The World Turned into Zombies, So I Went Back to the Countryside to Farm 20

Chapter 20: Fever

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Zao strode over. The little girl stood in the courtyard, pointing towards the house, her expression filled with panic.

“My brother, my brother, he…”

Wen Zhao didn’t say a word and lifted the curtain to enter the storage room. She pulled back the swaddling clothes and was also stunned.

The small child’s face had turned ashen. Due to malnutrition in recent days, his head was disproportionately large, and the purple-blue blood vessels on his hairless scalp were clearly visible. The baby’s eyes, which were originally just a slit, were now wide open and filled with bloodshot veins.

Hearing someone enter, a “he he” sound came from his toothless mouth. He had clearly mutated.

Jiang Wuni heard the commotion and came over to take a look, then was scared back, clutching her chest and chanting “Amitabha.”

“How could this be?”

“I… I don’t know… my brother… he’s been sleeping since we got back… he threw up after eating a few mouthfuls of rice paste. I thought he was just scared… and that he would be fine after a sleep. Who knew… I heard a noise next to me in the middle of the night, and when I turned on the light, I found…”

The little girl stammered, tears falling as she spoke. She wanted to lean over the bed to see her brother.

Jiang Zao grabbed her and casually took a clothes-drying pole to remove the swaddling clothes wrapped around him.

A long, thin red mark behind his ear came into view. It looked like it had been scratched by a fingernail.

Jiang Zao remembered the moment the swaddling clothes were snatched from the little girl. It was probably from that moment. But because the wound was small and in a hidden location, no one had noticed.

“He’s been infected.”

“Infected…”

The little girl murmured, seemingly not understanding the meaning of the word. A moment later, she remembered her mother’s appearance and suddenly understood. Her face was ashen.

Such an expression was rarely seen on a child.

“We have to dispose of him, right? Just like… what you did to Mom?”

Wen Zhao turned her head, seemingly unable to bear it.

“Do we have to do this? She’s already lost her mother today. This is the only family she has left in the world.”

Jiang Zao just said calmly, “Everyone in this room has lost their family. You’ve seen it too. Zombies will mutate—”

She tilted her head and glanced at the child lying on the bed. Even though he couldn’t run, jump, or speak, his eyes were already flashing with a thirst for blood.

“There’s no guarantee that this child won’t become like that.”

As soon as Jiang Zao finished speaking, the room fell into a dead silence. The few of them looked at each other. Jiang Wuni couldn’t bear it. “Zao’er…”

Wen Zhao and Jiang Wuni both had their own beliefs. The little girl was still too young. It seemed most appropriate for her to do this.

“You all go out.”

“No!” The little girl finally let out her first cry, repeating something in the local dialect. As she was about to pounce, Wen Zhao pulled her out.

After everything had returned to calm.

Jiang Wuni knelt before the statue of Guanyin in the main hall, kowtowing and chanting, “Namo Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, Namo Buddha, Namo Dharma, Namo Sangha, God of the Heavenly Net, God of the Earthly Net, may people be free from hardship, may hardship leave the body, may all disasters turn to dust.” [1]

“If you must blame, blame these terrible times, blame those man-eating things. If there is retribution, let it fall on me. Our Zao’er wouldn’t even kill a chicken before. She was forced to do this.”

The candlelight flickered.

Guanyin held a willow branch in her hand, silent.

***

The child had just turned into a zombie, and the blood was still warm. After Jiang Zao came out, she washed her hands by the well for a long time.

She scrubbed them with soap over and over again, but it seemed that a faint smell of blood always lingered.

As she was washing for the seventh time, Wen Zhao came over and placed a can of Coke on the stone table in front of her.

“Maybe you’d like something sweet to drink.”

“Thanks. When did you get this?”

“I was behind you when we came out of the kitchen.”

Jiang Zao rinsed the soap bubbles from her hands and shook them. Even though she hid it well, Wen Zhao could still see that her eyes were a little red.

“What about the child?”

“I put him in a duffel bag. Tomorrow… we’ll find a place on the mountain to bury him. What about the little girl?”

“She’s sleeping upstairs with Grandma Jiang.”

“Oh, that’s good…” Jiang Zao muttered and picked up a rattle from the ground, handing it to her.

“By the way, give this to her. Her brother was holding it. It’s already been washed.”

Wen Zhao pushed it back.

“You should give it to her yourself tomorrow.”

***

It was only clear for half the night. The next morning, it started to drizzle again. After the zombies had dispersed, the group set off from the house.

Wen Zhao led the way with a sickle, and Jiang Zao followed behind with the duffel bag. The few of them quickly dug a pit.

As she was about to put the body in, the little girl stood up. “Big sister, let me do it. I want to send my brother off one last time.”

Jiang Zao handed her the duffel bag. The little girl squatted down and placed the bag in the pit. As she was about to unzip it to take one last look, Jiang Wuni couldn’t help but remind her.

“Good child, don’t look. It won’t be a pretty sight.”

The little girl’s hand, which was on the zipper, suddenly froze. Large teardrops rolled down her cheeks and splattered onto the duffel bag.

Jiang Zao hesitated, then took out the rattle from her pocket. “Your brother was holding this… you… take it.”

The little girl took it and held it in her hand. She shook it gently, and the rattle made a crisp sound.

“Mom made this for my brother before he was born. Mom said that although Grandma and Grandpa wanted a boy, she wanted a girl more, so that I would have a companion in the future…”

Jiang Zao watched as she gently placed the rattle on the duffel bag. “Brother, if you’ve already seen Mom, please tell her that I’m fine, that I’ll try my best to grow up, and that I miss her very much.”

Wen Zhao picked up the shovel and poured scoop after scoop of dirt on top, then packed it down. Finally, she used a sickle to carve a piece of wood.

“What’s your brother’s name? Let’s make a marker. In the future… it will be easier to find.”

“Qian Wang, his name is Qian Wang. Wang as in hope.”

The little girl wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand, took the carved wood from Wen Zhao, and gently inserted it into the mound of dirt. Then she used her small hands to gather the scattered dirt.

She had suffered a sudden tragedy and had not slept all night. She looked haggard. As she was doing these things, tears fell silently. In the vast and empty world, her small figure kneeling in front of the mound of dirt looked so lonely.

Jiang Zao pursed her lips, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to start. As if by a stroke of genius, when she turned her head, Wen Zhao happened to take out her harmonica from her pocket and put it to her lips.

She had just blown a note when she suddenly put it down with a wry smile. “Forget it, I’d better not play. I’m afraid of attracting zombies.”

Jiang Zao lowered her eyes, letting her thoughts surge, silent.

Jiang Wuni pulled the little girl up. “Ni’er, let’s go home.”

Jiang Zao didn’t come down for dinner. Jiang Wuni called her on the walkie-talkie for a long time with no response. Thinking she had fallen asleep and hadn’t gotten up yet, she had to go up and call her.

Jiang Wuni pushed the door and found that it was locked from the inside. She muttered a few words, “What are you doing in secret?” and began to knock loudly.

“Zao’er?! Zao’er?! You lazy thing! What time is it? Dinner is ready and you’re still not up, waiting for me to bring it to you?!”

After knocking for a long time, only a lazy reply came from inside. “I know, leave it at the door.”

“Hey! You’re really waiting for me to bring it to you! You’re really regressing. You’re not as good as the old and not as good as the young. The little girl has only been here for a few days and she already knows how to help with cooking. You, on the other hand, just eat ready-made food and won’t even come downstairs!”

Jiang Wuni walked away, grumbling.

A few minutes later, the little girl came up with a bowl and gently placed it on the stool at the bedroom door. “Big sister, I’ve left the food here for you.”

After there was no more noise at the door, Jiang Zao gently opened the door a crack, reached out a hand to take the food in, and quickly closed it again. After she finished eating, she put the bowl back on the stool.

At night, Jiang Zao sat up in bed, turned on the table lamp, opened the camera, and pointed the lens at herself.

She took out the thermometer from under her arm and showed it to the camera. “It is now 1:03 AM on July 28, 2075. It has been 24 hours since I was bitten by a zombie.”

Jiang Zao sat forward a little so that the camera could clearly capture the bruise on her arm.

“Fortunately, I was wearing an elbow pad, and the zombie’s teeth were not able to bite through the hard industrial plastic shell. But that’s not what I want to talk about—”

“In fact, until yesterday, I believed that the Pandora virus was transmitted through bodily fluids, and that you would be infected if you were bitten. But yesterday, I met a child. His ear was only scratched by a zombie, leaving a shallow mark. He turned into a zombie that night. I don’t know if it’s because the zombie that hurt him was different from other zombies in terms of physical fitness, intelligence, and hunting performance, or if it’s because the wound, although shallow, was too close to the brain, which caused him to turn into a zombie so quickly. But the only fact I can confirm now is that the mode of transmission of the Pandora virus has evolved, from the previous bodily fluid transmission to contact transmission. Not only that, but there is also a certain chance that the host will mutate after being infected with the Pandora virus. Although I still haven’t figured out the trigger for this mutation, I can be sure that this mutated zombie is very powerful. Don’t provoke it easily. Once you encounter it, you either have to kill it at the cost of great casualties, or you can only run away.”

“But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is—” Jiang Zao took off her hat, turned to the camera, and pointed to the bandaged area on the back of her head.

“I have an open wound on the back of my head, caused by falling down the stairs during the fight with the zombie yesterday. I don’t know if the wound came into contact with the zombie’s bodily fluids during the fight, but unfortunately, I’ve started to have a fever.”

“My temperature has risen from 36.7 degrees when I woke up in the afternoon to 38.2 degrees. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been infected with the Pandora virus, or if it’s just a common cold or an infected wound.”

“But in any case, if I have been infected with the Pandora virus, then this will be a precious research video documenting the infection process, and it will also be the last video I leave in this world.”

Jiang Zao reached out and turned off the camera.

“I’m an atheist, but at this moment, I pray to God.”

Translator’s Notes

[1] “Namo Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, Namo Buddha, Namo Dharma, Namo Sangha, God of the Heavenly Net, God of the Earthly Net, may people be free from hardship, may hardship leave the body, may all disasters turn to dust.” (南无观世音菩萨，南无佛，南无法，南无僧，天罗神，地罗神，人离难，难离身，一切灾殃化为尘。) – This is a common Buddhist/folk prayer or chant for protection and deliverance from suffering. “Namo” is a Sanskrit term of veneration. The chant calls upon various deities and powers to ward off disaster.