front of his abdomen, “Is it cold?”

No matter how one touches Shen Shanwu’s hand, they will perceive the same slightly cooler temperature. Shen Shanwu was not cold, but he was a little bit panicked. “Captain Jiang, it’s okay, I’m not cold…”

Not cold? How could this kind of wet rainy night not be cold? The cold air clearly penetrated into the crevices of people’s bones, and even their blood froze hard.

Jiang Huan poked the soft black hair in front of Jiang Tong’s forehead. Under the night light, he saw the other party’s black and white eyes. The eye shape was exactly the same as the man in his memory, but it was brighter because of the difference in color.

Consciousness slowly became blurred in the sound of rain, and in the confusion, Jiang Huan remembered that it seemed that it was a similar rainy night that day, but the situation was much worse than today.

They had no car, no food, no heater, and no clothes to keep out the cold. They were trapped in a cave by continuous rain. Jiang Huan, who was only thirteen years old, was cold and hungry, and shivered in the cave’s depths.

But the cave was too small and shallow. No matter how he curled up and hid, there was always a part of his body that was blown by the cold wind. He finally couldn’t help opening his eyes, trembling and calling hoarsely, “…Brother Shanwu, I’m so cold.”

The man, sitting with his back to him at the entrance of the cave to block the wind, turned his head. Under the moonlight, those black and red eyes had the power to be flirtatious and demagogic.

“…” The man put down the filter stick he was playing with in his hand, inserted it into the rock crevice, got up in silence, and walked to Jiang Huan’s side. Jiang Huan sucked his nose and said aggrieved, “My feet are so cold that I can’t feel them, and my hands are so icy. I’m going to have frostbite…”

A pair of big warm hands took off his rain-soaked boots and then took off his cotton socks that looked like ice residue, and the two little feet under him were really frozen purple.

“Are you a fool?” The man’s tone of speech was very poor and sharp. Sharp teeth were looming between the opening and closing of his lips, but Jiang Huan was not afraid. Instead, he sought comfort, even more aggrieved, “I’m too cold to sleep. Can you hold me…”

A person who loved to be coquettish had always known that someone would love him.

“I really admire you.” The man sighed and sat down next to Jiang Huan. He let Jiang Huan fold his legs and sit on his lap, and then he put his body in his arms. His solid and wide shoulders and back suddenly resisted all the wind, frost, rain, and snow.

The man lowered his head and held Jiang Huan’s feet, rubbed them carefully, and asked him to put his hands into his body to keep warm. Jiang Huan immediately stretched his hands out of the clothes and surrounded the man’s waist. The side waist without a trace of fat was warm and firm. Even if his hands were frozen like ice, the man would not have any complaints if he touched it rashly.

Mutants would not feel cold or hot.

The roaring wind was mixed with the roar of zombies, and sometimes it seemed to be close to his ears. Jiang Huan shrank between half-dreaming and half-waking and couldn’t help but ask timidly, “Brother Shanwu, will there be zombies crawling in the middle of the night…”

“It won’t.”

“What if we fall asleep and they sneak close and scratch me…”

“Tsk, why do you talk so much?” The man hugged the child in his arms a little tighter again, “If they scratch, they have to scratch me first, okay? I’m here.”

Jiang Huan finally felt relieved. He closed his eyes and folded his fingers, grasping not only the person who took care of him in his dream but also the person who needed his care outside the dream.

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