Keke and the three high school students, having just eaten and drunk, were suddenly overcome by the exhaustion of ten grueling days, longing only to collapse and rest immediately. Several blankets lay within the convenience store, either leftovers from a move or deliberately left behind. Each of them wrapped themselves tightly, sprawling on the ground like bundled zongzi, drifting off into a contented hum of sleep.
****
Jing Lan and Cao Renshuang, father and son, found a task: attempting to pry open the handcuffs restraining Ling Yechen.
Ling Yechen, a child who had always been so well-behaved, never imagined a day when she would be shackled, much less paraded before so many onlookers. She was overwhelmed by a shame akin to being stripped bare.
Fortunately, the one now attempting to pick the handcuffs with a wire was an acquaintance, which made the situation somewhat more tolerable.
Though Jing Lan, unlike Keke, pursued the liberal arts, both siblings had possessed keen practical skills since childhood, making them intimately familiar with the inner workings of common machinery.
Yet, these plate-style handcuffs proved surprisingly stubborn. While plate cuffs were typically simple to pick, these, however, appeared to have been modified. A small metal pin had been inserted into the keyhole, making it nearly impossible to insert a wire, and any wire thin enough to fit would be too flimsy to depress the internal spring. It seemed only a specialized key—likely a tubular metal design whose hollow core could accommodate the obstructing pin—would work.
Unable to succeed instantly, Jing Lan grew increasingly anxious. His body gradually pitched forward, then abruptly lost his balance, sending him sprawling directly onto the white-haired girl.
“Oomph?!” Ling Yechen’s white hair practically stood on end with mortification.
The realization, however, came a beat too late. Had she still been a boy, such an incident would have been inconsequential, at most merely prompting a few jests about male intimacy, perhaps a quip like, ‘Even if I’m irresistible, buddy, there’s no need to be quite so eager, is there?’
But upon glimpsing her own slender, pristine hands, now ensnared by gleaming silver handcuffs, and recalling how her body, bound in such a manner, bore a striking resemblance to scenes from S&M manga, she was instantly consumed by a mortification so profound she wished to melt into the floor.
Observing the girl’s intense shyness, Jing Lan, overcome with embarrassment, scrambled to his feet, bowing deeply as he apologized.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
Xia Lang, meticulously tending to his guitar nearby, swung his head around, a look of utter bewilderment marring his face.
“Bro, what’s going on? You just met this girl, how could you possibly…”
The pair swiftly clarified that it was merely a loss of balance while attempting to pick the handcuffs. Only then did Xia Lang exhale a profound sigh of relief.
“I knew it. How long has it been since you had a girlfriend? You can’t just grab a random passerby like that. If you start approaching pretty female zombies, you’ll be finished! One passionate, red kiss from them would send the virus dancing through your veins.”
“Sankarea isn’t bad, actually,” Cao Hongrui, Cao Renshuang’s son, interjected unexpectedly, leaving both men somewhat taken aback.
Cao Hongrui offered a slight smile and a nod, making his point without further elaboration.
“He’s not much of a talker,” Cao Renshuang chuckled sheepishly.
Xia Lang paused his ministrations, his gaze shifting to the white-haired girl.
“Even if it was an accident, she still wears such a pained expression. You really ought to apologize.”
“I already apologized,” Jing Lan said.
“It would be better to offer a more tangible gesture.”
“What kind of gesture?”
Both men turned their gazes simultaneously toward Ling Yechen.
“What gift do you want? Or how can I help you?” Jing Lan inquired. “Though our current circumstances severely limit what can be done, I’ll put in my best effort for anything within my power.”
The girl thought for a moment, pressing a finger to her lips.
“Protect me,” she whispered.
“Hm?”
Swallowing hard, she reiterated, “Protect me. I don’t want to die.”
Jing Lan leaned against the convenience store wall, a light chuckle escaping his lips.
“What are you talking about? Your skills far surpass mine. In the future, I’ll be the one needing your protection, not the other way around. This request…”
Jing Lan suddenly stopped speaking.
A peculiar sense of familiarity, almost eerie, seemed to waft through the air around him. It was the faint scent of a child: fragile, hollow, weary, yearning for a beautiful life yet suffocated by the pressures of high school.
‘I’m truly oversensitive. Why does everything remind me of Xiao Ye?’
Still, Ye Xuening did indeed know Ling Yechen. Wait a moment, could this be a disguise? After all, it was far too coincidental for Ling Yechen’s classmate to appear here.
Yet, upon further reflection, no other possibility presented itself. Coincidence remained the sole explanation. Moreover, verification would be simple. He could inquire about their school matters later.
“I will protect you.” Jing Lan straightened up from the wall, standing at attention. “Anyone who could be friends with Xiao Ye must be a truly good person. I failed to protect him, but I will strive to protect you.”
Ling Yechen gazed blankly at the familiar face of her friend. A sudden urge to reveal the truth to him welled within her. She yearned to console him: ‘Don’t be sad. I was simply too weak, and my body odor attracted the zombies, nearly putting you in danger. You are my best friend, and even if given another chance, I would still readily sacrifice my life to save you.’
Yet, as she considered opening her mouth at that very moment, Ling Yechen found herself assailed by a subtle, almost imperceptible, resistance.
Although Jing Lan, in his present kindness, was already mirroring his past demeanor toward her.
‘But he’s treating me like a girl now.’
A nascent emotion, akin to greed yet perhaps a touch purer, furtively began to surface within her.
‘No, I’m a boy. I clearly like—’
Ling Yechen looked at Keke sleeping soundly on the ground beside her.
A truly formidable older sister, her chest ample yet far from the exaggerated proportions depicted in manga, instead possessing a confident fullness that sculpted perfectly graceful feminine lines. She perfectly embodied the ideal type for an INFP boy like him. She was invariably courageous, decisive, capable of single-handedly upending any situation. The band had been her idea, and she possessed a myriad of other talents.
But…
‘But I can’t be her boyfriend anymore. Wait, didn’t she say she wouldn’t like any other boy besides her brother? So, what if she and I… were a yuri couple?’
Ling Yechen was abruptly reminded of a few days prior in Du Lan’s room, when Du Lan had touched her all over, her face twisted in an expression of revulsion…
Perhaps Du Lan’s expression hadn’t been quite so repulsive in that moment, for otherwise, she surely would have resisted immediately. However, Du Lan’s subsequent actions had been so utterly treacherous that her entire image, without question, had become irrevocably tainted and hideous in Ling Yechen’s mind.
Human memory, it seemed, was perpetually engaged in a process of recreation.
Recalling that past incident now, it was, naturally, doubly repulsive.
Her stomach abruptly cramped, and she nearly vomited right there.
Jing Lan jumped in alarm.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Ling Yechen then sighed, recounting to Jing Lan, Xia Lang, and the Cao father and son everything that had transpired in Du Lan’s room, along with the subsequent transformations.
“I told you Officer Niu was being presumptuous. You’re definitely a good kid!” Cao Renshuang boomed. “Tomorrow, I’ll have a good talk with him about your situation. Even though I can already guess he’ll say, ‘You believe whatever people tell you?’ it’s different! I can tell if a woman is lying; I saw through my wife’s infidelity at a glance! And then I cut ties immediately!”
“She just thought you were poor. She was probably thrilled to cut ties,” Cao Hongrui mumbled softly, causing Teacher Cao to choke on his words.
Jing Lan and Xia Lang, equally solicitous, moved closer to offer comfort, assuring her not to bear any psychological burden. Such scum deserved to be beaten, even killed; there was nothing to agonize over.
Jing Lan added that he was somewhat curious.
“Xuening, you clearly mastered such fierce combat techniques, and you use them without hesitation; your heart must be quite ruthless, right? Why are you still so indecisive afterward?”
Ling Yechen silently grumbled to herself.
‘Of course! This level of skill isn’t mine at all; it must be the lingering muscle memory within this white-haired loli body.’
As she once more recalled how that Du Lan had utterly betrayed her, Ling Yechen suddenly found herself harboring a profound reluctance to engage in intimacy with other girls.
Were she still a boy, the traditional family structures instilled by her parents, coupled with her innate attraction to females, might have allowed her to readily re-embrace intimacy with women.
The fundamental issue was that now, the possibility of male-female intimacy no longer existed for her. Any proximity to a girl instantly became yuri. And the moment ‘yuri’ entered her mind, she was haunted by Du Lan’s face, reminiscent of a feminized ‘Genshin Impact starter bro’.
Conversely, if she were to grow close to a boy, it would, ironically, align with the traditional notions of male-female pairing she had been taught since childhood.
‘Wait a moment, isn’t this wrong? This body holds a boy’s soul.’
Never mind. Such questions had no definitive answers. Regardless, everyone here was her friend.
At the very least, they could be good friends.
She would allow herself some time to gradually come to a decision.
Thus, Ling Yechen extended her hands—she had intended to offer a single hand for a handshake, but both, still bound by the cuffs, instinctively reached out.
“Mm, thank you. From now on, we’re friends.”
Both Jing Lan and Xia Lang stepped forward to shake her hands.
“I’ll watch your back, and don’t you forget to watch mine,” Jing Lan casually quoted a line from ‘Assassin’s Creed’.
Xia Lang offered a faint smile.
“Actually, I’m the one who needs your protection the most.”
Just as they spoke, footsteps drew near from beyond the room. Xia Lang, whose hearing was remarkably keen, instantly whipped his head around.
“Xiaoma?”
Entering the room was none other than Niu Xiaoma, Officer Niu’s son, a notably capable young man.
He held something in his hand, which he then extended toward them.