The World Turned into Zombies, So I Went Back to the Countryside to Farm 50p2

Chapter 50p2: Snow Mountain

After breakfast, Jiang Zao stood on the edge of the cliff and flew the drone. Seeing the drone in the screen rise little by little and pass through the clouds, she held her breath nervously.

The climbing route marked on the topographic map was not as clear as a field survey. It was time to verify whether the summit route she had designed could be successful.

Wen Zhao also came over, and their two heads were side by side. Jiang Zao swiped the screen with her finger and zoomed in for her to see.

“This is the traditional route chosen by the joint Chinese-Japanese mountaineering team back then. From here, it’s almost a straight up and down along the glacier. In that era, there was no equipment that could withstand the harsh climate conditions, and there were no drones for reconnaissance. Moreover, this route is long and difficult to supply. Due to their eagerness for success, they mistakenly chose to set up their camp here and were eventually hit by an avalanche, resulting in the annihilation of the entire team.”

The drone’s camera slowly flew over the glacier, gradually lowering its altitude, and passed by the ice towers that were like a forest of strange rocks.

The sea has changed into mulberry fields. The bodies of the brave men are buried underground. After being weathered by the years, they have finally become a part of this snow mountain.

Later, Wen Zhao had asked her what the meaning of climbing was.

Jiang Zao had just said, “Climbing, compared to the result, is more about the process. It is a sport that makes people love life more and revere life.”

“I want to become a person who never gives up hope at any time. This is the meaning of my climbing.”

Although the weather was good today, under the condition of climbing without oxygen, this seemingly short 580-meter climb had also taken them a full ten hours. They only arrived at the C3 camp at dusk and began to set up camp.

After dinner, seeing that the weather was good, Jiang Zao set up her camera outside to film the Milky Way, while she got into her sleeping bag early to rest and recuperate.

The difference between the route Jiang Zao had chosen and the traditional route was that she had chosen to bypass the avalanche-prone glacier area and had taken the risk of using the Alpine style to pass through the crevasse area, and from the right side of the mountain, along the ridge, she had launched an assault on Chongming Snow Mountain.

This consumed a huge amount of physical strength and also had very strict technical requirements for the climbers, but fortunately, they had passed through without any incident.

At one-thirty in the morning, Jiang Zao woke Wen Zhao up on time.

Wen Zhao looked at the time on her watch.

“Do you always get up so early when you’re making a summit push?”

Jiang Zao had already cooked breakfast and handed it to her.

“About that. The period from dawn to daybreak is also commonly known as the window period. The temperature is low, so the snow conditions are more stable, and dangers such as avalanches and rockfalls are less likely to occur. In the afternoon, the wind speed of Chongming Snow Mountain can reach 80 km/h. We must go down the mountain before then.”

After quickly finishing breakfast, the two of them put on their equipment. Jiang Zao handed her the headlamp. The moment Wen Zhao stepped out of the tent, she was stunned by the brilliant starry sky.

“So beautiful. Is this the Milky Way…”

The slowly flowing starlight in the sky was like a ribbon hanging above their heads, and everything paled in comparison.

Jiang Zao took the camera from the tripod, changed the battery again, and inserted it into the quick-release system on her shoulder.

“We’re lucky. Let’s go. It’s time to go to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise.”

One step at a time, squeezing the little air left in her lungs, Jiang Zao could clearly hear her own heartbeat and heavy breathing. Just like every climb before, at this moment, she had already forgotten about the apocalypse and the zombies. There was only one thought in her mind: I want to climb this snow mountain that no one has ever set foot on.

To see with her own eyes what the sunrise on the top of this snow mountain, which countless outdoor enthusiasts dreamed of, was like.

This was a dream that had been rooted in her heart since the first day of hiking, a obsession that she had not been able to fulfill in her previous life.

She had thought that she would not have the chance to realize it in this life, but she did not expect that after all the hardships, when she really stood on the top of the mountain, thinking of the difficulties and dangers along the way, thinking of the brave mountaineers who had been buried here forever.

She couldn’t help but have tears in her eyes. “Wen Zhao… we… we did it.”

“Do you know what it means to successfully reach the summit of Chongming Snow Mountain? No one has been able to truly stand on the top of this snow mountain since 1991. We are the first in China, and even the first in the world!”

“From the first day of hiking, I’ve been dreaming of this. The snow mountain that has buried countless predecessors is now under my feet. How I wish there were media to record this precious moment now. 86 years later, two Chinese people are once again standing on the top of Chongming Snow Mountain, looking down on this world!”

Jiang Zao raised her ice axe and cheered, freely expressing her youth. The unspeakable feelings and the dreams that had been buried by the apocalypse were now all turned into smiles and tears on her face.

Wen Zhao also unfolded a red flag, which she had prepared before the climb. It was hand-sewn by Jiang Wuni.

They had gone through a long journey of seven days and seven nights, 120 km, before they finally stood here. Wen Zhao forcefully inserted the flagpole into the rock layer, fixed it with a wind rope, and then put a few stones on the rope to hold it down, looking at the red flag fluttering in the wind.

She was also a little excited for a moment.

“Little Zao, let’s take a picture together.”

Jiang Zao took out her camera, flipped the lens, and aimed it at herself.

Click The photo was frozen at this moment.

Wen Zhao looked at her sitting beside her. The sea of clouds was churning under their feet, and the red sun behind the clouds was slowly rising.

She prayed silently in her heart.

How I wish time would stop here.

While waiting for the sunrise, she looked at Jiang Zao, and Jiang Zao also turned her head at this moment.

The moment their eyes met, a gentle smile appeared in both of their eyes. The breeze lifted the strands of hair on Jiang Zao’s forehead.

“By the way, why did you think of climbing Chongming Snow Mountain with me? This is clearly your birthday.”

“I didn’t know that Chongming Snow Mountain had such a meaning to you before I came up. I just saw you looking up at it countless times when you were on watch.”

“That kind of expression only appears when you look at it. Little Zao, you like this world very much. As long as you like it, I will do my best to do it, and I also look forward to the day when—”

“The same gaze can fall on me.”

“This is my real birthday wish.”

“My birthday is not December 19th. It’s today, December 23rd, the day we stand together on the top of Chongming Snow Mountain.”

With the help of the strong wind on the snow mountain, Wen Zhao poured out all the words that had been brewing in her heart for a long time.

Jiang Zao’s eyes slowly turned red.

“You want to ask when I started to like you? I can’t answer that. Maybe it was from the moment you saved me. That day, I actually wanted to die. It was you who gave me the hope to live.”

“Or maybe it was the night we came back from our first adventure together, when you were quietly sitting by the well, washing the blood from your hands. Or maybe it was the moment you left the medicine for Zhou Qing and Lin Nian with a stubborn heart, the moment you gave Little Mi a name, the moment you bickered with Jiang Wuni. There are too many, too many…”

“When I came to my senses, I was shocked to find—” Wen Zhao pointed to her heart.

“My heart is already full of you. Your eyes are like a black vortex, pulling me down.”

“Every time I look at you, I am lost.”

When the tear slid down the corner of Jiang Zao’s eye, Wen Zhao also gently knelt on one knee.

“I am a person without a past. It is your appearance that has made me full of expectations for the future. At this moment, the mountains are my witness. My love for you is as eternal as the mountains, and will never change until death. Will you… be willing to spend the rest of your life with me in this chaotic and complex world?”

She was holding a small copper wire-wrapped ring in her hand. How long had she been preparing for this day?

Jiang Zao looked at her face and burst into tears.

Before this, she had never imagined that she could build such a deep bond with someone. Having a bond meant that she would be heartbroken.

To avoid this possibility, she had chosen not to start.

But at this moment, looking at Wen Zhao’s devout eyes, she couldn’t say a single “no.” The fierce emotion that was surging in her chest was about to burst out, making her cry.

Wen Zhao slowly put the ring on her finger. Looking at her trembling eyelashes, she gently wiped away the tears that were constantly overflowing from the corners of her eyes with her thumb. “I’ll only give you three counts to refuse. If you don’t refuse, I’m going to kiss you.”

“One.”

“Two…”

Before the last number could be said, Jiang Zao leaned over and kissed the corner of her lips like a dragonfly touching the water.

“No need to count. I’m willing.”

Wen Zhao was stunned for a moment. As a red cloud floated up to her cheeks, the smile on her lips also bloomed like spring. She could no longer suppress it. The moment she left, she held her waist tightly again and slowly deepened the kiss until they were entangled and inseparable.

The midnight sun opens up a clear day, shining on nothingness. [1]

The long, dark night before dawn had finally passed. At this moment when the clouds broke and the sun rose, the morning glow was magnificent, shining on them.

Chongming Snow Mountain quietly looked down on this world. The tall buildings in the distance were as small as ants.

After a long time, the two of them separated, still wanting more.

“Wen Zhao?” Jiang Zao was blushing as she called her name again.

“Yes?”

“I think I’ve also liked you for a long time. But from this moment on, I’ve decided to start loving you, to love you in the way you love me.”

Jiang Zao showed the shiny ring on her finger.

“I think this will be the bravest and most important decision of my life.”

Their two hands were intertwined, and the ring on their fingers shone brightly in the sunlight.

Wen Zhao lowered her head and stared at her slightly swollen lips. The love in her eyes was as turbulent as a tide. She held her face again.

The world is collapsing, and we are in love. [2]

***

On a highway that ran from east to west in China, a convoy of cars was speeding along. A dark cloud was following far behind, like a black cloud pressing down on the city, gradually approaching the convoy.

The man on the pickup truck raised his binoculars and took a look.

“F***, get the machine gun.”

A machine gun was mounted on the roof of the car.

“Open fire.”

Rat-a-tat-tat—

The machine gun kept spitting out fire. The hot bullets fell on the women who were squatting at his feet. The women, who were scantily clad and haggard, huddled together, covered their ears, and screamed.

Even under the suppression of heavy firepower, there were still zombies that broke through the defense line and gradually became active in front of the convoy.

The man casually picked up a woman by his feet and threw her down. The woman rolled on the ground a couple of times and was swallowed by the tide of zombies.

This brief pause gave the convoy a moment to catch its breath. The man reloaded the machine gun and kicked the trembling and crying women by his feet in disgust.

“We have to bring these money-losing goods with us when we’re running for our lives. All of you, get down and feed the zombies!”

Seeing that the zombies were catching up again, the man used the same trick and casually grabbed a struggling and crying woman, picking her up by her hair like a chick and throwing her out.

The crying in the car became even louder.

Some people could no longer bear this torture. They stood up with a numb expression and jumped into the tide of zombies themselves.

The man laughed out loud.

“That’s more like it. I’ve fed you well for so long. You should have some awareness.”

He casually grabbed a short-haired woman and was about to throw her out when the woman grabbed his arm and struggled, crying.

“Please let me go! I… I’m pregnant!”

The man squinted his eyes and stared at her slightly bulging belly under her ragged clothes. “It’s not my child!”

“I’ll do anything for you! Please, please! Please, big brother, I don’t want to die!!!”

When she was lifted out of the car again, the woman’s struggles and cries became even louder. In the struggle, the woman’s clothes were also torn.

Just then, a voice came from the walkie-talkie.

“Old Eight, that’s enough. If you kill them all, who will collect supplies for us, wash our clothes, and cook, and also solve the brothers’ physiological needs? They’re still useful.” (Disclaimer: I am firmly opposed to any criminal act of coercing women through violence or non-violence. The villain group will appear for at most three chapters and will be taken offline as soon as possible, and they will receive the punishment they deserve.)

“Old Three, you—”

“This is the boss’s order.”

The man’s hand, which was squeezing her neck, finally loosened its grip. He looked at her open collar and swallowed.

The woman fell into the car and immediately crawled to his feet, wiping the dirt from his shoes.

Another clear and powerful command came from the walkie-talkie.

“Everyone, concentrate. The convoy is about to enter the territory of Cangchuan City. We must shake off the zombies before then.”

“Yes! Boss.”

The man kicked the woman who was lying by his leg like a dog. “Get out of the way. I’ll deal with you later!”

Translator’s Notes (Just to add: most of these points are not only translator’s notes but also author’s notes, since the author specifically gives descriptions about these phrases—I just add a little complement.)

[1] “Eye contact is the spiritual kiss of humanity, without desire.” (对视是人类不带欲望的精神接吻。) – This is a quote from the movie “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” The original line is slightly different, but the sentiment is the same, emphasizing the intimacy and connection of a shared gaze.

[2] “The world is collapsing, and we are in love.” (世界在崩塌，而我们在相爱。) – This is a popular romantic phrase, often used in literature and social media, to describe a love that persists and thrives even in the midst of chaos and destruction.