The days when I wanted to be a human being

"I'm not even thirty yet, stop calling me uncle."

"...Okay, okay, but you have to tell me your name, right? Could it be..." Zhou Ling slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jiang Qifeng, then said: "Do you like being called Junye?"

"..." Jiang Qifeng paused and said, "Jiang Qifeng, my name."

"You're not using a pseudonym, are you?" Zhou Ling asked, and the other party paused obviously.

"You are insulting me with this." Jiang Qifeng said solemnly, "It's time to say your name."

"Okay, okay, my name is... Zhou Ling." Zhou Ling thought that since he had undergone gender reassignment surgery, what's wrong with changing his name? No one would expose his fake name anyway.

"Childish." Jiang Qifeng thought that the other party deliberately imitated the pause he made when he reported his name just now.

……

The two looked at each other in silence until Jiang Yi came back with the kettle.

"Well, come on, Zhou Ling, what are you doing at the mass grave?"

"Didn't I tell you? I'm a beggar. I went there to see if there was anything good." Zhou Ling recalled the gossip that Daya had heard, and continued, "Recently, many people in the city have gone crazy, died suddenly, and were thrown into a mass grave."

Jiang Qifeng seemed to be very concerned about this news and asked, "Can you tell me more about it? Is there any more details?"

Daya's symptoms of madness gradually overlapped with the plots of the movies she had seen.

"A normal person will also go crazy very quickly if bitten by a madman. A madman is completely irrational and cannot communicate at all. In order to stop those madmen, two of the county constables were bitten and went crazy."

"Gu~" As he was speaking, Zhou Ling's stomach growled at an inopportune moment.

Jiang Qifeng smiled and took out a piece of cake from his waist and gave it to Zhou Ling.

"Fill your stomach first. We have to travel soon. I must get to Sanlin Pass as soon as possible."

Zhou Ling looked at the cake in his hand and whispered softly, "Can you untie this rope?"

"It's good to have something to eat. Eat it quickly and don't let me change my mind."

Seeing that he couldn't change Jiang Qifeng's decision, Zhou Ling stopped worrying about the rope and decided to fill his stomach first.

After Zhou Ling swallowed the last sip, Jiang Qifeng handed her the kettle.

"Continue after you finish drinking. They are almost ready. Time is urgent and we can't delay any longer."

"Is this water raw? Then I won't drink it." Zhou Ling suddenly remembered that the less than two sips of water he had just drunk might also be raw.

"Oh, don't worry, they're all boiled. We have experience and we won't drink raw water." Jiang Qifeng motioned Zhou Ling to look aside.

Two soldiers were blowing the boiling water to cool it down and putting it into a kettle.

"..." Zhou Ling didn't know whether the source of infection of the madness would be contaminated by the water source, and he didn't know whether it could be completely disinfected by boiling it.

I couldn't help but want to dig out the water I had drunk from my throat.

Jiang Qifeng pulled the rope that was still tied to her hands to stop her, and said thoughtfully: "Don't worry, we have tried it, drinking boiled water will not spread that kind of crazy disease."

"That's good." Zhou Ling rinsed her mouth, spit out the water, and continued to tell Jiang Qifeng the reason why she went to the mass grave.

"The county government beheaded all those infected with insanity, and then dumped the bodies into a mass grave." Zhou Ling shielded his eyes from the sun with his hands and looked at the mountains in the distance.

"Aren't you afraid of getting infected?"

"It was almost dark when I arrived at the mass grave yesterday. It looked eerie, so I decided to wait outside until the next day to take a look."

Jiang Qifeng noticed some loopholes in Zhou Ling's words. Just now he even had to be careful about whether he would be infected when drinking water, but now he said he wanted to touch the corpses that were infected with madness.

Jiang Qifeng shook his head and asked, "Then tell me about your skills."

"Uh..." Zhou Ling stared at Jiang Qifeng and said hesitantly, "I said that was the body's instinct, do you believe it?"

Jiang Qifeng looked at Zhou Ling, whose eyes were wide open. He blinked and moved his eyes away from that childish face. He said slowly, "I don't believe it."

"I knew it."

Jiang Qifeng didn't respond to her, but just looked at the people who were busy not far away and said:

"The madness actually started half a year ago, but it died down quickly. But half a month ago, it broke out again in the south."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ling lowered his brows and thought.

Jiang Qifeng continued, "Half a year ago, the madness would only cause people to die soon after being bitten. But this time, it has become a person-to-person transmission."

Zhou Ling thought that this was a zombie crisis, so her survival mission also had a goal.

Jiang Qifeng turned around and looked at Zhou Ling, and said in a deep voice: "What else do you know? I don't have much time. I must stop this plague. No one can pass through Sanlin Pass, which is the checkpoint connecting the north and the south."

"Are you aware that a person infected with madness does not feel pain? Only attacking the head can effectively stop it from biting people."

Jiang Qifeng's eyes widened slightly and then quickly returned to normal. He glanced at his men who were resting on the side, and then said to Zhou Ling seriously, "I don't care where your information came from, or whether it's true or not. If you have any other information, you must tell me."

Zhou Ling listened, looked at the sun above his head, stretched his tied hands, and then looked at Jiang Qiyi without saying a word.

Jiang Qifeng looked at her, understood what she meant, and untied the rope, "I'm sorry, I was in a hurry before, and I was worried that you might be infected by going to the mass grave, so I tied you up."

"Hey, it's okay, I understand..." Zhou Ling rubbed his wrist which was a little uncomfortable, and said in a deep voice: "But I don't accept your apology."

Zhou Ling stood up. The people who were chatting happily over there looked over. Their eyes were so sharp, as if they would pounce on her if she dared to make any rash moves. She hurriedly said, "It's okay, it's okay. You've been sitting for a long time. Stand up and move. You guys continue."

After saying that, he sat down again and wiped the cold sweat that had just appeared on his head.

"laugh!"

Jiang Qifeng was amused by her inconsistent words and actions, but he regained his calm expression before Zhou Ling looked over.

"Tell me everything you know, and I'll let you go when we get to the next city."

Zhou Ling looked at this group of well-trained people and guessed that their identities might be extraordinary. Moreover, they waited until the water was about to boil before drinking it. It was probably only the military who had such survival skills in the wild.

Her knowledge of the situation in this world only came from Lin Daya's memory. If it was really confirmed to be a zombie crisis, the difficulty of survival for a person would be greatly increased, and she had to find a reason to follow them.

"I don't know much, but why are you willing to let me go now?" Zhou Ling said casually.

"I wanted to catch you before because I was worried that you might get infected with the disease and run away. It would be troublesome if you infected more people." Jiang Qifeng took out some dry food, chewed it twice, and continued:

"After such a long time, you are still talking here peacefully, which means my worry is unnecessary."

"Oh, then I have to thank you." Zhou Ling said sarcastically, "Do you know how much my stomach hurts from the bumpy ride just now?"