Si Nan abruptly stood up.

In the nearby factory area, mortar shells created an S-shaped chain of explosions, clearing the tide of zombies wherever they landed. The SUV, braving the interwoven black and red artillery fire, sped over and came to a stop downstairs with a drift.

Immediately after, Zhou Rong, carrying a personal mortar on his shoulder, leaped up from the car's sunroof and called out with a smile from a distance: “Si Xiaonan!”

“Chun Xiaocao!”

“Rong-ge has come for you—!”

Doctor Zheng stared straight out the window, as if he were personally witnessing Moses parting the sea, unable to believe his eyes. Chuncao, on the other hand, was overcome with grief and leaned out the window, wanting to roar, 'Are you back here to die?!' Fortunately, just before the words came out, she remembered the corridor full of zombies and forcefully choked back the roar.

“Are you back here to die—!” Si Nan shouted from above her.

'Si Xiaonan! The other me in this world!' Chuncao thought, her eyes welling with tears.

Zhou Rong laughed, “Watch! I'll show you the black tech of Unit 118!”

Zhou Rong took out a launcher shaped like a one-handed mini submachine gun, but its muzzle extended into a three-edged arrowhead. The moment Chuncao saw that thing, she immediately pulled Doctor Zheng back, not even caring if it would attract zombies: “Quick, back away!”

Before the words were out, they both took several steps back, and the glass window shattered with a clang.

The three-edged arrowhead, trailing a rope, whizzed past their heads and embedded itself deep into the concrete wall with a thud!

The other end of the launcher was fixed to the car roof by Zhou Rong with a high-pressure magnetic base. The rope connected the ground to the top of the ten-story building, creating a bridge of life under the vast sky. Si Nan re-tied the baby to his back with a strip of cloth and asked Chuncao, “You first or me first?”

Chuncao was frantically looking around the room for a rope to tie up Doctor Zheng: “You!”

Si Nan took a deep breath, patted the baby’s little bottom with the back of his hand, and whispered, “May your mother bless you, you better not fall.” After speaking, he tightened his tactical gloves, leaped into the air, and grabbed the rope like lightning.

The wind howled, lifting the hair at his temples. His jacket billowed in the air as he descended the thirty-meter height at lightning speed. Zhou Rong knelt on one knee to stabilize his center of gravity and caught Si Nan head-on in an embrace!

Zhou Rong: “Nice!”

The force of the descent made them both fall onto the roof of the car. Si Nan was pressed on top of Zhou Rong, and for a moment, they were only a few centimeters apart.

The sea of zombies retreated like a defeated army. The not-yet-dissipated artillery fire slowly rose, and the smoke diffused toward the distant sky, all of it reflected in Zhou Rong’s smiling eyes. At that moment, as if by some mysterious impulse, or like something deeply branded in his memory, they gazed into each other’s eyes. Si Nan lowered his head and touched lips that were chapped and rough.

It was a kiss that broke off as soon as it started.

The vast, hazy world froze at this moment, turning into countless fragmented pieces that scattered with the wind.

“…” Chuncao trembled, “In… in broad daylight, under the clear sky, did they, did they forget about us…”

Doctor Zheng urged repeatedly, “Before Captain Zhou takes the rope and leaves, let’s hurry up and get out of here!”

Zhou Rong laughed heartily. Si Nan rolled over and got up, his cheeks slightly flushed, and slid down through the SUV's sunroof.

Chuncao came to her senses. She tightened the ropes on her body, worried she couldn't support an adult man's weight, so she gestured for Doctor Zheng to grab her shoulders and back, lest the bedsheet fabric break and send the doctor tragically falling from mid-air.

Doctor Zheng hesitated a little, “How about… I do it instead, you’re still a young girl…”

“Cut the crap and hold on tight,” Chuncao said with a smile.

Doctor Zheng wanted to say that if he had a daughter, she would be about the same age as her. But in such a critical moment, there was no time for that. He had to hold his breath and grab Chuncao’s shoulders—and as he did, he could feel that the bones under his palms were extremely solid, and the young girl’s thin layer of muscle was even tighter than stone, as if containing infinite explosive power.

Chuncao grabbed the rope, stood on the windowsill, and with a “Heh!” she leaped into the air!

—Thump!

A few seconds later, Chuncao landed face-down, solidly on the car roof, and was nearly crushed to death by Doctor Zheng.

“Yo, daughter!” Zhou Rong put away the grappling hook gun and squatted by the side, saying hypocritically, “Let Daddy see if you got hurt. Does it hurt?…”

Chuncao lifted her head, two streams of blood flowing from her nose, “You could have at least pretended to catch me! Couldn’t you have faked it?!”

“There are two of you, how could this old man’s arms and legs catch you? Alright, where’s the new mother?”

Chuncao said sullenly, “Jumped into the zombie horde. Couldn’t catch her.”

Zhou Rong patted her head, “I’ll settle the score with you when we get back.” With that, he stood up, fired a shot from the mortar to clear out the zombies that were gathering again dozens of meters away, then jumped into the driver’s seat and shouted, “Let’s go!”

Six o’clock in the morning. The dark night gradually receded, and the sky began to brighten.

Si Nan, holding the baby, had fallen asleep in the passenger seat. Chuncao and Doctor Zheng were sprawled out dead to the world in the back seat, snoring with their mouths open and snot bubbles forming, not even the continuous sound of mortar fire from up front could wake them.

The SUV sped along the highway, heading south. Behind them was a vast sea of zombies, and before them were splendid fireworks.

At the end of the open fields, as the first ray of dawn appeared on the horizon, Guo Weixiang turned his head from the hood of the car to look down the highway and cried out, “They… Da Ding! They’re back!”

“Rong-ge!”

“Rong-ge—!”

Ding Shi and Guo Weixiang rushed onto the highway, waving, shouting, and jumping. Behind them, men, women, old, and young poured out of their vehicles, watching the approaching SUV with mixed feelings of sorrow and joy.

Yan Hao was groggy, struggling to get up, but was carefully supported by the survivors.

“They’re back!”

“Rong-ge is back!”

“Captain Zhou is back—!”

…

The SUV, covered in dew, stopped by the roadside, its body reflecting myriad points of the rosy dawn. Zhou Rong opened the door, and as soon as he got out, he was embraced by Ding Shi and Guo Weixiang from both sides. Survivors, with tears in their eyes, crowded around. The women vied to take the baby from Si Nan’s arms, holding, kissing, and cooing at it, while the men stood on their tiptoes to get a look.

“Got anything to eat? I’m starving to death. I’m willing to trade a smooch for some food.” Zhou Rong laughed, “Also, sneak out the milk powder Si Xiaonan has stashed away and mix some for the baby. Quick, before he wakes up.”

·

The temperature plummeted overnight. The severe cold caused the zombies in the Three Northeastern Provinces and even the entire North China Region to gather and spread southward in a massive wave.

They had to reach the South Sea and enter the safe zone before the vanguard of the zombie tide, otherwise, like the unlucky bastards from the Feng family, they would be submerged in a torrent of a hundred thousand or even a million zombies. That minibus was destined to become their iron coffin.

Fortunately, apart from Wang Wen, the survivors were unscathed, and not a single special forces soldier had died in this life-or-death chase. They had preserved their full strength to deliver the data and the antibody to their destination.

The unfortunate part was also obvious—they were running out of supplies.

Si Nan woke up. With a numb expression, he ate two packs of compressed biscuits with cold water. You could tell from the speed of his chewing that he was very unhappy. Zhou Rong squatted opposite him, gnawing on a biscuit and lecturing, “So pampered! A flower raised in a greenhouse, the ruined generation! Think about the Long March, the People’s Red Army crossing the grasslands, the Ten-Year Cultural Revolution, the three years of disaster, all the flood and earthquake relief efforts… You’re lucky to have compressed biscuits to eat. And yours have raisins! If you’re still not satisfied, trade with me!”

“What’s the Cultural Revolution? No idea,” Si Nan replied coldly. “I’d identify more with General Washington crossing the Delaware River on a winter night.”

Zhou Rong looked at the biscuit crumbs by his mouth, and his heart tickled with the urge to give him a kiss. But there were people all around the clearing. After pondering for a long while, Zhou Rong could only discreetly reach out and ruffle the hair at his temple.

Si Nan stiffened his neck and swallowed the last bite of biscuit, yawned, wrapped his jacket tighter, and went back to the armored vehicle to catch up on sleep.

The women were holding the baby and getting ready to feed it, having gathered wood to start a fire and carefully heated half a bottle of water to mix the milk powder. Si Nan, fully clothed, leaned against a side seat in the troop compartment, watching the half-bottle of rich, warm milk from afar. He swallowed, then suddenly felt something hard in his pocket.

He took it out and saw it was a Dove Chocolate.

“Hey, chocolate!” Wu Xinyan was helping gather wood and prepare breakfast. Happening to pass by the vehicle, she casually said, “Give it to me!”

Si Nan stared at her.

Wu Xinyan stared back innocently.

A few seconds later, Si Nan put the chocolate back in his pocket and said slowly, “You’re a girl, you can’t eat so many sweets. You’ll get fat.”

Wu Xinyan: “…”

Chuncao and Doctor Zheng also woke up. Chuncao was starving. She climbed out of the SUV to look for food and happened to see a kind-hearted aunty preparing a meal for the half-conscious Yan Hao. She immediately sidled over, drooling. But before she could reach out to steal a can of food, a thunderous roar erupted from behind her: “Second Lieutenant Yang Chuncao! Get your ass over here!”

A shiver went down Chuncao's entire body.

Zhou Rong had finished resting. It was time to settle accounts.

“Why didn’t you rescue the new mother, Wang Wen?” Zhou Rong asked, word by word.

Chuncao stood at attention before him, ramrod straight but dejected, like a frostbitten cabbage. Doctor Zheng wrung his hands, wanting to step forward and explain, but before he could open his mouth, he was forced back by Zhou Rong’s torrent of rebukes: “Why didn’t you carry her yourself! Why didn’t you tie her to your back! Why was the retreat so slow!”

“Between you and Si Nan, you had twenty-five hundred rounds of ammunition. Si Nan fired until his very last bullet! Why didn’t you?!”

“You started with nine hundred rounds and still have one hundred sixty-four left! Why are there still one hundred sixty-four left—!”

Zhou Rong was practically roaring in Chuncao’s ear. Everyone in the clearing was shaken and dared not speak.

Si Nan was startled awake by the shouting. He suddenly interjected coolly, “I was there too. I didn’t catch her either. If you’re going to yell, yell at me too.”

“I can’t afford to yell at you!” Zhou Rong retorted mercilessly. “You’re not my team member, you haven’t sworn an oath, and the country isn’t paying you a salary!”

“What good is that little salary? Who here is risking their life for you for that paltry military pay? Is Unit 118 even able to pay salaries now?”

Under everyone’s gaze, Si Nan actually argued back tit for tat. No one expected the usually taciturn man to have such a sharp tongue: “How much is your salary? How many catties of oil and grain is that worth? Someone give me a gun, I’ll go to the city ahead and rob that amount back. However much Second Lieutenant Yang Chuncao’s monthly salary is, I’ll rob that much for you, and from now on she’ll work for me. Deal?”

Zhou Rong: “…”

Chuncao: “…”

The “someone” who was called out, Guo Weixiang: “…”

Doctor Zheng was simply dumbfounded. After a long moment, he summoned his courage and said weakly, “Th-that is…”

People turned to look. Doctor Zheng forced himself to explain, “They both did their best. There were really so many zombies, surrounding us on both sides… It’s all my fault I didn’t hold her tightly enough on my back. She secretly jumped off because she wanted us to run faster…”

Many people showed expressions of pity. The baby was woken by the noise and began to wail.

“If they were afraid of burdens, why would they go through so much trouble to bring the baby back? If it weren’t for them… if it weren’t for them, none of us would be alive,” Doctor Zheng shrank back and said with emotion, “We really would all be dead.”

The survivors cast veiled, reproachful glances at Zhou Rong, as if to say, ‘How could you be so unreasonable?’ Zhou Rong was at a loss.

“Do you admit your mistake?!”

Chuncao said listlessly, “I do.”

Zhou Rong had no choice but to back down. After a thought, he added, “Get over there and don’t eat!”

Chuncao meekly walked to the side of the vehicle and squatted down, looking ashamed with downcast eyes, her fingers rubbing the dirty hem of her dark green military skirt.

Si Nan got out of the vehicle, wanting to snatch the gun. Guo Weixiang, remembering this was the guy who had single-handedly fought his way out of a zombie tide, was afraid he would actually go rob for food if they disagreed. He hastily hugged his gun and retreated more than ten meters, “Calm down, calm down!”

Si Nan had no other choice. He said discontentedly, “I’m not eating either.” Then he walked back to Chuncao’s side and also sat down on the ground.

“…” Zhou Rong said helplessly, “My dear ancestor, didn’t you just eat?”

Yan Hao, in a daze, was fed a few mouthfuls of hot soup and finally became clear-headed. He had heard Zhou Rong scolding Chuncao and Si Nan earlier and had wanted to speak up and stop him, but he was unable to make a sound. Now, he could finally clutch his ribs and cough painfully a few times, saying hoarsely, “Rong-ge, Rong-ge…”

Zhou Rong huffed, turning to walk towards the hazmat vehicle on the other side, “You’re awake? Are you alright?”

Taking advantage of his turned back, the women preparing breakfast at the edge of the clearing exchanged glances. Then, the aunty who had been preparing the meal for the sick nodded, hid something in her clothes, and furtively shuffled over, stuffing it into Chuncao’s hand.

It was two braised eggs.

Before Chuncao could say anything, Zhou Rong turned his head as if he had eyes in the back of his head, “What are you doing?”

The aunty quickly answered, “Nothing!”

“Cough, cough, cough!!” Yan Hao immediately let out a loud series of coughs—he was really giving it his all. A few of his ribs were already broken, and the jolt was so exquisitely painful that he almost passed out from the pain.

Zhou Rong had no choice but to go back and fulfill his duties as captain, “Quick, quick, bring some warm water, tie this splint tightly to his chest…”

The aunty was full of pity, “My poor little girl…” She gestured for Chuncao to eat quickly, then tiptoed away.

Chuncao was starving. She peeled one egg and began to wolf it down. Si Nan sat on the grass peeling the other one for her. He looked up and glanced at the hazmat vehicle not far away, where Zhou Rong had his back to him, half-kneeling on the ground, holding Yan Hao’s head, calling for others to help boil water to sterilize gauze for the injured man.

From an outsider’s perspective, the posture was indeed a bit intimate.

For some reason, Si Nan’s mood dipped slightly, and he silently averted his gaze.

“Still upset?” Guo Weixiang strolled over from the other side of the grass with two bottles of water, handing one to each of them. He smiled, “It’s fine. In front of so many people, when you couldn’t save the new mother, Rong-ge definitely had to scold you. It’ll be over after the scolding. Don’t take it to heart, he knows you both did your best.”

Si Nan remained silent, listlessly.

“The reason Rong-ge said that just now is actually because he feels guilty towards you,” Guo Weixiang lowered his voice to persuade him. “You’re not special forces, you should be considered a protected civilian, but because of the circumstances, he has to use you like a member of a suicide squad. If you were to die gloriously, you wouldn’t even get a promotion or a pension. He actually feels very apologetic towards you…”

—If Doctor Zheng were nearby, he would definitely have noticed that something was wrong and explained things; but Chuncao was a clueless girl, her mouth stuffed with egg, nodding along with ‘mm-hmms’.

“…Just shut up,” Si Nan, propping his forehead with one hand, finally couldn’t take it anymore and interrupted Xiangzi’s rambling. “What do you know? You’re just a Big Rooster.”

He stood up, casually took the chocolate from his pocket, stuffed it into Guo Weixiang’s hands, and said, “This is for you two.”

Then Si Nan got into the vehicle without looking back, curled up in the corner of the back seat with his knees drawn up, wrapped his jacket tightly around himself, and closed his eyes.