Chapter 107: The Blood-Stained City of Changzhou

Dragged along by Qin Luo, Yue Qi had no idea where they were headed, only that it was certainly not the way back to Changzhou City.

"Wait!" Yue Qi suddenly shook off her hand and came to a sharp halt.

"What now? Do you want to go back and throw your life away?" Qin Luo asked coldly, her eyes fixed on him without a hint of warmth.

"I..." Yue Qi was momentarily speechless. But the thought of his lover and friends trapped within Changzhou City made him frantic; yet, he knew all too well that returning now was simply unrealistic.

"Let me put it this way: that leader-class zombie most likely led its horde there in search of food. What do you think zombies eat? Changzhou City is the only place nearby. Do you really expect them to bypass the city to hunt for some other survivor enclave?" Qin Luo’s tone was icy and rational, devoid of any of her usual girlish whimsy.

"They went to Changzhou... then what? What about Lian'er? What about Yunsheng? Everyone there! What happens to them?!" By the end, Yue Qi was practically shouting. He could not bear the thought of living alone in this world, bereft of all his kin and companions.

"Calm down!" Qin Luo’s presence was no less imposing than his as she retorted, "How do you know they couldn't escape? Can you guarantee that everyone will die just because the zombies arrived? Even if you don't believe in yourself, you must believe in Sister Lian and the others. They have lived through so much; they will surely find a way out!"

With that, Qin Luo sank to the ground. She looked at Yue Qi, hoping he would understand her intentions. She knew the chances of the people in Changzhou surviving were slim—negligible, even—but she did not want Yue Qi to spiral into despair. If it were possible, she wanted him to hold onto this sliver of hope forever. Even if Bai Lian were already dead, she wished for him to never believe it, to keep walking through this lonely world, perhaps making that final, desperate struggle for humanity.

"Is it all my fault? If I had returned to the city sooner, if I hadn't gone looking for that zombie, would it have led its army to attack? Would Lian'er and the others still be alive?" Yue Qi suddenly knelt, burying his head in his hands, muttering to himself.

"It is not your fault. That zombie was bound to emerge sooner or later; it was only a matter of time," Qin Luo said, sitting beside him and speaking with uncharacteristic patience.

"No, that’s not it! It is me! If I had been in the city, I could have at least died with them!" Yue Qi suddenly looked up. The hair that Bai Lian had once carefully tied for him now hung in disarray, his hair ribbon long gone, lost to the wind. His eyes were wide and his face deathly pale, creating a chilling sight in the darkness of the night.

"Yue Qi!" Qin Luo slapped him across the face. "Calm down! You must calm down!"

The blow did not seem to wake him. He merely clutched his cheek, staring fixedly at the ground, and muttered, "Calm down? How can I be calm? How? Since the disaster began and I left the mountains, my father died, my mother died. All my brothers and sisters either turned into zombies or died right before my eyes at the hands of those monsters. And now, even Lian'er... What sin did I commit in my past life to be cursed with such a lonely, ill-fated destiny? Am I never to have anyone close to me in this life?"

Qin Luo said nothing. She didn't know what to say. She had been with Yue Qi for a while, but he had never mentioned his family. In their daily life, he was a boisterous, carefree person who always took the burden upon himself. Who would have guessed that such a seemingly happy-go-lucky young man carried such profound darkness and such a tragic history?

"I wanted to die a long time ago. If not for Lian'er, I might have ended it already..." As he spoke of Bai Lian, a faint flush of color returned to his pale face.

"But now that she's gone, what do I do? Who else in this world gives me a reason to live? Who?" he asked vacantly. A drop of bright red liquid trickled from the corner of his mouth—it was blood.

"You have me!" Qin Luo blurted out. Realizing what she had said, she blushed but continued, "You still have Grandfather... even for the sake of those who care about you, you must live on. You cannot just give up!"

***

Yue Qi remained silent, staring blankly into the distance, his mind seemingly drifting far away.

"How about this? In two days, we'll go to Changzhou City and take a look," Qin Luo said, her voice softening, though her expression remained sorrowful. "They won't necessarily die. With Sister Xin—Xin Zi—there, they won't be caught and eaten so easily..."

Yue Qi’s eyes brightened. He had seemingly forgotten about Xin Zi’s presence!

"That's right, Xin Zi is resourceful. She will definitely help them escape..." Yue Qi muttered to himself, his pale face suddenly flushing with life.

"And both Xin Zi and Lian'er have their own contingency plans. If they are determined to fight those zombies to the death, they might truly have a way out!" The sudden 180-degree turn in his demeanor left Qin Luo a bit bewildered.

"Sigh..." Yue Qi sighed, stood up, and brushed the dust off his clothes. He swept his hair back, but made no effort to tie it up again.

"Yue Qi, what’s wrong with you? Have you lost your mind?" Qin Luo reached out to touch his forehead, looking alarmed.

"What are you saying..." Yue Qi pushed her hand away and gave a bitter smile. "I don't know what to do about those zombies, and I know the odds are against Lian'er and the others, but it's not impossible for them to have escaped."

"That's more like it..." Qin Luo sighed. She knew he was trying to comfort himself—yes, comfort himself!

She looked up at him, studying him closely. "You aren't planning to leave me here and run back to Changzhou alone, are you? Let me tell you, I won't let you get away with it! If I find you gone, I’ll track you down to Changzhou myself!"

"Huh?" Yue Qi froze, a bitter smile spreading across his face. He had, in fact, been considering exactly that, though not with total certainty. Her words, however, made him abandon the idea entirely.

"Don't worry, I won't. We'll go to Changzhou in two days to take a look. If there really is no other way..." He trailed off, his mind flashing back to the words the Manor Lord had spoken long ago.

"If there’s no other way, we'll head to Jizhong. The Yue family there will surely be able to help us..." He temporarily shelved his plan to go to Mount Sanqing, deciding to plan more carefully. If he reached the mountain only to find it infested with zombies, the danger would be even greater.

"Fine, go wherever you like, as long as this Senior Sister is coming with you!" Qin Luo smiled at him.

The two found a patch of open ground and sat down in silence. Everything that night had been so bizarre, and events had unfolded at such a breakneck pace that neither felt the slightest bit tired.

"By the way, Qin Luo," Yue Qi said, "if the virus were to disappear, do you think these zombies would change back? I mean, would they return to their human forms?"

"Return to their human forms..." Qin Luo paused. She thought of the zombies she had slain on their journey, and the ones she had watched Yue Qi strike down. She offered a bitter laugh. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe they were just infected by a virus, and perhaps there really is a way for them to change back..."

***

Yue Qi started a fire and took out some rations. They sat there in silence, saying nothing more.

Qin Luo felt an unusual sense of peace in her heart. When she was with her grandfather, he had always been the one making the decisions, but in truth, she had always longed to find her own character. Traveling with Yue Qi had been perilous, but it seemed she had finally discovered what she truly wanted.

They remained in silence...

Two days later.

They waited for exactly two days before setting off on the road back to Changzhou. Yue Qi appeared calm throughout the journey, but Qin Luo was deeply worried, fearing that his emotions might suddenly spiral out of control. She knew that if he were to truly snap, she would be powerless to stop him.

By late afternoon, they were near the city. Since they hadn't traveled very far, they reached the outskirts before dusk.

"Why don't you wait here, and I'll go take a look?" Yue Qi asked tentatively. He valued Qin Luo highly and feared she might come to harm; she was, after all, the only person he felt connected to now.

"I’m going with you..." Qin Luo’s voice was flat, but it carried an unshakable resolve.

"Alright then..." Yue Qi sighed. He knew she was afraid he would do something rash, but he knew he wouldn't—at least, not until he was certain of Bai Lian's fate.

Circling through the woods, they finally arrived at the vicinity of Changzhou City.

Standing from a distance, they could see the massive city walls looming ahead, but that didn't catch Yue Qi's attention. Instead, the heaps of zombie corpses piled beneath the city walls left him stunned.

"This... how can there be so many..." Qin Luo was clearly shocked as well. They stayed hidden in the forest, afraid to step out, as many zombies were still wandering restlessly beneath the walls.

"Could they really have found a way to fight them to the death?" Yue Qi wondered, but a sudden flash of realization struck him—a new possibility had emerged in his mind!