Chapter 142: The Zombie Emperor

The mall inside was wrecked and left in a chaotic state.

Most of the shelves had been wiped clean at the beginning of the apocalypse.

Many shelves fell to the ground. Countless trampled products were scattered on the dirty ground. The brand-name bags and watches that were blindly sought after before the end of the world were now abandoned like worn-out shoes, laying alone on the shelf or thrown to the ground mercilessly.

The ground was splattered with long-dried bloodstains, as well as covered with bloody footprints and handprints, as well as shocking drag marks and traces of blood splashing everywhere.

Several rotting corpses with crushed heads and bitten bodies laid in the corner, exuding a suffocating horrible stench.

The shopping mall was clearly separated into two sides.

Using one of the dividing shelves as a boundary to let two teams sweep through different areas.

This was the first time that Xie Shili witnessed with his own eyes how Ge Xiu replenished supplies in the mall.

It held the largest bag in its hand, and walked slowly between the shelves. No matter what appeared in front of its eyes, it put it in the bag.

Towels, headbands, aftershave, toilet plugs, Rubik’s cubes, plush toys…

Although most of the bag was filled in an instant, half of the useful things were left behind and lots of the useless products were taken with it.

Xie Shili: “…”

In the end, he took a slow deep breath, and finally couldn’t resist the urge to intervene. He reached out and took the bag from Ge Xiu:

“…Let me.”

Ge Xiu carefully thought about it for while.

Alright, after all, it’s best for him to choose what he eats for himself.

So he gave up the work of collecting supplies without any objection and happily handed the bag to Xie Shili.

Xie Shili took the heavy bag and reached out to take out the useless things inside.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of something, stopped suddenly, and looked up at Ge Xiu who was standing aside.

Ge Xiu looked back at him in confusion and tilted his head: “?”

Xie Shili took a deep breath, looked away, and took back the half-stretched hand without any hesitation.

He closed the shopping bag and started walking down the aisle in front of them.

It was not the first time Xie Shili had done this kind of job. He had experience in distinguishing whether the items on each shelf were still useful, quickly and efficiently collecting all the needed materials useful for survival in one go, without leaving out anything.

The pale youth was expressionless, and followed behind him step by step, like a hen guarding its chicks.

All the way Xie Shili reached the end of another aisle and when he was about to turn around, he almost collided with Ge Xiu.

He quickly caught on the precarious shelf that was implicated and about to crumble down.

Then, Xie Shili turned his head to look at the innocent-looking young man who was following behind him, and asked helplessly,

“Why are you walking so close to me?”

In fact, Ge Xiu’s motive was very simple.

Before today, he thought that Xie Shili was just reserve rations that smelled a bit better, but after seeing other supernatural humans, he suddenly realized that what he caught was top-quality grain that was unique, one in a thousand!

Extremely precious.

Needs to watch it all the time!

But he didn’t know how to use words to express the thoughts in his head, so all he did was open his mouth slowly and then fall into a state of thinking hard, still unable to squeeze out half a syllable for a long time.

Xie Shili obviously also realized the ridiculousness of the question he asked.

He shook his head, sighed, and compromised:

“Forget it, whatever you want.”

Just when Xie Shili was about to continue walking forward, his eyes suddenly swept across Ge Xiu’s clothes inadvertently, and he couldn’t help being slightly taken aback.

From the first time he’d seen the other, it was always in the same clothes.

A dirty suit jacket, crumpled and tattered, with ripped fabric.

He recalled in his mind, how when they been outside the shopping mall before, the captain of the supernatural team looked over at Ge Xiu with a sudden strange look in his eyes.

Xie Shili didn’t know what he was thinking at the time.

——He just instinctively felt alerted.

Although, thinking about it later, this high-level zombie may not care about the gazes cast on him by small humans, let alone about his identity as a zombie being exposed, especially if it had enough strength to protect itself. ——Xie Shili has no doubts, as long as it wanted to, the entire supernatural team staying in the supermarket would be powerless to fight back.

However, he still subconsciously stood in front of the opponent.

It was almost like… he spontaneously wanted to protect.

Xie Shili felt that he was ridiculous.

Was he protecting a high-level zombie who could easily crush the heads of mutated zombies with bare hands?

But still…

Xie Shili looked at the other person’s face.

The young man opened a pair of light gray eyes, head raised slightly as it watched him silently and quietly. There was no superfluous expression on his pale face, only a strange pureness and ignorance.

The messy thoughts and regrets in Xie Shili’s mind seemed to disappear in an instant.

He asked, “Do you want to change your clothes?”

Ge Xiu was taken aback.

He imitated human being’s appearance, and frowned slightly, thinking about the other party’s question seriously.

Change clothes…?

why? Can clothes be eaten?

Ge Xiu looked down at the crumpled suit on his body and the faded trousers covered with countless dried bloodstains, and became even more puzzled — obviously his clothes looked okay?

Why did his food reserves dislike it?

Ge Xiu looked up at Xie Shili who was standing in front of him and studied his expression probingly, trying to find the answer.

Xie Shili noticed Ge Xiu’s confusion.

For zombies, this question made absolutely no sense.

Xie Shili shook his head helplessly, changed the bag he was carrying to other hand, and then stretched out his hand to grab Ge Xiu’s wrist. As soon as he grasped it, he was stunned for a moment. He could wrap his entire palm around the slender wrist bones, as if they could be easily broken with a pinch. He was shocked by the cold touch of the different than a human’s body temperature.

The last time he grabbed the other’s wrist without any precautions, he was still in a state of confusion after a high fever—

his vigilance seemed to be gradually dispersing.

Xie Shili let go of the cold hand suddenly as if scalded, quickly turned away his gaze and said hastily:

“…Follow me.”

Ge Xiu glanced at the abnormally emotional reserve food rations with some doubts.

Hungry?

He had graciously decided to ignore the other’s hand grabbing and then shaking it off— hunger does make people lose their minds.

Ge Xiu followed Xie Shili to the fashion area in the mall.

Xie Shili didn’t waste time asking for Ge Xiu’s opinion this time, but glanced at the densely packed hangers in front of him, which were barely touched.

He chose strong durable clothes at first, which were good in action and rising chances of survival, but when Xie Shili thought about it, the other was a zombie, and he doesn’t need especially functional clothes. Especially when the other party had such an incredible strength. There was no need to pursue convenience and speed.

So, he dropped the clothes in his hand and came to the leisure area.

Xie Shili boldly picked out a few clothes with novel styles and a sense of design. After some simple matching, he turned his head and looked at Ge Xiu who was standing aside with a wandering face, and scanned him from head to toe appraisingly—— really fitting.

However, at this moment, Xie Shili suddenly remembered the brutal actions of the other crushing a zombie’s head with bare hands.

Brains flying as pus and blood splashed everywhere .

He looked down at the light-coloured clothes in his hand and threw them aside again.

Finally, a black sweater and matching pants were placed in front of Ge Xiu.

Xie Shili said: “Try it.”

Ge Xiu thought for a few seconds slowly, then lowered his head, stretched out his pale and blue fingers, and began to take off his clothes unskilfully.

However, the ferocious and nimble limbs in the battle seemed extremely stiff and uncoordinated when doing such delicate actions. He tried for a long time, but in the end he just managed to twist the already dirty and wrinkled clothes into a ball, crookedly hanging on his body.

Xie Shili stood aside, watching him struggling to trap himself in a pile of rags, finally couldn’t hold back, and walked over:

“Let me help…”

Before he could finish speaking, he heard a loud “rrripppp” sound.

Xie Shili’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Ge Xiu had already lost his patience due to the entirely disobedient clothes on his body, so he frowned irritably, grabbed the clothes on his body and pulled them to both sides, the sound of fabric being ripped sounded.

The piece of cloth, which had become extremely fragile under the sun and rain, split into several pieces in an instant, like soaked toilet paper, under the unscrupulous strength of the zombie and fluttered down to his feet.

Ge Xiu raised his head happily and looked at Xie Shili who was standing beside him in a showing off manner.

—He’s so smart.

Xie Shili turned around abruptly, and took two quick steps towards the distance. His deep voice was a little hoarse: “…you change, ba.”

There was slight rustling sound of fabric rubbing behind him, and Xie Shili’s back subconsciously tensed, his mind in dismay.

—It was a zombie.

Even if it behaved like a human now, it still ate human beings and its body had already died.

After a few minutes, the movement behind him disappeared.

Finished changing?

Xie Shili felt that the corner of his clothes was being pulled.

He moved slightly, turned his head to look behind him.

He saw the high-ranking zombie staring at him. The black sweater was wrapped around its neck, twisted into a cloth rope. Only one hand was inserted into the sleeve, and the other pale arm was hanging by its side, nowhere near sleeves, with lower abdomen and most of the chest exposed to the air.

It still looks expressionless, but there was an inexplicable sense of distress and being in a predicament.

Xie Shili: “…”

Forget it.

He stepped forward, stretched out his hand and began to help Ge Xiu adjust the clothes he was not wearing at all.

By the time Xie Shili finally put the clothes on the other party’s body properly his back was dripping with sweat, but finally, the sleeves were in sleeves’ place and the collar was finally working as the collar.

The size of the black sweater is was bit too big, the sleeves and hem were slightly longer, pale collarbone exposed under the wide collar.

The young man looked back at Xie Shili.

He had a handsome face, although his hair had become a little messy during the difficult dressing process. Wearing the loose sweater, the whole person seemed to look a few years younger in an instant, making him look like an ordinary college student.

A pair of gray eyes were light in colour, emotionless and pure, like a mirror reflecting human image.

Xie Shili lowered his eyes and looked away in embarrassment.

His eyes fell on the pale shoulder visible because of the loose collar and he couldn’t help being slightly taken aback.

On that smooth skin, there was a ferocious blue-purple bite mark, which looked particularly eye-catching on the pale skin.

A fact hit Xie Shili suddenly.

It made him drop the armour and protection, as he became flustered upon realising something.

—He too was once human, an innocent victim of this catastrophe.

He may have also watched his relatives and friends die one after another, and fled helplessly in the face of disaster.

This was not the life he chose.

As he was in a state of confusion, there came a scream from the supernatural team behind him: “Look out!”

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Author has something to say:

Ge Xiu(tenderly): Eat more, eat more, you are too skinny

Xie Shili: (selecting carefully): This dress is convenient but not suitable for you, this dress is suitable for you but not convenient…

→ Mutual mother hen (?