After My Death, the Protagonist Broke Character - Chapter 1

“Whoosh.” He pulled open the dust-covered curtains, and sunlight instantly spilled in from outside. It was a long-awaited warmth; even though it was filtered through thick clouds and left with only a faint glow, it was enough to breathe color back into this abandoned, dilapidated residential area. As the curtains fluttered, tiny particles of dust danced in the light, swirling through the ruined rooms where the plaster had long since fallen away, landing on the floor like holy water sprinkled by a saint to grace the world and landing, too, on the two bodies that had been hidden from the light for so long.

“It’s sunny today, isn’t it…”

Xie Shoushan pulled the curtains back completely. Watching the weak sunlight piercing through the clouds, his pitch-black eyes which had been shrouded in gloom for days brightened as well. They were as pure as an infant’s. Like a child eager to share a discovery, he turned his head abruptly, lifting his long, untrimmed bangs to reveal those pure black eyes staring into the corner of the room, asking happily: “The sun is out today. Do you feel a bit better?”

The room was deathly quiet. This abandoned residential district was a place long forsaken in the apocalypse, home only to corpses, shattered rubble, zombies, and the inexplicable existence that was Xie Shoushan.

However…

“Mhm…” Xie Shoushan tilted his head to listen, nodding. A moment later, the corners of his lips curved into a smile: “Is that so? You feel better… You look a little more lively than before. I guessed right; you really do love the sun.”

The body lying on the ground remained motionless. The sunlight passed through the gloom, shining onto its skin, which presented an eerie, ashen grey. Blood no longer flowed within the vessel, frozen into a color both bizarre and hauntingly beautiful. Yet, the body was remarkably clean; it was carefully wiped down every single day. In this dilapidated, dusty room, only the space surrounding the body remained impeccably pristine, as if it were a sleeping princess being worshipped. The handsome features remained utterly devoid of life.

Looking at the “corpse” basking in the weak sunlight, Xie Shoushan walked over. As he did every day, he skillfully picked it up, cradling it against his chest. He took those slender, icy-cold hands and pressed them to his lips to kiss, and even though the body felt like a block of ice, he seemed to feel the warmth of the body gradually returning.

A smile still hung on his lips as his obsidian-like eyes lit up, his forehead pressing against the cold brow of the figure in his arms: “It looks like you’ll be getting better soon.”

His tone was filled with hope, as innocent and bright as a child’s.

Xie Shoushan kissed the cold brow of the “corpse,” his movements incredibly natural. In three months, he had done this countless times. He had shared many intimate gestures, but every single one was performed with utter piety pressing against the brow and cheeks, kissing them. He held the icy hands to his lips, kissing them; his fingertips slipped between his teeth, held and nibbling delicately. Between the moisture of his lips and teeth, a seductive, beautiful color bloomed. His hanging bangs hid his eyes, yet one could still vaguely see that his pitch-black gaze remained as pure as ever. Everything he did was merely a submissive, intimate action following his heart.

“Huaisi…” He whispered the name of the person in his arms, his gaze gradually becoming obsessive and tangled. He stared at the person in his arms, pressing against their skin, and even though it was ice-cold, he continued to call out: “…Huaisi… Huaisi…”

Over and over again, tangled to the point of paranoia, his breathing becoming heavier. His kisses fell upon that cold, slender neck; he bit down, leaving a tooth mark a declaration of ownership. He held the cold hand and moved it down, kissing the closed eyelids of the “corpse,” planting kiss after kiss upon eyes that would never open. He let his fingers relieve his own repression. As his kisses grew increasingly dense, he bit the “corpse’s” Adam’s apple. There was a deep bloodstain on the throat a scar left by a blade that had slit the throat.

Xie Shoushan closed his eyes, his entire body tense. Like a desperate beast abandoned by the world, a whimper of agonizing screaming escaped his throat, and suddenly, everything was released.

“Heh…” Xie Shoushan held the “corpse,” burying his face into the hollow of its neck, and let out a low laugh. He lifted his head and opened his eyes; his black pupils returned to their original purity, though the crimson in the depths of his eyes had not yet fully dissipated. Looking at the mess they had made, he didn’t rush to clean it up. He just rubbed affectionately against the other, asking in a low voice: “…Huaisi… is it okay?…”

【No… it is not okay!】

Floating above, Huaisi watched everything. Over these three months, he had fully witnessed what Xie Shoushan had done to his own body. Even though Xie Shoushan hadn’t finished the sentence, Huaisi realized immediately what was about to happen.

Yet, no matter how righteously he refused, Xie Shoushan couldn’t hear him. After all, Huaisi was currently in a soul state, and the other man couldn’t perceive his existence at all.

What followed was exactly as he had imagined.

“…Huaisi…” Xie Shoushan continued to call his name, as if he were still there.

Huaisi was completely speechless, though one couldn’t tell what expression he wore in his soul state. He watched what was happening especially when his own body was being “this and that” and simply turned around, choosing not to look at what he couldn’t see.

However, not seeing didn’t mean not hearing. Xie Shoushan chanting his name over and over made him feel incredibly awkward, as if Xie Shoushan were truly whispering right into his ear.

He didn’t understand why Xie Shoushan liked calling his name so much, repeating it again and again, knowing full well that his “corpse” would not respond.

But there were many things he didn’t understand. For instance, he had clearly been bitten to death by zombies while covering the team’s retreat, so why was his soul still lingering within three meters of his “corpse”? And the book had clearly stated he was supposed to have sacrificed himself, so why hadn’t his body rotted away?

He could feel that the vessel hadn’t truly died, yet it was no different from a corpse the ashen complexion, the cold temperature, no different from the dead. It was just that it wasn’t completely dead.

Huaisi knew clearly that he was just a supporting character in a post-apocalyptic progression novel. In this harsh, zombie-infested world, even if he were the long-lost young master of a prestigious family, his mission was to sacrifice himself for the protagonist. He was meant to give up his identity so the protagonist could take his place, return to the family to unlock better equipment, and eventually level up to become the world’s savior.

He had known from the beginning that he was a character in a book. Having perceived all of this for no reason, he thought it must be a sudden awakening within the story, a mere coincidence. He only needed to play his part; everything served the plot of the book.

His setting was that of a gentle, tolerant brother to the protagonist.

Originally, that was how the plot was supposed to go…

Thinking back three months ago, the shelter’s energy was running out, many of the elderly were ill, and there were newborns arriving. Resources and energy were needed everywhere. He had organized a hunting squad with several ability users, including Xie Shoushan, to go out and scavenge for resources and zombie crystals. On the way back, they encountered a wave of mutated zombies faster and more agile than any they had faced before. Seeing that they were about to be wiped out, and being the only one among them who hadn’t awakened an ability, he chose to stay behind to cover their retreat.

After that, he was bitten. To avoid becoming a burden and to maintain his final shred of dignity, he chose to end his own life while he still had his sanity.

This, too, was a sacrifice serving the plot. In short, all subsequent events should have had nothing to do with him.

Because of his sacrifice, his sworn brother the protagonist, Xie Shoushan was moved and spurred on by the death of his brother, awakening his own ability and using it to hold back the zombie horde single-handedly.

Everything up to that point was fine.

However, after Xie Shoushan had killed every zombie, he stood atop the pile of corpses, drenched in blood, silent for a long time until the sun set and cast his shadow long. No one knew what he was thinking. Suddenly, he picked up Huaisi’s corpse and left, ignoring the survival of the companions behind him. At that moment, he was a stranger to everyone, unrecognizable. He fled the shelter area directly and came to this long-abandoned residential district, living with Huaisi’s “corpse” for three whole months.

He hunted for all the supplies himself. For three months, he seemed to want to live these days peacefully and naturally, talking to Huaisi’s “corpse” every day just like today, even though the “corpse” could not reply.

Clearly, his corpse should have been buried on the spot by Xie Shoushan! That would be brotherhood, right?!

Where did things go wrong?

Huaisi couldn’t help but turn his head to look, fell silent, and turned back again.

Xie Shoushan’s endurance was truly something… Thankfully, he was a soul now and couldn’t feel pain. Otherwise, he really couldn’t accept such treatment.

This wouldn’t do… The original protagonist, Xie Shoushan, should be on the path of leveling up to save humanity and end this apocalyptic nightmare. Yet here he was, holed up in this abandoned residential house, doing things Huaisi couldn’t comprehend.

He wondered how the people in the shelter were doing these days… Most of the people there were those who couldn’t fight…

Xie Shoushan couldn’t waste any more time. They had to hurry up and follow the plot; otherwise, what would happen to the people in the shelter?

He turned back with mixed feelings, only to see Xie Shoushan kissing his cheek. He had brought a basin of water and was meticulously wiping him down, every motion detailed and meticulous. Over these past three months, he had repeated these actions tirelessly, doing his best to keep the body clean, as if he had fallen in love with the act of caring for him even going so far as to carefully clean the parts used just moments ago.

Seeing this, even in his soul state, Huaisi could feel the sensation of those slender fingers on his skin, the steam of the water on his pores, and the strangeness from behind.

A strange sensation—one that didn’t seem to have appeared over these three months…

Huaisi fell silent.

I should have just stayed dead.

Oh right, he was already dead.

So what was this now? A possessive ghost?

Suddenly, the world spun. Everything went black before his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself face-to-face with a right eye exposed from beneath bangs as pure as it was when they first met, filled with complex emotions. He remembered being drawn to those eyes the moment he first met the protagonist.

At that time, Xie Shoushan had asked him: “What are you looking at?”

The fact that his fleeting distraction had been keenly captured by Xie Shoushan startled him. He looked at those black eyes and smiled, admitting generously: “Shoushan, your right eye is very beautiful. Why don’t you try uncovering your left eye as well? It must be uncomfortable to have it covered, right?” Seeing the other person freeze, he assumed he didn’t know how to trim his hair himself, so he said: “Here, let me trim it for you. Give me a chance to show off.”

However, soon after, a new setting flooded his mind. The author had rewritten the story!

Huaisi: “…”

Well played. To think the author could change the setting on a whim! What a second-rate writer!

Now, he had become a zombie, and his goal was to let the protagonist kill him in agony, so that the protagonist’s emotional turmoil would spur his ability to advance, thereby elevating his personality and mental strength once again serving the plot.

Huaisi had always been professional. Since he was just an insignificant supporting character, for the sake of world peace, he would die one more time.

As he moved, even with a zombie body, he could feel the strangeness from behind, reminding him of what had just occurred.

Suddenly, a surge of anger rose in Huaisi’s heart. “Haa…” With a low, zombified growl, he lunged forward to bite Xie Shoushan.

He leaped onto Xie Shoushan, only to have the back of his head gripped firmly. His chin was pinched by a hand, restraining his sharp teeth. Immediately, the handsome face drew near and kissed him deeply, prying open his sharp fangs, and domineeringly sweeping through everything inside. Huaisi, now a zombie, felt his spine tremble, especially when his tongue grazed the sharp fangs that had sprouted from his mutation his senses were all the more acute.

Xie Shoushan’s eyes narrowed, noticing this phenomenon. Intentionally or not, he dragged his tongue across the sharp fangs, drawing out tiny beads of blood.

The rich fragrance of blood bloomed on Huaisi’s lips. His pupils shrank, and all reason surrendered to the instincts of a zombie. His limbs turned soft like a cat’s; he reached out to cling to Xie Shoushan, hooking his hands around his neck, seeking the direction of the blood beads, chasing after them, struggling to suckle more of the blood!

“Mmph…”

Not enough! Not enough! I want more!