At 2 a.m., Sister Jing's vigil ended.
The night watch was divided into two shifts. Sister Jing took the first half of the night, and I took the second half.
After being woken up by Sister Jing, I was a little dazed, but I knew I had to keep watch. I glanced at the time and realized it was already 2:30, so Sister Jing must have kept watch for an extra half hour.
"Jing-jie, you should go to sleep now, I'm going out."
Jingjie didn't refuse. She yawned, lay down on the mat on the ground, and fell asleep in no time.
I was drowsy and yawning constantly, feeling incredibly uncomfortable; I could barely keep my eyes open. I grabbed a cigarette and lighter from the side, took one out, went outside, and lit it.
The night breeze dispersed the smoke I exhaled and also woke me from my drowsy state. Feeling the light coming from the sky, I looked up and saw a huge moon hanging in the air, which felt very unreal.
I squinted and muttered, "Is today the fifteenth? This moon is a bit too round."
I took a drag of my cigarette, found a corner to sit down, and looked up at the moon.
Looking back on today... well, no, I should say yesterday's decision.
I found that I'm still not good at resisting.
"Sigh, the previous decision was indeed a bit hasty, but it's too late to go back now."
"I think if it were Pu Weichao, he would probably have avoided this situation from the beginning. And if it had happened, he would probably have had a good way to resolve it."
"But it's no use talking about this now. It's good to leave Jiajiang. At least we don't have to fight wits and schemes with Su Mu anymore. And now it's clear that Xiaoya and Zhou Qingya are no longer in Jiajiang City. If they were in Jiajiang City, they would definitely know about all the things that have happened there recently, and they would definitely come back to the school to find us. But they haven't shown up, so they're probably really not in Jiajiang anymore."
As for where those two people will go, who knows!
Speaking of which, besides those two, there are also Pu Weichao and Ke Jiamin, whose fates are now unknown.
"Well, it all depends on fate. It would be best if we could meet, but there's nothing we can do if we can't."
After finishing my cigarette, I threw the butt far away and sat alone in a corner, feeling a little lonely.
I took my phone out of my pocket, turned on the screen, and saw that it still had 50% battery left, which should last a long time now.
Since there's no internet access now, and I don't use it often, it consumes very little power. Most of the time, it's off, so the power consumption is even lower.
A single full charge can last a long time.
Open the Photos app, tap the album with the words "Linshan" on it, and photos will appear on your phone screen one by one.
Clicking on one of the photos revealed a picture of me and Wu Shuang; she looked pale in the photo.
I flipped through the photos one by one, and many of them were pictures of me and Wu Shuang together. Looking at Wu Shuang's face in the photos, I felt empty inside.
She's been gone for more than half a year, and I've long since moved past that period of grief. Now, when I see her photos, besides feeling empty inside, I feel mostly nostalgia.
I miss the days when we met in the hospital, I miss the days we spent together in the air-raid shelter, cuddling and taking care of each other, and I miss the inexplicable feelings between us.
The watch on my left wrist is still there; it was left to me by her, and I've always worn it.
Behind the photo are several group photos taken by Pu Weichao with a selfie stick. There were quite a few people there at the time, but now, only the three of us are left.
After closing this album, I opened other albums and looked at them. They were all old photos, some of Zhou Yang's and some of other people's.
Many wonderful memories from the past came flooding back to me with these photos…
The evening breeze was as cold as water, and I couldn't help but shiver as I felt the cold wind around me. So I turned around and went inside, took out a coat from my suitcase and put it on. Then I went outside and took out a cigarette and put it in my mouth.
However, just as I was about to light the fire, a roar came from across a building in front of me.
Hearing the roar, I looked up and stared into the darkness ahead, somewhat puzzled.
So I took out my flashlight and pulled out the machete from its sheath. The flashlight beam shone ahead, and in the alley between two houses, I saw a figure walking toward me. The roar was coming from that direction.
I carefully walked over with my machete and arrived at the alley entrance. The beam of my flashlight was focused on the alley, and I looked closely and saw the zombies inside.
The zombie in the alleyway seemed to have just died; its neck was a bloody mess, presumably bitten by a zombie. Its face looked very young, probably in its early twenties.
I glanced at the woman who had turned into a zombie, shook my head, and with one swift stroke, slashed her head. Her screams ceased instantly, and she died.
I took a closer look at the woman and noticed that she was wearing a thin coat, and there seemed to be something in the coat pocket.
I crouched down and took the thing out of her pocket. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was a cell phone.
I gave a wry smile. "I didn't expect her to keep her phone. I wonder if it still has battery."
I pressed the power button, and a moment later, the phone screen lit up, which surprised me.
"There's still electricity!"
I took my phone back to the corner, picked it up where it was, sat down on the ground, lit the cigarette I had in my mouth, took a couple of puffs, and the phone turned on.
The phone worked normally after being turned on, and I noticed that it still had 30% battery left.
I browsed through it casually, and nowadays, without the internet, a mobile phone can't make calls or browse the web; its only use is taking pictures.
I opened the Photos app on this phone, tapped on all the photos, and then listlessly looked through them one by one.
Many of the photos were selfies of the woman from earlier, along with some landscape photos and photos of zombies. Other people also appeared in the photos, but they were all unfamiliar faces.
I flipped through the images one by one. When I came across a screenshot, I initially skipped it, but something felt off, so I went back to take a look.
I discovered that the screenshot was a map, and the location on the map seemed to be the Yangtze River Delta region. Upon closer inspection, I found that the location shown on the map was in the suburbs of Mingzhu City.
Moreover, the name displayed by the red dot in the middle is also quite interesting.
"Mingzhu Biological Research Institute".
I read the place name aloud: Biological Research Institute? Why a Biological Research Institute? I wondered. Could it be that this woman, who had turned into a zombie, wanted to go to this Biological Research Institute?
(End of this chapter)
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