WMSR – QT Chapter 103

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 103

By

siofra

Chapter 103: The Senior of the Apocalypse

Bai Yichen provided care with the mindset of treating a dead horse as a living horse, though his internal confidence remained exceptionally low. Fortunately, his deduction proved correct: late that night, the man regained consciousness, his stomach growling with earth-shattering volume. It was evident that the bowl of glucose-infused oat cereal he had force-fed him had been entirely metabolized, and the underlying cause of the man's collapse could be conclusively identified—he had simply starved unconscious, exactly as surmised.

Spotting his recovery, Bai Yichen retrieved two loaves of bread and a bottle of water from his room, handing them to the man whose cheeks were flushed crimson while one hand frantically pressed against his abdomen, desperately trying to muffle the embarrassing rumbles.

Lin Jiawen raised his head, catching sight of that features-dazzling, handsome visage. He froze in a momentary daze before hastily lowering his gaze once more. Yet lacking the stubborn pride required to reject sustenance, he reached out, accepted the items, and consumed them while making a conscious effort to avoid looking ravenous.

Observing that the stranger was eating normally and looked to have recovered the majority of his vitality, Bai Yichen felt his anxieties ease. Seeing that the man remained somewhat fatigued, he offered a brief directive: "*Rest well,*y" and departed.

Once Bai Yichen left, Lin Jiawen lifted his head to cautiously survey his surroundings. It was already nighttime, and due to the power outage, a single candle flickered within the room. Enclosed in an exquisite lamp shade, the flame cast a soft, diffused glow across the interior. While the illumination fell short of bright, it proved more than adequate for inspecting the layout of the quarters.

The luxurious decor immediately within sight allowed Lin Jiawen to arrive at an instinctive conclusion without deep contemplation: a child from a wealthy family.

Considering the exorbitant, prohibitive housing prices of this residential compound prior to the apocalypse, it felt entirely fitting that the residents here were affluent. Wasn't it precisely because this neighborhood maintained rigorous security, lower population density, and consequently fewer roaming zombies that he had ventured here to try his luck searching for provisions?

Yet recalling his meager harvest over the past few days, Lin Jiawen couldn't help letting out a self-deprecating chuckle. The front doors on wealthy residences possessed an exceptional level of durability; aside from two households that had fled in such utter panic they left their entryways wide open, every other fortified door completely defied his attempts to breach them. Thus, despite toiling for days, he had secured virtually zero food, ultimately culminating in the shameful humiliation of starving unconscious directly in front of that person.

Thinking of the youth whose breathtaking handsomeness caused his heart to flutter with nervous palpitations, Lin Jiawen experienced a flicker of awkward self-consciousness. Was he currently inside that boy's home? Judging by his age, the kid should still be attending university; with looks like that, he must be exceedingly popular on campus...

Catching himself wandering into such distracted thoughts, Lin Jiawen shook his head vigorously. How could he afford the luxury of such idle musings in times like this? His foremost priority should center entirely on figuring out how to stay alive. Though that impossibly attractive boy had sheltered him, Lin Jiawen held zero illusions that the arrangement would be permanent; in this current world, every individual's food stores were finite. Allocating an extra share to a stranger meant shortening one's own lifespan by a day—no one would sustain charity indefinitely. Even so, the youth remained an exceptionally kindhearted young man who had tossed down a flowerpot from the balcony that afternoon to offer a life-saving warning.

Without realizing it, Lin Jiawen's thoughts drifted back to that fateful day. Amidst lingering terror and profound gratitude, he had instinctively glanced upward, locking his gaze entirely upon that tall, athletic silhouette clad in white sportswear, radiating a brilliant, dazzling presence...

This time, even Lin Jiawen failed to realize that he had once again lost himself in a daydream concerning the young man he had only crossed paths with a handful of times.

Over the subsequent two days, Bai Yichen punctually delivered food and water to the slender man. To Bai Yichen's gratification, the man proved remarkably well-behaved and tactful. The vast majority of his time was spent confined to the guest room arranged for him, venturing out of the living quarters solely for necessities like using the restroom, without wandering aimlessly into other zones of the residence.

This disciplined restraint deeply pleased Bai Yichen. He even extended the tenant's permitted stay by an extra two days beyond his original psychological threshold, reasoning that the man appeared excessively frail; without a couple of additional days of recuperation, he might collapse the moment he stepped outside.

However, while harboring concerns regarding whether the man could endure the apocalypse, Bai Yichen harbored zero intent of supporting him indefinitely. Unfamiliar strangers aside, he possessed no absolute certainty regarding his own long-term survival prospects; assuming the financial and logistical burden of sustaining another person's existence carried far heavier stress than paying off a residential mortgage. Consequently, his firm inclination remained letting the man depart as soon as his physique recovered, fulfilling the karmic debt of that single life-saving warning, and allowing both parties to fight for their individual survival.

Clinging to this mindset, Bai Yichen refrained from ever inquiring about the name of the slender man resting in the guest room throughout those days, operating under the subconscious logic that possessing less personal information about the individual would equate to forming fewer emotional attachments.

Thus, observing that the man had nearly fully recovered, Bai Yichen granted him three exceptionally generous days of rest. Yet on the evening of the third day, just as he prepared to step in and instruct the guest to depart the following morning, a sudden rush of sound erupted outside: swish, splash, a torrential downpour burst from the skies.

Surely not this much of a coincidence?

Bai Yichen walked over to the window to peer outside, watching the continuous, misty veil of raindrops cascading downward while blurring the urban landscape beyond the glass. Amidst the drumming sheets of rain, only a few stray zombies drifted aimlessly, quickly transformed into pathetic drowned rats within moments.

This abrupt cloudburst prompted Bai Yichen to temporarily alter his plans. He wasn't entirely devoid of basic human empathy to the point of casting someone out into a violent rainstorm. Since the heavens ordained his stay, he would grant him a temporary reprieve—rainstorms of this magnitude couldn't persist forever.

To Bai Yichen's astonishment, the rain continued unabated across the following several days. Seizing the meteorological anomaly, Bai Yichen maximized the opportunity to replenish his drastically depleted water reserves indoors. He hauled every vacant water bucket out onto the balcony, propped open a sturdy umbrella upside down, and anchored it securely at a slight inward tilt. This clever rigging funneled all the cascading rainwater striking the umbrella's interior canopy along the angled slope, directing a continuous stream straight into the collection buckets below.

Bai Yichen had zero intention of consuming this unfiltered water, but utilizing it for flushing toilets proved exceptionally invaluable.

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