Chapter 10: Setting Off for the Farm!

Tang Miao stroked the cub’s head and tried to speak again, but she used too much force, causing a patch of grayish-blue tongue to fall out. Tang Miao’s mouth twitched; it turned out the tongue was stiff and immobile.

"Roar." (Stupid.)

"Hey, don't blame yourself."

Tang Miao weighed a tomato in her hand. Could it be that the limited nutrition provided by a single crop was insufficient for the zombies? Just as humans cannot survive on vegetables alone, or meat alone, they also require a certain intake of fruit. They need enough carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals; even interstellar nutrient solutions came in various categories. Once Tang Miao found a farm, she would try planting a wider variety of vegetables.

She picked up the tongue, grabbed Jiang Nanxing’s chin, narrowed her eyes, shoved the tongue back into his mouth, and used her psychic power to reattach it. Jiang Nanxing tilted his head obediently, his pure gray eyes fixed motionless on her face. He smelled foul, a faint odor of rotting flesh mingled with the acrid scent of chemical reagents.

The map showed an ornamental lake nearby. Tang Miao left the cub behind to watch over Zhang Xinrou and took Jiang Nanxing with her. Perhaps because he had been starved for over ten days before becoming a zombie, Jiang Nanxing was as thin as a bamboo pole. Once his school uniform was off, his spine protruded vertebrae by vertebrae, and his lean back was covered in bluish-purple patches—some strip-like, others small and circular.

Jiang Nanxing knew Tang Miao was taking him to bathe, and he didn't want to be a burden. He reached out voluntarily, and with a rip, his school uniform pants tore away, leaving him standing naked before her. Tang Miao was stunned; before she could even begin to teach him about decency and shame, Jiang Nanxing plopped into the river and slowly sank to the bottom. The entire sequence of actions was fluid and effortless.

Never mind, she thought; Jiang Nanxing was already dead, so there was no need to worry about him drowning. At worst, he would just become waterlogged. Tang Miao squatted down and patted the water. A few seconds later, Jiang Nanxing poked his head out, his wet hair plastered against his forehead.

Tang Miao squeezed a bit of shampoo onto his head and taught him how to scrub. She wanted to see if his scalp would fall off like the cub’s did when scrubbed. Jiang Nanxing mimicked her movements, covered his head in bubbles, and then submerged himself to rinse off. His scalp didn't come off, and neither did his hair—he lived up to being the cub’s brother!

Given that Jiang Nanxing was 163cm tall and weighed 39kg, and had consumed 18kg of tomatoes to establish communication and complete his first stage of evolution, the ratio of weight to tomato consumption was roughly 2:1. Tang Miao stroked her chin. Would zombies like Jiang Nanxing and the cub continue to grow in height and weight? If so, would their appetites continue to increase? Was this the case for other zombies as well?

Thinking of the hungry crowd in the back of the truck, Tang Miao’s expression fell. If this was true, she feared that one day she might die on the road while trying to grow tomatoes.

The unpolluted water of the lake rippled with a splashing sound. Jiang Nanxing was finished washing and prepared to get out. But he had no clothes to wear. Tang Miao had only remembered to gather clothes for the cub and hadn't even packed a change of clothes for herself or Zhang Xinrou. The school uniform he had taken off was too dirty and stained with blood to be cleanable. Helpless, Tang Miao dug out a slightly oversized child’s jacket; it would serve as a makeshift hip wrap.

"Roar." (I'll put it on myself.)

Tang Miao waited patiently, but Jiang Nanxing’s stiff fingers couldn't manage the buttons. "Turn around, let me do it. Don't go breaking your fingers again." After wrapping his hips, she tied the two sleeves in a knot around his waist. She took the opportunity to teach him some basic etiquette—at the very least, he couldn't just strip naked in front of others like before.

Once he was dressed, Tang Miao took him to guard the zombies in the back of the truck, telling him not to howl when he was hungry. She returned to the driver’s seat to lie down, but the cub asked to get out of the car. It couldn't sleep—zombies didn't need sleep—and it wanted to guard its mother and auntie alongside its brother.

The next day, the ink-black sky faded into a pale cyan, like ink spreading on rice paper, gradually staining the horizon with a hazy, pearlescent white. Tang Miao washed her face and brushed her teeth by the lake. The cub saw her, ran over with a pitter-patter, used its finger as a toothbrush, and scrubbed its mouth just like her.

"Good job, Cub!"

It would have been better if it hadn't scrubbed away its few remaining teeth. After fixing its teeth, Tang Miao carried the cub back to the passenger seat.

"What are you writing?"

Zhang Xinrou was holding a pen, scribbling in a small notebook. She answered nonchalantly, "A diary. Today is July 27, 2025, 6:10 AM, Sunday. The 18th day since the apocalypse began."

Tang Miao leaned over to look. "You're keeping such detailed records?"

Zhang Xinrou nodded, her eyes fixed on the words in the notebook. "I have a feeling the apocalypse won't be this simple. Maybe one day, the world won't be able to distinguish between day and night anymore."

Orange-red rays of light filled half the sky, and the clouds were edged with brilliant gold. The morning breeze blew past, carrying the dampness of the lake and the fresh scent of grass and trees.

Zhang Xinrou took a deep breath and continued, "I’m afraid of forgetting the time, and I’m afraid of being forgotten by time."

That was why she had to remember, and why she had to find a way to get electricity. She couldn't judge the time accurately by sunlight alone; she had to ensure at least one mobile phone remained operational. The stock of phones in the truck would eventually run out of power.

Afraid of forgetting time, and afraid of being forgotten by time. Tang Miao pondered this statement repeatedly, but it was too difficult; she couldn't quite grasp it.

"By the way, Tang Miao, let's go stock up on some clothes for ourselves later." Zhang Xinrou had almost jumped out of her skin when she woke up that morning and saw Jiang Nanxing in his makeshift hip wrap; it was truly indecent. Seeing him had reminded her that neither she nor Tang Miao had any spare clothes.

"Sure. While you're at it, help me keep track of the days, too. Keep a 30-day countdown—no, wait, there should be 29 days left now."

Zhang Xinrou’s pen tip paused. She couldn't help but imagine what would happen after 29 days.

"Roar."
"Roar."

The sound of low, overlapping zombie growls echoed from the truck bed. Tang Miao stopped talking to Zhang Xinrou; she remembered that the whole truckload of zombies hadn't had breakfast yet. She walked to the back of the truck, sat on the ground, and scattered a handful of tomato seeds to get to work.

Jiang Nanxing pointed at the zombies in the truck. "Roar." (They won't listen.)

There were a few zombies that simply refused to follow his commands and kept howling. "It's alright, they aren't very smart yet. Once we reach our destination and I can grow something else for you to eat, that tongue of yours should be fine."

With everything packed, they prepared to set off. Letting Jiang Nanxing stand squeezed in with the zombies in the truck bed was absolutely out of the question—how could her cub’s brother suffer such an indignity?

And so... Jiang Nanxing sat on the roof of the truck, riding against the wind. He curled his legs up to hold his body, ensuring his feet didn't dangle down and obstruct Tang Miao’s view.