“Since they weren’t infected and didn’t turn into zombies, there’s still a certain chance they might awaken an ability,” Luo Beiyao said as he carried the man over to the bed. Deng Qinghuai quickly stepped in to help carry the other one.
Deng Qinghuai had only just set the man down when the baby-faced youth slowly opened his eyes and gradually woke up. Everyone immediately turned to look at him.
He stared blankly at the ceiling for a long while, as if the broken threads in his mind had suddenly reconnected. Then he abruptly propped himself up and sat upright. His clear black-and-white eyes fixed unblinkingly on the young man lying beside him. With disbelief written all over his face, he raised his still slender, pale right hand and gently stroked the other’s cheek.
Having already guessed their relationship, Su Mu turned his head away, unable to keep watching.
Luo Beiyao, who was also gay, vaguely sensed something as well. Perhaps there really was an instinctive understanding between people sharing the same fate.
Only after quite some time did the baby-faced youth finally pull his attention away from the young man. He glanced around at the people by the bed before looking at Luo Beiyao, his eyes slightly red.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
He swallowed nervously. When Luo Beiyao only nodded, he continued, “Qingru and I will repay you in the future.”
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Su Mu pressed his lips together. His guess had been correct.
Su Yang was somewhat shy. When he spoke, he even felt a little embarrassed to look people in the eye. He introduced himself and the young man, then told everyone about what they had experienced.
Su Yang and Xu Qingru had grown up together. After the apocalypse, they lost all of their family members. In the end, only the two of them were left, relying on each other to survive. Later, they joined a team of survivors.
Xu Qingru was a wind-type ability user with strong offensive power and had become the team’s main combatant. The two of them always went out together, gathering enough supplies before returning.
This time, however, they were attacked on the road by a native dog as big as a calf. They had encountered mutated beasts before, but this was the first time they had seen one of such a considerable size. In just a few minutes, the dog bit two people to death. Its speed was much faster than theirs.
Xu Qingru was injured while killing the dog. The wound bled heavily, carrying the risk of infection, and fresh blood could easily attract zombies.
Originally, Xu Qingru planned to lure the zombies away. But he was the team’s main combatant, and there were only two ability users in the entire group. The others refused to let him go and insisted on escaping together. As a result, more and more zombies were drawn toward them. Before long, people in the team began to regret not letting Xu Qingru act as bait.
When they started arguing about throwing Xu Qingru out to lure the zombies away, Luo Beiyao appeared.
Seeing that the zombies had been intercepted, the rest of the team fled in panic, scrambling away without even sparing a glance at Luo Beiyao, Su Yang, or Xu Qingru.
“A native dog as big as a calf?” Luo Beiyao asked, voicing the question everyone cared about most.
“Yes,” Su Yang responded quickly. “It was even a little bigger than a calf. Its teeth were very sharp, and it was fast.” After a brief pause, he added, “Those mutated beasts were probably infected by the virus. It’s the same principle as humans turning into zombies.”
Mutated animals and plants found it more challenging to zombify than humans. That was why, in the early days of the apocalypse, mutated flora and fauna were often flawed—underdeveloped and naturally weaker than fully matured mutants.
They had only just begun adapting to life in the apocalypse, and now mutated animals had already appeared—large in size and frighteningly fast. Could it be that second-tier mutated beasts had already emerged?
In the end, the discussion came to a stop when Xu Qingru woke up. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to ask more questions. Instead, the moment the person involved saw his beloved awaken, he immediately lost all interest in continuing the topic and anxiously started fussing over Xu Qingru.
Having been straight for more than twenty years, Su Mu truly couldn’t take it anymore. He turned and left the room, heading back to cultivate crystal cores instead.
And just like that, Su Yang and Xu Qingru settled down in the Su household, laying their bedding on the floor of Luo Beiyao’s room.
I will tell the story of why I went MIA for so long another time – would take me too long X___X I hope someone is still interested in this… for now, I am confident, that I will resume the story with regular updates.