A Fake Holy Mother in the Zombie Apocalypse

A small, metal cart stopped in front of a hot pot restaurant. The zombies that had been chasing it were distracted by the engine of Lu Xingchi's SUV, turning their attention and joining the growing horde pursuing the larger vehicle.

"Is there someone in that little cart?" Du Ruo's curiosity was piqued. He tapped the back of Lu Xingchi's seat. "Should we stop and check?"

Lu Xingchi pulled over without a word. His expression was indifferent, but those familiar with him could tell he was annoyed. He'd been in a bad mood for several days. After Bei Nuan kissed him in the Shuida University library, she’d refused any further intimacy, avoiding him like the plague. Lu Xingchi had subtly engineered several opportunities to be alone with her, but hadn't even managed to touch her hand. He had been completely silent while driving and, even after getting out and silently dispatching the dozens of zombies trailing them with his crossbow, he asked, "What little cart?" Everyone else had seen it; he hadn't even noticed, lost in his thoughts.

Bei Nuan leaned out the window and pointed. They had driven past it already, so it was a little distance away. Lu Xingchi glanced in that direction, then came around to open Bei Nuan's door, extending his arm. The door was high; he wanted to help her down.

Bei Nuan immediately recoiled.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Lu Xingchi asked softly, not forcing the issue. "Can't I even hug you?"

Du Ruo and the others had already gotten out and were walking towards the cart.

Bei Nuan slipped under his arm and jumped lightly to the ground. "It wouldn't be right," she whispered.

Following her logic, Lu Xingchi calmly replied, "Then be my girlfriend."

Bei Nuan refused flatly. "I don't want to."

"Fine, I won't force you. But do you have to stay so far away? Can't I even hug or kiss you occasionally?" Lu Xingchi asked in a low voice.

"No," Bei Nuan answered smoothly. "It wouldn't be right."

"Then be my girlfriend."

"I don't want to."

Lu Xingchi was speechless. They were trapped in a loop.

After storing the SUV, Bei Nuan saw the small cart, taking advantage of the zombies' distraction, had quietly slipped into the hot pot restaurant. There were four or five steps at the entrance, and it somehow managed to get up them smoothly. It was quite remarkable.

The group stealthily followed the cart inside. The restaurant door was open, but there were no zombies inside. It was clean and tidy, probably not yet open for business when the outbreak occurred. Bei Nuan saw the small cart glide silently into the kitchen.

As she peered in that direction, Xiao San's voice suddenly echoed in her mind. "Bei Nuan, there's another…"

Bei Nuan cut him off. "Don't say 'another new mission.' Just tell me straight, are you going to mess with me again? Are you?" She still shuddered at the memory of the 'Saintly Light' mission, where she'd had to contrive ways to be praised for her kindness, feeling like a lunatic. The aftereffects were still lingering. Du Ruo kept finding opportunities to praise her, with such imaginative variety, that even after several days, he showed no signs of stopping.

Xiao San soothed his ruffled host. "Don't worry, this mission is actually quite good, and the penalty isn't too severe."

Not too severe?

Bei Nuan asked despairingly, "There's a penalty for failure, so it's another mandatory mission? Let me ask first, what's the penalty for not completing it?"

Xiao San's tone was light. "Just a halving of your space. But Bei Nuan, it would be a pity to shrink such a large space, so I suggest you complete the mission."

And that wasn't too severe?

Bei Nuan sighed and glanced at the new mission that appeared on the task list: Saintly Wish.

"Fulfill three wishes for each of three people, and you'll receive a generous Saintly Value reward," Xiao San coaxed. "You'll be a little fairy granting wishes. Isn't that cute? Isn't it like a fairy tale?"

Fairy Bei asked warily, "So, who are these three people?"

"They're randomly selected, and the time to complete the task is also random. We'll take them one by one," Xiao San said. "Let's draw the first one."

A roulette-like interface popped up and began to spin rapidly.

As it gradually slowed, Bei Nuan could see that it was filled with names. The wheel finally stopped slowly on one name.

"Fang—Chen?" Bei Nuan read the name, bewildered. "Who is this? I don't know him at all."

"Don't worry, the selection is random within a fifty-meter radius around you, so you can find him yourself."

Xiao San went silent. A mission countdown timer appeared simultaneously, showing roughly forty-eight hours. Forty-eight hours to fulfill three wishes for one person seemed quite generous.

Bei Nuan was about to call Xiao San back for hints about this "Fang Chen" when she saw movement from the small cart in the kitchen. Its top cover quietly opened, revealing a small hand. Then another.

A boy of about ten years old emerged from the cart. He looked thin and small, with bright, black eyes and a clever face. He seemed to have been cramped inside, stretching his limbs before pulling a plastic bag from his pocket and rummaging for food. The place seemed to have been searched already; there wasn't much left. He thought for a moment, then went to the wall, opened a refrigerator, and pulled out a chicken, hesitating over whether to put it in the bag. The power in Huicheng must have been out for a while; the chicken was not only completely thawed but had also changed color. It was definitely inedible.

Du Ruo couldn't help but call out, "Little boy?"

The boy jumped, startled, and looked over, noticing the group of adults who had appeared at the doorway. He was instantly wary.

"I'm telling you, I don't have anything, no money, no food. Look, even this chicken in my hand is spoiled! Would I be here if I had food?" His expression was filled with the fear of being robbed.

Lu Xingchi glanced at him and suddenly said indifferently, "You're not completely empty-handed. That little cart of yours is quite good."

The boy's face paled instantly.

Bei Nuan was a little speechless. Lu Xingchi, why are you scaring a child?

She squeezed past him. "Little brother, don't mind him. We don't want your cart. We have our own, much bigger than yours. We just saw you on the road and followed you to see what was going on." Bei Nuan's face was pure and beautiful, her voice sweet and gentle, not at all like a "bad guy." Even adults would unconsciously lower their guard around her; coaxing a child was more than easy.

The boy's expression softened considerably.

Du Ruo, seizing the opportunity, chimed in, "Bei Nuan, you're so kind and gentle!"

Bei Nuan was speechless.

She slowly took two steps closer to the boy, as if approaching a wary animal. "The chicken in your hand is spoiled; you can't eat it anymore. Do you want something to eat? I have some here."

Bei Nuan rummaged in her space and pulled out a package of Swiss roll cake. The transparent packaging revealed a soft, dense cake roll, layered with snow-white cream and translucent red berry jam. She slid the cake across the floor. In these times of scarcity, such a temptation was irresistible, even for adults.

The boy quickly bent down and picked up the cake, clutching it tightly. After a moment, he couldn't resist another glance down at it.

"Aren't you going to eat it? Eat it if you're hungry," Bei Nuan said.

"I'm afraid you… poisoned it," the boy hesitated.

Bei Nuan was speechless. "What good would it do us to poison you? Don't listen to that older brother talking nonsense. We really don't want to steal your cart."

Lu Xingchi suddenly spoke from behind her. "He's lying. He's planning to take the cake back for someone else."

Bei Nuan had always known Lu Xingchi could see through people, but he wasn't one to show off. Most of the time, he kept his observations to himself, at most offering a small smile. Today, in his bad mood, he was being unusually provocative.

The boy's face paled further, looking at Lu Xingchi with fear.

Bei Nuan immediately took out another Swiss roll from her space. "How many of you are there? I have more."

This time, the boy answered quickly, "My dad, my uncle, second uncle, third uncle, and my older brother. A lot of people."

"Another lie," Lu Xingchi's voice came from behind. "He has no male relatives left to protect him…" He paused, as if observing the boy's rapidly changing expression, then amended, "Oh, there is one. But something happened. What was it? Injured? Sick?"

Lu Xingchi was like a mind reader; the boy was on the verge of tears.

Bei Nuan turned around, exasperated, and lowered her voice. "Lu Xingchi, what are you doing? Showing off how amazing you are?"

Lu Xingchi responded calmly, "Am I not amazing?"

He had been incredibly childish lately. Bei Nuan couldn't help but retort, "You're so amazing, do you know his name?"

Lu Xingchi fell silent.

Bei Nuan said calmly, "I'll tell you. His name is Fang Chen."

Suddenly called by name, the boy was completely startled, almost dropping the cake.

Du Ruo quickly offered Bei Nuan a compliment. "No way, Bei Nuan? You even guessed his name? How are you so smart?"

Fang Chen quickly regained his composure and figured it out. "I know, she saw the pinyin on my license plate."

On the back of his little metal cart was a painted license plate with a row of numbers that looked like a birthday. Below the numbers, in small letters, was painted "FANG." If Bei Nuan hadn't already seen the name Fang Chen on the task list, she wouldn't have noticed those small letters.

Having been rebuffed by Bei Nuan, Lu Xingchi finally stopped talking.

Bei Nuan gestured for the defeated Lu Xingchi to step back, then said, "That Du Ruo older brother who likes to give compliments, come here."

Bei Nuan plus Du Ruo plus cake was an unbeatable combination. Under this triple offensive, little Fang Chen finally softened.

The boy lived nearby. When the zombie outbreak occurred, his parents weren't home and never returned. His grandmother, who lived with them, also didn't make it. Only his older brother was left. His brother usually went out to search for supplies, but he had fallen ill in the past few days, so Fang Chen had to go out instead. Their method of foraging was this small metal cart. It was originally a birthday present Fang Chen's father had made for him out of sheet metal. After the outbreak, with his father gone, Fang Chen's brother modified it using the leftover materials, adding a metal lid and enclosing the wheels, turning it into a mobile mini-fortress for emergency shelter. His brother's handiwork was rough but practical.

The wheels were enclosed because the cart had no engine. It moved by Fang Chen pushing it along with his feet from inside. There was a panel where his feet went; when retracted and locked, it became a sealed container with only ventilation holes, making it impossible for zombies to pull him out.

"Zombies have such a good sense of smell, won't they smell someone inside?" Tang Tang asked.

"Didn't you smell that strong odor?" Jiang Fei said.

Bei Nuan had smelled it as soon as they entered. Fang Chen and his cart were covered in the pungent smell of Tiger Balm, presumably to mask their scent. Quite clever.

Dr. Du's sympathy immediately surfaced. He said to Fang Chen, "I'm a doctor. We have medicine. Take me to see your brother." He then turned to Lu Xingchi. "These two kids are having a hard time. Should we go to their home?"

Bei Nuan wouldn't miss this opportunity to gain Saintly Value, especially since Fang Chen was the first target of her Saintly Wish mission. She needed to fulfill his three wishes.

She joined Du Ruo in pleading, "Lu Xingchi…"

Fang Chen, however, remained silent.

Lu Xingchi glanced at little Fang Chen and said coldly, "Don't want to take us? That's fine. I don't want to go to your house either. There's no benefit for me."

His words seemed to reassure Fang Chen, who immediately said, "Let's go, I'll take you."

Fang Chen opened the metal roof of his cart, preparing to climb in.

Du Ruo chuckled. "No need to go back in your little cart." He pointed at Lu Xingchi. "With him around, we can walk right down the middle of the road."

Fang Chen looked skeptically at Lu Xingchi and his crossbow.

Three minutes later, he witnessed the terror of Boss Lu. As they walked, Lu Xingchi took down zombies one by one with his crossbow, never missing a shot. With each zombie felled, Fang Chen flinched.

Noticing this, Du Ruo suggested, "If you don't want to watch, don't."

"I'm fine," Fang Chen shook his head, silently leading the way.

His home was in a nearby residential complex. Like a small creature surviving in the jungle, Fang Chen expertly led them over a pile of debris, over a wall, and into a building, slipping into an apartment on the second floor. He unlocked the security door with a key. Inside was an ordinary home.

A teenage boy, a larger version of Fang Chen with a delicate face flushed with fever, lay in bed in the bedroom. Seeing the sudden influx of people, he frowned and struggled to sit up.

"Chenchen, what's going on? Didn't I tell you not to trust anyone?"

"But they have a doctor and medicine," Fang Chen argued.

The boy, weak with fever, sighed and fell back onto the bed. "Forget it, we have nothing left but our lives anyway."

Both brothers were deeply wary.

Fang Chen introduced him to Bei Nuan. "This is my brother, Fang Ye."

Du Ruo had already gone over to him. Dr. Du inquired about his condition and made a preliminary diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis from eating something contaminated. Fang Ye was somewhat dehydrated, so Du Ruo asked Bei Nuan for glucose and salt to make a rehydration solution.

While they were busy with this, Lu Xingchi paced around the room. The curtains were tightly drawn. He went to the window, pulled back a corner of the curtain, and peered down.

Fang Ye stopped drinking the solution. Fang Chen reacted quickly, jumping up and rushing over to pull the curtain closed, his face tense.

"What's wrong?" Bei Nuan also noticed the brothers' strange behavior.

Lu Xingchi glanced at little Fang Chen and pulled back the curtain again.

Fang Chen was nearly in tears. "We don't need you to treat my brother. Just leave."

Lu Xingchi calmly looked down, then at Fang Chen, and suddenly asked, "Is that your family?"

Bei Nuan, completely puzzled, went over to look. Outside the window was the opposite building; nothing seemed unusual.

Lu Xingchi gestured for her to look down. They were on the second floor; below was the courtyard of the ground floor apartment. The courtyard was small, at most ten square meters, filled with some clutter and a few potted plants. The only unusual thing was a zombie inside.

It was an elderly woman with white hair, moving very slowly. She wore a dressing gown haphazardly, one foot in a slipper, the other bare. She moaned and paced restlessly in the small courtyard.

"That's my grandma," Fang Chen said, and this time, he really started to cry.

Fang Ye also got out of bed. "We don't need your treatment. Don't kill my grandma."

Lu Xingchi looked down at Fang Chen's hand tugging on his sleeve, somewhat speechless.

Bei Nuan spoke up for him. "Don't be afraid. He's just grumpy today because he's in a bad mood. He's not the kind of person who kills zombies for fun."

Lu Xingchi asked casually, "So why am I in a bad mood?"

Bei Nuan thought for a moment. "I don't know. Early onset midlife crisis?"

Grandma seemed to hear the voices upstairs and looked up, moaning.

Everyone fell silent.

"Grandma raised us both," Fang Ye said. "My parents were too busy with work to take care of us. It was always Grandma who looked after us."

"If there was anything good to eat, Grandma wouldn't eat it herself, she'd save it for us. If we got into trouble outside and were afraid to tell our parents, we'd go downstairs to Grandma's first and ask her to come upstairs and back us up."

"The day it happened, it was our neighbor who turned first. Grandma held him back so we could escape, and that's how she got bitten."

Fang Chen couldn't hold back his sobs any longer. Fang Ye stopped talking, and Bei Nuan patted Fang Chen's back. She knew it was better for him to cry than to bottle it up. These two children, without any adults, had somehow survived all this time.

Fang Chen sobbed, "Grandma was so good to us, and we can only watch her like this, unable to do anything… The ground is so cold, and Grandma's barefoot, without even shoes…"

Bei Nuan thought that zombies probably didn't feel the cold. But suddenly, she had an idea.

"Do you want to put shoes on your grandma?"

Fang Chen nodded vigorously.

Bei Nuan nudged Du Ruo.

Du Ruo smiled. "No problem." Then he asked Fang Chen, "Did you lock up downstairs? Give me the key."

Three minutes later, Du Ruo appeared in the small courtyard below. Grandma saw him, but didn't seem surprised by his appearance, nor did she try to attack him. Her gaze passed over him blankly, without any reaction.

Fang Chen's jaw dropped, and Fang Ye crowded at the window, watching.

Du Ruo went inside, found a pair of shoes, came back out, squatted in front of Grandma, took off her single slipper, and put on the new pair. He helped her adjust her dressing gown, buttoning it neatly, then went back inside, wrung out a wet towel, and gently wiped the grime from her face and hands.

After finishing, Du Ruo looked up and gave an OK sign to the people at the second-floor window.

Both boys broke down in tears. Even as a zombie, Grandma was still their grandma in their hearts.

"Why didn't that older brother get bitten?" Fang Chen asked Bei Nuan. "I want to be like him, so I can go down and see Grandma."

Bei Nuan was startled. "He has a special constitution. Maybe one in ten thousand people are like him."

Xiao San's voice suddenly popped up in her mind. "Bei Nuan, keep up the good work."

Keep up what good work?

Bei Nuan opened her task list and found that after Fang Chen's name, it now read (1/3).

So, that counted as fulfilling one of his wishes? The wish was fulfilled by Du Ruo; Bei Nuan had only offered a suggestion. It seemed this mission wasn't too difficult after all.

She quickly asked Fang Chen, "Is there anything else you want to do? I can try to find a way."

Fang Chen was touched. "Sister, why are you so nice?"

Du Ruo, who had just come back upstairs, immediately interjected, "I know! She just wants people to praise her for being kind. Just praise her to death, and you'll be fine."

Bei Nuan was speechless. Fine what? She thought, Du Ruo, if this were a novel, your reaction would be a whole chapter late.

Bei Nuan assumed the hungry brothers would want something to eat. Unexpectedly, Fang Chen thought for a moment and asked tentatively, "There's something really troublesome… could you help us?"

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