A Man's Mouth, a Lying Ghost

Of course, pet supply stores were full of things for pets.

What were one human and one corpse doing in a pet store?

A huge question mark popped up over Jiang Zhaosu's tiny head. She thought Qi Xing was being utterly baffling, but she did not dare disobey him and followed him inside anyway.

This pet store had clearly been searched before. The shelves had been rifled through into a complete mess, and the floor was marked with dried bloodstains and bags printed with images of cats and dogs.

Jiang Zhaosu stared blankly at those bags and recognized from the words on them that they were packaging for cat food and dog food.

Some scenes buried deep in Jiang Zhaosu's memories suddenly flashed through her mind.

Back in elementary school, because her grades were excellent, the teacher had assigned a classmate with poorer grades to sit beside her, hoping that the big fat boy would learn from her.

At the time, Jiang Zhaosu still lived at the Welfare Institute. She was frail and never got enough to eat, while her deskmate came from a well-off family and brought snacks to school in his backpack every day.

Jiang Zhaosu often drooled over the shredded squid and beef jerky she had never tasted before, their enticing aroma making her mouth water. In exchange for a little snack, she helped the chubby boy do his homework.

Then one day, the chubby boy brought a huge bag of snacks she had never seen before.

The snack bag had a cute Samoyed printed on it, along with foreign words she could not understand. It looked exquisite and high-end.

Her usually stingy deskmate actually handed her the bag of snacks, saying it was a gift to thank her for helping him with his homework lately.

Jiang Zhaosu did not suspect a thing and opened it to eat.

The snacks inside looked a little like chocolate beans. They were crunchy, and once chewed open, they had a rich meaty flavor. Jiang Zhaosu rather liked them.

Once he saw her eat them, the chubby boy suddenly burst into laughter. Slapping the desk, he shouted to the class, "Everyone, look! Jiang Zhaosu is eating dog food! Jiang Zhaosu is actually a dog!"

Only then did Jiang Zhaosu learn that what the chubby boy had given her was dog food.

Even dog food had more meat and nutrition than what she usually ate.

Faced with the chubby boy's mockery, Jiang Zhaosu said nothing. She merely stuffed the bag of dog food into her desk.

After school, she put the dog food in her backpack and ate it all on the way back to the Welfare Institute.

That day, she was finally no longer starving. Her stomach was full of food and warm.

Jiang Zhaosu felt very happy.

That was beside the point.

In short, the biggest lesson Jiang Zhaosu had learned from that incident was: damn, being rich was great. Other people's dogs ate better than she did.

After the apocalypse arrived, food became scarce. As long as it could go in the mouth, who cared whether it was cat food or dog food? It could all be eaten.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhaosu felt as if she had discovered a whole new world. She hurriedly pointed at the dog food packaging on the ground and howled at Qi Xing, who was still searching for who knew what.

"Awawawaw!"

Qi Xing, who was searching through the goods, turned at the sound. He saw Jiang Zhaosu gesturing excitedly at him, trying to indicate something.

Qi Xing glanced at the packaging on the floor and pondered for a moment. "Does Fortune want to raise a dog?"

Jiang Zhaosu: "..."

What exactly was lodged between his ears?

Jiang Zhaosu stiffly bent down, picked up the packaging from the floor, and tipped it toward her mouth a few times.

Qi Xing suddenly understood. "Are you saying this can be eaten?"

Jiang Zhaosu nodded like a pecking chick, planting her hands on her hips as she basked in her own cleverness.

Seeing her smug expression, Qi Xing sighed and said helplessly, "Fortune, you've already turned into a zombie. Why are you still thinking about eating dog food? Can't you show a little ambition?"

Jiang Zhaosu pointed at the bag, then at Qi Xing, and let out an embarrassed, angry howl. "Awawaw!"

I'm telling you to eat it!

After all, Qi Xing was the first person she had encountered in the apocalypse, and he seemed quite capable.

Jiang Zhaosu decided that, before she could deal with Ability Users and survive on her own, she would cling tightly to this man's thigh.

"Oh, you want me to eat it."

Qi Xing finally understood what she meant. "The cat food and dog food in this store were taken away long ago. There isn't anything edible left."

"Awawawawaw?"

Then what will you do?

"It's fine. I'm not hungry yet."

After answering her, Qi Xing suddenly gave her another captivating smile. Covering his heart with both hands, he said with gratification, "Ah, Fortune already knows how to care about me. I'm touched."

"Blegh..."

Jiang Zhaosu could not hold it in and nearly threw up from Qi Xing's cheesiness.

"Fortune, your stomach doesn't seem to be doing too well."

Qi Xing frowned slightly, walked over from beside the shelves, and pulled out some meat from his bag again. "Look, you've gotten thinner from throwing up. Hurry and eat some more."

If she kept eating at this rate, Jiang Zhaosu felt that Qi Xing would turn her into a huge fat corpse sooner or later.

While she stood guard at the entrance, smacking away at the meat, Qi Xing went digging through trash again.

Jiang Zhaosu discovered that although Qi Xing looked polished and refined on the outside, like a pampered young master, he actually loved scavenging.

He was especially keen on rummaging around in ruins like these, searching for things as though opening treasure chests.

By the time she had finished the meat, Qi Xing had found what he wanted as well.

Jiang Zhaosu looked at the Bite Restrainer gleaming with a metallic sheen in his hand and fell silent.

She was not really human, but Qi Xing was truly a dog!

Qi Xing naturally saw the resistance in her eyes and patiently explained, "This is only a precaution. I don't mean to insult you."

"I have to consider my own safety, after all."

"Either I pull your teeth, or you wear this." Qi Xing very democratically offered her two choices. "Fortune, choose for yourself."

Jiang Zhaosu: "..."

When they emerged from the pet store again, Jiang Zhaosu had a black Bite Restrainer on her face and thick gloves on both hands.

As a zombie, her two deadliest weapons had both been restrained. Jiang Zhaosu felt extremely uncomfortable, and an obvious dejected expression appeared on her decaying little face.

Qi Xing stretched out an arm and slung it around her shoulders like they were old buddies, comforting her. "It's okay, Fortune. Even though you can't bite people now, I'll protect you. We just went through life and death together. Can't you trust your big brother yet?"

Heh.

A man's mouth was a lying ghost.

If she trusted him, then her death would truly not be far off.

Jiang Zhaosu clamped her mouth shut, determined to become a cold, heartless mute zombie from now on and never respond to Qi Xing's teasing again.

"Fortune, if you're hungry, just make a sound. Big brother will take off your Bite Restrainer and feed you meat."

Tch.

No appetite.

Jiang Zhaosu hung her head and trudged after Qi Xing without the slightest energy, completely unaware that behind them, a tender green vine sprout silently pushed out from a moss-covered crack in the ground.

A breeze passed by, making the little green sprout sway gently, revealing a trace of vitality utterly at odds with this bleak city.

The crow Jiang Zhaosu had just watched circled the ash-gray sky a few times, then folded its wings and landed on a shop sign. Its blood-red eyes remained fixed on the human and corpse ahead, equally unaware that the little sprout had somehow moved beneath the sign where it perched.

In an instant, the tender sprout transformed into a thick, tough vine that shot up from the ground and pierced straight through the crow's chest.

The poor crow did not even have time to cry out before the vine dragged it into the crack in the ground. Its limbs and feathers scattered chaotically across the floor, leaving behind a mangled, desiccated corpse.