"When I got home, she had already turned."
"She must have been bitten by a zombie when she went out to buy groceries during the disaster."
"It must have taken a lot of effort for her to come back. She was afraid I wouldn't find her when I returned home."
"When I opened the bedroom door, she lunged at me howling as if she didn't know me at all, then tripped over the iron chain just like before."
"She must have known she was about to turn, so she chained herself up in the bedroom."
"I felt like my heart was being torn apart."
"I wasn't there when she needed me most. She was all alone."
"Was she sad? Did she want to see me one last time?"
"I only found the note she left beside her."
"There were only three words on it, scrawled crookedly. Her consciousness must have already been fading when she wrote it."
"Stay alive."
Lin Hao's eyes were bloodshot, tears and mucus streaming down his face, as if he was reliving that day.
"Stay alive..."
"When she was about to die, she was thinking of me, still worrying about me."
"She knew what I might do, so she wanted me to stay alive!"
"But I... but I..."
"Have already..."
At this point, Lin Hao was too choked up to speak anymore.
The grown man collapsed again like a dying insect.
He sobbed silently, his body trembling slightly.
Ning Yu listened quietly, without speaking or commenting.
In both of their hearts, they valued the other person more than themselves.
This feeling of mutual treasuring was something Ning Yu had never experienced.
She only felt emptiness in her heart, like something was missing.
She couldn't empathize or feel sad.
Perhaps this was a time when one should feel grief, but she couldn't manage it.
She was just a killing machine after all. Even after being reborn, this fact didn't seem to have changed.
After a long while, Lin Hao finally recovered.
He gave an apologetic smile that looked worse than crying:
"I'm so sorry, I've told you many irrelevant things."
"Anyway, that's basically what happened. Afterwards, I continued living here with her."
"If she doesn't eat meat for too long, she becomes noticeably frenzied."
"She'll frantically pound on things or howl, probably because she can smell my scent."
"Unlike those zombies on the street who can't smell living people and just wander around aimlessly."
"I'm afraid she'll completely die, unable to move at all."
"If she stays like this, I can still treat it as a kind of illness."
"My emotions are deceiving me, making me think that maybe she's just sick."
"That she'll get better someday, turn back into Xiao Lu, back into my wife."
"So I often go out to find meat. She eats a lot, so it's consumed quickly."
"Fortunately, zombies don't only eat human flesh. They'll eat any fresh meat, and they get more excited if it's fresh meat with blood."
"That's why I ran into you at the fresh food store today."
After finishing, Lin Hao slowly and painstakingly stood up, limping towards the kitchen.
The wound on his leg was severe, making him walk very slowly.
Soon, he came out of the kitchen with a meat cleaver, glancing at his still-feeding 'wife'.
Ning Yu didn't react at all.
Because Lin Hao posed no threat to her, and his target was obviously not her.
He walked to the corpse of one of the thugs, raised his hand, and brought the cleaver down hard.
"These guys cleared out the zombies in the community very early on."
He began dismembering the corpse on the spot, the purpose all too clear.
"They weren't trying to unite everyone to fight together, but to control the entire community, to be kings of their little mountain."
"Every day, many men were sent out to find food. People like me who voluntarily went out to find food were rare, because no one wanted to die."
"Originally they collected so-called rent, which was handing over supplies, every two weeks. But they became even greedier."
He chopped away, one stroke after another.
Fresh blood had splattered everywhere, including on his body and face.
"Now, it's good that they're dead."
"Don't waste it. Let these scum produce one last bit of value."
Lin Hao revealed a crazed smile.
It was hard to imagine that this was the same well-mannered young man who had extended a helping hand to Ning Yu earlier.
"I used to think people would help each other."
"But they just!" He brought the cleaver down hard on the corpse.
"Just!" Another chop.
"Ate away at my kindness, leeching off me."
"I finally understand, in this kind of world, it's either eat or be eaten."
Something had fundamentally changed in Lin Hao, something inside him had broken.
"We're not really that different from zombies, are we?"
"Zombies follow their desires and eat people, while we follow our desires and 'eat' people too."
...
It took Lin Hao a long time to fully dismember the three corpses.
Then he stored them in the refrigerator along with the scattered ingredients from the kitchen.
After finishing all this, without changing his clothes, he bent down next to Ning Yu:
"Thank you so much for today."
Ning Yu looked at the blood-covered man in front of her without showing any disgust, and just said flatly:
"You're welcome."
As long as there's a task reward, everything is fine, Ning Yu thought to herself.
Lin Hao took off his dirty glasses and gently wiped them with a tissue.
His face without glasses still showed traces of handsomeness.
But now, it revealed more of a ruthless quality.
However, that wasn't directed at Ning Yu at all. He only felt gratitude towards her.
He paused, then continued:
"I have a presumptuous request."
"The wound on my leg will probably take a long time to heal. I might not be able to go out to find food during this time."
"I don't mind, but my wife will probably starve."
"So I want to ask if you could help me go back to the fresh food store to find more ingredients."
"Although we got some today, and there are those guys' corpses, which will last for a while."
"But I'm afraid I won't be able to go out for several weeks."
"Of course, I know this request is unreasonable, so in exchange, I can tell you some very important information."
His face showed a slightly anxious expression, afraid that Ning Yu wouldn't agree.
[Ding! Task: Love as a Disease progress updated]
[Task: Love as a Disease (4/4) Complete Lin Hao's request]
[Task Reward: Random Attribute Points *2]
[Task Extra Hidden Reward: Free Attribute Point *1, Points *1000, Crimson War Blade upgrade condition unlocked]
A series of prompts rang out in Ning Yu's mind. This task had finally come to its last step.
She had no reason to refuse. The hidden rewards were incredibly generous.
An extra free attribute point, 1000 points, and even information on upgrading the Crimson War Blade.
This made Ning Yu overjoyed.
She put on a coquettish smile and said in a sweet, soft voice:
"No problem! Leave it to me!"
Ning Yu once again slipped into her little girl persona.
...
Not long after, Ning Yu returned to Lin Hao's home.
She brought back more meat ingredients.
Her hiking backpack was also much fuller now.
However, the contents of this bag weren't for Lin Hao, but for her to take back.
When she returned, Lin Hao had already changed out of his blood-stained clothes.
His 'wife' had also been taken back to her room.
He made Ning Yu a cup of tea, and they sat in the now cleaned-up living room.
This place had been full of blood and corpses just moments ago.
Ning Yu didn't drink the tea, of course, and Lin Hao didn't mind.
He slowly began to speak:
"Well, as agreed, I'll tell you the important information I heard last time."
"It's about..."