008 Devoted Fan

“It stinks... fine.” Zheng Xinyu pouted, feeling that asking to wash up when water was scarce was a bit much, but she really wanted to freshen up. For instance, she hadn’t rinsed her mouth after waking up—only sipped some water—and the sticky, unpleasant feeling was unbearable.

“Oh, wait!” Just as Zheng Xinyu was hesitating, she suddenly remembered she had mouthwash!

She dashed back to her room with light steps, rummaged through the packages sent by fans, and pulled out two large bottles of mouthwash, proudly presenting them to Zhang Su.

“Well, one time during a live gaming stream, someone trolled me hard, so I unleashed my ultimate attack on them. It turned out that person was watching the stream and said my breath was too... too foul. So they sent me these two bottles of mouthwash.”

Recalling the embarrassing story eased the tense, fearful atmosphere somewhat, and she couldn’t help but smile sheepishly.

Zhang Su teased Zheng Xinyu, “Aren’t you supposed to be the cute, innocent type?”

As he spoke, he took a closer look at the mouthwash—peach-flavored, each bottle holding 1,500 milliliters—a generous size that would last a long time.

“Please, you know that’s just a persona, not the real me. Seriously, it’s frustrating,” Zheng Xinyu rolled her eyes, the whites of her eyes tinged with red veins.

“By the way, what else have your fans sent you? Anything useful right now?” Zhang Su’s curiosity was piqued as he glanced at the pile of delivery boxes stacked in the corner of Zheng Xinyu’s room—at least ten or more of varying sizes.

Zheng Xinyu made a strange face and shook her head. “Mostly weird stuff. If you’re interested, you can sort through them, but I doubt there’s anything useful.”

She vaguely recalled some books like *Postpartum Care for Sows* and *Military Boxing*, an arm-length spoon, masquerade masks, and demon-slaying crucifixes among the odd items.

There were some practical things too, but Zheng Xinyu had either eaten or already used those.

Zhang Su nodded thoughtfully, deciding he should take a look when he had time. These days were different; many things that seemed useless before could turn out to be unexpectedly helpful in critical moments.

With the mouthwash, they at least solved the problem of bad breath. As for the slight oiliness on their faces, they would just have to bear it.

Zhang Su returned to his bedroom, glanced at his phone—still no signal—then sat on the sofa in the living room. He looked at the dazed Zheng Xinyu and asked, “Hey, what are you thinking about?”

Zheng Xinyu pointed toward the window. “Someone was shouting for help just now. It sounded like it came from the neighboring unit, very close to us...”

“The louder they shout, the faster they die... Soon enough, zombies will surround them!” Zhang Su rolled his eyes and thought to himself that some people really didn’t understand the situation.

***

Zheng Xinyu pouted. “I wish none of this were true. I’d be slurping noodles right now, and you’d come out of your room scold me. I’d hurriedly clean up. How wonderful that would be.”

“Yeah, that would be great.” Zhang Su looked up at the ceiling and said, “I still feel like I’m dreaming—that none of this is real.”

“Ha...” Zheng Xinyu suddenly burst out laughing for no apparent reason.

Zhang Su gave her a puzzled look. “You’re heartless... still able to laugh. What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking... Su-ge, if the landlord dies in this catastrophe, wouldn’t this whole place be ours? Then we could raise the rent, hah!” At the end, she wrinkled her delicate nose, cursing the landlord in her heart.

“Ahem!” Zhang Su was caught off guard, scowling at Zheng Xinyu. “If you curse me again, do you believe I’ll spank you until you’re bruised?”

“Huh?” Zheng Xinyu was stunned by his words, eyes wide as she stared at him, her mind racing. After about seven or eight seconds, she snapped back to reality and pointed at Zhang Su in disbelief.

“You—you—you... don’t tell me you’re the landlord!”

Zhang Su gave an utterly defeated shrug, bent down to rummage under the coffee table, opened a secret drawer, and took out two property deeds.

“This complex was completed eight years ago. I bought this place outright when it was brand new. It was cheap back then—just over three thousand yuan per square meter. With renovation, it only cost me four hundred thousand!”

As he spoke, he handed the documents to Zheng Xinyu.

Her lips parted slightly as she blankly took the deeds and flipped through them. Sure enough, Zhang Su’s name was on them, genuine and unquestionable.

“You... so it was you who said no durians in the room, and no pets either! And the electricity charge is 1.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour—curse you!” Her anger flared as she recalled all the landlord’s demands from the past. Raising her powdered fist, she aimed a playful punch at Zhang Su.

Zhang Su casually caught her fist with one hand and smoothly pulled her into a hug. Seeing her cheeks flush bright red, he anticipated her anger and quickly gestured toward the doorway, mouthing, “Don’t shout!”

Zheng Xinyu swallowed the colorful insults on the tip of her tongue, her already rosy cheeks deepening in color, feeling embarrassed, angry, and flustered all at once.

***

Feeling Zhang Su’s strong, steel-like arms around her, her heart pounded wildly. She gave up struggling, unable to resist the sense of safety in that embrace.

Just as she stopped resisting, his grip loosened—and then she felt a sharp smack on her rear.

*Smack! Smack!*

Zhang Su patted Zheng Xinyu’s bottom, scolding, “Don’t plop down on people so heavily. You nearly broke my ribs. There’s no hospital for that now!”

“I...” Zheng Xinyu looked down at Zhang Su’s calm face, furious. She pulled her oversized T-shirt back, instantly revealing her shapely figure, then pointed at herself.

“I’m 1.65 meters tall, 52 kilograms. Look properly, will you?”

Zhang Su was well aware of her good figure. Just as he was about to tease her further, he glanced up, his brow twitching slightly. “The temperature’s dropped. Don’t just wear a T-shirt. Put on something else.”

Hearing the drawn-out “T-shirt,” Zheng Xinyu immediately understood. Her angry expression froze before she turned and scampered toward her room, tiptoeing in a comical fashion.

Zhang Su sat alone in the living room. Once complete silence settled, he could hear the scraping footsteps of Zombie Li lingering outside the door.

*Scrape, scrape...*

“This is a ticking time bomb,” Zhang Su thought. Leaving Zombie Li at the door wasn’t good. If something dropped on the ground, there’d be a frenzy of banging.

One zombie knocking was bad enough, but if others heard and came running, that’d be disastrous. The door was only so sturdy!

“How to deal with this?” Zhang Su pondered.

At that moment, a line of ink-blurred words appeared in his mind:

[How to handle the zombie outside the door: A. Capture alive, B. Kill, C. Lure away]

(PS: The system is online, but as mentioned in the introduction, nothing too overpowered or absurd—no protagonist single-handedly slaughtering millions of zombies...)