The air fell into an eerie silence for a moment.

Su Mu looked at his hands—long, slender, and fair. They weren’t stiff or grayish-white like a zombie’s. He touched his eye sockets; they hadn’t sunk in. There were no fangs in his mouth either.

Fang Yiyang suddenly spoke up. “Your canine tooth is really nice.”

Su Mu lifted his eyes slightly. “What are you trying to say?”

Realizing his thoughts had been seen through, Fang Yiyang felt a little awkward. But he stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point.

“I heard that people with canine teeth like that usually love to smile. So why do you always look so cold?”

Su Mu didn’t talk much, didn’t gossip, and seemed indifferent to almost everything—at least, that was how most people saw him. Fang Yiyang felt that his way of thinking was probably a bit different, but every time he looked at Su Mu, he had the sense that aside from Su Wanmei, Su Mu couldn’t be bothered with anyone else.

To others, Su Mu looked detached from the world, but to Fang Yiyang, he always seemed to wear an expression that said the heavens rank first, I rank second.

Su Mu paused slightly. “My blood has started turning black?”

Fang Yiyang nodded.

Su Mu didn’t speak again. His long lashes lowered, his expression dark and unreadable. After a long silence, his voice finally carried a rare trace of hesitation.

“If I get infected, and you don’t… ask Luo Beiyao to help take good care of my mom and say Su Mu would be deeply grateful.”

Fang Yiyang rubbed his palms together. “So… should I tie you up first?”

Su Mu glanced at him. “Where would you get rope?”

Fang Yiyang froze, then realized it himself. He turned his head, scanning the surroundings, and pointed at a door to the right.

“There’s a small back room there. Go inside. If I turn into a zombie and you don’t, then kill me before you come out. I trust that with your strength, dealing with a newly infected zombie shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Even if he really did get infected, he still hoped Su Mu would kill him. He didn’t want to become like those monsters—devouring flesh, stripped of all humanity.

Su Mu nodded. He stood up, went into the room, locked the door behind him, and then sat down on a wooden chair.

When Su Mu used to go out on missions with his comrades in the military, he would always take detoxification serum after being injured. This was the first time he was facing a viral infection on his own, without any serum.

Aside from the expected pain from torn flesh, he felt nothing unusual at the wound. But as time passed, an inexplicable drowsiness slowly spread through his limbs. His lashes—thick like ink-black butterfly wings—gradually drooped. His head dipped heavily with fatigue.

Su Mu jolted awake, but before long, his eyelids grew heavy again. He bit down hard on his tongue until a rusty sweetness filled his mouth, yet he still couldn’t resist the overwhelming drowsiness and finally fell into a deep sleep.

[The real juice is @ https://www.lemonsociety.gay ♡]

Luo Beiyao waited with the others at the agreed meeting point for a long time before familiar figures gradually appeared in his line of sight.

He always instinctively searched for Su Mu first—so this time, he immediately noticed that the figure he had been waiting for was missing.

He pressed his lips together, looking at Lu Shuangshuang with reddened eyes, and at Jiang Sheng carrying what seemed to be a sleeping Su Wanmei on his back. The calm he had been forcing himself to maintain rippled like disturbed water.

He opened his mouth. When his usually deep, magnetic voice came out, it sounded stiff.

“Where is Su Mu?”

If he hadn’t asked, it would’ve been fine. But the moment he did, Lu Shuangshuang’s tears came pouring down, falling uncontrollably. She tried to speak, but when she opened her mouth, her throat felt choked, as if something was lodged there.

In the end, Luo Beiyao learned from Jiang Sheng that Su Mu had been injured—and that black blood had flowed from his wound.

Luo Beiyao yanked open the driver’s door. Without even asking for directions, he expanded his spiritual sense and rushed toward the area where they had gathered supplies earlier.

Ever since the apocalypse began, he had often dreamed of Su Mu being infected and turning into a zombie. That was why he had been so eager to come and regroup with him. Who would’ve thought that the moment they separated, something would go wrong?

Just the thought that Su Mu might be infected made Luo Beiyao’s face go pale. His heart pounded violently, like a war drum.

‘You must hold on. I have a way to suppress the virus.’

He should have mixed some spiritual liquid into Su Mu’s water earlier

Luo Beiyao couldn’t help but regret it.