Chapter 16: Die Without Regret
“Huh? Injured again?”
And he didn’t even tell her. He came back without saying a word.
Su Tao felt a bit worried:
“Is it serious?”
Shi Ziyue sighed:
“Well, how should I put it… He’s so used to getting hurt. At first, I was always anxious, but after it happened so many times, I became numb. I heard that this time, his abdomen was pierced through. He was unconscious when they brought him back.”
Su Tao’s heart tightened—he must have barely survived.
“I was planning to visit him today. Sister Tao, do you want to come with me?”
Su Tao didn’t even hesitate:
“Yes, I’ll bring him some food. What about Ceng Lao’er and the others?”
Shi Ziyue’s expression turned sorrowful, and she sniffled:
“Brother Zhuang Hu… is gone. Brother Ceng and the others are arranging his funeral.”
Su Tao’s eyes instantly reddened.
That quiet, honest man… Su Tao felt dazed. It was as if just yesterday, she was assigning him a room, putting him together with the chatterbox Dang Xingyan to help curb his loose tongue.
*
Following Shi Ziyue to the Pioneer Army’s main camp, they passed through layer upon layer of security checks, were searched twice, and finally took an elevator down to the third underground floor. Su Tao finally saw Shi Zijin lying in the recovery capsule.
When he saw the two of them, Shi Zijin opened the transparent hatch and adjusted himself to sit up.
Seeing the worry on Su Tao’s face, he offered a faint smile:
“I’m fine.”
Su Tao sat by his bed:
“Last time, you lost an arm, and you still said you were fine.”
Shi Ziyue skillfully rolled up her brother’s sleeve:
“Luckily, your prosthetic is okay. Dr. Vina has been so busy lately, she probably wouldn’t have time to fix it for you. Did anything else break?”
Her question made Su Tao tense up as she examined Shi Zijin from head to toe.
Shi Zijin couldn’t help but laugh:
“No, don’t worry about me. Tell me, how have you two been lately? Is Taoyang okay?”
The last question was directed at Su Tao. No matter how well he tried to conceal it, the weariness and sorrow in his beautiful phoenix eyes didn’t escape Su Tao’s notice.
No one felt the loss of a teammate more deeply than him, the captain.
When she was a child, Su Tao often heard the adults say that the Pioneer Army risked their lives to find seeds for everyone, to retrieve lost technologies from abandoned cities, and to reignite the spark of human civilization.
Now, twenty years had passed. They had recovered what needed to be recovered, and all the major bases were steadily developing. Why did people like Shi Zijin still need to risk their lives out there?
Seeing her expression, Shi Zijin’s face immediately darkened, as if someone had wronged her.
“Did someone bully you?”
Before he left, he had specifically instructed his people to keep an eye on Taoyang in secret. How could there still be someone so blind?
Su Tao quickly waved her hand:
“No, it’s just… I really don’t understand. Why do you still need to go out on missions—especially such… life-threatening ones? Do you really have to?”
Shi Zijin was momentarily stunned by the question, then he smiled and shook his head:
“The seemingly peaceful and safe world you see is nothing but an illusion. The reason we exist is to maintain this illusion, to ensure danger never appears in front of you. For this… I could die without regret.”
Su Tao was struck by his words. She turned away abruptly, her throat choked with emotion.
At that moment, the door to the recovery room swung open. Ceng Lao’er and his group returned, looking slightly surprised to see Su Tao there.
But since everyone was already quite familiar, they didn’t hold back. After a quick greeting, they went straight to Shi Zijin:
“Captain, the old chief wants to see you as soon as you’re awake.”
As he spoke, Ceng Lao’er took out a transparent sealed bag and handed it to Shi Zijin:
“This is what we brought back this time.”
Su Tao looked over and saw that inside the bag was… a feather?
She wasn’t sure, because the feather looked incredibly eerie—like vibrant red feathers, as red as human blood, growing out of segments of human bone.
Shi Zijin’s body immediately tensed up upon seeing the object. His previously delicate and handsome face now held a trace of anger.
Even Ceng Tianjiao’s hands trembled as he held the bag.
This mission was originally to find more “Blood Scythes”—a recently discovered type of evolved zombie. They were named for their finger bones that transformed into sharp scythes during attacks. These creatures were incredibly fast, each strike drawing blood.
However, instead of finding the Blood Scythe, they ended up discovering a surviving little boy in an old, abandoned garage.
The boy appeared to be about four or five years old—skinny, small, and with a sickly complexion. Around him lay over a dozen corpses, sprawled messily. Each body had a bloody hole in its stomach, and the scene was horrific.
Ceng Tianjiao assumed that the area had recently been attacked by zombies and that the boy had survived by sheer luck, hiding away.
Zhuang Hu thought the same.
Seeing the child, Zhuang Hu’s vigilance dropped significantly. He put away his gun and approached slowly, speaking gently:
“It’s alright now. The uncles are here to save you and take you home.”
The previously silent little boy suddenly raised his face upon hearing this, his complexion a ghastly gray-blue, nothing like a living person. In a childish voice, he asked:
“Uncle, I’m sick. If I’m sick, will you still take me home? You won’t abandon me, right?”
Zhuang Hu’s steps halted instantly, his expression changing drastically.
“Uncle, have you changed your mind? Are you, like the others, disgusted by my sickness and want to leave me behind?”
With every word he spoke, an inch of bone wings grew from his back. The wings, resembling human bone joints, seemed soaked in fresh blood as they unfolded behind him.
“If that’s the case, then you should die like the others.”
The crimson bone wings suddenly lifted high, revealing a sharp, menacing gleam, thrusting straight toward Zhuang Hu’s chest.
“Watch out!”
“Captain—”
“Huzi—”
Ceng Tianjiao shook his head hard, forcing the scene of that day out of his mind. Taking a deep breath, he said:
“Captain, although you seriously injured it in the end, its bone wings were incredibly fast. We were useless—we let it escape. All we found at the scene was this. Besides, this matter is serious; it’s best if you report it to the old chief yourself.”
A powerful zombie with intelligence, maintaining a human appearance, and possessing a pair of eerie bone wings… This would completely overturn twenty years of human research and records on zombies.
Shi Zijin took the bag and responded in a low voice, “Understood.”
After Ceng Tianjiao and his group left, Shi Ziyue asked curiously:
“Brother, what’s in this bag?”
Shi Zijin lowered his gaze:
“The danger… behind the illusion.”
