Page 36

"No one's been here for a long time." Apparently harboring the same doubts as him, Nan Shao carefully inspected their surroundings, ran a finger over the makeshift desk, and spoke as he looked at the dust on his fingertip.

Zhang Yi walked over and immediately spotted the notebook lying open on the desk. He couldn't help picking it up, and by the firelight, he saw the date written in black gel ink: June 13, 2015, Xia calendar.

More than five months ago? He involuntarily read on.

"Friday.

I'm going to die.

Today is Friday. I used to get incredibly excited whenever this day came around, because I would have two days off and wouldn't have to see those annoying little brats. But only ten days have passed since darkness fell at the apocalypse, and it feels as though I've endured a month, a year, or even longer. Looking back now, everything before seems to have happened in a previous life... The wound itches so badly... Am I about to turn into one of those monsters...

If I could do it again, I would never bring that damned woman A Dan back here. Fuck first love!!! Fuck the mayor's daughter-in-law!!!

I killed her, chopped her into pieces, and threw her to those monsters in town, but it was already too late. I'd slept with her, and her nails had scratched my back. I couldn't see it, and she thought I didn't know. She thought I didn't know... She thought I was an idiot. Fuck, that huge, bruised-black scar on her leg wasn't even bleeding. I'd have to be blind not to see it, fuck!

The wound seems to be going numb. No, not just the wound. My whole back seems to be going numb... So hungry... I don't want to die...

If I turn into one of those monsters and run down the mountain, someone will definitely kill me... I don't want to die... Maybe I can awaken an ability like those people. I need to tie myself up. Yes, tie myself up... Rope... I'll use that ny

lon

rope...

I can't hold on much longer. So hungry... All I can think about is hacking A Dan to death. That blood and those chunks of flesh looked so delicious. If only I hadn't thrown them down the mountain and let those bastards have them... No, that's not what I meant to say. What I meant to say was... What was it... Right, if anyone sees this diary, please, for the sake of all the food I've provided, don't kill me... I don't want to die"

The writing stopped abruptly, without a period. Only a few drops of black liquid blurred the words, impossible to tell whether they were tears or something else. Zhang Yi let out a breath and looked toward Nan Shao, who was examining the cave. He had no idea when Nan Shao had wedged the burning stick into a crack in the rock nearby.

"No one else seems to have been here." Apart from the cave's unfortunate owner.

Hearing his voice, Nan Shao looked up and pointed at the pot. "There's still half a pot of spoiled rice in here. There's blood on the knife... And on the ground, too, but the cutting board is clean."

It seemed everything recorded in the diary was true. Zhang Yi raised the diary in his hand toward him. Nan Shao paused, then walked over, took it, and quickly scanned it. After flipping through the earlier entries as well, he handed it back to Zhang Yi. Then he walked up to the zombie sitting on the ground, avoided its claws, and dispatched it with two swings of the pickaxe.

"The moment he turned into a zombie, he stopped being the owner of these things." After digging the Corpse Crystal out of the zombie's brain, Nan Shao looked up and found Zhang Yi watching him. Perhaps because his back was to the firelight, his gaze seemed somewhat dark. For some inexplicable reason, Nan Shao couldn't help offering an explanation, as though he didn't want the other man to think he was ungrateful. "If he hadn't had bad intentions toward that woman, he wouldn't have died. Besides, he didn't show any mercy when he killed the zombies his parents had turned into." When Zhang Yi still said nothing, he suddenly grew uneasy and added stiffly, "Leaving it here would never be safe, and it would make it easy for other people to discover this place."

"Mm. We need to get it outside." Zhang Yi finally answered, and Nan Shao immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking back over what had just happened, he had no idea what he had been so nervous about.

Of course Zhang Yi wouldn't blame Nan Shao for killing a zombie. He had only been considering how to deal with the supplies in the cave, so he had been a little slow to respond.

It turned out that before the apocalypse, this zombie had been an elementary school Chinese teacher who lived in the same building they were staying in now, though on the top floor. His family had a dog, and he had discovered this cave while looking for it on one occasion. A loner by nature, he liked to hole up at home and surf the internet whenever he wasn't at work. He was especially interested in things like apocalyptic disasters and alien civilizations, and had fantasized countless times about how, if the apocalypse came, he would unleash his domineering aura, sweep away his current mediocre, unaccomplished circumstances, recruit underlings, build a harem, and conquer the world. The first person he intended to take into his harem was his first love, A Dan, who had dumped him to marry the mayor's son, leaving him unable to recover from the blow. So when the frequent natural and man-made disasters caused apocalyptic theories to run rampant, he had begun gathering supplies and searching for a spatial realm, even secretly dipping into the money his parents had set aside for their old age and his marriage. He had done it so secretly that even his family knew nothing about it.

It had to be said that his luck was fairly good, because once he had spent all his and his parents' savings getting everything ready, the apocalypse really did come. At the same time, however, his luck wasn't that good-at least not as good as that of the protagonists in apocalypse novels-because not a single piece of jade he had bought could recognize him as its master and provide him with a space where he could store supplies and cultivate to grow stronger.

After seventy-two hours of darkness, his parents had become some of the first people to turn into zombies. While the elderly couple still retained a shred of reason and were unwilling to hurt him, he had killed them without the slightest hesitation. Then he had packed up everything useful and quietly hidden in the cave he had prepared long ago in the mountain behind town, without even considering looking after his married older brother and sister, who lived nearby. In his view, those who accomplished great things did not concern themselves with trifles, and had to be sufficiently cold-blooded. If he went to find his siblings, he would have to support all their extended relatives as well. He was still too weak, and his supplies were insufficient, so he couldn't take in so many useless people yet. He told himself that once he grew stronger, he could go find them and give them an appropriate amount of help.