Zheng, who had been half-listening, seemed to sense something, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
Sinan was taken aback. “…Uh.”
He looked up at Yan Hao, unexpectedly meeting his gaze.
In the millions of golden sparkles on the river’s surface, there was a familiar warm light deep in Yan Hao’s eyes – the same temperature that burned when he had tightly embraced him at the parting of the two teams in the underground tunnel of the B Military Zone.
Sinan lowered his head, thinking, his brow slightly furrowed, the early fine lines on his forehead creasing.
Yan Hao had been observing the subtle changes in his expression and immediately said, “There’s something I wanted to tell you, at that time…”
But Sinan gently interrupted him, “I have something to do. Why don’t we have that girl help you walk?”
Sinan let go, and in the next moment, Yan Hao grabbed his hand.
“Cough cough!”
They both looked over. Dr. Zheng’s expression was serious: “Well, the child over there is crying, I’ll go take a look. I’ll call you two for dinner later!”
Sinan thought to himself that the child’s crying had nothing to do with him, but before he could prevent anything, Dr. Zheng had already slipped away.
Yan Hao was slightly awkward, “Will you still listen?”
Sinan looked around.
People were cooking on the open ground, washing clothes, and Dr. Zheng had already picked up the child, patting and soothing her.
“…” Sinan sighed, “I’ll listen.”
They sat down by the river. Yan Hao had a medical restraint band wrapped around his chest, sitting in an awkward posture. Sinan gathered the wild grass beside him into a makeshift pillow, placing it behind Yan Hao to make his sitting position slightly more comfortable.
“I wanted to tell you back in T City, but everyone thought you’d been bitten by a zombie. It was chaotic, and then the helicopter crashed on the rooftop… After arriving at the fertilizer factory and hearing you say you looked down on Alphas, I didn’t dare bring it up.”
Yan Hao paused, looking down at his hands and speaking softly, “I know some exceptional Betas might look down on Alphas, thinking about chauvinism and such. But our team isn’t like that, and I’m not either. I’ve always respected you, especially since you saved my life twice – or three times if you count finding the antibody at the base.”
Sinan shook his head, “That situation doesn’t count.”
“The first two times should count.”
“The first two times were just coincidental…”
“We don’t need to argue about this,” Yan Hao firmly and gently interrupted him. “Every day in this apocalypse is full of dangers. No one would risk their life ‘coincidentally’. You might not care, but I must be grateful. It’s a matter of perspective.”
Yan Hao was clearly different from Zhou Rong, who became uninhibited after exposing his Alpha status. He often gave off an extremely rigid and oppressive feeling that could be pressuring during confrontations. But Yan Hao hadn’t changed much, remaining soft, with intense emotions quickly passing.
Sinan looked at him, and the doubts that had been wavering in his heart since leaving the B Military Zone resurfaced. Should I take this opportunity to ask? he thought. …But it would be quite awkward if these two Alphas were truly extraordinary.
As he was contemplating, he heard Yan Hao speak again: “I had a question I wanted to ask after some time… But in this apocalypse, we could die at any moment. Closing our eyes at night, we don’t know if we’ll open them to see the next day’s sun. If I never get the chance to ask, I’d probably regret it for the rest of my life.”
He slowly reached out and gently placed his hand on Sinan’s hand back, with a touch that was very soft but could feel the rough gun calluses and old, subtle knife scars. “I just want to know…”
Sinan’s facial muscles stiffened slightly. Yan Hao leaned in a bit closer, his gaze extremely focused and serious: “After spending this time together, how do you really feel…”
Suddenly, a commotion erupted in the distance, with people crying out in surprise. Both instantly fell silent, simultaneously looking towards the source of the sound.
Sinan drew his gun, aiming at the road –
But it wasn’t a zombie attack. Their armored vehicle and a tour bus had stopped at the edge of their camp. Zhou Rong jumped down from the driver’s seat, yanking Guo Weixiang from the passenger side and delivering a kick to his chest!
“Get over there!” Zhou Rong’s roar was crystal clear even from a distance: “You embarrassment! Go! Don’t come near!”
“I’m sorry, okay…”
“Go! Embarrassing!”
Zhou Rong was clearly enraged, completely different from his earlier half-hearted scolding of Chun Cao. He kicked Guo Weixiang rolling, nearly making him vomit blood. Dr. Zheng, fearing another injured patient in the camp, went over to persuade and block him, signaling the dusty and disheveled Guo Weixiang to run quickly.
“Don’t let me see you, you bastard—”
Zhou Rong was about to kick again when several people from the tour bus rushed down, restraining him with much coaxing.
Yan Hao let Sinan support him as they slowly walked over. Just as they reached the middle of the camp, they saw several people getting off the tour bus. Among them was a timid-looking teenager, probably around sixteen or seventeen years old, with delicate features and a short stature, with a large bandage on his forehead that faintly showed traces of blood.
Sinan’s steps paused.
“What’s wrong?” Yan Hao asked sensitively.
“…” Sinan said softly: “Omega.”
“I won’t hit him.” “I really won’t hit him.” “I’m just momentarily angry… I promise I won’t kill him!”
Zhou Rong had finally convinced the chattering crowd with great difficulty. Exhausted, he broke free, letting Dr. Zheng lead people to inventory supplies and conduct physical examinations on the newly rescued survivors. Then he opened a bottle of water. He was extremely thirsty and gulped down more than half the bottle before wiping his mouth with satisfaction.
“Oh, Comrade Yan Hao!” Zhou Rong exhaled and looked Yan Hao up and down. “What are you doing? Not resting properly, but dragging our little Sinan out for a stroll?”
Yan Hao retorted, “Who’s your family’s little Sinan? He might be our family’s.”
Zhou Rong replied, “Tsk, you’re getting cocky. Let Xiao Nan speak for himself. Didn’t Big Ding pass on my parting words to you yesterday?”
Sinan remained silent.
Under the intense gaze of two pairs of eyes, Sinan pointed with his thumb to a nearby spot where Guo Weixiang was dejectedly squatting.
“What did he do?”
Zhou Rong’s response was exactly as they expected: “That,” he pointed at the boy huddled near the tour bus, solemnly saying: “is the species I least want to deal with, especially on an escape route – an Omega.”
Sinan remained expressionless.
Yan Hao immediately said, “Don’t say that, Captain. You two would make a good match, a hero rescuing a beauty.”
“But I already have little Sinan.”
We encountered this group while raiding a supermarket. They were survivors who had hidden in a warehouse during the virus outbreak. Because of abundant supplies, they were eating well every day, even having self-heating instant noodles. You know those instant noodles where you pull a string and they heat themselves? When we went to rescue them, they were having dinner – a pot of steaming Lao Tan Sour Pickles with sliced ham sausage.
Sinan and Yan Hao simultaneously swallowed.
“What’s with your expressions? We were genuinely there to rescue people,” Zhou Rong complained. “You didn’t see the scene – it was just like the victorious meeting of the Red Army’s Long March, or like little Sinan’s General Washington successfully crossing the Delaware River.”
