Surviving the Apocalypse with the Young Miss - Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Arrival

Hearing this, Tong Xiangyu’s gloom vanished instantly. She laughed and said, “When I was dreaming, I didn’t notice that bug at all.”

With supplies secured, their circumstances and moods had completely transformed.

After washing up, Tong Xiangyu walked over to Song Ge’s side to eat beef jerky snacks together, but her other hand curiously lifted a bag of popcorn chicken. She immediately frowned. “Did this smell this strong last night?”

Song Ge: “Wasn’t it you who put it in the foam box?”

“It was already in the foam box, but I don’t remember it smelling this bad last night. It’s gone rotten.” Tong Xiangyu’s small face wrinkled up. She poked at the bags of semi-finished food; they were all sour and stinking. The ice packs had long since melted into warm water. Tong Xiangyu said, “No, no, we can’t eat these. I’m going to throw them away.”

Song Ge stood up. “I’ll do it.” As she spoke, she picked up the box.

Seeing Song Ge about to walk out into the blazing sun, Tong Xiangyu hurriedly said, “Wait, wait.”

Tong Xiangyu took out a long canister from her storage box, shook it up and down, and said to Song Ge, “Close your eyes.”

Though puzzled, Song Ge closed her eyes.

Tong Xiangyu carefully sprayed Song Ge’s face and neck twice. “Okay, done.”

Song Ge opened her eyes. “What is that?” It was fragrant and cool.

“Hehe, sunscreen spray!” This was a treasure Tong Xiangyu had found while unboxing in the early morning. She also had a storage bin that fit all these items perfectly, making it very convenient.

Song Ge said, “I don’t need sunscreen.”

“How can a girl not use sunscreen? The sun is so poisonous. If we didn’t have the means, fine, but since we do, we must protect ourselves!”

Song Ge couldn’t win the argument, so she took the box and left.

Tong Xiangyu watched Song Ge walk away. Holding the spray, she closed her eyes and gave her own face a heavy “output” of mist, then ran over to spray Yue Yao, who was tirelessly unboxing packages. She added, “Keep a sharp eye out for scar-removal cream or a ‘Little Brown Bottle’ to get rid of pigment spots!”

Hearing this, Yue Yao looked at Tong Xiangyu’s face and widened her eyes in surprise. “Yuyu, the dark spots on your face seem to have faded a lot!”

“Really?” Tong Xiangyu’s eyes lit up. She touched her face and turned to find a basin to use as a mirror.

Yue Yao happened to hand her a small magic mirror. “Really, see for yourself.”

Tong Xiangyu looked in the mirror and found the marks from the rash had indeed faded significantly. She wasn’t sure if the sunscreen spray had a whitening effect, so she lifted her pant leg to check. The black spots on her legs had basically turned into faint gray marks, a world away from the dark appearance of the day before.

Tong Xiangyu was surprised herself. “This is fading so fast?”

Yue Yao didn’t understand. She just stared at Tong Xiangyu’s slender, white legs and said enviously, “Yuyu, you’re so pale. Do you usually not go out in the sun much?”

“Ah? I feel like I’m much darker now…” Tong Xiangyu lowered her pant leg, her attention diverted by Yue Yao. “How about we move the packages under the sun umbrella to open them?”

Yue Yao: “But that’s such a hassle.”

Tong Xiangyu: “It’s no hassle at all, I’ll move them!”

“Then I’ll help you~”

The courier truck was huge. Sometimes, when one package was taken from the outside, one or two would tumble out from the inside. If they pulled out too many at once, a mountain of packages would clatter down.

One item was quite large. Tong Xiangyu opened it and found it was a folding table. The two of them moved it under the umbrella together.

At noon, the three of them sat around it to eat.

Tong Xiangyu excitedly raised her bottle of AD Calcium Milk high. “I never thought we’d have a day like this! A toast to our good luck!”

Yue Yao smiled and clinked bottles with her. “Cheers~”

Only Song Ge continued picking at the food.

Tong Xiangyu urged her, “Song Ge, Song Ge, hurry up and join the toast.”

“No.”

“Why? Don’t you think this is worth celebrating?”

Because it’s childish, Song Ge thought, but she knew that if she actually said it, the young lady would have endless things to say. So, she picked up a bottle of AD Calcium Milk with a straw already inserted.

Tong Xiangyu, with a strong sense of ceremony, excitedly raised her bottle again. “A toast to good luck!”

Yue Yao was happy. “Cheers, cheers~~”

Tong Xiangyu looked at Song Ge.

Song Ge tapped her drink against theirs. “…Cheers.” Then she asked, “Who put the straw in?”

Tong Xiangyu immediately claimed credit. “Me, me! You’re welcome~”

Song Ge: “I wasn’t going to thank you. I prefer drinking water.”

“Hmph!”

Yue Yao laughed, resting her chin on her hand as she watched them. “Do you think there will be other courier trucks on the road ahead?”

“Not necessarily,” Tong Xiangyu said. “It depends on luck. Just like how we didn’t see a single one until now.”

Hearing this, Song Ge remembered that after rounding that half-moon shaped pool, the number of monsters and corpses upstream had become exceptionally high—they were visible almost everywhere. The distance between the two locations wasn’t that great, yet the conditions were worlds apart.

This suggested something specific must have happened back then. Did everyone get out of their cars after the traffic jam, only for a sudden outbreak of the monster virus to kill everyone? But if that were the case, monsters wouldn’t linger in one spot, and with the heat, the bodies would have turned into rotting flesh and fluids quickly like in Kecheng. There wouldn’t be corpses that looked relatively intact and recently dead, like the one in the pool.

Everything remained unknown. Perhaps the corpses were victims from a city further upstream.

Tong Xiangyu didn’t know what Song Ge was thinking. As she ate the braised pork, she thought that vacuum-sealed pre-made meals were true treasures. They allowed them to eat such good food even in the sweltering heat. If they had to keep traveling, she would rely entirely on these to maintain her sense of happiness!!

After the meal, Tong Xiangyu took some leftovers and walked over to the little white dog alone.

“Whitey, come eat.”

The puppy barked at her frantically in alert.

Tong Xiangyu didn’t dare get too close. She set down the small plate and retreated. Despite this, the dog only stopped barking once she was far away and didn’t approach the food.

Because of the supply truck, the group “camped” in place for several days. During this time, Tong Xiangyu tried various ways to feed the little white dog, all of which ended in failure.

The dog ate nothing. It wouldn’t run away when people approached, it just kept up its constant, hoarse barking. At first, Tong Xiangyu thought it didn’t like leftovers and was thrilled when she found pet food in a package, but the dog wouldn’t eat that either.

A few days later, the skeletal little white dog lay motionless on a rock. It was dead.

Tong Xiangyu felt a pang in her heart. She picked out a sturdy, high-quality delivery box and covered the dog with it. They were leaving to continue their journey today anyway.

“Finished saying goodbye to your dog?” On the day they found the truck, Song Ge had already confirmed the white dog was just a pet—starving, tiny, and hoarse. Likely due to long-term sun exposure, its eyes were failing. It looked aggressive, but it never actually left its small patch of ground.

Since it wasn’t a danger, Song Ge let Tong Xiangyu be.

Tong Xiangyu was dejected. “The puppy is dead.”

Song Ge raised an eyebrow but wasn’t surprised.

Yue Yao felt it was a pity and looked at Tong Xiangyu with concern. “Yuyu, are you okay?”

“Mhm,” Tong Xiangyu said despondently. “I actually expected it. Whitey refused to eat because its owner died. Its heart died too.”

Yue Yao patted Tong Xiangyu’s shoulder comfortingly.

Song Ge simply asked, “Is there anything else you need to bring?”

Tong Xiangyu pouted and gave the “heartless” Song Ge an annoyed glare.

They had found quite a few bags in the courier boxes. Brand-name bags were all style and no substance; the most useful ones were backpacks. Tong Xiangyu chose a pink backpack for herself. It was already packed full: sunscreen, toothpaste and toothbrush, a thermos, skincare products, a mirror, body wash, shampoo, even nail clippers, plus a phone with no SIM or activation, a sun umbrella, several pairs of new underwear she had specifically washed, a change of T-shirt and long pants, and finally, the essential sanitary pads and tissues.

Even though she hadn’t had a period in nearly two months since the outbreak started…

Compared to Tong Xiangyu’s pile of mostly impractical items, Song Ge’s backpack held mostly shelf-stable food and water, followed by essential medicines and tools like a flashlight, a pickaxe, iron nails, a compass, disposable raincoats, and a rescue rope.

When they set out again, the three of them looked completely different from their previous disheveled and exhausted states. New clothes, new shoes, a full set of new equipment.

Although the provincial road still had many collapsed sections requiring detours, and they frequently saw severed limbs and vermin, the journey wasn’t as grueling as imagined. Firstly, they had ample supplies, and secondly, they were growing accustomed to the sights. Furthermore, Song Ge, inspired by an offhand remark from Tong Xiangyu, no longer looked for a place to camp as soon as it got dark. Instead, they kept moving and only rested on the spot when they were tired.

There were fewer landslides on the road, and the provincial road became easier to travel. Their progress became smoother. In truth, as long as there were no monsters, there weren’t many risks on this road.

Two days later.

Finally, they saw the intersection of the provincial road in the distance. Song Ge saw a signpost for Taiyun and Jinzhu that had been bent by a truck crash. The intersection was a site of a horrific multi-car accident.

Tong Xiangyu didn’t notice these details. She was holding her sun umbrella under the high, scorching sun, panting and so exhausted she could barely walk, even though Song Ge had carried her backpack for most of the second half of the trip.

Tong Xiangyu let out a long breath, wanting to ask Song Ge to rest.

But Yue Yao said, “It’s Taiyun! We’ve reached Taiyun!”

“Where? Where?” Tong Xiangyu looked immediately. Once she saw the distant blue road sign, all her exhaustion vanished, replaced by the excitement of reaching their destination. “Aaaah, we’re here! Song Ge! We’re here!!”

Song Ge: “Mhm.”

Yue Yao, however, paused after speaking, her expression turning lonely.

Tong Xiangyu skipped the rest and took the lead. Song Ge followed right behind. Song Ge wasn’t nearly as excited as Tong Xiangyu, but her mood wasn’t overly heavy either. She had long expected Taiyun to be an empty city as well.

If the number of vehicles on the road near Taiyun were lower, or if the level of gore from severed limbs and corpses were less severe, Song Ge might have held a sliver of hope. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Song Ge didn’t tell Tong Xiangyu, but she had already prepared for the worst.

However, it wasn’t that bad. At least the bloodstains and various corpses on the road looked quite old. The closer they got to Taiyun, the calmer it became, with completely undamaged farmland and mountains. From this, it was clear that the terrifying half-month of torrential rain hadn’t happened here.

If the city hadn’t suffered from floods, at least they wouldn’t have to worry about supplies. Song Ge had originally feared that supplies would have been washed away by rain, leaving the roads piled with dried mud and trash—and then there were the monsters that might not have left Taiyun yet… that would have been “epic difficulty,” going from one fire pit through hardships only to enter another.

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