Get password here. Click me!(KO-FI)
Early Morning.
The SUV was driving along the deserted road.
"Senior, are you sure you don't want to eat anything?"
Chu Muge glanced at the canned food resting on the center console and replied, "There's meat in it."
Gu Yao leaned back against the car seat, turning her head away without responding.
Chu Muge noticed that Gu Yao seemed listless this morning, as if she were a withered flower that hadn't been watered in a long time.
The truth was, she was indeed starving.
Chu Muge pressed her lips together and said, "I'll figure something out."
At worst, she could take a risk and dig out a crystal core.
Gu Yao gave her a sideways glance, slumping in her seat like a deflated balloon.
The SUV continued down the deserted road, wheels rolling and kicking up dust behind them.
The surroundings were empty, with a straight road stretching as far as the eye could see.
The road was cracked and dirty, but there weren't too many cars on it, so they could speed along without any problems. The car body swayed as it rushed forward.
Perhaps due to a previous crash or collision, the vehicle's interior occasionally shook, accompanied by creaks and groans.
At one point, the vehicle suddenly slowed down.
Gu Yao's eyes twitched slightly, looking through the windshield at what lay ahead.
Chu Muge gradually reduced speed, eventually stopping behind a white sedan that was blocking the middle of the road with its doors wide open.
Bloodstains marred the snow-white exterior of the sedan, still wet and fresh, hinting at a tragedy that had occurred not long ago.
After a moment of contemplation, Chu Muge grabbed a fire axe from beside her, opened the car door, and stepped out.
Gu Yao followed closely, jumping out of the SUV. Together, they approached the blood-stained white sedan to investigate.
Chu Muge furrowed her brows.
Through the open car door, they saw two bodies—a man and a woman.
To be precise, the woman's body was in the back seat, slumped near the floor with one leg resting on the seat, hair disheveled, eyes shut tight, lips ashen.
In the driver's seat, the windshield bore bullet holes, and the middle-aged man's head had been blown apart. Blood splattered the area, his mouth half-open in a silent scream, eyes wide in death.
---
Aside from the two corpses, there was nothing useful left in the car.
Clearly, they must have been attacked by someone, with all the supplies inside looted, leaving the vehicle stripped bare.
They seemed to be a married couple.
Chu Muge frowned.
Though this was a major road, it still connected to many branching paths, which meant the couple had likely driven up from one of those side roads.
Chu Muge examined the bullet holes in the windshield.
The situation was getting worse; it seemed like there were malicious groups lurking around.
"Senior... should we leave?"
Before Chu Muge could finish her sentence, she noticed Gu Yao had crouched down and was already crawling into the back seat of the white sedan.
Startled, Chu Muge quickly grabbed her by the collar, "What are you doing?!"
But as she pulled her back, Gu Yao was already clutching the arm of the female corpse, her mouth biting into its flesh.
Her pale eyes stared blankly, locking eyes with a shocked Chu Muge.
"Let go!" Chu Muge shouted.
Gu Yao bit down hard, and Chu Muge had to use all her strength to pry her off, finally pulling her away.
The zombie's eyes were filled with confusion, but a moment later, they returned to calm, her mouth smacking as if savoring a taste.
Chu Muge looked down at the deeply bitten arm, where the skin was broken, and then let the corpse's arm drop lifelessly back into the seat.
Good thing she had filed Gu Yao’s teeth down, otherwise, she might have bitten straight through.
Looking at Gu Yao’s innocent expression, Chu Muge asked softly, "Senior, were you really that hungry?"
Gu Yao averted her gaze in silence.
The zombie instincts were becoming harder to suppress, her earlier action was purely out of instinct.
Just then, the female corpse began to twitch slightly.
Chu Muge froze, watching as the spasms grew more pronounced, her lips tightening in concern.
The Corpse Was About to turn.
Gu Yao, being a zombie, could infect humans, and the same might be true for corpses as well.
"Sorry," Chu Muge muttered briefly to the corpse as she raised her axe.
**Thud.**
The twitching corpse immediately fell silent once more.
---
By the side of the road, two mounds of freshly dug earth protruded from the ground.
Chu Muge was holding a shovel she had taken from the SUV's trunk. She exhaled a deep breath.
The couple had been buried by the roadside.
To be honest, she shouldn't have gone to such trouble. In times like these, corpses were a common sight, and it wasn’t necessary to waste so much effort to bury two strangers.
But silently, Chu Muge had still buried them, and now she stood by the two mounds of dirt, turning to Gu Yao to say:
"Senior, you need to treat corpses like this, no eating them."
Really, she had only done it to set a good example.
Gu Yao stood quietly on the side and nodded.
She felt like Chu Muge saw her as a clueless child, as if the other girl was teaching her how to be humane with corpses.
Chu Muge sighed, then reached out to gently pat Gu Yao’s hair. “Be good, no more biting.”
Gu Yao: ...
I’m not a child!_ (＊｀д´)
---
The two of them got back into the car.
Chu Muge seemed to be used to such tragedies on the road, her expression was indifferent as she sat in the driver's seat, started the car, and prepared to continue their journey.
She held a photograph in her hand.
It was the only thing left inside the white sedan: a family photo. There were four people in total, the couple with gentle smiles, and two young adults, a brother and sister, standing between them.
The young man wore gold-rimmed glasses, while the girl had a ponytail. Both of them looked quite attractive.
A family portrait..._
Chu Muge put down the photo and pressed the accelerator.
“Lucky them.”
She spoke those words with a hint of envy.
---
Gu Yao quietly glanced at her from the corner of her eye.
There was an undeniable yearning in Chu Muge’s voice. “I’ve never taken a photo like that.”
Silence followed as the car drove down the deserted road, the occasional sound of wheels rolling over uneven ground filling the air.
In the back seat, the zombie dog was curled up, its grayish-white eyes open but giving the impression that it was dozing off.
Amidst the quiet, Chu Muge suddenly spoke up:
“Honestly, I’m not that fond of family.”
Liar, no one had even asked if she liked them or not.
But then something seemed to occur to Chu Muge, her eyes brightening: “Actually, if we’re talking about family photos, I already have one!”
With a mischievous smile, she slowed the car slightly and pulled out her phone with one hand, swiping to show Gu Yao some pictures they had taken together.
“You’re my girlfriend, so that makes you family.”
She said it so naturally, without a hint of embarrassment, even with a bit of smugness in her tone.
How childish.
Gu Yao glanced at her, then rolled her eyes in exasperation as if she were too speechless to respond.
The car fell silent once more.
Gu Yao couldn’t speak, and the zombie dog certainly couldn’t either. On this long stretch of road, it was essentially just Chu Muge chattering away, which, in some sense, was its own kind of loneliness.
Even if Chu Muge didn’t admit it, the mention of family portraits must have stirred up some memories of her past.
Sensing a strong wave of loneliness from her, Gu Yao thought for a moment, then reached into the car door’s storage compartment, pulling out sticky notes and a pen. With a blank expression, she scribbled a few words on the paper.
All words she had recently learned:
**[Chu Muge]**
**[Dog]**
Chu Muge glanced at it, her long eyelashes fluttering as she tried to stifle a laugh, but a chuckle escaped. She focused her gaze ahead, pressing her lips into a thin line, trying not to let her smile show too much.
The girl squinted her eyes in delight, her crescent-shaped smile glowing as the mood lightened.