Chapter 3 I have a fever
Everyone was startled and didn't realize what was happening.
"Are you a dog?!" Jiang Ye cursed in terror, quickly releasing his grip on Bai Chenzhu and instead slamming his iron fist into the middle-aged man's forehead. The force was so great that one of the man's yellow teeth was knocked out and flew to the ground.
However, the middle-aged man seemed to feel no pain. After swaying and regaining his balance, with his forehead reddening, he lunged at the boss again. The boss dodged quickly, and he failed to catch him, but instead grabbed Bai Chenzhu, who had tripped over the tables and chairs.
Bai Chenzhu used the overturned table to get up, grabbed the man's wrist with his backhand and flung him away, while simultaneously kicking the man away over the chair.
Even so, his arm was still scratched raw. Bai Chenzhu's face was grim as he looked at the wound on his arm and then at the middle-aged man.
He knew that these were probably the first group of people to be infected.
While the four were staging a chase scene at the barbecue stand.
A reassuring siren blared, and a van with flashing red and blue lights sped up. The boss breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned and glanced at the other three. The experienced boss had already made a phone call.
All four of them ended up in jail.
The middle-aged man, who had been biting people indiscriminately, was suspected of having the latest type of rabies and was rushed to the hospital. The remaining three individuals, after mediation, paid compensation where necessary and apologized where appropriate.
No sooner had Bai Chenzhu stepped out the door than he heard Jiang Ye snort coldly.
Bai Chenzhu covered the wound on her arm that had been treated, turned her head and saw Jiang Ye's bruised and swollen face, guessing that her own face wasn't much better.
"Tsk." He touched the swollen spot on the corner of his mouth and frowned in dissatisfaction.
Jiang Ye had already taken off his coat, revealing a white tank top underneath. His smooth yet understated muscle lines screamed that he was not to be trifled with.
He tossed his dirty floral shirt over his shoulder and declared to Bai Chenzhu, "You're dead, Bai."
"Oh." Bai Chenzhu didn't take his words seriously, her gaze sliding over his bandaged arm before looking ahead.
The farce had to end eventually. Bai Chenzhu knew that this body had an incurable congenital heart disease, and whether it could even survive until the apocalypse was a question. Jiang Ye, as the favored protagonist, wouldn't die even if he was bitten; he was definitely different from him.
The thought only fueled his anger. Bai Chenzhu, expressionless, pressed the rusty-tasting lining of his mouth and stated, "We will never see each other again."
"Ha? Dream on." Jiang Ye sneered, the ruthlessness in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour the person in front of him, did not diminish in the slightest, but instead intensified.
He stared at Bai Chenzhu like a wolf eyeing its prey, determined to kill it. "No matter where you hide, I will dig you out."
Bai Chenzhu glanced at him listlessly. Exhausted, he had long since removed his social mask, revealing his inner coldness. He rolled up his sleeves, turned, and left.
The tall figure gradually disappeared into the darkness, without a sound.
Jiang Ye felt a tightness in his chest, an unbearable unease, and he didn't know how to relieve that discomfort.
Whether he was angry or not, he developed a high fever after returning home, and would just cover his head and sleep. His irritable and easily angered temperament made those around him afraid to touch him, and he slept for who knows how long.
pain.
The pain was like being dismembered, and his already violent temper became even more out of control. The room was ransacked, with furniture debris scattered all over the floor, leaving only the four walls relatively intact.
In the darkness, Jiang Ye tossed and turned, drenched in sweat. His heart pounded in his chest, his skin burned red and covered in sweat, and he gasped for breath.
As his heart pounded to a certain peak, he felt like a tiny grain of sand thrown to the top, suddenly plummeting into the bottomless darkness.
In the panic of falling, the unconscious person on the bed raised their hands and desperately tried to grab the air, but could not hold onto anything. The veins in their arms bulged, and painful groans echoed in the room.
Until one moment, he suddenly opened his eyes, sat up straight, clutched his neck and coughed violently, as if he wanted to cough up his heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys. He coughed until his throat was torn, his trachea was burning and itchy, and he couldn't stop panting.
In the quiet darkness, Jiang Ye, his eyes bloodshot, looked around the room with suspicion and uncertainty.
Time seemed to stand still. The person on the bed remained motionless, lifeless like a stone statue, with only a pair of dark eyes moving.
Jiang Ye suddenly turned around and lunged at the bedside table, his hands trembling as he picked up the phone from the bedside table. The light from the screen reflected his frantic appearance.
The time displayed on his phone confirmed his bold conjecture.
At the same time, a name popped up with a software notification.
Wang Xinxin: Jiang Ye, why are you ignoring me? Are you feeling better?
Who is this? Jiang Ye painstakingly rummaged through his distant memories to find Wang Xinxin, and after confirming that she was just an insignificant passerby, he put her out of his mind.
He wiped the sweat from his head, got out of bed barefoot, staggered, picked up a cigarette from the bedside table, and walked across the mess on the floor to the balcony.
On a brightly lit night, the bustling traffic below is colorful and vibrant, while upstairs, there is a rare tranquility.
Jiang Ye leaned against the cold railing, took a deep breath of fresh air, and felt utterly captivated, intoxicated, and nostalgic.
There were no zombie roars, no impending doom, and no comrades turning against each other.
It was like a beautiful dream before death.
With a crackling sound, a tiny flame illuminated Jiang Ye's calm face.
However, his hands were shaking, and the flame flickered but couldn't touch the cigarette butt.
Jiang Ye forced a bitter smile onto his pale lips. He tossed the lighter aside, the cigarette holder tasting bitter. He leaned against the carved railing, gazing greedily and longingly at the night view.
A gust of wind blew, and the body, covered in a fine layer of sweat, felt a chill.
Jiang Ye calmed down from his joy. He belatedly looked down at his phone, carefully checked the calendar, and recalled the past.
The screen's light reflected in Jiang Ye's gradually dimming eyes. Then, disappointed, he tossed his phone behind him and leaned against the railing.
Jiang Ye is now unsure whether he has gained memories of the future or whether the 'he' from ten years in the future has returned to the beginning of the apocalypse.
But one thing is certain—the darkness conceals all filth, and bloodshed has already occurred at the leadership levels of various countries; the spread of the virus is an inevitable trend.
At this point in time, there's nothing he can do to stop it.
There was nothing he could do. Jiang Ye felt a weariness and powerlessness welling up from the depths of his soul. He longed to return to the dust and disappear into the darkness, rather than experience the absurd calamity again.
It's boring, really boring. Jiang Ye's eyes and brows were full of weariness, and he looked listless.
The cigarette butt on the fingertip glowed faintly in mid-air, and wisps of white smoke rose and drifted into the unknown night.
The next day, Jiang Ye, still wearing a fever-reducing patch on his forehead, led a group of people to wait in the woods next to the teaching building, asking his younger brother to go and "invite" the person over.
The younger brother eagerly found Bai Chenzhu's class schedule and went to his class, only to find that this rare "model student" in university had skipped class.
The underling returned to the woods and told Jiang Ye that he had come up empty-handed, adding hesitantly, "Young Master Jiang, that was just a small fry, why would you go looking for him everywhere?"
Jiang Ye was wearing an even more flamboyant floral shirt today, the bright colors of which accentuated the sinister look in his eyes. He crushed the beer can in his hand with a bang. "A lackey?"
He glanced at the spilled beer on his hand, downed the beer in two gulps, and casually tossed it, hitting a trash can a few meters away.
Jiang Ye lazily pointed to the fever-reducing patch on his forehead, his voice tired and listless, "He was an accident."
An 'accident' that caused him to contract the virus prematurely.
An 'accident' that should never have happened in his life.
Everyone looked bewildered, not understanding what he meant. Jiang Ye didn't intend to explain. He narrowed his eyes and said, "Keep searching. Dig three feet into the ground and find them."
"I need to see him alive or dead. Even if he's dead," Jiang Ye said, his hands in his pockets as he gazed at the playground under the blazing sun. "I have to dig him out and see for myself what this thing is."
That night, Bai Chenzhu was so engrossed in rummaging through the original owner's belongings that he was unaware that the protagonist had his eye on him.
The original owner's home and the university she attended were in the same city, in an old neighborhood where every house had a balcony and the same type of protruding iron mesh windows, with bare cement walls exposed to the moonlight.
The first things Bai Chenzhu looked through were the medical records and the medicine box. He knew this body was sick, but he still wanted to live.
Thinking of this, Bai Chenzhu froze, his lips tightened, and finally, he sighed weakly.
Living is too hard.
Quick-acting nitroglycerin tablets, digoxin tablets, furosemide tablets… a whole bunch of heart medications. Holding several stacked medical records in his hand, Bai Chenzhu rubbed his aching nose and put the records down.
The latest diagnosis is not optimistic.
The second thing he looked for was the original owner's information. The original owner hadn't left him any memories; he even had to find his way back by following the delivery address on his phone.
Finally, he pulled out a thick diary from his bedside table. A pen with half the ink was tucked next to the diary, and the cover had four big characters: "Joy and Carefree".
Bai Chenzhu raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that the original owner of this body actually kept a diary. He turned over and sat against the corner between the bedside table and the bed.
The diary was so thick and heavy that he could only support himself by propping it up with his left leg.
Bai Chenzhu flipped through the first few pages. Each diary entry was very short, consisting of only a few sentences. Judging from the dates, it was probably written during high school, and it mainly recorded the original owner's boring student life.
One day, the original owner's father remarried and sent him to live with his maternal grandmother here, saying that he would provide living expenses until the original owner turned eighteen.
However, a few years later, the original owner's maternal grandmother passed away, leaving him alone in the house. His life consisted of studying and part-time jobs, which was monotonous and boring.
Bai Chenzhu paused slightly, a layer of irritation rising between his brows. He turned the thick page, the latest page reading: "Found a new job as a waiter, hope everything goes well."
Closing the diary, Bai Chenzhu stared blankly into the void, her fingertips tapping lightly on the cardboard surface like she was playing a piano.
The boy who lived with such clear-cut joy and anger in his diary, whether in the original work or in reality, seems to have disappeared from the world after that kick.
Perhaps due to the vibration, a photo about the size of a palm fell out of the diary; it was a Polaroid photo, which was popular at the time.
Bai Chenzhu picked up the photo and examined it repeatedly. The date watermark indicated it was from the last two months. In the photo, the thin original owner of the body stood awkwardly in front of a tourist attraction, carrying a shoulder bag and making a peace sign. A bewildered smile appeared on her youthful face.
Hmm? Bai Chenzhu paused, his gaze focusing on the original owner's left ear.
He... doesn't have pierced ears.
The photo confirmed Bai Chenzhu's conjecture about the night he traveled through time. With more and more mysteries surfacing, Bai Chenzhu couldn't figure it out for the time being, so he put the photo back in his diary and decided to put the matter aside for the time being.
I was initially worried about the original owner's interpersonal relationships, but now it seems that the original owner's life was so simple that it would be as if no one would notice if he disappeared.
Whether it was out of pity for that boy or something else, Bai Chenzhu picked up his phone almost unconsciously and found the number saved as his father.
The last message was from a few days ago: The money has been transferred to your account; this is your final living expenses. Now that you're grown up, you should earn your own living and not bother us anymore.
After all, she was using someone else's son's body. Bai Chenzhu thought for a moment and sent him a message, "The apocalypse is coming, try to stock up on as much food as possible."
The message cannot be sent, and it repeatedly prompts that the SMS sending failed.
This 'father' has probably blocked this body's phone number.
Bai Chenzhu tossed his phone aside, and a night breeze blew in through the iron mesh window of the old house, causing him to sneeze.
Remembering the fragility of this body, Bai Chenzhu swallowed a few cold pills in a hurry, washed up quickly, and prepared to go to bed to rest.
But when Bai Chenzhu changed into his pajamas, he tugged at the sleeves, which were noticeably a little too short, and wondered a bit. How strange! It's one thing for work clothes to be ill-fitting, but why are the original owner's everyday clothes also ill-fitting?
Wait a minute, a possibility suddenly flashed through Bai Chenzhu's mind.
He quickly rummaged through his closet for his usual clothes and tried them on in front of the mirror.
Sure enough, they were all a little shorter.
Is this body the original owner's or his? Bai Chenzhu harbored a secret hope: he needed to find an opportunity to go to the hospital for a checkup to confirm, since he didn't have heart disease.
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