The work partner’s name was Zhong Xianming. His life experience wasn’t complicated; he was born a rich second-generation.
The System had said: “Don’t worry, this colleague of yours is very good. Good background, good character, righteous and kind. Although your work environment is the apocalypse, your colleague is a very nice person.”
Could Yun Qingyue be fooled by such words?
Yun Qingyue had encountered this type of colleague before. They generally fell into two categories. One type, because their family was wealthy, hadn’t undergone proper socialization growing up, making them rather self-centered; even colleagues of equal rank were expected to serve them.
The other type was the exact opposite—extremely well-socialized, very adept socially. However, Yun Qingyue had suffered greatly because of this type of person before. If she hadn’t had an extra ounce of caution, she would have ended up in prison.
The adult version of opening a blind box was probably discovering a colleague’s attributes after starting the job.
But, that phrase “his benefactor dead and, on top of that” already made this colleague blind box vaguely reveal a nature lacking socialization.
The other party and Yun Qingyue were both university students in this city, but they attended different schools, fifty-three kilometers apart.
In the original plot, she joined a club that was going to do a promotional event at Zhong Xianming’s school. The event lasted three days, and the school gave three thousand in funding, which included accommodation. The event leader, wanting to pocket the difference, thought of his best high school buddy, Zhong Xianming, and remembered his family had a villa nearby. Given their relationship, staying two nights there definitely wouldn’t require payment.
When the promotional event ended, hail began to fall from the sky, crippling the entire city’s power system.
In the original plot, the blackout and heavy snow lasted two days. During these two days, people kept developing high fevers and falling into comas. Upon waking, they’d mutate, attacking the people around them—zombies.
On the second day, Zhong Xianming developed a high fever and went comatose. The others were terrified and naturally wanted to throw him out.
In the plot, Yun Qingyue would follow them out and save him.
But now, Yun Qingyue hadn’t participated in that activity, because she hadn’t joined the club at all. She had prepared to wait until the appointed time when the rich second generation would be thrown out due to his high fever. She could just pick him up directly.
So, two days in advance, she went to a rental agency and rented an RV. She loaded it with some daily necessities and also bought a mountain bike. Finally, as the sky darkened, she leisurely headed toward the campus where her colleague partner, Zhong Xianming, was located.
There were still two days left, but she decided to go early and stand guard to prevent any accidents.
On the other side, Yun Qingyue’s work partner, Zhong Xianming, was also driving.
His car was traveling along a deserted mountain road, winding and twisting. Every sharp turn made his heart pound, until he accelerated into the next curve, and his car slammed into something with a loud bang.
He had hit something.
His heart felt like it had been knocked out. His mind went blank, only hoping he had hit a wild boar or a deer…
He got out of the car. A person lay there. He approached; it was a man in black clothes, lying motionless on the ground.
Instantly, he snapped fully awake.
It was only then he remembered he had been drinking a little earlier. Feeling a bit unwell from the alcohol, he’d decided to come out here for some air.
He had been drinking. Drinking. His brain, at that moment, couldn’t process whether it was drunk driving or DUI… but it was just as severe.
If he got caught now, his life would be over.
He came from a wealthy family and was capable himself. He was supposed to take over the family business after graduation.
He looked at the ground and checked the man’s breathing. He wasn’t breathing.
Dead. He had killed someone with his car. His mind was completely blank.
No, absolutely not.
He still had a bright future ahead. He absolutely couldn’t let this one thing ruin his entire life.
He looked around. There were no cameras here. Right, this stretch of road had no cameras, no witnesses. And this man was out in the middle of nowhere late at night, wearing black clothes—he probably wasn’t a good person…
It couldn’t be blamed on him. It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t pay for someone else’s mistake with his entire life.
With trembling hands, he dragged up the body he had hit and killed. The man was taller and larger than him. It took tremendous effort to stuff the corpse into the trunk.
At that moment, he didn’t notice the wounds on the “corpse” rapidly healing.
And a fair amount of blood from the corpse got onto his hands.
He shut the trunk and got back into the driver’s seat, taking a moment to calm his emotions.
His mind kept showing him being judged: drunk driving, vehicular manslaughter…
No, no.
He had to figure out how to dispose of the body.
He got out of the car again. When he opened the trunk and saw the corpse inside, he hesitated again.
He didn’t dare dump it nearby. If thrown nearby, someone would definitely find it. Once discovered, the forensic examiner would certainly identify the wound as being caused by a car. Even if there were no cameras here, the police investigation would lead them to check monitored road sections. They would definitely find his car.
It would be impossible to erase his car’s traces in a short time. He’d be caught in an instant.
Just then, his phone rang.
It was the voice of his good brother from high school.
“Brother Ming, out having fun?”
“What is it?” He heard his own voice, hoarse.
“Brother Ming, we’re brothers, so I’ll skip the formalities. I need a favor. A few classmates and I are here at your school for a promotional event. The funding our school gave isn’t enough; so many of us have nowhere to stay…”
“If you have nowhere to stay, go find a place! Am I a hotel that you come looking for me?”
Zhong Xianming knew what the other wanted. But right now, all he had was an unventable fear and rage. The other party’s appearance gave him an outlet, and he directly yelled into the phone.
The person on the other end got angry too and said, “Then consider this me disturbing Brother Ming. I’ll go find a hotel!”
That side hung up.
After the call ended, only the sound of his breathing and the wind outside the car remained.
Zhong Xianming took a brief breath of relief. His mind recalled another matter: he’d seen news reports before about people putting bodies in refrigerators…
Kept frozen. Usually, it wasn’t discovered until the house was no longer rented or the power was out for too long and a foul smell leaked out.
He had his own place, and an ice chest. He could completely freeze the person inside. That house was his own. He could normally prepare a generator to avoid the issue of power outages.
That way, he wouldn’t be found out.
Having abruptly found a solution, his heart felt much lighter. He hurriedly drove off.
He drove back to his residential community.
Thankfully, his home was a villa. His parking spot was on the basement level. When he reached the basement, he remotely opened the rolling door of his own parking space and drove the car inside.
Once the door was closed, he hurriedly turned off the camera in his parking space. He got out of the car, went up to the first floor to empty the ice chest, then moved it down to the basement.
Finally, he froze the person inside.
He placed the ice chest in a corner of the basement before finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Surely no one had noticed along the way.
Two walls away, inside an RV, Yun Qingyue held a telescope in one hand and wrote in her work journal with the other. Across from her, a tablet was playing a zombie movie.
She was acclimatizing herself, desensitizing herself.
She planned to wait here for two days. Then, when those people threw Zhong Xianming out, she would pick him up.
She calculated that no problems should arise.
Yun Qingyue had come a little early precisely because she feared she wouldn’t make it in time once the apocalypse arrived.
If a problem did occur, the blame couldn’t be placed on her either.
The day of the hail quickly arrived. Hailstones the size of goose eggs hammered down. The power grid quickly failed. After the hail stopped, reports continued to surface of people turning into zombies.
Sitting in the RV, Yun Qingyue sighed.
The apocalypse was here.
At this very moment, Zhong Xianming realized this was a great opportunity!
He had been anxious after the power grid failed originally, because he needed the refrigerator to freeze the corpse. He didn’t have a generator at home now, and he feared the power wouldn’t come back on.
But very soon, he realized this was a good thing. The hail had smashed the surveillance cameras on the road, and the power system was paralyzed.
This was the perfect opportunity to dump the body.
Rather than keeping the body at home, it was better to throw it out.
He was so consumed by anxiety over killing the man that he only saw the hail, not the zombie situation online. He had no idea the apocalypse was about to begin. In his mind, life would quickly return to normal.
And when it did, he’d have a corpse frozen in his basement.
He felt this was his only chance.
So, he returned to the basement, dragged the person out of the ice chest, and put him in the trunk.
Soon, he opened the door to his parking space and drove out.
On the other side, Yun Qingyue had been paying close attention. Very soon, she saw the situation over here.
She’d been here for over a day, occasionally going around to the front of the villa’s first floor. But it was a villa, and the privacy was too well-done. She couldn’t see inside and didn’t know how things were progressing.
But she remembered the System had said the person would be thrown out from the basement, so she continued to keep watch at the basement.
Now, she had finally caught them. They were about to throw the person out.
But what came out wasn’t a person; it was a car.
This wasn’t right.
Why wasn’t the person being directly thrown out, but driven away instead?
Could it be because this time she wasn’t in the group, so the original “throwing him out” turned into “driving him out to dump him”?
That was also possible. Yun Qingyue quickly came up with a reasonable explanation. After all, malice could escalate unchecked without intervention.
In the original plot, maybe because she was present and pointed out that throwing someone out after staying at his villa was inappropriate, the malice had been somewhat contained.
Now, fear of the zombie virus had probably taken over, so they wanted to dump the potential zombie farther away.
Whatever the case, she followed them.