“We need to get over this mountain before nightfall,” Wen Yuan said, putting away the map.
“If you start feeling too hot, let know imdiately. Watch out for hypothermia.”
“Move out.”
It was still morning. The daylight here was far more dazzling than on the plains—the snow on the slopes seed to glow, making everything look, at least on the surface, beautiful.
The joy of reunion was quickly blown away by the freezing wind. Every step forward took all the strength they had. Their internal organs seed to be dragged along by the heart’s lack of oxygen, bringing sharp pain throughout their bodies.
Along the way, Wu Heng also figured out why, among Liu Shen’s group, aside from the plant symbiotes, Wu Zhi and the Seer could still use their abilities. The Seer wasn’t actually an ability user—he belonged to the intuition type, relying on psychic power. As long as his consciousness remained, he wouldn’t be affected.
As for Wu Zhi, her ability was plunder. The geomagnetic suppression affected her plundering power, but the ice elent had already beco hers. So even though she could no longer use plunder, she could still wield ice.
Wu Zhi even suggested using her ability to transport everyone directly across, but both Old Lin and Jiang Xun rejected the idea. The climate of the snow mountain was ever-changing—let alone in this post-apocalyptic world. No one could guarantee what kind of harm sudden changes in air pressure would do to the human body if soone were transported from mid-mountain to the summit and then down again.
The safest approach was to proceed step by step—relying on their own feet, giving their bodies ti to adapt.
The closer they got to the end, the more Wu Heng paid attention to the people around him. He was already exhausted, but he couldn’t let them die right before reaching their destination. He had raised these people for so long—if they were going to die, they could at least work a few more days first.
The nearer they drew to the summit, the steeper the slope beca—sheer cliffs with almost no path forward. They could only rely on tools and each other’s bodies to climb.
The parrot and falcon had it much easier than humans, after all—they had wings.
The others weren’t so fortunate, including Yue Shanqing.
Liu Shen made a few people act as stepping stools for him, using them like sandbags to climb upward. Shaking his head, he said, “You told not to use my ability, so I didn’t. Vice-Captain Jiang, don’t I deserve so kind of comndation?”
At this mont, physical strength mattered more than anything, so no one paid him any attention. He let out a cold snort, braced his wrist, and was the first to pull himself up.
Snow and gale winds turned into blades, slashing diagonally across his face. From above, he looked down at the people below—compared to Wu Heng’s dangerously alluring aura, Liu Shen looked like a living vengeful ghost.
Nearby, Wu Zhi was pulling people up one by one, looking like a little snowman.
With his hands in his pockets, Liu Shen strolled over casually. Then, from behind her, he suddenly kicked her hard.
Dou Lu, below, widened her eyes and instantly turned to look at the snow-covered mountain that seed like a bottomless abyss. “Xiao Zhi!” she scread at the top of her lungs.
Wu Zhi tumbled hundreds of ters in an instant, her body smashing against the icy cliffside and sending snow flying everywhere. Just when everyone thought she would fall all the way back to the starting point, her figure flickered and vanished. In the next mont, she reappeared in front of Liu Shen. Before she had even steadied herself, a dagger had already swept across his neck.
Liu Shen stared straight into the young girl’s indifferent expression. “Little white dove, you’ve settled your accounts with your brothers—don’t forget mine.”
Without the slightest restraint, the man threw a punch at Wu Zhi’s abdon. She blocked it with both hands, but the force still shook her internal organs, sending pain through her body. She blinked once, and the snowflakes in front of her condensed into sharp needles, piercing straight through Liu Shen’s shoulder.
Yet Liu Shen seed completely unfazed. He grabbed Wu Zhi by the throat from above and slamd her down toward the ground. Cracks visibly spread across the surface beneath her.
“I’ll forgive you, just like your brothers did. You’re always being forgiven—because you’re always betraying. Little white dove, who are you planning to betray next?” Liu Shen sneered, then viciously threw the dazed Wu Zhi aside.
He openly took Wu Zhi’s place and said, “I can’t trust leaving you all to her. That girl is far too good at playing dirty.”
“Wow, could she possibly be worse than you?!” Lin ngzhi had just watched the two of them fight. He always sided with his own over what was right—and in his personal standards, being “his own” was what made soone right. So in his case, he was both siding with his own and siding with reason.
Liu Shen leaned forward and hauled two of Wen Yuan’s people up in one go, laughing loudly.
Aside from Lin ngzhi, almost everyone caught the implication behind Liu Shen’s words. He was practically telling them outright that Wu Zhi had first betrayed her own brothers, and then betrayed him as well—that she was untrustworthy and unreliable. Of course, he wasn’t saying this for those who already trusted Wu Zhi. But soone, inevitably, would take it to heart.
And that much was obvious—people like Wen Yuan and the others were deliberately keeping their distance from Wu Zhi. It wasn’t just because she had helped Liu Shen try to kill them not long ago, but also because among them was Yue Shanqing, who knew her original identity. Even after they had made it clear they were on Wu Heng’s side, Wu Zhi hadn’t shown any restraint.
Compared to soone like Liu Shen, Wu Zhi was, in so ways, even harder for them to trust.
Wu Zhi stood where she was as people passed by her one after another. When Dou Lu went past, she tugged at her and said, “Co on, babe, let’s go. I’ll deal with him for you later—just wait.”
But Dou Lu’s main concern was Ruan Silian. Her own strength was limited—she called out, gave Wu Zhi a quick pull, and then left.
Next ca Lin ngzhi. “I don’t have any candy to coax you right now.”
Wu Heng took two lollipops out of his pocket. He hadn’t coaxed Wu Zhi before, and he wasn’t about to start now.
Xie Chongyi appeared beside Wu Heng. His body had grown increasingly distant from that of an ordinary human, and he was barely affected by the altitude sickness. He bent slightly in front of Wu Zhi with a smile. “Don’t think too much. They’re just so friends who don’t like you very much.”
“You were parasitized by that bastard Liu Shen too—nothing you could do about it,” Lin ngzhi said with full understanding. After all, living on was better than dying. “Co on, hurry up—crouch down and give your brother a ride.”
“……”
Xie Chongyi also looked at Wu Heng and said with a smile, “Want to carry you?”
Wu Heng shook his head. “Thanks, but no need.”
…
After night fell, the gale howled violently. With just a mont’s carelessness, one could be blown into tumbling down the slope. It wasn’t just the people—even the greyhound had to be tied with a rope by Wu Heng to keep it from falling.
The dog couldn’t keep going, and one by one, people began to collapse as well. The wind and snow reduced visibility ahead to less than half a ter. Wu Heng went from leading one dog, to one dog and one person, then one dog and two people, three, four… until he simply couldn’t hold on to any more. The remaining people were handed over to Xie Chongyi.
“Boss, boss—I can’t go on anymore. Help …”
Soone behind grabbed onto Liu Shen’s clothes. Without even turning his head, Liu Shen kicked backward. “Don’t drag everyone down. If you can’t go on, then go die.”
The person’s body suddenly went light, like an ant blown away by the wind, sent flying outward.
Vine-like tendrils, thin as green snakes, swiftly slithered after him. With a quick turn, they wrapped around him and dragged him back. The man crashed heavily at Wu Heng’s feet, raising his head in a daze.
“Walk on your own,” a voice sounded above him—calm and flat, without any force of command, yet compelling obedience.
The storm finally subsided five hours later. They had reached the summit.
The snow-covered peak was unexpectedly flat and gentle—aside from being even colder.
After bringing everyone up, Wu Heng dropped to one knee. His head slowly lowered, and then his whole body collapsed forward. Cold… so cold.
He wasn’t a high-altitude plant, but his own level was already enough to withstand the side effects of the snow mountain. What truly drained his energy was the humans—the humans who would imdiately stop in their tracks and freeze to death here without him.
“Brother!” Wu Zhi set Lin ngzhi down and ran toward Wu Heng.
Soone reached him even faster. Xie Chongyi removed his fur coat and draped it over Wu Heng’s back from behind. Then he scooped Wu Heng up and threw him onto his back. Glancing at the group of “little snown” around them, the young man said:
“Let’s head down the mountain.”
Going down the mountain was much faster than climbing up, but they were practically tumbling and sliding all the way down the slope. It was risky, but it made them move quicker.
Wu Zhi cleared away all the deadly obstacles along the path, building ice bridges across countless fissures and even raising snow walls on both sides.
“Wu Zhi! I feel like my butt is on fire—it’s about to burn!”
“It won’t catch fire. There’s ice under you. And besides, I’ve got everything under control.”
Xie Chongyi wasn’t nearly as disheveled as the others. Carrying Wu Heng on his back, he left everyone far behind in less than five seconds, disappearing from their sight. A thin layer of frost had ford over most of his face. He had never told anyone—not even Wu Heng—that he no longer needed to breathe, and therefore no longer needed oxygen, water, or food.
No matter how much he restrained himself, what lay ahead was already like an abyss—but there wasn’t the slightest trace of fear on his face.
The wind from his rapid movent shredded the falling snowflakes around them into pieces. The young man was like a male snow leopard born for the high mountain ranges—free, proud, composed, and exhilarated.
He brought Wu Heng down first. At the foot of the mountain, the weather was almost warm—no wind, no rain. The sky was like a sheet of blue paper, streaked with patches of white paint. Clouds drifted slowly above an endless stretch of green plains, which seed to be covered in so kind of wild crop.
Xie Chongyi took off the padded coat from Wu Heng and laid it on the grass, then removed his own as well. After confirming that abilities could be used again, he quickly started a fire and used his ward hands to heat Wu Heng’s cold, damp body.
Only after Wu Heng’s body finally ward up did Xie Chongyi rember that there was still a bird inside his clothes.
X had fainted—either from being squeezed or from the cold.
Xie Chongyi used the coat to dry its feathers halfway, grabbed a large bundle of the wild plants, twisted them together, and tied X onto it. Then, like roasting a rabbit, he propped X over the fire to warm it.
It actually woke up faster than Wu Heng. The mont it opened its eyes, it was greeted by blazing flas. It shrieked in panic a few tis, then, upon seeing Xie Chongyi, realized who had done it—and imdiately started cursing, shouting, “Idiot! Idiot!”
“Now that you’re awake, roast yourself,” Xie Chongyi said as he untied it. The bird imdiately hopped far away, spent a long ti grooming its feathers with its beak, and only then hopped back, turning in circles to evenly dry itself by the fire.
After being roasted, X beca fluffy and soft, its body puffing up to nearly twice its size. Once it was dry, it hopped around the grass, then went over to Wu Heng, tugging at him with its beak and flipping him over to “roast” the other side.
Xie Chongyi sat nearby, watching it bustle about until it was panting. “He’s already warm. If you keep flipping him around like that, when he wakes up, he might dock your snacks.”
X froze with its beak wide open.
But it quickly reacted, dragging Wu Heng back to his original position, even carefully restoring all the little details of how he had been lying.
“Pointless busywork,” Xie Chongyi gave its entire operation a very low rating.
After tidying both itself and Wu Heng, X hopped to the patch of grass between them, used its claws to scratch out a little nest, and flopped onto its back with its feet in the air. By the ti Xie Chongyi lowered his head to look, it was already asleep.
About half an hour later, while Xie Chongyi was dozing, a series of rapid, heavy breaths could be heard. The tall grass—about half a person’s height—rustled as sothing approached quickly.
A dark silhouette was cast onto the grass under the bright sky.
Xie Chongyi narrowed his eyes and slowly looked up—Wen Yuan burst out from the grass, carrying Pu Fei on his shoulder.
“I saw the smoke, so I headed straight this way,” Wen Yuan said as he set Pu Fei down beside Wu Heng.
Xie Chongyi leaned forward, lazily placing a hand between the two of them. “Keep the wet and dry separate. Move your person farther away.”
“…” Wen Yuan simply picked Pu Fei back up, letting him lean against his chest, and began undoing his clothes in front of Xie Chongyi.
Xie Chongyi raised a hand to cover his eyes. “Impropriety should not be seen.”
The corner of Wen Yuan’s mouth twitched in resignation. He stripped off Pu Fei’s soaked clothes, tossed them aside, and wiped the moisture from his body.
Pu Fei’s facial features were soft and gentle. With his eyes closed, he gave off a mild and kind temperant—but the mont he opened his eyes and curled his lips, it was as if he beca a completely different person, strikingly alluring.
Wu Heng stared at him in a daze for quite a while.
It took Xie Chongyi a long ti to notice that Wu Heng had woken up at so point—and had been staring at Pu Fei the whole ti.
“Impropriety should not be seen—” Xie Chongyi moved over and turned his face back. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Why isn’t gege saying anything?”
With his cheeks being pinched, Wu Heng couldn’t even shake his head, let alone speak. The other party was clearly doing it on purpose.
Amid the playful scuffling, more people erged from the grass. Liu Shen showed up crouching low with his group. His eyes darted around before he said, “Mind if I join you?”
“……”
Seeing that no one paid him any attention, he ca out looking bored. He sat down first, and only then did his people dare to sit as well. Once they had all settled, he suddenly kicked the person beside him. “Go, gather so firewood.”
After his companion left, he chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in n. I only like won. Won are like cream. n… ugh.” He rubbed his arms as if disgusted, shuddering—but it lasted less than half a second before he dropped the act and replaced it with a look of appreciation. “But you guys are different. You don’t look like beasts driven only by desire. You’re… quite pleasing to the eye.”
Leaning back on his hands, Xie Chongyi looked at him with a smile. “Doesn’t forcing yourself to say that make you feel even more disgusted?”
Liu Shen licked his teeth. “No need to overthink it. It just shows my current attitude toward you. After all, if other n get all lovey-dovey in front of , I’d blow their heads off.”
“What did you do before?” Wen Yuan asked.
“Car repair.”
“Car repair?”
“Yeah, car repair. But before that, I was a race car driver.” Liu Shen straightened up and raised a hand. “Vroom—vroom—”
Before the sound had even faded from his mouth, a warm liquid suddenly splashed down from above. A shadow followed right after as the greyhound crashed heavily to the ground beside them.
“What the hell is this?!” Liu Shen wiped his face. “Dog slobber?”
One after another, everyone finally arrived. Liu Shen’s people went back and forth gathering large piles of firewood, feeding the flas until they burned brighter, so that everyone—cold and starving—could warm themselves. On the other side, Wen Yuan’s group took out pots from their backpacks and began cooking. It was hard to tell what the ingredients even were, and the thod was just like the first ti they t—completely unappetizing.
Lin ngzhi lay with his head on Wu Zhi’s lap. “Seriously, this is ridiculous. She carried halfway up the mountain before I realized our abilities had already recovered.”
After saying that, he propped himself up and looked at the pot of thick, muddy paste. “A’Heng, I’m not eating that.”
Wu Heng hadn’t fully recovered his strength yet. Leaning against Xie Chongyi’s shoulder, he said, “Just make do for today.”
Xie Chongyi found this “official” attitude of Wu Heng’s quite admirable.
Bad-tasting food often ca with one advantage—it was quick to prepare. In less than twenty minutes, everyone received a bowl of at-and-corn porridge. They had expected it to taste awful, probably hard to swallow—but perhaps because their bodies desperately needed energy, the first bite tasted unbelievably delicious. It was so good they almost swallowed their tongues along with it.
Wu Heng, however, still couldn’t appreciate it. He handed his portion to the person beside him and took out so jerky from his clothes.
Lin ngzhi saw it.
“What?!” Lin ngzhi shot up.
This ti, Xie Chongyi didn’t stop them, watching as the two got tangled together. Only when Lin ngzhi tried to snatch the food straight from Wu Heng’s mouth did he and Xue Shen almost simultaneously reach out to stop him.
Xue Shen quickly withdrew his hand, but Xie Chongyi didn’t miss it. He raised an eyebrow slightly at him—the aning was obvious.
“Wu Heng?” Yang Ao’s voice ca hesitantly.
Wu Heng patted Lin ngzhi on the shoulder, got up from the ground with bits of grass still stuck in his hair, his expression serious. “What is it?”
“Xiao Liang has a fever. Do you… do you have any dicine?” Yang Ao’s voice grew weaker as he spoke. He and his sister were different from the others—they didn’t have an equal exchange relationship with Wu Heng. They couldn’t really do anything for him, so even asking for sothing as simple as water made them feel lacking in confidence.
Wu Heng rummaged through his pocket for a while and pulled out a box of children’s fever dicine. “Rember to check the dosage. Adjust it according to her weight.”
In the post-apocalyptic world, dicine and doctors were even scarcer than food. As long as soone had abilities, food and water could be found almost anywhere. But dicine was diminishing day by day—unless soone knew how to make it themselves.
Liu Shen’s gaze toward Wu Heng lost so of the hidden contempt it once held. In many ways—strength, or even morality. Just because he himself lacked the latter didn’t an he didn’t wish he had it, nor that he couldn’t admire it in others.
“Thank you!” Yang Ao held the dicine like a treasure, overwheld with gratitude as he left.
Wu Heng took a few bites of jerky, then tossed the rest to Lin ngzhi. Standing up, he walked over to Yang Yu. “Co with .”
Yang Ao quickly pulled up the still-dazed Yang Yu and hurried after him.
They pushed into the dense, overgrown field. A zombie walked straight toward Yang Yu.
“Ah—mmph!” Terrified out of her wits, Yang Yu had her mouth quickly covered by Yang Ao.
Doctor Chen’s face ca close to Yang Yu’s in her fright—rotting flesh and exposed bone right before her eyes. “Show so respect for dical workers. Try not to judge people by their appearance, alright?”
“I’ll take a look at the child first.” He reached out toward Yang Liangliang. Yang Yu’s arms trembled as she held the child, cold sweat covering her face.
After a while, Doctor Chen withdrew his hand and stepped back, slipping both hands into the pockets of his white coat. “It’s just a common fever. So antipyretics will do. But she’s still in a state of oxygen deficiency, so she needs continued oxygen support. Children are different from adults—their brains haven’t fully developed yet, so the impact on them is greater.”
Yang Yu looked at Wu Heng with tearful eyes.
Wu Heng dismissed Doctor Chen, then put a half-mask on Yang Liangliang and supplied her with oxygen again.
Yang Yu, overwheld with gratitude, thanked him repeatedly. Through blurred, tear-filled eyes, she stamred, “That just now… that… that was…”
“He’s a zombie,” Wu Heng said, not missing the fear in her eyes. He felt slightly uncomfortable, though he understood. His tone was calm as he added, “But mainly, he’s a doctor. His na is Chen ng. You can call him Doctor Chen.”
———————————————————————————
Author’s Note:
Doctor Chen: Open a hospital for , the First People’s Hospital of Wu Heng City
>
**TN
Xue Shen, I knew it. XD
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