The Zombie I Flirted With After Losing My Memory, Who Was Pretending to be an Alpha, Is Actually My Ex - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Spring Has Arrived

A swarm of sharp claws instantly squeezed through the door gap, brandishing themselves menacingly.

Teng Xi raised her blade and struck; severed arms accompanied by sprays of blood tumbled to the floor. Lacking any sense of pain, the zombies persistently flailed their limbs, spraying black blood everywhere.

“There aren’t many zombies at the entrance, but we must be extremely careful not to disturb the horde at the main gate.” Teng Xi stood in front of Xie Jinbing, swinging her blade as soon as a zombie forced half its body through.

According to the monitors, the zombies at the door had dispersed into small groups overnight, though many from Section C had been drawn to the main entrance by yesterday’s loud crash.

“Go!” Teng Xi led the way, keeping Xie Jinbing firmly within her safety radius.

On the other side, Feng Sisi set out from the third floor with a doctor. However, tasked with both slaying zombies and protecting a civilian, she found herself stretched thin.

The roars of zombies from the first and second floors were attracting stragglers from outside the library. Yao Zhi didn’t dare drop any more furniture to distract the internal horde, fearing she might lure every zombie within a several-hundred-meter radius.

“Finish it quickly,” Teng Xi whispered into the walkie-talkie.

The two teams met at the second-floor stairwell. The floor was littered with fallen zombies; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a living hell. With their combined combat power, the pressure eased significantly, and they successfully escorted the doctor back to the monitoring room.

Back in the monitoring room, the trio didn’t set out immediately. Instead, they gathered around a simplified map of the library provided by the doctor.

The main gate was packed with zombies, completely cutting off that route. Risking the back door was dangerous without a peephole to see outside. Since only the front-facing side of the building had open balconies, rappelling down wasn’t an option on most floors—except for the seventh.

The seventh floor had no book stacks; it consisted of an activity area and a rooftop garden that took up half the space, surrounded by a perimeter gallery.

“But He Qi and his men are on the seventh floor,” Feng Sisi frowned, turning her gaze to the monitors.

Over the course of the morning, while Teng Xi’s group moved between the first and third floors, He Qi and his bodyguards had successfully occupied the sixth.

“How are there so few of them left?” The doctor watched a group of men in suits sitting in a study room. They were wrapping iron chains around their clubs while He Qi stood to the side, talking incessantly with high spirits.

Teng Xi and Xie Jinbing exchanged a look. There were only ten of them left; another man had vanished without them noticing.

After a quick consultation, they decided to head to the sixth floor to try and negotiate a collaboration with He Qi.

However, when they finally reached the sixth floor, they were met not only with He Qi’s adamant refusal but also his cold mockery.

“Isn’t Director Cheng afraid of danger? Why did she let you take such a risk? But then again, she’s right—your precious bodies should stay tucked away in the safe room.” He Qi directed his bodyguards to build a temporary shelter while he sat leisurely in a chair, legs crossed, smiling sarcastically.

Teng Xi held back Feng Sisi, who was ready to curse, and spoke civilly to He Qi: “Mr. He, surely you’ll need a way out once you take the seventh floor. Otherwise, your meager food supply won’t last much longer than ours. We can cooperate.”

“Cooperate? With a bunch of mentally unstable people? That would be an insult to my own sanity. Do we look like we need help? Go back to your golden cage.” He Qi dropped the fake politeness and raised an arm toward the door, signaling them to leave.

“Then give back the food you stole from us!” Feng Sisi snapped.

Behind He Qi, the bodyguards were diligently organizing food and water. Combined with what they had stolen from Cheng Shi, it was enough to last them a month.

“Stole? We took back what was ours. If not for our food, would they have made it out of Section C alive?” He Qi brought up the food they had provided again, completely ignoring the fact that the doctors had saved their lives.

“Please leave, Miss Teng.” He Qi raised his hand in a final dismissal. He was smart enough not to engage in a physical fight with Teng Xi’s group.

Feng Sisi wanted to say more, but Teng Xi pulled her away. A man like that would likely stab them in the back even if they did cooperate. It seemed they really would have to break the glass.

Back at the safe room, opinions were split between breaking the glass, forcing a deal with He Qi, or seizing the seventh floor. No consensus was reached. The day ended with Teng Xi leading a team to strip the second-floor vending machines of all remaining supplies.

“Rest! Nothing is more important than sleep,” Teng Xi tossed the scavenged goods to Cheng Shi and headed for the office.

As her hand touched the handle, she checked the clock. It was nearly 10:00 PM. She wondered if Xie Jinbing and the pregnant woman were asleep.

“Ah, she’s so smelly. Dirty.”

“Yuyuan, you can’t say that about Big Sister. She went to find food for us. It’s time for bed.”

Behind her, a patient in blue-and-white striped hospital pajamas pointed at Teng Xi while clutching a plushie. The doctor beside her lowered the patient’s hand and smiled apologetically: “Miss Teng, I’m so sorry.”

As the doctor led the patient away, Teng Xi let go of the handle and sniffed her arm. Do I smell?

Catching sight of Feng Sisi focused on polishing her blade on the floor, Teng Xi beckoned: “Feng Xiao-Si, come here a second.”

Feng Sisi dropped her cloth and ran over: “Mas—”

“Stop!” Teng Xi cut her off before she could say another word. “Do I smell?”

“Smell?” Feng Sisi looked puzzled and took a sincere sniff. “No? Where? This is the scent of glory!”

Teng Xi’s lip twitched. She shouldn’t have asked. She patted Feng Sisi’s shoulder and walked past.

“Eh? Master, where are you going?”

“To shower! And stop calling me Master!”

Si Qinghan, munching on a cookie, walked over to the rejected Feng Sisi. “What did your ‘Master’ ask that made her storm off like that?”

“She asked if she smelled bad.”

Si Qinghan stopped chewing and said blankly, “With your chronic rhinitis, you wouldn’t smell it if someone handed you a pile of crap.”

“Get lost!”

“But…”

“?”

“When an Alpha cares this much about their image, do you know what that means?”

“Hmm? What?”

Si Qinghan looked at the genuine confusion on the face of this martial arts fanatic—who had likely only had boyfriends for her money—and shook her head with a pitying click of her tongue.

Feng Sisi raised her Miaodao threateningly. “Spit it out.”

Si Qinghan turned and walked away, leaving her with a profound expression: “Spring has arrived early this year.”

“?”

Walking alone toward the restroom, Teng Xi stripped a few relatively clean clothes from zombie corpses. She rinsed herself with cold water, shivering until the blood was washed away. She scrubbed her black trench coat, which was stiff with dried blood, until it looked acceptable. Carrying a chill of fresh water, she returned to the office.

Inside, she found Xie Jinbing and the pregnant woman each holding a book, reading quietly under the lamp.

“You’re back.”

Watching Xie Jinbing’s sign language, which was now eighty percent accurate, Teng Xi smiled. She hung her coat on a rack and approached.

“Sister Xie, it should be like this.”

Teng Xi sat at the corner of the sofa, pressed close to Xie Jinbing, and slowly demonstrated the signs. The movements were similar, but Xie Jinbing unexpectedly didn’t argue. Instead, she followed along seriously.

“This movement goes like this.” Teng Xi slowed down further. Xie Jinbing mimicked her.

“Sister Xie is so smart. It would be perfect if this part was a bit more standard.” Teng Xi’s tone, like she was praising a child, made the pregnant woman chuckle.

Xie Jinbing didn’t repeat the sign this time. Instead, she touched Teng Xi’s finger with her own and performed a different gesture.

The cool sensation lingered on the back of her hand. Teng Xi’s heart stirred. she took Xie Jinbing’s slender fingers and carefully corrected her posture. In truth, Xie Jinbing’s movements were nearly perfect. Teng Xi wasn’t nitpicking—she was just looking for an excuse to touch her.

The pregnant woman tucked in the corner of the sofa returned her gaze to her book, deciding to permanently delete the memory of Dr. Xie practicing those exact signs repeatedly until they were flawless.

Teng Xi glanced at the woman’s book. “How is the little one doing these days?”

The woman smiled and signed quickly: “The little one is very quiet. The zombie virus doesn’t seem to have affected them at all. Thank you for saving me.”

She was sharp; she knew Teng Xi was really asking about the state of the virus in her body.

“When is the due date?” Teng Xi half-extended a hand, wanting to feel the baby, then remembered her Alpha status and hesitated.

The woman didn’t mind. She shifted her body toward them and placed both Teng Xi’s and Xie Jinbing’s hands on her belly.

“It moved!” Teng Xi gasped. The little one seemed to sense the outside world, “high-fiving” them through their mother’s stomach.

Xie Jinbing looked shocked, her body freezing up entirely. She was terrified of threatening this fragile life. This was the first time she had felt the pulse of a new life so closely. She thought of the chapter on reproduction in her textbooks; back then, she had only marveled at the greatness of chromosome combination. Now, she felt the greatness of life itself.

“Nine months already.”

The woman sensed Xie Jinbing’s rigidity and guided her hand to rub her belly gently. The little one, excited, kept responding to the touch.

“She likes you. Would you like to be her godmother?”

“The little one likes you,” Teng Xi explained, fearing Xie Jinbing might not understand. “Do you want to be her godmother? I’ll be her ‘god-mother’ too. We aren’t here to break up this family; we’re here to join it.”

This comment earned her a sharp elbow to the ribs. Teng Xi yelped and clutched her stomach, putting on a piteous face: “Wuu wuu, little one, see how your godmother bullies your other god-mother? When you come out, don’t let her hold you! If she tries, you just cry!”

Xie Jinbing glared at her, but her hand cautiously touched a protrusion—a tiny foot or hand, not even half the size of her palm.

The pregnant woman watched them with a gentle smile, thinking that the apocalypse wasn’t as bad as she had imagined.

The next morning, the three were awakened by a commotion outside. Teng Xi opened the door and ran straight into Yao Zhi. Before she could speak, Yao Zhi grabbed her hand.

“There are many zombies on the seventh floor, hidden in a blind spot! He Qi and his men are being swarmed—they’re running for their lives downstairs!”