022. Survive Like the Devil

"What do you think of that woman, Zhong Xiaoshan?"

Back in room 801, Zhang Su tossed the supplies he had retrieved into a corner and asked Zheng Xinyu.

"Shameless and flirtatious, but... she knows how to read the room. If I were a man, I suppose I might find such a woman appealing," Zheng Xinyu replied, sharing her inner thoughts.

Zhang Su let out a scoff. "Being a mistress requires one to be tactful; otherwise, how could she survive among the wealthy? Anyway, what kind of meal do you want? Braised chicken, braised pork, or beef with mushrooms?"

Zheng Xinyu, caught off guard by the abrupt shift in topic, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Anything but the beef with mushrooms."

"Alright! Then we’ll give the one we don’t like to Zhong Xiaoshan. Heh heh..."

With that, Zhang Su grabbed the beef with mushrooms and headed toward the front door.

The sunset bled across the sky, cloaking the entire city in a thin, crimson mist—as if the world were weeping blood. In Qin City, the days of October were growing shorter. Zhang Su and Zheng Xinyu sat together, peering through a narrow gap in the curtains at the fiery horizon. As time passed, the bite of the cold front grew sharper; Zheng Xinyu had already put on her loungewear, and Zhang Su had switched to a long-sleeved T-shirt.

"It’s been so long since I’ve watched the sunset this carefully. It’s truly beautiful." Zheng Xinyu leaned gently against Zhang Su, savoring the rare moment of peace. In the past, she would have been glued to her computer screen, never noticing the beauty of the natural world.

"At this hour, the streets used to be packed with traffic, horns blaring incessantly, gridlocked to the point of madness. Now, there’s not even a ghost in sight... Heh." Zhang Su let out a bitter laugh, his brow furrowed with an unshakable gloom. The scene outside was enough to drive one to despair; it took a ironclad psyche to endure it. Countless people had neither turned into zombies nor been bitten, yet they couldn't survive in this apocalypse—they simply collapsed from within, suffering a total psychological breakdown.

"Everything will be fine, won't it? It will get better, right?" Zheng Xinyu pressed her body fully against his, asking softly.

Feeling her warmth, Zhang Su’s tone softened. "We must hold onto the belief that things will get better, but we must also prepare for the worst as if they never will. Do you understand what I mean?"

Zheng Xinyu remained silent for a long time, finally offering a soft hum of acknowledgment for his brutal reality.

***

The sun dipped below the mountains, leaving a faint crimson glow at the end of the world. As the sky darkened, the two remained leaning against each other, motionless, as if holding this pose could make it last forever.

"I told you, you're heavy. You're going to break my arm. How are you going to protect me from zombies then?" Zhang Su said lightly.

"You're annoying!" Zheng Xinyu, annoyed that the beautiful atmosphere had been shattered, sat up straight and punched him, unwilling to let the moment pass so easily.

For dinner, Zhang Su decided they would cook a pack of snail noodles together, supplemented by two soy-marinated eggs and a sausage. They saved the self-heating meal kits for last; should the gas be cut off, they wouldn't go hungry immediately, and it would be easier to carry if they ever needed to relocate.

Though he usually detested the smell of snail noodles, Zhang Su set aside his preferences and greedily drank the very last drop of broth, letting out a satisfied, water-filled burp. Zheng Xinyu, too, only managed a half-full stomach. Finally, Zhang Su decided to open a bag of sea salt cream puffs as a dessert.

"Brother Su, if we keep the lights off like this, what if a rescue team passes by and misses us?" With the darkness of night, the room was lit only by a small nightlight, which made Zheng Xinyu quite uneasy.

"Zhong Xiaoshan only went hungry for a single day, and she was already desperate enough to strip and dance for me just for a meal. Haven't you realized yet how terrifying hunger is? It is an absolute catalyst for malice. From now on, it’s not just the zombies we need to watch out for—people will be even more terrifying. Of course, people have always been terrifying." Zhang Su spoke with grave seriousness.

Zheng Xinyu’s expression tightened in the darkness. Thinking of the many historical precedents, she suddenly felt a sense of lostness regarding the future. She walked to the window and lifted a corner of the curtain.

What couldn't be seen during the day became clear at night: fires were raging in many parts of the city, clusters of red reflections illuminating the night sky like a city that had just endured a war. The streets were desolate. Aside from the occasional unbroken streetlamp or the blinking hazard lights of an abandoned car, there was not a single sign of life—only stiff-limbed shadows wandering aimlessly, making one's chest feel heavy.

Within their field of vision, Building 4 and Building 8 appeared brightly lit, but a closer look revealed no signs of human movement. The lights were only on because the zombie virus had struck at dawn, when many families had already switched them on. In a normal world, these lights would mean people walking about, shadows flickering behind curtains. But now, aside from a deathly silence, there were only the gruesome patterns of blood splattered against the glass.

Despair—looking at the silent, dead city, it was easy for the heart to succumb to it.

"Zhang Su, do you think there's any meaning in us scraping by like this?" Zheng Xinyu asked in a low voice.

"Giving up so soon?" Zhang Su flashed a grin of white teeth in the dark. "Scraping by is at least living. Living is the point. Why think so much? Let me ask you, back when you were livestreaming and shaking your ass for your 'family' every day, what was the meaning in that?"

***

"Go to hell! Who was shaking their ass? I was a gaming streamer, you idiot!" Zheng Xinyu flared up instantly. She found Zhang Su incredibly infuriating; he always knew how to ruin the mood, whether it was sentimental, beautiful, or poetic.

"A gaming streamer? What games? The kind of 'adult' games?" Zhang Su raised an eyebrow.

"Can you even stream those? I played PUBG, 'eating chicken,' do you even know what that is, old man?" Zheng Xinyu rolled her eyes at him.

"Eating chicken... Heh. I played CS:GO. I could blow your head off in a second, you noob!" Seeing Zheng Xinyu's chest heave as she prepared for a verbal war, Zhang Su quickly cut in: "Whatever kind of streamer you were, from now on, you're going to be a fitness streamer!"

"What do you mean?" Zheng Xinyu looked at Zhang Su, who was currently putting on gloves, with utter confusion.

Zhang Su walked toward the bedroom. "Your physical condition was barely passable before, but now... I don't think you'd make it out of the apartment complex—no, you wouldn't even make it out of our unit before being killed. So, while we have the chance, I’m going to put you through a devilish training regimen."

It wasn't just for Zheng Xinyu; Zhang Su needed to strengthen himself as well. He had always worked out, but he had dialed back the intensity over the last two years just to maintain his physique. Now, a good physique wasn't enough; strength, speed, stamina, and flexibility were the keys to survival.

"Devilish... how, how devilish?" At the mention of training, Zheng Xinyu's eyelids twitched.

"Devilish training! If you want to survive against zombies, you have to turn yourself into a demon! Here, follow my lead!" Zhang Su didn't say more. He handed Zheng Xinyu a pair of small dumbbells, while he picked up a pair of twenty-kilogram weights to start his warm-up.

Zheng Xinyu didn't resist; she quickly followed Zhang Su's rhythm and began to train.

To survive in a world teeming with zombies, one had to become a demon—not just in body, but in mind as well.