Chapter 34
Xia Weishuang thought that after she said that, Ke Xiaoxiao would be somewhat embarrassed. Perhaps for the next few days, she wouldn’t want to see her. But it didn’t matter. Xia Weishuang had already planned to live alone with Sang Lu, so they would see each other much less in the future.
However, now that she knew Xia Yu would soon be in danger, Xia Weishuang wanted to help him avoid it before moving.
But unexpectedly, Ke Xiaoxiao suddenly raised her head and chuckled, seeming a little surprised and a little helpless. She waved her hand and said to Xia Weishuang, “No, no, no, Sister Shuangshuang, I was just trying to scare you. Don’t take it seriously. I’m not a lesbian.”
Ke Xiaoxiao wrung her fingers and said with some embarrassment, “I’m sorry. I’m just very envious that Little Xue has a gentle sister like you. I don’t have a family anymore, and I also want a sister like Sister Shuangshuang.”
Ke Xiaoxiao’s eyes turned red. “Maybe it’s because you saved me, Sister Shuangshuang, that I can’t help but rely on you. I’m sorry, I’m too insecure. Sometimes I might act a little out of line. I’m really sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, Sister Shuangshuang. I didn’t mean anything else. I just… I just want to be a little closer to my sister.”
Xia Weishuang felt a little sorry for her. After all, this little girl had not had it easy. She said, “You know what kind of person Little Xue is. If you’re her good friend, she won’t abandon you. As for me, you can still treat me as a sister, but I must adhere to my principles. This is my duty as an adult.”
Ke Xiaoxiao put on a sunny and cheerful smile, and said with fortitude, “I understand. I’ll be more careful too. Don’t worry, Sister Shuangshuang, I’m fine!”
With that, she took a few small steps, went up and hugged Xia Qingxue’s arm. Xia Qingxue had been secretly observing her and Xia Weishuang. Seeing her come over, she immediately snorted, “I knew you wanted to steal my sister.”
Ke Xiaoxiao said innocently, “Who wouldn’t want to?”
Xia Qingxue said, “Give up. You’ll never succeed.”
Ke Xiaoxiao lowered her eyes, a dark light flashing in them. “Who knows what the future holds?”
**
Under the leadership of Xia Yu and Zhang Wenhao, the group arrived at the stream behind the village. This stream flowed down from Green Mountain, and its source was a mountain spring. Many villagers liked to get water from here to drink.
But now, this stream was no longer as clear and beautiful as it used to be. It was filled with countless silent zombies, densely packed, one after another, extending from the side of the village to the upper reaches of the stream.
The most bizarre thing was that they were all face down, their heads facing upstream.
Because the stream’s current was gentle and small, the zombies were not washed away, but some disgusting unknown substances still spread with the water. Flies buzzed and circled, making people not dare to get close.
This shocking scene obviously scared many people, and the sound of dry heaving was endless.
The village party secretary endured his fear and took a few steps forward, asking, “Was it like this when you came?”
“Yes,” Zhang Wenhao said. “It was like this when we found them. Uncle, do you think they’re completely dead, so they didn’t move when we came over?”
As the village party secretary looked, his old, weathered eyes suddenly filled with tears. “It’s good that they’re dead. It’s good. They can be buried in peace.”
But could the zombie virus really disappear so easily, and could this disaster really end just like that?
Xia Weishuang didn’t think so.
She looked at the zombies that filled the stream, her heart filled with pity, but she still forced herself to continue observing and said, “While they’re not moving now, let’s destroy their brains to prevent future trouble.”
But only a few people could accept this idea.
The village party secretary said in a pained voice, “These are all our relatives and friends. Now that they’re completely dead, who can bear to lay a hand on them?”
Xia Weishuang understood this feeling. Humans attacked zombies for self-preservation. If they could, which normal person would be willing to destroy someone else’s body for no reason? Especially when this person had been laughing and joking with them not long ago, was a relative, a friend, a person with countless connections in their lives.
But she knew that the zombies were not completely dead. Xia Weishuang said, “A few days ago on the road, I saw a similar situation. I don’t know why the zombies seemed to have stopped moving, but then they suddenly started moving again. Uncle Sun, the living are more important.”
This was a principle that Xia Weishuang had kept in her heart for the past three years, constantly reminding herself not to make the wrong choice.
The village party secretary lit another cigarette, and in an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years. “Aigh—let’s do as you say.”
They began to try to destroy the zombies’ brains, but when they looked at their eternally sleeping relatives, they found it difficult to do so.
Seeing this, the village party secretary stamped his foot and said, “Those who can’t do it, go and find me some firewood. Those who have diesel and coal at home, bring them over too! With so many bodies, even if they don’t turn into zombies, if they’re not dealt with quickly, it will easily cause other diseases. Don’t let everyone be eaten by zombies, only to get a plague!”
The group of people once again split up and cooperated. There were not many people who were willing to stay and destroy the zombies’ heads. At their speed, they would not be able to deal with all the zombies by dark.
And at this moment, it was already five-thirty.
Fortunately, it got dark late in the summer. If it were winter, it would already be pitch-black outside.
This time, Xia Weishuang was not assigned any work. She observed for a while. Xia Qingxue had volunteered to destroy the zombies’ heads. Xia Yu walked to the side of the stream and looked for a while, then suddenly covered his eyes and staggered away, crouching in a corner and crying softly. Zhang Wenhao patted his shoulder and helped him destroy Xia Sanshu’s brain.
This was not an easy job. The human skull was very hard, and the zombies were all lying face down. They either had to turn their heads to the side and destroy them from the eye sockets or mouth, or they would have to spend a lot of effort. After all, not everyone knew how to quickly scramble a zombie’s brain.
“What is this?” The head of one of the bodies was particularly rotten. It was smashed into a big watermelon with one knock. The villager who had knocked it was originally unwilling to look more, but a shiny thing caught his attention.
“There’s a stone in the zombie’s head?”
The village party secretary walked over and took a look, saying, “Didn’t the radio say so? Some zombies have crystals in their heads, which are useful to espers. But we’re not espers, so this thing is useless to us.”
“Let’s keep it. Maybe there will be espers in the future.” The villager picked it up and washed it in the stream.
However, although there were crystals, they were useless after all. Everyone was still not very willing to rummage through the zombies’ brains for this. At this time, the village party secretary’s proposal showed its superiority. As long as they were all burned to ashes, they could get the crystals without having to rummage through their brains.
Seeing that everyone was busy, Xia Weishuang went over to comfort Xia Yu, then stated her purpose. “I want to go up to the upper reaches of Green Mountain Stream to take a look. If you don’t want to touch the zombies now, why don’t you come with me?”
What had made this group of zombies look so strange? Xia Weishuang speculated that it was related to the rain, but the rain should not have made them all face in one direction. There must have been other influencing factors.
The way the zombies looked gave her the feeling that they wanted to go up. So Xia Weishuang decided to go up and take a look.
The danger should not be great for the time being, because Sang Lu was not by her side. If there was a danger from a foreign object, Sang Lu would not leave her easily.
And she had called Xia Yu because there were many zombies here, which met the conditions for Xia Yu’s mutation. Xia Weishuang was afraid that in the short time she wasn’t looking, Xia Yu would accidentally step onto the path of death.
Hearing her suggestion, Xia Yu quickly stood up, as if he didn’t want Xia Weishuang to see his sorry state. He turned around and wiped his face with the back of his hand, then said as if nothing had happened, “Alright, I’ll go with you. But it’s not safe for just the two of us. I’ll call Haozi to come with us.”
“Don’t. Zhang Wenhao is helping to destroy the zombies. Don’t disturb his work,” Xia Weishuang said.
“Sister Shuangshuang, I want to go and take a look too!”
“What are you guys talking about, keeping secrets from me? No, I want to go too!”
Xia Qingxue and Ke Xiaoxiao were very sharp-eyed. Seeing that the two of them seemed to be talking about something, they immediately came over, afraid of being left behind.
Originally, the two of them were just firewood collectors. It didn’t matter if they were missing. Xia Weishuang agreed.
The four of them left the crowd and began to walk up along the stream.
Green Mountain was actually very short. It would probably take about ten minutes to climb to the top. A round trip, if there were no accidents, could be done in half an hour at the fastest, and it wouldn’t be dark by then.
However, as they walked up, Xia Weishuang and the others couldn’t help but quietly move away from the stream, because the stream was actually very narrow, especially in the mountain part, so the zombies squeezed in the stream showed a particularly dense state.
There was a section of the stream that was like a small waterfall, falling vertically. Here, the zombies squeezed in the water came to an end. When the four of them continued to walk up, they finally no longer had to endure the eye-sore of the zombies.
Further up, almost at the top of the mountain, the road began to become gentle, the vegetation became deeper, and the croaking of frogs was endless. They had already reached the source of the stream.
After turning around a large rock, a pool of water that was constantly gushing out clear water appeared in front of them. And when they saw this, they also understood why the zombies had such a strange appearance.
A huge fish monster’s corpse was lying at the opening where the pool of water flowed out. The fishy smell was not heavy. There were a few small holes on the part of the corpse that was floating on the water surface. The largest one was on the top of the fish monster’s head. It looked like a tooth mark, but it was also broken.
And the part under the water had mostly become white bones. Suddenly, a few small fish that swam very fast shuttled through them, opened their mouths full of fine, sharp teeth, and tore at the fish monster’s flesh.
Who had killed the fish monster? Xia Weishuang already had the answer.
The moment he saw the fish monster, Xia Yu was obviously startled. He had been staying at home all this time. The most terrifying thing he had seen was a zombie. He had never seen such a deformed monster.
Xia Qingxue explained to him that now, because of the virus, many things had mutated, and animals and plants were no exception. However, they had not yet found any mutated insects.
This was probably the only merciful thing about God. After all, there were countless insects on Earth. If insects were also affected by the virus, humanity would really be finished.
While they were explaining, Xia Weishuang walked forward to observe carefully. Ke Xiaoxiao followed behind her, step by step.
After walking to the side of the pool, Xia Weishuang’s sharp eyes saw a black shadow, right in front of the fish monster’s corpse!
What was that strange thing? It seemed that in this black shadow, there was also some snow-white, as if… a person who had drowned in the water!
Suddenly, the black shadow moved and actually swam upstream!
Ke Xiaoxiao was frightened and suddenly shrank behind Xia Weishuang, grabbing the corner of her clothes.
Xia Weishuang was actually also scared, but her sharp eyes found that under the shadow-like long hair, there were familiar clothes. So she continued to stand by the side of the pool, waiting for the person in the pool to come out of the water.
The long hair that was flying in the water got closer and closer. With a splash, Sang Lu emerged from the splashing water.
She was like a water ghost from a folk tale, her long hair was wet and disheveled, her skin was deathly pale, but her lips were as red as if they had been stained with blood.
Her charming and beautiful eyes were filled with a cold and murderous aura. Her whole body exuded a terrifying silence. When she saw Xia Weishuang, she slowly curved her lips into a smile.
It was just that she didn’t know that she looked even more terrifying when she smiled than when she didn’t. Probably only Xia Weishuang could appreciate this smile.
“Sang Lu! What are you doing here!” Xia Weishuang called out happily.
“So it’s Senior Sang Lu,” Ke Xiaoxiao said weakly. “You really scared me just now. Senior Sang Lu looks so scary.”
“How could she?” Xia Weishuang retorted. “It’s so hot in the summer. Sang Lu just likes to play with water.”
Ke Xiaoxiao: “…”
And Sang Lu did not directly answer Xia Weishuang’s question. She stared at Ke Xiaoxiao’s hand that was holding the corner of Xia Weishuang’s clothes, as if she was thinking very seriously.
Ke Xiaoxiao quickly withdrew her hand. “I’m sorry, I forgot again.”
It was just a pull on the corner of her clothes in a moment of fright. Xia Weishuang didn’t even feel it. She didn’t think it was a big deal, so she waved her hand and said, “It’s okay. I’m not that sensitive.”
But obviously, she wasn’t, but Sang Lu was.
The smile on Sang Lu’s face faded a little. She said to Ke Xiaoxiao, “Last time. No, next time.”
Seeing that Sang Lu seemed a little unhappy, Xia Weishuang quickly took a few steps forward, crouched by the side of the pool, and held Sang Lu’s wet hand, shaking it gently, as if she were acting coquettishly.
Xia Weishuang asked, “Sang Lu, don’t mind others. What were you doing in the water just now?”
Sang Lu looked up at Xia Weishuang, her smile deepening again. She said seriously, “I was looking, and occupying.”
Occupying? What does that mean?
Seeing Xia Weishuang’s confusion, Sang Lu decided to take her to see for herself.
So Sang Lu reached out her wet arm and hooked it around Xia Weishuang’s neck. Like a life-claiming water ghost, with a pale and demonic smile, she pulled the infatuated and pitiful person into the water.
