Chapter 102
The blood-red sun slowly sank, and the convoy rumbled in a meandering aisle, because they were in the forest, the number of zombies were dropping. They occasionally passed a small village and saw two or three wandering by the roadside, when they heard the engine they’d howl and give chase, but the soldiers on the trucks quickly cleaned them up.
Because they’d collected a large number of munitions, everyone was very happy, they gathered together to chat, relaxed. Only Lei Chuan’s car atmosphere was a bit dull.
Zhao Ling Feng spread his legs, his posture very leisurely, he looked out at the scenery outside the window, and occasionally glanced at Guo Zerui’s white face, and smiled an enigmatical smile.
Guo Zerui suppressed the desire to punch him and guiltily opened, “Boss, I was wrong to do that.”
“Keep your voice down.” Lei Chuan’s voice was extremely low, he looked down at the doctor sleeping soundly on his shoulder, he didn’t show signs of waking up, so he felt relieved. To sleep so soundly by his side, anyone could see that the doctor had completely put down his alert.
“Boss, I was wrong. I didn’t listen to you.” If he’d followed the boss’ instructions and used the doctor’s password, he wouldn’t have almost made his brothers fall into despair.
“You’re not the only one who made mistakes. From now on, the doctor is our companion, I trust him, and I hope you can trust him as much as you trust me. Can you do that?” Lei Chuan looked back and stared sternly at his brothers.
Guo Zerui was silent for a moment, his expression a little bitter. In the boss’ heart, the doctor’s position was far above them, right? No matter where he went, he had to take the doctor with him, he clearly wanted to chain themselves together. That treasuring attitude was not as simple as treating an ordinary companion.
Before rebirth, what did the doctor and the boss get up to? Guo Zerui’s curiosity was scratching his heart, and he couldn’t stop his jealousy. He had unspeakable feelings for his boss for a long time, but he’d thought that his boss was a straight man, so he chose patience. But now he had front row seats to see him treat the doctor tenderly, there was even a bit of ambiguousness.
The sun sank completely into the horizon, and the convoy slowly docked near a small village. The village’s zombies had long left for greener pastures, they occasionally met one or two that hadn’t eaten human flesh for a long time and hadn’t evolved to use abilities, so a single shot was enough to put them down. The soldiers made a lap around the village to make sure there were no survivors, and chose a few close bungalows to camp.
There were few zombies in the mountains, but there were many mutant beasts and plants, and many were often very tricky to deal with. In order to reduce the unnecessary casualties, the soldiers covered the windows with thick tarpaulins, to prevent light from leaking out and alerting the beasts on the mountains.
In the last days, variation was not only found in animals, plants and humans, but also the weather. During the day, the sun’s sinister rays could bake flesh, but the night would quickly become cold, and occasionally, the temperature would drop to below zero.
The soldiers found a few braziers for heat, and laid down the sleeping bags, food, and winter coats.
Zhou Yun Sheng had been living in the laboratory, in order to ensure a certain degree of uniform conditions, the central air conditioning was well balanced to guarantee neither hot nor cold. But in this life, he was finally experiencing the true cruelty of the Apocalypse.
He huddled into the army coat and moved closer to the brazier, almost wishing he could be roasted along with the food. His damaged soul brought him physical weakness, so his cold tolerance was very low.
“Doctor, be careful not to burn your clothes.” Zhao Ling Feng pulled him away after seeing him tilting into the brazier.
Zhou Yun Sheng reluctantly retreated a little, slightly shivering.
“Doctor, come to me.” Lei Chuan patted the cushion by his side.
Zhou Yun Sheng picked up a stick and poked the fire, ignoring him.
Lei Chuan shook his head and chuckled. The doctor has always been a man of little words, disregarding very unfamiliar people, the words could even be read on his face – I’m not listening, I’m not seeing, it looked unexpectedly adorable and amusing. Especially when he took off his glasses, revealing a pair of misty, black gem-like pupils, Lei Chuan could feel his heart melting.
The doctor is still alive, how satisfying.
He smiled and walked to the doctor’s side, pulled off the doctor’s army coat and opened his own coat. He sat behind him, stretched out his long legs and two iron pincer arms, and pocketed the doctor into his arms, and wrapping him tightly.
A strong male atmosphere filled his nose, making Zhou Yun Sheng feel very uneasy. He wanted to break free of Lei Chuan’s embrace, but suddenly felt a warmth spread into his whole body, and couldn’t help but let out a comfortable groan.
He put down the hand that was about to push Lei Chuan away and snuggled deeper into his embrace. Fire ability was very useful, there was no fear of cold or the heat.
Lei Chuan gripped his thin waist, pressed him in up into his chest, then rested his chin on top of his shoulder with a contented smile. In the last life, when the doctor was lying on the sink, gasping and vomiting, he’d tried to pat him on the back and embrace him from behind, to give him a little warmth or support, but he couldn’t touch him, he was helpless.
The feeling of powerlessness made him hate himself and the whole world. But now, he could finally feel the doctor’s body temperature and tightly warp him in his arms, the feeling of his soul being filled couldn’t be described in words.
He smiled and couldn’t help but sigh in happiness, gently stroking the doctor’s messy hair.
Zhou Yun Sheng comfortably narrowed his eyes, although he’d just woken up, he was already feeling sleepy.
“Eat something, then sleep.” Lei Chuan brushed the doctor’s thick eyelashes with his fingertips and gave him a faint electric shock, gently surprising him awake. While he was blinking away his sleep, Guo Zerui carried a few lunch boxes into the house and saw the two of them cuddling, his face paled for a moment.
“Dinner.” He immediately handed the lunch box to the doctor to eat, so he would leave his boss’ arms as soon as possible.
“Thank you.” Zhou Yun Sheng took the lunch box but was reluctant to leave his human self-heating sleeping bag, he stretched out his chop sticks to take small bites of rice, like a baby kangaroo feeding in its mother kangaroo’s pocket.
Lei Chuan looked down at him and smiled an indulgent smile. The longer he got along with the doctor, the more he was attracted by his pure and straightforward temperament.
Zhao Ling Feng immediately loyally took the chopsticks to feed the doctor. This kind of job was part of his work roster in the last life, he was a skilled worker.
Lei Chuan glanced at him with dull eyes, but eventually restrained his impulse to kick him away.
The soldiers focused on their rice, casting a strange look to the three from time to time. Boss and Zhao Ling Feng, why do they take care of the doctor like he is a three-year-old child? However, some scientists were high functioning idiots, awesome in their field of expertise, but idiotic in society, they could understand a little.
Guo Zerui couldn’t even taste the food in his mouth, seeing the boss ignoring his own lunch box, he couldn’t help but say, “Doctor, come out first, our boss has not eaten yet, his food is almost frozen.”
Zhou Yun Sheng paused, then immediately lifted Lei Chuan’s army’s coat. Zhao Ling Feng had already consciously opened his own military coat, waiting for the doctor to come into his coat to warm up. His loyal dog consciousness was on point.
Lei Chuan really couldn’t wait to fry him, a faint layer of purple emerge on his palm, but he was afraid of injuring the doctor and barely held back. Sooner or later, he’d have to abandon Zhao Ling Feng in a forest somewhere. Since the last life, after seeing the man closely following the doctor and casually touching the doctor anytime he wanted, he’d run out of tolerance.
“If you want to eat this lunchbox, take it, I’ll eat the biscuits.” He clasped the doctor’s waist tightly in one hand, and rummaged in his backpack with the other, he found a box of compressed biscuits and handed it to the doctor.
“Help me open it.”
Lei Chuan had fire ability, the equivalent of a human heat lamp, staying in his arms was certainly more comfortable than staying in Zhao Ling Feng’s arms, so Zhou Yun Sheng stayed put, opened the biscuit can, and held it up.
Lei Chuan’s hand still held the doctor, and he used his other hand to eat the biscuits, stuffing one into the doctor’s mouth from time to time. Seeing his cute full cheeks look, he couldn’t help but cheerfully smile, their intimacy and tender warmth raised some eyebrows.
The soldiers were stunned, those in the know quietly pinched Guo Zerui’s waist, telling him to hurry, don’t let the boss be snatched by an outsider.
Zhou Yun Sheng ate his lunch box and ended up eating half the box of biscuits, his empty stomach was finally full, and his body was lying on a warm flesh bag, very comfortable.
Even in the last days, those with strength and support could still live a comfortable life, no wonder so many people were clamoring to hold onto a gold thigh. He felt drowsiness creeping in, and tilted his head to sleep.
Zhao Ling Feng was afraid the doctor would wake up with a stiff neck tomorrow and quickly opened a thick sleeping bag, and indicated to Lei Chuan to put him in.
“Not yet, I’ll put him down when I’m going to sleep. He hasn’t fallen asleep for long, don’t toss him around.” Lei Chuan lowered his voice and refused. He was tired of Zhao Ling Feng this mother-in-law, was following for two lifetimes not enough? You still want to steal him away?
Zhao Ling Feng was also tired of having to bow to Lei Chuan, he wanted to understand what scheme he was planning to suddenly be so gracious to the doctor. He overbearingly treated the doctor like his personal item. Strictly speaking, the doctor and Lei Chuan should only have hatred between them, no kindnesses.
But the doctor already knew his special physique and had made up his mind to follow him, he probably couldn’t persuade him to leave. The doctor had such a personality, even if he knew there was a fire at the bottom of the pit, as long as he wanted something in there, he would unhesitantly jump in.
He was really too stubborn.
Zhao Ling Feng shook his head in distress.
The group of people were afraid the clamor would disturb the doctor’s rest, so they took out playing cards and silently played poker, the technician soldier that had the doctor’s spider button was manipulating the spider to scurry around the house, he was very happy with his new toy.
Only Guo Zerui’s face was gloomy, he stared at the fire, his thoughts unknown.
Half an hour later, after making sure the doctor was deep asleep, Lei Chuan raised his hand and gently brushed aside his upturned hair, then carefully laid him into the two-person sleeping bag. Zhao Ling Feng lent a helping hand, afraid that the doctor would feel cold, he asked people for two hot water bags and went out to fill them.
Lei Chuan took off his military coat and was preparing to get into the sleeping bag to hold the doctor to sleep. In his last life, when the doctor was fast asleep, he would lie down next to him, staring at his pale face for hours, imagining what it would be like to talk to the doctor daily and hold him in his sleep.
This time, he wanted to do everything he couldn’t achieve in his last life. He wanted to keep the doctor alive, with a healthy body, rosy cheeks, and bright, fresh eyes.
With that in mind, he smiled contentedly.
“Boss, I have something to tell you, let’s go out.” Guo Zerui grabbed his an arm, he looked very serious.
Lei Chuan placed his coat over the sleeping bag to fill in any gaps, then went out with him. The two walked to an area outside of the house where they could defend from attacks, and checked the surrounding environment to determine if there was no danger before talking.
“What cannot be said tomorrow?”
“I can’t wait any longer. Boss, what’s with your attitude change with Dr. Bai? He is your enemy, ever since the last life, so why are you serving him like a servant? Or, boss, are you paralyzing him, winning him over, but plan to take your revenge on him after he develops the vaccine? Is that it?” His voice actually had a glimmer of hope.
Lei Chuan was silent for a long time, but a heavy pressure surged in the air, like a mad beast’s heavy breathing, causing Guo Zerui to be startled at the sound. Before Guo Zerui could react, a hard blow landed on his abdomen, immediately making him vomit a mouthful blood.
A fireball was thrown in, burning the blood on the ground to ashes, the leaping flames reflected Lei Chuan’s extremely ferocious expression.
For the first time Guo Zerui felt a feeling outside of admiration and love for his brother, at the moment, he felt a trace of fear. He hastily retreated, quickly wiping the blood from his mouth, so the blood smell couldn’t attract zombies or mutated animals. He opened, frightened, “Boss, what did I say wrong? Why are you suddenly fighting with me? We’ve been brothers for more than ten years, is our friendship really nothing compared to Bai Mo Han?”
Lei Chuan barely repressed his rage and growled, “You want to know why I’m like this? I’ll tell you. When you died, I despaired and chose self-destruct.”
Guo Zerui stared, suddenly depressed.
Lei Chuan’s eyes were empty, like he was looking into the past, the painfulness of that time hadn’t diminished, but the narrative become more intense.
“But Dr. Bai arrived in time and pressed down my self-destruct energy, I survived.”
“But, boss, you’re were a level-11 Warrior ah! If you choose to self-destruct, who can stop you?” Guo Zerui shook his head in disbelief.
Lei Chuan smiled wryly, “You think I’m good? Do you think if I hadn’t been caught in the lab, I would have become the country’s best Warrior?”
Guo Zerui confidently nodded. If it wasn’t for Bai Mo Han, the boss would have been a dominant party, not a lab rat. That man simply trampled the boss’ dignity into the ground! That was harder for him to accept than if they’d killed his boss directly.
“But while all the major forces were imagining how powerful it must be to be a level-12, the doctor was already a King level. He could naturally stop me from exploding.”
At these words, Guo Zerui felt confused and immediately denied, “But now, Dr. Bai is obviously an ordinary man ah! The Apocalypse started over half a year ago, all the Warriors have already awakened.”
This drove a spike into Lei Chuan’s heart. His eyes cut into Guo Zerui like a knife, immediately silencing him.
“I didn’t die, but became a living soul, imprisoned to the doctor’s side. The doctor’s King level nucleus was also cracked by my strength, so the strength of his body was greatly reduced and he suffered heavy losses, all his organs slowly began to fail. I always looked at him while he vomited, panting, then watched him collapse onto the cold floor, and wake up to quietly clean his room, pretending nothing had happened. In the laboratory, he worked days and nights without rest. In order to prevent B Base from mass-producing a much more terrible monster than the zombies, he used the last remaining vestiges of power in his nucleus to kill the creator. He became an ordinary man without the slightest hesitation.”
“He was only skin and bones, and as time went on, he almost vomited out all his internal organs. When no one was around, he would lie down on the sink, gasping for breath, because if he didn’t do that, he could stop breathing at any moment. But when he stood by the operating table, his hand was steady as always, he never made even a tiny mistake. He supported himself entirely by willpower, just to develop the vaccine. He once said that in order to return the world to its original appearance, and so mankind could continue to multiply, he was willing to pay any price. That included the experiments he sacrificed, and his own life.”
“He succeeded, but he couldn’t enjoy even a shred of glory, he was mercilessly killed by the B Base people. Before his death, he sent the priceless information to all the bases in the nation. I was furious, and chose self-destruct again. But when I opened my eyes, you’d already controlled me into assassinating the doctor with the bloodvine. To extract the bloodvine, the doctor exhausted all his power, and his nucleus broke again.”
Guo Zerui stood rigged like a piece of wood pounded into the ground, his mind was overturning seas and rivers.
Lei Chuan glanced at him and sneered, “The doctor is supposed to be a King level, but he was ruined by you. How many people have you killed in two lifetimes? What did you kill them for?”
Before Guo Zerui could answer, he continued, “You’ve killed hundreds of people, either because of personal differences, self-defense, or conflict of interest. Don’t say it, I’ve killed a lot of people too, and my motivation was no nobler than yours. Compared to our dirty motives, the doctor chose to save more people by sacrificing a few, can you say he is the bad guy here? If it was you, helplessly watching him die such a miserable death after he left a hope for the future generations, could you hate him? Anyone who has a trace of a conscience would never mention using the doctor, then heartlessly killing him later.”
He spread a palm filled with purple lightening and coldly opened, “There will be no second time, or, even if I owe you a life, I will not show you mercy.”
He turned around and took two steps, then he shouted at a corner, “Have you heard enough? If you’ve heard enough, get out!”
Zhao Ling Feng came out of the darkness, his expression somewhat embarrassed. He had no idea that there would be such a twist in the story. Lei Chuan had actually accompanied the doctor as a soul. No wonder he held no grudge against Dr. Bai, after seeing everything, who could hate him? Unless they were a madman intent on destroying the world.
They left one after another, and Guo Zerui stood straight for several minutes before waking up from his stupor, then he gave a wry smile.
His boss’s remarks completely overturned all his knowledge of Dr. Bai. Not only was the man transcendent in many professional fields, his inner world was more clean and pure than anyone else’s. He didn’t have a shred of selfishness, to sustain mankind, to stay true to his beliefs, he could pay any price. It’s because people like him exist, the world will slowly return from the endless darkness into the light.
He died a miserable death, but also died a heroic death, he left a seed of hope for humanity.
To follow such a noble, resolute, and fearless man, who could restrain the admiration and reverence in their hearts? And admiration and reverence could accumulate into a love fiercer than red-hot magma.
No wonder the boss looked at Dr. Bai with eyes full of flames. He’d fallen in love with him, from the last life to this world.
Guo Zerui smiled, but his eyes were wet, he remembered how he’d spent his own life to save his boss in the past, and couldn’t help but feel reluctant to give up.
“Hum, didn’t you fall in love all by yourself? Of course you’d suffer! You’re like his family, he’ll never see you like that!” Secretly cursing himself, Guo Zerui rubbed his running nose, and boldly walked back into the room. No amount of heartbreak could compare to a promising future.
Lei Chuan’s remarks brought back sad memories, so Zhao Ling Feng was completely sleep-less, he sat cross-legged beside the doctor and silently shed tears, some puddles were forming on the ground.
The soldiers stole glances at him and couldn’t help but snicker, one swirled his finger by his temple, mocking his craziness.
Not a moment later, Lei Chuan came in and saw Zhao Ling Feng guarding the sleeping bag, his heart suddenly felt irritable, he kicked at him and growled, “Go to sleep, don’t fool around here. How can you protect the doctor tomorrow with no sleep?”
Protecting the doctor was certainly more important than crying. Zhao Ling Feng immediately wiped tears with his sleeve and slid into his sleeping bag.
Trapped in those memories, Lei Chuan’s mood was somersaulting, the doctor was lying on the sink and vomiting blood, he was bone thin, he looked frail, and he collapsed onto the floor. He looked down at him clutching his chest, each frame had been etched into his brain with a sharp knife, stabbing into the softest places of his heart.
His eyes were crimson and moist, he gritted his teeth to repress his desire to cry. There was a saying, ‘Real men don’t cry easily, because they have not experienced heartache.’ He used to scoff at the words, but now he finally knew what it meant to feel heartache. He didn’t want to experience it a second time.
Although the boss didn’t shed tears like Zhao Ling Feng, he looked a million times sadder than Zhao Ling Feng. The soldiers stopped laughing and looked at each other, puzzled.
What’s going on here? Dr. Bai is not dead, yet the two are crying like they’re at his funeral.
Guo Zerui stood at the door, staring at the back of his melancholy boss for a long time. He could understand his feelings, watching a loved one die just to reborn and watch him nearly die again, his heart must certainly be suffering. He now had some admiration for his boss’ forbearance, just beating him up instead of killing him showed how deep their brotherhood was.
With that thought, the pain in his heart lessened, he walked over and patted his boss’ shoulder in comfort.
At that moment, the doctor opened his misty eyes and found a man beside his sleeping bag, he raised his eyebrows for a second then muttered, “I want a drink.”
Lei Chuan immediately made a brother with water ability fill a glass of water, he carefully brought it to his small mouth, carefully cupping the doctor’s lower jaw, afraid it would spill into his shirt.
Zhou Yun Sheng solved his thirst problem, then found that his hands and feet were cold, he patted the man beside him and whispered, “I’m cold, come in and help me warm up.”
Because of his words, Lei Chuan’s heart that was dripping blood instantaneously cured, he promised and brought the thin man carefully into his arms, and found that he’d craftily buried his ice-cold hands into his own undergarments. Lei Chuan couldn’t help but emit a low joyful laugh.
At that moment, he finally felt the sensation of being alive again.
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T/N:
I’m not listening, I’m not seeing – I think this is a reference to a meme.
Real men don’t cry easily, because they have not experienced heartache– saying based on a quote from the Chinese Ming Dynasty opera “Tale of the Sword”. The author uses the original quote with 丈夫 – husband, do not cry etc., but the popular saying uses 男兒- real men, do not cry etc. I switched it to the popular saying because it makes more sense in English. I think it’s a play on how ‘real men’ aren’t supposed to cry, but the ‘real men’ that don’t cry have never experienced heartache.
Lei Chuan gave a monster of a speech that basically repeated what we already know, thanks for that author.