SGT CH102: Kissing

◎ Aix fiercely claimed from his mouth, as if his tongue was about to be eaten. ◎

A Zombie Emperor, suspected of retaining a sliver of humanity.

Mousse found it somewhat difficult to define his relationship with the Zombie Emperor. He was a zombie, yet he would occasionally display characteristics that belonged to Aix. For example, urging him to eat and preparing fruit for him after meals. One day, Mousse woke up to see him taking the clothes he’d forgotten in the washing machine, drying them with his abilities, folding them neatly, and putting them away in the cabinet.

At times like these, Mousse would feel a dazed sense that he was seeing the Aix of the past. Besides less communication, no kissing or hugging, and not sleeping together at night, it didn’t seem much different from before. Mousse was no longer as afraid of the Zombie Emperor as he had been. When he saw the Zombie Emperor heat up a pan of oil, he could sit calmly to the side, no longer on edge and constantly terrified of being grabbed and fried.

At least until he became an ability user, the Zombie Emperor wouldn’t eat him. Otherwise, all this time spent raising him would be for naught.

They still ate their meals together.

Actually, Mousse felt that the Zombie Emperor eating with him was more a matter of form over substance. Each time, he would only touch the after-meal dessert that was clearly not to a zombie’s taste. Oh, he had even started making two portions of dessert. He’d eat one and leave one for Mousse. The amount he ate was obviously not enough to provide any energy for a zombie.

Even so, the Zombie Emperor insisted on dining with Mousse. Every time Mousse buried his head in his rice, he could feel the Zombie Emperor’s gaze on him, secretive yet intensely present. It inexplicably felt like the Zombie Emperor was using him as an appetizer. Was it because he desperately wanted to eat him, but couldn’t because he hadn’t awakened his abilities yet, so he used this method to satisfy the craving?

It was the same at night.

Zombies don’t need to sleep, so Mousse naturally took over the only bed. The Zombie Emperor would sit quietly in the sofa chair by the window, like a statue. But as soon as Mousse closed his eyes, he could feel a gaze fall upon him.

The Zombie Emperor was watching him. Perhaps out of surveillance, or perhaps out of hunger and desire. The strange thing was, Mousse could actually fall asleep under such a gaze. He could even sleep until dawn and wake up feeling refreshed.

The Zombie Emperor would also leave for periods of time. Mostly in the afternoon, while Mousse was napping. Often, by the time he woke up, the Zombie Emperor would have just returned. Mousse guessed he went hunting. Even though there was no smell of blood on him, he would have changed his clothes and carried the scent of having just showered. Mousse didn’t understand why he would go hunting at the hottest time of day, least suitable for zombie activity. Nor did he dare to ask what he had hunted. He was afraid of an answer he would find hard to accept.

Perhaps because the unease in his heart was too deep, Mousse woke up with a start from his nap. The RV was empty; the Zombie Emperor was not there. He had gone hunting… The air conditioner was running diligently, and the cool air circulating in the RV made Mousse feel a little cold. He got up and turned off the air conditioner, but the bone-deep chill remained.

Looking at the sunlight outside, Mousse couldn’t resist opening the RV door and stepping out. It wasn’t until he stepped onto the concrete ground and looked up at the scorching sun that he felt a little dazed. He had come out so easily? He thought the Zombie Emperor would have set up some kind of restraint to lock him in the car.

[Little Cake, you’re not trying to run away, are you?]
[Don’t court death. The Zombie Emperor has a space ability; you can’t outrun him.]
[With all the things you did to Brother X, you’ll die a horrible death if you’re caught running away.]

Mousse had no intention of running. He was already prepared to die, quietly serving as the Zombie Emperor’s food reserve, just waiting for the day the Zombie Emperor realized he couldn’t awaken any abilities and ate him.

He just wanted to bask in the sun. The RV was parked in the shadow of a building, so he had to walk a few steps to get into the sunlight. Mousse glanced at the mutated plants growing in the flowerbed and cautiously took two steps out. He wasn’t attacked. The tall mutated plant was motionless, just like an ordinary plant.

Mousse breathed a sigh of relief and walked onto the road to bask in the sun. He didn’t stray too far from the mutated plant and the RV. If he encountered danger, he could still run back quickly. Although there usually weren’t any zombies active at this time of day, there was always a chance.

He stood for a while and felt tired. Aix wasn’t there, and Mousse didn’t want to go back into the chilly RV. There was nowhere suitable to sit nearby. He chose to squat by the side of the road to rest for a moment.

Mousse was listlessly pulling at the grass growing from the cracks in the concrete when he suddenly felt a faint vibration from the ground. At the same time, he heard the sound of vehicles.

Mousse looked up, startled, and saw several vehicles with base insignia at the end of the road to his left. He hadn’t encountered any zombies, but he had run into a convoy from the survivor base. And those vehicles… they looked familiar.

Mousse shot up, intending to go back to the RV, but felt dizzy and his vision went black. He had squatted for too long and stood up too quickly. By the time Mousse had recovered, pressing a hand to his forehead, the convoy was within a hundred meters. They had clearly seen him too. A car window rolled down, and a buzz-cut head poked out.

“Mousse?!”

Mousse turned and ran. After a few steps, he suddenly remembered something and stopped in his tracks. He turned to look at the black off-road vehicle that had stopped on the road, his expression panicked. The car doors opened, and several men and women in various outfits got out. The buzz-cut man at the head of the group strode towards Mousse.

“It really is you. You’re still alive?”

Mousse looked around frantically, his expression panicked, and urged them anxiously, “Don’t come over! Leave this place, quickly!”

The man ignored him, looking him up and down, taking in his clean clothes and shoes, and suddenly his expression turned angry. “You got the captain killed, and now you’ve latched onto another ability user? Who is it?” His gaze fell on the clean white RV behind Mousse, and the anger in his eyes intensified. He raised his voice, “Tell him to come out!”

Mousse’s face changed. He scanned the surroundings, and only relaxed when he didn’t see Aix. He quickly said, “He’s not here. You guys should leave quickly. If he comes back…”

Most of the people in the convoy were ability users. The flesh and blood of ability users were strongly attractive to zombies. If the Zombie Emperor came back…

“So eager to get rid of us, are you afraid we’ll expose you in front of your new supporter?” another person walked up, arms crossed, and swept a look over Mousse with a disdainful and hateful expression.

“No…” Mousse didn’t know how to explain. Was he supposed to tell them that the captain they admired and respected had turned into a zombie? “Anyway, you’ll be in danger if you stay here.”

“Hah, danger? I’d like to see what your new ability user can do to us.” The buzz-cut man strode forward, closing in on him. But as he entered a three-meter radius around Mousse, he suddenly felt an intense danger. A sound of something cutting through the air was heard, and a thick vine whipped towards him. The buzz-cut man hastily activated his ability to dodge, flashing back to the side of the convoy. He looked up at the mutated vine protecting Mousse, his expression one of shocked suspicion. “This mutated plant… belongs to the captain?”

“Besides the captain, which other ability user can control mutated plants?”
“The captain’s still alive?!”

The expressions of the ability users were a mixture of shock and joy, their gazes fervent.

“No! He’s already…” Just as Mousse was about to speak, a hand in a black glove reached out from behind his head and gently covered his mouth. The Zombie Emperor wrapped an arm around his waist, his cold body pressing against him from behind. Mousse’s breath caught in his throat, and his eyes widened in terror.

But the faces of the ability users opposite him were filled with joy.

“Captain!”
“You really are okay!”
“I knew it! With the captain’s abilities, how could those zombies possibly do anything to you?”

They said a lot, but Aix just held Mousse and watched them coldly. Everyone’s voices gradually died down. Since the captain was fine, then what they did before… abandoning Mousse… The entire team of ability users knew how much their captain cared for his pretty but useless boyfriend. The ability users exchanged glances, a hint of panic in their expressions.

“Captain, he pushed you into the zombie horde before. He clearly wanted you dead. You can’t be so bewitched by beauty that…” The buzz-cut man was halfway through his sentence when he met the captain’s cold, dark eyes and suddenly felt a daze. The captain’s eyes were as deep and dark as ever, but for some reason, they sent a chill through him, leaving him unable to speak.

Seeing the reaction of the ability users opposite him, Mousse knew they had been affected by Aix’s psychic ability. He hurriedly pulled down the hand covering his mouth and shouted, “He’s a zombie! Run!”

Aix let him hold his hand, his eyes lowered, looking deeply at him, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping him. The members of the ability user team opposite him looked at each other with strange expressions, clearly not believing him. The buzz-cut man couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. The captain was standing right in front of them, fully conscious. How could he be a zombie?

Aix’s gaze shifted to him. He quickly suppressed his laugh and asked tentatively, “Did you two… have a fight?”

Mousse was about to die of anxiety. “He really is a zombie!” Although these people had abandoned him, Mousse didn’t think they had done anything wrong given the circumstances at the time. He couldn’t just watch them be eaten by Aix. They were Aix’s former teammates.

“Fine, I’ll prove it to you… Getting bitten by a zombie will lead to infection and mutation…” Mousse rolled up his sleeve, brought his fair hand to Aix’s lips, and said, “Haven’t you always wanted to eat me? I’ll let you.”

Aix’s lips were tightly pressed together, his eyes dark and turbulent as he looked at Mousse.

Mousse anxiously pushed his arm forward, pressing it against Aix’s lips, and urged loudly, “Bite me!”

Flames surged in Aix’s eyes. He suddenly reached out, pulling Mousse into his arms, cupped the back of his head, and lowered his head to kiss his lips.

Mousse’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“Ahem, I just remembered I have something in the car.”
“Ah, me too. I’ll head back to the car first…”

The ability users turned away one after another. Someone peeked back, only to find that giant vines were rapidly growing and intertwining, enveloping the entire area.

Mousse stared blankly, feeling Aix’s fierce claiming in his mouth. It felt as if his tongue was about to be eaten. Was he going to turn into a zombie? Aix was a high-level ability user and a psychic, which is why he could retain his consciousness and this lifelike appearance after becoming a zombie. He was just an ordinary person; if he turned into a zombie, he would become irrational and gradually rot. That would be a terrible sight. Especially… for Aix to see.

Mousse’s hands unconsciously gripped the front of Aix’s clothes, and tears fell from his eyes. Aix immediately stopped, pulling back in alarm. A silver thread stretched between their lips as they separated. Aix’s eyes were wide and stiff as he stared at the crying person in his arms. The body pressed against his was exceptionally rigid.

Mousse wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand, and when he looked up, he actually smiled at Aix. He didn’t want Aix to see him in that ugly, irrational state. So, as long as he was eaten by Aix before that happened, it would be fine.

Under Aix’s shocked and stunned gaze, Mousse reached out, wrapped his arms around Aix’s neck, and offered himself up like a sacrifice.

—Eat me.
—Enjoy me.

He didn’t want to become a zombie. If death was inevitable, he hoped to die in Aix’s mouth, to be completely devoured by him. That way, wouldn’t they be together forever?

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