CHAPTER 117: SAVING WAN WAN AGAIN !

Within a few hours, and by midnight, the news of the incident on the island of (..) had spread like wildfire across the nation.

How could it not, when military forces had been deployed to contain the situation—surrounding the island with navy ships, sealing off every possible escape route?

The public was on the brink of hysteria. The cause? A mysterious, unidentified virus—one that could turn humans into bloodthirsty monsters.

It was like something pulled straight from a dystopian horror film.

Zombies? Some began to believe the world’s end was no longer a fictional fantasy. Panic took hold, and families stormed stores in a frenzy of irrational survival instinct.

It quickly escalated into a national emergency.

Forget the poor families who could only afford a few kilograms of rice—

The wealthy were stockpiling entire warehouses.

The military was pushed to its limits, scrambling to control riots, organize rescue operations for survivors on the infected island, and monitor for any signs of viral spread both inside and outside city borders.

---

"You’ve got blood on your clothes. We need to burn them—unless you want to lead every damn zombie straight to us."

Sian’s voice was sharp, laced with the tension of survival. He addressed the few brave individuals still fighting the undead with guts and desperation.

Without hesitation, he turned to Lan Qisheng and casually began unbuttoning his shirt, as if helping a child dress for school—not a towering, battle-hardened colonel.

"Raise your arms a bit. Lean forward. Lower your head... there."

But then, in a moment charged with silent affection, the young man couldn’t help himself. Like a giddy pup, he leaned in and—

With a swift, barely-there kiss, Sian brushed’s lips and then pulled away as if nothing had happened.

Strangely, Lan Qisheng’s heartbeat spiked—faster than it had even during that night, when he’d held the boy tightly in his arms.

They say that pure love is the sweetest and warmest embrace, a gentle glow that can fill the darkest corners of the heart. Yet, that tender warmth faded away in an instant, extinguished like a flickering candle after just one heartbeat.—

Because right after, Sian pinched him, hard.

"Now’s not the time for love games or domestic play, hmm?"

His tone was stern, but his eyes-those soft, betraying eyes—held something tender. A warmth only lovers could recognize.

---

The island was now engulfed in the deep embrace of night. The trail winding up the mountain had transformed into a tangled labyrinth of gnarled roots and rugged stones, each step requiring careful navigation but feeling somehow lighter than it had before.

At last, they stood at the base of the towering mountain. With just a bit more resolve and determination, they would soon reach the summit, where quaint villages and reliable supply posts awaited them, offering glimmers of hope—and perhaps a measure of safety in the shadows of the peaks.

In the rugged terrain of the higher altitudes, the once-thriving horde of zombies had dwindled significantly. As the group traversed the landscape, they occasionally stumbled upon a rural village, where the eerie glow of the moon illuminated two or three undead figures shuffling aimlessly. Their vacant stares and jerky movements created a chilling sight that sent shivers down the spines of the living.

Most of the group instinctively felt a surge of fear, their hearts racing at the thought of retreating into the safety of the shadows. But in the stillness of the night, Sian’s voice broke through their collective hesitation, firm and resolute:

"We can’t leave any of them behind. One slip will cost more lives, and we’ll have more blood on our hands."

His words hung in the air, thick with urgency and moral weight. From that moment on, a newfound determination burned within the group as they became relentless hunters, seeking out every last zombie they encountered in the hauntingly quiet expanse of the moonlit night.

Of course, not everyone had the nerve to kill.

Civilians still hesitated, their minds unwilling to cross the line.

But at least they defended themselves—clutching wooden sticks and rusty farming tools scavenged from roadside homes, swinging wildly at anything that moved too close.

---

"Aaah! Get away! Stay away from me!"

The scream rang out through the forested mountain, slicing through the night like a blade.

Sian had just finished off another zombie when he heard the cry. Without hesitation, he pushed the corpse away and raced toward the sound like a shadow slipping through the dark.

The scream wasn’t far—but not close either.

Lan Qisheng followed, though Sian’s lithe figure disappeared into the trees ahead like wind through leaves.

When Sian reached the scene, he saw a girl cowering inside the hollow of a large tree, shoving against the rotting body of a woman whose jaw was forcing its way through a splintered crack—snapping, snarling, teeth inches away from the girl’s face.

The undead woman was trying to eat her alive.

With a clean, brutal swipe of his dagger, Sian sliced the creature’s head clean off. The body slumped to the ground with a sickening thud.

---

Earlier, Wanwan had been helping her injured friend, Liling, climb the mountain. They had kept a wide distance from the scattered cottages below, fearing what might lurk in the dark.

On the trail, they encountered a woman—calm, seemingly normal—who said she had escaped from a nearby village.

She spoke of madness: villagers turning rabid, attacking their loved ones like animals.

She claimed her own son had bitten her husband before she managed to escape.

The woman seemed mentally unstable, her eyes haunted and distant.

Feeling pity, Wanwan had invited her to join them—safety in numbers, after all.

For the first thirty minutes, she acted normally.

But soon, her steps became erratic, her breath ragged, her eyes... inhuman.

Then she attacked.

The girls ran. But Liling fell—her leg caught on a root, and the injury bled heavily. Wanwan, unable to carry her, dragged her to safety and stuffed her inside a hollow tree.

She had done this before—hid this way once, long ago, when a criminal tried to kill her.

But back then, fear had paralyzed her.

This time, her fear came only when the zombie found her—gnashing teeth at the threshold of splintered bark, ready to crack her skull open like a walnut.

Thank God zombies were stiff, slow things.

If that woman had the coordination to crouch, Wanwan would’ve been dead already.

Realizing she couldn’t survive on her own, she screamed for help.

And fate, for once, answered.

---

"Th-thank you..."

Wanwan stared in shock as the woman’s head rolled to the side, her decapitated body slumping like a puppet with cut strings.

Her hands trembled, but she didn’t collapse.

She had seen too much horror to break that easily.

Sian noted her composure.

With some training, she could survive anything.

Many died not because they were weak—but because their minds couldn’t keep up with the nightmare the world had become.

"You... You’re..."

She flicked on the flashlight of her phone, the bright beam slicing through the darkness to illuminate her savior’s face. As the light caught his features, her breath hitched in her throat, a mix of surprise and relief flooding through her. His eyes glinted with a strange intensity, the shadows around them dancing as if echoing the turmoil in her heart.

Then, without warning, tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her cheeks like a broken necklace of pearls.

"Th-thank you... Thank you. I was so scared... I didn’t know what to do... Everything happened so fast..."

She sobbed quietly, her tears streaming down her cheeks as she wiped her face with trembling fingers. The soft swell of her cries echoed around her until a warm, comforting hand gently rested on her head, offering solace amid her despair.

A soft, soothing voice followed:

"It’s alright now. Don’t be afraid. It’s over.

You were brave—really brave. So don’t cry."

Sian tried to comfort her.

But oddly enough, his gentle words only deepened her sorrow, causing silent tears to cascade down her cheeks with even greater urgency.

She flung herself into Liling’s arms, who, though pale and bloodied, was alive.

For two whole minutes, she cried.

Sian shifted uncomfortably, his gaze flickering toward Lan Qisheng. He stood nearby, arms crossed over his chest, a bemused smile playing on his lips as he observed the unfolding scene. His eyes sparkled with amusement at Sian’s evident discomposure in front of the distressed teenage girl, whose tears glistened like dew on her cheeks, amplifying the tension in the air.

---

Once the girls calmed down, Liling thanked Sian sincerely for saving their lives.

He guided them back to the group.

Wanwan was quiet for all of thirty seconds. Then—

"Big brother, is the world ending? Like in the movies?"

"Big brother, are we going to get powers? Like in the novels?"

"Big brother, where are we going? Will we be rescued?"

For the remainder of the hike, her voice bright and melodic danced through the rustling leaves and towering trees:

"Big brother this, big brother that..."