WMSR – QT Chapter 105

WMSR – QT Chapter 105

By

siofra

Chapter 105: The Senior of the Apocalypse 

The man opened his eyes, and upon catching sight of the youth before him, a radiance of sheer, blooming surprise instantly sparked within his gaze. A moment later, seemingly terrified of being misunderstood, he hurriedly lifted the package of provisions he had brought: "I found food. For you."

Bai Yichen stared at the careful, yet hopeful expression etched across the man's face. He paused briefly, then turned his gaze away and stated: "No need. Keep these for yourself." With that, Bai Yichen walked away. And as Bai Yichen departed, the light in the eyes of the frail, hopeful man instantly dimmed into nothingness.

Following his departure, Bai Yichen executed his original itinerary, locating an isolated wandering zombie and mustering his mental focus to eliminate it. Upon completing the task, Bai Yichen dragged his weapon back toward his floor, only to encounter that slender silhouette once again right outside his doorway. As the man caught sight of Bai Yichen, he jolted as though awakening from a dream. Seeming terrified of appearing burdensome, he shrank back slightly, panic lacing his voice: "I—I'm leaving right now."

With those words, the man quickly pivoted on his heel. Even though he forced an appearance of composure and maintained a rigid posture as he turned his back, for reasons unknown, Bai Yichen perceived instantly that such toughness was as fragile as a thin sheet of paper, vulnerable to shattering at the mere poke of a finger.

Bai Yichen lingered no longer, inserting his key to unlock the front door. Yet upon opening it, he did not step inside immediately. Pausing on the threshold, his thoughts drifted to the image of the slender man—resembling an abandoned, stray puppy curled up in the corner of the hallway—that he had gazed upon moments prior. A quiet sigh slipped from his chest, and he glanced backward.

The man was currently taking slow, hesitant strides down the stairs, his movements sluggish and thoroughly heartbroken. Right there on the floor before the doorway, the large bag of provisions remained completely abandoned. Whether touched by a specific detail of the scene or simply yielding to an underlying surge of mercy, Bai Yichen finally spoke up: "If you genuinely have nowhere else to go, come inside and stay for now."

Was this guy planning to go outside and commit suicide by leaving all the food he struggled to scavenge right here?

Lin Jiawen, who had been completely immersed in a bottomless well of despair, abruptly caught the sound of those words. He nearly mistook the moment for an auditory hallucination. Snapping his head around in shock, he discovered that the youth had already stepped indoors, leaving the main entryway wide open and unlatched.

Lin Jiawen stared in stunned disbelief for a few seconds before tentatively stepping across the threshold. A few paces in, he glanced toward the guest room he had previously occupied to find the youth opening the wardrobe, pulling out a set of fresh bedcovers to lay across the mattress.

Catching the sound of footsteps, Bai Yichen didn't bother lifting his head as he instructed: "Drag your things in from outside. You'll be staying in this room again."

Hearing the youth's words repeated directly to his ears, Lin Jiawen finally registered the reality: he was back. He had truly returned...

Bai Yichen gathered the bedding along with the personal items he had packed away following the man's prior departure. After conducting a swift sweep to confirm nothing was missed, he hoisted the massive stash of food the man had hauled into the living room, carted it directly inside the guest room, and offered a final nod: "Get some rest," before retreating.

Lin Jiawen stood frozen with unspoken words on his lips as he gazed at the provisions deposited inside his quarters. Yet the miracle of regaining entry today surpassed any wildest expectation he dared entertain; unwilling to risk annoying the youth with excessive clinginess, he forcefully swallowed the words, resolving to return the provisions to the youth tomorrow.

Once the youth withdrew, Lin Jiawen brushed his fingers across the familiar mattress, enveloped by a profound wave of surreal happiness. He had genuinely never imagined he would set foot inside this home ever again; reflecting upon the tumultuous trials of the past dozen days, the experience felt entirely like a fever dream.

Ten days prior, when the youth politely escorted him out, he had truly experienced a sense of absolute homelessness—the crushing realization of a vast world with zero sanctuary. Driven purely by a primal survival instinct, he had continued evading zombies and scavenging for scarce rations. Yet night after night, through every midnight waking, the silhouette that haunted his thoughts above all others remained that of the youth.

Born an orphan, he had spent his entire life striving exclusively for basic survival, lacking the luxury to harbor extraneous fantasies. During his youth, his arduous diligence in juggling part-time work alongside studies had been anchored by a singular goal: graduating smoothly from university. Upon entering the workforce and migrating to this sprawling metropolis, he quickly recognized his status as the most unremarkable face in the crowd—a mundane clerk laboring away in an ordinary firm, earning a modest salary that rendered purchasing a property in this city an impossible pipe dream. Given his background, female colleagues scarcely spared him a glance, and formal matchmaking attempts invariably categorized him as the earliest rejection. Over time, even the notion of building a family faded from his mind. His inner world remained tranquil as stagnant water, revolving primarily around saving sufficient retirement funds to eventually purchase a modest dwelling in some quiet rural town for his twilight years.

Yet the very heart he had long believed resembled a stagnant pool was now throbbing with undeniable turbulence, entirely because of a single individual. Though Lin Jiawen lacked prior romantic history, he recognized this exact sensation with absolute clarity: this was the definition of falling in love.

The breathtaking sweetness of feeling his pulse race the instant he pictured the youth, paired with the involuntary smile that bloomed across his face whenever a memory of the boy surfaced, was an exquisite experience. Yet raising his gaze toward the scarred, devastated expanse of the outside world, he realized with crushing sorrow that his very first brush with genuine romance was fated to sprout inside a literal human hellscape, amplifying his underlying grief and despair.

After drifting through several days of numb exhaustion, a life-and-death brush with a zombie that nearly cornered him into a terminal dead end served as a violent awakening. He refused to die like this. Devoid of hope, lacking a visible future, and ignorant of how many days he had left, he refused to drift through his remaining existence in a stupor. At the bare minimum, while breath remained in his lungs, he owed it to himself to catch another glimpse of the boy he adored, to anchor a few more cherished memories of the youth before his time ran out—even if it meant nothing more than a single extra glance, or trading a few passing words...

That singular, desperate obsession injected fresh vitality into his near-exhausted frame, empowering him to outrun the chasing zombies. Across the grueling days that followed, he exercised hyper-vigilance while driving himself relentlessly in his hunt for provisions. Through sheer, tireless persistence, he accumulated this substantial cache of supplies.

Then, clad in a crisp white shirt he had intentionally scavenged and laundered specifically for this venture, striving to present himself as clean and respectable as humanly possible, he had brought his "offering" straight back to the youth's doorstep.

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