Three weeks before the apocalypse, the villa’s renovations were finally done. Lu Hao and Hong Sheng moved back, not forgetting to bring along the garden plants Hong Sheng had raised. They transplanted the garden into a sunny plot overlooked by one of the remaining bay windows, so that whenever Hong Sheng wanted to relax, he could curl up in the protruding windowsill and look out at the greenery.

The villa had fully transformed into a proto-version of the SG base. It wasn’t as large as the base had grown to be, but the core was there.

And alongside it was the laboratory.

Lu Hao had secretly ordered the construction of the lab, and had negotiated with his father to find the scientific instruments the researchers might need later on. These kinds of specialized tools were extremely expensive, in the millions of yuan range; no matter how much money Lu Hao made on his own, he wouldn’t be able to afford them without Father Lu’s help.

With the research station set up, and the defenses built and ready, the SG base was now primed to be an even better stronghold against the zombie onslaught. This time, they would be ready to find the cure to the zombie virus.

There was only one loose end left.

 

 

At present, Lu Hao was curled around Hong Sheng in bed. Sunlight streamed over them from an open window, the protective shutters rolled up.

Hong Sheng hadn’t moved for a while, a little vacant, like his soul had gone somewhere else to escape the memories in his mind. At times like this, Lu Hao hated himself more than anything.

But even when he blamed himself for Hong Sheng’s trauma, he couldn’t let Hong Sheng go. All he could do was gently wrap himself around Hong Sheng, share his warmth with him, and hold him close. Sometimes he’d selfishly press his lips against the back of Hong Sheng’s neck, desperate to let a sliver of his love pass into Hong Sheng’s cognition.

Hong Sheng wouldn’t react until hours later, when he finally grew aware again. By then, he would act like nothing had happened—but once, Lu Hao saw Hong Sheng duck his head, fingers pressed against the back of his neck, his ears completely blushing red.

So cute.

Every action Hong Sheng did was like a little mallet tapping on Lu Hao’s heart.

He wanted so much to run his hands over Hong Sheng’s body, to press his lips against Hong Sheng’s and hear the shy, cut-off groans he’d make. He wanted to bite Hong Sheng’s skin and fill it with marks. He wanted to feel Hong Sheng completely and utterly given to him, relaxed and pliant, knowing that Lu Hao held him safely in his embrace.

But Lu Hao buried that side of him, reminding himself, not yet. Not until Hong Sheng felt safe enough to let him closer. Not until he’d earned Hong Sheng’s trust. Once the apocalypse came, and all of the ghosts of their past came to stay, Lu Hao would show Hong Sheng that he’d changed. He’d be by Hong Sheng’s side as Hong Sheng took steps toward a happier life, one with friends, with people he could trust. People who weren’t just Lu Hao.

Hong Sheng’s world would grow wider, and the end of the apocalypse would come.

This time, things would change for the better.

 

 

Later that day, a package arrived at the villa.

It was a small box that barely weighed a thing. Lu Hao took it away without Hong Sheng even knowing it was there. He brought the package to a secure vault in the laboratory wing and tore it open.

Inside was a dull and innocuous pendant made of jade, carved in the shape of a goddess. Looking at this jade in person, Lu Hao found that the goddess’s figure was so worn with age that even her face couldn’t be seen.

Lu Hao tapped a few buttons on his phone, anonymously sending the payment over to Zhang Lie. The scum man had served his purpose. Lu Hao would pay him to accompany Ji Ling up until the start of the apocalypse—once they were surrounded by zombies, Lu Hao was sure that Zhang Lie would tear off his mask in the ugliest way possible. Just the thought of that made Lu Hao chuckle.

Zhang Lie had sent Lu Hao updates when he was in the process of stealing the pendant. Obviously, a conniving man like him wouldn’t have lifted a finger himself—he’d set Ji Ling up very thoroughly.

First, he’d waited until Ji Ling had suggested they go out on a date. Ji Ling tended to arrive early, so Zhang Lie took advantage and hired some ruffians to go and hassle her. Just as Zhang Lie conveniently arrived to fight them off and defend his girlfriend, one of the hired goons snatched the pendant and ran off; the rest, Zhang Lie beat down to prove how capable he was.

Thus, even though he ‘unfortunately’ couldn’t retrieve that precious family heirloom of Ji Ling’s, not a single drop of blame fell on his shoulders. After all, she was the one who had suggested they go out. After all, Zhang Lie had done his best to protect her. She’d never have to know that the thief later pawned it to a third-party professional that Lu Hao had hired, who then sent it to Lu Hao.

Apparently, she was devastated. Zhang Lie was still comforting her as she cried even to this moment.

Pulling on the red necklace cord, Lu Hao dangled the pendant between his fingers. Was this thing really the key to Ji Ling’s secret powers? He frowned, sharp gaze critically analyzing the pendant. Nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary, but at the same time, there was something about it…

If the researchers could unlock the secrets of that ‘healing spring water’ Ji Ling had used, then the process of finding the zombie cure would be much faster. Yet even if they couldn’t make use of it, just depriving Ji Ling of her advantages was good enough. Lu Hao wrapped the necklace back up and hid it away in the vault before heading out.

He’d gotten what he needed from Ji Ling. The contracts with the private investigators came to a close, and Lu Hao hid all of the information they’d sent him in a secret compartment in his desk. If he needed to reference the information on Ji Ling again when the researchers studied the jade pendant, he’d dig this back out again.

From now on, he didn’t need to concern himself with her.

 

A week before the apocalypse started.

Lu Hao and Hong Sheng saw Ma and Pa off at the airport. Hong Sheng had been confused and anxious as to why they were suddenly leaving to another country, but when he heard that they were preparing to fly out, he’d only pressed his lips together without saying a word.

It wasn’t as if F City was any safer than a country overseas, especially considering the emergence of intelligent zombies in China.

In the end, Hong Sheng had just nervously written a notebook full of instructions and advice and given it to them. Inside were all kinds of valuable information: some survivors’ common sense, such as to board up the windows or to check thoroughly for suspicious bites, as well as technical information like how to purify water, repair electrical generators, obtain fuel from cars…

Hong Sheng had stayed up with barely any sleep for a whole week just to cram as much knowledge into this notebook as he could.

Although Lu Hao had told him that he’d hired professionals and veterans to protect his parents in the foreign country, it stood to reason that even the most experienced of soldiers wouldn’t know how to react to a zombie invasion. So Lu Hao just let Hong Sheng do what he needed to keep his parents safe.

Now there was barely any time left before the entire world went to hell.

The very last thing Lu Hao did was send an email to Lisa Xi. He kept it short, merely typing, [Dr Lisa Xi. Although you don’t know me, I appreciate your expertise. There is a disease that will emerge around the world in 48 hours. I’m interested in researching a cure. After the time has come, you can find me near F City in China. -Lu Hao]

It was a slightly vague, ominous email. It would do no good to share too many details that would make Lisa Xi flag it as conspiratorial spam and delete it.

Instead, Lu Hao shared just enough that she might think it weird, and maybe even laugh over its strangeness, but remember it nonetheless. Once the apocalypse hit, with any luck, she’d recall Lu Hao’s offer.

Seven days passed far too quickly.

The night before the apocalypse, Lu Hao did a sweep of the villa, deploying its defenses. He ran into Hong Sheng, who stiffened nervously from being caught checking the generators, purifiers, and other machinery.

“Everything alright, Hong Sheng?” Lu Hao asked, as if he didn’t know, didn’t share that same restless anxiety in him. Tonight was the last eve of normalcy.

“I’m fine.” Hong Sheng’s gaze skittered away, a blatant lie. Lu Hao huffed out a laugh. He pat Hong Sheng’s head, feeling the soft and fine hair against his fingers.

“Get some rest.”

There wasn’t much more to say. Both of them tacitly finished their own preparations, and when all was done, they returned to their own rooms and locked the doors.

 

 

Lu Hao woke in the dead of night.

He gasped, a wretched and hoarse sound as his lungs clawed for air. His entire body burned, and his veins bulged out of his skin. Lu Hao grit his teeth, pain erupting in each of his cells, and forced himself to sit up.

The first thing he did was reach for his phone. He dialed his mother’s number, waiting, horribly afraid, that something had gone wrong; that she wouldn’t respond; that his father had killed her again... His body wound tighter and tighter, his muscles nearly exploding from the tension.

And then the call went through.

“Little Hao?” His mother sounded distraught.

“Ma,” Lu Hao answered, and he eased all at once. His brow still furrowed in concentration, Lu Hao raised a hand to rub between his eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I… I’m safe,” she said. “But your father, he… what happened to him? How can he…” She started crying on the other end of the phone, and Lu Hao made soothing noises, trying to comfort her.

“Ma, ma, it’ll be alright. Did you restrain him?”

Ma made a muffled ‘mm’ noise. “The bodyguards locked him into that—that isolation chamber, like you said.”

“Good. No matter what, don’t let dad out, he’ll survive even without food and water. He’ll be fine. As long as his body is intact, there’s a way for us to bring him back. Okay?” He waited for Ma to make a sound of acknowledgment before he continued. “Now what I need you to do is take care of yourself, Ma. You and your bodyguards have to be careful. This world is dangerous; you can’t trust anyone. I need you to keep yourself safe. Hong Sheng and I need you, okay?”

“I—I know. I’ll be careful. But you too, Little Hao. I can’t…” Her voice was so weak, half-drowning in tears. “Everything you said was really true, Little Hao? You really died. And you watched your Ma and Pa…”

Lu Hao shushed her comfortingly. He gave her space to process, and try to get through the shock. It wasn’t easy to understand that everything about the world you knew was gone in an instant.

He swung himself out of bed, already fully dressed, even his boots still on his feet. With the phone still in his hand, Lu Hao left his room.

The villa was eerily silent: it was far from all other places of civilization, so other than him and Hong Sheng, there was no one. There was only the sobbing coming from the phone. “Ma, Hong Sheng’s okay too. I’ll let you talk to him, alright?” Lu Hao comforted. He knocked on Hong Sheng’s door. “Hong Sheng, are you up?”

The soft pad of Hong Sheng’s feet on the floor came swiftly. With his enhanced senses, Lu Hao could even just barely hear the sound of Hong Sheng’s breathing. It was a soothing sound. The door unlatched, and Hong Sheng’s pale face emerged from the doorway.

Lu Hao let some of his underlying emotions appear on his face. He was so used to keeping stoic that sometimes, it took effort for him to let go. “Ma’s on the phone. Dad… it sounds like something happened to him. Talk to her, let her know you’re okay.” He passed the phone over, and when Hong Sheng took the phone to softly greet Ma, Lu Hao grabbed Hong Sheng by the shoulder and steered him to the bed.

They sat down together on the bedside. Lu Hao listened in to the conversation, his inhuman senses letting him hear every word. With Hong Sheng on the phone, Ma had broken out of her spiral of despair. Now she was anxiously reminding Hong Sheng to take care of himself, to not put himself in danger, every maternal instinct in her activated when it came to keeping Hong Sheng safe. Hong Sheng responded quietly, murmuring ‘okay’ and ‘I will’ to everything she said.

Eventually, when Lu Hao felt that Ma’s emotions had stabilized, he took the phone from Hong Sheng’s grasp and said into the receiver, “Ma, I’ll have to go now. You get some rest. Remember what I said earlier, okay? Love you.”

Once they’d hung up, Lu Hao pretended to furrow his brows and take a closer look at his phone. Hong Sheng stared at him from the side. As Lu Hao tapped into his messages, Hong Sheng reached over and laid a hand on Lu Hao’s arm, genuinely startling Lu Hao to look up at him.

“What… are you feeling?”

Lu Hao was stunned. Hong Sheng looked at him with an assessing gaze, tinged with a bit of worry and hesitation, like he wasn’t sure he should be acknowledging Lu Hao’s pain.

The sharp, knife-like aura around Lu Hao softened, the firm line of his lips loosening. He leaned over and pulled Hong Sheng into a hug, resting his own head against Hong Sheng’s neck. He let himself have this, just for a moment.

“They’re safe,” Lu Hao said, inexplicably.

“Yeah.” Hong Sheng raised his hand. It hovered in the air, hesitant, before resting on Lu Hao’s head. His long fingers gently brushed Lu Hao’s hair.

Lu Hao gazed at his own hand, and bumped it next to Hong Sheng’s. He made a spark of lightning dance over his knuckles and bounce between his fingertips, then race onto Hong Sheng’s hand to bounce over his skin. The bright trail lit up the dark room, casting light over the two of them. “Something changed me overnight. I’m not human anymore, and I can control lightning.”

Hong Sheng flipped his hand over. The spark of lightning ran over his fingers into the palm of his hand, where it curled into a ball.

The things Lu Hao said, both of them already clearly knew. There was no need for Lu Hao to explain anything to Hong Sheng. But, as if this was really his first time transforming, as if this really was that first night of the apocalypse in his memory, he said it anyway.

If they hadn’t been separated in their first life, if they had been together when the apocalypse had come, maybe this was how things could have gone.

In another world, another time, Hong Sheng would have been the one beside Lu Hao.

Hong Sheng here, supporting Lu Hao as he went through everything: the terror of discovering his body had changed beneath the skin, feeling some invisible hand rewriting the very DNA in his cells. The horror of discovering the people he once knew turning into monsters. The despair of being too late to save his parents and having to watch them die before his eyes.

That wasn’t how things had gone the first time.

Now Hong Sheng was with him, and all of those hurts became just an old road, paved over by a new future.

Lu Hao finished indulging in Hong Sheng’s comfort, a wound that he hadn’t even realized healing over in his heart. He lifted himself away, a bit of fondness flickering in his eyes as he saw Hong Sheng purse his lips, reluctant to let him go.

“I got a text from a friend earlier. It looks like there’s some trouble in F City,” Lu Hao lied with ease, pretending to look at his phone messages. “I’m going to go get him. You should stay inside. If anyone comes, don’t answer.”

It was a perfunctory excuse for Lu Hao to go back to F City and try to rescue some people. In the past, he’d saved some of his fellow university students, and together they’d started up the SG base. He wondered if they’d be alright. He had posted on the university forum to try and subtly stir up awareness about what people should do in a zombie apocalypse, but who knew how many people would actually follow through during the real thing?

He couldn’t waste much more time if he wanted to save anyone. So Lu Hao stood, patted Hong Sheng, and went to walk out. But without missing a beat, Hong Sheng reached beneath his pillow, took out a knife, and slid it into a knife holster that he kept on the nightstand. Hong Sheng grabbed it and slung it on, following Lu Hao to the door.

Lu Hao paused. “Hong Sheng—“

“I’m going.” Hong Sheng’s gaze flickered up, the piercing and unreadable dark in his eyes familiar. This was the Hong Sheng who didn’t flinch as he blasted apart the heads of zombies, the Hong Sheng who wired bombs and threw them precisely into the hordes, the Hong Sheng who used himself as bait to test his own inventions. He was the survivor of nine years in the apocalypse.

The look he gave Lu Hao meant he intended to be the one protecting Lu Hao. Hong Sheng wanted to keep Lu Hao safe from all the dangers that Lu Hao would soon face.

Lu Hao smiled. He couldn’t stop him. They were in this together.