"Alone I stand in the autumn cold, the Xiang River flowing north, on the tip of Orange Isle..."

"I watch the myriad mountains, all red; their forests dyed through and through; the long river a translucent jade, a hundred barges vying..."

Ding Shi grimaced and said, "Rong-ge, I'm begging you, stop reciting. You're making it sound like we're on The Long March. We're just breaking through a wire fence and stealing two planes, then getting the hell out of here, okay?"

"This is me seizing the opportunity for some patriotic education. Don't you have any thoughts passing through the revolutionary sacred ground of the Xiang River?" Zhou Rong was a little dissatisfied. "The road ahead is so winding, the situation so difficult, shouldn't you all be immersed in soaring revolutionary passion, ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work?"

Ding Shi shoved the military binoculars at him and pointed out the window, gesturing for him to look for himself.

In the distance, black smoke billowed from the local airport. The overpass, the parking garage, and the area in front of the terminal building were all filled with Zombies as far as the eye could see. On the runway, two passenger planes had crashed into each other. Their wings and turbines were shattered, and their fuselages had been burned to black charcoal.

Ding Shi adjusted the angle of the binoculars in front of Zhou Rong's eyes, making him look to the other side.

A private helicopter company. Several helicopters of varying sizes were parked in front of the building. The helipad was surrounded by a wire fence, and outside the fence, several hundred Zombies shambled about.

Inside the wire fence, the vast helipad was completely empty, without a single Zombie in sight.

"...Seems like the revolutionary journey isn't that difficult after all," Zhou Rong muttered to himself.

According to the original plan, the squad would split into two groups. Zhou Rong and three others would take two armored vehicles to force their way onto the helipad. Meanwhile, Si Nan would change into riot gear, shoulder his gun, and move to the tour bus with Guo Weixiang to lead the civilians in finding a platform where the helicopters could land and pick them up.

"Yan Hao," Zhou Rong said suddenly.

Yan Hao was just about to get up to see Si Nan off, but he paused at the words.

Zhou Rong patted his shoulder and said casually, "Lend me something..." As he spoke, his hand shot out like lightning to pull out Yan Hao's ruby earring stud.

"What are you doing!" Yan Hao dodged immediately, darting out of the vehicle like an arrow. Zhou Rong roared, "What gives you the right to wear matching earring studs with my Comrade Xiao Si? Give it to me!" Before his voice faded, he followed, and the two immediately started grappling.

Si Nan was stunned, standing at the door of the tour bus, staring blankly at Zhou Rong.

"Who said Si Nan is yours? Who are you?!"

"Piss off, he's not yours anyway. Go ask him yourself if you don't believe me!"

"No need to ask, he's not yours anyway! You... you get away!"

Zhou Rong pinned Yan Hao hard against the side of the armored vehicle, trying desperately to pry off the earring stud. Yan Hao struggled wildly under him. "I'm fucking gonna scream! I'm really gonna scream—!"

"So how could you suspect those two were a couple?" Guo Weixiang asked, leaning against the doorframe in boredom while chewing gum.

"..." Si Nan said blankly, "I don't really understand you Alphas."

Yan Hao lashed out with a kick, sending Zhou Rong stumbling back two steps, then rushed into the armored vehicle, clutching his ear.

Zhou Rong snorted but surprisingly didn't give chase. He immediately switched targets, turned, and rushed in front of Si Nan. He wrapped both arms around his waist and, with a burst of strength, pinned him, gear and all, against the side of the tour bus, lifting him until his toes were a centimeter off the ground.

Si Nan: "...?"

Zhou Rong bravely kissed him.

Zhou Rong hadn't smoked in days, yet the gentle taste of tobacco still lingered on his lips and teeth, a faint and pleasant scent. The tip of his tongue slipped between Si Nan's lips, licking gently at his clenched teeth, giving Si Nan no chance to refuse before their lips and tongues parted.

—Though the action was swift, it was unexpectedly careful and considerate, as if that one lick conveyed countless unspoken feelings.

"Wait for me to come get you," Zhou Rong said, close to his ear, then turned and shot back to the armored vehicle like an arrow.

"..." Si Nan stood frozen, his expression a complete blank.

"Chuncao, let me go! Dammit, taking advantage of him like that, Si Nan definitely didn't want it..."

"Yan Hao, don't get excited! Look, he's obviously very willing!"

Zhou Rong, looking triumphant, zipped into the driver's seat and whistled happily.

Si Nan felt like steam was coming out of his head. But he said nothing, turned and climbed into the tour bus with uncoordinated limbs, then plopped down in the seat behind the driver's, burying his face in his hands as if he hadn't heard Guo Weixiang's astonished "Ooh—! Ooh—!" behind him.

Zhou Rong cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone: "Wait—for—your—ge—to—come—get—you—!"

Then he waved vigorously, ducked back inside the window, and watched as the tour bus slowly started up and disappeared behind the overpass.

Chuncao shrieked from the other vehicle: "Rong-ge! If you don't go now, I can't hold Yan Hao back anymore!"

Four-thirty in the afternoon. Daylight still lingered, the sky not yet dark.

Between heaven and earth, the city had become a giant tomb. The tour bus drove down from the overpass and headed toward the city center.

In the opposite direction, at the edge of town. Two armored vehicles sped towards the airport. The Zombies wandering outside the helicopter pad moved at the sound. However, assault rifles and mortars appeared from the vehicle windows, and shells exploded mercilessly in the middle of the zombie horde, filling the air with gunpowder smoke.

Boom—

The two armored vehicles crashed through the highway guardrail, rolled over the wire fence, and turned the surrounding wall into rubble with a shuddering impact, rumbling onto the concrete runway outside the helipad.

Many Zombies were crushed into two long trails of bloody pulp behind the vehicles. But soon, more Zombies with severed arms and legs staggered back to their feet, howling hoarsely as they followed the armored vehicles through the wall.

"Yan Hao's team, get ready!" Zhou Rong's voice came from the vehicle's loudspeaker. "Confirm the target helicopter! Yan Hao and I will provide cover with the vehicles. Ding Shi, Chuncao, prepare to board! Move!"

In front of the office building, a row of colorful helicopters was parked unevenly on the grass. The two armored vehicles charged forward, smashing through everything in their path, and arrived at the lawn at the same time. They both executed a perfect drift turn, the angle of their swinging rears identical down to the inch.

Swish— Behind the outer rear wheels of both vehicles, wild grass flew up, their fan-shaped arcs perfectly parallel in mid-air.

"How are you two so in sync! What's your relationship, really!" Chuncao yelled as she opened the sunroof, climbed onto the roof, and began prying open the cabin door of the large helicopter in front of her. "I'm going to tattle! New Mommy is going to be angry!"

Yan Hao: "Shut up! This is how they teach it in the military academy's driving class! It's standard procedure, understand?"

Zhou Rong: "Say one more word and Daddy will abandon you and go have a little brother with New Mommy!"

There was a second of silence. Zhou Rong bit his tongue hard.

Ding Shi: "...New Mommy?"

Chuncao: "Who's Old Mommy?"

Yan Hao: "...?!"

Knowing he'd misspoken, Zhou Rong roared hysterically, "Daddy picked all of you out of a trash can! Shut up and get to work!"

Zhou Rong shouldered the mortar, and with a deafening boom, flattened the runway. Torn zombie bodies shot into the air, blooming outwards like a fountain.

With two clangs of metal on metal, Chuncao shouted: "Done!"

Ding Shi: "Rong-ge, get up here!"

The cabin doors of the two large helicopters were pried open with military crowbars. Zhou Rong carefully scanned the runway and helipad, and only after confirming there were no large groups of Zombies did he put away the mortar, quickly grabbing equipment and supplies from the armored vehicle and tossing them all into the cabin in a chaotic heap.

The sound of the explosion alerted the Zombies in the office building. The helicopter company's owner and employees, dressed in filthy suits with crooked eyes and noses, swarmed out of the main entrance, writhing as if to see them off.

"Don't shoot, Da Ding!" Zhou Rong shouted. "We just stole their planes, it's wrong to kill them and take their stuff!"

Ding Shi cupped his fists from afar at the lead male zombie, who was dressed in an Armani suit, an Hermès tie, and Testoni leather shoes, and muttered, "Sorry, boss, please understand, these are special times. The army needs to temporarily appropriate your personal property. After the war, you can apply to the government for compensation with your purchase contract and invoice..."

Zhou Rong slammed the armored vehicle's door shut, carefully put away the keys, and jumped into the helicopter's pilot seat.

Not far away, Yan Hao and Chuncao also scrambled into the other aircraft, switched on the onboard power, and started the turboshaft engine. The rotor blades whipped up a huge gust of wind, sending the Zombies collectively staggering backward.

A few seconds later, two dark green helicopters slowly lifted into the air and flew one after the other toward the city center.

·

In the city, a street outside the second ring road.

The commercial district was deserted. The streets still bore the tragic scene of the moment the apocalypse arrived. Bodies devoured by Zombies had rotted and turned black. Flies buzzed around skeletons, and rats scurried across street corners as the bus drove past. Behind them, blackened human blood soaked into the garbage, slowly flowing into the sewers.

From alley corners and behind buildings, Zombies would pop out from time to time, reaching out blankly toward the speeding bus.

The gloomy gray sky hung heavily overhead, looking down upon the hellish apocalypse.

Guo Weixiang stared out the window, gradually falling silent, an unconcealable trace of sorrow rising between his young brows.

Suddenly, he noticed another face reflected in the window behind his shoulder. He turned his head instinctively and met Si Nan's calm gaze.

"...Eh? What is it?"

Si Nan studied him for a few seconds and asked, "Are you worried?"

Guo Weixiang nodded, sighed deeply, and slumped into his seat. "I'm thinking about my grandpa."

Si Nan was quiet, saying nothing.

"My grandpa...Sigh, I don't know how he is. My parents passed away early, so my grandpa raised me. He's getting on in years, and I don't know if he was evacuated to the South Sea with the government. Why did this apocalypse have to come so suddenly? Rong-ge jokes around all day, but a lot of the time, he's just putting on an act. He's terrifying when he gets gloomy, but he deliberately makes sure no one sees it."

Guo Weixiang's tone was very serious. It sounded like the only person he truly admired in his life, besides his grandpa, was Zhou Rong.

"Rong-ge says we special forces soldiers can't be depressed and sigh all the time; the hopes of the people rest on us. A single look from us can make their hearts jump into their throats. If we went around talking about crisis and apocalypse all day, the people wouldn't be able to take it and would probably kill themselves."

"Aigh—" Guo Weixiang still couldn't help it and let out a long, quiet sigh. "But I'm still thinking, why did it have to be our generation? How could we be so unlucky?"

Comrade Guo Weixiang's eyes were vacant, his limbs splayed out, and his neck was stiff, like a yellowed, half-wilted bok choy.

Si Nan seemed lost in thought. After a moment, he leaned over, picked up his own backpack, fished out a can of Red Bull, and silently offered it to him.

"...Ah?" Guo Weixiang was very surprised, then a little moved. "—No, no, thank you, I'm not thirsty. Thank you, thank you, you keep it for yourself..."

He didn't seem to be in low spirits due to physical exhaustion either. Si Nan considered for another moment, then asked, "Do you need Zhou Rong?"

Guo Weixiang grimaced. "Well, how do I put it. Although Rong-ge's habit of rambling makes you want to beat him up, sometimes you kind of miss his rambling, especially now..."

Si Nan slowly sat back in his seat. It was unclear what he was thinking about. After a long moment, he whispered through his teeth, "I do miss it."

"Right? That 'Alone I stand in the autumn cold, the Xiang River flowing north, on the tip of Orange Isle...' uh... 'all creatures under frost contend in freedom'... how does the rest of it go?"

Si Nan said coldly, "I was referring to Zhou Rong, not Zhou Rong's rambling."

Guo Weixiang didn't react at first. A few seconds later, he shot upright, staring at Si Nan's icy face with a mixture of shock and emotion.

Si Nan remained impassive, as if he'd forgotten his own unexpected remark.

Then he closed his eyes and began to murmur something.

Guo Weixiang: "..."

Guo Weixiang pricked up his ears and listened intently for a while. He found the rhythmic foreign gibberish to be surprisingly familiar. Finally, he couldn't help but ask humbly, "What are you reciting?"

"July 4, 1776, Pennsylvania, the Declaration of Independence," Si Nan replied. "I don't know how to recite poetry. You'll have to make do with this for now."