Chapter 113: Yu Jiqing
Zombie world, on the mountain.
Lu Jun stared as that ugly door swung shut. Shocked, he swore. “F**k…” In an instant, the arm clamped around his waist felt like a thousand pounds, impossible to pry off. “Are you stupid?” he asked, voice coming out strangely.
“Staying for you means I’m stupid?” Li Dong squeezed his waist. “So ditching you and going with him would’ve been the ‘right’ choice?”
The air froze for a few seconds.
“But there’s nothing here,” Lu Jun said.
Had this man forgotten? This was a discarded apocalypse, nothing but wasteland.
He looked over everything they had now. Besides two machine guns with only a handful of bullets left, there was nothing else.
“If I left, you’d have even less, wouldn’t you?” Li Dong winked at him, then said, “Come on. Let’s get down the mountain and find a place before dark.”
Staring at that stupidly handsome back, Lu Jun said from the heart, “F**k.”
Then he followed, happy as anything, and only belatedly put it together. “You two decided this while I was sleeping last night?” And they didn’t tell him, made him mope all day for nothing. Tsk tsk.
“Wanted to surprise you,” Li Dong said.
“More like a jump scare, alright?” Lu Jun sneered, but he touched his chest. His heart was happy.
If this abandoned world only had the two of them left, just thinking about it made him hard. Damn.
“Hey!” Even Li Dong struggled to handle his boyfriend’s blazing enthusiasm. “We’re on a mountain, Lu Jun.” One slip and they’d roll down in a bloody heap.
“Mm-hm.” Lu Jun’s lips curled as he stared him down.
“You little punk, you go in front.” Li Dong stepped aside. No way was he taking any more ambushes of enthusiasm.
When Lu Jun drew level, Li Dong tipped his head to glance toward where that mysterious youth had left. A wave of gratitude and parting ache surged up.
He shook it off. Those feelings didn’t belong.
“Think there are any humans left in this world?”
“No idea. Maybe…”
“So from now on we live on peanuts and tomatoes every day?”
“Having anything to eat at all is already good…”
“Hmph. I’m not sure I can stand wearing the same underwear every day.”
“… Can you stand sleeping with the same man every day?”
“That I can very much stand.”
Lu Jun drove someone else’s car with his favorite man beside him and went hunting for a way to live on this barren ground.
Half a month later, they found a base where people had gathered after the apocalypse.
On a blazing bright morning, they rumbled down the road in the car Dr. Yu had modified.
The road around them was clean. It gave Li Dong a hunch that people used this route.
He was right.
“Xiao Jun.” Wearing only a shirt, he lifted a hand and nudged the dozing youth at his side. “Wake up. People ahead.”
After half a month on the road, they were sick of the primitive routine and desperate to find a human base.
“Huh?” Lu Jun opened his eyes. Through the windshield-less view he saw the structures up ahead. His gaze went sharp like a wolf’s. He narrowed his eyes. “Sure enough. Drive over.”
No matter what lay ahead, pit or otherwise, they had to check it out.
At the gate, the soldiers on watch gaped. “F**k…” They scrambled to alert the guards around them. “Heads up. Unidentified vehicle incoming. Looks like survivors.”
“F**k, there are still survivors?” one said. “Not one of the merc squads we sent out?”
“Bull. Our base hasn’t sent a team out in three months. Strict orders from above. Feels like they’re brewing something big.”
“Tsk. From year’s start to year’s end, it’s always ‘big moves,’ but nothing ever happens.” Those high-ups, all talk.
“That’s enough. Eyes up and ask questions, careful.” A steady man, surname Zhang, cut in. Even if there weren’t many zombies these days, danger existed.
From a distance, Li Dong saw the armed sentries’ wary faces. He pulled up, smiled, and called, “Hey, brothers. Is this a survivor base? Can we come in?”
The guards swept their eyes over Li Dong and Lu Jun and were stunned. The two young men didn’t look like apocalypse people at all.
Those white shirts. Skin far cleaner than anyone in the end times. Fine features no one had seen here before. It was like seeing a ghost at high noon. Hard to believe it was real.
“You two are survivors?” the steady man, Zhang Da, said, not steady at all now. “Where from? Another base?” But they’d heard nothing of another base nearby.
“Survivors,” Li Dong said. “We came from far away and met no one on the road. Ending up here was a total coincidence.”
One guard nudged Zhang Da in secret. “They look fishy. What if they’re high-level zombies?”
Zhang Da shot him a look. “You ever seen a high-level zombie hold a conversation?” Then he turned back to Li Dong. “Yes, this is a survivor base. Generally, survivors can enter and do their part. We just don’t welcome people with ill intent.” His eyes slid over Lu Jun, doubtful.
“I see. You can relax,” Li Dong said. “My partner and I have straight values. Once we’re in, we won’t be breaking any rules.”
Zhang Da frowned at them. “You’re gay?”
Li Dong: “We are. Is that a problem?”
Another guard cut in, “No problem. We’ve got more monks than porridge inside. Good-looking guys like you pairing off works out.”
Zhang Da thought about it and found the logic fair enough. His rigid face eased. “Have him get out and strip.” He jutted his chin at Lu Jun. “We check for infection before you go in.”
“Okay.” Li Dong patted Lu Jun. “Hop out and let them check.”
“Strip?” Lu Jun arched a brow, impatient. But meeting Li Dong’s calming eyes, he still obeyed, stepped out, and stripped down to his shorts.
He was twenty-one, long-limbed and tight, all boyish lines. Sexy as hell.
The men watching couldn’t help swallowing.
That skin… f**k. Prettier than the women in their base.
“Seen enough?” Lu Jun asked, face blank.
Zhang Da nodded and Lu Jun dressed immediately.
Smiling, Li Dong shed his clothes in turn. Born pampered and refined, he was fairer and smoother than Lu Jun’s wheat tone, like warm polished jade from head to toe, noble and gentle.
“Hurry it up,” Lu Jun said coldly, itching to dress his man himself.
“Alright, alright…” The guards clamped their legs, moods complicated. They rarely even touched a woman’s hand and mostly took care of themselves, but they hadn’t sunk to getting turned on by men.
And today they saw two all-time stunners. Unreal.
Clothed again, Li Dong asked, “Can we enter now?”
“Yes,” Zhang Da said quickly, turning to lead. “Come sign in and I’ll take you inside.”
Watching the pair’s backs, the guards all thought: with looks like that, they’d stir up a storm.
Also, with far more men than women, men shacking up with men had been normal for years now.
A certain high-up at their base, for one and he seemed single at the moment?
After registering at the gate, Li Dong and Lu Jun took Zhang Da on board and rolled in.
“Our base has seventy thousand people,” Zhang Da briefed. “Women and children only account for ten thousand, elders for another ten thousand. The rest are prime and middle-aged labor.” He glanced at them. “At your age, you need to find jobs quickly. If your contribution points fall short, you’ll be expelled.”
“We’re best at killing zombies,” Lu Jun said with a lazy grin. “Any work for that?”
Zhang Da didn’t quite buy it, but if they’d trekked all the way here, they weren’t weak. “Then join the Corps and draw rations.”
Except with zombies waning, the Corps wasn’t easy to enter.
Unless you were strong.
As they went, Zhang Da shared more. The two gradually built a picture of the base.
It had a fairly complete system. Life here could be good.
“The guest house beds are tight. Lots of homeless elders and the sick get priority,” said the middle-aged man who brought them to a room. “You two squeeze in. You’re men; it’s fine.”
“Thanks,” Li Dong said, handling the talking.
Lu Jun went in first. The room was tiny. He looked around with frank disdain. “Land here is endless. Why make rooms this small?”
Li Dong knocked his head. “Because materials and manpower are limited. You think rebuilding a civilized society is easy?”
He thought of what Zhang Da had said. The whole base was only seventy thousand, maybe what a small town used to be.
“At least it’s a bed.” Lu Jun flopped down and crossed his legs. “Sh**, after half a month in the wild I almost forgot what a roof feels like.”
“Weren’t you the one saying outdoor fun is great?” Li Dong snorted, shut the door, and came in to rest. “We found a base. Now we can calmly think about what we do next.”
Live quietly to the end, or jump to the front lines to rebuild. Worth thinking through.
“Whatever we do,” Lu Jun said, gripping his man’s hand, mumbling, “as long as I’m with you, it’s worth it.”
Half a month had passed, but the thought of that day still rattled him.
If this man had really left, what would he have done?
Li Dong said nothing.
“Do you regret it?” Lu Jun pinched his palm. He wanted it to hurt.
“No.” Li Dong shook his head. “Why ask dumb questions?” Someday Lu Jun would understand. “Regret is one of the most useless emotions. It doesn’t belong in an adult’s world.”
“You calling me a green kid?” Lu Jun swatted him.
“You’re pretty childish right now.” Li Dong laughed and dodged. “No, no, I just mean, people who stew in regret haven’t grown up.”
“Sh**, same thing,” Lu Jun said, but he was smiling.
He was genuinely happy for himself.
Sometimes with this man, he was a kid.
Not that he’d been a perfect adult before, but who wants to show their immaturity to just anyone?
Now it was different. He, Lu Jun, had a man who could appreciate all of him.
Whether the violent, cold-blooded side or the childish side.
Li Dong accompanied Lu Jun living in the base. Later they both joined the corps, becoming outstanding members.
Lu Jun didn’t take orders and didn’t care to lead.
So Li Dong fought upward, aiming to be this little mad dog’s commander, so that when the other snapped, he wouldn’t take lives by accident.
Commander and subordinate, close and in sync.
They became the Corps’ enviable pair, always coming and going together, making people swallow their jealousy.
Plenty mocked Lu Jun. He had two words for himself: “food-guarding.”
He shadowed Li Dong every day. Anyone who stared too long got a fight.
Except a certain untouchable high-up. For that one he could only curse in private and then go whine to Li Dong.
Please have less contact with that official in the future.
In the end, they still stepped onto the front lines to help build the new society, burning their blood for it.
Even Li Dong didn’t know how he had so much energy.
Again and again, never tired, never tempted to retreat.
Holding his little mad dog’s hand, gazing on a restored, bustling world thirty or forty years later, Li Dong found a hazy answer. Maybe because he’d been born human, heaven gave him thought; with thought he found faith; with faith he held himself together. He lived with bright effort and optimism, bringing steadiness and ease to the people beside him, that was completely small bourgeois thinking, wasn’t it?
But in real life, for an ordinary young person to awaken that realization and actually complete that process took a lifetime. It was not easy.
A morning in March. Blossoms opened on the windowsill.
“Xiao Jun.” Li Dong called once beside the snow-white hospital bed, then again.
No response came back.
Two withered, trembling hands stayed clasped, and neither let go for a long time.
Lab 103.
A shrill alarm chirped. Yu Jiqing immediately cut the nutrient pod controls. His voice came out thin. “Kill the virtual feed and prep the original memory data.”
“Understood, sir.”
In unconscious sleep, a wave of pain raked Li Dong. Then, like every time the world changed, he endured the hard passage and felt the next world’s memory being implanted…
Wait.
He quickly realized something was off about the memory planted in his mind…
It wasn’t a virtual world memory. It should be… his own.
Li Dong was surprised. But as the real memories settled, everything became obvious. He was the soldier Li Dong, tempered by war. To make money, he’d signed an indenture here and become someone else’s test subject.
That someone else was the maker of the virtual worlds, Yu Jiqing?
It was confusing. Then another wave of memory surged.
Helplessness, love, joy, longing…
Emotions exploded all at once.
Clingy Lingling, domineering Yao-ge, solitary Xiu, cuddly Uncle Lian, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted Yu Zhuo, arrogant and hard-to-love Zeqian, and the little mad dog Xiao Jun he had just seen off…
“Xiao Jun…” Li Dong woke up crying, tears at the corners of his eyes.
He’d thought he’d forged an iron heart, able to calmly see every lover off when a world ended.
Turns out not.
Turns out all of it had been hidden deep, until it all swarmed him one day and nearly broke him.
A face that had never faded in memory took shape in his tear-blurred vision.
It was Yu Jiqing, looking more haggard than Li Dong remembered.
“Quit crying. Don’t you get it yet?” Li Dong heard him say. “Those characters were made by me, and their carriers were me. You don’t have to be sad.” At a loss, he tugged out tissues and dabbed at Li Dong’s messy tears. “Every thread of feeling between you and them, I felt all of it.”
Li Dong stared, dazed, lifted his own hand to wipe his face, and discovered he was soaking in a tub of sticky fluid. His hands and body were slick.
He was really dazed.
“Get a shower first. I’ll talk while you wash.” Yu Jiqing held up a towel he’d already prepared.
“Wait…” Red-eyed, Li Dong looked at him. “You just said all of them were you?” But that couldn’t be right. He and Lu Jun had appeared together.
They were two different people.
“It was me. I’ll explain later.” Yu Jiqing’s ears were red. His face stayed blank. “Come on. I’ll take you to wash.”
“Are you unwell?” Li Dong watched him closely and saw his color was off.
He radiated weakness, and he didn’t look as healthy as he did in the virtual world.
“Stop talking nonsense,” Yu Jiqing said, flushing from his ears to his neck. He finally understood why he was so gone on Number One. When Li Dong warmed up, he was just that domineering.
Li Dong climbed slowly out of the pod, looking curiously around. The room was crammed with electronics. “Mr. Yu, is this where you work?”
Yu draped the towel over his shoulders, an arm lifting for the motion. “This is my cage.”
“Hm?”
“The trial you signed onto is called the Time Machine Project. I’m its sole lead,” Yu said, walking ahead, opening the bathroom door, flipping on the shower. He stood beside it and watched Li Dong rinse. “But I didn’t join voluntarily…” His voice was even. “They imprisoned me here and dosed me with muscle-wasting drugs. I have to take their scheduled rations every day to balance the effects.”
Li Dong’s face sharpened at once.
“That’s a crime,” he said, and asked, “Can’t you pass word out and have your family get you out?”
“First, getting word out isn’t as easy as you think. Second, I don’t dare,” Yu said with a curl of his lip. “Because I suspect the person who sold me out might be a family member. I don’t know who.”
So he didn’t dare risk it.
A sigh stirred in Li Dong’s chest. He looked at the young scientist again and felt a tug of sympathy.
“I’ve been looking for a way to save myself and I’ve roughly mapped where I’m held,” Yu went on. “Even if I made it out of the base, without help it would be almost impossible to escape.”
Especially with a body poisoned by those drugs.
He cut a glance at the strong man under the shower and felt a steady confidence in the ally he’d found. “So I found you. I used the virtual worlds to test your character…” and, more importantly, to build trust. “At the same time, I slipped into the base’s security system.”
Then he looked away and cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, they brought in someone strong to crack me.”
Li Dong tensed. “So even you can’t fix it?” He washed and listened, and somehow none of it felt strange.
Yu tilted his chin, arrogant. “What do you think?”
Which meant he had a plan.
“Good,” Li Dong said, tactfully smiling. He shut off the water and put on the clothes Yu had prepared.
Seeing his mood dip again, Yu folded his arms and spoke with crisp gravity. “You don’t need to be sad. They really were me. I’m alive and well.”
Though his ears were flaming as he said it.
“But…” They didn’t look alike at all. It didn’t feel real…
Li Dong eyed the severe-faced scientist. It was very hard to connect this man with… Lingling. Or Xiao Jun.
No. 1’s doubt was too blunt. Yu gritted his teeth and went all in.
“How do you want me to prove it? Run through all of them for you one by one?”
“Sure.” Li Dong watched him, unreadable. “I miss Lingling. Show me Lingling.”
“…” Yu puffed out his cheeks, a little angry, and seriously shy. He ducked his head and threw his arms around Li Dong in a bear hug.
Li Dong felt a breath with a telltale rhythm gust warm against his ear.
He wanted to tell himself it wasn’t possible, but being held like this, a soft, aching longing finally found comfort.
Feeling him tighten, Yu rolled his eyes and then felt ridiculously pleased. “I should tell you this. The seven worlds’ protagonists were each drawn from a facet of my personality and cranked to the max. That’s why they’re extreme and not like normal people…”
“Mm…”
“… I never thought you’d actually like those extremes,” Yu muttered, face burning. “What was meant to test human nature turned into your romance showcase.”
Truly a surprise.
So this was the truth.
Li Dong hugged the still-not-quite-familiar Mr. Yu hard. “So you’re only half as seductive as Lingling and half as fiery as Xiao Jun?”
“…” Dr. Yu felt the conversation slipping. But acting it out in person, with a real partner, felt so f***ing sweet. “You could say that. Or not.”
Maybe with a little practice in love, he’d surpass those split-off selves in no time.
Author’s Note:
【Morning~】
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