A Miserable Death

[This is a male-male romance! Written for the author's own enjoyment. Everyone has their own standards, so please respect one another and don't leave malicious negative reviews. There are lots of great novels on Fanqie~]

[Added back in June 2024 for safekeeping. Please [be sure] to read all the content warnings in the author's note at the end of the chapter to avoid upsetting one another.]

[Love to all the darlings who clicked on this story! Writing isn't easy, so please don't flame it if you dislike it. If you enjoy it, please leave a positive review to encourage and support the author~]

[Story begins]

"Either way, wherever he goes now, he's a burden who uses up resources and only holds us back. It'll take at least half a month to reach Base S from here, and there's no telling what might happen on the road. Who can take care of him..."

"Besides, now that my brother has received the ability crystal core, he needs a better environment to recover in. Sister Weiwei told us to take good care of him on the way. There's only so much room in the car, and taking someone who's half-dead along is a huge hassle..."

"That's true, but I'm afraid it'll be hard to explain to Mr. Chen..."

"Don't worry, doctor. My mom will talk to my dad. Besides, when he agreed to the transplant, he already accepted that this piece of trash would die. He knows the difference between one person dying and the whole family dying. Without my brother, we can't get to Base S. The next time the zombies besiege the city, we'll all die!"

"All right. In that case, I won't give him any more medication..."

"Mm, there's no need to waste any more medicine. Doctor, leave the rest to me. Go on, you have work to do."

"..."

In the dim basement, Jiang Nian lay in a daze on a filthy iron-framed bed, his face deathly pale and his breathing barely perceptible.

His skeletal hands and feet were bound with rusty iron chains.

His loose hospital gown was stained across the abdomen with a large patch of dried blood, and the sheet beneath him was filthy and stained as well.

He couldn't get up and could only turn his head with difficulty toward the half-open door. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything, but he could hear a man and a woman openly discussing how to "deal with" him.

It was his stepsister Chen Lin talking to the private doctor.

Their voices sounded like the whispers of demons, and their words were cruel beyond measure.

Jiang Nian wasn't sad. After all, when his ability crystal core had been removed two days ago, he had already prepared himself to be thrown away like garbage.

Instead, he felt relieved. He was finally going to be free. He'd had enough of nearly two years of a fate worse than death.

Bang!

The half-open sheet-metal door was kicked wide, and Chen Lin walked in, wearing a black-and-white tracksuit with her hair in a ponytail.

She held a syringe as thick as a baby's arm, filled with a pale yellow, viscous liquid.

Jiang Nian was no stranger to it. It was a nutrient solution used by hospitals in the apocalypse to keep special patients alive. He had survived on it for the past two years.

Chen Lin came in and skillfully but roughly pried his mouth open to force the nutrient solution down his throat. The woman, who had awakened an ability, was very strong.

Jiang Nian feebly kicked his feet a few times in struggle, pulling the chains on his hands and feet hard enough to scrape his skin. Unable to swallow fast enough, he nearly choked.

Clatter.

The syringe was pulled from his mouth and tossed onto the floor.

Chen Lin looked down at the person on the bed, whose face had briefly flushed from choking, her pretty features twisted:

"Congratulations on finishing your last supper!"

"Hah..."

Jiang Nian struggled for breath, gritting his teeth as he stared at her in pain:

"I'm practically dead already. Why are you still pretending and wasting nutrient solution? Cough, cough..."

They could have just left him alone and let him find release sooner.

"Hahaha..."

Chen Lin suddenly laughed, looking at him as though he were a stray dog as she said:

"You said before that you'd make sure we died horrible deaths. Now I'm personally showing you what it means to die a horrible death! Jiang Nian, this dose of nutrient solution has a special anesthetic added to it. It'll keep you alive here for ten days. The experts predict that in a week, the zombies surrounding the city will break through the base's defenses..."

"..."

By this point, Jiang Nian understood what she meant. He wanted to speak, but he felt his lips and tongue gradually lose their strength. It was the effect of the special anesthetic.

Seeing the terror in his eyes, Chen Lin laughed even more freely and continued cruelly:

"The people in Base Z's central district will start evacuating to Base S tonight. Our family will be in the first group, so we won't get to see the zombies enter the base. You can stay here and watch it all for us, nice and slow. Watch how those disgusting things make you die a horrible death! Trash!"

With that, she kicked the edge of the bed, spat at the person lying on it, and turned to leave. But once outside the door, she looked back and added:

"Oh, right. Thanks for providing the purification ability crystal core. My brother is recovering faster now. We'll put it to good use. Goodbye forever."

The door closed again. As the footsteps faded into the distance, Jiang Nian closed his eyes, his heart utterly dead.

He resented that he couldn't even choose how to die, but he was powerless.

Overwhelmed by anger and physically exhausted, he soon fell into a half-conscious state again.

Jiang Nian didn't know how long he slept. Then a piercing siren rang throughout the base, and he heard chaotic gunfire and roars coming from aboveground.

Soon, the basement door was opened, and the smell of decay swept through the entire underground space in an instant.

The zombies that had broken in lunged at him with ferocious expressions, madly gnawing and tearing at his body.

Fortunately, the pain didn't last long. A zombie bit through his throat, and the pain slowly faded along with his consciousness.

Jiang Nian felt his body growing colder and colder, until all he could hear was the sound of greedy swallowing.

Ratatat-

A burst of gunfire close at hand pulled his fading consciousness back once more. The zombies on top of him were shot in the head and kicked aside.

"Jiang Nian!"

"Jiang Nian..."

Someone holding an AK and wearing field combat gear was calling his name. The voice sounded a little familiar.

Jiang Nian thought sluggishly for quite a while before he remembered. It was Cheng Jing, the ex-boyfriend he had unilaterally declared he was breaking up with and dumped before the apocalypse.

"Gurgle..."

"Cough..."

Jiang Nian wanted to speak, but his windpipe had been bitten through, and blood poured out as soon as he opened his mouth.

Cheng Jing looked frantic. He covered Jiang Nian's neck with his hand and held him, saying a great deal, but Jiang Nian couldn't respond.

The voice in his ears grew more and more distant. The last thing he heard was Cheng Jing cursing him hysterically:

"You fucking idiot, why didn't you come find me?!"

"Why didn't you come find me...?!"

"Jiang Nian!"

"Jiang Nian-"

Listening to Cheng Jing's hoarse shouts and curses, Jiang Nian had never wanted to cry so badly. The apocalypse had lasted more than two years, and for two years he had longed to die. Yet now, at the very end of his life, he actually wanted to live.

Yes, when his mother died before the apocalypse, he had clearly wanted to go find Cheng Jing. So why had he chosen instead to look for a father who had never fulfilled his responsibilities toward him?

Why hadn't he insisted on going to Cheng Jing?

It was the apocalypse. Why couldn't they have reconciled?

If he had gone to Cheng Jing, he wouldn't have ended up like this...

The last sound faded away, and Jiang Nian sank into darkness, full of unwillingness.

"Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz..."

"Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz..."

Early in the morning, in a room sealed off by blackout curtains, a phone vibrated on the bedside table, accompanied by a melodious ringtone.

The body beneath the lightweight quilt stirred for quite a while before a hand reached out, fumbled around, and pulled the phone over:

"Hello?"

A gentle female voice came through the phone:

"Hello, this is Peace of Mind Loan customer service. We've detected that you applied for a loan on our platform but haven't completed the final verification. May I ask if you've run into a problem? If..."

"I don't need it anymore, thank you."

Before the woman could finish, Jiang Nian hung up.

A moment later, he yawned, threw back the quilt, and sat up. He raised a hand to rub his neck out of habit, then suddenly froze:

"Hm?"

The next second, his expression changed drastically. He looked around in terror, his gaze finally settling on the phone beside him, its screen still lit:

Tianhe City, east district. August 13, 2036, 9:25 a.m. Clear skies.