The two were forced into the vehicle, and the first thing that happened was a body search.

Their wrist communicators were removed and thrown out of the car, and the dark-skinned man ordered his men to search Song Qinglan, finding his military knife, knuckle dusters, and other items.

In his 26 years of life, this was the first time Song Qinglan had been so humiliatingly restrained, his hands tied behind his back, with a gun pointed at his head. To make matters worse, it was a situation he had put himself in by trying to help.

Next to him, Ji Yushi was also being searched.

He frowned slightly as he raised his arms, allowing one of the men to pat him down from head to toe. They took away his Diamond Bird, his pillbox, and even found a small black-and-white screen device about the size of half a palm.

The dark-skinned man asked suspiciously, “What’s this?”

Ji Yushi replied, “A game console.”

With a “snap,” the pile of items was thrown aside.

Ji Yushi glanced at the small game console, now broken into pieces with the battery rolling out. He averted his gaze, his eyes calm and emotionless, but somehow the dark-skinned man felt a slight discomfort—it was something unsettling about Ji Yushi’s stare.

Even Song Qinglan felt a bit sorry for the dark-skinned man.

“What are you looking at?! Who knows if there’s a tracker inside?” The dark-skinned man’s expression darkened further as he shoved Ji Yushi. “Tie this one up too! Throw him next to his boyfriend!”

Now, Ji Yushi’s hands were also bound, and he was pushed into the corner with Song Qinglan.

As the two found themselves in this predicament, Song Qinglan lowered his head slightly and whispered into Ji Yushi’s ear, “Consultant Ji, having fun?”

The deep male voice was close to his ear, his breath brushing against the outer ear.

Ji Yushi gave a slight, almost imperceptible shiver, turned his head to put some distance between them, and whispered back, “I’ll explain later.”

Song Qinglan, clearly gritting his teeth, asked, “Was that what you were referring to?”

Ji Yushi responded, “What do you mean?”

Song Qinglan: “…”

Ji Yushi’s well-shaped lips moved slightly as he murmured, “Captain Song, homophobia is a sign of being closeted. I’m helping you understand yourself.”

The men holding them captive didn’t seem very educated and struggled for a while to figure out how to set the space vehicle to high-speed mode, so the vehicle wasn’t moving very fast.

The dark-skinned man was highly cautious, and at one point, he suddenly shouted for the vehicle to stop: “They’re definitely going to chase us. Let’s block the road here and then take another route!”

Three men opened the rear door and jumped out.

Zombies began to chase after them, but two men stood guard while one activated the road closure button on the side of the road. Barriers rose from the ground, completely sealing off the road.

It was a barbed wire fence—just like the one they had crashed into when escaping the bookstore last time.

Song Qinglan turned back, and to his surprise, Ji Yushi was already looking at him.

Time seemed to roll over them again and again, the memory of death too vivid—the deafening crash as the vehicle overturned, the blood on shattered glass, and even the sight of Zhou Mingxuan’s limp head hanging still seemed to linger before his eyes.

This was an unexpected revelation.

“Bang!”

The car door was slammed shut, blocking their view.

The vehicle already contained some equipment and weapons from their team, along with the confiscated Diamond Bird and Shenmian, making for quite a haul.

These people didn’t seem to be from the same group, and they were now arguing over how to divide the spoils.

The woman with the child didn’t get a share or any respect—she was likely just a pawn.

The vehicle was stiflingly hot. The woman placed the little girl aside and removed her robe, revealing extremely pale skin. Suddenly, Ji Yushi asked, “How long has it been since you’ve seen the sun?”

The woman looked at the men, hesitating about whether to respond to Ji Yushi.

Ji Yushi added, “Was it since before the catastrophe?”

Song Qinglan didn’t understand why Ji Yushi was asking this, but he knew there must be a reason.

The woman finally nodded.

Ji Yushi naturally continued, “Was it since the launch of Golden Crow-2?”

“Yes,” the woman replied in a small, urgent voice. “Are you police from PU-30? I heard there’s no mutation there. Can you take me and my daughter with you?”

“No,” Ji Yushi replied, his hands still bound, but his tone was that of a high judge passing a sentence.

“I’ll find a way to help you!” The woman was on the verge of breaking down. “Please, just take my daughter! She hasn’t seen the sun since Golden Crow-2 launched; she won’t mutate!”

Song Qinglan interjected, “If you don’t leave, the Black Wall will swallow you.”

The woman was stunned. “What Black Wall?”

“Bang!”

A gunshot echoed in the vehicle, and someone was shot in the head, blood splattering against the wall.

Faced with such valuable resources like equipment and a space vehicle, the men couldn’t agree on how to divide the spoils and had turned to killing each other, cursing and shouting in chaos.

The woman turned back and screamed in horror.

The little girl, engrossed in her doll, seemed to remain in her own world, oblivious to the chaos.

Ji Yushi wasn’t surprised by the scene and quietly said, “It’s almost time.”

He seemed detached, observing the situation like an outsider.

The man who fired the shot had his gun taken from him. The body lay with its eyes wide open, but the men were indifferent.

The argument escalated into a brawl, and they began to fight inside the vehicle. Suddenly, the space vehicle swerved sharply, then stabilized.

Someone shouted, “Kill them all and take the vehicle!”

Everyone fell silent for a second, then rushed toward the pile of equipment in the vehicle!

Gunfire erupted.

The vehicle tilted violently as a stray bullet hit the control panel!

“Ah!!!” The woman screamed.

The out-of-control space vehicle sped forward with a load of desperate criminals. Song Qinglan rolled forward, his forehead pressed against the cold barrel of a gun.

He looked up to see the dark-skinned man, now fully revealing his vicious nature, holding his Shenmian weapon and pulling the trigger.

Song Qinglan smirked. “It requires a fingerprint, you idiot.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his hands, which had been tied behind his back, suddenly broke free. When he rolled forward, he had somehow managed to grab his military knife. His movements were so fast that Ji Yushi could barely see them—one moment he was on the ground, and the next, his long leg swept out, sending the dark-skinned man crashing to the floor.

Song Qinglan pounced, grabbing the man’s head and slamming it into the floor! The man screamed as his nose was smashed, blood spurting everywhere!

At the same time, Song Qinglan kicked his black boots, and the military knife spun through the air, sliding toward Ji Yushi.

“Kill him!”

“Stop the vehicle!!”

“Bang bang!”

Bullets hit the metal walls, sparks flying.

In the dim light, Song Qinglan moved like a phantom, using the walls of the vehicle for leverage. As he landed, there was a “crack” as he snapped another man’s neck!

“The vehicle is out of control!!”

Ji Yushi shouted. In the chaos, he saw Song Qinglan shoot down two more survivors and, upon hearing Ji Yushi’s warning, immediately reach for the manual control lever, but someone grabbed him from behind, choking him.

“Boom!!”

The vehicle made a deafening noise, and everyone inside was violently thrown around as it spun out of control.

The exterior of the vehicle scraped against walls, crashing through several before finally coming to a halt.

“Cough cough cough!!” Ji Yushi was thrown so hard that he tasted blood in his throat and couldn’t stop coughing.

The car windows were shattered, dust filled the cabin, and the vehicle’s steel frame was bent inward in a massive arc—everything fell silent.

The woman had been shot in the head, blood pooling on the floor, and bodies were scattered everywhere. The little girl lay face down, blood spreading beneath her.

Someone grabbed Ji Yushi’s ankle.

Ji Yushi looked down to see the dark-skinned man, his face covered in blood, still alive. In his other hand, he was slowly raising Ji Yushi’s Diamond Bird.

Ji Yushi still had the military knife in his hand.

“Hisss.”

A dead man stood up.

With another sound, the little girl, still holding her doll, also stood up.

Ji Yushi’s clear eyes fixed on the dark-skinned man as he calmly took back his gun from the man’s weakening grip.

Then—

He ruthlessly drove the military knife through the man’s hand, pinning it to the floor!

“Ahhhh!!!” The man screamed like a dying pig.

“Let’s go!” Song Qinglan shoved away the bricks weighing him down, covered in dust and blood, looking a mess. “Ji Yushi!”

The two jumped out of the space vehicle.

Zombies were converging on the space vehicle from all directions, drawn by the loud noise!

The two of them were like a lone boat in a stormy sea, struggling to stay afloat amidst the overwhelming surge of zombies. Gunfire continued relentlessly, their hands shaking from the recoil, and even Song Qinglan’s Shenmian couldn’t hold back the increasing number of pursuing zombies.

“Ugh!”

“Ughhh—”

The stench of rotting flesh and heat waves filled their noses, an indescribable odor.

Their communicators had been discarded, but the subcutaneous communicators still had access to the public channel.

As their teammates got within range, they began to hear broken transmissions in their earpieces: “Captain Song?! Hey? … Captain Song? Is that you?! I heard a loud noise nearby!”

It was Tang Qi.

“It’s us!” Song Qinglan shouted while firing, “We’re surrounded by a horde of zombies!”

Tang Qi: “… Locating your position! … We’re almost there!!”

The communication cut out again.

Not far away, Song Qinglan noticed a small green kiosk by the roadside that caught his attention: “Let’s take shelter in there for a moment!!”

The two of them fired as they sprinted forward.

“Bang!”

Song Qinglan kicked open the door, and Ji Yushi shot down the zombies behind them as they quickly slipped inside.

The kiosk was pitch black inside and barely a square meter in size—tiny and cramped.

Song Qinglan leaned against the iron door, breathing heavily, and after a few seconds, he let out a laugh: “Consultant Ji, next time, can you choose a different way to prove your point?”

Ji Yushi was facing him, and in the darkness, they couldn’t see each other’s expressions: “Prove what?”

The sound of the zombies’ growls was enough to make their hair stand on end, and the scratching and pounding against the steel walls was all too clear, making it easy to imagine the gruesome scene if the zombies managed to break through.

Surely, it couldn’t be to prove something about homophobia.

Song Qinglan replied, “To prove the theory you’re about to tell us.”

In the last cycle, they had passed through this area.

The blocked road, the damaged space vehicle, and the small zombie they encountered when they turned into an alley—all of these moments were eerily aligning with their current situation.

Song Qinglan hadn’t understood Ji Yushi’s intentions at first.

But when Ji Yushi subtly mentioned the movie Dawn of the Dead, Song Qinglan recalled the context in which they had previously discussed that film in the vehicle.

Most people wouldn’t be able to precisely match everything so accurately.

But Ji Yushi’s memory was so flawless that he even remembered the little zombie they had glimpsed on the road, along with the red-dressed doll it held, all stored vividly in his mind.

Ji Yushi’s cool voice said, “In fact—”

A thunderous crash interrupted him.

The kiosk was suddenly toppled by the horde!

The two of them were thrown to the ground, and Ji Yushi let out a muffled groan as Song Qinglan landed heavily on top of him, forcing the rest of his sentence out in a croak: “Cough cough—there’s no way to prove it differently.”

Suddenly.

A soft white light illuminated the inside of the kiosk.

Above them, a screen flickered with an animation and some text, but Song Qinglan’s body blocked the view as he was lying on top.

“Ughhh—”

The zombies continued to push against the long, narrow metal container.

The two people inside, pressed together, could feel the vibrations, their warm breaths close enough to feel.

In the dim light, Song Qinglan could see Ji Yushi very clearly. His eyes were calm and beautiful, his pale cheeks dusted with dirt, and his eyelashes were long and thick. Even though Ji Yushi was also a man, everything about him seemed different from the rough group of guys like them, down to the color of his lips.

The silence lasted for about four or five seconds. Ji Yushi’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as he turned his head a little, looking away. “Captain Song, are you really straight?”

Song Qinglan propped himself up on his elbows, replying with effort, “Consultant Ji, how are you planning to slander me now?”

It was as if Ji Yushi was certain Song Qinglan couldn’t argue back.

Ji Yushi said, “The way you were looking at me just now was like a creep in a bar staring at me.”

Song Qinglan almost laughed, snorting coldly. “We’re so close, just the two of us here. If I don’t look at you, should I just close my eyes and ignore you?”

Ji Yushi conceded, “Okay, you have a point.”

Feeling like he had gained the upper hand, Song Qinglan tried to push it further: “Someone like you goes to bars?”

Ji Yushi turned his head back, his eyes showing a sense of obviousness: “Gay bars, of course.”

Song Qinglan: “…”

Okay, fair enough.

“Ugh.”

“Ugh!”

The zombies continued to press against the unfortunate little kiosk. Amidst the trembling, both of them tacitly chose to stay silent. Making any noise in this situation would have been too awkward.

Suddenly, a short, cheerful jingle played from the screen behind them.

Then, a sweet female voice announced, “Thank you for choosing this product. Have fun~”

With a clatter, something fell from below the screen and landed beside them.

The shiny packaging had text printed in universal Chinese: [PU-31 Ultra-Realistic * Ultimate Pleasure, A Substitute for Your Other Half.]