The two of them teamed up to finish the plate of beef curry rice and leaned against each other to digest it.

"I baked a lot of buns with curry and tomato fillings and put them underneath. There was also a lot of curry left, so I steamed some rice, and divided and packed them into individual lunch boxes. They're also in the storage."

The lunch boxes and the like were collected from the supermarket, and it was perfect for use right now. When they were done eating and had time, they will need to washed out by hand.

"Okay, then don't make anymore for now. When the harvest inside is mature, we can do it slowly." Wrapping an arm around his shoulders, He Zizhong pressed his head against his cheek, and patted his shoulder gently. Those pre-apocalyptic products can be slowly traded for crystal nuclei with the survivors when the right time came.

The two rows of seats at the back of the SUV have long been taken down by He Zizhong. Now, taking out some bedding from the space, they arranged it into a simple resting space. In addition, they arranged a few large plastic bags filled with puffed food and instant noodles, which are large and light, on the sides to prevent people from peeking in.

He Zizhong reluctantly lay down; it was hard to stretch out his 1.80m height in the back of the car. Fang Hao was distressed, and suggested several times that he should rest in the space, but he refused with a smile—"It's impossible to sleep in the space every time in the future."

He needs to adapt to the post-apocalyptic life as soon as possible. He can't perceive the outside situation from the space. It was better with Fang Hao here, but once they're both inside, they wouldn't be able to grasp the outside situation at all.

And there were people in the cars behind. He didn't want to take the risk of someone walking over and finding no one here at all.

He Zizhong woke up at two o'clock in the morning by the vibration of his mobile phone. He always felt that if Fang Hao was fully responsible for waking him up, then that child¹term of endearment would definitely make up a reason to let himself sleep for longer.

Naturally, Fang Hao planned that - so what if He Zizhong slept for half an hour more? Fifteen minutes was good too!

"What's the situation?"

Fang Hao shook his head: "I haven't seen any zombies coming, but a few cars passed by on the highway." After that, he frowned. "It looks like it's foggy outside?"

He Zizhong got up and climbed back into the cockpit. "Go and rest for a while. I will call you in the morning."

Fang Hao heard him, so he had to go to bed obediently, touching his forehead along the way. "You're sweating again. Wipe your sweat so you don't catch a chill."

He leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. After he fell asleep, He Zizhong took out a clean towel to wipe his face.

He still had a low-grade fever nightly, but because of space water, it was now maintained within one hour every night. The following period of weakness was also not long. At this moment, although he was still in the period of weakness and his face was a little pale, it was not serious.

Even if someone saw him, they will think he didn't sleep well, and low blood pressure made him look like this.

Outside the car window, it was dark and silent. There was no light on the roadside, the moon was not visible in the sky, and it was gray everywhere, as if everything was covered in fog.

He Zizhong's brows furrowed. It seemed like...the weather has completely changed...

Zombification was the first step of the apocalypse. After that, the weather changed. The whole world seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist. No matter day or night, it was surrounded by a gray atmosphere, all year round.

Even in the hot summer, the scorching sun in the sky only seemed a little orange. Most original crops could not be grown, and the land became barren. Then, plants and animals began to change on a large scale...

Before zombies evolved their attributes, they were relatively easy to deal with. It was the zombie animals with various mutations that people struggled to defend against. They were agile, responsive, and powerful. The most depressing thing was after working so hard to kill a zombie animal, you couldn't even eat them. People could only get the crystal nucleus in their brains that was almost the same as that of human zombies.

Of course, animals and plants were the same as human beings, and some of them have survived mutations. Those were completely non-toxic and safe to eat, and often studied and discussed.

In the early morning of the next day, Fang Hao woke up and felt that the world was covered with a thin layer of mist. Although the sky was bright, he could hardly see the direction of the rising sun.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Sure enough, it's foggy, but it's not that bad." Every spring and winter in city F, it often got foggy morning and night, so Fang Hao didn't think much.

"Rinse, and eat something as soon as possible, they are all awake." He Zizhong rubbed his face and exhaled.

Fang Hao nodded and took out the toothbrush, toothpaste, and water bottle prepared yesterday from the plastic bag beside him. Inside the bottle was ordinary pure water. Firstly, they were afraid of unpredictable reaction when splashing the space water to the outside world. Secondly, it was also to empty a few more bottles for storing space water.

After a simple washing, and short trip in the wild²to use the 'toilet' - couldn't find appropriate English translation, the temporarily assembled convoy set off again.

The cars headed north all the way, and all the gas stations they passed by were quickly swept once by the entire group. Because of the foggy cloudy sky, some scattered zombies had begun to amble on the highway.

Not long after, they reached an intersection and the car behind pulled up parallel to the side, signalling with lights, as it rolled down the window: "We are going to turn from here to the west intersection."

He Zizhong nodded his head and said, "Goodbye. We'll meet if chance allows."³This is a Chinese idiom similar to jaamata-ne in Japanese instead of a formal goodbye without the meeting again meaning.

The man was stunned, and then smiled bitterly: "Goodbye. We'll meet if chance allows." Under the current situation, even if fate⁴referring to the 'chance' in the farewell they just exchanged. The original word is 缘 which means fate - but doesn't sound as right in English. willed it, it was unknown whether they could meet again. If it was in the form of a zombie... it was better to just die cleanly.

The three cars behind turned to the west. He Zizhong restarted the car and passed around a zombie who was excited to smell a human scent. The movement of the zombie seemed to be fast. Not long after the car started, it suddenly pounced, but fortunately He Zizhong accelerated so fast that it missed the rear of the car.

"It... seems to be moving faster?" Fang Hao hesitantly looked at the zombie in the rearview mirror chasing their car with its mouth open.

He Zizhong glanced at the rearview mirror. "Among the zombies I met at the gas station today, some of them were flexible."

Fang Hao's expression changed: "You mean... they will become more flexible in the future?!"

He Zizhong's voice became heavy: "Remember those zombies we met on the first day? They rarely have that kind of crystal nucleus in their heads, but since then, now, almost every zombie head we encounter has that thing..."

Fang Hao opened his mouth, his voice a little dry, "Senior means...they are...evolving?"

The child is teachable.⁵Original = 孺子可教 is an idiom (I think) so I tried to find the best meaning for it.

He Zizhong gave Fang Hao a look of praise, and saw his small face was a little pale with nervousness, so he instead patted his head comfortingly: "If they will evolve, maybe humans will. Among humans, some can already use their abilities."

Fang Hao nodded heavily, as if to cheer himself up: "Yes! We will get stronger too!"

After separating from those cars, He Zizhong and Fang Hao seemed to have much better luck. They encountered two full gasoline tankers and a truck carrying live pigs...

"God, you can still pick up live pigs on the highway?!" After they cleaned up the driver in the cockpit, Fang Hao circled the truck surprised.

It was now the third day of the apocalypse. The pigs in the truck were so hungry their heads were drooping. Some of them simply lay on the truck without moving, only making a faint grunt.

He Zizhong checked the pigs on the truck and confirmed that they were not infected, and then he put them into the space with the truck.

"You drive a while, I'll go in and sort it out." Live pigs can't be put in the basement. For some reason, creatures other than himself and the people he brought in would be directly hung up⁶Literal translation, but I'm assuming this means dead...? Or it could mean rejected. once they entered the underground warehouse.

Fang Hao nodded and sat down in the driving position to start the car. He Zizhong suddenly disappeared beside him, leaving only a bracelet in the passenger seat.

The truck of pigs was so hungry that they suddenly changed places without the strength to panic and scream to express their surprise.

He Zizhong put the truck directly on the grassland where the free-range livestock was raised. Before, the number of piglets he bought was not too many, only 20. Today, the number of adult pigs in this truck actually totalled forty!

Moreover, of the original pigs in the space, only seven were males, and the rest were sows for breeding.

The adult pigs in the truck were all boars that were ready to be slaughtered for meat.

As soon as the big pigs touched the ground, they hummed and went to graze and find food. He Zizhong planted many kinds of seeds here before. In addition to the common pastureland, there were many crops such as potatoes, carrots, and greens as well.

Fearing the original crops and grass were not enough with the new pigs, he simply transported two large baskets of apples from the underground warehouse. Feeding the pigs with the fruits from space was indeed wasteful, but who made apples the thing the space produced the most of?

From before the end of the world till now, the apples still can't be finished.

With the apples, not only the pigs who had been hungry for three days gathered around, but the smaller piglets, cattle, and sheep in the original space did as well.

He Zizhong looked towards the back mountain. Most of the fruit trees on the mountain have passed their flowering period, and the branches are laden with perfectly shaped fruits. It seems like they finally found a home for these too bountiful fruits.

"Feeding pigs with fruit?" Fang Hao's eyes widened. Glancing at He Zizhong, his delicate facial features twisted a few times. "Senior, did you already feed them?"

He Zizhong nodded: "I moved two baskets up." After speaking, he reached out and touched his hair, "Don't worry, more has grown in the back mountain. We should be able to harvest it today or tomorrow."

"OK! I will make cider, wine, and cider vinegar!"

So, Fang Hao was complaining that he disrupted his plan?

He Zizhong's laugh in a low voice, the sound deep with a masculine sensuality, made Fang Hao blush instantly.

He leaned close to his face and kissed lightly: "Do whatever you want, and experiment with the contents."

Fang Hao agreed in a small voice. The heat on his face did not go away, and he felt that he was a bit childish just now... Wasn't senior just feeding pigs with fruit? Those pigs will finally return to their stomachs anyway!

There were actually quite a bit of things they picked up on the highway. Something could almost be found in every car among those scattered and stuck on the road. There were things to eat, drink, use, and in worst case, they could extract some oil.

The premise was - they had to spend their merry time searching.

He Zizhong drove the car, avoiding various obstacles along the way. They arrived at the destination of their trip at about 10:30 - the survivor base located in the northwest of the suburb of city A.

However, when they arrived, he couldn't help freeze for a moment. What about the army? Where's the fence? Guns, tanks, cannons, heavy weapons, wire fences??⁷Couldn't find translations for most weaponry/things listed, so I just replaced it with a couple of them

"Senior?" Fang Hao looked curiously at the very empty residential complex outside. "This looks like a new complex? It seems that there are not even residents here. Why don't we just rest here and leave?"

Only then did He Zizhong wake up, nodding as he drove inward.

Yes, it seemed that they arrived too early this time. The troops and the people who escaped from the city haven't evacuated here yet...

He Zizhong’s estimate was somewhat off. Although the troops reacted quickly when the end of the world happened, they could not immediately rescue everyone. On the other hand, the place they originally planned on retreating to was not typically known by normal people. It was a militarized camp in the north of city A based on a certain unit of the former garrison in city A.

The facilities and garrison troops there were the top priorities of city A. Once danger arose, it was natural to evacuate there first.

But the apocalypse started too suddenly. Not only did half of the population immediately die from the virus, but even more frightening was that even other creatures were also infected to varying degrees. The horror of the zombie animals was more terrifying at the beginning, and nowhere comparable to those stiff human zombies.

Although the security and infrastructure of a certain base they planned to evacuate to was definitely second to none in the country, it was built on the side of a mountain!

The garrison troops discovered the existence of zombies on the first day of the last days. It was not until the third day that it was confirmed that it was not an exception. And because it was impossible to determine how many zombies existed in the mountains, in order to avoid greater casualties, they decided to switch targets. And they evacuated to the new city district where He Zizhong and the others arrived, protected by a 几-shaped river.⁸that's the original descriptor.

As the two drove around the neighborhood, and He Zizhong resolutely headed towards the villa area. Choosing the villa area was not because he had any special hopes for living in a villa. After all, he already had the space - even if he only lived in a three-to-five-square-meter hut.

But later on, the area would be controlled by the military. It was better to choose an empty house without an owner now.

In his previous life, such a situation often happened: people who went out to do a task went through hardships and finally returned home, only to find that their house occupied.

Even more aggrieving was when their materials were robbed, wife ran away with others, children were sold, parents were killed, or finally the top one—the house was robbed by other people.

Therefore, to live securely, the best option was to simply wait for the troops to arrive and live in a house uniformly allocated by the troops. As long as they paid enough rent, they could guarantee that the house would not change ownership during the lease term. But the safety of the contents and items inside, no one could guarantee.

Another way to ensure house safety was to find a house with the highest safety factor.

The community where they were now was a newly planned residential area in city A. It was  relatively close to the urban center but still some distance away.

The community could be regarded as a new plan for an old residential area. The earlier phases of the community have been built, and all kinds of facilities were complete. For various reasons, most of the middle and high-rise houses in the surrounding communities had owners, but there were not many families with the heads of the household living here.

And the villa area was just built not long ago. Except for some houses which were newly sold, most of the villas were still unowned.

As a new villa area that advocated the trinity of safety, comfort, and functionality, fingerprint locks, tempered glass, password anti-theft locks and other security measures were all adopted. There was still electricity in the community even today. If they were lucky enough and moved fast enough, they could have a relatively safe temporary base.

He Zizhong remembered that when he was at the base of city A, he had heard that two gangs fought in the villa area. The doors and windows of the villas easily withstood ability users fighting with their abilities. Of course, at that time, the strength of ability users was relatively poor.

They drove directly to the monitoring room of the villa area. There was no security guard in the community. The villa area was not as scary as the high-rise area encountered on the road because there was almost no traces of zombies. When the apocalypse broke out, there were likely not many people living here yet.

The two snuck into the monitoring room carefully. He Zizhong quickly searched the situation of the villa and found that, sure enough, at least half of the houses in the villa area had no owners!

Choosing a house they saw when driving, changing and adding their information, binding his and Fang Hao's fingerprints to the door lock, taking the key and modifying the password, locking in the information, and then removing the community surveillance video. There was a long sigh of relief after it was all done.

Finally, they took the water and electricity card for the house. "Let's go, the house is done."

Fang Hao's eyes were bright, full of admiration. "Senior, you are amazing!"

He Zizhong coughed uncomfortably and stood up: "Let's go." He had previously handed over a more sophisticated warehouse with the company's boss, and the process was similar.

The two drove to the model house that they were optimistic about before. The location was relatively close to the gate of the community. It was easy to enter and exit, and it was completely renovated. There was no need for two to clean up, and it will not make latecomers suspicious. Two adult men, that didn't come with the army, living in a rough house after the end of the world. Even if he was the head of the household, others will inevitably be suspicious.

The car was parked directly in the garage, and the two began to inspect the rooms in the villa.

It was a three-story building. The basement is divided into storage, wine room, and game room. The living room, kitchen, and gym were on the first floor. The second floor had the bedrooms, lounge, and study. Finally, the third floor was the most beautiful. There was a terrace, wooden floor, and flower bed and the flower bed decorated with vegetation, and even a rooftop swimming pool!

Before they entered the villa, they did not realize there was a swimming pool on the third floor. Fortunately, the door to the second floor from the third floor also needed a safety lock to open, otherwise He Zizhong would probably go back immediately and pick a safer house to live in.

Fang Hao pursed his mouth and snickered. When He Zizhong saw the turquoise water on the transparent glass ceiling from the second floor lounge, the distorted expression he had was really unforgettable! He really wanted to take a photo for posterity.

After they finished exploring the villa, they locked the doors and windows, went to the bedroom, pulled the curtains, and then entered the space.

He returned to the space and looked at everything familiar and warm around him. He Zizhong breathed a sigh of relief. He stretched out his hand to squeeze Fang Hao's smirking face, and rubbed his dimples with nostalgia twice with his thumb: "Today, let's take a good rest in the space. Tomorrow, we can check the situation nearby."

Fang Hao nodded: "Senior, go take a bath first, I'll go to the basement to see." He thought that He Zizhong chose to stay here temporarily because the number of zombies in the community was relatively small, and the security might be greater in the future.

After a few days of not taking a good rest, thinking of the waterfall bathroom in the space, He Zizhong really wanted to go in and enjoy the hot spring-like treatment. As for the overwhelming villa outside? Forget it, out of sight, out of mind.

When he got out, he found someone plunged into the kitchen again...

"Why are you cooking again?" Seeing Fang Hao so busy, although he was happy that he is willing to cook for him and take care of their nutrition and health, He Zizhong was afraid of him getting tired.

Fang Hao was making small wontons, and said without raising his head: "I'm making some wontons. I just went down and saw a lot of small dried shrimps and seaweed."

Of course there was a lot - they 'bought' these things from the supermarket in bundles of dozens of catties.⁹As in several dozen pounds

He sighed lightly, walked behind him, wrapped his waist from behind, and placed his chin on his shoulder: "After doing this, go take a bath. I can cook the wontons." Other things He Zizhong might not be able to do, but cooking dumplings, cooking wontons were no problem - he learned from cooking quick-frozen food.

Fang Hao's ears reddened quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye as he nodded slightly, his movements of wrapping wontons speeding up.

Fang Hao went to the bathroom after using up all the skins he had made. He Zizhong took the wrapped wontons and the unused fillings and went to the basement, only to find that there were a lot of wrapped wontons neatly placed on the shelf, which should have been just made by Fang Hao when he took a shower.

He sighed again and smiled helplessly. This child¹⁰again, endearment was really overworking. Fortunately, he knew about his feelings for him in this life, and was willing to accept and want to spend the future with him. Otherwise, he would be too wronged...

Prepare things to boil water, prepare condiments for the bowl, process the dried shrimp skins, seaweed, and coriander, and wait until Fang Hao was done washing before cooking the wontons.

Fang Hao used the quick-frozen shrimp and cold pork that they collected and purchased before the end of the world, but the seasonings such as onion and ginger were produced in space. In addition, coriander was naturally produced in space.¹¹Coriander is generally added in the soup, not the filling. And here, it's referring to naturally grown in the space, not planted. Compared with ordinary wontons the taste was better by more than one level.

The two completely eliminated three bowls, and were still tempted to eat more. It’s just that they couldn't eat too much delicious food at once. The unforgettable curry rice was still in the warehouse below. They had to make room for their stomachs first, and planned eat more before going to bed.

"Go, walk around to digest."

The two full-fed people walked out of the small building hand in hand. The animals by the pool were wandering around inside the fenced area full of energy.

Many vegetables in the fields were mature, and a large number of fruits had piled up on the branches in the back mountain.